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+Project Gutenberg's A Short Life of Abraham Lincoln, by John G. Nicolay
+
+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: A Short Life of Abraham Lincoln
+       Condensed from Nicolay & Hay's Abraham Lincoln: A History
+
+Author: John G. Nicolay
+
+Release Date: July 19, 2005 [EBook #16332]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A SHORT LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Chuck Greif and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+[Illustration: PRESIDENT LINCOLN AND HIS SON "TAD."]
+
+
+
+
+A SHORT LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
+
+
+CONDENSED FROM NICOLAY & HAY'S
+ABRAHAM LINCOLN: A HISTORY
+
+BY
+
+JOHN G. NICOLAY
+
+
+NEW YORK
+The Century Co.
+1904
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Published October, 1902_
+
+THE DEVINNE PRESS.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+I
+
+Ancestry--Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks--Rock Spring Farm--Lincoln's
+Birth--Kentucky Schools--The Journey to Indiana--Pigeon Creek
+Settlement--Indiana Schools--Sally Bush Lincoln--Gentryville--Work and
+Books--Satires and Sermons--Flatboat Voyage to New Orleans--The Journey
+to Illinois
+
+II
+
+Flatboat--New Salem--Election Clerk--Store and Mill--Kirkham's
+"Grammar"--"Sangamo Journal"--The Talisman--Lincoln's Address, March 9,
+1832--Black Hawk War--Lincoln Elected Captain--Mustered out May 27,
+1832--Re-enlisted in Independent Spy Battalion--Finally Mustered out,
+June 16, 1832--Defeated for the Legislature--Blacksmith or Lawyer?--The
+Lincoln-Berry Store--Appointed Postmaster, May 7, 1833--National
+Politics
+
+III
+
+Appointed Deputy Surveyor--Elected to Legislature in 1834--Campaign
+Issues--Begins Study of Law--Internal Improvement System--The
+Lincoln-Stone Protest--Candidate for Speaker in 1838 and 1840
+
+IV
+
+Law Practice--Rules for a Lawyer--Law and Politics: Twin
+Occupations--The Springfield Coterie--Friendly Help--Anne Rutledge--Mary
+Owens
+
+V
+
+Springfield Society--Miss Mary Todd--Lincoln's Engagement--His Deep
+Despondency--Visit to Kentucky--Letters to Speed--The Shields
+Duel--Marriage--Law Partnership with Logan--Hardin Nominated for
+Congress, 1843--Baker Nominated for Congress, 1844--Lincoln Nominated
+and Elected, 1846
+
+VI
+
+First Session of the Thirtieth Congress--Mexican War--"Wilmot
+Proviso"--Campaign of 1848--Letters to Herndon about Young Men in
+Politics--Speech in Congress on the Mexican War--Second Session of the
+Thirtieth Congress--Bill to Prohibit Slavery in the District of
+Columbia--Lincoln's Recommendations of Office-Seekers--Letters to
+Speed--Commissioner of the General Land Office--Declines Governorship of
+Oregon
+
+VII
+
+Repeal of the Missouri Compromise--State Fair Debate--Peoria
+Debate--Trumbull Elected--Letter to Robinson--The Know-Nothings--Decatur
+Meeting--Bloomington Convention--Philadelphia Convention--Lincoln's Vote
+for Vice-President--Frémont and Dayton--Lincoln's Campaign
+Speeches--Chicago Banquet Speech
+
+VIII
+
+Buchanan Elected President--The Dred Scott Decision--Douglas's
+Springfield Speech, 1857--Lincoln's Answering Speech--Criticism of Dred
+Scott Decision--Kansas Civil War--Buchanan Appoints Walker--Walker's
+Letter on Kansas--The Lecompton Constitution--Revolt of Douglas
+
+IX
+
+The Senatorial Contest in Illinois--"House Divided against Itself"
+Speech--The Lincoln-Douglas Debates--The Freeport Doctrine--Douglas
+Deposed from Chairmanship of Committee on Territories--Benjamin on
+Douglas--Lincoln's Popular Majority--Douglas Gains Legislature--Greeley,
+Crittenden _et al._--"The Fight Must Go On"--Douglas's Southern
+Speeches--Senator Brown's Questions--Lincoln's Warning against Popular
+Sovereignty--The War of Pamphlets--Lincoln's Ohio Speeches--The John
+Brown Raid--Lincoln's Comment
+
+X
+
+Lincoln's Kansas Speeches--The Cooper Institute Speech--New England
+Speeches--The Democratic Schism--Senator Brown's Resolutions--Jefferson
+Davis's Resolutions--The Charleston Convention--Majority and Minority
+Reports--Cotton State Delegations Secede--Charleston Convention
+Adjourns--Democratic Baltimore Convention Splits--Breckinridge
+Nominated--Douglas Nominated--Bell Nominated by Union Constitutional
+Convention--Chicago Convention--Lincoln's Letters to Pickett and
+Judd--The Pivotal States--Lincoln Nominated
+
+XI
+
+Candidates and Platforms--The Political Chances--Decatur Lincoln
+Resolution--John Hanks and the Lincoln Rails--The Rail-Splitter
+Candidate--The Wide-Awakes--Douglas's Southern Tour--Jefferson Davis's
+Address--Fusion--Lincoln at the State House--The Election Result
+
+XII
+
+Lincoln's Cabinet Program--Members from the South--Questions and
+Answers--Correspondence with Stephens--Action of Congress--Peace
+Convention--Preparation of the Inaugural--Lincoln's Farewell
+Address--The Journey to Washington--Lincoln's Midnight Journey
+
+XIII
+
+The Secession Movement--South Carolina Secession--Buchanan's
+Neglect--Disloyal Cabinet Members--Washington Central Cabal--Anderson's
+Transfer to Sumter--Star of the West--Montgomery Rebellion--Davis and
+Stephens--Corner-stone Theory--Lincoln Inaugurated--His Inaugural
+Address--Lincoln's Cabinet--The Question of Sumter--Seward's
+Memorandum--Lincoln's Answer--Bombardment of Sumter--Anderson's
+Capitulation
+
+XIV
+
+President's Proclamation Calling for Seventy-five Regiments--Responses of
+the Governors--Maryland and Virginia--The Baltimore Riot--Washington
+Isolated--Lincoln Takes the Responsibility--Robert E. Lee--Arrival of the
+New York Seventh--Suspension of Habeas Corpus--The Annapolis Route--Butler
+in Baltimore--Taney on the Merryman Case--Kentucky--Missouri--Lyon
+Captures Camp Jackson--Boonville Skirmish--The Missouri Convention--Gamble
+made Governor--The Border States
+
+XV
+
+Davis's Proclamation for Privateers--Lincoln's Proclamation of
+Blockade--The Call for Three Years' Volunteers--Southern Military
+Preparations--Rebel Capital Moved to Richmond--Virginia, North Carolina,
+Tennessee, and Arkansas Admitted to Confederate States--Desertion of
+Army and Navy Officers--Union Troops Fortify Virginia Shore of the
+Potomac--Concentration at Harper's Ferry--Concentration at Fortress
+Monroe and Cairo--English Neutrality--Seward's 21st-of-May
+Despatch--Lincoln's Corrections--Preliminary Skirmishes--Forward to
+Richmond--Plan of McDowell's Campaign
+
+XVI
+
+Congress--The President's Message--Men and Money Voted--The
+Contraband--Dennison Appoints McClellan--Rich Mountain--McDowell--Bull
+Run--Patterson's Failure--McClellan at Washington
+
+XVII
+
+General Scott's Plans--Criticized as the "Anaconda"--The Three Fields of
+Conflict--Frémont Appointed Major-General--His Military Failures--Battle
+of Wilson's Creek--Hunter Ordered to Frémont--Frémont's
+Proclamation--President Revokes Frémont's Proclamation--Lincoln's Letter
+to Browning--Surrender of Lexington--Frémont Takes the Field--Cameron's
+Visit to Frémont--Frémont's Removal
+
+XVIII
+
+Blockade--Hatteras Inlet--Port Royal Captured--The Trent Affair--Lincoln
+Suggests Arbitration--Seward's Despatch--McClellan at Washington--Army
+of the Potomac--McClellan's Quarrel with Scott--Retirement of
+Scott--Lincoln's Memorandum--"All Quiet on the Potomac"--Conditions in
+Kentucky--Cameron's Visit to Sherman--East Tennessee--Instructions to
+Buell--Buell's Neglect--Halleck in Missouri
+
+XIX
+
+Lincoln Directs Coöperation--Halleck and Buell--Ulysses S.
+Grant--Grant's Demonstration--Victory at Mill River--Fort Henry--Fort
+Donelson--Buell's Tardiness--Halleck's Activity--Victory of Pea
+Ridge--Halleck Receives General Command--Pittsburg Landing--Island No.
+10--Halleck's Corinth Campaign--Halleck's Mistakes
+
+XX
+
+The Blockade--Hatteras Inlet--Roanoke Island--Fort Pulaski--_Merrimac_
+and _Monitor_--The _Cumberland_ Sunk--The _Congress_ Burned--Battle of
+the Ironclads--Flag-Officer Farragut--Forts Jackson and St. Philip--New
+Orleans Captured--Farragut at Vicksburg--Farragut's Second Expedition to
+Vicksburg--Return to New Orleans
+
+XXI
+
+McClellan's Illness--Lincoln Consults McDowell and Franklin--President's
+Plan against Manassas--McClellan's Plan against Richmond--Cameron and
+Stanton--President's War Order No. 1--Lincoln's Questions to
+McClellan--News from the West--Death of Willie Lincoln--The Harper's
+Ferry Fiasco--President's War Order No. 3--The News from Hampton
+Roads--Manassas Evacuated--Movement to the Peninsula--Yorktown--The
+Peninsula Campaign--Seven Days' Battles--Retreat to Harrison's Landing
+
+XXII
+
+Jackson's Valley Campaign--Lincoln's Visit to Scott--Pope Assigned to
+Command--Lee's Attack on McClellan--Retreat to Harrison's
+Landing--Seward Sent to New York--Lincoln's Letter to Seward--Lincoln's
+Letter to McClellan--Lincoln's Visit to McClellan--Halleck Made
+General-in-Chief--Halleck's Visit to McClellan--Withdrawal from
+Harrison's Landing--Pope Assumes Command--Second Battle of Bull Run--The
+Cabinet Protest--McClellan Ordered to Defend Washington--The Maryland
+Campaign--Battle of Antietam--Lincoln visits Antietam--Lincoln's Letter
+to McClellan--McClellan Removed from Command
+
+XXIII
+
+Cameron's Report--Lincoln's Letter to Bancroft--Annual Message on
+Slavery--The Delaware Experiment--Joint Resolution on Compensated
+Abolishment--First Border State Interview--Stevens's Comment--District
+of Columbia Abolishment--Committee on Abolishment--Hunter's Order
+Revoked--Antislavery Measures of Congress--Second Border State
+Interview--Emancipation Proposed and Postponed
+
+XXIV
+
+Criticism of the President for his Action on Slavery--Lincoln's Letters
+to Louisiana Friends--Greeley's Open Letter--Mr. Lincoln's
+Reply--Chicago Clergymen Urge Emancipation--Lincoln's Answer--Lincoln
+Issues Preliminary Proclamation--President Proposes Constitutional
+Amendment--Cabinet Considers Final Proclamation--Cabinet Discusses
+Admission of West Virginia--Lincoln Signs Edict of Freedom--Lincoln's
+Letter to Hodges
+
+XXV
+
+Negro Soldiers--Fort Pillow--Retaliation--Draft--Northern
+Democrats--Governor Seymour's Attitude--Draft Riots in New
+York--Vallandigham--Lincoln on his Authority to Suspend Writ of Habeas
+Corpus--Knights of the Golden Circle--Jacob Thompson in Canada
+
+XXVI
+
+Burnside--Fredericksburg--A Tangle of Cross-Purposes--Hooker Succeeds
+Burnside--Lincoln to Hooker--Chancellorsville--Lee's Second
+Invasion--Lincoln's Criticisms of Hooker's Plans--Hooker
+Relieved--Meade--Gettysburg--Lee's Retreat--Lincoln's Letter to
+Meade--Lincoln's Gettysburg Address--Autumn Strategy--The Armies go into
+Winter Quarters
+
+XXVII
+
+Buell and Bragg--Perryville--Rosecrans and Murfreesboro--Grant's
+Vicksburg Experiments--Grant's May Battles--Siege and Surrender of
+Vicksburg--Lincoln to Grant--Rosecrans's March to Chattanooga--Battle of
+Chickamauga--Grant at Chattanooga--Battle of Chattanooga--Burnside at
+Knoxville--Burnside Repulses Longstreet
+
+XXVIII
+
+Grant Lieutenant-General--Interview with Lincoln--Grant Visits
+Sherman--Plan of Campaigns--Lincoln to Grant--From the Wilderness to
+Cold Harbor--The Move to City Point--Siege of Petersburg--Early Menaces
+Washington--Lincoln under Fire--Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley
+
+XXIX
+
+Sherman's Meridian Expedition--Capture of Atlanta--Hood Supersedes
+Johnston--Hood's Invasion of Tennessee--Franklin and Nashville--Sherman's
+March to the Sea--Capture of Savannah--Sherman to Lincoln--Lincoln to
+Sherman--Sherman's March through the Carolinas--The Burning of Charleston
+and Columbia--Arrival at Goldsboro--Junction with Schofield--Visit to
+Grant
+
+XXX
+
+Military Governors--Lincoln's Theory of Reconstruction--Congressional
+Election in Louisiana--Letter to Military Governors--Letter to
+Shepley--Amnesty Proclamation, December 8, 1863--Instructions to
+Banks--Banks's Action in Louisiana--Louisiana Abolishes
+Slavery--Arkansas Abolishes Slavery--Reconstruction in
+Tennessee--Missouri Emancipation--Lincoln's Letter to Drake--Missouri
+Abolishes Slavery--Emancipation in Maryland--Maryland Abolishes Slavery
+
+XXXI
+
+Shaping of the Presidential Campaign--Criticisms of Mr. Lincoln--Chase's
+Presidential Ambitions--The Pomeroy Circular--Cleveland
+Convention--Attempt to Nominate Grant--Meeting of Baltimore
+Convention--Lincoln's Letter to Schurz--Platform of Republican
+Convention--Lincoln Renominated--Refuses to Indicate Preference for
+Vice-President--Johnson Nominated for Vice-President--Lincoln's Speech
+to Committee of Notification--Reference to Mexico in his Letter of
+Acceptance--The French in Mexico
+
+XXXII
+
+The Bogus Proclamation--The Wade-Davis Manifesto--Resignation of Mr.
+Chase--Fessenden Succeeds Him--The Greeley Peace
+Conference--Jaquess-Gilmore Mission--Letter of Raymond--Bad Outlook for
+the Election--Mr. Lincoln on the Issues of the Campaign--President's
+Secret Memorandum--Meeting of Democratic National Convention--McClellan
+Nominated--His Letter of Acceptance--Lincoln Reëlected--His Speech on
+Night of Election--The Electoral Vote--Annual Message of December 6,
+1864--Resignation of McClellan from the Army
+
+XXXIII
+
+The Thirteenth Amendment--The President's Speech on its Adoption--The
+Two Constitutional Amendments of Lincoln's Term--Lincoln on Peace and
+Slavery in his Annual Message of December 6, 1864--Blair's Mexican
+Project--The Hampton Roads Conference
+
+XXXIV
+
+Blair--Chase Chief Justice--Speed Succeeds Bates--McCulloch Succeeds
+Fessenden--Resignation of Mr. Usher--Lincoln's Offer of
+$400,000,000--The Second Inaugural--Lincoln's Literary Rank--His Last
+Speech
+
+XXXV
+
+Depreciation of Confederate Currency--Rigor of
+Conscription--Dissatisfaction with the Confederate Government--Lee
+General-in-Chief--J.E. Johnston Reappointed to Oppose Sherman's
+March--Value of Slave Property Gone in Richmond--Davis's Recommendation
+of Emancipation--Benjamin's Last Despatch to Slidell--Condition of the
+Army when Lee took Command--Lee Attempts Negotiations with
+Grant--Lincoln's Directions--Lee and Davis Agree upon Line of
+Retreat--Assault on Fort Stedman--Five Forks--Evacuation of
+Petersburg--Surrender of Richmond--Pursuit of Lee--Surrender of
+Lee--Burning of Richmond--Lincoln in Richmond
+
+XXXVI
+
+Lincoln's Interviews with Campbell--Withdraws Authority for Meeting of
+Virginia Legislature--Conference of Davis and Johnston at
+Greensboro--Johnston Asks for an Armistice--Meeting of Sherman and
+Johnston--Their Agreement--Rejected at Washington--Surrender of
+Johnston--Surrender of other Confederate Forces--End of the Rebel
+Navy--Capture of Jefferson Davis--Surrender of E. Kirby Smith--Number of
+Confederates Surrendered and Exchanged--Reduction of Federal Army to a
+Peace Footing--Grand Review of the Army
+
+XXXVII
+
+The 14th of April--Celebration at Fort Sumter--Last Cabinet
+Meeting--Lincoln's Attitude toward Threats of Assassination--Booth's
+Plot--Ford's Theater--Fate of the Assassins--The Mourning Pageant
+
+XXXVIII
+
+Lincoln's Early Environment--Its Effect on his Character--His Attitude
+toward Slavery and the Slaveholder--His Schooling in Disappointment--His
+Seeming Failures--His Real Successes--The Final Trial--His
+Achievements--His Place in History
+
+Index
+
+
+
+
+ABRAHAM LINCOLN
+
+
+
+I
+
+Ancestry--Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks--Rock Spring Farm--Lincoln's
+Birth--Kentucky Schools--The Journey to Indiana--Pigeon Creek
+Settlement--Indiana Schools--Sally Bush Lincoln--Gentryville--Work and
+Books--Satires and Sermons--Flatboat Voyage to New Orleans--The Journey
+to Illinois
+
+
+Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth President of the United States, was born
+in a log cabin in the backwoods of Kentucky on the 12th day of February
+1809. His father, Thomas Lincoln, was sixth in direct line of descent
+from Samuel Lincoln, who emigrated from England to Massachusetts in 1638.
+Following the prevailing drift of American settlement, these descendants
+had, during a century and a half, successively moved from Massachusetts
+to New Jersey, from New Jersey to Pennsylvania, from Pennsylvania to
+Virginia, and from Virginia to Kentucky; while collateral branches of the
+family eventually made homes in other parts of the West. In Pennsylvania
+and Virginia some of them had acquired considerable property and local
+prominence.
+
+In the year 1780, Abraham Lincoln, the President's grandfather, was able
+to pay into the public treasury of Virginia "one hundred and sixty
+pounds, current money," for which he received a warrant, directed to the
+"Principal Surveyor of any County within the commonwealth of Virginia,"
+to lay off in one or more surveys for Abraham Linkhorn, his heirs or
+assigns, the quantity of four hundred acres of land. The error in
+spelling the name was a blunder of the clerk who made out the warrant.
+
+With this warrant and his family of five children--Mordecai, Josiah,
+Mary, Nancy, and Thomas--he moved to Kentucky, then still a county of
+Virginia, in 1780, and began opening a farm. Four years later, while at
+work with his three boys in the edge of his clearing, a party of
+Indians, concealed in the brush, shot and killed him. Josiah, the second
+son, ran to a neighboring fort for assistance; Mordecai, the eldest,
+hurried to the cabin for his gun, leaving Thomas, youngest of the
+family, a child of six years, by his father. Mordecai had just taken
+down his rifle from its convenient resting-place over the door of the
+cabin when, turning, he saw an Indian in his war-paint stooping to seize
+the child. He took quick aim through a loop-hole, shot, and killed the
+savage, at which the little boy also ran to the house, and from this
+citadel Mordecai continued firing at the Indians until Josiah brought
+help from the fort.
+
+It was doubtless this misfortune which rapidly changed the circumstances
+of the family.[1] Kentucky was yet a wild, new country. As compared with
+later periods of emigration, settlement was slow and pioneer life a hard
+struggle. So it was probably under the stress of poverty, as well as by
+the marriage of the older children, that the home was gradually broken
+up, and Thomas Lincoln became "even in childhood ... a wandering
+laboring boy, and grew up literally without education.... Before he was
+grown he passed one year as a hired hand with his uncle Isaac on
+Watauga, a branch of the Holston River." Later, he seems to have
+undertaken to learn the trade of carpenter in the shop of Joseph Hanks
+in Elizabethtown.
+
+ [Footnote 1: By the law of primogeniture, which at that date was
+ still unrepealed in Virginia, the family estate went to Mordecai,
+ the eldest son.]
+
+When Thomas Lincoln was about twenty-eight years old he married Nancy
+Hanks, a niece of his employer, near Beechland, in Washington County.
+She was a good-looking young woman of twenty-three, also from Virginia,
+and so far superior to her husband in education that she could read and
+write, and taught him how to sign his name. Neither one of the young
+couple had any money or property; but in those days living was not
+expensive, and they doubtless considered his trade a sufficient
+provision for the future. He brought her to a little house in
+Elizabethtown, where a daughter was born to them the following year.
+
+During the next twelvemonth Thomas Lincoln either grew tired of his
+carpenter work, or found the wages he was able to earn insufficient to
+meet his growing household expenses. He therefore bought a little farm
+on the Big South Fork of Nolin Creek, in what was then Hardin and is now
+La Rue County, three miles from Hodgensville, and thirteen miles from
+Elizabethtown. Having no means, he of course bought the place on credit,
+a transaction not so difficult when we remember that in that early day
+there was plenty of land to be bought for mere promises to pay; under
+the disadvantage, however, that farms to be had on these terms were
+usually of a very poor quality, on which energetic or forehanded men did
+not care to waste their labor. It was a kind of land generally known in
+the West as "barrens"--rolling upland, with very thin, unproductive
+soil. Its momentary usefulness was that it was partly cleared and
+cultivated, that an indifferent cabin stood on it ready to be occupied,
+and that it had one specially attractive as well as useful feature--a
+fine spring of water, prettily situated amid a graceful clump of
+foliage, because of which the place was called Rock Spring Farm. The
+change of abode was perhaps in some respects an improvement upon
+Elizabethtown. To pioneer families in deep poverty, a little farm
+offered many more resources than a town lot--space, wood, water, greens
+in the spring, berries in the summer, nuts in the autumn, small game
+everywhere--and they were fully accustomed to the loss of
+companionship. On this farm, and in this cabin, the future President of
+the United States was born, on the 12th of February, 1809, and here the
+first four years of his childhood were spent.
+
+When Abraham was about four years old the Lincoln home was changed to a
+much better farm of two hundred and thirty-eight acres on Knob Creek,
+six miles from Hodgensville, bought by Thomas Lincoln, again on credit,
+for the promise to pay one hundred and eighteen pounds. A year later he
+conveyed two hundred acres of it by deed to a new purchaser. In this new
+home the family spent four years more, and while here Abraham and his
+sister Sarah began going to A B C schools. Their first teacher was
+Zachariah Riney, who taught near the Lincoln cabin; the next, Caleb
+Hazel, at a distance of about four miles.
+
+Thomas Lincoln was evidently one of those easy-going, good-natured men
+who carry the virtue of contentment to an extreme. He appears never to
+have exerted himself much beyond the attainment of a necessary
+subsistence. By a little farming and occasional jobs at his trade, he
+seems to have supplied his family with food and clothes. There is no
+record that he made any payment on either of his farms. The fever of
+westward emigration was in the air, and, listening to glowing accounts
+of rich lands and newer settlements in Indiana, he had neither valuable
+possessions nor cheerful associations to restrain the natural impulse of
+every frontiersman to "move." In this determination his carpenter's
+skill served him a good purpose, and made the enterprise not only
+feasible but reasonably cheap. In the fall of 1816 he built himself a
+small flatboat, which he launched at the mouth of Knob Creek, half a
+mile from his cabin, on the waters of the Rolling Fork. This stream
+would float him to Salt River, and Salt River to the Ohio. He also
+thought to combine a little speculation with his undertaking. Part of
+his personal property he traded for four hundred gallons of whisky;
+then, loading the rest on his boat with his carpenter's tools and the
+whisky, he made the voyage, with the help of the current, down the
+Rolling Fork to Salt River, down Salt River to the Ohio, and down the
+Ohio to Thompson's Ferry, in Perry County, on the Indiana shore. The
+boat capsized once on the way, but he saved most of the cargo.
+
+Sixteen miles out from the river he found a location in the forest which
+suited him. Since his boat would not float up-stream, he sold it, left
+his property with a settler, and trudged back home to Kentucky, all the
+way on foot, to bring his wife and the two children--Sarah, nine years
+old, and Abraham, seven. Another son had been born to them some years
+before, but had died when only three days old. This time the trip to
+Indiana was made with the aid of two horses, used by the wife and
+children for riding and to carry their little equipage for camping at
+night by the way. In a straight line, the distance is about fifty miles;
+but it was probably doubled by the very few roads it was possible to
+follow.
+
+Having reached the Ohio and crossed to where he had left his goods on
+the Indiana side, he hired a wagon, which carried them and his family
+the remaining sixteen miles through the forest to the spot he had
+chosen, which in due time became the Lincoln farm. It was a piece of
+heavily timbered land, one and a half miles east of what has since
+become the village of Gentryville, in Spencer County. The lateness of
+the autumn compelled him to provide a shelter as quickly as possible,
+and he built what is known on the frontier as a half-faced camp, about
+fourteen feet square. This structure differed from a cabin in that it
+was closed on only three sides, and open to the weather on the fourth.
+It was usual to build the fire in front of the open side, and the
+necessity of providing a chimney was thus avoided. He doubtless intended
+it for a mere temporary shelter, and as such it would have sufficed for
+good weather in the summer season. But it was a rude provision for the
+winds and snows of an Indiana winter. It illustrates Thomas Lincoln's
+want of energy, that the family remained housed in this primitive camp
+for nearly a whole year. He must, however, not be too hastily blamed for
+his dilatory improvement. It is not likely that he remained altogether
+idle. A more substantial cabin was probably begun, and, besides, there
+was the heavy work of clearing away the timber--that is, cutting down
+the large trees, chopping them into suitable lengths, and rolling them
+together into great log-heaps to be burned, or splitting them into rails
+to fence the small field upon which he managed to raise a patch of corn
+and other things during the ensuing summer.
+
+Thomas Lincoln's arrival was in the autumn of 1816. That same winter
+Indiana was admitted to the Union as a State. There were as yet no roads
+worthy of the name to or from the settlement formed by himself and seven
+or eight neighbors at various distances. The village of Gentryville was
+not even begun. There was no sawmill to saw lumber. Breadstuff could be
+had only by sending young Abraham, on horseback, seven miles, with a bag
+of corn to be ground on a hand grist-mill. In the course of two or three
+years a road from Corydon to Evansville was laid out, running past the
+Lincoln farm; and perhaps two or three years afterward another from
+Rockport to Bloomington crossing the former. This gave rise to
+Gentryville. James Gentry entered the land at the cross-roads. Gideon
+Romine opened a small store, and their joint efforts succeeded in
+getting a post-office established from which the village gradually grew.
+For a year after his arrival Thomas Lincoln remained a mere squatter.
+Then he entered the quarter-section (one hundred and sixty acres) on
+which he opened his farm, and made some payments on his entry, but only
+enough in eleven years to obtain a patent for one half of it.
+
+About the time that he moved into his new cabin, relatives and friends
+followed from Kentucky, and some of them in turn occupied the half-faced
+camp. In the ensuing autumn much sickness prevailed in the Pigeon Creek
+settlement. It was thirty miles to the nearest doctor, and several
+persons died, among them Nancy Hanks Lincoln, the mother of young
+Abraham. The mechanical skill of Thomas was called upon to make the
+coffins, the necessary lumber for which had to be cut with a whip-saw.
+
+The death of Mrs. Lincoln was a serious loss to her husband and
+children. Abraham's sister Sarah was only eleven years old, and the
+tasks and cares of the little household were altogether too heavy for
+her years and experience. Nevertheless, they struggled on bravely
+through the winter and next summer, but in the autumn of 1819 Thomas
+Lincoln went back to Kentucky and married Sally Bush Johnston, whom he
+had known and, it is said, courted when she was merely Sally Bush.
+Johnston, to whom she was married about the time Lincoln married Nancy
+Hanks, had died, leaving her with three children. She came of a better
+station in life than Thomas, and is represented as a woman of uncommon
+energy and thrift, possessing excellent qualities both of head and
+heart. The household goods which she brought to the Lincoln home in
+Indiana filled a four-horse wagon. Not only were her own three children
+well clothed and cared for, but she was able at once to provide little
+Abraham and Sarah with home comforts to which they had been strangers
+during the whole of their young lives. Under her example and urging,
+Thomas at once supplied the yet unfinished cabin with floor, door, and
+windows, and existence took on a new aspect for all the inmates. Under
+her management and control, all friction and jealousy was avoided
+between the two sets of children, and contentment, if not happiness,
+reigned in the little cabin.
+
+The new stepmother quickly perceived the superior aptitudes and
+abilities of Abraham. She became very fond of him, and in every way
+encouraged his marked inclination to study and improve himself. The
+opportunities for this were meager enough. Mr. Lincoln himself has drawn
+a vivid outline of the situation:
+
+"It was a wild region, with many bears and other wild animals still in
+the woods. There I grew up. There were some schools so called, but no
+qualification was ever required of a teacher beyond readin', writin',
+and cipherin' to the Rule of Three. If a straggler supposed to
+understand Latin happened to sojourn in the neighborhood, he was looked
+upon as a wizard. There was absolutely nothing to excite ambition for
+education."
+
+As Abraham was only in his eighth year when he left Kentucky, the little
+beginnings he had learned in the schools kept by Riney and Hazel in that
+State must have been very slight--probably only his alphabet, or
+possibly three or four pages of Webster's "Elementary Spelling Book." It
+is likely that the multiplication table was as yet an unfathomed
+mystery, and that he could not write or read more than the words he
+spelled. There is no record at what date he was able again to go to
+school in Indiana. Some of his schoolmates think it was in his tenth
+year, or soon after he fell under the care of his stepmother. The
+school-house was a low cabin of round logs, a mile and a half from the
+Lincoln home, with split logs or "puncheons" for a floor, split logs
+roughly leveled with an ax and set up on legs for benches, and a log cut
+out of one end and the space filled in with squares of greased paper for
+window panes. The main light in such primitive halls of learning was
+admitted by the open door. It was a type of school building common in
+the early West, in which many a statesman gained the first rudiments of
+knowledge. Very often Webster's "Elementary Spelling Book" was the only
+text-book. Abraham's first Indiana school was probably held five years
+before Gentryville was located and a store established there. Until then
+it was difficult, if not impossible, to obtain books, slates, pencils,
+pen, ink, and paper, and their use was limited to settlers who had
+brought them when they came. It is reasonable to infer that the Lincoln
+family had no such luxuries, and, as the Pigeon Creek settlement
+numbered only eight or ten families there must have been very few pupils
+to attend this first school. Nevertheless, it is worthy of special note
+that even under such difficulties and limitations, the American thirst
+for education planted a school-house on the very forefront of every
+settlement.
+
+Abraham's second school in Indiana was held about the time he was
+fourteen years old, and the third in his seventeenth year. By this time
+he probably had better teachers and increased facilities, though with
+the disadvantage of having to walk four or five miles to the
+school-house. He learned to write, and was provided with pen, ink, and a
+copy-book, and probably a very limited supply of writing-paper, for
+facsimiles have been printed of several scraps and fragments upon which
+he had carefully copied tables, rules, and sums from his arithmetic,
+such as those of long measure, land measure, and dry measure, and
+examples in multiplication and compound division. All this indicates
+that he pursued his studies with a very unusual purpose and
+determination, not only to understand them at the moment, but to imprint
+them indelibly upon his memory, and even to regain them in visible form
+for reference when the school-book might no longer be in his hands or
+possession.
+
+Mr. Lincoln has himself written that these three different schools were
+"kept successively by Andrew Crawford, ---- Swaney, and Azel W. Dorsey."
+Other witnesses state the succession somewhat differently. The important
+fact to be gleaned from what we learn about Mr. Lincoln's schooling is
+that the instruction given him by these five different teachers--two in
+Kentucky and three in Indiana, in short sessions of attendance scattered
+over a period of nine years--made up in all less than a twelvemonth.
+He said of it in 1860, "Abraham now thinks that the aggregate of all his
+schooling did not amount to one year." This distribution of the tuition
+he received was doubtless an advantage. Had it all been given him at his
+first school in Indiana, it would probably not have carried him half
+through Webster's "Elementary Spelling Book." The lazy or indifferent
+pupils who were his schoolmates doubtless forgot what was taught them at
+one time before they had opportunity at another; but to the exceptional
+character of Abraham, these widely separated fragments of instruction
+were precious steps to self-help, of which he made unremitting use.
+
+It is the concurrent testimony of his early companions that he employed
+all his spare moments in keeping on with some one of his studies. His
+stepmother says: "Abe read diligently.... He read every book he could
+lay his hands on; and when he came across a passage that struck him, he
+would write it down on boards, if he had no paper, and keep it there
+until he did get paper. Then he would rewrite it, look at it, repeat it.
+He had a copy-book, a kind of scrap-book, in which he put down all
+things, and thus preserved them." There is no mention that either he or
+other pupils had slates and slate-pencils to use at school or at home,
+but he found a ready substitute in pieces of board. It is stated that he
+occupied his long evenings at home doing sums on the fire-shovel. Iron
+fire-shovels were a rarity among pioneers; they used, instead a broad,
+thin clapboard with one end narrowed to a handle. In cooking by the open
+fire, this domestic implement was of the first necessity to arrange
+piles of live coals on the hearth, over which they set their "skillet"
+and "oven," upon the lids of which live coals were also heaped.
+
+Upon such a wooden shovel Abraham was able to work his sums by the
+flickering firelight. If he had no pencil, he could use charcoal, and
+probably did so. When it was covered with figures he would take a
+drawing-knife, shave it off clean, and begin again. Under these various
+disadvantages, and by the help of such troublesome expedients, Abraham
+Lincoln worked his way to so much of an education as placed him far
+ahead of his schoolmates, and quickly abreast of the acquirements of his
+various teachers. The field from which he could glean knowledge was very
+limited, though he diligently borrowed every book in the neighborhood.
+The list is a short one--"Robinson Crusoe," Aesop's "Fables," Bunyan's
+"Pilgrim's Progress," Weems's "Life of Washington," and a "History of
+the United States." When he had exhausted other books, he even
+resolutely attacked the Revised Statutes of Indiana, which Dave Turnham,
+the constable, had in daily use and permitted him to come to his house
+and read.
+
+It needs to be borne in mind that all this effort at self-education
+extended from first to last over a period of twelve or thirteen years,
+during which he was also performing hard manual labor, and proves a
+degree of steady, unflinching perseverance in a line of conduct that
+brings into strong relief a high aim and the consciousness of abundant
+intellectual power. He was not permitted to forget that he was on an
+uphill path, a stern struggle with adversity. The leisure hours which he
+was able to devote to his reading, his penmanship, and his arithmetic
+were by no means overabundant. Writing of his father's removal from
+Kentucky to Indiana, he says:
+
+"He settled in an unbroken forest, and the clearing away of surplus wood
+was the great task ahead. Abraham, though very young, was large of his
+age, and had an ax put into his hands at once; and from that till within
+his twenty-third year he was almost constantly handling that most useful
+instrument--less, of course, in plowing and harvesting seasons."
+
+John Hanks mentions the character of his work a little more in detail.
+"He and I worked barefoot, grubbed it, plowed, mowed, and cradled
+together; plowed corn, gathered it, and shucked corn." The sum of it all
+is that from his boyhood until after he was of age, most of his time was
+spent in the hard and varied muscular labor of the farm and the forest,
+sometimes on his father's place, sometimes as a hired hand for other
+pioneers. In this very useful but commonplace occupation he had,
+however, one advantage. He was not only very early in his life a tall,
+strong country boy, but as he grew up he soon became a tall, strong,
+sinewy man. He early attained the unusual height of six feet four
+inches, with arms of proportionate length. This gave him a degree of
+power and facility as an ax-man which few had or were able to acquire.
+He was therefore usually able to lead his fellows in efforts of both
+muscle and mind. He performed the tasks of his daily labor and mastered
+the lessons of his scanty schooling with an ease and rapidity they were
+unable to attain.
+
+Twice during his life in Indiana this ordinary routine was somewhat
+varied. When he was sixteen, while working for a man who lived at the
+mouth of Anderson's Creek, it was part of his duty to manage a
+ferry-boat which transported passengers across the Ohio River. It was
+doubtless this which three years later brought him a new experience,
+that he himself related in these words:
+
+"When he was nineteen, still residing in Indiana, he made his first
+trip upon a flatboat to New Orleans. He was a hired hand merely, and he
+and a son of the owner, without other assistance, made the trip. The
+nature of part of the 'cargo load,' as it was called, made it necessary
+for them to linger and trade along the sugar-coast, and one night they
+were attacked by seven negroes with intent to kill and rob them. They
+were hurt some in the mêlée, but succeeded in driving the negroes from
+the boat, and then 'cut cable,' 'weighed anchor,' and left."
+
+This commercial enterprise was set on foot by Mr. Gentry, the founder of
+Gentryville. The affair shows us that Abraham had gained an enviable
+standing in the village as a man of honesty, skill, and judgment--one
+who could be depended on to meet such emergencies as might arise in
+selling their bacon and other produce to the cotton-planters along the
+shores of the lower Mississippi.
+
+By this time Abraham's education was well advanced. His handwriting, his
+arithmetic, and his general intelligence were so good that he had
+occasionally been employed to help in the Gentryville store, and Gentry
+thus knew by personal test that he was entirely capable of assisting his
+son Allen in the trading expedition to New Orleans. For Abraham, on the
+other hand, it was an event which must have opened up wide vistas of
+future hope and ambition. Allen Gentry probably was nominal supercargo
+and steersman, but we may easily surmise that Lincoln, as the "bow oar,"
+carried his full half of general responsibility. For this service the
+elder Gentry paid him eight dollars a month and his passage home on a
+steamboat. It was the future President's first eager look into the wide,
+wide world.
+
+Abraham's devotion to his books and his sums stands forth in more
+striking light from the fact that his habits differed from those of most
+frontier boys in one important particular. Almost every youth of the
+backwoods early became a habitual hunter and superior marksman. The
+Indiana woods were yet swarming with game, and the larder of every cabin
+depended largely upon this great storehouse of wild meat.[2] The Pigeon
+Creek settlement was especially fortunate on this point. There was in
+the neighborhood of the Lincoln home what was known in the West as a
+deer-lick--that is, there existed a feeble salt-spring, which
+impregnated the soil in its vicinity or created little pools of brackish
+water--and various kinds of animals, particularly deer, resorted there
+to satisfy their natural craving for salt by drinking from these or
+licking the moist earth. Hunters took advantage of this habit, and one
+of their common customs was to watch in the dusk or at night, and secure
+their approaching prey by an easy shot. Skill with the rifle and success
+in the chase were points of friendly emulation. In many localities the
+boy or youth who shot a squirrel in any part of the animal except its
+head became the butt of the jests of his companions and elders. Yet,
+under such conditions and opportunities Abraham was neither a hunter nor
+a marksman. He tells us:
+
+"A few days before the completion of his eighth year, in the absence of
+his father, a flock of wild turkeys approached the new log cabin, and
+Abraham, with a rifle gun, standing inside, shot through a crack and
+killed one of them. He has never since pulled a trigger on any larger
+game."
+
+ [Footnote 2: Franklin points out how much this resource of the
+ early Americans contributed to their spirit of independence by
+ saying:
+
+ "I can retire cheerfully with my little family into the boundless
+ woods of America, which are sure to afford freedom and subsistence
+ to any man who can bait a hook or pull a trigger."
+
+ (See "The Century Magazine," "Franklin as a Diplomatist," October,
+ 1899, p. 888.)]
+
+The hours which other boys spent in roaming the woods or lying in ambush
+at the deer-lick, he preferred to devote to his effort at mental
+improvement. It can hardly be claimed that he did this from calculating
+ambition. It was a native intellectual thirst, the significance of which
+he did not himself yet understand. Such exceptional characteristics
+manifested themselves only in a few matters. In most particulars he grew
+up as the ordinary backwoods boy develops into the youth and man. As he
+was subjected to their usual labors, so also he was limited to their
+usual pastimes and enjoyments.
+
+The varied amusements common to our day were not within their reach. The
+period of the circus, the political speech, and the itinerant show had
+not yet come. Schools, as we have seen, and probably meetings or church
+services, were irregular, to be had only at long intervals. Primitive
+athletic games and commonplace talk, enlivened by frontier jests and
+stories, formed the sum of social intercourse when half a dozen or a
+score of settlers of various ages came together at a house-raising or
+corn-husking, or when mere chance brought them at the same time to the
+post-office or the country store. On these occasions, however, Abraham
+was, according to his age, always able to contribute his full share or
+more. Most of his natural aptitudes equipped him especially to play his
+part well. He had quick intelligence, ready sympathy, a cheerful
+temperament, a kindling humor, a generous and helpful spirit. He was
+both a ready talker and appreciative listener. By virtue of his tall
+stature and unusual strength of sinew and muscle, he was from the
+beginning a leader in all athletic games; by reason of his studious
+habits and his extraordinarily retentive memory he quickly became the
+best story-teller among his companions. Even the slight training he
+gained from his studies greatly quickened his perceptions and broadened
+and steadied the strong reasoning faculty with which nature had endowed
+him.
+
+As the years of his youth passed by, his less gifted comrades learned to
+accept his judgments and to welcome his power to entertain and instruct
+them. On his own part, he gradually learned to write not merely with the
+hand, but also with the mind--to think. It was an easy transition for
+him from remembering the jingle of a commonplace rhyme to the
+constructing of a doggerel verse, and he did not neglect the opportunity
+of practising his penmanship in such impromptus. Tradition also relates
+that he added to his list of stories and jokes humorous imitations from
+the sermons of eccentric preachers. But tradition has very likely both
+magnified and distorted these alleged exploits of his satire and
+mimicry. All that can be said of them is that his youth was marked by
+intellectual activity far beyond that of his companions.
+
+It is an interesting coincidence that nine days before the birth of
+Abraham Lincoln Congress passed the act to organize the Territory of
+Illinois, which his future life and career were destined to render so
+illustrious. Another interesting coincidence may be found in the fact
+that in the same year (1818) in which Congress definitely fixed the
+number of stars and stripes in the national flag, Illinois was admitted
+as a State to the Union. The Star of Empire was moving westward at an
+accelerating speed. Alabama was admitted in 1819, Maine in 1820,
+Missouri in 1821. Little by little the line of frontier settlement was
+pushing itself toward the Mississippi. No sooner had the pioneer built
+him a cabin and opened his little farm, than during every summer
+canvas-covered wagons wound their toilsome way over the new-made roads
+into the newer wilderness, while his eyes followed them with wistful
+eagerness. Thomas Lincoln and his Pigeon Creek relatives and neighbors
+could not forever withstand the contagion of this example, and at length
+they yielded to the irrepressible longing by a common impulse. Mr.
+Lincoln writes:
+
+"March 1, 1830, Abraham having just completed his twenty-first year, his
+father and family, with the families of the two daughters and
+sons-in-law of his stepmother, left the old homestead in Indiana and
+came to Illinois. Their mode of conveyance was wagons drawn by ox-teams,
+and Abraham drove one of the teams. They reached the county of Macon,
+and stopped there some time within the same month of March. His father
+and family settled a new place on the north side of the Sangamon River,
+at the junction of the timber land and prairie, about ten miles westerly
+from Decatur. Here they built a log cabin, into which they removed, and
+made sufficient of rails to fence ten acres of ground, fenced and broke
+the ground, and raised a crop of sown corn upon it the same year.... The
+sons-in-law were temporarily settled in other places in the county. In
+the autumn all hands were greatly afflicted with ague and fever, to
+which they had not been used, and by which they were greatly
+discouraged, so much so that they determined on leaving the county. They
+remained, however, through the succeeding winter, which was the winter
+of the very celebrated 'deep snow' of Illinois."
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+Flatboat--New Salem--Election Clerk--Store and Mill--Kirkham's
+"Grammar"--"Sangamo Journal"--The Talisman--Lincoln's Address, March 9,
+1832--Black Hawk War--Lincoln Elected Captain--Mustered out May 27,
+1832--Reënlisted in Independent Spy Battalion--Finally Mustered out, June
+16, 1832--Defeated for the Legislature--Blacksmith or Lawyer?--The
+Lincoln-Berry Store--Appointed Postmaster, May 7, 1833--National Politics
+
+
+The life of Abraham Lincoln, or that part of it which will interest
+readers for all future time, properly begins in March, 1831, after the
+winter of the "deep snow." According to frontier custom, being then
+twenty-one years old, he left his father's cabin to make his own fortune
+in the world. A man named Denton Offutt, one of a class of local traders
+and speculators usually found about early Western settlements, had
+probably heard something of young Lincoln's Indiana history,
+particularly that he had made a voyage on a flatboat from Indiana to New
+Orleans, and that he was strong, active, honest, and generally, as would
+be expressed in Western phrase, "a smart young fellow." He was therefore
+just the sort of man Offutt needed for one of his trading enterprises,
+and Mr. Lincoln himself relates somewhat in detail how Offutt engaged
+him and the beginning of the venture:
+
+"Abraham, together with his stepmother's son, John D. Johnston, and
+John Hanks, yet residing in Macon County, hired themselves to Denton
+Offutt to take a flatboat from Beardstown, Illinois [on the Illinois
+River], to New Orleans; and for that purpose were to join
+him--Offutt--at Springfield, Illinois, so soon as the snow should go
+off. When it did go off, which was about the first of March, 1831, the
+county was so flooded as to make traveling by land impracticable, to
+obviate which difficulty they purchased a large canoe, and came down the
+Sangamon River in it. This is the time and the manner of Abraham's first
+entrance into Sangamon County. They found Offutt at Springfield, but
+learned from him that he had failed in getting a boat at Beardstown.
+This led to their hiring themselves to him for twelve dollars per month
+each, and getting the timber out of the trees and building a boat at Old
+Sangamon town on the Sangamon River, seven miles northwest of
+Springfield, which boat they took to New Orleans, substantially upon the
+old contract."
+
+It needs here to be recalled that Lincoln's father was a carpenter, and
+that Abraham had no doubt acquired considerable skill in the use of
+tools during his boyhood and a practical knowledge of the construction
+of flatboats during his previous New Orleans trip, sufficient to enable
+him with confidence to undertake this task in shipbuilding. From the
+after history of both Johnston and Hanks, we know that neither of them
+was gifted with skill or industry, and it becomes clear that Lincoln was
+from the first leader of the party, master of construction, and captain
+of the craft.
+
+It took some time to build the boat, and before it was finished the
+Sangamon River had fallen so that the new craft stuck midway across the
+dam at Rutledge's Mill, at New Salem, a village of fifteen or twenty
+houses. The inhabitants came down to the bank, and exhibited great
+interest in the fate of the boat, which, with its bow in the air and its
+stern under water, was half bird and half fish, and they probably
+jestingly inquired of the young captain whether he expected to dive or
+to fly to New Orleans. He was, however, equal to the occasion. He bored
+a hole in the bottom of the boat at the bow, and rigged some sort of
+lever or derrick to lift the stern, so that the water she had taken in
+behind ran out in front, enabling her to float over the partly submerged
+dam; and this feat, in turn, caused great wonderment in the crowd at the
+novel expedient of bailing a boat by boring a hole in her bottom.
+
+This exploit of naval engineering fully established Lincoln's fame at
+New Salem, and grounded him so firmly in the esteem of his employer
+Offutt that the latter, already looking forward to his future
+usefulness, at once engaged him to come back to New Salem, after his New
+Orleans voyage, to act as his clerk in a store.
+
+Once over the dam and her cargo reloaded, partly there and partly at
+Beardstown, the boat safely made the remainder of her voyage to New
+Orleans; and, returning by steamer to St. Louis, Lincoln and Johnston
+(Hanks had turned back from St. Louis) continued on foot to Illinois,
+Johnston remaining at the family home, which had meanwhile been removed
+from Macon to Coles County, and Lincoln going to his employer and
+friends at New Salem. This was in July or August, 1831. Neither Offutt
+nor his goods had yet arrived, and during his waiting he had a chance to
+show the New Salemites another accomplishment. An election was to be
+held, and one of the clerks was sick and failed to come. Scribes were
+not plenty on the frontier, and Mentor Graham, the clerk who was
+present, looking around for a properly qualified colleague, noticed
+Lincoln, and asked him if he could write, to which he answered, in local
+idiom, that he "could make a few rabbit tracks," and was thereupon
+immediately inducted into his first office. He performed his duties not
+only to the general satisfaction, but so as to interest Graham, who was
+a schoolmaster, and afterward made himself very useful to Lincoln.
+
+Offutt finally arrived with a miscellaneous lot of goods, which Lincoln
+opened and put in order in a room that a former New Salem storekeeper
+was just ready to vacate, and whose remnant stock Offutt also purchased.
+Trade was evidently not brisk at New Salem, for the commercial zeal of
+Offutt led him to increase his venture by renting the Rutledge and
+Cameron mill, on whose historic dam the flatboat had stuck. For a while
+the charge of the mill was added to Lincoln's duties, until another
+clerk was engaged to help him. There is likewise good evidence that in
+addition to his duties at the store and the mill, Lincoln made himself
+generally useful--that he cut down trees and split rails enough to make
+a large hog-pen adjoining the mill, a proceeding quite natural when we
+remember that his hitherto active life and still growing muscles
+imperatively demanded the exercise which measuring calico or weighing
+out sugar and coffee failed to supply.
+
+We know from other incidents that he was possessed of ample bodily
+strength. In frontier life it is not only needed for useful labor of
+many kinds, but is also called upon to aid in popular amusement. There
+was a settlement in the neighborhood of New Salem called Clary's Grove,
+where lived a group of restless, rollicking backwoodsmen with a strong
+liking for various forms of frontier athletics and rough practical
+jokes. In the progress of American settlement there has always been a
+time, whether the frontier was in New England or Pennsylvania or
+Kentucky, or on the banks of the Mississippi, when the champion wrestler
+held some fraction of the public consideration accorded to the victor in
+the Olympic games of Greece. Until Lincoln came, Jack Armstrong was the
+champion wrestler of Clary's Grove and New Salem, and picturesque
+stories are told how the neighborhood talk, inflamed by Offutt's fulsome
+laudation of his clerk, made Jack Armstrong feel that his fame was in
+danger. Lincoln put off the encounter as long as he could, and when the
+wrestling match finally came off neither could throw the other. The
+bystanders became satisfied that they were equally matched in strength
+and skill, and the cool courage which Lincoln manifested throughout the
+ordeal prevented the usual close of such incidents with a fight. Instead
+of becoming chronic enemies and leaders of a neighborhood feud,
+Lincoln's self-possession and good temper turned the contest into the
+beginning of a warm and lasting friendship.
+
+If Lincoln's muscles were at times hungry for work, not less so was his
+mind. He was already instinctively feeling his way to his destiny when,
+in conversation with Mentor Graham, the schoolmaster, he indicated his
+desire to use some of his spare moments to increase his education, and
+confided to him his "notion to study English grammar." It was entirely
+in the nature of things that Graham should encourage this mental
+craving, and tell him: "If you expect to go before the public in any
+capacity, I think it the best thing you can do." Lincoln said that if he
+had a grammar he would begin at once. Graham was obliged to confess that
+there was no such book at New Salem, but remembered that there was one
+at Vaner's, six miles away. Promptly after breakfast the next morning
+Lincoln walked to Vaner's and procured the precious volume, and,
+probably with Graham's occasional help, found no great difficulty in
+mastering its contents. While tradition does not mention any other study
+begun at that time, we may fairly infer that, slight as may have been
+Graham's education, he must have had other books from which, together
+with his friendly advice, Lincoln's intellectual hunger derived further
+stimulus and nourishment.
+
+In his duties at the store and his work at the mill, in his study of
+Kirkham's "Grammar," and educational conversations with Mentor Graham,
+in the somewhat rude but frank and hearty companionship of the citizens
+of New Salem and the exuberant boys of Clary's Grove, Lincoln's life for
+the second half of the year 1831 appears not to have been eventful, but
+was doubtless more comfortable and as interesting as had been his
+flatboat building and New Orleans voyage during the first half. He was
+busy in useful labor, and, though he had few chances to pick up scraps
+of schooling, was beginning to read deeply in that book of human nature,
+the profound knowledge of which rendered him such immense service in
+after years.
+
+The restlessness and ambition of the village of New Salem was many times
+multiplied in the restlessness and ambition of Springfield, fifteen or
+twenty miles away, which, located approximately near the geographical
+center of Illinois, was already beginning to crave, if not yet to feel,
+its future destiny as the capital of the State. In November of the same
+year that aspiring town produced the first number of its weekly
+newspaper, the "Sangamo Journal," and in its columns we begin to find
+recorded historical data. Situated in a region of alternating spaces of
+prairie and forest, of attractive natural scenery and rich soil, it was
+nevertheless at a great disadvantage in the means of commercial
+transportation. Lying sixty miles from Beardstown, the nearest landing
+on the Illinois River, the peculiarities of soil, climate, and primitive
+roads rendered travel and land carriage extremely difficult--often
+entirely impossible--for nearly half of every year. The very first
+number of the "Sangamo Journal" sounded its strongest note on the then
+leading tenet of the Whig party--internal improvements by the general
+government, and active politics to secure them. In later numbers we
+learn that a regular Eastern mail had not been received for three weeks.
+The tide of immigration which was pouring into Illinois is illustrated
+in a tabular statement on the commerce of the Illinois River, showing
+that the steamboat arrivals at Beardstown had risen from one each in the
+years 1828 and 1829, and only four in 1830, to thirty-two during the
+year 1831. This naturally directed the thoughts of travelers and traders
+to some better means of reaching the river landing than the frozen or
+muddy roads and impassable creeks and sloughs of winter and spring. The
+use of the Sangamon River, flowing within five miles of Springfield and
+emptying itself into the Illinois ten or fifteen miles from Beardstown,
+seemed for the present the only solution of the problem, and a public
+meeting was called to discuss the project. The deep snows of the winter
+of 1830-31 abundantly filled the channels of that stream, and the winter
+of 1831-32 substantially repeated its swelling floods. Newcomers in that
+region were therefore warranted in drawing the inference that it might
+remain navigable for small craft. Public interest on the topic was
+greatly heightened when one Captain Bogue, commanding a small steamer
+then at Cincinnati, printed a letter in the "Journal" of January 26,
+1832, saying: "I intend to try to ascend the river [Sangamo] immediately
+on the breaking up of the ice." It was well understood that the chief
+difficulty would be that the short turns in the channels were liable to
+be obstructed by a gorge of driftwood and the limbs and trunks of
+overhanging trees. To provide for this, Captain Bogue's letter added: "I
+should be met at the mouth of the river by ten or twelve men, having
+axes with long handles under the direction of some experienced man. I
+shall deliver freight from St. Louis at the landing on the Sangamo River
+opposite the town of Springfield for thirty-seven and a half cents per
+hundred pounds." The "Journal" of February 16 contained an advertisement
+that the "splendid upper-cabin steamer _Talisman_" would leave for
+Springfield, and the paper of March 1 announced her arrival at St. Louis
+on the 22d of February with a full cargo. In due time the citizen
+committee appointed by the public meeting met the _Talisman_ at the
+mouth of the Sangamon, and the "Journal" of March 29 announced with
+great flourish that the "steamboat _Talisman_, of one hundred and fifty
+tons burden, arrived at the Portland landing opposite this town on
+Saturday last." There was great local rejoicing over this demonstration
+that the Sangamon was really navigable, and the "Journal" proclaimed
+with exultation that Springfield "could no longer be considered an
+inland town."
+
+President Jackson's first term was nearing its close, and the Democratic
+party was preparing to reëlect him. The Whigs, on their part, had held
+their first national convention in December, 1831, and nominated Henry
+Clay to dispute the succession. This nomination, made almost a year in
+advance of the election, indicates an unusual degree of political
+activity in the East, and voters in the new State of Illinois were
+fired with an equal party zeal. During the months of January and
+February, 1832, no less than six citizens of Sangamon County announced
+themselves in the "Sangamo Journal" as candidates for the State
+legislature, the election for which was not to occur until August; and
+the "Journal" of March 15 printed a long letter, addressed "To the
+People of Sangamon County," under date of the ninth, signed A. Lincoln,
+and beginning:
+
+"FELLOW-CITIZENS: Having become a candidate for the honorable office of
+one of your representatives in the next general assembly of this State,
+in accordance with an established custom and the principles of true
+republicanism, it becomes my duty to make known to you, the people whom
+I propose to represent, my sentiments with regard to local affairs." He
+then takes up and discusses in an eminently methodical and practical way
+the absorbing topic of the moment--the Whig doctrine of internal
+improvements and its local application, the improvement of the Sangamon
+River. He mentions that meetings have been held to propose the
+construction of a railroad, and frankly acknowledges that "no other
+improvement that reason will justify us in hoping for can equal in
+utility the railroad," but contends that its enormous cost precludes any
+such hope, and that, therefore, "the improvement of the Sangamon River
+is an object much better suited to our infant resources." Relating his
+experience in building and navigating his flatboat, and his observation
+of the stage of the water since then, he draws the very plausible
+conclusion that by straightening its channel and clearing away its
+driftwood the stream can be made navigable "to vessels of from
+twenty-five to thirty tons burden for at least one half of all common
+years, and to vessels of much greater burden a part of the time," His
+letter very modestly touches a few other points of needed legislation--a
+law against usury, laws to promote education, and amendments to estray
+and road laws. The main interest for us, however, is in the frank avowal
+of his personal ambition.
+
+"Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether it be true or
+not, I can say, for one, that I have no other so great as that of being
+truly esteemed of my fellow-men by rendering myself worthy of their
+esteem. How far I shall succeed in gratifying this ambition is yet to be
+developed. I am young, and unknown to many of you. I was born, and have
+ever remained, in the most humble walks of life. I have no wealthy or
+popular relations or friends to recommend me. My case is thrown
+exclusively upon the independent voters of the country, and if elected
+they will have conferred a favor upon me for which I shall be
+unremitting in my labors to compensate. But if the good people in their
+wisdom shall see fit to keep me in the background, I have been too
+familiar with disappointments to be very much chagrined."
+
+This written and printed address gives us an accurate measure of the man
+and the time. When he wrote this document he was twenty-three years old.
+He had been in the town and county only about nine months of actual
+time. As Sangamon County covered an estimated area of twenty-one hundred
+and sixty square miles, he could know but little of either it or its
+people. How dared a "friendless, uneducated boy, working on a flatboat
+at twelve dollars a month," with "no wealthy or popular friends to
+recommend" him, aspire to the honors and responsibilities of a
+legislator? The only answer is that he was prompted by that intuition of
+genius, that consciousness of powers which justify their claims by their
+achievements. When we scan the circumstances more closely, we find
+distinct evidence of some reason for his confidence. Relatively
+speaking, he was neither uneducated nor friendless. His acquirements
+were already far beyond the simple elements of reading, writing, and
+ciphering. He wrote a good, clear, serviceable hand; he could talk well
+and reason cogently. The simple, manly style of his printed address
+fully equals in literary ability that of the average collegian in the
+twenties. His migration from Indiana to Illinois and his two voyages to
+New Orleans had given him a glimpse of the outside world. His natural
+logic readily grasped the significance of the railroad as a new factor
+in transportation, although the first American locomotive had been built
+only one year, and ten to fifteen years were yet to elapse before the
+first railroad train was to run in Illinois.
+
+One other motive probably had its influence. He tells us that Offutt's
+business was failing, and his quick judgment warned him that he would
+soon be out of a job as clerk. This, however, could be only a secondary
+reason for announcing himself as a candidate, for the election was not
+to occur till August, and even if he were elected there would be neither
+service nor salary till the coming winter. His venture into politics
+must therefore be ascribed to the feeling which he so frankly announced
+in his letter, his ambition to become useful to his fellow-men--the
+impulse that throughout history has singled out the great leaders of
+mankind.
+
+In this particular instance a crisis was also at hand, calculated to
+develop and utilize the impulse. Just about a month after the
+publication of Lincoln's announcement the "Sangamo Journal" of April 19
+printed an official call from Governor Reynolds, directed to General
+Neale of the Illinois militia, to organize six hundred volunteers of his
+brigade for military service in a campaign against the Indians under
+Black Hawk, the war chief of the Sacs, who, in defiance of treaties and
+promises, had formed a combination with other tribes during the winter,
+and had now crossed back from the west to the east side of the
+Mississippi River with the determination to reoccupy their old homes in
+the Rock River country toward the northern end of the State.
+
+In the memoranda which Mr. Lincoln furnished for a campaign biography,
+he thus relates what followed the call for troops:
+
+"Abraham joined a volunteer company, and, to his own surprise, was
+elected captain of it. He says he has not since had any success in life
+which gave him so much satisfaction. He went to the campaign, served
+near three months, met the ordinary hardships of such an expedition, but
+was in no battle." Official documents furnish some further interesting
+details. As already said, the call was printed in the "Sangamo Journal"
+of April 19. On April 21 the company was organized at Richland, Sangamon
+County, and on April 28 was inspected and mustered into service at
+Beardstown and attached to Colonel Samuel Thompson's regiment, the
+Fourth Illinois Mounted Volunteers. They marched at once to the hostile
+frontier. As the campaign shaped itself, it probably became evident to
+the company that they were not likely to meet any serious fighting, and,
+not having been enlisted for any stated period, they became clamorous to
+return home. The governor therefore had them and other companies
+mustered out of service, at the mouth of Fox River, on May 27. Not,
+however, wishing to weaken his forces before the arrival of new levies
+already on the way, he called for volunteers to remain twenty days
+longer. Lincoln had gone to the frontier to perform real service, not
+merely to enjoy military rank or reap military glory. On the same day,
+therefore, on which he was mustered out as captain, he reënlisted, and
+became Private Lincoln in Captain Iles's company of mounted volunteers,
+organized apparently principally for scouting service, and sometimes
+called the Independent Spy Battalion. Among the other officers who
+imitated this patriotic example were General Whiteside and Major John T.
+Stuart, Lincoln's later law partner. The Independent Spy Battalion,
+having faithfully performed its new term of service, was finally
+mustered out on June 16, 1832. Lincoln and his messmate, George M.
+Harrison, had the misfortune to have their horses stolen the day before,
+but Harrison relates:
+
+"I laughed at our fate and he joked at it, and we all started off
+merrily. The generous men of our company walked and rode by turns with
+us, and we fared about equal with the rest. But for this generosity our
+legs would have had to do the better work; for in that day this dreary
+route furnished no horses to buy or to steal, and, whether on horse or
+afoot, we always had company, for many of the horses' backs were too
+sore for riding."
+
+Lincoln must have reached home about August 1, for the election was to
+occur in the second week of that month, and this left him but ten days
+in which to push his claims for popular indorsement. His friends,
+however had been doing manful duty for him during his three months'
+absence, and he lost nothing in public estimation by his prompt
+enlistment to defend the frontier. Successive announcements in the
+"Journal" had by this time swelled the list of candidates to thirteen.
+But Sangamon County was entitled to only four representatives and when
+the returns came in Lincoln was among those defeated. Nevertheless, he
+made a very respectable showing in the race. The list of successful and
+unsuccessful aspirants and their votes was as follows:
+
+    E.D. Taylor................   1127
+    John T. Stuart..............   991
+    Achilles Morris.............   945
+    Peter Cartwright............   815
+
+Under the plurality rule, these four had been elected. The unsuccessful
+candidates were:
+
+    A.G. Herndon..............    806
+    W. Carpenter...............   774
+    J. Dawson..................   717
+    A. Lincoln.................   657
+    T.M. Neale................    571
+    R. Quinton.................   485
+    Z. Peter...................   214
+    E. Robinson................   169
+    ---- Kirkpatrick...........    44
+
+The returns show that the total vote of the county was about twenty-one
+hundred and sixty-eight. Comparing this with the vote cast for Lincoln,
+we see that he received nearly one third of the total county vote,
+notwithstanding his absence from the canvass, notwithstanding the fact
+that his acquaintanceship was limited to the neighborhood of New Salem,
+notwithstanding the sharp competition. Indeed, his talent and fitness
+for active practical politics were demonstrated beyond question by the
+result in his home precinct of New Salem, which, though he ran as a
+Whig, gave two hundred and seventy-seven votes for him and only three
+against him. Three months later it gave one hundred and eighty-five for
+the Jackson and only seventy for the Clay electors, proving Lincoln's
+personal popularity. He remembered for the remainder of his life with
+great pride that this was the only time he was ever beaten on a direct
+vote of the people.
+
+The result of the election brought him to one of the serious crises of
+his life, which he forcibly stated in after years in the following
+written words:
+
+"He was now without means and out of business, but was anxious to remain
+with his friends, who had treated him with so much generosity,
+especially as he had nothing elsewhere to go to. He studied what he
+should do; thought of learning the blacksmith trade, thought of trying
+to study law, rather thought he could not succeed at that without a
+better education."
+
+The perplexing problem between inclination and means to follow it, the
+struggle between conscious talent and the restraining fetters of
+poverty, has come to millions of young Americans before and since, but
+perhaps to none with a sharper trial of spirit or more resolute
+patience. Before he had definitely resolved upon either career, chance
+served not to solve, but to postpone his difficulty, and in the end to
+greatly increase it.
+
+New Salem, which apparently never had any good reason for becoming a
+town, seems already at that time to have entered on the road to rapid
+decay. Offutt's speculations had failed, and he had disappeared. The
+brothers Herndon, who had opened a new store, found business dull and
+unpromising. Becoming tired of their undertaking, they offered to sell
+out to Lincoln and Berry on credit, and took their promissory notes in
+payment. The new partners, in that excess of hope which usually attends
+all new ventures, also bought two other similar establishments that were
+in extremity, and for these likewise gave their notes. It is evident
+that the confidence which Lincoln had inspired while he was a clerk in
+Offutt's store, and the enthusiastic support he had received as a
+candidate, were the basis of credit that sustained these several
+commercial transactions.
+
+It turned out in the long run that Lincoln's credit and the popular
+confidence that supported it were as valuable both to his creditors and
+himself as if the sums which stood over his signature had been gold coin
+in a solvent bank. But this transmutation was not attained until he had
+passed through a very furnace of financial embarrassment. Berry proved a
+worthless partner, and the business a sorry failure. Seeing this,
+Lincoln and Berry sold out again on credit--to the Trent brothers, who
+soon broke up and ran away. Berry also departed and died, and finally
+all the notes came back upon Lincoln for payment. He was unable to meet
+these obligations, but he did the next best thing. He remained, promised
+to pay when he could, and most of his creditors, maintaining their
+confidence in his integrity, patiently bided their time, till, in the
+course of long years, he fully justified it by paying, with interest
+every cent of what he learned to call, in humorous satire upon his own
+folly, the "national debt."
+
+With one of them he was not so fortunate. Van Bergen, who bought one of
+the Lincoln-Berry notes, obtained judgment, and, by peremptory sale,
+swept away the horse, saddle, and surveying instruments with the daily
+use of which Lincoln "procured bread and kept body and soul together,"
+to use his own words. But here again Lincoln's recognized honesty was
+his safety. Out of personal friendship, James Short bought the property
+and restored it to the young surveyor, giving him time to repay. It was
+not until his return from Congress, seventeen years after the purchase
+of the store, that he finally relieved himself of the last instalments
+of his "national debt." But by these seventeen years of sober industry,
+rigid economy, and unflinching faith to his obligations he earned the
+title of "Honest old Abe," which proved of greater service to himself
+and his country than if he had gained the wealth of Croesus.
+
+Out of this ill-starred commercial speculation, however, Lincoln derived
+one incidental benefit, and it may be said it became the determining
+factor in his career. It is evident from his own language that he
+underwent a severe mental struggle in deciding whether he would become a
+blacksmith or a lawyer. In taking a middle course, and trying to become
+a merchant, he probably kept the latter choice strongly in view. It
+seems well established by local tradition that during the period while
+the Lincoln-Berry store was running its fore-doomed course from bad to
+worse, Lincoln employed all the time he could spare from his customers
+(and he probably had many leisure hours) in reading and study of various
+kinds. This habit was greatly stimulated and assisted by his being
+appointed, May 7, 1833, postmaster at New Salem, which office he
+continued to hold until May 30, 1836, when New Salem partially
+disappeared and the office was removed to Petersburg. The influences
+which brought about the selection of Lincoln are not recorded, but it is
+suggested that he had acted for some time as deputy postmaster under the
+former incumbent, and thus became the natural successor. Evidently his
+politics formed no objection, as New Salem precinct had at the August
+election, when he ran as a Whig, given him its almost solid vote for
+representative notwithstanding the fact that it was more than two thirds
+Democratic. The postmastership increased his public consideration and
+authority, broadened his business experience, and the newspapers he
+handled provided him an abundance of reading matter on topics of both
+local and national importance up to the latest dates.
+
+Those were stirring times, even on the frontier. The "Sangamo Journal"
+of December 30, 1832, printed Jackson's nullification proclamation. The
+same paper, of March 9, 1833, contained an editorial on Clay's
+compromise and that of the 16th had a notice of the great nullification
+debate in Congress. The speeches of Clay, Calhoun, and Webster were
+published in full during the following month, and Mr. Lincoln could not
+well help reading them and joining in the feelings and comments they
+provoked.
+
+While the town of New Salem was locally dying, the county of Sangamon
+and the State of Illinois were having what is now called a boom. Other
+wide-awake newspapers, such as the "Missouri Republican" and "Louisville
+Journal," abounded in notices of the establishment of new stage lines
+and the general rush of immigration. But the joyous dream of the New
+Salemites, that the Sangamon River would become a commercial highway,
+quickly faded. The _Talisman_ was obliged to hurry back down the rapidly
+falling stream, tearing away a portion of the famous dam to permit her
+departure. There were rumors that another steamer, the _Sylph_, would
+establish regular trips between Springfield and Beardstown, but she
+never came. The freshets and floods of 1831 and 1832 were succeeded by a
+series of dry seasons, and the navigation of the Sangamon River was
+never afterward a telling plank in the county platform of either
+political party.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+Appointed Deputy Surveyor--Elected to Legislature in 1834--Campaign
+Issues--Begins Study of Law--Internal Improvement System--The
+Lincoln-Stone Protest--Candidate for Speaker in 1838 and 1840
+
+
+When Lincoln was appointed postmaster, in May, 1833, the Lincoln-Berry
+store had not yet completely "winked out," to use his own picturesque
+phrase. When at length he ceased to be a merchant, he yet remained a
+government official, a man of consideration and authority, who still had
+a responsible occupation and definite home, where he could read, write,
+and study. The proceeds of his office were doubtless very meager, but in
+that day, when the rate of postage on letters was still twenty-five
+cents, a little change now and then came into his hands, which, in the
+scarcity of money prevailing on the frontier, had an importance
+difficult for us to appreciate. His positions as candidate for the
+legislature and as postmaster probably had much to do in bringing him
+another piece of good fortune. In the rapid settlement of Illinois and
+Sangamon County, and the obtaining titles to farms by purchase or
+preëmption, as well as in the locating and opening of new roads, the
+county surveyor had more work on his hands than he could perform
+throughout a county extending forty miles east and west and fifty north
+and south, and was compelled to appoint deputies to assist him. The name
+of the county surveyor was John Calhoun, recognized by all his
+contemporaries in Sangamon as a man of education and talent and an
+aspiring Democratic politician. It was not an easy matter for Calhoun to
+find properly qualified deputies, and when he became acquainted with
+Lincoln, and learned his attainments and aptitudes, and the estimation
+in which he was held by the people of New Salem, he wisely concluded to
+utilize his talents and standing, notwithstanding their difference in
+politics. The incident is thus recorded by Lincoln:
+
+"The surveyor of Sangamon offered to depute to Abraham that portion of
+his work which was within his part of the county. He accepted, procured
+a compass and chain, studied Flint and Gibson a little, and went at it.
+This procured bread, and kept soul and body together."
+
+Tradition has it that Calhoun not only gave him the appointment, but
+lent him the book in which to study the art, which he accomplished in a
+period of six weeks, aided by the schoolmaster, Mentor Graham. The exact
+period of this increase in knowledge and business capacity is not
+recorded, but it must have taken place in the summer of 1833, as there
+exists a certificate of survey in Lincoln's handwriting signed, "J.
+Calhoun, S.S.C., by A. Lincoln," dated January 14, 1834. Before June of
+that year he had surveyed and located a public road from "Musick's Ferry
+on Salt Creek, _via_ New Salem, to the county line in the direction to
+Jacksonville," twenty-six miles and seventy chains in length, the exact
+course of which survey, with detailed bearings and distances, was drawn
+on common white letter-paper pasted in a long slip, to a scale of two
+inches to the mile, in ordinary yet clear and distinct penmanship. The
+compensation he received for this service was three dollars per day for
+five days, and two dollars and fifty cents for making the plat and
+report.
+
+An advertisement in the "Journal" shows that the regular fees of another
+deputy were "two dollars per day, or one dollar per lot of eight acres
+or less, and fifty cents for a single line, with ten cents per mile for
+traveling."
+
+While this class of work and his post-office, with its emoluments,
+probably amply supplied his board, lodging and clothing, it left him no
+surplus with which to pay his debts, for it was in the latter part of
+that same year (1834) that Van Bergen caused his horse and surveying
+instruments to be sold under the hammer, as already related. Meanwhile,
+amid these fluctuations of good and bad luck, Lincoln maintained his
+equanimity, his steady, persevering industry, and his hopeful ambition
+and confidence in the future. Through all his misfortunes and his
+failures, he preserved his self-respect and his determination to
+succeed.
+
+Two years had nearly elapsed since he was defeated for the legislature,
+and, having received so flattering a vote on that occasion, it was
+entirely natural that he should determine to try a second chance. Four
+new representatives were to be chosen at the August election of 1834,
+and near the end of April Lincoln published his announcement that he
+would again be a candidate. He could certainly view his expectations in
+every way in a more hopeful light. His knowledge had increased, his
+experience broadened, his acquaintanceship greatly increased. His
+talents were acknowledged, his ability recognized. He was postmaster and
+deputy surveyor. He had become a public character whose services were in
+demand. As compared with the majority of his neighbors, he was a man of
+learning who had seen the world. Greater, however, than all these
+advantages, his sympathetic kindness of heart, his sincere, open
+frankness, his sturdy, unshrinking honesty, and that inborn sense of
+justice that yielded to no influence, made up a nobility of character
+and bearing that impressed the rude frontiersmen as much as, if not more
+quickly and deeply than, it would have done the most polished and
+erudite society.
+
+Beginning his campaign in April, he had three full months before him for
+electioneering, and he evidently used the time to good advantage. The
+pursuit of popularity probably consisted mainly of the same methods that
+in backwoods districts prevail even to our day: personal visits and
+solicitations, attendance at various kinds of neighborhood gatherings,
+such as raisings of new cabins, horse-races, shooting-matches, sales of
+town lots or of personal property under execution, or whatever occasion
+served to call a dozen or two of the settlers together. One recorded
+incident illustrates the practical nature of the politician's art at
+that day:
+
+"He [Lincoln] came to my house, near Island Grove, during harvest. There
+were some thirty men in the field. He got his dinner and went out in the
+field where the men were at work. I gave him an introduction, and the
+boys said that they could not vote for a man unless he could make a
+hand. 'Well, boys,' said he, 'if that is all, I am sure of your votes.'
+He took hold of the cradle, and led the way all the round with perfect
+ease. The boys were satisfied, and I don't think he lost a vote in the
+crowd."
+
+Sometimes two or more candidates would meet at such places, and short
+speeches be called for and given. Altogether, the campaign was livelier
+than that of two years before. Thirteen candidates were again contesting
+for the four seats in the legislature, to say nothing of candidates for
+governor, for Congress, and for the State Senate. The scope of
+discussion was enlarged and localized. From the published address of an
+industrious aspirant who received only ninety-two votes, we learn that
+the issues now were the construction by the general government of a
+canal from Lake Michigan to the Illinois River, the improvement of the
+Sangamon River, the location of the State capital at Springfield, a
+United States bank, a better road law, and amendments to the estray
+laws.
+
+When the election returns came in Lincoln had reason to be satisfied
+with the efforts he had made. He received the second highest number of
+votes in the long list of candidates. Those cast for the representatives
+chosen stood: Dawson, 1390; Lincoln, 1376; Carpenter 1170; Stuart, 1164.
+The location of the State capital had also been submitted to popular
+vote at this election. Springfield, being much nearer the geographical
+center of the State, was anxious to deprive Vandalia of that honor, and
+the activity of the Sangamon politicians proved it to be a dangerous
+rival. In the course of a month the returns from all parts of the State
+had come in, and showed that Springfield was third in the race.
+
+It must be frankly admitted that Lincoln's success at this juncture was
+one of the most important events of his life. A second defeat might have
+discouraged his efforts to lift himself to a professional career, and
+sent him to the anvil to make horseshoes and to iron wagons for the
+balance of his days. But this handsome popular indorsement assured his
+standing and confirmed his credit. With this lift in the clouds of his
+horizon, he could resolutely carry his burden of debt and hopefully look
+to wider fields of public usefulness. Already, during the progress of
+the canvass, he had received cheering encouragement and promise of most
+valuable help. One of the four successful candidates was John T. Stuart,
+who had been major of volunteers in the Black Hawk War while Lincoln
+was captain, and who, together with Lincoln, had reënlisted as a private
+in the Independent Spy Battalion. There is every likelihood that the two
+had begun a personal friendship during their military service, which was
+of course strongly cemented by their being fellow-candidates and both
+belonging to the Whig party. Mr. Lincoln relates:
+
+"Major John T. Stuart, then in full practice of the law [at
+Springfield], was also elected. During the canvass, in a private
+conversation he encouraged Abraham to study law. After the election, he
+borrowed books of Stuart, took them home with him, and went at it in
+good earnest. He studied with nobody.... In the autumn of 1836 he
+obtained a law license, and on April 15, 1837, removed to Springfield
+and commenced the practice, his old friend Stuart taking him into
+partnership."
+
+From and after this election in 1834 as a representative, Lincoln was a
+permanent factor in the politics and the progress of Sangamon County. At
+a Springfield meeting in the following November to promote common
+schools, he was appointed one of eleven delegates to attend a convention
+at Vandalia called to deliberate on that subject. He was reëlected to
+the legislature in 1836, in 1838, and in 1840, and thus for a period of
+eight years took a full share in shaping and enacting the public and
+private laws of Illinois, which in our day has become one of the leading
+States in the Mississippi valley. Of Lincoln's share in that
+legislation, it need only be said that it was as intelligent and
+beneficial to the public interest as that of the best of his colleagues.
+The most serious error committed by the legislature of Illinois during
+that period was that it enacted laws setting on foot an extensive system
+of internal improvements, in the form of railroads and canals,
+altogether beyond the actual needs of transportation for the then
+existing population of the State, and the consequent reckless creation
+of a State debt for money borrowed at extravagant interest and liberal
+commissions. The State underwent a season of speculative intoxication,
+in which, by the promised and expected rush of immigration and the
+swelling currents of its business, its farms were suddenly to become
+villages, its villages spreading towns, and its towns transformed into
+great cities, while all its people were to be made rich by the increased
+value of their land and property. Both parties entered with equal
+recklessness into this ill-advised internal improvement system, which in
+the course of about four years brought the State to bankruptcy, with no
+substantial works to show for the foolishly expended millions.
+
+In voting for these measures, Mr. Lincoln represented the public opinion
+and wish of his county and the whole State; and while he was as
+blamable, he was at the same time no more so than the wisest of his
+colleagues. It must be remembered in extenuation that he was just
+beginning his parliamentary education. From the very first, however, he
+seems to have become a force in the legislature, and to have rendered
+special service to his constituents. It is conceded that the one object
+which Springfield and the most of Sangamon County had at heart was the
+removal of the capital from Vandalia to that place. This was
+accomplished in 1836, and the management of the measure appears to have
+been intrusted mainly to Mr. Lincoln.
+
+One incident of his legislative career stands out in such prominent
+relation to the great events of his after life that it deserves special
+explanation and emphasis. Even at that early date, a quarter of a
+century before the outbreak of the Civil War, the slavery question was
+now and then obtruding itself as an irritating and perplexing element
+into the local legislation of almost every new State. Illinois, though
+guaranteed its freedom by the Ordinance of 1787, nevertheless underwent
+a severe political struggle in which, about four years after her
+admission into the Union, politicians and settlers from the South made a
+determined effort to change her to a slave State. The legislature of
+1822-23, with a two-thirds pro-slavery majority of the State Senate, and
+a technical, but legally questionable, two-thirds majority in the House,
+submitted to popular vote an act calling a State convention to change
+the constitution. It happened, fortunately, that Governor Coles, though
+a Virginian, was strongly antislavery, and gave the weight of his
+official influence and his whole four years' salary to counteract the
+dangerous scheme. From the fact that southern Illinois up to that time
+was mostly peopled from the slave States, the result was seriously in
+doubt through an active and exciting campaign, and the convention was
+finally defeated by a majority of eighteen hundred in a total vote of
+eleven thousand six hundred and twelve. While this result effectually
+decided that Illinois would remain a free State, the propagandism and
+reorganization left a deep and tenacious undercurrent of pro-slavery
+opinion that for many years manifested itself in vehement and intolerant
+outcries against "abolitionism," which on one occasion caused the murder
+of Elijah P. Lovejoy for persisting in his right to print an antislavery
+newspaper at Alton.
+
+Nearly a year before this tragedy the Illinois legislature had under
+consideration certain resolutions from the Eastern States on the subject
+of slavery, and the committee to which they had been referred reported a
+set of resolves "highly disapproving abolition societies," holding that
+"the right of property in slaves is secured to the slaveholding States
+by the Federal Constitution," together with other phraseology calculated
+on the whole to soothe and comfort pro-slavery sentiment. After much
+irritating discussion, the committee's resolutions were finally passed,
+with but Lincoln and five others voting in the negative. No record
+remains whether or not Lincoln joined in the debate; but, to leave no
+doubt upon his exact position and feeling, he and his colleague, Dan
+Stone, caused the following protest to be formally entered on the
+journals of the House:
+
+"Resolutions upon the subject of domestic slavery having passed both
+branches of the General Assembly at its present session, the undersigned
+hereby protest against the passage of the same."
+
+"They believe that the institution of slavery is founded on both
+injustice and bad policy, but that the promulgation of abolition
+doctrines tends rather to increase than abate its evils."
+
+"They believe that the Congress of the United States has no power under
+the Constitution to interfere with the institution of slavery in the
+different States."
+
+"They believe that the Congress of the United States has the power,
+under the Constitution, to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia,
+but that the power ought not to be exercised, unless at the request of
+the people of the District."
+
+"The difference between these opinions and those contained in the said
+resolutions is their reasons for entering this protest."
+
+In view of the great scope and quality of Lincoln's public service in
+after life, it would be a waste of time to trace out in detail his words
+or his votes upon the multitude of questions on which he acted during
+this legislative career of eight years. It needs only to be remembered
+that it formed a varied and thorough school of parliamentary practice
+and experience that laid the broad foundation of that extraordinary
+skill and sagacity in statesmanship which he afterward displayed in
+party controversy and executive direction. The quick proficiency and
+ready aptitude for leadership evidenced by him in this, as it may be
+called, his preliminary parliamentary school are strikingly proved by
+the fact that the Whig members of the Illinois House of Representatives
+gave him their full party vote for Speaker, both in 1838 and 1840. But
+being in a minority, they could not, of course, elect him.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+Law Practice--Rules for a Lawyer--Law and Politics: Twin Occupations--The
+Springfield Coterie--Friendly Help--Anne Rutledge--Mary Owens
+
+
+Lincoln's removal from New Salem to Springfield and his entrance into a
+law partnership with Major John T. Stuart begin a distinctively new
+period in his career, From this point we need not trace in detail his
+progress in his new and this time deliberately chosen vocation. The
+lawyer who works his way up in professional merit from a five-dollar fee
+in a suit before a justice of the peace to a five-thousand-dollar fee
+before the Supreme Court of his State has a long and difficult path to
+climb. Mr. Lincoln climbed this path for twenty-five years with
+industry, perseverance, patience--above all, with that sense of moral
+responsibility that always clearly traced the dividing line between his
+duty to his client and his duty to society and truth. His unqualified
+frankness of statement assured him the confidence of judge and jury in
+every argument. His habit of fully admitting the weak points in his case
+gained their close attention to its strong ones, and when clients
+brought him bad cases, his uniform advice was not to begin the suit.
+Among his miscellaneous writings there exist some fragments of autograph
+notes, evidently intended for a little lecture or talk to law students
+which set forth with brevity and force his opinion of what a lawyer
+ought to be and do. He earnestly commends diligence in study, and, next
+to diligence, promptness in keeping up his work.
+
+"As a general rule, never take your whole fee in advance," he says, "nor
+any more than a small retainer. When fully paid beforehand, you are more
+than a common mortal if you can feel the same interest in the case as if
+something was still in prospect for you as well as for your client."
+"Extemporaneous speaking should be practised and cultivated. It is the
+lawyer's avenue to the public. However able and faithful he may be in
+other respects, people are slow to bring him business if he cannot make
+a speech. And yet, there is not a more fatal error to young lawyers than
+relying too much on speech-making. If any one, upon his rare powers of
+speaking, shall claim an exemption from the drudgery of the law, his
+case is a failure in advance. Discourage litigation. Persuade your
+neighbors to compromise whenever you can. Point out to them how the
+nominal winner is often a real loser--in fees, expenses, and waste of
+time. As a peacemaker, the lawyer has a superior opportunity of being a
+good man. There will still be business enough. Never stir up litigation.
+A worse man can scarcely be found than one who does this. Who can be
+more nearly a fiend than he who habitually overhauls the register of
+deeds in search of defects in titles, whereon to stir up strife and put
+money in his pocket? A moral tone ought to be infused into the
+profession which should drive such men out of it." "There is a vague
+popular belief that lawyers are necessarily dishonest. I say vague
+because when we consider to what extent confidence and honors are
+reposed in and conferred upon lawyers by the people, it appears
+improbable that their impression of dishonesty is very distinct and
+vivid. Yet the impression is common--almost universal. Let no young man
+choosing the law for a calling for a moment yield to the popular belief.
+Resolve to be honest at all events; and if, in your own judgment, you
+cannot be an honest lawyer, resolve to be honest without being a lawyer.
+Choose some other occupation, rather than one in the choosing of which
+you do, in advance, consent to be a knave."
+
+While Lincoln thus became a lawyer, he did not cease to remain a
+politician. In the early West, law and politics were parallel roads to
+usefulness as well as distinction. Newspapers had not then reached any
+considerable circulation. There existed neither fast presses to print
+them, mail routes to carry them, nor subscribers to read them. Since
+even the laws had to be newly framed for those new communities, the
+lawyer became the inevitable political instructor and guide as far as
+ability and fame extended. His reputation as a lawyer was a twin of his
+influence as an orator, whether through logic or eloquence. Local
+conditions fostered, almost necessitated, this double pursuit. Westward
+emigration was in its full tide, and population was pouring into the
+great State of Illinois with ever accelerating rapidity. Settlements
+were spreading, roads were being opened, towns laid out, the larger
+counties divided and new ones organized, and the enthusiastic visions of
+coming prosperity threw the State into that fever of speculation which
+culminated in wholesale internal improvements on borrowed capital and
+brought collapse, stagnation, and bankruptcy in its inevitable train. As
+already said, these swift changes required a plentiful supply of new
+laws, to frame which lawyers were in a large proportion sent to the
+legislature every two years. These same lawyers also filled the bar and
+recruited the bench of the new State, and, as they followed the
+itinerant circuit courts from county to county in their various
+sections, were called upon in these summer wanderings to explain in
+public speeches their legislative work of the winter. By a natural
+connection, this also involved a discussion of national and party
+issues. It was also during this period that party activity was
+stimulated by the general adoption of the new system of party caucuses
+and party conventions to which President Jackson had given the impulse.
+
+In the American system of representative government, elections not only
+occur with the regularity of clockwork, but pervade the whole organism
+in every degree of its structure from top to bottom--Federal, State,
+county, township, and school district. In Illinois, even the State
+judiciary has at different times been chosen by popular ballot. The
+function of the politician, therefore, is one of continuous watchfulness
+and activity, and he must have intimate knowledge of details if he would
+work out grand results. Activity in politics also produces eager
+competition and sharp rivalry. In 1839 the seat of government was
+definitely transferred from Vandalia to Springfield, and there soon
+gathered at the new State capital a group of young men whose varied
+ability and future success in public service has rarely been
+excelled--Douglas, Shields, Calhoun, Stuart, Logan, Baker, Treat,
+Hardin, Trumbull, McClernand, Browning, McDougall, and others.
+
+His new surroundings greatly stimulated and reinforced Mr. Lincoln's
+growing experience and spreading acquaintance, giving him a larger share
+and wider influence in local and State politics. He became a valued and
+sagacious adviser in party caucuses, and a power in party conventions.
+Gradually, also, his gifts as an attractive and persuasive campaign
+speaker were making themselves felt and appreciated.
+
+His removal, in April, 1837, from a village of twenty houses to a "city"
+of about two thousand inhabitants placed him in striking new relations
+and necessities as to dress, manners, and society, as well as politics;
+yet here again, as in the case of his removal from his father's cabin to
+New Salem six years before, peculiar conditions rendered the transition
+less abrupt than would at first appear. Springfield, notwithstanding its
+greater population and prospective dignity as the capital, was in many
+respects no great improvement on New Salem. It had no public buildings,
+its streets and sidewalks were unpaved, its stores, in spite of all
+their flourish of advertisements, were staggering under the hard times
+of 1837-39, and stagnation of business imposed a rigid economy on all
+classes. If we may credit tradition, this was one of the most serious
+crises of Lincoln's life. His intimate friend, William Butler, related
+to the writer that, having attended a session of the legislature at
+Vandalia, he and Lincoln returned together at its close to Springfield
+by the usual mode of horseback travel. At one of their stopping-places
+over night Lincoln, in one of his gloomy moods, told Butler the story of
+the almost hopeless prospects which lay immediately before him--that the
+session was over, his salary all drawn, and his money all spent; that he
+had no resources and no work; that he did not know where to turn to earn
+even a week's board. Butler bade him be of good cheer, and, without any
+formal proposition or agreement, took him and his belongings to his own
+house and domesticated him there as a permanent guest, with Lincoln's
+tacit compliance rather than any definite consent. Later Lincoln shared
+a room and genial companionship, which ripened into closest intimacy, in
+the store of his friend Joshua F. Speed, all without charge or expense;
+and these brotherly offerings helped the young lawyer over present
+necessities which might otherwise have driven him to muscular handiwork
+at weekly or monthly wages.
+
+From this time onward, in daily conversation, in argument at the bar, in
+political consultation and discussion, Lincoln's life gradually
+broadened into contact with the leading professional minds of the
+growing State of Illinois. The man who could not pay a week's board bill
+was twice more elected to the legislature, was invited to public
+banquets and toasted by name, became a popular speaker, moved in the
+best society of the new capital, and made what was considered a
+brilliant marriage.
+
+Lincoln's stature and strength, his intelligence and ambition--in short,
+all the elements which gave him popularity among men in New Salem,
+rendered him equally attractive to the fair sex of that village. On the
+other hand, his youth, his frank sincerity, his longing for sympathy and
+encouragement, made him peculiarly sensitive to the society and
+influence of women. Soon after coming to New Salem he chanced much in
+the society of Miss Anne Rutledge, a slender, blue-eyed blonde, nineteen
+years old, moderately educated, beautiful according to local
+standards--an altogether lovely, tender-hearted, universally admired,
+and generally fascinating girl. From the personal descriptions of her
+which tradition has preserved, the inference is naturally drawn that her
+temperament and disposition were very much akin to those of Mr. Lincoln
+himself. It is little wonder, therefore, that he fell in love with her.
+But two years before she had become engaged to a Mr. McNamar, who had
+gone to the East to settle certain family affairs, and whose absence
+became so unaccountably prolonged that Anne finally despaired of his
+return, and in time betrothed herself to Lincoln. A year or so after
+this event Anne Rutledge was taken sick and died--the neighbors said of
+a broken heart, but the doctor called it brain fever, and his science
+was more likely to be correct than their psychology. Whatever may have
+been the truth upon this point, the incident threw Lincoln into profound
+grief, and a period of melancholy so absorbing as to cause his friends
+apprehension for his own health. Gradually, however, their studied and
+devoted companionship won him back to cheerfulness, and his second
+affair of the heart assumed altogether different characteristics, most
+of which may be gathered from his own letters.
+
+Two years before the death of Anne Rutledge, Mr. Lincoln had seen and
+made the acquaintance of Miss Mary Owens, who had come to visit her
+sister Mrs. Able, and had passed about four weeks in New Salem, after
+which she returned to Kentucky. Three years later, and perhaps a year
+after Miss Rutledge's death, Mrs. Able, before starting for Kentucky,
+told Mr. Lincoln probably more in jest than earnest, that she would
+bring her sister back with her on condition that he would become
+her--Mrs. Able's--brother-in-law. Lincoln, also probably more in jest
+than earnest, promptly agreed to the proposition; for he remembered Mary
+Owens as a tall, handsome, dark-haired girl, with fair skin and large
+blue eyes, who in conversation could be intellectual and serious as well
+as jovial and witty, who had a liberal education, and was considered
+wealthy--one of those well-poised, steady characters who look upon
+matrimony and life with practical views and social matronly instincts.
+
+The bantering offer was made and accepted in the autumn of 1836, and in
+the following April Mr. Lincoln removed to Springfield. Before this
+occurred, however, he was surprised to learn that Mary Owens had
+actually returned with her sister from Kentucky, and felt that the
+romantic jest had become a serious and practical question. Their first
+interview dissipated some of the illusions in which each had indulged.
+The three years elapsed since they first met had greatly changed her
+personal appearance. She had become stout; her twenty-eight years (one
+year more than his) had somewhat hardened the lines of her face. Both in
+figure and feature she presented a disappointing contrast to the slim
+and not yet totally forgotten Anne Rutledge.
+
+On her part, it was more than likely that she did not find in him all
+the attractions her sister had pictured. The speech and manners of the
+Illinois frontier lacked much of the chivalric attentions and flattering
+compliments to which the Kentucky beaux were addicted. He was yet a
+diamond in the rough, and she would not immediately decide till she
+could better understand his character and prospects, so no formal
+engagement resulted.
+
+In December, Lincoln went to his legislative duties at Vandalia, and in
+the following April took up his permanent abode in Springfield. Such a
+separation was not favorable to rapid courtship, yet they had occasional
+interviews and exchanged occasional letters. None of hers to him have
+been preserved, and only three of his to her. From these it appears that
+they sometimes discussed their affair in a cold, hypothetical way, even
+down to problems of housekeeping, in the light of mere worldly prudence,
+much as if they were guardians arranging a _mariage de convenance_,
+rather than impulsive and ardent lovers wandering in Arcady. Without
+Miss Owens's letters it is impossible to know what she may have said to
+him, but in May, 1837, Lincoln wrote to her:
+
+"I am often thinking of what we said about your coming to live at
+Springfield. I am afraid you would not be satisfied. There is a great
+deal of flourishing about in carriages here, which it would be your
+doom to see without sharing it. You would have to be poor, without the
+means of hiding your poverty. Do you believe you could bear that
+patiently? Whatever woman may cast her lot with mine, should any ever do
+so, it is my intention to do all in my power to make her happy and
+contented; and there is nothing I can imagine that would make me more
+unhappy than to fail in the effort. I know I should be much happier with
+you than the way I am, provided I saw no signs of discontent in you.
+What you have said to me may have been in the way of jest, or I may have
+misunderstood it. If so, then let it be forgotten; if otherwise, I much
+wish you would think seriously before you decide. What I have said I
+will most positively abide by, provided you wish it. My opinion is that
+you had better not do it. You have not been accustomed to hardship, and
+it may be more severe than you now imagine. I know you are capable of
+thinking correctly on any subject, and if you deliberate maturely upon
+this before you decide, then I am willing to abide your decision."
+
+Whether, after receiving this, she wrote him the "good long letter" he
+asked for in the same epistle is not known. Apparently they did not meet
+again until August, and the interview must have been marked by reserve
+and coolness on both sides, which left each more uncertain than before;
+for on the same day Lincoln again wrote her, and, after saying that she
+might perhaps be mistaken in regard to his real feelings toward her,
+continued thus:
+
+"I want in all cases to do right, and most particularly so in all cases
+with women. I want at this particular time, more than anything else, to
+do right with you; and if I knew it would be doing right, as I rather
+suspect it would, to let you alone, I would do it. And for the purpose
+of making the matter as plain as possible, I now say that you can now
+drop the subject, dismiss your thoughts (if you ever had any) from me
+forever, and leave this letter unanswered, without calling forth one
+accusing murmur from me. And I will even go further, and say that if it
+will add anything to your comfort or peace of mind to do so, it is my
+sincere wish that you should. Do not understand by this that I wish to
+cut your acquaintance. I mean no such thing. What I do wish is that our
+further acquaintance shall depend upon yourself. If such further
+acquaintance would contribute nothing to your happiness, I am sure it
+would not to mine. If you feel yourself in any degree bound to me, I am
+now willing to release you, provided you wish it; while, on the other
+hand, I am willing and even anxious to bind you faster, if I can be
+convinced that it will in any considerable degree add to your happiness.
+This, indeed, is the whole question with me."
+
+All that we know of the sequel is contained in a letter which Lincoln
+wrote to his friend Mrs. Browning nearly a year later, after Miss Owens
+had finally returned to Kentucky, in which, without mentioning the
+lady's name, he gave a seriocomic description of what might be called a
+courtship to escape matrimony. He dwells on his disappointment at her
+changed appearance, and continues:
+
+"But what could I do? I had told her sister that I would take her for
+better or for worse, and I made a point of honor and conscience in all
+things to stick to my word, especially if others had been induced to act
+on it, which in this case I had no doubt they had; for I was now fairly
+convinced that no other man on earth would have her, and hence the
+conclusion that they were bent on holding me to my bargain. 'Well,'
+thought I, 'I have said it, and, be the consequences what they may, it
+shall not be my fault if I fail to do it....' All this while, although I
+was fixed 'firm as the surge-repelling rock' in my resolution, I found I
+was continually repenting the rashness which had led me to make it.
+Through life I have been in no bondage, either real or imaginary, from
+the thraldom of which I so much desired to be free.... After I had
+delayed the matter as long as I thought I could in honor do (which, by
+the way, had brought me round into last fall), I concluded I might as
+well bring it to a consummation without further delay, and so I mustered
+my resolution and made the proposal to her direct; but, shocking to
+relate, she answered, No. At first I supposed she did it through an
+affectation of modesty, which I thought but ill became her under the
+peculiar circumstances of her case, but on my renewal of the charge I
+found she repelled it with greater firmness than before. I tried it
+again and again, but with the same success, or rather with the same want
+of success. I finally was forced to give it up, at which I very
+unexpectedly found myself mortified almost beyond endurance. I was
+mortified, it seemed to me, in a hundred different ways. My vanity was
+deeply wounded by the reflection that I had so long been too stupid to
+discover her intentions, and at the same time never doubting that I
+understood them perfectly; and also that she, whom I had taught myself
+to believe nobody else would have, had actually rejected me with all my
+fancied greatness. And, to cap the whole, I then for the first time
+began to suspect that I was really a little in love with her."
+
+The serious side of this letter is undoubtedly genuine and candid, while
+the somewhat over-exaggeration of the comic side points as clearly that
+he had not fully recovered from the mental suffering he had undergone
+in the long conflict between doubt and duty. From the beginning, the
+match-making zeal of the sister had placed the parties in a false
+position, produced embarrassment, and created distrust. A different
+beginning might have resulted in a very different outcome, for Lincoln,
+while objecting to her corpulency, acknowledges that in both feature and
+intellect she was as attractive as any woman he had ever met; and Miss
+Owens's letters, written after his death, state that her principal
+objection lay in the fact that his training had been different from
+hers, and that "Mr. Lincoln was deficient in those little links which
+make up the chain of a woman's happiness." She adds: "The last message I
+ever received from him was about a year after we parted in Illinois.
+Mrs. Able visited Kentucky, and he said to her in Springfield, 'Tell
+your sister that I think she was a great fool because she did not stay
+here and marry me.'" She was even then not quite clear in her own mind
+but that his words were true.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+Springfield Society--Miss Mary Todd--Lincoln's Engagement--His Deep
+Despondency--Visit to Kentucky--Letters to Speed--The Shields
+Duel--Marriage--Law Partnership with Logan--Hardin Nominated for
+Congress, 1843--Baker Nominated for Congress, 1844--Lincoln Nominated and
+Elected, 1846
+
+
+The deep impression which the Mary Owens affair made upon Lincoln is
+further shown by one of the concluding phrases of his letter to Mrs.
+Browning: "I have now come to the conclusion never again to think of
+marrying." But it was not long before a reaction set in from this
+pessimistic mood. The actual transfer of the seat of government from
+Vandalia to Springfield in 1839 gave the new capital fresh animation.
+Business revived, public improvements were begun, politics ran high.
+Already there was a spirit in the air that in the following year
+culminated in the extraordinary enthusiasm and fervor of the Harrison
+presidential campaign of 1840, that rollicking and uproarious party
+carnival of humor and satire, of song and jollification, of hard cider
+and log cabins. While the State of Illinois was strongly Democratic,
+Sangamon County was as distinctly Whig, and the local party disputes were
+hot and aggressive. The Whig delegation of Sangamon in the legislature,
+popularly called the "Long Nine," because the sum of the stature of its
+members was fifty-four feet, became noted for its influence in
+legislation in a body where the majority was against them; and of these
+Mr. Lincoln was the "tallest" both in person and ability, as was
+recognized by his twice receiving the minority vote for Speaker of the
+House.
+
+Society also began organizing itself upon metropolitan rather than
+provincial assumptions. As yet, however society was liberal. Men of
+either wealth or position were still too few to fill its ranks. Energy,
+ambition talent, were necessarily the standard of admission; and
+Lincoln, though poor as a church mouse, was as welcome as those who
+could wear ruffled shirts and carry gold watches. The meetings of the
+legislature at Springfield then first brought together that splendid
+group of young men of genius whose phenomenal careers and distinguished
+services have given Illinois fame in the history of the nation. It is a
+marked peculiarity of the American character that the bitterest foes in
+party warfare generally meet each other on terms of perfect social
+courtesy in the drawing-rooms of society; and future presidential
+candidates, cabinet members, senators, congressmen, jurists, orators,
+and battle heroes lent the little social reunions of Springfield a zest
+and exaltation never found--perhaps impossible--amid the heavy,
+oppressive surroundings of conventional ceremony, gorgeous upholstery,
+and magnificent decorations.
+
+It was at this period also that Lincoln began to feel and exercise his
+expanding influence and powers as a writer and speaker. Already, two
+years earlier, he had written and delivered before the Young Men's
+Lyceum of Springfield an able address upon "The Perpetuation of Our
+Political Institutions," strongly enforcing the doctrine of rigid
+obedience to law. In December, 1839, Douglas, in a heated conversation,
+challenged the young Whigs present to a political discussion. The
+challenge was immediately taken up, and the public of Springfield
+listened with eager interest to several nights of sharp debate between
+Whig and Democratic champions, in which Lincoln bore a prominent and
+successful share. In the following summer, Lincoln's name was placed
+upon the Harrison electoral ticket for Illinois, and he lent all his
+zeal and eloquence to swell the general popular enthusiasm for
+"Tippecanoe and Tyler too."
+
+In the midst of this political and social awakening of the new capital
+and the quickened interest and high hopes of leading citizens gathered
+there from all parts of the State, there came into the Springfield
+circles Miss Mary Todd of Kentucky, twenty-one years old, handsome,
+accomplished, vivacious, witty, a dashing and fascinating figure in
+dress and conversation, gracious and imperious by turns. She easily
+singled out and secured the admiration of such of the Springfield beaux
+as most pleased her somewhat capricious fancy. She was a sister of Mrs.
+Ninian W. Edwards, whose husband was one of the "Long Nine." This
+circumstance made Lincoln a frequent visitor at the Edwards house; and,
+being thus much thrown in her company, he found himself, almost before
+he knew it, entangled in a new love affair, and in the course of a
+twelvemonth engaged to marry her.
+
+Much to the surprise of Springfield society, however, the courtship took
+a sudden turn. Whether it was caprice or jealousy, a new attachment, or
+mature reflection will always remain a mystery. Every such case is a law
+unto itself, and neither science nor poetry is ever able to analyze and
+explain its causes and effects. The conflicting stories then current,
+and the varying traditions that yet exist, either fail to agree or to
+fit the sparse facts which came to light. There remains no dispute,
+however, that the occurrence, whatever shape it took, threw Mr. Lincoln
+into a deeper despondency than any he had yet experienced, for on
+January 23, 1841, he wrote to his law partner, John T. Stuart:
+
+"For not giving you a general summary of news you must pardon me; it is
+not in my power to do so. I am now the most miserable man living. If
+what I feel were equally distributed to the whole human family, there
+would not be one cheerful face on earth. Whether I shall ever be better,
+I cannot tell; I awfully forebode I shall not. To remain as I am is
+impossible; I must die or be better."
+
+Apparently his engagement to Miss Todd was broken off, but whether that
+was the result or the cause of his period of gloom seems still a matter
+of conjecture. His mind was so perturbed that he felt unable to attend
+the sessions of the legislature of which he was a member; and after its
+close his intimate friend Joshua F. Speed carried him off for a visit to
+Kentucky. The change of scene and surroundings proved of great benefit.
+He returned home about midsummer very much improved, but not yet
+completely restored to a natural mental equipoise. While on their visit
+to Kentucky, Speed had likewise fallen in love, and in the following
+winter had become afflicted with doubts and perplexities akin to those
+from which Lincoln had suffered. It now became his turn to give sympathy
+and counsel to his friend, and he did this with a warmth and delicacy
+born of his own spiritual trials, not yet entirely overmastered. He
+wrote letter after letter to Speed to convince him that his doubts about
+not truly loving the woman of his choice were all nonsense.
+
+"Why, Speed, if you did not love her, although you might not wish her
+death, you would most certainly be resigned to it. Perhaps this point
+is no longer a question with you, and my pertinacious dwelling upon it
+is a rude intrusion upon your feelings. If so, you must pardon me. You
+know the hell I have suffered on that point, and how tender I am upon
+it.... I am now fully convinced that you love her, as ardently as you
+are capable of loving.... It is the peculiar misfortune of both you and
+me to dream dreams of Elysium far exceeding all that anything earthly
+can realize."
+
+When Lincoln heard that Speed was finally married, he wrote him:
+
+"It cannot be told how it now thrills me with joy to hear you say you
+are 'far happier than you ever expected to be,' That much, I know, is
+enough. I know you too well to suppose your expectations were not, at
+least, sometimes extravagant; and if the reality exceeds them all, I
+say, Enough, dear Lord. I am not going beyond the truth when I tell you
+that the short space it took me to read your last letter gave me more
+pleasure than the total sum of all I have enjoyed since the fatal first
+of January, 1841. Since then it seems to me I should have been entirely
+happy, but for the never-absent idea that there is one still unhappy
+whom I have contributed to make so. That still kills my soul. I cannot
+but reproach myself for even wishing to be happy while she is
+otherwise."
+
+It is quite possible that a series of incidents that occurred during the
+summer in which the above was written had something to do with bringing
+such a frame of mind to a happier conclusion. James Shields, afterward a
+general in two wars and a senator from two States, was at that time
+auditor of Illinois, with his office at Springfield. Shields was an
+Irishman by birth, and, for an active politician of the Democratic
+party, had the misfortune to be both sensitive and irascible in party
+warfare. Shields, together with the Democratic governor and treasurer,
+issued a circular order forbidding the payment of taxes in the
+depreciated paper of the Illinois State banks, and the Whigs were
+endeavoring to make capital by charging that the order was issued for
+the purpose of bringing enough silver into the treasury to pay the
+salaries of these officials. Using this as a basis of argument, a couple
+of clever Springfield society girls wrote and printed in the "Sangamo
+Journal" a series of humorous letters in country dialect, purporting to
+come from the "Lost Townships," and signed by "Aunt Rebecca," who called
+herself a farmer's widow. It is hardly necessary to say that Mary Todd
+was one of the culprits. The young ladies originated the scheme more to
+poke fun at the personal weaknesses of Shields than for the sake of
+party effect, and they embellished their simulated plaint about taxes
+with an embroidery of fictitious social happenings and personal
+allusions to the auditor that put the town on a grin and Shields into
+fury. The fair and mischievous writers found it necessary to consult
+Lincoln about how they should frame the political features of their
+attack, and he set them a pattern by writing the first letter of the
+series himself.
+
+Shields sent a friend to the editor of the "Journal," and demanded the
+name of the real "Rebecca." The editor, as in duty bound, asked Lincoln
+what he should do, and was instructed to give Lincoln's name, and not to
+mention the ladies. Then followed a letter from Shields to Lincoln
+demanding retraction and apology, Lincoln's reply that he declined to
+answer under menace, and a challenge from Shields. Thereupon Lincoln
+instructed his "friend" as follows: If former offensive correspondence
+were withdrawn and a polite and gentlemanly inquiry made, he was
+willing to explain that:
+
+"I did write the 'Lost Townships' letter which appeared in the 'Journal'
+of the 2d instant, but had no participation in any form in any other
+article alluding to you. I wrote that wholly for political effect; I had
+no intention of injuring your personal or private character or standing
+as a man or a gentleman; and I did not then think, and do not now think,
+that that article could produce or has produced that effect against you,
+and had I anticipated such an effect I would have forborne to write it.
+And I will add that your conduct toward me, so far as I know, had always
+been gentlemanly, and that I had no personal pique against you and no
+cause for any.... If nothing like this is done, the preliminaries of the
+fight are to be:
+
+"_First_. Weapons: Cavalry broadswords of the largest size, precisely
+equal in all respects, and such as now used by the cavalry company at
+Jacksonville.
+
+"_Second_. Position: A plank ten feet long, and from nine to twelve
+inches broad, to be firmly fixed on edge, on the ground, as the line
+between us, which neither is to pass his foot over upon forfeit of his
+life. Next, a line drawn on the ground on either side of said plank and
+parallel with it, each at the distance of the whole length of the sword
+and three feet additional from the plank, and the passing of his own
+such line by either party during the fight shall be deemed a surrender
+of the contest."
+
+The two seconds met, and, with great unction, pledged "our honor to each
+other that we would endeavor to settle the matter amicably," but
+persistently higgled over points till publicity and arrests seemed
+imminent. Procuring the necessary broadswords, all parties then hurried
+away to an island in the Mississippi River opposite Alton, where, long
+before the planks were set on edge or the swords drawn, mutual friends
+took the case out of the hands of the seconds and declared an
+adjustment. The terms of the fight as written by Mr. Lincoln show
+plainly enough that in his judgment it was to be treated as a farce, and
+would never proceed beyond "preliminaries." There, of course, ensued the
+usual very bellicose after-discussion in the newspapers, with additional
+challenges between the seconds about the proper etiquette of such
+farces, all resulting only in the shedding of much ink and furnishing
+Springfield with topics of lively conversation for a month. These
+occurrences, naturally enough, again drew Mr. Lincoln and Miss Todd
+together in friendly interviews, and Lincoln's letter to Speed detailing
+the news of the duels contains this significant paragraph:
+
+"But I began this letter not for what I have been writing, but to say
+something on that subject which you know to be of such infinite
+solicitude to me. The immense sufferings you endured from the first days
+of September till the middle of February you never tried to conceal from
+me, and I well understood. You have now been the husband of a lovely
+woman nearly eight months. That you are happier now than the day you
+married her I well know, for without you could not be living. But I have
+your word for it too, and the returning elasticity of spirits which is
+manifested in your letters. But I want to ask a close question. 'Are you
+now in feeling as well as judgment glad that you are married as you
+are?' From anybody but me this would be an impudent question not to be
+tolerated, but I know you will pardon it in me. Please answer it
+quickly, as I am impatient to know."
+
+The answer was evidently satisfactory, for on November 4, 1842, the Rev.
+Charles Dresser united Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd in the holy bonds
+of matrimony.[3]
+
+ [Footnote 3: The following children were born of this marriage:
+
+ Robert Todd, August 1, 1843; Edward Baker, March 10, 1846; William
+ Wallace, December 21, 1850; Thomas, April 4, 1853.
+
+ Edward died in infancy; William in the White House, February 20,
+ 1862; Thomas in Chicago, July 15, 1871; and the mother, Mary
+ Lincoln, in Springfield, July 16, 1882.
+
+ Robert, who filled the office of Secretary of War with distinction
+ under the administrations of Presidents Garfield and Arthur, as
+ well William as that of minister to England under the
+ administration of President Harrison, now resides in Chicago,
+ Illinois.]
+
+His marriage to Miss Todd ended all those mental perplexities and
+periods of despondency from which he had suffered more or less during
+his several love affairs, extending over nearly a decade. Out of the
+keen anguish he had endured, he finally gained that perfect mastery over
+his own spirit which Scripture declares to denote a greatness superior
+to that of him who takes a city. Few men have ever attained that
+complete domination of the will over the emotions, of reason over
+passion, by which he was able in the years to come to meet and solve the
+tremendous questions destiny had in store for him. His wedding once
+over, he took up with resolute patience the hard, practical routine of
+daily life, in which he had already been so severely schooled. Even his
+sentimental correspondence with his friend Speed lapsed into neglect. He
+was so poor that he and his bride could not make the contemplated visit
+to Kentucky they would both have so much enjoyed. His "national debt" of
+the old New Salem days was not yet fully paid off. "We are not keeping
+house, but boarding at the Globe tavern," he writes. "Our room ... and
+boarding only cost us four dollars a week."
+
+His law partnership with Stuart had lasted four years, but was dissolved
+by reason of Stuart's election to Congress, and a new one was formed
+with Judge Stephen T. Logan, who had recently resigned from the circuit
+bench, where he had learned the quality and promise of Lincoln's
+talents. It was an opportune and important change. Stuart had devoted
+himself mainly to politics, while with Logan law was the primary object.
+Under Logan's guidance and encouragement, he took up both the study and
+practical work of the profession in a more serious spirit. Lincoln's
+interest in politics, however, was in no way diminished, and, in truth,
+his limited practice at that date easily afforded him the time necessary
+for both.
+
+Since 1840 he had declined a reëlection to the legislature, and his
+ambition had doubtless contributed much to this decision. His late law
+partner, Stuart, had been three times a candidate for Congress. He was
+defeated in 1836, but successfully gained his election in 1838 and 1840,
+his service of two terms extending from December 2, 1839, to March 3,
+1843. For some reason, the next election had been postponed from the
+year 1842 to 1843. It was but natural that Stuart's success should
+excite a similar desire in Lincoln, who had reached equal party
+prominence, and rendered even more conspicuous party service. Lincoln
+had profited greatly by the companionship and friendly emulation of the
+many talented young politicians of Springfield, but this same condition
+also increased competition and stimulated rivalry. Not only himself, but
+both Hardin and Baker desired the nomination, which, as the district
+then stood, was equivalent to an election.
+
+When the leading Whigs of Sangamon County met, Lincoln was under the
+impression that it was Baker and not Hardin who was his most dangerous
+rival, as appears in a letter to Speed of March 24, 1843:
+
+"We had a meeting of the Whigs of the county here on last Monday to
+appoint delegates to a district convention, and Baker beat me and got
+the delegation instructed to go for him. The meeting, in spite of my
+attempt to decline it, appointed me one of the delegates, so that in
+getting Baker the nomination I shall be fixed a good deal like a fellow
+who is made groomsman to a man that has cut him out and is marrying his
+own dear 'gal.'"
+
+The causes that led to his disappointment are set forth more in detail
+in a letter, two days later, to a friend in the new county of Menard,
+which now included his old home, New Salem, whose powerful assistance
+was therefore lost from the party councils of Sangamon. The letter also
+dwells more particularly on the complicated influences which the
+practical politician has to reckon with, and shows that even his
+marriage had been used to turn popular opinion against him.
+
+"It is truly gratifying to me to learn that while the people of Sangamon
+have cast me off, my old friends of Menard, who have known me longest
+and best, stick to me. It would astonish, if not amuse, the older
+citizens to learn that I (a stranger, friendless, uneducated, penniless
+boy, working on a flatboat at ten dollars per month) have been put down
+here as the candidate of pride, wealth, and aristocratic family
+distinction. Yet so, chiefly, it was. There was, too, the strangest
+combination of church influence against me. Baker is a Campbellite, and
+therefore, as I suppose, with few exceptions got all that church. My
+wife has some relations in the Presbyterian churches and some with the
+Episcopal churches; and therefore, wherever it would tell, I was set
+down as either the one or the other, while it was everywhere contended
+that no Christian ought to go for me, because I belonged to no church,
+was suspected of being a deist, and had talked about fighting a duel.
+With all these things, Baker of course had nothing to do. Nor do I
+complain of them. As to his own church going for him, I think that was
+right enough, and as to the influences I have spoken of in the other,
+though they were very strong, it would be grossly untrue and unjust to
+charge that they acted upon them in a body, or were very near so. I only
+mean that those influences levied a tax of a considerable per cent. upon
+my strength throughout the religious community."
+
+In the same letter we have a striking illustration of Lincoln's
+intelligence and skill in the intricate details of political management,
+together with the high sense of honor and manliness which directed his
+action in such matters. Speaking of the influences of Menard County, he
+wrote:
+
+"If she and Mason act circumspectly, they will in the convention be able
+so far to enforce their rights as to decide absolutely which one of the
+candidates shall be successful. Let me show the reason of this. Hardin,
+or some other Morgan candidate, will get Putnam, Marshall, Woodford,
+Tazewell, and Logan [counties], making sixteen. Then you and Mason,
+having three, can give the victory to either side. You say you shall
+instruct your delegates for me, unless I object. I certainly shall not
+object. That would be too pleasant a compliment for me to tread in the
+dust. And, besides, if anything should happen (which, however, is not
+probable) by which Baker should be thrown out of the fight, I would be
+at liberty to accept the nomination if I could get it. I do, however,
+feel myself bound not to hinder him in any way from getting the
+nomination. I should despise myself were I to attempt it. I think, then,
+it would be proper for your meeting to appoint three delegates, and to
+instruct them to go for some one as a first choice, some one else as a
+second, and perhaps some one as a third; and if in those instructions I
+were named as the first choice it would gratify me very much. If you
+wish to hold the balance of power, it is important for you to attend to
+and secure the vote of Mason also."
+
+A few weeks again changed the situation, of which he informed Speed in a
+letter dated May 18:
+
+"In relation to our Congress matter here, you were right in supposing I
+would support the nominee. Neither Baker nor I, however, is the man--but
+Hardin, so far as I can judge from present appearances. We shall have no
+split or trouble about the matter; all will be harmony."
+
+In the following year (1844) Lincoln was once more compelled to exercise
+his patience. The Campbellite friends of Baker must have again been very
+active in behalf of their church favorite; for their influence, added to
+his dashing politics and eloquent oratory, appears to have secured him
+the nomination without serious contention, while Lincoln found a partial
+recompense in being nominated a candidate for presidential elector,
+which furnished him opportunity for all his party energy and zeal during
+the spirited but unsuccessful presidential campaign for Henry Clay. He
+not only made an extensive canvass in Illinois, but also made a number
+of speeches in the adjoining State of Indiana.
+
+It was probably during that year that a tacit agreement was reached
+among the Whig leaders in Sangamon County, that each would be satisfied
+with one term in Congress and would not seek a second nomination. But
+Hardin was the aspirant from the neighboring county of Morgan, and
+apparently therefore not included in this arrangement. Already, in the
+fall of 1845, Lincoln industriously began his appeals and instructions
+to his friends in the district to secure the succession. Thus he wrote
+on November 17:
+
+"The paper at Pekin has nominated Hardin for governor, and, commenting
+on this, the Alton paper indirectly nominated him for Congress. It would
+give Hardin a great start, and perhaps use me up, if the Whig papers of
+the district should nominate him for Congress. If your feelings toward
+me are the same as when I saw you (which I have no reason to doubt), I
+wish you would let nothing appear in your paper which may operate
+against me. You understand. Matters stand just as they did when I saw
+you. Baker is certainly off the track, and I fear Hardin intends to be
+on it."
+
+But again, as before, the spirit of absolute fairness governed all his
+movements, and he took special pains to guard against it being
+"suspected that I was attempting to juggle Hardin out of a nomination
+for Congress by juggling him into one for governor." "I should be
+pleased," he wrote again in January, "if I could concur with you in the
+hope that my name would be the only one presented to the convention; but
+I cannot. Hardin is a man of desperate energy and perseverance, and one
+that never backs out; and, I fear, to think otherwise is to be deceived
+in the character of our adversary. I would rejoice to be spared the
+labor of a contest, but, 'being in,' I shall go it thoroughly and to the
+bottom." He then goes on to recount in much detail the chances for and
+against him in the several counties of the district, and in later
+letters discusses the system of selecting candidates, where the
+convention ought to be held, how the delegates should be chosen, the
+instructions they should receive, and how the places of absent
+delegates should be filled. He watched his field of operations, planned
+his strategy, and handled his forces almost with the vigilance of a
+military commander. As a result, he won both his nomination in May and
+his election to the Thirtieth Congress in August, 1846.
+
+In that same year the Mexican War broke out. Hardin became colonel of
+one of the three regiments of Illinois volunteers called for by
+President Polk, while Baker raised a fourth regiment, which was also
+accepted. Colonel Hardin was killed in the battle of Buena Vista, and
+Colonel Baker won great distinction in the fighting near the City of
+Mexico.
+
+Like Abraham Lincoln, Douglas was also elected to Congress in 1846,
+where he had already served the two preceding terms. But these
+redoubtable Illinois champions were not to have a personal tilt in the
+House of Representatives. Before Congress met, the Illinois legislature
+elected Douglas to the United States Senate for six years from March 4,
+1847.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+First Session of the Thirtieth Congress--Mexican War--"Wilmot
+Proviso"--Campaign of 1848--Letters to Herndon about Young Men
+in Politics--Speech in Congress on the Mexican War--Second Session
+of the Thirtieth Congress--Bill to Prohibit Slavery in the District
+of Columbia--Lincoln's Recommendations of Office-Seekers--Letters
+to Speed--Commissioner of the General Land Office--Declines Governorship
+of Oregon
+
+
+Very few men are fortunate enough to gain distinction during their first
+term in Congress. The reason is obvious. Legally, a term extends over
+two years; practically, a session of five or six months during the
+first, and three months during the second year ordinarily reduce their
+opportunities more than one half. In those two sessions, even if we
+presuppose some knowledge of parliamentary law, they must learn the
+daily routine of business, make the acquaintance of their
+fellow-members, who already, in the Thirtieth Congress, numbered
+something over two hundred, study the past and prospective legislation
+on a multitude of minor national questions entirely new to the new
+members, and perform the drudgery of haunting the departments in the
+character of unpaid agent and attorney to attend to the private
+interests of constituents--a physical task of no small proportions in
+Lincoln's day, when there was neither street-car nor omnibus in the
+"city of magnificent distances," as Washington was nicknamed. Add to
+this that the principal work of preparing legislation is done by the
+various committees in their committee-rooms, of which the public hears
+nothing, and that members cannot choose their own time for making
+speeches; still further, that the management of debate on prepared
+legislation must necessarily be intrusted to members of long experience
+as well as talent, and it will be seen that the novice need not expect
+immediate fame.
+
+It is therefore not to be wondered at that Lincoln's single term in the
+House of Representatives at Washington added practically nothing to his
+reputation. He did not attempt to shine forth in debate by either a
+stinging retort or a witty epigram, or by a sudden burst of inspired
+eloquence. On the contrary, he took up his task as a quiet but earnest
+and patient apprentice in the great workshop of national legislation,
+and performed his share of duty with industry and intelligence, as well
+as with a modest and appreciative respect for the ability and experience
+of his seniors.
+
+"As to speech-making," he wrote, "by way of getting the hang of the
+House, I made a little speech two or three days ago on a post-office
+question of no general interest. I find speaking here and elsewhere
+about the same thing. I was about as badly scared, and no worse, as I am
+when I speak in court. I expect to make one within a week or two in
+which I hope to succeed well enough to wish you to see it." And again,
+some weeks later: "I just take my pen to say that Mr. Stephens of
+Georgia, a little, slim, pale-faced consumptive man with a voice like
+Logan's, has just concluded the very best speech of an hour's length I
+ever heard. My old, withered, dry eyes are full of tears yet."
+
+He was appointed the junior Whig member of the Committee on Post-offices
+and Post-roads, and shared its prosaic but eminently useful labors both
+in the committee-room and the House debates. His name appears on only
+one other committee,--that on Expenditures of the War Department,--and
+he seems to have interested himself in certain amendments of the law
+relating to bounty lands for soldiers and such minor military topics. He
+looked carefully after the interests of Illinois in certain grants of
+land to that State for railroads, but expressed his desire that the
+government price of the reserved sections should not be increased to
+actual settlers.
+
+During the first session of the Thirtieth Congress he delivered three
+set speeches in the House, all of them carefully prepared and fully
+written out. The first of these, on January 12, 1848, was an elaborate
+defense of the Whig doctrine summarized in a House resolution passed a
+week or ten days before, that the Mexican War "had been unnecessarily
+and unconstitutionally commenced by the President," James K. Polk. The
+speech is not a mere party diatribe, but a terse historical and legal
+examination of the origin of the Mexican War. In the after-light of our
+own times which shines upon these transactions, we may readily admit
+that Mr. Lincoln and the Whigs had the best of the argument, but it must
+be quite as readily conceded that they were far behind the President and
+his defenders in political and party strategy. The former were clearly
+wasting their time in discussing an abstract question of international
+law upon conditions existing twenty months before. During those twenty
+months the American arms had won victory after victory, and planted the
+American flag on the "halls of the Montezumas." Could even successful
+argument undo those victories or call back to life the brave American
+soldiers who had shed their blood to win them?
+
+It may be assumed as an axiom that Providence has never gifted any
+political party with all of political wisdom or blinded it with all of
+political folly. Upon the foregoing point of controversy the Whigs were
+sadly thrown on the defensive, and labored heavily under their already
+discounted declamation. But instinct rather than sagacity led them to
+turn their eyes to the future, and successfully upon other points to
+retrieve their mistake. Within six weeks after Lincoln's speech
+President Polk sent to the Senate a treaty of peace, under which Mexico
+ceded to the United States an extent of territory equal in area to
+Germany, France, and Spain combined, and thereafter the origin of the
+war was an obsolete question. What should be done with the new territory
+was now the issue.
+
+This issue embraced the already exciting slavery question, and Mr.
+Lincoln was doubtless gratified that the Whigs had taken a position upon
+it so consonant with his own convictions. Already, in the previous
+Congress, the body of the Whig members had joined a small group of
+antislavery Democrats in fastening upon an appropriation bill the famous
+"Wilmot Proviso," that slavery should never exist in territory acquired
+from Mexico, and the Whigs of the Thirtieth Congress steadily followed
+the policy of voting for the same restriction in regard to every piece
+of legislation where it was applicable. Mr. Lincoln often said he had
+voted forty or fifty times for the Wilmot Proviso in various forms
+during his single term.
+
+Upon another point he and the other Whigs were equally wise. Repelling
+the Democratic charge that they were unpatriotic in denouncing the war,
+they voted in favor of every measure to sustain, supply, and encourage
+the soldiers in the field. But their most adroit piece of strategy, now
+that the war was ended, was in their movement to make General Taylor
+President.
+
+In this movement Mr. Lincoln took a leading and active part. No living
+American statesman has ever been idolized by his party adherents as was
+Henry Clay for a whole generation, and Mr. Lincoln fully shared this
+hero-worship. But his practical campaigning as a candidate for
+presidential elector in the Harrison campaign of 1840, and the Clay
+campaign of 1844, in Illinois and the adjoining States, afforded him a
+basis for sound judgment, and convinced him that the day when Clay could
+have been elected President was forever passed.
+
+"Mr. Clay's chance for an election is just no chance at all," he wrote
+on April 30. "He might get New York, and that would have elected in
+1844, but it will not now, because he must now, at the least, lose
+Tennessee which he had then, and in addition the fifteen new votes of
+Florida, Texas, Iowa, and Wisconsin.... In my judgment, we can elect
+nobody but General Taylor; and we cannot elect him without a nomination.
+Therefore don't fail to send a delegate." And again on the same day:
+"Mr. Clay's letter has not advanced his interests any here. Several who
+were against Taylor, but not for anybody particularly before, are since
+taking ground, some for Scott and some for McLean. Who will be nominated
+neither I nor any one else can tell. Now, let me pray to you in turn. My
+prayer is that you let nothing discourage or baffle you, but that, in
+spite of every difficulty, you send us a good Taylor delegate from your
+circuit. Make Baker, who is now with you, I suppose, help about it. He
+is a good hand to raise a breeze."
+
+In due time Mr. Lincoln's sagacity and earnestness were both justified;
+for on June 12 he was able to write to an Illinois friend:
+
+"On my return from Philadelphia, where I had been attending the
+nomination of 'Old Rough,' I found your letter in a mass of others which
+had accumulated in my absence. By many, and often, it had been said they
+would not abide the nomination of Taylor; but since the deed has been
+done, they are fast falling in, and in my opinion we shall have a most
+overwhelming, glorious triumph. One unmistakable sign is that all the
+odds and ends are with us--Barnburners, Native Americans, Tyler men,
+disappointed office-seeking Locofocos, and the Lord knows what. This is
+important, if in nothing else, in showing which way the wind blows. Some
+of the sanguine men have set down all the States as certain for Taylor
+but Illinois, and it as doubtful. Cannot something be done even in
+Illinois? Taylor's nomination takes the Locos on the blind side. It
+turns the war-thunder against them. The war is now to them the gallows
+of Haman, which they built for us, and on which they are doomed to be
+hanged themselves."
+
+Nobody understood better than Mr. Lincoln the obvious truth that in
+politics it does not suffice merely to nominate candidates. Something
+must also be done to elect them. Two of the letters which he at this
+time wrote home to his young law partner, William H. Herndon, are
+especially worth quoting in part, not alone to show his own zeal and
+industry, but also as a perennial instruction and encouragement to young
+men who have an ambition to make a name and a place for themselves in
+American politics:
+
+"Last night I was attending a sort of caucus of the Whig members, held
+in relation to the coming presidential election. The whole field of the
+nation was scanned, and all is high hope and confidence.... Now, as to
+the young men. You must not wait to be brought forward by the older men.
+For instance, do you suppose that I should ever have got into notice if
+I had waited to be hunted up and pushed forward by older men? You young
+men get together and form a 'Rough and Ready Club,' and have regular
+meetings and speeches.... Let every one play the part he can play
+best,--some speak, some sing, and all 'holler.' Your meetings will be of
+evenings; the older men, and the women, will go to hear you; so that it
+will not only contribute to the election of 'Old Zach,' but will be an
+interesting pastime, and improving to the intellectual faculties of all
+engaged."
+
+And in another letter, answering one from Herndon in which that young
+aspirant complains of having been neglected, he says:
+
+"The subject of that letter is exceedingly painful to me; and I cannot
+but think there is some mistake in your impression of the motives of the
+old men. I suppose I am now one of the old men; and I declare, on my
+veracity, which I think is good with you, that nothing could afford me
+more satisfaction than to learn that you and others of my young friends
+at home are doing battle in the contest, and endearing themselves to the
+people, and taking a stand far above any I have been able to reach in
+their admiration. I cannot conceive that other old men feel differently.
+Of course I cannot demonstrate what I say; but I was young once, and I
+am sure I was never ungenerously thrust back. I hardly know what to say.
+The way for a young man to rise is to improve himself every way he can,
+never suspecting that anybody wishes to hinder him. Allow me to assure
+you that suspicion and jealousy never did help any man in any situation.
+There may sometimes be ungenerous attempts to keep a young man down; and
+they will succeed, too, if he allows his mind to be diverted from its
+true channel to brood over the attempted injury. Cast about, and see if
+this feeling has not injured every person you have ever known to fall
+into it."
+
+Mr. Lincoln's interest in this presidential campaign did not expend
+itself merely in advice to others. We have his own written record that
+he also took an active part for the election of General Taylor after his
+nomination, speaking a few times in Maryland near Washington, several
+times in Massachusetts, and canvassing quite fully his own district in
+Illinois. Before the session of Congress ended he also delivered two
+speeches in the House--one on the general subject of internal
+improvements, and the other the usual political campaign speech which
+members of Congress are in the habit of making to be printed for home
+circulation; made up mainly of humorous and satirical criticism,
+favoring the election of General Taylor, and opposing the election of
+General Cass, the Democratic candidate. Even this production, however,
+is lighted up by a passage of impressive earnestness and eloquence, in
+which he explains and defends the attitude of the Whigs in denouncing
+the origin of the Mexican War:
+
+"If to say 'the war was unnecessarily and unconstitutionally commenced
+by the President,' be opposing the war, then the Whigs have very
+generally opposed it. Whenever they have spoken at all they have said
+this; and they have said it on what has appeared good reason to them.
+The marching an army into the midst of a peaceful Mexican settlement,
+frightening the inhabitants away, leaving their growing crops and other
+property to destruction, to you may appear a perfectly amiable,
+peaceful, unprovoking procedure; but it does not appear so to us. So to
+call such an act, to us appears no other than a naked, impudent
+absurdity, and we speak of it accordingly. But if, when the war had
+begun, and had become the cause of the country, the giving of our money
+and our blood, in common with yours, was support of the war, then it is
+not true that we have always opposed the war. With few individual
+exceptions, you have constantly had our votes here for all the necessary
+supplies. And, more than this, you have had the services, the blood, and
+the lives of our political brethren in every trial and on every field.
+The beardless boy and the mature man, the humble and the
+distinguished--you have had them. Through suffering and death, by
+disease and in battle, they have endured, and fought and fell with you.
+Clay and Webster each gave a son, never to be returned. From the State
+of my own residence, besides other worthy but less known Whig names, we
+sent Marshall, Morrison, Baker, and Hardin; they all fought and one
+fell, and in the fall of that one we lost our best Whig man. Nor were
+the Whigs few in number or laggard in the day of danger. In that
+fearful, bloody, breathless struggle at Buena Vista, where each man's
+hard task was to beat back five foes or die himself, of the five high
+officers who perished, four were Whigs. In speaking of this, I mean no
+odious comparison between the lion-hearted Whigs and the Democrats who
+fought there. On other occasions, and among the lower officers and
+privates on that occasion, I doubt not the proportion was different. I
+wish to do justice to all. I think of all those brave men as Americans,
+in whose proud fame, as an American, I, too, have a share. Many of them,
+Whigs and Democrats, are my constituents and personal friends; and I
+thank them--more than thank them--one and all, for the high,
+imperishable honor they have conferred on our common State."
+
+During the second session of the Thirtieth Congress Mr. Lincoln made no
+long speeches, but in addition to the usual routine work devolved on him
+by the committee of which he was a member, he busied himself in
+preparing a special measure which, because of its relation to the great
+events of his later life, needs to be particularly mentioned. Slavery
+existed in Maryland and Virginia when these States ceded the territory
+out of which the District of Columbia was formed. Since, by that
+cession, this land passed under the exclusive control of the Federal
+government, the "institution" within this ten miles square could no
+longer be defended by the plea of State sovereignty, and antislavery
+sentiment naturally demanded that it should cease. Pro-slavery
+statesmen, on the other hand, as persistently opposed its removal,
+partly as a matter of pride and political consistency, partly because it
+was a convenience to Southern senators and members of Congress, when
+they came to Washington, to bring their family servants where the local
+laws afforded them the same security over their black chattels which
+existed at their homes. Mr. Lincoln, in his Peoria speech in 1854,
+emphasized the sectional dispute with this vivid touch of local color:
+
+"The South clamored for a more efficient fugitive-slave law. The North
+clamored for the abolition of a peculiar species of slave trade in the
+District of Columbia, in connection with which, in view from the windows
+of the Capitol, a sort of negro livery-stable, where droves of negroes
+were collected, temporarily kept, and finally taken to Southern markets,
+precisely like droves of horses, had been openly maintained for fifty
+years."
+
+Thus the question remained a minor but never ending bone of contention
+and point of irritation, and excited debate arose in the Thirtieth
+Congress over a House resolution that the Committee on the Judiciary be
+instructed to report a bill as soon as practicable prohibiting the slave
+trade in the District of Columbia. In this situation of affairs, Mr.
+Lincoln conceived the fond hope that he might be able to present a plan
+of compromise. He already entertained the idea which in later years
+during his presidency he urged upon both Congress and the border slave
+States, that the just and generous mode of getting rid of the barbarous
+institution of slavery was by a system of compensated emancipation
+giving freedom to the slave and a money indemnity to the owner. He
+therefore carefully framed a bill providing for the abolishment of
+slavery in the District upon the following principal conditions:
+
+_First_. That the law should be adopted by a popular vote in the
+District.
+
+_Second_. A temporary system of apprenticeship and gradual emancipation
+for children born of slave mothers after January 1, 1850.
+
+_Third_. The government to pay full cash value for slaves voluntarily
+manumitted by their owners.
+
+_Fourth_. Prohibiting bringing slaves into the District, or selling them
+out of it.
+
+_Fifth_. Providing that government officers, citizens of slave States,
+might bring with them and take away again, their slave house-servants.
+
+_Sixth_. Leaving the existing fugitive-slave law in force.
+
+When Mr. Lincoln presented this amendment to the House, he said that he
+was authorized to state that of about fifteen of the leading citizens of
+the District of Columbia, to whom the proposition had been submitted,
+there was not one who did not approve the adoption of such a
+proposition. He did not wish to be misunderstood. He did not know
+whether or not they would vote for this bill on the first Monday in
+April; but he repeated that out of fifteen persons to whom it had been
+submitted, he had authority to say that every one of them desired that
+some proposition like this should pass.
+
+While Mr. Lincoln did not so state to the House, it was well understood
+in intimate circles that the bill had the approval on the one hand of
+Mr. Seaton, the conservative mayor of Washington, and on the other hand
+of Mr. Giddings, the radical antislavery member of the House of
+Representatives. Notwithstanding the singular merit of the bill in
+reconciling such extremes of opposing factions in its support, the
+temper of Congress had already become too hot to accept such a rational
+and practical solution, and Mr. Lincoln's wise proposition was not
+allowed to come to a vote.
+
+The triumphant election of General Taylor to the presidency in November,
+1848, very soon devolved upon Mr. Lincoln the delicate and difficult
+duty of making recommendations to the incoming administration of persons
+suitable to be appointed to fill the various Federal offices in
+Illinois, as Colonel E.D. Baker and himself were the only Whigs elected
+to Congress from that State. In performing this duty, one of his leading
+characteristics, impartial honesty and absolute fairness to political
+friends and foes alike, stands out with noteworthy clearness. His term
+ended with General Taylor's inauguration, and he appears to have
+remained in Washington but a few days thereafter. Before leaving, he
+wrote to the new Secretary of the Treasury:
+
+"Colonel E.D. Baker and myself are the only Whig members of Congress
+from Illinois--I of the Thirtieth, and he of the Thirty-first. We have
+reason to think the Whigs of that State hold us responsible, to some
+extent, for the appointments which may be made of our citizens. We do
+not know you personally, and our efforts to see you have, so far, been
+unavailing. I therefore hope I am not obtrusive in saying in this way,
+for him and myself, that when a citizen of Illinois is to be appointed,
+in your department, to an office, either in or out of the State, we most
+respectfully ask to be heard."
+
+On the following day, March 10, 1849, he addressed to the Secretary of
+State his first formal recommendation. It is remarkable from the fact
+that between the two Whig applicants whose papers are transmitted, he
+says rather less in favor of his own choice than of the opposing
+claimant.
+
+"SIR: There are several applicants for the office of United States
+Marshal for the District of Illinois, among the most prominent of whom
+are Benjamin Bond, Esq., of Carlyle, and ---- Thomas, Esq., of Galena.
+Mr. Bond I know to be personally every way worthy of the office; and he
+is very numerously and most respectably recommended. His papers I send
+to you; and I solicit for his claims a full and fair consideration.
+Having said this much, I add that in my individual judgment the
+appointment of Mr. Thomas would be the better.
+
+     "Your obedient servant,
+     "A. LINCOLN"
+
+(Indorsed on Mr. Bond's papers.)
+
+"In this and the accompanying envelop are the recommendations of about
+two hundred good citizens, of all parts of Illinois, that Benjamin Bond
+be appointed marshal for that district. They include the names of nearly
+all our Whigs who now are, or have ever been, members of the State
+legislature, besides forty-six of the Democratic members of the present
+legislature, and many other good citizens. I add that from personal
+knowledge I consider Mr. Bond every way worthy of the office, and
+qualified to fill it. Holding the individual opinion that the
+appointment of a different gentleman would be better, I ask especial
+attention and consideration for his claims, and for the opinions
+expressed in his favor by those over whom I can claim no superiority."
+
+There were but three other prominent Federal appointments to be made in
+Mr. Lincoln's congressional district, and he waited until after his
+return home so that he might be better informed of the local opinion
+concerning them before making his recommendations. It was nearly a month
+after he left Washington before he sent his decision to the several
+departments at Washington. The letter quoted below, relating to one of
+these appointments, is in substance almost identical with the others,
+and particularly refrains from expressing any opinion of his own for or
+against the policy of political removals. He also expressly explains
+that Colonel Baker, the other Whig representative, claims no voice in
+the appointment.
+
+"DEAR SIR: I recommend that Walter Davis be appointed Receiver of the
+Land Office at this place, whenever there shall be a vacancy. I cannot
+say that Mr. Herndon, the present incumbent, has failed in the proper
+discharge of any of the duties of the office. He is a very warm
+partizan, and openly and actively opposed to the election of General
+Taylor. I also understand that since General Taylor's election he has
+received a reappointment from Mr. Polk, his old commission not having
+expired. Whether this is true the records of the department will show. I
+may add that the Whigs here almost universally desire his removal."
+
+If Mr. Lincoln's presence in Washington during two sessions in Congress
+did not add materially to either his local or national fame, it was of
+incalculable benefit in other respects. It afforded him a close
+inspection of the complex machinery of the Federal government and its
+relation to that of the States, and enabled him to notice both the easy
+routine and the occasional friction of their movements. It brought him
+into contact and, to some degree, intimate companionship with political
+leaders from all parts of the Union, and gave him the opportunity of
+joining in the caucus and the national convention that nominated General
+Taylor for President. It broadened immensely the horizon of his
+observation, and the sharp personal rivalries he noted at the center of
+the nation opened to him new lessons in the study of human nature. His
+quick intelligence acquired knowledge quite as, or even more, rapidly by
+process of logical intuition than by mere dry, laborious study; and it
+was the inestimable experience of this single term in the Congress of
+the United States which prepared him for his coming, yet undreamed-of,
+responsibilities, as fully as it would have done the ordinary man in a
+dozen.
+
+Mr. Lincoln had frankly acknowledged to his friend Speed, after his
+election in 1846, that "being elected to Congress, though I am very
+grateful to our friends for having done it, has not pleased me as much
+as I expected." It has already been said that an agreement had been
+reached among the several Springfield aspirants, that they would limit
+their ambition to a single term, and take turns in securing and enjoying
+the coveted distinction; and Mr. Lincoln remained faithful to this
+agreement. When the time to prepare for the election of 1848 approached,
+he wrote to his law partner:
+
+"It is very pleasant to learn from you that there are some who desire
+that I should be reëlected. I most heartily thank them for their kind
+partiality; and I can say, as Mr. Clay said of the annexation of Texas,
+that 'personally I would not object' to a reëlection, although I thought
+at the time, and still think, it would be quite as well for me to
+return to the law at the end of a single term. I made the declaration
+that I would not be a candidate again, more from a wish to deal fairly
+with others, to keep peace among our friends, and to keep the district
+from going to the enemy, than for any cause personal to myself; so that,
+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."
+
+Judge Stephen T. Logan, his late law partner, was nominated for the
+place, and heartily supported not only by Mr. Lincoln, but also by the
+Whigs of the district. By this time, however, the politics of the
+district had undergone a change by reason of the heavy emigration to
+Illinois at that period, and Judge Logan was defeated.
+
+Mr. Lincoln's strict and sensitive adherence to his promises now brought
+him a disappointment which was one of those blessings in disguise so
+commonly deplored for the time being by the wisest and best. A number of
+the Western members of Congress had joined in a recommendation to
+President-elect Taylor to give Colonel E.D. Baker a place in his
+cabinet, a reward he richly deserved for his talents, his party service,
+and the military honor he had won in the Mexican War. When this
+application bore no fruit, the Whigs of Illinois, expecting at least
+some encouragement from the new administration, laid claim to a bureau
+appointment, that of Commissioner of the General Land Office, in the new
+Department of the Interior, recently established.
+
+"I believe that, so far as the Whigs in Congress are concerned," wrote
+Lincoln to Speed twelve days before Taylor's inauguration, "I could
+have the General Land Office almost by common consent; but then Sweet
+and Don Morrison and Browning and Cyrus Edwards all want it, and what is
+worse, while I think I could easily take it myself, I fear I shall have
+trouble to get it for any other man in Illinois."
+
+Unselfishly yielding his own chances, he tried to induce the four
+Illinois candidates to come to a mutual agreement in favor of one of
+their own number. They were so tardy in settling their differences as to
+excite his impatience, and he wrote to a Washington friend:
+
+"I learn from Washington that a man by the name of Butterfield will
+probably be appointed Commissioner of the General Land Office, This
+ought not to be.... Some kind friends think I ought to be an applicant,
+but I am for Mr. Edwards. Try to defeat Butterfield, and, in doing so,
+use Mr. Edwards, J.L.D. Morrison, or myself, whichever you can to best
+advantage."
+
+As the situation grew persistently worse, Mr. Lincoln at length, about
+the first of June, himself became a formal applicant. But the delay
+resulting from his devotion to his friends had dissipated his chances.
+Butterfield received the appointment, and the defeat was aggravated
+when, a few months later, his unrelenting spirit of justice and fairness
+impelled him to write a letter defending Butterfield and the Secretary
+of the Interior from an attack by one of Lincoln's warm personal but
+indiscreet friends in the Illinois legislature. It was, however, a
+fortunate escape. In the four succeeding years Mr. Lincoln qualified
+himself for better things than the monotonous drudgery of an
+administrative bureau at Washington. It is probable that this defeat
+also enabled him more easily to pass by another temptation. The Taylor
+administration, realizing its ingratitude, at length, in September,
+offered him the governorship of the recently organized territory of
+Oregon; but he replied:
+
+"On as much reflection as I have had time to give the subject, I cannot
+consent to accept it."
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+Repeal of the Missouri Compromise--State Fair Debate--Peoria
+Debate--Trumbull Elected--Letter to Robinson--The Know-Nothings--Decatur
+Meeting--Bloomington Convention--Philadelphia Convention--Lincoln's Vote
+for Vice-President--Frémont and Dayton--Lincoln's Campaign
+Speeches--Chicago Banquet Speech
+
+
+After the expiration of his term in Congress Mr. Lincoln applied himself
+with unremitting assiduity to the practice of law, which the growth of
+the State in population, and the widening of his acquaintanceship no
+less than his own growth in experience and legal acumen, rendered ever
+more important and absorbing.
+
+"In 1854," he writes, "his profession had almost superseded the thought
+of politics in his mind, when the repeal of the Missouri Compromise
+aroused him as he had never been before."
+
+Not alone Mr. Lincoln, but, indeed, the whole nation, was so
+aroused--the Democratic party, and nearly the entire South, to force the
+passage of that repeal through Congress, and an alarmed majority,
+including even a considerable minority of the Democratic party in the
+North, to resist its passage.
+
+Mr. Lincoln, of course, shared the general indignation of Northern
+sentiment that the whole of the remaining Louisiana Territory, out of
+which six States, and the greater part of two more, have since been
+organized and admitted to the Union, should be opened to the possible
+extension of slavery. But two points served specially to enlist his
+energy in the controversy. One was personal, in that Senator Douglas of
+Illinois, by whom the repeal was championed, and whose influence as a
+free-State senator and powerful Democratic leader alone made the repeal
+possible, had been his personal antagonist in Illinois politics for
+almost twenty years. The other was moral, in that the new question
+involved the elemental principles of the American government, the
+fundamental maxim of the Declaration of Independence, that all men are
+created equal. His intuitive logic needed no demonstration that bank,
+tariff, internal improvements, the Mexican War, and their related
+incidents, were questions of passing expediency; but that this sudden
+reaction, needlessly grafted upon a routine statute to organize a new
+territory, was the unmistakable herald of a coming struggle which might
+transform republican institutions.
+
+It was in January, 1854, that the accidents of a Senate debate threw
+into Congress and upon the country the firebrand of the repeal of the
+Missouri Compromise. The repeal was not consummated till the month of
+May; and from May until the autumn elections the flame of acrimonious
+discussion ran over the whole country like a wild fire. There is no
+record that Mr. Lincoln took any public part in the discussion until the
+month of September, but it is very clear that he not only carefully
+watched its progress, but that he studied its phases of development, its
+historical origins, and its legal bearings with close industry, and
+gathered from party literature and legislative documents a harvest of
+substantial facts and data, rather than the wordy campaign phrases and
+explosive epithets with which more impulsive students and speakers were
+content to produce their oratorical effects. Here we may again quote
+Mr. Lincoln's exact written statement of the manner in which he resumed
+his political activity:
+
+"In the autumn of that year [1854] he took the stump, with no broader
+practical aim or object than to secure, if possible, the reëlection of
+Hon. Richard Yates to Congress. His speeches at once attracted a more
+marked attention than they had ever before done. As the canvass
+proceeded he was drawn to different parts of the State, outside of Mr.
+Yates's district. He did not abandon the law, but gave his attention by
+turns to that and politics. The State Agricultural Fair was at
+Springfield that year, and Douglas was announced to speak there."
+
+The new question had created great excitement and uncertainty in
+Illinois politics, and there were abundant signs that it was beginning
+to break up the organization of both the Whig and the Democratic
+parties. This feeling brought together at the State fair an unusual
+number of local leaders from widely scattered counties, and almost
+spontaneously a sort of political tournament of speech-making broke out.
+In this Senator Douglas, doubly conspicuous by his championship of the
+Nebraska Bill in Congress, was expected to play the leading part, while
+the opposition, by a common impulse, called upon Lincoln to answer him.
+Lincoln performed the task with such aptness and force, with such
+freshness of argument, illustrations from history, and citations from
+authorities, as secured him a decided oratorical triumph, and lifted him
+at a single bound to the leadership of the opposition to Douglas's
+propagandism. Two weeks later, Douglas and Lincoln met at Peoria in a
+similar debate, and on his return to Springfield Lincoln wrote out and
+printed his speech in full.
+
+The reader who carefully examines this speech will at once be impressed
+with the genius which immediately made Mr. Lincoln a power in American
+politics. His grasp of the subject is so comprehensive, his statement so
+clear, his reasoning so convincing, his language so strong and eloquent
+by turns, that the wonderful power he manifested in the discussions and
+debates of the six succeeding years does not surpass, but only amplifies
+this, his first examination of the whole brood of questions relating to
+slavery precipitated upon the country by Douglas's repeal. After a
+searching history of the Missouri Compromise, he attacks the
+demoralizing effects and portentous consequences of its repeal.
+
+"This declared indifference," he says, "but, as I must think, covert
+real zeal for the spread of slavery, I cannot but hate. I hate it
+because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself. I hate it because
+it deprives our republican example of its just influence in the world;
+enables the enemies of free institutions, with plausibility, to taunt us
+as hypocrites; causes the real friends of freedom to doubt our
+sincerity; and especially because it forces so many good men among
+ourselves into an open war with the very fundamental principles of civil
+liberty, criticizing the Declaration of Independence, and insisting that
+there is no right principle of action but self-interest.... Slavery is
+founded in the selfishness of man's nature--opposition to it in his love
+of justice. These principles are an eternal antagonism, and when brought
+into collision so fiercely as slavery extension brings them, shocks and
+throes and convulsions must ceaselessly follow. Repeal the Missouri
+Compromise, repeal all compromises, repeal the Declaration of
+Independence, repeal all past history, you still cannot repeal human
+nature. It still will be the abundance of man's heart that slavery
+extension is wrong, and out of the abundance of his heart his mouth
+will continue to speak."
+
+With argument as impetuous, and logic as inexorable, he disposes of
+Douglas's plea of popular sovereignty:
+
+"Here, or at Washington, I would not trouble myself with the oyster laws
+of Virginia, or the cranberry laws of Indiana. The doctrine of
+self-government is right--absolutely and eternally right--but it has no
+just application as here attempted. Or perhaps I should rather say, that
+whether it has such application depends upon whether a negro is not or
+is a man. If he is not a man, in that case, he who is a man may, as a
+matter of self-government, do just what he pleases with him. But if the
+negro is a man, is it not to that extent a total destruction of
+self-government to say that he too shall not govern himself? When the
+white man governs himself, that is self-government; but when he governs
+himself and also governs another man, that is more than
+self-government--that is despotism.... I particularly object to the new
+position which the avowed principle of this Nebraska law gives to
+slavery in the body politic. I object to it because it assumes that
+there can be moral right in the enslaving of one man by another. I
+object to it as a dangerous dalliance for a free people--a sad evidence
+that, feeling prosperity, we forget right; that liberty, as a principle,
+we have ceased to revere.... Little by little, but steadily as man's
+march to the grave, we have been giving up the old for the new faith.
+Near eighty years ago we began by declaring that all men are created
+equal; but now, from that beginning, we have run down to the other
+declaration, that for some men to enslave others is a 'sacred right of
+self-government.' These principles cannot stand together. They are as
+opposite as God and Mammon."
+
+If one compares the serious tone of this speech with the hard cider and
+coon-skin buncombe of the Harrison campaign of 1840, and its lofty
+philosophical thought with the humorous declamation of the Taylor
+campaign of 1848, the speaker's advance in mental development at once
+becomes apparent. In this single effort Mr. Lincoln had risen from the
+class of the politician to the rank of the statesman. There is a
+well-founded tradition that Douglas, disconcerted and troubled by
+Lincoln's unexpected manifestation of power in the Springfield and
+Peoria debates, sought a friendly interview with his opponent, and
+obtained from him an agreement that neither one of them would make any
+further speeches before the election.
+
+The local interest in the campaign was greatly heightened by the fact
+that the term of Douglas's Democratic colleague in the United States
+Senate was about to expire, and that the State legislature to be elected
+would have the choosing of his successor. It is not probable that
+Lincoln built much hope upon this coming political chance, as the
+Democratic party had been throughout the whole history of the State in
+decided political control. It turned out, nevertheless, that in the
+election held on November 7, an opposition majority of members of the
+legislature was chosen, and Lincoln became, to outward appearances, the
+most available opposition candidate. But party disintegration had been
+only partial. Lincoln and his party friends still called themselves
+Whigs, though they could muster only a minority of the total membership
+of the legislature. The so-called Anti-Nebraska Democrats, opposing
+Douglas and his followers, were still too full of traditional party
+prejudice to help elect a pronounced Whig to the United States Senate,
+though as strongly "Anti-Nebraska" as themselves. Five of them brought
+forward, and stubbornly voted for, Lyman Trumbull, an Anti-Nebraska
+Democrat of ability, who had been chosen representative in Congress from
+the eighth Illinois District in the recent election. On the ninth ballot
+it became evident to Lincoln that there was danger of a new Democratic
+candidate, neutral on the Nebraska question, being chosen. In this
+contingency, he manifested a personal generosity and political sagacity
+far above the comprehension of the ordinary smart politician. He advised
+and prevailed upon his Whig supporters to vote for Trumbull, and thus
+secure a vote in the United States Senate against slavery extension. He
+had rightly interpreted both statesmanship and human nature. His
+personal sacrifice on this occasion contributed essentially to the
+coming political regeneration of his State; and the five Anti-Nebraska
+Democrats, who then wrought his defeat, became his most devoted personal
+followers and efficient allies in his own later political triumph, which
+adverse currents, however, were still to delay to a tantalizing degree.
+The circumstances of his defeat at that critical stage of his career
+must have seemed especially irritating, yet he preserved a most
+remarkable equanimity of temper. "I regret my defeat moderately," he
+wrote to a sympathizing friend, "but I am not nervous about it."
+
+We may fairly infer that while Mr. Lincoln was not "nervous," he was
+nevertheless deeply impressed by the circumstance as an illustration of
+the grave nature of the pending political controversy. A letter written
+by him about half a year later to a friend in Kentucky, is full of such
+serious reflection as to show that the existing political conditions in
+the United States had engaged his most profound thought and
+investigation.
+
+"That spirit," he wrote, "which desired the peaceful extinction of
+slavery has itself become extinct with the occasion and the men of the
+Revolution. Under the impulse of that occasion, nearly half the States
+adopted systems of emancipation at once, and it is a significant fact
+that not a single State has done the like since. So far as peaceful
+voluntary emancipation is concerned, the condition of the negro slave in
+America, scarcely less terrible to the contemplation of a free mind, is
+now as fixed and hopeless of change for the better as that of the lost
+souls of the finally impenitent. The Autocrat of all the Russias will
+resign his crown and proclaim his subjects free republicans sooner than
+will our American masters voluntarily give up their slaves. 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."
+
+Not quite three years later Mr. Lincoln made the concluding problem of
+this letter the text of a famous speech. On the day before his first
+inauguration as President of the United States, the "Autocrat of all the
+Russias," Alexander II, by imperial decree emancipated his serfs; while
+six weeks after the inauguration the "American masters," headed by
+Jefferson Davis, began the greatest war of modern times to perpetuate
+and spread the institution of slavery.
+
+The excitement produced by the repeal of the Missouri Compromise in
+1854, by the election forays of the Missouri Border Ruffians into Kansas
+in 1855, and by the succeeding civil strife in 1856 in that Territory,
+wrought an effective transformation of political parties in the Union,
+in preparation for the presidential election of that year. This
+transformation, though not seriously checked, was very considerably
+complicated by an entirely new faction, or rather by the sudden revival
+of an old one, which in the past had called itself Native Americanism,
+and now assumed the name of the American Party, though it was more
+popularly known by the nickname of "Know-Nothings," because of its
+secret organization. It professed a certain hostility to foreign-born
+voters and to the Catholic religion, and demanded a change in the
+naturalization laws from a five years' to a twenty-one years'
+preliminary residence. This faction had gained some sporadic successes
+in Eastern cities, but when its national convention met in February,
+1856, to nominate candidates for President and Vice-President, the
+pending slavery question, that it had hitherto studiously ignored,
+caused a disruption of its organization; and though the adhering
+delegates nominated Millard Fillmore for President and A.J. Donelson for
+Vice-President, who remained in the field and were voted for, to some
+extent, in the presidential election, the organization was present only
+as a crippled and disturbing factor, and disappeared totally from
+politics in the following years.
+
+Both North and South, party lines adjusted themselves defiantly upon the
+single issue, for or against men and measures representing the extension
+or restriction of slavery. The Democratic party, though radically
+changing its constituent elements, retained the party name, and became
+the party of slavery extension, having forced the repeal and supported
+the resulting measures; while the Whig party entirely disappeared, its
+members in the Northern States joining the Anti-Nebraska Democrats in
+the formation of the new Republican party. Southern Whigs either went
+boldly into the Democratic camp, or followed for a while the delusive
+prospects of the Know-Nothings.
+
+This party change went on somewhat slowly in the State of Illinois,
+because that State extended in territorial length from the latitude of
+Massachusetts to that of Virginia, and its population contained an
+equally diverse local sentiment. The northern counties had at once
+become strongly Anti-Nebraska; the conservative Whig counties of the
+center inclined to the Know-Nothings; while the Kentuckians and
+Carolinians, who had settled the southern end, had strong antipathies to
+what they called abolitionism, and applauded Douglas and repeal.
+
+The agitation, however, swept on, and further hesitation became
+impossible. Early in 1856 Mr. Lincoln began to take an active part in
+organizing the Republican party. He attended a small gathering of
+Anti-Nebraska editors in February, at Decatur, who issued a call for a
+mass convention which met at Bloomington in May, at which the Republican
+party of Illinois was formally constituted by an enthusiastic gathering
+of local leaders who had formerly been bitter antagonists, but who now
+joined their efforts to resist slavery extension. They formulated an
+emphatic but not radical platform, and through a committee selected a
+composite ticket of candidates for State offices, which the convention
+approved by acclamation. The occasion remains memorable because of the
+closing address made by Mr. Lincoln in one of his most impressive
+oratorical moods. So completely were his auditors carried away by the
+force of his denunciation of existing political evils, and by the
+eloquence of his appeal for harmony and union to redress them, that
+neither a verbatim report nor even an authentic abstract was made during
+its delivery: but the lifting inspiration of its periods will never fade
+from the memory of those who heard it.
+
+About three weeks later, the first national convention of the Republican
+party met at Philadelphia, and nominated John C. Frémont of California
+for President. There was a certain fitness in this selection, from the
+fact that he had been elected to the United States Senate when
+California applied for admission as a free State, and that the
+resistance of the South to her admission had been the entering wedge of
+the slavery agitation of 1850. This, however, was in reality a minor
+consideration. It was rather his romantic fame as a daring Rocky
+Mountain explorer, appealing strongly to popular imagination and
+sympathy, which gave him prestige as a presidential candidate.
+
+It was at this point that the career of Abraham Lincoln had a narrow and
+fortunate escape from a premature and fatal prominence. The Illinois
+Bloomington convention had sent him as a delegate to the Philadelphia
+convention; and, no doubt very unexpectedly to himself, on the first
+ballot for a candidate for Vice-President he received one hundred and
+ten votes against two hundred and fifty-nine votes for William L. Dayton
+of New Jersey, upon which the choice of Mr. Dayton was at once made
+unanimous. But the incident proves that Mr. Lincoln was already gaining
+a national fame among the advanced leaders of political thought.
+Happily, a mysterious Providence reserved him for larger and nobler
+uses.
+
+The nominations thus made at Philadelphia completed the array for the
+presidential battle of 1856. The Democratic national convention had met
+at Cincinnati on June 2, and nominated James Buchanan for President and
+John C. Breckinridge for Vice-President. Its work presented two points
+of noteworthy interest, namely: that the South, in an arrogant
+pro-slavery dictatorship, relentlessly cast aside the claims of Douglas
+and Pierce, who had effected the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and
+nominated Buchanan, in apparently sure confidence of that
+super-serviceable zeal in behalf of slavery which he so obediently
+rendered; also, that in a platform of intolerable length there was such
+a cunning ambiguity of word and concealment of sense, such a double
+dealing of phrase and meaning, as to render it possible that the
+pro-slavery Democrats of the South and some antislavery Democrats of the
+North might join for the last time to elect a "Northern man with
+Southern principles."
+
+Again, in this campaign, as in several former presidential elections,
+Mr. Lincoln was placed upon the electoral ticket of Illinois, and he
+made over fifty speeches in his own and adjoining States in behalf of
+Frémont and Dayton. Not one of these speeches was reported in full, but
+the few fragments which have been preserved show that he occupied no
+doubtful ground on the pending issues. Already the Democrats were
+raising the potent alarm cry that the Republican party was sectional,
+and that its success would dissolve the Union. Mr. Lincoln did not then
+dream that he would ever have to deal practically with such a
+contingency, but his mind was very clear as to the method of meeting it.
+Speaking for the Republican party, he said:
+
+"But the Union in any event will not be dissolved. We don't want to
+dissolve it, and if you attempt it, we won't let you. With the purse and
+sword, the army and navy and treasury, in our hands and at our command,
+you could not do it. This government would be very weak, indeed, if a
+majority, with a disciplined army and navy and a well-filled treasury,
+could not preserve itself when attacked by an unarmed, undisciplined,
+unorganized minority. All this talk about the dissolution of the Union
+is humbug, nothing but folly. We do not want to dissolve the Union; you
+shall not."
+
+While the Republican party was much cast down by the election of
+Buchanan in November, the Democrats found significant cause for
+apprehension in the unexpected strength with which the Frémont ticket
+had been supported in the free States. Especially was this true in
+Illinois, where the adherents of Frémont and Fillmore had formed a
+fusion, and thereby elected a Republican governor and State officers.
+One of the strong elements of Mr. Lincoln's leadership was the cheerful
+hope he was always able to inspire in his followers, and his abiding
+faith in the correct political instincts of popular majorities. This
+trait was happily exemplified in a speech he made at a Republican
+banquet in Chicago about a month after the presidential election.
+Recalling the pregnant fact that though Buchanan gained a majority of
+the electoral vote, he was in a minority of about four hundred thousand
+of the popular vote for President, Mr. Lincoln thus summed up the
+chances of Republican success in the future:
+
+"Our government rests in public opinion. Whoever can change public
+opinion, can change the government, practically, just so much. Public
+opinion on any subject always has a 'central idea,' from which all its
+minor thoughts radiate. That 'central idea' in our political public
+opinion at the beginning was, and until recently has continued to be,
+'the equality of men.' And although it has always submitted patiently to
+whatever of inequality there seemed to be as matter of actual necessity,
+its constant working has been a steady progress towards the practical
+equality of all men. The late presidential election was a struggle by
+one party to discard that central idea and to substitute for it the
+opposite idea that slavery is right in the abstract; the workings of
+which as a central idea may be the perpetuity of human slavery and its
+extension to all countries and colors.... All of us who did not vote for
+Mr. Buchanan, taken together, are a majority of four hundred thousand.
+But in the late contest we were divided between Frémont and Fillmore.
+Can we not come together for the future? Let every one who really
+believes, and is resolved, that free society is not and shall not be a
+failure, and who can conscientiously declare that in the past contest he
+has done only what he thought best--let every such one have charity to
+believe that every other one can say as much. Thus let bygones be
+bygones; let past differences as nothing be; and with steady eye on the
+real issue, let us reinaugurate the good old 'central ideas' of the
+republic. We can do it. The human heart is with us; God is with us. We
+shall again be able, not to declare that 'all States as States are
+equal,' nor yet that 'all citizens as citizens are equal,' but to renew
+the broader, better declaration, including both these and much more,
+that 'all men are created equal.'"
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+Buchanan Elected President--The Dred Scott Decision--Douglas's
+Springfield Speech, 1857--Lincoln's Answering Speech--Criticism of Dred
+Scott Decision--Kansas Civil War--Buchanan Appoints Walker--Walker's
+Letter on Kansas--The Lecompton Constitution--Revolt of Douglas
+
+
+The election of 1856 once more restored the Democratic party to full
+political control in national affairs. James Buchanan was elected
+President to succeed Pierce; the Senate continued, as before, to have a
+decided Democratic majority; and a clear Democratic majority of
+twenty-five was chosen to the House of Representatives to succeed the
+heavy opposition majority of the previous Congress.
+
+Though the new House did not organize till a year after it was elected,
+the certainty of its coming action was sufficient not only to restore,
+but greatly to accelerate the pro-slavery reaction begun by the repeal
+of the Missouri Compromise. This impending drift of national policy now
+received a powerful impetus by an act of the third coördinate branch,
+the judicial department of the government.
+
+Very unexpectedly to the public at large, the Supreme Court of the
+United States, a few days after Buchanan's inauguration, announced its
+judgment in what quickly became famous as the Dred Scott decision. Dred
+Scott, a negro slave in Missouri, sued for his freedom on the ground
+that his master had taken him to reside in the State of Illinois and
+the Territory of Wisconsin, where slavery was prohibited by law. The
+question had been twice decided by Missouri courts, once for and then
+against Dred Scott's claim; and now the Supreme Court of the United
+States, after hearing the case twice elaborately argued by eminent
+counsel, finally decided that Dred Scott, being a negro, could not
+become a citizen, and therefore was not entitled to bring suit. This
+branch, under ordinary precedent, simply threw the case out of court;
+but in addition, the decision, proceeding with what lawyers call _obiter
+dictum_, went on to declare that under the Constitution of the United
+States neither Congress nor a territorial legislature possessed power to
+prohibit slavery in Federal Territories.
+
+The whole country immediately flared up with the agitation of the
+slavery question in this new form. The South defended the decision with
+heat, the North protested against it with indignation, and the
+controversy was greatly intensified by a phrase in the opinion of Chief
+Justice Taney, that at the time of the Declaration of Independence
+negroes were considered by general public opinion to be so far inferior
+"that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect."
+
+This decision of the Supreme Court placed Senator Douglas in a curious
+dilemma. While it served to indorse and fortify his course in repealing
+the Missouri Compromise, it, on the other hand, totally negatived his
+theory by which he had sought to make the repeal palatable, that the
+people of a Territory, by the exercise of his great principle of popular
+sovereignty, could decide the slavery question for themselves. But,
+being a subtle sophist, he sought to maintain a show of consistency by
+an ingenious evasion. In the month of June following the decision, he
+made a speech at Springfield, Illinois, in which he tentatively
+announced what in the next year became widely celebrated as his Freeport
+doctrine, and was immediately denounced by his political confrères of
+the South as serious party heterodoxy. First lauding the Supreme Court
+as "the highest judicial tribunal on earth," and declaring that violent
+resistance to its decrees must be put down by the strong arm of the
+government, he went on thus to define a master's right to his slave in
+Kansas:
+
+"While the right continues in full force under the guarantees of the
+Constitution, and cannot be divested or alienated by an act of Congress,
+it necessarily remains a barren and a worthless right unless sustained,
+protected, and enforced by appropriate police regulations and local
+legislation prescribing adequate remedies for its violation. These
+regulations and remedies must necessarily depend entirely upon the will
+and wishes of the people of the Territory, as they can only be
+prescribed by the local legislatures. Hence, the great principle of
+popular sovereignty and self-government is sustained and firmly
+established by the authority of this decision."
+
+Both the legal and political aspects of the new question immediately
+engaged the earnest attention of Mr. Lincoln; and his splendid power of
+analysis set its ominous portent in a strong light. He made a speech in
+reply to Douglas about two weeks after, subjecting the Dred Scott
+decision to a searching and eloquent criticism. He said:
+
+"That decision declares two propositions--first, that a negro cannot sue
+in the United States courts; and secondly, that Congress cannot prohibit
+slavery in the Territories. It was made by a divided court--dividing
+differently on the different points. Judge Douglas does not discuss the
+merits of the decision, and in that respect I shall follow his example,
+believing I could no more improve on McLean and Curtis than he could on
+Taney.... We think the Dred Scott decision was erroneous. We know the
+court that made it has often overruled its own decisions, and we shall
+do what we can to have it overrule this. We offer no resistance to
+it.... If this important decision had been made by the unanimous
+concurrence of the judges, and without any apparent partizan bias, and
+in accordance with legal public expectation and with the steady practice
+of the departments throughout our history and had been in no part based
+on assumed historical facts which are not really true; or if, wanting in
+some of these, it had been before the court more than once, and had
+there been affirmed and reaffirmed through a course of years, it then
+might be, perhaps would be, factious, nay, even revolutionary, not to
+acquiesce in it as a precedent. But when, as is true, we find it wanting
+in all these claims to the public confidence, it is not resistance, it
+is not factious, it is not even disrespectful, to treat it as not having
+yet quite established a settled doctrine for the country....
+
+"The Chief Justice does not directly assert, but plainly assumes, as a
+fact, that the public estimate of the black man is more favorable now
+than it was in the days of the Revolution. This assumption is a mistake.
+In some trifling particulars the condition of that race has been
+ameliorated; but as a whole, in this country, the change between then
+and now is decidedly the other way; and their ultimate destiny has never
+appeared so hopeless as in the last three or four years. In two of the
+five States--New Jersey and North Carolina--that then gave the free
+negro the right of voting, the right has since been taken away; and in
+the third--New York--it has been greatly abridged; while it has not
+been extended, so far as I know, to a single additional State, though
+the number of the States has more than doubled. In those days, as I
+understand, masters could, at their own pleasure, emancipate their
+slaves; but since then such legal restraints have been made upon
+emancipation as to amount almost to prohibition. In those days,
+legislatures held the unquestioned power to abolish slavery in their
+respective States, but now it is becoming quite fashionable for State
+constitutions to withhold that power from the legislatures. In those
+days, by common consent, the spread of the black man's bondage to the
+new countries was prohibited, but now Congress decides that it will not
+continue the prohibition and the Supreme Court decides that it could not
+if it would. In those days, our Declaration of Independence was held
+sacred by all, and thought to include all; but now, to aid in making the
+bondage of the negro universal and eternal, it is assailed and sneered
+at and construed, and hawked at and torn, till, if its framers could
+rise from their graves, they could not at all recognize it. All the
+powers of earth seem rapidly combining against him. Mammon is after him,
+ambition follows, philosophy follows, and the theology of the day is
+fast joining the cry. They have him in his prison-house; they have
+searched his person, and left no prying instrument with him. One after
+another they have closed the heavy iron doors upon him; and now they
+have him, as it were, bolted in with a lock of a hundred keys, which can
+never be unlocked without the concurrence of every key--the keys in the
+hands of a hundred different men, and they scattered to a hundred
+different and distant places; and they stand musing as to what
+invention, in all the dominions of mind and matter, can be produced to
+make the impossibility of his escape more complete than it is."
+
+There is not room to quote the many other equally forcible points in Mr.
+Lincoln's speech. Our narrative must proceed to other significant events
+in the great pro-slavery reaction. Thus far the Kansas experiment had
+produced nothing but agitation, strife, and bloodshed. First the storm
+in Congress over repeal; then a mad rush of emigration to occupy the
+Territory. This was followed by the Border Ruffian invasions, in which
+Missouri voters elected a bogus territorial legislature, and the bogus
+legislature enacted a code of bogus laws. In turn, the more rapid
+emigration from free States filled the Territory with a majority of
+free-State voters, who quickly organized a compact free-State party,
+which sent a free-State constitution, known as the Topeka Constitution,
+to Congress, and applied for admission. This movement proved barren,
+because the two houses of Congress were divided in sentiment. Meanwhile,
+President Pierce recognized the bogus laws, and issued proclamations
+declaring the free-State movement illegal and insurrectionary; and the
+free-State party had in its turn baffled the enforcement of the bogus
+laws, partly by concerted action of nonconformity and neglect, partly by
+open defiance. The whole finally culminated in a chronic border war
+between Missouri raiders on one hand, and free-State guerrillas on the
+other; and it became necessary to send Federal troops to check the
+disorder. These were instructed by Jefferson Davis, then Secretary of
+War, that "rebellion must be crushed." The future Confederate President
+little suspected the tremendous prophetic import of his order. The most
+significant illustration of the underlying spirit of the struggle was
+that President Pierce had successively appointed three Democratic
+governors for the Territory, who, starting with pro-slavery bias, all
+became free-State partizans, and were successively insulted and driven
+from the Territory by the pro-slavery faction when in manly protest they
+refused to carry out the behests of the Missouri conspiracy. After a
+three years' struggle neither faction had been successful, neither party
+was satisfied; and the administration of Pierce bequeathed to its
+successor the same old question embittered by rancor and defeat.
+
+President Buchanan began his administration with a boldly announced
+pro-slavery policy. In his inaugural address he invoked the popular
+acceptance of the Dred Scott decision, which he already knew was coming;
+and a few months later declared in a public letter that slavery "exists
+in Kansas under the Constitution of the United States.... How it ever
+could have been seriously doubted is a mystery." He chose for the
+governorship of Kansas, Robert J. Walker, a citizen of Mississippi of
+national fame and of pronounced pro-slavery views, who accepted his
+dangerous mission only upon condition that a new constitution, to be
+formed for that State, must be honestly submitted to the real voters of
+Kansas for adoption or rejection. President Buchanan and his advisers,
+as well as Senator Douglas, accepted this condition repeatedly and
+emphatically. But when the new governor went to the Territory, he soon
+became convinced, and reported to his chief, that to make a slave State
+of Kansas was a delusive hope. "Indeed," he wrote, "it is universally
+admitted here that the only real question is this: whether Kansas shall
+be a conservative, constitutional, Democratic, and ultimately free
+State, or whether it shall be a Republican and abolition State."
+
+As a compensation for the disappointment, however, he wrote later direct
+to the President:
+
+"But we must have a slave State out of the southwestern Indian
+Territory, and then a calm will follow; Cuba be acquired with the
+acquiescence of the North; and your administration, having in reality
+settled the slavery question, be regarded in all time to come as a
+re-signing and re-sealing of the Constitution.... I shall be pleased
+soon to hear from you. Cuba! Cuba! (and Porto Rico, if possible) should
+be the countersign of your administration, and it will close in a blaze
+of glory."
+
+And the governor was doubtless much gratified to receive the President's
+unqualified indorsement in reply: "On the question of submitting the
+constitution to the _bona fide_ resident settlers of Kansas, I am
+willing to stand or fall."
+
+The sequel to this heroic posturing of the chief magistrate is one of
+the most humiliating chapters in American politics. Attendant
+circumstances leave little doubt that a portion of Mr. Buchanan's
+cabinet, in secret league and correspondence with the pro-slavery
+Missouri-Kansas cabal, aided and abetted the framing and adoption of
+what is known to history as the Lecompton Constitution, an organic
+instrument of a radical pro-slavery type; that its pretended submission
+to popular vote was under phraseology, and in combination with such
+gigantic electoral frauds and dictatorial procedure, as to render the
+whole transaction a mockery of popular government; still worse, that
+President Buchanan himself, proving too weak in insight and will to
+detect the intrigue or resist the influence of his malign counselors,
+abandoned his solemn pledges to Governor Walker, adopted the Lecompton
+Constitution as an administration measure, and recommended it to
+Congress in a special message, announcing dogmatically: "Kansas is
+therefore at this moment as much a slave State as Georgia or South
+Carolina."
+
+The radical pro-slavery attitude thus assumed by President Buchanan and
+Southern leaders threw the Democratic party of the free States into
+serious disarray, while upon Senator Douglas the blow fell with the
+force of party treachery--almost of personal indignity. The Dred Scott
+decision had rudely brushed aside his theory of popular sovereignty, and
+now the Lecompton Constitution proceedings brutally trampled it down in
+practice. The disaster overtook him, too, at a critical moment. His
+senatorial term was about to expire; the next Illinois legislature would
+elect his successor. The prospect was none too bright for him, for at
+the late presidential election Illinois had chosen Republican State
+officers. He was compelled either to break his pledges to the Democratic
+voters of Illinois, or to lead a revolt against President Buchanan and
+the Democratic leaders in Congress. Party disgrace at Washington, or
+popular disgrace in Illinois, were the alternatives before him. To lose
+his reëlection to the Senate would almost certainly end his public
+career. When, therefore, Congress met in December, 1857, Douglas boldly
+attacked and denounced the Lecompton Constitution, even before the
+President had recommended it in his special message.
+
+"Stand by the doctrine," he said, "that leaves the people perfectly free
+to form and regulate their institutions for themselves, in their own
+way, and your party will be united and irresistible in power.... If
+Kansas wants a slave-State constitution, she has a right to it; if she
+wants a free-State constitution, she has a right to it. It is none of my
+business which way the slavery clause is decided. I care not whether it
+is voted down or voted up. Do you suppose, after the pledges of my honor
+that I would go for that principle and leave the people to vote as they
+choose, that I would now degrade myself by voting one way if the
+slavery clause be voted down, and another way if it be voted up? I care
+not how that vote may stand.... Ignore Lecompton; ignore Topeka; treat
+both those party movements as irregular and void; pass a fair bill--the
+one that we framed ourselves when we were acting as a unit; have a fair
+election--and you will have peace in the Democratic party, and peace
+throughout the country, in ninety days. The people want a fair vote.
+They will never be satisfied without it.... But if this constitution is
+to be forced down our throats in violation of the fundamental principle
+of free government, under a mode of submission that is a mockery and
+insult, I will resist it to the last."
+
+Walker, the fourth Democratic governor who had now been sacrificed to
+the interests of the Kansas pro-slavery cabal, also wrote a sharp letter
+of resignation denouncing the Lecompton fraud and policy; and such was
+the indignation aroused in the free States, that although the Senate
+passed the Lecompton Bill, twenty-two Northern Democrats joining their
+vote to that of the Republicans, the measure was defeated in the House
+of Representatives. The President and his Southern partizans bitterly
+resented this defeat; and the schism between them, on the one hand, and
+Douglas and his adherents, on the other, became permanent and
+irreconcilable.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+The Senatorial Contest in Illinois--"House Divided against Itself"
+Speech--The Lincoln-Douglas Debates--The Freeport Doctrine--Douglas
+Deposed from Chairmanship of Committee on Territories--Benjamin on
+Douglas--Lincoln's Popular Majority--Douglas Gains Legislature--Greeley,
+Crittenden, _et al._--"The Fight Must Go On"--Douglas's Southern
+Speeches--Senator Brown's Questions--Lincoln's Warning against Popular
+Sovereignty--The War of Pamphlets--Lincoln's Ohio Speeches--The John
+Brown Raid--Lincoln's Comment
+
+
+The hostility of the Buchanan administration to Douglas for his part in
+defeating the Lecompton Constitution, and the multiplying chances
+against him, served only to stimulate his followers in Illinois to
+greater efforts to secure his reëlection. Precisely the same elements
+inspired the hope and increased the enthusiasm of the Republicans of the
+State to accomplish his defeat. For a candidate to oppose the "Little
+Giant," there could be no rival in the Republican ranks to Abraham
+Lincoln. He had in 1854 yielded his priority of claim to Trumbull; he
+alone had successfully encountered Douglas in debate. The political
+events themselves seemed to have selected and pitted these two champions
+against each other. Therefore, when the Illinois State convention on
+June 16, 1858, passed by acclamation a separate resolution, "That
+Abraham Lincoln is the first and only choice of the Republicans of
+Illinois for the United States Senate as the successor of Stephen A.
+Douglas," it only recorded the well-known judgment of the party. After
+its routine work was finished, the convention adjourned to meet again in
+the hall of the State House at Springfield at eight o'clock in the
+evening. At that hour Mr. Lincoln appeared before the assembled
+delegates and delivered a carefully studied speech, which has become
+historic. After a few opening sentences, he uttered the following
+significant prediction:
+
+"'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 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."
+
+Then followed his critical analysis of the legislative objects and
+consequences of the Nebraska Bill, and the judicial effects and
+doctrines of the Dred Scott decision, with their attendant and related
+incidents. The first of these had opened all the national territory to
+slavery. The second established the constitutional interpretation that
+neither Congress nor a territorial legislature could exclude slavery
+from any United States territory. The President had declared Kansas to
+be already practically a slave State. Douglas had announced that he did
+not care whether slavery was voted down or voted up. Adding to these
+many other indications of current politics, Mr. Lincoln proceeded:
+
+"Put this and that together, and we have another nice little niche,
+which we may, ere long, 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.... Such a decision is all that
+slavery now lacks of being alike lawful in all the States.... We shall
+lie down pleasantly dreaming that the people of Missouri are on the
+verge of making their State free, and we shall awake to the reality,
+instead, that the Supreme Court has made Illinois a slave State."
+
+To avert this danger, Mr. Lincoln declared it was the duty of
+Republicans to overthrow both Douglas and the Buchanan political
+dynasty.
+
+"Two years ago the Republicans of the nation mustered over thirteen
+hundred thousand strong. We did this under the single impulse of
+resistance to a common danger, with every external circumstance against
+us. Of strange, discordant, and even hostile elements, we gathered from
+the four winds, and formed and fought the battle through, under the
+constant hot fire of a disciplined, proud, and pampered enemy. Did we
+brave all then to falter now?--now, when that same enemy is wavering,
+dissevered, and belligerent? The result is not doubtful. We shall not
+fail--if we stand firm, we shall not fail. Wise counsels may accelerate
+or mistakes delay it, but, sooner or later, the victory is sure to
+come."
+
+Lincoln's speech excited the greatest interest everywhere throughout the
+free States. The grave peril he so clearly pointed out came home to the
+people of the North almost with the force of a revelation; and
+thereafter their eyes were fixed upon the Illinois senatorial campaign
+with undivided attention. Another incident also drew to it the equal
+notice and interest of the politicians of the slave States.
+
+Within a month from the date of Lincoln's speech, Douglas returned from
+Washington and began his campaign of active speech-making in Illinois.
+The fame he had acquired as the champion of the Nebraska Bill, and, more
+recently, the prominence into which his opposition to the Lecompton
+fraud had lifted him in Congress, attracted immense crowds to his
+meetings, and for a few days it seemed as if the mere contagion of
+popular enthusiasm would submerge all intelligent political discussion.
+To counteract this, Mr. Lincoln, at the advice of his leading friends,
+sent him a letter challenging him to joint public debate. Douglas
+accepted the challenge, but with evident hesitation; and it was arranged
+that they should jointly address the same meetings at seven towns in the
+State, on dates extending through August, September, and October. The
+terms were, that, alternately, one should speak an hour in opening, the
+other an hour and a half in reply, and the first again have half an hour
+in closing. This placed the contestants upon an equal footing before
+their audiences. Douglas's senatorial prestige afforded him no
+advantage. Face to face with the partizans of both, gathered in immense
+numbers and alert with critical and jealous watchfulness, there was no
+evading the square, cold, rigid test of skill in argument and truth in
+principle. The processions and banners, the music and fireworks, of both
+parties, were stilled and forgotten while the audience listened with
+high-strung nerves to the intellectual combat of three hours' duration.
+
+It would be impossible to give the scope and spirit of these famous
+debates in the space allotted to these pages, but one of the
+turning-points in the oratorical contest needs particular mention.
+Northern Illinois, peopled mostly from free States, and southern
+Illinois, peopled mostly from slave States, were radically opposed in
+sentiment on the slavery question; even the old Whigs of central
+Illinois had to a large extent joined the Democratic party, because of
+their ineradicable prejudice against what they stigmatized as
+"abolitionism." To take advantage of this prejudice, Douglas, in his
+opening speech in the first debate at Ottawa in northern Illinois,
+propounded to Lincoln a series of questions designed to commit him to
+strong antislavery doctrines. He wanted to know whether Mr. Lincoln
+stood pledged to the repeal of the fugitive-slave law; against the
+admission of any more slave States; to the abolition of slavery in the
+District of Columbia; to the prohibition of the slave trade between
+different States; to prohibit slavery in all the Territories; to oppose
+the acquisition of any new territory unless slavery were first
+prohibited therein.
+
+In their second joint debate at Freeport, Lincoln answered that he was
+pledged to none of these propositions, except the prohibition of slavery
+in all Territories of the United States. In turn he propounded four
+questions to Douglas, the second of which was:
+
+"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?"
+
+Mr. Lincoln had long and carefully studied the import and effect of this
+interrogatory, and nearly a month before, in a private letter,
+accurately foreshadowed Douglas's course upon it:
+
+"You shall have hard work," he wrote, "to get him directly to the point
+whether a territorial legislature has or has not the power to exclude
+slavery. But if you succeed in bringing him to it--though he will be
+compelled to say it possesses no such power--he will instantly take
+ground that slavery cannot actually exist in the Territories unless the
+people desire it and so give it protection by territorial legislation.
+If this offends the South, he will let it offend them, as at all events
+he means to hold on to his chances in Illinois."
+
+On the night before the Freeport debate the question had also been
+considered in a hurried caucus of Lincoln's party friends. They all
+advised against propounding it, saying, "If you do, you can never be
+senator." "Gentlemen," replied Lincoln, "I am killing larger game; if
+Douglas answers, he can never be President, and the battle of 1860 is
+worth a hundred of this."
+
+As Lincoln had predicted, Douglas had no resource but to repeat the
+sophism he had hastily invented in his Springfield speech of the
+previous year.
+
+"It matters not," replied he, "what way the Supreme Court may hereafter
+decide as to the abstract question whether slavery may or may not go
+into a Territory under the Constitution, the people have the lawful
+means to introduce it or exclude it, as they please, for the reason that
+slavery cannot exist a day or an hour anywhere unless it is supported by
+local police regulations. Those police regulations can only be
+established by the local legislature, and if the people are opposed to
+slavery they will elect representatives to that body who will by
+unfriendly legislation effectually prevent the introduction of it into
+their midst. If, on the contrary, they are for it, their legislation
+will favor its extension. Hence, no matter what the decision of the
+Supreme Court may be on that abstract question, still the right of the
+people to make a slave Territory or a free Territory is perfect and
+complete under the Nebraska Bill."
+
+In the course of the next joint debate at Jonesboro', Mr. Lincoln easily
+disposed of this sophism by showing: 1. That, practically, slavery had
+worked its way into Territories without "police regulations" in almost
+every instance; 2. That United States courts were established to protect
+and enforce rights under the Constitution; 3. That members of a
+territorial legislature could not violate their oath to support the
+Constitution of the United States; and, 4. That in default of
+legislative support, Congress would be bound to supply it for any right
+under the Constitution.
+
+The serious aspect of the matter, however, to Douglas was not the
+criticism of the Republicans, but the view taken by Southern Democratic
+leaders, of his "Freeport doctrine," or doctrine of "unfriendly
+legislation." His opposition to the Lecompton Constitution in the
+Senate, grievous stumbling-block to their schemes as it had proved,
+might yet be passed over as a reckless breach of party discipline; but
+this new announcement at Freeport was unpardonable doctrinal heresy, as
+rank as the abolitionism of Giddings and Lovejoy.
+
+The Freeport joint debate took place August 27, 1858. When Congress
+convened on the first Monday in December of the same year, one of the
+first acts of the Democratic senators was to put him under party ban by
+removing him from the chairmanship of the Committee on Territories, a
+position he had held for eleven years. In due time, also, the Southern
+leaders broke up the Charleston convention rather than permit him to be
+nominated for President; and, three weeks later, Senator Benjamin of
+Louisiana frankly set forth, in a Senate speech, the light in which they
+viewed his apostacy:
+
+"We accuse him for this, to wit: that having bargained with us upon a
+point upon which we were at issue, that it should be considered a
+judicial point; that he would abide the decision; that he would act
+under the decision, and consider it a doctrine of the party; that having
+said that to us here in the Senate, he went home, and, under the stress
+of a local election, his knees gave way; his whole person trembled. His
+adversary stood upon principle and was beaten; and, lo! he is the
+candidate of a mighty party for the presidency of the United States. The
+senator from Illinois faltered. He got the prize for which he faltered;
+but, lo! the grand prize of his ambition to-day slips from his grasp,
+because of his faltering in his former contest, and his success in the
+canvass for the Senate, purchased for an ignoble price, has cost him the
+loss of the presidency of the United States."
+
+In addition to the seven joint debates, both Lincoln and Douglas made
+speeches at separate meetings of their own during almost every day of
+the three months' campaign, and sometimes two or three speeches a day.
+At the election which was held on November 2, 1858, a legislature was
+chosen containing fifty-four Democrats and forty-six Republicans,
+notwithstanding the fact that the Republicans had a plurality of
+thirty-eight hundred and twenty-one on the popular vote. But the
+apportionment was based on the census of 1850, and did not reflect
+recent changes in political sentiment, which, if fairly represented,
+would have given them an increased strength of from six to ten members
+in the legislature. Another circumstance had great influence in causing
+Lincoln's defeat. Douglas's opposition to the Lecompton Constitution in
+Congress had won him great sympathy among a few Republican leaders in
+the Eastern States. It was even whispered that Seward wished Douglas to
+succeed as a strong rebuke to the Buchanan administration. The most
+potent expression and influence of this feeling came, however, from
+another quarter. Senator Crittenden of Kentucky, who, since Clay's death
+in 1852, was the acknowledged leader of what remained of the Whig party,
+wrote a letter during the campaign, openly advocating the reëlection of
+Douglas, and this, doubtless, influenced the vote of all the Illinois
+Whigs who had not yet formally joined the Republican party. Lincoln's
+own analysis gives, perhaps, the clearest view of the unusual political
+conditions:
+
+"Douglas had three or four very distinguished men of the most extreme
+antislavery views of any men in the Republican party expressing their
+desire for his reëlection to the Senate last year. That would of itself
+have seemed to be a little wonderful, but that wonder is heightened when
+we see that Wise of Virginia, a man exactly opposed to them, a man who
+believes in the divine right of slavery, was also expressing his desire
+that Douglas should be reëlected; that another man that may be said to
+be kindred to Wise, Mr. Breckinridge, the Vice-President, and of your
+own State, was also agreeing with the antislavery men in the North that
+Douglas ought to be reëlected. Still to heighten the wonder, a senator
+from Kentucky, whom I have always loved with an affection as tender and
+endearing as I have ever loved any man, who was opposed to the
+antislavery men for reasons which seemed sufficient to him, and equally
+opposed to Wise and Breckinridge, was writing letters to Illinois to
+secure the reëlection of Douglas. Now that all these conflicting
+elements should be brought, while at daggers' points with one another,
+to support him, is a feat that is worthy for you to note and consider.
+It is quite probable that each of these classes of men thought by the
+reëlection of Douglas their peculiar views would gain something; it is
+probable that the antislavery men thought their views would gain
+something that Wise and Breckinridge thought so too, as regards their
+opinions; that Mr. Crittenden thought that his views would gain
+something, although he was opposed to both these other men. It is
+probable that each and all of them thought they were using Douglas, and
+it is yet an unsolved problem whether he was not using them all."
+
+Lincoln, though beaten in his race for the Senate, was by no means
+dismayed, nor did he lose his faith in the ultimate triumph of the cause
+he had so ably championed. Writing to a friend, he said:
+
+"You doubtless have seen ere this the result of the election here. Of
+course I wished, but I did not much expect a better result.... I am glad
+I made the late race. It gave me a hearing on the great and durable
+question of the age, which I could have had in no other way; and though
+I now sink out of view, and shall be forgotten, I believe I have made
+some marks which will tell for the cause of civil liberty long after I
+am gone."
+
+And to another:
+
+"Yours of the 13th was received some days ago. The fight must go on. The
+cause of civil liberty must not be surrendered at the end of one or even
+one hundred defeats. Douglas had the ingenuity to be supported in the
+late contest, both as the best means to break down and to uphold the
+slave interest. No ingenuity can keep these antagonistic elements in
+harmony long. Another explosion will soon come."
+
+In his "House divided against itself" speech, Lincoln had emphatically
+cautioned Republicans not to be led on a false trail by the opposition
+Douglas had made to the Lecompton Constitution; that his temporary
+quarrel with the Buchanan administration could not be relied upon to
+help overthrow that pro-slavery dynasty.
+
+"How can he oppose the advances of slavery? He don't care anything about
+it. His avowed mission is impressing the 'public heart' to care nothing
+about it.... Whenever, if ever, he and we can come together on principle
+so that our great cause may have assistance from his great ability, I
+hope to have interposed no adventitious obstacle. But, clearly, he is
+not now with us--he does not pretend to be--he does not promise ever to
+be. Our cause, then, must be intrusted to, and conducted by, its own
+undoubted friends--those whose hands are free, whose hearts are in the
+work, who do care for the result."
+
+Since the result of the Illinois senatorial campaign had assured the
+reëlection of Douglas to the Senate, Lincoln's sage advice acquired a
+double significance and value. Almost immediately after the close of the
+campaign Douglas took a trip through the Southern States, and in
+speeches made by him at Memphis, at New Orleans, and at Baltimore sought
+to regain the confidence of Southern politicians by taking decidedly
+advanced ground toward Southern views on the slavery question. On the
+sugar plantations of Louisiana he said, it was not a question between
+the white man and the negro, but between the negro and the crocodile. He
+would say that between the negro and the crocodile, he took the side of
+the negro; but between the negro and the white man, he would go for the
+white man. The Almighty had drawn a line on this continent, on the one
+side of which the soil must be cultivated by slave labor? on the other,
+by white labor. That line did not run on 36° and 30' [the Missouri
+Compromise line], for 36° and 30' runs over mountains and through
+valleys. But this slave line, he said, meanders in the sugar-fields and
+plantations of the South, and the people living in their different
+localities and in the Territories must determine for themselves whether
+their "middle belt" were best adapted to slavery or free labor. He
+advocated the eventual annexation of Cuba and Central America. Still
+going a step further, he laid down a far-reaching principle.
+
+"It is a law of humanity," he said, "a law of civilization that whenever
+a man or a race of men show themselves incapable of managing their own
+affairs, they must consent to be governed by those who are capable of
+performing the duty.... In accordance with this principle, I assert that
+the negro race, under all circumstances, at all times, and in all
+countries, has shown itself incapable of self-government."
+
+This pro-slavery coquetting, however, availed him nothing, as he felt
+himself obliged in the same speeches to defend his Freeport doctrine.
+Having taken his seat in Congress, Senator Brown of Mississippi, toward
+the close of the short session, catechized him sharply on this point.
+
+"If the territorial legislature refuses to act," he inquired "will you
+act? If it pass unfriendly acts, will you pass friendly? If it pass laws
+hostile to slavery, will you annul them, and substitute laws favoring
+slavery in their stead?"
+
+There was no evading these direct questions, and Douglas answered
+frankly:
+
+"I tell you, gentlemen of the South, in all candor, I do not believe a
+Democratic candidate can ever carry any one Democratic State of the
+North on the platform that it is the duty of the Federal government to
+force the people of a Territory to have slavery when they do not want
+it."
+
+An extended discussion between Northern and Southern Democratic
+senators followed the colloquy, which showed that the Freeport doctrine
+had opened up an irreparable schism between the Northern and Southern
+wings of the Democratic party.
+
+In all the speeches made by Douglas during his Southern tour, he
+continually referred to Mr. Lincoln as the champion of abolitionism, and
+to his doctrines as the platform of the abolition or Republican party.
+The practical effect of this course was to extend and prolong the
+Illinois senatorial campaign of 1858, to expand it to national breadth,
+and gradually to merge it in the coming presidential campaign. The
+effect of this was not only to keep before the public the position of
+Lincoln as the Republican champion of Illinois, but also gradually to
+lift him into general recognition as a national leader. Throughout the
+year 1859 politicians and newspapers came to look upon Lincoln as the
+one antagonist who could at all times be relied on to answer and refute
+the Douglas arguments. His propositions were so forcible and direct, his
+phraseology so apt and fresh, that they held the attention and excited
+comment. A letter written by him in answer to an invitation to attend a
+celebration of Jefferson's birthday in Boston, contains some notable
+passages:
+
+"Soberly, it is now no child's play to save the principles of Jefferson
+from total overthrow in this nation. One would state with great
+confidence that he could convince any sane child that the simpler
+propositions of Euclid are true; but, nevertheless, he would fail,
+utterly, with one who should deny the definitions and axioms. The
+principles of Jefferson are the definitions and axioms of free society.
+And yet they are denied and evaded with no small show of success. One
+dashingly calls them 'glittering generalities.' Another bluntly calls
+them 'self-evident lies.' And others insidiously argue that they apply
+to 'superior races.' These expressions, differing in form, are identical
+in object and effect--the supplanting the principles of free government,
+and restoring those of classification, caste, and legitimacy. They would
+delight a convocation of crowned heads plotting against the people. They
+are the vanguard, the miners and sappers of returning despotism. We must
+repulse them, or they will subjugate us. This is a world of
+compensation; and he who would be no slave must consent to have no
+slave. Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves,
+and, under a just God, cannot long retain it."
+
+Douglas's quarrel with the Buchanan administration had led many
+Republicans to hope that they might be able to utilize his name and his
+theory of popular sovereignty to aid them in their local campaigns.
+Lincoln knew from his recent experience the peril of this delusive party
+strategy, and was constant and earnest in his warnings against adopting
+it. In a little speech after the Chicago municipal election on March 1,
+1859, he said:
+
+"If we, the Republicans of this State, had made Judge Douglas our
+candidate for the Senate of the United States last year, and had elected
+him, there would to-day be no Republican party in this Union.... Let the
+Republican party of Illinois dally with Judge Douglas, let them fall in
+behind him and make him their candidate, and they do not absorb him--he
+absorbs them. They would come out at the end all Douglas men, all
+claimed by him as having indorsed every one of his doctrines upon the
+great subject with which the whole nation is engaged at this hour--that
+the question of negro slavery is simply a question of dollars and
+cents? that the Almighty has drawn a line across the continent, on one
+side of which labor--the cultivation of the soil--must always be
+performed by slaves. It would be claimed that we, like him, do not care
+whether slavery is voted up or voted down. Had we made him our candidate
+and given him a great majority, we should never have heard an end of
+declarations by him that we had indorsed all these dogmas."
+
+To a Kansas friend he wrote on May 14, 1859:
+
+"You will probably adopt resolutions in the nature of a platform. I
+think the only temptation will be to lower the Republican standard in
+order to gather recruits In my judgment, such a step would be a serious
+mistake, and open a gap through which more would pass out than pass in.
+And this would be the same whether the letting down should be in
+deference to Douglasism, or to the Southern opposition element; either
+would surrender the object of the Republican organization--the
+preventing of the spread and nationalization of slavery.... Let a union
+be attempted on the basis of ignoring the slavery question, and
+magnifying other questions which the people are just now not caring
+about, and it will result in gaining no single electoral vote in the
+South, and losing every one in the North."
+
+To Schuyler Colfax (afterward Vice-President) he said in a letter dated
+July 6, 1859:
+
+"My main object in such conversation would be to hedge against divisions
+in the Republican ranks generally and particularly for the contest of
+1860. The point of danger is the temptation in different localities to
+'platform' for something which will be popular just there, but which,
+nevertheless, will be a firebrand elsewhere and especially in a national
+convention. As instances: the movement against foreigners in
+Massachusetts; in New Hampshire, to make obedience to the
+fugitive-slave law punishable as a crime; in Ohio, to repeal the
+fugitive-slave law; and squatter sovereignty, in Kansas. In these things
+there is explosive matter enough to blow up half a dozen national
+conventions, if it gets into them; and what gets very rife outside of
+conventions is very likely to find its way into them."
+
+And again, to another warm friend in Columbus, Ohio, he wrote in a
+letter dated July 28, 1859:
+
+"There is another thing our friends are doing which gives me some
+uneasiness. It is their leaning toward 'popular sovereignty.' There are
+three substantial objections to this. First, no party can command
+respect which sustains this year what it opposed last. Secondly Douglas
+(who is the most dangerous enemy of liberty, because the most insidious
+one) would have little support in the North, and, by consequence, no
+capital to trade on in the South, if it were not for his friends thus
+magnifying him and his humbug. But lastly, and chiefly, Douglas's
+popular sovereignty, accepted by the public mind as a just principle,
+nationalizes slavery, and revives the African slave-trade inevitably.
+Taking slaves into new Territories, and buying slaves in Africa, are
+identical things, identical rights or identical wrongs, and the argument
+which establishes one will establish the other. Try a thousand years for
+a sound reason why Congress shall not hinder the people of Kansas from
+having slaves, and when you have found it, it will be an equally good
+one why Congress should not hinder the people of Georgia from importing
+slaves from Africa."
+
+An important election occurred in the State of Ohio in the autumn of
+1859, and during the canvass Douglas made two speeches in which, as
+usual, his pointed attacks were directed against Lincoln by name. Quite
+naturally, the Ohio Republicans called Lincoln to answer him, and the
+marked impression created by Lincoln's replies showed itself not alone
+in their unprecedented circulation in print in newspapers and pamphlets,
+but also in the decided success which the Ohio Republicans gained at the
+polls. About the same time, also, Douglas printed a long political essay
+in "Harper's Magazine," using as a text quotations from Lincoln's "House
+divided against itself" speech, and Seward's Rochester speech defining
+the "irrepressible conflict." Attorney-General Black of President
+Buchanan's cabinet here entered the lists with an anonymously printed
+pamphlet in pungent criticism of Douglas's "Harper" essay; which again
+was followed by reply and rejoinder on both sides.
+
+Into this field of overheated political controversy the news of the John
+Brown raid at Harper's Ferry on Sunday, October 19, fell with startling
+portent. The scattering and tragic fighting in the streets of the little
+town on Monday; the dramatic capture of the fanatical leader on Tuesday
+by a detachment of Federal marines under the command of Robert E. Lee,
+the famous Confederate general of subsequent years; the undignified
+haste of his trial and condemnation by the Virginia authorities; the
+interviews of Governor Wise, Senator Mason, and Representative
+Vallandigham with the prisoner; his sentence, and execution on the
+gallows on December 2; and the hysterical laudations of his acts by a
+few prominent and extreme abolitionists in the East, kept public
+opinion, both North and South, in an inflamed and feverish state for
+nearly six weeks.
+
+Mr. Lincoln's habitual freedom from passion, and the steady and
+common-sense judgment he applied to this exciting event, which threw
+almost everybody into an extreme of feeling or utterance, are well
+illustrated by the temperate criticism he made of it a few months later:
+
+"John Brown's effort was peculiar. It was not a slave insurrection. It
+was an attempt by white men to get up a revolt among slaves, in which
+the slaves refused to participate. In fact, it was so absurd that the
+slaves, with all their ignorance, saw plainly enough it could not
+succeed. That affair, in its philosophy, corresponds with the many
+attempts, related in history, at the assassination of kings and
+emperors. An enthusiast broods over the oppression of a people till he
+fancies himself commissioned by Heaven to liberate them. He ventures the
+attempt, which ends in little else than his own execution. Orsini's
+attempt on Louis Napoleon and John Brown's attempt at Harper's Ferry
+were, in their philosophy, precisely the same. The eagerness to cast
+blame on old England in the one case, and on New England in the other,
+does not disprove the sameness of the two things."
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+Lincoln's Kansas Speeches--The Cooper Institute Speech--New England
+Speeches--The Democratic Schism--Senator Brown's Resolutions--Jefferson
+Davis's Resolutions--The Charleston Convention--Majority and Minority
+Reports--Cotton State Delegations Secede--Charleston Convention
+Adjourns--Democratic Baltimore Convention Splits--Breckinridge
+Nominated--Douglas Nominated--Bell Nominated by Union Constitutional
+Convention--Chicago Convention--Lincoln's Letters to Pickett and
+Judd--The Pivotal States--Lincoln Nominated
+
+
+During the month of December, 1859, Mr. Lincoln was invited to the
+Territory of Kansas, where he made speeches at a number of its new and
+growing towns. In these speeches he laid special emphasis upon the
+necessity of maintaining undiminished the vigor of the Republican
+organization and the high plane of the Republican doctrine.
+
+"We want, and must have," said he, "a national policy as to slavery
+which deals with it as being a wrong. Whoever would prevent slavery
+becoming national and perpetual yields all when he yields to a policy
+which treats it either as being right, or as being a matter of
+indifference." "To effect our main object we have to employ auxiliary
+means. We must hold conventions, adopt platforms, select candidates, and
+carry elections. At every step we must be true to the main purpose. If
+we adopt a platform falling short of our principle, or elect a man
+rejecting our principle, we not only take nothing affirmative by our
+success, but we draw upon us the positive embarrassment of seeming
+ourselves to have abandoned our principle."
+
+A still more important service, however, in giving the Republican
+presidential campaign of 1860 precise form and issue was rendered by him
+during the first three months of the new year. The public mind had
+become so preoccupied with the dominant subject of national politics,
+that a committee of enthusiastic young Republicans of New York and
+Brooklyn arranged a course of public lectures by prominent statesmen and
+Mr. Lincoln was invited to deliver the third one of the series. The
+meeting took place in the hall of the Cooper Institute in New York, on
+the evening of February 27, 1860; and the audience was made up of ladies
+and gentlemen comprising the leading representatives of the wealth,
+culture, and influence of the great metropolis.
+
+Mr. Lincoln's name and arguments had filled so large a space in Eastern
+newspapers, both friendly and hostile, that the listeners before him
+were intensely curious to see and hear this rising Western politician.
+The West was even at that late day but imperfectly understood by the
+East. The poets and editors, the bankers and merchants of New York
+vaguely remembered having read in their books that it was the home of
+Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett, the country of bowie-knives and pistols,
+of steamboat explosions and mobs, of wild speculation and the
+repudiation of State debts; and these half-forgotten impressions had
+lately been vividly recalled by a several years' succession of newspaper
+reports retailing the incidents of Border Ruffian violence and
+free-State guerrilla reprisals during the civil war in Kansas. What was
+to be the type, the character, the language of this speaker? How would
+he impress the great editor Horace Greeley, who sat among the invited
+guests? David Dudley Field, the great lawyer, who escorted him to the
+platform; William Cullen Bryant, the great poet, who presided over the
+meeting?
+
+Judging from after effects, the audience quickly forgot these
+questioning thoughts. They had but time to note Mr. Lincoln's impressive
+stature, his strongly marked features, the clear ring of his rather
+high-pitched voice, and the almost commanding earnestness of his manner.
+His beginning foreshadowed a dry argument using as a text Douglas's
+phrase that "our fathers, when they framed the government under which we
+live, understood this question just as well and even better than we do
+now," But the concise statements, the strong links of reasoning, and the
+irresistible conclusions of the argument with which the speaker followed
+his close historical analysis of how "our fathers" understood "this
+question," held every listener as though each were individually merged
+in the speaker's thought and demonstration.
+
+"It is surely safe to assume," said he, with emphasis, "that the
+thirty-nine framers of the original Constitution and the seventy-six
+members of the Congress which framed the amendments thereto, taken
+together, do certainly include those who may be fairly called 'our
+fathers who framed the government under which we live.' And, so
+assuming, I defy any man to show that any one of them ever, in his whole
+life, declared that, in his understanding, any proper division of local
+from Federal authority, or any part of the Constitution, forbade the
+Federal government to control as to slavery in the Federal Territories."
+
+With equal skill he next dissected the complaints, the demands, and the
+threats to dissolve the Union made by the Southern States, pointed out
+their emptiness, their fallacy, and their injustice, and defined the
+exact point and center of the agitation.
+
+"Holding, as they do," said he, "that slavery is morally right and
+socially elevating, they cannot cease to demand a full national
+recognition of it, as a legal right and a social blessing. Nor can we
+justifiably withhold this on any ground, save our conviction that
+slavery is wrong. 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 justly object to its
+nationality--its universality! If it is wrong, they cannot justly insist
+upon its extension--its enlargement. All they ask we could readily
+grant, if we thought slavery right; all we ask they could as readily
+grant, if they thought it wrong. Their thinking it right, and our
+thinking it wrong, is the precise fact upon which depends the whole
+controversy.... 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 the free States? If our sense of duty forbids this,
+then let us stand by our duty, fearlessly and effectively. Let us be
+diverted by none of those sophistical contrivances wherewith we are so
+industriously plied and belabored, contrivances such as groping for some
+middle ground between the right and the wrong, vain as the search for a
+man who should be neither a living man nor a dead man; such as a policy
+of 'don't care,' on a question about which all true men do care; such as
+Union appeals beseeching true Union men to yield to disunionists;
+reversing the divine rule, and calling, not the sinners, but the
+righteous to repentance; such as invocations to Washington, imploring
+men to unsay what Washington said, and undo what Washington did. Neither
+let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, nor
+frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the government nor of
+dungeons to ourselves. Let us have faith that right makes might, and in
+that faith let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it."
+
+The close attention bestowed on its delivery, the hearty applause that
+greeted its telling points, and the enthusiastic comments of the
+Republican journals next morning showed that Lincoln's Cooper Institute
+speech had taken New York by storm. It was printed in full in four of
+the leading New York dailies, and at once went into large circulation in
+carefully edited pamphlet editions. From New York, Lincoln made a tour
+of speech-making through several of the New England States, and was
+everywhere received with enthusiastic welcome and listened to with an
+eagerness that bore a marked result in their spring elections. The
+interest of the factory men who listened to these addresses was equaled,
+perhaps excelled, by the gratified surprise of college professors when
+they heard the style and method of a popular Western orator that would
+bear the test of their professional criticism and compare with the best
+examples in their standard text-books.
+
+The attitude of the Democratic party in the coming presidential campaign
+was now also rapidly taking shape. Great curiosity existed whether the
+radical differences between its Northern and Southern wings could by any
+possibility be removed or adjusted, whether the adherents of Douglas and
+those of Buchanan could be brought to join in a common platform and in
+the support of a single candidate. The Democratic leaders in the
+Southern States had become more and more out-spoken in their pro-slavery
+demands. They had advanced step by step from the repeal of the Missouri
+Compromise in 1854, the attempt to capture Kansas by Missouri invasions
+in 1855 and 1856, the support of the Dred Scott decision and the
+Lecompton fraud in 1857, the repudiation of Douglas's Freeport heresy in
+1858, to the demand for a congressional slave code for the Territories
+and the recognition of the doctrine of property in slaves. These last
+two points they had distinctly formulated in the first session of the
+Thirty-sixth Congress. On January 18, 1860, Senator Brown of Mississippi
+introduced into the Senate two resolutions, one asserting the
+nationality of slavery, the other that, when necessary, Congress should
+pass laws for its protection in the Territories. On February 2 Jefferson
+Davis introduced another series of resolutions intended to serve as a
+basis for the national Democratic platform, the central points of which
+were that the right to take and hold slaves in the Territories could
+neither be impaired nor annulled, and that it was the duty of Congress
+to supply any deficiency of laws for its protection. Perhaps even more
+significant than these formulated doctrines was the pro-slavery spirit
+manifested in the congressional debates. Two months were wasted in a
+parliamentary struggle to prevent the election of the Republican, John
+Sherman, as Speaker of the House of Representatives, because the
+Southern members charged that he had recommended an "abolition" book;
+during which time the most sensational and violent threats of disunion
+were made in both the House and the Senate, containing repeated
+declarations that they would never submit to the inauguration of a
+"Black Republican" President.
+
+When the national Democratic convention met at Charleston, on April 23,
+1860, there at once became evident the singular condition that the
+delegates from the free States were united and enthusiastic in their
+determination to secure the nomination of Douglas as the Democratic
+candidate for President, while the delegates from the slave States were
+equally united and determined upon forcing the acceptance of an extreme
+pro-slavery platform. All expectations of a compromise, all hope of
+coming to an understanding by juggling omissions or evasions in their
+declaration of party principles were quickly dissipated. The platform
+committee, after three days and nights of fruitless effort, presented
+two antagonistic reports. The majority report declared that neither
+Congress nor a territorial legislature could abolish or prohibit slavery
+in the Territories, and that it was the duty of the Federal government
+to protect it when necessary. To this doctrine the Northern members
+could not consent; but they were willing to adopt the ambiguous
+declaration that property rights in slaves were judicial in their
+character, and that they would abide the decisions of the Supreme Court
+on such questions.
+
+The usual expedient of recommitting both reports brought no relief from
+the deadlock. A second majority and a second minority report exhibited
+the same irreconcilable divergence in slightly different language, and
+the words of mutual defiance exchanged in debating the first report rose
+to a parliamentary storm when the second came under discussion. On the
+seventh day the convention came to a vote, and, the Northern delegates
+being in the majority, the minority report was substituted for that of
+the majority of the committee by one hundred and sixty-five to one
+hundred and thirty-eight delegates--in other words, the Douglas
+platform was declared adopted. Upon this the delegates of the cotton
+States--Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, South Carolina, Florida, Texas,
+and Arkansas--withdrew from the convention. It soon appeared, however,
+that the Douglas delegates had achieved only a barren victory. Their
+majority could indeed adopt a platform, but, under the acknowledged
+two-thirds rule which governs Democratic national conventions, they had
+not sufficient votes to nominate their candidate. During the fifty-seven
+ballots taken, the Douglas men could muster only one hundred and
+fifty-two and one half votes of the two hundred and two necessary to a
+choice; and to prevent mere slow disintegration the convention adjourned
+on the tenth day, under a resolution to reassemble in Baltimore on June
+18.
+
+Nothing was gained, however, by the delay. In the interim, Jefferson
+Davis and nineteen other Southern leaders published an address
+commending the withdrawal of the cotton States delegates, and in a
+Senate debate Davis laid down the plain proposition, "We want nothing
+more than a simple declaration that negro slaves are property, and we
+want the recognition of the obligation of the Federal government to
+protect that property like all other."
+
+Upon the reassembling of the Charleston convention at Baltimore, it
+underwent a second disruption on the fifth day; the Northern wing
+nominated Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois, and the Southern wing John C.
+Breckinridge of Kentucky as their respective candidates for President.
+In the meanwhile, also, regular and irregular delegates from some
+twenty-two States, representing fragments of the old Whig party, had
+convened at Baltimore on May 9 and nominated John Bell of Tennessee as
+their candidate for President, upon a platform ignoring the slavery
+issue and declaring that they would "recognize no other political
+principle than the Constitution of the country, the union of the States,
+and the enforcement of the laws."
+
+In the long contest between slavery extension and slavery restriction
+which was now approaching its culmination the growing demands and
+increasing bitterness of the pro-slavery party had served in an equal
+degree to intensify the feelings and stimulate the efforts of the
+Republican party; and, remembering the encouraging opposition strength
+which the united vote of Frémont and Fillmore had shown in 1856, they
+felt encouraged to hope for possible success in 1860, since the Fillmore
+party had practically disappeared throughout the free States. When,
+therefore, the Charleston convention was rent asunder and adjourned on
+May 10 without making a nomination, the possibility of Republican
+victory seemed to have risen to probability. Such a feeling inspired the
+eager enthusiasm of the delegates to the Republican national convention
+which met, according to appointment, at Chicago on May 16.
+
+A large, temporary wooden building, christened "The Wigwam," had been
+erected in which to hold its sessions, and it was estimated that ten
+thousand persons were assembled in it to witness the proceedings.
+William H. Seward of New York was recognized as the leading candidate,
+but Chase of Ohio, Cameron of Pennsylvania, Bates of Missouri, and
+several prominent Republicans from other States were known to have
+active and zealous followers. The name of Abraham Lincoln had also often
+been mentioned during his growing fame, and, fully a year before, an
+ardent Republican editor of Illinois had requested permission to
+announce him in his newspaper. Lincoln, however, discouraged such
+action at that time, answering him:
+
+"As to the other matter you kindly mention, I must in candor say I do
+not think myself fit for the presidency. I certainly am flattered and
+gratified that some partial friends think of me in that connection; but
+I really think it best for our cause that no concerted effort, such as
+you suggest, should be made."
+
+He had given an equally positive answer to an eager Ohio friend in the
+preceding July; but about Christmas 1859, an influential caucus of his
+strongest Illinois adherents made a personal request that he would
+permit them to use his name, and he gave his consent, not so much in any
+hope of becoming the nominee for President, as in possibly reaching the
+second place on the ticket; or at least of making such a showing of
+strength before the convention as would aid him in his future senatorial
+ambition at home, or perhaps carry him into the cabinet of the
+Republican President, should one succeed. He had not been eager to enter
+the lists, but once having agreed to do so, it was but natural that he
+should manifest a becoming interest, subject, however, now as always, to
+his inflexible rule of fair dealing and honorable faith to all his party
+friends.
+
+"I do not understand Trumbull and myself to be rivals," he wrote
+December 9, 1859. "You know I am pledged not to enter a struggle with
+him for the seat in the Senate now occupied by him; and yet I would
+rather have a full term in the Senate than in the presidency."
+
+And on February 9 he wrote to the same Illinois friend:
+
+"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. What I expected when I wrote the
+the letter to Messrs. Dole and others is now happening. Your discomfited
+assailants are most bitter against me; and they will, for revenge upon
+me, lay to the Bates egg in the South, and to the Seward egg in the
+North, and go far toward squeezing me out in the middle with nothing.
+Can you not help me a little in this matter in your end of the
+vineyard?"
+
+It turned out that the delegates whom the Illinois State convention sent
+to the national convention at Chicago were men not only of exceptional
+standing and ability, but filled with the warmest zeal for Mr. Lincoln's
+success; and they were able at once to impress upon delegates from other
+States his sterling personal worth and fitness, and his superior
+availability. It needed but little political arithmetic to work out the
+sum of existing political chances. It was almost self-evident that in
+the coming November election victory or defeat would hang upon the
+result in the four pivotal States of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indiana,
+and Illinois. It was quite certain that no Republican candidate could
+carry a single one of the fifteen slave States; and equally sure that
+Breckinridge, on his extreme pro-slavery platform, could not carry a
+single one of the eighteen free States. But there was a chance that one
+or more of these four pivotal free States might cast its vote for
+Douglas and popular sovereignty.
+
+A candidate was needed, therefore, who could successfully cope with
+Douglas and the Douglas theory; and this ability had been convincingly
+demonstrated by Lincoln. As a mere personal choice, a majority of the
+convention would have preferred Seward; but in the four pivotal States
+there were many voters who believed Seward's antislavery views to be
+too radical. They shrank apprehensively from the phrase in one of his
+speeches that "there is a higher law than the Constitution." These
+pivotal States all lay adjoining slave States, and their public opinion
+was infected with something of the undefined dread of "abolitionism."
+When the delegates of the pivotal States were interviewed, they frankly
+confessed that they could not carry their States for Seward, and that
+would mean certain defeat if he were the nominee for President. For
+their voters Lincoln stood on more acceptable ground. His speeches had
+been more conservative; his local influence in his own State of Illinois
+was also a factor not to be idly thrown away.
+
+Plain, practical reasoning of this character found ready acceptance
+among the delegates to the convention. Their eagerness for the success
+of the cause largely overbalanced their personal preferences for
+favorite aspirants. When the convention met, the fresh, hearty
+hopefulness of its members was a most inspiring reflection of the public
+opinion in the States that sent them. They went at their work with an
+earnestness which was an encouraging premonition of success, and they
+felt a gratifying support in the presence of the ten thousand spectators
+who looked on at their work. Few conventions have ever been pervaded by
+such a depth of feeling, or exhibited such a reserve of latent
+enthusiasm. The cheers that greeted the entrance of popular favorites,
+and the short speeches on preliminary business, ran and rolled through
+the great audience in successive moving waves of sound that were echoed
+and reëchoed from side to side of the vast building. Not alone the
+delegates on the central platform, but the multitude of spectators as
+well, felt that they were playing a part in a great historical event.
+
+The temporary, and afterward the permanent organization, was finished on
+the first day, with somewhat less than usual of the wordy and
+tantalizing small talk which these routine proceedings always call
+forth. On the second day the platform committee submitted its work,
+embodying the carefully considered and skilfully framed body of
+doctrines upon which the Republican party, made up only four years
+before from such previously heterogeneous and antagonistic political
+elements was now able to find common and durable ground of agreement.
+Around its central tenet, which denied "the authority of Congress, of a
+territorial legislature, or of any individuals, to give legal existence
+to slavery in any territory of the United States," were grouped vigorous
+denunciations of the various steps and incidents of the pro-slavery
+reaction, and its prospective demands; while its positive
+recommendations embraced the immediate admission of Kansas, free
+homesteads to actual settlers, river and harbor improvements of a
+national character, a railroad to the Pacific Ocean, and the maintenance
+of existing naturalization laws.
+
+The platform was about to be adopted without objection when a flurry of
+discussion arose over an amendment, proposed by Mr. Giddings of Ohio, to
+incorporate in it that phrase of the Declaration of Independence which
+declares the right of all men to life, liberty, and the pursuit of
+happiness. Impatience was at once manifested lest any change should
+produce endless delay and dispute. "I believe in the Ten Commandments,"
+commented a member, "but I do not want them in a political platform";
+and the proposition was voted down. Upon this the old antislavery
+veteran felt himself agrieved, and, taking up his hat, marched out of
+the convention. In the course of an hour's desultory discussion
+however, a member, with stirring oratorical emphasis, asked whether the
+convention was prepared to go upon record before the country as voting
+down the words of the Declaration of Independence--whether the men of
+1860, on the free prairies of the West, quailed before repeating the
+words enunciated by the men of '76 at Philadelphia. In an impulse of
+patriotic reaction, the amendment was incorporated into the platform,
+and Mr. Giddings was brought back by his friends, his face beaming with
+triumph; and the stormy acclaim of the audience manifested the deep
+feeling which the incident evoked.
+
+On the third day it was certain that balloting would begin, and crowds
+hurried to the Wigwam in a fever of curiosity. Having grown restless at
+the indispensable routine preliminaries, when Mr. Evarts nominated
+William H. Seward of New York for President, they greeted his name with
+a perfect storm of applause. Then Mr. Judd nominated Abraham Lincoln of
+Illinois and in the tremendous cheering that broke from the throats of
+his admirers and followers the former demonstration dwindled to
+comparative feebleness. Again and again these contests of lungs and
+enthusiasm were repeated as the choice of New York was seconded by
+Michigan, and that of Illinois by Indiana.
+
+When other names had been duly presented, the cheering at length
+subsided, and the chairman announced that balloting would begin. Many
+spectators had provided themselves with tally-lists, and when the first
+roll-call was completed were able at once to perceive the drift of
+popular preference. Cameron, Chase, Bates, McLean, Dayton, and Collamer
+were indorsed by the substantial votes of their own States; but two
+names stood out in marked superiority: Seward, who had received one
+hundred and seventy-three and one half votes, and Lincoln, one hundred
+and two.
+
+The New York delegation was so thoroughly persuaded of the final success
+of their candidate that they did not comprehend the significance of this
+first ballot. Had they reflected that their delegation alone had
+contributed seventy votes to Seward's total, they would have understood
+that outside of the Empire State, upon this first showing, Lincoln held
+their favorite almost an even race. As the second ballot progressed,
+their anxiety visibly increased. They watched with eagerness as the
+complimentary votes first cast for State favorites were transferred now
+to one, now to the other of the recognized leaders in the contest, and
+their hopes sank when the result of the second ballot was announced:
+Seward, one hundred and eighty-four and one half, Lincoln, one hundred
+and eighty-one; and a volume of applause, which was with difficulty
+checked by the chairman, shook the Wigwam at this announcement.
+
+Then followed a short interval of active caucusing in the various
+delegations, while excited men went about rapidly interchanging
+questions, solicitations, and messages between delegations from
+different States. Neither candidate had yet received a majority of all
+the votes cast, and the third ballot was begun amid a deep, almost
+painful suspense, delegates and spectators alike recording each
+announcement of votes on their tally-sheets with nervous fingers. But
+the doubt was of short duration. The second ballot had unmistakably
+pointed out the winning man. Hesitating delegations and fragments from
+many States steadily swelled the Lincoln column. Long before the
+secretaries made the official announcement, the totals had been figured
+up: Lincoln, two hundred and thirty one and one half, Seward, one
+hundred and eighty. Counting the scattering votes, four hundred and
+sixty-five ballots had been cast, and two hundred and thirty-three were
+necessary to a choice. Seward had lost four and one half, Lincoln had
+gained fifty and one half, and only one and one half votes more were
+needed to make a nomination.
+
+The Wigwam suddenly became as still as a church, and everybody leaned
+forward to see whose voice would break the spell. Before the lapse of a
+minute, David K. Cartter sprang upon his chair and reported a change of
+four Ohio votes from Chase to Lincoln. Then a teller shouted a name
+toward the skylight, and the boom of cannon from the roof of the Wigwam
+announced the nomination and started the cheering of the overjoyed
+Illinoisans down the long Chicago streets; while in the Wigwam,
+delegation after delegation changed its vote to the victor amid a tumult
+of hurrahs. When quiet was somewhat restored, Mr. Evarts, speaking for
+New York and for Seward, moved to make the nomination unanimous, and Mr.
+Browning gracefully returned the thanks of Illinois for the honor the
+convention had conferred upon the State. In the afternoon the convention
+completed its work by nominating Hannibal Hamlin of Maine for
+Vice-President; and as the delegates sped homeward in the night trains,
+they witnessed, in the bonfires and cheering crowds at the stations,
+that a memorable presidential campaign was already begun.
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+Candidates and Platforms--The Political Chances--Decatur Lincoln
+Resolution--John Hanks and the Lincoln Rails--The Rail-Splitter
+Candidate--The Wide-Awakes--Douglas's Southern Tour--Jefferson Davis's
+Address--Fusion--Lincoln at the State House--The Election Result
+
+
+The nomination of Lincoln at Chicago completed the preparations of the
+different parties of the country for the presidential contest of 1860;
+and presented the unusual occurrence of an appeal to the voters of the
+several States by four distinct political organizations. In the order of
+popular strength which they afterward developed, they were:
+
+1. The Republican party, whose platform declared in substance that
+slavery was wrong, and that its further extension should be prohibited
+by Congress. Its candidates were Abraham Lincoln of Illinois for
+President and Hannibal Hamlin of Maine for Vice-president.
+
+2. The Douglas wing of the Democratic party, which declared indifference
+whether slavery were right or wrong, extended or prohibited, and
+proposed to permit the people of a Territory to decide whether they
+would prevent or establish it. Its candidates were Stephen A. Douglas of
+Illinois for President, and Herschel V. Johnson of Georgia for
+Vice-President.
+
+3. The Buchanan wing of the Democratic party, which declared that
+slavery was right and beneficial, and whose policy was to extend the
+institution, and create new slave States. Its candidates were John C.
+Breckinridge of Kentucky for President, and Joseph Lane of Oregon for
+Vice-President.
+
+4. The Constitutional Union party, which professed to ignore the
+question of slavery, and declared it would recognize no political
+principles other than "the Constitution of the country, the union of the
+States, and the enforcement of the laws." Its candidates were John Bell
+of Tennessee for President, and Edward Everett of Massachusetts for
+Vice-President.
+
+In the array of these opposing candidates and their platforms, it could
+be easily calculated from the very beginning that neither Lincoln nor
+Douglas had any chance to carry a slave State, nor Breckinridge nor Bell
+to carry a free State; and that neither Douglas in the free States, nor
+Bell in either section could obtain electoral votes enough to succeed.
+Therefore, but two alternatives seemed probable. Either Lincoln would be
+chosen by electoral votes, or, upon his failure to obtain a sufficient
+number, the election would be thrown into the House of Representatives,
+in which case the course of combination, chance, or intrigue could not
+be foretold. The political situation and its possible results thus
+involved a degree of uncertainty sufficient to hold out a contingent
+hope to all the candidates and to inspire the followers of each to
+active exertion. This hope and inspiration, added to the hot temper
+which the long discussion of antagonistic principles had engendered,
+served to infuse into the campaign enthusiasm, earnestness, and even
+bitterness, according to local conditions in the different sections.
+
+In campaign enthusiasm the Republican party easily took the lead. About
+a week before his nomination, Mr. Lincoln had been present at the
+Illinois State convention at Decatur in Coles County, not far from the
+old Lincoln home, when, at a given signal, there marched into the
+convention old John Hanks, one of his boyhood companions, and another
+pioneer, who bore on their shoulders two long fence rails decorated with
+a banner inscribed: "Two rails from a lot made by Abraham Lincoln and
+John Hanks in the Sangamon Bottom in the year 1830." They were greeted
+with a tremendous shout of applause from the whole convention succeeded
+by a united call for Lincoln, who sat on the platform. The tumult would
+not subside until he rose to speak, when he said:
+
+"GENTLEMEN: I suppose you want to know something about those things
+[pointing to old John and the rails]. Well, the truth is, John Hanks and
+I did make rails in the Sagamon Bottom. I don't know whether we made
+those rails or not; fact is, I don't think they are a credit to the
+makers [laughing as he spoke]. But I do know this: I made rails then,
+and I think I could make better ones than these now."
+
+Still louder cheering followed this short, but effective reply. But the
+convention was roused to its full warmth of enthusiasm when a resolution
+was immediately and unanimously adopted declaring that "Abraham Lincoln
+is the first choice of the Republican party of Illinois for the
+Presidency," and directing the delegates to the Chicago convention "to
+use all honorable means to secure his nomination, and to cast the vote
+of the State as a unit for him."
+
+It was this resolution which the Illinois delegation had so successfully
+carried out at Chicago. And, besides they had carried with them the two
+fence rails, and set them up in state at the Lincoln headquarters at
+their hotel, where enthusiastic lady friends gaily trimmed them with
+flowers and ribbons and lighted them up with tapers. These slight
+preliminaries, duly embellished in the newspapers, gave the key to the
+Republican campaign, which designated Lincoln as the Rail-splitter
+Candidate, and, added to his common Illinois sobriquet of "Honest Old
+Abe," furnished both country and city campaign orators a powerfully
+sympathetic appeal to the rural and laboring element of the United
+States.
+
+When these homely but picturesque appellations were fortified by the
+copious pamphlet and newspaper biographies in which people read the
+story of his humble beginnings, and how he had risen, by dint of simple,
+earnest work and native genius, through privation and difficulty, first
+to fame and leadership in his State, and now to fame and leadership in
+the nation, they grew quickly into symbols of a faith and trust destined
+to play no small part in a political revolution of which the people at
+large were not as yet even dreaming.
+
+Another feature of the campaign also quickly developed itself. On the
+preceding 5th of March, one of Mr. Lincoln's New England speeches had
+been made at Hartford, Connecticut; and at its close he was escorted to
+his hotel by a procession of the local Republican club, at the head of
+which marched a few of its members bearing torches and wearing caps and
+capes of glazed oilcloth, the primary purpose of which was to shield
+their clothes from the dripping oil of their torches. Both the
+simplicity and the efficiency of the uniform caught the popular eye, as
+did also the name, "Wide-Awakes," applied to them by the "Hartford
+Courant." The example found quick imitation in Hartford and adjoining
+towns, and when Mr. Lincoln was made candidate for President, every
+city, town, and nearly every village in the North, within a brief space,
+had its organized Wide-Awake club, with their half-military uniform and
+drill; and these clubs were often, later in the campaign, gathered into
+imposing torch-light processions, miles in length, on occasions of
+important party meetings and speech-making. It was the revived spirit of
+the Harrison campaign of twenty years before; but now, shorn of its fun
+and frolic, it was strengthened by the power of organization and the
+tremendous impetus of earnest devotion to a high principle.
+
+It was a noteworthy feature of the campaign that the letters of
+acceptance of all the candidates, either in distinct words or
+unmistakable implication, declared devotion to the Union, while at the
+same time the adherents of each were charging disunion sentiments and
+intentions upon the other three parties. Douglas himself made a tour of
+speech-making through the Southern States, in which, while denouncing
+the political views of both Lincoln and Breckinridge, he nevertheless
+openly declared, in response to direct questions, that no grievance
+could justify disunion, and that he was ready "to put the hemp around
+the neck and hang any man who would raise the arm of resistance to the
+constituted authorities of the country."
+
+During the early part of the campaign the more extreme Southern
+fire-eaters abated somewhat of their violent menaces of disunion.
+Between the Charleston and the Baltimore Democratic conventions an
+address published by Jefferson Davis and other prominent leaders had
+explained that the seventeen Democratic States which had voted at
+Charleston for the seceders' platform could, if united with Pennsylvania
+alone, elect the Democratic nominees against all opposition. This hope
+doubtless floated before their eyes like a will-o'-the-wisp until the
+October elections dispelled all possibility of securing Pennsylvania for
+Breckinridge. From that time forward there began a renewal of disunion
+threats, which, by their constant increase throughout the South,
+prepared the public mind of that section for the coming secession.
+
+As the chances of Republican success gradually grew stronger, an
+undercurrent of combination developed itself among those politicians of
+the three opposing parties more devoted to patronage than principle, to
+bring about the fusion of Lincoln's opponents on some agreed ratio of a
+division of the spoils. Such a combination made considerable progress in
+the three Northern States of New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. It
+appears to have been engineered mainly by the Douglas faction, though,
+it must be said to his credit, against the open and earnest protest of
+Douglas himself. But the thrifty plotters cared little for his
+disapproval.
+
+By the secret manipulations of conventions and committees a fusion
+electoral ticket was formed in New York, made up of adherents of the
+three different factions in the following proportion: Douglas, eighteen;
+Bell, ten; Breckinridge, seven; and the whole opposition vote of the
+State of New York was cast for this fusion ticket. The same tactics were
+pursued in Pennsylvania, where, however, the agreement was not so openly
+avowed. One third of the Pennsylvania fusion electoral candidates were
+pledged to Douglas; the division of the remaining two thirds between
+Bell and Breckinridge was not made public. The bulk of the Pennsylvania
+opposition vote was cast for this fusion ticket, but a respectable
+percentage refused to be bargained away, and voted directly for Douglas
+or Bell. In New Jersey a definite agreement was reached by the managers,
+and an electoral ticket formed, composed of two adherents of Bell, two
+of Breckinridge, and three of Douglas; and in this State a practical
+result was effected by the movement. A fraction of the Douglas voters
+formed a straight electoral ticket, adopting the three Douglas
+candidates on the fusion ticket, and by this action these three Douglas
+electors received a majority vote in New Jersey, On the whole, however,
+the fusion movement proved ineffectual to defeat Lincoln and, indeed, it
+would not have done so even had the fusion electoral tickets deceived a
+majority in all three of the above-named States.
+
+The personal habits and surroundings of Mr. Lincoln were varied
+somewhat, though but slightly, during the whole of this election summer.
+Naturally, he withdrew at once from active work, leaving his law office
+and his whole law business to his partner, William H. Herndon; while his
+friends installed him in the governor's room in the State House at
+Springfield, which was not otherwise needed during the absence of the
+legislature. Here he spent the time during the usual business hours of
+the day, attended only by his private secretary, Mr. Nicolay. Friends
+and strangers alike were thus able to visit him freely and without
+ceremony and they availed themselves largely of the opportunity. Few, if
+any, went away without being favorably impressed by his hearty Western
+greeting, and the frank sincerity of his manner and conversation, in
+which, naturally, all subjects of controversy were courteously and
+instinctively avoided by both the candidate and his visitors.
+
+By none was this free, neighborly intercourse enjoyed more than by the
+old-time settlers of Sangamon and the adjoining counties, who came to
+revive the incidents and memories of pioneer days with one who could
+give them such thorough and appreciative interest and sympathy. He
+employed no literary bureau, wrote no public letters, made no set or
+impromptu speeches, except that once or twice during great political
+meetings at Springfield he uttered a few words of greeting and thanks to
+passing street processions. All these devices of propagandism he left to
+the leaders and committees of his adherents in their several States.
+Even the strictly confidential letters in which he indicated his advice
+on points in the progress of the campaign did not exceed a dozen in
+number; and when politicians came to interview him at Springfield, he
+received them in the privacy of his own home, and generally their
+presence created little or no public notice. Cautious politician as he
+was, he did not permit himself to indulge in any over-confidence, but
+then, as always before, showed unusual skill in estimating political
+chances. Thus he wrote about a week after the Chicago convention:
+
+"So far as I can learn, the nominations start well everywhere; and, if
+they get no backset, it would seem as if they are going through."
+
+Again, on July 4:
+
+"Long before this you have learned who was nominated at Chicago. We know
+not what a day may bring forth, but to-day it looks as if the Chicago
+ticket will be elected."
+
+And on September 22, to a friend in Oregon:
+
+"No one on this side of the mountains pretends that any ticket can be
+elected by the people, unless it be ours. Hence, great efforts to
+combine against us are being made, which, however, as yet have not had
+much success Besides what we see in the newspapers, I have a good deal
+of private correspondence; and, without giving details, I will only say
+it all looks very favorable to our success."
+
+His judgment was abundantly verified at the presidential election,
+which occurred upon November 6, 1860. Lincoln electors were chosen in
+every one of the free States except New Jersey, where, as has already
+been stated, three Douglas electors received majorities because their
+names were on both the fusion ticket and the straight Douglas ticket;
+while the other four Republican electors in that State succeeded. Of the
+slave States, eleven chose Breckinridge electors, three of them Bell
+electors, and one of them--Missouri--Douglas electors. As provided by
+law, the electors met in their several States on December 5, to
+officially cast their votes, and on February 13, 1861, Congress in joint
+session of the two Houses made the official count as follows: for
+Lincoln, one hundred and eighty; for Breckinridge, seventy-two; for
+Bell, thirty-nine; and for Douglas, twelve; giving Lincoln a clear
+majority of fifty-seven in the whole electoral college. Thereupon
+Breckinridge, who presided over the joint session, officially declared
+that Abraham Lincoln was duly elected President of the United States for
+four years, beginning March 4, 1861.
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+Lincoln's Cabinet Program--Members from the South--Questions and
+Answers--Correspondence with Stephens--Action of Congress--Peace
+Convention--Preparation of the Inaugural--Lincoln's Farewell
+Address--The Journey to Washington--Lincoln's Midnight Journey
+
+
+During the long presidential campaign of 1860, between the Chicago
+convention in the middle of May and the election at the beginning of
+November, Mr. Lincoln, relieved from all other duties, had watched
+political developments with very close attention not merely to discern
+the progress of his own chances, but, doubtless, also, much more
+seriously to deliberate upon the future in case he should be elected.
+But it was only when, on the night of November 6, he sat in the
+telegraph office at Springfield, from which all but himself and the
+operators were excluded, and read the telegrams as they fell from the
+wires, that little by little the accumulating Republican majorities
+reported from all directions convinced him of the certainty of his
+success; and with that conviction there fell upon him the overwhelming,
+almost crushing weight of his coming duties and responsibilities. He
+afterward related that in that supreme hour, grappling resolutely with
+the mighty problem before him, he practically completed the first
+essential act of his administration, the selection of his future
+cabinet--the choice of the men who were to aid him.
+
+From what afterward occurred, we may easily infer the general principle
+which guided his choice. One of his strongest characteristics, as his
+speeches abundantly show, was his belief in the power of public opinion,
+and his respect for the popular will. That was to be found and to be
+wielded by the leaders of public sentiment In the present instance there
+were no truer representatives of that will than the men who had been
+prominently supported by the delegates to the Chicago convention for the
+presidential nominations. Of these he would take at least three, perhaps
+four, to compose one half of his cabinet. In selecting Seward, Chase,
+Bates, and Cameron, he could also satisfy two other points of the
+representative principle, the claims of locality and the elements of
+former party divisions now joined in the newly organized Republican
+party. With Seward from New York, Cameron from Pennsylvania, Chase from
+Ohio, and himself from Illinois, the four leading free States had each a
+representative. With Bates from Missouri, the South could not complain
+of being wholly excluded from the cabinet. New England was properly
+represented by Vice-President Hamlin. When, after the inauguration,
+Smith from Indiana Welles from Connecticut, and Blair from Maryland were
+added to make up the seven cabinet members, the local distribution
+between East and West, North and South, was in no wise disturbed. It
+was, indeed, complained that in this arrangement there were four former
+Democrats, and only three former Whigs; to which Lincoln laughingly
+replied that he had been a Whig, and would be there to make the number
+even.
+
+It is not likely that this exact list was in Lincoln's mind on the night
+of the November election, but only the principal names in it; and much
+delay and some friction occurred before its completion. The post of
+Secretary of State was offered to Seward on December 8.
+
+"Rumors have got into the newspapers," wrote Lincoln, "to the effect
+that the department named above would be tendered you as a compliment,
+and with the expectation that you would decline it. I beg you to be
+assured that I have said nothing to justify these rumors. On the
+contrary, it has been my purpose, from the day of the nomination at
+Chicago, to assign you, by your leave, this place in the
+administration."
+
+Seward asked a few days for reflection, and then cordially accepted.
+Bates was tendered the Attorney-Generalship on December 15, while making
+a personal visit to Springfield. Word had been meanwhile sent to Smith
+that he would probably be included. The assignment of places to Chase
+and Cameron worked less smoothly. Lincoln wrote Cameron a note on
+January 3, saying he would nominate him for either Secretary of the
+Treasury or Secretary of War, he had not yet decided which; and on the
+same day, in an interview with Chase, whom he had invited to
+Springfield, said to him:
+
+"I have done with you what I would not perhaps have ventured to do with
+any other man in the country--sent for you to ask whether you will
+accept the appointment of Secretary of the Treasury, without, however,
+being exactly prepared to offer it to you."
+
+They discussed the situation very fully, but without reaching a definite
+conclusion, agreeing to await the advice of friends. Meanwhile, the
+rumor that Cameron was to go into the cabinet excited such hot
+opposition that Lincoln felt obliged to recall his tender in a
+confidential letter; and asked him to write a public letter declining
+the place. Instead of doing this, Cameron fortified himself with
+recommendations from prominent Pennsylvanians, and demonstrated that in
+his own State he had at least three advocates to one opponent.
+
+Pending the delay which this contest consumed, another cabinet
+complication found its solution. It had been warmly urged by
+conservatives that, in addition to Bates, another cabinet member should
+be taken from one of the Southern States. The difficulty of doings this
+had been clearly foreshadowed by Mr. Lincoln in a little editorial which
+he wrote for the Springfield "Journal" on December 12:
+
+"_First_. Is it known that any such gentleman of character would accept
+a place in the cabinet?
+
+"_Second_. If yea, on what terms does he surrender to Mr. Lincoln, or
+Mr. Lincoln to him, on the political differences between them, or do
+they enter upon the administration in open opposition to each other?"
+
+It was very soon demonstrated that these differences were
+insurmountable. Through Mr. Seward, who was attending his senatorial
+duties at Washington, Mr. Lincoln tentatively offered a cabinet
+appointment successively to Gilmer of North Carolina, Hunt of Louisiana
+and Scott of Virginia, no one of whom had the courage to accept.
+
+Toward the end of the recent canvass, and still more since the election,
+Mr. Lincoln had received urgent letters to make some public declaration
+to reassure and pacify the South, especially the cotton States, which
+were manifesting a constantly growing spirit of rebellion. Most of such
+letters remained unanswered, but in a number of strictly confidential
+replies he explained the reasons for his refusal.
+
+"I appreciate your motive," he wrote October 23, "when you suggest the
+propriety of my writing for the public something disclaiming all
+intention to interfere with slaves or slavery in the States: but, in my
+judgment, it would do no good. I have already done this many, many
+times; and it is in print, and open to all who will read. Those who will
+not read or heed what I have already publicly said, would not read or
+heed a repetition of it. 'If they hear not Moses and the prophets,
+neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead.'"
+
+To the editor of the "Louisville Journal" he wrote October 29:
+
+"For the good men of the South--and I regard the majority of them as
+such--I have no objection to repeat seventy and seven times. But I have
+bad men to deal with, both North and South; men who are eager for
+something new upon which to base new misrepresentations; men who would
+like to frighten me, or at least to fix upon me the character of
+timidity and cowardice."
+
+Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia, who afterward became Confederate
+Vice-President, made a strong speech against secession in that State on
+November 14; and Mr. Lincoln wrote him a few lines asking for a revised
+copy of it. In the brief correspondence which ensued, Mr. Lincoln again
+wrote him under date of December 22:
+
+"I fully appreciate the present peril the country is in, and the weight
+of responsibility on me. Do the people of the South really entertain
+fears that a Republican administration would, directly or indirectly,
+interfere with the slaves, or with them about the slaves? If they do, I
+wish to assure you, as once a friend, and still, I hope, not an enemy,
+that there is no cause for such fears. The South would be in no more
+danger in this respect than it was in the days of Washington. I
+suppose, however, this does not meet the case. You think slavery is
+right and ought to be extended, while we think it is wrong and ought to
+be restricted. That, I suppose, is the rub. It certainly is the only
+substantial difference between us."
+
+So, also, replying a few days earlier in a long letter to Hon. John A.
+Gilmer of North Carolina, to whom, as already stated, he offered a
+cabinet appointment, he said:
+
+"On the territorial question I am inflexible, as you see my position in
+the book. On that there is a difference between you and us; and it is
+the only substantial difference. You think slavery is right and ought to
+be extended; we think it is wrong and ought to be restricted. For this
+neither has any just occasion to be angry with the other. As to the
+State laws, mentioned in your sixth question, I really know very little
+of them. I never have read one. If any of them are in conflict with the
+fugitive-slave clause, or any other part of the Constitution, I
+certainly shall be glad of their repeal; but I could hardly be
+justified, as a citizen of Illinois, or as President of the United
+States, to recommend the repeal of a statute of Vermont or South
+Carolina."
+
+Through his intimate correspondence with Mr. Seward and personal friends
+in Congress, Mr. Lincoln was kept somewhat informed of the hostile
+temper of the Southern leaders, and that a tremendous pressure was being
+brought upon that body by timid conservatives and the commercial
+interests in the North to bring about some kind of compromise which
+would stay the progress of disunion; and on this point he sent an
+emphatic monition to Representative Washburne on December 13:
+
+"Your long letter received. Prevent as far as possible any of our
+friends from demoralizing themselves and their cause by entertaining
+propositions for compromise of any sort on slavery extension. There is
+no possible compromise upon it but what puts us under again, and all our
+work to do over again. Whether it be a Missouri line or Eli Thayer's
+popular sovereignty, it is all the same. Let either be done, and
+immediately filibustering and extending slavery recommences. On that
+point hold firm as a chain of steel."
+
+Between the day when a President is elected by popular vote and that on
+which he is officially inaugurated there exists an interim of four long
+months, during which he has no more direct power in the affairs of
+government than any private citizen. However anxiously Mr. Lincoln might
+watch the development of public events at Washington and in the cotton
+States; whatever appeals might come to him through interviews or
+correspondence, no positive action of any kind was within his power,
+beyond an occasional word of advice or suggestion. The position of the
+Republican leaders in Congress was not much better. Until the actual
+secession of States, and the departure of their representatives, they
+were in a minority in the Senate; while the so-called South Americans
+and Anti-Lecompton Democrats held the balance of power in the House. The
+session was mainly consumed in excited, profitless discussion. Both the
+Senate and House appointed compromise committees, which met and labored,
+but could find no common ground of agreement. A peace convention met and
+deliberated at Washington, with no practical result, except to waste the
+powder for a salute of one hundred guns over a sham report to which
+nobody paid the least attention.
+
+Throughout this period Mr. Lincoln was by no means idle. Besides the
+many difficulties he had to overcome in completing his cabinet, he
+devoted himself to writing his inaugural address. Withdrawing himself
+some hours each day from his ordinary receptions, he went to a quiet
+room on the second floor of the store occupied by his brother-in-law, on
+the south side of the public square in Springfield, where he could think
+and write in undisturbed privacy. When, after abundant reflection and
+revision, he had finished the document, he placed it in the hands of Mr.
+William H. Bailhache, one of the editors of the "Illinois State
+Journal," who locked himself and a single compositor into the
+composing-room of the "Journal." Here, in Mr. Bailhache's presence, it
+was set up, proof taken and read, and a dozen copies printed; after
+which the types were again immediately distributed. The alert newspaper
+correspondents in Springfield, who saw Mr. Lincoln every day as usual,
+did not obtain the slightest hint of what was going on.
+
+Having completed his arrangements, Mr. Lincoln started on his journey to
+Washington on February 11, 1861, on a special train, accompanied by Mrs.
+Lincoln and their three children, his two private secretaries, and a
+suite of about a dozen personal friends. Mr. Seward had suggested that
+in view of the feverish condition of public affairs, he should come a
+week earlier; but Mr. Lincoln allowed himself only time enough
+comfortably to fill the appointments he had made to visit the capitals
+and principal cities of the States on his route, in accordance with
+non-partizan invitations from their legislatures and mayors, which he
+had accepted. Standing on the front platform of the car, as the
+conductor was about to pull the bell-rope, Mr. Lincoln made the
+following brief and pathetic address of farewell to his friends and
+neighbors of Springfield--the last time his voice was ever to be heard
+in the city which had been his home for so many years:
+
+     "My friends: No one, not in my situation, can appreciate my feeling
+     of sadness at this parting. To this place, and the kindness of
+     these people, I owe everything. Here I have lived a quarter of a
+     century, and have passed from a young to an old man. Here my
+     children have been born, and one is buried. I now leave, not
+     knowing when or whether ever I may return, with a task before me
+     greater than that which rested upon Washington. Without the
+     assistance of that Divine Being who ever attended him, I cannot
+     succeed. With that assistance, I cannot fail. Trusting in Him who
+     can go with me, and remain with you, and be everywhere for good,
+     let us confidently hope that all will yet be well. To His care
+     commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will commend me, I
+     bid you an affectionate farewell."
+
+It was the beginning of a memorable journey. On the whole route from
+Springfield to Washington, at almost every station, even the smallest,
+was gathered a crowd of people in hope to catch a glimpse of the face of
+the President-elect, or, at least, to see the flying train. At the
+larger stopping-places these gatherings were swelled to thousands, and
+in the great cities into almost unmanageable assemblages. Everywhere
+there were vociferous calls for Mr. Lincoln, and, if he showed himself,
+for a speech. Whenever there was sufficient time, he would step to the
+rear platform of the car and bow his acknowledgments as the train was
+moving away, and sometimes utter a few words of thanks and greeting. At
+the capitals of Indiana, Ohio, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania,
+as also in the cities of Cincinnati, Cleveland, Buffalo, New York, and
+Philadelphia, a halt was made for one or two days, and a program was
+carried out of a formal visit and brief address to each house of the
+legislature, street processions, large receptions in the evening, and
+other similar ceremonies; and in each of them there was an
+unprecedented outpouring of the people to take advantage of every
+opportunity to see and to hear the future Chief Magistrate of the Union.
+
+Party foes as well as party friends made up these expectant crowds. The
+public suspense was at a degree of tension which rendered every eye and
+ear eager to catch even the slightest indication of the thoughts or
+intentions of the man who was to be the official guide of the nation in
+a crisis the course and end of which even the wisest dared not predict.
+In the twenty or thirty brief addresses delivered by Mr. Lincoln on this
+journey, he observed the utmost caution of utterance and reticence of
+declaration; yet the shades of meaning in his carefully chosen sentences
+were enough to show how alive he was to the trials and dangers
+confronting his administration, and to inspire hope and confidence in
+his judgment. He repeated that he regarded the public demonstrations not
+as belonging to himself, but to the high office with which the people
+had clothed him; and that if he failed, they could four years later
+substitute a better man in his place; and in his very first address, at
+Indianapolis, he thus emphasized their reciprocal duties:
+
+"If the union of these States and the liberties of this people shall be
+lost, it is but little to any one man of fifty-two years of age, but a
+great deal to the thirty millions of people who inhabit these United
+States, and to their posterity in all coming time. It is your business
+to rise up and preserve the Union and liberty for yourselves and not for
+me.... I appeal to you again to constantly bear in mind that not with
+politicians, not with Presidents, not with office-seekers, but with you,
+is the question, Shall the Union and shall the liberties of this country
+be preserved to the latest generations?"
+
+Many salient and interesting quotations could be made from his other
+addresses, but a comparatively few sentences will be sufficient to
+enable the reader to infer what was likely to be his ultimate conclusion
+and action. In his second speech at Indianapolis he asked the question:
+
+"On what rightful principle may a State, being not more than
+one-fiftieth part of the nation in soil and population, break up the
+nation, and then coerce a proportionally larger subdivision of itself in
+the most arbitrary way?"
+
+At Steubenville:
+
+"If the majority should not rule, who would be the judge? Where is such
+a judge to be found? We should all be bound by the majority of the
+American people--if not, then the minority must control. Would that be
+right?"
+
+At Trenton:
+
+"I shall do all that may be in my power to promote a peaceful settlement
+of all our difficulties. The man does not live who is more devoted to
+peace than I am, none who would do more to preserve it, but it may be
+necessary to put the foot down firmly."
+
+At Harrisburg:
+
+"While I am exceedingly gratified to see the manifestation upon your
+streets of your military force here, and exceedingly gratified at your
+promise to use that force upon a proper emergency--while I make these
+acknowledgments, I desire to repeat, in order to preclude any possible
+misconstruction, that I do most sincerely hope that we shall have no use
+for them; that it will never become their duty to shed blood, and most
+especially never to shed fraternal blood. I promise that so far as I may
+have wisdom to direct, if so painful a result shall in any wise be
+brought about, it shall be through no fault of mine."
+
+While Mr. Lincoln was yet at Philadelphia, he was met by Mr. Frederick
+W. Seward, son of Senator Seward, who brought him an important
+communication from his father and General Scott at Washington. About the
+beginning of the year serious apprehension had been felt lest a sudden
+uprising of the secessionists in Virginia and Maryland might endeavor to
+gain possession of the national capital. An investigation by a committee
+of Congress found no active military preparation to exist for such a
+purpose, but considerable traces of disaffection and local conspiracy in
+Baltimore; and, to guard against such an outbreak, President Buchanan
+had permitted his Secretary of War, Mr. Holt, to call General Scott to
+Washington and charge him with the safety of the city, not only at that
+moment, but also during the counting of the presidential returns in
+February, and the coming inauguration of Mr. Lincoln. For this purpose
+General Scott had concentrated at Washington a few companies from the
+regular army, and also, in addition, had organized and armed about nine
+hundred men of the militia of the District of Columbia.
+
+In connection with these precautions, Colonel Stone, who commanded these
+forces, had kept himself informed about the disaffection in Baltimore,
+through the agency of the New York police department. The communication
+brought by young Mr. Seward contained besides notes from his father and
+General Scott, a short report from Colonel Stone, stating that there had
+arisen within the past few days imminent danger of violence to and the
+assassination of Mr. Lincoln in his passage through Baltimore, should
+the time of that passage be known.
+
+"All risk," he suggested, "might be easily avoided by a change in the
+traveling arrangements which would bring Mr. Lincoln and a portion of
+his party through Baltimore by a night train without previous notice."
+
+The seriousness of this information was doubled by the fact that Mr.
+Lincoln had, that same day, held an interview with a prominent Chicago
+detective who had been for some weeks employed by the president of the
+Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore railway to investigate the danger
+to their property and trains from the Baltimore secessionists. The
+investigations of this detective, a Mr. Pinkerton, had been carried on
+without the knowledge of the New York detective, and he reported not
+identical, but almost similar, conditions of insurrectionary feeling and
+danger, and recommended the same precaution.
+
+Mr. Lincoln very earnestly debated the situation with his intimate
+personal friend, Hon. N.B. Judd of Chicago, perhaps the most active and
+influential member of his suite, who advised him to proceed to
+Washington that same evening on the eleven-o'clock train. "I cannot go
+to-night," replied Mr. Lincoln; "I have promised to raise the flag over
+Independence Hall to-morrow morning, and to visit the legislature at
+Harrisburg. Beyond that I have no engagements."
+
+The railroad schedule by which Mr. Lincoln had hitherto been traveling
+included a direct trip from Harrisburg, through Baltimore, to Washington
+on Saturday, February 23. When the Harrisburg ceremonies had been
+concluded on the afternoon of the 22d, the danger and the proposed
+change of program were for the first time fully laid before a
+confidential meeting of the prominent members of Mr. Lincoln's suite.
+Reasons were strongly urged both for and against the plan; but Mr.
+Lincoln finally decided and explained that while he himself was not
+afraid he would be assassinated, nevertheless, since the possibility of
+danger had been made known from two entirely independent sources, and
+officially communicated to him by his future prime minister and the
+general of the American armies, he was no longer at liberty to disregard
+it; that it was not the question of his private life, but the regular
+and orderly transmission of the authority of the government of the
+United States in the face of threatened revolution, which he had no
+right to put in the slightest jeopardy. He would, therefore, carry out
+the plan, the full details of which had been arranged with the railroad
+officials.
+
+Accordingly, that same evening, he, with a single companion, Colonel W.
+H. Lamon, took a car from Harrisburg back to Philadelphia, at which
+place, about midnight, they boarded the through train from New York to
+Washington, and without recognition or any untoward incident passed
+quietly through Baltimore, and reached the capital about daylight on the
+morning of February 23, where they were met by Mr. Seward and
+Representative Washburne of Illinois, and conducted to Willard's Hotel.
+
+When Mr. Lincoln's departure from Harrisburg became known, a reckless
+newspaper correspondent telegraphed to New York the ridiculous invention
+that he traveled disguised in a Scotch cap and long military cloak.
+There was not one word of truth in the absurd statement. Mr. Lincoln's
+family and suite proceeded to Washington by the originally arranged
+train and schedule, and witnessed great crowds in the streets of
+Baltimore, but encountered neither turbulence nor incivility of any
+kind. There was now, of course, no occasion for any, since the telegraph
+had definitely announced that the President-elect was already in
+Washington.
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+The Secession Movement--South Carolina Secession--Buchanan's
+Neglect--Disloyal Cabinet Members---Washington Central Cabal--Anderson's
+Transfer to Sumter--Star of the West--Montgomery Rebellion---Davis and
+Stephens--Corner-stone Theory--Lincoln Inaugurated--His Inaugural
+Address--Lincoln's Cabinet--The Question of Sumter--Seward's
+Memorandum--Lincoln's Answer--Bombardment of Sumter--Anderson's
+Capitulation
+
+
+It is not the province of these chapters to relate in detail the course
+of the secession movement in the cotton States in the interim which
+elapsed between the election and inauguration of President Lincoln.
+Still less can space be given to analyze and set forth the lamentable
+failure of President Buchanan to employ the executive authority and
+power of the government to prevent it, or even to hinder its
+development, by any vigorous opposition or adequate protest. The
+determination of South Carolina to secede was announced by the governor
+of that State a month before the presidential election, and on the day
+before the election he sent the legislature of the State a revolutionary
+message to formally inaugurate it. From that time forward the whole
+official machinery of the State not only led, but forced the movement
+which culminated on December 20 in the ordinance of secession by the
+South Carolina convention.
+
+This official revolution in South Carolina was quickly imitated by
+similar official revolutions ending in secession ordinances in the
+States of Mississippi, on January 9, 1861; Florida, January 10; Alabama,
+January 11; Georgia, January 19; Louisiana, January 26; and by a still
+bolder usurpation in Texas, culminating on February 1. From the day of
+the presidential election all these proceedings were known probably more
+fully to President Buchanan than to the general public, because many of
+the actors were his personal and party friends; while almost at their
+very beginning he became aware that three members of his cabinet were
+secretly or openly abetting and promoting them by their official
+influence and power.
+
+Instead of promptly dismissing these unfaithful servants, he retained
+one of them a month, and the others twice that period, and permitted
+them so far to influence his official conduct, that in his annual
+message to Congress he announced the fallacious and paradoxical doctrine
+that though a State had no right to secede, the Federal government had
+no right to coerce her to remain in the Union.
+
+Nor could he justify his non-action by the excuse that contumacious
+speeches and illegal resolves of parliamentary bodies might be tolerated
+under the American theory of free assemblage and free speech. Almost
+from the beginning of the secession movement, it was accompanied from
+time to time by overt acts both of treason and war; notably, by the
+occupation and seizure by military order and force of the seceding
+States, of twelve or fifteen harbor forts, one extensive navy-yard, half
+a dozen arsenals, three mints, four important custom-houses, three
+revenue cutters, and a variety of miscellaneous Federal property; for
+all of which insults to the flag, and infractions of the sovereignty of
+the United States, President Buchanan could recommend no more
+efficacious remedy or redress than to ask the voters of the country to
+reverse their decision given at the presidential election, and to
+appoint a day of fasting and prayer on which to implore the Most High
+"to remove from our hearts that false pride of opinion which would impel
+us to persevere in wrong for the sake of consistency."
+
+Nor must mention be omitted of the astounding phenomenon that,
+encouraged by President Buchanan's doctrine of non-coercion and purpose
+of non-action, a central cabal of Southern senators and representatives
+issued from Washington, on December 14, their public proclamation of the
+duty of secession; their executive committee using one of the rooms of
+the Capitol building itself as the headquarters of the conspiracy and
+rebellion they were appointed to lead and direct.
+
+During the month of December, while the active treason of cotton-State
+officials and the fatal neglect of the Federal executive were in their
+most damaging and demoralizing stages, an officer of the United States
+army had the high courage and distinguished honor to give the
+ever-growing revolution its first effective check. Major Robert
+Anderson, though a Kentuckian by birth and allied by marriage to a
+Georgia family, was, late in November, placed in command of the Federal
+forts in Charleston harbor; and having repeatedly reported that his
+little garrison of sixty men was insufficient for the defense of Fort
+Moultrie, and vainly asked for reinforcements which were not sent him,
+he suddenly and secretly, on the night after Christmas, transferred his
+command from the insecure position of Moultrie to the strong and
+unapproachable walls of Fort Sumter, midway in the mouth of Charleston
+harbor, where he could not be assailed by the raw Charleston militia
+companies that had for weeks been threatening him with a storming
+assault. In this stronghold, surrounded on all sides by water, he
+loyally held possession for the government and sovereignty of the United
+States.
+
+The surprised and baffled rage of the South Carolina rebels created a
+crisis at Washington that resulted in the expulsion of the President's
+treacherous counselors and the reconstruction of Mr. Buchanan's cabinet
+to unity and loyalty. The new cabinet, though unable to obtain President
+Buchanan's consent to aggressive measures to reëstablish the Federal
+authority, was, nevertheless, able to prevent further concessions to the
+insurrection, and to effect a number of important defensive precautions,
+among which was the already mentioned concentration of a small military
+force to protect the national capital.
+
+Meanwhile, the governor of South Carolina had begun the erection of
+batteries to isolate and besiege Fort Sumter; and the first of these, on
+a sand-spit of Morris Island commanding the main ship-channel, by a few
+shots turned back, on January 9, the merchant steamer _Star of the
+West_, in which General Scott had attempted to send a reinforcement of
+two hundred recruits to Major Anderson. Battery building was continued
+with uninterrupted energy until a triangle of siege works was
+established on the projecting points of neighboring islands, mounting a
+total of thirty guns and seventeen mortars, manned and supported by a
+volunteer force of from four to six thousand men.
+
+Military preparation, though not on so extensive or definite a scale,
+was also carried on in the other revolted States; and while Mr. Lincoln
+was making his memorable journey from Springfield to Washington,
+telegrams were printed in the newspapers, from day to day, showing that
+their delegates had met at Montgomery, Alabama, formed a provisional
+congress, and adopted a constitution and government under the title of
+The Confederate States of America, of which they elected Jefferson Davis
+of Mississippi President, and Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia
+Vice-President.
+
+It needs to be constantly borne in mind that the beginning of this vast
+movement was not a spontaneous revolution, but a chronic conspiracy.
+"The secession of South Carolina," truly said one of the chief actors,
+"is not an event of a day. It is not anything produced by Mr. Lincoln's
+election, or by the non-execution of the fugitive-slave law. It is a
+matter which has been gathering head for thirty years." The central
+motive and dominating object of the revolution was frankly avowed by
+Vice-President Stephens in a speech he made at Savannah a few weeks
+after his inauguration:
+
+"The prevailing ideas entertained by him [Jefferson] and most of the
+leading statesmen at the time of the formation of the old Constitution,
+were that the enslavement of the African was in violation of the laws of
+nature; that it was wrong in _principle_, socially, morally, and
+politically.... Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite
+idea; its foundations are laid, its corner-stone rests upon the great
+truth, that the negro is not equal to the white man; that
+slavery--subordination to the superior race--is his natural and normal
+condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the
+world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth."
+
+In the week which elapsed between Mr. Lincoln's arrival in Washington
+and the day of inauguration, he exchanged the customary visits of
+ceremony with President Buchanan, his cabinet, the Supreme Court, the
+two Houses of Congress, and other dignitaries. In his rooms at Willard's
+Hotel he also held consultations with leading Republicans about the
+final composition of his cabinet and pressing questions of public
+policy. Careful preparations had been made for the inauguration, and
+under the personal eye of General Scott the military force in the city
+was ready instantly to suppress any attempt to disturb the peace or
+quiet of the day.
+
+On March 4 the outgoing and incoming Presidents rode side by side in a
+carriage from the Executive Mansion to the Capitol and back, escorted by
+an imposing military and civic procession; and an immense throng of
+spectators heard the new Executive read his inaugural address from the
+east portico of the Capitol. He stated frankly that a disruption of the
+Federal Union was being formidably attempted, and discussed
+dispassionately the theory and illegality of secession. He held that the
+Union was perpetual; that resolves and ordinances of disunion are
+legally void; and announced that to the extent of his ability he would
+faithfully execute the laws of the Union in all the States. The power
+confided to him would be used to hold, occupy, and possess the property
+and places belonging to the government, and to collect the duties and
+imposts. But beyond what might be necessary for these objects there
+would be no invasion, no using of force against or among the people
+anywhere. Where hostility to the United States in any interior locality
+should be so great and universal as to prevent competent resident
+citizens from holding the Federal offices, there would be no attempt to
+force obnoxious strangers among them for that object. The mails, unless
+repelled, would continue to be furnished in all parts of the Union; and
+this course would be followed until current events and experience should
+show a change to be necessary. To the South he made an earnest plea
+against the folly of disunion, and in favor of maintaining peace and
+fraternal good will; declaring that their property, peace, and personal
+security were in no danger from a Republican administration.
+
+"One section of our country believes slavery is right and ought to be
+extended," he said, "while the other believes it is wrong and ought not
+to be extended; that is the only substantial dispute.... Physically
+speaking, we cannot separate. We cannot remove our respective sections
+from each other, nor build an impassable wall between them. A husband
+and wife may be divorced, and go out of the presence and beyond the
+reach of each other; but the different parts of our country cannot do
+this. They cannot but remain face to face, and intercourse, either
+amicable or hostile, must continue between them. Is it possible, then,
+to make that intercourse more advantageous or more satisfactory after
+separation than before? Can aliens make treaties easier than friends can
+make laws? Can treaties be more faithfully enforced between aliens, than
+laws can among friends? Suppose you go to war, you cannot fight always;
+and when, after much loss on both sides and no gain on either, you cease
+fighting, the identical old questions as to terms of intercourse are
+again upon you.... In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and
+not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will
+not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the
+aggressors.... I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We
+must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break
+our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from
+every battle-field and patriot grave to every living heart and
+hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the
+Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels
+of our nature."
+
+But the peaceful policy here outlined was already more difficult to
+follow than Mr. Lincoln was aware. On the morning after inauguration the
+Secretary of War brought to his notice freshly received letters from
+Major Anderson, commanding Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor, announcing
+that in the course of a few weeks the provisions of the garrison would
+be exhausted, and therefore an evacuation or surrender would become
+necessary, unless the fort were relieved by supplies or reinforcements;
+and this information was accompanied by the written opinions of the
+officers that to relieve the fort would require a well-appointed army of
+twenty thousand men.
+
+The new President had appointed as his cabinet William H. Seward,
+Secretary of State; Salmon P. Chase, Secretary of the Treasury; Simon
+Cameron, Secretary of War; Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy; Caleb
+B. Smith, Secretary of the Interior; Montgomery Blair,
+Postmaster-General; and Edward Bates, Attorney-General. The President
+and his official advisers at once called into counsel the highest
+military and naval officers of the Union to consider the new and
+pressing emergency revealed by the unexpected news from Sumter. The
+professional experts were divided in opinion. Relief by a force of
+twenty thousand men was clearly out of the question. No such Union army
+existed, nor could one be created within the limit of time. The officers
+of the navy thought that men and supplies might be thrown into the fort
+by swift-going vessels, while on the other hand the army officers
+believed that such an expedition would surely be destroyed by the
+formidable batteries which the insurgents had erected to close the
+harbor. In view of all the conditions, Lieutenant-General Scott,
+general-in-chief of the army, recommended the evacuation of the fort as
+a military necessity.
+
+President Lincoln thereupon asked the several members of his cabinet the
+written question: "Assuming it to be possible to now provision Fort
+Sumter, under all the circumstances is it wise to attempt it?" Only two
+members replied in the affirmative, while the other five argued against
+the attempt, holding that the country would recognize that the
+evacuation of the fort was not an indication of policy, but a necessity
+created by the neglect of the old administration. Under this advice, the
+President withheld his decision until he could gather further
+information.
+
+Meanwhile, three commissioners had arrived from the provisional
+government at Montgomery, Alabama, under instructions to endeavor to
+negotiate a _de facto_ and _de jure_ recognition of the independence of
+the Confederate States. They were promptly informed by Mr. Seward that
+he could not receive them; that he did not see in the Confederate States
+a rightful and accomplished revolution and an independent nation; and
+that he was not at liberty to recognize the commissioners as diplomatic
+agents, or to hold correspondence with them. Failing in this direct
+application, they made further efforts through Mr. Justice Campbell of
+the Supreme Court, as a friendly intermediary, who came to Seward in the
+guise of a loyal official, though his correspondence with Jefferson
+Davis soon revealed a treasonable intent; and, replying to Campbell's
+earnest entreaties that peace should be maintained, Seward informed him
+confidentially that the military status at Charleston would not be
+changed without notice to the governor of South Carolina. On March 29 a
+cabinet meeting for the second time discussed the question of Sumter.
+Four of the seven members now voted in favor of an attempt to supply the
+fort with provisions, and the President signed a memorandum order to
+prepare certain ships for such an expedition, under the command of
+Captain G.V. Fox.
+
+So far, Mr. Lincoln's new duties as President of the United States had
+not in any wise put him at a disadvantage with his constitutional
+advisers. Upon the old question of slavery he was as well informed and
+had clearer convictions and purposes than either Seward or Chase. And
+upon the newer question of secession, and the immediate decision about
+Fort Sumter which it involved, the members of his cabinet were, like
+himself, compelled to rely on the professional advice of experienced
+army and navy officers. Since these differed radically in their
+opinions, the President's own powers of perception and logic were as
+capable of forming a correct decision as men who had been governors and
+senators. He had reached at least a partial decision in the memorandum
+he gave Fox to prepare ships for the Sumter expedition.
+
+It must therefore have been a great surprise to the President when, on
+April 1, Secretary of State Seward handed him a memorandum setting forth
+a number of most extraordinary propositions. For a full enumeration of
+the items the reader must carefully study the entire document, which is
+printed below in a foot-note;[4] but the principal points for which it
+had evidently been written and presented can be given in a few
+sentences.
+
+ [Footnote 4: SOME THOUGHTS FOR THE PRESIDENT'S CONSIDERATION. APRIL
+ 1, 1861.
+
+ First. We are at the end of a month's administration, and yet
+ without a policy, either domestic or foreign.
+
+ Second. This, however, is not culpable, and it has even been
+ unavoidable. The presence of the Senate, with the need to meet
+ applications for patronage, have prevented attention to other and
+ more grave matters.
+
+ Third. But further delay to adopt and prosecute our policies for
+ both domestic and foreign affairs would not only bring scandal on
+ the administration, but danger upon the country.
+
+ Fourth. To do this we must dismiss the applicants for office. But
+ how? I suggest that we make the local appointments forthwith,
+ leaving foreign or general ones for ulterior and occasional action.
+
+ Fifth. The policy at home. I am aware that my views are singular
+ and perhaps not sufficiently explained My system is built upon this
+ idea as a ruling one, namely, that we must
+
+ CHANGE THE QUESTION BEFORE THE PUBLIC FROM ONE UPON SLAVERY, OR
+ ABOUT SLAVERY, for a question upon UNION OR DISUNION.
+
+ In other words, from what would be regarded as a party question, to
+ one of _Patriotism_ or _Union_.
+
+ The occupation or evacuation of Fort Sumter, although not in fact a
+ slavery or a party question, is so regarded. Witness the temper
+ manifested by the Republicans in the free States, and even by the
+ Union men in the South.
+
+ I would therefore terminate it as a safe means for changing the
+ issue. I deem it fortunate that the last administration created the
+ necessity.
+
+ For the rest, I would simultaneously defend and reinforce all the
+ ports in the Gulf, and have the navy recalled from foreign stations
+ to be prepared for a blockade. Put the island of Key West under
+ martial law.
+
+ This will raise distinctly the question of _Union_ or _Disunion_. I
+ would maintain every fort and possession in the South.
+
+
+ FOR FOREIGN NATIONS.
+
+ 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 continental 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.]
+
+A month has elapsed, and the administration has neither a domestic nor a
+foreign policy. The administration must at once adopt and carry out a
+novel, radical, and aggressive policy. It must cease saying a word about
+slavery, and raise a great outcry about Union. It must declare war
+against France and Spain, and combine and organize all the governments
+of North and South America in a crusade to enforce the Monroe Doctrine.
+This policy once adopted, it must be the business of some one
+incessantly to pursue it. "It is not in my especial province," wrote Mr.
+Seward; "but I neither seek to evade nor assume responsibility." This
+phrase, which is a key to the whole memorandum, enables the reader
+easily to translate its meaning into something like the following:
+
+After a month's trial, you, Mr. Lincoln, are a failure as President. The
+country is in desperate straits, and must use a desperate remedy. That
+remedy is to submerge the South Carolina insurrection in a continental
+war. Some new man must take the executive helm, and wield the undivided
+presidential authority. I should have been nominated at Chicago, and
+elected in November, but am willing to take your place and perform your
+duties.
+
+Why William H. Seward, who is fairly entitled to rank as a great
+statesman, should have written this memorandum and presented it to Mr.
+Lincoln, has never been explained; nor is it capable of explanation. Its
+suggestions were so visionary, its reasoning so fallacious, its
+assumptions so unwarranted, its conclusions so malapropos, that it falls
+below critical examination. Had Mr. Lincoln been an envious or a
+resentful man, he could not have wished for a better occasion to put a
+rival under his feet.
+
+The President doubtless considered the incident one of phenomenal
+strangeness, but it did not in the least disturb his unselfish judgment
+or mental equipoise. There was in his answer no trace of excitement or
+passion. He pointed out in a few sentences of simple, quiet explanation
+that what the administration had done was exactly a foreign and domestic
+policy which the Secretary of State himself had concurred in and helped
+to frame. Only, that Mr. Seward proposed to go further and give up
+Sumter. Upon the central suggestion that some one mind must direct, Mr.
+Lincoln wrote with simple dignity:
+
+"If this must be done, I must do it. When a general line of policy is
+adopted, I apprehend there is no danger of its being changed without
+good reason, or continuing to be a subject of unnecessary debate; still,
+upon points arising in its progress I wish, and suppose I am entitled to
+have, the advice of all the cabinet."
+
+Mr. Lincoln's unselfish magnanimity is the central marvel of the whole
+affair. His reply ended the argument. Mr. Seward doubtless saw at once
+how completely he had put himself in the President's power. Apparently,
+neither of the men ever again alluded to the incident. No other persons
+except Mr. Seward's son and the President's private secretary ever saw
+the correspondence, or knew of the occurrence. The President put the
+papers away in an envelop, and no word of the affair came to the public
+until a quarter of a century later, when the details were published in
+Mr. Lincoln's biography. In one mind, at least, there was no further
+doubt that the cabinet had a master, for only some weeks later Mr.
+Seward is known to have written: "There is but one vote in the cabinet,
+and that is cast by the President." This mastery Mr. Lincoln retained
+with a firm dignity throughout his administration. When, near the close
+of the war, he sent Mr. Seward to meet the rebel commissioners at the
+Hampton Roads conference, he finished his short letter of instructions
+with the imperative sentence: "You will not assume to definitely
+consummate anything."
+
+From this strange episode our narrative must return to the question of
+Fort Sumter. On April 4, official notice was sent to Major Anderson of
+the coming relief, with the instruction to hold out till the eleventh or
+twelfth if possible; but authorizing him to capitulate whenever it might
+become necessary to save himself and command. Two days later the
+President sent a special messenger with written notice to the governor
+of South Carolina that an attempt would be made to supply Fort Sumter
+with provisions only; and that if such attempt were not resisted, no
+further effort would be made to throw in men, arms, or ammunition,
+without further notice, or unless in case of an attack on the fort.
+
+The building of batteries around Fort Sumter had been begun, under the
+orders of Governor Pickens, about the first of January, and continued
+with industry and energy; and about the first of March General
+Beauregard, an accomplished engineer officer, was sent by the
+Confederate government to take charge of and complete the works. On
+April 1 he telegraphed to Montgomery: "Batteries ready to open Wednesday
+or Thursday. What instructions?"
+
+At this point, the Confederate authorities at Montgomery found
+themselves face to face with the fatal alternative either to begin war
+or to allow their rebellion to collapse. Their claim to independence was
+denied, their commissioners were refused a hearing; yet not an angry
+word, provoking threat, nor harmful act had come from President Lincoln.
+He had promised them peace, protection, freedom from irritation; had
+offered them the benefit of the mails. Even now, all he proposed to do
+was--not to send guns or ammunition or men to Sumter, but only bread and
+provisions to Anderson and his soldiers. His prudent policy placed them
+in the exact attitude described a month earlier in his inaugural; they
+could have no conflict without being themselves the aggressors. But the
+rebellion was organized by ambitious men with desperate intentions. A
+member of the Alabama legislature, present at Montgomery, said to
+Jefferson Davis and three members of his cabinet: "Gentlemen, unless you
+sprinkle blood in the face of the people of Alabama, they will be back
+in the old Union in less than ten days." And the sanguinary advice was
+adopted. In answer to his question, "What instructions?" Beauregard on
+April 10 was ordered to demand the evacuation of Fort Sumter, and, in
+case of refusal, to reduce it.
+
+The demand was presented to Anderson, who replied that he would evacuate
+the fort by noon of April 15, unless assailed, or unless he received
+supplies or controlling instructions from his government. This answer
+being unsatisfactory to Beauregard, he sent Anderson notice that he
+would open fire on Sumter at 4:20 on the morning of April 12.
+
+Promptly at the hour indicated the bombardment was begun. As has been
+related, the rebel siege-works were built on the points of the islands
+forming the harbor, at distances varying from thirteen hundred to
+twenty-five hundred yards, and numbered nineteen batteries, with an
+armament of forty-seven guns, supported by a land force of from four to
+six thousand volunteers. The disproportion between means of attack and
+defense was enormous. Sumter, though a work three hundred by three
+hundred and fifty feet in size, with well-constructed walls and
+casemates of brick, was in very meager preparation for such a conflict.
+Of its forty-eight available guns, only twenty-one were in the
+casemates, twenty-seven being on the rampart _en barbette_. The garrison
+consisted of nine commissioned officers, sixty-eight non-commissioned
+officers and privates, eight musicians, and forty-three non-combatant
+workmen compelled by the besiegers to remain to hasten the consumption
+of provisions.
+
+Under the fire of the seventeen mortars in the rebel batteries, Anderson
+could reply only with a vertical fire from the guns of small caliber in
+his casemates, which was of no effect against the rebel bomb-proofs of
+sand and roofs of sloping railroad iron; but, refraining from exposing
+his men to serve his barbette guns, his garrison was also safe in its
+protecting casemates. It happened, therefore, that although the attack
+was spirited and the defense resolute, the combat went on for a day and
+a half without a single casualty. It came to an end on the second day
+only when the cartridges of the garrison were exhausted, and the red-hot
+shot from the rebel batteries had set the buildings used as officers'
+quarters on fire, creating heat and smoke that rendered further defense
+impossible.
+
+There was also the further discouragement that the expedition of relief
+which Anderson had been instructed to look for on the eleventh or
+twelfth, had failed to appear. Several unforeseen contingencies had
+prevented the assembling of the vessels at the appointed rendezvous
+outside Charleston harbor, though some of them reached it in time to
+hear the opening guns of the bombardment. But as accident had deranged
+and thwarted the plan agreed upon, they could do nothing except
+impatiently await the issue of the fight.
+
+A little after noon of April 13, when the flagstaff of the fort had been
+shot away and its guns remained silent, an invitation to capitulate with
+the honors of war came from General Beauregard, which Anderson accepted;
+and on the following day, Sunday, April 14, he hauled down his flag with
+impressive ceremonies, and leaving the fort with his faithful garrison,
+proceeded in a steamer to New York.
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+President's Proclamation Calling for Seventy-five Regiments--Responses
+of the Governors--Maryland and Virginia--The Baltimore Riot--Washington
+Isolated--Lincoln Takes the Responsibility--Robert E. Lee--Arrival of
+the New York Seventh--Suspension of Habeas Corpus--The Annapolis
+Route--Butler in Baltimore--Taney on the Merryman
+Case--Kentucky--Missouri--Lyon Captures Camp Jackson--Boonville
+Skirmish--The Missouri Convention--Gamble made Governor--The Border
+States
+
+
+The bombardment of Fort Sumter changed the political situation as if by
+magic. There was no longer room for doubt, hesitation, concession, or
+compromise. Without awaiting the arrival of the ships that were bringing
+provisions to Anderson's starving garrison, the hostile Charleston
+batteries had opened their fire on the fort by the formal order of the
+Confederate government, and peaceable secession was, without
+provocation, changed to active war. The rebels gained possession of
+Charleston harbor; but their mode of obtaining it awakened the
+patriotism of the American people to a stern determination that the
+insult to the national authority and flag should be redressed, and the
+unrighteous experiment of a rival government founded on slavery as its
+corner-stone should never succeed. Under the conflict thus begun the
+long-tolerated barbarous institution itself was destined ignobly to
+perish.
+
+On his journey from Springfield to Washington Mr. Lincoln had said that,
+devoted as he was to peace, he might find it necessary "to put the foot
+down firmly." That time had now come. On the morning of April 15, 1861,
+the leading newspapers of the country printed the President's
+proclamation reciting that, whereas the laws of the United States were
+opposed and the execution thereof obstructed in the States of South
+Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas,
+by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of
+judicial proceedings, the militia of the several States of the Union, to
+the aggregate number of seventy-five thousand, was called forth to
+suppress said combinations and cause the laws to be duly executed. The
+orders of the War Department specified that the period of service under
+this call should be for three months; and to further conform to the
+provisions of the Act of 1795, under which the call was issued, the
+President's proclamation also convened the Congress in special session
+on the coming fourth of July.
+
+Public opinion in the free States, which had been sadly demoralized by
+the long discussions over slavery, and by the existence of four factions
+in the late presidential campaign, was instantly crystallized and
+consolidated by the Sumter bombardment and the President's proclamation
+into a sentiment of united support to the government for the suppression
+of the rebellion. The several free-State governors sent loyal and
+enthusiastic responses to the call for militia, and tendered double the
+numbers asked for. The people of the slave States which had not yet
+joined the Montgomery Confederacy--namely, Virginia, North Carolina,
+Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and
+Delaware--remained, however, more or less divided on the issue as it
+now presented itself. The governors of the first six of these were
+already so much engaged in the secret intrigues of the secession
+movement that they sent the Secretary of War contumacious and insulting
+replies, and distinct refusals to the President's call for troops. The
+governor of Delaware answered that there was no organized militia in his
+State which he had legal authority to command, but that the officers of
+organized volunteer regiments might at their own option offer their
+services to the United States; while the governor of Maryland, in
+complying with the requisition, stipulated that the regiments from his
+State should not be required to serve outside its limits, except to
+defend the District of Columbia.
+
+A swift, almost bewildering rush of events, however, quickly compelled
+most of them to take sides. Secession feeling was rampant in Baltimore;
+and when the first armed and equipped Northern regiment, the
+Massachusetts Sixth, passed through that city on the morning of April
+19, on its way to Washington, the last four of its companies were
+assailed by street mobs with missiles and firearms while marching from
+one depot to the other; and in the running fight which ensued, four of
+its soldiers were killed and about thirty wounded, while the mob
+probably lost two or three times as many. This tragedy instantly threw
+the whole city into a wild frenzy of insurrection. That same afternoon
+an immense secession meeting in Monument Square listened to a torrent of
+treasonable protest and denunciation, in which Governor Hicks himself
+was made momentarily to join. The militia was called out, preparations
+were made to arm the city, and that night the railroad bridges were
+burned between Baltimore and the Pennsylvania line to prevent the
+further transit of Union regiments. The revolutionary furor spread to
+the country towns, and for a whole week the Union flag practically
+disappeared from Maryland.
+
+While these events were taking place to the north, equally threatening
+incidents were occurring to the south of Washington. The State of
+Virginia had been for many weeks balancing uneasily between loyalty and
+secession. In the new revolutionary stress her weak remnant of
+conditional Unionism gave way; and on April 17, two days after the
+President's call, her State convention secretly passed a secession
+ordinance, while Governor Letcher ordered a military seizure of the
+United States navy-yard at Norfolk and the United States armory at
+Harper's Ferry. Under orders from Washington, both establishments were
+burned to prevent their falling into insurrectionary hands; but the
+destruction in each case was only partial, and much valuable war
+material thus passed to rebel uses.
+
+All these hostile occurrences put the national capital in the greatest
+danger. For three days it was entirely cut off from communication with
+the North by either telegraph or mail. Under the orders of General
+Scott, the city was hastily prepared for a possible siege. The flour at
+the mills, and other stores of provisions were taken possession of. The
+Capitol and other public buildings were barricaded, and detachments of
+troops stationed in them. Business was suspended by a common impulse;
+streets were almost deserted except by squads of military patrol;
+shutters of stores, and even many residences, remained unopened
+throughout the day. The signs were none too reassuring. In addition to
+the public rumors whispered about by serious faces on the streets,
+General Scott reported in writing to President Lincoln on the evening of
+April 22:
+
+"Of rumors, the following are probable, viz.: _First_, that from
+fifteen hundred to two thousand troops are at the White House (four
+miles below Mount Vernon, a narrow point in the Potomac), engaged in
+erecting a battery; _Second_, that an equal force is collected or in
+progress of assemblage on the two sides of the river to attack Fort
+Washington; and _Third_, that extra cars went up yesterday to bring down
+from Harper's Ferry about two thousand other troops to join in a general
+attack on this capital--that is, on many of its fronts at once. I feel
+confident that with our present forces we can defend the Capitol, the
+Arsenal, and all the executive buildings (seven) against ten thousand
+troops not better than our District volunteers."
+
+Throughout this crisis President Lincoln not only maintained his
+composure, but promptly assumed the high responsibilities the occasion
+demanded. On Sunday, April 21, he summoned his cabinet to meet at the
+Navy Department, and with their unanimous concurrence issued a number of
+emergency orders relating to the purchase of ships, the transportation
+of troops and munitions of war, the advance of $2,000,000 of money to a
+Union Safety Committee in New York, and other military and naval
+measures, which were despatched in duplicate by private messengers over
+unusual and circuitous routes. In a message to Congress, in which he
+afterward explained these extraordinary transactions, he said:
+
+"It became necessary for me to choose whether, using only the existing
+means, agencies, and processes which Congress had provided, I should let
+the government fall at once into ruin, or whether, availing myself of
+the broader powers conferred by the Constitution in cases of
+insurrection, I would make an effort to save it with all its blessings
+for the present age and for posterity."
+
+Unwelcome as was the thought of a possible capture of Washington city,
+President Lincoln's mind was much more disturbed by many suspicious
+indications of disloyalty in public officials, and especially in
+officers of the army and navy. Hundreds of clerks of Southern birth
+employed in the various departments suddenly left their desks and went
+South. The commandant of the Washington navy-yard and the
+quartermaster-general of the army resigned their positions to take
+service under Jefferson Davis. One morning the captain of a light
+battery on which General Scott had placed special reliance for the
+defense of Washington came to the President at the White House to
+asseverate and protest his loyalty and fidelity; and that same night
+secretly left his post and went to Richmond to become a Confederate
+officer.
+
+The most prominent case, however, was that of Colonel Robert E. Lee, the
+officer who captured John Brown at Harper's Ferry, and who afterward
+became the leader of the Confederate armies. As a lieutenant he had
+served on the staff of General Scott in the war with Mexico. Personally
+knowing his ability, Scott recommended him to Lincoln as the most
+suitable officer to command the Union army about to be assembled under
+the President's call for seventy-five regiments; and this command was
+informally tendered him through a friend. Lee, however, declined the
+offer, explaining that "though opposed to secession, and deprecating
+war, I could take no part in an invasion of the Southern States." He
+resigned his commission in a letter written on April 20, and, without
+waiting for notice of its acceptance, which alone could discharge him
+from his military obligation, proceeded to Richmond, where he was
+formally and publicly invested with the command of the Virginia military
+and naval forces on April 22; while, two days later, the rebel
+Vice-President, Alexander H. Stephens, and a committee of the Richmond
+convention signed a formal military league making Virginia an immediate
+member of the Confederate States, and placing her armies under the
+command of Jefferson Davis.
+
+The sudden uprising in Maryland and the insurrectionary activity in
+Virginia had been largely stimulated by the dream of the leading
+conspirators that their new confederacy would combine all the slave
+States, and that by the adhesion of both Maryland and Virginia they
+would fall heir to a ready-made seat of government. While the
+bombardment of Sumter was in progress, the rebel Secretary of War,
+announcing the news in a jubilant speech at Montgomery, in the presence
+of Jefferson Davis and his colleagues, confidently predicted that the
+rebel flag would before the end of May "float over the dome of the
+Capitol at Washington." The disloyal demonstrations in Maryland and
+Virginia rendered such a hope so plausible that Jefferson Davis
+telegraphed to Governor Letcher at Richmond that he was preparing to
+send him thirteen regiments, and added: "Sustain Baltimore if
+practicable. We reinforce you"; while Senator Mason hurried to that city
+personally to furnish advice and military assistance.
+
+But the flattering expectation was not realized. The requisite
+preparation and concert of action were both wanting. The Union troops
+from New York and New England, pouring into Philadelphia, flanked the
+obstructions of the Baltimore route by devising a new one by way of
+Chesapeake Bay and Annapolis; and the opportune arrival of the Seventh
+Regiment of New York in Washington, on April 25, rendered that city
+entirely safe against surprise or attack, relieved the apprehension of
+officials and citizens, and renewed its business and public activity.
+The mob frenzy of Baltimore and the Maryland towns subsided almost as
+quickly as it had risen. The Union leaders and newspapers asserted
+themselves, and soon demonstrated their superiority in numbers and
+activity.
+
+Serious embarrassment had been created by the timidity of Governor
+Hicks, who, while Baltimore remained under mob terrorism, officially
+protested against the landing of Union troops at Annapolis; and, still
+worse, summoned the Maryland legislature to meet on April 26--a step
+which he had theretofore stubbornly refused to take. This event had
+become doubly dangerous, because a Baltimore city election held during
+the same terror week had reinforced the legislature with ten secession
+members, creating a majority eager to pass a secession ordinance at the
+first opportunity. The question of either arresting or dispersing the
+body by military force was one of the problems which the crisis forced
+upon President Lincoln. On full reflection he decided against either
+measure.
+
+"I think it would not be justifiable," he wrote to General Scott, "nor
+efficient for the desired object. _First_, they have a clearly legal
+right to assemble; and we cannot know in advance that their action will
+not be lawful and peaceful. And if we wait until they shall have acted,
+their arrest or dispersion will not lessen the effect of their action.
+_Secondly_, we cannot permanently prevent their action. If we arrest
+them, we cannot long hold them as prisoners; and, when liberated, they
+will immediately reassemble and take their action. And precisely the
+same if we simply disperse them: they will immediately reassemble in
+some other place. I therefore conclude that it is only left to the
+commanding general to watch and await their action, which, if it shall
+be to arm their people against the United States, he is to adopt the
+most prompt and efficient means to counteract, even if necessary to the
+bombardment of their cities; and, in the extremest necessity, the
+suspension of the writ of _habeas corpus_."
+
+Two days later the President formally authorized General Scott to
+suspend the writ of _habeas corpus_ along his military lines, or in
+their vicinity, if resistance should render it necessary. Arrivals of
+additional troops enabled the General to strengthen his military hold on
+Annapolis and the railroads; and on May 13 General B.F. Butler, with
+about one thousand men, moved into Baltimore and established a fortified
+camp on Federal Hill, the bulk of his force being the Sixth
+Massachusetts, which had been mobbed in that city on April 19. Already,
+on the previous day, the bridges and railroad had been repaired, and the
+regular transit of troops through the city reëstablished.
+
+Under these changing conditions the secession majority of the Maryland
+legislature did not venture on any official treason. They sent a
+committee to interview the President, vented their hostility in spiteful
+reports and remonstrances, and prolonged their session by a recess.
+Nevertheless, so inveterate was their disloyalty and plotting against
+the authority of the Union, that four months later it became necessary
+to place the leaders under arrest, finally to head off their darling
+project of a Maryland secession ordinance.
+
+One additional incident of this insurrectionary period remains to be
+noticed. One John Merryman, claiming to be a Confederate lieutenant, was
+arrested in Baltimore for enlisting men for the rebellion, and Chief
+Justice Taney of the United States Supreme Court, the famous author of
+the Dred Scott decision, issued a writ of _habeas corpus_ to obtain his
+release from Fort McHenry. Under the President's orders, General
+Cadwalader of course declined to obey the writ. Upon this, the chief
+justice ordered the general's arrest for contempt, but the officer sent
+to serve the writ was refused entrance to the fort. In turn, the
+indignant chief justice, taking counsel of his passion instead of his
+patriotism, announced dogmatically that "the President, under the
+Constitution and laws of the United States, cannot suspend the privilege
+of the writ of _habeas corpus_, nor authorize any military officer to do
+so"; and some weeks afterward filed a long written opinion in support of
+this dictum. It is unnecessary here to quote the opinions of several
+eminent jurists who successfully refuted his labored argument, nor to
+repeat the vigorous analysis with which, in his special message to
+Congress of July 4, President Lincoln vindicated his own authority.
+
+While these events were occurring in Maryland and Virginia, the
+remaining slave States were gradually taking sides, some for, others
+against rebellion. Under radical and revolutionary leadership similar to
+that of the cotton States, the governors and State officials of North
+Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas placed their States in an attitude of
+insurrection, and before the middle of May practically joined them to
+the Confederate government by the formalities of military leagues and
+secession ordinances.
+
+But in the border slave States--that is, those contiguous to the free
+States--the eventual result was different. In these, though secession
+intrigue and sympathy were strong, and though their governors and State
+officials favored the rebellion, the underlying loyalty and Unionism of
+the people thwarted their revolutionary schemes. This happened even in
+the northwestern part of Virginia itself. The forty-eight counties of
+that State lying north of the Alleghanies and adjoining Pennsylvania and
+Ohio repudiated the action at Richmond, seceded from secession, and
+established a loyal provisional State government. President Lincoln
+recognized them and sustained them with military aid; and in due time
+they became organized and admitted to the Union as the State of West
+Virginia. In Delaware, though some degree of secession feeling existed,
+it was too insignificant to produce any note-worthy public
+demonstration.
+
+In Kentucky the political struggle was deep and prolonged. The governor
+twice called the legislature together to initiate secession proceedings;
+but that body refused compliance, and warded off his scheme by voting to
+maintain the State neutrality. Next, the governor sought to utilize the
+military organization known as the State Guard to effect his object. The
+Union leaders offset this movement by enlisting several volunteer Union
+regiments. At the June election nine Union congressmen were chosen, and
+only one secessionist; while in August a new legislature was elected
+with a three-fourths Union majority in each branch. Other secession
+intrigues proved equally abortive; and when, finally, in September,
+Confederate armies invaded Kentucky at three different points, the
+Kentucky legislature invited the Union armies of the West into the State
+to expel them, and voted to place forty thousand Union volunteers at the
+service of President Lincoln.
+
+In Missouri the struggle was more fierce, but also more brief. As far
+back as January, the conspirators had perfected a scheme to obtain
+possession, through the treachery of the officer in charge, of the
+important Jefferson Barracks arsenal at St. Louis, with its store of
+sixty thousand stand of arms and a million and a half cartridges. The
+project, however, failed. Rumors of the danger came to General Scott,
+who ordered thither a company of regulars under command of Captain
+Nathaniel Lyon, an officer not only loyal by nature and habit, but also
+imbued with strong antislavery convictions. Lyon found valuable support
+in the watchfulness of a Union Safety Committee composed of leading St.
+Louis citizens, who secretly organized a number of Union regiments
+recruited largely from the heavy German population; and from these
+sources Lyon was enabled to make such a show of available military force
+as effectively to deter any mere popular uprising to seize the arsenal.
+
+A State convention, elected to pass a secession ordinance, resulted,
+unexpectedly to the conspirators, in the return of a majority of Union
+delegates, who voted down the secession program and adjourned to the
+following December. Thereupon, the secession governor ordered his State
+militia into temporary camps of instruction, with the idea of taking
+Missouri out of the Union by a concerted military movement. One of these
+encampments, established at St. Louis and named Camp Jackson in honor of
+the governor, furnished such unquestionable evidences of intended
+treason that Captain Lyon, whom President Lincoln had meanwhile
+authorized to enlist ten thousand Union volunteers, and, if necessary,
+to proclaim martial law, made a sudden march upon Camp Jackson with his
+regulars and six of his newly enlisted regiments, stationed his force in
+commanding positions around the camp, and demanded its surrender. The
+demand was complied with after but slight hesitation, and the captured
+militia regiments were, on the following day, disbanded under parole.
+Unfortunately, as the prisoners were being marched away a secession mob
+insulted and attacked some of Lyon's regiments and provoked a return
+fire, in which about twenty persons, mainly lookers-on, were killed or
+wounded; and for a day or two the city was thrown into the panic and
+lawlessness of a reign of terror.
+
+Upon this, the legislature, in session at Jefferson City, the capital of
+the State, with a three-fourths secession majority, rushed through the
+forms of legislation a military bill placing the military and financial
+resources of Missouri under the governor's control. For a month longer
+various incidents delayed the culmination of the approaching struggle,
+each side continuing its preparations, and constantly accentuating the
+rising antagonism. The crisis came when, on June 11, Governor Jackson
+and Captain Lyon, now made brigadier-general by the President, met in an
+interview at St. Louis. In this interview the governor demanded that he
+be permitted to exercise sole military command to maintain the
+neutrality of Missouri, while Lyon insisted that the Federal military
+authority must be left in unrestricted control. It being impossible to
+reach any agreement, Governor Jackson hurried back to his capital,
+burning railroad bridges behind him as he went, and on the following
+day, June 12, issued his proclamation calling out fifty thousand State
+militia, and denouncing the Lincoln administration as "an
+unconstitutional military despotism."
+
+Lyon was also prepared for this contingency. On the afternoon of June
+13, he embarked with a regular battery and several battalions of his
+Union volunteers on steamboats, moved rapidly up the Missouri River to
+Jefferson City, drove the governor and the secession legislature into
+precipitate flight, took possession of the capital, and, continuing his
+expedition, scattered, after a slight skirmish, a small rebel military
+force which had hastily collected at Boonville. Rapidly following these
+events, the loyal members of the Missouri State convention, which had in
+February refused to pass a secession ordinance, were called together,
+and passed ordinances under which was constituted a loyal State
+government that maintained the local civil authority of the United
+States throughout the greater part of Missouri during the whole of the
+Civil War, only temporarily interrupted by invasions of transient
+Confederate armies from Arkansas.
+
+It will be seen from the foregoing outline that the original hope of the
+Southern leaders to make the Ohio River the northern boundary of their
+slave empire was not realized. They indeed secured the adhesion of
+Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas, by which the
+territory of the Confederate States government was enlarged nearly one
+third and its population and resources nearly doubled. But the northern
+tier of slave States--Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, and
+Missouri--not only decidedly refused to join the rebellion, but remained
+true to the Union; and this reduced the contest to a trial of military
+strength between eleven States with 5,115,790 whites, and 3,508,131
+slaves, against twenty-four States with 21,611,422 whites and 342,212
+slaves, and at least a proportionate difference in all other resources
+of war. At the very outset the conditions were prophetic of the result.
+
+
+
+
+XV
+
+Davis's Proclamation for Privateers--Lincoln's Proclamation of
+Blockade--The Call for Three Years' Volunteers--Southern Military
+Preparations--Rebel Capital Moved to Richmond--Virginia, North Carolina,
+Tennessee and Arkansas Admitted to Confederate States--Desertion of Army
+and Navy Officers--Union Troops Fortify Virginia Shore of the
+Potomac--Concentration at Harper's Ferry--Concentration at Fortress
+Monroe and Cairo--English Neutrality--Seward's 21st-of-May
+Despatch--Lincoln's Corrections--Preliminary Skirmishes--Forward to
+Richmond--Plan of McDowell's Campaign
+
+
+From the slower political developments in the border slave States we
+must return and follow up the primary hostilities of the rebellion. The
+bombardment of Sumter, President Lincoln's call for troops, the
+Baltimore riot, the burning of Harper's Ferry armory and Norfolk
+navy-yard, and the interruption of railroad communication which, for
+nearly a week, isolated the capital and threatened it with siege and
+possible capture, fully demonstrated the beginning of serious civil war.
+
+Jefferson Davis's proclamation, on April 17, of intention to issue
+letters of marque, was met two days later by President Lincoln's
+counter-proclamation instituting a blockade of the Southern ports, and
+declaring that privateers would be held amenable to the laws against
+piracy. His first call for seventy-five thousand three months' militia
+was dictated as to numbers by the sudden emergency, and as to form and
+term of service by the provisions of the Act of 1795. It needed only a
+few days to show that this form of enlistment was both cumbrous and
+inadequate; and the creation of a more powerful army was almost
+immediately begun. On May 3 a new proclamation was issued, calling into
+service 42,034 three years' volunteers, 22,714 enlisted men to add ten
+regiments to the regular army, and 18,000 seamen for blockade service: a
+total immediate increase of 82,748, swelling the entire military
+establishment to an army of 156,861 and a navy of 25,000.
+
+No express authority of law yet existed for these measures; but
+President Lincoln took the responsibility of ordering them, trusting
+that Congress would legalize his acts. His confidence was entirely
+justified. At the special session which met under his proclamation, on
+the fourth of July, these acts were declared valid, and he was
+authorized, moreover, to raise an army of a million men and $250,000,000
+in money to carry on the war to suppress the rebellion; while other
+legislation conferred upon him supplementary authority to meet the
+emergency.
+
+Meanwhile, the first effort of the governors of the loyal States was to
+furnish their quotas under the first call for militia. This was easy
+enough as to men. It required only a few days to fill the regiments and
+forward them to the State capitals and principal cities; but to arm and
+equip them for the field on the spur of the moment was a difficult task
+which involved much confusion and delay, even though existing armories
+and foundries pushed their work to the utmost and new ones were
+established. Under the militia call, the governors appointed all the
+officers required by their respective quotas, from company lieutenant to
+major-general of division; while under the new call for three years'
+volunteers, their authority was limited to the simple organization of
+regiments.
+
+In the South, war preparation also immediately became active. All the
+indications are that up to their attack on Sumter, the Southern leaders
+hoped to effect separation through concession and compromise by the
+North. That hope, of course, disappeared with South Carolina's opening
+guns, and the Confederate government made what haste it could to meet
+the ordeal it dreaded even while it had provoked it. The rebel Congress
+was hastily called together, and passed acts recognizing war and
+regulating privateering; admitting Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee,
+and Arkansas to the Confederate States; authorizing a $50,000,000 loan;
+practically confiscating debts due from Southern to Northern citizens;
+and removing the seat of government from Montgomery, Alabama, to
+Richmond, Virginia.
+
+Four different calls for Southern volunteers had been made, aggregating
+82,000 men; and Jefferson Davis's message now proposed to further
+organize and hold in readiness an army of 100,000. The work of erecting
+forts and batteries for defense was being rapidly pushed at all points:
+on the Atlantic coast, on the Potomac, and on the Mississippi and other
+Western streams. For the present the Confederates were well supplied
+with cannon and small arms from the captured navy-yards at Norfolk and
+Pensacola and the six or eight arsenals located in the South. The
+martial spirit of their people was roused to the highest enthusiasm, and
+there was no lack of volunteers to fill the companies and regiments
+which the Confederate legislators authorized Davis to accept, either by
+regular calls on State executives in accordance with, or singly in
+defiance of, their central dogma of States Rights, as he might prefer.
+
+The secession of the Southern States not only strengthened the rebellion
+with the arms and supplies stored in the various military and naval
+depots within their limits, and the fortifications erected for their
+defense: what was of yet greater help to the revolt, a considerable
+portion of the officers of the army and navy--perhaps one
+third--abandoned the allegiance which they had sworn to the United
+States, and, under the false doctrine of State supremacy taught by
+Southern leaders, gave their professional skill and experience to the
+destruction of the government which had educated and honored them. The
+defection of Robert E. Lee was a conspicuous example, and his loss to
+the Union and service to the rebel army cannot easily be measured. So,
+also, were the similar cases of Adjutant-General Cooper and
+Quartermaster-General Johnston. In gratifying contrast stands the
+steadfast loyalty and devotion of Lieutenant-General Winfield Scott,
+who, though he was a Virginian and loved his native State, never wavered
+an instant in his allegiance to the flag he had heroically followed in
+the War of 1812, and triumphantly planted over the capital of Mexico in
+1847. Though unable to take the field, he as general-in-chief directed
+the assembling and first movements of the Union troops.
+
+The largest part of the three months' regiments were ordered to
+Washington city as the most important position in a political, and most
+exposed in a military point of view. The great machine of war, once
+started, moved, as it always does, by its own inherent energy from
+arming to concentration, from concentration to skirmish and battle. It
+was not long before Washington was a military camp. Gradually the
+hesitation to "invade" the "sacred soil" of the South faded out under
+the stern necessity to forestall an invasion of the equally sacred soil
+of the North; and on May 24 the Union regiments in Washington crossed
+the Potomac and planted themselves in a great semicircle of formidable
+earthworks eighteen miles long on the Virginia shore, from Chain Bridge
+to Hunting Creek, below Alexandria.
+
+Meanwhile, a secondary concentration of force developed itself at
+Harper's Ferry, forty-nine miles northwest of Washington. When, on April
+20, a Union detachment had burned and abandoned the armory at that
+point, it was at once occupied by a handful of rebel militia; and
+immediately thereafter Jefferson Davis had hurried his regiments thither
+to "sustain" or overawe Baltimore; and when that prospect failed, it
+became a rebel camp of instruction. Afterward, as Major-General
+Patterson collected his Pennsylvania quota, he turned it toward that
+point as a probable field of operations. As a mere town, Harper's Ferry
+was unimportant; but, lying on the Potomac, and being at the head of the
+great Shenandoah valley, down which not only a good turnpike, but also
+an effective railroad ran southeastward to the very heart of the
+Confederacy, it was, and remained through the entire war, a strategical
+line of the first importance, protected, as the Shenandoah valley was,
+by the main chain of the Alleghanies on the west and the Blue Ridge on
+the east.
+
+A part of the eastern quotas had also been hurried to Fortress Monroe,
+Virginia, lying at the mouth of Chesapeake Bay, which became and
+continued an important base for naval as well as military operations. In
+the West, even more important than St. Louis was the little town of
+Cairo, lying at the extreme southern end of the State of Illinois, at
+the confluence of the Ohio River with the Mississippi. Commanding, as it
+did, thousands of miles of river navigation in three different
+directions, and being also the southernmost point of the earliest
+military frontier, it had been the first care of General Scott to occupy
+it; and, indeed, it proved itself to be the military key of the whole
+Mississippi valley.
+
+It was not an easy thing promptly to develop a military policy for the
+suppression of the rebellion. The so-called Confederate States of
+America covered a military field having more than six times the area of
+Great Britain, with a coast-line of over thirty-five hundred miles, and
+an interior frontier of over seven thousand miles. Much less was it
+possible promptly to plan and set on foot concise military campaigns to
+reduce the insurgent States to allegiance. Even the great military
+genius of General Scott was unable to do more than suggest a vague
+outline for the work. The problem was not only too vast, but as yet too
+indefinite, since the political future of West Virginia, Kentucky, and
+Missouri still hung in more or less uncertainty.
+
+The passive and negligent attitude which the Buchanan administration had
+maintained toward the insurrection during the whole three months between
+the presidential election and Mr. Lincoln's inauguration, gave the
+rebellion an immense advantage in the courts and cabinets of Europe.
+Until within three days of the end of Buchanan's term not a word of
+protest or even explanation was sent to counteract the impression that
+disunion was likely to become permanent. Indeed, the non-coercion
+doctrine of Buchanan's message was, in the eyes of European statesmen,
+equivalent to an acknowledgment of such a result; and the formation of
+the Confederate government, followed so quickly by the fall of Fort
+Sumter, seemed to them a practical realization of their forecast. The
+course of events appeared not merely to fulfil their expectations, but
+also, in the case of England and France, gratified their eager hopes. To
+England it promised cheap cotton and free trade with the South. To
+France it appeared to open the way for colonial ambitions which Napoleon
+III so soon set on foot on an imperial scale.
+
+Before Charles Francis Adams, whom President Lincoln appointed as the
+new minister to England, arrived in London and obtained an interview
+with Lord John Russell, Mr. Seward had already received several items of
+disagreeable news. One was that, prior to his arrival, the Queen's
+proclamation of neutrality had been published, practically raising the
+Confederate States to the rank of a belligerent power, and, before they
+had a single privateer afloat, giving these an equality in British ports
+with United States ships of war. Another was that an understanding had
+been reached between England and France which would lead both
+governments to take the same course as to recognition, whatever that
+course might be. Third, that three diplomatic agents of the Confederate
+States were in London, whom the British minister had not yet seen, but
+whom he had caused to be informed that he was not unwilling to see
+unofficially.
+
+Under the irritation produced by this hasty and equivocal action of the
+British government, Mr. Seward wrote a despatch to Mr. Adams under date
+of May 21, which, had it been sent in the form of the original draft,
+would scarcely have failed to lead to war between the two nations. While
+it justly set forth with emphasis and courage what the government of the
+United States would endure and what it would not endure from foreign
+powers during the Southern insurrection, its phraseology, written in a
+heat of indignation, was so blunt and exasperating as to imply
+intentional disrespect.
+
+When Mr. Seward read the document to President Lincoln, the latter at
+once perceived its objectionable tone, and retained it for further
+reflection. A second reading confirmed his first impression. Thereupon,
+taking his pen, the frontier lawyer, in a careful revision of the whole
+despatch, so amended and changed the work of the trained and experienced
+statesman, as entirely to eliminate its offensive crudeness, and bring
+it within all the dignity and reserve of the most studied diplomatic
+courtesy. If, after Mr. Seward's remarkable memorandum of April 1, the
+Secretary of State had needed any further experience to convince him of
+the President's mastery in both administrative and diplomatic judgment,
+this second incident afforded him the full evidence.
+
+No previous President ever had such a sudden increase of official work
+devolve upon him as President Lincoln during the early months of his
+administration. The radical change of parties through which he was
+elected not only literally filled the White House with applicants for
+office, but practically compelled a wholesale substitution of new
+appointees for the old, to represent the new thought and will of the
+nation. The task of selecting these was greatly complicated by the sharp
+competition between the heterogeneous elements of which the Republican
+party was composed. This work was not half completed when the Sumter
+bombardment initiated active rebellion, and precipitated the new
+difficulty of sifting the loyal from the disloyal, and the yet more
+pressing labor of scrutinizing the organization of the immense new
+volunteer army called into service by the proclamation of May 3. Mr.
+Lincoln used often to say at this period, when besieged by claims to
+appointment, that he felt like a man letting rooms at one end of his
+house, while the other end was on fire. In addition to this merely
+routine work was the much more delicate and serious duty of deciding the
+hundreds of novel questions affecting the constitutional principles and
+theories of administration.
+
+The great departments of government, especially those of war and navy,
+could not immediately expedite either the supervision or clerical
+details of this sudden expansion, and almost every case of resulting
+confusion and delay was brought by impatient governors and State
+officials to the President for complaint and correction. Volunteers were
+coming rapidly enough to the various rendezvous in the different States,
+but where were the rations to feed them, money to pay them, tents to
+shelter them, uniforms to clothe them, rifles to arm them, officers to
+drill and instruct them, or transportation to carry them? In this
+carnival of patriotism, this hurly-burly of organization, the weaknesses
+as well as the virtues of human nature quickly developed themselves, and
+there was manifest not only the inevitable friction of personal rivalry,
+but also the disturbing and baneful effects of occasional falsehood and
+dishonesty, which could not always be immediately traced to the
+responsible culprit. It happened in many instances that there were
+alarming discrepancies between the full paper regiments and brigades
+reported as ready to start from State capitals, and the actual number of
+recruits that railroad trains brought to the Washington camps; and Mr.
+Lincoln several times ironically compared the process to that of a man
+trying to shovel a bushel of fleas across a barn floor.
+
+While the month of May insensibly slipped away amid these preparatory
+vexations, camps of instruction rapidly grew to small armies at a few
+principal points, even under such incidental delay and loss; and during
+June the confronting Union and Confederate forces began to produce the
+conflicts and casualties of earnest war. As yet they were both few and
+unimportant: the assassination of Ellsworth when Alexandria was
+occupied; a slight cavalry skirmish at Fairfax Court House; the rout of
+a Confederate regiment at Philippi, West Virginia; the blundering
+leadership through which two Union detachments fired upon each other in
+the dark at Big Bethel, Virginia; the ambush of a Union railroad train
+at Vienna Station; and Lyon's skirmish, which scattered the first
+collection of rebels at Boonville, Missouri. Comparatively speaking all
+these were trivial in numbers of dead and wounded--the first few drops
+of blood before the heavy sanguinary showers the future was destined to
+bring. But the effect upon the public was irritating and painful to a
+degree entirely out of proportion to their real extent and gravity.
+
+The relative loss and gain in these affairs was not greatly unequal. The
+victories of Philippi and Boonville easily offset the disasters of Big
+Bethel and Vienna. But the public mind was not yet schooled to patience
+and to the fluctuating chances of war. The newspapers demanded prompt
+progress and ample victory as imperatively as they were wont to demand
+party triumph in politics or achievement in commercial enterprise.
+"Forward to Richmond," repeated the "New York Tribune," day after day,
+and many sheets of lesser note and influence echoed the cry. There
+seemed, indeed, a certain reason for this clamor, because the period of
+enlistment of the three months' regiments was already two thirds gone,
+and they were not yet all armed and equipped for field service.
+
+President Lincoln was fully alive to the need of meeting this popular
+demand. The special session of Congress was soon to begin, and to it the
+new administration must look, not only to ratify what had been done, but
+to authorize a large increase of the military force, and heavy loans for
+coming expenses of the war. On June 29, therefore, he called his cabinet
+and principal military officers to a council of war at the Executive
+Mansion, to discuss a more formidable campaign than had yet been
+planned. General Scott was opposed to such an undertaking at that time.
+He preferred waiting until autumn, meanwhile organizing and drilling a
+large army, with which to move down the Mississippi and end the war with
+a final battle at New Orleans. Aside from the obvious military
+objections to this course, such a procrastination, in the present
+irritation of the public temper, was not to be thought of; and the old
+general gracefully waived his preference and contributed his best
+judgment to the perfecting of an immediate campaign into Virginia.
+
+The Confederate forces in Virginia had been gathered by the orders of
+General Lee into a defensive position at Manassas Junction, where a
+railroad from Richmond and another from Harper's Ferry come together.
+Here General Beauregard, who had organized and conducted the Sumter
+bombardment, had command of a total of about twenty-five thousand men
+which he was drilling. The Junction was fortified with some slight
+field-works and fifteen heavy guns, supported by a garrison of two
+thousand; while the main body was camped in a line of seven miles'
+length behind Bull Run, a winding, sluggish stream flowing southeasterly
+toward the Potomac. The distance was about thirty-two miles southwest of
+Washington. Another Confederate force of about ten thousand, under
+General J.E. Johnston, was collected at Winchester and Harper's Ferry
+on the Potomac, to guard the entrance to the Shenandoah valley; and an
+understanding existed between Johnston and Beauregard, that in case
+either were attacked, the other would come to his aid by the quick
+railroad transportation between the two places.
+
+The new Union plan contemplated that Brigadier-General McDowell should
+march from Washington against Manassas and Bull Run, with a force
+sufficient to beat Beauregard, while General Patterson, who had
+concentrated the bulk of the Pennsylvania regiments in the neighborhood
+of Harper's Ferry, in numbers nearly or quite double that of his
+antagonist, should move against Johnston, and either fight or hold him
+so that he could not come to the aid of Beauregard. At the council
+McDowell emphasized the danger of such a junction; but General Scott
+assured him: "If Johnston joins Beauregard, he shall have Patterson on
+his heels." With this understanding, McDowell's movement was ordered to
+begin on July 9.
+
+
+
+
+XVI
+
+Congress--The President's Message--Men and Money Voted--The
+Contraband--Dennison Appoints McClellan--Rich Mountain--McDowell--Bull
+Run--Patterson's Failure--McClellan at Washington
+
+
+While these preparations for a Virginia campaign were going on, another
+campaign was also slowly shaping itself in Western Virginia; but before
+either of them reached any decisive results the Thirty-seventh Congress,
+chosen at the presidential election of 1860, met in special session on
+the fourth of July, 1861, in pursuance of the President's proclamation
+of April 15. There being no members present in either branch from the
+seceded States, the number in each house was reduced nearly one third. A
+great change in party feeling was also manifest. No more rampant
+secession speeches were to be heard. Of the rare instances of men who
+were yet to join the rebellion, ex-Vice-President Breckinridge was the
+most conspicuous example; and their presence was offset by prominent
+Southern Unionists like Andrew Johnson of Tennessee, and John J.
+Crittenden of Kentucky. The heated antagonisms which had divided the
+previous Congress into four clearly defined factions were so far
+restrained or obliterated by the events of the past four months, as to
+leave but a feeble opposition to the Republican majority now dominant in
+both branches, which was itself rendered moderate and prudent by the new
+conditions.
+
+The message of President Lincoln was temperate in spirit, but positive
+and strong in argument. Reciting the secession and rebellion of the
+Confederate States, and their unprovoked assault on Fort Sumter, he
+continued:
+
+"Having said to them in the inaugural address, 'You can have no conflict
+without being yourselves the aggressors,' he took pains not only to keep
+this declaration good, but also to keep the case so free from the power
+of ingenious sophistry that the world should not be able to
+misunderstand it. By the affair at Fort Sumter, with its surrounding
+circumstances, that point was reached. Then and thereby the assailants
+of the government began the conflict of arms, without a gun in sight or
+in expectancy to return their fire, save only the few in the fort sent
+to that harbor years before for their own protection, and still ready to
+give that protection in whatever was lawful.... This issue embraces more
+than the fate of these United States. It presents to the whole family of
+man the question whether a constitutional republic or democracy--a
+government of the people by the same people--can or cannot maintain its
+territorial integrity against its own domestic foes."
+
+With his singular felicity of statement, he analyzed and refuted the
+sophism that secession was lawful and constitutional.
+
+"This sophism derives much, perhaps the whole, of its currency from the
+assumption that there is some omnipotent and sacred supremacy pertaining
+to a State--to each State of our Federal Union. Our States have neither
+more nor less power than that reserved to them in the Union by the
+Constitution--no one of them ever having been a State out of the
+Union.... The States have their status in the Union, and they have no
+other legal status. If they break from this, they can only do so against
+law and by revolution. The Union, and not themselves separately,
+procured their independence and their liberty. By conquest or purchase
+the Union gave each of them whatever of independence or liberty it has.
+The Union is older than any of the States, and, in fact, it created them
+as States. Originally some dependent colonies made the Union, and, in
+turn, the Union threw off their old dependence for them, and made them
+States, such as they are. Not one of them ever had a State constitution
+independent of the Union."
+
+A noteworthy point in the message is President Lincoln's expression of
+his abiding confidence in the intelligence and virtue of the people of
+the United States.
+
+"It may be affirmed," said he, "without extravagance that the free
+institutions we enjoy have developed the powers and improved the
+condition of our whole people beyond any example in the world. Of this
+we now have a striking and an impressive illustration. So large an army
+as the government has now on foot was never before known, without a
+soldier in it but who has taken his place there of his own free choice.
+But more than this, there are many single regiments whose members, one
+and another, possess full practical knowledge of all the arts, sciences,
+professions and whatever else, whether useful or elegant, is known in
+the world; and there is scarcely one from which there could not be
+selected a President, a cabinet a congress, and, perhaps, a court,
+abundantly competent to administer the government itself.... 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
+lift artificial weights from all shoulders; to clear the paths of
+laudable pursuit for all; to afford all an unfettered start, and a fair
+chance in the race of life.... I am most happy to believe that the plain
+people understand and appreciate this. It is worthy of note that while
+in this, the government's hour of trial, large numbers of those in the
+army and navy who have been favored with the offices have resigned and
+proved false to the hand which had pampered them, not one common soldier
+or common sailor is known to have deserted his flag."
+
+Hearty applause greeted that portion of the message which asked for
+means to make the contest short and decisive; and Congress acted
+promptly by authorizing a loan of $250,000,000 and an army not to exceed
+one million men. All of President Lincoln's war measures for which no
+previous sanction of law existed were duly legalized; additional direct
+income and tariff taxes were laid; and the Force Bill of 1795, and
+various other laws relating to conspiracy, piracy, unlawful recruiting,
+and kindred topics, were amended or passed.
+
+Throughout the whole history of the South, by no means the least of the
+evils entailed by the institution of slavery was the dread of slave
+insurrections which haunted every master's household; and this vague
+terror was at once intensified by the outbreak of civil war. It stands
+to the lasting credit of the negro race in the United States that the
+wrongs of their long bondage provoked them to no such crime, and that
+the Civil War appears not to have even suggested, much less started, any
+such organization or attempt. But the John Brown raid had indicated some
+possibility of the kind, and when the Union troops began their movements
+Generals Butler in Maryland and Patterson in Pennsylvania, moving
+toward Harper's Ferry, and McClellan in West Virginia, in order to
+reassure non-combatants, severally issued orders that all attempts at
+slave insurrection should be suppressed. It was a most pointed and
+significant warning to the leaders of the rebellion how much more
+vulnerable the peculiar institution was in war than in peace, and that
+their ill-considered scheme to protect and perpetuate slavery would
+prove the most potent engine for its destruction.
+
+The first effect of opening hostilities was to give adventurous or
+discontented slaves the chance to escape into Union camps, where, even
+against orders to the contrary, they found practical means of protection
+or concealment for the sake of the help they could render as cooks,
+servants, or teamsters, or for the information they could give or
+obtain, or the invaluable service they could render as guides.
+Practically, therefore, at the very beginning, the war created a bond of
+mutual sympathy based on mutual helpfulness, between the Southern negro
+and the Union volunteer; and as fast as the Union troops advanced, and
+secession masters fled, more or less slaves found liberation and refuge
+in the Union camps.
+
+At some points, indeed, this tendency created an embarrassment to Union
+commanders. A few days after General Butler assumed command of the Union
+troops at Fortress Monroe, the agent of a rebel master who had fled from
+the neighborhood came to demand, under the provisions of the
+fugitive-slave law, three field hands alleged to be in Butler's camp.
+Butler responded that as Virginia claimed to be a foreign country the
+fugitive-slave law was clearly inoperative, unless the owner would come
+and take an oath of allegiance to the United States. In connection with
+this incident, the newspaper report stated that as the breastworks and
+batteries which had been so rapidly erected for Confederate defense in
+every direction on the Virginia peninsula were built by enforced negro
+labor under rigorous military impressment, negroes were manifestly
+contraband of war under international law. The dictum was so pertinent,
+and the equity so plain, that, though it was not officially formulated
+by the general until two months later, it sprang at once into popular
+acceptance and application; and from that time forward the words "slave"
+and "negro" were everywhere within the Union lines replaced by the
+familiar, significant term "contraband."
+
+While Butler's happy designation had a more convincing influence on
+public thought than a volume of discussion, it did not immediately solve
+the whole question. Within a few days he reported that he had slave
+property to the value of $60,000 in his hands, and by the end of July
+nine hundred "contrabands," men, women, and children, of all ages. What
+was their legal status, and how should they be disposed of? It was a
+knotty problem, for upon its solution might depend the sensitive public
+opinion and balancing, undecided loyalty and political action of the
+border slave States of Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri.
+In solving the problem, President Lincoln kept in mind the philosophic
+maxim of one of his favorite stories, that when the Western Methodist
+presiding elder, riding about the circuit during the spring freshets,
+was importuned by his young companion how they should ever be able to
+get across the swollen waters of Fox River, which they were approaching,
+the elder quieted him by saying he had made it the rule of his life
+never to cross Fox River till he came to it.
+
+The President did not immediately decide, but left it to be treated as a
+question of camp and local police, in the discretion of each commander.
+Under this theory, later in the war, some commanders excluded, others
+admitted such fugitives to their camps; and the curt formula of General
+Orders, "We have nothing to do with slaves. We are neither negro
+stealers nor negro catchers," was easily construed by subordinate
+officers to justify the practice of either course. _Inter arma silent
+leges_. For the present, Butler was instructed not to surrender such
+fugitives, but to employ them in suitable labor, and leave the question
+of their final disposition for future determination. Congress greatly
+advanced the problem, soon after the battle of Bull Run, by adopting an
+amendment which confiscated a rebel master's right to his slave when, by
+his consent, such slave was employed in service or labor hostile to the
+United States. The debates exhibited but little spirit of partizanship,
+even on this feature of the slavery question. The border State members
+did not attack the justice of such a penalty. They could only urge that
+it was unconstitutional and inexpedient. On the general policy of the
+war, both houses, with but few dissenting votes, passed the resolution,
+offered by Mr. Crittenden, which declared that the war was not waged for
+oppression or subjugation, or to interfere with the rights or
+institutions of States, "but to defend and maintain the supremacy of the
+Constitution, and to preserve the Union with all the dignity, equality,
+and rights of the several States unimpaired." The special session
+adjourned on August 6, having in a single month completed and enacted a
+thorough and comprehensive system of war legislation.
+
+The military events that were transpiring in the meanwhile doubtless had
+their effect in hastening the decision and shortening the labors of
+Congress. To command the thirteen regiments of militia furnished by the
+State of Ohio, Governor Dennison had given a commission of major-general
+to George B. McClellan, who had been educated at West Point and served
+with distinction in the Mexican War, and who, through unusual
+opportunities in travel and special duties in surveys and exploration,
+had gained acquirements and qualifications that appeared to fit him for
+a brilliant career. Being but thirty-five years old, and having reached
+only the grade of captain, he had resigned from the army, and was at the
+moment serving as president of the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad.
+General Scott warmly welcomed his appointment to lead the Ohio
+contingent, and so industriously facilitated his promotion that by the
+beginning of June McClellan's militia commission as major-general had
+been changed to a commission for the same grade in the regular army, and
+he found himself assigned to the command of a military department
+extending from Western Virginia to Missouri. Though this was a leap in
+military title, rank, and power which excels the inventions of romance,
+it was necessitated by the sudden exigencies of army expansion over the
+vast territory bordering the insurrection, and for a while seemed
+justified by the hopeful promise indicated in the young officer's zeal
+and activity.
+
+His instructions made it a part of his duty to encourage and support the
+Unionists of Western Virginia in their political movement to divide the
+State and erect a Union commonwealth out of that portion of it lying
+northwest of the Alleghanies. General Lee, not fully informed of the
+adverse popular sentiment, sent a few Confederate regiments into that
+region to gather recruits and hold the important mountain passes.
+McClellan, in turn, advanced a detachment eastward from Wheeling, to
+protect the Baltimore and Ohio railroad; and at the beginning of June,
+an expedition of two regiments, led by Colonel Kelly, made a spirited
+dash upon Philippi, where, by a complete surprise, he routed and
+scattered Porterfield's recruiting detachment of one thousand
+Confederates. Following up this initial success, McClellan threw
+additional forces across the Ohio, and about a month later had the good
+fortune, on July 11, by a flank movement under Rosecrans, to drive a
+regiment of the enemy out of strong intrenchments on Rich Mountain,
+force the surrender of the retreating garrison on the following day,
+July 12, and to win a third success on the thirteenth over another
+flying detachment at Carrick's Ford, one of the crossings of the Cheat
+River, where the Confederate General Garnett was killed in a
+skirmish-fire between sharp-shooters.
+
+These incidents, happening on three successive days, and in distance
+forty miles apart, made a handsome showing for the young department
+commander when gathered into the single, short telegram in which he
+reported to Washington that Garnett was killed, his force routed, at
+least two hundred of the enemy killed, and seven guns and one thousand
+prisoners taken. "Our success is complete, and secession is killed in
+this country," concluded the despatch. The result, indeed, largely
+overshadowed in importance the means which accomplished it. The Union
+loss was only thirteen killed and forty wounded. In subsequent effect,
+these two comparatively insignificant skirmishes permanently recovered
+the State of West Virginia to the Union. The main credit was, of course,
+due to the steadfast loyalty of the people of that region.
+
+This victory afforded welcome relief to the strained and impatient
+public opinion of the Northern States, and sharpened the eager
+expectation of the authorities at Washington of similar results from
+the projected Virginia campaign. The organization and command of that
+column were intrusted to Brigadier-General McDowell, advanced to this
+grade from his previous rank of major. He was forty-two years old, an
+accomplished West Point graduate, and had won distinction in the Mexican
+War, though since that time he had been mainly engaged in staff duty. On
+the morning of July 16, he began his advance from the fortifications of
+Washington, with a marching column of about twenty-eight thousand men
+and a total of forty-nine guns, an additional division of about six
+thousand being left behind to guard his communications. Owing to the
+rawness of his troops, the first few days' march was necessarily
+cautious and cumbersome.
+
+The enemy, under Beauregard, had collected about twenty-three thousand
+men and thirty-five guns, and was posted behind Bull Run. A preliminary
+engagement occurred on Thursday, July 18, at Blackburn's Ford on that
+stream, which served to develop the enemy's strong position, but only
+delayed the advance until the whole of McDowell's force reached
+Centreville Here McDowell halted, spent Friday and Saturday in
+reconnoitering, and on Sunday, July 21, began the battle by a circuitous
+march across Bull Run and attacking the enemy's left flank.
+
+It proved that the plan was correctly chosen, but, by a confusion in the
+march, the attack, intended for day-break, was delayed until nine
+o'clock. Nevertheless, the first half of the battle, during the
+forenoon, was entirely successful, the Union lines steadily driving the
+enemy southward, and enabling additional Union brigades to join the
+attacking column by a direct march from Centreville.
+
+At noon, however, the attack came to a halt, partly through the fatigue
+of the troops, partly because the advancing line, having swept the field
+for nearly a mile, found itself in a valley, from which further progress
+had to be made with all the advantage of the ground in favor of the
+enemy. In the lull of the conflict which for a while ensued, the
+Confederate commander, with little hope except to mitigate a defeat,
+hurriedly concentrated his remaining artillery and supporting regiments
+into a semicircular line of defense at the top of the hill that the
+Federals would be obliged to mount, and kept them well concealed among
+the young pines at the edge of the timber, with an open field in their
+front.
+
+Against this second position of the enemy, comprising twelve regiments,
+twenty-two guns, and two companies of cavalry, McDowell advanced in the
+afternoon with an attacking force of fourteen regiments, twenty-four
+guns, and a single battalion of cavalry, but with all the advantages of
+position against him. A fluctuating and intermitting attack resulted.
+The nature of the ground rendered a combined advance impossible. The
+Union brigades were sent forward and repulsed by piecemeal. A battery
+was lost by mistaking a Confederate for a Union regiment. Even now the
+victory seemed to vibrate, when a new flank attack by seven rebel
+regiments, from an entirely unexpected direction, suddenly impressed the
+Union troops with the belief that Johnston's army from Harper's Ferry
+had reached the battle-field; and, demoralized by this belief, the Union
+commands, by a common impulse, gave up the fight as lost, and half
+marched, half ran from the field. Before reaching Centreville, the
+retreat at one point degenerated into a downright panic among army
+teamsters and a considerable crowd of miscellaneous camp-followers; and
+here a charge or two by the Confederate cavalry companies captured
+thirteen Union guns and quite a harvest of army wagons.
+
+When the truth came to be known, it was found that through the want of
+skill and courage on the part of General Patterson in his operations at
+Harper's Ferry, General Johnston, with his whole Confederate army, had
+been allowed to slip away; and so far from coming suddenly into the
+battle of Bull Run, the bulk of them were already in Beauregard's camps
+on Saturday, and performed the heaviest part of the fighting in Sunday's
+conflict.
+
+The sudden cessation of the battle left the Confederates in doubt
+whether their victory was final, or only a prelude to a fresh Union
+attack. But as the Union forces not only retreated from the field, but
+also from Centreville, it took on, in their eyes, the proportions of a
+great triumph; confirming their expectation of achieving ultimate
+independence, and, in fact, giving them a standing in the eyes of
+foreign nations which they had hardly dared hope for so soon. In numbers
+of killed and wounded, the two armies suffered about equally; and
+General Johnston writes: "The Confederate army was more disorganized by
+victory than that of the United States by defeat." Manassas was turned
+into a fortified camp, but the rebel leaders felt themselves unable to
+make an aggressive movement during the whole of the following autumn and
+winter.
+
+The shock of the defeat was deep and painful to the administration and
+the people of the North. Up to late Sunday afternoon favorable reports
+had come to Washington from the battle-field, and every one believed in
+an assured victory. When a telegram came about five o'clock in the
+afternoon, that the day was lost, and McDowell's army in full retreat
+through Centreville, General Scott refused to credit the news, so
+contradictory of everything which had been heard up to that hour. But
+the intelligence was quickly confirmed. The impulse of retreat once
+started, McDowell's effort to arrest it at Centreville proved useless.
+The regiments and brigades not completely disorganized made an
+unmolested and comparatively orderly march back to the fortifications of
+Washington, while on the following day a horde of stragglers found their
+way across the bridges of the Potomac into the city.
+
+President Lincoln received the news quietly and without any visible sign
+of perturbation or excitement; but he remained awake and in the
+executive office all of Sunday night, listening to the personal
+narratives of a number of congressmen and senators who had, with undue
+curiosity, followed the army and witnessed some of the sounds and sights
+of the battle. By the dawn of Monday morning the President had
+substantially made up his judgment of the battle and its probable
+results, and the action dictated by the untoward event. This was, in
+brief, that the militia regiments enlisted under the three months' call
+should be mustered out as soon as practicable; the organization of the
+new three years' forces be pushed forward both east and west; Manassas
+and Harper's Ferry and the intermediate lines of communication be seized
+and held; and a joint movement organized from Cincinnati on East
+Tennessee, and from Cairo on Memphis.
+
+Meanwhile, General McClellan was ordered from West Virginia to
+Washington, where he arrived on July 26, and assumed command of the
+Division of the Potomac, comprising the troops in and around Washington
+on both sides of the river. He quickly cleared the city of stragglers,
+and displayed a gratifying activity in beginning the organization of the
+Army of the Potomac from the new three years' volunteers that were
+pouring into Washington by every train. He was received by the
+administration and the army with the warmest friendliness and
+confidence, and for awhile seemed to reciprocate these feelings with
+zeal and gratitude.
+
+
+
+
+XVII
+
+General Scott's Plans--Criticized as the "Anaconda"--The Three Fields of
+Conflict--Frémont Appointed Major-General--His Military Failures--Battle
+of Wilson's Creek--Hunter Ordered to Frémont--Frémont's
+Proclamation--President Revokes Frémont's Proclamation--Lincoln's Letter
+to Browning--Surrender of Lexington--Frémont Takes the Field--Cameron's
+Visit to Frémont--Frémont's Removal
+
+
+The military genius and experience of General Scott, from the first,
+pretty correctly divined the grand outline of military operations which
+would become necessary in reducing the revolted Southern States to
+renewed allegiance. Long before the battle of Bull Run was planned, he
+urged that the first seventy-five regiments of three months' militia
+could not be relied on for extensive campaigns, because their term of
+service would expire before they could be well organized. His outline
+suggestion, therefore, was that the new three years' volunteer army be
+placed in ten or fifteen healthy camps and given at least four months of
+drill and tactical instruction; and when the navy had, by a rigid
+blockade, closed all the harbors along the seaboard of the Southern
+States, the fully prepared army should, by invincible columns, move down
+the Mississippi River to New Orleans, leaving a strong cordon of
+military posts behind it to keep open the stream, join hands with the
+blockade, and thus envelop the principal area of rebellion in a
+powerful military grasp which would paralyze and effectually kill the
+insurrection. Even while suggesting this plan, however, the general
+admitted that the great obstacle to its adoption would be the impatience
+of the patriotic and loyal Union people and leaders, who would refuse to
+wait the necessary length of time.
+
+The general was correct in his apprehension. The newspapers criticized
+his plan in caustic editorials and ridiculous cartoons as "Scott's
+Anaconda," and public opinion rejected it in an overwhelming demand for
+a prompt and energetic advance. Scott was correct in military theory,
+while the people and the administration were right in practice, under
+existing political conditions. Although Bull Run seemed to justify the
+general, West Virginia and Missouri vindicated the President and the
+people.
+
+It can now be seen that still a third element--geography--intervened to
+give shape and sequence to the main outlines of the Civil War. When, at
+the beginning of May, General Scott gave his advice, the seat of
+government of the first seven Confederate States was still at
+Montgomery, Alabama. By the adhesion of the four interior border States
+to the insurrection, and the removal of the archives and administration
+of Jefferson Davis to Richmond, Virginia, toward the end of June, as the
+capital of the now eleven Confederate States, Washington necessarily
+became the center of Union attack, and Richmond the center of
+Confederate defense. From the day when McDowell began his march to Bull
+Run, to that when Lee evacuated Richmond in his final hopeless flight,
+the route between these two opposing capitals remained the principal and
+dominating line of military operations, and the region between
+Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac River on the east, and the chain of the
+Alleghanies on the west, the primary field of strategy.
+
+According to geographical features, the second great field of strategy
+lay between the Alleghany Mountains and the Mississippi River, and the
+third between the Mississippi River, the Rocky Mountains, and the Rio
+Grande. Except in Western Virginia, the attitude of neutrality assumed
+by Kentucky for a considerable time delayed the definition of the
+military frontier and the beginning of active hostilities in the second
+field, thus giving greater momentary importance to conditions existing
+and events transpiring in Missouri, with the city of St. Louis as the
+principal center of the third great military field.
+
+The same necessity which dictated the promotion of General McClellan at
+one bound from captain to major-general compelled a similar phenomenal
+promotion, not alone of officers of the regular army, but also of
+eminent civilians to high command and military responsibility in the
+immense volunteer force authorized by Congress. Events, rather than
+original purpose, had brought McClellan into prominence and ranking
+duty; but now, by design, the President gave John C. Frémont a
+commission of major-general, and placed him in command of the third
+great military field, with headquarters at St. Louis, with the leading
+idea that he should organize the military strength of the Northwest,
+first, to hold Missouri to the Union, and, second, by a carefully
+prepared military expedition open the Mississippi River. By so doing, he
+would sever the Confederate States, reclaim or conquer the region lying
+west of the great stream, and thus reduce by more than one half the
+territorial area of the insurrection. Though he had been an army
+lieutenant, he had no experience in active war; yet the talent and
+energy he had displayed in Western military exploration, and the
+political prominence he had reached as candidate of the Republican party
+for President in 1856, seemed to fit him preëminently for such a duty.
+
+While most of the volunteers from New England and the Middle States were
+concentrated at Washington and dependent points, the bulk of the Western
+regiments was, for the time being, put under the command of Frémont for
+present and prospective duty. But the high hopes which the
+administration placed in the general were not realized. The genius which
+could lead a few dozen or a few hundred Indian scouts and mountain
+trappers over desert plains and through the fastnesses of the Sierra
+Nevada, that could defy savage hostilities and outlive starvation amid
+imprisoning snows, failed signally before the task of animating and
+combining the patriotic enthusiasm of eight or ten great northwestern
+States, and organizing and leading an army of one hundred thousand eager
+volunteers in a comprehensive and decisive campaign to recover a great
+national highway. From the first, Frémont failed in promptness, in
+foresight, in intelligent supervision and, above all, in inspiring
+confidence and attracting assistance and devotion. His military
+administration created serious extravagance and confusion, and his
+personal intercourse excited the distrust and resentment of the
+governors and civilian officials, whose counsel and coöperation were
+essential to his usefulness and success.
+
+While his resources were limited, and while he fortified St. Louis and
+reinforced Cairo, a yet more important point needed his attention and
+help. Lyon, who had followed Governor Jackson and General Price in their
+flight from Boonville to Springfield in southern Missouri, found his
+forces diminished beyond his expectation by the expiration of the term
+of service of his three months' regiments, and began to be threatened by
+a northward concentration of Confederate detachments from the Arkansas
+line and the Indian Territory. The neglect of his appeals for help
+placed him in the situation where he could neither safely remain
+inactive, nor safely retreat. He therefore took the chances of
+scattering the enemy before him by a sudden, daring attack with his five
+thousand effectives, against nearly treble numbers, in the battle of
+Wilson's Creek, at daylight on August 10. The casualties on the two
+sides were nearly equal, and the enemy was checked and crippled; but the
+Union army sustained a fatal loss in the death of General Lyon, who was
+instantly killed while leading a desperate bayonet charge. His skill and
+activity had, so far, been the strength of the Union cause in Missouri.
+The absence of his counsel and personal example rendered a retreat to
+the railroad terminus at Rolla necessary. This discouraging event turned
+public criticism sharply upon Frémont. Loath to yield to mere public
+clamor, and averse to hasty changes in military command, Mr. Lincoln
+sought to improve the situation by sending General David Hunter to take
+a place on Frémont's staff.
+
+"General Frémont needs assistance," said his note to Hunter, "which it
+is difficult to give him. He is losing the confidence of men near him,
+whose support any man in his position must have to be successful. His
+cardinal mistake is that he isolates himself, and allows nobody to see
+him; and by which he does not know what is going on in the very matter
+he is dealing with. 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 to be ordered to it; but will you not serve the country
+and oblige me by taking it voluntarily?"
+
+This note indicates, better than pages of description, the kind,
+helpful, and forbearing spirit with which the President, through the
+long four years' war, treated his military commanders and subordinates;
+and which, in several instances, met such ungenerous return. But even
+while Mr. Lincoln was attempting to smooth this difficulty, Frémont had
+already burdened him with two additional embarrassments. One was a
+perplexing personal quarrel the general had begun with the influential
+Blair family, represented by Colonel Frank Blair, the indefatigable
+Unionist leader in Missouri, and Montgomery Blair, the
+postmaster-general in Lincoln's cabinet, who had hitherto been Frémont's
+most influential friends and supporters; and, in addition, the father of
+these, Francis P. Blair, Sr., a veteran politician whose influence dated
+from Jackson's administration, and through whose assistance Frémont had
+been nominated as presidential candidate in 1856.
+
+The other embarrassment was of a more serious and far-reaching nature.
+Conscious that he was losing the esteem and confidence of both civil and
+military leaders in the West, Frémont's adventurous fancy caught at the
+idea of rehabilitating himself before the public by a bold political
+manoeuver. Day by day the relation of slavery to the Civil War was
+becoming a more troublesome question, and exciting impatient and angry
+discussion. Without previous consultation with the President or any of
+his advisers or friends, Frémont, on August 30, wrote and printed, as
+commander of the Department of the West, a proclamation establishing
+martial law throughout the State of Missouri, and announcing that:
+
+"All persons who shall be taken with arms in their hands within these
+lines shall be tried by court-martial, and if found guilty will be shot.
+The property, real and personal, of all persons in the State of
+Missouri who shall take up arms against the United States, or who shall
+be directly proven to have taken an active part with their enemies in
+the field, is declared to be confiscated to the public use; and their
+slaves, if any they have, are hereby declared freemen."
+
+The reason given in the proclamation for this drastic and dictatorial
+measure was to suppress disorder, maintain the public peace, and protect
+persons and property of loyal citizens--all simple police duties. For
+issuing his proclamation without consultation with the President, he
+could offer only the flimsy excuse that it involved two days of time to
+communicate with Washington, while he well knew that no battle was
+pending and no invasion in progress. This reckless misuse of power
+President Lincoln also corrected with his dispassionate prudence and
+habitual courtesy. He immediately wrote to the general:
+
+"MY DEAR SIR: Two points in your proclamation of August 30 give me some
+anxiety:
+
+"_First_. Should you shoot a man, according to the proclamation, the
+Confederates would very certainly shoot our best men in their hands, in
+retaliation; and so, man for man, indefinitely. It is, therefore, my
+order that you allow no man to be shot under the proclamation, without
+first having my approbation or consent.
+
+"_Second_. I think there is great danger that the closing paragraph, in
+relation to the confiscation of property and the liberating slaves of
+traitorous owners, will alarm our Southern Union friends and turn them
+against us; perhaps ruin our rather fair prospect for Kentucky. Allow
+me, therefore, to ask that you will, as of your own motion, modify that
+paragraph so as to conform to the first and fourth sections of the act
+of Congress entitled, 'An act to confiscate property used for
+insurrectionary purposes,' approved August 6, 1861, and a copy of which
+act I herewith send you.
+
+"This letter is written in a spirit of caution, and not of censure. I
+send it by a special messenger, in order that it may certainly and
+speedily reach you."
+
+But the headstrong general was too blind and selfish to accept this mild
+redress of a fault that would have justified instant displacement from
+command. He preferred that the President should openly direct him to
+make the correction. Admitting that he decided in one night upon the
+measure, he added: "If I were to retract it of my own accord, it would
+imply that I myself thought it wrong, and that I had acted without the
+reflection which the gravity of the point demanded." The inference is
+plain that Frémont was unwilling to lose the influence of his hasty step
+upon public opinion. But by this course he deliberately placed himself
+in an attitude of political hostility to the administration.
+
+The incident produced something of the agitation which the general had
+evidently counted upon. Radical antislavery men throughout the free
+States applauded his act and condemned the President, and military
+emancipation at once became a subject of excited discussion. Even strong
+conservatives were carried away by the feeling that rebels would be but
+properly punished by the loss of their slaves. To Senator Browning, the
+President's intimate personal friend, who entertained this feeling, Mr.
+Lincoln wrote a searching analysis of Frémont's proclamation and its
+dangers:
+
+"Yours of the seventeenth is just received; and, coming from you, I
+confess it astonishes me. That you should object to my adhering to a law
+which you had assisted in making and presenting to me, less than a month
+before, is odd enough. But this is a very small part. General Frémont's
+proclamation as to confiscation of property and the liberation of slaves
+is purely political, and not within the range of military law or
+necessity. If a commanding general finds a necessity to seize the farm
+of a private owner, for a pasture, an encampment, or a fortification, he
+has the right to do so, and to so hold it as long as the necessity
+lasts; and this is within military law, because within military
+necessity. But to say the farm shall no longer belong to the owner or
+his heirs forever, and this as well when the farm is not needed for
+military purposes as when it is, is purely political, without the savor
+of military law about it. And the same is true of slaves. If the general
+needs them he can seize them and use them, but when the need is past, it
+is not for him to fix their permanent future condition. That must be
+settled according to laws made by law-makers, and not by military
+proclamations. The proclamation in the point in question is simply
+'dictatorship.' It assumes that the general may do anything he
+pleases--confiscate the lands and free the slaves of loyal people, as
+well as of disloyal ones. And going the whole figure, I have no doubt,
+would be more popular, with some thoughtless people, than that which has
+been done! But I cannot assume this reckless position, nor allow others
+to assume it on my responsibility.
+
+"You speak of it as being the only means of saving the government. On
+the contrary, it is itself the surrender of the government. Can it be
+pretended that it is any longer the government of the United States--any
+government of constitution and laws--wherein a general or a president
+may make permanent rules of property by proclamation? I do not say
+Congress might not, with propriety, pass a law on the point, just such
+as General Frémont proclaimed. I do not say I might not, as a member of
+Congress, vote for it. What I object to is, that I, as President, shall
+expressly or impliedly seize and exercize the permanent legislative
+functions of the government.
+
+"So much as to principle. Now as to policy. No doubt the thing was
+popular in some quarters, and would have been more so if it had been a
+general declaration of emancipation. The Kentucky legislature would not
+budge till that proclamation was modified; and General Anderson
+telegraphed me that on the news of General Frémont having actually
+issued deeds of manumission, a whole company of our volunteers threw
+down their arms and disbanded. I was so assured as to think it probable
+that the very arms we had furnished Kentucky would be turned against us.
+I think to lose Kentucky is nearly the same as to lose the whole game.
+Kentucky gone, we cannot hold Missouri, nor, as I think, Maryland. These
+all against us, and the job on our hands is too large for us. We would
+as well consent to separation at once, including the surrender of this
+capital."
+
+If it be objected that the President himself decreed military
+emancipation a year later, then it must be remembered that Frémont's
+proclamation differed in many essential particulars from the President's
+edict of January 1, 1863. By that time, also, the entirely changed
+conditions justified a complete change of policy; but, above all, the
+supreme reason of military necessity, upon which alone Mr. Lincoln based
+the constitutionality of his edict of freedom, was entirely wanting in
+the case of Frémont.
+
+The harvest of popularity which Frémont evidently hoped to secure by his
+proclamation was soon blighted by a new military disaster. The
+Confederate forces which had been united in the battle of Wilson's Creek
+quickly became disorganized through the disagreement of their leaders
+and the want of provisions and other military supplies, and mainly
+returned to Arkansas and the Indian Territory, whence they had come. But
+General Price, with his Missouri contingent, gradually increased his
+followers, and as the Union retreat from Springfield to Rolla left the
+way open, began a northward march through the western part of the State
+to attack Colonel Mulligan, who, with about twenty-eight hundred Federal
+troops, intrenched himself at Lexington on the Missouri River. Secession
+sympathy was strong along the line of his march, and Price gained
+adherents so rapidly that on September 18 he was able to invest
+Mulligan's position with a somewhat irregular army numbering about
+twenty thousand. After a two days' siege, the garrison was compelled to
+surrender, through the exhaustion of the supply of water in their
+cisterns. The victory won, Price again immediately retreated southward,
+losing his army almost as fast as he had collected it, made up, as it
+was, more in the spirit and quality of a sudden border foray than an
+organized campaign.
+
+For this new loss, Frémont was subjected to a shower of fierce
+criticism, which this time he sought to disarm by ostentatious
+announcements of immediate activity. "I am taking the field myself," he
+telegraphed, "and hope to destroy the enemy either before or after the
+junction of forces under McCulloch." Four days after the surrender, the
+St. Louis newspapers printed his order organizing an army of five
+divisions. The document made a respectable show of force on paper,
+claiming an aggregate of nearly thirty-nine thousand. In reality,
+however, being scattered and totally unprepared for the field, it
+possessed no such effective strength. For a month longer extravagant
+newspaper reports stimulated the public with the hope of substantial
+results from Frémont's intended campaign. Before the end of that time,
+however, President Lincoln, under growing apprehension, sent Secretary
+of War Cameron and the adjutant-general of the army to Missouri to make
+a personal investigation. Reaching Frémont's camp on October 13, they
+found the movement to be a mere forced, spasmodic display, without
+substantial strength, transportation, or coherent and feasible plan; and
+that at least two of the division commanders were without means to
+execute the orders they had received, and utterly without confidence in
+their leader, or knowledge of his intentions.
+
+To give Frémont yet another chance, the Secretary of War withheld the
+President's order to relieve the general from command, which he had
+brought with him, on Frémont's insistence that a victory was really
+within his reach. When this hope also proved delusive, and suspicion was
+aroused that the general might be intending not only to deceive, but to
+defy the administration, President Lincoln sent the following letter by
+a special friend to General Curtis, commanding at St. Louis:
+
+"DEAR SIR: On receipt of this, with the accompanying inclosures, you
+will take safe, certain, and suitable measures to have the inclosure
+addressed to Major-General Frémont delivered to him with all reasonable
+dispatch, subject to these conditions only, that if, when General
+Frémont shall be reached by the messenger--yourself, or any one sent by
+you--he shall then have, in personal command, fought and won a battle,
+or shall then be actually in a battle, or shall then be in the immediate
+presence of the enemy in expectation of a battle, it is not to be
+delivered, but held for further orders. After, and not till after, the
+delivery to General Frémont, let the inclosure addressed to General
+Hunter be delivered to him."
+
+The order of removal was delivered to Frémont on November 2. By that
+date he had reached Springfield, but had won no victory, fought no
+battle, and was not in the presence of the enemy. Two of his divisions
+were not yet even with him. Still laboring under the delusion, perhaps
+imposed on him by his scouts, his orders stated that the enemy was only
+a day's march distant, and advancing to attack him. The inclosure
+mentioned in the President's letter to Curtis was an order to General
+David Hunter to relieve Frémont. When he arrived and assumed command the
+scouts he sent forward found no enemy within reach, and no such
+contingency of battle or hope of victory as had been rumored and
+assumed.
+
+Frémont's personal conduct in these disagreeable circumstances was
+entirely commendable. He took leave of the army in a short farewell
+order, couched in terms of perfect obedience to authority and courtesy
+to his successor, asking for him the same cordial support he had himself
+received. Nor did he by word or act justify the suspicions of
+insubordination for which some of his indiscreet adherents had given
+cause. Under the instructions President Lincoln had outlined in his
+order to Hunter, that general gave up the idea of indefinitely pursuing
+Price, and divided the army into two corps of observation, which were
+drawn back and posted, for the time being, at the two railroad termini
+of Rolla and Sedalia, to be recruited and prepared for further service.
+
+
+
+
+XVIII
+
+Blockade--Hatteras Inlet--Port Royal Captured--The Trent
+Affair--Lincoln Suggests Arbitration--Seward's Despatch--McClellan at
+Washington--Army of the Potomac--McClellan's Quarrel with
+Scott--Retirement of Scott--Lincoln's Memorandum--"All Quiet on the
+Potomac"--Conditions in Kentucky--Cameron's Visit to Sherman--East
+Tennessee--Instructions to Buell--Buell's Neglect--Halleck in Missouri
+
+
+Following the fall of Fort Sumter, the navy of the United States was in
+no condition to enforce the blockade from Chesapeake Bay to the Rio
+Grande declared by Lincoln's proclamation of April 19. Of the forty-two
+vessels then in commission nearly all were on foreign stations. Another
+serious cause of weakness was that within a few days after the Sumter
+attack one hundred and twenty-four officers of the navy resigned, or
+were dismissed for disloyalty, and the number of such was doubled before
+the fourth of July. Yet by the strenuous efforts of the department in
+fitting out ships that had been laid up, in completing those under
+construction, and in extensive purchases and arming of all classes of
+vessels that could be put to use, from screw and side-wheel merchant
+steamers to ferry-boats and tugs, a legally effective blockade was
+established within a period of six months. A considerable number of new
+war-ships was also immediately placed under construction. The special
+session of Congress created a commission to study the subject of
+ironclads, and on its recommendation three experimental vessels of this
+class were placed under contract. One of these, completed early in the
+following year, rendered a momentous service, hereafter to be mentioned,
+and completely revolutionized naval warfare.
+
+Meanwhile, as rapidly as vessels could be gathered and prepared, the
+Navy Department organized effective expeditions to operate against
+points on the Atlantic coast. On August 29 a small fleet, under command
+of Flag Officer Stringham, took possession of Hatteras Inlet, after
+silencing the forts the insurgents had erected to guard the entrance,
+and captured twenty-five guns and seven hundred prisoners. This success,
+achieved without the loss of a man to the Union fleet, was of great
+importance, opening, as it did, the way for a succession of victories in
+the interior waters of North Carolina early in the following year.
+
+A more formidable expedition, and still greater success soon followed.
+Early in November, Captain Du-Pont assembled a fleet of fifty sail,
+including transports, before Port Royal Sound. Forming a column of nine
+war-ships with a total of one hundred and twelve guns, the line steamed
+by the mid-channel between Fort Beauregard to the right, and Fort Walker
+to the left, the first of twenty and the second of twenty-three guns,
+each ship delivering its fire as it passed the forts. Turning at the
+proper point, they again gave broadside after broadside while steaming
+out, and so repeated their circular movement. The battle was decided
+when, on the third round, the forts failed to respond to the fire of the
+ships. When Commander Rodgers carried and planted the Stars and Stripes
+on the ramparts, he found them utterly deserted, everything having been
+abandoned by the flying garrisons. Further reconnaissance proved that
+the panic extended itself over the whole network of sea islands between
+Charleston and Savannah, permitting the immediate occupation of the
+entire region, and affording a military base for both the navy and the
+army of incalculable advantage in the further reduction of the coast.
+
+Another naval exploit, however, almost at the same time, absorbed
+greater public attention, and for a while created an intense degree of
+excitement and suspense. Ex-Senators J.M. Mason and John Slidell, having
+been accredited by the Confederate government as envoys to European
+courts, had managed to elude the blockade and reach Havana. Captain
+Charles Wilkes, commanding the _San Jacinto_, learning that they were to
+take passage for England on the British mail steamer _Trent_,
+intercepted that vessel on November 8 near the coast of Cuba, took the
+rebel emissaries prisoner by the usual show of force, and brought them
+to the United States, but allowed the _Trent_ to proceed on her voyage.
+The incident and alleged insult produced as great excitement in England
+as in the United States, and the British government began instant and
+significant preparations for war for what it hastily assumed to be a
+violation of international law and an outrage on the British flag.
+Instructions were sent to Lord Lyons, the British minister at
+Washington, to demand the release of the prisoners and a suitable
+apology; and, if this demand were not complied with within a single
+week, to close his legation and return to England.
+
+In the Northern States the capture was greeted with great jubilation.
+Captain Wilkes was applauded by the press; his act was officially
+approved by the Secretary of the Navy, and the House of Representatives
+unanimously passed a resolution thanking him for his "brave, adroit, and
+patriotic conduct." While the President and cabinet shared the first
+impulses of rejoicing, second thoughts impressed them with the grave
+nature of the international question involved, and the serious dilemma
+of disavowal or war precipitated by the imperative British demand. It
+was fortunate that Secretary Seward and Lord Lyons were close personal
+friends, and still more that though British public opinion had strongly
+favored the rebellion, the Queen of England entertained the kindliest
+feelings for the American government. Under her direction, Prince Albert
+instructed the British cabinet to formulate and present the demand in
+the most courteous diplomatic language, while, on their part, the
+American President and cabinet discussed the affair in a temper of
+judicious reserve.
+
+President Lincoln's first desire was to refer the difficulty to friendly
+arbitration, and his mood is admirably expressed in the autograph
+experimental draft of a despatch suggesting this course.
+
+"The President is unwilling to believe," he wrote, "that her Majesty's
+government will press for a categorical answer upon what appears to him
+to be only a partial record, in the making up of which he has been
+allowed no part. He is reluctant to volunteer his view of the case, with
+no assurance that her Majesty's government will consent to hear him; yet
+this much he directs me to say, that this government has intended no
+affront to the British flag, or to the British nation; nor has it
+intended to force into discussion an embarrassing question; all which is
+evident by the fact hereby asserted, that the act complained of was done
+by the officer without orders from, or expectation of, the government.
+But, being done, it was no longer left to us to consider whether we
+might not, to avoid a controversy, waive an unimportant though a strict
+right; because we, too, as well as Great Britain, have a people justly
+jealous of their rights, and in whose presence our government could undo
+the act complained of only upon a fair showing that it was wrong, or at
+least very questionable. The United States government and people are
+still willing to make reparation upon such showing.
+
+"Accordingly, I am instructed by the President to inquire whether her
+Majesty's government will hear the United States upon the matter in
+question. The President desires, among other things, to bring into view,
+and have considered, the existing rebellion in the United States; the
+position Great Britain has assumed, including her Majesty's proclamation
+in relation thereto; the relation the persons whose seizure is the
+subject of complaint bore to the United States, and the object of their
+voyage at the time they were seized; the knowledge which the master of
+the _Trent_ had of their relation to the United States, and of the
+object of their voyage, at the time he received them on board for the
+voyage; the place of the seizure; and the precedents and respective
+positions assumed in analogous cases between Great Britain and the
+United States.
+
+"Upon a submission containing the foregoing facts, with those set forth
+in the before-mentioned despatch to your lordship, together with all
+other facts which either party may deem material, I am instructed to say
+the government of the United States will, if agreed to by her Majesty's
+government, go to such friendly arbitration as is usual among nations,
+and will abide the award."
+
+The most practised diplomatic pen in Europe could not have written a
+more dignified, courteous, or succinct presentation of the case; and
+yet, under the necessities of the moment, it was impossible to adopt
+this procedure. Upon full discussion, it was decided that war with Great
+Britain must be avoided, and Mr. Seward wrote a despatch defending the
+course of Captain Wilkes up to the point where he permitted the _Trent_
+to proceed on her voyage. It was his further duty to have brought her
+before a prize court. Failing in this, he had left the capture
+incomplete under rules of international law, and the American government
+had thereby lost the right and the legal evidence to establish the
+contraband character of the vessel and the persons seized. Under the
+circumstances, the prisoners were therefore willingly released. Excited
+American feeling was grievously disappointed at the result; but American
+good sense readily accommodated itself both to the correctness of the
+law expounded by the Secretary of State, and to the public policy that
+averted a great international danger; particularly as this decision
+forced Great Britain to depart from her own and to adopt the American
+traditions respecting this class of neutral rights.
+
+It has already been told how Captain George B. McClellan was suddenly
+raised in rank, at the very outset of the war, first to a
+major-generalship in the three months' militia, then to the command of
+the military department of the Ohio; from that to a major-generalship in
+the regular army; and after his successful campaign in West Virginia was
+called to Washington and placed in command of the Division of the
+Potomac, which comprised all the troops in and around Washington, on
+both sides of the river. Called thus to the capital of the nation to
+guard it against the results of the disastrous battle of Bull Run, and
+to organize a new army for extended offensive operations, the
+surrounding conditions naturally suggested to him that in all
+likelihood he would play a conspicuous part in the great drama of the
+Civil War. His ambition rose eagerly to the prospect. On the day on
+which he assumed command, July 27, he wrote to his wife:
+
+"I find myself in a new and strange position here; President, cabinet,
+General Scott, and all, deferring to me. By some strange operation of
+magic I seem to have become the power of the land."
+
+And three days later:
+
+"They give me my way in everything, full swing and unbounded
+confidence.... Who would have thought, when we were married, that I
+should so soon be called upon to save my country?"
+
+And still a few days afterward:
+
+"I shall carry this thing _en grande_, and crush the rebels in one
+campaign."
+
+From the giddy elevation to which such an imaginary achievement raised
+his dreams, there was but one higher step, and his colossal egotism
+immediately mounted to occupy it. On August 9, just two weeks after his
+arrival in Washington, he wrote:
+
+"I would cheerfully take the dictatorship and agree to lay down my life
+when the country is saved;" while in the same letter he adds, with the
+most naïve unconsciousness of his hallucination: "I am not spoiled by my
+unexpected new position."
+
+Coming to the national capital in the hour of deepest public depression
+over the Bull Run defeat, McClellan was welcomed by the President, the
+cabinet, and General Scott with sincere friendship, by Congress with a
+hopeful eagerness, by the people with enthusiasm, and by Washington
+society with adulation. Externally he seemed to justify such a greeting.
+He was young, handsome, accomplished, genial and winning in conversation
+and manner. He at once manifested great industry and quick decision,
+and speedily exhibited a degree of ability in army organization which
+was not equaled by any officer during the Civil War. Under his eye the
+stream of the new three years' regiments pouring into the city went to
+their camps, fell into brigades and divisions, were supplied with
+equipments, horses, and batteries, and underwent the routine of drill,
+tactics, and reviews, which, without the least apparent noise or
+friction, in three months made the Army of the Potomac a perfect
+fighting machine of over one hundred and fifty thousand men and more
+than two hundred guns.
+
+Recognizing his ability in this work, the government had indeed given
+him its full confidence, and permitted him to exercise almost unbounded
+authority; which he fully utilized in favoring his personal friends, and
+drawing to himself the best resources of the whole country in arms,
+supplies, and officers of education and experience. For a while his
+outward demeanor indicated respect and gratitude for the promotion and
+liberal favors bestowed upon him. But his phenomenal rise was fatal to
+his usefulness. The dream that he was to be the sole savior of his
+country, announced confidentially to his wife just two weeks after his
+arrival in Washington, never again left him so long as he continued in
+command. Coupled with this dazzling vision, however, was soon developed
+the tormenting twofold hallucination: first, that everybody was
+conspiring to thwart him; and, second, that the enemy had from double to
+quadruple numbers to defeat him.
+
+For the first month he could not sleep for the nightmare that
+Beauregard's demoralized army had by a sudden bound from Manassas seized
+the city of Washington. He immediately began a quarrel with General
+Scott, which, by the first of November, drove the old hero into
+retirement and out of his pathway. The cabinet members who, wittingly or
+unwittingly, had encouraged him in this he some weeks later stigmatized
+as a set of geese. Seeing that President Lincoln was kind and unassuming
+in discussing military questions, McClellan quickly contracted the habit
+of expressing contempt for him in his confidential letters; and the
+feeling rapidly grew until it reached a mark of open disrespect. The
+same trait manifested itself in his making exclusive confidants of only
+two or three of his subordinate generals, and ignoring the counsel of
+all the others; and when, later on, Congress appointed a standing
+committee of leading senators and representatives to examine into the
+conduct of the war, he placed himself in a similar attitude respecting
+their inquiry and advice.
+
+McClellan's activity and judgment as an army organizer naturally created
+great hopes that he would be equally efficient as a commander in the
+field. But these hopes were grievously disappointed. To his first great
+defect of estimating himself as the sole savior of the country, must at
+once be added the second, of his utter inability to form any reasonable
+judgment of the strength of the enemy in his front. On September 8, when
+the Confederate army at Manassas numbered forty-one thousand, he rated
+it at one hundred and thirty thousand. By the end of October that
+estimate had risen to one hundred and fifty thousand, to meet which he
+asked that his own force should be raised to an aggregate of two hundred
+and forty thousand, with a total of effectives of two hundred and eight
+thousand, and four hundred and eighty-eight guns. He suggested that to
+gather this force all other points should be left on the defensive; that
+the Army of the Potomac held the fate of the country in its hands; that
+the advance should not be postponed beyond November 25; and that a
+single will should direct the plan of accomplishing a crushing defeat of
+the rebel army at Manassas.
+
+On the first of November the President, yielding at last to General
+Scott's urgent solicitation, issued the orders placing him on the
+retired list, and in his stead appointing General McClellan to the
+command of all the armies. The administration indulged the expectation
+that at last "The Young Napoleon," as the newspapers often called him,
+would take advantage of the fine autumn weather, and, by a bold move
+with his single will and his immense force, outnumbering the enemy
+nearly four to one, would redeem his promise to crush the army at
+Manassas and "save the country." But the November days came and went, as
+the October days had come and gone. McClellan and his brilliant staff
+galloped unceasingly from camp to camp, and review followed review,
+while autumn imperceptibly gave place to the cold and storms of winter;
+and still there was no sign of forward movement.
+
+Under his own growing impatience, as well as that of the public, the
+President, about the first of December, inquired pointedly, in a
+memorandum suggesting a plan of campaign, how long it would require to
+actually get in motion. McClellan answered: "By December 15,--probably
+25"; and put aside the President's suggestion by explaining: "I have now
+my mind actively turned toward another plan of campaign that I do not
+think at all anticipated by the enemy, nor by many of our own people."
+
+December 25 came, as November 25 had come, and still there was no plan,
+no preparation, no movement. Then McClellan fell seriously ill. By a
+spontaneous and most natural impulse, the soldiers of the various camps
+began the erection of huts to shelter them from snow and storm. In a few
+weeks the Army of the Potomac was practically, if not by order, in
+winter quarters; and day after day the monotonous telegraphic phrase
+"All quiet on the Potomac" was read from Northern newspapers in Northern
+homes, until by mere iteration it degenerated from an expression of deep
+disappointment to a note of sarcastic criticism.
+
+While so unsatisfactory a condition of affairs existed in the first
+great military field east of the Alleghanies, the outlook was quite as
+unpromising both in the second--between the Alleghanies and the
+Mississippi--and in the third--west of the Mississippi. When the
+Confederates, about September 1, 1861, invaded Kentucky, they stationed
+General Pillow at the strongly fortified town of Columbus on the
+Mississippi River, with about six thousand men; General Buckner at
+Bowling Green, on the railroad north of Nashville, with five thousand;
+and General Zollicoffer, with six regiments, in eastern Kentucky,
+fronting Cumberland Gap. Up to that time there were no Union troops in
+Kentucky, except a few regiments of Home Guards. Now, however, the State
+legislature called for active help; and General Anderson, exercising
+nominal command from Cincinnati, sent Brigadier-General Sherman to
+Nashville to confront Buckner, and Brigadier-General Thomas to Camp Dick
+Robinson, to confront Zollicoffer.
+
+Neither side was as yet in a condition of force and preparation to take
+the aggressive. When, a month later, Anderson, on account of ill health
+turned over the command to Sherman, the latter had gathered only about
+eighteen thousand men, and was greatly discouraged by the task of
+defending three hundred miles of frontier with that small force. In an
+interview with Secretary of War Cameron, who called upon him on his
+return from Frémont's camp, about the middle of October, he strongly
+urged that he needed for immediate defense sixty thousand, and for
+ultimate offense "two hundred thousand before we were done." "Great
+God!" exclaimed Cameron, "where are they to come from?" Both Sherman's
+demand and Cameron's answer were a pertinent comment on McClellan's
+policy of collecting the whole military strength of the country at
+Washington to fight the one great battle for which he could never get
+ready.
+
+Sherman was so distressed by the seeming magnitude of his burden that he
+soon asked to be relieved; and when Brigadier-General Buell was sent to
+succeed him in command of that part of Kentucky lying east of the
+Cumberland River, it was the expectation of the President that he would
+devote his main attention and energy to the accomplishment of a specific
+object which Mr. Lincoln had very much at heart.
+
+Ever since the days in June, when President Lincoln had presided over
+the council of war which discussed and decided upon the Bull Run
+campaign, he had devoted every spare moment of his time to the study of
+such military books and leading principles of the art of war as would
+aid him in solving questions that must necessarily come to himself for
+final decision. His acute perceptions, retentive memory, and unusual
+power of logic enabled him to make rapid progress in the acquisition of
+the fixed and accepted rules on which military writers agree. In this,
+as in other sciences, the main difficulty, of course, lies in applying
+fixed theories to variable conditions. When, however, we remember that
+at the outbreak of hostilities all the great commanders of the Civil War
+had experience only as captains and lieutenants, it is not strange that
+in speculative military problems the President's mature reasoning powers
+should have gained almost as rapidly by observation and criticism as
+theirs by practice and experiment. The mastery he attained of the
+difficult art, and how intuitively correct was his grasp of military
+situations, has been attested since in the enthusiastic admiration of
+brilliant technical students, amply fitted by training and intellect to
+express an opinion, whose comment does not fall short of declaring Mr.
+Lincoln "the ablest strategist of the war."
+
+The President had early discerned what must become the dominating and
+decisive lines of advance in gaining and holding military control of the
+Southern States. Only two days after the battle of Bull Run, he had
+written a memorandum suggesting three principal objects for the army
+when reorganized: First, to gather a force to menace Richmond; second, a
+movement from Cincinnati upon Cumberland Gap and East Tennessee; third,
+an expedition from Cairo against Memphis. In his eyes, the second of
+these objectives never lost its importance; and it was in fact
+substantially adopted by indirection and by necessity in the closing
+periods of the war. The eastern third of the State of Tennessee remained
+from the first stubbornly and devotedly loyal to the Union. At an
+election on June 8, 1861, the people of twenty-nine counties, by more
+than two to one, voted against joining the Confederacy; and the most
+rigorous military repression by the orders of Jefferson Davis and
+Governor Harris was necessary to prevent a general uprising against the
+rebellion.
+
+The sympathy of the President, even more than that of the whole North,
+went out warmly to these unfortunate Tennesseeans, and he desired to
+convert their mountain fastnesses into an impregnable patriotic
+stronghold. Had his advice been followed, it would have completely
+severed railroad communication, by way of the Shenandoah valley,
+Knoxville, and Chattanooga, between Virginia and the Gulf States,
+accomplishing in the winter of 1861 what was not attained until two
+years later. Mr. Lincoln urged this in a second memorandum, made late in
+September; and seeing that the principal objection to it lay in the long
+and difficult line of land transportation, his message to Congress of
+December 3, 1861, recommended, as a military measure, the construction
+of a railroad to connect Cincinnati, by way of Lexington, Kentucky, with
+that mountain region.
+
+A few days after the message, he personally went to the President's room
+in the Capitol building, and calling around him a number of leading
+senators and representatives, and pointing out on a map before them the
+East Tennessee region, said to them in substance:
+
+I am thoroughly convinced that the closing struggle of the war will
+occur somewhere in this mountain country. By our superior numbers and
+strength we will everywhere drive the rebel armies back from the level
+districts lying along the coast, from those lying south of the Ohio
+River, and from those lying east of the Mississippi River. Yielding to
+our superior force, they will gradually retreat to the more defensible
+mountain districts, and make their final stand in that part of the South
+where the seven States of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina,
+Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, and West Virginia come together. The
+population there is overwhelmingly and devotedly loyal to the Union. The
+despatches from Brigadier-General Thomas of October 28 and November 5
+show that, with four additional good regiments, he is willing to
+undertake the campaign and is confident he can take immediate
+possession. Once established, the people will rally to his support, and
+by building a railroad, over which to forward him regular supplies and
+needed reinforcements from time to time, we can hold it against all
+attempts to dislodge us, and at the same time menace the enemy in any
+one of the States I have named.
+
+While his hearers listened with interest, it was evident that their
+minds were still full of the prospect of a great battle in Virginia, the
+capture of Richmond, and an early suppression of the rebellion. Railroad
+building appeared to them altogether too slow an operation of war. To
+show how sagacious was the President's advice, we may anticipate by
+recalling that in the following summer General Buell spent as much time,
+money, and military strength in his attempted march from Corinth to East
+Tennessee as would have amply sufficed to build the line from Lexington
+to Knoxville recommended by Mr. Lincoln--the general's effort resulting
+only in his being driven back to Louisville; that in 1863, Burnside,
+under greater difficulties, made the march and successfully held
+Knoxville, even without a railroad, which Thomas with a few regiments
+could have accomplished in 1861; and that in the final collapse of the
+rebellion, in the spring of 1865, the beaten armies of both Johnston and
+Lee attempted to retreat for a last stand to this same mountain region
+which Mr. Lincoln pointed out in December, 1861.
+
+Though the President received no encouragement from senators and
+representatives in his plan to take possession of East Tennessee, that
+object was specially enjoined in the instructions to General Buell when
+he was sent to command in Kentucky.
+
+"It so happens that a large majority of the inhabitants of eastern
+Tennessee are in favor of the Union; it therefore seems proper that you
+should remain on the defensive on the line from Louisville to Nashville,
+while you throw the mass of your forces by rapid marches by Cumberland
+Gap or Walker's Gap on Knoxville, in order to occupy the railroad at
+that point, and thus enable the loyal citizens of eastern Tennessee to
+rise, while you at the same time cut off the railway communication
+between eastern Virginia and the Mississippi."
+
+Three times within the same month McClellan repeated this injunction to
+Buell with additional emphasis. Senator Andrew Johnson and
+Representative Horace Maynard telegraphed him from Washington:
+
+"Our people are oppressed and pursued as beasts of the forest; the
+government must come to their relief."
+
+Buell replied, keeping the word of promise to the ear, but, with his
+ambition fixed on a different campaign, gradually but doggedly broke it
+to the hope. When, a month later, he acknowledged that his preparations
+and intent were to move against Nashville, the President wrote him:
+
+"Of the two, I would rather have a point on the railroad south of
+Cumberland Gap than Nashville. _First_, because it cuts a great artery
+of the enemy's communication which Nashville does not; and, _secondly_,
+because it is in the midst of loyal people, who would rally around it,
+while Nashville is not.... But my distress is that our friends in East
+Tennessee are being hanged and driven to despair, and even now, I fear,
+are thinking of taking rebel arms for the sake of personal protection.
+In this we lose the most valuable stake we have in the South."
+
+McClellan's comment amounted to a severe censure, and this was quickly
+followed by an almost positive command to "advance on eastern Tennessee
+at once." Again Buell promised compliance, only, however, again to
+report in a few weeks his conviction "that an advance into East
+Tennessee is impracticable at this time on any scale which would be
+sufficient." It is difficult to speculate upon the advantages lost by
+this unwillingness of a commander to obey instructions. To say nothing
+of the strategical value of East Tennessee to the Union, the fidelity of
+its people is shown in the reports sent to the Confederate government
+that "the whole country is now in a state of rebellion"; that "civil war
+has broken out in East Tennessee"; and that "they look for the
+reëstablishment of the Federal authority in the South with as much
+confidence as the Jews look for the coming of the Messiah."
+
+Henry W. Halleck, born in 1815, graduated from West Point in 1839, who,
+after distinguished service in the Mexican war, had been brevetted
+captain of Engineers, but soon afterward resigned from the army to
+pursue the practice of law in San Francisco, was, perhaps, the best
+professionally equipped officer among the number of those called by
+General Scott in the summer of 1861 to assume important command in the
+Union army. It is probable that Scott intended he should succeed himself
+as general-in-chief; but when he reached Washington the autumn was
+already late, and because of Frémont's conspicuous failure it seemed
+necessary to send Halleck to the Department of the Missouri, which, as
+reconstituted, was made to include, in addition to several northwestern
+States, Missouri and Arkansas, and so much of Kentucky as lay west of
+the Cumberland River. This change of department lines indicates the
+beginning of what soon became a dominant feature of military operations;
+namely, that instead of the vast regions lying west of the Mississippi,
+the great river itself, and the country lying immediately adjacent to
+it on either side, became the third principal field of strategy and
+action, under the necessity of opening and holding it as a great
+military and commercial highway.
+
+While the intention of the government to open the Mississippi River by a
+powerful expedition received additional emphasis through Halleck's
+appointment, that general found no immediate means adequate to the task
+when he assumed command at St. Louis. Frémont's régime had left the
+whole department in the most deplorable confusion. Halleck reported that
+he had no army, but, rather, a military rabble to command and for some
+weeks devoted himself with energy and success to bringing order out of
+the chaos left him by his predecessor. A large element of his difficulty
+lay in the fact that the population of the whole State was tainted with
+disloyalty to a degree which rendered Missouri less a factor in the
+larger questions of general army operations, than from the beginning to
+the end of the war a local district of bitter and relentless factional
+hatred and guerrilla or, as the term was constantly employed,
+"bushwhacking" warfare, intensified and kept alive by annual roving
+Confederate incursions from Arkansas and the Indian Territory in
+desultory summer campaigns.
+
+
+
+
+XIX
+
+Lincoln Directs Coöperation--Halleck and Buell--Ulysses S.
+Grant--Grant's Demonstration--Victory at Mill River--Fort Henry--Fort
+Donelson--Buell's Tardiness--Halleck's Activity--Victory of Pea
+Ridge--Halleck Receives General Command--Pittsburg Landing--Island No.
+10--Halleck's Corinth Campaign--Halleck's Mistakes
+
+
+Toward the end of December, 1861, the prospects of the administration
+became very gloomy. McClellan had indeed organized a formidable army at
+Washington, but it had done nothing to efface the memory of the Bull Run
+defeat. On the contrary, a practical blockade of the Potomac by rebel
+batteries on the Virginia shore, and another small but irritating defeat
+at Ball's Bluff, greatly heightened public impatience. The necessary
+surrender of Mason and Slidell to England was exceedingly unpalatable.
+Government expenditures had risen to $2,000,000 a day, and a financial
+crisis was imminent. Buell would not move into East Tennessee, and
+Halleck seemed powerless in Missouri. Added to this, McClellan's illness
+completed a stagnation of military affairs both east and west. Congress
+was clamoring for results, and its joint Committee on the Conduct of the
+War was pushing a searching inquiry into the causes of previous defeats.
+
+To remove this inertia, President Lincoln directed specific questions to
+the Western commanders. "Are General Buell and yourself in concert?" he
+telegraphed Halleck on December 31. And next day he wrote:
+
+"I am very anxious that, in case of General Buell's moving toward
+Nashville, the enemy shall not be greatly reinforced, and I think there
+is danger he will be from Columbus. It seems to me that a real or
+feigned attack on Columbus from up-river at the same time would either
+prevent this, or compensate for it by throwing Columbus into our hands."
+
+Similar questions also went to Buell, and their replies showed that no
+concert, arrangement, or plans existed, and that Halleck was not ready
+to coöperate. The correspondence started by the President's inquiry for
+the first time clearly brought out an estimate of the Confederate
+strength opposed to a southward movement in the West. Since the
+Confederate invasion of Kentucky on September 4, the rebels had so
+strongly fortified Columbus on the Mississippi River that it came to be
+called the "Gibraltar of the West," and now had a garrison of twenty
+thousand to hold it; while General Buckner was supposed to have a force
+of forty thousand at Bowling Green on the railroad between Louisville
+and Nashville. For more than a month Buell and Halleck had been aware
+that a joint river and land expedition southward up the Tennessee or the
+Cumberland River, which would outflank both positions and cause their
+evacuation, was practicable with but little opposition. Yet neither
+Buell nor Halleck had exchanged a word about it, or made the slightest
+preparation to begin it; each being busy in his own field, and with his
+own plans. Even now, when the President had started the subject, Halleck
+replied that it would be bad strategy for himself to move against
+Columbus, or Buell against Bowling Green; but he had nothing to say
+about a Tennessee River expedition, or coöperation with Buell to effect
+it, except by indirectly complaining that to withdraw troops from
+Missouri would risk the loss of that State.
+
+The President, however, was no longer satisfied with indecision and
+excuses, and telegraphed to Buell on January 7:
+
+"Please name as early a day as you safely can on or before which you can
+be ready to move southward in concert with Major-General Halleck. Delay
+is ruining us, and it is indispensable for me to have something
+definite. I send a like despatch to Major-General Halleck."
+
+To this Buell made no direct reply, while Halleck answered that he had
+asked Buell to designate a date for a demonstration, and explained two
+days later: "I can make, with the gunboats and available troops, a
+pretty formidable demonstration, but no real attack." In point of fact,
+Halleck had on the previous day, January 6, written to Brigadier-General
+U.S. Grant: "I wish you to make a demonstration in force": and he added
+full details, to which Grant responded on January 8: "Your instructions
+of the sixth were received this morning, and immediate preparations made
+for carrying them out"; also adding details on his part.
+
+Ulysses S. Grant was born on April 27, 1822, was graduated from West
+Point in 1843, and brevetted captain for gallant conduct in the Mexican
+War; but resigned from the army and was engaged with his father in a
+leather store at Galena, Illinois, when the Civil War broke out.
+Employed by the governor of Illinois a few weeks at Springfield to
+assist in organizing militia regiments under the President's first call,
+Grant wrote a letter to the War Department at Washington tendering his
+services, and saying: "I feel myself competent to command a regiment, if
+the President in his judgment should see fit to intrust one to me." For
+some reason, never explained, this letter remained unanswered, though
+the department was then and afterward in constant need of educated and
+experienced officers. A few weeks later, however, Governor Yates
+commissioned him colonel of one of the Illinois three years' regiments.
+From that time until the end of 1861, Grant, by constant and specially
+meritorious service, rose in rank to brigadier-general and to the
+command of the important post of Cairo, Illinois, having meanwhile, on
+November 7, won the battle of Belmont on the Missouri shore opposite
+Columbus.
+
+The "demonstration'" ordered by Halleck was probably intended only as a
+passing show of activity; but it was executed by Grant, though under
+strict orders to "avoid a battle," with a degree of promptness and
+earnestness that drew after it momentous consequences. He pushed a
+strong reconnaissance by eight thousand men within a mile or two of
+Columbus, and sent three gunboats up the Tennessee River, which drew the
+fire of Fort Henry. The results of the combined expedition convinced
+Grant that a real movement in that direction was practicable, and he
+hastened to St. Louis to lay his plan personally before Halleck. At
+first that general would scarcely listen to it; but, returning to Cairo,
+Grant urged it again and again, and the rapidly changing military
+conditions soon caused Halleck to realize its importance.
+
+Within a few days, several items of interesting information reached
+Halleck: that General Thomas, in eastern Kentucky, had won a victory
+over the rebel General Zollicoffer, capturing his fortified camp on
+Cumberland River, annihilating his army of over ten regiments, and fully
+exposing Cumberland Gap; that the Confederates were about to throw
+strong reinforcements into Columbus; that seven formidable Union
+ironclad river gunboats were ready for service; and that a rise of
+fourteen feet had taken place in the Tennessee River, greatly weakening
+the rebel batteries on that stream and the Cumberland. The advantages on
+the one hand, and the dangers on the other, which these reports
+indicated, moved Halleck to a sudden decision. When Grant, on January
+28, telegraphed him: "With permission, I will take Fort Henry on the
+Tennessee, and establish and hold a large camp there," Halleck responded
+on the thirtieth: "Make your preparations to take and hold Fort Henry."
+
+It would appear that Grant's preparations were already quite complete
+when he received written instructions by mail on February 1, for on the
+next day he started fifteen thousand men on transports, and on February
+4 himself followed with seven gunboats under command of Commodore Foote.
+Two days later, Grant had the satisfaction of sending a double message
+in return: "Fort Henry is ours.... I shall take and destroy Fort
+Donelson on the eighth."
+
+Fort Henry had been an easy victory. The rebel commander, convinced that
+he could not defend the place, had early that morning sent away his
+garrison of three thousand on a retreat to Fort Donelson, and simply
+held out during a two hours' bombardment until they could escape
+capture. To take Fort Donelson was a more serious enterprise. That
+stronghold, lying twelve miles away on the Cumberland River, was a much
+larger work, with a garrison of six thousand, and armed with seventeen
+heavy and forty-eight field guns. If Grant could have marched
+immediately to an attack of the combined garrisons, there would have
+been a chance of quick success. But the high water presented
+unlooked-for obstacles, and nearly a week elapsed before his army began
+stretching itself cautiously around the three miles of Donelson's
+intrenchments. During this delay, the conditions became greatly changed.
+When the Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston received news that
+Fort Henry had fallen, he held a council at Bowling Green with his
+subordinate generals Hardee and Beauregard, and seeing that the Union
+success would, if not immediately counteracted, render both Nashville
+and Columbus untenable, resolved, to use his own language, "To defend
+Nashville at Donelson."
+
+An immediate retreat was begun from Bowling Green to Nashville, and
+heavy reinforcements were ordered to the garrison of Fort Donelson. It
+happened, therefore, that when Grant was ready to begin his assault the
+Confederate garrison with its reinforcements outnumbered his entire
+army. To increase the discouragement, the attack by gunboats on the
+Cumberland River on the afternoon of February 14 was repulsed, seriously
+damaging two of them, and a heavy sortie from the fort threw the right
+of Grant's investing line into disorder. Fortunately, General Halleck at
+St. Louis strained all his energies to send reinforcements, and these
+arrived in time to restore Grant's advantage in numbers.
+
+Serious disagreement among the Confederate commanders also hastened the
+fall of the place. On February 16, General Buckner, to whom the senior
+officers had turned over the command, proposed an armistice, and the
+appointment of commissioners to agree on terms of capitulation. To this
+Grant responded with a characteristic spirit of determination: "No terms
+except unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose
+to move immediately upon your works." Buckner complained that the terms
+were ungenerous and unchivalric, but that necessity compelled him to
+accept them; and Grant telegraphed Halleck on February 16: "We have
+taken Fort Donelson, and from twelve to fifteen thousand prisoners." The
+senior Confederate generals, Pillow and Floyd, and a portion of the
+garrison had escaped by the Cumberland River during the preceding night.
+
+Since the fall of Fort Henry on February 6, a lively correspondence had
+been going on, in which General Halleck besought Buell to come with his
+available forces, assist in capturing Donelson, and command the column
+up the Cumberland to cut off both Columbus and Nashville. President
+Lincoln, scanning the news with intense solicitude, and losing no
+opportunity to urge effective coöperation, telegraphed Halleck:
+
+"You have Fort Donelson safe, unless Grant shall be overwhelmed from
+outside: to prevent which latter will, I think, require all the
+vigilance, energy, and skill of yourself and Buell, acting in full
+coöperation. Columbus will not get at Grant, but the force from Bowling
+Green will. They hold the railroad from Bowling Green to within a few
+miles of Fort Donelson, with the bridge at Clarksville undisturbed. It
+is unsafe to rely that they will not dare to expose Nashville to Buell.
+A small part of their force can retire slowly toward Nashville, breaking
+up the railroad as they go, and keep Buell out of that city twenty days.
+Meantime, Nashville will be abundantly defended by forces from all south
+and perhaps from here at Manassas. Could not a cavalry force from
+General Thomas on the upper Cumberland dash across, almost unresisted,
+and cut the railroad at or near Knoxville, Tennessee? In the midst of a
+bombardment at Fort Donelson, why could not a gunboat run up and destroy
+the bridge at Clarksville? Our success or failure at Fort Donelson is
+vastly important, and I beg you to put your soul in the effort. I send a
+copy of this to Buell."
+
+This telegram abundantly shows with what minute understanding and
+accurate judgment the President comprehended military conditions and
+results in the West. Buell, however, was too intent upon his own
+separate movement to seize the brilliant opportunity offered him. As he
+only in a feeble advance followed up the retreating Confederate column
+from Bowling Green to Nashville, Halleck naturally appropriated to
+himself the merit of the campaign, and telegraphed to Washington on the
+day after the surrender:
+
+"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."
+
+The eagerness of General Halleck for superior command in the West was,
+to say the least, very pardonable. A vast horizon of possibilities was
+opening up to his view. Two other campaigns under his direction were
+exciting his liveliest hopes. Late in December he had collected an army
+of ten thousand at the railroad terminus at Rolla, Missouri, under
+command of Brigadier-General Curtis, for the purpose of scattering the
+rebel forces under General Price at Springfield or driving them out of
+the State. Despite the hard winter weather, Halleck urged on the
+movement with almost peremptory orders, and Curtis executed the
+intentions of his chief with such alacrity that Price was forced into a
+rapid and damaging retreat from Springfield toward Arkansas. While
+forcing this enterprise in the southwest, Halleck had also determined on
+an important campaign in southeast Missouri.
+
+Next to Columbus, which the enemy evacuated on March 2, the strongest
+Confederate fortifications on the Mississippi River were at Island No.
+10, about forty miles farther to the south. To operate against these, he
+planned an expedition under Brigadier-General Pope to capture the town
+of New Madrid as a preliminary step. Columbus and Nashville were almost
+sure to fall as the result of Donelson. If now he could bring his two
+Missouri campaigns into a combination with two swift and strong
+Tennessee expeditions, while the enemy was in scattered retreat, he
+could look forward to the speedy capture of Memphis. But to the
+realization of such a project, the hesitation and slowness of Buell were
+a serious hindrance. That general had indeed started a division under
+Nelson to Grant's assistance, but it was not yet in the Cumberland when
+Donelson surrendered. Halleck's demand for enlarged power, therefore,
+became almost imperative. He pleaded earnestly with Buell:
+
+"I have asked the President to make you a major-general. Come down to
+the Cumberland and take command. The battle of the West is to be fought
+in that vicinity.... There will be no battle at Nashville." His
+telegrams to McClellan were more urgent. "Give it [the Western Division]
+to me, and I will split secession in twain in one month." And again: "I
+must have command of the armies in the West. Hesitation and delay are
+losing us the golden opportunity. Lay this before the President and
+Secretary of War. May I assume the command? Answer quickly."
+
+But McClellan was in no mood to sacrifice the ambition of his intimate
+friend and favorite, General Buell, and induced the President to
+withhold his consent; and while the generals were debating by telegraph,
+Nelson's division of the army of Buell moved up the Cumberland and
+occupied Nashville under the orders of Grant. Halleck, however, held
+tenaciously to his views and requests, explaining to McClellan that he
+himself proposed going to Tennessee:
+
+"That is now the great strategic line of the western campaign, and I am
+surprised that General Buell should hesitate to reinforce me. He was too
+late at Fort Donelson.... Believe me, General, you make a serious
+mistake in having three independent commands in the West. There never
+will and never can be any coöperation at the critical moment; all
+military history proves it."
+
+This insistence had greater point because of the news received that
+Curtis, energetically following Price into Arkansas, had won a great
+Union victory at Pea Ridge, between March 5 and 8, over the united
+forces of Price and McCulloch, commanded by Van Dorn. At this juncture,
+events at Washington, hereafter to be mentioned, caused a reorganization
+of military commands and President Lincoln's Special War Order No. 3
+consolidated the western departments of Hunter, Halleck, and Buell, as
+far east as Knoxville, Tennessee, under the title of the Department of
+the Mississippi, and placed General Halleck in command of the whole.
+Meanwhile, Halleck had ordered the victorious Union army at Fort
+Donelson to move forward to Savannah on the Tennessee River under the
+command of Grant; and, now that he had superior command, directed Buell
+to march all of his forces not required to defend Nashville "as rapidly
+as possible" to the same point. Halleck was still at St. Louis; and
+through the indecision of his further orders, through the slowness of
+Buell's march, and through the unexplained inattention of Grant, the
+Union armies narrowly escaped a serious disaster, which, however, the
+determined courage of the troops and subordinate officers turned into a
+most important victory.
+
+The "golden opportunity" so earnestly pointed out by Halleck, while not
+entirely lost, was nevertheless seriously diminished by the hesitation
+and delay of the Union commanders to agree upon some plan of effective
+coöperation. When, at the fall of Fort Donelson the Confederates
+retreated from Nashville toward Chattanooga, and from Columbus toward
+Jackson, a swift advance by the Tennessee River could have kept them
+separated; but as that open highway was not promptly followed in force,
+the flying Confederate detachments found abundant leisure to form a
+junction.
+
+Grant reached Savannah, on the east bank of the Tennessee River, about
+the middle of March, and in a few days began massing troops at Pittsburg
+Landing, six miles farther south, on the west bank of the Tennessee;
+still keeping his headquarters at Savannah, to await the arrival of
+Buell and his army. During the next two weeks he reported several times
+that the enemy was concentrating at Corinth, Mississippi, an important
+railroad crossing twenty miles from Pittsburg Landing, the estimate of
+their number varying from forty to eighty thousand. All this time his
+mind was so filled with an eager intention to begin a march upon
+Corinth, and a confidence that he could win a victory by a prompt
+attack, that he neglected the essential precaution of providing against
+an attack by the enemy, which at the same time was occupying the
+thoughts of the Confederate commander General Johnston.
+
+General Grant was therefore greatly surprised on the morning of April 6,
+when he proceeded from Savannah to Pittsburg Landing, to learn the cause
+of a fierce cannonade. He found that the Confederate army, forty
+thousand strong, was making an unexpected and determined attack in force
+on the Union camp, whose five divisions numbered a total of about
+thirty-three thousand. The Union generals had made no provision against
+such an attack. No intrenchments had been thrown up, no plan or
+understanding arranged. A few preliminary picket skirmishes had, indeed,
+put the Union front on the alert, but the commanders of brigades and
+regiments were not prepared for the impetuous rush with which the three
+successive Confederate lines began the main battle. On their part, the
+enemy did not realize their hope of effecting a complete surprise, and
+the nature of the ground was so characterized by a network of local
+roads, alternating patches of woods and open fields, miry hollows and
+abrupt ravines, that the lines of conflict were quickly broken into
+short, disjointed movements that admitted of little or no combined or
+systematic direction. The effort of the Union officers was necessarily
+limited to a continuous resistance to the advance of the enemy, from
+whatever direction it came; that of the Confederate leaders to the
+general purpose of forcing the Union lines away from Pittsburg Landing
+so that they might destroy the Federal transports and thus cut off all
+means of retreat. In this effort, although during the whole of Sunday,
+April 6, the Union front had been forced back a mile and a half, the
+enemy had not entirely succeeded. About sunset, General Beauregard, who,
+by the death of General Johnston during the afternoon, succeeded to the
+Confederate command, gave orders to suspend the attack, in the firm
+expectation however, that he would be able to complete his victory the
+next morning.
+
+But in this hope he was disappointed. During the day the vanguard of
+Buell's army had arrived on the opposite bank of the river. Before
+nightfall one of his brigades was ferried across and deployed in front
+of the exultant enemy. During the night and early Monday morning three
+superb divisions of Buell's army, about twenty thousand fresh,
+well-drilled troops, were advanced to the front under Buell's own
+direction; and by three o'clock of that day the two wings of the Union
+army were once more in possession of all the ground that had been lost
+on the previous day, while the foiled and disorganized Confederates were
+in full retreat upon Corinth. The severity of the battle may be judged
+by the losses. In the Union army: killed, 1754; wounded, 8408; missing,
+2885. In the Confederate army: killed, 1728; wounded, 8012; missing.
+954.
+
+Having comprehended the uncertainty of Buell's successful junction with
+Grant, Halleck must have received tidings of the final victory at
+Pittsburg Landing with emotions of deep satisfaction. To this was now
+joined the further gratifying news that the enemy on that same momentous
+April 7 had surrendered Island No. 10, together with six or seven
+thousand Confederate troops, including three general officers, to the
+combined operations of General Pope and Flag-Officer Foote. Full
+particulars of these two important victories did not reach Halleck for
+several days. Following previous suggestions, Pope and Foote promptly
+moved their gunboats and troops down the river to the next Confederate
+stronghold, Fort Pillow, where extensive fortifications, aided by an
+overflow of the adjacent river banks, indicated strong resistance and
+considerable delay. When all the conditions became more fully known,
+Halleck at length adopted the resolution, to which he had been strongly
+leaning for some time, to take the field himself. About April 10 he
+proceeded from St. Louis to Pittsburg Landing, and on the fifteenth
+ordered Pope with his army to join him there, which the latter, having
+his troops already on transports succeeded in accomplishing by April 22.
+Halleck immediately effected a new organization, combining the armies
+of the Tennessee, of the Ohio, and of the Mississippi into respectively
+his right wing, center, and left wing. He assumed command of the whole
+himself, and nominally made Grant second in command. Practically,
+however, he left Grant so little authority or work that the latter felt
+himself slighted, and asked leave to proceed to another field of duty.
+
+It required but a few weeks to demonstrate that however high were
+Halleck's professional acquirements in other respects, he was totally
+unfit for a commander in the field. Grant had undoubtedly been careless
+in not providing against the enemy's attack at Pittsburg Landing.
+Halleck, on the other extreme, was now doubly over-cautious in his march
+upon Corinth. From first to last, his campaign resembled a siege. With
+over one hundred thousand men under his hand, he moved at a snail's
+pace, building roads and breastworks, and consuming more than a month in
+advancing a distance of twenty miles; during which period Beauregard
+managed to collect about fifty thousand effective Confederates and
+construct defensive fortifications with equal industry around Corinth.
+When, on May 29, Halleck was within assaulting distance of the rebel
+intrenchments Beauregard had leisurely removed his sick and wounded,
+destroyed or carried away his stores, and that night finally evacuated
+the place, leaving Halleck to reap, practically, a barren victory.
+
+Nor were the general's plans and actions any more fruitful during the
+following six weeks. He wasted the time and energy of his soldiers
+multiplying useless fortifications about Corinth. He despatched Buell's
+wing of the army on a march toward eastern Tennessee but under such
+instructions and limitations that long before reaching its objective it
+was met by a Confederate army under General Bragg, and forced into a
+retrograde movement which carried it back to Louisville. More
+deplorable, however, than either of these errors of judgment was
+Halleck's neglect to seize the opportune moment when, by a vigorous
+movement in coöperation with the brilliant naval victories under
+Flag-Officer Farragut, commanding a formidable fleet of Union war-ships,
+he might have completed the over-shadowing military task of opening the
+Mississippi River.
+
+
+
+
+XX
+
+The Blockade--Hatteras Inlet--Roanoke Island--Fort Pulaski--Merrimac
+and Monitor--The Cumberland Sunk--The Congress Burned--Battle of the
+Ironclads--Flag-officer Farragut--Forts Jackson and St. Philip--New
+Orleans Captured--Farragut at Vicksburg--Farragut's Second Expedition to
+Vicksburg--Return to New Orleans
+
+
+In addition to its heavy work of maintaining the Atlantic blockade, the
+navy of the United States contributed signally toward the suppression of
+the rebellion by three brilliant victories which it gained during the
+first half of the year 1862. After careful preparation during several
+months, a joint expedition under the command of General Ambrose E.
+Burnside and Flag-Officer Goldsborough, consisting of more than twelve
+thousand men and twenty ships of war, accompanied by numerous
+transports, sailed from Fort Monroe on January 11, with the object of
+occupying the interior waters of the North Carolina coast. Before the
+larger vessels could effect their entrance through Hatteras Inlet,
+captured in the previous August, a furious storm set in, which delayed
+the expedition nearly a month. By February 7, however, that and other
+serious difficulties were overcome, and on the following day the
+expedition captured Roanoke Island, and thus completely opened the whole
+interior water-system of Albemarle and Pamlico sounds to the easy
+approach of the Union fleet and forces.
+
+From Roanoke Island as a base, minor expeditions within a short period
+effected the destruction of the not very formidable fleet which the
+enemy had been able to organize, and the reduction of Fort Macon and the
+rebel defenses of Elizabeth City, New Berne, and other smaller places.
+An eventual advance upon Goldsboro' formed part of the original plan;
+but, before it could be executed, circumstances intervened effectually
+to thwart that object.
+
+While the gradual occupation of the North Carolina coast was going on,
+two other expeditions of a similar nature were making steady progress.
+One of them, under the direction of General Quincy A. Gillmore, carried
+on a remarkable siege operation against Fort Pulaski, standing on an
+isolated sea marsh at the mouth of the Savannah River. Here not only the
+difficulties of approach, but the apparently insurmountable obstacle of
+making the soft, unctuous mud sustain heavy batteries, was overcome, and
+the fort compelled to surrender on April 11, after an effective
+bombardment. The second was an expedition of nineteen ships, which,
+within a few days during the month of March, without serious resistance,
+occupied the whole remaining Atlantic coast southward as far as St.
+Augustine.
+
+When, at the outbreak of the rebellion, the navy-yard at Norfolk,
+Virginia, had to be abandoned to the enemy, the destruction at that time
+attempted by Commodore Paulding remained very incomplete. Among the
+vessels set on fire, the screw-frigate _Merrimac_, which had been
+scuttled, was burned only to the water's edge, leaving her hull and
+machinery entirely uninjured. In due time she was raised by the
+Confederates, covered with a sloping roof of railroad iron, provided
+with a huge wedge-shaped prow of cast iron, and armed with a formidable
+battery of ten guns. Secret information came to the Navy Department of
+the progress of this work, and such a possibility was kept in mind by
+the board of officers that decided upon the construction of the three
+experimental ironclads in September, 1861.
+
+The particular one of these three especially intended for this peculiar
+emergency was a ship of entirely novel design, made by the celebrated
+inventor John Ericsson, a Swede by birth, but American by adoption--a
+man who combined great original genius with long scientific study and
+experience. His invention may be most quickly described as having a
+small, very low hull, covered by a much longer and wider flat deck only
+a foot or two above the water-line, upon which was placed a revolving
+iron turret twenty feet in diameter, nine feet high, and eight inches
+thick, on the inside of which were two eleven-inch guns trained side by
+side and revolving with the turret. This unique naval structure was
+promptly nicknamed "a cheese-box on a raft," and the designation was not
+at all inapt. Naval experts at once recognized that her sea-going
+qualities were bad; but compensation was thought to exist in the belief
+that her iron turret would resist shot and shell, and that the thin edge
+of her flat deck would offer only a minimum mark to an enemy's guns: in
+other words, that she was no cruiser, but would prove a formidable
+floating battery; and this belief she abundantly justified.
+
+The test of her fighting qualities was attended by what almost suggested
+a miraculous coincidence. On Saturday, March 8, 1862, about noon, a
+strange-looking craft resembling a huge turtle was seen coming into
+Hampton Roads out of the mouth of Elizabeth River, and it quickly became
+certain that this was the much talked of rebel ironclad _Merrimac_, or,
+as the Confederates had renamed her, the _Virginia_. She steamed
+rapidly toward Newport News, three miles to the southwest, where the
+Union ships _Congress_ and _Cumberland_ lay at anchor. These saw the
+uncouth monster coming and prepared for action. The _Minnesota_, the
+_St. Lawrence_, and the _Roanoke_, lying at Fortress Monroe also saw her
+and gave chase, but, the water being low, they all soon grounded. The
+broadsides of the _Congress_, as the _Merrimac_ passed her at three
+hundred yards' distance, seemed to produce absolutely no effect upon her
+sloping iron roof. Neither did the broadsides of her intended prey, nor
+the fire of the shore batteries, for even an instant arrest her speed
+as, rushing on, she struck the _Cumberland_, and with her iron prow
+broke a hole as large as a hogshead in her side. Then backing away and
+hovering over her victim at convenient distance, she raked her decks
+with shot and shell until, after three quarters of an hour's combat, the
+_Cumberland_ and her heroic defenders, who had maintained the fight with
+unyielding stubbornness, went to the bottom in fifty feet of water with
+colors flying.
+
+Having sunk the _Cumberland_, the _Merrimac_ next turned her attention
+to the _Congress_, which had meanwhile run into shoal water and grounded
+where the rebel vessel could not follow. But the _Merrimac_, being
+herself apparently proof against shot and shell by her iron plating,
+took up a raking position two cables' length away, and during an hour's
+firing deliberately reduced the _Congress_ to helplessness and to
+surrender--her commander being killed and the vessel set on fire. The
+approach, the manoeuvering, and the two successive combats consumed the
+afternoon, and toward nightfall the _Merrimac_ and her three small
+consorts that had taken little part in the action withdrew to the rebel
+batteries on the Virginia shore: not alone because of the approaching
+darkness and the fatigue of the crew, but because the rebel ship had
+really suffered considerable damage in ramming the _Cumberland_, as well
+as from one or two chance shots that entered her port-holes.
+
+That same night, while the burning _Congress_ yet lighted up the waters
+of Hampton Roads, a little ship, as strange-looking and as new to marine
+warfare as the rebel turtleback herself, arrived by sea in tow from New
+York, and receiving orders to proceed at once to the scene of conflict,
+stationed herself near the grounded _Minnesota_. This was Ericsson's
+"cheese-box on a raft," named by him the _Monitor_. The Union officers
+who had witnessed the day's events with dismay, and were filled with
+gloomy forebodings for the morrow, while welcoming this providential
+reinforcement, were by no means reassured. The _Monitor_ was only half
+the size of her antagonist, and had only two guns to the other's ten.
+But this very disparity proved an essential advantage. With only ten
+feet draft to the _Merrimac's_ twenty-two, she not only possessed
+superior mobility, but might run where the _Merrimac_ could not follow.
+When, therefore, at eight o'clock on Sunday, March 9, the _Merrimac_
+again came into Hampton Roads to complete her victory, Lieutenant John
+L. Worden, commanding the _Monitor_, steamed boldly out to meet her.
+
+Then ensued a three hours' naval conflict which held the breathless
+attention of the active participants and the spectators on ship and
+shore, and for many weeks excited the wonderment of the reading world.
+If the _Monitor's_ solid eleven-inch balls bounded without apparent
+effect from the sloping roof of the _Merrimac_, so, in turn, the
+_Merrimac's_ broadsides passed harmlessly over the low deck of the
+_Monitor_, or rebounded from the round sides of her iron turret. When
+the unwieldy rebel turtleback, with her slow, awkward movement, tried
+to ram the pointed raft that carried the cheese-box, the little vessel,
+obedient to her rudder, easily glided out of the line of direct impact.
+
+Each ship passed through occasional moments of danger, but the long
+three hours' encounter ended without other serious damage than an injury
+to Lieutenant Worden by the explosion of a rebel shell against a crevice
+of the _Monitor's_ pilot-house through which he was looking, which,
+temporarily blinding his eye-sight, disabled him from command. At that
+point the battle ended by mutual consent. The _Monitor_, unharmed except
+by a few unimportant dents in her plating, ran into shoal water to
+permit surgical attendance to her wounded officer. On her part, the
+_Merrimac_, abandoning any further molestation of the other ships,
+steamed away at noon to her retreat in Elizabeth River. The forty-one
+rounds fired from the _Monitor's_ guns had so far weakened the
+_Merrimac's_ armor that, added to the injuries of the previous day, it
+was of the highest prudence to avoid further conflict. A tragic fate
+soon ended the careers of both vessels. Owing to other military events,
+the _Merrimac_ was abandoned, burned, and blown up by her officers about
+two months later; and in the following December, the _Monitor_ foundered
+in a gale off Cape Hatteras. But the types of these pioneer ironclads,
+which had demonstrated such unprecedented fighting qualities, were
+continued. Before the end of the war the Union navy had more than twenty
+monitors in service; and the structure of the _Merrimac_ was in a number
+of instances repeated by the Confederates.
+
+The most brilliant of all the exploits of the navy during the year 1862
+were those carried on under the command of Flag-Officer David G.
+Farragut, who, though a born Southerner and residing in Virginia when
+the rebellion broke out, remained loyal to the government and true to
+the flag he had served for forty-eight years. Various preparations had
+been made and various plans discussed for an effective attempt against
+some prominent point on the Gulf coast. Very naturally, all examinations
+of the subject inevitably pointed to the opening of the Mississippi as
+the dominant problem to be solved; and on January 9, Farragut was
+appointed to the command of the western Gulf blockading squadron, and
+eleven days thereafter received his confidential instructions to attempt
+the capture of the city of New Orleans.
+
+Thus far in the war, Farragut had been assigned to no prominent service,
+but the patience with which he had awaited his opportunity was now more
+than compensated by the energy and thoroughness with which he
+superintended the organization of his fleet. By the middle of April he
+was in the lower Mississippi with seventeen men-of-war and one hundred
+and seventy-seven guns. With him were Commander David D. Porter, in
+charge of a mortar flotilla of nineteen schooners and six armed
+steamships, and General Benjamin F. Butler, at the head of an army
+contingent of six thousand men, soon to be followed by considerable
+reinforcements.
+
+The first obstacle to be overcome was the fire from the twin forts
+Jackson and St. Philip, situated nearly opposite each other at a bend of
+the Mississippi twenty-five miles above the mouth of the river, while
+the city of New Orleans itself lies seventy-five miles farther up the
+stream. These were formidable forts of masonry, with an armament
+together of over a hundred guns, and garrisons of about six hundred men
+each. They also had auxiliary defenses: first, of a strong river
+barrier of log rafts and other obstructions connected by powerful
+chains, half a mile below the forts; second, of an improvised fleet of
+sixteen rebel gunboats and a formidable floating battery. None of
+Farragut's ships were ironclad. He had, from the beginning of the
+undertaking, maintained the theory that a wooden fleet, properly
+handled, could successfully pass the batteries of the forts. "I would as
+soon have a paper ship as an ironclad; only give me _men_ to fight her!"
+he said. He might not come back; but New Orleans would be won. In his
+hazardous undertaking his faith was based largely on the skill and
+courage of his subordinate commanders of ships, and this faith was fully
+sustained by their gallantry and devotion.
+
+Porter's flotilla of nineteen schooners carrying two mortars each,
+anchored below the forts, maintained a heavy bombardment for five days,
+and then Farragut decided to try his ships. On the night of the
+twentieth the daring work of two gunboats cut an opening through the
+river barrier through which the vessels might pass; and at two o'clock
+on the morning of April 24, Farragut gave the signal to advance. The
+first division of his fleet, eight vessels, led by Captain Bailey,
+successfully passed the barrier. The second division of nine ships was
+not quite so fortunate. Three of them failed to pass the barrier, but
+the others, led by Farragut himself in his flag-ship, the _Hartford_,
+followed the advance.
+
+The starlit night was quickly obscured by the smoke of the general
+cannonade from both ships and forts; but the heavy batteries of the
+latter had little effect on the passing fleet. Farragut's flag-ship was
+for a short while in great danger. At a moment when she slightly
+grounded a huge fire-raft, fully ablaze, was pushed against her by a
+rebel tug, and the flames caught in the paint on her side, and mounted
+into her rigging. But this danger had also been provided against, and by
+heroic efforts the _Hartford_ freed herself from her peril. Immediately
+above the forts, the fleet of rebel gunboats joined in the battle, which
+now resolved itself into a series of conflicts between single vessels or
+small groups. But the stronger and better-armed Union ships quickly
+destroyed the Confederate flotilla, with the single exception that two
+of the enemy's gunboats rammed the _Varuna_ from opposite sides and sank
+her. Aside from this, the Union fleet sustained much miscellaneous
+damage, but no serious injury in the furious battle of an hour and a
+half.
+
+With but a short halt at Quarantine, six miles above the forts, Farragut
+and his thirteen ships of war pushed on rapidly over the seventy-five
+miles, and on the forenoon of April 25 New Orleans lay helpless under
+the guns of the Union fleet. The city was promptly evacuated by the
+Confederate General Lovell. Meanwhile, General Butler was busy moving
+his transports and troops around outside by sea to Quarantine; and,
+having occupied that point in force, Forts Jackson and St. Philip
+capitulated on April 28. This last obstruction removed, Butler, after
+having garrisoned the forts, brought the bulk of his army up to New
+Orleans, and on May 1 Farragut turned over to him the formal possession
+of the city, where Butler continued in command of the Department of the
+Gulf until the following December.
+
+Farragut immediately despatched an advance section of his fleet up the
+Mississippi. None of the important cities on its banks below Vicksburg
+had yet been fortified, and, without serious opposition, they
+surrendered as the Union ships successively reached them. Farragut
+himself, following with the remainder of his fleet, arrived at
+Vicksburg on May 20. This city, by reason of the high bluffs on which it
+stands, was the most defensible point on the whole length of the great
+river within the Southern States; but so confidently had the
+Confederates trusted to the strength of their works at Columbus, Island
+No. 10, Fort Pillow, and other points, that the fortifications of
+Vicksburg had thus far received comparatively little attention. The
+recent Union victories, however, both to the north and south, had
+awakened them to their danger; and when Lovell evacuated New Orleans, he
+shipped heavy guns and sent five Confederate regiments to Vicksburg; and
+during the eight days between their arrival on May 12 and the twentieth,
+on which day Farragut reached the city, six rebel batteries were put in
+readiness to fire on his ships.
+
+General Halleck, while pushing his siege works toward Corinth, was
+notified as early as April 27 that Farragut was coming, and the logic of
+the situation ought to have induced him to send a coöperating force to
+Farragut's assistance, or, at the very least, to have matured plans for
+such coöperation. All the events would have favored an expedition of
+this kind. When Corinth, at the end of May, fell into Halleck's hands,
+Forts Pillow and Randolph on the Mississippi River were hastily
+evacuated by the enemy, and on June 6 the Union flotilla of river
+gunboats which had rendered such signal service at Henry, Donelson, and
+Island No. 10, reinforced by a hastily constructed flotilla of heavy
+river tugs converted into rams, gained another brilliant victory in a
+most dramatic naval battle at Memphis, during which an opposing
+Confederate flotilla of similar rams and gunboats was almost completely
+destroyed, and the immediate evacuation of Memphis by the Confederates
+thereby forced.
+
+This left Vicksburg as the single barrier to the complete opening of the
+Mississippi, and that barrier was defended by only six batteries and a
+garrison of six Confederate regiments at the date of Farragut's arrival
+before it. But Farragut had with his expedition only two regiments of
+troops, and the rebel batteries were situated at such an elevation that
+the guns of the Union fleet could not be raised sufficiently to silence
+them. Neither help nor promise of help came from Halleck's army, and
+Farragut could therefore do nothing but turn his vessels down stream and
+return to New Orleans. There, about June 1, he received news from the
+Navy Department that the administration was exceedingly anxious to have
+the Mississippi opened; and this time, taking with him Porter's mortar
+flotilla and three thousand troops, he again proceeded up the river, and
+a second time reached Vicksburg on June 25.
+
+The delay, however, had enabled the Confederates greatly to strengthen
+the fortifications and the garrison of the city. Neither a bombardment
+from Porter's mortar sloops, nor the running of Farragut's ships past
+the batteries, where they were joined by the Union gunboat flotilla from
+above, sufficed to bring the Confederates to a surrender. Farragut
+estimated that a coöperating land force of twelve to fifteen thousand
+would have enabled him to take the works; and Halleck, on June 28 and
+July 3, partially promised early assistance. But on July 14 he reported
+definitely that it would be impossible for him to render the expected
+aid. Under these circumstances, the Navy Department ordered Farragut
+back to New Orleans, lest his ships of deep draft should be detained in
+the river by the rapidly falling water. The capture of Vicksburg was
+postponed for a whole year, and the early transfer of Halleck to
+Washington changed the current of Western campaigns.
+
+
+
+
+XXI
+
+McClellan's Illness--Lincoln Consults McDowell and Franklin--President's
+Plan against Manassas--McClellan's Plan against Richmond--Cameron and
+Stanton--President's War Order No. 1--Lincoln's Questions to
+McClellan--News from the West--Death of Willie Lincoln--The Harper's
+Ferry Fiasco--President's War Order No. 3--The News from Hampton
+Roads--Manassas Evacuated--Movement to the Peninsular--Yorktown--The
+Peninsula Campaign--Seven Days' Battles--Retreat to Harrison's Landing
+
+
+We have seen how the express orders of President Lincoln in the early
+days of January, 1862, stirred the Western commanders to the beginning
+of active movements that brought about an important series of victories
+during the first half of the year. The results of his determination to
+break a similar military stagnation in the East need now to be related.
+
+The gloomy outlook at the beginning of the year has already been
+mentioned. Finding on January 10 that General McClellan was still ill
+and unable to see him, he called Generals McDowell and Franklin into
+conference with himself, Seward, Chase, and the Assistant Secretary of
+War; and, explaining to them his dissatisfaction and distress at
+existing conditions, said to them that "if something were 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, differing on some other points, agreed, however, in a
+memorandum prepared next day at the President's request, that a direct
+movement against the Confederate army at Manassas was preferable to a
+movement by water against Richmond; that preparations for the former
+could be made in a week, while the latter would require a month or six
+weeks. Similar discussions were held on the eleventh and twelfth, and
+finally, on January 13, by which date General McClellan had sufficiently
+recovered to be present. McClellan took no pains to hide his displeasure
+at the proceedings, and ventured no explanation when the President asked
+what and when anything could be done. Chase repeated the direct
+interrogatory to McClellan himself, inquiring what he intended doing
+with his army, and when he intended doing it. McClellan stated his
+unwillingness to develop his plans, but said he would tell them if he
+was ordered to do so. The President then asked him if he had in his own
+mind any particular time fixed when a movement could be commenced.
+McClellan replied that he had. "Then," rejoined the President, "I will
+adjourn this meeting."
+
+While these conferences were going on, a change occurred in the
+President's cabinet; Secretary of War Cameron, who had repeatedly
+expressed a desire to be relieved from the onerous duties of the War
+Department, was made minister to Russia and Edwin M. Stanton appointed
+to succeed him. Stanton had been Attorney-General during the last months
+of President Buchanan's administration, and, though a lifelong Democrat,
+had freely conferred and coöperated with Republican leaders in the
+Senate and House of Representatives in thwarting secession schemes. He
+was a lawyer of ability and experience, and, possessing organizing
+qualities of a high degree combined with a strong will and great
+physical endurance, gave his administration of the War Department a
+record for efficiency which it will be difficult for any future minister
+to equal; and for which service his few mistakes and subordinate faults
+of character will be readily forgotten. In his new functions, Stanton
+enthusiastically seconded the President's efforts to rouse the Army of
+the Potomac to speedy and vigorous action.
+
+In his famous report, McClellan states that very soon after Stanton
+became Secretary of War he explained verbally to the latter his plan of
+a campaign against Richmond by way of the lower Chesapeake Bay, and at
+Stanton's direction also explained it to the President. It is not
+strange that neither the President nor the new Secretary approved it.
+The reasons which then existed against it in theory, and were afterward
+demonstrated in practice, are altogether too evident. As this first plan
+was never reduced to writing, it may be fairly inferred that it was one
+of those mere suggestions which, like all that had gone before, would
+serve only to postpone action.
+
+The patience of the President was at length so far exhausted that on
+January 27 he wrote his General War Order No. I, which directed "that
+the 22d day of February, 1862, be the day for a general movement of all
+the land and naval forces of the United States against the insurgent
+forces," and that the Secretaries of War and of the Navy, the
+general-in-chief, and all other commanders and subordinates of land and
+naval forces "will severally be held to their strict and full
+responsibilities for prompt execution of this order." To leave no doubt
+of his intention that the Army of the Potomac should make a beginning,
+the President, four days later, issued his Special War Order No. I,
+directing that after providing safely for the defense of Washington, it
+should move against the Confederate army at Manassas Junction, on or
+before the date announced.
+
+As McClellan had been allowed to have his way almost without question
+for six months past, it was, perhaps, as much through mere habit of
+opposition as from any intelligent decision in his own mind that he
+again requested permission to present his objections to the President's
+plan. Mr. Lincoln, thereupon, to bring the discussion to a practical
+point, wrote him the following list of queries on February 3:
+
+"MY DEAR SIR: You and I have distinct and different plans for a movement
+of the Army of the Potomac--yours to be down the Chesapeake, up the
+Rappahannock to Urbana, and across land to the terminus of the railroad
+on the York River; mine, to move directly to a point on the railroad
+southwest of Manassas.
+
+"If you will give me satisfactory answers to the following questions, I
+shall gladly yield my plan to yours.
+
+"_First_. Does not your plan involve a greatly larger expenditure of
+time and money than mine?"
+
+"_Second_. Wherein is a victory more certain by your plan than mine?"
+
+"_Third_. Wherein is a victory more valuable by your plan than mine?"
+
+"_Fourth_. 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?"
+
+"_Fifth_. In case of disaster, would not a retreat be more difficult by
+your plan than mine?"
+
+Instead of specifically answering the President's concise
+interrogatories, McClellan, on the following day, presented to the
+Secretary of War a long letter, reciting in much detail his statement of
+what he had done since coming to Washington, and giving a rambling
+outline of what he thought might be accomplished in the future
+prosecution of the war. His reasoning in favor of an advance by
+Chesapeake Bay upon Richmond, instead of against Manassas Junction,
+rests principally upon the assumption that at Manassas the enemy is
+prepared to resist, while at Richmond there are no preparations; that to
+win Manassas would give us only the field of battle and the moral effect
+of a victory, while to win Richmond would give us the rebel capital with
+its communications and supplies; that at Manassas we would fight on a
+field chosen by the enemy, while at Richmond we would fight on one
+chosen by ourselves. If as a preliminary hypothesis these comparisons
+looked plausible, succeeding events quickly exposed their fallacy.
+
+The President, in his anxious studies and exhaustive discussion with
+military experts in the recent conferences, fully comprehended that
+under McClellan's labored strategical theories lay a fundamental error.
+It was not the capture of a place, but the destruction of the rebel
+armies that was needed to subdue the rebellion. But Mr. Lincoln also saw
+the fearful responsibility he would be taking upon himself if he forced
+McClellan to fight against his own judgment and protest, even though
+that judgment was incorrect. The whole subject, therefore, underwent a
+new and yet more elaborate investigation. The delay which this rendered
+necessary was soon greatly lengthened by two other causes. It was about
+this time that the telegraph brought news from the West of the surrender
+of Fort Henry, February 6, the investment of Fort Donelson on the
+thirteenth, and its surrender on the sixteenth, incidents which absorbed
+the constant attention of the President and the Secretary of War. Almost
+simultaneously, a heavy domestic sorrow fell upon Mr. Lincoln in the
+serious illness of his son Willie, an interesting and most promising lad
+of twelve, and his death in the White House on February 20.
+
+When February 22 came, while there was plainly no full compliance with
+the President's War Order No. I, there was, nevertheless, such promise
+of a beginning, even at Washington, as justified reasonable expectation.
+The authorities looked almost hourly for the announcement of two
+preliminary movements which had been preparing for many days: one, to
+attack rebel batteries on the Virginia shore of the Potomac; the other
+to throw bridges--one of pontoons, the second a permanent bridge of
+canal-boats--across the river at Harper's Ferry, and an advance by
+Banks's division on Winchester to protect the opening of the Baltimore
+and Ohio railroad and reëstablish transportation to and from the West
+over that important route.
+
+On the evening of February 27, Secretary Stanton came to the President,
+and, after locking the door to prevent interruption, opened and read two
+despatches from McClellan, who had gone personally to superintend the
+crossing. The first despatch from the general described the fine spirits
+of the troops, and the splendid throwing of the pontoon bridge by
+Captain Duane and his three lieutenants, for whom he at once recommended
+brevets, and the immediate crossing of eighty-five hundred infantry.
+This despatch was dated at ten o'clock the previous night. "The next is
+not so good," remarked the Secretary of War. It stated that the lift
+lock was too small to permit the canal-boats to enter the river, so that
+it was impossible to construct the permanent bridge. He would therefore
+be obliged to fall back upon the safe and slow plan of merely covering
+the reconstruction of the railroad, which would be tedious and make it
+impossible to seize Winchester.
+
+"What does this mean?" asked the President, in amazement.
+
+"It means," said the Secretary of War, "that it is a damned fizzle. It
+means that he doesn't intend to do anything."
+
+The President's indignation was intense; and when, a little later,
+General Marcy, McClellan's father-in-law and chief of staff, came in,
+Lincoln's criticism of the affair was in sharper language than was his
+usual habit.
+
+"Why, in the name of common sense," said he, excitedly, "couldn't the
+general have known whether canal-boats would go through that lock before
+he spent a million dollars getting them there? I am almost despairing at
+these results. Everything seems to fail. The impression is daily gaining
+ground that the general does not intend to do anything. By a failure
+like this we lose all the prestige gained by the capture of Fort
+Donelson."
+
+The prediction of the Secretary of War proved correct. That same night,
+McClellan revoked Hooker's authority to cross the lower Potomac and
+demolish the rebel batteries about the Occoquan River. It was doubtless
+this Harper's Ferry incident which finally convinced the President that
+he could no longer leave McClellan intrusted with the sole and
+unrestricted exercise of military affairs. Yet that general had shown
+such decided ability in certain lines of his profession, and had plainly
+in so large a degree won the confidence of the Army of the Potomac
+itself, that he did not wish entirely to lose the benefit of his
+services. He still hoped that, once actively started in the field, he
+might yet develop valuable qualities of leadership. He had substantially
+decided to let him have his own way in his proposed campaign against
+Richmond by water, and orders to assemble the necessary vessels had been
+given before the Harper's Ferry failure was known.
+
+Early on the morning of March 8, the President made one more effort to
+convert McClellan to a direct movement against Manassas, but without
+success. On the contrary, the general convened twelve of his division
+commanders in a council, who voted eight to four for the water route.
+This finally decided the question in the President's mind, but he
+carefully qualified the decision by two additional war orders of his
+own, written without consultation. President's General War Order No. 2
+directed that the Army of the Potomac should be immediately organized
+into four army corps, to be respectively commanded by McDowell, Sumner,
+Heintzelman, and Keyes, and a fifth under Banks. It is noteworthy that
+the first three of these had always earnestly advocated the Manassas
+movement. President's General War Order No. 3 directed, in substance:
+_First_. An immediate effort to capture the Potomac batteries. _Second_.
+That until that was accomplished not more than two army corps should be
+started on the Chesapeake campaign toward Richmond _Third_. That any
+Chesapeake movement should begin in ten days; and--_Fourth_. That no
+such movement should be ordered without leaving Washington entirely
+secure.
+
+Even while the President was completing the drafting and copying of
+these important orders, events were transpiring which once more put a
+new face upon the proposed campaign against Richmond. During the
+forenoon of the next day, March 9, a despatch was received from Fortress
+Monroe, reporting the appearance of the rebel ironclad _Merrimac_, and
+the havoc she had wrought the previous afternoon--the _Cumberland_ sunk,
+the _Congress_ surrendered and burned, the _Minnesota_ aground and about
+to be attacked. There was a quick gathering of officials at the
+Executive Mansion--Secretaries Stanton, Seward, Welles, Generals
+McClellan, Meigs, Totten, Commodore Smith, and Captain Dahlgren--and a
+scene of excitement ensued, unequaled by any other in the President's
+office during the war. Stanton walked up and down like a caged lion, and
+eager discussion animated cabinet and military officers. Two other
+despatches soon came, one from the captain of a vessel at Baltimore, who
+had left Fortress Monroe on the evening of the eighth, and a copy of a
+telegram to the "New York Tribune," giving more details.
+
+President Lincoln was the coolest man in the whole gathering, carefully
+analyzing the language of the telegrams, to give their somewhat confused
+statements intelligible coherence. Wild suggestions flew from speaker to
+speaker about possible danger to be apprehended from the new marine
+terror--whether she might not be able to go to New York or Philadelphia
+and levy tribute, to Baltimore or Annapolis to destroy the transports
+gathered for McClellan's movement, or even to come up the Potomac and
+burn Washington; and all sorts of prudential measures and safeguards
+were proposed.
+
+In the afternoon, however, apprehension was greatly quieted. That very
+day a cable was laid across the bay, giving direct telegraphic
+communication with Fortress Monroe, and Captain Fox, who happened to be
+on the spot, concisely reported at about 4 P.M. the dramatic sequel--the
+timely arrival of the _Monitor_, the interesting naval battle between
+the two ironclads, and that at noon the _Merrimac_ had withdrawn from
+the conflict, and with her three small consorts steamed back into
+Elizabeth River.
+
+Scarcely had the excitement over the _Monitor_ and _Merrimac_ news begun
+to subside, when, on the same afternoon, a new surprise burst upon the
+military authorities in a report that the whole Confederate army had
+evacuated its stronghold at Manassas and the batteries on the Potomac,
+and had retired southward to a new line behind the Rappahannock. General
+McClellan hastened across the river, and, finding the news to be
+correct, issued orders during the night for a general movement of the
+army next morning to the vacated rebel camps. The march was promptly
+accomplished, notwithstanding the bad roads, and the troops had the
+meager satisfaction of hoisting the Union flag over the deserted rebel
+earthworks.
+
+For two weeks the enemy had been preparing for this retreat; and,
+beginning their evacuation on the seventh, their whole retrograde
+movement was completed by March 11, by which date they were secure in
+their new line of defense, "prepared for such an emergency--the south
+bank of the Rappahannock strengthened by field-works, and provided with
+a depot of food," writes General Johnston. No further comment is needed
+to show McClellan's utter incapacity or neglect, than that for full two
+months he had commanded an army of one hundred and ninety thousand,
+present for duty, within two days' march of the forty-seven thousand
+Confederates, present for duty, whom he thus permitted to march away to
+their new strongholds without a gun fired or even a meditated attack.
+
+General McClellan had not only lost the chance of an easy and brilliant
+victory near Washington, but also the possibility of his favorite plan
+to move by water to Urbana on the lower Rappahannock, and from there by
+a land march _via_ West Point toward Richmond. On that route the enemy
+was now in his way. He therefore, on March 13, hastily called a council
+of his corps commanders, who decided that under the new conditions it
+would be best to proceed by water to Fortress Monroe, and from there
+move up the Peninsula toward Richmond. To this new plan, adopted in the
+stress of excitement and haste, the President answered through the
+Secretary of War on the same day:
+
+"_First_. Leave such force at Manassas Junction as shall make it
+entirely certain that the enemy shall not repossess himself of that
+position and line of communication."
+
+"_Second_. Leave Washington entirely secure."
+
+"_Third_. Move the remainder of the force down the Potomac, choosing a
+new base at Fort Monroe, or anywhere between here and there; or, at all
+events, move such remainder of the army at once in pursuit of the enemy
+by some route."
+
+Two days before, the President had also announced a step which he had
+doubtless had in contemplation for many days, if not many weeks, namely,
+that--
+
+"Major-General McClellan having personally taken the field at the head
+of the Army of the Potomac, until otherwise ordered, he is relieved from
+the command of the other military departments, he retaining command of
+the Department of the Potomac."
+
+This order of March 11 included also the already mentioned consolidation
+of the western departments under Halleck; and out of the region lying
+between Halleck's command and McClellan's command it created the
+Mountain Department, the command of which he gave to General Frémont,
+whose reinstatement had been loudly clamored for by many prominent and
+enthusiastic followers.
+
+As the preparations for a movement by water had been in progress since
+February 27, there was little delay in starting the Army of the Potomac
+on its new campaign. The troops began their embarkation on March 17, and
+by April 5 over one hundred thousand men, with all their material of
+war, had been transported to Fortress Monroe, where General McClellan
+himself arrived on the second of the month, and issued orders to begin
+his march on the fourth.
+
+Unfortunately, right at the outset of this new campaign, General
+McClellan's incapacity and want of candor once more became sharply
+evident. In the plan formulated by the four corps commanders, and
+approved by himself, as well as emphatically repeated by the President's
+instructions, was the essential requirement that Washington should be
+left entirely secure. Learning that the general had neglected this
+positive injunction, the President ordered McDowell's corps to remain
+for the protection of the capital; and when the general complained of
+this, Mr. Lincoln wrote him on April 9:
+
+"After you left I ascertained that less than twenty thousand unorganized
+men, without a single field-battery, were all you designed to be left
+for the defense of Washington and Manassas Junction; and part of this,
+even, was to go to General Hooker's old position. General Banks's corps,
+once designed for Manassas Junction, was divided and tied up on the line
+of Winchester and Strasburg, and could not leave it without again
+exposing the upper Potomac and the Baltimore and Ohio railroad. This
+presented (or would present when McDowell and Sumner should be gone) a
+great temptation to the enemy to turn back from the Rappahannock and
+sack Washington. My explicit order that Washington should, by the
+judgment of all the commanders of corps, be left entirely secure, had
+been neglected. It was precisely this that drove me to detain McDowell.
+
+"I do not forget that I was satisfied with your arrangement to leave
+Banks at Manassas Junction; but when that arrangement was broken up and
+nothing was substituted for it, of course I was not satisfied. I was
+constrained to substitute something for it myself."
+
+"And now allow me to ask, do you really think I should permit the line
+from Richmond _via_ Manassas Junction to this city to be entirely open,
+except what resistance could be presented by less than twenty thousand
+unorganized troops? This is a question which the country will not allow
+me to evade...."
+
+"By delay, the enemy will relatively gain upon you--that is, he will
+gain faster by fortifications and reinforcements than you can by
+reinforcements alone. And once more let me tell you it is indispensable
+to you that you strike a blow. I am powerless to help this. You will do
+me the justice to remember I always insisted that going down the bay in
+search of a field, instead of fighting at or near Manassas, was only
+shifting and not surmounting a difficulty; that we would find the same
+enemy and the same or equal intrenchments at either place. The country
+will not fail to note--is noting now--that the present hesitation to
+move upon an intrenched enemy is but the story of Manassas repeated."
+
+General McClellan's expectations in coming to the Peninsula, first, that
+he would find few or no rebel intrenchments, and, second, that he would
+be able to make rapid movements, at once signally failed. On the
+afternoon of the second day's march he came to the first line of the
+enemy's defenses, heavy fortifications at Yorktown on the York River,
+and a strong line of intrenchments and dams flooding the Warwick River,
+extending to an impassable inlet from James River. But the situation was
+not yet desperate. Magruder, the Confederate commander, had only eleven
+thousand men to defend Yorktown and the thirteen-mile line of the
+Warwick. McClellan, on the contrary, had fifty thousand at hand, and as
+many more within call, with which to break the Confederate line and
+continue his proposed "rapid movements." But now, without any adequate
+reconnaissance or other vigorous effort, he at once gave up his thoughts
+of rapid movement, one of the main advantages he had always claimed for
+the water route, and adopted the slow expedient of a siege of Yorktown.
+Not alone was his original plan of campaign demonstrated to be faulty,
+but by this change in the method of its execution it became fatal.
+
+It would be weary and exasperating to recount in detail the remaining
+principal episodes of McClellan's operations to gain possession of the
+Confederate capital. The whole campaign is a record of hesitation,
+delay, and mistakes in the chief command, brilliantly relieved by the
+heroic fighting and endurance of the troops and subordinate officers,
+gathering honor out of defeat, and shedding the luster of renown over a
+result of barren failure. McClellan wasted a month raising siege-works
+to bombard Yorktown, when he might have turned the place by two or three
+days' operations with his superior numbers of four to one. By his
+failure to give instructions after Yorktown was evacuated, he allowed a
+single division of his advance-guard to be beaten back at Williamsburg,
+when thirty thousand of their comrades were within reach, but without
+orders. He wrote to the President that he would have to fight double
+numbers intrenched, when his own army was actually twice as strong as
+that of his antagonist. Placing his army astride the Chickahominy, he
+afforded that antagonist, General Johnston, the opportunity, at a sudden
+rise of the river, to fall on one portion of his divided forces at Fair
+Oaks with overwhelming numbers. Finally, when he was within four miles
+of Richmond and was attacked by General Lee, he began a retreat to the
+James River, and after his corps commanders held the attacking enemy at
+bay by a successful battle on each of six successive days, he day after
+day gave up each field won or held by the valor and blood of his heroic
+soldiers. On July 1, the collected Union army made a stand at the battle
+of Malvern Hill, inflicting a defeat on the enemy which practically
+shattered the Confederate army, and in the course of a week caused it to
+retire within the fortifications of Richmond. During all this
+magnificent fighting, however, McClellan was oppressed by the
+apprehension of impending defeat; and even after the brilliant victory
+of Malvern Hill, continued his retreat to Harrison's Landing, where the
+Union gunboats on the James River assured him of safety and supplies.
+
+It must be borne in mind that this Peninsula campaign, from the landing
+at Fortress Monroe to the battle at Malvern Hill, occupied three full
+months, and that during the first half of that period the government,
+yielding to McClellan's constant faultfinding and clamor for
+reinforcements, sent him forty thousand additional men; also that in the
+opinion of competent critics, both Union and Confederate, he had, after
+the battle of Fair Oaks, and twice during the seven days' battles, a
+brilliant opportunity to take advantage of Confederate mistakes, and by
+a vigorous offensive to capture Richmond. But constitutional indecision
+unfitted him to seize the fleeting chances of war. His hope of victory
+was always overawed by his fear of defeat. While he commanded during a
+large part of the campaign double, and always superior, numbers to the
+enemy, his imagination led him continually to double their strength in
+his reports. This delusion so wrought upon him that on the night of June
+27 he sent the Secretary of War an almost despairing and insubordinate
+despatch, containing these inexcusable phrases:
+
+"Had I twenty thousand or even ten thousand fresh troops to use
+to-morrow, I could take Richmond; but I have not a man in reserve, and
+shall be glad to cover my retreat and save the material and personnel of
+the army.... If I save this army now, I tell you plainly that I owe no
+thanks to you or to any other persons in Washington. You have done your
+best to sacrifice this army."
+
+Under almost any other ruler such language would have been quickly
+followed by trial and dismissal, if not by much severer punishment. But
+while Mr. Lincoln was shocked by McClellan's disrespect, he was yet more
+startled by the implied portent of the despatch. It indicated a loss of
+confidence and a perturbation of mind which rendered possible even a
+surrender of the whole army. The President, therefore, with his habitual
+freedom from passion, merely sent an unmoved and kind reply:
+
+"Save your army at all events. Will send reinforcements as fast as we
+can. Of course they cannot reach you to-day, to-morrow, or next day. I
+have not said you were ungenerous for saying you needed reinforcements.
+I thought you were ungenerous in assuming that I did not send them as
+fast as I could. I feel any misfortune to you and your army quite as
+keenly as you feel it yourself. If you have had a drawn battle or a
+repulse, it is the price we pay for the enemy not being in Washington."
+
+
+
+
+XXII
+
+Jackson's Valley Campaign--Lincoln's Visit to Scott--Pope Assigned to
+Command--Lee's Attack on McClellan--Retreat to Harrison's
+Landing--Seward Sent to New York--Lincoln's Letter to Seward--Lincoln's
+Letter to McClellan--Lincoln's Visit to McClellan--Halleck made
+General-in-Chief--Halleck's Visit to McClellan--Withdrawal from
+Harrison's Landing--Pope Assumes Command--Second Battle of Bull Run--The
+Cabinet Protest--McClellan Ordered to Defend Washington--The Maryland
+Campaign--Battle of Antietam--Lincoln Visits Antietam--Lincoln's Letter
+to McClellan--McClellan Removed from Command
+
+
+During the month of May, while General McClellan was slowly working his
+way across the Chickahominy by bridge-building and intrenching, there
+occurred the episode of Stonewall Jackson's valley campaign, in which
+that eccentric and daring Confederate commander made a rapid and
+victorious march up the Shenandoah valley nearly to Harper's Ferry. Its
+principal effect upon the Richmond campaign was to turn back McDowell,
+who had been started on a land march to unite with the right wing of
+McClellan's army, under instructions, however, always to be in readiness
+to interpose his force against any attempt of the enemy to march upon
+Washington. This campaign of Stonewall Jackson's has been much lauded by
+military writers; but its temporary success resulted from good luck
+rather than military ability. Rationally considered, it was an
+imprudent and even reckless adventure that courted and would have
+resulted in destruction or capture had the junction of forces under
+McDowell, Shields, and Frémont, ordered by President Lincoln, not been
+thwarted by the mistake and delay of Frémont. It was an episode that
+signally demonstrated the wisdom of the President in having retained
+McDowell's corps for the protection of the national capital.
+
+That, however, was not the only precaution to which the President had
+devoted his serious attention. During the whole of McClellan's Richmond
+campaign he had continually borne in mind the possibility of his defeat,
+and the eventualities it might create. Little by little, that general's
+hesitation, constant complaints, and exaggerated reports of the enemy's
+strength changed the President's apprehensions from possibility to
+probability; and he took prompt measures to be prepared as far as
+possible, should a new disaster arise. On June 24 he made a hurried
+visit to the veteran General Scott at West Point, for consultation on
+the existing military conditions, and on his return to Washington called
+General Pope from the West, and, by an order dated June 26, specially
+assigned him to the command of the combined forces under Frémont, Banks,
+and McDowell, to be called the Army of Virginia, whose duty it should be
+to guard the Shenandoah valley and Washington city, and, as far as might
+be, render aid to McClellan's campaign against Richmond.
+
+The very day on which the President made this order proved to be the
+crisis of McClellan's campaign. That was the day he had fixed upon for a
+general advance; but so far from realizing this hope, it turned out,
+also, to be the day on which General Lee began his attack on the Army of
+the Potomac, which formed the beginning of the seven days' battles, and
+changed McClellan's intended advance against Richmond to a retreat to
+the James River. It was after midnight of the next day that McClellan
+sent Stanton his despairing and insubordinate despatch indicating the
+possibility of losing his entire army.
+
+Upon the receipt of this alarming piece of news, President Lincoln
+instantly took additional measures of safety. He sent a telegram to
+General Burnside in North Carolina to come with all the reinforcements
+he could spare to McClellan's help. Through the Secretary of War he
+instructed General Halleck at Corinth to send twenty-five thousand
+infantry to McClellan by way of Baltimore and Washington. His most
+important action was to begin the formation of a new army. On the same
+day he sent Secretary of State Seward to New York with a letter to be
+confidentially shown to such of the governors of States as could be
+hurriedly called together, setting forth his view of the present
+condition of the war, and his own determination in regard to its
+prosecution. After outlining the reverse at Richmond and the new
+problems it created, the letter continued:
+
+"What should be done is to hold what we have in the West, open the
+Mississippi, and take Chattanooga and East Tennessee without more. A
+reasonable force should in every event be kept about Washington for its
+protection. Then let the country give us a hundred thousand new troops
+in the shortest possible time, which, added to McClellan directly or
+indirectly, will take Richmond without endangering any other place which
+we now hold, and will substantially end the war. I expect to maintain
+this contest until successful, or till I die, or am conquered, or my
+term expires, or Congress or the country forsake me; and I would
+publicly appeal to the country for this new force were it not that I
+fear a general panic and stampede would follow, so hard it is to have a
+thing understood as it really is."
+
+Meanwhile, by the news of the victory of Malvern Hill and the secure
+position to which McClellan had retired at Harrison's Landing, the
+President learned that the condition of the Army of the Potomac was not
+as desperate as at first had seemed. The result of Seward's visit to New
+York is shown in the President's letter of July 2, answering McClellan's
+urgent call for heavy reinforcements:
+
+"The idea of sending you fifty thousand, or any other considerable
+force, promptly, is simply absurd. If, in your frequent mention of
+responsibility, you have the impression that I blame you for not doing
+more than you can, please be relieved of such impression. I only beg
+that in like manner you will not ask impossibilities of me. If you think
+you are not strong enough to take Richmond just now, I do not ask you to
+try just now. Save the army, material and personnel, and I will
+strengthen it for the offensive again as fast as I can. The governors of
+eighteen States offer me a new levy of three hundred thousand, which I
+accept."
+
+And in another letter, two days later:
+
+"To reinforce you so as to enable you to resume the offensive within a
+month, or even six weeks, is impossible.... Under these circumstances,
+the defensive for the present must be your only care. Save the
+army--first, where you are, if you can; secondly, by removal, if you
+must."
+
+To satisfy himself more fully about the actual situation, the President
+made a visit to Harrison's Landing on July 8 and 9, and held personal
+interviews with McClellan and his leading generals. While the question
+of removing the army underwent considerable discussion, the President
+left it undecided for the present; but on July 11, soon after his return
+to Washington, he issued an order:
+
+"That Major-General Henry W. Halleck be assigned to command the whole
+land forces of the United States, as general-in-chief, and that he
+repair to this capital so soon as he can with safety to the positions
+and operations within the department now under his charge."
+
+Though General Halleck was loath to leave his command in the West, he
+made the necessary dispositions there, and in obedience to the
+President's order reached Washington on July 23, and assumed command of
+all the armies as general-in-chief. On the day following he proceeded to
+General McClellan's headquarters at Harrison's Landing, and after two
+days' consultation reached the same conclusion at which the President
+had already arrived, that the Army of the Potomac must be withdrawn.
+McClellan strongly objected to this course. He wished to be reinforced
+so that he might resume his operations against Richmond. To do this he
+wanted fifty thousand more men, which number it was impossible to give
+him, as he had already been pointedly informed by the President. On
+Halleck's return to Washington, it was, on further consultation,
+resolved to bring the Army of the Potomac back to Acquia Creek and unite
+it with the army of Pope.
+
+On July 30, McClellan received a preliminary order to send away his
+sick, and the withdrawal of his entire force was ordered by telegraph on
+August 3. With the obstinacy and persistence that characterized his
+course from first to last, McClellan still protested against the change,
+and when Halleck in a calm letter answered his objections with both the
+advantages and the necessity of the order, McClellan's movement of
+withdrawal was so delayed that fully eleven days of inestimable time
+were unnecessarily lost, and the army of Pope was thereby put in serious
+peril.
+
+Meanwhile, under President Lincoln's order of June 26, General Pope had
+left the West, and about the first of July reached Washington, where for
+two weeks, in consultation with the President and the Secretary of War,
+he studied the military situation, and on July 14 assumed command of the
+Army of Virginia, consisting of the corps of General Frémont, eleven
+thousand five hundred strong, and that of General Banks, eight thousand
+strong, in the Shenandoah valley, and the corps of General McDowell,
+eighteen thousand five hundred strong, with one division at Manassas and
+the other at Fredericksburg. It is unnecessary to relate in detail the
+campaign which followed. Pope intelligently and faithfully performed the
+task imposed on him to concentrate his forces and hold in check the
+advance of the enemy, which began as soon as the Confederates learned of
+the evacuation of Harrison's Landing.
+
+When the Army of the Potomac was ordered to be withdrawn it was clearly
+enough seen that the movement might put the Army of Virginia in
+jeopardy; but it was hoped that if the transfer to Acquia Creek and
+Alexandria were made as promptly as the order contemplated, the two
+armies would be united before the enemy could reach them. McClellan,
+however, continued day after day to protest against the change, and made
+his preparations and embarkation with such exasperating slowness as
+showed that he still hoped to induce the government to change its plans.
+
+Pope, despite the fact that he had managed his retreat with skill and
+bravery, was attacked by Lee's army, and fought the second battle of
+Bull Run on August 30, under the disadvantage of having one of
+McClellan's divisions entirely absent and the other failing to respond
+to his order to advance to the attack on the first day. McClellan had
+reached Alexandria on August 24; and notwithstanding telegram after
+telegram from Halleck, ordering him to push Franklin's division out to
+Pope's support, excuse and delay seemed to be his only response, ending
+at last in his direct suggestion that Franklin's division be kept to
+defend Washington, and Pope be left to "get out of his scrape" as best
+he might.
+
+McClellan's conduct and language had awakened the indignation of the
+whole cabinet, roused Stanton to fury, and greatly outraged the feelings
+of President Lincoln. But even under such irritation the President was,
+as ever, the very incarnation of cool, dispassionate judgment, allowing
+nothing but the daily and hourly logic of facts to influence his
+suggestions or decision. In these moments of crisis and danger he felt
+more keenly than ever the awful responsibilities of rulership, and that
+the fate of the nation hung upon his words and acts from hour to hour.
+
+His official counselors, equally patriotic and sincere, were not his
+equals in calmness of temper. On Friday, August 29, Stanton went to
+Chase, and after an excited conference drew up a memorandum of protest,
+to be signed by the members of the cabinet, which drew a gloomy picture
+of present and apprehended dangers, and recommended the immediate
+removal of McClellan from command. Chase and Stanton signed the paper,
+as also did Bates, whom they immediately consulted, and somewhat later
+Smith added his signature. But when they presented it to Welles, he
+firmly refused, stating that though he concurred with them in judgment,
+it would be discourteous and unfriendly to the President to adopt such a
+course. They did not go to Seward and Blair, apparently believing them
+to be friendly to McClellan, and therefore probably unwilling to give
+their assent. The refusal of Mr. Welles to sign had evidently caused a
+more serious discussion among them about the form and language of the
+protest; for on Monday, September 1, it was entirely rewritten by Bates,
+cut down to less than half its original length as drafted by Stanton,
+and once more signed by the same four members of the cabinet.
+
+Presented for the second time to Mr. Welles, he reiterated his
+objection, and again refused his signature. Though in the new form it
+bore the signatures of a majority of the cabinet, the paper was never
+presented to Mr. Lincoln. The signers may have adopted the feeling of
+Mr. Welles that it was discourteous; or they may have thought that with
+only four members of the cabinet for it and three against it, it would
+be ineffectual; or, more likely than either, the mere progress of events
+may have brought them to consider it inexpedient.
+
+The defeat of Pope became final and conclusive on the afternoon of
+August 30, and his telegram announcing it conveyed an intimation that he
+had lost control of his army. President Lincoln had, therefore, to
+confront a most serious crisis and danger. Even without having seen the
+written and signed protest, he was well aware of the feelings of the
+cabinet against McClellan. With what began to look like a serious
+conspiracy among McClellan's officers against Pope, with Pope's army in
+a disorganized retreat upon Washington, with the capital in possible
+danger of capture by Lee, and with a distracted and half-mutinous
+cabinet, the President had need of all his caution and all his wisdom.
+Both his patience and his judgment proved equal to the demand.
+
+On Monday, September 1, repressing every feeling of indignation, and
+solicitous only to make every expedient contribute to the public safety,
+he called McClellan from Alexandria to Washington and asked him to use
+his personal influence with the officers who had been under his command
+to give a hearty and loyal support to Pope as a personal favor to their
+former general, and McClellan at once sent a telegram in this spirit.
+
+That afternoon, also, Mr. Lincoln despatched a member of General
+Halleck's staff to the Virginia side of the Potomac, who reported the
+disorganization and discouragement among the retreating troops as even
+more than had been expected. Worse than all, Halleck, the
+general-in-chief, who was much worn out by the labors of the past few
+days, seemed either unable or unwilling to act with prompt direction and
+command equal to the emergency, though still willing to give his advice
+and suggestion.
+
+Under such conditions, Mr. Lincoln saw that it was necessary for him
+personally to exercise at the moment his military functions and
+authority as commander-in-chief of the army and navy. On the morning of
+September 2, therefore, he gave a verbal order, which during the day was
+issued in regular form as coming from the general-in-chief, that
+Major-General McClellan be placed in command of the fortifications
+around Washington and the troops for the defense of the capital. Mr.
+Lincoln made no concealment of his belief that McClellan had acted badly
+toward Pope and really wanted him to fail; "but there is no one in the
+army who can man these fortifications and lick these troops of ours into
+shape half as well as he can," he said. "We must use the tools we have;
+if he cannot fight himself, he excels in making others ready to fight."
+
+It turned out that the second battle of Bull Run had by no means so
+seriously disorganized the Union army as was reported, and that
+Washington had been exposed to no real danger. The Confederate army
+hovered on its front for a day or two, but made neither attack nor
+demonstration. Instead of this, Lee entered upon a campaign into
+Maryland, hoping that his presence might stimulate a secession revolt in
+that State, and possibly create the opportunity successfully to attack
+Baltimore or Philadelphia.
+
+Pope having been relieved and sent to another department, McClellan soon
+restored order among the troops, and displayed unwonted energy and
+vigilance in watching the movements of the enemy, as Lee gradually moved
+his forces northwestward toward Leesburg, thirty miles from Washington,
+where he crossed the Potomac and took position at Frederick, ten miles
+farther away. McClellan gradually followed the movement of the enemy,
+keeping the Army of the Potomac constantly in a position to protect both
+Washington and Baltimore against an attack. In this way it happened that
+without any order or express intention on the part of either the general
+or the President, McClellan's duty became imperceptibly changed from
+that of merely defending Washington city to that of an active campaign
+into Maryland to follow the Confederate army.
+
+This movement into Maryland was begun by both armies about September 4.
+On the thirteenth of that month McClellan had reached Frederick, while
+Lee was by that time across the Catoctin range at Boonsboro', but his
+army was divided. He had sent a large part of it back across the
+Potomac to capture Harper's Ferry and Martinsburg. On that day there
+fell into McClellan's hands the copy of an order issued by General Lee
+three days before, which, as McClellan himself states in his report,
+fully disclosed Lee's plans. The situation was therefore, as follows: It
+was splendid September weather, with the roads in fine condition.
+McClellan commanded a total moving force of more than eighty thousand;
+Lee, a total moving force of forty thousand. The Confederate army was
+divided. Each of the separate portions was within twenty miles of the
+Union columns; and before half-past six on the evening of September 13,
+McClellan had full knowledge of the enemy's plans.
+
+General Palfrey, an intelligent critic friendly to McClellan, distinctly
+admits that the Union army, properly commanded, could have absolutely
+annihilated the Confederate forces. But the result proved quite
+different. Even such advantages in McClellan's hands failed to rouse him
+to vigorous and decisive action. As usual, hesitation and tardiness
+characterized the orders and movements of the Union forces, and during
+the four days succeeding, Lee had captured Harper's Ferry with eleven
+thousand prisoners and seventy-three pieces of artillery, reunited his
+army, and fought the defensive battle of Antietam on September 17, with
+almost every Confederate soldier engaged, while one third of McClellan's
+army was not engaged at all and the remainder went into action piecemeal
+and successively, under such orders that coöperative movement and mutual
+support were practically impossible. Substantially, it was a drawn
+battle, with appalling slaughter on both sides.
+
+Even after such a loss of opportunity, there still remained a precious
+balance of advantage in McClellan's hands. Because of its smaller total
+numbers, the Confederate army was disproportionately weakened by the
+losses in battle. The Potomac River was almost immediately behind it,
+and had McClellan renewed his attack on the morning of the eighteenth,
+as several of his best officers advised, a decisive victory was yet
+within his grasp. But with his usual hesitation, notwithstanding the
+arrival of two divisions of reinforcements, he waited all day to make up
+his mind. He indeed gave orders to renew the attack at daylight on the
+nineteenth, but before that time the enemy had retreated across the
+Potomac, and McClellan telegraphed, apparently with great satisfaction,
+that Maryland was free and Pennsylvania safe.
+
+The President watched the progress of this campaign with an eagerness
+born of the lively hope that it might end the war. He sent several
+telegrams to the startled Pennsylvania authorities to assure them that
+Philadelphia and Harrisburg were in no danger. He ordered a
+reinforcement of twenty-one thousand to join McClellan. He sent a
+prompting telegram to that general: "Please do not let him [the enemy]
+get off without being hurt." He recognized the battle of Antietam as a
+substantial, if not a complete victory, and seized the opportunity it
+afforded him to issue his preliminary proclamation of emancipation on
+September 22.
+
+For two weeks after the battle of Antietam, General McClellan kept his
+army camped on various parts of the field, and so far from exhibiting
+any disposition of advancing against the enemy in the Shenandoah valley,
+showed constant apprehension lest the enemy might come and attack him.
+On October 1, the President and several friends made a visit to
+Antietam, and during the three succeeding days reviewed the troops and
+went over the various battle-grounds in company with the general. The
+better insight which the President thus received of the nature and
+results of the late battle served only to deepen in his mind the
+conviction he had long entertained--how greatly McClellan's defects
+overbalanced his merits as a military leader; and his impatience found
+vent in a phrase of biting irony. In a morning walk with a friend,
+waving his arm toward the white tents of the great army, he asked: "Do
+you know what that is?" The friend, not catching the drift of his
+thought, said, "It is the Army of the Potomac, I suppose." "So it is
+called," responded the President, in a tone of suppressed indignation,
+"But that is a mistake. It is only McClellan's body-guard."
+
+At that time General McClellan commanded a total force of one hundred
+thousand men present for duty under his immediate eye, and seventy-three
+thousand present for duty under General Banks about Washington. It is,
+therefore, not to be wondered at that on October 6, the second day after
+Mr. Lincoln's return to Washington, the following telegram went to the
+general from Halleck:
+
+"I am instructed to telegraph you as follows: The President directs that
+you cross the Potomac and give battle to the enemy, or drive him south.
+Your army must move now while the roads are good. If you cross the river
+between the enemy and Washington, and cover the latter by your
+operation, you can be reinforced with thirty thousand men. If you move
+up the valley of the Shenandoah, not more than twelve thousand or
+fifteen thousand can be sent to you. The President advises the interior
+line, between Washington and the enemy, but does not order it. He is
+very desirous that your army move as soon as possible. You will
+immediately report what line you adopt, and when you intend to cross
+the river; also to what point the reinforcements are to be sent. It is
+necessary that the plan of your operations be positively determined on
+before orders are given for building bridges and repairing railroads. I
+am directed to add that the Secretary of War and the general-in-chief
+fully concur with the President in these instructions."
+
+This express order was reinforced by a long letter from the President,
+dated October 13, specifically pointing out the decided advantages
+McClellan possessed over the enemy, and suggesting a plan of campaign
+even to details, the importance and value of which was self-evident.
+
+"You remember my speaking to you of what I called your
+over-cautiousness. Are you not over-cautious when you assume that you
+cannot do what the enemy is constantly doing? Should you not claim to be
+at least his equal in prowess, and act upon the claim?... Change
+positions with the enemy, and think you not he would break your
+communication with Richmond within the next twenty-four hours? You dread
+his going into Pennsylvania, but if he does so in full force, he gives
+up his communications to you absolutely, and you have nothing to do but
+to follow and ruin him. If he does so with less than full force, fall
+upon and beat what is left behind all the easier. Exclusive of the
+water-line, you are now nearer Richmond than the enemy is by the route
+that you can and he must take. Why can you not reach there before him,
+unless you admit that he is more than your equal on a march? His route
+is the arc of a circle, while yours is the chord. The roads are as good
+on yours as on his. You know I desired, but did not order, you to cross
+the Potomac below instead of above the Shenandoah and Blue Ridge. My
+idea was that this would at once menace the enemy's communications,
+which I would seize, if he would permit. If he should move northward I
+would follow him closely, holding his communications. If he should
+prevent our seizing his communications and move toward Richmond, I would
+press closely to him, fight him, if a favorable opportunity should
+present, and at least try to beat him to Richmond on the inside track. I
+say 'try'; if we never try we shall never succeed. If he makes a stand
+at Winchester, moving neither north nor south, I would fight him there,
+on the idea that if we cannot beat him when he bears the wastage of
+coming to us, we never can when we bear the wastage of going to him."
+
+But advice, expostulation, argument, orders, were all wasted, now as
+before, on the unwilling, hesitating general. When he had frittered away
+another full month in preparation, in slowly crossing the Potomac, and
+in moving east of the Blue Ridge and massing his army about Warrenton, a
+short distance south of the battle-field of Bull Run, without a vigorous
+offensive, or any discernible intention to make one, the President's
+patience was finally exhausted, and on November 5 he sent him an order
+removing him from command. And so ended General McClellan's military
+career.
+
+
+
+
+XXIII
+
+Cameron's Report--Lincoln's Letter to Bancroft--Annual Message on
+Slavery--The Delaware Experiment--Joint Resolution on Compensated
+Abolishment--First Border State Interview--Stevens's Comment--District
+of Columbia Abolishment--Committee on Abolishment--Hunter's Order
+Revoked--Antislavery Measures of Congress--Second Border State
+Interview--Emancipation Proposed and Postponed
+
+
+The relation of the war to the institution of slavery has been touched
+upon in describing several incidents which occurred during 1861, namely,
+the designation of fugitive slaves as "contraband," the Crittenden
+resolution and the confiscation act of the special session of Congress,
+the issuing and revocation of Frémont's proclamation, and various orders
+relating to contrabands in Union camps. The already mentioned
+resignation of Secretary Cameron had also grown out of a similar
+question. In the form in which it was first printed, his report as
+Secretary of War to the annual session of Congress which met on December
+3, 1861, announced:
+
+"If it shall be found that the men who have been held by the rebels as
+slaves are capable of bearing arms and performing efficient military
+service, it is the right, and may become the duty, of the government to
+arm and equip them, and employ their services against the rebels, under
+proper military regulation, discipline, and command."
+
+The President was not prepared to permit a member of his cabinet,
+without his consent, to commit the administration to so radical a policy
+at that early date. He caused the advance copies of the document to be
+recalled and modified to the simple declaration that fugitive and
+abandoned slaves, being clearly an important military resource, should
+not be returned to rebel masters, but withheld from the enemy to be
+disposed of in future as Congress might deem best. Mr. Lincoln saw
+clearly enough what a serious political rôle the slavery question was
+likely to play during the continuance of the war. Replying to a letter
+from the Hon. George Bancroft, in which that accomplished historian
+predicted that posterity would not be satisfied with the results of the
+war unless it should effect an increase of the free States, the
+President wrote:
+
+"The main thought in the closing paragraph of your letter is one which
+does not escape my attention, and with which I must deal in all due
+caution, and with the best judgment I can bring to it."
+
+This caution was abundantly manifested in his annual message to Congress
+of December 3, 1861:
+
+"In considering the policy to be adopted for suppressing the
+insurrection," he wrote, "I have been anxious and careful that the
+inevitable conflict for this purpose shall not degenerate into a violent
+and remorseless revolutionary struggle. I have, therefore, in every
+case, thought it proper to keep the integrity of the Union prominent as
+the primary object of the contest on our part, leaving all questions
+which are not of vital military importance to the more deliberate action
+of the legislature.... The Union must be preserved; and hence all
+indispensable means must be employed. We should not be in haste to
+determine that radical and extreme measures, which may reach the loyal
+as well as the disloyal, are indispensable."
+
+The most conservative opinion could not take alarm at phraseology so
+guarded and at the same time so decided; and yet it proved broad enough
+to include every great exigency which the conflict still had in store.
+
+Mr. Lincoln had indeed already maturely considered and in his own mind
+adopted a plan of dealing with the slavery question: the simple plan
+which, while a member of Congress, he had proposed for adoption in the
+District of Columbia--the plan of voluntary compensated abolishment. At
+that time local and national prejudice stood in the way of its
+practicability; but to his logical and reasonable mind it seemed now
+that the new conditions opened for it a prospect at least of initial
+success.
+
+In the late presidential election the little State of Delaware had, by a
+fusion between the Bell and the Lincoln vote, chosen a Union member of
+Congress, who identified himself in thought and action with the new
+administration. While Delaware was a slave State, only the merest
+remnant of the institution existed there--seventeen hundred and
+ninety-eight slaves all told. Without any public announcement of his
+purpose, the President now proposed to the political leaders of
+Delaware, through their representative, a scheme for the gradual
+emancipation of these seventeen hundred and ninety-eight slaves, on the
+payment therefore by the United States at the rate of four hundred
+dollars per slave, in annual instalments during thirty-one years to that
+State, the sum to be distributed by it to the individual owners. The
+President believed that if Delaware could be induced to take this step,
+Maryland might follow, and that these examples would create a sentiment
+that would lead other States into the same easy and beneficent path. But
+the ancient prejudice still had its relentless grip upon some of the
+Delaware law-makers. A majority of the Delaware House indeed voted to
+entertain the scheme. But five of the nine members of the Delaware
+Senate, with hot partizan anathemas, scornfully repelled the "abolition
+bribe," as they called it, and the project withered in the bud.
+
+Mr. Lincoln did not stop at the failure of his Delaware experiment, but
+at once took an appeal to a broader section of public opinion. On March
+6, 1862, he sent a special message to the two houses of Congress
+recommending the adoption of the following joint resolution:
+
+"_Resolved_, that the United States ought to coöperate with any State
+which may adopt gradual abolishment of slavery, giving to such State
+pecuniary aid, to be used by such State, in its discretion, to
+compensate for the inconveniences, public and private, produced by such
+change of system."
+
+"The point is not," said his explanatory message, "that all the States
+tolerating slavery would very soon, if at all, initiate emancipation;
+but that while the offer is equally made to all, the more northern
+shall, by such initiation, make it certain to the more southern that in
+no event will the former ever join the latter in their proposed
+Confederacy. I say 'initiation' because, in my judgment, gradual, and
+not sudden, emancipation is better for all.... Such a proposition on the
+part of the general government sets up no claim of a right by Federal
+authority to interfere with slavery within State limits, referring, as
+it does, the absolute control of the subject in each case to the State
+and its people immediately interested. It is proposed as a matter of
+perfectly free choice with them. In the annual message last December I
+thought fit to say, 'The Union must be preserved; and hence, all
+indispensable means must be employed.' I said this, not hastily, but
+deliberately. War has been made, and continues to be, an indispensable
+means to this end. A practical reacknowledgment of the national
+authority would render the war unnecessary, and it would at once cease.
+If, however, resistance continues, the war must also continue; and it is
+impossible to foresee all the incidents which may attend and all the
+ruin which may follow it. Such as may seem indispensable, or may
+obviously promise great efficiency toward ending the struggle, must and
+will come."
+
+The Republican journals of the North devoted considerable discussion to
+the President's message and plan, which, in the main, were very
+favorably received. Objection was made, however, in some quarters that
+the proposition would be likely to fail on the score of expense, and
+this objection the President conclusively answered in a private letter
+to a senator.
+
+"As to the expensiveness of the plan of gradual emancipation, with
+compensation, proposed in the late message, please allow me one or two
+brief suggestions. Less than one half-day's cost of this war would pay
+for all the slaves in Delaware at four hundred dollars per head....
+Again, less than eighty-seven days' cost of this war would, at the same
+price, pay for all in Delaware, Maryland, District of Columbia, Kentucky
+and Missouri.... Do you doubt that taking the initiatory steps on the
+part of those States and this District would shorten the war more than
+eighty-seven days, and thus be an actual saving of expense?"
+
+Four days after transmitting the message the President called together
+the delegations in Congress from the border slave States, and in a long
+and earnest personal interview, in which he repeated and enforced the
+arguments of his message, urged upon them the expediency of adopting his
+plan, which he assured them he had proposed in the most friendly spirit,
+and with no intent to injure the interests or wound the sensibilities of
+the slave States. On the day following this interview the House of
+Representatives adopted the joint resolution by more than a two-thirds
+vote; ayes eighty-nine, nays thirty-one. Only a very few of the border
+State members had the courage to vote in the affirmative. The Senate
+also passed the joint resolution, by about a similar party division, not
+quite a month later; the delay occurring through press of business
+rather than unwillingness.
+
+As yet, however, the scheme was tolerated rather than heartily indorsed
+by the more radical elements in Congress. Stevens, the cynical
+Republican leader of the House of Representatives, said:
+
+"I confess I have not been able to see what makes one side so anxious to
+pass it, or the other side so anxious to defeat it. I think it is about
+the most diluted milk-and-water-gruel proposition that was ever given to
+the American nation."
+
+But the bulk of the Republicans, though it proposed no immediate
+practical legislation, nevertheless voted for it, as a declaration of
+purpose in harmony with a pending measure, and as being, on the one
+hand, a tribute to antislavery opinion in the North, and, on the other,
+an expression of liberality toward the border States. The concurrent
+measure of practical legislation was a bill for the immediate
+emancipation of the slaves in the District of Columbia, on the payment
+to their loyal owners of an average sum of three hundred dollars for
+each slave, and for the appointment of a commission to assess and award
+the amount. The bill was introduced early in the session, and its
+discussion was much stimulated by the President's special message and
+joint resolution. Like other antislavery measures, it was opposed by the
+Democrats and supported by the Republicans, with but trifling
+exceptions; and by the same majority of two thirds was passed by the
+Senate on April 3, and the House on April 11, and became a law by the
+President's signature on April 16.
+
+The Republican majority in Congress as well as the President was thus
+pledged to the policy of compensated abolishment, both by the promise of
+the joint resolution and the fulfilment carried out in the District
+bill. If the representatives and senators of the border slave States had
+shown a willingness to accept the generosity of the government, they
+could have avoided the pecuniary sacrifice which overtook the slave
+owners in those States not quite three years later. On April 14, in the
+House of Representatives, the subject was taken up by Mr. White of
+Indiana, at whose instance a select committee on emancipation,
+consisting of nine members, a majority of whom were from border slave
+States, was appointed; and this committee on July 16 reported a
+comprehensive bill authorizing the President to give compensation at the
+rate of three hundred dollars for each slave to any one of the States of
+Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and Missouri, that
+might adopt immediate or gradual emancipation. Some subsequent
+proceedings on this subject occurred in Congress in the case of
+Missouri; but as to the other States named in the bill, either the
+neglect or open opposition of their people and representatives and
+senators prevented any further action from the committee.
+
+Meanwhile a new incident once more brought the question of military
+emancipation into sharp public discussion. On May 9, General David
+Hunter, commanding the Department of the South, which consisted mainly
+of some sixty or seventy miles of the South Carolina coast between North
+Edisto River and Warsaw Sound, embracing the famous Sea Island cotton
+region which fell into Union hands by the capture of Port Royal in 1861,
+issued a military order which declared:
+
+"Slavery and martial law in a free country are altogether incompatible;
+the persons in these three States--Georgia, Florida, and South
+Carolina--heretofore held as slaves are therefore declared forever
+free."
+
+The news of this order, coming by the slow course of ocean mails,
+greatly surprised Mr. Lincoln, and his first comment upon it was
+positive and emphatic. "No commanding general shall do such a thing,
+upon my responsibility, without consulting me," he wrote to Secretary
+Chase. Three days later, May 19, 1862, he published a proclamation
+declaring Hunter's order entirely unauthorized and void, and adding:
+
+"I further make known that whether it be competent for me, as
+commander-in-chief of the army and navy, to declare the slaves of any
+State or States free, and whether, at any time, in any case, it shall
+have become a necessity indispensable to the maintenance of the
+government to exercise such supposed power, are questions which, under
+my responsibility, I reserve to myself, and which I cannot feel
+justified in leaving to the decision of commanders in the field. These
+are totally different questions from those of police regulations in
+armies and camps."
+
+This distinct reservation of executive power, and equally plain
+announcement of the contingency which would justify its exercise, was
+coupled with a renewed recital of his plan and offer of compensated
+abolishment and reinforced by a powerful appeal to the public opinion of
+the border slave States.
+
+"I do not argue," continued the proclamation, "I beseech you to make the
+arguments for yourselves. You cannot, if you would, be blind to the
+signs of the times. I beg of you a calm and enlarged consideration of
+them, ranging, if it may be, far above personal and partizan politics.
+This proposal makes common cause for a common object, casting no
+reproaches upon any. It acts not the Pharisee. The change it
+contemplates would come gently as the dews of heaven, not rending or
+wrecking anything. Will you not embrace it? So much good has not been
+done, by one effort, in all past time, as in the providence of God it is
+now your high privilege to do. May the vast future not have to lament
+that you have neglected it."
+
+This proclamation of President Lincoln's naturally created considerable
+and very diverse comment, but much less than would have occurred had not
+military events intervened which served in a great degree to absorb
+public attention. At the date of the proclamation McClellan, with the
+Army of the Potomac, was just reaching the Chickahominy in his campaign
+toward Richmond; Stonewall Jackson was about beginning his startling
+raid into the Shenandoah valley; and Halleck was pursuing his somewhat
+leisurely campaign against Corinth. On the day following the
+proclamation the victorious fleet of Farragut reached Vicksburg in its
+first ascent of the Mississippi. Congress was busy with the multifarious
+work that crowded the closing weeks of the long session; and among this
+congressional work the debates and proceedings upon several measures of
+positive and immediate antislavery legislation were significant "signs
+of the times." During the session, and before it ended, acts or
+amendments were passed prohibiting the army from returning fugitive
+slaves; recognizing the independence and sovereignty of Haiti and
+Liberia; providing for carrying into effect the treaty with England to
+suppress the African slave trade; restoring the Missouri Compromise and
+extending its provisions to all United States Territories; greatly
+increasing the scope of the confiscation act in freeing slaves actually
+employed in hostile military service; and giving the President
+authority, if not in express terms, at least by easy implication, to
+organize and arm negro regiments for the war.
+
+But between the President's proclamation and the adjournment of Congress
+military affairs underwent a most discouraging change. McClellan's
+advance upon Richmond became a retreat to Harrison's Landing Halleck
+captured nothing but empty forts at Corinth. Farragut found no
+coöperation at Vicksburg, and returned to New Orleans, leaving its
+hostile guns still barring the commerce of the great river. Still worse,
+the country was plunged into gloomy forebodings by the President's call
+for three hundred thousand new troops.
+
+About a week before the adjournment of Congress the President again
+called together the delegations from the border slave States, and read
+to them, in a carefully prepared paper, a second and most urgent appeal
+to adopt his plan of compensated abolishment.
+
+"Let the States which are in rebellion see definitely and certainly that
+in no event will the States you represent ever join their proposed
+confederacy, and they cannot much longer maintain the contest. But you
+cannot divest them of their hope to ultimately have you with them so
+long as you show a determination to perpetuate the institution within
+your own States. Beat them at elections, as you have overwhelmingly
+done, and, nothing daunted, they still claim you as their own. You and I
+know what the lever of their power is. Break that lever before their
+faces, and they can shake you no more forever.... If the war continues
+long, as it must if the object be not sooner attained, the institution
+in your States will be extinguished by mere friction and abrasion--by
+the mere incidents of the war. It will be gone, and you will have
+nothing valuable in lieu of it. Much of its value is gone already. How
+much better for you and for your people to take the step which at once
+shortens the war and secures substantial compensation for that which is
+sure to be wholly lost in any other event. How much better to thus save
+the money which else we sink forever in the war.... Our common country
+is in great peril, demanding the loftiest views and boldest action to
+bring it speedy relief. Once relieved, its form of government is saved
+to the world, its beloved history and cherished memories are vindicated,
+and its happy future fully assured and rendered inconceivably grand. To
+you, more than to any others, the privilege is given to assure that
+happiness and swell that grandeur, and to link your own names therewith
+forever."
+
+Even while the delegations listened, Mr. Lincoln could see that events
+had not yet ripened their minds to the acceptance of his proposition. In
+their written replies, submitted a few days afterward, two thirds of
+them united in a qualified refusal, which, while recognizing the
+President's patriotism and reiterating their own loyalty, urged a number
+of rather unsubstantial excuses. The minority replies promised to submit
+the proposal fairly to the people of their States, but could of course
+give no assurance that it would be welcomed by their constituents. The
+interview itself only served to confirm the President in an alternative
+course of action upon which his mind had doubtless dwelt for a
+considerable time with intense solicitude, and which is best presented
+in the words of his own recital.
+
+"It had got to be," said he, in a conversation with the artist F.B.
+Carpenter, "midsummer, 1862. Things had gone on from bad to worse, until
+I felt that we had reached the end of our rope on the plan of operations
+we had been pursuing; that we had about played our last card, and must
+change our tactics, or lose the game. I now determined upon the adoption
+of the emancipation policy; and, without consultation with, or the
+knowledge of, the cabinet, I prepared the original draft of the
+proclamation, and after much anxious thought called a cabinet meeting
+upon the subject.... All were present excepting Mr. Blair, the
+Postmaster-General, who was absent at the opening of the discussion, but
+came in subsequently. I said to the cabinet that I had resolved upon
+this step, and had not called them together to ask their advice, but to
+lay the subject-matter of a proclamation before them, suggestions as to
+which would be in order after they had heard it read."
+
+It was on July 22 that the President read to his cabinet the draft of
+this first emancipation proclamation, which, after a formal warning
+against continuing the rebellion, was in the following words:
+
+"And I hereby make known that it is my purpose, upon the next meeting of
+Congress, to again recommend the adoption of a practical measure for
+tendering pecuniary aid to the free choice or rejection of any and all
+States which may then be recognizing and practically sustaining the
+authority of the United States, and which may then have voluntarily
+adopted, or thereafter may voluntarily adopt, gradual abolishment of
+slavery within such State or States; that the object is to practically
+restore, thenceforward to be maintained, the constitutional relation
+between the general government and each and all the States wherein that
+relation is now suspended or disturbed; and that for this object the
+war, as it has been, will be prosecuted. And as a fit and necessary
+military measure for effecting this object, I, as commander-in-chief of
+the army and navy of the United States, do order and declare that on the
+first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred
+and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or States
+wherein the constitutional authority of the United States shall not then
+be practically recognized, submitted to, and maintained, shall then,
+thenceforward, and forever be free."
+
+Mr. Lincoln had given a confidential intimation of this step to Mr.
+Seward and Mr. Welles on the day following the border State interview,
+but to all the other members of the cabinet it came as a complete
+surprise. Blair thought it would cost the administration the fall
+elections. Chase preferred that emancipation should be proclaimed by
+commanders in the several military districts. Seward, approving the
+measure, suggested that it be postponed until it could be given to the
+country supported by military success, instead of issuing it, as would
+be the case then, upon the greatest disasters of the war. Mr. Lincoln's
+recital continues:
+
+"The wisdom of the view of the Secretary of State struck me with very
+great force. It was an aspect of the case that, in all my thought upon
+the subject, I had entirely overlooked. The result was that I put the
+draft of the proclamation aside, as you do your sketch for a picture,
+waiting for a victory."
+
+
+
+
+XXIV
+
+Criticism of the President for his Action on Slavery--Lincoln's Letters
+to Louisiana Friends--Greeley's Open Letter--Mr. Lincoln's
+Reply--Chicago Clergymen Urge Emancipation--Lincoln's Answer--Lincoln
+Issues Preliminary Proclamation--President Proposes Constitutional
+Amendment--Cabinet Considers Final Proclamation--Cabinet Discusses
+Admission of West Virginia--Lincoln Signs Edict of Freedom--Lincoln's
+Letter to Hodges
+
+
+The secrets of the government were so well kept that no hint whatever
+came to the public that the President had submitted to the cabinet the
+draft of an emancipation proclamation. Between that date and the battle
+of the second Bull Run intervened the period of a full month, during
+which, in the absence of military movements or congressional proceedings
+to furnish exciting news, both private individuals and public journals
+turned a new and somewhat vindictive fire of criticism upon the
+administration. For this they seized upon the ever-ready text of the
+ubiquitous slavery question. Upon this issue the conservatives protested
+indignantly that the President had been too fast, while, contrarywise,
+the radicals clamored loudly that he had been altogether too slow. We
+have seen how his decision was unalterably taken and his course
+distinctly marked out, but that he was not yet ready publicly to
+announce it. Therefore, during this period of waiting for victory, he
+underwent the difficult task of restraining the impatience of both
+sides, which he did in very positive language. Thus, under date of July
+26, 1862, he wrote to a friend in Louisiana:
+
+"Yours of the sixteenth, by the hand of Governor Shepley, is received.
+It seems the Union feeling in Louisiana is being crushed out by the
+course of General Phelps. Please pardon me for believing that is a false
+pretense. The people of Louisiana--all intelligent people
+everywhere--know full well that I never had a wish to touch the
+foundations of their society, or any right of theirs. With perfect
+knowledge of this, they forced a necessity upon me to send armies among
+them, and it is their own fault, not mine, that they are annoyed by the
+presence of General Phelps. They also know the remedy--know how to be
+cured of General Phelps. Remove the necessity of his presence.... I am a
+patient man--always willing to forgive on the Christian terms of
+repentance, and also to give ample time for repentance. Still, I must
+save this government if possible. What I cannot do, of course I will not
+do; but it may as well be understood, once for all, that I shall not
+surrender this game leaving any available card unplayed."
+
+Two days later he answered another Louisiana critic:
+
+"Mr. Durant complains that, in various ways, the relation of master and
+slave is disturbed by the presence of our army, and he considers it
+particularly vexatious that this, in part, is done under cover of an act
+of Congress, while constitutional guarantees are suspended on the plea
+of military necessity. The truth is that what is done and omitted about
+slaves is done and omitted on the same military necessity. It is a
+military necessity to have men and money; and we can get neither in
+sufficient numbers or amounts if we keep from or drive from our lines
+slaves coming to them. Mr. Durant cannot be ignorant of the pressure in
+this direction, nor of my efforts to hold it within bounds till he and
+such as he shall have time to help themselves.... What would you do in
+my position? Would you drop the war where it is? Or would you prosecute
+it in future with elder-stalk squirts charged with rose-water? Would you
+deal lighter blows rather than heavier ones? Would you give up the
+contest, leaving any available means unapplied? I am in no boastful
+mood. I shall not do more than I can, and I shall do all I can, to save
+the government, which is my sworn duty as well as my personal
+inclination. I shall do nothing in malice. What I deal with is too vast
+for malicious dealing."
+
+The President could afford to overlook the misrepresentations and
+invective of the professedly opposition newspapers, but he had also to
+meet the over-zeal of influential Republican editors of strong
+antislavery bias. Horace Greeley printed, in the New York "Tribune" of
+August 20, a long "open letter" ostentatiously addressed to Mr. Lincoln,
+full of unjust censure all based on the general accusation that the
+President and many army officers as well, were neglecting their duty
+under pro-slavery influences and sentiments. The open letter which Mr.
+Lincoln wrote in reply is remarkable not alone for the skill with which
+it separated the true from the false issue of the moment, but also for
+the equipoise and dignity with which it maintained his authority as
+moral arbiter between the contending factions.
+
+     "EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON,
+     August 22, 1862.
+
+     "HON. HORACE GREELEY.
+
+"DEAR SIR: I have just read yours of the nineteenth, addressed to myself
+through the New York 'Tribune.' If there be in it any statements or
+assumptions of fact which I may know to be erroneous, I do not, now and
+here, controvert them. If there be in it any inferences which I may
+believe to be falsely drawn, I do not, now and here, argue against them.
+If there be perceptible in it an impatient and dictatorial tone, I waive
+it in deference to an old friend whose heart I have always supposed to
+be right.
+
+"As to the policy I 'seem to be pursuing,' as you say, I have not meant
+to leave any one in doubt.
+
+"I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the
+Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored, the
+nearer the Union will be 'the Union as it was.' If there be those who
+would not save the Union unless they could at the same time save
+slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save
+the Union unless they could, at the same time, destroy slavery, I do not
+agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the
+Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save
+the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save
+it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by
+freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that. What I do
+about slavery and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to
+save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe
+it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall
+believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I
+shall believe doing more will help the cause. I shall try to correct
+errors when shown to be errors, and I shall adopt new views so fast as
+they shall appear to be true views.
+
+"I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official duty;
+and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all
+men everywhere could be free.
+
+     "Yours,
+
+     "A. LINCOLN."
+
+It can hardly be doubted that President Lincoln, when he wrote this
+letter, intended that it should have a twofold effect upon public
+opinion: first, that it should curb extreme antislavery sentiment to
+greater patience; secondly, that it should rouse dogged pro-slavery
+conservatism, and prepare it for the announcement which he had resolved
+to make at the first fitting opportunity. At the date of the letter, he
+very well knew that a serious conflict of arms was soon likely to occur
+in Virginia; and he had strong reason to hope that the junction of the
+armies of McClellan and Pope which had been ordered, and was then in
+progress, could be successfully effected, and would result in a decisive
+Union victory. This hope, however, was sadly disappointed. The second
+battle of Bull Run, which occurred one week after the Greeley letter,
+proved a serious defeat, and necessitated a further postponement of his
+contemplated action.
+
+As a secondary effect of the new disaster, there came upon him once more
+an increased pressure to make reprisal upon what was assumed to be the
+really vulnerable side of the rebellion. On September 13, he was visited
+by an influential deputation from the religious denominations of
+Chicago, urging him to issue at once a proclamation of universal
+emancipation. His reply to them, made in the language of the most
+perfect courtesy nevertheless has in it a tone of rebuke that indicates
+the state of irritation and high sensitiveness under which he was living
+from day to day. In the actual condition of things, he could neither
+safely satisfy them nor deny them. As any answer he could make would be
+liable to misconstruction, he devoted the larger part of it to pointing
+out the unreasonableness of their dogmatic insistence:
+
+"I am approached with the most opposite opinions and advice, and that by
+religious men, who are equally certain that they represent the divine
+will. I am sure that either the one or the other class is mistaken in
+that belief, and perhaps, in some respects, both. I hope it will not be
+irreverent for me to say that if it is probable that God would reveal
+his will to others, on a point so connected with my duty, it might be
+supposed he would reveal it directly to me.... What good would a
+proclamation of emancipation from me do, especially as we are now
+situated? I do not want to issue a document that the whole world will
+see must necessarily be inoperative, like the Pope's bull against the
+comet.... Understand, I raise no objections against it on legal or
+constitutional grounds, for, as commander-in-chief of the army and navy
+in time of war, I suppose I have a right to take any measure which may
+best subdue the enemy; nor do I urge objections of a moral nature, in
+view of possible consequences of insurrection and massacre at the South.
+I view this matter as a practical war measure, to be decided on
+according to the advantages or disadvantages it may offer to the
+suppression of the rebellion.... Do not misunderstand me because I have
+mentioned these objections. They indicate the difficulties that have
+thus far prevented my action in some such way as you desire. I have not
+decided against a proclamation of liberty to the slaves, but hold the
+matter under advisement. And I can assure you that the subject is on my
+mind, by day and night, more than any other. Whatever shall appear to be
+God's will, I will do."
+
+Four days after this interview the battle of Antietam was fought, and
+when, after a few days of uncertainty it was ascertained that it could
+be reasonably claimed as a Union victory, the President resolved to
+carry out his long-matured purpose. The diary of Secretary Chase has
+recorded a very full report of the interesting transaction. On this ever
+memorable September 22, 1862, after some playful preliminary talk, Mr.
+Lincoln said to his cabinet:
+
+"GENTLEMEN: I have, as you are aware, thought a great deal about the
+relation of this war to slavery; and you all remember that, several
+weeks ago, I read to you an order I had prepared on this subject, which,
+on account of objections made by some of you, was not issued. Ever since
+then my mind has been much occupied with this subject, and I have
+thought, all along, that the time for acting on it might probably come.
+I think the time has come now. I wish it was a better time. I wish that
+we were in a better condition. The action of the army against the rebels
+has not been quite what I should have best liked. But they have been
+driven out of Maryland, and Pennsylvania is no longer in danger of
+invasion. When the rebel army was at Frederick, I determined, as soon as
+it should be driven out of Maryland, to issue a proclamation of
+emancipation, such as I thought most likely to be useful. I said nothing
+to any one, but I made the promise to myself and [hesitating a little]
+to my Maker. The rebel army is now driven out, and I am going to fulfil
+that promise. I have got you together to hear what I have written down.
+I do not wish your advice about the main matter, for that I have
+determined for myself. This I say without intending anything but respect
+for any one of you. But I already know the views of each on this
+question. They have been heretofore expressed, and I have considered
+them as thoroughly and carefully as I can. What I have written is that
+which my reflections have determined me to say. If there is anything in
+the expressions I use, or in any minor matter which any one of you
+thinks had best be changed, I shall be glad to receive the suggestions.
+One other observation I will make. I know very well that many others
+might, in this matter as in others, do better than I can; and if I was
+satisfied that the public confidence was more fully possessed by any one
+of them than by me, and knew of any constitutional way in which he could
+be put in my place, he should have it. I would gladly yield it to him.
+But, though I believe that I have not so much of the confidence of the
+people as I had some time since, I do not know that, all things
+considered any other person has more; and, however this may be, there is
+no way in which I can have any other man put where I am. I am here; I
+must do the best I can, and bear the responsibility of taking the course
+which I feel I ought to take."
+
+The members of the cabinet all approved the policy of the measure; Mr.
+Blair only objecting that he thought the time inopportune, while others
+suggested some slight amendments. In the new form in which it was
+printed on the following morning, the document announced a renewal of
+the plan of compensated abolishment, a continuance of the effort at
+voluntary colonization, a promise to recommend ultimate compensation to
+loyal owners, and--
+
+"That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand
+eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any
+State, or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be
+in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward,
+and forever free; and the executive government of the United States,
+including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and
+maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to
+repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for
+their actual freedom."
+
+Pursuant to these announcements, the President's annual message of
+December 1, 1862, recommended to Congress the passage of a joint
+resolution proposing to the legislatures of the several States a
+constitutional amendment consisting of three articles, namely: One
+providing compensation in bonds for every State which should abolish
+slavery before the year 1900; another securing freedom to all slaves
+who, during the rebellion, had enjoyed actual freedom by the chances of
+war--also providing compensation to legal owners; the third authorizing
+Congress to provide for colonization. The long and practical argument in
+which he renewed this plan, "not in exclusion of, but additional to, all
+others for restoring and preserving the national authority throughout
+the Union," concluded with the following eloquent sentences:
+
+"We can succeed only by concert. It is not, 'Can any of us imagine
+better?' but, 'Can we all do better?' Object whatsoever is possible,
+still the question recurs, 'Can we do better?' The dogmas of the quiet
+past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high
+with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new,
+so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and
+then we shall save our country.
+
+"Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We, of this Congress and
+this administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No
+personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of
+us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down, in honor
+or dishonor, to the latest generation. We say we are for the Union. The
+world will not forget that we say this. We know how to save the Union.
+The world knows we do know how to save it. We--even we here--hold the
+power and bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to the slave, we
+assure freedom to the free--honorable alike in what we give and what we
+preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last, best hope of
+earth. Other means may succeed, this could not fail. The way is plain,
+peaceful generous, just--a way which, if followed, the world will
+forever applaud, and God must forever bless."
+
+But Mr. Lincoln was not encouraged by any response to this earnest
+appeal, either from Congress or by manifestations of public opinion.
+Indeed, it may be fairly presumed that he expected none. Perhaps he
+considered it already a sufficient gain that it was silently accepted as
+another admonition of the consequences which not he nor his
+administration, but the Civil War, with its relentless agencies, was
+rapidly bringing about. He was becoming more and more conscious of the
+silent influence of his official utterances on public sentiment, if not
+to convert obstinate opposition, at least to reconcile it to patient
+submission.
+
+In that faith he steadfastly went on carrying out his well-matured plan,
+the next important step of which was the fulfilment of the announcements
+made in the preliminary emancipation proclamation of September 22. On
+December 30, he presented to each member of his cabinet a copy of the
+draft he had carefully made of the new and final proclamation to be
+issued on New Year's day. It will be remembered that as early as July
+22, he informed the cabinet that the main question involved he had
+decided for himself. Now, as twice before it was only upon minor points
+that he asked their advice and suggestion, for which object he placed
+these drafts in their hands for verbal and collateral criticism.
+
+In addition to the central point of military emancipation in all the
+States yet in rebellion, the President's draft for the first time
+announced his intention to incorporate a portion of the newly liberated
+slaves into the armies of the Union. This policy had also been under
+discussion at the first consideration of the subject in July. Mr.
+Lincoln had then already seriously considered it, but thought it
+inexpedient and productive of more evil than good at that date. In his
+judgment, the time had now arrived for energetically adopting it.
+
+On the following day, December 31, the members brought back to the
+cabinet meeting their several criticisms and suggestions on the draft he
+had given them. Perhaps the most important one was that earnestly
+pressed by Secretary Chase, that the new proclamation should make no
+exceptions of fractional parts of States controlled by the Union armies,
+as in Louisiana and Virginia, save the forty-eight counties of the
+latter designated as West Virginia, then in process of formation and
+admission as a new State; the constitutionality of which, on this same
+December 31, was elaborately discussed in writing by the members of the
+cabinet, and affirmatively decided by the President.
+
+On the afternoon of December 31, the cabinet meeting being over, Mr.
+Lincoln once more carefully rewrote the proclamation, embodying in it
+the suggestions which had been made as to mere verbal improvements; but
+he rigidly adhered to his own draft in retaining the exceptions as to
+fractional parts of States and the forty-eight counties of West
+Virginia; and also his announcement of intention to enlist the freedmen
+in military service. Secretary Chase had submitted the form of a closing
+paragraph. This the President also adopted, but added to it, after the
+words "warranted by the Constitution," his own important qualifying
+correction, "upon military necessity."
+
+The full text of the weighty document will be found in a foot-note.[5]
+
+  [Footnote 5:
+
+     BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE
+     UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
+        A PROCLAMATION.
+
+ Whereas on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our
+ Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was
+ issued by the President of the United States, containing, among
+ other things, the following, to wit:
+
+ "That on the first day of January in the year of our Lord one
+ thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves
+ within any State, or designated part of a State, the people whereof
+ shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be
+ then, thenceforward and forever free; and the executive government
+ of the United States, including the military and naval authority
+ thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons,
+ and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them,
+ in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.
+
+ "That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by
+ proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in
+ which the people thereof respectively shall then be in rebellion
+ against the United States; and the fact that any State, or the
+ people thereof, shall on that day be in good faith represented in
+ the Congress of the United States by members chosen thereto at
+ elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such State
+ shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong
+ counter-vailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such
+ State and the people thereof are not then in rebellion against the
+ United States."
+
+ Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States,
+ by virtue of the power in me vested as commander-in-chief of the
+ army and navy of the United States, in time of actual armed
+ rebellion against the authority and government of the United
+ States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said
+ rebellion, do, on this first day of January, in the year of our
+ Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance
+ with my purpose so to do, publicly proclaimed for the full period
+ of one hundred days from the day first above mentioned, order and
+ designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people
+ thereof, respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United
+ States, the following, to wit:
+
+ Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana (except the parishes of St. Bernard,
+ Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James,
+ Ascension, Assumption, Terre Bonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St.
+ Martin, and Orleans, including the city of New Orleans),
+ Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North
+ Carolina, and Virginia (except the forty-eight counties designated
+ as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkeley, Accomac,
+ Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Anne, and Norfolk,
+ including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth), and which excepted
+ parts are for the present left precisely as if this proclamation
+ were not issued.
+
+ And by virtue of the power and for the purpose aforesaid, I do
+ order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said
+ designated States and parts of States are, and henceforward shall
+ be, free; and that the executive government of the United States,
+ including the military and naval authorities thereof will recognize
+ and maintain the freedom of said persons.
+
+ And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to
+ abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defense; and I
+ recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor
+ faithfully for reasonable wages.
+
+ And I further declare and make known that such persons of suitable
+ condition will be received into the armed service of the United
+ States to garrison forts, positions, stations and other places, and
+ to man vessels of all sorts in said service.
+
+ And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice,
+ warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity, I invoke the
+ considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty
+ God.
+
+ In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the
+ seal of the United States to be affixed.
+
+ Done at the city of Washington, this first day of January, in the
+ year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of
+ the independence of the United States of America the
+ eighty-seventh.
+
+ ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
+
+ BY THE PRESIDENT: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, _Secretary of State_.]
+
+It recited the announcement of the September proclamation; defined its
+character and authority as a military decree; designated the States and
+parts of States that day in rebellion against the government; ordered
+and declared that all persons held as slaves therein "are and
+henceforward shall be free"; and that such persons of suitable condition
+would be received into the military service. "And upon this act,
+sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the
+Constitution upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment
+of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God."
+
+The conclusion of the momentous transaction was as deliberate and
+simple as had been its various stages of preparation. The morning and
+midday of January 1, 1863, were occupied by the half-social,
+half-official ceremonial of the usual New Year's day reception at the
+Executive Mansion, established by long custom. At about three o'clock in
+the afternoon, after full three hours of greetings and handshakings, Mr.
+Lincoln and perhaps a dozen persons assembled in the executive office,
+and, without any prearranged ceremony the President affixed his
+signature to the great Edict of Freedom. No better commentary will ever
+be written upon this far-reaching act than that which he himself
+embodied in a letter written to a friend a little more than a year
+later:
+
+"I am naturally antislavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.
+I cannot remember when I did not so think and feel, and yet I have never
+understood that the Presidency conferred upon me an unrestricted right
+to act officially upon this judgment and feeling. It was in the oath I
+took that I would, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and
+defend the Constitution of the United States. I could not take the
+office without taking the oath. Nor was it my view that I might take an
+oath to get power, and break the oath in using the power. I understood,
+too, that in ordinary civil administration this oath even forbade me to
+practically indulge my primary abstract judgment on the moral question
+of slavery. I had publicly declared this many times, and in many ways.
+And I aver that, to this day, I have done no official act in mere
+deference to my abstract judgment and feeling on slavery. I did
+understand, however, that my oath to preserve the Constitution to the
+best of my ability imposed upon me the duty of preserving, by every
+indispensable means, that government, that nation, of which that
+Constitution was the organic law. Was it possible to lose the nation and
+yet preserve the Constitution? By general law, life and limb must be
+protected, yet often a limb must be amputated to save a life; but a life
+is never wisely given to save a limb. I felt that measures otherwise
+unconstitutional might become lawful by becoming indispensable to the
+preservation of the Constitution, through the preservation of the
+nation. Right or wrong, I assumed this ground, and now avow it. I could
+not feel that, to the best of my ability, I had even tried to preserve
+the Constitution if, to save slavery or any minor matter, I should
+permit the wreck of government, country, and Constitution all together.
+When, early in the war, General Frémont attempted military emancipation,
+I forbade it, because I did not then think it an indispensable
+necessity. When, a little later, General Cameron, then Secretary of War,
+suggested the arming of the blacks, I objected because I did not yet
+think it an indispensable necessity. When, still later, General Hunter
+attempted military emancipation, I again forbade it, because I did not
+yet think the indispensable necessity had come. When in March and May
+and July, 1862, I made earnest and successive appeals to the border
+States to favor compensated emancipation, I believed the indispensable
+necessity for military emancipation and arming the blacks would come
+unless averted by that measure. They declined the proposition, and I
+was, in my best judgment, driven to the alternative of either
+surrendering the Union, and with it the Constitution, or of laying
+strong hand upon the colored element. I chose the latter."
+
+
+
+
+XXV
+
+Negro Soldiers--Fort Pillow--Retaliation--Draft--Northern
+Democrats--Governor Seymour's Attitude--Draft Riots in New
+York--Vallandigham--Lincoln on his Authority to Suspend Writ of Habeas
+Corpus--Knights of the Golden Circle--Jacob Thompson in Canada
+
+
+On the subject of negro soldiers, as on many other topics, the period of
+active rebellion and civil war had wrought a profound change in public
+opinion. From the foundation of the government to the Rebellion, the
+horrible nightmare of a possible slave insurrection had brooded over the
+entire South. This feeling naturally had a sympathetic reflection in the
+North, and at first produced an instinctive shrinking from any thought
+of placing arms in the hands of the blacks whom the chances of war had
+given practical or legal freedom. During the year 1862, a few sporadic
+efforts were made by zealous individuals, under apparently favoring
+conditions, to begin the formation of colored regiments. The eccentric
+Senator Lane tried it in Kansas, or, rather, along the Missouri border
+without success. General Hunter made an experiment in South Carolina,
+but found the freedmen too unwilling to enlist, and the white officers
+too prejudiced to instruct them. General Butler, at New Orleans, infused
+his wonted energy into a similar attempt, with somewhat better results.
+He found that before the capture of the city, Governor Moore of
+Louisiana had begun the organization of a regiment of free colored men
+for local defense. Butler resuscitated this organization for which he
+thus had the advantage of Confederate example and precedent, and against
+which the accusation of arming slaves could not be urged. Early in
+September, Butler reported, with his usual biting sarcasm:
+
+"I shall also have within ten days a regiment, one thousand strong, of
+native guards (colored), the darkest of whom will be about the
+complexion of the late Mr. Webster."
+
+All these efforts were made under implied, rather than expressed
+provisions of law, and encountered more or less embarrassment in
+obtaining pay and supplies, because they were not distinctly recognized
+in the army regulations. This could not well be done so long as the
+President considered the policy premature. His spirit of caution in this
+regard was set forth by the Secretary of War in a letter of instruction
+dated July 3, 1862:
+
+"He is of opinion," wrote Mr. Stanton, "that under the laws of Congress,
+they [the former slaves] cannot be sent back to their masters; that in
+common humanity they must not be permitted to suffer for want of food,
+shelter, or other necessaries of life; that to this end they should be
+provided for by the quartermaster's and commissary's departments, and
+that those who are capable of labor should be set to work and paid
+reasonable wages. In directing this to be done, the President does not
+mean, at present, to settle any general rule in respect to slaves or
+slavery, but simply to provide for the particular case under the
+circumstances in which it is now presented."
+
+All this was changed by the final proclamation of emancipation, which
+authoritatively announced that persons of suitable condition, whom it
+declared free, would be received into the armed service of the United
+States. During the next few months, the President wrote several personal
+letters to General Dix, commanding at Fortress Monroe; to Andrew
+Johnson, military governor of Tennessee; to General Banks, commanding at
+New Orleans; and to General Hunter, in the Department of the South,
+urging their attention to promoting the new policy; and, what was yet
+more to the purpose, a bureau was created in the War Department having
+special charge of the duty, and the adjutant-general of the army was
+personally sent to the Union camps on the Mississippi River to
+superintend the recruitment and enlistment of the negroes, where, with
+the hearty coöperation of General Grant and other Union commanders, he
+met most encouraging and gratifying success.
+
+The Confederate authorities made a great outcry over the new departure.
+They could not fail to see the immense effect it was destined to have in
+the severe military struggle, and their prejudice of generations greatly
+intensified the gloomy apprehensions they no doubt honestly felt. Yet
+even allowing for this, the exaggerated language in which they described
+it became absolutely ludicrous. The Confederate War Department early
+declared Generals Hunter and Phelps to be outlaws, because they were
+drilling and organizing slaves; and the sensational proclamation issued
+by Jefferson Davis on December 23, 1862, ordered that Butler and his
+commissioned officers, "robbers and criminals deserving death, ... be,
+whenever captured, reserved for execution."
+
+Mr. Lincoln's final emancipation proclamation excited them to a still
+higher frenzy. The Confederate Senate talked of raising the black flag;
+Jefferson Davis's message stigmatized it as "the most execrable measure
+recorded in the history of guilty man"; and a joint resolution of the
+Confederate Congress prescribed that white officers of negro Union
+soldiers "shall, if captured, be put to death, or be otherwise punished
+at the discretion of the court." The general orders of some subordinate
+Confederate commanders repeated or rivaled such denunciations and
+threats.
+
+Fortunately, the records of the war are not stained with either excesses
+by the colored troops or even a single instance of such proclaimed
+barbarity upon white Union officers; and the visitation of vengeance
+upon negro soldiers is confined, so far as known, to the single instance
+of the massacre at Fort Pillow. In that deplorable affair, the
+Confederate commander reported, by telegraph, that in thirty minutes he
+stormed a fort manned by seven hundred, and captured the entire garrison
+killing five hundred and taking one hundred prisoners while he sustained
+a loss of only twenty killed and sixty wounded. It is unnecessary to
+explain that the bulk of the slain were colored soldiers. Making due
+allowance for the heat of battle, history can considerately veil closer
+scrutiny into the realities wrapped in the exaggerated boast of such a
+victory.
+
+The Fort Pillow incident, which occurred in the spring of 1864, brought
+upon President Lincoln the very serious question of enforcing an order
+of retaliation which had been issued on July 30, 1863, as an answer to
+the Confederate joint resolution of May 1. Mr. Lincoln's freedom from
+every trace of passion was as conspicuous in this as in all his official
+acts. In a little address at Baltimore, while referring to the rumor of
+the massacre which had just been received, Mr. Lincoln said:
+
+"We do not to-day know that a colored soldier, or white officer
+commanding colored soldiers, has been massacred by the rebels when made
+a prisoner. We fear it, believe it, I may say, but we do not know it. To
+take the life of one of their prisoners on the assumption that they
+murder ours, when it is short of certainty that they do murder ours,
+might be too serious, too cruel, a mistake."
+
+When more authentic information arrived, the matter was very earnestly
+debated by the assembled cabinet; but the discussion only served to
+bring out in stronger light the inherent dangers of either course. In
+this nice balancing of weighty reasons, two influences decided the
+course of the government against retaliation. One was that General Grant
+was about to begin his memorable campaign against Richmond, and that it
+would be most impolitic to preface a great battle by the tragic
+spectacle of a military punishment, however justifiable. The second was
+the tender-hearted humanity of the ever merciful President. Frederick
+Douglass has related the answer Mr. Lincoln made to him in a
+conversation nearly a year earlier:
+
+"I shall never forget the benignant expression of his face, the tearful
+look of his eye, and the quiver in his voice when he deprecated a resort
+to retaliatory measures. 'Once begun,' said he, 'I do not know where
+such a measure would stop.' He said he could not take men out and kill
+them in cold blood for what was done by others. If he could get hold of
+the persons who were guilty of killing the colored prisoners in cold
+blood, the case would be different, but he could not kill the innocent
+for the guilty."
+
+Amid the sanguinary reports and crowding events that held public
+attention for a year, from the Wilderness to Appomattox, the Fort Pillow
+affair was forgotten, not only by the cabinet, but by the country.
+
+The related subjects of emancipation and negro soldiers would doubtless
+have been discussed with much more passion and friction, had not public
+thought been largely occupied during the year 1863 by the enactment of
+the conscription law and the enforcement of the draft. In the hard
+stress of politics and war during the years 1861 and 1862, the popular
+enthusiasm with which the free States responded to the President's call
+to put down the rebellion by force of arms had become measurably
+exhausted. The heavy military reverses which attended the failure of
+McClellan's campaign against Richmond, Pope's defeat at the second Bull
+Run, McClellan's neglect to follow up the drawn battle of Antietam with
+energetic operations, the gradual change of early Western victories to a
+cessation of all effort to open the Mississippi, and the scattering of
+the Western forces to the spiritless routine of repairing and guarding
+long railroad lines, all operated together practically to stop
+volunteering and enlistment by the end of 1862.
+
+Thus far, the patriotic record was a glorious one. Almost one hundred
+thousand three months' militia had shouldered muskets to redress the
+fall of Fort Sumter; over half a million three years' volunteers
+promptly enlisted to form the first national army under the laws of
+Congress passed in August, 1861; nearly half a million more volunteers
+came forward under the tender of the governors of free States and the
+President's call of July, 1862, to repair the failure of McClellan's
+Peninsula campaign. Several minor calls for shorter terms of enlistment,
+aggregating more than forty thousand, are here omitted for brevity's
+sake. Had the Western victories continued, had the Mississippi been
+opened, had the Army of the Potomac been more fortunate, volunteering
+would doubtless have continued at quite or nearly the same rate. But
+with success delayed, with campaigns thwarted, with public sentiment
+despondent, armies ceased to fill. An emergency call for three hundred
+thousand nine months' men, issued on August 4, 1862, produced a total of
+only eighty-six thousand eight hundred and sixty; and an attempt to
+supply these in some of the States by a draft under State laws
+demonstrated that mere local statutes and machinery for that form of
+military recruitment were defective and totally inadequate.
+
+With the beginning of the third year of the war, more energetic measures
+to fill the armies were seen to be necessary; and after very hot and
+acrimonious debate for about a month, Congress, on March 3, 1863, passed
+a national conscription law, under which all male citizens between the
+ages of twenty and forty-five were enrolled to constitute the national
+forces, and the President was authorized to call them into service by
+draft as occasion might require. The law authorized the appointment of a
+provost-marshal-general, and under him a provost-marshal, a
+commissioner, and a surgeon, to constitute a board of enrollment in each
+congressional district; who, with necessary deputies, were required to
+carry out the law by national authority, under the supervision of the
+provost-marshal-general.
+
+For more than a year past, the Democratic leaders in the Northern States
+had assumed an attitude of violent partizanship against the
+administration, their hostility taking mainly the form of stubborn
+opposition to the antislavery enactments of Congress and the
+emancipation measures of the President. They charged with loud
+denunciation that he was converting the maintenance of the Union into a
+war for abolition, and with this and other clamors had gained
+considerable successes in the autumn congressional elections of 1862,
+though not enough to break the Republican majority in the House of
+Representatives. General McClellan was a Democrat, and, since his
+removal from command, they proclaimed him a martyr to this policy, and
+were grooming him to be their coming presidential candidate.
+
+The passage of the conscription law afforded them a new pretext to
+assail the administration; and Democratic members of both Houses of
+Congress denounced it with extravagant partizan bitterness as a
+violation of the Constitution, and subversive of popular liberty. In the
+mouths of vindictive cross-roads demagogues, and in the columns of
+irresponsible newspapers that supply the political reading among the
+more reckless elements of city populations, the extravagant language of
+Democratic leaders degenerated in many instances into unrestrained abuse
+and accusation. Yet, considering that this was the first conscription
+law ever enacted in the United States, considering the multitude of
+questions and difficulties attending its application, considering that
+the necessity of its enforcement was, in the nature of things, unwelcome
+to the friends of the government, and, as naturally, excited all the
+enmity and cunning of its foes to impede, thwart, and evade it, the law
+was carried out with a remarkably small proportion of delay,
+obstruction, or resulting violence.
+
+Among a considerable number of individual violations of the act, in
+which prompt punishment prevented a repetition, only two prominent
+incidents arose which had what may be called a national significance. In
+the State of New York the partial political reaction of 1862 had caused
+the election of Horatio Seymour, a Democrat, as governor. A man of high
+character and great ability, he, nevertheless, permitted his partizan
+feeling to warp and color his executive functions to a dangerous
+extent. The spirit of his antagonism is shown in a phrase of his
+fourth-of-July oration:
+
+"The Democratic organization look upon this administration as hostile to
+their rights and liberties; they look upon their opponents as men who
+would do them wrong in regard to their most sacred franchises."
+
+Believing--perhaps honestly--the conscription law to be
+unconstitutional, he endeavored, by protest, argument and administrative
+non-compliance, to impede its execution on the plea of first demanding a
+Supreme Court decision as to its legality. To this President Lincoln
+replied:
+
+"I cannot consent to suspend the draft in New York, as you request,
+because, among other reasons, time is too important.... I do not object
+to abide a decision of the United States Supreme Court, or of the judges
+thereof, on the constitutionality of the draft law. In fact, I should be
+willing to facilitate the obtaining of it; but I cannot consent to lose
+the time while it is being obtained. We are contending with an enemy
+who, as I understand, drives every able-bodied man he can reach into his
+ranks, very much as a butcher drives bullocks into a slaughter-pen. No
+time is wasted, no argument is used. This produces an army which will
+soon turn upon our now victorious soldiers already in the field, if they
+shall not be sustained by recruits as they should be."
+
+Notwithstanding Governor Seymour's neglect to give the enrolling
+officers any coöperation, preparations for the draft went on in New York
+city without prospect of serious disturbance, except the incendiary
+language of low newspapers and handbills. But scarcely had the wheel
+begun to turn, and the drawing commenced on July 13, when a sudden riot
+broke out. First demolishing the enrolling-office, the crowd next
+attacked an adjoining block of stores, which they plundered and set on
+fire, refusing to let the firemen put out the flames. From this point
+the excitement and disorder spread over the city, which for three days
+was at many points subjected to the uncontrolled fury of the mob. Loud
+threats to destroy the New York "Tribune" office, which the inmates as
+vigorously prepared to defend, were made. The most savage brutality was
+wreaked upon colored people. The fine building of the colored Orphan
+Asylum, where several hundred children barely found means of escape, was
+plundered and set on fire. It was notable that foreigners of recent
+importation were the principal leaders and actors in this lawlessness in
+which two million dollars worth of property was destroyed, and several
+hundred persons lost their lives.
+
+The disturbance came to an end on the night of the fourth day, when a
+small detachment of soldiers met a body of rioters, and firing into
+them, killed thirteen, and wounded eighteen more. Governor Seymour gave
+but little help in the disorder, and left a stain on the record of his
+courage by addressing a portion of the mob as "my friends." The
+opportune arrival of national troops restored, and thereafter
+maintained, quiet and safety.
+
+Some temporary disturbance occurred in Boston, but was promptly put
+down, and loud appeals came from Philadelphia and Chicago to stop the
+draft. The final effect of the conscription law was not so much to
+obtain recruits for the service, as to stimulate local effort throughout
+the country to promote volunteering, whereby the number drafted was
+either greatly lessened or, in many localities, entirely avoided by
+filling the State quotas.
+
+The military arrest of Clement L. Vallandigham, a Democratic member of
+Congress from Ohio, for incendiary language denouncing the draft, also
+grew to an important incident. Arrested and tried under the orders of
+General Burnside, a military commission found him guilty of having
+violated General Order No. 38, by "declaring disloyal sentiments and
+opinions with the object and purpose of weakening the power of the
+government in its efforts to suppress an unlawful rebellion"; and
+sentenced him to military confinement during the war. Judge Leavitt of
+the United States Circuit Court denied a writ of _habeas corpus_ in the
+case. President Lincoln regretted the arrest, but felt it imprudent to
+annul the action of the general and the military tribunal. Conforming to
+a clause of Burnside's order, he modified the sentence by sending
+Vallandigham south beyond the Union military lines. The affair created a
+great sensation, and, in a spirit of party protest, the Ohio Democrats
+unanimously nominated Vallandigham for governor. Vallandigham went to
+Richmond, held a conference with the Confederate authorities, and, by
+way of Bermuda, went to Canada, from whence he issued a political
+address. The Democrats of both Ohio and New York took up the political
+and legal discussion with great heat, and sent imposing committees to
+present long addresses to the President on the affair.
+
+Mr. Lincoln made long written replies to both addresses of which only so
+much needs quoting here as concisely states his interpretation of his
+authority to suspend the privilege of the writ of _habeas corpus_:
+
+"You ask, in substance, whether I really claim that I may override all
+the guaranteed rights of individuals, on the plea of conserving the
+public safety--when I may choose to say the public safety requires it.
+This question, divested of the phraseology calculated to represent me
+as struggling for an arbitrary personal prerogative, is either simply a
+question who shall decide or an affirmation that nobody shall decide,
+what the public safety does require in cases of rebellion or invasion.
+The Constitution contemplates the question as likely to occur for
+decision, but it does not expressly declare who is to decide it. By
+necessary implication, when rebellion or invasion comes, the decision is
+to be made from time to time; and I think the man whom, for the time,
+the people have, under the Constitution, made the commander-in-chief of
+their army and navy, is the man who holds the power and bears the
+responsibility of making it. If he uses the power justly, the same
+people will probably justify him; if he abuses it, he is in their hands,
+to be dealt with by all the modes they have reserved to themselves in
+the Constitution."
+
+Forcible and convincing as was this legal analysis, a single sympathetic
+phrase of the President's reply had a much greater popular effect:
+
+"Must I shoot a simple-minded soldier boy who deserts while I must not
+touch a hair of a wily agitator who induces him to desert?"
+
+The term so accurately described the character of Vallandigham, and the
+pointed query so touched the hearts of the Union people throughout the
+land whose favorite "soldier boys" had volunteered to fill the Union
+armies, that it rendered powerless the crafty criticism of party
+diatribes. The response of the people of Ohio was emphatic. At the
+October election Vallandigham was defeated by more than one hundred
+thousand majority.
+
+In sustaining the arrest of Vallandigham, President Lincoln had acted
+not only within his constitutional, but also strictly within his legal,
+authority. In the preceding March, Congress had passed an act
+legalizing all orders of this character made by the President at any
+time during the rebellion, and accorded him full indemnity for all
+searches, seizures, and arrests or imprisonments made under his orders.
+The act also provided:
+
+"That, during the present rebellion, the President of the United States,
+whenever in his judgment the public safety may require it, is authorized
+to suspend the privilege of the writ of _habeas corpus_ in any case,
+throughout the United States or any part thereof."
+
+About the middle of September, Mr. Lincoln's proclamation formally put
+the law in force, to obviate any hindering or delaying the prompt
+execution of the draft law.
+
+Though Vallandigham and the Democrats of his type were unable to prevent
+or even delay the draft, they yet managed to enlist the sympathies and
+secure the adhesion of many uneducated and unthinking men by means of
+secret societies, known as "Knights of the Golden Circle," "The Order of
+American Knights," "Order of the Star," "Sons of Liberty," and by other
+equally high-sounding names, which they adopted and discarded in turn,
+as one after the other was discovered and brought into undesired
+prominence. The titles and grips and passwords of these secret military
+organizations, the turgid eloquence of their meetings, and the
+clandestine drill of their oath-bound members, doubtless exercised quite
+as much fascination on such followers as their unlawful object of aiding
+and abetting the Southern cause. The number of men thus enlisted in the
+work of inducing desertion among Union soldiers, fomenting resistance to
+the draft, furnishing the Confederates with arms, and conspiring to
+establish a Northwestern Confederacy in full accord with the South,
+which formed the ultimate dream of their leaders, is hard to determine.
+Vallandigham, the real head of the movement, claimed five hundred
+thousand, and Judge Holt, in an official report, adopted that as being
+somewhere near the truth, though others counted them at a full million.
+
+The government, cognizant of their existence, and able to produce
+abundant evidence against the ring-leaders whenever it chose to do so,
+wisely paid little heed to these dark-lantern proceedings, though, as
+was perhaps natural, military officers commanding the departments in
+which they were most numerous were inclined to look upon them more
+seriously; and Governor Morton of Indiana was much disquieted by their
+work in his State.
+
+Mr. Lincoln's attitude toward them was one of good-humored contempt.
+"Nothing can make me believe that one hundred thousand Indiana Democrats
+are disloyal," he said; and maintained that there was more folly than
+crime in their acts. Indeed, though prolific enough of oaths and
+treasonable utterances, these organizations were singularly lacking in
+energy and initiative. Most of the attempts made against the public
+peace in the free States and along the northern border came, not from
+resident conspirators, but from Southern emissaries and their Canadian
+sympathizers; and even these rarely rose above the level of ordinary
+arson and highway robbery.
+
+Jacob Thompson, who had been Secretary of the Interior under President
+Buchanan, was the principal agent of the Confederate government in
+Canada, where he carried on operations as remarkable for their
+impracticability as for their malignity. One plan during the summer of
+1864 contemplated nothing less than seizing and holding the three great
+States of Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, with the aid of disloyal
+Democrats, whereupon it was supposed Missouri and Kentucky would
+quickly join them and make an end of the war.
+
+Becoming convinced, when this project fell through, that nothing could
+be expected from Northern Democrats he placed his reliance on Canadian
+sympathizers, and turned his attention to liberating the Confederate
+prisoners confined on Johnson's Island in Sandusky Bay and at Camp
+Douglas near Chicago. But both these elaborate schemes, which embraced
+such magnificent details as capturing the war steamer _Michigan_ on Lake
+Erie, came to naught. Nor did the plans to burn St. Louis and New York,
+and to destroy steamboats on the Mississippi River, to which he also
+gave his sanction, succeed much better. A very few men were tried and
+punished for these and similar crimes, despite the voluble protest of
+the Confederate government but the injuries he and his agents were able
+to inflict, like the acts of the Knights of the Golden Circle on the
+American side of the border, amounted merely to a petty annoyance, and
+never reached the dignity of real menace to the government.
+
+
+
+
+XXVI
+
+Burnside--Fredericksburg--A Tangle of Cross-Purposes--Hooker Succeeds
+Burnside--Lincoln to Hooker--Chancellorsville--Lee's Second
+Invasion--Lincoln's Criticisms of Hooker's Plans--Hooker
+Relieved--Meade--Gettysburg--Lee's Retreat--Lincoln's Letter to
+Meade--Lincoln's Gettysburg Address--Autumn Strategy--The Armies go into
+Winter Quarters
+
+
+It was not without well-meditated reasons that Mr. Lincoln had so long
+kept McClellan in command of the Army of the Potomac. He perfectly
+understood that general's defects, his want of initiative, his
+hesitations, his delays, his never-ending complaints. But he had long
+foreseen the difficulty which would and did immediately arise when, on
+November 5, 1862, he removed him from command. Whom should he appoint as
+McClellan's successor? What officer would be willing and competent to
+play a better part? That important question had also long been
+considered; several promising generals had been consulted, who, as
+gracefully as they could, shrank from the responsibility even before it
+was formally offered them.
+
+The President finally appointed General Ambrose E. Burnside to the
+command. He was a West Point graduate, thirty-eight years old, of
+handsome presence, brave and generous to a fault, and McClellan's
+intimate friend. He had won a favorable reputation in leading the
+expedition against Roanoke Island and the North Carolina coast; and,
+called to reinforce McClellan after the Peninsula disaster, commanded
+the left wing of the Army of the Potomac at Antietam. He was not
+covetous of the honor now given him. He had already twice declined it,
+and only now accepted the command as a duty under the urgent advice of
+members of his staff. His instincts were better than the judgment of his
+friends. A few brief weeks sufficed to demonstrate what he had told
+them--that he "was not competent to command such a large army."
+
+The very beginning of his work proved the truth of his self-criticism.
+Rejecting all the plans of campaign which were suggested to him, he
+found himself incapable of forming any very plausible or consistent one
+of his own. As a first move he concentrated his army opposite the town
+of Fredericksburg on the lower Rappahannock, but with such delays that
+General Lee had time to seize and strongly fortify the town and the
+important adjacent heights on the south bank; and when Burnside's army
+crossed on December 11, and made its main and direct attack on the
+formidable and practically impregnable Confederate intrenchments on the
+thirteenth, a crushing repulse and defeat of the Union forces, with a
+loss of over ten thousand killed and wounded, was the quick and direful
+result.
+
+It was in a spirit of stubborn determination rather than clear,
+calculating courage that he renewed his orders for an attack on the
+fourteenth; but, dissuaded by his division and corps commanders from the
+rash experiment, succeeded without further damage in withdrawing his
+forces on the night of the fifteenth to their old camps north of the
+river. In manly words his report of the unfortunate battle gave generous
+praise to his officers and men, and assumed for himself all the
+responsibility for the attack and its failure. But its secondary
+consequences soon became irremediable. By that gloomy disaster Burnside
+almost completely lost the confidence of his officers and men, and
+rumors soon came to the President that a spirit akin to mutiny pervaded
+the army. When information came that, on the day after Christmas,
+Burnside was preparing for a new campaign, the President telegraphed
+him:
+
+"I have good reason for saying you must not make a general movement of
+the army without letting me know."
+
+This, naturally, brought Burnside to the President for explanation, and,
+after a frank and full discussion between them, Mr. Lincoln, on New
+Year's day, wrote the following letter to General Halleck:
+
+"General Burnside wishes to cross the Rappahannock with his army, but
+his grand division commanders all oppose the movement. If in such a
+difficulty as this you do not help, you fail me precisely in the point
+for which I sought your assistance. You know what General Burnside's
+plan is, and it is my wish that you go with him to the ground, examine
+it as far as practicable, confer with the officers, getting their
+judgment and ascertaining their temper; in a word, gather all the
+elements for forming a judgment of your own, and then tell General
+Burnside that you do approve, or that you do not approve, his plan. Your
+military skill is useless to me if you will not do this."
+
+Halleck's moral and official courage, however, failed the President in
+this emergency. He declined to give his military opinion, and asked to
+be relieved from further duties as general-in-chief. This left Mr.
+Lincoln no option, and still having need of the advice of his
+general-in-chief on other questions, he indorsed on his own letter,
+"withdrawn because considered harsh by General Halleck." The
+complication, however, continued to grow worse, and the correspondence
+more strained. Burnside declared that the country had lost confidence in
+both the Secretary of War and the general-in-chief; also, that his own
+generals were unanimously opposed to again crossing the Rappahannock.
+Halleck, on the contrary, urged another crossing, but that it must be
+made on Burnside's own decision, plan, and responsibility. Upon this the
+President, on January 8, 1863, again wrote Burnside:
+
+"I understand General Halleck has sent you a letter of which this is a
+copy. I approve this letter. I deplore the want of concurrence with you
+in opinion by your general officers, but I do not see the remedy. Be
+cautious, and do not understand that the government or country is
+driving you. I do not yet see how I could profit by changing the command
+of the Army of the Potomac; and if I did, I should not wish to do it by
+accepting the resignation of your commission."
+
+Once more Burnside issued orders against which his generals protested,
+and which a storm turned into the fruitless and impossible "mud march"
+before he reached the intended crossings of the Rappahannock. Finally,
+on January 23, Burnside presented to the President the alternative of
+either approving an order dismissing about a dozen generals, or
+accepting his own resignation, and Mr. Lincoln once more had before him
+the difficult task of finding a new commander for the Army of the
+Potomac. On January 25, 1863, the President relieved Burnside and
+assigned Major-General Joseph Hooker to duty as his successor; and in
+explanation of his action wrote him the following characteristic letter:
+
+"I have placed you at the head of the Army of the Potomac. Of course I
+have done this upon what appear to me to be sufficient reasons, and yet
+I think it best for you to know that there are some things in regard to
+which I am not quite satisfied with you. I believe you to be a brave and
+skilful soldier, which, of course, I like. I also believe you do not mix
+politics with your profession, in which you are right. You have
+confidence in yourself, which is a valuable, if not an indispensable
+quality. You are ambitious, which, within reasonable bounds, does good
+rather than harm; but I think that during General Burnside's command of
+the army you have taken counsel of your ambition and thwarted him as
+much as you could, in which you did a great wrong to the country, and to
+a most meritorious and honorable brother officer. I have heard, in such
+a way as to believe it, of your recently saying that both the army and
+the government needed a dictator. Of course it was not for this, but in
+spite of it, that I have given you the command. Only those generals who
+gain successes can set up dictators. What I now ask of you is military
+success, and I will risk the dictatorship. The government will support
+you to the utmost of its ability, which is neither more nor less than it
+has done and will do for all commanders. I much fear that the spirit
+which you have aided to infuse into the army, of criticizing their
+commander and withholding confidence from him, will now turn upon you. I
+shall assist you as far as I can to put it down. Neither you nor
+Napoleon, if he were alive again, could get any good out of an army
+while such a spirit prevails in it; and now beware of rashness. Beware
+of rashness, but with energy and sleepless vigilance go forward and give
+us victories."
+
+Perhaps the most remarkable thing in this letter is the evidence it
+gives how completely the genius of President Lincoln had by this, the
+middle of his presidential term, risen to the full height of his great
+national duties and responsibilities. From beginning to end it speaks
+the language and breathes the spirit of the great ruler, secure in
+popular confidence and official authority, equal to the great
+emergencies that successively rose before him. Upon General Hooker its
+courteous praise and frank rebuke, its generous trust and distinct note
+of fatherly warning, made a profound impression. He strove worthily to
+redeem his past indiscretions by devoting himself with great zeal and
+energy to improving the discipline and morale of his army, recalling its
+absentees, and restoring its spirit by increased drill and renewed
+activity. He kept the President well informed of what he was doing, and
+early in April submitted a plan of campaign on which Mr. Lincoln
+indorsed, on the eleventh of that month:
+
+"My opinion is that just now, with the enemy directly ahead of us, there
+is no eligible route for us into Richmond; and consequently a question
+of preference between the Rappahannock route and the James River route
+is a contest about nothing. Hence, our prime object is the enemy's army
+in front of us, and is not with or about Richmond at all, unless it be
+incidental to the main object."
+
+Having raised his effective force to about one hundred and thirty
+thousand men, and learning that Lee's army was weakened by detachments
+to perhaps half that number, Hooker, near the end of the month, prepared
+and executed a bold movement which for a while was attended with
+encouraging progress. Sending General Sedgwick with three army corps to
+make a strong demonstration and crossing below Fredericksburg, Hooker
+with his remaining four corps made a somewhat long and circuitous march
+by which he crossed both the Rappahannock and the Rapidan above the
+town without serious opposition, and on the evening of April 30 had his
+four corps at Chancellorsville, south of the Rappahannock, from whence
+he could advance against the rear of the enemy. But his advantage of
+position was neutralized by the difficulties of the ground. He was in
+the dense and tangled forest known as the Wilderness, and the decision
+and energy of his brilliant and successful advance were suddenly
+succeeded by a spirit of hesitation and delay in which the evident and
+acknowledged chances of victory were gradually lost. The enemy found
+time to rally from his surprise and astonishment, to gather a strong
+line of defense, and finally, to organize a counter flank movement under
+Stonewall Jackson, which fell upon the rear of the Union right and
+created a panic in the Eleventh Corps. Sedgwick's force had crossed
+below and taken Fredericksburg; but the divided Union army could not
+effect a junction; and the fighting from May 1 to May 4 finally ended by
+the withdrawal of both sections of the Union army north of the
+Rappahannock. The losses suffered by the Union and the Confederate
+forces were about equal, but the prestige of another brilliant victory
+fell to General Lee, seriously balanced, however, by the death of
+Stonewall Jackson, who was accidentally killed by the fire of his own
+men.
+
+In addition to his evident very unusual diminution of vigor and will,
+Hooker had received a personal injury on the third, which for some hours
+rendered him incapable of command; and he said in his testimony before
+the Committee on the Conduct of the War:
+
+"When I returned from Chancellorsville I felt that I had fought no
+battle; in fact, I had more men than I could use, and I fought no
+general battle for the reason that I could not get my men in position to
+do so probably not more than three or three and a half corps on the
+right were engaged in the fight."
+
+Hooker's defeat at Chancellorsville had not been so great a disaster as
+that of Burnside at Fredericksburg; and while his influence was greatly
+impaired, his usefulness did not immediately cease. The President and
+the Secretary of War still had faith in him. The average opinion of his
+qualities has been tersely expressed by one of his critics, who wrote:
+"As an inferior he planned badly and fought well; as a chief he planned
+well and fought badly." The course of war soon changed, so that he was
+obliged to follow rather than permitted to lead the developments of a
+new campaign.
+
+The brilliant victories gained by Lee inspired the Confederate
+authorities and leaders with a greatly exaggerated hope of the ultimate
+success of the rebellion. It was during the summer of 1863 that the
+Confederate armies reached, perhaps, their highest numerical strength
+and greatest degree of efficiency. Both the long dreamed of possibility
+of achieving Southern independence and the newly flushed military ardor
+of officers and men, elated by what seemed to them an unbroken record of
+successes on the Virginia battle-fields moved General Lee to the bold
+hazard of a second invasion of the North. Early in June, Hooker gave it
+as his opinion that Lee intended to move against Washington, and asked
+whether in that case he should attack the Confederate rear. To this
+Lincoln answered on the fifth of that month:
+
+"In case you find Lee coming to the north of the Rappahannock, I would
+by no means cross to the south of it. If he should leave a rear force at
+Fredericksburg tempting you to fall upon it, it would fight in
+intrenchments and have you at disadvantage, and so, man for man, worst
+you at that point, while his main force would in some way be getting an
+advantage of you northward. In one word, I would not take any risk of
+being entangled upon the river, like an ox jumped half over a fence and
+liable to be torn by dogs front and rear, without a fair chance to gore
+one way or kick the other."
+
+Five days later, Hooker, having become convinced that a large part of
+Lee's army was in motion toward the Shenandoah valley, proposed the
+daring plan of a quick and direct march to capture Richmond. But the
+President immediately telegraphed him a convincing objection:
+
+"If left to me, I would not go south of the Rappahannock upon Lee's
+moving north of it. If you had Richmond invested to-day, you would not
+be able to take it in twenty days; meanwhile, your communications, and
+with them your army, would be ruined. I think Lee's army, and not
+Richmond, is your true objective point. If he comes toward the upper
+Potomac, follow on his flank and on his inside track, shortening your
+lines while he lengthens his. Fight him, too, when opportunity offers.
+If he stays where he is, fret him and fret him."
+
+The movement northward of Lee's army, effectually masked for some days
+by frequent cavalry skirmishes, now became evident to the Washington
+authorities. On June 14, Lincoln telegraphed Hooker:
+
+"So far as we can make out here, the enemy have Milroy surrounded at
+Winchester, and Tyler at Martinsburg If they could hold out a few days,
+could you help them? If the head of Lee's army is at Martinsburg, and
+the tail of it on the plank road between Fredericksburg and
+Chancellorsville, the animal must be very slim somewhere. Could you not
+break him?"
+
+While Lee, without halting, crossed the Potomac above Harper's Ferry,
+and continued his northward march into Maryland and Pennsylvania, Hooker
+prudently followed on the "inside track" as Mr. Lincoln had suggested,
+interposing the Union army effectually to guard Washington and
+Baltimore. But at this point a long-standing irritation and jealousy
+between Hooker and Halleck became so acute that on the
+general-in-chief's refusing a comparatively minor request, Hooker asked
+to be relieved from command. The President, deeming divided counsel at
+so critical a juncture more hazardous than a change of command, took
+Hooker at his word, and appointed General George G. Meade as his
+successor.
+
+Meade had, since Chancellorsville, been as caustic a critic of Hooker as
+Hooker was of Burnside at and after Fredericksburg. But all spirit of
+insubordination vanished in the exciting stress of a pursuing campaign
+and the new and retiring leaders of the Army of the Potomac exchanged
+compliments in General Orders with high chivalric courtesy, while the
+army continued its northward march with undiminished ardor and unbroken
+step. When Meade crossed the Pennsylvania line, Lee was already far
+ahead, threatening Harrisburg. The Confederate invasion spread terror
+and loss among farms and villages, and created almost a panic in the
+great cities. Under the President's call for one hundred thousand six
+months' militia six of the adjoining States were sending hurried and
+improvised forces to the banks of the Susquehanna, under the command of
+General Couch. Lee, finding that stream too well guarded, turned his
+course directly east, which, with Meade marching to the north, brought
+the opposing armies into inevitable contact and collision at the town of
+Gettysburg.
+
+Meade had both expected and carefully prepared to receive the attack
+and fight a defensive battle on the line of Pipe Creek. But when, on the
+afternoon of July 1, 1863, the advance detachments of each army met and
+engaged in a fierce conflict for the possession of the town, Meade, on
+learning the nature of the fight, and the situation of the ground,
+instantly decided to accept it, and ordering forward his whole force,
+made it the principal and most decisive battle-field of the whole war.
+
+The Union troops made a violent and stubborn effort to hold the town of
+Gettysburg; but the early Confederate arrivals, taking position in a
+half-circle on the west, north, and east, drove them through and out of
+it. The seeming reverse proved an advantage. Half a mile to the south it
+enabled the Union detachments to seize and establish themselves on
+Cemetery Ridge and Hill. This, with several rocky elevations, and a
+crest of boulders making a curve to the east at the northern end, was in
+itself almost a natural fortress, and with the intrenchments thrown up
+by the expert veterans, soon became nearly impregnable. Beyond a wide
+valley to the west, and parallel with it, lay Seminary Ridge, on which
+the Confederate army established itself with equal rapidity. Lee had
+also hoped to fight a defensive battle; but thus suddenly arrested in
+his eastward march in a hostile country, could not afford to stand still
+and wait.
+
+On the morning of July 2, both commanding generals were in the field.
+After careful studies and consultations Lee ordered an attack on both
+the extreme right and extreme left of the Union position, meeting some
+success in the former, but a complete repulse in the latter. That night,
+Meade's council of war, coinciding with his own judgment, resolved to
+stand and fight it out; while Lee, against the advice of Longstreet,
+his ablest general, with equal decision determined to risk the chance of
+a final and determined attack.
+
+It was Meade who began the conflict at dawn on the morning of July 3,
+but only long enough to retake and hold the intrenchments on his extreme
+right, which he had lost the evening before; then for some hours an
+ominous lull and silence fell over the whole battle-field. But these
+were hours of stern preparation At midday a furious cannonade began from
+one hundred and thirty Confederate guns on Seminary Ridge, which was
+answered with promptness and spirit by about seventy Union guns from the
+crests and among the boulders of Cemetery Ridge; and the deafening roar
+of artillery lasted for about an hour, at the end of which time the
+Union guns ceased firing and were allowed to cool, and to be made ready
+to meet the assault that was sure to come. There followed a period of
+waiting almost painful to officers and men, in its intense expectancy;
+and then across the broad, undulating, and highly cultivated valley
+swept the long attacking line of seventeen thousand rebel infantry, the
+very flower of the Confederate army. But it was a hopeless charge.
+Thinned, almost mowed down by the grape-shot of the Union batteries and
+the deadly aim of the Union riflemen behind their rocks and
+intrenchments the Confederate assault wavered, hesitated, struggled on,
+and finally melted away before the destructive fire. A few rebel
+battle-flags reached the crest, only, however, to fall, and their
+bearers and supporters to be made prisoners. The Confederate dream of
+taking Philadelphia and dictating peace and separation in Independence
+Hall was over forever.
+
+It is doubtful whether Lee immediately realized the full measure of his
+defeat, or Meade the magnitude of his victory. The terrible losses of
+the battle of Gettysburg--over three thousand killed, fourteen thousand
+wounded, and five thousand captured or missing of the Union army; and
+twenty-six hundred killed, twelve thousand wounded, and five thousand
+missing of the Confederates--largely occupied the thoughts and labors of
+both sides during the national holiday which followed. It was a surprise
+to Meade that on the morning of July 5 the Confederate army had
+disappeared, retreating as rapidly as might be to the neighborhood of
+Harper's Ferry. Unable immediately to cross because the Potomac was
+swollen by heavy rains, and Meade having followed and arrived in Lee's
+front on July 10, President Lincoln had the liveliest hopes that Meade
+would again attack and capture or destroy the Confederate army. Generous
+praise for his victory, and repeated and urgent suggestions to renew his
+attack and end the rebellion, had gone to Meade from the President and
+General Halleck. But Meade hesitated, and his council of war objected;
+and on the night of July 13 Lee recrossed the Potomac in retreat. When
+he heard the news, Mr. Lincoln sat down and wrote a letter of criticism
+and disappointment which reflects the intensity of his feeling at the
+escape of Lee:
+
+"The case, summarily stated, is this: You fought and beat the enemy at
+Gettysburg, and, of course, to say the least, his loss was as great as
+yours. He retreated and you did not, as it seemed to me, pressingly
+pursue him; but a flood in the river detained him till, by slow degrees,
+you were again upon him. You had at least twenty thousand veteran troops
+directly with you, and as many more raw ones within supporting distance,
+all in addition to those who fought with you at Gettysburg, while it was
+not possible that he had received a single recruit, and yet you stood
+and let the flood run down, bridges be built, and the enemy move away
+at his leisure, without attacking him.... Again, my dear general, I do
+not believe you appreciate the magnitude of the misfortune involved in
+Lee's escape. He was within your easy grasp, and to have closed upon him
+would, in connection with our other late successes, have ended the war.
+As it is, the war will be prolonged indefinitely. If you could not
+safely attack Lee last Monday, how can you possibly do so south of the
+river, when you can take with you very few more than two thirds of the
+force you then had in hand? It would be unreasonable to expect, and I do
+not expect [that] you can now effect much. Your golden opportunity is
+gone, and I am distressed immeasurably because of it."
+
+Clearly as Mr. Lincoln had sketched and deeply as he felt Meade's fault
+of omission, so quick was the President's spirit of forgiveness, and so
+thankful was he for the measure of success which had been gained, that
+he never signed or sent the letter.
+
+Two memorable events are forever linked with the Gettysburg victory: the
+surrender of Vicksburg to Grant on the same fourth of July, described in
+the next chapter, and the dedication of the Gettysburg battle-field as a
+national cemetery for Union soldiers, on November 19, 1863, on which
+occasion President Lincoln crowned that imposing ceremonial with an
+address of such literary force, brevity, and beauty, that critics have
+assigned it a high rank among the world's historic orations. He said:
+
+"Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this
+continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the
+proposition that all men are created equal.
+
+"Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation,
+or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met
+on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion
+of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their
+lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper
+that we should do this.
+
+"But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate--we cannot consecrate--we
+cannot hallow--this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who
+struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or
+detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here,
+but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living,
+rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who
+fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be
+here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these
+honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they
+gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that
+these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God,
+shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by
+the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
+
+Having safely crossed the Potomac, the Confederate army continued its
+retreat without halting to the familiar camps in central Virginia it had
+so long and valiantly defended. Meade followed with alert but prudent
+vigilance, but did not again find such chances as he lost on the fourth
+of July, or while the swollen waters of the Potomac held his enemy as in
+a trap. During the ensuing autumn months there went on between the
+opposing generals an unceasing game of strategy, a succession of moves
+and counter-moves in which the opposing commanders handled their great
+armies with the same consumate skill with which the expert
+fencing-master uses his foil, but in which neither could break through
+the other's guard. Repeated minor encounters took place which, in other
+wars, would have rated as heavy battles; but the weeks lengthened into
+months without decisive results, and when the opposing armies finally
+went into winter quarters in December, 1863, they again confronted each
+other across the Rapidan in Virginia, not very far south of where they
+lay in the winter of 1861.
+
+
+
+
+XXVII
+
+Buell and Bragg--Perryville--Rosecrans and Murfreesboro--Grant's
+Vicksburg Experiments--Grant's May Battles--Siege and Surrender of
+Vicksburg--Lincoln to Grant--Rosecrans's March to Chattanooga--Battle of
+Chickamauga--Grant at Chattanooga--Battle of Chattanooga--Burnside at
+Knoxville--Burnside Repulses Longstreet
+
+
+From the Virginia campaigns of 1863 we must return to the Western
+campaigns of the same year, or, to be more precise, beginning with the
+middle of 1862. When, in July of that year, Halleck was called to
+Washington to become general-in-chief, the principal plan he left behind
+was that Buell, with the bulk of the forces which had captured Corinth,
+should move from that place eastward to occupy eastern Tennessee. Buell,
+however, progressed so leisurely that before he reached Chattanooga the
+Confederate General Bragg, by a swift northward movement, advanced into
+eastern Kentucky, enacted the farce of appointing a Confederate governor
+for that State, and so threatened Louisville that Buell was compelled
+abruptly to abandon his eastward march and, turning to the north, run a
+neck-and-neck race to save Louisville from rebel occupation. Successful
+in this, Buell immediately turned and, pursuing the now retreating
+forces of Bragg, brought them to bay at Perryville, where, on October 8,
+was fought a considerable battle from which Bragg immediately retreated
+out of Kentucky.
+
+While on one hand Bragg had suffered defeat, he had on the other caused
+Buell to give up all idea of moving into East Tennessee, an object on
+which the President had specially and repeatedly insisted. When Halleck
+specifically ordered Buell to resume and execute that plan, Buell urged
+such objections, and intimated such unwillingness, that on October 24,
+1862, he was relieved from command, and General Rosecrans was appointed
+to succeed him. Rosecrans neglected the East Tennessee orders as
+heedlessly as Buell had done; but, reorganizing the Army of the
+Cumberland and strengthening his communications, marched against Bragg,
+who had gone into winter quarters at Murfreesboro. The severe engagement
+of that name, fought on December 31, 1862, and the three succeeding days
+of the new year, between forces numbering about forty-three thousand on
+each side, was tactically a drawn battle, but its results rendered it an
+important Union victory, compelling Bragg to retreat; though, for
+reasons which he never satisfactorily explained, Rosecrans failed for
+six months to follow up his evident advantages.
+
+The transfer of Halleck from the West to Washington in the summer of
+1862, left Grant in command of the district of West Tennessee. But
+Buell's eastward expedition left him so few movable troops that during
+the summer and most of the autumn he was able to accomplish little
+except to defend his department by the repulse of the enemy at Iuka in
+September, and at Corinth early in October, Rosecrans being in local
+command at both places. It was for these successes that Rosecrans was
+chosen to succeed Buell.
+
+Grant had doubtless given much of his enforced leisure to studying the
+great problem of opening the Mississippi, a task which was thus left in
+his own hands, but for which, as yet, he found neither a theoretical
+solution, nor possessed an army sufficiently strong to begin practical
+work. Under the most favorable aspects, it was a formidable undertaking.
+Union gunboats had full control of the great river from Cairo as far
+south as Vicksburg; and Farragut's fleet commanded it from New Orleans
+as far north as Port Hudson. But the intervening link of two hundred
+miles between these places was in as complete possession of the
+Confederates, giving the rebellion uninterrupted access to the immense
+resources in men and supplies of the trans-Mississippi country, and
+effectually barring the free navigation of the river. Both the cities
+named were strongly fortified, but Vicksburg, on the east bank, by its
+natural situation on a bluff two hundred feet high, rising almost out of
+the stream, was unassailable from the river front. Farragut had, indeed,
+in midsummer passed up and down before it with little damage from its
+fire; but, in return, his own guns could no more do harm to its
+batteries than they could have bombarded a fortress in the clouds.
+
+When, by the middle of November, 1862, Grant was able to reunite
+sufficient reinforcements, he started on a campaign directly southward
+toward Jackson, the capital of Mississippi, and sent Sherman, with an
+expedition from Memphis, down the river to the mouth of the Yazoo,
+hoping to unite these forces against Vicksburg. But before Grant reached
+Grenada his railroad communications were cut by a Confederate raid, and
+his great depot of supplies at Holly Springs captured and burned,
+leaving him for two weeks without other provisions than such as he could
+gather by foraging. The costly lesson proved a valuable experience to
+him, which he soon put to use. Sherman's expedition also met disaster.
+Landing at Milliken's Bend, on the west bank of the Mississippi, he
+ventured a daring storming assault from the east bank of the Yazoo at
+Haines's Bluff, ten miles north of Vicksburg, but met a bloody repulse.
+
+Having abandoned his railroad advance, Grant next joined Sherman at
+Milliken's Bend in January, 1863, where also Admiral Porter, with a
+river squadron of seventy vessels, eleven of them ironclads, was added
+to his force. For the next three months Grant kept his large army and
+flotilla busy with four different experiments to gain a practicable
+advance toward Vicksburg, until his fifth highly novel and, to other
+minds, seemingly reckless and impossible plan secured him a brilliant
+success and results of immense military advantage. One experiment was to
+cut a canal across the tongue of land opposite Vicksburg, through which
+the flotilla might pass out of range of the Vicksburg guns. A second was
+to force the gunboats and transports up the tortuous and swampy Yazoo to
+find a landing far north of Haines's Bluff. A third was for the flotilla
+to enter through Yazoo Pass and Cold Water River, two hundred miles
+above, and descend the Yazoo to a hoped-for landing. Still a fourth
+project was to cut a canal into Lake Providence west of the Mississippi,
+seventy miles above, find a practicable waterway through two hundred
+miles of bayous and rivers, and establish communication with Banks and
+Farragut, who were engaged in an effort to capture Port Hudson.
+
+The time, the patience, the infinite labor, and enormous expense of
+these several projects were utterly wasted. Early in April, Grant began
+an entirely new plan, which was opposed by all his ablest generals, and,
+tested by the accepted rules of military science, looked like a headlong
+venture of rash desperation. During the month of April he caused Admiral
+Porter to prepare fifteen or twenty vessels--ironclads, steam
+transports, and provision barges--and run them boldly by night past the
+Vicksburg and, later, past the Grand Gulf batteries, which the admiral
+happily accomplished with very little loss. Meanwhile, the general, by a
+very circuitous route of seventy miles, marched an army of thirty-five
+thousand down the west bank of the Mississippi and, with Porter's
+vessels and transports, crossed them to the east side of the river at
+Bruinsburg. From this point, with an improvised train of country
+vehicles to carry his ammunition, and living meanwhile entirely upon the
+country, as he had learned to do in his baffled Grenada expedition, he
+made one of the most rapid and brilliant campaigns in military history.
+In the first twenty days of May he marched one hundred and eighty miles,
+and fought five winning battles--respectively Port Gibson, Raymond,
+Jackson, Champion's Hill, and Big Black River--in each of which he
+brought his practically united force against the enemy's separated
+detachments, capturing altogether eighty-eight guns and over six
+thousand prisoners, and shutting up the Confederate General Pemberton in
+Vicksburg. By a rigorous siege of six weeks he then compelled his
+antagonist to surrender the strongly fortified city with one hundred and
+seventy-two cannon, and his army of nearly thirty thousand men. On the
+fourth of July, 1863, the day after Meade's crushing defeat of Lee at
+Gettysburg, the surrender took place, citizens and Confederate soldiers
+doubtless rejoicing that the old national holiday gave them escape from
+their caves and bomb-proofs, and full Yankee rations to still their
+long-endured hunger.
+
+The splendid victory of Grant brought about a quick and important echo.
+About the time that the Union army closed around Vicksburg, General
+Banks, on the lower Mississippi, began a close investment and siege of
+Port Hudson, which he pushed with determined tenacity. When the rebel
+garrison heard the artillery salutes which were fired by order of Banks
+to celebrate the surrender of Vicksburg, and the rebel commander was
+informed of Pemberton's disaster, he also gave up the defense, and on
+July 9 surrendered Port Hudson with six thousand prisoners and fifty-one
+guns.
+
+Great national rejoicing followed this double success of the Union arms
+on the Mississippi, which, added to Gettysburg, formed the turning tide
+in the war of the rebellion; and no one was more elated over these
+Western victories, which fully restored the free navigation of the
+Mississippi, than President Lincoln. Like that of the whole country, his
+patience had been severely tried by the long and ineffectual experiments
+of Grant. But from first to last Mr. Lincoln had given him firm and
+undeviating confidence and support. He not only gave the general quick
+promotion, but crowned the official reward with the following generous
+letter:
+
+"My Dear General: I do not remember that you and I ever met personally.
+I write this now as a grateful acknowledgment for the almost inestimable
+service you have done the country. I wish to say a word further. When
+you first reached the vicinity of Vicksburg, I thought you should do
+what you finally did--march the troops across the neck, run the
+batteries with the transports, and thus go below; and I never had any
+faith, except a general hope that you knew better than I, that the Yazoo
+Pass expedition and the like could succeed. When you got below and took
+Port Gibson, Grand Gulf, and vicinity, I thought you should go down the
+river and join General Banks, and when you turned northward, east of the
+Big Black, I feared it was a mistake. I now wish to make the personal
+acknowledgment that you were right and I was wrong."
+
+It has already been mentioned that General Rosecrans after winning the
+battle of Murfreesboro at the beginning of 1863, remained inactive at
+that place nearly six months, though, of course, constantly busy
+recruiting his army, gathering supplies, and warding off several
+troublesome Confederate cavalry raids. The defeated General Bragg
+retreated only to Shelbyville, ten miles south of the battle-field he
+had been obliged to give up, and the military frontier thus divided
+Tennessee between the contestants. Against repeated prompting and urging
+from Washington, Rosecrans continued to find real or imaginary excuses
+for delay until midsummer, when, as if suddenly awaking from a long
+lethargy, he made a bold advance and, by a nine days' campaign of
+skilful strategy, forced Bragg into a retreat that stopped only at
+Chattanooga, south of the Tennessee River, which, with the surrounding
+mountains, made it the strategical center and military key to the heart
+of Georgia and the South. This march of Rosecrans, ending the day before
+the Vicksburg surrender, again gave the Union forces full possession of
+middle Tennessee down to its southern boundary.
+
+The march completed, and the enemy thus successfully manoeuvered out of
+the State, Rosecrans once more came to a halt, and made no further
+movement for six weeks. The President and General Halleck were already
+out of patience with Rosecrans for his long previous delay. Bragg's
+retreat to Chattanooga was such a gratifying and encouraging supplement
+to the victories of Vicksburg and Port Hudson, that they felt the
+Confederate army should not be allowed to rest, recruit, and fortify the
+important gateway to the heart of the Southern Confederacy, and early
+in August sent Rosecrans peremptory orders to advance. This direction
+seemed the more opportune and necessary, since Burnside had organized a
+special Union force in eastern Kentucky, and was about starting on a
+direct campaign into East Tennessee.
+
+Finally, obeying this explicit injunction, Rosecrans took the initiative
+in the middle of August by a vigorous southward movement. Threatening
+Chattanooga from the north, he marched instead around the left flank of
+Bragg's army, boldly crossing the Cumberland Mountains, the Tennessee
+River, and two mountain ranges beyond. Bragg, seriously alarmed lest
+Rosecrans should seize the railroad communications behind him, hastily
+evacuated Chattanooga, but not with the intention of flight, as
+Rosecrans erroneously believed and reported. When, on September 9, the
+left of Rosecrans's army marched into Chattanooga without firing a shot,
+the Union detachments were so widely scattered in separating mountain
+valleys, in pursuit of Bragg's imaginary retreat, that Bragg believed he
+saw his chance to crush them in detail before they could unite.
+
+With this resolve, Bragg turned upon his antagonist but his effort at
+quick concentration was delayed by the natural difficulties of the
+ground. By September 19, both armies were well gathered on opposite
+sides of Chickamauga Creek, eight miles southeast of Chattanooga; each
+commander being as yet, however, little informed of the other's position
+and strength. Bragg had over seventy-one thousand men; Rosecrans,
+fifty-seven thousand. The conflict was finally begun, rather by accident
+than design, and on that day and the twentieth was fought the battle of
+Chickamauga, one of the severest encounters of the whole war. Developing
+itself without clear knowledge on either side, it became a moving
+conflict, Bragg constantly extending his attack toward his right, and
+Rosecrans meeting the onset with prompt shifting toward his left.
+
+In this changing contest Rosecrans's army underwent an alarming crisis
+on the second day of the battle. A mistake or miscarriage of orders
+opened a gap of two brigades in his line, which the enemy quickly found,
+and through which the Confederate battalions rushed with an energy that
+swept away the whole Union right in a disorderly retreat. Rosecrans
+himself was caught in the panic, and, believing the day irretrievably
+lost, hastened back to Chattanooga to report the disaster and collect
+what he might of his flying army. The hopeless prospect, however, soon
+changed. General Thomas, second in command, and originally in charge of
+the center, had been sent by Rosecrans to the extreme left, and had,
+while the right was giving way, successfully repulsed the enemy in his
+front. He had been so fortunate as to secure a strong position on the
+head of a ridge, around which he gathered such remnants of the beaten
+detachments as he could collect, amounting to about half the Union army,
+and here, from two o'clock in the afternoon until dark, he held his
+semicircular line against repeated assaults of the enemy, with a heroic
+valor that earned him the sobriquet of "The Rock of Chickamauga." At
+night, Thomas retired, under orders, to Rossville, half way to
+Chattanooga.
+
+The President was of course greatly disappointed when Rosecrans
+telegraphed that he had met a serious disaster, but this disappointment
+was mitigated by the quickly following news of the magnificent defense
+and the successful stand made by General Thomas at the close of the
+battle. Mr. Lincoln immediately wrote in a note to Halleck:
+
+"I think it very important for General Rosecrans to hold his position at
+or about Chattanooga, because, if held, from that place to Cleveland,
+both inclusive, it keeps all Tennessee clear of the enemy, and also
+breaks one of his most important railroad lines.... If he can only
+maintain this position, without more, this rebellion can only eke out a
+short and feeble existence, as an animal sometimes may with a thorn in
+its vitals."
+
+And to Rosecrans he telegraphed directly, bidding him be of good cheer,
+and adding: "We shall do our utmost to assist you." To this end the
+administration took instant and energetic measures. On the night of
+September 23, the President, General Halleck, several members of the
+cabinet, and leading army and railroad officials met in an improvised
+council at the War Department, and issued emergency orders under which
+two army corps from the Army of the Potomac, numbering twenty thousand
+men in all, with their arms and equipments ready for the field, the
+whole under command of General Hooker, were transported from their camps
+on the Rapidan by railway to Nashville and the Tennessee River in the
+next eight days. Burnside, who had arrived at Knoxville early in
+September, was urged by repeated messages to join Rosecrans, and other
+reinforcements were already on the way from Memphis and Vicksburg.
+
+All this help, however, was not instantly available. Before it could
+arrive Rosecrans felt obliged to draw together within the fortifications
+of Chattanooga, while Bragg quickly closed about him, and, by
+practically blockading Rosecrans's river communication, placed him in a
+state of siege. In a few weeks the limited supplies brought the Union
+army face to face with famine. It having become evident that Rosecrans
+was incapable of extricating it from its peril, he was relieved and the
+command given to Thomas, while the three western departments were
+consolidated under General Grant, and he was ordered personally to
+proceed to Chattanooga, which place he reached on October 22.
+
+Before his arrival, General W.F. Smith had devised and prepared an
+ingenious plan to regain control of river communication. Under the
+orders of Grant, Smith successfully executed it, and full rations soon
+restored vigor and confidence to the Union troops. The considerable
+reinforcements under Hooker and Sherman coming up, put the besieging
+enemy on the defensive, and active preparations were begun, which
+resulted in the famous battle and overwhelming Union victory of
+Chattanooga on November 23, 24, and 25, 1863.
+
+The city of Chattanooga lies on the southeastern bank of the Tennessee
+River. Back of the city, Chattanooga valley forms a level plain about
+two miles in width to Missionary Ridge, a narrow mountain range five
+hundred feet high, generally parallel to the course of the Tennessee,
+extending far to the southwest. The Confederates had fortified the upper
+end of Missionary Ridge to a length of five to seven miles opposite the
+city, lining its long crest with about thirty guns, amply supported by
+infantry. This formidable barrier was still further strengthened by two
+lines of rifle-pits, one at the base of Missionary Ridge next to the
+city, and another with advanced pickets still nearer Chattanooga
+Northward, the enemy strongly held the end of Missionary Ridge where the
+railroad tunnel passes through it; southward, they held the yet stronger
+point of Lookout Mountain, whose rocky base turns the course of the
+Tennessee River in a short bend to the north.
+
+Grant's plan in rough outline was, that Sherman, with the Army of the
+Tennessee, should storm the northern end of Missionary Ridge at the
+railroad tunnel; Hooker, stationed at Wauhatchie, thirteen miles to the
+southwest with his two corps from the Army of the Potomac, should
+advance toward the city, storming the point of Lookout Mountain on his
+way; and Thomas, in the city, attack the direct front of Missionary
+Ridge. The actual beginning slightly varied this program, with a change
+of corps and divisions, but the detail is not worth noting.
+
+Beginning on the night of November 23, Sherman crossed his command over
+the Tennessee, and on the afternoon of the twenty-fourth gained the
+northern end of Missionary Ridge, driving the enemy before him as far as
+the railroad tunnel. Here, however, he found a deep gap in the ridge,
+previously unknown to him, which barred his further progress. That same
+afternoon Hooker's troops worked their way through mist and fog up the
+rugged sides of Lookout Mountain, winning the brilliant success which
+has become famous as the "battle above the clouds." That same afternoon,
+also, two divisions of the center, under the eyes of Grant and Thomas,
+pushed forward the Union line about a mile, seizing and fortifying a
+hill called Orchard Knob, capturing Bragg's first line of rifle-pits and
+several hundred prisoners.
+
+So far, everything had occurred to inspirit the Union troops and
+discourage the enemy. But the main incident was yet to come, on the
+afternoon of November 25. All the forenoon of that day Grant waited
+eagerly to see Sherman making progress along the north end of Missionary
+Ridge, not knowing that he had met an impassable valley. Grant's
+patience was equally tried at hearing no news from Hooker, though that
+general had successfully reached Missionary Ridge, and was ascending
+the gap near Rossville.
+
+At three o'clock in the afternoon Grant at length gave Thomas the order
+to advance. Eleven Union brigades rushed forward with orders to take the
+enemy's rifle-pits at the base of Missionary Ridge, and then halt to
+reform. But such was the ease of this first capture, such the eagerness
+of the men who had been waiting all day for the moment of action, that,
+after but a slight pause, without orders, and moved by a common impulse,
+they swept on and up the steep and rocky face of Missionary Ridge,
+heedless of the enemy's fire from rifle and cannon at the top, until in
+fifty-five minutes after leaving their positions they almost
+simultaneously broke over the crest of the ridge in six different
+places, capturing the batteries and making prisoners of the supporting
+infantry, who, surprised and bewildered by the daring escalade, made
+little or no further resistance. Bragg's official report soundly berates
+the conduct of his men, apparently forgetting the heavy loss they had
+inflicted on their assailants but regardless of which the Union veterans
+mounted to victory in an almost miraculous exaltation of patriotic
+heroism.
+
+Bragg's Confederate army was not only beaten, but hopelessly demoralized
+by the fiery Union assault, and fled in panic and retreat. Grant kept up
+a vigorous pursuit to a distance of twenty miles, which he ceased in
+order to send an immediate strong reinforcement under Sherman to relieve
+Burnside, besieged by the Confederate General Longstreet at Knoxville.
+But before this help arrived, Burnside had repulsed Longstreet who,
+promptly informed of the Chattanooga disaster, retreated in the
+direction of Virginia. Not being pursued, however, this general again
+wintered in East Tennessee; and for the same reason, the beaten army of
+Bragg halted in its retreat from Missionary Ridge at Dalton, where it
+also went into winter quarters. The battle of Chattanooga had opened the
+great central gateway to the south, but the rebel army, still determined
+and formidable, yet lay in its path, only twenty-eight miles away.
+
+
+
+
+XXVIII
+
+Grant Lieutenant-General--Interview with Lincoln--Grant Visits
+Sherman--Plan of Campaigns--Lincoln to Grant--From the Wilderness to Cold
+Harbor--The Move to City Point--Siege of Petersburg--Early Menaces
+Washington--Lincoln under Fire--Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley
+
+
+The army rank of lieutenant-general had, before the Civil War, been
+conferred only twice on American commanders; on Washington, for service
+in the War of Independence, and on Scott, for his conquest of Mexico. As
+a reward for the victories of Donelson, Vicksburg, and Chattanooga,
+Congress passed, and the President signed in February, 1864, an act to
+revive that grade. Calling Grant to Washington, the President met him
+for the first time at a public reception at the Executive Mansion on
+March 8, when the famous general was received with all the
+manifestations of interest and enthusiasm possible in a social state
+ceremonial. On the following day, at one o'clock, the general's formal
+investiture with his new rank and authority took place in the presence
+of Mr. Lincoln, the cabinet, and a few other officials.
+
+"General Grant," said the President, "the nation's appreciation of what
+you have done, and its reliance upon you for what remains to do in the
+existing great struggle, are now presented, with this commission
+constituting you Lieutenant-General in the Army of the United States.
+With this high honor devolves upon you, also, a corresponding
+responsibility. As the country herein trusts you, so, under God, it will
+sustain you. I scarcely need to add that with what I here speak for the
+nation, goes my own hearty personal concurrence."
+
+General Grant's reply was modest and also very brief:
+
+"Mr. President, I accept this commission with gratitude for the high
+honor conferred. With the aid of the noble armies that have fought on so
+many fields for our common country, it will be my earnest endeavor not
+to disappoint your expectations. I feel the full weight of the
+responsibilities now devolving on me; and I know that if they are met,
+it will be due to those armies, and above all to the favor of that
+Providence which leads both nations and men."
+
+In the informal conversation which followed, General Grant inquired what
+special service was expected of him; to which the President replied that
+the country wanted him to take Richmond; and being asked if he could do
+so, replied that he could if he had the troops, which he was assured
+would be furnished him. On the following day, Grant went to the Army of
+the Potomac, where Meade received him with frank courtesy, generously
+suggesting that he was ready to yield the command to any one Grant might
+prefer. Grant, however, informed Meade that he desired to make no
+change; and, returning to Washington, started west without a moment's
+loss of time. On March 12, 1864, formal orders of the War Department
+placed Grant in command of all the armies of the United States, while
+Halleck, relieved from that duty, was retained at Washington as the
+President's chief of staff.
+
+Grant frankly confesses in his "Memoirs" that when he started east it
+was with a firm determination to accept no appointment requiring him to
+leave the West; but "when I got to Washington and saw the situation, it
+was plain that here was the point for the commanding general to be." His
+short visit had removed several false impressions, and future experience
+was to cure him of many more.
+
+When Grant again met Sherman in the West, he outlined to that general,
+who had become his most intimate and trusted brother officer, the very
+simple and definite military policy which was to be followed during the
+year 1864. There were to be but two leading campaigns. Sherman, starting
+from Chattanooga, full master of his own movements, was to lead the
+combined western forces against the Confederate army under Johnston, the
+successor of Bragg. Grant would personally conduct the campaign in the
+East against Richmond, or rather against the rebel army under Lee. Meade
+would be left in immediate command of the Army of the Potomac, to
+execute the personal daily directions of Grant. The two Confederate
+armies were eight hundred miles apart, and should either give way, it
+was to be followed without halt or delay to battle or surrender, to
+prevent its junction with the other. Scattered as a large portion of the
+Union forces were in garrisons and detachments at widely separated
+points, there were, of course, many details to be arranged, and a few
+expeditions already in progress; but these were of minor importance, and
+for contributory, rather than main objects, and need not here be
+described.
+
+Returning promptly to Washington, Grant established his headquarters
+with the Army of the Potomac, at Culpepper, and for about a month
+actively pushed his military preparations. He seems at first to have
+been impressed with a dread that the President might wish to influence
+or control his plans. But the few interviews between them removed the
+suspicion which reckless newspaper accusation had raised; and all doubt
+on this point vanished, when, on the last day of April, Mr. Lincoln sent
+him the following explicit letter:
+
+"Not expecting to see you again before the spring campaign opens, I wish
+to express in this way my entire satisfaction with what you have done up
+to this time, so far as I understand it. The particulars of your plan I
+neither know nor seek to know. You are vigilant and self-reliant; and,
+pleased with this, I wish not to obtrude any constraints or restraints
+upon you. While I am very anxious that any great disaster or capture of
+our men in great numbers shall be avoided, I know these points are less
+likely to escape your attention than they would be mine. If there is
+anything wanting which is within my power to give, do not fail to let me
+know it. And now, with a brave army and a just cause, may God sustain
+you."
+
+Grant's immediate reply confessed the groundlessness of his
+apprehensions:
+
+"From my first entrance into the volunteer service of the country to the
+present day, I have never had cause of complaint--have never expressed
+or implied a complaint against the administration, or the Secretary of
+War, for throwing any embarrassment in the way of my vigorously
+prosecuting what appeared to me my duty. Indeed, since the promotion
+which placed me in command of all the armies, and in view of the great
+responsibility and importance of success, I have been astonished at the
+readiness with which everything asked for has been yielded, without even
+an explanation being asked. Should my success be less than I desire and
+expect, the least I can say is, the fault is not with you."
+
+The Union army under Grant, one hundred and twenty-two thousand strong,
+on April 30, was encamped north of the Rapidan River. The Confederate
+army under Lee, numbering sixty-two thousand, lay south of that stream.
+Nearly three years before, these opposing armies had fought their first
+battle of Bull Run, only a comparatively short distance north of where
+they now confronted each other. Campaign and battle between them had
+surged far to the north and to the south, but neither could as yet claim
+over the other any considerable gain of ground or of final advantage in
+the conflict. Broadly speaking, relative advance and retreat, as well as
+relative loss and gain of battle-fields substantially balanced each
+other. Severe as had been their struggles in the past, a more arduous
+trial of strength was before them. Grant had two to one in numbers; Lee
+the advantage of a defensive campaign. He could retire toward cumulative
+reserves, and into prepared fortifications; knew almost by heart every
+road, hill, and forest of Virginia; had for his friendly scout every
+white inhabitant. Perhaps his greatest element of strength lay in the
+conscious pride of the Confederate army that through all fluctuations of
+success and failure, it had for three years effectually barred the way
+of the Army of the Potomac to Richmond. But to offset this there now
+menaced it what was before absent in every encounter, the grim,
+unflinching will of the new Union commander.
+
+General Grant devised no plan of complicated strategy for the problem
+before him, but proposed to solve it by plain, hard, persistent
+fighting. He would endeavor to crush the army of Lee before it could
+reach Richmond or unite with the army of Johnston; or, failing in that,
+he would shut it up in that stronghold and reduce it by a siege. With
+this in view, he instructed Meade at the very outset: "Lee's army will
+be your objective point. Where Lee goes, there you will go, also."
+Everything being ready, on the night of May 4, Meade threw five bridges
+across the Rapidan, and before the following night the whole Union army,
+with its trains, was across the stream moving southward by the left
+flank, past the right flank of the Confederates.
+
+Sudden as was the advance, it did not escape the vigilant observation of
+Lee, who instantly threw his force against the flanks of the Union
+columns, and for two days there raged in that difficult, broken, and
+tangled region known as the Wilderness, a furious battle of detachments
+along a line five miles in length. Thickets, swamps, and ravines,
+rendered intelligent direction and concerted manoeuvering impossible,
+and furious and bloody as was the conflict, its results were indecisive.
+No enemy appearing on the seventh, Grant boldly started to Spottsylvania
+Court House, only, however, to find the Confederates ahead of him; and
+on the eighth and ninth these turned their position, already strong by
+nature, into an impregnable intrenched camp. Grant assaulted their works
+on the tenth, fiercely, but unsuccessfully. There followed one day of
+inactivity, during which Grant wrote his report, only claiming that
+after six days of hard fighting and heavy losses "the result up to this
+time is much in our favor"; but expressing, in the phrase which
+immediately became celebrated, his firm resolution to "fight it out on
+this line if it takes all summer."
+
+On May 12, 1864, Grant ordered a yet more determined attack, in which,
+with fearful carnage on both sides, the Union forces finally stormed the
+earthworks which have become known as the "bloody angle." But finding
+that other and more formidable intrenchments still resisted his entrance
+to the Confederate camp, Grant once more moved by the left flank past
+his enemy toward Richmond. Lee followed with equal swiftness along the
+interior lines. Days passed in an intermitting, and about equally
+matched contest of strategy and fighting. The difference was that Grant
+was always advancing and Lee always retiring. On May 26, Grant reported
+to Washington:
+
+"Lee's army is really whipped. The prisoners we now take show it, and
+the action of his army shows it unmistakably. A battle with them outside
+of intrenchments cannot be had. Our men feel that they have gained the
+_morale_ over the enemy, and attack him with confidence. I may be
+mistaken, but I feel that our success over Lee's army is already
+assured."
+
+That same night, Grant's advance crossed the Pamunkey River at Hanover
+Town, and during another week, with a succession of marching, flanking,
+and fighting. Grant pushed the Union army forward to Cold Harbor. Here
+Lee's intrenched army was again between him and Richmond, and on June 3,
+Grant ordered another determined attack in front, to break through that
+constantly resisting barrier. But a disastrous repulse was the
+consequence. Its effect upon the campaign is best given in Grant's own
+letter, written to Washington on June 5:
+
+"My idea from the start has been to beat Lee's army, if possible, north
+of Richmond; then, after destroying his lines of communication on the
+north side of the James River, to transfer the army to the south side
+and besiege Lee in Richmond, or follow him south if he should retreat. I
+now find, after over thirty days of trial, the enemy deems it of the
+first importance to run no risks with the armies they now have. They act
+purely on the defensive behind breastworks, or feebly on the offensive
+immediately in front of them, and where, in case of repulse, they can
+instantly retire behind them. Without a greater sacrifice of human life
+than I am willing to make, all cannot be accomplished that I had
+designed outside of the city."
+
+During the week succeeding the severe repulse at Cold Harbor, which
+closed what may be summed up as Grant's campaign against Richmond, he
+made his preparations to enter upon the second element of his general
+plan, which may be most distinctively denominated the siege of
+Petersburg, though, in fuller phraseology, it might be called the siege
+of Petersburg and Richmond combined. But the amplification is not
+essential; for though the operation and the siege-works embraced both
+cities, Petersburg was the vital and vulnerable point. When Petersburg
+fell, Richmond fell of necessity. The reason was, that Lee's army,
+inclosed within the combined fortifications, could only be fed by the
+use of three railroads centering at Petersburg; one from the southeast,
+one from the south, and one with general access from the southwest.
+Between these, two plank roads added a partial means of supply. Thus
+far, Grant's active campaign, though failing to destroy Lee's army, had
+nevertheless driven it into Richmond, and obviously his next step was
+either to dislodge it, or compel it to surrender.
+
+Cold Harbor was about ten miles from Richmond, and that city was
+inclosed on the Washington side by two circles of fortifications devised
+with the best engineering skill. On June 13, Grant threw forward an army
+corps across the Chickahominy, deceiving Lee into the belief that he was
+making a real direct advance upon the city; and so skilfully concealed
+his intention that by midnight of the sixteenth he had moved the whole
+Union army with its artillery and trains about twenty miles directly
+south and across the James River, on a pontoon bridge over two thousand
+feet long, to City Point. General Butler, with an expedition from
+Fortress Monroe, moving early in May, had been ordered to capture
+Petersburg; and though he failed in this, he had nevertheless seized and
+held City Point, and Grant thus effected an immediate junction with
+Butler's force of thirty-two thousand. Butler's second attempt to seize
+Petersburg while Grant was marching to join him also failed, and Grant,
+unwilling to make any needless sacrifice, now limited his operations to
+the processes of a regular siege.
+
+This involved a complete change of method. The campaign against
+Richmond, from the crossing of the Rapidan and battle of the Wilderness,
+to Cold Harbor, and the change of base to City Point, occupied a period
+of about six weeks of almost constant swift marching and hard fighting.
+The siege of Petersburg was destined to involve more than nine months of
+mingled engineering and fighting. The Confederate army forming the
+combined garrisons of Richmond and Petersburg numbered about seventy
+thousand. The army under Grant, though in its six weeks' campaign it had
+lost over sixty thousand in killed, wounded, and missing, was again
+raised by the reinforcements sent to it, and by its junction with
+Butler, to a total of about one hundred and fifty thousand. With this
+superiority of numbers, Grant pursued the policy of alternately
+threatening the defenses of Lee, sometimes south, sometimes north of the
+James River, and at every favorable opportunity pushing his siege-works
+westward in order to gradually gain and command the three railroads and
+two plank roads that brought the bulk of absolutely necessary food and
+supplies to the Confederate armies and the inhabitants of Petersburg and
+Richmond. It is estimated that this gradual westward extension of
+Grant's lines, redoubts, and trenches, when added to those threatening
+Richmond and Petersburg on the east, finally reached a total development
+of about forty miles. The catastrophe came when Lee's army grew
+insufficient to man his defensive line along this entire length, and
+Grant, finding the weakened places, eventually broke through it,
+compelling the Confederate general and army to evacuate and abandon both
+cities and seek safety in flight.
+
+The central military drama, the first two distinctive acts of which are
+outlined above, had during this long period a running accompaniment of
+constant under-plot and shifting and exciting episodes. The Shenandoah
+River, rising northwest of Richmond, but flowing in a general northeast
+course to join the Potomac at Harper's Ferry, gives its name to a valley
+twenty to thirty miles wide, highly fertile and cultivated, and having
+throughout its length a fine turnpike, which in ante-railroad days was
+an active commercial highway between North and South. Bordered on the
+west by the rugged Alleghany Mountains, and on the east by the single
+outlying range called the Blue Ridge, it formed a protected military
+lane or avenue, having vital relation to the strategy of campaigns on
+the open Atlantic slopes of central Virginia. The Shenandoah valley had
+thus played a not unimportant part in almost every military operation of
+the war, from the first battle of Bull Run to the final defense of
+Richmond.
+
+The plans of General Grant did not neglect so essential a feature of his
+task. While he was fighting his way toward the Confederate capital, his
+instructions contemplated the possession and occupation of the
+Shenandoah valley as part of the system which should isolate and
+eventually besiege Richmond. But this part of his plan underwent many
+fluctuations. He had scarcely reached City Point when he became aware
+that General Lee, equally alive to the advantages of the Shenandoah
+valley, had dispatched General Early with seventeen thousand men on a
+flying expedition up that convenient natural sally-port, which was for
+the moment undefended.
+
+Early made such speed that he crossed the Potomac during the first week
+of July, made a devastating raid through Maryland and southern
+Pennsylvania, threatened Baltimore, and turning sharply to the south,
+was, on the eleventh of the month, actually at the outskirts of
+Washington city, meditating its assault and capture. Only the opportune
+arrival of the Sixth Army Corps under General Wright, on the afternoon
+of that day, sent hurriedly by Grant from City Point, saved the Federal
+capital from occupation and perhaps destruction by the enemy.
+
+Certain writers have represented the government as panic-stricken during
+the two days that this menace lasted; but neither Mr. Lincoln, nor
+Secretary Stanton, nor General Halleck, whom it has been even more the
+fashion to abuse, lacked coolness or energy in the emergency. Indeed,
+the President's personal unconcern was such as to give his associates
+much uneasiness. On the tenth, he rode out as was his usual custom
+during the summer months, to spend the night at the Soldiers' Home, in
+the suburbs; but Secretary Stanton, learning that Early was advancing in
+heavy force, sent after him to compel his return to the city; and twice
+afterward, intent on watching the fighting which took place near Fort
+Stevens, he exposed his tall form to the gaze and bullets of the enemy
+in a manner to call forth earnest remonstrance from those near him.
+
+The succeeding military events in the Shenandoah valley must here be
+summed up in the brief statement that General Sheridan, being placed in
+command of the Middle Military Division and given an army of thirty or
+forty thousand men, finally drove back the Confederate detachments upon
+Richmond, in a series of brilliant victories, and so devastated the
+southern end of the valley as to render it untenable for either army;
+and by the destruction of the James River Canal and the Virginia Central
+Railroad, succeeded in practically carrying out Grant's intention of
+effectually closing the avenue of supplies to Richmond from the
+northwest.
+
+
+
+
+XXIX
+
+Sherman's Meridian Expedition--Capture of Atlanta--Hood Supersedes
+Johnston--Hood's Invasion of Tennessee--Franklin and
+Nashville--Sherman's March to the Sea--Capture of Savannah--Sherman to
+Lincoln--Lincoln to Sherman--Sherman's March through the Carolinas--The
+Burning of Charleston and Columbia--Arrival at Goldsboro--Junction with
+Schofield--Visit to Grant
+
+
+While Grant was making his marches, fighting his battles, and carrying
+on his siege operations in Virginia, Sherman in the West was performing
+the task assigned to him by his chief, to pursue, destroy, or capture
+the principal western Confederate army, now commanded by General
+Johnston. The forces which under Bragg had been defeated in the previous
+autumn at Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, had halted as soon as
+pursuit ceased, and remained in winter quarters at and about Dalton,
+only twenty-eight or thirty miles on the railroad southeast of
+Chattanooga where their new commander, Johnston, had, in the spring of
+1864, about sixty-eight thousand men with which to oppose the Union
+advance.
+
+A few preliminary campaigns and expeditions in the West need not here be
+detailed, as they were not decisive. One, however, led by Sherman
+himself from Vicksburg to Meridian, must be mentioned, since, during the
+month of February, it destroyed about one hundred miles of the several
+railroads centering at the latter place, and rendered the whole railroad
+system of Mississippi practically useless to the Confederates, thus
+contributing essentially to the success of his future operations.
+
+Sherman prepared himself by uniting at Chattanooga the best material of
+the three Union armies, that of the Cumberland, that of the Tennessee,
+and that of the Ohio, forming a force of nearly one hundred thousand men
+with two hundred and fifty-four guns. They were seasoned veterans, whom
+three years of campaigning had taught how to endure every privation, and
+avail themselves of every resource. They were provided with every
+essential supply, but carried with them not a pound of useless baggage
+or impedimenta that could retard the rapidity of their movements.
+
+Sherman had received no specific instructions from Grant, except to
+fight the enemy and damage the war resources of the South; but the
+situation before him clearly indicated the city of Atlanta, Georgia, as
+his first objective, and as his necessary route, the railroad leading
+thither from Chattanooga. It was obviously a difficult line of approach,
+for it traversed a belt of the Alleghanies forty miles in width, and in
+addition to the natural obstacles they presented, the Confederate
+commander, anticipating his movement, had prepared elaborate defensive
+works at the several most available points.
+
+As agreed upon with Grant, Sherman began his march on May 5, 1864, the
+day following that on which Grant entered upon his Wilderness campaign
+in Virginia. These pages do not afford space to describe his progress.
+It is enough to say that with his double numbers he pursued the policy
+of making strong demonstrations in front, with effective flank movements
+to threaten the railroad in the Confederate rear, by which means he
+forced back the enemy successively from point to point, until by the
+middle of July he was in the vicinity of Atlanta, having during his
+advance made only one serious front attack, in which he met a costly
+repulse. His progress was by no means one of mere strategical manoeuver.
+Sherman says that during the month of May, across nearly one hundred
+miles of as difficult country as was ever fought over by civilized
+armies, the fighting was continuous, almost daily, among trees and
+bushes, on ground where one could rarely see one hundred yards ahead.
+
+However skilful and meritorious may have been the retreat into which
+Johnston had been forced, it was so unwelcome to the Richmond
+authorities, and damaging to the Confederate cause, that about the
+middle of July, Jefferson Davis relieved him, and appointed one of his
+corps commanders, General J.B. Hood, in his place; whose personal
+qualities and free criticism of his superior led them to expect a change
+from a defensive to an aggressive campaign. Responding to this
+expectation, Hood almost immediately took the offensive, and made
+vigorous attacks on the Union positions, but met disastrous repulse, and
+found himself fully occupied in guarding the defenses of Atlanta. For
+some weeks each army tried ineffectual methods to seize the other's
+railroad communications. But toward the end of August, Sherman's flank
+movements gained such a hold of the Macon railroad at Jonesboro,
+twenty-five miles south of Atlanta, as to endanger Hood's security; and
+when, in addition, a detachment sent to dislodge Sherman was defeated,
+Hood had no alternative but to order an evacuation. On September 3,
+Sherman telegraphed to Washington:
+
+"Atlanta is ours, and fairly won.... Since May 5 we have been in one
+constant battle or skirmish, and need rest."
+
+The fall of Atlanta was a heavy blow to the Confederates. They had,
+during the war, transformed it into a city of mills, foundries, and
+workshops, from which they drew supplies, ammunition, and equipments,
+and upon which they depended largely for the manufacture and repair of
+arms. But perhaps even more important than the military damage to the
+South resulting from its capture, was its effect upon Northern politics.
+Until then the presidential campaign in progress throughout the free
+States was thought by many to involve fluctuating chances under the
+heavy losses and apparently slow progress of both eastern and western
+armies. But the capture of Atlanta instantly infused new zeal and
+confidence among the Union voters, and from that time onward, the
+reëlection of Mr. Lincoln was placed beyond reasonable doubt.
+
+Sherman personally entered the city on September 8, and took prompt
+measures to turn it into a purely military post. He occupied only the
+inner line of its formidable defenses, but so strengthened them as to
+make the place practically impregnable. He proceeded at once to remove
+all its non-combatant inhabitants with their effects, arranging a truce
+with Hood under which he furnished transportation to the south for all
+those whose sympathies were with the Confederate cause, and sent to the
+north those who preferred that destination. Hood raised a great outcry
+against what he called such barbarity and cruelty, but Sherman replied
+that war is war, and if the rebel families wanted peace they and their
+relatives must stop fighting.
+
+"God will judge us in due time, and he will pronounce whether it be more
+humane to fight with a town full of women, and the families of a brave
+people at our back, or to remove them in time to places of safety among
+their own friends and people."
+
+Up to his occupation of Atlanta, Sherman's further plans had neither
+been arranged by Grant nor determined by himself, and for a while
+remained somewhat undecided. For the time being, he was perfectly secure
+in the new stronghold he had captured and completed. But his supplies
+depended upon a line of about one hundred and twenty miles of railroad
+from Atlanta to Chattanooga, and very near one hundred and fifty miles
+more from Chattanooga to Nashville. Hood, held at bay at Lovejoy's
+Station, was not strong enough to venture a direct attack or undertake a
+siege, but chose the more feasible policy of operating systematically
+against Sherman's long line of communications. In the course of some
+weeks both sides grew weary of the mere waste of time and military
+strength consumed in attacking and defending railroad stations, and
+interrupting and reëstablishing the regularities of provision trains.
+Toward the end of September, Jefferson Davis visited Hood, and in
+rearranging some army assignments, united Hood's and an adjoining
+Confederate department under the command of Beauregard; partly with a
+view to adding the counsels of the latter to the always energetic and
+bold, but sometimes rash, military judgment of Hood.
+
+Between these two Hood's eccentric and futile operations against
+Sherman's communications were gradually shaded off into a plan for a
+Confederate invasion of Tennessee. Sherman, on his part, finally matured
+his judgment that instead of losing a thousand men a month merely
+defending the railroad, without other advantage, he would divide his
+army, send back a portion of it under the command of General Thomas to
+defend the State of Tennessee against the impending invasion; and,
+abandoning the whole line of railroad from Chattanooga to Atlanta, and
+cutting entirely loose from his base of supplies, march with the
+remainder to the sea; living upon the country, and "making the interior
+of Georgia feel the weight of war." Grant did not immediately fall in
+with Sherman's suggestion; and Sherman prudently waited until the
+Confederate plan of invading Tennessee became further developed. It
+turned out as he hoped and expected. Having gradually ceased his raids
+upon the railroad, Hood, by the end of October, moved westward to
+Tuscumbia on the Tennessee River, where he gathered an army of about
+thirty-five thousand, to which a cavalry force under Forrest of ten
+thousand more was soon added.
+
+Under Beauregard's orders to assume the offensive, he began a rapid
+march northward, and for a time with a promise of cutting off some
+advanced Union detachments. We need not follow the fortunes of this
+campaign further than to state that the Confederate invasion of
+Tennessee ended in disastrous failure. It was severely checked at the
+battle of Franklin on November 30; and when, in spite of this reverse,
+Hood pushed forward and set his army down before Nashville as if for
+attack or siege, the Union army, concentrated and reinforced to about
+fifty-five thousand, was ready. A severe storm of rain and sleet held
+the confronting armies in forced immobility for a week; but on the
+morning of December 15, 1864, General Thomas moved forward to an attack
+in which on that and the following day he inflicted so terrible a defeat
+upon his adversary, that the Confederate army not only retreated in rout
+and panic, but soon literally went to pieces in disorganization, and
+disappeared as a military entity from the western conflict.
+
+Long before this, Sherman had started on his famous march to the sea.
+His explanations to Grant were so convincing, that the general-in-chief,
+on November 2, telegraphed him: "Go on as you propose." In anticipation
+of this permission, he had been preparing himself ever since Hood left
+him a clear path by starting westward on his campaign of invasion. From
+Atlanta, he sent back his sick and wounded and surplus stores to
+Chattanooga, withdrew the garrisons, burned the bridges, broke up the
+railroad, and destroyed the mills, foundries, shops and public buildings
+in Atlanta. With sixty thousand of his best soldiers, and sixty-five
+guns, he started on November 15 on his march of three hundred miles to
+the Atlantic. They carried with them twenty days' supplies of
+provisions, five days' supply of forage, and two hundred rounds of
+ammunition, of which each man carried forty rounds.
+
+With perfect confidence in their leader, with perfect trust in each
+others' valor, endurance and good comradeship, in the fine weather of
+the Southern autumn, and singing the inspiring melody of "John Brown's
+Body," Sherman's army began its "marching through Georgia" as gaily as
+if it were starting on a holiday. And, indeed, it may almost be said
+such was their experience in comparison with the hardships of war which
+many of these veterans had seen in their varied campaigning. They
+marched as nearly as might be in four parallel columns abreast, making
+an average of about fifteen miles a day. Kilpatrick's admirable cavalry
+kept their front and flanks free from the improvised militia and
+irregular troopers of the enemy. Carefully organized foraging parties
+brought in their daily supply of miscellaneous provisions--corn, meat,
+poultry, and sweet potatoes, of which the season had yielded an abundant
+harvest along their route.
+
+The Confederate authorities issued excited proclamations and orders,
+calling on the people to "fly to arms," and to "assail the invader in
+front, flank, and rear, by night and by day." But no rising occurred
+that in any way checked the constant progress of the march. The Southern
+whites were, of course, silent and sullen, but the negroes received the
+Yankees with demonstrations of welcome and good will, and in spite of
+Sherman's efforts, followed in such numbers as to embarrass his
+progress. As he proceeded, he destroyed the railroads by filling up
+cuts, burning ties, heating the rails red hot and twisting them around
+trees and into irreparable spirals. Threatening the principal cities to
+the right and left, he marched skilfully between and past them.
+
+He reached the outer defenses of Savannah on December 10, easily driving
+before him about ten thousand of the enemy. On December 13, he stormed
+Fort McAllister, and communicated with the Union fleet through Ossabaw
+Sound, reporting to Washington that his march had been most agreeable,
+that he had not lost a wagon on the trip, that he had utterly destroyed
+over two hundred miles of rails, and consumed stores and provisions that
+were essential to Lee's and Hood's armies. With pardonable exultation
+General Sherman telegraphed to President Lincoln on December 22:
+
+"I beg to present to you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah, with
+one hundred and fifty heavy guns and plenty of ammunition. Also about
+twenty-five thousand bales of cotton."
+
+He had reason to be gratified with the warm acknowledgment which
+President Lincoln wrote him in the following letter:
+
+"MY DEAR GENERAL SHERMAN: Many, many thanks for your Christmas gift, the
+capture of Savannah. When you were about leaving Atlanta for the
+Atlantic coast I was anxious, if not fearful; but feeling that you were
+the better judge, and remembering that 'nothing risked, nothing gained,'
+I did not interfere. Now, the undertaking being a success, the honor is
+all yours, for I believe none of us went farther than to acquiesce. And
+taking the work of General Thomas into the count, as it should be taken,
+it is, indeed, a great success. Not only does it afford the obvious and
+immediate military advantages, but in showing to the world that your
+army could be divided, putting the stronger part to an important new
+service, and yet leaving enough to vanquish the old opposing force of
+the whole--Hood's army--it brings those who sat in darkness to see a
+great light. But what next? I suppose it will be safe if I leave General
+Grant and yourself to decide. Please make my grateful acknowledgments to
+your whole army, officers and men."
+
+It was again General Sherman who planned and decided the next step of
+the campaign. Grant sent him orders to fortify a strong post, leave his
+artillery and cavalry, and bring his infantry by sea to unite with the
+Army of the Potomac before Petersburg. Greatly to Sherman's
+satisfaction, this order was soon revoked, and he was informed that
+Grant wished "the whole matter of your future actions should be left
+entirely to your own discretion." In Sherman's mind, the next steps to
+be taken were "as clear as daylight." The progress of the war in the
+West could now be described step by step, and its condition and probable
+course be estimated with sound judgment. The opening of the Mississippi
+River in the previous year had cut off from the rebellion the vast
+resources west of the great river. Sherman's Meridian campaign in
+February had rendered useless the railroads of the State of Mississippi.
+The capture of Atlanta and the march to the sea had ruined the railroads
+of Georgia, cutting off another huge slice of Confederate resources.
+The battles of Franklin and Nashville had practically annihilated the
+principal Confederate army in the West. Sherman now proposed to Grant
+that he would subject the two Carolinas to the same process, by marching
+his army through the heart of them from Savannah to Raleigh.
+
+"The game is then up with Lee," he confidently added, "unless he comes
+out of Richmond, avoids you, and fights me, in which case I should
+reckon on your being on his heels.... If you feel confident that you can
+whip Lee outside of his intrenchments, I feel equally confident that I
+can handle him in the open country."
+
+Grant promptly adopted the plan, and by formal orders directed Sherman
+to execute it. Several minor western expeditions were organized to
+contribute to its success. The Union fleet on the coast was held in
+readiness to coöperate as far as possible with Sherman's advance, and to
+afford him a new base of supply, if, at some suitable point he should
+desire to establish communications with it. When, in the middle of
+January, 1865, a naval expedition captured Fort Fisher at the mouth of
+Cape Fear River, an army corps under General Schofield was brought east
+from Thomas's Army of the Tennessee, and sent by sea to the North
+Carolina coast to penetrate into the interior and form a junction with
+Sherman when he should arrive.
+
+Having had five weeks for rest and preparation, Sherman began the third
+stage of his campaign on February 1, with a total of sixty thousand men,
+provisions for twenty days, forage for seven, and a full supply of
+ammunition for a great battle. This new undertaking proved a task of
+much greater difficulty and severer hardship than his march to the sea.
+Instead of the genial autumn weather, the army had now to face the
+wintry storms that blew in from the neighboring coast. Instead of the
+dry Georgia uplands, his route lay across a low sandy country cut by
+rivers with branches at right angles to his line of march, and bordered
+by broad and miry swamps. But this was an extraordinary army, which
+faced exposure, labor and peril with a determination akin to contempt.
+Here were swamps and water-courses to be waded waist deep; endless miles
+of corduroy road to be laid and relaid as course after course sank into
+the mud under the heavy army wagons; frequent head-water channels of
+rivers to be bridged; the lines of railroad along their route to be torn
+up and rendered incapable of repair; food to be gathered by foraging;
+keeping up, meanwhile a daily average of ten or twelve miles of
+marching. Under such conditions, Sherman's army made a mid-winter march
+of four hundred and twenty-five miles in fifty days, crossing five
+navigable rivers, occupying three important cities, and rendering the
+whole railroad system of South Carolina useless to the enemy.
+
+The ten to fifteen thousand Confederates with which General Hardee had
+evacuated Savannah and retreated to Charleston could, of course, oppose
+no serious opposition to Sherman's march. On the contrary, when Sherman
+reached Columbia, the capital of South Carolina, on February 16, Hardee
+evacuated Charleston, which had been defended for four long years
+against every attack of a most powerful Union fleet, and where the most
+ingenious siege-works and desperate storming assault had failed to wrest
+Fort Wagner from the enemy. But though Charleston fell without a battle,
+and was occupied by the Union troops on the eighteenth, the destructive
+hand of war was at last heavily laid upon her. The Confederate
+government pertinaciously adhered to the policy of burning accumulations
+of cotton to prevent it falling into Union hands; and the supply
+gathered in Charleston to be sent abroad by blockade runners, having
+been set on fire by the evacuating Confederate officials, the flames not
+only spread to the adjoining buildings, but grew into a great
+conflagration that left the heart of the city a waste of blackened walls
+to illustrate the folly of the first secession ordinance. Columbia, the
+capital, underwent the same fate, to even a broader extent. Here the
+cotton had been piled in a narrow street, and when the torch was applied
+by similar Confederate orders, the rising wind easily floated the
+blazing flakes to the near roofs of buildings. On the night following
+Sherman's entrance the wind rose to a gale, and neither the efforts of
+the citizens, nor the ready help of Sherman's soldiers were able to
+check the destruction. Confederate writers long nursed the accusation
+that it was the Union army which burned the city as a deliberate act of
+vengeance. Contrary proof is furnished by the orders of Sherman, leaving
+for the sufferers a generous supply of food, as well as by the careful
+investigation by the mixed commission on American and British claims,
+under the treaty of Washington.
+
+Still pursuing his march, Sherman arrived at Cheraw March 3, and opened
+communication with General Terry, who had advanced from Fort Fisher to
+Wilmington. Hitherto, his advance had been practically unopposed. But
+now he learned that General Johnston had once more been placed in
+command of the Confederate forces, and was collecting an army near
+Raleigh, North Carolina. Well knowing the ability of this general,
+Sherman became more prudent in his movements. But Johnston was able to
+gather a force of only twenty-five or thirty thousand men, of which the
+troops Hardee brought from Charleston formed the nucleus; and the two
+minor engagements on March 16 and 19 did little to impede Sherman's
+advance to Goldsboro, where he arrived on March 23, forming a junction
+with the Union army sent by sea under Schofield, that had reached the
+same point the previous day.
+
+The third giant stride of Sherman's great campaign was thus happily
+accomplished. His capture of Atlanta, his march to the sea and capture
+of Savannah, his progress through the Carolinas, and the fall of
+Charleston, formed an aggregate expedition covering nearly a thousand
+miles, with military results that rendered rebellion powerless in the
+central States of the Southern Confederacy. Several Union cavalry raids
+had accomplished similar destruction of Confederate resources in Alabama
+and the country bordering on East Tennessee. Military affairs were
+plainly in a condition which justified Sherman in temporarily devolving
+his command on General Schofield and hurrying by sea to make a brief
+visit for urgent consultation with General Grant at his headquarters
+before Richmond and Petersburg.
+
+
+
+
+XXX
+
+Military Governors--Lincoln's Theory of Reconstruction--Congressional
+Election in Louisiana--Letter to Military Governors--Letter to
+Shepley--Amnesty Proclamation, December 8, 1863--Instructions to
+Banks--Banks's Action in Louisiana--Louisiana Abolishes
+Slavery--Arkansas Abolishes Slavery--Reconstruction in
+Tennessee--Missouri Emancipation--Lincoln's Letter to Drake--Missouri
+Abolishes Slavery--Emancipation in Maryland--Maryland Abolishes Slavery
+
+
+To subdue the Confederate armies and establish order under martial law
+was not the only task before President Lincoln. As rapidly as rebel
+States or portions of States were occupied by Federal troops, it became
+necessary to displace usurping Confederate officials and appoint in
+their stead loyal State, county, and subordinate officers to restore the
+administration of local civil law under the authority of the United
+States. In western Virginia the people had spontaneously effected this
+reform, first by repudiating the Richmond secession ordinance and
+organizing a provisional State government, and, second, by adopting a
+new constitution and obtaining admission to the Union as the new State
+of West Virginia. In Missouri the State convention which refused to pass
+a secession ordinance effected the same object by establishing a
+provisional State government. In both these States the whole process of
+what in subsequent years was comprehensively designated "reconstruction"
+was carried on by popular local action, without any Federal initiative
+or interference other than prompt Federal recognition and substantial
+military support and protection.
+
+But in other seceded States there was no such groundwork of loyal
+popular authority upon which to rebuild the structure of civil
+government. Therefore, when portions of Tennessee, Louisiana, Arkansas,
+and North Carolina came under Federal control, President Lincoln, during
+the first half of 1862, appointed military governors to begin the work
+of temporary civil administration. He had a clear and consistent
+constitutional theory under which this could be done. In his first
+inaugural he announced the doctrine that "the union of these States is
+perpetual" and "unbroken." His special message to Congress on July 4,
+1861, added the supplementary declaration that "the States have their
+status in the Union, and they have no other legal status." The same
+message contained the further definition:
+
+"The people of Virginia have thus allowed this giant insurrection to
+make its nest within her borders; and this government has no choice left
+but to deal with it where it finds it. And it has the less regret, as
+the loyal citizens have, in due form, claimed its protection. Those
+loyal citizens this government is bound to recognize and protect, as
+being Virginia."
+
+The action of Congress entirely conformed to this theory. That body
+admitted to seats senators and representatives from the provisional
+State governments of West Virginia and Missouri; and also allowed
+Senator Andrew Johnson of Tennessee to retain his seat, and admitted
+Horace Maynard and Andrew J. Clements as representatives from the same
+State, though since their election Tennessee had undergone the usual
+secession usurpation, and had as yet organized no loyal provisional
+government.
+
+The progress of the Union armies was so far checked during the second
+half of 1862, that Military Governor Phelps, appointed for Arkansas, did
+not assume his functions; and Military Governor Stanley wielded but
+slight authority in North Carolina. Senator Andrew Johnson, appointed
+military governor of Tennessee, established himself at Nashville, the
+capital, and, though Union control of Tennessee fluctuated greatly, he
+was able, by appointing loyal State and county officers, to control the
+administration of civil government in considerable districts, under
+substantial Federal jurisdiction.
+
+In the State of Louisiana the process of restoring Federal authority was
+carried on a step farther, owing largely to the fact that the territory
+occupied by the Union army, though quite limited, comprising only the
+city of New Orleans and a few adjacent parishes, was more securely held,
+and its hostile frontier less disturbed. It soon became evident that
+considerable Union sentiment yet existed in the captured city and
+surrounding districts, and when some of the loyal citizens began to
+manifest impatience at the restraints of martial law, President Lincoln
+in a frank letter pointed the way to a remedy:
+
+"The people of Louisiana," he wrote under date of July 28, 1862, "who
+wish protection to person and property, have but to reach forth their
+hands and take it. Let them in good faith reinaugurate the national
+authority and set up a State government conforming thereto under the
+Constitution. They know how to do it, and can have the protection of the
+army while doing it. The army will be withdrawn so soon as such State
+government can dispense with its presence, and the people of the State
+can then, upon the old constitutional terms, govern themselves to their
+own liking."
+
+At about this date there occurred the serious military crisis in
+Virginia; and the battles of the Peninsula, of the second Bull Run, and
+of Antietam necessarily compelled the postponement of minor questions.
+But during this period the President's policy on the slavery question
+reached its development and solution, and when, on September 22, he
+issued his preliminary proclamation of emancipation, it also paved the
+way for a further defining of his policy of reconstruction.
+
+That proclamation announced the penalty of military emancipation against
+all States in rebellion on the succeeding first day of January; but also
+provided that if the people thereof were represented in Congress by
+properly elected members, they should be deemed not in rebellion, and
+thereby escape the penalty. Wishing now to prove the sincerity of what
+he said in the Greeley letter, that his paramount object was to save the
+Union, and not either to save or destroy slavery, he wrote a circular
+letter to the military governors and commanders in Louisiana, Tennessee,
+and Arkansas, instructing them to permit and aid the people within the
+districts held by them to hold elections for members of Congress, and
+perhaps a legislature, State officers, and United States senators.
+
+"In all available ways," he wrote, "give the people a chance to express
+their wishes at these elections. Follow forms of law as far as
+convenient, but at all events get the expression of the largest number
+of the people possible. All see how such action will connect with and
+affect the proclamation of September 22. Of course the men elected
+should be gentlemen of character, willing to swear support to the
+Constitution as of old, and known to be above reasonable suspicion of
+duplicity."
+
+But the President wished this to be a real and not a sham proceeding, as
+he explained a month later in a letter to Governor Shepley:
+
+"We do not particularly need members of Congress from there to enable us
+to get along with legislation here. What we do want is the conclusive
+evidence that respectable citizens of Louisiana are willing to be
+members of Congress and to swear support to the Constitution, and that
+other respectable citizens there are willing to vote for them and send
+them. To send a parcel of Northern men here as representatives, elected,
+as would be understood (and perhaps really so), at the point of the
+bayonet, would be disgraceful and outrageous; and were I a member of
+Congress here, I would vote against admitting any such man to a seat."
+
+Thus instructed, Governor Shepley caused an election to be held in the
+first and second congressional districts of Louisiana on December 3,
+1862, at which members of Congress were chosen. No Federal office-holder
+was a candidate, and about one half the usual vote was polled. The House
+of Representatives admitted them to seats after full scrutiny, the
+chairman of the committee declaring this "had every essential of a
+regular election in a time of most profound peace, with the exception of
+the fact that the proclamation was issued by the military instead of the
+civil governor of Louisiana."
+
+Military affairs were of such importance and absorbed so much attention
+during the year 1863, both at Washington and at the headquarters of the
+various armies, that the subject of reconstruction was of necessity
+somewhat neglected. The military governor of Louisiana indeed ordered a
+registration of loyal voters, about the middle of June, for the purpose
+of organizing a loyal State government; but its only result was to
+develop an inevitable antagonism and contest between conservatives who
+desired that the old constitution of Louisiana prior to the rebellion
+should be revived, by which the institution of slavery as then existing
+would be maintained, and the free-State party which demanded that an
+entirely new constitution be framed and adopted, in which slavery should
+be summarily abolished. The conservatives asked President Lincoln to
+adopt their plan. While the President refused this, he in a letter to
+General Banks dated August 5, 1863, suggested the middle course of
+gradual emancipation.
+
+"For my own part," he wrote, "I think I shall not, in any event, retract
+the emancipation proclamation; nor, as Executive, ever return to slavery
+any person who is freed by the terms of that proclamation, or by any of
+the acts of Congress. If Louisiana shall send members to Congress, their
+admission to seats will depend, as you know, upon the respective houses
+and not upon the President."
+
+"I would be glad for her to make a new constitution recognizing the
+emancipation proclamation and adopting emancipation in those parts of
+the State to which the proclamation does not apply. And while she is at
+it, I think it would not be objectionable for her to adopt some
+practical system by which the two races could gradually live themselves
+out of their old relation to each other, and both come out better
+prepared for the new. Education for young blacks should be included in
+the plan. After all, the power or element of 'contract' may be
+sufficient for this probationary period, and by its simplicity and
+flexibility may be the better."
+
+During the autumn months the President's mind dwelt more and more on
+the subject of reconstruction, and he matured a general plan which he
+laid before Congress in his annual message to that body on December 8,
+1863. He issued on the same day a proclamation of amnesty, on certain
+conditions, to all persons in rebellion except certain specified
+classes, who should take a prescribed oath of allegiance. The
+proclamation further provided that whenever a number of persons so
+amnestied in any rebel State, equal to one tenth the vote cast at the
+presidential election of 1860, should "reëstablish a State government
+which shall be republican, and in no wise contravening said oath," such
+would be recognized as the true government of the State. The annual
+message discussed and advocated the plan at length, but also added:
+"Saying that reconstruction will be accepted if presented in a specified
+way, it is not said it will never be accepted in any other way."
+
+This plan of reconstructing what came to be called "ten percent States,"
+met much opposition in Congress, and that body, reversing its action in
+former instances, long refused admission to members and senators from
+States similarly organized; but the point needs no further mention here.
+
+A month before the amnesty proclamation the President had written to
+General Banks, expressing his great disappointment that the
+reconstruction in Louisiana had been permitted to fall in abeyance by
+the leading Union officials there, civil and military.
+
+"I do, however," he wrote, "urge both you and them to lose no more time.
+Governor Shepley has special instructions from the War Department. I
+wish him--these gentlemen and others coöperating--without waiting for
+more territory, to go to work and give me a tangible nucleus which the
+remainder of the State may rally around as fast as it can, and which I
+can at once recognize and sustain as the true State government."
+
+He urged that such reconstruction should have in view a new free-State
+constitution, for, said he:
+
+"If a few professedly loyal men shall draw the disloyal about them, and
+colorably set up a State government repudiating the emancipation
+proclamation and reëstablishing slavery, I cannot recognize or sustain
+their work.... I have said, and say again, that if a new State
+government, acting in harmony with this government and consistently with
+general freedom, shall think best to adopt a reasonable temporary
+arrangement in relation to the landless and houseless freed people, I do
+not object; but my word is out to be for and not against them on the
+question of their permanent freedom."
+
+General Banks in reply excused his inaction by explaining that the
+military governor and others had given him to understand that they were
+exclusively charged with the work of reconstruction in Louisiana. To
+this the President rejoined under date of December 24, 1863:
+
+"I have all the while intended you to be master, as well in regard to
+reorganizing a State government for Louisiana as in regard to the
+military matters of the department, and hence my letters on
+reconstruction have nearly, if not quite, all been addressed to you. My
+error has been that it did not occur to me that Governor Shepley or any
+one else would set up a claim to act independently of you.... I now
+distinctly tell you that you are master of all, and that I wish you to
+take the case as you find it, and give us a free-State reorganization of
+Louisiana in the shortest possible time."
+
+Under this explicit direction of the President, and basing his action
+on martial law as the fundamental law of the State, the general caused a
+governor and State officials to be elected on February 22, 1864. To
+override the jealousy and quarrels of both the conservative and
+free-State parties, he set out in his proclamation that the officials to
+be chosen should--
+
+"Until others are appointed by competent authority, constitute the civil
+government of the State, under the constitution and laws of Louisiana,
+except so much of the said constitution and laws as recognize, regulate,
+or relate to slavery; which, being inconsistent with the present
+condition of public affairs, and plainly inapplicable to any class of
+persons now existing within its limits, must be suspended, and they are
+therefore and hereby declared to be inoperative and void."
+
+The newly elected governor was inaugurated on March 4, with imposing
+public ceremonies, and the President also invested him "with the powers
+exercised hitherto by the military governor of Louisiana." General Banks
+further caused delegates to a State convention to be chosen, who, in a
+session extending from April 6 to July 25, perfected and adopted a new
+constitution, which was again adopted by popular vote on September 5
+following. General Banks reported the constitution to be "one of the
+best ever penned.... It abolishes slavery in the State, and forbids the
+legislature to enact any law recognizing property in man. The
+emancipation is instantaneous and absolute, without condition or
+compensation, and nearly unanimous."
+
+The State of Arkansas had been forced into rebellion by military
+terrorism, and remained under Confederate domination only because the
+Union armies could afford the latent loyal sentiment of the State no
+effective support until the fall of Vicksburg and the opening of the
+Mississippi. After that decisive victory, General Steele marched a
+Union column of about thirteen thousand from Helena to Little Rock, the
+capital, which surrendered to him on the evening of September 10, 1863.
+By December, eight regiments of Arkansas citizens had been formed for
+service in the Union army; and, following the amnesty proclamation of
+December 8, the reorganization of a loyal State government was speedily
+brought about, mainly by spontaneous popular action, of course under the
+direction and with the assistance of General Steele.
+
+In response to a petition, President Lincoln sent General Steele on
+January 20, 1864, a letter repeating substantially the instructions he
+had given General Banks for Louisiana. Before these could be carried
+out, popular action had assembled at Little Rock on January 8, 1864, a
+formal delegate convention, composed of forty-four delegates who claimed
+to represent twenty-two out of the fifty-four counties of the State. On
+January 22 this convention adopted an amended constitution which
+declared the act of secession null and void, abolished slavery
+immediately and unconditionally, and wholly repudiated the Confederate
+debt. The convention appointed a provisional State government, and under
+its schedule an election was held on March 14, 1864. During the three
+days on which the polls were kept open, under the orders of General
+Steele, who by the President's suggestion adopted the convention
+program, a total vote of 12,179 was cast for the constitution, and only
+226 against it; while the provisional governor was also elected for a
+new term, together with members of Congress and a legislature which in
+due time chose United States senators. By this time Congress had
+manifested its opposition to the President's plan, but Mr. Lincoln stood
+firm, and on June 29 wrote to General Steele:
+
+"I understand that Congress declines to admit to seats the persons sent
+as senators and representatives from Arkansas. These persons apprehend
+that in consequence you may not support the new State government there
+as you otherwise would. My wish is that you give that government and the
+people there the same support and protection that you would if the
+members had been admitted, because in no event, nor in any view of the
+case, can this do any harm, while it will be the best you can do toward
+suppressing the rebellion."
+
+While Military Governor Andrew Johnson had been the earliest to begin
+the restoration of loyal Federal authority in the State of Tennessee,
+the course of campaign and battle in that State delayed its completion
+to a later period than in the others. The invasion of Tennessee by the
+Confederate General Bragg in the summer of 1862, and the long delay of
+the Union General Rosecrans to begin an active campaign against him
+during the summer of 1863, kept civil reorganization in a very uncertain
+and chaotic condition. When at length Rosecrans advanced and occupied
+Chattanooga, President Lincoln deemed it a propitious time to vigorously
+begin reorganization, and under date of September 11, 1863, he wrote the
+military governor emphatic suggestions that:
+
+"The reinauguration must not be such as to give control of the State and
+its representation in Congress to the enemies of the Union, driving its
+friends there into political exile.... You must have it otherwise. Let
+the reconstruction be the work of such men only as can be trusted for
+the Union. Exclude all others; and trust that your government so
+organized will be recognized here as being the one of republican form to
+be guaranteed to the State, and to be protected against invasion and
+domestic violence. It is something on the question of time to remember
+that it cannot be known who is next to occupy the position I now hold,
+nor what he will do. I see that you have declared in favor of
+emancipation in Tennessee, for which, may God bless you. Get
+emancipation into your new State government--constitution--and there
+will be no such word as fail for your case."
+
+In another letter of September 19, the President sent the governor
+specific authority to execute the scheme outlined in his letter of
+advice; but no substantial success had yet been reached in the process
+of reconstruction in Tennessee during the year 1864, when the
+Confederate army under Hood turned northward from Atlanta to begin its
+third and final invasion of the State. This once more delayed all work
+of reconstruction until the Confederate army was routed and dispersed by
+the battle of Nashville on December 15, 1864. Previous popular action
+had called a State convention, which, taking immediate advantage of the
+expulsion of the enemy, met in Nashville on January 9, 1865, in which
+fifty-eight counties and some regiments were represented by about four
+hundred and sixty-seven delegates. After six days of deliberation the
+convention adopted a series of amendments to the constitution, the main
+ordinance of which provided:
+
+"That slavery and involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for
+crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, are hereby
+forever abolished and prohibited throughout the State."
+
+These amendments were duly adopted at a popular election held on
+February 22, and the complete organization of a loyal State government
+under them followed in due course.
+
+The State of Missouri needed no reconstruction. It has already been said
+that her local affairs were administered by a provisional State
+government instituted by the State convention chosen by popular election
+before rebellion broke out. In this State, therefore, the institution of
+slavery was suppressed by the direct action of the people, but not
+without a long and bitter conflict of party factions and military
+strife. There existed here two hostile currents of public opinion, one,
+the intolerant pro-slavery prejudices of its rural population; the
+other, the progressive and liberal spirit dominant in the city of St.
+Louis, with its heavy German population, which, as far back as 1856, had
+elected to Congress a candidate who boldly advocated gradual
+emancipation: St. Louis, with outlying cities and towns, supplying
+during the whole rebellion the dominating influence that held the State
+in the Union, and at length transformed her from a slave to a free
+State.
+
+Missouri suffered severely in the war, but not through important
+campaigns or great battles. Persistent secession conspiracy, the Kansas
+episodes of border strife, and secret orders of Confederate agents from
+Arkansas instigating unlawful warfare, made Missouri a hotbed of
+guerrilla uprisings and of relentless neighborhood feuds, in which armed
+partizan conflict often degenerated into shocking barbarity, and the
+pretense of war into the malicious execution of private vengeance.
+President Lincoln drew a vivid picture of the chronic disorders in
+Missouri in reply to complaints demanding the removal of General
+Schofield from local military command:
+
+"We are in civil war. In such cases there always is a main question; but
+in this case that question is a perplexing compound--Union and slavery.
+It thus becomes a question not of two sides merely, but of at least four
+sides, even among those who are for the Union, saying nothing of those
+who are against it. Thus, those who are for the Union _with_, but not
+_without_, slavery--those for it _without_, but not _with_--those for it
+_with_ or _without_, but prefer it _with_--and those for it _with or
+without_, but prefer it _without_. Among these again is a subdivision of
+those who are for _gradual_ but not for _immediate_, and those who are
+for _immediate_, but not for _gradual_ extinction of slavery. It is easy
+to conceive that all these shades of opinion, and even more, may be
+sincerely entertained by honest and truthful men. Yet, all being for the
+Union, by reason of these differences each will prefer a different way
+of sustaining the Union. At once sincerity is questioned, and motives
+are assailed. Actual war coming, blood grows hot, and blood is spilled.
+Thought is forced from old channels into confusion. Deception breeds and
+thrives. Confidence dies and universal suspicion reigns. Each man feels
+an impulse to kill his neighbor, lest he be first killed by him. Revenge
+and retaliation follow. And all this, as before said, may be among
+honest men only. But this is not all. Every foul bird comes abroad and
+every dirty reptile rises up. These add crime to confusion. Strong
+measures deemed indispensable, but harsh at best, such men make worse by
+maladministration. Murders for old grudges, and murders for pelf,
+proceed under any cloak that will best cover for the occasion. These
+causes amply account for what has occurred in Missouri, without
+ascribing it to the weakness or wickedness of any general. The newspaper
+files, those chroniclers of current events, will show that the evils now
+complained of were quite as prevalent under Frémont, Hunter, Halleck,
+and Curtis, as under Schofield.... I do not feel justified to enter
+upon the broad field you present in regard to the political differences
+between radicals and conservatives. From time to time I have done and
+said what appeared to me proper to do and say. The public knows it all.
+It obliges nobody to follow me, and I trust it obliges me to follow
+nobody. The radicals and conservatives each agree with me in some things
+and disagree in others. I could wish both to agree with me in all
+things; for then they would agree with each other, and would be too
+strong for any foe from any quarter. They, however, choose to do
+otherwise, and I do not question their right. I, too, shall do what
+seems to be my duty. I hold whoever commands in Missouri, or elsewhere,
+responsible to me, and not to either radicals or conservatives. It is my
+duty to hear all; but at last I must, within my sphere, judge what to do
+and what to forbear."
+
+It is some consolation to history, that out of this blood and travail
+grew the political regeneration of the State. Slavery and emancipation
+never gave each other a moment's truce. The issue was raised to an acute
+stage by Frémont's proclamation in August, 1861. Though that ill-advised
+measure was revoked by President Lincoln, the friction and irritation of
+war kept it alive, and in the following year a member of the Missouri
+State convention offered a bill to accept and apply President Lincoln's
+plan of compensated abolishment. Further effort was made in this
+direction in Congress, where in January, 1863, the House passed a bill
+appropriating ten million dollars, and in February, the Senate another
+bill appropriating fifteen million dollars to aid compensated
+abolishment in Missouri. But the stubborn opposition of three
+pro-slavery Missouri members of the House prevented action on the latter
+bill or any compromise.
+
+The question, however, continually grew among the people of Missouri,
+and made such advance that parties, accepting the main point as already
+practically decided at length only divided upon the mode of procedure
+The conservatives wanted the work to be done by the old State
+convention, the radicals desired to submit it to a new convention fresh
+from the people. Legislative agreement having failed, the provisional
+governor called the old State convention together. The convention
+leaders who controlled that body inquired of the President whether he
+would sustain their action. To this he made answer in a letter to
+Schofield dated June 22, 1863:
+
+"Your despatch, asking in substance whether, in case Missouri shall
+adopt gradual emancipation, the general government will protect
+slave-owners in that species of property during the short time it shall
+be permitted by the State to exist within it, has been received.
+Desirous as I am that emancipation shall be adopted by Missouri, and
+believing as I do that gradual can be made better than immediate for
+both black and white, except when military necessity changes the case,
+my impulse is to say that such protection would be given. I cannot know
+exactly what shape an act of emancipation may take. If the period from
+the initiation to the final end should be comparatively short, and the
+act should prevent persons being sold during that period into more
+lasting slavery, the whole would be easier. I do not wish to pledge the
+general government to the affirmative support of even temporary slavery
+beyond what can be fairly claimed under the Constitution. I suppose,
+however, this is not desired, but that it is desired for the military
+force of the United States, while in Missouri, to not be used in
+subverting the temporarily reserved legal rights in slaves during the
+progress of emancipation. This I would desire also."
+
+Proceeding with its work, the old State convention, which had hitherto
+made a most honorable record, neglected a great opportunity. It indeed
+adopted an ordinance of gradual emancipation on July 1, 1863, but of
+such an uncertain and dilatory character, that public opinion in the
+State promptly rejected it. By the death of the provisional governor on
+January 31, 1864, the conservative party of Missouri lost its most
+trusted leader, and thereafter the radicals succeeded to the political
+power of the State. At the presidential election of 1864, that party
+chose a new State convention, which met in St. Louis on January 6, 1865,
+and on the sixth day of its session (January 11) formally adopted an
+ordinance of immediate emancipation.
+
+Maryland, like Missouri, had no need of reconstruction. Except for the
+Baltimore riot and the arrest of her secession legislature during the
+first year of the war, her State government continued its regular
+functions. But a strong popular undercurrent of virulent secession
+sympathy among a considerable minority of her inhabitants was only held
+in check by the military power of the Union, and for two years
+emancipation found no favor in the public opinion of the State. Her
+representatives, like those of most other border States, coldly refused
+President Lincoln's earnest plea to accept compensated abolishment; and
+a bill in Congress to give Maryland ten million dollars for that object
+was at once blighted by the declaration of one of her leading
+representatives that Maryland did not ask for it. Nevertheless, the
+subject could no more be ignored there than in other States; and after
+the President's emancipation proclamation an emancipation party
+developed itself in Maryland.
+
+There was no longer any evading the practical issue, when, by the
+President's direction, the Secretary of War issued a military order,
+early in October, 1863, regulating the raising of colored troops in
+certain border States, which decreed that slaves might be enlisted
+without consent of their owners, but provided compensation in such
+cases. At the November election of that year the emancipation party of
+Maryland elected its ticket by an overwhelming majority, and a
+legislature that enacted laws under which a State convention was chosen
+to amend the constitution. Of the delegates elected on April 6, 1864,
+sixty-one were emancipationists, and only thirty-five opposed.
+
+After two months' debate this convention by nearly two thirds adopted an
+article:
+
+"That hereafter in this State there shall be neither slavery nor
+involuntary servitude except in punishment of crime whereof the party
+shall have been duly convicted; and all persons held to service or labor
+as slaves are hereby declared free."
+
+The decisive test of a popular vote accepting the amended constitution
+as a whole, remained, however, yet to be undergone. President Lincoln
+willingly complied with a request to throw his official voice and
+influence in favor of the measure, and wrote, on October 10, 1864:
+
+"A convention of Maryland has framed a new constitution for the State; a
+public meeting is called for this evening at Baltimore to aid in
+securing its ratification by the people; and you ask a word from me for
+the occasion. I presume the only feature of the instrument about which
+there is serious controversy is that which provides for the extinction
+of slavery. It needs not to be a secret, and I presume it is no secret,
+that I wish success to this provision. I desire it on every
+consideration. I wish all men to be free. I wish the material prosperity
+of the already free, which I feel sure the extinction of slavery would
+bring. I wish to see in process of disappearing that only thing which
+ever could bring this nation to civil war. I attempt no argument.
+Argument upon the question is already exhausted by the abler, better
+informed, and more immediately interested sons of Maryland herself. I
+only add that I shall be gratified exceedingly if the good people of the
+State shall, by their votes, ratify the new constitution."
+
+At the election which was held on October 12 and 13, stubborn Maryland
+conservatism, whose roots reached far back to the colonial days, made
+its last desperate stand, and the constitution was ratified by a
+majority of only three hundred and seventy-five votes out of a total of
+nearly sixty thousand. But the result was accepted as decisive, and in
+due time the governor issued his proclamation, declaring the new
+constitution legally adopted.
+
+
+
+
+XXXI
+
+Shaping of the Presidential Campaign--Criticisms of Mr. Lincoln--Chase's
+Presidential Ambitions--The Pomeroy Circular--Cleveland
+Convention--Attempt to Nominate Grant--Meeting of Baltimore
+Convention--Lincoln's Letter to Schurz--Platform of Republican
+Convention--Lincoln Renominated--Refuses to Indicate Preference for
+Vice-President--Johnson Nominated for Vice-President--Lincoln's Speech
+to Committee of Notification--Reference to Mexico in his Letter of
+Acceptance--The French in Mexico
+
+
+The final shaping of the campaign, the definition of the issues, the
+wording of the platforms, and selection of the candidates, had grown
+much more out of national politics than out of mere party combination or
+personal intrigues. The success of the war, and fate of the Union, of
+course dominated every other consideration; and next to this the
+treatment of the slavery question became in a hundred forms almost a
+direct personal interest. Mere party feeling, which had utterly vanished
+for a few months in the first grand uprising of the North, had been once
+more awakened by the first Bull Run defeat, and from that time onward
+was heard in loud and constant criticism of Mr. Lincoln and the acts of
+his supporters wherever they touched the institution of slavery. The
+Democratic party, which had been allied with the Southern politicians in
+the interests of that institution through so many decades, quite
+naturally took up its habitual rôle of protest that slavery should
+receive no hurt or damage from the incidents of war, where, in the
+border States, it still had constitutional existence among loyal Union
+men.
+
+On the other hand, among Republicans who had elected Mr. Lincoln, and
+who, as a partizan duty, indorsed and sustained his measures, Frémont's
+proclamation of military emancipation in the first year of the war
+excited the over-hasty zeal of antislavery extremists, and developed a
+small but very active faction which harshly denounced the President when
+Mr. Lincoln revoked that premature and ill-considered measure. No matter
+what the President subsequently did about slavery, the Democratic press
+and partizans always assailed him for doing too much, while the Frémont
+press and partizans accused him of doing too little.
+
+Meanwhile, personal considerations were playing their minor, but not
+unimportant parts. When McClellan was called to Washington, and during
+all the hopeful promise of the great victories he was expected to win, a
+few shrewd New York Democratic politicians grouped themselves about him,
+and put him in training as the future Democratic candidate for
+President; and the general fell easily into their plans and ambitions.
+Even after he had demonstrated his military incapacity, when he had
+reaped defeat instead of victory, and earned humiliation instead of
+triumph, his partizan adherents clung to the desperate hope that though
+they could not win applause for him as a conqueror, they might yet
+create public sympathy in his behalf as a neglected and persecuted
+genius.
+
+The cabinets of Presidents frequently develop rival presidential
+aspirants, and that of Mr. Lincoln was no exception. Considering the
+strong men who composed it, the only wonder is that there was so little
+friction among them. They disagreed constantly and heartily on minor
+questions, both with Mr. Lincoln and with each other, but their great
+devotion to the Union, coupled with his kindly forbearance, and the
+clear vision which assured him mastery over himself and others, kept
+peace and even personal affection in his strangely assorted official
+family.
+
+The man who developed the most serious presidential aspirations was
+Salmon P. Chase, his Secretary of the Treasury, who listened to and
+actively encouraged the overtures of a small faction of the Republican
+party which rallied about him at the end of the year 1863. Pure and
+disinterested, and devoted with all his energies and powers to the cause
+of the Union, he was yet singularly ignorant of current public thought,
+and absolutely incapable of judging men in their true relations He
+regarded himself as the friend of Mr. Lincoln and made strong
+protestations to him and to others of this friendship, but he held so
+poor an opinion of the President's intellect and character, compared
+with his own, that he could not believe the people blind enough to
+prefer the President to himself. He imagined that he did not covet
+advancement, and was anxious only for the public good; yet, in the midst
+of his enormous labors found time to write letters to every part of the
+country, protesting his indifference to the presidency, but indicating
+his willingness to accept it, and painting pictures so dark of the
+chaotic state of affairs in the government, that the irresistible
+inference was that only he could save the country. From the beginning
+Mr. Lincoln had been aware of this quasi-candidacy, which continued all
+through the winter Indeed, it was impossible to remain unconscious of
+it, although he discouraged all conversation on the subject, and
+refused to read letters relating to it. He had his own opinion of the
+taste and judgment displayed by Mr. Chase in his criticisms of the
+President and his colleagues in the cabinet, but he took no note of
+them.
+
+"I have determined," he said, "to shut my eyes, so far as possible, to
+everything of the sort. Mr. Chase makes a good secretary, and I shall
+keep him where he is. If he becomes President, all right. I hope we may
+never have a worse man."
+
+And he went on appointing Mr. Chase's partizans and adherents to places
+in the government. Although his own renomination was a matter in regard
+to which he refused to talk much, even with intimate friends, he was
+perfectly aware of the true drift of things. In capacity of appreciating
+popular currents Chase was as a child beside him; and he allowed the
+opposition to himself in his own cabinet to continue, without question
+or remark, all the more patiently, because he knew how feeble it really
+was.
+
+The movement in favor of Mr. Chase culminated in the month of February,
+1864, in a secret circular signed by Senator Pomeroy of Kansas, and
+widely circulated through the Union; which criticised Mr. Lincoln's
+"tendency toward compromises and temporary expedients"; explained that
+even if his reëlection were desirable, it was practically impossible in
+the face of the opposition that had developed; and lauded Chase as the
+statesman best fitted to rescue the country from present perils and
+guard it against future ills. Of course copies of this circular soon
+reached the White House, but Mr. Lincoln refused to look at them, and
+they accumulated unread in the desk of his secretary. Finally, it got
+into print, whereupon Mr. Chase wrote to the President to assure him he
+had no knowledge of the letter before seeing it in the papers. To this
+Mr. Lincoln replied:
+
+"I was not shocked or surprised by the appearance of the letter, because
+I had had knowledge of Mr. Pomeroy's committee, and of secret issues
+which I supposed came from it, ... for several weeks. I have known just
+as little of these things as my friends have allowed me to know.... I
+fully concur with you that neither of us can be justly held responsible
+for what our respective friends may do without our instigation or
+countenance.... Whether you shall remain at the head of the Treasury
+Department is a question which I will not allow myself to consider from
+any standpoint other than my judgment of the public service, and, in
+that view, I do not perceive occasion for a change."
+
+Even before the President wrote this letter, Mr. Chase's candidacy had
+passed out of sight. In fact, it never really existed save in the
+imagination of the Secretary of the Treasury and a narrow circle of his
+adherents. He was by no means the choice of the body of radicals who
+were discontented with Mr. Lincoln because of his deliberation in
+dealing with the slavery question, or of those others who thought he was
+going entirely too fast and too far.
+
+Both these factions, alarmed at the multiplying signs which foretold his
+triumphant renomination, issued calls for a mass convention of the
+people, to meet at Cleveland, Ohio, on May 31, a week before the
+assembling of the Republican national convention at Baltimore, to unite
+in a last attempt to stem the tide in his favor. Democratic newspapers
+naturally made much of this, heralding it as a hopeless split in the
+Republican ranks, and printing fictitious despatches from Cleveland
+reporting that city thronged with influential and earnest delegates.
+Far from this being the case, there was no crowd and still less
+enthusiasm. Up to the very day of its meeting no place was provided for
+the sessions of the convention, which finally came together in a small
+hall whose limited capacity proved more than ample for both delegates
+and spectators. Though organization was delayed nearly two hours in the
+vain hope that more delegates would arrive, the men who had been counted
+upon to give character to the gathering remained notably absent. The
+delegates prudently refrained from counting their meager number, and
+after preliminaries of a more or less farcical nature, voted for a
+platform differing little from that afterward adopted at Baltimore,
+listened to the reading of a vehement letter from Wendell Phillips
+denouncing Mr. Lincoln's administration and counseling the choice of
+Frémont for President, nominated that general by acclamation, with
+General John Cochrane of New York for his running-mate, christened
+themselves the "Radical Democracy," and adjourned.
+
+The press generally greeted the convention and its work with a chorus of
+ridicule, though certain Democratic newspapers, from motives harmlessly
+transparent, gave it solemn and unmeasured praise. General Frémont,
+taking his candidacy seriously, accepted the nomination, but three
+months later, finding no response from the public, withdrew from the
+contest.
+
+At this fore-doomed Cleveland meeting a feeble attempt had been made by
+the men who considered Mr. Lincoln too radical, to nominate General
+Grant for President, instead of Frémont; but he had been denounced as a
+Lincoln hireling, and his name unceremoniously swept aside. During the
+same week another effort in the same direction was made in New York,
+though the committee having the matter in charge made no public avowal
+of its intention beforehand, merely calling a meeting to express the
+gratitude of the country to the general for his signal services; and
+even inviting Mr. Lincoln to take part in the proceedings. This he
+declined to do, but wrote:
+
+"I approve, nevertheless, whatever may tend to strengthen and sustain
+General Grant and the noble armies now under his direction. My previous
+high estimate of General Grant has been maintained and heightened by
+what has occurred in the remarkable campaign he is now conducting, while
+the magnitude and difficulty of the task before him do not prove less
+than I expected. He and his brave soldiers are now in the midst of their
+great trial, and I trust that at your meeting you will so shape your
+good words that they may turn to men and guns, moving to his and their
+support."
+
+With such gracious approval of the movement the meeting naturally fell
+into the hands of the Lincoln men. General Grant neither at this time
+nor at any other, gave the least countenance to the efforts which were
+made to array him in political opposition to the President.
+
+These various attempts to discredit the name of Mr. Lincoln and nominate
+some one else in his place caused hardly a ripple on the great current
+of public opinion. Death alone could have prevented his choice by the
+Union convention. So absolute and universal was the tendency that most
+of the politicians made no effort to direct or guide it; they simply
+exerted themselves to keep in the van and not be overwhelmed. The
+convention met on June 7, but irregular nominations of Mr. Lincoln for
+President had begun as early as January 6, when the first State
+convention of the year was held in New Hampshire.
+
+From one end of the country to the other such spontaneous nominations
+had joyously echoed his name. Only in Missouri did it fail of
+overwhelming adhesion, and even in the Missouri Assembly the resolution
+in favor of his renomination was laid upon the table by a majority of
+only eight. The current swept on irresistibly throughout the spring. A
+few opponents of Mr. Lincoln endeavored to postpone the meeting of the
+national convention until September, knowing that their only hope lay in
+some possible accident of the summer. But though supported by so
+powerful an influence as the New York "Tribune," the National Committee
+paid no attention to this appeal. Indeed, they might as well have
+considered the request of a committee of prominent citizens to check an
+impending thunderstorm.
+
+Mr. Lincoln took no measures whatever to promote his own candidacy.
+While not assuming airs of reluctance or bashfulness, he discouraged on
+the part of strangers any suggestion as to his reëlection. Among his
+friends he made no secret of his readiness to continue the work he was
+engaged in, if such should be the general wish. "A second term would be
+a great honor and a great labor, which together, perhaps, I would not
+decline if tendered," he wrote Elihu B. Washburne. He not only opposed
+no obstacle to the ambitions of Chase, but received warnings to beware
+of Grant in the same serene manner, answering tranquilly, "If he takes
+Richmond, let him have it." And he discouraged office-holders, civil or
+military, who showed any special zeal in his behalf. To General Schurz,
+who wrote asking permission to take an active part in the presidential
+campaign, he replied:
+
+"Allow me to suggest that if you wish to remain in the military service,
+it is very dangerous for you to get temporarily out of it; because,
+with a major-general once out, it is next to impossible for even the
+President to get him in again.... Of course I would be very glad to have
+your service for the country in the approaching political canvass; but I
+fear we cannot properly have it without separating you from the
+military." And in a later letter he added: "I perceive no objection to
+your making a political speech when you are where one is to be made; but
+quite surely, speaking in the North and fighting in the South at the
+same time are not possible; nor could I be justified to detail any
+officer to the political campaign during its continuance and then return
+him to the army."
+
+Not only did he firmly take this stand as to his own nomination, but
+enforced it even more rigidly in cases where he learned that Federal
+office-holders were working to defeat the return of certain Republican
+congressmen. In several such instances he wrote instructions of which
+the following is a type:
+
+"Complaint is made to me that you are using your official power to
+defeat Judge Kelley's renomination to Congress.... The correct
+principle, I think, is that all our friends should have absolute freedom
+of choice among our friends. My wish, therefore, is that you will do
+just as you think fit with your own suffrage in the case, and not
+constrain any of your subordinates to do other than as he thinks fit
+with his."
+
+He made, of course, no long speeches during the campaign, and in his
+short addresses, at Sanitary Fairs, in response to visiting delegations,
+or on similar occasions where custom and courtesy decreed that he must
+say something, preserved his mental balance undisturbed, speaking
+heartily and to the point, but skilfully avoiding the perils that beset
+the candidate who talks.
+
+When at last the Republican convention came together on June 7, 1864, it
+had less to do than any other convention in our political history; for
+its delegates were bound by a peremptory mandate. It was opened by brief
+remarks from Senator Morgan of New York, whose significant statement
+that the convention would fall far short of accomplishing its great
+mission unless it declared for a Constitutional amendment prohibiting
+African slavery, was loudly cheered. In their speeches on taking the
+chair, both the temporary chairman, Rev. Robert J. Breckinridge of
+Kentucky, and the permanent chairman, William Dennison of Ohio, treated
+Mr. Lincoln's nomination as a foregone conclusion, and the applause
+which greeted his name showed that the delegates did not resent this
+disregard of customary etiquette. There were, in fact, but three tasks
+before the convention--to settle the status of contesting delegations,
+to agree upon a platform, and to nominate a candidate for
+Vice-President.
+
+The platform declared in favor of crushing rebellion and maintaining the
+integrity of the Union, commending the government's determination to
+enter into no compromise with the rebels. It applauded President
+Lincoln's patriotism and fidelity in the discharge of his duties, and
+stated that only those in harmony with "these resolutions" ought to have
+a voice in the administration of the government. This, while intended to
+win support of radicals throughout the Union, was aimed particularly at
+Postmaster General Blair, who had made many enemies. It approved all
+acts directed against slavery; declared in favor of a constitutional
+amendment forever abolishing it; claimed full protection of the laws of
+war for colored troops; expressed gratitude to the soldiers and sailors
+of the Union; pronounced in favor of encouraging foreign immigration;
+of building a Pacific railway; of keeping inviolate the faith of the
+nation, pledged to redeem the national debt; and vigorously reaffirmed
+the Monroe Doctrine.
+
+Then came the nominations. The only delay in registering the will of the
+convention occurred as a consequence of the attempt of members to do it
+by irregular and summary methods. When Mr. Delano of Ohio made the
+customary motion to proceed to the nomination, Simon Cameron moved as a
+substitute the renomination of Lincoln and Hamlin by acclamation. A long
+wrangle ensued on the motion to lay this substitute on the table, which
+was finally brought to an end by the cooler heads, who desired that
+whatever opposition to Mr. Lincoln there might be in the convention
+should have fullest opportunity of expression. The nominations,
+therefore, proceeded by call of States in the usual way. The
+interminable nominating speeches of recent years had not yet come into
+fashion. B.C. Cook, the chairman of the Illinois delegation, merely
+said:
+
+"The State of Illinois again presents to the loyal people of this nation
+for President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln--God bless him!"
+
+Others, who seconded the nomination, were equally brief. Every State
+gave its undivided vote for Lincoln, with the exception of Missouri,
+which cast its vote, under positive instructions, as the chairman
+stated, for Grant. But before the result was announced, John F. Hume of
+Missouri moved that Mr. Lincoln's nomination be declared unanimous. This
+could not be done until the result of the balloting was made known--four
+hundred and eighty-four for Lincoln, twenty-two for Grant. Missouri then
+changed its vote, and the secretary read the grand total of five hundred
+and six for Lincoln; the announcement being greeted with a storm of
+cheering which lasted many minutes.
+
+The principal names mentioned for the vice-presidency were Hannibal
+Hamlin, the actual incumbent; Andrew Johnson of Tennessee; and Daniel S.
+Dickinson of New York. Besides these, General L.H. Rousseau had the vote
+of his own State--Kentucky. The radicals of Missouri favored General
+B.F. Butler, who had a few scattered votes also from New England. Among
+the principal candidates, however, the voters were equally enough
+divided to make the contest exceedingly spirited and interesting.
+
+For several days before the convention met Mr. Lincoln had been besieged
+by inquiries as to his personal wishes in regard to his associate on the
+ticket. He had persistently refused to give the slightest intimation of
+such wish. His private secretary, Mr. Nicolay, who was at Baltimore in
+attendance at the convention, was well acquainted with this attitude;
+but at last, over-borne by the solicitations of the chairman of the
+Illinois delegation, who had been perplexed at the advocacy of Joseph
+Holt by Leonard Swett, one of the President's most intimate friends, Mr.
+Nicolay wrote to Mr. Hay, who had been left in charge of the executive
+office in his absence:
+
+"Cook wants to know, confidentially, whether Swett is all right; whether
+in urging Holt for Vice-President he reflects the President's wishes;
+whether the President has any preference, either personal or on the
+score of policy; or whether he wishes not even to interfere by a
+confidential intimation.... Please get this information for me, if
+possible."
+
+The letter was shown to the President, who indorsed upon it:
+
+"Swett is unquestionably all right. Mr. Holt is a good man, but I had
+not heard or thought of him for V.P. Wish not to interfere about V.P.
+Cannot interfere about platform. Convention must judge for itself."
+
+This positive and final instruction was sent at once to Mr. Nicolay, and
+by him communicated to the President's most intimate friends in the
+convention. It was therefore with minds absolutely untrammeled by even
+any knowledge of the President's wishes that the convention went about
+its work of selecting his associate on the ticket. It is altogether
+probable that the ticket of 1860 would have been nominated without a
+contest had it not been for the general impression, in and out of the
+convention, that it would be advisable to select as a candidate for the
+vice-presidency a war Democrat. Mr. Dickinson, while not putting himself
+forward as a candidate, had sanctioned the use of his name on the
+special ground that his candidacy might attract to the support of the
+Union party many Democrats who would have been unwilling to support a
+ticket avowedly Republican; but these considerations weighed with still
+greater force in favor of Mr. Johnson, who was not only a Democrat, but
+also a citizen of a slave State. The first ballot showed that Mr.
+Johnson had received two hundred votes, Mr. Hamlin one hundred and
+fifty, and Mr. Dickinson one hundred and eight; and before the result
+was announced almost the whole convention turned their votes to Johnson;
+whereupon his nomination was declared unanimous. The work was so quickly
+done that Mr. Lincoln received notice of the action of the convention
+only a few minutes after the telegram announcing his own renomination
+had reached him.
+
+Replying next day to a committee of notification, he said in part:
+
+"I will neither conceal my gratification nor restrain the expression of
+my gratitude that the Union people, through their convention, in the
+continued effort to save and advance the nation, have deemed me not
+unworthy to remain in my present position. I know no reason to doubt
+that I shall accept the nomination tendered and yet, perhaps I should
+not declare definitely before reading and considering what is called the
+platform. I will say now, however, I approve the declaration in favor of
+so amending the Constitution as to prohibit slavery throughout the
+nation. When the people in revolt, with a hundred days of explicit
+notice that they could within those days resume their allegiance without
+the overthrow of their institutions, and that they could not resume it
+afterward, elected to stand out, such amendment to the Constitution as
+is now proposed became a fitting and necessary conclusion to the final
+success of the Union cause.... In the joint names of Liberty and Union,
+let us labor to give it legal form and practical effect."
+
+In his letter of June 29, formally accepting the nomination, the
+President observed the same wise rule of brevity which he had followed
+four years before. He made but one specific reference to any subject of
+discussion. While he accepted the convention's resolution reaffirming
+the Monroe Doctrine, he gave the convention and the country distinctly
+to understand that he stood by the action already adopted by himself and
+the Secretary of State. He said:
+
+"There might be misunderstanding were I not to say that the position of
+the government in relation to the action of France in Mexico, as assumed
+through the State Department and approved and indorsed by the convention
+among the measures and acts of the Executive will be faithfully
+maintained so long as the state of facts shall leave that position
+pertinent and applicable."
+
+This resolution, which was, in truth, a more vigorous assertion of the
+Monroe Doctrine than the author of that famous tenet ever dreamed of
+making, had been introduced in the convention by the radicals as a
+covert censure of Mr. Lincoln's attitude toward the French invasion of
+our sister republic; but through skilful wording of the platform had
+been turned by his friends into an indorsement of the administration.
+
+And, indeed, this was most just, since from the beginning President
+Lincoln and Mr. Seward had done all in their power to discourage the
+presence of foreign troops on Mexican territory. When a joint expedition
+by England, France, and Spain had been agreed upon to seize certain
+Mexican ports in default of a money indemnity demanded by those
+countries for outrages against their subjects, England had invited the
+United States to be a party to the convention. Instead, Mr. Lincoln and
+Mr. Seward attempted to aid Mexico with a sufficient sum to meet these
+demands, and notified Great Britain of their intention to do so, and the
+motives which prompted them. The friendly assistance came to naught; but
+as the three powers vigorously disclaimed any designs against Mexico's
+territory or her form of government, the United States saw no necessity
+for further action, beyond a clear definition of its own attitude for
+the benefit of all the parties.
+
+This it continued to repeat after England withdrew from the expedition,
+and Spain, soon recalling her troops, left Napoleon III to set the
+Archduke Maximilian on his shadowy throne, and to develop in the heart
+of America his scheme of an empire friendly to the South. At the moment
+the government was unable to do more, though recognizing the veiled
+hostility of Europe which thus manifested itself in a movement on what
+may be called the right flank of the republic. While giving utterance to
+no expressions of indignation at the aggressions, or of gratification at
+disaster which met the aggressor, the President and Mr. Seward continued
+to assert, at every proper opportunity the adherence of the American
+government to its traditional policy of discouraging European
+intervention in the affairs of the New World.
+
+
+
+
+XXXII
+
+The Bogus Proclamation--The Wade-Davis Manifesto--Resignation
+of Mr. Chase--Fessenden Succeeds Him--The Greeley Peace
+Conference--Jaquess-Gilmore Mission--Letter of Raymond--Bad Outlook for
+the Election--Mr. Lincoln on the Issues of the Campaign--President's
+Secret Memorandum--Meeting of Democratic National Convention--McClellan
+Nominated--His Letter of Acceptance--Lincoln Reëlected--His Speech on
+Night of Election--The Electoral Vote--Annual Message of December 6,
+1864--Resignation of McClellan from the Army
+
+
+The seizure of the New York "Journal of Commerce" and New York "World,"
+in May, 1864, for publishing a forged proclamation calling for four
+hundred thousand more troops, had caused great excitement among the
+critics of Mr. Lincoln's administration. The terrible slaughter of
+Grant's opening campaign against Richmond rendered the country painfully
+sensitive to such news at the moment; and the forgery, which proved to
+be the work of two young Bohemians of the press, accomplished its
+purpose of raising the price of gold, and throwing the Stock Exchange
+into a temporary fever. Telegraphic announcement of the imposture soon
+quieted the flurry, and the quick detection of the guilty parties
+reduced the incident to its true rank; but the fact that the fiery
+Secretary of War had meanwhile issued orders for the suppression of both
+newspapers and the arrest of their editors was neither forgiven nor
+forgotten. The editors were never incarcerated, and the journals resumed
+publication after an interval of only two days, but the incident was
+vigorously employed during the entire summer as a means of attack upon
+the administration.
+
+Violent opposition to Mr. Lincoln came also from those members of both
+Houses of Congress who disapproved his attitude on reconstruction.
+Though that part of his message of December 8, 1863, relating to the
+formation of loyal State governments in districts which had been in
+rebellion at first received enthusiastic commendation from both
+conservatives and radicals, it was soon evident that the millennium had
+not yet arrived, and that in a Congress composed of men of such positive
+convictions and vehement character, there were many who would not submit
+permanently to the leadership of any man, least of all to that of one so
+reasonable, so devoid of malice, as the President.
+
+Henry Winter Davis at once moved that that part of the message be
+referred to a special committee of which he was chairman, and on
+February 15 reported a bill whose preamble declared the Confederate
+States completely out of the Union; prescribing a totally different
+method of reëstablishing loyal State governments, one of the essentials
+being the prohibition of slavery. Congress rejected the preamble, but
+after extensive debate accepted the bill, which breathed the same spirit
+throughout. The measure was also finally acceded to in the Senate, and
+came to Mr. Lincoln for signature in the closing hours of the session.
+He laid it aside and went on with other business, despite the evident
+anxiety of several friends, who feared his failure to indorse it would
+lose the Republicans many votes in the Northwest. In stating his
+attitude to his cabinet he said:
+
+"This bill and the position of these gentlemen seem to me, in asserting
+that the insurrectionary States are no longer in the Union, to make the
+fatal admission that States, whenever they please, may of their own
+motion dissolve their connection with the Union. Now we cannot survive
+that admission, I am convinced. If that be true, I am not President;
+these gentlemen are not Congress. I have laboriously endeavored to avoid
+that question ever since it first began to be mooted, and thus to avoid
+confusion and disturbance in our own councils. It was to obviate this
+question that I earnestly favored the movement for an amendment to the
+Constitution abolishing slavery, which passed the Senate and failed in
+the House. I thought it much better, if it were possible, to restore the
+Union without the necessity of a violent quarrel among its friends as to
+whether certain States have been in or out of the Union during the
+war--a merely metaphysical question and one unnecessary to be forced
+into discussion."
+
+But though every member of the cabinet agreed with him, he foresaw the
+importance of the step he had resolved to take, and its possible
+disastrous consequences to himself. When some one said that the threats
+of the radicals were without foundation, and that the people would not
+bolt their ticket on a question of metaphysics, he answered:
+
+"If they choose to make a point upon this, I do not doubt that they can
+do harm. They have never been friendly to me. At all events, I must keep
+some consciousness of being somewhere near right. I must keep some
+standard or principle fixed within myself."
+
+Convinced, after fullest deliberation, that the bill was too restrictive
+in its provisions, and yet unwilling to reject whatever of practical
+good might be accomplished by it, he disregarded precedents, and acting
+on his lifelong rule of taking the people into his confidence, issued a
+proclamation on July 8, giving a copy of the bill of Congress, reciting
+the circumstances under which it was passed, and announcing that while
+he was unprepared by formal approval of the bill to be inflexibly
+committed to any single plan of restoration, or to set aside the
+free-State governments already adopted in Arkansas and Louisiana, or to
+declare that Congress was competent to decree the abolishment of
+slavery; yet he was fully satisfied with the plan as one very proper
+method of reconstruction, and promised executive aid to any State that
+might see fit to adopt it.
+
+The great mass of Republican voters, who cared little for the
+"metaphysics" of the case, accepted this proclamation, as they had
+accepted that issued six months before, as the wisest and most
+practicable method of handling the question; but among those already
+hostile to the President, and those whose devotion to the cause of
+freedom was so ardent as to make them look upon him as lukewarm, the
+exasperation which was already excited increased. The indignation of Mr.
+Davis and of Mr. Wade, who had called the bill up in the Senate, at
+seeing their work thus brought to nothing, could not be restrained; and
+together they signed and published in the New York "Tribune" of August 5
+the most vigorous attack ever directed against the President from his
+own party; insinuating that only the lowest motives dictated his action,
+since by refusing to sign the bill he held the electoral votes of the
+rebel States at his personal dictation; calling his approval of the bill
+of Congress as a very proper plan for any State choosing to adopt it, a
+"studied outrage"; and admonishing the people to "consider the remedy of
+these usurpations, and, having found it," to "fearlessly execute it."
+
+Congress had already repealed the fugitive-slave law, and to the voters
+at large, who joyfully accepted the emancipation proclamation, it
+mattered very little whether the "institution" came to its inevitable
+end, in the fragments of territory where it yet remained, by virtue of
+congressional act or executive decree. This tempest over the method of
+reconstruction had, therefore, little bearing on the presidential
+campaign, and appealed more to individual critics of the President than
+to the mass of the people.
+
+Mr. Chase entered in his diary: "The President pocketed the great
+bill.... He did not venture to veto, and so put it in his pocket. It was
+a condemnation of his amnesty proclamation and of his general policy of
+reconstruction, rejecting the idea of possible reconstruction with
+slavery, which neither the President nor his chief advisers have, in my
+opinion, abandoned." Mr. Chase was no longer one of the chief advisers.
+After his withdrawal from his hopeless contest for the presidency, his
+sentiments toward Mr. Lincoln took on a tinge of bitterness which
+increased until their friendly association in the public service became
+no longer possible; and on June 30 he sent the President his
+resignation, which was accepted. There is reason to believe that he did
+not expect such a prompt severing of their official relations, since
+more than once, in the months of friction which preceded this
+culmination, he had used a threat to resign as means to carry some point
+in controversy.
+
+Mr. Lincoln, on accepting his resignation, sent the name of David Tod of
+Ohio to the Senate as his successor; but, receiving a telegram from Mr.
+Tod declining on the plea of ill health, substituted that of William
+Pitt Fessenden, chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, whose
+nomination was instantly confirmed and commanded general approval.
+
+Horace Greeley, editor of the powerful New York "Tribune," had become
+one of those patriots whose discouragement and discontent led them,
+during the summer of 1864, to give ready hospitality to any suggestions
+to end the war. In July he wrote to the President, forwarding the letter
+of one "Wm. Cornell Jewett of Colorado," which announced the arrival in
+Canada of two ambassadors from Jefferson Davis with full powers to
+negotiate a peace. Mr. Greeley urged, in his over-fervid letter of
+transmittal, that the President make overtures on the following plan of
+adjustment: First. The Union to be restored and declared perpetual.
+Second. Slavery to be utterly and forever abolished. Third. A complete
+amnesty for all political offenses. Fourth. Payment of four hundred
+million dollars to the slave States, pro rata, for their slaves. Fifth.
+Slave States to be represented in proportion to their total population.
+Sixth. A national convention to be called at once.
+
+Though Mr. Lincoln had no faith in Jewett's story, and doubted whether
+the embassy had any existence, he determined to take immediate action on
+this proposition. He felt the unreasonableness and injustice of Mr.
+Greeley's letter, which in effect charged his administration with a
+cruel disinclination to treat with the rebels, and resolved to convince
+him at least, and perhaps others, that there was no foundation for these
+reproaches. So he arranged that the witness of his willingness to listen
+to any overtures that might come from the South should be Mr. Greeley
+himself, and answering his letter at once on July 9, said:
+
+"If you can find any person, anywhere, professing to have any
+proposition of Jefferson Davis in writing, for peace, embracing the
+restoration of the Union and abandonment of slavery, whatever else it
+embraces, say to him he may come to me with you, and that if he really
+brings such proposition he shall at the least have safe conduct with the
+paper (and without publicity, if he chooses) to the point where you
+shall have met him. The same if there be two or more persons."
+
+This ready acquiescence evidently surprised and somewhat embarrassed Mr.
+Greeley, who replied by several letters of different dates, but made no
+motion to produce his commissioners. At last, on the fifteenth, to end a
+correspondence which promised to be indefinitely prolonged, the
+President telegraphed him: "I was not expecting you to send me a letter,
+but to bring me a man or men." Mr. Greeley then went to Niagara, and
+wrote from there to the alleged commissioners, Clement C. Clay and James
+P. Holcombe, offering to conduct them to Washington, but neglecting to
+mention the two conditions--restoration of the Union and abandonment of
+slavery--laid down in Mr. Lincoln's note of the ninth and repeated by
+him on the fifteenth. Even with this great advantage, Clay and Holcombe
+felt themselves too devoid of credentials to accept Mr. Greeley's offer,
+but replied that they could easily get credentials, or that other agents
+could be accredited, if they could be sent to Richmond armed with "the
+circumstances disclosed in this correspondence."
+
+This, of course, meant that Mr. Lincoln should take the initiative in
+suing the Richmond authorities for peace on terms proposed by them. The
+essential impossibility of these terms was not, however, apparent to Mr.
+Greeley, who sent them on to Washington, soliciting fresh instructions.
+With unwearied patience, Mr. Lincoln drew up a final paper, "To Whom it
+may Concern," formally restating his position, and despatched Major Hay
+with it to Niagara. This ended the conference; the Confederates charging
+the President through the newspapers with a "sudden and entire change of
+views"; while Mr. Greeley, being attacked by his colleagues of the press
+for his action, could defend himself only by implied censure of the
+President, utterly overlooking the fact that his own original letter had
+contained the identical propositions Mr. Lincoln insisted upon.
+
+The discussion grew so warm that both he and his assailants at last
+joined in a request to Mr. Lincoln to permit the publication of the
+correspondence. This was, of course, an excellent opportunity for the
+President to vindicate his own proceeding. But he rarely looked at such
+matters from the point of view of personal advantage, and he feared that
+the passionate, almost despairing appeals of the most prominent
+Republican editor of the North for peace at any cost, disclosed in the
+correspondence, would deepen the gloom in the public mind and have an
+injurious effect upon the Union cause. The spectacle of the veteran
+journalist, who was justly regarded as the leading controversial writer
+on the antislavery side, ready to sacrifice everything for peace, and
+frantically denouncing the government for refusing to surrender the
+contest, would have been, in its effect upon public opinion, a disaster
+equal to the loss of a great battle. He therefore proposed to Mr.
+Greeley, in case the letters were published, to omit some of the most
+vehement passages; and took Mr. Greeley's refusal to assent to this as a
+veto on their publication.
+
+It was characteristic of him that, seeing the temper in which Mr.
+Greeley regarded the transaction, he dropped the matter and submitted
+in silence to the misrepresentations to which he was subjected by reason
+of it. Some thought he erred in giving any hearing to the rebels; some
+criticized his choice of a commissioner; and the opposition naturally
+made the most of his conditions of negotiation, and accused him of
+embarking in a war of extermination in the interests of the negro.
+Though making no public effort to set himself right, he was keenly alive
+to their attitude. To a friend he wrote:
+
+"Saying reunion and abandonment of slavery would be considered, if
+offered, is not saying that nothing else or less would be considered, if
+offered.... Allow me to remind you that no one, having control of the
+rebel armies, or, in fact, having any influence whatever in the
+rebellion, has offered, or intimated, a willingness to a restoration of
+the Union, in any event, or on any condition whatever.... If Jefferson
+Davis wishes for himself, or for the benefit of his friends at the
+North, to know what I would do if he were to offer peace and reunion,
+saying nothing about slavery, let him try me."
+
+If the result of Mr. Greeley's Niagara efforts left any doubt that peace
+was at present unattainable, the fact was demonstrated beyond question
+by the published report of another unofficial and volunteer negotiation
+which was proceeding at the same time. In May, 1863, James F. Jaquess,
+D.D., a Methodist clergyman of piety and religious enthusiasm, who had
+been appointed by Governor Yates colonel of an Illinois regiment,
+applied for permission to go South, urging that by virtue of his church
+relations he could, within ninety days, obtain acceptable terms of peace
+from the Confederates. The military superiors to whom he submitted the
+request forwarded it to Mr. Lincoln with a favorable indorsement; and
+the President replied, consenting that they grant him a furlough, if
+they saw fit, but saying:
+
+"He cannot go with any government authority whatever. This is absolute
+and imperative."
+
+Eleven days later he was back again within Union lines, claiming to have
+valuable "unofficial" proposals for peace. President Lincoln paid no
+attention to his request for an interview, and in course of time he
+returned to his regiment. Nothing daunted, however, a year later he
+applied for and received permission to repeat his visit, this time in
+company with J.R. Gilmore, a lecturer and writer, but, as before,
+expressly without instruction or authority from Mr. Lincoln. They went
+to Richmond, and had an extended interview with Mr. Davis, during which
+they proposed to him a plan of adjustment as visionary as it was
+unauthorized, its central feature being a general election to be held
+over the whole country, North and South, within sixty days, on the two
+propositions,--peace with disunion and Southern independence, or peace
+with Union, emancipation, no confiscation, and universal amnesty,--the
+majority vote to decide, and the governments at Washington and Richmond
+to be finally bound by the decision.
+
+The interview resulted in nothing but a renewed declaration from Mr.
+Davis that he would fight for separation to the bitter end--a
+declaration which, on the whole, was of service to the Union cause,
+since, to a great extent, it stopped the clamor of the peace factionists
+during the presidential campaign. Not entirely, however. There was still
+criticism enough to induce Henry J. Raymond, chairman of the executive
+committee of the Republican party, to write a letter on August 22,
+suggesting to Mr. Lincoln that he ought to appoint a commission in due
+form to make proffers of peace to Davis on the sole condition of
+acknowledging the supremacy of the Constitution; all other questions to
+be settled in a convention of the people of all the States.
+
+Mr. Lincoln answered this patiently and courteously, framing, to give
+point to his argument, an experimental draft of instructions with which
+he proposed, in case such proffers were made, to send Mr. Raymond
+himself to the rebel authorities. On seeing these in black and white,
+Raymond, who had come to Washington to urge his project, readily agreed
+with the President and Secretaries Seward, Stanton, and Fessenden, that
+to carry it out would be worse than losing the presidential contest: it
+would be ignominiously surrendering it in advance.
+
+"Nevertheless," wrote an inmate of the White House, "the visit of
+himself and committee here did great good. They found the President and
+cabinet much better informed than themselves, and went home encouraged
+and cheered."
+
+The Democratic managers had called the national convention of their
+party to meet on the fourth of July, 1864; but after the nomination of
+Frémont at Cleveland, and of Lincoln at Baltimore, it was thought
+prudent to postpone it to a later date, in the hope that something in
+the chapter of accidents might arise to the advantage of the opposition.
+It appeared for a while as if this manoeuver were to be successful. The
+military situation was far from satisfactory. The terrible fighting of
+Grant's army in Virginia had profoundly shocked and depressed the
+country; and its movement upon Petersburg, so far without decisive
+results, had contributed little hope or encouragement. The campaign of
+Sherman in Georgia gave as yet no positive assurance of the brilliant
+results it afterward attained. The Confederate raid into Maryland and
+Pennsylvania in July was the cause of great annoyance and exasperation.
+
+This untoward state of things in the field of military operations found
+its exact counterpart in the political campaign. Several circumstances
+contributed to divide and discourage the administration party. The
+resignation of Mr. Chase had seemed to not a few leading Republicans a
+presage of disintegration in the government. Mr. Greeley's mission at
+Niagara Falls had unsettled and troubled the minds of many. The
+Democrats, not having as yet appointed a candidate or formulated a
+platform, were free to devote all their leisure to attacks upon the
+administration. The rebel emissaries in Canada, being in thorough
+concert with the leading peace men of the North, redoubled their efforts
+to disturb the public tranquility, and not without success. In the
+midst of these discouraging circumstances the manifesto of Wade and
+Davis had appeared to add its depressing influence to the general gloom.
+
+Mr. Lincoln realized to the full the tremendous issues of the campaign.
+Asked in August by a friend who noted his worn looks, if he could not go
+away for a fortnight's rest, he replied:
+
+"I cannot fly from my thoughts--my solicitude for this great country
+follows me wherever I go. I do not think it is personal vanity or
+ambition, though I am not free from these infirmities, but I cannot but
+feel that the weal or woe of this great nation will be decided in
+November. There is no program offered by any wing of the Democratic
+party, but that must result in the permanent destruction of the Union."
+
+"But, Mr. President," his friend objected, "General McClellan is in
+favor of crushing out this rebellion by force. He will be the Chicago
+candidate."
+
+"Sir, the slightest knowledge of arithmetic will prove to any man that
+the rebel armies cannot be destroyed by Democratic strategy. It would
+sacrifice all the white men of the North to do it. There are now in the
+service of the United States nearly one hundred and fifty thousand
+able-bodied colored men, most of them under arms, defending and
+acquiring Union territory. The Democratic strategy demands that these
+forces be disbanded, and that the masters be conciliated by restoring
+them to slavery.... You cannot conciliate the South if you guarantee to
+them ultimate success; and the experience of the present war proves
+their successes inevitable if you fling the compulsory labor of millions
+of black men into their side of the scale.... Abandon all the posts now
+garrisoned by black men, take one hundred and fifty thousand men from
+our side and put them in the battle-field or corn-field against us, and
+we would be compelled to abandon the war in three weeks.... My enemies
+pretend I am now carrying on this war for the sole purpose of abolition.
+So long as I am President it shall be carried on for the sole purpose of
+restoring the Union. But no human power can subdue this rebellion
+without the use of the emancipation policy and every other policy
+calculated to weaken the moral and physical forces of the rebellion....
+Let my enemies prove to the country that the destruction of slavery is
+not necessary to a restoration of the Union. I will abide the issue."
+
+The political situation grew still darker. When at last, toward the end
+of August, the general gloom had enveloped even the President himself,
+his action was most original and characteristic. Feeling that the
+campaign was going against him, he made up his mind deliberately as to
+the course he should pursue, and laid down for himself the action
+demanded by his conviction of duty. He wrote on August 23 the following
+memorandum:
+
+"This morning, as for some days past, it seems exceedingly probable that
+this administration will not be reëlected. Then it will be my duty to so
+coöperate with the President-elect as to save the Union between the
+election and the inauguration, as he will have secured his election on
+such ground that he cannot possibly save it afterwards."
+
+He then folded and pasted the sheet in such manner that its contents
+could not be read, and as the cabinet came together he handed this paper
+to each member successively, requesting them to write their names across
+the back of it. In this peculiar fashion he pledged himself and the
+administration to accept loyally the anticipated verdict of the people
+against him, and to do their utmost to save the Union in the brief
+remainder of his term of office. He gave no intimation to any member of
+his cabinet of the nature of the paper they had signed until after his
+reëlection.
+
+The Democratic convention was finally called to meet in Chicago on
+August 29. Much had been expected by the peace party from the strength
+and audacity of its adherents in the Northwest; and, indeed, the day of
+the meeting of the convention was actually the date appointed by rebel
+emissaries in Canada for an outbreak which should effect that revolution
+in the northwestern States which had long been their chimerical dream.
+This scheme of the American Knights, however, was discovered and guarded
+against through the usual treachery of some of their members; and it is
+doubtful if the Democrats reaped any real, permanent advantage from the
+delay of their convention.
+
+On coming together, the only manner in which the peace men and war
+Democrats could arrive at an agreement was by mutual deception. The war
+Democrats, led by the delegation from New York, were working for a
+military candidate; while the peace Democrats, under the leadership of
+Vallandigham, who had returned from Canada and was allowed to remain at
+large through the half-contemptuous and half-calculated leniency of the
+government he defied, bent all their energies to a clear statement of
+their principles in the platform.
+
+Both got what they desired. General McClellan was nominated on the first
+ballot, and Vallandigham wrote the only plank worth quoting in the
+platform. It asserted: "That after four years of failure to restore the
+Union by the experiment of war, during which ... the Constitution itself
+has been disregarded in every part," public welfare demands "that
+immediate efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities." It is
+altogether probable that this distinct proposition of surrender to the
+Confederates might have been modified or defeated in full convention if
+the war Democrats had had the courage of their convictions; but they
+were so intent upon the nomination of McClellan, that they considered
+the platform of secondary importance, and the fatal resolutions were
+adopted without debate.
+
+Mr. Vallandigham, having thus taken possession of the convention, next
+adopted the candidate, and put the seal of his sinister approval on
+General McClellan by moving that his nomination be made unanimous, which
+was done amid great cheering. George H. Pendleton was nominated for
+Vice-President, and the convention adjourned--not _sine die_, as is
+customary, but "subject to be called at any time and place the executive
+national committee shall designate." The motives of this action were not
+avowed, but it was taken as a significant warning that the leaders of
+the Democratic party held themselves ready for any extraordinary
+measures which the exigencies of the time might provoke or invite.
+
+The New-Yorkers, however, had the last word, for Governor Seymour, in
+his letter as chairman of the committee to inform McClellan of his
+nomination, assured him that "those for whom we speak were animated with
+the most earnest, devoted, and prayerful desire for the salvation of the
+American Union"; and the general, knowing that the poison of death was
+in the platform, took occasion in his letter of acceptance to renew his
+assurances of devotion to the Union, the Constitution, the laws, and the
+flag of his country. After having thus absolutely repudiated the
+platform upon which he was nominated, he coolly concluded:
+
+"Believing that the views here expressed are those of the convention and
+the people you represent, I accept the nomination."
+
+His only possible chance of success lay, of course, in his war record.
+His position as a candidate on a platform of dishonorable peace would
+have been no less desperate than ridiculous. But the stars in their
+courses fought against the Democratic candidates. Even before the
+convention that nominated them, Farragut had won the splendid victory of
+Mobile Bay; during the very hours when the streets of Chicago were
+blazing with Democratic torches, Hood was preparing to evacuate Atlanta;
+and the same newspaper that printed Vallandigham's peace platform
+announced Sherman's entrance into the manufacturing metropolis of
+Georgia. The darkest hour had passed; dawn was at hand, and amid the
+thanksgivings of a grateful people, and the joyful salutes of great
+guns, the presidential campaign began.
+
+When the country awoke to the true significance of the Chicago platform,
+the successes of Sherman excited the enthusiasm of the people, and the
+Unionists, arousing from their midsummer languor, began to show their
+confidence in the Republican candidate, the hopelessness of all efforts
+to undermine him became evident.
+
+The electoral contest began with the picket firing in Vermont and Maine
+in September, was continued in what might be called the grand guard
+fighting in October in the great States of Pennsylvania, Ohio, and
+Indiana, and the final battle took place all along the line on November
+8. To Mr. Lincoln this was one of the most solemn days of his life.
+Assured of his personal success, and made devoutly confident by the
+military successes of the last few weeks that the day of peace and the
+reëstablishment of the Union was at hand, he felt no elation, and no
+sense of triumph over his opponents. The thoughts that filled his mind
+were expressed in the closing sentences of the little speech he made in
+response to a group of serenaders that greeted him when, in the early
+morning hours, he left the War Department, where he had gone on the
+evening of election to receive the returns:
+
+"I am thankful to God for this approval of the people; but, while deeply
+grateful for this mark of their confidence in me, if I know my heart, my
+gratitude is free from any taint of personal triumph. I do not impugn
+the motives of any one opposed to me. It is no pleasure to me to triumph
+over any one, but I give thanks to the Almighty for this evidence of the
+people's resolution to stand by free government and the rights of
+humanity."
+
+Lincoln and Johnson received a popular majority of 411,281, and two
+hundred and twelve out of two hundred and thirty-three electoral votes,
+only those of New Jersey, Delaware, and Kentucky, twenty-one in all,
+being cast for McClellan. In his annual message to Congress, which met
+on December 5, President Lincoln gave the best summing up of the results
+of the election that has ever been written:
+
+"The purpose of the people within the loyal States to maintain the
+integrity of the Union was never more firm nor more nearly unanimous
+than now.... No candidate for any office whatever, high or low, has
+ventured to seek votes on the avowal that he was for giving up the
+Union. There have been much impugning of motives and much heated
+controversy as to the proper means and best mode of advancing the Union
+cause; but on the distinct issue of Union or no Union the politicians
+have shown their instinctive knowledge that there is no diversity among
+the people. In affording the people the fair opportunity of showing one
+to another and to the world this firmness and unanimity of purpose, the
+election has been of vast value to the national cause."
+
+On the day of election General McClellan resigned his commission in the
+army, and the place thus made vacant was filled by the appointment of
+General Philip H. Sheridan, a fit type and illustration of the turn in
+the tide of affairs, which was to sweep from that time rapidly onward to
+the great decisive national triumph.
+
+
+
+
+XXXIII
+
+The Thirteenth Amendment--The President's Speech on its Adoption--The
+Two Constitutional Amendments of Lincoln's Term--Lincoln on Peace and
+Slavery in his Annual Message of December 6, 1864--Blair's Mexican
+Project--The Hampton Roads Conference
+
+
+A joint resolution proposing an amendment to the Constitution
+prohibiting slavery throughout the United States had passed the Senate
+on April 8, 1864, but had failed of the necessary two-thirds vote in the
+House. The two most vital thoughts which animated the Baltimore
+convention when it met in June had been the renomination of Mr. Lincoln
+and the success of this constitutional amendment. The first was
+recognized as a popular decision needing only the formality of an
+announcement by the convention; and the full emphasis of speech and
+resolution had therefore been centered on the latter as the dominant and
+aggressive reform upon which the party would stake its political
+fortunes in the presidential campaign. Mr. Lincoln had himself suggested
+to Mr. Morgan the wisdom of sounding that key-note in his opening speech
+before the convention; and the great victory gained at the polls in
+November not only demonstrated his sagacity, but enabled him to take up
+the question with confidence among his recommendations to Congress in
+the annual message of December 6, 1864. Relating the fate of the measure
+at the preceding session, he said:
+
+"Without questioning the wisdom or patriotism of those who stood in
+opposition, I venture to recommend the reconsideration and passage of
+the measure at the present session. Of course the abstract question is
+not changed, but an intervening election shows, almost certainly, that
+the next Congress will pass the measure if this does not. Hence there is
+only a question of time as to when the proposed amendment will go to the
+States for their action. And as it is to so go at all events, may we not
+agree that the sooner the better? It is not claimed that the election
+has imposed a duty on members to change their views or their votes any
+further than, as an additional element to be considered, their judgment
+may be affected by it. It is the voice of the people, now for the first
+time heard upon the question. In a great national crisis like ours,
+unanimity of action among those seeking a common end is very
+desirable--almost indispensable. And yet no approach to such unanimity
+is attainable unless some deference shall be paid to the will of the
+majority, simply because it is the will of the majority. In this case
+the common end is the maintenance of the Union; and among the means to
+secure that end, such will, through the election, is most clearly
+declared in favor of such constitutional amendment."
+
+The joint resolution was called up in the House on January 6, 1865, and
+general discussion followed from time to time, occupying perhaps half
+the days of that month. As at the previous session, the Republicans all
+favored, while the Democrats mainly opposed it; but important exceptions
+among the latter showed what immense gains the proposition had made in
+popular opinion and in congressional willingness to recognize and embody
+it. The logic of events had become more powerful than party creed or
+strategy. For fifteen years the Democratic party had stood as sentinel
+and bulwark to slavery, and yet, despite its alliance and championship,
+the "peculiar institution" was being consumed in the fire of war. It had
+withered in popular elections, been paralyzed by confiscation laws,
+crushed by executive decrees, trampled upon by marching Union armies.
+More notable than all, the agony of dissolution had come upon it in its
+final stronghold--the constitutions of the slave States. Local public
+opinion had throttled it in West Virginia, in Missouri, in Arkansas, in
+Louisiana, in Maryland, and the same spirit of change was upon
+Tennessee, and even showing itself in Kentucky. The Democratic party did
+not, and could not, shut its eyes to the accomplished facts.
+
+The issue was decided on the afternoon of January 31, 1865. The scene
+was one of unusual interest. The galleries were filled to overflowing,
+and members watched the proceedings with unconcealed solicitude. "Up to
+noon," said a contemporaneous report, "the pro-slavery party are said to
+have been confident of defeating the amendment; and after that time had
+passed, one of the most earnest advocates of the measure said: "'Tis the
+toss of a copper." At four o'clock the House came to a final vote, and
+the roll-call showed: yeas, one hundred and nineteen; nays, fifty-six;
+not voting, eight. Scattering murmurs of applause followed affirmative
+votes from several Democratic members; but when the Speaker finally
+announced the result, members on the Republican side of the House sprang
+to their feet, and, regardless of parliamentary rules, applauded with
+cheers and hand-clappings--an exhibition of enthusiasm quickly echoed by
+the spectators in the crowded galleries, where waving of hats and
+handkerchiefs and similar demonstrations of joy lasted for several
+minutes.
+
+A salute of one hundred guns soon made the occasion the subject of
+comment and congratulation throughout the city. On the following night a
+considerable procession marched with music to the Executive Mansion to
+carry popular greetings to the President. In response to their calls he
+appeared at a window and made a brief speech, of which only an abstract
+report was preserved, but which is nevertheless important as showing the
+searching analysis of cause and effect this question had undergone in
+his mind, the deep interest he felt in it, and the far-reaching
+consequences he attached to the measure and its success:
+
+"The occasion was one of congratulation to the country and to the whole
+world. But there is a task yet before us--to go forward and have
+consummated by the votes of the States that which Congress had so nobly
+begun yesterday. He had the honor to inform those present that Illinois
+had already to-day done the work. Maryland was about half through, but
+he felt proud that Illinois was a little ahead. He thought this measure
+was a very fitting, if not an indispensable, adjunct to the winding up
+of the great difficulty. He wished the reunion of all the States
+perfected, and so effected as to remove all causes of disturbance in the
+future; and to attain this end it was necessary that the original
+disturbing cause should, if possible, be rooted out. He thought all
+would bear him witness that he had never shrunk from doing all that he
+could to eradicate slavery, by issuing an emancipation proclamation. But
+that proclamation falls far short of what the amendment will be when
+fully consummated. A question might be raised whether the proclamation
+was legally valid. It might be urged that it only aided those that came
+into our lines, and that it was inoperative as to those who did not give
+themselves up; or that it would have no effect upon the children of
+slaves born hereafter; in fact, it would be urged that it did not meet
+the evil. But this amendment is a king's cure-all for all the evils. It
+winds the whole thing up. He would repeat that it was the fitting, if
+not the indispensable, adjunct to the consummation of the great game we
+are playing."
+
+Widely divergent views were expressed by able constitutional lawyers as
+to what would constitute a valid ratification of the Thirteenth
+Amendment; some contending that ratification by three fourths of the
+loyal States would be sufficient, others that three fourths of all the
+States, whether loyal or insurrectionary, was necessary. Mr. Lincoln, in
+a speech on Louisiana reconstruction, while expressing no opinion
+against the first proposition, nevertheless declared with great
+argumentative force that the latter "would be unquestioned and
+unquestionable"; and this view appears to have governed the action of
+his successor.
+
+As Mr. Lincoln mentioned with just pride, Illinois was the first State
+to ratify the amendment. On December 18, 1865, Mr. Seward, who remained
+as Secretary of State in the cabinet of President Johnson, made official
+proclamation that the legislatures of twenty-seven States, constituting
+three fourths of the thirty-six States of the Union, had ratified the
+amendment, and that it had become valid as a part of the Constitution.
+Four of the States constituting this number--Virginia, Louisiana,
+Tennessee, and Arkansas--were those whose reconstruction had been
+effected under the direction of President Lincoln. Six more States
+subsequently ratified the amendment, Texas ending the list in February,
+1870.
+
+The profound political transformation which the American Republic had
+undergone can perhaps best be measured by contrasting the two
+constitutional amendments which Congress made it the duty of the Lincoln
+administration to submit officially to the States. The first, signed by
+President Buchanan as one of his last official acts, and accepted and
+indorsed by Lincoln in his inaugural address, was in these words:
+
+"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."
+
+Between Lincoln's inauguration and the outbreak of war, the Department
+of State transmitted this amendment to the several States for their
+action; and had the South shown a willingness to desist from secession
+and accept it as a peace offering, there is little doubt that it would
+have become a part of the Constitution. But the thunder of Beauregard's
+guns drove away all possibility of such a ratification, and within four
+years the Lincoln administration sent forth the amendment of 1865,
+sweeping out of existence by one sentence the institution to which it
+had in its first proposal offered a virtual claim to perpetual
+recognition and tolerance. The "new birth of freedom" which Lincoln
+invoked for the nation in his Gettysburg address, was accomplished.
+
+The closing paragraphs of President Lincoln's message to Congress of
+December 6, 1864, were devoted to a summing up of the existing
+situation. The verdict of the ballot-box had not only decided the
+continuance of a war administration and war policy, but renewed the
+assurance of a public sentiment to sustain its prosecution. Inspired by
+this majestic manifestation of the popular will, he was able to speak of
+the future with hope and confidence. But with characteristic prudence
+and good taste, he uttered no word of boasting, and indulged in no
+syllable of acrimony; on the contrary, in terms of fatherly kindness he
+again offered the rebellious States the generous conditions he had
+previously tendered them.
+
+"The national resources, then, are unexhausted, and, as we believe,
+inexhaustible. The public purpose to reëstablish and maintain the
+national authority is unchanged and, as we believe, unchangeable. The
+manner of continuing the effort remains to choose. On careful
+consideration of all the evidence accessible, it seems to me that no
+attempt at negotiation with the insurgent leader could result in any
+good. He would accept nothing short of severance of the Union--precisely
+what we will not and cannot give. His declarations to this effect are
+explicit and oft-repeated.... What is true, however, of him who heads
+the insurgent cause is not necessarily true of those who follow.
+Although he cannot reaccept the Union, they can. Some of them, we know,
+already desire peace and reunion. The number of such may increase. They
+can, at any moment, have peace simply by laying down their arms and
+submitting to the national authority under the Constitution. After so
+much, the government could not, if it would, maintain war against them.
+The loyal people would not sustain or allow it. If questions should
+remain, we would adjust them by the peaceful means of legislation,
+conference, courts, and votes, operating only in constitutional and
+lawful channels.... In presenting the abandonment of armed resistance to
+the national authority, on the part of the insurgents, as the only
+indispensable condition to ending the war on the part of the government,
+I retract nothing heretofore said as to slavery. I repeat the
+declaration made a year ago, that 'While I remain in my present
+position I shall not attempt to retract or modify the emancipation
+proclamation, nor shall I return to slavery any person who is free by
+the terms of that proclamation, or by any of the acts of Congress.' If
+the people should, by whatever mode or means, make it an executive duty
+to reënslave such persons, another, and not I, must be their instrument
+to perform it. In stating a single condition of peace, I mean simply to
+say that the war will cease on the part of the government whenever it
+shall have ceased on the part of those who began it." The country was
+about to enter upon the fifth year of actual war; but all indications
+were pointing to a speedy collapse of the rebellion. This foreshadowed
+disaster to the Confederate armies gave rise to another volunteer peace
+negotiation, which, from the boldness of its animating thought and the
+prominence of its actors, assumes a special importance. The veteran
+politician Francis P. Blair, Sr., who, from his long political and
+personal experience in Washington, knew, perhaps better than almost any
+one else, the individual characters and tempers of Southern leaders,
+conceived that the time had come when he might take up the rôle of
+successful mediator between the North and the South. He gave various
+hints of his desire to President Lincoln, but received neither
+encouragement nor opportunity to unfold his plans. "Come to me after
+Savannah falls," was Lincoln's evasive reply. On the surrender of that
+city, Mr. Blair hastened to put his design into execution, and with a
+simple card from Mr. Lincoln, dated December 28, saying, "Allow the
+bearer, F.P. Blair, Sr., to pass our lines, go south and return," as his
+only credential, set out for Richmond. From General Grant's camp he
+forwarded two letters to Jefferson Davis: one, a brief request to be
+allowed to go to Richmond in search of missing title papers presumably
+taken from his Maryland home during Early's raid; the other, a longer
+letter, explaining the real object of his visit, but stating with the
+utmost candor that he came wholly unaccredited, save for permission to
+pass the lines, and that he had not offered the suggestions he wished to
+submit in person to Mr. Davis to any one in authority at Washington.
+
+After some delay, he found himself in Richmond, and was accorded a
+confidential interview by the rebel President on January 12, 1865, when
+he unfolded his project, which proved to be nothing less than a
+proposition that the Union and Confederate armies cease fighting each
+other and unite to drive the French from Mexico. He supported this
+daring idea in a paper of some length, pointing out that as slavery, the
+real cause of the war, was hopelessly doomed, nothing now remained to
+keep the two sections of the country apart except the possible
+intervention of foreign soldiery. Hence, all considerations pointed to
+the wisdom of dislodging the French invaders from American soil, and
+thus baffling "the designs of Napoleon to subject our Southern people to
+the 'Latin race.'"
+
+"He who expels the Bonaparte-Hapsburg dynasty from our southern flank,"
+the paper said further, "will ally his name with those of Washington and
+Jackson as a defender of the liberty of the country. If in delivering
+Mexico he should model its States in form and principle to adapt them to
+our Union, and add a new southern constellation to its benignant sky
+while rounding off our possessions on the continent at the Isthmus, ...
+he would complete the work of Jefferson, who first set one foot of our
+colossal government on the Pacific by a stride from the Gulf of
+Mexico...."
+
+"I then said to him, 'There is my problem, Mr. Davis; do you think it
+possible to be solved?' After consideration, he said: 'I think so.' I
+then said, 'You see that I make the great point of this matter that the
+war is no longer made for slavery, but monarchy. You know that if the
+war is kept up and the Union kept divided, armies must be kept afoot on
+both sides, and this state of things has never continued long without
+resulting in monarchy on one side or the other, and on both generally.'
+He assented to this."
+
+The substantial accuracy of Mr. Blair's report is confirmed by the
+memorandum of the same interview which Jefferson Davis wrote at the
+time. In this conversation, the rebel leader took little pains to
+disguise his entire willingness to enter upon the wild scheme of
+military conquest and annexation which could easily be read between the
+lines of a political crusade to rescue the Monroe Doctrine from its
+present peril. If Mr. Blair felt elated at having so quickly made a
+convert of the Confederate President, he was further gratified at
+discovering yet more favorable symptoms in his official surroundings at
+Richmond. In the three or four days he spent at the rebel capital he
+found nearly every prominent personage convinced of the hopeless
+condition of the rebellion, and even eager to seize upon any contrivance
+to help them out of their direful prospects.
+
+But the government councils at Washington were not ruled by the spirit
+of political adventure. Abraham Lincoln had a loftier conception of
+patriotic duty, and a higher ideal of national ethics. His whole
+interest in Mr. Blair's mission lay in the rebel despondency it
+disclosed, and the possibility it showed of bringing the Confederates to
+an abandonment of their resistance. Mr. Davis had, indeed, given Mr.
+Blair a letter, to be shown to President Lincoln, stating his
+willingness, "notwithstanding the rejection of our former offers," to
+appoint a commissioner to enter into negotiations "with a view to secure
+peace to the two countries." This was, of course, the old impossible
+attitude. In reply the President wrote Mr. Blair on January 18 the
+following note:
+
+"SIR: You having shown me Mr. Davis's letter to you of the twelfth
+instant, you may say to him that I have constantly been, am now, and
+shall continue ready to receive any agent whom he, or any other
+influential person now resisting the national authority, may informally
+send to me, with the view of securing peace to the people of our one
+common country."
+
+With this, Mr. Blair returned to Richmond, giving Mr. Davis such excuses
+as he could hastily frame why the President had rejected his plan for a
+joint invasion of Mexico. Jefferson Davis therefore had only two
+alternatives before him--either to repeat his stubborn ultimatum of
+separation and independence, or frankly to accept Lincoln's ultimatum of
+reunion. The principal Richmond authorities knew, and some of them
+admitted, that their Confederacy was nearly in collapse. Lee sent a
+despatch saying he had not two days' rations for his army. Richmond was
+already in a panic at rumors of evacuation. Flour was selling at a
+thousand dollars a barrel in Confederate currency. The recent fall of
+Fort Fisher had closed the last avenue through which blockade-runners
+could bring in foreign supplies. Governor Brown of Georgia was refusing
+to obey orders from Richmond, and characterizing them as "despotic."
+Under such circumstances a defiant cry of independence would not
+reassure anybody; nor, on the other hand, was it longer possible to
+remain silent. Mr. Blair's first visit had created general interest;
+when he came a second time, wonder and rumor rose to fever heat.
+
+Impelled to take action, Mr. Davis had not the courage to be frank.
+After consultation with his cabinet, a peace commission of three was
+appointed, consisting of Alexander H. Stephens, Vice-President; R.M.T.
+Hunter, senator and ex-Secretary of State; and John A. Campbell,
+Assistant Secretary of War--all of them convinced that the rebellion was
+hopeless, but unwilling to admit the logical consequences and
+necessities. The drafting of instructions for their guidance was a
+difficult problem, since the explicit condition prescribed by Mr.
+Lincoln's note was that he would receive only an agent sent him "with
+the view of securing peace to the people of our one common country." The
+rebel Secretary of State proposed, in order to make the instructions "as
+vague and general as possible," the simple direction to confer "upon the
+subject to which it relates"; but his chief refused the suggestion, and
+wrote the following instruction, which carried a palpable contradiction
+on its face:
+
+"In conformity with the letter of Mr. Lincoln, of which the foregoing is
+a copy, you are requested to proceed to Washington City for informal
+conference with him upon the issues involved in the existing war, and
+for the purpose of securing peace to the two countries."
+
+With this the commissioners presented themselves at the Union lines on
+the evening of January 29, but instead of showing their double-meaning
+credential, asked admission, "in accordance with an understanding
+claimed to exist with Lieutenant-General Grant." Mr. Lincoln, being
+apprised of the application, promptly despatched Major Thomas T. Eckert,
+of the War Department, with written directions to admit them under
+safe-conduct, if they would say in writing that they came for the
+purpose of an informal conference on the basis of his note of January 18
+to Mr. Blair. The commissioners having meantime reconsidered the form of
+their application and addressed a new one to General Grant which met the
+requirements, were provisionally conveyed to Grant's headquarters; and
+on January 31 the President commissioned Secretary Seward to meet them,
+saying in his written instructions:
+
+"You will make known to them that three things are indispensable, to
+wit: First. The restoration of the national authority throughout all the
+States. Second. No receding by the Executive of the United States on the
+slavery question from the position assumed thereon in the late annual
+message to Congress, and in preceding documents. Third. No cessation of
+hostilities short of an end of the war, and the disbanding of all forces
+hostile to the government. You will inform them that all propositions of
+theirs, not inconsistent with the above, will be considered and passed
+upon in a spirit of sincere liberality. You will hear all they may
+choose to say, and report it to me. You will not assume to definitely
+consummate anything."
+
+Mr. Seward started on the morning of February 1, and simultaneously with
+his departure the President repeated to General Grant the monition
+already sent him two days before: "Let nothing which is transpiring
+change, hinder, or delay your military movements or plans." Major Eckert
+had arrived while Mr. Seward was yet on the way, and on seeing Jefferson
+Davis's instructions, promptly notified the commissioners that they
+could not proceed further without complying strictly with President
+Lincoln's terms. Thus, at half-past nine on the night of February 1,
+their mission was practically at an end, though next day they again
+recanted and accepted the President's conditions in writing. Mr.
+Lincoln, on reading Major Eckert's report on the morning of February 2,
+was about to recall Secretary Seward by telegraph, when he was shown a
+confidential despatch from General Grant to the Secretary of War,
+stating his belief that the intention of the commissioners was good, and
+their desire for peace sincere, and regretting that Mr. Lincoln could
+not have an interview with them. This communication served to change his
+purpose. Resolving not to neglect the indications of sincerity here
+described, he telegraphed at once, "Say to the gentlemen I will meet
+them personally at Fortress Monroe as soon as I can get there," and
+joined Secretary Seward that same night.
+
+On the morning of February 3, 1865, the rebel commissioners were
+conducted on board the _River Queen_, lying at anchor near Fort Monroe,
+where President Lincoln and Secretary Seward awaited them. It was agreed
+beforehand that no writing or memorandum should be made at the time, so
+the record of the interview remains only in the separate accounts which
+the rebel commissioners wrote out afterward from memory, neither Mr.
+Seward nor President Lincoln ever having made any report in detail. In a
+careful analysis of these reports, the first striking feature is the
+difference of intention between the parties. It is apparent that Mr.
+Lincoln went honestly and frankly to offer them the best terms he could
+to, secure peace and reunion, but to abate no jot of official duty or
+personal dignity; while the main thought of the commissioners was to
+evade the express condition on which they had been admitted to
+conference, to seek to postpone the vital issue, and to propose an
+armistice by debating a mere juggling expedient against which they had
+in a private agreement with one another already committed themselves.
+
+At the first hint of Blair's Mexican project, however, Mr. Lincoln
+firmly disclaimed any responsibility for the suggestion, or any
+intention of adopting it, and during the four hours' talk led the
+conversation continually back to the original object of the conference.
+But though he patiently answered the many questions addressed him by the
+commissioners, as to what would probably be done on various important
+subjects that must arise at once if the Confederate States consented,
+carefully discriminating in his answers between what he was authorized
+under the Constitution to do as Executive, and what would devolve upon
+coördinate branches of the government, the interview came to nothing.
+The commissioners returned to Richmond in great disappointment, and
+communicated the failure of their efforts to Jefferson Davis, whose
+chagrin was equal to their own. They had all caught eagerly at the hope
+that this negotiation would somehow extricate them from the dilemmas and
+dangers of their situation. Davis took the only course open to him after
+refusing the honorable peace Mr. Lincoln had tendered. He transmitted
+the commissioners' report to the rebel Congress, with a brief and dry
+message stating that the enemy refused any terms except those the
+conqueror might grant; and then arranged as vigorous an effort as
+circumstances permitted once more to "fire the Southern heart." A public
+meeting was called, where the speeches, judging from the meager reports
+printed, were as denunciatory and bellicose as the bitterest Confederate
+could desire. Davis particularly is represented to have excelled himself
+in defiant heroics. "Sooner than we should ever be united again," he
+said, "he would be willing to yield up everything he had on earth--if it
+were possible, he would sacrifice a thousand lives"; and he further
+announced his confidence that they would yet "compel the Yankees, in
+less than twelve months, to petition us for peace on our own terms."
+
+This extravagant rhetoric would seem merely grotesque, were it not
+embittered by the reflection that it was the signal which carried many
+additional thousands of brave soldiers to death, in continuing a
+palpably hopeless military struggle.
+
+
+
+
+XXXIV
+
+Blair--Chase Chief Justice--Speed Succeeds Bates--McCulloch Succeeds
+Fessenden--Resignation of Mr. Usher--Lincoln's Offer of
+$400,000,000--The Second Inaugural--Lincoln's Literary Rank--His Last
+Speech
+
+
+The principal concession in the Baltimore platform made by the friends
+of the administration to their opponents, the radicals, was the
+resolution which called for harmony in the cabinet. The President at
+first took no notice, either publicly or privately, of this resolution,
+which was in effect a recommendation that he dismiss those members of
+his council who were stigmatized as conservatives; and the first cabinet
+change which actually took place after the adjournment of the convention
+filled the radical body of his supporters with dismay, since they had
+looked upon Mr. Chase as their special representative in the government.
+The publication of the Wade-Davis manifesto still further increased
+their restlessness, and brought upon Mr. Lincoln a powerful pressure
+from every quarter to satisfy radical demands by dismissing Montgomery
+Blair, his Postmaster-General. Mr. Blair had been one of the founders of
+the Republican party, and in the very forefront of opposition to slavery
+extension, but had gradually attracted to himself the hostility of all
+the radical Republicans in the country. The immediate cause of this
+estrangement was the bitter quarrel that developed between his family
+and General Frémont in Missouri: a quarrel in which the Blairs were
+undoubtedly right in the beginning, but which broadened and extended
+until it landed them finally in the Democratic party.
+
+The President considered the dispute one of form rather than substance,
+and having a deep regard, not only for the Postmaster-General, but for
+his brother, General Frank Blair, and for his distinguished father, was
+most reluctant to take action against him. Even in the bosom of the
+government, however, a strong hostility to Mr. Blair manifested itself.
+As long as Chase remained in the cabinet there was smoldering hostility
+between them, and his attitude toward Seward and Stanton was one of
+increasing enmity. General Halleck, incensed at some caustic remarks
+Blair was reported to have made about the defenders of the capital after
+Early's raid, during which the family estate near Washington had
+suffered, sent an angry note to the War Department, wishing to know if
+such "wholesale denouncement" had the President's sanction; adding that
+either the names of the officers accused should be stricken from the
+rolls, or the "slanderer dismissed from the cabinet." Mr. Stanton sent
+the letter to the President without comment. This was too much; and the
+Secretary received an answer on the very same day, written in Mr.
+Lincoln's most masterful manner:
+
+"Whether the remarks were really made I do not know, nor do I suppose
+such knowledge is necessary to a correct response. If they were made, I
+do not approve them; and yet, under the circumstances, I would not
+dismiss a member of the cabinet therefore. I do not consider what may
+have been hastily said in a moment of vexation at so severe a loss is
+sufficient ground for so grave a step.... I propose continuing to be
+myself the judge as to when a member of the cabinet shall be
+dismissed."
+
+Not content with this, the President, when the cabinet came together,
+read them this impressive little lecture:
+
+"I must myself be the judge how long to retain in and when to remove any
+of you from his position. It would greatly pain me to discover any of
+you endeavoring to procure another's removal, or in any way to prejudice
+him before the public. Such endeavor would be a wrong to me, and, much
+worse, a wrong to the country. My wish is that on this subject no remark
+be made nor question asked by any of you, here or elsewhere, now or
+hereafter."
+
+This is one of the most remarkable speeches ever made by a President.
+The tone of authority is unmistakable. Washington was never more
+dignified; Jackson was never more peremptory.
+
+The feeling against Mr. Blair and the pressure upon the President for
+his removal increased throughout the summer. All through the period of
+gloom and discouragement he refused to act, even when he believed the
+verdict of the country likely to go against him, and was assured on
+every side that such a concession to the radical spirit might be greatly
+to his advantage. But after the turn had come, and the prospective
+triumph of the Union cause became evident, he felt that he ought no
+longer to retain in his cabinet a member who, whatever his personal
+merits, had lost the confidence of the great body of Republicans; and on
+September 9 wrote him a kindly note, requesting his resignation.
+
+Mr. Blair accepted his dismissal in a manner to be expected from his
+manly and generous character, not pretending to be pleased, but assuming
+that the President had good reason for his action; and, on turning over
+his office to his successor, ex-Governor William Dennison of Ohio, went
+at once to Maryland and entered into the campaign, working heartily for
+Mr. Lincoln's reëlection.
+
+After the death of Judge Taney in October, Mr. Blair for a while
+indulged the hope that he might be appointed chief justice, a position
+for which his natural abilities and legal acquirements eminently fitted
+him. But Mr. Chase was chosen, to the bitter disappointment of Mr.
+Blair's family, though even this did not shake their steadfast loyalty
+to the Union cause or their personal friendship for the President.
+Immediately after his second inauguration, Mr. Lincoln offered
+Montgomery Blair his choice of the Spanish or the Austrian mission, an
+offer which he peremptorily though respectfully declined.
+
+The appointment of Mr. Chase as chief justice had probably been decided
+on in Mr. Lincoln's own mind from the first, though he gave no public
+intimation of his decision before sending the nomination to the Senate
+on December 6. Mr. Chase's partizans claimed that the President had
+already virtually promised him the place; his opponents counted upon the
+ex-secretary's attitude of criticism to work against his appointment.
+But Mr. Lincoln sternly checked all presentations of this personal
+argument; nor were the prayers of those who urged him to overlook the
+harsh and indecorous things Mr. Chase had said of him at all necessary.
+To one who spoke in this latter strain the President replied:
+
+"Oh, as to that I care nothing. Of Mr. Chase's ability, and of his
+soundness on the general issues of the war, there is, of course, no
+question. I have only one doubt about his appointment. He is a man of
+unbounded ambition, and has been working all his life to become
+President. That he can never be; and I fear that if I make him chief
+justice he will simply become more restless and uneasy and neglect the
+place in his strife and intrigue to make himself President. If I were
+sure that he would go on the bench and give up his aspirations, and do
+nothing but make himself a great judge, I would not hesitate a moment."
+
+He wrote out Mr. Chase's nomination with his own hand, and sent it to
+the Senate the day after Congress came together. It was confirmed at
+once, without reference to a committee, and Mr. Chase, on learning of
+his new dignity, sent the President a cordial note, thanking him for the
+manner of his appointment, and adding: "I prize your confidence and good
+will more than any nomination to office." But Mr. Lincoln's fears were
+better founded than his hopes. Though Mr. Chase took his place on the
+bench with a conscientious desire to do his whole duty in his great
+office, he could not dismiss the political affairs of the country from
+his mind, and still considered himself called upon to counteract the
+mischievous tendencies of the President toward conciliation and hasty
+reconstruction.
+
+The reorganization of the cabinet went on by gradual disintegration
+rather than by any brusque or even voluntary action on the part of Mr.
+Lincoln. Mr. Bates, the attorney-general, growing weary of the labors of
+his official position, resigned toward the end of November. Mr. Lincoln,
+on whom the claim of localities always had great weight, unable to
+decide upon another Missourian fitted for the place, offered it to
+Joseph Holt of Kentucky, who declined, and then to James Speed, also a
+Kentuckian of high professional and social standing, the brother of his
+early friend Joshua F. Speed. Soon after the opening of the new year,
+Mr. Fessenden, having been again elected to the Senate from Maine,
+resigned his office as Secretary of the Treasury. The place thus
+vacated instantly excited a wide and spirited competition of
+recommendations. The President wished to appoint Governor Morgan of New
+York, who declined, and the choice finally fell upon Hugh McCulloch of
+Indiana, who had made a favorable record as comptroller of the currency.
+Thus only two of Mr. Lincoln's original cabinet, Mr. Seward and Mr.
+Welles, were in office at the date of his second inauguration; and still
+another change was in contemplation. Mr. Usher of Indiana, who had for
+some time discharged the duties of Secretary of the Interior, desiring,
+as he said, to relieve the President from any possible embarrassment
+which might arise from the fact that two of his cabinet were from the
+same State, sent in his resignation, which Mr. Lincoln indorsed "To take
+effect May 15, 1865."
+
+The tragic events of the future were mercifully hidden. Mr. Lincoln,
+looking forward to four years more of personal leadership, was planning
+yet another generous offer to shorten the period of conflict. His talk
+with the commissioners at Hampton Roads had probably revealed to him the
+undercurrent of their hopelessness and anxiety; and he had told them
+that personally he would be in favor of the government paying a liberal
+indemnity for the loss of slave property, on absolute cessation of the
+war and the voluntary abolition of slavery by the Southern States.
+
+This was indeed going to the extreme of magnanimity; but Mr. Lincoln
+remembered that the rebels, notwithstanding all their offenses and
+errors, were yet American citizens, members of the same nation, brothers
+of the same blood. He remembered, too, that the object of the war,
+equally with peace and freedom, was the maintenance of one government
+and the perpetuation of one Union. Not only must hostilities cease, but
+dissension, suspicion, and estrangement be eradicated. Filled with such
+thoughts and purposes, he spent the day after his return from Hampton
+Roads in considering and perfecting a new proposal, designed as a peace
+offering to the States in rebellion. On the evening of February 5, 1865,
+he called his cabinet together, and read to them the draft of a joint
+resolution and proclamation embodying this idea, offering the Southern
+States four hundred million dollars, or a sum equal to the cost of the
+war for two hundred days, on condition that hostilities cease by the
+first of April, 1865; to be paid in six per cent. government bonds, pro
+rata on their slave populations as shown by the census of 1860--one half
+on April 1, the other half only upon condition that the Thirteenth
+Amendment be ratified by a requisite number of States before July 1,
+1865.
+
+It turned out that he was more humane and liberal than his
+constitutional advisers. The indorsement in his own handwriting on the
+manuscript draft records the result of his appeal and suggestion:
+
+     "February 5, 1865. To-day, these papers, which explain themselves,
+     were drawn up and submitted to the cabinet, and unanimously
+     disapproved by them.
+
+     "A. LINCOLN."
+
+With the words, "You are all opposed to me," sadly uttered, the
+President folded up the paper and ceased the discussion.
+
+The formal inauguration of Mr. Lincoln for his second presidential term
+took place at the appointed time, March 4, 1865. There is little
+variation in the simple but impressive pageantry with which the official
+ceremony is celebrated. The principal novelty commented upon by the
+newspapers was the share which the hitherto enslaved race had for the
+first time in this public and political drama. Civic associations of
+negro citizens joined in the procession, and a battalion of negro
+soldiers formed part of the military escort. The weather was
+sufficiently favorable to allow the ceremonies to take place on the
+eastern portico of the Capitol, in view of a vast throng of spectators.
+The central act of the occasion was President Lincoln's second inaugural
+address, which enriched the political literature of the Union with
+another masterpiece, and deserves to be quoted in full. He said:
+
+     "FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN: At this second appearing to take the oath of
+     the presidential office, there is less occasion for an extended
+     address than there was at the first. Then, a statement, somewhat in
+     detail, of a course to be pursued, seemed fitting and proper. Now,
+     at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations
+     have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the
+     great contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the
+     energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The
+     progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as
+     well known to the public as to myself; and it is, I trust,
+     reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for
+     the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured.
+
+     "On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts
+     were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded
+     it--all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being
+     delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union
+     without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy
+     it without war--seeking to dissolve the Union, and divide effects,
+     by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would
+     make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would
+     accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came.
+
+     "One eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not
+     distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the Southern
+     part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful
+     interest. All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of
+     the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was
+     the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union, even by
+     war; while the government claimed no right to do more than to
+     restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected
+     for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already
+     attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might
+     cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should cease. Each
+     looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and
+     astounding. Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and
+     each invokes his aid against the other. It may seem strange that
+     any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing
+     their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge
+     not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be
+     answered--that of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has
+     his own purposes. 'Woe unto the world because of offenses! for it
+     must needs be that offenses come; but woe to that man by whom the
+     offense cometh.' If we shall suppose that American slavery is one
+     of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come,
+     but which, having continued through his appointed time, he now
+     wills to remove, and that he gives to both North and South this
+     terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offense came,
+     shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes
+     which the believers in a living God always ascribe to him? Fondly
+     do we hope--fervently do we pray--that this mighty scourge of war
+     may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until
+     all the wealth piled by the bondman's two hundred and fifty years
+     of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood
+     drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword,
+     as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said,
+     'The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.'
+
+     "With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in
+     the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to
+     finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds, to care
+     for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his
+     orphan--to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting
+     peace among ourselves, and with all nations."
+
+The address being concluded, Chief Justice Chase administered the oath
+of office; and listeners who heard Abraham Lincoln for the second time
+repeat, "I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office
+of President of the United States, and will, to the best of my ability,
+preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States,"
+went from the impressive scene to their several homes with thankfulness
+and with confidence that the destiny of the country and the liberty of
+the citizen were in safe keeping. "The fiery trial" through which he had
+hitherto walked showed him possessed of the capacity, the courage, and
+the will to keep the promise of his oath.
+
+Among the many criticisms passed by writers and thinkers upon the second
+inaugural, none will so interest the reader as that of Mr. Lincoln
+himself, written about ten days after its delivery, in the following
+letter to a friend:
+
+     "DEAR MR. WEED: Every one likes a compliment. Thank you for yours
+     on my little notification speech, and on the recent inaugural
+     address. I expect the latter to wear as well as, perhaps better
+     than, anything I have produced; but I believe it is not immediately
+     popular. Men are not flattered by being shown that there has been a
+     difference of purpose between the Almighty and them. To deny it,
+     however, in this case, is to deny that there is a God governing the
+     world. It is a truth which I thought needed to be told, and, as
+     whatever of humiliation there is in it falls most directly on
+     myself, I thought others might afford for me to tell it."
+
+Nothing would have more amazed Mr. Lincoln than to hear himself called a
+man of letters; but this age has produced few greater writers. Emerson
+ranks him with Aesop; Montalembert commends his style as a model for the
+imitation of princes. It is true that in his writings the range of
+subjects is not great. He was chiefly concerned with the political
+problems of the time, and the moral considerations involved in them. But
+the range of treatment is remarkably wide, running from the wit, the gay
+humor, the florid eloquence of his stump speeches, to the marvelous
+sententiousness and brevity of the address at Gettysburg, and the
+sustained and lofty grandeur of his second inaugural; while many of his
+phrases have already passed into the daily speech of mankind.
+
+A careful student of Mr. Lincoln's character will find this inaugural
+address instinct with another meaning, which, very naturally, the
+President's own comment did not touch. The eternal law of compensation,
+which it declares and applies to the sin and fall of American slavery,
+in a diction rivaling the fire and dignity of the old Hebrew prophecies,
+may, without violent inference, be interpreted to foreshadow an
+intention to renew at a fitting moment the brotherly goodwill gift to
+the South which has already been treated of. Such an inference finds
+strong corroboration in the sentences which closed the last public
+address he ever made. On Tuesday evening, April 11, a considerable
+assemblage of citizens of Washington gathered at the Executive Mansion
+to celebrate the victory of Grant over Lee. The rather long and careful
+speech which Mr. Lincoln made on that occasion was, however, less about
+the past than the future. It discussed the subject of reconstruction as
+illustrated in the case of Louisiana, showing also how that issue was
+related to the questions of emancipation, the condition of the freedmen,
+the welfare of the South, and the ratification of the constitutional
+amendment.
+
+"So new and unprecedented is the whole case," he concluded, "that no
+exclusive and inflexible plan can safely be prescribed as to details and
+collaterals. Such exclusive and inflexible plan would surely become a
+new entanglement. Important principles may and must be inflexible. In
+the present situation, as the phrase goes, it may be my duty to make
+some new announcement to the people of the South. I am considering, and
+shall not fail to act when satisfied that action will be proper."
+
+Can any one doubt that this "new announcement" which was taking shape in
+his mind would again have embraced and combined justice to the blacks
+and generosity to the whites of the South, with Union and liberty for
+the whole country?
+
+
+
+
+XXXV
+
+Depreciation of Confederate Currency--Rigor of
+Conscription--Dissatisfaction with the Confederate Government--Lee
+General-in-Chief--J.E. Johnston Reappointed to Oppose Sherman's
+March--Value of Slave Property Gone in Richmond--Davis's Recommendation
+of Emancipation--Benjamin's Last Despatch to Slidell--Condition of the
+Army when Lee took Command--Lee Attempts Negotiations with
+Grant--Lincoln's Directions--Lee and Davis Agree upon Line of
+Retreat--Assault on Fort Stedman--Five Forks--Evacuation of
+Petersburg--Surrender of Richmond--Pursuit of Lee--Surrender of
+Lee--Burning of Richmond--Lincoln in Richmond
+
+
+From the hour of Mr. Lincoln's reëlection the Confederate cause was
+doomed. The cheering of the troops which greeted the news from the North
+was heard within the lines at Richmond and at Petersburg; and although
+the leaders maintained their attitude of defiance, the impression
+rapidly gained ground among the people that the end was not far off. The
+stimulus of hope being gone, they began to feel the pinch of increasing
+want. Their currency had become almost worthless. In October, a dollar
+in gold was worth thirty-five dollars in Confederate money. With the
+opening of the new year the price rose to sixty dollars, and, despite
+the efforts of the Confederate treasury, which would occasionally rush
+into the market and beat down the price of gold ten or twenty per cent.
+a day, the currency gradually depreciated until a hundred for one was
+offered and not taken. It was natural for the citizens of Richmond to
+think that monstrous prices were being extorted for food, clothing, and
+supplies, when in fact they were paying no more than was reasonable. To
+pay a thousand dollars for a barrel of flour was enough to strike a
+householder with terror but ten dollars is not a famine price. High
+prices, however, even if paid in dry leaves, are a hardship when dry
+leaves are not plentiful; and there was scarcity even of Confederate
+money in the South.
+
+At every advance of Grant's lines a new alarm was manifested in
+Richmond, the first proof of which was always a fresh rigor in enforcing
+the conscription laws and the arbitrary orders of the frightened
+authorities. After the capture of Fort Harrison, north of the James,
+squads of guards were sent into the streets with directions to arrest
+every able-bodied man they met. It is said that the medical boards were
+ordered to exempt no one capable of bearing arms for ten days. Human
+nature will not endure such a strain as this, and desertion grew too
+common to punish.
+
+As disaster increased, the Confederate government steadily lost ground
+in the confidence and respect of the Southern people. Mr. Davis and his
+councilors were doing their best, but they no longer got any credit for
+it. From every part of the Confederacy came complaints of what was done,
+demands for what was impossible to do. Some of the States were in a
+condition near to counter-revolution. A slow paralysis was benumbing the
+limbs of the insurrection, and even at the heart its vitality was
+plainly declining. The Confederate Congress, which had hitherto been the
+mere register of the President's will, now turned upon him. On January
+19 it passed a resolution making Lee general-in-chief of the army. This
+Mr. Davis might have borne with patience, although it was intended as a
+notification that his meddling with military affairs must come to an
+end. But far worse was the bitter necessity put upon him as a sequel to
+this act, of reappointing General Joseph E. Johnston to the command of
+the army which was to resist Sherman's victorious march to the north.
+Mr. Seddon, rebel Secretary of War, thinking his honor impugned by a
+vote of the Virginia delegation in Congress, resigned. Warnings of
+serious demoralization came daily from the army, and disaffection was so
+rife in official circles in Richmond that it was not thought politic to
+call public attention to it by measures of repression.
+
+It is curious and instructive to note how the act of emancipation had by
+this time virtually enforced itself in Richmond. The value of slave
+property was gone. It is true that a slave was still occasionally sold,
+at a price less than one tenth of what he would have brought before the
+war, but servants could be hired of their nominal owners for almost
+nothing--merely enough to keep up a show of vassalage. In effect, any
+one could hire a negro for his keeping--which was all that anybody in
+Richmond, black or white, got for his work. Even Mr. Davis had at last
+become docile to the stern teaching of events. In his message of
+November he had recommended the employment of forty thousand slaves in
+the army--not as soldiers, it is true, save in the last extremity--with
+emancipation to come.
+
+On December 27, Mr. Benjamin wrote his last important instruction to
+John Slidell, the Confederate commissioner in Europe. It is nothing less
+than a cry of despair. Complaining bitterly of the attitude of foreign
+nations while the South is fighting the battles of England and France
+against the North, he asks: "Are they determined never to recognize the
+Southern Confederacy until the United States assent to such action on
+their part?" And with a frantic offer to submit to any terms which
+Europe might impose as the price of recognition, and a scarcely veiled
+threat of making peace with the North unless Europe should act speedily,
+the Confederate Department of State closed its four years of fruitless
+activity.
+
+Lee assumed command of all the Confederate armies on February 9. His
+situation was one of unprecedented gloom. The day before he had reported
+that his troops, who had been in line of battle for two days at
+Hatcher's Run, exposed to the bad winter weather, had been without meat
+for three days. A prodigious effort was made, and the danger of
+starvation for the moment averted, but no permanent improvement
+resulted. The armies of the Union were closing in from every point of
+the compass. Grant was every day pushing his formidable left wing nearer
+the only roads by which Lee could escape; Thomas was threatening the
+Confederate communications from Tennessee; Sheridan was riding for the
+last time up the Shenandoah valley to abolish Early; while from the
+south the redoubtable columns of Sherman were moving northward with the
+steady pace and irresistible progress of a tragic fate.
+
+A singular and significant attempt at negotiation was made at this time
+by General Lee. He was so strong in the confidence of the people of the
+South, and the government at Richmond was so rapidly becoming
+discredited, that he could doubtless have obtained the popular support
+and compelled the assent of the Executive to any measures he thought
+proper for the attainment of peace. From this it was easy for him and
+for others to come to the wholly erroneous conclusion that General Grant
+held a similar relation to the government and people of the United
+States. General Lee seized upon the pretext of a conversation reported
+to him by General Longstreet as having been held with General E.O.C. Ord
+under an ordinary flag of truce for the exchange of prisoners, to
+address a letter to Grant, sanctioned by Mr. Davis, saying he had been
+informed that General Ord had said General Grant would not decline an
+interview with a view "to a satisfactory adjustment of the present
+unhappy difficulties by means of a military convention," provided Lee
+had authority to act. He therefore proposed to meet General Grant "with
+the hope that ... it may be found practicable to submit the subjects of
+controversy ... to a convention of the kind mentioned"; professing
+himself "authorized to do whatever the result of the proposed interview
+may render necessary."
+
+Grant at once telegraphed these overtures to Washington. Stanton
+received the despatch at the Capitol, where the President was, according
+to his custom, passing the last night of the session of Congress, for
+the convenience of signing bills. The Secretary handed the telegram to
+Mr. Lincoln, who read it in silence. He asked no advice or suggestion
+from any one about him, but, taking up a pen, wrote with his usual
+slowness and precision a despatch in Stanton's name, which he showed to
+Seward, and then handed to Stanton to be signed and sent. The language
+is that of an experienced ruler, perfectly sure of himself and of his
+duty:
+
+"The President directs me to say that he wishes you to have no
+conference with General Lee, unless it be for capitulation of General
+Lee's army, or on some minor or purely military matter. He instructs me
+to say that you are not to decide, discuss, or confer upon any political
+questions. Such questions the President holds in his own hands, and
+will submit them to no military conferences or conventions. Meanwhile,
+you are to press to the utmost your military advantages."
+
+Grant answered Lee that he had no authority to accede to his
+proposition, and explained that General Ord's language must have been
+misunderstood. This closed to the Confederate authorities the last
+avenue of hope of any compromise by which the alternative of utter
+defeat or unconditional surrender might be avoided.
+
+Early in March, General Lee visited Richmond for conference with Mr.
+Davis on the measures to be adopted in the crisis which he saw was
+imminent. He had never sympathized with the slight Congress had intended
+to put upon Mr. Davis when it gave him supreme military authority, and
+continued to the end to treat his President as commander-in-chief of the
+forces. There is direct contradiction between Mr. Davis and General Lee
+as to how Davis received this statement of the necessities of the
+situation. Mr. Davis says he suggested immediate withdrawal from
+Richmond, but that Lee said his horses were too weak for the roads in
+their present condition, and that he must wait. General Lee, on the
+other hand, is quoted as saying that he wished to retire behind the
+Staunton River, from which point he might have indefinitely protracted
+the war, but that the President overruled him. Both agreed, however,
+that sooner or later Richmond must be abandoned, and that the next move
+should be to Danville.
+
+But before he turned his back forever upon the lines he had so stoutly
+defended, Lee resolved to dash once more at the toils by which he was
+surrounded. He placed half his army under the command of General John B.
+Gordon, with orders to break through the Union lines at Fort Stedman
+and take possession of the high ground behind them. A month earlier
+Grant had foreseen some such move on Lee's part, and had ordered General
+Parke to be prepared to meet an assault on his center, and to have his
+commanders ready to bring all their resources to bear on the point in
+danger, adding: "With proper alacrity in this respect I would have no
+objection to seeing the enemy get through." This characteristic phrase
+throws the strongest light both on Grant's temperament, and on the
+mastery of his business at which he had arrived. Under such generalship,
+an army's lines are a trap into which entrance is suicide.
+
+The assault was made with great spirit at half-past four on the morning
+of March 25. Its initial success was due to a singular cause. The spot
+chosen was a favorite point for deserters to pass into the Union lines,
+which they had of late been doing in large numbers. When Gordon's
+skirmishers, therefore, came stealing through the darkness, they were
+mistaken for an unusually large party of deserters, and they
+over-powered several picket-posts without firing a shot. The storming
+party, following at once, took the trenches with a rush, and in a few
+minutes had possession of the main line on the right of the fort, and,
+next, of the fort itself. It was hard in the semi-darkness to
+distinguish friends from foes, and for a time General Parke was unable
+to make headway; but with the growing light his troops advanced from
+every direction to mend the breach, and, making short work of the
+Confederate detachments, recaptured the fort, opening a cross-fire of
+artillery so withering that few of the Confederates could get back to
+their own lines. This was, moreover, not the only damage the
+Confederates suffered. Humphreys and Wright, on the Union left, rightly
+assuming that Parke could take care of himself, instantly searched the
+lines in their front to see if they had been essentially weakened to
+support Gordon's attack. They found they had not, but in gaining this
+knowledge captured the enemy's intrenched picket-lines in front of them,
+which, being held, gave inestimable advantage to the Union army in the
+struggle of the next week.
+
+Grant's chief anxiety for some time had been lest Lee should abandon his
+lines; but though burning to attack, he was delayed by the same bad
+roads which kept Lee in Richmond, and by another cause. He did not wish
+to move until Sheridan had completed the work assigned him in the
+Shenandoah valley and joined either Sherman or the army at Petersburg.
+On March 24, however, at the very moment Gordon was making his plans for
+next day's sortie, Grant issued his order for the great movement to the
+left which was to finish the war. He intended to begin on the
+twenty-ninth, but Lee's desperate dash of the twenty-fifth convinced him
+that not a moment was to be lost. Sheridan reached City Point on the
+twenty-sixth. Sherman came up from North Carolina for a brief visit next
+day. The President was also there, and an interesting meeting took place
+between these famous brothers in arms and Mr. Lincoln; after which
+Sherman went back to Goldsboro, and Grant began pushing his army to the
+left with even more than his usual iron energy.
+
+It was a great army--the result of all the power and wisdom of the
+government, all the devotion of the people, all the intelligence and
+teachableness of the soldiers themselves, and all the ability which a
+mighty war had developed in the officers. In command of all was Grant,
+the most extraordinary military temperament this country has ever seen.
+The numbers of the respective armies in this last grapple have been the
+occasion of endless controversy. As nearly as can be ascertained, the
+grand total of all arms on the Union side was 124,700; on the
+Confederate side, 57,000.
+
+Grant's plan, as announced in his instructions of March 24, was at first
+to despatch Sheridan to destroy the South Side and Danville railroads,
+at the same time moving a heavy force to the left to insure the success
+of this raid, and then to turn Lee's position. But his purpose developed
+from hour to hour, and before he had been away from his winter
+headquarters one day, he gave up this comparatively narrow scheme, and
+adopted the far bolder plan which he carried out to his immortal honor.
+He ordered Sheridan not to go after the railroads, but to push for the
+enemy's right rear, writing him: "I now feel like ending the matter....
+We will act all together as one army here, until it is seen what can be
+done with the enemy."
+
+On the thirtieth, Sheridan advanced to Five Forks, where he found a
+heavy force of the enemy. Lee, justly alarmed by Grant's movements, had
+despatched a sufficient detachment to hold that important cross-roads,
+and taken personal command of the remainder on White Oak Ridge. A heavy
+rain-storm, beginning on the night of the twenty-ninth and continuing
+more than twenty-four hours, greatly impeded the march of the troops. On
+the thirty-first, Warren, working his way toward the White Oak road, was
+attacked by Lee and driven back on the main line, but rallied, and in
+the afternoon drove the enemy again into his works. Sheridan, opposed by
+Pickett with a large force of infantry and cavalry, was also forced
+back, fighting obstinately, as far as Dinwiddie Court House, from which
+point he hopefully reported his situation to Grant at dark. Grant, more
+disturbed than Sheridan himself, rained orders and suggestions all
+night to effect a concentration at daylight on that portion of the enemy
+in front of Sheridan; but Pickett, finding himself out of position,
+silently withdrew during the night, and resumed his strongly intrenched
+post at Five Forks. Here Sheridan followed him on April 1, and repeated
+the successful tactics of his Shenandoah valley exploits so brilliantly
+that Lee's right was entirely shattered.
+
+This battle of Five Forks should have ended the war. Lee's right was
+routed; his line had been stretched westward until it broke; there was
+no longer any hope of saving Richmond, or even of materially delaying
+its fall. But Lee apparently thought that even the gain of a day was of
+value to the Richmond government, and what was left of his Army of
+Northern Virginia was still so perfect in discipline that it answered
+with unabated spirit every demand made upon it. Grant, who feared Lee
+might get away from Petersburg and overwhelm Sheridan on the White Oak
+road, directed that an assault be made all along the line at four
+o'clock on the morning of the second. His officers responded with
+enthusiasm; and Lee, far from dreaming of attacking any one after the
+stunning blow he had received the day before, made what hasty
+preparations he could to resist them.
+
+It is painful to record the hard fighting which followed. Wright, in his
+assault in front of Forts Fisher and Walsh, lost eleven hundred men in
+fifteen minutes of murderous conflict that made them his own; and other
+commands fared scarcely better, Union and Confederate troops alike
+displaying a gallantry distressing to contemplate when one reflects
+that, the war being already decided, all this heroic blood was shed in
+vain. The Confederates, from the Appomattox to the Weldon road, fell
+slowly back to their inner line of works; and Lee, watching the
+formidable advance before which his weakened troops gave way, sent a
+message to Richmond announcing his purpose of concentrating on the
+Danville road, and made preparations for the evacuation which was now
+the only resort left him.
+
+Some Confederate writers express surprise that General Grant did not
+attack and destroy Lee's army on April 2; but this is a view, after the
+fact, easy to express. The troops on the Union left had been on foot for
+eighteen hours, had fought an important battle, marched and
+countermarched many miles, and were now confronted by Longstreet's fresh
+corps behind formidable works, while the attitude of the force under
+Gordon on the south side of the town was such as to require the close
+attention of Parke. Grant, anticipating an early retirement of Lee from
+his citadel, wisely resolved to avoid the waste and bloodshed of an
+immediate assault on the inner lines of Petersburg. He ordered Sheridan
+to get upon Lee's line of retreat; sent Humphreys to strengthen him;
+then, directing a general bombardment for five o'clock next morning, and
+an assault at six, gave himself and his soldiers a little of the rest
+they had so richly earned and so seriously needed.
+
+He had telegraphed during the day to President Lincoln, who was still at
+City Point, the news as it developed from hour to hour. Prisoners he
+regarded as so much net gain: he was weary of slaughter, and wanted the
+war ended with as little bloodshed as possible; and it was with delight
+that he summed up on Sunday afternoon: "The whole captures since the
+army started out gunning will not amount to less than twelve thousand
+men, and probably fifty pieces of artillery."
+
+Lee bent all his energies to saving his army and leading it out of its
+untenable position on the James to a point from which he could effect a
+junction with Johnston in North Carolina. The place selected for this
+purpose was Burkeville, at the crossing of the South Side and Danville
+roads, fifty miles southwest from Richmond, whence a short distance
+would bring him to Danville, where the desired junction could be made.
+Even yet he was able to cradle himself in the illusion that it was only
+a campaign that had failed, and that he might continue the war
+indefinitely in another field. At nightfall all his preparations were
+completed, and dismounting at the mouth of the road leading to Amelia
+Court House, the first point of rendezvous, where he had directed
+supplies to be sent, he watched his troops file noiselessly by in the
+darkness. By three o'clock the town was abandoned; at half-past four it
+was formally surrendered. Meade, reporting the news to Grant, received
+orders to march his army immediately up the Appomattox; and divining
+Lee's intentions, Grant also sent word to Sheridan to push with all
+speed to the Danville road.
+
+Thus flight and pursuit began almost at the same moment. The
+swift-footed Army of Northern Virginia was racing for its life, and
+Grant, inspired with more than his habitual tenacity and energy, not
+only pressed his enemy in the rear, but hung upon his flank, and
+strained every nerve to get in his front. He did not even allow himself
+the pleasure of entering Richmond, which surrendered to Weitzel early on
+the morning of the third.
+
+All that day Lee pushed forward toward Amelia Court House. There was
+little fighting except among the cavalry. A terrible disappointment
+awaited Lee on his arrival at Amelia Court House on the fourth. He had
+ordered supplies to be forwarded there, but his half-starved troops
+found no food awaiting them, and nearly twenty-four hours were lost in
+collecting subsistence for men and horses. When he started again on the
+night of the fifth, the whole pursuing force was south and stretching
+out to the west of him. Burkeville was in Grant's possession; the way to
+Danville was barred; the supply of provisions to the south cut off. He
+was compelled to change his route to the west, and started for
+Lynchburg, which he was destined never to reach.
+
+It had been the intention to attack Lee at Amelia Court House on the
+morning of April 6, but learning of his turn to the west, Meade, who was
+immediately in pursuit, quickly faced his army about and followed. A
+running fight ensued for fourteen miles, the enemy, with remarkable
+quickness and dexterity, halting and partly intrenching themselves from
+time to time, and the national forces driving them out of every
+position; the Union cavalry, meanwhile, harassing the moving left flank
+of the Confederates, and working havoc on the trains. They also caused a
+grievous loss to history by burning Lee's headquarters baggage, with all
+its wealth of returns and reports. At Sailor's Creek, a rivulet running
+north into the Appomattox, Ewell's corps was brought to bay, and
+important fighting occurred; the day's loss to Lee, there and elsewhere,
+amounting to eight thousand in all, with several of his generals among
+the prisoners. This day's work was of incalculable value to the national
+arms. Sheridan's unerring eye appreciated the full importance of it, his
+hasty report ending with the words: "If the thing is pressed, I think
+that Lee will surrender." Grant sent the despatch to President Lincoln,
+who instantly replied:
+
+"Let the thing be pressed."
+
+In fact, after nightfall of the sixth, Lee's army could only flutter
+like a wounded bird with one wing shattered. There was no longer any
+possibility of escape; but Lee found it hard to relinquish the illusion
+of years, and as soon as night came down he again began his weary march
+westward. A slight success on the next day once more raised his hopes;
+but his optimism was not shared by his subordinates, and a number of his
+principal officers, selecting General Pendleton as their spokesman, made
+known to him on the seventh their belief that further resistance was
+useless, and advised surrender. Lee told them that they had yet too many
+men to think of laying down their arms, but in answer to a courteous
+summons from Grant sent that same day, inquired what terms he would be
+willing to offer. Without waiting for a reply, he again put his men in
+motion, and during all of the eighth the chase and pursuit continued
+through a part of Virginia green with spring, and until then unvisited
+by hostile armies.
+
+Sheridan, by unheard-of exertions, at last accomplished the important
+task of placing himself squarely on Lee's line of retreat. About sunset
+of the eighth, his advance captured Appomattox Station and four trains
+of provisions. Shortly after, a reconnaissance revealed the fact that
+Lee's entire army was coming up the road. Though he had nothing but
+cavalry, Sheridan resolved to hold the inestimable advantage he had
+gained, and sent a request to Grant to hurry up the required infantry
+support; saying that if it reached him that night, they "might perhaps
+finish the job in the morning." He added, with singular prescience,
+referring to the negotiations which had been opened: "I do not think Lee
+means to surrender until compelled to do so."
+
+This was strictly true. When Grant replied to Lee's question about
+terms, saying that the only condition he insisted upon was that the
+officers and men surrendered should be disqualified from taking up arms
+again until properly exchanged, Lee disclaimed any intention to
+surrender his army, but proposed to meet Grant to discuss the
+restoration of peace. It appears from his own report that even on the
+night of the eighth he had no intention of giving up the fight. He
+expected to find only cavalry before him next morning, and thought his
+remnant of infantry could break through while he himself was amusing
+Grant with platonic discussions in the rear. But on arriving at the
+rendezvous he had suggested, he received Grant's courteous but decided
+refusal to enter into a political negotiation, and also the news that a
+formidable force of infantry barred the way and covered the adjacent
+hills and valley. The marching of the Confederate army was over forever,
+and Lee, suddenly brought to a sense of his real situation, sent orders
+to cease hostilities, and wrote another note to Grant, asking an
+interview for the purpose of surrendering his army.
+
+The meeting took place at the house of Wilmer McLean, in the edge of the
+village of Appomattox, on April 9, 1865. Lee met Grant at the threshold,
+and ushered him into a small and barely furnished parlor, where were
+soon assembled the leading officers of the national army. General Lee
+was accompanied only by his secretary, Colonel Charles Marshall. A short
+conversation led up to a request from Lee for the terms on which the
+surrender of his army would be received. Grant briefly stated them, and
+then wrote them out. Men and officers were to be paroled, and the arms,
+artillery, and public property turned over to the officer appointed to
+receive them.
+
+"This," he added, "will not embrace the side-arms of the officers, nor
+their private horses or baggage. This done, each officer and man will
+be allowed to return to their homes, not to be disturbed by United
+States authority so long as they observe their parole and the laws in
+force where they may reside."
+
+General Grant says in his "Memoirs" that up to the moment when he put
+pen to paper he had not thought of a word that he should write. The
+terms he had verbally proposed were soon put in writing, and there he
+might have stopped. But as he wrote a feeling of sympathy for his
+gallant antagonist came over him, and he added the extremely liberal
+terms with which his letter closed. The sight of Lee's fine sword
+suggested the paragraph allowing officers to retain their side-arms; and
+he ended with a phrase he evidently had not thought of, and for which he
+had no authority, which practically pardoned and amnestied every man in
+Lee's army--a thing he had refused to consider the day before, and which
+had been expressly forbidden him in the President's order of March 3.
+Yet so great was the joy over the crowning victory, and so deep the
+gratitude of the government and people to Grant and his heroic army,
+that his terms were accepted as he wrote them, and his exercise of the
+Executive prerogative of pardon entirely overlooked. It must be noticed
+here, however, that a few days later it led the greatest of Grant's
+generals into a serious error.
+
+Lee must have read the memorandum with as much surprise as
+gratification. He suggested and gained another important
+concession--that those of the cavalry and artillery who owned their own
+horses should be allowed to take them home to put in their crops; and
+wrote a brief reply accepting the terms. He then remarked that his army
+was in a starving condition, and asked Grant to provide them with
+subsistence and forage; to which he at once assented, inquiring for how
+many men the rations would be wanted. Lee answered, "About twenty-five
+thousand"; and orders were given to issue them. The number turned out to
+be even greater, the paroles signed amounting to twenty-eight thousand
+two hundred and thirty-one. If we add to this the captures made during
+the preceding week, and the thousands who deserted the failing cause at
+every by-road leading to their homes, we see how considerable an army
+Lee commanded when Grant "started out gunning."
+
+With these brief and simple formalities, one of the most momentous
+transactions of modern times was concluded. The Union gunners prepared
+to fire a national salute, but Grant forbade any rejoicing over a fallen
+enemy, who, he hoped, would be an enemy no longer. The next day he rode
+to the Confederate lines to make a visit of farewell to General Lee.
+They parted with courteous good wishes, and Grant, without pausing to
+look at the city he had taken, or the enormous system of works which had
+so long held him at bay, hurried away to Washington, intent only upon
+putting an end to the waste and burden of war.
+
+A very carnival of fire and destruction had attended the flight of the
+Confederate authorities from Richmond. On Sunday night, April 2,
+Jefferson Davis, with his cabinet and their more important papers,
+hurriedly left the doomed city on one of the crowded and overloaded
+railroad trains. The legislature of Virginia and the governor of the
+State departed in a canal-boat toward Lynchburg; and every available
+vehicle was pressed into service by the frantic inhabitants, all anxious
+to get away before their capital was desecrated by the presence of
+"Yankee invaders." By the time the military left, early next morning, a
+conflagration was already under way. The rebel Congress had passed a
+law ordering government tobacco and other public property to be burned.
+General Ewell, the military commander, asserts that he took the
+responsibility of disobeying the law, and that they were not fired by
+his orders. However that may be, flames broke out in various parts of
+the city, while a miscellaneous mob, inflamed by excitement and by the
+alcohol which had run freely in the gutters the night before, rushed
+from store to store, smashing in the doors and indulging all the
+wantonness of pillage and greed. Public spirit was paralyzed, and the
+whole fabric of society seemed crumbling to pieces, when the convicts
+from the penitentiary, a shouting, leaping crowd of party-colored
+demons, overcoming their guard, and drunk with liberty, appeared upon
+the streets, adding their final dramatic horror to the pandemonium.
+
+It is quite probable that the very magnitude and rapidity of the
+disaster served in a measure to mitigate its evil results. The burning
+of seven hundred buildings, comprising the entire business portion of
+Richmond warehouses, manufactories, mills, depots, and stores, all
+within the brief space of a day, was a visitation so sudden, so
+unexpected, so stupefying, as to overawe and terrorize even wrong-doers,
+and made the harvest of plunder so abundant as to serve to scatter the
+mob and satisfy its rapacity to quick repletion.
+
+Before a new hunger could arise, assistance was at hand. General
+Weitzel, to whom the city was surrendered, taking up his headquarters in
+the house lately occupied by Jefferson Davis, promptly set about the
+work of relief; organizing efficient resistance to the fire, which, up
+to this time, seems scarcely to have been attempted; issuing rations to
+the poor, who had been relentlessly exposed to starvation by the action
+of the rebel Congress; and restoring order and personal authority. That
+a regiment of black soldiers assisted in this noble work must have
+seemed to the white inhabitants of Richmond the final drop in their cup
+of misery.
+
+Into the capital, thus stricken and laid waste, came President Lincoln
+on the morning of April 4. Never in the history of the world did the
+head of a mighty nation and the conqueror of a great rebellion enter the
+captured chief city of the insurgents in such humbleness and simplicity.
+He had gone two weeks before to City Point for a visit to General Grant,
+and to his son, Captain Robert Lincoln, who was serving on Grant's
+staff. Making his home on the steamer which brought him, and enjoying
+what was probably the most satisfactory relaxation in which he had been
+able to indulge during his whole presidential service, he had visited
+the various camps of the great army in company with the general, cheered
+everywhere by the loving greetings of the soldiers. He had met Sherman
+when that commander hurried up fresh from his victorious march, and
+after Grant started on his final pursuit of Lee the President still
+lingered; and it was at City Point that he received the news of the fall
+of Richmond.
+
+Between the receipt of this news and the following forenoon, but before
+any information of the great fire had reached them, a visit was arranged
+for the President and Rear-Admiral Porter. Ample precautions were taken
+at the start. The President went in his own steamer, the _River Queen_,
+with her escort, the _Bat_, and a tug used at City Point in landing from
+the steamer. Admiral Porter went in his flag-ship, the _Malvern_, and a
+transport carried a small cavalry escort and ambulances for the party.
+But the obstructions in the river soon made it impossible to proceed in
+this fashion. One unforeseen accident after another rendered it
+necessary to leave behind even the smaller boats, until finally the
+party went on in Admiral Porter's barge, rowed by twelve sailors, and
+without escort of any kind. In this manner the President made his advent
+into Richmond, landing near Libby Prison. As the party stepped ashore
+they found a guide among the contrabands who quickly crowded the
+streets, for the possible coming of the President had been circulated
+through the city. Ten of the sailors, armed with carbines, were formed
+as a guard, six in front and four in rear, and between them the
+President, Admiral Porter, and the three officers who accompanied them
+walked the long distance, perhaps a mile and a half, to the center of
+the town.
+
+The imagination can easily fill up the picture of a gradually increasing
+crowd, principally of negroes, following the little group of marines and
+officers, with the tall form of the President in its center; and, having
+learned that it was indeed Mr. Lincoln, giving expression to joy and
+gratitude in the picturesque emotional ejaculations of the colored race.
+It is easy also to imagine the sharp anxiety of those who had the
+President's safety in charge during this tiresome and even foolhardy
+march through a city still in flames, whose white inhabitants were
+sullenly resentful at best, and whose grief and anger might at any
+moment culminate against the man they looked upon as the incarnation of
+their misfortunes. But no accident befell him. Reaching General
+Weitzel's headquarters, Mr. Lincoln rested in the mansion Jefferson
+Davis had occupied as President of the Confederacy, and after a day of
+sight-seeing returned to his steamer and to Washington, to be stricken
+down by an assassin's bullet, literally "in the house of his friends."
+
+
+
+
+XXXVI
+
+Lincoln's Interviews with Campbell--Withdraws Authority for Meeting of
+Virginia Legislature--Conference of Davis and Johnston at
+Greensboro--Johnston Asks for an Armistice--Meeting of Sherman and
+Johnston--Their Agreement--Rejected at Washington--Surrender of
+Johnston--Surrender of other Confederate Forces--End of the Rebel
+Navy--Capture of Jefferson Davis--Surrender of E. Kirby Smith--Number of
+Confederates Surrendered and Exchanged--Reduction of Federal Army to a
+Peace Footing--Grand Review of the Army
+
+
+While in Richmond, Mr. Lincoln had two interviews with John A. Campbell,
+rebel Secretary of War, who had not accompanied the other fleeing
+officials, preferring instead to submit to Federal authority. Mr.
+Campbell had been one of the commissioners at the Hampton Roads
+conference, and Mr. Lincoln now gave him a written memorandum repeating
+in substance the terms he had then offered the Confederates. On
+Campbell's suggestion that the Virginia legislature, if allowed to come
+together, would at once repeal its ordinance of secession and withdraw
+all Virginia troops from the field, he also gave permission for its
+members to assemble for that purpose. But this, being distorted into
+authority to sit in judgment on the political consequences of the war,
+was soon withdrawn.
+
+Jefferson Davis and his cabinet proceeded to Danville, where, two days
+after his arrival, the rebel President made still another effort to fire
+the Southern heart, announcing, "We have now entered upon a new phase
+of the struggle. Relieved from the necessity of guarding particular
+points, our army will be free to move from point to point to strike the
+enemy in detail far from his base. Let us but will it and we are free";
+and declaring in sonorous periods his purpose never to abandon one foot
+of ground to the invader.
+
+The ink was hardly dry on the document when news came of the surrender
+of Lee's army, and that the Federal cavalry was pushing southward west
+of Danville. So the Confederate government again hastily packed its
+archives and moved to Greensboro, North Carolina, where its headquarters
+were prudently kept on the train at the depot. Here Mr. Davis sent for
+Generals Johnston and Beauregard, and a conference took place between
+them and the members of the fleeing government--a conference not unmixed
+with embarrassment, since Mr. Davis still "willed" the success of the
+Confederacy too strongly to see the true hopelessness of the situation,
+while the generals and most of his cabinet were agreed that their cause
+was lost. The council of war over, General Johnston returned to his army
+to begin negotiations with Sherman; and on the following day, April 14,
+Davis and his party left Greensboro to continue their journey southward.
+
+Sherman had returned to Goldsboro from his visit to City Point, and set
+himself at once to the reorganization of his army and the replenishment
+of his stores. He still thought there was a hard campaign with desperate
+fighting ahead of him. Even on April 6, when he received news of the
+fall of Richmond and the flight of Lee and the Confederate government,
+he was unable to understand the full extent of the national triumph. He
+admired Grant so far as a man might, short of idolatry, yet the long
+habit of respect for Lee led him to think he would somehow get away and
+join Johnston in his front with at least a portion of the Army of
+Northern Virginia. He had already begun his march upon Johnston when he
+learned of Lee's surrender at Appomattox.
+
+Definitely relieved from apprehension of a junction of the two
+Confederate armies, he now had no fear except of a flight and dispersal
+of Johnston's forces into guerrilla bands. If they ran away, he felt he
+could not catch them; the country was too open. They could scatter and
+meet again, and so continue a partizan warfare indefinitely. He could
+not be expected to know that this resolute enemy was sick to the heart
+of war, and that the desire for more fighting survived only in a group
+of fugitive politicians flying through the pine forests of the Carolinas
+from a danger which did not exist.
+
+Entering Raleigh on the morning of the thirteenth, he turned his heads
+of column southwest, hoping to cut off Johnston's southward march, but
+made no great haste, thinking Johnston's cavalry superior to his own,
+and desiring Sheridan to join him before he pushed the Confederates to
+extremities. While here, however, he received a communication from
+General Johnston, dated the thirteenth, proposing an armistice to enable
+the National and Confederate governments to negotiate on equal terms. It
+had been dictated by Jefferson Davis during the conference at
+Greensboro, written down by S.R. Mallory, and merely signed by Johnston,
+and was inadmissible and even offensive in its terms; but Sherman,
+anxious for peace, and himself incapable of discourtesy to a brave
+enemy, took no notice of its language, and answered so cordially that
+the Confederates were probably encouraged to ask for better conditions
+of surrender than they had expected to receive.
+
+The two great antagonists met on April 17, when Sherman offered
+Johnston the same terms that had been accorded Lee, and also
+communicated the news he had that morning received of the murder of Mr.
+Lincoln. The Confederate general expressed his unfeigned sorrow at this
+calamity, which smote the South, he said, as deeply as the North; and in
+this mood of sympathy the discussion began. Johnston asserted that he
+would not be justified in such a capitulation as Sherman proposed, but
+suggested that together they might arrange the terms of a permanent
+peace. This idea pleased Sherman, to whom the prospect of ending the war
+without shedding another drop of blood was so tempting that he did not
+sufficiently consider the limits of his authority in the matter. It can
+be said, moreover, in extenuation of his course, that President
+Lincoln's despatch to Grant of March 3, which expressly forbade Grant to
+"decide, discuss, or to confer upon any political question," had never
+been communicated to Sherman; while the very liberality of Grant's terms
+led him to believe that he was acting in accordance with the views of
+the administration.
+
+But the wisdom of Lincoln's peremptory order was completely vindicated.
+With the best intentions in the world, Sherman, beginning very properly
+by offering his antagonist the same terms accorded Lee, ended, after two
+days' negotiation, by making a treaty of peace with the Confederate
+States, including a preliminary armistice, the disbandment of the
+Confederate armies, recognition by the United States Executive of the
+several State governments, reëstablishment of the Federal courts, and a
+general amnesty. "Not being fully empowered by our respective principals
+to fulfil these terms," the agreement truthfully concluded, "we
+individually and officially pledge ourselves to promptly obtain the
+necessary authority."
+
+The rebel President, with unnecessary formality, required a report from
+General Breckinridge, his Secretary of War, on the desirability of
+ratifying this most favorable convention. Scarcely had he given it his
+indorsement when news came that it had been disapproved at Washington,
+and that Sherman had been directed to continue his military operations;
+and the peripatetic government once more took up its southward flight.
+
+The moment General Grant read the agreement he saw it was entirely
+inadmissible. The new President called his cabinet together, and Mr.
+Lincoln's instructions of March 3 to Grant were repeated to
+Sherman--somewhat tardily, it must be confessed--as his rule of action.
+All this was a matter of course, and General Sherman could not properly,
+and perhaps would not, have objected to it. But the calm spirit of
+Lincoln was now absent from the councils of the government; and it was
+not in Andrew Johnson and Mr. Stanton to pass over a mistake like this,
+even in the case of one of the most illustrious captains of the age.
+They ordered Grant to proceed at once to Sherman's headquarters, and to
+direct operations against the enemy; and, what was worse, Mr. Stanton
+printed in the newspapers the reasons of the government for disapproving
+the agreement in terms of sharpest censure of General Sherman. This,
+when it came to his notice some weeks later, filled him with hot
+indignation, and, coupled with some orders Halleck, who had been made
+commander of the armies of the Potomac and the James, issued to Meade,
+to disregard Sherman's truce and push forward against Johnston, roused
+him to open defiance of the authorities he thought were persecuting him,
+and made him declare in a report to Grant, that he would have maintained
+his truce at any cost of life. Halleck's order, however, had been
+nullified by Johnston's surrender, and Grant, suggesting that this
+outburst was uncalled for, offered Sherman the opportunity to correct
+the statement. This he refused, insisting that his record stand as
+written, although avowing his readiness to obey all future orders of
+Grant and the President.
+
+So far as Johnston was concerned, the war was indeed over. He was unable
+longer to hold his men together. Eight thousand of them left their camps
+and went home in the week of the truce, many riding away on the
+artillery horses and train mules. On notice of Federal disapproval of
+his negotiations with Sherman, he disregarded Jefferson Davis's
+instructions to disband the infantry and try to escape with the cavalry
+and light guns, and answered Sherman's summons by inviting another
+conference, at which, on April 26, he surrendered all the forces in his
+command on the same terms granted Lee at Appomattox; Sherman supplying,
+as did Grant, rations for the beaten army. Thirty-seven thousand men and
+officers were paroled in North Carolina--exclusive, of course, of the
+thousands who had slipped away to their homes during the suspension of
+hostilities.
+
+After Appomattox the rebellion fell to pieces all at once. Lee
+surrendered less than one sixth of the Confederates in arms on April 9.
+The armies that still remained, though inconsiderable when compared with
+the mighty host under the national colors, were yet infinitely larger
+than any Washington ever commanded, and capable of strenuous resistance
+and of incalculable mischief. But the march of Sherman from Atlanta to
+the sea, and his northward progress through the Carolinas, had
+predisposed the great interior region to make an end of strife: a
+tendency which was greatly promoted by the masterly raid of General J.H.
+Wilson's cavalry through Alabama, and his defeat of Forrest at Selma.
+An officer of Taylor's staff came to Canby's headquarters on April 19 to
+make arrangements for the surrender of all the Confederate forces east
+of the Mississippi not already paroled by Sherman and Wilson, embracing
+some forty-two thousand men. The terms were agreed upon and signed on
+May 4, at the village of Citronelle in Alabama. At the same time and
+place the Confederate Commodore Farrand surrendered to Rear-Admiral
+Thatcher all the naval forces Of the Confederacy in the neighborhood of
+Mobile--a dozen vessels and some hundreds of officers.
+
+The rebel navy had practically ceased to exist some months before. The
+splendid fight in Mobile Bay on August 5, 1864, between Farragut's fleet
+and the rebel ram _Tennessee_, with her three attendant gunboats, and
+Cushing's daring destruction of the powerful _Albemarle_ in Albemarle
+Sound on October 27, marked its end in Confederate waters. The duel
+between the _Kearsarge_ and the _Alabama_ off Cherbourg had already
+taken place; a few more encounters, at or near foreign ports, furnished
+occasion for personal bravery and subsequent lively diplomatic
+correspondence; and rebel vessels, fitted out under the unduly lenient
+"neutrality" of France and England, continued for a time to work havoc
+with American shipping in various parts of the world. But these two
+Union successes, and the final capture of Fort Fisher and of Wilmington
+early in 1865, which closed the last haven for daring blockade-runners,
+practically silenced the Confederate navy.
+
+General E. Kirby Smith commanded all the insurgent forces west of the
+Mississippi. On him the desperate hopes of Mr. Davis and his flying
+cabinet were fixed, after the successive surrenders of Lee and Johnston
+had left them no prospect in the east. They imagined they could move
+westward, gathering up stragglers as they fled, and, crossing the river,
+join Smith's forces, and there continue the war. But after a time even
+this hope failed them. Their escort melted away; members of the cabinet
+dropped off on various pretexts, and Mr. Davis, abandoning the attempt
+to reach the Mississippi River, turned again toward the east in an
+effort to gain the Florida coast and escape by means of a sailing vessel
+to Texas.
+
+The two expeditions sent in pursuit of him by General Wilson did not
+allow this consummation, which the government at Washington might
+possibly have viewed with equanimity. His camp near Irwinville, Georgia,
+was surrounded by Lieutenant-Colonel Pritchard's command at dawn on May
+10, and he was captured as he was about to mount horse with a few
+companions and ride for the coast, leaving his family to follow more
+slowly. The tradition that he was captured in disguise, having donned
+female dress in a last desperate attempt to escape, has only this
+foundation, that Mrs. Davis threw a cloak over her husband's shoulders,
+and a shawl over his head, on the approach of the Federal soldiers. He
+was taken to Fortress Monroe, and there kept in confinement for about
+two years; was arraigned before the United States Circuit Court for the
+District of Virginia for the crime of treason, and released on bail; and
+was finally restored to all the duties and privileges of citizenship,
+except the right to hold office, by President Johnson's proclamation of
+amnesty of December 25, 1868.
+
+General E. Kirby Smith, on whom Davis's last hopes of success had
+centered, kept up so threatening an attitude that Sherman was sent from
+Washington to bring him to reason. But he did not long hold his position
+of solitary defiance. One more needless skirmish took place near
+Brazos, Texas, and then Smith followed the example of Taylor and
+surrendered his entire force, some eighteen thousand, to General Canby,
+on May 26. One hundred and seventy-five thousand men in all were
+surrendered by the different Confederate commanders, and there were, in
+addition to these, about ninety-nine thousand prisoners in national
+custody during the year. One third of these were exchanged, and two
+thirds released. This was done as rapidly as possible by successive
+orders of the War Department, beginning on May 9 and continuing through
+the summer.
+
+The first object of the government was to stop the waste of war.
+Recruiting ceased immediately after Lee's surrender, and measures were
+taken to reduce as promptly as possible the vast military establishment.
+Every chief of bureau was ordered, on April 28, to proceed at once to
+the reduction of expenses in his department to a peace footing; and this
+before Taylor or Smith had surrendered, and while Jefferson Davis was
+still at large. The army of a million men was brought down, with
+incredible ease and celerity, to one of twenty-five thousand.
+
+Before the great army melted away into the greater body of citizens, the
+soldiers enjoyed one final triumph, a march through the capital,
+undisturbed by death or danger, under the eyes of their highest
+commanders, military and civilian, and the representatives of the people
+whose nationality they had saved. Those who witnessed this solemn yet
+joyous pageant will never forget it, and will pray that their children
+may never witness anything like it. For two days this formidable host
+marched the long stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue, starting from the
+shadow of the dome of the Capitol, and filling that wide thoroughfare to
+Georgetown with a serried mass, moving with the easy yet rapid pace of
+veterans in cadence step. As a mere spectacle this march of the
+mightiest host the continent has ever seen gathered together was grand
+and imposing; but it was not as a spectacle alone that it affected the
+beholder most deeply. It was not a mere holiday parade; it was an army
+of citizens on their way home after a long and terrible war. Their
+clothes were worn and pierced with bullets; their banners had been torn
+with shot and shell, and lashed in the winds of a thousand battles; the
+very drums and fifes had called out the troops to numberless night
+alarms, and sounded the onset on historic fields. The whole country
+claimed these heroes as a part of themselves. And now, done with
+fighting, they were going joyously and peaceably to their homes, to take
+up again the tasks they had willingly laid down in the hour of their
+country's peril.
+
+The world had many lessons to learn from this great conflict, which
+liberated a subject people and changed the tactics of modern warfare;
+but the greatest lesson it taught the nations of waiting Europe was the
+conservative power of democracy--that a million men, flushed with
+victory, and with arms in their hands, could be trusted to disband the
+moment the need for their services was over, and take up again the
+soberer labors of peace.
+
+Friends loaded these veterans with flowers as they swung down the
+Avenue, both men and officers, until some were fairly hidden under their
+fragrant burden. There was laughter and applause; grotesque figures were
+not absent as Sherman's legions passed, with their "bummers" and their
+regimental pets; but with all the shouting and the laughter and the joy
+of this unprecedented ceremony, there was one sad and dominant thought
+which could not be driven from the minds of those who saw it--that of
+the men who were absent, and who had, nevertheless, richly earned the
+right to be there. The soldiers in their shrunken companies were
+conscious of the ever-present memories of the brave comrades who had
+fallen by the way; and in the whole army there was the passionate and
+unavailing regret for their wise, gentle, and powerful friend, Abraham
+Lincoln, gone forever from the house by the Avenue, who had called the
+great host into being, directed the course of the nation during the four
+years they had been fighting for its preservation, and for whom, more
+than for any other, this crowning peaceful pageant would have been
+fraught with deep and happy meaning.
+
+
+
+
+XXXVII
+
+The 14th of April--Celebration at Fort Sumter--Last Cabinet
+Meeting--Lincoln's Attitude toward Threats of Assassination--Booth's
+Plot--Ford's Theater--Fate of the Assassins--The Mourning Pageant
+
+
+Mr. Lincoln had returned to Washington, refreshed by his visit to City
+Point, and cheered by the unmistakable signs that the war was almost
+over. With that ever-present sense of responsibility which distinguished
+him, he gave his thoughts to the momentous question of the restoration
+of the Union and of harmony between the lately warring sections. His
+whole heart was now enlisted in the work of "binding up the nation's
+wounds," and of doing all which might "achieve and cherish a just and
+lasting peace."
+
+April 14 was a day of deep and tranquil happiness throughout the United
+States. It was Good Friday, observed by a portion of the people as an
+occasion of fasting and religious meditation; though even among the most
+devout the great tidings of the preceding week exerted their joyous
+influence, and changed this period of traditional mourning into an
+occasion of general thanksgiving. But though the Misereres turned of
+themselves to Te Deums, the date was not to lose its awful significance
+in the calendar: at night it was claimed once more by a world-wide
+sorrow.
+
+The thanksgiving of the nation found its principal expression at
+Charleston Harbor, where the flag of the Union received that day a
+conspicuous reparation on the spot where it had first been outraged. At
+noon General Robert Anderson raised over Fort Sumter the identical flag
+lowered and saluted by him four years before; the surrender of Lee
+giving a more transcendent importance to this ceremony, made stately
+with orations, music, and military display.
+
+In Washington it was a day of deep peace and thankfulness. Grant had
+arrived that morning, and, going to the Executive Mansion, had met the
+cabinet, Friday being their regular day for assembling. He expressed
+some anxiety as to the news from Sherman which he was expecting hourly.
+The President answered him in that singular vein of poetic mysticism
+which, though constantly held in check by his strong common sense,
+formed such a remarkable element in his character. He assured Grant that
+the news would come soon and come favorably, for he had last night had
+his usual dream which preceded great events. He seemed to be, he said,
+in a singular and indescribable vessel, but always the same, moving with
+great rapidity toward a dark and indefinite shore; he had had this dream
+before Antietam, Murfreesboro, Gettysburg, and Vicksburg. The cabinet
+were greatly impressed by this story; but Grant, most matter-of-fact of
+created beings, made the characteristic response that "Murfreesboro was
+no victory, and had no important results." The President did not argue
+this point with him, but repeated that Sherman would beat or had beaten
+Johnston; that his dream must relate to that, since he knew of no other
+important event likely at present to occur.
+
+Questions of trade between the States, and of various phases of
+reconstruction, occupied the cabinet on this last day of Lincoln's firm
+and tolerant rule. The President spoke at some length, disclosing his
+hope that much could be done to reanimate the States and get their
+governments in successful operation before Congress came together. He
+was anxious to close the period of strife without over-much discussion.
+Particularly did he desire to avoid the shedding of blood, or any
+vindictiveness of punishment. "No one need expect that he would take any
+part in hanging or killing these men, even the worst of them." "Enough
+lives have been sacrificed," he exclaimed; "we must extinguish our
+resentments if we expect harmony and union." He did not wish the
+autonomy nor the individuality of the States disturbed; and he closed
+the session by commending the whole subject to the most careful
+consideration of his advisers. It was, he said, the great question
+pending--they must now begin to act in the interest of peace. Such were
+the last words that Lincoln spoke to his cabinet. They dispersed with
+these sentences of clemency and good will in their ears, never again to
+meet under his wise and benignant chairmanship. He had told them that
+morning a strange story, which made some demand upon their faith, but
+the circumstances under which they were next to come together were
+beyond the scope of the wildest fancy.
+
+The day was one of unusual enjoyment to Mr. Lincoln. His son Robert had
+returned from the field with General Grant, and the President spent an
+hour with the young captain in delighted conversation over the campaign.
+He denied himself generally to the throng of visitors, admitting only a
+few friends. In the afternoon he went for a long drive with Mrs.
+Lincoln. His mood, as it had been all day, was singularly happy and
+tender. He talked much of the past and future; after four years of
+trouble and tumult he looked forward to four years of comparative quiet
+and normal work; after that he expected to go back to Illinois and
+practise law again. He was never simpler or gentler than on this day of
+unprecedented triumph; his heart overflowed with sentiments of gratitude
+to Heaven, which took the shape, usual to generous natures, of love and
+kindness to all men.
+
+From the very beginning of his presidency, Mr. Lincoln had been
+constantly subject to the threats of his enemies. His mail was infested
+with brutal and vulgar menace, and warnings of all sorts came to him
+from zealous or nervous friends. Most of these communications received
+no notice. In cases where there seemed a ground for inquiry, it was
+made, as carefully as possible, by the President's private secretary, or
+by the War Department; but always without substantial result. Warnings
+that appeared most definite, when examined, proved too vague and
+confused for further attention. The President was too intelligent not to
+know that he was in some danger. Madmen frequently made their way to the
+very door of the executive office, and sometimes into Mr. Lincoln's
+presence. But he had himself so sane a mind, and a heart so kindly, even
+to his enemies, that it was hard for him to believe in political hatred
+so deadly as to lead to murder.
+
+He knew, indeed, that incitements to murder him were not uncommon in the
+South, but as is the habit of men constitutionally brave, he considered
+the possibilities of danger remote, and positively refused to torment
+himself with precautions for his own safety; summing the matter up by
+saying that both friends and strangers must have daily access to him;
+that his life was therefore in reach of any one, sane or mad, who was
+ready to murder and be hanged for it; and that he could not possibly
+guard against all danger unless he shut himself up in an iron box, in
+which condition he could scarcely perform the duties of a President. He
+therefore went in and out before the people, always unarmed, generally
+unattended. He received hundreds of visitors in a day, his breast bare
+to pistol or knife. He walked at midnight, with a single secretary, or
+alone, from the Executive Mansion to the War Department and back. He
+rode through the lonely roads of an uninhabited suburb from the White
+House to the Soldiers' Home in the dusk of the evening, and returned to
+his work in the morning before the town was astir. He was greatly
+annoyed when it was decided that there must be a guard at the Executive
+Mansion, and that a squad of cavalry must accompany him on his daily
+drive; but he was always reasonable, and yielded to the best judgment of
+others.
+
+Four years of threats and boastings that were unfounded, and of plots
+that came to nothing, thus passed away; but precisely at the time when
+the triumph of the nation seemed assured, and a feeling of peace and
+security was diffused over the country, one of the conspiracies,
+apparently no more important than the others, ripened in the sudden heat
+of hatred and despair. A little band of malignant secessionists,
+consisting of John Wilkes Booth, an actor of a family of famous players;
+Lewis Powell, alias Payne, a disbanded rebel soldier from Florida;
+George Atzerodt, formerly a coachmaker, but more recently a spy and
+blockade-runner of the Potomac; David E. Herold, a young druggist's
+clerk; Samuel Arnold and Michael O'Laughlin, Maryland secessionists and
+Confederate soldiers; and John H. Surratt, had their ordinary rendezvous
+at the house of Mrs. Mary E. Surratt, the widowed mother of the last
+named, formerly a woman of some property in Maryland, but reduced by
+reverses to keeping a small boarding-house in Washington.
+
+Booth was the leader of the little coterie. He was a young man of
+twenty-six, strikingly handsome, with that ease and grace of manner
+which came to him of right from his theatrical ancestors. He had played
+for several seasons with only indifferent success, his value as an actor
+lying rather in his romantic beauty of person than in any talent or
+industry he possessed. He was a fanatical secessionist, and had imbibed
+at Richmond and other Southern cities where he played a furious spirit
+of partizanship against Lincoln and the Union party. After the
+reëlection of Mr. Lincoln, he visited Canada, consorted with the rebel
+emissaries there, and--whether or not at their instigation cannot
+certainly be said--conceived a scheme to capture the President and take
+him to Richmond. He passed a great part of the autumn and winter
+pursuing this fantastic enterprise, seeming to be always well supplied
+with money; but the winter wore away, and nothing was accomplished. On
+March 4 he was at the Capitol, and created a disturbance by trying to
+force his way through the line of policemen who guarded the passage
+through which the President walked to the east front of the building.
+His intentions at this time are not known; he afterward said he lost an
+excellent chance of killing the President that day.
+
+His ascendancy over his fellow-conspirators seems to have been complete.
+After the surrender of Lee, in an access of malice and rage akin to
+madness he called them together and assigned each his part in the new
+crime which had risen in his mind out of the abandoned abduction scheme.
+This plan was as brief and simple as it was horrible. Powell, alias
+Payne, the stalwart, brutal, simple-minded boy from Florida, was to
+murder Seward; Atzerodt, the comic villain of the drama, was assigned to
+remove Andrew Johnson; Booth reserved for himself the most conspicuous
+rôle of the tragedy. It was Herold's duty to attend him as page and aid
+him in his escape. Minor parts were given to stage-carpenters and other
+hangers-on, who probably did not understand what it all meant. Herold,
+Atzerodt, and Surratt had previously deposited at a tavern at
+Surrattsville, Maryland, owned by Mrs. Surratt, but kept by a man named
+Lloyd, a quantity of arms and materials to be used in the abduction
+scheme. Mrs. Surratt, being at the tavern on the eleventh, warned Lloyd
+to have the "shooting-irons" in readiness, and, visiting the place again
+on the fourteenth, told him they would probably be called for that
+night.
+
+The preparations for the final blow were made with feverish haste. It
+was only about noon of the fourteenth that Booth learned that the
+President was to go to Ford's Theater that night to see the play "Our
+American Cousin." It has always been a matter of surprise in Europe that
+he should have been at a place of amusement on Good Friday; but the day
+was not kept sacred in America, except by the members of certain
+churches. The President was fond of the theater. It was one of his few
+means of recreation. Besides, the town was thronged with soldiers and
+officers, all eager to see him; by appearing in public he would gratify
+many people whom he could not otherwise meet. Mrs. Lincoln had asked
+General and Mrs. Grant to accompany her; they had accepted, and the
+announcement that they would be present had been made in the evening
+papers; but they changed their plans, and went north by an afternoon
+train. Mrs. Lincoln then invited in their stead Miss Harris and Major
+Rathbone, the daughter and the stepson of Senator Ira Harris. Being
+detained by visitors, the play had made some progress when the President
+appeared. The band struck up "Hail to the Chief," the actors ceased
+playing, the audience rose, cheering tumultuously, the President bowed
+in acknowledgment, and the play went on.
+
+From the moment he learned of the President's intention, Booth's every
+action was alert and energetic. He and his confederates were seen on
+horseback in every part of the city. He had a hurried conference with
+Mrs. Surratt before she started for Lloyd's tavern. He intrusted to an
+actor named Matthews a carefully prepared statement of his reasons for
+committing the murder, which he charged him to give to the publisher of
+the "National Intelligencer," but which Matthews, in the terror and
+dismay of the night, burned without showing to any one. Booth was
+perfectly at home in Ford's Theater. Either by himself, or with the aid
+of friends, he arranged his whole plan of attack and escape during the
+afternoon. He counted upon address and audacity to gain access to the
+small passage behind the President's box. Once there, he guarded against
+interference by an arrangement of a wooden bar to be fastened by a
+simple mortise in the angle of the wall and the door by which he had
+entered, so that the door could not be opened from without. He even
+provided for the contingency of not gaining entrance to the box by
+boring a hole in its door, through which he might either observe the
+occupants, or take aim and shoot. He hired at a livery-stable a small,
+fleet horse.
+
+A few minutes before ten o'clock, leaving his horse at the rear of the
+theater in charge of a call-boy, he went into a neighboring saloon, took
+a drink of brandy, and, entering the theater, passed rapidly to the
+little hallway leading to the President's box. Showing a card to the
+servant in attendance, he was allowed to enter, closed the door
+noiselessly, and secured it with the wooden bar he had previously made
+ready, without disturbing any of the occupants of the box, between whom
+and himself yet remained the partition and the door through which he had
+made the hole.
+
+No one, not even the comedian who uttered them, could ever remember the
+last words of the piece that were spoken that night--the last Abraham
+Lincoln heard upon earth. The tragedy in the box turned play and players
+to the most unsubstantial of phantoms. Here were five human beings in a
+narrow space--the greatest man of his time, in the glory of the most
+stupendous success of our history; his wife, proud and happy; a pair of
+betrothed lovers, with all the promise of felicity that youth, social
+position, and wealth could give them; and this handsome young actor, the
+pet of his little world. The glitter of fame, happiness, and ease was
+upon the entire group; yet in an instant everything was to be changed.
+Quick death was to come to the central figure--the central figure of the
+century's great and famous men. Over the rest hovered fates from which a
+mother might pray kindly death to save her children in their infancy.
+One was to wander with the stain of murder upon his soul, in frightful
+physical pain, with a price upon his head and the curse of a world upon
+his name, until he died a dog's death in a burning barn; the wife was to
+pass the rest of her days in melancholy and madness; and one of the
+lovers was to slay the other, and end his life a raving maniac.
+
+The murderer seemed to himself to be taking part in a play. Hate and
+brandy had for weeks kept his brain in a morbid state. Holding a pistol
+in one hand and a knife in the other, he opened the box door, put the
+pistol to the President's head, and fired. Major Rathbone sprang to
+grapple with him, and received a savage knife wound in the arm. Then,
+rushing forward, Booth placed his hand on the railing of the box and
+vaulted to the stage. It was a high leap, but nothing to such an
+athlete. He would have got safely away but for his spur catching in the
+flag that draped the front of the box. He fell, the torn flag trailing
+on his spur; but, though the fall had broken his leg, he rose instantly
+and brandishing his knife and shouting, "Sic Semper Tyrannis!" fled
+rapidly across the stage and out of sight. Major Rathbone called, "Stop
+him!" The cry rang out, "He has shot the President!" and from the
+audience, stupid at first with surprise, and wild afterward with
+excitement and horror, two or three men jumped upon the stage in pursuit
+of the assassin. But he ran through the familiar passages, leaped upon
+his horse, rewarding with a kick and a curse the boy who held him, and
+escaped into the night.
+
+The President scarcely moved; his head drooped forward slightly, his
+eyes closed. Major Rathbone, not regarding his own grievous hurt, rushed
+to the door of the box to summon aid. He found it barred, and some one
+on the outside beating and clamoring for admittance. It was at once seen
+that the President's wound was mortal. A large derringer bullet had
+entered the back of the head, on the left side, and, passing through the
+brain, lodged just behind the left eye. He was carried to a house across
+the street, and laid upon a bed in a small room at the rear of the hall
+on the ground floor. Mrs. Lincoln followed, tenderly cared for by Miss
+Harris. Rathbone, exhausted by loss of blood, fainted, and was taken
+home. Messengers were sent for the cabinet, for the surgeon-general, for
+Dr. Stone, Mr. Lincoln's family physician, and for others whose official
+or private relations to the President gave them the right to be there. A
+crowd of people rushed instinctively to the White House, and, bursting
+through the doors, shouted the dreadful news to Robert Lincoln and Major
+Hay, who sat together in an upper room. They ran down-stairs, and as
+they were entering a carriage to drive to Tenth Street, a friend came up
+and told them that Mr. Seward and most of the cabinet had been murdered.
+The news seemed so improbable that they hoped it was all untrue; but, on
+reaching Tenth Street, the excitement and the gathering crowds prepared
+them for the worst. In a few moments those who had been sent for and
+many others were assembled in the little chamber where the chief of the
+state lay in his agony. His son was met at the door by Dr. Stone, who
+with grave tenderness informed him that there was no hope.
+
+The President had been shot a few minutes after ten. The wound would
+have brought instant death to most men, but his vital tenacity was
+remarkable. He was, of course, unconscious from the first moment; but he
+breathed with slow and regular respiration throughout the night. As the
+dawn came and the lamplight grew pale, his pulse began to fail; but his
+face, even then, was scarcely more haggard than those of the sorrowing
+men around him. His automatic moaning ceased, a look of unspeakable
+peace came upon his worn features, and at twenty-two minutes after seven
+he died. Stanton broke the silence by saying:
+
+"Now he belongs to the ages."
+
+Booth had done his work efficiently. His principal subordinate, Payne,
+had acted with equal audacity and cruelty, but not with equally fatal
+result. Going to the home of the Secretary of State, who lay ill in bed,
+he had forced his way to Mr. Seward's room, on the pretext of being a
+messenger from the physician with a packet of medicine to deliver. The
+servant at the door tried to prevent him from going up-stairs; the
+Secretary's son, Frederick W. Seward, hearing the noise, stepped out
+into the hall to check the intruders. Payne rushed upon him with a
+pistol which missed fire, then rained blows with it upon his head, and,
+grappling and struggling, the two came to the Secretary's room and fell
+together through the door. Frederick Seward soon became unconscious, and
+remained so for several weeks, being, perhaps, the last man in the
+civilized world to learn the strange story of the night. The Secretary's
+daughter and a soldier nurse were in the room. Payne struck them right
+and left, wounding the nurse with his knife, and then, rushing to the
+bed, began striking at the throat of the crippled statesman, inflicting
+three terrible wounds on his neck and cheek. The nurse recovered himself
+and seized the assassin from behind, while another son, roused by his
+sister's screams, came into the room and managed at last to force him
+outside the door--not, however, until he and the nurse had been stabbed
+repeatedly. Payne broke away at last, and ran down-stairs, seriously
+wounding an attendant on the way, reached the door unhurt, sprang upon
+his horse, and rode leisurely away. When surgical aid arrived, the
+Secretary's house looked like a field hospital. Five of its inmates were
+bleeding from ghastly wounds, and two of them, among the highest
+officials of the nation, it was thought might never see the light of
+another day; though all providentially recovered.
+
+The assassin left behind him his hat, which apparently trivial loss cost
+him and one of his fellow conspirators their lives. Fearing that the
+lack of it would arouse suspicion, he abandoned his horse, instead of
+making good his escape, and hid himself in the woods east of Washington
+for two days. Driven at last by hunger, he returned to the city and
+presented himself at Mrs. Surratt's house at the very moment when all
+its inmates had been arrested and were about to be taken to the office
+of the provost-marshal. Payne thus fell into the hands of justice, and
+the utterance of half a dozen words by him and the unhappy woman whose
+shelter he sought proved the death-warrant of them both.
+
+Booth had been recognized by dozens of people as he stood before the
+footlights and brandished his dagger; but his swift horse quickly
+carried him beyond any haphazard pursuit. He crossed the Navy-Yard
+bridge and rode into Maryland, being joined very soon by Herold. The
+assassin and his wretched acolyte came at midnight to Mrs. Surratt's
+tavern, and afterward pushed on through the moonlight to the house of an
+acquaintance of Booth, a surgeon named Mudd, who set Booth's leg and
+gave him a room, where he rested until evening, when Mudd sent them on
+their desolate way south. After parting with him they went to the
+residence of Samuel Cox near Port Tobacco, and were by him given into
+the charge of Thomas Jones, a contraband trader between Maryland and
+Richmond, a man so devoted to the interests of the Confederacy that
+treason and murder seemed every-day incidents to be accepted as natural
+and necessary. He kept Booth and Herold in hiding at the peril of his
+life for a week, feeding and caring for them in the woods near his
+house, watching for an opportunity to ferry them across the Potomac;
+doing this while every wood-path was haunted by government detectives,
+well knowing that death would promptly follow his detection, and that a
+reward was offered for the capture of his helpless charge that would
+make a rich man of any one who gave him up.
+
+With such devoted aid Booth might have wandered a long way; but there
+is no final escape but suicide for an assassin with a broken leg. At
+each painful move the chances of discovery increased. Jones was able,
+after repeated failures, to row his fated guests across the Potomac.
+Arriving on the Virginia side, they lived the lives of hunted animals
+for two or three days longer, finding to their horror that they were
+received by the strongest Confederates with more of annoyance than
+enthusiasm, though none, indeed, offered to betray them. Booth had by
+this time seen the comments of the newspapers on his work, and bitterer
+than death or bodily suffering was the blow to his vanity. He confided
+his feelings of wrong to his diary, comparing himself favorably with
+Brutus and Tell, and complaining: "I am abandoned, with the curse of
+Cain upon me, when, if the world knew my heart, that one blow would have
+made me great."
+
+On the night of April 25, he and Herold were surrounded by a party under
+Lieutenant E.P. Doherty, as they lay sleeping in a barn belonging to one
+Garrett, in Caroline County, Virginia, on the road to Bowling Green.
+When called upon to surrender, Booth refused. A parley took place, after
+which Doherty told him he would fire the barn. At this Herold came out
+and surrendered. The barn was fired, and while it was burning, Booth,
+clearly visible through the cracks in the building, was shot by Boston
+Corbett, a sergeant of cavalry. He was hit in the back of the neck, not
+far from the place where he had shot the President, lingered about three
+hours in great pain, and died at seven in the morning.
+
+The surviving conspirators, with the exception of John H. Surratt, were
+tried by military commission sitting in Washington in the months of May
+and June. The charges against them specified that they were "incited
+and encouraged" to treason and murder by Jefferson Davis and the
+Confederate emissaries in Canada. This was not proved on the trial;
+though the evidence bearing on the case showed frequent communications
+between Canada and Richmond and the Booth coterie in Washington, and
+some transactions in drafts at the Montreal Bank, where Jacob Thompson
+and Booth both kept accounts. Mrs. Surratt, Payne, Herold, and Atzerodt
+were hanged on July 7; Mudd, Arnold, and O'Laughlin were imprisoned for
+life at the Tortugas, the term being afterward shortened; and Spangler,
+the scene-shifter at the theater, was sentenced to six years in jail.
+John H. Surratt escaped to Canada, and from there to England. He
+wandered over Europe, and finally was detected in Egypt and brought back
+to Washington in 1867, where his trial lasted two months, and ended in a
+disagreement of the jury.
+
+Upon the hearts of a people glowing with the joy of victory, the news of
+the President's assassination fell as a great shock. It was the first
+time the telegraph had been called upon to spread over the world tidings
+of such deep and mournful significance. In the stunning effect of the
+unspeakable calamity the country lost sight of the national success of
+the past week, and it thus came to pass that there was never any
+organized expression of the general exultation or rejoicing in the North
+over the downfall of the rebellion. It was unquestionably best that it
+should be so; and Lincoln himself would not have had it otherwise. He
+hated the arrogance of triumph; and even in his cruel death he would
+have been glad to know that his passage to eternity would prevent too
+loud an exultation over the vanquished. As it was, the South could take
+no umbrage at a grief so genuine and so legitimate; the people of that
+section even shared, to a certain degree, in the lamentations over the
+bier of one whom in their inmost hearts they knew to have wished them
+well.
+
+There was one exception to the general grief too remarkable to be passed
+over in silence. Among the extreme radicals in Congress, Mr. Lincoln's
+determined clemency and liberality toward the Southern people had made
+an impression so unfavorable that, though they were naturally shocked at
+his murder, they did not, among themselves, conceal their gratification
+that he was no longer in the way. In a political caucus, held a few
+hours after the President's death, "the feeling was nearly universal,"
+to quote the language of one of their most prominent representatives,
+"that the accession of Johnson to the presidency would prove a godsend
+to the country."
+
+In Washington, with this singular exception, the manifestation of public
+grief was immediate and demonstrative. Within an hour after the body was
+taken to the White House, the town was shrouded in black. Not only the
+public buildings, the shops, and the better residences were draped in
+funeral decorations, but still more touching proof of affection was seen
+in the poorest class of houses, where laboring men of both colors found
+means in their penury to afford some scanty show of mourning. The
+interest and veneration of the people still centered in the White House,
+where, under a tall catafalque in the East Room, the late chief lay in
+the majesty of death, and not at the modest tavern on Pennsylvania
+Avenue, where the new President had his lodging, and where Chief-Justice
+Chase administered the oath of office to him at eleven o'clock on the
+morning of April 15.
+
+It was determined that the funeral ceremonies in Washington should be
+celebrated on Wednesday, April 19, and all the churches throughout the
+country were invited to join at the same time in appropriate
+observances. The ceremonies in the East Room were brief and simple--the
+burial service, a prayer, and a short address; while all the pomp and
+circumstance which the government could command was employed to give a
+fitting escort from the White House to the Capitol, where the body of
+the President was to lie in state. The vast procession moved amid the
+booming of minute-guns, and the tolling of all the bells in Washington
+Georgetown, and Alexandria; and to associate the pomp of the day with
+the greatest work of Lincoln's life, a detachment of colored troops
+marched at the head of the line.
+
+As soon as it was announced that Mr. Lincoln was to be buried at
+Springfield, Illinois, every town and city on the route begged that the
+train might halt within its limits and give its people the opportunity
+of testifying their grief and reverence. It was finally arranged that
+the funeral cortege should follow substantially the same route over
+which he had come in 1861 to take possession of the office to which he
+had given a new dignity and value for all time. On April 21, accompanied
+by a guard of honor, and in a train decked with somber trappings, the
+journey was begun. At Baltimore through which, four years before, it was
+a question whether the President-elect could pass with safety to his
+life, the coffin was taken with reverent care to the great dome of the
+Exchange, where, surrounded with evergreens and lilies, it lay for
+several hours, the people passing by in mournful throngs. The same
+demonstration was repeated, gaining continually in intensity of feeling
+and solemn splendor of display, in every city through which the
+procession passed. The reception in New York was worthy alike of the
+great city and of the memory of the man they honored. The body lay in
+state in the City Hall, and a half-million people passed in deep silence
+before it. Here General Scott came, pale and feeble, but resolute, to
+pay his tribute of respect to his departed friend and commander.
+
+The train went up the Hudson River by night, and at every town and
+village on the way vast waiting crowds were revealed by the fitful glare
+of torches, and dirges and hymns were sung. As the train passed into
+Ohio, the crowds increased in density, and the public grief seemed
+intensified at every step westward. The people of the great central
+basin were claiming their own. The day spent at Cleveland was unexampled
+in the depth of emotion it brought to life. Some of the guard of honor
+have said that it was at this point they began to appreciate the place
+which Lincoln was to hold in history.
+
+The last stage of this extraordinary progress was completed, and
+Springfield reached at nine o'clock on the morning of May 3. Nothing had
+been done or thought of for two weeks in Springfield but the
+preparations for this day, and they had been made with a thoroughness
+which surprised the visitors from the East. The body lay in state in the
+Capitol, which was richly draped from roof to basement in black velvet
+and silver fringe. Within it was a bower of bloom and fragrance. For
+twenty-four hours an unbroken stream of people passed through, bidding
+their friend and neighbor welcome home and farewell; and at ten o'clock
+on May 4, the coffin lid was closed, and a vast procession moved out to
+Oak Ridge, where the town had set apart a lovely spot for his grave, and
+where the dead President was committed to the soil of the State which
+had so loved and honored him. The ceremonies at the grave were simple
+and touching. Bishop Simpson delivered a pathetic oration; prayers were
+offered and hymns were sung; but the weightiest and most eloquent words
+uttered anywhere that day were those of the second inaugural, which the
+committee had wisely ordained to be read over his grave, as the friends
+of Raphael chose the incomparable canvas of the Transfiguration to be
+the chief ornament of his funeral.
+
+
+
+
+XXXVIII
+
+Lincoln's Early Environment--Its Effect on his Character--His Attitude
+toward Slavery and the Slaveholder--His Schooling in Disappointment--His
+Seeming Failures--His Real Successes--The Final Trial--His
+Achievements--His Place in History
+
+
+A child born to an inheritance of want; a boy growing into a narrow
+world of ignorance; a youth taking up the burden of coarse manual labor;
+a man entering on the doubtful struggle of a local backwoods
+career--these were the beginnings of Abraham Lincoln, if we analyze them
+under the hard practical cynical philosophy which takes for its motto
+that "nothing succeeds but success." If, however, we adopt a broader
+philosophy, and apply the more generous and more universal principle
+that "everything succeeds which attacks favorable opportunity with
+fitting endeavor," then we see that it was the strong vitality, the
+active intelligence, and the indefinable psychological law of moral
+growth that assimilates the good and rejects the bad, which Nature gave
+this obscure child, that carried him to the service of mankind and to
+the admiration of the centuries with the same certainty with which the
+acorn grows to be the oak.
+
+We see how even the limitations of his environment helped the end.
+Self-reliance, that most vital characteristic of the pioneer, was his by
+blood and birth and training; and developed through the privations of
+his lot and the genius that was in him to the mighty strength needed to
+guide our great country through the titanic struggle of the Civil War.
+
+The sense of equality was his, also by virtue of his pioneer training--a
+consciousness fostered by life from childhood to manhood in a state of
+society where there were neither rich to envy nor poor to despise, where
+the gifts and hardships of the forest were distributed impartially to
+each, and where men stood indeed equal before the forces of unsubdued
+nature.
+
+The same great forces taught liberality, modesty, charity, sympathy--in
+a word, neighborliness. In that hard life, far removed from the
+artificial aids and comforts of civilization, where all the wealth of
+Croesus, had a man possessed it, would not have sufficed to purchase
+relief from danger, or help in time of need, neighborliness became of
+prime importance. A good neighbor doubled his safety and his resources,
+a group of good neighbors increased his comfort and his prospects in a
+ratio that grew like the cube root. Here was opportunity to practise
+that virtue that Christ declared to be next to the love of God--the
+fruitful injunction to "love thy neighbor as thyself."
+
+Here, too, in communities far from the customary restraints of organized
+law, the common native intelligence of the pioneer was brought face to
+face with primary and practical questions of natural right. These men
+not only understood but appreciated the American doctrine of
+self-government. It was this understanding, this feeling, which taught
+Lincoln to write: "When the white man governs himself, that is
+self-government; but when he governs himself and also governs another
+man, that is more than self-government--that is despotism"; and its
+philosophic corollary: "He who would be no slave must consent to have no
+slave."
+
+Abraham Lincoln sprang from exceptional conditions--was in truth, in
+the language of Lowell, a "new birth of our new soil." But this
+distinction was not due alone to mere environment. The ordinary man,
+with ordinary natural gifts, found in Western pioneer communities a
+development essentially the same as he would have found under colonial
+Virginia or Puritan New England: a commonplace life, varying only with
+the changing ideas and customs of time and locality. But for the man
+with extraordinary powers of body and mind; for the individual gifted by
+nature with the genius which Abraham Lincoln possessed; the pioneer
+condition, with its severe training in self-denial, patience, and
+industry, was favorable to a development of character that helped in a
+preëminent degree to qualify him for the duties and responsibilities of
+leadership and government. He escaped the formal conventionalities which
+beget insincerity and dissimulation. He grew up without being warped by
+erroneous ideas or false principles; without being dwarfed by vanity, or
+tempted by self-interest.
+
+Some pioneer communities carried with them the institution of slavery;
+and in the slave State of Kentucky Lincoln was born. He remained there
+only a short time, and we have every reason to suppose that wherever he
+might have grown to maturity his very mental and moral fiber would have
+spurned the doctrine and practice of human slavery. And yet so subtle is
+the influence of birth and custom, that we can trace one lasting effect
+of this early and brief environment. Though he ever hated slavery, he
+never hated the slaveholder. This ineradicable feeling of pardon and
+sympathy for Kentucky and the South played no insignificant part in his
+dealings with grave problems of statesmanship. He struck slavery its
+death-blow with the hand of war, but he tendered the slaveholder a
+golden equivalent with the hand of friendship and peace.
+
+His advancement in the astonishing career which carried him from
+obscurity to world-wide fame; from postmaster of New Salem village to
+President of the United States; from captain of a backwoods volunteer
+company to commander-in-chief of the army and navy, was neither sudden,
+nor accidental, nor easy. He was both ambitious and successful, but his
+ambition was moderate and his success was slow. And because his success
+was slow, his ambition never outgrew either his judgment or his powers.
+From the day when he left the paternal roof and launched his canoe on
+the head waters of the Sangamon River to begin life on his own account,
+to the day of his first inauguration, there intervened full thirty years
+of toil, of study, self-denial, patience; often of effort baffled, of
+hope deferred; sometimes of bitter disappointment. Given the natural
+gift of great genius, given the condition of favorable environment, it
+yet required an average lifetime and faithful unrelaxing effort to
+transform the raw country stripling into a competent ruler for this
+great nation.
+
+Almost every success was balanced--sometimes overbalanced by a seeming
+failure. Reversing the usual promotion, he went into the Black Hawk War
+a captain and, through no fault of his own, came out a private. He rode
+to the hostile frontier on horseback, and trudged home on foot. His
+store "winked out." His surveyor's compass and chain, with which he was
+earning a scanty living, were sold for debt. He was defeated in his
+first campaign for the legislature; defeated in his first attempt to be
+nominated for Congress; defeated in his application to be appointed
+commissioner of the General Land Office; defeated for the Senate in the
+Illinois legislature of 1854, when he had forty-five votes to begin
+with, by Trumbull, who had only five votes to begin with; defeated in
+the legislature of 1858, by an antiquated apportionment, when his joint
+debates with Douglas had won him a popular plurality of nearly four
+thousand in a Democratic State; defeated in the nomination for
+Vice-President on the Frémont ticket in 1856, when a favorable nod from
+half a dozen wire-workers would have brought him success.
+
+Failures? Not so. Every seeming defeat was a slow success. His was the
+growth of the oak, and not of Jonah's gourd. Every scaffolding of
+temporary elevation he pulled down, every ladder of transient
+expectation which broke under his feet accumulated his strength, and
+piled up a solid mound which raised him to wider usefulness and clearer
+vision. He could not become a master workman until he had served a
+tedious apprenticeship. It was the quarter of a century of reading
+thinking, speech-making and legislating which qualified him for
+selection as the chosen champion of the Illinois Republicans in the
+great Lincoln-Douglas joint debates of 1858. It was the great
+intellectual victory won in these debates, plus the title "Honest old
+Abe," won by truth and manhood among his neighbors during a whole
+generation, that led the people of the United States to confide to his
+hands the duties and powers of President.
+
+And when, after thirty years of endeavor, success had beaten down
+defeat; when Lincoln had been nominated elected, and inaugurated, came
+the crowning trial of his faith and constancy. When the people, by free
+and lawful choice, had placed honor and power in his hands; when his
+signature could convene Congress, approve laws, make ministers, cause
+ships to sail and armies to move; when he could speak with potential
+voice to other rulers of other lands, there suddenly came upon the
+government and the nation the symptoms of a fatal paralysis; honor
+seemed to dwindle and power to vanish. Was he then, after all, not to be
+President? Was patriotism dead? Was the Constitution waste paper? Was
+the Union gone?
+
+The indications were, indeed, ominous. Seven States were in rebellion.
+There was treason in Congress, treason in the Supreme Court, treason in
+the army and navy. Confusion and discord rent public opinion. To use
+Lincoln's own forcible simile, sinners were calling the righteous to
+repentance. Finally, the flag, insulted on the _Star of the West_,
+trailed in capitulation at Sumter and then came the humiliation of the
+Baltimore riot, and the President practically for a few days a prisoner
+in the capital of the nation.
+
+But his apprenticeship had been served, and there was no more failure.
+With faith and justice and generosity he conducted for four long years a
+civil war whose frontiers stretched from the Potomac to the Rio Grande;
+whose soldiers numbered a million men on each side; in which, counting
+skirmishes and battles small and great, was fought an average of two
+engagements every day; and during which every twenty-four hours saw an
+expenditure of two millions of money. The labor, the thought, the
+responsibility, the strain of intellect and anguish of soul that he gave
+to this great task, who can measure?
+
+The sincerity of the fathers of the Republic was impugned he justified
+them. The Declaration of Independence was called a "string of glittering
+generalities" and a "self-evident lie"; he refuted the aspersion. The
+Constitution was perverted; he corrected the error. The flag was
+insulted; he redressed the offense. The government was assailed? he
+restored its authority. Slavery thrust the sword of civil war at the
+heart of the nation? he crushed slavery, and cemented the purified Union
+in new and stronger bonds.
+
+And all the while conciliation was as active as vindication was stern.
+He reasoned and pleaded with the anger of the South; he gave
+insurrection time to repent; he forbore to execute retaliation; he
+offered recompense to slaveholders; he pardoned treason.
+
+What but lifetime schooling in disappointment; what but the pioneer's
+self-reliance and freedom from prejudice; what but the patient faith,
+the clear perceptions of natural right, the unwarped sympathy and
+unbounding charity of this man with spirit so humble and soul so great,
+could have carried him through the labors he wrought to the victory he
+attained?
+
+As the territory may be said to be its body, and its material activities
+its blood, so patriotism may be said to be the vital breath of a nation.
+When patriotism dies, the nation dies, and its resources as well as its
+territory go to other peoples with stronger vitality.
+
+Patriotism can in no way be more effectively cultivated than by studying
+and commemorating the achievements and virtues of our great men--the men
+who have lived and died for the nation, who have advanced its prosperity,
+increased its power, added to its glory. In our brief history the United
+States can boast of many great men, and the achievement by its sons of
+many great deeds; and if we accord the first rank to Washington as
+founder, so we must unhesitatingly give to Lincoln the second place as
+preserver and regenerator of American liberty. So far, however from being
+opposed or subordinated either to the other, the popular heart has
+already canonized these two as twin heroes in our national pantheon, as
+twin stars in the firmament of our national fame.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+=Able, Mrs.=, sister of Mary Owens, 55, 60
+
+=Adams, Charles Francis=, member of Congress, United States minister
+  to England, sent to England, 211
+
+=Alabama=, State of, admitted as State, 1819, 19
+
+=Alabama=, the, Confederate cruiser, sunk by the _Kearsarge_, 525
+
+=Albemarle=, the, Confederate ironclad, destruction of,
+  October 27, 1864, 525
+
+=Albert=, Prince Consort, drafts note to Lord Russell about _Trent_
+  affair, 247
+
+=Alexander II=, Czar of Russia, emancipates Russian serfs, 101
+
+=Alexandria=, Virginia, occupation of, 214
+
+=American Party=, principles of, 101, 102;
+  nominates Millard Fillmore for President, 1856, 102
+
+=Anderson, Robert=, brevet major-general United States army,
+  transfers his command to Fort Sumter, 177, 178;
+  reports condition of Fort Sumter, 182;
+  notified of coming relief, 188;
+  defense and surrender of Fort Sumter, 189, 190;
+  telegram about Frémont's proclamation, 240;
+  sends Sherman to Nashville, 254;
+  turns over command to Sherman, 254;
+  raises flag over Fort Sumter, 531
+
+=Antietam=, Maryland, battle of, September 17, 1862, 31
+
+=Arkansas=, State of, joins Confederacy, 200, 204;
+  military governor appointed for, 419;
+  reconstruction in, 426, 427;
+  slavery abolished in, 427;
+  slavery in, throttled by public opinion, 473;
+  ratifies Thirteenth Amendment, 475
+
+=Armies of the United States=,
+  enlistment in, since beginning of the war, 353, 354;
+  numbers under Grant's command, March, 1865, 507;
+  reduction of, to peace footing, 527;
+  grand review of, 527-529
+
+=Armstrong, Jack=, wrestles with Lincoln, 25
+
+=Arnold, Samuel=, in conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln, 534;
+  imprisoned, 544
+
+=Atlanta=, Georgia, siege of, July 22 to September 1, 1864, 407
+
+=Atzerodt, George=, in conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln, 534;
+  assigned to murder Andrew Johnson, 535;
+  deposits arms in tavern at Surrattsville, 536;
+  execution of, 544
+
+
+=Bailey, Theodorus=, rear-admiral United States navy,
+  in expedition against New Orleans, 284
+
+=Bailhache, William H.=, prints Lincoln's first inaugural, 168
+
+=Baker, Edward D.=, member of Congress, United States senator,
+  brevet major-general United States Volunteers, at Springfield,
+  Illinois, 52;
+  nominated for Congress, 73;
+  in Mexican War, 75
+
+=Ball's Bluff=, Virginia, battle of, October, 21, 1861, 262
+
+=Baltimore=, Maryland, Massachusetts Sixth mobbed in, 193;
+  occupied by General Butler, 199;
+  threatened by Early, 403;
+  funeral honors to Lincoln in, 546
+
+=Bancroft, George=, Secretary of the Navy, historian,
+  minister to Prussia, letter to Lincoln, 321
+
+=Banks, Nathaniel P.=, Speaker of the House of Representatives,
+  major-general United States Volunteers, in Army of Virginia, 310;
+  forces under, for defense of Washington, 317;
+  operations against Port Hudson, 382;
+  captures Port Hudson, 383, 384;
+  reply to Lincoln, 425;
+  causes election of State officers in Louisiana, 425, 426;
+  opinion of new Louisiana constitution, 426
+
+=Barton, William=, governor of Delaware,
+  reply to Lincoln's call for volunteers, 193
+
+=Bates, Edward=, member of Congress, Attorney-General,
+  candidate for presidential nomination, 1860, 144;
+  vote for, in Chicago convention, 149;
+  tendered cabinet appointment, 163;
+  appointed Attorney-General, 182;
+  signs cabinet protest, 311;
+  rewrites cabinet protest, 312;
+  resigns from cabinet, 491
+
+=Beauregard, G.T.=, Confederate general, reduces Fort Sumter, 188-190;
+  in command at Manassas Junction, 215;
+  understanding with Johnston, 216;
+  battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861, 226-229;
+  council with Johnston and Hardee, 267;
+  succeeds to command at Pittsburg Landing, 273;
+  losses at Pittsburg Landing, 274;
+  evacuates Corinth, 275;
+  united with Hood, 409;
+  orders Hood to assume offensive, 410;
+  interview with Davis and Johnston, 520
+
+=Bell, John=, member of Congress, Secretary of War,
+  United States senator, nominated for President, 1860, 143;
+  vote for, 160
+
+=Benjamin, Judah P.=, United States senator,
+  Confederate Secretary of State, suggestions about instructions
+  to peace commissioners, 482;
+  last instructions to Slidell, 501, 502
+
+=Berry, William F.=, partner of Lincoln in a store, 35;
+  death of, 36
+
+=Big Bethel=, Virginia, disaster at, 214
+
+=Blackburn's Ford=, Virginia, engagement at, July 18, 1861, 226
+
+=Black Hawk=, chief of the Sac Indians,
+  crosses Mississippi into Illinois, 32
+
+=Black, Jeremiah S.=, Attorney-General, Secretary of State,
+  war of pamphlets with Douglas, 134
+
+=Blair, Francis P.=, Sr., quarrel with Frémont, 236, 487;
+  asks permission to go South, 478;
+  interviews with Jefferson Davis, 479-482;
+  his Mexican project, 479
+
+=Blair, Francis P.=, Jr., member of Congress major-general
+  United States Volunteers quarrel with Frémont, 236, 487, 488
+
+=Blair, Montgomery=, Postmaster-General,
+  appointed Postmaster-General, 182;
+  quarrel with Frémont, 236, 487, 488;
+  at cabinet meeting, July 22, 1862, 331, 332;
+  objects to time for issuing emancipation proclamation, 340;
+  resolution in Republican platform aimed at, 446, 487;
+  relations with members of the cabinet, 488;
+  remarks after Early's raid, 488;
+  retires from cabinet, 489;
+  works for Lincoln's reëlection, 489, 490;
+  wishes to be chief justice, 490;
+  declines foreign mission, 490
+
+=Bogue, Captain Vincent=, navigates Sangamon River in
+  steamer _Talisman_, 27, 28
+
+=Boonville=, Missouri, battle of, June 17, 1861, 214
+
+=Booth, John Wilkes=, personal description of, 534, 535;
+  scheme to abduct Lincoln, 535;
+  creates disturbance at Lincoln's second inauguration, 535;
+  assigns parts in conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln, 535, 536;
+  final preparations, 536, 537;
+  shoots the President, 538;
+  wounds Major Rathbone 538;
+  escape of, 539;
+  flight and capture of, 542, 543;
+  death of, 543;
+  account at Montreal Bank, 544
+
+=Bragg, Braxton=, Confederate general,
+  forces Buell back to Louisville, 275, 276;
+  threatens Louisville, 379;
+  battle of Perryville, 379;
+  battle of Murfreesboro, 380;
+  retreat to Chattanooga, 385;
+  Chattanooga and Chickamauga, 386-392;
+  retreats to Dalton, 392;
+  superseded by Johnston, 395;
+  his invasion delays reconstruction in Tennessee, 428
+
+=Breckinridge, John C.=, Vice-President, Confederate major-general,
+  and Secretary of War, nominated for Vice-President, 1856, 104;
+  desires Douglas's reëlection to United States Senate, 126;
+  nominated for President, 1860, 143;
+  vote for, 160;
+  joins the rebellion, 217;
+  required by Davis to report on Johnston-Sherman agreement, 523
+
+=Breckinridge, Robert J.=, D.D., LL.D.,
+  temporary chairman Republican national convention, 1864, 446
+
+=Brown, Albert G.=, member of Congress, United States senator,
+  questions Douglas, 129;
+  demands congressional slave code, 141
+
+=Brown, John=, raid at Harper's Ferry, trial and execution of, 134
+
+=Brown, Joseph E.=, governor of Georgia, United States senator,
+  refuses to obey orders from Richmond, 481
+
+=Browning, Orville H.=, United States senator, Secretary of the Interior
+  under President Johnson, at Springfield, Illinois, 52;
+  speech in Chicago convention, 151
+
+=Browning, Mrs. O.H.=, Lincoln's letter to, 58, 59
+
+=Bryant, William Cullen=, presides over Cooper Institute meeting, 138
+
+=Buchanan, Franklin=, captain United States navy, admiral Confederate
+  navy, resigns from Washington navy-yard and joins the Confederacy, 196
+
+=Buchanan, James=, fifteenth President of the United States,
+  nominated for President, 1856, 104;
+  elected President, 105, 108;
+  announces pro-slavery policy, 114;
+  appoints Walker governor of Kansas, 114;
+  reply to Walker's letter, 115;
+  special message recommending Lecompton Constitution, 115;
+  permits Scott to be called to Washington, 172;
+  non-action regarding secession, 176, 177;
+  reconstruction of his cabinet, 178;
+  rides with Lincoln in inauguration procession, 180;
+  non-coercion doctrine of, 210;
+  signs resolution for constitutional amendment, 476
+
+=Buckner, Simon B.=, Confederate lieutenant-general,
+  stationed at Bowling Green, 254;
+  force of, 263;
+  surrenders Fort Donelson, 267, 268
+
+=Buell, Don Carlos=, major-general United States Volunteers,
+  succeeds Sherman in Kentucky, 255;
+  driven back to Louisville, 1862, 258;
+  instructions about East Tennessee, 258, 259;
+  reluctance to move into East Tennessee, 260;
+  reluctance to coöperate with Halleck, 263, 264, 269;
+  ordered forward to Savannah, 271;
+  arrives at Pittsburg Landing, 273;
+  retreats to Louisville, 275, 276;
+  battle of Perryville, 379;
+  relieved from command, 380
+
+=Bull Run=, Virginia, battle of, July 21, 1861, 226-229;
+  second battle of, August 30, 1862, 310, 311
+
+=Burnside, Ambrose E.=, major-general United States Volunteers,
+  holds Knoxville 1863, 258;
+  commands force in Roanoke Island expedition, 277, 278;
+  ordered to reinforce McClellan, 307;
+  orders arrest of Vallandigham, 358;
+  appointed to command Army of the Potomac, 363;
+  previous services, 363, 364;
+  battle of Fredericksburg, 364, 365;
+  relieved from command, 366;
+  ordered to reinforce Rosecrans, 388;
+  besieged at Knoxville, 391;
+  repulses Longstreet, 391
+
+=Butler, Benjamin F.=, major-general United States Volunteers,
+  member of Congress, occupies Baltimore, 199;
+  orders concerning slaves, 220-222;
+  instructions to, about slaves, 223;
+  commands land
+  force in Farragut's expedition against New Orleans, 283;
+  in command at New Orleans, 285;
+  report about negro soldiers, 348, 349;
+  proclaimed an outlaw by Jefferson Davis, 350;
+  seizes City Point, 401;
+  receives votes for Vice-President at Baltimore convention, 448
+
+=Butler, William=, relates incident about Lincoln, 53
+
+=Butterfield, Justin=, appointed Commissioner of General Land Office, 92;
+  defended by Lincoln from political attack, 92
+
+
+=Cadwalader, George=, major-general United States Volunteers,
+  action in Merryman case, 199, 200
+
+=Cairo=, Illinois, military importance of, 209, 210
+
+=Calhoun, John=, appoints Lincoln deputy surveyor, 39, 40;
+  at Springfield, Illinois, 52
+
+=Cameron, Simon=, United States senator, Secretary of War,
+  candidate for presidential nomination, 1860, 144;
+  vote for, in Chicago convention, 149;
+  tendered cabinet appointment, 163, 164;
+  appointed Secretary of War, 182;
+  brings letters of Anderson to Lincoln, 182;
+  visits Frémont, 242;
+  interview with Sherman, 255;
+  appointed minister to Russia, 289;
+  reference to slavery in report to Congress, 320;
+  moves renomination of Lincoln and Hamlin by acclamation, 447
+
+=Campbell, John A.=, justice United States Supreme Court; Confederate
+  commissioner; intermediary of Confederate commissioners, 183;
+  at Hampton Roads conference, 482-485;
+  interviews with Lincoln, 519
+
+=Canby, E.R.S.=, brevet major-general United States army,
+  receives surrender of Taylor, 525;
+  receives surrender of E. Kirby Smith, 526, 527
+
+=Carpenter, Frank B.=, conversation with Lincoln about
+  emancipation proclamation, 331, 332
+
+=Carpenter, W.=, defeated for Illinois legislature 1832, 34;
+  elected in 1834, 43
+
+=Carrick's Ford=, Virginia, battle of, July 13, 1861, 225
+
+=Cartter, David K.=, announces change of vote to Lincoln
+  in Chicago convention, 151
+
+=Cartwright, Peter=, elected to Illinois legislature in 1832, 34
+
+=Chancellorsville=, Virginia, battle of, May 1-4, 1863, 369
+
+=Charleston=, South Carolina, capture of, February 18, 1865, 415;
+  burning of, 416
+
+=Chase, Salmon P.=, United States senator, Secretary of the Treasury,
+  chief justice United States Supreme Court,
+  candidate for presidential nomination, 1860, 144;
+  vote for, in Chicago convention, 149;
+  summoned to Springfield, 163;
+  appointed Secretary of the Treasury, 182;
+  questions McClellan at council of war, 289;
+  signs cabinet protest, 311;
+  favors emancipation by military commanders, 332;
+  urges that parts of States be not exempted
+  in final emancipation proclamation, 343;
+  submits form of closing paragraph, 344;
+  presidential aspirations of, 439-441;
+  letter to Lincoln, 440, 441;
+  resigns from cabinet, 457;
+  effect of his resignation on the political situation, 464;
+  looked upon by radicals as their representative in the cabinet, 487;
+  hostility to Montgomery Blair, 488;
+  made chief justice, 490, 491;
+  note of thanks to Lincoln, 491;
+  opinion of Lincoln, 491;
+  administers oath of office to Lincoln at second inauguration, 496;
+  administers oath of office to President Johnson, 545
+
+=Chattanooga=, Tennessee, battle of, November 23-25, 1863, 389-392
+
+=Chickamauga=, Tennessee, battle of, September 18-20, 1863, 386, 387
+
+=Clary's Grove=, Illinois, settlement of, 24
+
+=Clay, Clement C., Jr.=, United States senator,
+  Confederate agent in Canada, correspondence with Horace Greeley, 459
+
+=Clay, Henry=, nominated for President, 28
+
+=Clements, Andrew J.=, member of Congress, elected to Congress, 419
+
+=Cleveland=, Ohio, funeral honors to Lincoln in, 547
+
+=Cochrane, John=, member of Congress, brigadier-general United States
+  Volunteers, nominated for Vice-President, 1864, 442
+
+=Cold Harbor=, Virginia, battle of, June 1-12, 1864, 399
+
+=Colfax, Schuyler=, member of Congress, Vice-President,
+  letter to, from Lincoln, 132, 133
+
+=Collamer, Jacob=, member of Congress, Postmaster-General,
+  United States senator, vote for, in Chicago convention, 149
+
+=Columbia=, South Carolina, capture and burning of, 415, 416
+
+=Columbus=, Kentucky, evacuation of, 269
+
+=Confederate States of America=, formed by seceding States, 178, 179;
+  "corner-stone" theory, 179;
+  government of, fires on Fort Sumter, 189;
+  joined by North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas, 200;
+  strength of, 204;
+  war measures of, 207;
+  capital removed to Richmond, 207;
+  strength of, in the West, 263;
+  outcry of, against emancipation proclamation and arming of
+  negroes, 350, 351;
+  efficiency of armies of, in 1863, 370;
+  proclamation calling on people to resist Sherman's march, 411, 412;
+  nearly in state of collapse, 481;
+  doomed from the hour of Lincoln's reëlection, 499;
+  depreciation of its currency, 499, 500;
+  conscription laws of, 500;
+  Confederate Congress makes Lee general-in-chief, 500;
+  number of soldiers in final struggle, 507;
+  flight of, from Richmond, 515;
+  collapse of the rebellion, 524-527;
+  number of troops surrendered, 527
+
+=Congress of the United States=, passes act organizing
+  territory of Illinois, 19;
+  fixes number of stars and stripes in the flag, 19;
+  admits as States Illinois, Alabama, Maine, and Missouri, 19;
+  nullification debate in, 38;
+  Lincoln's service in, 75-90;
+  Missouri Compromise, 94-96;
+  Democratic majorities chosen in, in 1856, 108;
+  agitation over Kansas in, 113;
+  Senator Brown's resolutions, 141;
+  official count of electoral votes, 160;
+  appoints compromise committees, 167;
+  Buchanan's annual message to, December, 1860, 176, 177;
+  convened in special session by President Lincoln, 192;
+  Lincoln's message to, May 26, 1862, 195;
+  legalizes Lincoln's war measures, 206;
+  meeting and measures of special session of
+  Thirty-seventh Congress, 217-220;
+  Southern unionists in, 217;
+  Lincoln's message to, July 4, 1861, 218-220;
+  action on slavery, 223;
+  special session adjourns, 223;
+  House passes resolution of thanks to Captain Wilkes, 246;
+  friendly to McClellan, 250;
+  Lincoln's message of December 3, 1861, 257, 321, 322;
+  interview of border State delegations with Lincoln, 257, 258, 324, 325;
+  Lincoln's special message, March 6, 1862, 323, 324;
+  passes joint resolution favoring compensated emancipation, 325;
+  passes bill for compensated emancipation in District of
+  Columbia, 325, 336;
+  House bill to aid emancipation in Delaware, Maryland, Virginia,
+  Kentucky, Tennessee and Missouri, 326;
+  slavery measures of 1862, 329;
+  President's second interview with border slave State
+  delegations, 329-331;
+  President's annual message, December 1, 1862, 341, 342;
+  passes national conscription law, 354, 355;
+  act authorizing the President to suspend writ of habeas corpus, 359, 360;
+  confers rank of lieutenant-general on Grant, 393;
+  admits representatives and senators from States with
+  provisional governments, 419;
+  President's annual message, December 8, 1863, 424;
+  reverses former action about seating members from "ten-per-cent
+  States," 424;
+  bills to aid compensated abolishment in Missouri, 432;
+  opposition to Lincoln in, 454;
+  action on bill of Henry Winter Davis, 454;
+  repeals fugitive-slave law, 457;
+  confirms Fessenden's nomination, 458;
+  Lincoln's message of December 5, 1864, 470-472;
+  joint resolution proposing constitutional amendment to prohibit
+  slavery throughout United States, 471-476;
+  the two constitutional amendments submitted to the States during
+  Lincoln's term, 475, 476;
+  Senate confirms Chase's nomination as chief justice, 491
+
+=Congress=, the, Union sailing frigate, burned by _Merrimac_, 280
+
+=Constitutional Union Party=, candidates in 1860, 153
+
+=Conventions=: first national convention of Whig party, 28;
+  President Jackson gives impetus to system of, 52;
+  Illinois State convention nominates Lincoln for Congress 74, 75;
+  convention of "Know-Nothing" party, 1856, 102;
+  Bloomington convention, May, 1856, 103;
+  first national convention of Republican party, June 17, 1856, 103;
+  Democratic national convention, June 2, 1856, 104;
+  Democratic national convention, Charleston, April 23, 1860, 142;
+  it adjourns to reassemble at Baltimore, June 18, 1860, 143;
+  Constitutional Union Convention, Baltimore, May 9, 1860, 143;
+  Republican national convention, Chicago, May 16, 1860, 144, 147-151;
+  Decatur, Illinois, State convention, 154;
+  Cleveland convention, May 31, 1864, 441, 442;
+  meeting in New York to nominate Grant, 442, 443;
+  New Hampshire State convention, January 6, 1864, 443;
+  Republican national convention, June 7, 1864, 446-449;
+  Democratic national convention, 1864, postponed, 463;
+  Democratic national convention meets, 466-468;
+  resolution of Baltimore convention hostile to Montgomery Blair, 487
+
+=Cook, B.C.=, member of Congress, nominates Lincoln
+  in Baltimore convention, 447;
+  seeks to learn Lincoln's wishes about Vice-Presidency, 448
+
+=Cooper, Samuel=, Confederate adjutant-general,
+ joins the Confederacy, 208
+
+=Corbett, Boston=, sergeant United States army, shoots Booth, 543
+
+=Corinth=, Mississippi, captured by Halleck, 275
+
+=Couch, Darius N.=, major-general United States Volunteers,
+  militia force under, in Pennsylvania, 372
+
+=Cox, Samuel=, assists Booth and Herold, 542
+
+=Crawford, Andrew=, teacher of President Lincoln, 12
+
+=Crittenden, John J.=, Attorney-General, United States senator,
+  advocates reëlection of Douglas to United States Senate, 126;
+  in Thirty-seventh Congress, 217;
+  presents resolution, 223
+
+=Cumberland=, the, Union frigate, sunk by _Merrimac_, 280
+
+=Curtis, Samuel R.=, member of Congress, major-general
+  United States Volunteers, sends order of removal to Frémont, 242, 243;
+  campaign in Missouri, 269;
+  victory at Pea Ridge, 271
+
+=Cushing, William B.=, commander United States navy,
+  destruction of the _Albemarle_, 525
+
+
+=Dahlgren, John A.=, rear-admiral United States navy,
+  at gathering of officials to discuss fight between _Monitor_
+  and _Merrimac_, 296
+
+=Davis, Henry Winter=, member of Congress, bill prescribing
+  method of reconstruction, 454;
+  signs Wade-Davis manifesto, 456
+
+=Davis, Jefferson=, Secretary of War, United States senator,
+  Confederate President, orders that
+  "rebellion must be crushed" in Kansas, 113;
+  Senate resolutions of, 141;
+  signs address commending Charleston disruption, 143;
+  statement in Senate, 143;
+  elected President of Confederate States of America, 179;
+  telegram to Governor Letcher, 197;
+  proclamation offering letters of marque to privateers, 205;
+  camp of instruction at Harper's Ferry, 209;
+  proclamation of outlawry, 350;
+  message on emancipation proclamation, 350, 351;
+  appoints Hood to succeed Johnston, 407;
+  visits Hood, and unites commands of Beauregard and Hood, 409;
+  interview with Jaquess and Gilmore, 462;
+  interviews with F.P. Blair, Sr., 479-481;
+  gives Blair a letter to show Lincoln, 481;
+  appoints peace commission, 482;
+  instructions to peace commissioners, 482;
+  reports Hampton Roads conference to rebel Congress, 485;
+  speech at public meeting, 485, 486;
+  Confederate Congress shows hostility to, 500, 501;
+  reappoints J.E. Johnston to resist Sherman, 501;
+  recommendations concerning slaves in rebel army, 501;
+  sanctions Lee's letter to Grant, 503;
+  conference with Lee, 504;
+  flight from Richmond, 515;
+  proclamation from Danville, 519, 520;
+  retreat to Greensboro, North Carolina, 520;
+  interview with Johnston and Beauregard, 520;
+  continues southward, 520;
+  dictates proposition of armistice presented by Johnston to Sherman, 521;
+  requires report from Breckinridge about Johnston-Sherman agreement, 523;
+  instructions to Johnston, 524;
+  attempt to reach E. Kirby Smith, 525, 526;
+  effort to gain Florida coast, 526;
+  capture, imprisonment, and release of, 526
+
+=Davis, Mrs. Jefferson=, captured with her husband, 526
+
+=Dawson, John=, defeated for Illinois legislature, 1832, 34;
+  elected in 1834, 43
+
+=Dayton, William L.=, United States senator minister to France,
+  nominated for Vice-President, 104;
+  vote for, in Chicago convention, 149
+
+=Delano, Columbus=, member of Congress, Secretary of the Interior,
+  in Baltimore convention, 447
+
+=Delaware=, State of, secession feeling in, 201;
+  rejects compensated abolishment, 322, 323
+
+=Democratic Party=, party of slavery extension, 102;
+  nominates Buchanan and Breckinridge in 1856, 104;
+  disturbed by Buchanan's attitude on slavery, 116;
+  pro-slavery demands of, 140, 141;
+  national conventions of, 1860, 142-144;
+  candidates in 1860, 152, 153;
+  opposition to emancipation measures and conscription law, 354, 355;
+  adopts McClellan for presidential candidate, 355;
+  interest in Vallandigham, 358;
+  attitude on slavery, 437, 438, 472, 473;
+  convention postponed, 463;
+  national convention, 1864, 466-468
+
+=Dennison, William=, governor of Ohio, Postmaster-General,
+  permanent chairman of Republican national convention, 1864, 446;
+  succeeds Blair as Postmaster-General, 489, 490
+
+=Dickinson, Daniel S.=, United States senator, candidate
+  for vice-presidential nomination, 1864, 448, 449
+
+=Doherty, E.P.=, lieutenant United States army,
+  captures Booth and Herold, 543
+
+=Donelson, Andrew J.=, nominated for Vice-President, 102
+
+=Dorsey, Azel W.=, teacher of President Lincoln, 12
+
+=Douglas, Stephen A.=, member of Congress, United States senator,
+  at Springfield, Illinois, 52;
+  challenges young Whigs of Springfield to debate, 62;
+  elected to United States Senate, 75;
+  champions repeal of Missouri Compromise, 95;
+  speech at Illinois State fair, 96;
+  at Peoria, 96;
+  agreement with Lincoln, 99;
+  on Dred Scott case, 109, 110;
+  denounces Lecompton Constitution, 116, 117;
+  hostility of Buchanan administration toward, 117;
+  Lincoln-Douglas joint debate, 121-125;
+  speeches in the South, 128, 129;
+  answer to Senator Brown, 129;
+  references to Lincoln, 130;
+  Ohio speeches, 133;
+  "Harper's Magazine" essay, 134;
+  fight over nomination of, for President, 1860, 142-144;
+  nominated for President, 143;
+  speeches during campaign of 1860, 156;
+  vote for, 160
+
+=Douglass, Frederick=, conversation with Lincoln, 352
+
+=Draft=, Congress passes national conscription law, 354;
+  opposition of Governor Seymour to, 355-357;
+  riots in New York, 356, 357;
+  dissatisfaction in other places, 357;
+  opposition of Vallandigham to, 358
+
+=Dred Scott= case, decision of Supreme Court in, 108, 109;
+  protest of North against, 109;
+  Senator Douglas on, 109, 110
+
+=Dresser, Rev. Charles=, marries Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd, 68, 69
+
+=Du-Pont, Samuel F.=, rear-admiral United States navy,
+  commands fleet in Port Royal expedition, 245
+
+=Durant, Thomas J.=, mentioned in letter of Lincoln's, 334, 335
+
+
+=Early, Jubal A.=, Confederate lieutenant-general,
+  threatens Washington, 403;
+  inflicts damage on Blair's estate, 488
+
+=Eckert, Thomas T.=, brevet brigadier-general United States Volunteers,
+  sent to meet peace commissioners at Hampton Roads, 482;
+  refuses to allow peace commissioners to proceed, 483
+
+=Edwards, Cyrus=, desires commissionership of General Land Office, 92
+
+=Edwards, Ninian W.=, one of "Long Nine," 63
+
+=Edwards, Mrs. Ninian W.=, sister of Mrs. Lincoln, 63
+
+=Ellsworth, E.E.=, colonel United States Volunteers, assassination of, 214
+
+=Emancipation=, Lincoln-Stone protest, 47;
+  Lincoln's bill for, in District of Columbia, 86, 87;
+  Missouri Compromise, 94, 95;
+  Frémont's proclamation of, 236-238;
+  discussed in President's message of December 3, 1861, 321, 322;
+  Lincoln offers Delaware compensated abolishment, 322, 323;
+  special message of March 6, 1862, 323, 324;
+  Congress passes bill for, in District of Columbia, 325, 326;
+  bill to aid it in border slave States, 326;
+  Hunter's order of, 327;
+  measures in Congress relating to, 328, 329;
+  Lincoln's second interview with delegations from border slave
+  States, 329-331;
+  Lincoln's conversation with Carpenter about, 331, 332;
+  first draft of emancipation proclamation read to cabinet, 331, 332;
+  President's interview with Chicago clergymen, 337-339;
+  Lincoln issues preliminary emancipation proclamation, 339-341;
+  annual message of December 1, 1862, 341, 342;
+  President issues final emancipation proclamation, 342-346;
+  President's views on, 346, 347;
+  arming of negro soldiers, 348, 350;
+  Lincoln's letters to Banks about emancipation in Louisiana, 423-425;
+  slavery abolished in Louisiana, 426;
+  slavery abolished in Arkansas, 427;
+  slavery abolished in Tennessee, 429;
+  slavery abolished in Missouri, 432-434;
+  Maryland refuses offer of compensated abolishment, 434;
+  slavery abolished in Maryland, 435, 436;
+  Republican national platform favors Constitutional
+  amendment abolishing slavery, 446;
+  Constitutional amendment prohibiting slavery in United States, 471-476;
+  two Constitutional amendments affecting slavery offered during
+  Lincoln's term, 475,476;
+  Lincoln's draft of joint resolution offering the South $400,000,000, 493;
+  Jefferson Davis recommends employment of negroes in army,
+  with emancipation to follow, 501.
+  See _Slavery_
+
+=England=, public opinion in, favorable to the South, 211;
+  excitement in, over _Trent_ affair, 246;
+  joint expedition to Mexico, 451;
+  "neutrality" of, 525
+
+=Ericsson=, John, inventor of the _Monitor_, 279
+
+=Evarts=, William M., Secretary of State, United States senator,
+  nominates Seward for President, 149;
+  moves to make Lincoln's nomination unanimous, 151
+
+=Everett=, Edward, member of Congress, minister to England,
+  Secretary of State, United States senator,
+  candidate for Vice-President, 1860, 153
+
+=Ewell=, Richard S., Confederate lieutenant-general,
+  in retreat to Appomattox, 511;
+  statement about burning of Richmond, 516
+
+=Ewing=, Thomas, Secretary of the Interior defended by Lincoln
+  against political attack, 92
+
+
+=Fair Oaks=, Virginia, battle of, 302
+
+=Farragut=, David G., admiral United States navy,
+  captures New Orleans and ascends the Mississippi, 282-287;
+  ascends Mississippi a second time, 287;
+  mentioned 328, 329, 381;
+  operations against Port Hudson, 382;
+  Mobile Bay, 468, 525
+
+=Farrand=, Ebenezer, captain Confederate navy, surrender of, 525
+
+=Fessenden=, William P., United States senator,
+  Secretary of the Treasury, becomes Secretary of the Treasury, 458;
+  agrees with President against making proffers of peace to Davis, 463;
+  resigns from cabinet, 491, 492
+
+=Field=, David Dudley, escorts Lincoln to platform at Cooper Institute, 138
+
+=Fillmore=, Millard, thirteenth President of the United States,
+  nominated by Know-Nothing party for President, 1856, 102
+
+=Five Forks=, Virginia, battle of, April 1, 1865, 507-509
+
+=Floyd=, John B., Secretary of War, Confederate brigadier-general,
+  escapes from Fort Donelson, 268
+
+=Foote=, Andrew H., rear-admiral United States navy,
+  capture of Island No. 10, 274;
+  proceeds to Fort Pillow, 274
+
+=Forrest=, Nathan B., Confederate lieutenant-general,
+  with Hood's army, 410;
+  defeat of, 525
+
+=Fort Donelson=, Tennessee, capture of, 266-268
+
+=Fort Fisher=, North Carolina, capture of, 414, 481, 525
+
+=Fort Harrison=, Virginia, capture of, 560
+
+=Fort Henry=, Tennessee, capture of, 266
+
+=Fort Jackson=, Louisiana, capture of, 282-285
+
+=Fort McAllister=, Georgia, stormed by Sherman, 412
+
+=Fort Pillow=, Tennessee, evacuation of, 286;
+  massacre of negro troops at, 351
+
+=Fort Pulaski=, Georgia, capture of, 278
+
+=Fort Randolph=, Tennessee, evacuation of, 286
+
+=Fort Stedman=, Virginia, assault of, 505, 506
+
+=Fort St. Philip=, Louisiana, capture of, 282-285
+
+=Fort Sumter=, South Carolina, occupied by Anderson, 177, 178;
+  attempt to reinforce 178;
+  cabinet consultations about, 182-184;
+  defense and capture of, 189, 190
+
+=Fortress Monroe=, Virginia, importance of, 209
+
+=Fox=, Gustavus V., Assistant Secretary of the Navy,
+  ordered to aid Sumter, 184;
+  sends the President additional news about fight between _Monitor_
+  and _Merrimac_, 296, 297
+
+=France=, public opinion in, favorable to the South, 211;
+  joint expedition to Mexico, 451;
+  "neutrality" of, 525
+
+=Franklin=, Benjamin, on American forests and the spirit
+  of independence they fostered, 17
+
+=Franklin=, Tennessee, battle of, November 30, 1864, 410
+
+=Franklin=, W.B., brevet major-general United States army,
+  advises movement on Manassas, 289
+
+=Fredericksburg=, Virginia, battle of, December 13, 1862, 364
+
+=Frémont=, John C., United States senator,
+  major-general United States army, nominated for President, 1856, 103;
+  made major-general, 233;
+  opportunities and limitations of, 233-235;
+  criticism of, 235;
+  quarrel with Blair family, 236, 487;
+  proclamation freeing slaves, 236, 237, 432;
+  refuses to revoke proclamation, 238;
+  removed from command of Western Department, 241-243;
+  commands Mountain Department, 299;
+  ordered to form junction with McDowell and Shields, 306;
+  in Army of Virginia, 310;
+  nominated for President, 1864, 442;
+  withdraws from the contest, 442
+
+=Fusion=, attempts at, in campaign of 1860, 157, 158
+
+
+=Gamble, Hamilton R.=, provisional governor of Missouri,
+  calls State convention together, 433;
+  death of, 434
+
+=Garnett, Robert S.=, Confederate brigadier-general,
+  killed at Carrick's Ford, 225
+
+=Gentry, Allen=, makes flatboat trip with Lincoln, 16
+
+=Gentry, James=, enters land at Gentryville, 9;
+  sends Lincoln to New Orleans, 16
+
+=Gettysburg=, Pennsylvania, battle of, July 1-3, 1863, 372-375;
+  address of Mr. Lincoln at, 376, 377
+
+=Giddings, Joshua R.=, member of Congress approves
+  Lincoln's bill abolishing slavery in District of Columbia, 87;
+  amendment to Chicago platform, 148, 149
+
+=Gillmore, Quincy A.=, brevet major-general United States army,
+  siege of Fort Pulaski, 278
+
+=Gilmer, John A.=, member of Congress, tendered cabinet appointment, 164
+
+=Gilmore, J.R.=, visits Jefferson Davis with Jaquess, 462
+
+=Gist, William H.=, governor of South Carolina, inaugurates secession, 175
+
+=Goldsborough, L.M.=, rear-admiral United States navy,
+  commands fleet in Roanoke Island expedition, 277, 278
+
+=Gordon, John B.=, Confederate lieutenant-general,
+  United States senator, in assault of Fort Stedman, 504, 505;
+  in defense of Petersburg, 509
+
+=Graham, Mentor=, makes Lincoln election clerk, 23, 24;
+  advises Lincoln to study grammar, 25;
+  aids Lincoln to study surveying, 40
+
+=Grant, Ulysses S.=, eighteenth President of the United States,
+  general, and general-in-chief United States army, early life, 264;
+  letter offering services to War Department, 264, 265;
+  commissioned by Governor Yates, 265;
+  reconnaissance toward Columbus, 265;
+  urges movement on Fort Henry, 265, 266;
+  capture of Forts Henry and Donelson, 266-268;
+  ordered forward to Savannah, 271;
+  Pittsburg Landing, 272-274;
+  asks to be relieved, 275;
+  co-operates with adjutant-general of the army in arming negroes, 350;
+  repulses rebels at Iuka and Corinth, 380;
+  Vicksburg campaign, 380-383;
+  ordered to Chattanooga, 389;
+  battle of Chattanooga, 390, 391;
+  pursuit of Bragg, 391, 392;
+  speech on accepting commission of lieutenant-general, 394;
+  visits Army of the Potomac and starts west, 394;
+  placed in command of all the armies, 394;
+  conference with Sherman, 395;
+  plan of campaign, 395, 397;
+  returns to Culpepper, 395;
+  fear of presidential interference, 395, 396;
+  letter to Lincoln, 396;
+  strength and position of his army, 396, 397;
+  instructions to Meade, 397;
+  battle of the Wilderness, 398;
+  Spottsylvania Court House, 398, 399;
+  report to Washington, 399;
+  Cold Harbor, 399;
+  letter to Washington, 399, 400;
+  siege of Petersburg, 400-402;
+  sends Wright to Washington, 403;
+  withholds consent to Sherman's plan, 410;
+  gives his consent, 411;
+  orders to Sherman, 413;
+  adopts Sherman's plan, 414;
+  attempt to nominate him for President, 1864, 442, 443;
+  depressing influence on political situation of his heavy fighting, 463;
+  admits peace commissioners to his headquarters, 483;
+  despatch to Stanton, 484;
+  pushing forward, 502;
+  telegraphs Lee's letter to Washington, 503;
+  reply to Lee, 504;
+  orders to General Parke, 505;
+  issues orders for the final movement of the war, 506;
+  number of men under his command in final struggle, 507;
+  his plan, 507;
+  battle of Five Forks, 507-509;
+  orders Sheridan to get on Lee's line of retreat, 509, 510;
+  sends Humphreys to Sheridan's assistance, 509;
+  telegram to Lincoln, 509;
+  pursuit of Lee, 510-513;
+  sends Sheridan's despatch to Lincoln, 511;
+  correspondence with Lee, 512, 513;
+  receives Lee's surrender, 513-515;
+  forbids salute in honor of Lee's surrender, 515;
+  visit to Lee, 515;
+  goes to Washington, 515;
+  learns terms of agreement between Sherman and Johnson, 523;
+  ordered to Sherman's headquarters, 523;
+  gives Sherman opportunity to modify his report, 523, 524;
+  at Lincoln's last cabinet meeting, 531;
+  invited by Mrs. Lincoln to Ford's Theater, 536
+
+=Grant, Mrs. U.S.=, invited by Mrs. Lincoln to Ford's Theater, 536
+
+=Greeley, Horace=, hears Lincoln's Cooper Institute speech, 138;
+  "open letter" to Lincoln, 335;
+  Niagara Falls conference, 458-461;
+  effect of his mission on political situation, 464
+
+
+=Halleck, Henry Wager=, major-general and general-in-chief
+  United States army, succeeds Frémont, 260;
+  reluctance to coöperate with Buell, 263, 264;
+  answers to Lincoln, 263, 264;
+  instructions to Grant, 264;
+  orders Grant to take Fort Henry, 266;
+  sends reinforcements to Grant, 267;
+  asks for command in the West, 269;
+  plans expedition under Pope, 270;
+  message to Buell, 270;
+  telegrams to McClellan, 270;
+  appeal to McClellan, 271;
+  commands Department of the Mississippi, 271;
+  orders Pope to join him, 274;
+  march on Corinth, 275;
+  capture of Corinth, 275;
+  sends Buell to East Tennessee, 275;
+  ordered to reinforce McClellan, 307;
+  general-in-chief, 309;
+  visit to McClellan, 309;
+  orders Army of Potomac back to Acquia Creek, 309;
+  letter to McClellan, 309, 310;
+  orders McClellan to support Pope, 311;
+  telegram to McClellan, 317;
+  mentioned, 328, 329;
+  asks to be relieved, 365;
+  quarrel with Hooker, 372;
+  urges Meade to active pursuit of Lee, 375;
+  plans for Western campaign, 379;
+  urges Buell to move into East Tennessee, 380;
+  orders Rosecrans to advance, 385, 386;
+  at council to consider news of Chattanooga, 388;
+  President's chief of staff, 394;
+  conduct during Early's raid, 403;
+  note to War Department about Blair, 488;
+  orders to Meade, 523
+
+=Hamlin, Hannibal=, United States senator, Vice-President,
+  nominated for Vice-President, 151;
+  Cameron moves his renomination, 447;
+  candidate for vice-presidential nomination in 1864, 448, 449
+
+=Hanks, John=, tells of Lincoln's frontier labors, 15;
+  flatboat voyage with Lincoln, 22, 23;
+  at Decatur convention, 154
+
+=Hanks, Joseph=, teaches Thomas Lincoln carpenter's trade, 5
+
+=Hanks, Nancy=. See _Lincoln, Nancy Hanks_
+
+=Hardee, William J.=, lieutenant-colonel United States army, Confederate
+  lieutenant-general, council with Johnston and Beauregard, 267;
+  evacuates Savannah and Charleston, 415;
+  joins Johnston, 416
+
+=Hardin, John J.=, member of Congress, colonel United States Volunteers,
+  at Springfield, Illinois, 52;
+  elected to Congress, 73;
+  killed in Mexican War, 75
+
+=Harper's Ferry=, Virginia, John Brown raid at, 134;
+  burning of armory, 209;
+  captured by Lee, September 15, 1862, 315
+
+=Harris, Miss Clara W.=, attends Ford's Theater with Mrs. Lincoln, 536;
+  assists Mrs. Lincoln, 539
+
+=Harrison, George M.=, Lincoln's messmate in Black Hawk War, 33
+
+=Hartford=, the, Union cruiser, Farragut's flag-ship, 284, 285
+
+=Hatteras Inlet=, North Carolina, capture of forts at, August 29, 1861, 245
+
+=Hay, John=, assistant private secretary to Lincoln,
+  brevet colonel and assistant adjutant-general United States Volunteers,
+  ambassador to England, Secretary of State, accompanies
+  Mr. Lincoln to Washington, 168;
+  shows Lincoln letter of inquiry about Vice-Presidency, 448;
+  mission to Canada, 460;
+  at Lincoln's death-bed, 540
+
+=Hazel, Caleb=, teacher of President Lincoln, 6
+
+=Herndon, A.G.=, defeated for Illinois legislature, 1832, 34
+
+=Herndon, "Jim" and "Row,"= sell Lincoln and Berry their store, 35
+
+=Herndon, William H.=, Lincoln's law partner, 158;
+  assumes Lincoln's law business during campaign, 158
+
+=Herold, David E.=, in conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln, 534;
+  chosen to assist Booth, 536;
+  deposits arms in tavern at Surrattsville, 536;
+  accompanies Booth in his flight, 542, 543;
+  capture of, 543;
+  execution of, 544
+
+=Hicks, Thomas H.=, governor of Maryland, United States senator,
+  reply to Lincoln's call for volunteers, 193;
+  speech at mass-meeting, 193;
+  protest against landing of troops at Annapolis, 198;
+  calls meeting of Maryland legislature, 198
+
+=Holcomb, James P.=, Confederate agent in Canada,
+  correspondence with Horace Greeley, 459
+
+=Holt, Joseph=, Postmaster-General, Secretary of War,
+  judge-advocate general United States army, calls Scott to
+  Washington, 172;
+  report on Knights of the Golden Circle, 361;
+  favored by Swett for Vice-President, 448;
+  declines attorney-generalship, 491
+
+=Hood, John B.=, Confederate general, succeeds Johnston, 407;
+  evacuates Atlanta, 407, 468;
+  truce with Sherman, 408;
+  placed under command of Beauregard, 409;
+  moves to Tuscumbia, 410;
+  Franklin and Nashville, 410;
+  his movements delay reconstruction in Tennessee, 429
+
+=Hooker, Joseph=, brevet major-general United States army,
+  succeeds Burnside in command of Army of the Potomac, 366;
+  submits plan of campaign to Lincoln, 368;
+  battle of Chancellorsville, 369, 370;
+  criticism of, 370;
+  foresees Lee's northward campaign, 370;
+  proposes quick march to capture Richmond, 371;
+  follows Lee, 372;
+  asks to be relieved, 372;
+  ordered to reinforce Rosecrans, 388;
+  reaches Chattanooga, 389;
+  in battle of Chattanooga, 390-391
+
+=Hume, John F.=, moves that Lincoln's nomination be made unanimous, 447
+
+=Humphreys, Andrew A.=, brevet major-general United States army,
+  in recapture of Fort Stedman, 505, 506;
+  ordered to assist Sheridan, 509
+
+=Hunt, Randall=, tendered cabinet appointment, 164
+
+=Hunter, David=, brevet major-general, United States army,
+  asked to assist Frémont, 235, 236;
+  ordered to relieve Frémont, 243;
+  order of emancipation, 327;
+  experiment with negro soldiers, 348;
+  declared an outlaw by Confederate War Department, 350
+
+=Hunter, R.M.T.=, United States senator, Confederate Secretary of State,
+  appointed peace commissioner, 482;
+  at Hampton Roads conference, 482-485
+
+
+=Iles, Elijah=, captain Illinois Volunteers, commands company in
+  Black Hawk War, 33
+
+=Illinois=, State of, organized as Territory, 1809, 19;
+  admitted as State, 1818, 19;
+legislative schemes of internal improvement, 44, 45;
+  capital removed to Springfield, 45;
+  political struggles over slavery, 45, 46;
+  Lincoln-Douglas senatorial campaign in, 118-125;
+  ratifies Thirteenth Amendment, 474, 475
+
+=Island No. 10=, Tennessee, fortifications at, 269, 270;
+  surrender of, 274
+
+
+=Jackson, Andrew=, seventh President of the United States,
+  gives impetus to system of party caucuses and conventions, 52
+
+=Jackson, Claiborne F.=, governor of Missouri,
+  attempts to force Missouri secession, 202-204;
+  flight to Springfield, Missouri, 234
+
+=Jackson, Thomas Jonathan ("Stonewall")=, Confederate lieutenant-general,
+  Shenandoah valley campaign, 305, 306;
+  mentioned, 328;
+  killed at Chancellorsville, 369
+
+=Jaquess, James F.=, D.D., colonel United States Volunteers,
+  visits to the South, 461, 462;
+  interview with Jefferson Davis, 462
+
+=Jewett, William Cornell=, letter to Greeley, 458
+
+=Johnson, Andrew=, seventeenth President of the United States,
+  in thirty-seventh Congress, 217;
+  telegram about East Tennessee, 259;
+  retains seat in Senate, 419;
+  appointed military governor of Tennessee, 420;
+  begins work of reconstruction, 428;
+  nominated for Vice-President, 448, 449;
+  popular and electoral votes for, 470;
+  disapproves Sherman's agreement with Johnston, 523;
+  proclamation of amnesty, 526;
+  plot to murder, 535;
+  rejoicing of radicals on his accession to the Presidency, 545;
+  takes oath of office, 545
+
+=Johnson, Herschel V.=, candidate for Vice-President, 1860, 152
+
+=Johnston, Albert Sidney=, Confederate general,
+  council with Hardee and Beauregard, 267;
+  killed at Pittsburg Landing, 273
+
+=Johnston, Joseph E.=, quartermaster-general United States army,
+  Confederate general, member of Congress, joins Confederacy, 196, 208;
+  understanding with Beauregard, 215, 216;
+  joins Beauregard at Bull Run, 228;
+  opinion of battle of Bull Run, 228;
+  retrograde movement, 297;
+  defeats McClellan at Fair Oaks, 302;
+  succeeds Bragg, 395;
+  strength of, in spring of 1864, 405;
+  superseded by Hood, 407;
+  again placed in command, 416, 501;
+  interview with Davis, 520;
+  begins negotiations with Sherman, 520;
+  meetings with Sherman, 521, 522;
+  agreement between them, 522;
+  agreement disapproved at Washington, 523;
+  surrender of, 524
+
+=Johnston, Sarah Bush=, marries Thomas Lincoln, 10;
+  improves the condition of his household, 10;
+  tells of Lincoln's studious habits, 13
+
+=Jones, Thomas=, assists Booth and Herold, 542, 543
+
+=Judd, Norman B.=, minister to Prussia, member of Congress,
+  nominates Lincoln for President, 1860, 149;
+  member of Lincoln's suite, 173
+
+
+=Kansas=, State of, slavery struggle in, 113-115;
+  Lecompton Bill defeated in Congress, 117
+
+=Kearsarge=, the, Union cruiser, battle with the _Alabama_, 525
+
+=Kelly, Benjamin F.=, brevet major-general United States Volunteers,
+  dash upon Philippi, 225
+
+=Kentucky=, State of, action concerning secession, 201, 204;
+  legislature asks Anderson for help, 254;
+  public opinion in, regarding slavery, 473
+
+=Kilpatrick, Judson=, brevet major-general United States army,
+  minister to Chili, with Sherman on march to the sea, 411
+
+=Kirkpatrick=, defeated for Illinois legislature 1832, 34
+
+=Knights of Golden Circle=, extensive organization of, 360, 361;
+  plans and failures of, 360-362;
+  projected revolution in Northwestern States, 466
+
+=Know-Nothing Party=, principles of, 101, 102;
+  nominates Millard Fillmore for President, 1856, 102
+
+
+=Lamon, Ward H.=, accompanies Lincoln on night journey to Washington, 174
+
+=Lane, Joseph=, brevet major-general United States army, governor,
+  United States senator candidate for Vice-President in 1860, 153;
+  attempt to arm negroes, 348
+
+=Leavitt, Humphrey H.=, member of Congress,
+  judge United States Circuit Court,
+  denies motion for habeas corpus for Vallandigham, 358
+
+=Lecompton Constitution=, adopted in Kansas, 115;
+  defeated in Congress, 117
+
+=Lee, Robert E.=, colonel United States army,
+  Confederate general, captures John Brown, 134;
+  enters service of Confederacy, 196, 197, 208;
+  concentrates troops at Manassas Junction, 215;
+  sends troops into West Virginia, 224;
+  attacks McClellan near Richmond, 302;
+  campaign into Maryland, 314;
+  captures Harper's Ferry, 315;
+  battle of Antietam, 315;
+  retreats across the Potomac, 316;
+  battle of Chancellorsville, 369;
+  resolves on invasion of the North, 370;
+  crosses the Potomac, 371, 372;
+  battle of Gettysburg, 372-374;
+  retreats across the Potomac, 375, 377;
+  strength and position of his army, 397;
+  battle of the Wilderness, 398;
+  Spottsylvania Court House, 398, 399;
+  Cold Harbor, 399;
+  defense of Petersburg, 400-402;
+  sends Early up the Shenandoah valley, 403;
+  despatch about rations for his army, 481;
+  made general-in-chief, 500;
+  assumes command of all the Confederate armies, 502;
+  attempt to negotiate with Grant, 502, 503;
+  conference with Davis, 504;
+  attempt to break through Grant's lines, 504-506;
+  number of men under his command in final struggle, 507;
+  takes command in person, 507;
+  attacks Warren, 507;
+  battle of Five Forks, 507-509;
+  makes preparations to evacuate Petersburg and Richmond, 509;
+  begins retreat, 510;
+  surrender of Richmond, 510;
+  reaches Amelia Court House, 510;
+  starts toward Lynchburg, 511;
+  reply to generals advising him to surrender, 512;
+  correspondence with Grant, 512, 513;
+  surrender of, 513-515;
+  size of army surrendered by, 524
+
+=Letcher, John=, member of Congress, governor of Virginia,
+  orders seizure of government property, 194
+
+=Lincoln, Abraham=, sixteenth President of the United States,
+  born February 12, 1800, 3, 6;
+  goes to A B C schools, 6;
+  early schooling in Indiana, 10-13;
+  home studies and youthful habits, 13-19;
+  manages ferry-boat, 15;
+  flatboat trip to New Orleans, 15, 16;
+  employed in Gentryville store, 16;
+  no hunter, 17;
+  kills wild turkey, 17, 18;
+  emigrates to Illinois, March 1, 1830, 20;
+  leaves his father's cabin, 21;
+  engaged by Denton Offutt, 21;
+  builds flatboat and takes it to New Orleans, 22, 23;
+  incident at Rutledge's Mill, 22;
+  returns to New Salem, 23;
+  election clerk, 23, 24;
+  clerk in Offutt's store, 24;
+  wrestles with Jack Armstrong, 25;
+  candidate for legislature, 1832, 29;
+  address "To the Voters of Sangamon County," 29, 30;
+  volunteers for Black Hawk War, 32;
+  elected captain of volunteer company, 32;
+  mustered out and reënlists as private, 32, 33;
+  finally mustered out, 33;
+  returns to New Salem, 33;
+  defeated for legislature, 33;
+  enters into partnership with Berry, 35;
+  sells out to the Trent brothers, 36;
+  fails, but promises to pay his debts, 36;
+  surveying instruments sold for debt, 36;
+  "Honest old Abe," 37;
+  appointed postmaster of New Salem, 37;
+  made deputy surveyor, 39, 40;
+  candidate for legislature, 1834, 41, 42;
+  elected to legislature, 43;
+  begins study of law, 44;
+  admitted to practice, 44;
+  removes to Springfield and forms law partnership with J.T. Stuart, 44;
+  reëlected to legislature, 44;
+  services in legislature, 44-48;
+  manages removal of State capital to Springfield, 45;
+  Lincoln-Stone protest, 47;
+  vote for, for Speaker of Illinois House, 48;
+  his methods in law practice, 49;
+  notes for law lecture, 49-51;
+  his growing influence, 52;
+  guest of William Butler, 53;
+  intimacy with Joshua F. Speed, 53;
+  engaged to Anne Rutledge, 54;
+  her death, 54;
+  his grief, 55;
+  courtship of Mary Owens, 55-60;
+  member of "Long Nine," 61, 62;
+  debate with Douglas and others, 1839, 62, 63;
+  meets and becomes engaged to Mary Todd, 63;
+  engagement broken, 64;
+  his deep melancholy, 64;
+  letter to Stuart, 64;
+  visit to Kentucky, 64;
+  letters to Speed, 64, 65;
+  "Lost Townships" letters, 66;
+  challenged by Shields, 66;
+  prescribes terms of the duel, 67;
+  duel prevented, 68;
+  letter to Speed, 68;
+  marriage to Mary Todd, November 4, 1842, 68, 69;
+  children of, 69;
+  partnership with Stuart dissolved, 69, 70;
+  law partnership with S.T. Logan, 70;
+  declines reëlection to legislature, 70;
+  letter to Speed, 71;
+  letter to Martin Morris, 71-73;
+  letter to Speed, 73;
+  presidential elector, 1844, 73;
+  letters to B.F. James, 74;
+  elected to Congress, 1846, 75;
+  service and speeches in Congress, 76-90;
+  votes for Wilmot Proviso, 79;
+  presidential elector in 1840 and 1844, 80;
+  favors General Taylor for President, 80-83;
+  letters about Taylor's nomination, 80-82;
+  letters to Herndon, 81-83;
+  speeches for Taylor, 83;
+  bill to prohibit slavery in District of Columbia, 86;
+  letters recommending office-seekers, 87-89;
+  letter to W.H. Herndon, 90, 91;
+  letter to Speed, 91, 92;
+  letter to Duff Green, 92;
+  applies for commissionership of General Land Office, 92;
+  defends Butterfield against political attack, 92;
+  refuses governorship of Oregon, 93;
+  indignation at repeal of Missouri Compromise, 94, 95;
+  advocates reëlection of Richard Yates to Congress, 96;
+  speech at Illinois State Fair, 96;
+  debate with Douglas at Peoria, 96-99;
+  agreement with Douglas, 99;
+  candidate for United States Senate before Illinois legislature, 1855, 99;
+  withdraws in favor of Trumbull, 100;
+  letter to Robertson, 100, 101;
+  speech at Bloomington convention, 1856, 103;
+  vote for, for Vice-President, 1856, 104;
+  presidential elector, 1856, 105;
+  speeches in campaign of 1856, 105;
+  speech at Republican banquet in Chicago, 106, 107;
+  speech on Dred Scott case, 110-112;
+  nominated for senator, 118, 119;
+  "House divided against itself" speech, 119, 120, 127, 128;
+  Lincoln-Douglas joint debate, 121-125;
+  defeated for United States Senate, 125;
+  analysis of causes which led to his defeat, 126, 127;
+  letters to H. Asbury and A.G. Henry, 127;
+  letter to A.L. Pierce and others, 130, 131;
+  speech in Chicago, 131, 132;
+  letter to M.W. Delahay, 132;
+  letter to Colfax, 132, 133;
+  letter to S. Galloway, 133;
+  Ohio speeches, 133, 134;
+  criticism of John Brown raid, 134, 135;
+  speeches in Kansas, 136, 137;
+  Cooper Institute speech, 137-140;
+  speeches in New England, 140;
+  letter to T.J. Pickett, 145;
+  candidate for presidential nomination, 1860, 145;
+  letters to N.B. Judd, 145, 146;
+  nominated for President, 1860, 149-151;
+  speech at Decatur convention, 153, 154;
+  daily routine during campaign, 158, 159;
+  letters during campaign, 159;
+  elected President, 160;
+  his cabinet program, 161-163;
+  letter to Seward offering cabinet appointment, 163;
+  offers Bates and Cameron cabinet appointments, 163;
+  summons Chase to Springfield, 163;
+  withdraws offer to Cameron, 163;
+  editorial in Springfield "Journal," 164;
+  offers cabinet appointments to Gilmer, Hunt, and Scott, 164;
+  letters to W.S. Speer and G.D. Prentiss, 164, 165;
+  correspondence with Alexander H. Stephens, 165, 166;
+  letter to Gilmer, 166;
+  letter to Washburne, 166, 167;
+  writes his inaugural, 167, 168;
+  journey to Washington, 168-174;
+  farewell address at Springfield, 169;
+  speeches on journey to Washington, 169-171;
+  consultation with Judd, 173;
+  night journey to Washington, 173, 174;
+  visits of ceremony, 179, 180;
+  first inauguration of, 180-182;
+  inaugural address, 180-182;
+  calls council to consider question of Sumter, 182, 183;
+  signs order for relief of Sumter, 184;
+  answer to Seward's memorandum of April 1, 1861, 187;
+  instructions to Seward, 1865, 187;
+  notice to Governor Pickens, 188;
+  issues call for 75,000 volunteers, 192;
+  assumes responsibility for war measures, 195;
+  opinion against dispersing Maryland legislature, 198, 199;
+  authorizes Scott to suspend writ of habeas corpus, 199;
+  action in Merryman case, 200;
+  institutes blockade, 205;
+  calls for three years' volunteers, 206;
+  appoints Charles Francis Adams minister to England, 211;
+  modifies Seward's despatch of May 21, 212;
+  his immense duties, 212, 213;
+  calls council of war, 215;
+  message to Congress, July 4, 1861, 218-220;
+  postpones decision about slaves, 222, 223;
+  receives news of defeat at Bull Run, 229;
+  letter to Hunter, 235;
+  letter to Frémont, 237, 238;
+  letter to Browning, 238-240;
+  sends Cameron to visit Frémont, 242;
+  letter to General Curtis about Frémont, 242, 243;
+  draft of despatch about Trent affair, 247, 248;
+  welcomes McClellan to Washington, 250;
+  orders retirement of General Scott, 253;
+  memorandum to McClellan, 253;
+  his grasp of military problems, 255, 256;
+  memorandum after battle of Bull Run, 256;
+  interest in East Tennessee, 256, 257;
+  personally urges on Congress the construction of railroad
+  in East Tennessee, 257, 258;
+  letter to Buell, 258, 259;
+  telegrams and letters to Buell and Halleck, 262-264, 268, 269;
+  places Halleck in command of Department of the Mississippi, 271;
+  calls councils of war, 288, 289;
+  General War Order No. 1, 290;
+  Special War Order No. 1, 291;
+  letter to McClellan about plan of campaign, 291;
+  interview with Stanton, 293, 294;
+  interview with McClellan, 295;
+  President's General War Orders No. 2 and No. 3, 295;
+  receives news of fight between _Monitor_ and _Merrimac_, 296;
+  relieves McClellan from command of all troops except
+  Army of the Potomac, 298;
+  orders McDowell to protect Washington, 299;
+  letter to McClellan, 299, 300;
+  letter to McClellan, 303, 304;
+  visit to General Scott, 306;
+  assigns General Pope to command of Army of Virginia, 306;
+  orders Burnside and Halleck to reinforce McClellan, 307;
+  letter to governors of free States, 307, 308;
+  accepts 300,000 new troops, 308;
+  letters to McClellan, 308;
+  visit to Harrison's Landing, 308;
+  appoints Halleck general-in-chief, 309;
+  his dispassionate calmness in considering McClellan's conduct, 311;
+  asks McClellan to use his influence with Pope's officers, 313;
+  places McClellan in command of defenses of Washington, 313;
+  orders reinforcements to McClellan, 316;
+  telegram to McClellan, 316;
+  visit to Antietam, 316, 317;
+  directions and letter to McClellan, 317-319;
+  removes him from command, 319;
+  letter to Bancroft, 321;
+  reference to slavery in message to Congress, December 3, 1861, 321, 322;
+  offers Delaware compensated abolishment, 322, 323;
+  special message of March 6, 1862, proposing joint
+  resolution favoring gradual abolishment, 323, 324;
+  letter to McDougall, 324;
+  interview with delegations from border slave States, 324, 325;
+  signs bill for compensated emancipation in District of Columbia, 326;
+  letter to Chase about Hunter's order of emancipation, 327;
+  proclamation revoking Hunter's order, 327, 328;
+  second interview with border State delegations in Congress, 329-331;
+  conversation with Carpenter about emancipation, 331, 332;
+  reads draft of first emancipation proclamation to cabinet, 331, 332;
+  tells Seward and Welles of his purpose to issue emancipation
+  proclamation, 332;
+  letter to Reverdy Johnson, 334;
+  letter to Cuthbert Bullitt, 334, 335;
+  letter to Horace Greeley, 335-337;
+  interview with Chicago clergymen, 337-339;
+  issues preliminary emancipation proclamation, 339-341;
+  annual message of December 1, 1862, 341, 342;
+  issues final emancipation proclamation, January 1, 1863, 342-346;
+  letter to A.G. Hodges, 346, 347;
+  letters about arming negroes, 350;
+  speech about Fort Pillow massacre, 351, 352;
+  interview with Frederick Douglass, 352;
+  letter to Governor Seymour, 356;
+  action in case of Vallandigham, 358, 359;
+  suspends privilege of writ of habeas corpus, 360;
+  attitude toward Knights of the Golden Circle, 361;
+  appoints Burnside to command Army of the Potomac, 363;
+  telegram to Burnside, and letter to Halleck about Burnside, 365;
+  letter to Burnside, 366;
+  relieves Burnside and appoints Hooker to succeed him, 366;
+  letter to Hooker, 366-368;
+  criticism on Hooker's plan of campaign, 368;
+  continued belief in Hooker, 370;
+  instructions to Hooker, 370, 371;
+  telegrams to Hooker, 371;
+  appoints Meade to command Army of the Potomac, 372;
+  urges Meade to active pursuit of Lee, 375;
+  letter to Meade, 375, 376;
+  Gettysburg address, 376, 377;
+  letter to Grant, 384, 385;
+  orders Rosecrans to advance, 385, 386;
+  note to Halleck, 388;
+  telegram to Rosecrans, 388;
+  orders reinforcements to Rosecrans, 388;
+  signs bill making Grant lieutenant-general, 393;
+  address on presenting his commission, 393, 394;
+  letter to Grant, 396;
+  under fire, 403;
+  letter to Sherman, 412, 413;
+  appoints military governors for Tennessee, Louisiana,
+  Arkansas, and North Carolina, 419;
+  his theory of "reconstruction," 419;
+  message to Congress, July 4, 1861, 419;
+  letter to Cuthbert Bullitt, 420, 421;
+  circular letter to military governors, 421, 422;
+  letter to Governor Shepley, 422;
+  letter to General Banks, 423;
+  references to reconstruction in message to Congress,
+  December 8, 1863, 424;
+  amnesty proclamation, December 8, 1863, 424;
+  letter to General Banks, 424, 425;
+  letters to General Steele, 427, 428;
+  letters to Johnson, 428, 429;
+  letter to Drake and others, 430-432;
+  revokes Frémont's proclamation freeing slaves, 432;
+  letter to General Schofield, 433;
+  directs Stanton to issue order regulating raising
+  of colored troops, 434, 435;
+  letter to H.W. Hoffman, 435, 436;
+  Democrats and Frémont Republicans criticize
+  his action on slavery, 437, 438;
+  relations with his cabinet, 438, 439;
+  attitude toward Chase, 439-441, 444;
+  letter to Chase, 441;
+  letter to F.A. Conkling and others, 443;
+  sentiment in favor of his reëlection, 443, 444;
+  letter to Washburne about second term, 444;
+  letters to General Schurz, 444, 445;
+  instructions to office-holders, 445;
+  speeches during campaign, 445;
+  renominated for President, 447, 448;
+  refuses to intimate his preference for Vice-President, 448, 449;
+  indorsement on Nicolay's letter, 448, 449;
+  reply to committee of notification, 450;
+  letter accepting nomination, 450, 451;
+  his attitude toward the French in Mexico, 451, 452;
+  opposition to, in Congress, 454;
+  on Davis's reconstruction bill, 454-456;
+  proclamation of July 8, 1864, 456;
+  accepts Chase's resignation, 457;
+  nominates David Tod to succeed him, 457;
+  substitutes name of W.P. Fessenden, 457, 458;
+  correspondence with Greeley, 458-460;
+  criticized because of Niagara conference, 460, 461;
+  draft of letter to C.D. Robinson, 461;
+  indorsement on Jaquess's application to go South, 462;
+  answer to Raymond's proposition, 463;
+  interview with John T. Mills, 464, 465;
+  memorandum, August 23, 1864, 466;
+  speech on morning after election, 469, 470;
+  popular and electoral votes for, 470;
+  summing up of results of the election, 470;
+  suggests key-note of Morgan's opening speech before Baltimore
+  convention, 471;
+  message to Congress, December 6, 1864, 471, 472, 476-478;
+  answer to serenade, 474, 475;
+  opinion on ratification of Thirteenth Amendment, 475;
+  two constitutional amendments offered to the
+  people during his administration, 476;
+  gives Blair permission to go South, 478;
+  letter to Blair in reply to Jefferson Davis, 481;
+  sends Major Eckert to meet peace commissioners, 482;
+  instructions to Seward, 483;
+  instructions to Grant, 483;
+  goes to Fortress Monroe, 484;
+  conference with peace commissioners, 484, 485;
+  pressure upon him to dismiss Montgomery Blair, 487, 489;
+  personal regard for the Blairs, 488;
+  letter to Stanton, 488;
+  lecture to cabinet, 489;
+  requests resignation of Blair, 489;
+  nominates Chase for chief justice, 490, 491;
+  opinion of Chase, 490, 491;
+  offers attorney-generalship to Holt and Speed, 491;
+  offers cabinet appointment to Governor Morgan, 492;
+  appoints Hugh McCulloch Secretary of the Treasury, 492;
+  indorsements on Usher's resignation, 492;
+  his plans for the future, 492, 493;
+  submits to cabinet draft of joint resolution offering
+  the South $400,000,000, 493;
+  his second inauguration, 493-496;
+  the second inaugural, 494-496;
+  letter to Weed, 497;
+  his literary rank, 497;
+  last public address, 498;
+  despatch to Grant, March 3, 1865, 503, 504;
+  at City Point, 506;
+  telegraphs Grant, "Let the thing be pressed," 511;
+  visit to Richmond, 517, 518;
+  interviews with John A. Campbell, 519;
+  gives permission for meeting of Virginia legislature, 519;
+  regret of army for, 529;
+  return to Washington, 530;
+  last cabinet meeting, 531, 532;
+  14th of April, 532, 533, 536-540;
+  danger from assassination, 533, 534;
+  interest in the theater, 536;
+  attends Ford's Theater, 536, 537;
+  death of, 538-540;
+  his death prevents organized rejoicing at downfall of rebellion, 544;
+  mourning for, 544-548;
+  feeling of radicals at death of, 545;
+  funeral ceremonies of, in Washington, 545, 546;
+  funeral journey to Springfield, Illinois, 546, 547;
+  burial at Springfield, 547, 548;
+  his character and career, 549-555;
+  his place in history, 555
+
+=Lincoln, Abraham=, grandfather of the President,
+  emigrates from Virginia to Kentucky, 3, 4;
+  killed by Indians, 4
+
+=Lincoln, Edward Baker=, son of President Lincoln, birth of, 69;
+  death of, 69
+
+=Lincoln, Isaac=, settles on Holston River, 5
+
+=Lincoln, Josiah=, uncle of the President,
+ goes to fort for assistance against Indians, 4
+
+=Lincoln, Mary=, aunt of the President, 4
+
+=Lincoln, Mary Todd=, wife of the President, engagement to Lincoln, 63, 64;
+  writes "Lost Townships" letters, 66;
+  marriage to Lincoln, November 4, 1842, 68, 69;
+  children of, 69;
+  death of, 69;
+  accompanies Mr. Lincoln to Washington, 168;
+  drive with her husband, April 14, 1865, 532;
+  invites friends to attend Ford's Theater, 536;
+  attends theater with her husband, 538;
+  at Lincoln's death-bed, 539
+
+=Lincoln, Mordecai=, uncle of the President
+  defends homestead against Indians, 4;
+  inherits his father's lands, 4
+
+=Lincoln, Nancy=, aunt of the President, 4
+
+=Lincoln, Nancy Hanks=, mother of the President,
+  marries Thomas Lincoln, June 12, 1806, 5;
+teaches her husband to sign his name, 5;
+  birth of daughter, 5;
+  birth of Abraham, son of, 6;
+  death of, 9
+
+=Lincoln, Robert Todd=, son of the President,
+  Secretary of War, minister to England, birth of, 69;
+  public services, 69;
+  accompanies Mr. Lincoln to Washington, 168;
+  on Grant's staff, 517;
+  with his father April 14, 1865, 532;
+  at Lincoln's death-bed, 540
+
+=Lincoln, Samuel=, ancestor of the President, emigrates to America, 3
+
+=Lincoln, Sarah=, sister of the President, born, 5;
+  goes to school, 6
+
+=Lincoln, Sarah Bush Johnston=. See _Johnston, Sarah Bush_
+
+=Lincoln, Thomas=, father of the President, 3;
+  narrowly escapes capture by Indians, 4;
+  learns carpenter's trade, 5;
+  marries Nancy Hanks, June 12, 1806, 5;
+  daughter of, born, 5;
+  removes to Rock Spring Farm, 5, 6;
+  Abraham, son of, born, 6;
+  buys farm on Knob Creek, 6;
+  emigrates to Indiana, 7, 8;
+  death of his wife, 9;
+  marries Sally Bush Johnston, 10;
+  emigrates to Illinois, 20
+
+=Lincoln, Thomas=, son of President Lincoln, birth of, 69;
+  death of, 69;
+  accompanies Mr. Lincoln to Washington, 168
+
+=Lincoln, William Wallace=, son of President Lincoln, birth of, 69;
+  death of, 69, 293;
+  accompanies Mr. Lincoln to Washington, 168
+
+=Lloyd, John M.=, keeps tavern at Surrattsville, Maryland, 536
+
+=Logan, Stephen T.=, at Springfield, Illinois, 52;
+  law partnership with Lincoln, 70;
+  defeated for Congress, 91
+
+="Long Nine,"= a power in Illinois legislature, 61
+
+=Longstreet, James=, Confederate lieutenant-general,
+  besieges Burnside at Knoxville, 391;
+  retreats toward Virginia, 391;
+  reports conversation with Ord, 503;
+  in final defense of Richmond, 509
+
+=Louisiana=, State of, military governor appointed for, 419;
+  election for members of Congress, 422;
+  contest over slavery clause in new constitution, 422, 423;
+  election of State officers in, 425, 426;
+  adopts new constitution abolishing slavery, 426;
+  slavery in, throttled by public opinion, 473;
+  ratifies Thirteenth Amendment, 475
+
+=Lovejoy, Elijah P.=, murder of, 46
+
+=Lovell, Mansfield=, Confederate major-general,
+  evacuates New Orleans, 285;
+  sends men and guns to Vicksburg, 286
+
+=Lyon, Nathaniel=, brigadier-general United States Volunteers,
+  service in Missouri, 202-204;
+  killed at Wilson's Creek, 234, 235
+
+=Lyons, Richard Bickerton Pemell=, baron, afterward earl,
+  British minister at Washington,
+  instructed to demand apology for _Trent_ affair, 246
+
+
+=McClellan, George B.=, major-general, general-in-chief,
+  United States army, orders concerning slaves, 221;
+  commissioned by Governor Dennison, 224;
+  his previous career, 224;
+  quick promotion of, 224;
+  successes in western Virginia, 224, 225;
+  ordered to Washington, 229;
+  his ambition, 249-251;
+  organizes Army of the Potomac, 250, 251;
+  his hallucinations, 251, 252;
+  quarrel with General Scott, 251, 252;
+  expresses contempt for the President, 252;
+  answer to President's inquiry, 253;
+  illness of, 253;
+  instructions to Buell, 258-260;
+  unwilling to promote Halleck, 270;
+  attends council of war, 289;
+  explains plan of campaign to Stanton, 290;
+  letter to Stanton, 292;
+  revokes Hooker's authority to cross lower Potomac, 294;
+  council of his officers votes in favor of water route, 295;
+  at gathering of officials to discuss news of fight
+  between _Monitor_ and _Merrimac_, 296;
+  occupies abandoned rebel position, 297;
+  calls council of corps commanders, 298;
+  relieved from command of all troops save Army of the Potomac, 298;
+  arrives at Fortress Monroe, 299;
+  siege of Yorktown, 301;
+  his incapacity and hallucination, 302-304;
+  retreat to James River, 302;
+  letter to Stanton, 303;
+  protests against withdrawal of Army of the Potomac, 309;
+  reaches Alexandria, 311;
+  suggests leaving Pope to his fate, 311;
+  telegram to Pope's officers, 313;
+  in command of defenses of Washington, 313;
+  follows Lee into Maryland, 314;
+  learns Lee's plans, 315;
+  battle of Antietam, 315;
+  forces under his command, 317, 318;
+  removed from command, 319;
+  mentioned, 328, 329;
+  adopted by Democrats for presidential candidate, 355, 438;
+  nominated for President, 467;
+  letter of acceptance, 468;
+  electoral votes for, 470;
+  resigns from the army, 470
+
+=McClernand, John A.=, member of Congress,
+  major-general United States Volunteers at Springfield, Illinois, 52
+
+=McCulloch, Ben=, Confederate brigadier-general, defeat at Pea Ridge, 271
+
+=McCulloch, Hugh=, Secretary of the Treasury,
+  enters Lincoln's cabinet, 492
+
+=McDougall, James A.=, member of Congress,
+  United States senator, at Springfield, Illinois, 52
+
+=McDowell, Irvin=, brevet major-general United States army,
+  fears junction of Johnston and Beauregard, 216;
+  advances against Beauregard, 226;
+  battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861, 226-229;
+  advises movement on Manassas, 289;
+  ordered by Lincoln to protect Washington, 299, 305;
+  ordered to form junction with Shields and Frémont, 306;
+  in Army of Virginia, 310
+
+=McLean, John=, justice United States Supreme Court,
+  vote for, in Chicago convention, 149
+
+=McNamar, John=, engaged to Anne Rutledge, 54
+
+=Magoffin, Beriah=, governor of Kentucky,
+  efforts in behalf of secession, 201
+
+=Magruder, John B.=, brevet lieutenant-colonel United States army,
+  Confederate major-general, joins the Confederacy, 196;
+  opposes McClellan with inferior numbers, 301
+
+=Maine=, State of, admitted as State, 1820, 19
+
+=Mallory, S.R.=, United States senator,
+  Confederate Secretary of the Navy,
+  writes proposition of armistice dictated
+  by Davis and signed by Johnston, 521
+
+=Malvern Hill=, Virginia, battle of, July 1, 1862, 302
+
+=Marcy, R.B.=, brevet major-general United States army,
+  McClellan's chief of staff, 294
+
+=Marshall, Charles=, Confederate colonel,
+  present at Lee's surrender, 513
+
+=Maryland=, State of, secession feeling in, 193;
+  arrest and dispersion of its legislature, 199;
+  refuses offer of compensated abolishment, 434;
+  emancipation party in, 434;
+  abolishes slavery, 435, 436;
+  slavery in, throttled by public opinion, 473;
+  ratifies Thirteenth Amendment, 474
+
+=Mason, James M.=, United States senator,
+  Confederate commissioner to Europe, interview with John Brown, 134;
+  goes to Baltimore, 197;
+  capture of, 246-249
+
+=Matthews, J.=, burns Booth's letter, 537
+
+=Maximilian (Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph)=,
+  Archduke of Austria and Emperor of Mexico,
+  established by Napoleon III in Mexico, 451
+
+=Maynard, Horace=, member of Congress,
+  minister to Turkey, telegram about East Tennessee, 259;
+  elected to Congress, 419
+
+=Meade, George G.=, major-general United States army,
+  succeeds Hooker in command of Army of the Potomac, 372;
+  battle of Gettysburg, 372-374;
+  pursuit of Lee, 375, 377;
+  offers to give up command of Army of the Potomac, 394;
+  continued in command, 395;
+  reports surrender of Richmond, 510;
+  ordered to pursue Lee, 510;
+  pursuit of Lee, 511;
+  ordered to disregard Sherman's truce, 523
+
+=Meigs, Montgomery C.=, brevet major-general
+  and quartermaster-general United States army,
+  at gathering of officials to discuss news of
+  battle between _Monitor_ and _Merrimac_, 296
+
+=Memphis=, Tennessee, river battle at, 286
+
+=Merrimac=, the, Confederate ironclad,
+  battle with _Monitor_, 278-282
+
+=Merryman, John=, arrest of, 199
+
+=Minnesota=, the, Union steam frigate,
+  in fight between _Monitor_ and _Merrimac_, 280
+
+=Missouri=, State of, admitted as State, 1821, 19;
+  action concerning secession, 201-204;
+  provisional State government established, 418;
+  struggle over slavery, 430-434;
+  adopts ordinance of emancipation, 434;
+  resolution in Assembly favoring Lincoln's renomination, 444;
+  votes for Grant in Baltimore convention, 447;
+  slavery in, throttled by public opinion, 473
+
+=Missouri Compromise=, repeal of, 94, 95
+
+=Mobile Bay=, Alabama, battle of, August 5, 1864, 468, 525
+
+=Monitor=, the, Union ironclad, battle with _Merrimac_, 279-282
+
+=Montgomery=, Alabama, capital of Confederacy removed from,
+  to Richmond, 207
+
+=Moore, Thomas O.=, governor of Louisiana,
+  arms free colored men, 348, 349
+
+=Morgan, Edwin D.=, governor of New York,
+  United States senator, opens Republican national convention, 1864, 446;
+  declines cabinet appointment, 492
+
+=Morris, Achilles=, elected to Illinois legislature in 1832, 34
+
+=Morrison, James L.D.=, desires commissionership
+  of General Land Office, 92
+
+=Mudd, Samuel=, assists Booth and Herold, 542;
+  imprisoned, 544
+
+=Mulligan, James A.=, brevet brigadier-general
+  United States Volunteers, captured by Price, 241
+
+=Murfreesboro=, Tennessee, battle of,
+  December 31, 1862, to January 3, 1863, 380
+
+
+=Napoleon III=, colonial ambitions of, 211;
+  establishes Maximilian in Mexico, 451
+
+=Nashville=, Tennessee, battle of, December 15, 16, 1864, 410
+
+=Neale, T.M.=, commands troops in Black Hawk War, 31, 32;
+  defeated for Illinois legislature, 1832, 34
+
+=Negro soldiers=, experiments with, early in the war, 348;
+  governor of Louisiana arms free blacks, 348, 349;
+  reference to, in emancipation proclamation, 349, 350;
+  Lincoln's interest in, 350;
+  attitude of Confederates toward, 350, 351;
+  massacre of, at Fort Pillow, 351;
+  President's conversation with Frederick Douglass
+  about retaliation, 352;
+  Stanton's order regulating raising of, 435;
+  Republican national platform claims protection of laws of war for, 446;
+  take part in second inauguration of Lincoln, 493, 494;
+  Jefferson Davis's recommendation concerning slaves in rebel army, 501;
+  assist in restoring order in Richmond, 517;
+  in Lincoln's funeral procession, 546.
+  See _Slavery_ and _Emancipation_
+
+=Nelson, William=, lieutenant-commander United States navy,
+  major-general United States Volunteers, occupies Nashville, 270
+
+=New Orleans=, Louisiana, capture of, 283-285;
+  Confederate negro regiment in, 348, 349;
+  Union sentiment in, 420
+
+=New Salem=, Illinois, town of, 22-26
+
+=New York City=, draft riots in, 356, 357;
+  funeral honors to Lincoln in, 546, 547
+
+=Nicolay, John G.=, Lincoln's private secretary, 158;
+  accompanies Mr. Lincoln to Washington, 168;
+  in attendance at Baltimore convention, 448, 449;
+  letter to Hay, 448
+
+=North Carolina=, State of, joins Confederacy, 200, 204;
+  military governor appointed for, 419
+
+=Offutt, Denton=, engages Lincoln to take flatboat to New Orleans, 21;
+  disappears from New Salem, 35
+
+=O'Laughlin, Michael=, in conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln, 534;
+  imprisoned, 544
+
+=Ord, Edward O.C.=, brevet major-general United States army,
+  conversation with Longstreet, 503
+
+=Owens, Mary S.=, Lincoln's attentions to, correspondence with
+  and proposal of marriage to, 55-60
+
+
+=Palfrey, F.W.=, Confederate brigadier-general,
+  statement about strength of Army of the Potomac, 315
+
+=Parke, John G.=, brevet major-general United States army,
+  in recapture of Fort Stedman, 505, 506;
+  in assault at Petersburg 509
+
+=Patterson, Robert=, major-general Pennsylvania militia,
+  turns troops toward Harper's Ferry, 209;
+  part in campaign against Manassas, 216;
+  orders concerning slaves, 220, 221;
+  failure at Harper's Ferry, 228
+
+=Paulding, Hiram=, rear-admiral United States navy,
+  burns Norfolk navy-yard, 278
+
+=Pea Ridge=, Arkansas, battle of, 271
+
+=Pemberton, John C.=, Confederate lieutenant-general,
+  surrenders Vicksburg, 383
+
+=Pendleton, George H.=, member of Congress minister to Prussia,
+  nominated for Vice-President, 467
+
+=Pendleton, William N.=, Confederate brigadier-general,
+  advises Lee to surrender 512
+
+=Perryville=, Kentucky, battle of, October 8, 1862, 379
+
+=Peter, Z.=, defeated for Illinois legislature, 1832, 34
+
+=Petersburg=, Virginia, operations against, 400-402, 507-510;
+  evacuation of, April 2, 1865, 510
+
+=Phelps, John S.=, member of Congress, appointed military
+  governor of Arkansas, 420
+
+=Phelps, J.W.=, brigadier-general United States Volunteers,
+  mentioned in letter of Lincoln, 334;
+  declared an outlaw by Confederate War Department, 350
+
+=Philippi=, West Virginia, battle of, June 3, 1861, 214, 225
+
+=Phillips, Wendell=, letter to Cleveland convention, 442
+
+=Pickens, Francis W.=, member of Congress, minister to Russia,
+  governor of South Carolina, fires on _Star of the West_, 178
+
+=Pickett, George E.=, Confederate major-general, in battle of Five
+  Forks, 507, 508
+
+=Pierce, Franklin=, fourteenth President of the United States,
+  recognizes bogus laws in Kansas, 113;
+  appoints governors for Kansas, 113, 114
+
+=Pillow, Gideon J.=, Confederate major-general,
+  stationed at Columbus, 254;
+  escapes from Fort Donelson, 268
+
+=Pinkerton, Allen=, detective work of, 173
+
+=Pittsburg Landing=, Tennessee, battle of,
+  April 6, 7, 1862, 272-274
+
+=Polk, James K.=, eleventh President of the United States,
+  sends treaty of peace with Mexico to Senate, 79
+
+=Pomeroy, Samuel C.=, United States senator, secret circular of, 440
+
+=Pope, John=, brevet major-general United States army,
+  sent to New Madrid, 270;
+  capture of Island No. 10, 274;
+  proceeds to Fort Pillow, 274;
+  joins Halleck, 274;
+  assigned to command Army of Virginia, 306;
+  assumes command of Army of Virginia 310;
+  second battle of Bull Run, 310, 311;
+  despatch announcing his defeat, 312;
+  relieved from command of Army of the Potomac, 314
+
+=Porter, David D.=, admiral United States navy,
+  commands mortar flotilla in expedition with Farragut, 282-287;
+  in second expedition to Vicksburg, 287;
+  in operations about Vicksburg, 382, 383;
+  visits Richmond with Lincoln, 517, 518
+
+=Porterfield, G.A.=, Confederate colonel, routed at Philippi, 225
+
+=Port Hudson=, Louisiana, siege and surrender of, 383, 384
+
+=Port Royal=, South Carolina, expedition against, 245, 246
+
+=Powell, Lewis=, _alias_ Lewis Payne, in conspiracy
+  to assassinate Lincoln, 534;
+  assigned to murder Seward, 535;
+  attack upon Seward, 540, 541;
+  escape and capture of, 541, 542;
+  execution of, 544
+
+=Price, Sterling=, Confederate major-general retreat
+  to Springfield, Missouri, 234;
+  captures Mulligan, 241;
+  retreats toward Arkansas, 269;
+  defeat at Pea Ridge, 271
+
+=Pritchard, Benjamin D.=, brevet brigadier-general
+  United States Volunteers, captures Jefferson Davis, 526
+
+
+=Quinton, R.=, defeated for Illinois legislature 1832, 34
+
+
+=Rathbone, Henry R.=, brevet colonel United States army,
+  attends Ford's Theater with Mrs. Lincoln and Miss Harris, 536;
+  wounded by Booth, 538, 539
+
+=Raymond, Henry J.=, member of Congress letter to Lincoln, 462, 463;
+  visits Washington, 463
+
+=Reconstruction=, in West Virginia and Missouri, 418, 419;
+  Lincoln's theory of, 419;
+  in Louisiana, 420-426;
+  in Arkansas, 426, 427;
+  in Tennessee, 428, 429;
+  opposition in Congress to Lincoln's action concerning, 454;
+  Henry Winter Davis's bill prescribing method of, 454;
+  Lincoln's proclamation of, July 8, 1864, 456;
+  Wade-Davis manifesto, 456, 457
+
+=Republican Party=, formation of, 102, 103;
+  nominates Frémont and Dayton, 1856, 103, 104;
+  national convention of, 1860, 144-151;
+  candidates in 1860, 152;
+  campaign of, 1860, 153-160;
+  Frémont faction denounces Lincoln's attitude on slavery, 438;
+  the Chase faction, 439-441;
+  national convention of, 1864, 446-449;
+  gloomy prospects of, 462-466: success in elections of, 1864, 469, 470
+
+=Retaliation,= rebel threats of, 350, 351;
+  cabinet action on Fort Pillow massacre, 352;
+  conversation between Lincoln and Frederick Douglass about, 352
+
+=Reynolds,= John, governor of Illinois, issues call
+  for volunteers for Black Hawk War, 31, 32
+
+=Richmond,= Virginia, becomes capital of Confederate States, 207;
+  panic in, at rumors of evacuation, 481;
+  high prices in, 481;
+  excitement created by Blair's visits, 481, 482;
+  alarm at Grant's advance, 500;
+  surrender of, April 3, 1865, 510;
+  burning of, 515, 516
+
+=Rich Mountain,= Virginia, battle of, July 11, 1861, 225
+
+=Riney, Zachariah,= teacher of President Lincoln, 6
+
+=Roanoke,= the, Union steam frigate, in fight
+  between _Monitor_ and _Merrimac_, 280
+
+=Robinson, E.,= defeated for Illinois legislature, 1832, 34
+
+=Rodgers, John,= rear-admiral United States navy,
+  takes part in Port Royal expedition, 245, 246
+
+=Romine, Gideon,= merchant at Gentryville, 9
+
+=Rosecrans, William S.,= brevet major-general United States army,
+  success at Rich Mountain, 225;
+  succeeds Buell in Kentucky, 380;
+  battle of Murfreesboro, 380;
+  Iuka and Corinth, 380;
+  drives Bragg to Chattanooga, 385;
+  Chattanooga and Chickamauga, 386-388;
+  relieved from command, 388, 389;
+  dilatory movements delay reconstruction in Tennessee, 428
+
+=Russell, Lord John,= British minister for foreign affairs,
+  interview with Charles Francis Adams, 211
+
+=Rutledge, Anne,= engagement to Lincoln, 54;
+  death of, 54
+
+
+=Savannah,= Georgia, occupied by Sherman, December 21, 1864, 412
+
+=Schofield, J.M.,= brevet major-general, general-in-chief,
+  United States army, ordered to join Sherman, 414;
+  joins Sherman 417
+
+=Schurz, Carl,= major-general United States Volunteers,
+  United States senator,
+  Secretary of the Interior, asks permission to take part
+  in presidential campaign, 444
+
+=Scott Dred,= case of, 108, 109
+
+=Scott, Robert E.,= tendered cabinet appointment 164
+
+=Scott, Winfield,= lieutenant-general United States army,
+  warning to Lincoln about plot in Baltimore, 172;
+  charged with safety of Washington, 172;
+  attempt to reinforce Anderson, 178;
+  advises evacuation of Sumter, 183;
+  orders Washington prepared for a siege, 194;
+  report to President Lincoln, 194, 195;
+  offers Lee command of seventy-five regiments, 196;
+  orders Lyon to St. Louis, 202;
+  loyalty of, 208;
+  occupies Cairo, Illinois, 210;
+  military problem before, 210;
+  plan of campaign 215, 216, 231, 232;
+  refuses to credit news of defeat at Bull Run, 228, 229;
+  welcomes McClellan to Washington, 250;
+  quarrel with McClellan, 251, 252;
+  retirement of, 251-253;
+  rank as lieutenant-general, 393;
+  attends Lincoln's funeral in New York, 547
+
+=Seaton, William W.,= mayor of Washington approves
+  Lincoln's bill abolishing slavery in District of Columbia, 87
+
+=Secession,= South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi Alabama,
+  Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas join the movement, 175, 176;
+  action of central cabal, 177;
+  sentiment in Maryland, 193, 194;
+  Virginia passes ordinance of, 194;
+  Tennessee, North Carolina, and Arkansas join the movement, 200;
+  sentiment in Delaware, 201;
+  in Kentucky, 201;
+  in Missouri, 201-204;
+  numerical strength of, 204. See _Confederate States of America_
+
+=Seddon, James A.,= member of Congress, Confederate
+  Secretary of War, resignation of, 501
+
+=Sedgwick, John,= major-general United States Volunteers,
+  crosses Rappahannock and takes Fredericksburg, 368, 369
+
+=Seven Days' Battles,= 302, 306, 307
+
+=Seward, Augustus H.,= brevet colonel United States army,
+  stabbed by Powell, _alias_ Payne, 541
+
+=Seward, Frederick W.,= Assistant Secretary of State,
+  visits Lincoln in Philadelphia, 172;
+  wounded by Powell, _alias_, Payne, 540, 541
+
+=Seward, William H.,= United States senator, Secretary of State,
+  desires reëlection of Douglas to United States Senate, 125;
+  candidate for presidential nomination, 1860, 144;
+  votes for, in Chicago convention, 149-151;
+  accepts cabinet appointment, 163;
+  transmits offers of cabinet appointments, 164;
+  suggestions to Lincoln about journey to Washington, 168;
+  warning to Lincoln about plot in Baltimore, 172, 173;
+  meets Lincoln at railway station in Washington, 174;
+  appointed Secretary of State, 182;
+  reply to Confederate commissioners, 183;
+  reply to Judge Campbell, 183;
+  memorandum of April 1, 1861, 184-187;
+  opinion of Lincoln, 187;
+  despatch of May 21, 211;
+  friendship for Lord Lyons, 247;
+  despatch in _Trent_ affair, 249;
+  at gathering of officials to discuss news of _Monitor_
+  and _Merrimac_, 296;
+  goes to New York with President's letter, 307;
+  Lincoln tells him of coming emancipation proclamation, 332;
+  suggests postponement of emancipation proclamation, 332;
+  attitude toward the French in Mexico, 451, 452;
+  agrees with President against making proffers of peace to Davis, 463;
+  proclaims ratification of Thirteenth Amendment, 475;
+  goes to Hampton Roads, 483;
+  relations with Montgomery Blair, 488;
+  plot to murder, 535;
+  attacked by Powell, _alias_ Payne, 540, 541
+
+=Seymour, Horatio=, governor of New York, opposition to the draft, 355-357;
+  correspondence with Lincoln, 356;
+  notifies McClellan of his nomination, 468
+
+=Shepley, G.F.=, brigadier-general United States Volunteers,
+  military governor of Louisiana, orders election
+  for members of Congress, 422;
+  orders registration of loyal voters, 422, 423
+
+=Sheridan, Philip H.=, lieutenant-general, general-in-chief,
+  United States army, operations in Shenandoah valley, 403, 404;
+  succeeds McClellan, 470;
+  in Shenandoah valley, 502;
+  reaches City Point, 506;
+  advance to Five Forks, 507;
+  reports situation to Grant, 507;
+  battle of Five Forks, 508;
+  ordered to get on Lee's line of retreat, 509, 510;
+  despatch to Grant, 511;
+  captures Appomattox Station, 512;
+  despatch to Grant, 512
+
+=Sherman, John=, member of Congress, Secretary of the Treasury,
+  United States senator,
+  candidate for Speaker of the House of Representatives, 141
+
+=Sherman, William Tecumseh=, lieutenant-general,
+  general-in-chief United States army, sent to Nashville, 254;
+  succeeds Anderson, 254;
+  interview with Cameron, 255;
+  asks to be relieved, 255;
+  in operations about Vicksburg, 381, 382;
+  reaches Chattanooga, 389;
+  in battle of Chattanooga, 390, 391;
+  conference with Grant, 395;
+  master in the West, 395;
+  Meridian campaign, 405, 406;
+  concentrates troops at Chattanooga, 406;
+  march on Atlanta, 408, 468;
+  truce with Hood, 408;
+  divides his army, 409;
+  march to the sea, 410-412;
+  telegram to President Lincoln, 412;
+  proposes to march through the Carolinas, 414;
+  from Savannah to Goldsboro, 414-417;
+  visit to Grant, 417;
+  march northward, 502;
+  visit to Lincoln and Grant, 506;
+  admiration for Grant and respect for Lee, 520;
+  enters Raleigh, 521;
+  receives communication from Johnston, 521;
+  meetings with Johnston, 521, 522;
+  agreement between them, 522;
+  agreement disapproved at Washington, 523;
+  report to Grant, 523, 524;
+  receives Johnston's surrender, 524;
+  effect of his march through the South, 524;
+  sent against E. Kirby Smith, 526;
+  soldiers of, in grand review, 528
+
+=Shields, James=, United States senator, brigadier-general
+  United States Volunteers, at Springfield, Illinois, 52;
+  auditor of Illinois, 65;
+  challenges Lincoln to a duel, 66-68;
+  ordered to form junction with McDowell and Frémont, 306
+
+=Short, James=, buys Lincoln's surveying instruments
+  and restores them to him, 36
+
+=Simpson, M.=, Bishop of the Methodist Church,
+  oration at Lincoln's funeral, 548
+
+=Slavery=, agitation in Illinois, 45, 46;
+  Lincoln-Stone protest, 47;
+  Lincoln's bill to abolish, in District of Columbia, 85-87;
+  repeal of Missouri Compromise, 94, 95;
+  Peoria debate of Lincoln and Douglas, 96-98;
+  Lincoln's Chicago banquet speech, 106, 107;
+  Dred Scott case, 108-112;
+  pro-slavery reaction, 113;
+  slavery agitation in Kansas, 113-117;
+  Lincoln's "House divided against itself" speech, 119, 120, 127, 128;
+  Lincoln-Douglas joint debate, 121-125;
+  John Brown raid, 134, 135;
+  Lincoln's speeches in Kansas and the East, 136-140;
+  pro-slavery demands of Democratic leaders, 141, 142;
+  attitude of political parties upon, in 1860, 152, 153;
+  "corner-stone" theory of the Confederate States, 179;
+  dream of the conspirators, 197, 204;
+  dread of slave insurrections in the South, 220, 221;
+  action of Union commanders about, 220-223;
+  Frémont's proclamation, 236-238;
+  Lincoln to Browning about Frémont's proclamation, 238-240;
+  President's interview with border State delegations, 257, 258, 324, 325;
+  references to, in Cameron's report, 320;
+  in Lincoln's message of December 3, 1861, 321, 322;
+  Delaware offered compensated abolishment, 322, 323;
+  Lincoln's special message to Congress, March 6, 1862, 323, 324;
+  President's letter to McDougall, 324;
+  Congress passes bill for compensated emancipation
+  in District of Columbia, 325, 326;
+  bill in Congress to aid emancipation in Delaware, Maryland,
+  Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri, 326;
+  Lincoln revokes Hunter's order, 327, 328;
+  measures relating to, in Congress, 1862, 329;
+  President's second interview with border State delegations, 329-331;
+  Lincoln reads first draft of emancipation proclamation to
+  cabinet, 331, 332;
+  President's interview with Chicago clergymen, 337-339;
+  President issues preliminary emancipation proclamation, 339-341;
+  annual message of December 1, 1862, on, 341, 342;
+  President issues final emancipation proclamation, 342-346;
+  President's views on, 346, 347;
+  arming of negro soldiers, 348-350;
+  instructions from War Department about slaves, 349;
+  contest over slavery clause in new Louisiana constitution, 423;
+  slavery abolished in Louisiana, 426;
+  abolished in Arkansas, 427;
+  abolished in Tennessee, 429;
+  abolished in Missouri, 434;
+  abolished in Maryland, 435, 436;
+  attitude of Democratic party on, 437, 438;
+  Republican national platform favors constitutional
+  amendment abolishing, 446;
+  fugitive-slave law repealed, 457;
+  constitutional amendment prohibiting, in United States, 471-476;
+  public opinion on, in certain States, 473;
+  two constitutional amendments offered during Lincoln's term, 475, 476;
+  Lincoln's draft of joint resolution offering South $400,000,000, 493;
+  decline in value of slave property in the South, 501;
+  effect on Lincoln's character, 551.
+  See _Emancipation_ and _Negro soldiers_
+
+=Slidell, John=, minister to Mexico, United States senator,
+  Confederate commissioner to Europe, capture of, 246-249;
+  last instructions from Confederate Secretary of State to, 501, 502
+
+=Smith, Caleb B.=, member of Congress, Secretary of the Interior,
+  judge United States District Court,
+  appointed Secretary of the Interior, 182;
+  signs cabinet protest, 311, 312
+
+=Smith, E. Kirby=, Confederate general,
+  commands forces west of the Mississippi, 525;
+  surrender of, 526, 527
+
+=Smith, Melancton=, rear-admiral United States navy,
+  at gathering of officials to discuss fight between _Monitor_
+  and _Merrimac_, 296
+
+=Smith, William F.=, brevet major-general United States army,
+  service at Chattanooga 389
+
+=Spain=, joint expedition to Mexico, 451
+
+=Spangler, Edward=, imprisoned for complicity in Booth's plot, 544
+
+=Speed, James=, Attorney-General, appointed Attorney-General, 491
+
+=Speed, Joshua F.=, intimacy with Lincoln, 53;
+  Lincoln's letters to, 64, 65, 68;
+  marriage, 65
+
+=Spottsylvania=, Virginia, battle of, May 8-19, 1864, 398, 399
+
+=Springfield=, Illinois, its ambition, 26;
+  first newspaper, 26;
+  becomes capital of Illinois, 45, 52;
+  in 1837-39, 53;
+  revival of business in, 61;
+  society in, 62;
+  Lincoln's speech of farewell at, 169;
+  funeral honors to Lincoln in, 547, 548
+
+=Stanley, Edward=, member of Congress, appointed military
+  governor of North Carolina, 420
+
+=Stanton, Edwin M.=, Attorney-General, Secretary of War,
+  succeeds Cameron as Secretary of War, 289;
+  his efficiency, 289, 290;
+  interview with the President, 293, 294;
+  at gathering of officials to discuss news of _Monitor_
+  and _Merrimac_, 296;
+  conveys President's reply to McClellan's plan of campaign, 298;
+  indignation at McClellan, 311;
+  draws up and signs memorandum of protest against continuing
+  McClellan in command, 311;
+  instruction about slaves, 349;
+  faith in Hooker, 370;
+  anxiety for Lincoln during Early's raid, 403;
+  order regulating raising of colored troops, 435;
+  orders suppression of two New York newspapers and arrest
+  of their editors, 453, 454;
+  agrees with President against making proffers of peace to Davis, 463;
+  sends Halleck's letter to President, 488;
+  shows Lincoln Grant's despatch transmitting Lee's overtures, 503;
+  disapproves Sherman's agreement with Johnston, 523;
+  at Lincoln's death-bed, 540
+
+=Star of the West=, merchant vessel, unsuccessful attempt
+  to reinforce Fort Sumter, 178
+
+=Steele, Frederick=, brevet major-general United States army,
+  marches from Helena to Little Rock, Arkansas, 427;
+  assists reconstruction in Arkansas, 427
+
+=Stephens, Alexander H.=; member of Congress,
+  Confederate Vice-President, correspondence with Lincoln, 165, 166;
+  elected Vice-President Confederate States of America, 179;
+  "corner-stone" theory, 179;
+  signs military league, 197;
+  appointed peace commissioner, 482;
+  at Hampton Roads conference, 482-485
+
+=Stevens, Thaddeus=, member of Congress, criticism of joint
+  resolution offering compensated emancipation, 325
+
+=St. Lawrence=, the, in fight between _Monitor_
+  and _Merrimac_, 280
+
+=Stone, Charles P.=, brigadier-general United States Volunteers,
+  report about danger to Lincoln in Baltimore, 172, 173
+
+=Stone, Dan=, member of Illinois legislature,
+  protest with Lincoln against resolutions on slavery, 47
+
+=Stone, Dr. Robert K.=, at Lincoln's death-bed, 539, 540
+
+=Stringham, Silas H.=, rear-admiral United States navy,
+  commands Hatteras expedition, 245
+
+=Stuart, John T.=, major Illinois Volunteers, member of Congress,
+  reënlists as private in Black Hawk War, 33;
+  elected to Illinois legislature in 1832, 34;
+  reëlected in 1834, 43;
+  encourages Lincoln to study law, 44;
+  at Springfield, Illinois, 52;
+  elected to Congress, 69, 70
+
+=Surratt, John H.=, in conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln, 534;
+  deposits arms in tavern at Surrattsville, 536;
+  escape to Canada, subsequent capture and trial, 544
+
+=Surratt, Mrs. Mary E.=, in conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln, 534;
+  visits tavern at Surrattsville, 536;
+  fate of, 541, 542, 544
+
+=Swaney=, teacher of President Lincoln, 12
+
+=Swett, Leonard=, favors Holt for Vice-President, 448
+
+
+=Taney, Roger B.=, chief justice of the Supreme Court
+  of the United States, opinion in Dred Scott case, 109;
+  action in Merryman case, 199, 200;
+  death of, 490
+
+=Taylor, E.D.=, elected to Illinois legislature in 1832, 34
+
+=Taylor, Richard=, Confederate lieutenant-general,
+  surrenders to Canby, 525, 527
+
+=Taylor, Zachary=, twelfth President of the United States,
+  nominated for President, 80, 81;
+  elected President, 87
+
+=Tennessee=, the, Confederate ram, in battle of Mobile Bay, 525
+
+=Tennessee=, State of, joins Confederacy, 200, 204;
+  military governor appointed for, 419;
+  secession usurpation in, 420;
+  delay of reconstruction in, 428;
+  organization of State government and abolishment of slavery, 429;
+  public opinion in, regarding slavery, 473;
+  ratifies Thirteenth Amendment, 475
+
+=Terry, Alfred H.=, brevet major-general United States army,
+  communicates with Sherman, 416
+
+=Texas=, State of, ratifies Thirteenth Amendment, 475
+
+=Thatcher, Henry K.=, rear-admiral United States navy,
+  receives surrender of Farrand, 525
+
+=Thirteenth Amendment=, joint resolution proposing, 471-475;
+  ratification of, 475
+
+=Thomas, George H.=, major-general United States army,
+  ordered to oppose Zollicoffer, 254;
+  victory over Zollicoffer, 265;
+  at battle of Chickamauga, 387;
+  succeeds Rosecrans at Chattanooga, 389;
+  in battle of Chattanooga, 390, 391;
+  sent by Sherman to defend Tennessee, 409;
+  Franklin and Nashville, 410;
+  threatens Confederate communications from Tennessee, 502
+
+=Thompson, Jacob=, member of Congress, Secretary of the Interior,
+  agent of Confederate government in Canada, 361;
+  his visionary plans, 361, 362;
+  account at Montreal Bank, 544
+
+=Thompson, Samuel=, colonel Illinois Volunteers,
+  commands regiment in Black Hawk War, 32
+
+=Tod, David=, minister to Brazil, governor of Ohio,
+  declines nomination for Secretary of the Treasury, 457
+
+=Todd, Mary=, see _Lincoln, Mary Todd_
+
+=Totten, Joseph G.=, brevet major-general United States army,
+  at gathering of officials to discuss news of fight of _Monitor_
+  and _Merrimac_, 296
+
+=Treat, Samuel H.=, United States district judge,
+  at Springfield, Illinois, 52
+
+=Trent Brothers=, buy store of Lincoln and Berry, 36
+
+=Trent=, the, British mail-steamer, overhauled
+  by the _San Jacinto_, 246
+
+=Trumbull, Lyman=, member of Congress, United States senator,
+  at Springfield, Illinois, 52;
+  elected to United States Senate, 1855, 100
+
+=Turnham, David=, lends Lincoln "Revised Statutes of Indiana," 14
+
+
+=Usher, John P.=, Secretary of the Treasury, resigns from cabinet, 492
+
+
+=Vallandigham, Clement L.=, member of Congress,
+  interview with John Brown, 134;
+  arrest and banishment of, 358;
+  head of Knights of Golden Circle, etc., 360, 361;
+  at Democratic national convention, 467, 468
+
+=Van Bergen=, sues Lincoln for debt, 36, 41
+
+=Vandalia=, Illinois, removal of State capital from,
+  to Springfield, 45, 52
+
+=Van Dorn, Earl=, Confederate major-general, defeat at Pea Ridge, 271
+
+=Varuna=, the, sunk in expedition against New Orleans, 285
+
+=Vicksburg=, Mississippi, fortifications of, 287;
+  surrender of, July 4, 1863, 376, 383;
+  situation of 381;
+  operations against, 381-383
+
+=Victoria=, Queen of Great Britain and Ireland,
+  proclamation of neutrality, 211;
+  kindly feelings toward United States, 247
+
+=Vienna Station=, ambush at, 214
+
+=Virginia=, State of, passes ordinance of secession, 194;
+  in the Confederacy, 204;
+  ratifies Thirteenth Amendment, 475
+
+
+=Wade, Benjamin F.=, United States senator,
+  signs Wade-Davis manifesto, 456
+
+=Walker, Leroy Pope=, Confederate Secretary of War
+  and brigadier-general, speech at Montgomery, 197
+
+=Walker, Robert J.=, United States senator Secretary
+  of the Treasury, appointed governor of Kansas, 114;
+  letter to Buchanan 114, 115;
+  resigns, 117
+
+=Warren, Gouverneur K.=, brevet major-general United
+  States army, attacked by Lee, 507
+
+=Washburne, Elihu B.=, member of Congress,
+  minister to France, meets Lincoln at railway station in Washington, 174
+
+=Washington City=, cutoff from the North, 194-197;
+  communication restored, 197;
+  fortifications of, 208, 209;
+  threatened by Early, 403;
+  grand review of Union army in, 527-529
+
+=Washington, George=, first President of the United States,
+  rank of lieutenant-general, 393;
+  size of his armies compared with Lee's, 524;
+  his place in United States history, 555
+
+=Weitzel, Godfrey=, brevet major-general United States army,
+  receives surrender of Richmond, 510;
+  sets about work of relief, 516
+
+=Welles, Gideon=, Secretary of the Navy,
+  appointed Secretary of the Navy, 182;
+  approves course of Captain Wilkes, 246;
+  at gathering of officials to discuss news of fight
+  between _Monitor_ and _Merrimac_, 296;
+  refuses to sign cabinet protest, 311, 312;
+  Lincoln tells him of coming emancipation proclamation, 332
+
+=West Virginia=, State of, formation of, 200, 201;
+  true to the Union, 204;
+  effect on, of McClellan's campaign, 225;
+  admission to the Union, 418;
+  slavery in throttled by public opinion, 473
+
+=Whig Party=, first national convention of, 28;
+  nominates Henry Clay, 28;
+  convention of 1860, 143, 144
+
+=White, Albert S.=, member of Congress, United States senator,
+  judge of District Court of Indiana,
+  reports bill to aid emancipation in Delaware,
+  Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri, 326
+
+=Whitesides, Samuel=, general Illinois Volunteers,
+  reënlists as private in Black Hawk War, 33
+
+=Wide Awakes=, origin and campaign work of, 155, 156
+
+=Wilderness=, Virginia, battle of, May 5, 6, 1864, 398
+
+=Wilkes, Charles=, rear-admiral United States navy,
+  capture of the _Trent_, 246-249
+
+=Wilmington=, North Carolina, occupation of, February 22, 1865, 525
+
+=Wilson, James H.=, brevet major-general United States army,
+  cavalry raid, and defeat of Forrest, 524, 525
+
+=Wilson's Creek=, Missouri, battle of, August 10, 1861, 235
+
+=Wise, Henry A.=, minister to Brazil;
+  governor of Virginia, Confederate brigadier-general desires
+  Douglas's reëlection to United States Senate, 126;
+  interview with John Brown, 134
+
+=Worden, John L.=, rear-admiral United States navy,
+  commands the _Monitor_, 282
+
+=Wright, Horatio G.=, brevet major-general United States army,
+  sent to Washington 403;
+  in recapture of Fort Stedman, 505, 506;
+  in assault at Petersburg, 508, 509
+
+
+=Yates, Richard=, member of Congress, governor of Illinois,
+  United States senator Lincoln advocates his reëlection, 96;
+  commissions Grant, 265;
+  appoints J.F. Jaquess colonel of volunteer regiment, 461
+
+=Yorktown=, Virginia, siege of, April 5 to May 3, 1862, 301
+
+
+=Zollicoffer, Felix K.=, member of Congress,
+  Confederate brigadier-general, in eastern Kentucky, 254;
+  defeated by Thomas, 265
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's A Short Life of Abraham Lincoln, by John G. Nicolay
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+<pre>
+
+Project Gutenberg's A Short Life of Abraham Lincoln, by John G. Nicolay
+
+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: A Short Life of Abraham Lincoln
+       Condensed from Nicolay & Hay's Abraham Lincoln: A History
+
+Author: John G. Nicolay
+
+Release Date: July 19, 2005 [EBook #16332]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A SHORT LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Chuck Greif and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<h1>A SHORT LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN</h1>
+<h3>CONDENSED FROM NICOLAY &amp; HAY'S ABRAHAM LINCOLN: A
+HISTORY</h3>
+<h3>BY</h3>
+<h2>JOHN G. NICOLAY</h2>
+<h5>NEW YORK The Century Co. 1904</h5>
+
+<div class="center">
+<img src="images/frontis.jpg" width="60%" alt="PRESIDENT LINCOLN AND HIS SON &quot;TAD.&quot;" title="PRESIDENT LINCOLN AND HIS SON &quot;TAD.&quot;" />
+</div>
+<h4>PRESIDENT LINCOLN AND HIS SON "TAD."</h4>
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+<h5><i>Published October, 1902</i></h5>
+<h5>THE DEVINNE PRESS.</h5>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<div class="center">
+<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS</h2>
+<hr style="width: 10%;" />
+<a href="#I"><b>CHAPTER I</b></a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Ancestry&mdash;Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks&mdash;Rock Spring
+Farm&mdash;Lincoln's<br />
+Birth&mdash;Kentucky Schools&mdash;The Journey to
+Indiana&mdash;Pigeon Creek<br />
+Settlement&mdash;Indiana Schools&mdash;Sally Bush
+Lincoln&mdash;Gentryville&mdash;Work and<br />
+Books&mdash;Satires and Sermons&mdash;Flatboat Voyage to New
+Orleans&mdash;The Journey<br />
+to Illinois<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#II"><b>CHAPTER II</b></a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Flatboat&mdash;New Salem&mdash;Election Clerk&mdash;Store and
+Mill&mdash;Kirkham's<br />
+"Grammar"&mdash;"Sangamo Journal"&mdash;The
+Talisman&mdash;Lincoln's Address, March 9,<br />
+1832&mdash;Black Hawk War&mdash;Lincoln Elected
+Captain&mdash;Mustered out May 27,<br />
+1832&mdash;Re-enlisted in Independent Spy Battalion&mdash;Finally
+Mustered out,<br />
+June 16, 1832&mdash;Defeated for the Legislature&mdash;Blacksmith
+or Lawyer?&mdash;The<br />
+Lincoln-Berry Store&mdash;Appointed Postmaster, May 7,
+1833&mdash;National Politics<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#III"><b>CHAPTER III</b></a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Appointed Deputy Surveyor&mdash;Elected to Legislature in
+1834&mdash;Campaign<br />
+Issues&mdash;Begins Study of Law&mdash;Internal ImprovementS
+ystem&mdash;The<br />
+Lincoln-Stone Protest&mdash;Candidate for Speaker in 1838 and
+1840<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#IV"><b>CHAPTER IV</b></a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Law Practice&mdash;Rules for a Lawyer&mdash;Law and Politics:
+Twin<br />
+Occupations&mdash;The Springfield Coterie&mdash;Friendly
+Help&mdash;Anne Rutledge&mdash;Mary Owens<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#V"><b>CHAPTER V</b></a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Springfield Society&mdash;Miss Mary Todd&mdash;Lincoln's
+Engagement&mdash;His Deep<br />
+Despondency&mdash;Visit to Kentucky&mdash;Letters to
+Speed&mdash;The Shields<br />
+Duel&mdash;Marriage&mdash;Law Partnership with Logan&mdash;Hardin
+Nominated for<br />
+Congress, 1843&mdash;Baker Nominated for Congress,
+1844&mdash;Lincoln Nominated<br />
+and Elected, 1846<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#VI"><b>CHAPTER VI</b></a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+First Session of the Thirtieth Congress&mdash;Mexican
+War&mdash;"Wilmot<br />
+Proviso"&mdash;Campaign of 1848&mdash;Letters to Herndon about
+Young Men in<br />
+Politics&mdash;Speech in Congress on the Mexican War&mdash;Second
+Session of the<br />
+Thirtieth Congress&mdash;Bill to Prohibit Slavery in the District
+of<br />
+Columbia&mdash;Lincoln's Recommendations of
+Office-Seekers&mdash;Letters to<br />
+Speed&mdash;Commissioner of the General Land Office&mdash;Declines
+Governorship of<br />
+Oregon<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#VII"><b>CHAPTER VII</b></a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Repeal of the Missouri Compromise&mdash;State Fair
+Debate&mdash;Peoria<br />
+Debate&mdash;Trumbull Elected&mdash;Letter to Robinson&mdash;The
+Know-Nothings&mdash;Decatur<br />
+Meeting&mdash;Bloomington Convention&mdash;Philadelphia
+Convention&mdash;Lincoln's Vote<br />
+for Vice-President&mdash;Fr&eacute;mont and Dayton&mdash;Lincoln's
+Campaign<br />
+Speeches&mdash;Chicago Banquet Speech<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#VIII"><b>CHAPTER VIII</b></a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Buchanan Elected President&mdash;The Dred Scott
+Decision&mdash;Douglas's<br />
+Springfield Speech, 1857&mdash;Lincoln's Answering
+Speech&mdash;Criticism of Dred<br />
+Scott Decision&mdash;Kansas Civil War&mdash;Buchanan Appoints
+Walker&mdash;Walker's<br />
+Letter on Kansas&mdash;The Lecompton Constitution&mdash;Revolt of
+Douglas<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#IX"><b>CHAPTER IX</b></a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+The Senatorial Contest in Illinois&mdash;"House Divided against
+Itself"<br />
+Speech&mdash;The Lincoln-Douglas Debates&mdash;The Freeport
+Doctrine&mdash;Douglas<br />
+Deposed from Chairmanship of Committee on
+Territories&mdash;Benjamin on<br />
+Douglas&mdash;Lincoln's Popular Majority&mdash;Douglas Gains
+Legislature&mdash;Greeley,<br />
+Crittenden <i>et al.</i>&mdash;"The Fight Must Go
+On"&mdash;Douglas's Southern<br />
+Speeches&mdash;Senator Brown's Questions&mdash;Lincoln's Warning
+against Popular<br />
+Sovereignty&mdash;The War of Pamphlets&mdash;Lincoln's Ohio
+Speeches&mdash;The John<br />
+Brown Raid&mdash;Lincoln's Comment<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#X"><b>CHAPTER X</b></a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Lincoln's Kansas Speeches&mdash;The Cooper Institute
+Speech&mdash;New England<br />
+Speeches&mdash;The Democratic Schism&mdash;Senator Brown's
+Resolutions&mdash;Jefferson<br />
+Davis's Resolutions&mdash;The Charleston Convention&mdash;Majority
+and Minority<br />
+Reports&mdash;Cotton State Delegations Secede&mdash;Charleston
+Convention<br />
+Adjourns&mdash;Democratic Baltimore Convention
+Splits&mdash;Breckinridge<br />
+Nominated&mdash;Douglas Nominated&mdash;Bell Nominated by Union
+Constitutional<br />
+Convention&mdash;Chicago Convention&mdash;Lincoln's Letters to
+Pickett and<br />
+Judd&mdash;The Pivotal States&mdash;Lincoln Nominated<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#XI"><b>CHAPTER XI</b></a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Candidates and Platforms&mdash;The Political Chances&mdash;Decatur
+Lincoln<br />
+Resolution&mdash;John Hanks and the Lincoln Rails&mdash;The
+Rail-Splitter<br />
+Candidate&mdash;The Wide-Awakes&mdash;Douglas's Southern
+Tour&mdash;Jefferson Davis's<br />
+Address&mdash;Fusion&mdash;Lincoln at the State House&mdash;The
+Election Result<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#XII"><b>CHAPTER XII</b></a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Lincoln's Cabinet Program&mdash;Members from the
+South&mdash;Questions and<br />
+Answers&mdash;Correspondence with Stephens&mdash;Action of
+Congress&mdash;Peace<br />
+Convention&mdash;Preparation of the Inaugural&mdash;Lincoln's
+Farewell<br />
+Address&mdash;The Journey to Washington&mdash;Lincoln's Midnight
+Journey<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#XIII"><b>CHAPTER XIII</b></a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+The Secession Movement&mdash;South Carolina
+Secession&mdash;Buchanan's<br />
+Neglect&mdash;Disloyal Cabinet Members&mdash;Washington Central
+Cabal&mdash;Anderson's<br />
+Transfer to Sumter&mdash;Star of the West&mdash;Montgomery
+Rebellion&mdash;Davis and<br />
+Stephens&mdash;Corner-stone Theory&mdash;Lincoln
+Inaugurated&mdash;His Inaugural<br />
+Address&mdash;Lincoln's Cabinet&mdash;The Question of
+Sumter&mdash;Seward's<br />
+Memorandum&mdash;Lincoln's Answer&mdash;Bombardment of
+Sumter&mdash;Anderson's<br />
+Capitulation<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#XIV"><b>CHAPTER XIV</b></a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+President's Proclamation Calling for Seventy-five
+Regiments&mdash;Responses<br />
+of the Governors&mdash;Maryland and Virginia&mdash;The Baltimore
+Riot&mdash;Washington<br />
+Isolated&mdash;Lincoln Takes the Responsibility&mdash;Robert E.
+Lee&mdash;Arrival of<br />
+the New York Seventh&mdash;Suspension of Habeas Corpus&mdash;The
+Annapolis<br />
+Route&mdash;Butler in Baltimore&mdash;Taney on the Merryman<br />
+Case&mdash;Kentucky&mdash;Missouri&mdash;Lyon Captures Camp
+Jackson&mdash;Boonville<br />
+Skirmish&mdash;The Missouri Convention&mdash;Gamble made
+Governor&mdash;The Border<br />
+States<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#XV"><b>CHAPTER XV</b></a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Davis's Proclamation for Privateers&mdash;Lincoln's Proclamation
+of<br />
+Blockade&mdash;The Call for Three Years' Volunteers&mdash;Southern
+Military<br />
+Preparations&mdash;Rebel Capital Moved to Richmond&mdash;Virginia,
+North Carolina,<br />
+Tennessee, and Arkansas Admitted to Confederate
+States&mdash;Desertion of<br />
+Army and Navy Officers&mdash;Union Troops Fortify Virginia Shore of
+the<br />
+Potomac&mdash;Concentration at Harper's Ferry&mdash;Concentration
+at Fortress<br />
+Monroe and Cairo&mdash;English Neutrality&mdash;Seward's
+21st-of-May<br />
+Despatch&mdash;Lincoln's Corrections&mdash;Preliminary
+Skirmishes&mdash;Forward to<br />
+Richmond&mdash;Plan of McDowell's Campaign<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#XVI"><b>CHAPTER XVI</b></a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Congress&mdash;The President's Message&mdash;Men and Money
+Voted&mdash;The<br />
+Contraband&mdash;Dennison Appoints McClellan&mdash;Rich
+Mountain&mdash;McDowell&mdash;Bull<br />
+Run&mdash;Patterson's Failure&mdash;McClellan at Washington<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#XVII"><b>CHAPTER XVII</b></a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+General Scott's Plans&mdash;Criticized as the "Anaconda"&mdash;The
+Three Fields of<br />
+Conflict&mdash;Fr&eacute;mont Appointed Major-General&mdash;His
+Military Failures&mdash;Battle<br />
+of Wilson's Creek&mdash;Hunter Ordered to
+Fr&eacute;mont&mdash;Fr&eacute;mont's<br />
+Proclamation&mdash;President Revokes Fr&eacute;mont's
+Proclamation&mdash;Lincoln's Letter<br />
+to Browning&mdash;Surrender of Lexington&mdash;Fr&eacute;mont Takes
+the Field&mdash;Cameron's<br />
+Visit to Fr&eacute;mont&mdash;Fr&eacute;mont's Removal<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#XVIII"><b>CHAPTER XVIII</b></a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Blockade&mdash;Hatteras Inlet&mdash;Port Royal Captured&mdash;The
+Trent Affair&mdash;Lincoln<br />
+Suggests Arbitration&mdash;Seward's Despatch&mdash;McClellan at
+Washington&mdash;Army<br />
+of the Potomac&mdash;McClellan's Quarrel with
+Scott&mdash;Retirement of<br />
+Scott&mdash;Lincoln's Memorandum&mdash;"All Quiet on the
+Potomac"&mdash;Conditions in<br />
+Kentucky&mdash;Cameron's Visit to Sherman&mdash;East
+Tennessee&mdash;Instructions to<br />
+Buell&mdash;Buell's Neglect&mdash;Halleck in Missouri<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#XIX"><b>CHAPTER XIX</b></a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Lincoln Directs Co&ouml;peration&mdash;Halleck and
+Buell&mdash;Ulysses S.<br />
+Grant&mdash;Grant's Demonstration&mdash;Victory at Mill
+River&mdash;Fort Henry&mdash;Fort<br />
+Donelson&mdash;Buell's Tardiness&mdash;Halleck's
+Activity&mdash;Victory of Pea<br />
+Ridge&mdash;Halleck Receives General Command&mdash;Pittsburg
+Landing&mdash;Island No.<br />
+10&mdash;Halleck's Corinth Campaign&mdash;Halleck's Mistakes<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#XX"><b>CHAPTER XX</b></a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+The Blockade&mdash;Hatteras Inlet&mdash;Roanoke Island&mdash;Fort
+Pulaski&mdash;<i>Merrimac</i><br />
+and <i>Monitor</i>&mdash;The <i>Cumberland</i> Sunk&mdash;The
+<i>Congress</i> Burned&mdash;Battle of<br />
+the Ironclads&mdash;Flag-Officer Farragut&mdash;Forts Jackson and
+St. Philip&mdash;New<br />
+Orleans Captured&mdash;Farragut at Vicksburg&mdash;Farragut's
+Second Expedition to<br />
+Vicksburg&mdash;Return to New Orleans<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#XXI"><b>CHAPTER XXI</b></a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+McClellan's Illness&mdash;Lincoln Consults McDowell and
+Franklin&mdash;President's<br />
+Plan against Manassas&mdash;McClellan's Plan against
+Richmond&mdash;Cameron and<br />
+Stanton&mdash;President's War Order No. 1&mdash;Lincoln's Questions
+to<br />
+McClellan&mdash;News from the West&mdash;Death of Willie
+Lincoln&mdash;The Harper's<br />
+Ferry Fiasco&mdash;President's War Order No. 3&mdash;The News from
+Hampton<br />
+Roads&mdash;Manassas Evacuated&mdash;Movement to the
+Peninsula&mdash;Yorktown&mdash;The<br />
+Peninsula Campaign&mdash;Seven Days' Battles&mdash;Retreat to
+Harrison's Landing<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#XXII"><b>CHAPTER XXII</b></a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Jackson's Valley Campaign&mdash;Lincoln's Visit to Scott&mdash;Pope
+Assigned to<br />
+Command&mdash;Lee's Attack on McClellan&mdash;Retreat to
+Harrison's<br />
+Landing&mdash;Seward Sent to New York&mdash;Lincoln's Letter to
+Seward&mdash;Lincoln's<br />
+Letter to McClellan&mdash;Lincoln's Visit to
+McClellan&mdash;Halleck Made<br />
+General-in-Chief&mdash;Halleck's Visit to
+McClellan&mdash;Withdrawal from<br />
+Harrison's Landing&mdash;Pope Assumes Command&mdash;Second Battle
+of Bull Run&mdash;The<br />
+Cabinet Protest&mdash;McClellan Ordered to Defend
+Washington&mdash;The Maryland<br />
+Campaign&mdash;Battle of Antietam&mdash;Lincoln visits
+Antietam&mdash;Lincoln's Letter<br />
+to McClellan&mdash;McClellan Removed from Command<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#XXIII"><b>CHAPTER XXIII</b></a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Cameron's Report&mdash;Lincoln's Letter to Bancroft&mdash;Annual
+Message on<br />
+Slavery&mdash;The Delaware Experiment&mdash;Joint Resolution on
+Compensated<br />
+Abolishment&mdash;First Border State Interview&mdash;Stevens's
+Comment&mdash;District<br />
+of Columbia Abolishment&mdash;Committee on
+Abolishment&mdash;Hunter's Order<br />
+Revoked&mdash;Antislavery Measures of Congress&mdash;Second Border
+State<br />
+Interview&mdash;Emancipation Proposed and Postponed<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#XXIV"><b>CHAPTER XXIV</b></a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Criticism of the President for his Action on
+Slavery&mdash;Lincoln's Letters<br />
+to Louisiana Friends&mdash;Greeley's Open Letter&mdash;Mr.
+Lincoln's<br />
+Reply&mdash;Chicago Clergymen Urge Emancipation&mdash;Lincoln's
+Answer&mdash;Lincoln<br />
+Issues Preliminary Proclamation&mdash;President Proposes
+Constitutional<br />
+Amendment&mdash;Cabinet Considers Final Proclamation&mdash;Cabinet
+Discusses<br />
+Admission of West Virginia&mdash;Lincoln Signs Edict of
+Freedom&mdash;Lincoln's<br />
+Letter to Hodges<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#XXV"><b>CHAPTER XXV</b></a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Negro Soldiers&mdash;Fort
+Pillow&mdash;Retaliation&mdash;Draft&mdash;Northern<br />
+Democrats&mdash;Governor Seymour's Attitude&mdash;Draft Riots in
+New<br />
+York&mdash;Vallandigham&mdash;Lincoln on his Authority to Suspend
+Writ of Habeas<br />
+Corpus&mdash;Knights of the Golden Circle&mdash;Jacob Thompson in
+Canada<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#XXVI"><b>CHAPTER XXVI</b></a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Burnside&mdash;Fredericksburg&mdash;A Tangle of
+Cross-Purposes&mdash;Hooker Succeeds<br />
+Burnside&mdash;Lincoln to Hooker&mdash;Chancellorsville&mdash;Lee's
+Second<br />
+Invasion&mdash;Lincoln's Criticisms of Hooker's
+Plans&mdash;Hooker<br />
+Relieved&mdash;Meade&mdash;Gettysburg&mdash;Lee's
+Retreat&mdash;Lincoln's Letter to<br />
+Meade&mdash;Lincoln's Gettysburg Address&mdash;Autumn
+Strategy&mdash;The Armies go into<br />
+Winter Quarters<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#XXVII"><b>CHAPTER XXVII</b></a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Buell and Bragg&mdash;Perryville&mdash;Rosecrans and
+Murfreesboro&mdash;Grant's<br />
+Vicksburg Experiments&mdash;Grant's May Battles&mdash;Siege and
+Surrender of<br />
+Vicksburg&mdash;Lincoln to Grant&mdash;Rosecrans's March to
+Chattanooga&mdash;Battle of<br />
+Chickamauga&mdash;Grant at Chattanooga&mdash;Battle of
+Chattanooga&mdash;Burnside at<br />
+Knoxville&mdash;Burnside Repulses Longstreet<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#XXVIII"><b>CHAPTER XXVIII</b></a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Grant Lieutenant-General&mdash;Interview with Lincoln&mdash;Grant
+Visits<br />
+Sherman&mdash;Plan of Campaigns&mdash;Lincoln to Grant&mdash;From
+the Wilderness to<br />
+Cold Harbor&mdash;The Move to City Point&mdash;Siege of
+Petersburg&mdash;Early Menaces<br />
+Washington&mdash;Lincoln under Fire&mdash;Sheridan in the
+Shenandoah Valley<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#XXIX"><b>CHAPTER XXIX</b></a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Sherman's Meridian Expedition&mdash;Capture of Atlanta&mdash;Hood
+Supersedes<br />
+Johnston&mdash;Hood's Invasion of Tennessee&mdash;Franklin
+and<br />
+Nashville&mdash;Sherman's March to the Sea&mdash;Capture of
+Savannah&mdash;Sherman to<br />
+Lincoln&mdash;Lincoln to Sherman&mdash;Sherman's March through the
+Carolinas&mdash;The<br />
+Burning of Charleston and Columbia&mdash;Arrival at
+Goldsboro&mdash;Junction with<br />
+Schofield&mdash;Visit to Grant<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#XXX"><b>CHAPTER XXX</b></a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Military Governors&mdash;Lincoln's Theory of
+Reconstruction&mdash;Congressional<br />
+Election in Louisiana&mdash;Letter to Military
+Governors&mdash;Letter to<br />
+Shepley&mdash;Amnesty Proclamation, December 8,
+1863&mdash;Instructions to<br />
+Banks&mdash;Banks's Action in Louisiana&mdash;Louisiana
+Abolishes<br />
+Slavery&mdash;Arkansas Abolishes Slavery&mdash;Reconstruction
+in<br />
+Tennessee&mdash;Missouri Emancipation&mdash;Lincoln's Letter to
+Drake&mdash;Missouri<br />
+Abolishes Slavery&mdash;Emancipation in Maryland&mdash;Maryland
+Abolishes Slavery<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#XXXI"><b>CHAPTER XXXI</b></a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Shaping of the Presidential Campaign&mdash;Criticisms of Mr.
+Lincoln&mdash;Chase's<br />
+Presidential Ambitions&mdash;The Pomeroy
+Circular&mdash;Cleveland<br />
+Convention&mdash;Attempt to Nominate Grant&mdash;Meeting of
+Baltimore<br />
+Convention&mdash;Lincoln's Letter to Schurz&mdash;Platform of
+Republican<br />
+Convention&mdash;Lincoln Renominated&mdash;Refuses to Indicate
+Preference for<br />
+Vice-President&mdash;Johnson Nominated for
+Vice-President&mdash;Lincoln's Speech<br />
+to Committee of Notification&mdash;Reference to Mexico in his
+Letter of<br />
+Acceptance&mdash;The French in Mexico<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#XXXII"><b>CHAPTER XXXII</b></a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+The Bogus Proclamation&mdash;The Wade-Davis
+Manifesto&mdash;Resignation of Mr.<br />
+Chase&mdash;Fessenden Succeeds Him&mdash;The Greeley Peace<br />
+Conference&mdash;Jaquess-Gilmore Mission&mdash;Letter of
+Raymond&mdash;Bad Outlook for<br />
+the Election&mdash;Mr. Lincoln on the Issues of the
+Campaign&mdash;President's<br />
+Secret Memorandum&mdash;Meeting of Democratic National
+Convention&mdash;McClellan<br />
+Nominated&mdash;His Letter of Acceptance&mdash;Lincoln
+Re&euml;lected&mdash;His Speech on<br />
+Night of Election&mdash;The Electoral Vote&mdash;Annual Message of
+December 6,<br />
+1864&mdash;Resignation of McClellan from the Army<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#XXXIII"><b>CHAPTER XXXIII</b></a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+The Thirteenth Amendment&mdash;The President's Speech on its
+Adoption&mdash;The<br />
+Two Constitutional Amendments of Lincoln's Term&mdash;Lincoln on
+Peace and<br />
+Slavery in his Annual Message of December 6, 1864&mdash;Blair's
+Mexican<br />
+Project&mdash;The Hampton Roads Conference<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#XXXIV"><b>CHAPTER XXXIV</b></a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Blair&mdash;Chase Chief Justice&mdash;Speed Succeeds
+Bates&mdash;McCulloch Succeeds<br />
+Fessenden&mdash;Resignation of Mr. Usher&mdash;Lincoln's Offer
+of<br />
+$400,000,000&mdash;The Second Inaugural&mdash;Lincoln's Literary
+Rank&mdash;His Last<br />
+Speech<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#XXXV"><b>CHAPTER XXXV</b></a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Depreciation of Confederate Currency&mdash;Rigor of<br />
+Conscription&mdash;Dissatisfaction with the Confederate
+Government&mdash;Lee<br />
+General-in-Chief &mdash;J.E. Johnston Reappointed to Oppose
+Sherman's<br />
+March&mdash;Value of Slave Property Gone in Richmond&mdash;Davis's
+Recommendation<br />
+of Emancipation&mdash;Benjamin's Last Despatch to
+Slidell&mdash;Condition of the<br />
+Army when Lee took Command&mdash;Lee Attempts Negotiations
+with<br />
+Grant&mdash;Lincoln's Directions&mdash;Lee and Davis Agree upon
+Line of<br />
+Retreat&mdash;Assault on Fort Stedman&mdash;Five
+Forks&mdash;Evacuation of<br />
+Petersburg&mdash;Surrender of Richmond&mdash;Pursuit of
+Lee&mdash;Surrender of<br />
+Lee&mdash;Burning of Richmond&mdash;Lincoln in Richmond<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#XXXVI"><b>CHAPTER XXXVI</b></a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Lincoln's Interviews with Campbell&mdash;Withdraws Authority for
+Meeting of<br />
+Virginia Legislature&mdash;Conference of Davis and Johnston
+at<br />
+Greensboro&mdash;Johnston Asks for an Armistice&mdash; Meeting of
+Sherman and<br />
+Johnston&mdash;Their Agreement&mdash;Rejected at
+Washington&mdash;Surrender of<br />
+Johnston&mdash;Surrender of other Confederate Forces&mdash;End of
+the Rebel<br />
+Navy&mdash;Capture of Jefferson Davis&mdash;Surrender of E. Kirby
+Smith&mdash;Number of<br />
+Confederates Surrendered and Exchanged&mdash;Reduction of Federal
+Army to a<br />
+Peace Footing&mdash;Grand Review of the Army<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#XXXVII"><b>CHAPTER XXXVII</b></a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+The 14th of April&mdash;Celebration at Fort Sumter&mdash;Last
+Cabinet<br />
+Meeting&mdash;Lincoln's Attitude toward Threats of Assassination
+&mdash;Booth's<br />
+Plot&mdash;Ford's Theater&mdash;Fate of the Assassins&mdash;The
+Mourning Pageant<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#XXXVIII"><b>CHAPTER XXXVIII</b></a><br />
+<br />
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<a name="page1" id="page1"></a><br />
+Lincoln's Early Environment&mdash;Its Effect on his
+Character&mdash;His Attitude<br />
+toward Slavery and the Slaveholder&mdash;His Schooling in
+Disappointment&mdash;His<br />
+Seeming Failures&mdash;His Real Successes&mdash;The Final
+Trial&mdash;His<br />
+Achievements&mdash;His Place in History<br />
+<br />
+<a name="page2" id="page2"></a><br />
+<a href="#INDEX"><b>INDEX</b></a><br />
+<br />
+<a href="#footnotes"><b>FOOTNOTES</b></a><br />
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /></div>
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="page3" id="page3"></a>
+<h1>ABRAHAM LINCOLN</h1>
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<h2><a name="I" id="I"></a>I</h2>
+<br />
+<p><i>Ancestry&mdash;Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks&mdash;Rock
+Spring Farm&mdash;Lincoln's Birth&mdash;Kentucky Schools&mdash;The
+Journey to Indiana&mdash;Pigeon Creek Settlement&mdash;Indiana
+Schools&mdash;Sally Bush Lincoln&mdash;Gentryville&mdash;Work and
+Books&mdash;Satires and Sermons&mdash;Flatboat Voyage to New
+Orleans&mdash;The Journey to Illinois</i></p>
+<br />
+<br />
+<p>Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth President of the United States,
+was born in a log cabin in the backwoods of Kentucky on the 12th
+day of February 1809. His father, Thomas Lincoln, was sixth in
+direct line of descent from Samuel Lincoln, who emigrated from
+England to Massachusetts in 1638. Following the prevailing drift of
+American settlement, these descendants had, during a century and a
+half, successively moved from Massachusetts to New Jersey, from New
+Jersey to Pennsylvania, from Pennsylvania to Virginia, and from
+Virginia to Kentucky; while collateral branches of the family
+eventually made homes in other parts of the West. In Pennsylvania
+and Virginia some of them had acquired considerable property and
+local prominence.</p>
+<p>In the year 1780, Abraham Lincoln, the President's grandfather,
+was able to pay into the public treasury of Virginia "one hundred
+and sixty pounds, current money," for which he received a warrant,
+directed to<a name="page4" id="page4"></a> the "Principal Surveyor of any County within
+the commonwealth of Virginia," to lay off in one or more surveys
+for Abraham Linkhorn, his heirs or assigns, the quantity of four
+hundred acres of land. The error in spelling the name was a blunder
+of the clerk who made out the warrant.</p>
+<p>With this warrant and his family of five
+children&mdash;Mordecai, Josiah, Mary, Nancy, and Thomas&mdash;he
+moved to Kentucky, then still a county of Virginia, in 1780, and
+began opening a farm. Four years later, while at work with his
+three boys in the edge of his clearing, a party of Indians,
+concealed in the brush, shot and killed him. Josiah, the second
+son, ran to a neighboring fort for assistance; Mordecai, the
+eldest, hurried to the cabin for his gun, leaving Thomas, youngest
+of the family, a child of six years, by his father. Mordecai had
+just taken down his rifle from its convenient resting-place over
+the door of the cabin when, turning, he saw an Indian in his
+war-paint stooping to seize the child. He took quick aim through a
+loop-hole, shot, and killed the savage, at which the little boy
+also ran to the house, and from this citadel Mordecai continued
+firing at the Indians until Josiah brought help from the fort.</p>
+<p>It was doubtless this misfortune which rapidly changed the
+circumstances of the family.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a>
+Kentucky was yet a wild, new country. As compared with later
+periods of emigration, settlement was slow and pioneer life a hard
+struggle. So it was probably under the stress of poverty, as well
+as by the marriage of the older children, that the home was
+gradually broken up, and Thomas Lincoln became "even in childhood
+... a wandering laboring boy, and grew up literally without
+education.... Before he was<a name="page5" id="page5"></a> grown he passed one year as a hired hand
+with his uncle Isaac on Watauga, a branch of the Holston River."
+Later, he seems to have undertaken to learn the trade of carpenter
+in the shop of Joseph Hanks in Elizabethtown.</p>
+<p>When Thomas Lincoln was about twenty-eight years old he married
+Nancy Hanks, a niece of his employer, near Beechland, in Washington
+County. She was a good-looking young woman of twenty-three, also
+from Virginia, and so far superior to her husband in education that
+she could read and write, and taught him how to sign his name.
+Neither one of the young couple had any money or property; but in
+those days living was not expensive, and they doubtless considered
+his trade a sufficient provision for the future. He brought her to
+a little house in Elizabethtown, where a daughter was born to them
+the following year.</p>
+<p>During the next twelvemonth Thomas Lincoln either grew tired of
+his carpenter work, or found the wages he was able to earn
+insufficient to meet his growing household expenses. He therefore
+bought a little farm on the Big South Fork of Nolin Creek, in what
+was then Hardin and is now La Rue County, three miles from
+Hodgensville, and thirteen miles from Elizabethtown. Having no
+means, he of course bought the place on credit, a transaction not
+so difficult when we remember that in that early day there was
+plenty of land to be bought for mere promises to pay; under the
+disadvantage, however, that farms to be had on these terms were
+usually of a very poor quality, on which energetic or forehanded
+men did not care to waste their labor. It was a kind of land
+generally known in the West as "barrens"&mdash;rolling upland, with
+very thin, unproductive soil. Its momentary usefulness was that it
+was partly cleared and<a name="page6" id="page6"></a> cultivated, that an indifferent cabin stood
+on it ready to be occupied, and that it had one specially
+attractive as well as useful feature&mdash;a fine spring of water,
+prettily situated amid a graceful clump of foliage, because of
+which the place was called Rock Spring Farm. The change of abode
+was perhaps in some respects an improvement upon Elizabethtown. To
+pioneer families in deep poverty, a little farm offered many more
+resources than a town lot&mdash;space, wood, water, greens in the
+spring, berries in the summer, nuts in the autumn, small game
+everywhere&mdash;and they were fully accustomed to the loss of
+companionship. On this farm, and in this cabin, the future
+President of the United States was born, on the 12th of February,
+1809, and here the first four years of his childhood were
+spent.</p>
+<p>When Abraham was about four years old the Lincoln home was
+changed to a much better farm of two hundred and thirty-eight acres
+on Knob Creek, six miles from Hodgensville, bought by Thomas
+Lincoln, again on credit, for the promise to pay one hundred and
+eighteen pounds. A year later he conveyed two hundred acres of it
+by deed to a new purchaser. In this new home the family spent four
+years more, and while here Abraham and his sister Sarah began going
+to A B C schools. Their first teacher was Zachariah Riney, who
+taught near the Lincoln cabin; the next, Caleb Hazel, at a distance
+of about four miles.</p>
+<p>Thomas Lincoln was evidently one of those easy-going,
+good-natured men who carry the virtue of contentment to an extreme.
+He appears never to have exerted himself much beyond the attainment
+of a necessary subsistence. By a little farming and occasional jobs
+at his trade, he seems to have supplied his family with food and
+clothes. There is no record that he made any payment on either of
+his farms. The fever of<a name="page7" id="page7"></a> westward emigration was in the air, and,
+listening to glowing accounts of rich lands and newer settlements
+in Indiana, he had neither valuable possessions nor cheerful
+associations to restrain the natural impulse of every frontiersman
+to "move." In this determination his carpenter's skill served him a
+good purpose, and made the enterprise not only feasible but
+reasonably cheap. In the fall of 1816 he built himself a small
+flatboat, which he launched at the mouth of Knob Creek, half a mile
+from his cabin, on the waters of the Rolling Fork. This stream
+would float him to Salt River, and Salt River to the Ohio. He also
+thought to combine a little speculation with his undertaking. Part
+of his personal property he traded for four hundred gallons of
+whisky; then, loading the rest on his boat with his carpenter's
+tools and the whisky, he made the voyage, with the help of the
+current, down the Rolling Fork to Salt River, down Salt River to
+the Ohio, and down the Ohio to Thompson's Ferry, in Perry County,
+on the Indiana shore. The boat capsized once on the way, but he
+saved most of the cargo.</p>
+<p>Sixteen miles out from the river he found a location in the
+forest which suited him. Since his boat would not float up-stream,
+he sold it, left his property with a settler, and trudged back home
+to Kentucky, all the way on foot, to bring his wife and the two
+children&mdash;Sarah, nine years old, and Abraham, seven. Another
+son had been born to them some years before, but had died when only
+three days old. This time the trip to Indiana was made with the aid
+of two horses, used by the wife and children for riding and to
+carry their little equipage for camping at night by the way. In a
+straight line, the distance is about fifty miles; but it was
+probably doubled by the very few roads it was possible
+to<a name="page8" id="page8"></a>
+follow.</p>
+<p>Having reached the Ohio and crossed to where he had left his
+goods on the Indiana side, he hired a wagon, which carried them and
+his family the remaining sixteen miles through the forest to the
+spot he had chosen, which in due time became the Lincoln farm. It
+was a piece of heavily timbered land, one and a half miles east of
+what has since become the village of Gentryville, in Spencer
+County. The lateness of the autumn compelled him to provide a
+shelter as quickly as possible, and he built what is known on the
+frontier as a half-faced camp, about fourteen feet square. This
+structure differed from a cabin in that it was closed on only three
+sides, and open to the weather on the fourth. It was usual to build
+the fire in front of the open side, and the necessity of providing
+a chimney was thus avoided. He doubtless intended it for a mere
+temporary shelter, and as such it would have sufficed for good
+weather in the summer season. But it was a rude provision for the
+winds and snows of an Indiana winter. It illustrates Thomas
+Lincoln's want of energy, that the family remained housed in this
+primitive camp for nearly a whole year. He must, however, not be
+too hastily blamed for his dilatory improvement. It is not likely
+that he remained altogether idle. A more substantial cabin was
+probably begun, and, besides, there was the heavy work of clearing
+away the timber&mdash;that is, cutting down the large trees,
+chopping them into suitable lengths, and rolling them together into
+great log-heaps to be burned, or splitting them into rails to fence
+the small field upon which he managed to raise a patch of corn and
+other things during the ensuing summer.</p>
+<p>Thomas Lincoln's arrival was in the autumn of 1816. That same
+winter<a name="page9" id="page9"></a> Indiana was admitted to the Union as a
+State. There were as yet no roads worthy of the name to or from the
+settlement formed by himself and seven or eight neighbors at
+various distances. The village of Gentryville was not even begun.
+There was no sawmill to saw lumber. Breadstuff could be had only by
+sending young Abraham, on horseback, seven miles, with a bag of
+corn to be ground on a hand grist-mill. In the course of two or
+three years a road from Corydon to Evansville was laid out, running
+past the Lincoln farm; and perhaps two or three years afterward
+another from Rockport to Bloomington crossing the former. This gave
+rise to Gentryville. James Gentry entered the land at the
+cross-roads. Gideon Romine opened a small store, and their joint
+efforts succeeded in getting a post-office established from which
+the village gradually grew. For a year after his arrival Thomas
+Lincoln remained a mere squatter. Then he entered the
+quarter-section (one hundred and sixty acres) on which he opened
+his farm, and made some payments on his entry, but only enough in
+eleven years to obtain a patent for one half of it.</p>
+<p>About the time that he moved into his new cabin, relatives and
+friends followed from Kentucky, and some of them in turn occupied
+the half-faced camp. In the ensuing autumn much sickness prevailed
+in the Pigeon Creek settlement. It was thirty miles to the nearest
+doctor, and several persons died, among them Nancy Hanks Lincoln,
+the mother of young Abraham. The mechanical skill of Thomas was
+called upon to make the coffins, the necessary lumber for which had
+to be cut with a whip-saw.</p>
+<p>The death of Mrs. Lincoln was a serious loss to her husband and
+children. Abraham's sister Sarah was only eleven years old, and
+the<a name="page10" id="page10"></a> tasks and cares of the little household
+were altogether too heavy for her years and experience.
+Nevertheless, they struggled on bravely through the winter and next
+summer, but in the autumn of 1819 Thomas Lincoln went back to
+Kentucky and married Sally Bush Johnston, whom he had known and, it
+is said, courted when she was merely Sally Bush. Johnston, to whom
+she was married about the time Lincoln married Nancy Hanks, had
+died, leaving her with three children. She came of a better station
+in life than Thomas, and is represented as a woman of uncommon
+energy and thrift, possessing excellent qualities both of head and
+heart. The household goods which she brought to the Lincoln home in
+Indiana filled a four-horse wagon. Not only were her own three
+children well clothed and cared for, but she was able at once to
+provide little Abraham and Sarah with home comforts to which they
+had been strangers during the whole of their young lives. Under her
+example and urging, Thomas at once supplied the yet unfinished
+cabin with floor, door, and windows, and existence took on a new
+aspect for all the inmates. Under her management and control, all
+friction and jealousy was avoided between the two sets of children,
+and contentment, if not happiness, reigned in the little cabin.</p>
+<p>The new stepmother quickly perceived the superior aptitudes and
+abilities of Abraham. She became very fond of him, and in every way
+encouraged his marked inclination to study and improve himself. The
+opportunities for this were meager enough. Mr. Lincoln himself has
+drawn a vivid outline of the situation:</p>
+<p>"It was a wild region, with many bears and other wild animals
+still in the woods. There I grew up. There were some schools so
+called, but no qualification was ever required of a teacher beyond
+readin', writin',<a name="page11" id="page11"></a> and cipherin' to the Rule of Three. If a
+straggler supposed to understand Latin happened to sojourn in the
+neighborhood, he was looked upon as a wizard. There was absolutely
+nothing to excite ambition for education."</p>
+<p>As Abraham was only in his eighth year when he left Kentucky,
+the little beginnings he had learned in the schools kept by Riney
+and Hazel in that State must have been very slight&mdash;probably
+only his alphabet, or possibly three or four pages of Webster's
+"Elementary Spelling Book." It is likely that the multiplication
+table was as yet an unfathomed mystery, and that he could not write
+or read more than the words he spelled. There is no record at what
+date he was able again to go to school in Indiana. Some of his
+schoolmates think it was in his tenth year, or soon after he fell
+under the care of his stepmother. The school-house was a low cabin
+of round logs, a mile and a half from the Lincoln home, with split
+logs or "puncheons" for a floor, split logs roughly leveled with an
+ax and set up on legs for benches, and a log cut out of one end and
+the space filled in with squares of greased paper for window panes.
+The main light in such primitive halls of learning was admitted by
+the open door. It was a type of school building common in the early
+West, in which many a statesman gained the first rudiments of
+knowledge. Very often Webster's "Elementary Spelling Book" was the
+only text-book. Abraham's first Indiana school was probably held
+five years before Gentryville was located and a store established
+there. Until then it was difficult, if not impossible, to obtain
+books, slates, pencils, pen, ink, and paper, and their use was
+limited to settlers who had brought them when they came. It is
+reasonable to infer that the Lincoln<a name="page12" id="page12"></a> family had no such luxuries,
+and, as the Pigeon Creek settlement numbered only eight or ten
+families there must have been very few pupils to attend this first
+school. Nevertheless, it is worthy of special note that even under
+such difficulties and limitations, the American thirst for
+education planted a school-house on the very forefront of every
+settlement.</p>
+<p>Abraham's second school in Indiana was held about the time he
+was fourteen years old, and the third in his seventeenth year. By
+this time he probably had better teachers and increased facilities,
+though with the disadvantage of having to walk four or five miles
+to the school-house. He learned to write, and was provided with
+pen, ink, and a copy-book, and probably a very limited supply of
+writing-paper, for facsimiles have been printed of several scraps
+and fragments upon which he had carefully copied tables, rules, and
+sums from his arithmetic, such as those of long measure, land
+measure, and dry measure, and examples in multiplication and
+compound division. All this indicates that he pursued his studies
+with a very unusual purpose and determination, not only to
+understand them at the moment, but to imprint them indelibly upon
+his memory, and even to regain them in visible form for reference
+when the school-book might no longer be in his hands or
+possession.</p>
+<p>Mr. Lincoln has himself written that these three different
+schools were "kept successively by Andrew Crawford, &mdash;&mdash;
+Swaney, and Azel W. Dorsey." Other witnesses state the succession
+somewhat differently. The important fact to be gleaned from what we
+learn about Mr. Lincoln's schooling is that the instruction given
+him by these five different teachers&mdash;two in Kentucky and
+three in Indiana, in short sessions of attendance scattered over a
+period of nine years&mdash;made up in all less than a
+twelvemonth.<a name="page13" id="page13"></a> He said of it in 1860, "Abraham now thinks
+that the aggregate of all his schooling did not amount to one
+year." This distribution of the tuition he received was doubtless
+an advantage. Had it all been given him at his first school in
+Indiana, it would probably not have carried him half through
+Webster's "Elementary Spelling Book." The lazy or indifferent
+pupils who were his schoolmates doubtless forgot what was taught
+them at one time before they had opportunity at another; but to the
+exceptional character of Abraham, these widely separated fragments
+of instruction were precious steps to self-help, of which he made
+unremitting use.</p>
+<p>It is the concurrent testimony of his early companions that he
+employed all his spare moments in keeping on with some one of his
+studies. His stepmother says: "Abe read diligently.... He read
+every book he could lay his hands on; and when he came across a
+passage that struck him, he would write it down on boards, if he
+had no paper, and keep it there until he did get paper. Then he
+would rewrite it, look at it, repeat it. He had a copy-book, a kind
+of scrap-book, in which he put down all things, and thus preserved
+them." There is no mention that either he or other pupils had
+slates and slate-pencils to use at school or at home, but he found
+a ready substitute in pieces of board. It is stated that he
+occupied his long evenings at home doing sums on the fire-shovel.
+Iron fire-shovels were a rarity among pioneers; they used, instead
+a broad, thin clapboard with one end narrowed to a handle. In
+cooking by the open fire, this domestic implement was of the first
+necessity to arrange piles of live coals on the hearth, over which
+they set their "skillet" and "oven," upon the lids of which live
+coals were also heaped.<a name="page14" id="page14"></a></p>
+<p>Upon such a wooden shovel Abraham was able to work his sums by
+the flickering firelight. If he had no pencil, he could use
+charcoal, and probably did so. When it was covered with figures he
+would take a drawing-knife, shave it off clean, and begin again.
+Under these various disadvantages, and by the help of such
+troublesome expedients, Abraham Lincoln worked his way to so much
+of an education as placed him far ahead of his schoolmates, and
+quickly abreast of the acquirements of his various teachers. The
+field from which he could glean knowledge was very limited, though
+he diligently borrowed every book in the neighborhood. The list is
+a short one&mdash;"Robinson Crusoe," Aesop's "Fables," Bunyan's
+"Pilgrim's Progress," Weems's "Life of Washington," and a "History
+of the United States." When he had exhausted other books, he even
+resolutely attacked the Revised Statutes of Indiana, which Dave
+Turnham, the constable, had in daily use and permitted him to come
+to his house and read.</p>
+<p>It needs to be borne in mind that all this effort at
+self-education extended from first to last over a period of twelve
+or thirteen years, during which he was also performing hard manual
+labor, and proves a degree of steady, unflinching perseverance in a
+line of conduct that brings into strong relief a high aim and the
+consciousness of abundant intellectual power. He was not permitted
+to forget that he was on an uphill path, a stern struggle with
+adversity. The leisure hours which he was able to devote to his
+reading, his penmanship, and his arithmetic were by no means
+overabundant. Writing of his father's removal from Kentucky to
+Indiana, he says:</p>
+<p>"He settled in an unbroken forest, and the clearing away of
+surplus wood was the great task ahead. Abraham, though very young,
+was large of his<a name="page15" id="page15"></a> age, and had an ax put into his hands at
+once; and from that till within his twenty-third year he was almost
+constantly handling that most useful instrument&mdash;less, of
+course, in plowing and harvesting seasons."</p>
+<p>John Hanks mentions the character of his work a little more in
+detail. "He and I worked barefoot, grubbed it, plowed, mowed, and
+cradled together; plowed corn, gathered it, and shucked corn." The
+sum of it all is that from his boyhood until after he was of age,
+most of his time was spent in the hard and varied muscular labor of
+the farm and the forest, sometimes on his father's place, sometimes
+as a hired hand for other pioneers. In this very useful but
+commonplace occupation he had, however, one advantage. He was not
+only very early in his life a tall, strong country boy, but as he
+grew up he soon became a tall, strong, sinewy man. He early
+attained the unusual height of six feet four inches, with arms of
+proportionate length. This gave him a degree of power and facility
+as an ax-man which few had or were able to acquire. He was
+therefore usually able to lead his fellows in efforts of both
+muscle and mind. He performed the tasks of his daily labor and
+mastered the lessons of his scanty schooling with an ease and
+rapidity they were unable to attain.</p>
+<p>Twice during his life in Indiana this ordinary routine was
+somewhat varied. When he was sixteen, while working for a man who
+lived at the mouth of Anderson's Creek, it was part of his duty to
+manage a ferry-boat which transported passengers across the Ohio
+River. It was doubtless this which three years later brought him a
+new experience, that he himself related in these words:</p>
+<p>"When he was nineteen, still residing in Indiana, he made his
+first<a name="page16" id="page16"></a> trip upon a flatboat to New Orleans. He
+was a hired hand merely, and he and a son of the owner, without
+other assistance, made the trip. The nature of part of the 'cargo
+load,' as it was called, made it necessary for them to linger and
+trade along the sugar-coast, and one night they were attacked by
+seven negroes with intent to kill and rob them. They were hurt some
+in the m&ecirc;l&eacute;e, but succeeded in driving the negroes
+from the boat, and then 'cut cable,' 'weighed anchor,' and
+left."</p>
+<p>This commercial enterprise was set on foot by Mr. Gentry, the
+founder of Gentryville. The affair shows us that Abraham had gained
+an enviable standing in the village as a man of honesty, skill, and
+judgment&mdash;one who could be depended on to meet such
+emergencies as might arise in selling their bacon and other produce
+to the cotton-planters along the shores of the lower
+Mississippi.</p>
+<p>By this time Abraham's education was well advanced. His
+handwriting, his arithmetic, and his general intelligence were so
+good that he had occasionally been employed to help in the
+Gentryville store, and Gentry thus knew by personal test that he
+was entirely capable of assisting his son Allen in the trading
+expedition to New Orleans. For Abraham, on the other hand, it was
+an event which must have opened up wide vistas of future hope and
+ambition. Allen Gentry probably was nominal supercargo and
+steersman, but we may easily surmise that Lincoln, as the "bow
+oar," carried his full half of general responsibility. For this
+service the elder Gentry paid him eight dollars a month and his
+passage home on a steamboat. It was the future President's first
+eager look into the wide, wide world.</p>
+<p>Abraham's devotion to his books and his sums stands forth in
+more<a name="page17" id="page17"></a> striking light from the fact that his
+habits differed from those of most frontier boys in one important
+particular. Almost every youth of the backwoods early became a
+habitual hunter and superior marksman. The Indiana woods were yet
+swarming with game, and the larder of every cabin depended largely
+upon this great storehouse of wild meat.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a>
+The Pigeon Creek settlement was especially fortunate on this point.
+There was in the neighborhood of the Lincoln home what was known in
+the West as a deer-lick&mdash;that is, there existed a feeble
+salt-spring, which impregnated the soil in its vicinity or created
+little pools of brackish water&mdash;and various kinds of animals,
+particularly deer, resorted there to satisfy their natural craving
+for salt by drinking from these or licking the moist earth. Hunters
+took advantage of this habit, and one of their common customs was
+to watch in the dusk or at night, and secure their approaching prey
+by an easy shot. Skill with the rifle and success in the chase were
+points of friendly emulation. In many localities the boy or youth
+who shot a squirrel in any part of the animal except its head
+became the butt of the jests of his companions and elders. Yet,
+under such conditions and opportunities Abraham was neither a
+hunter nor a marksman. He tells us:</p>
+<p>"A few days before the completion of his eighth year, in the
+absence of his father, a flock of wild turkeys approached the new
+log cabin, and Abraham, with a rifle gun, standing inside, shot
+through a crack and killed one of them. He has never since pulled a
+trigger on any larger game."</p>
+<p><a name="page18" id="page18"></a> The hours which other boys spent in
+roaming the woods or lying in ambush at the deer-lick, he preferred
+to devote to his effort at mental improvement. It can hardly be
+claimed that he did this from calculating ambition. It was a native
+intellectual thirst, the significance of which he did not himself
+yet understand. Such exceptional characteristics manifested
+themselves only in a few matters. In most particulars he grew up as
+the ordinary backwoods boy develops into the youth and man. As he
+was subjected to their usual labors, so also he was limited to
+their usual pastimes and enjoyments.</p>
+<p>The varied amusements common to our day were not within their
+reach. The period of the circus, the political speech, and the
+itinerant show had not yet come. Schools, as we have seen, and
+probably meetings or church services, were irregular, to be had
+only at long intervals. Primitive athletic games and commonplace
+talk, enlivened by frontier jests and stories, formed the sum of
+social intercourse when half a dozen or a score of settlers of
+various ages came together at a house-raising or corn-husking, or
+when mere chance brought them at the same time to the post-office
+or the country store. On these occasions, however, Abraham was,
+according to his age, always able to contribute his full share or
+more. Most of his natural aptitudes equipped him especially to play
+his part well. He had quick intelligence, ready sympathy, a
+cheerful temperament, a kindling humor, a generous and helpful
+spirit. He was both a ready talker and appreciative listener. By
+virtue of his tall stature and unusual strength of sinew and
+muscle, he was from the beginning a leader in all athletic games;
+by reason of his studious<a name="page19" id="page19"></a> habits and his extraordinarily retentive
+memory he quickly became the best story-teller among his
+companions. Even the slight training he gained from his studies
+greatly quickened his perceptions and broadened and steadied the
+strong reasoning faculty with which nature had endowed him.</p>
+<p>As the years of his youth passed by, his less gifted comrades
+learned to accept his judgments and to welcome his power to
+entertain and instruct them. On his own part, he gradually learned
+to write not merely with the hand, but also with the mind&mdash;to
+think. It was an easy transition for him from remembering the
+jingle of a commonplace rhyme to the constructing of a doggerel
+verse, and he did not neglect the opportunity of practising his
+penmanship in such impromptus. Tradition also relates that he added
+to his list of stories and jokes humorous imitations from the
+sermons of eccentric preachers. But tradition has very likely both
+magnified and distorted these alleged exploits of his satire and
+mimicry. All that can be said of them is that his youth was marked
+by intellectual activity far beyond that of his companions.</p>
+<p>It is an interesting coincidence that nine days before the birth
+of Abraham Lincoln Congress passed the act to organize the
+Territory of Illinois, which his future life and career were
+destined to render so illustrious. Another interesting coincidence
+may be found in the fact that in the same year (1818) in which
+Congress definitely fixed the number of stars and stripes in the
+national flag, Illinois was admitted as a State to the Union. The
+Star of Empire was moving westward at an accelerating speed.
+Alabama was admitted in 1819, Maine in 1820, Missouri in 1821.
+Little by little the line of frontier settlement was pushing itself
+toward the Mississippi. No sooner had the pioneer built him a cabin
+and opened his little farm, than during every summer<a name="page20" id="page20"></a>
+canvas-covered wagons wound their toilsome way over the new-made
+roads into the newer wilderness, while his eyes followed them with
+wistful eagerness. Thomas Lincoln and his Pigeon Creek relatives
+and neighbors could not forever withstand the contagion of this
+example, and at length they yielded to the irrepressible longing by
+a common impulse. Mr. Lincoln writes:</p>
+<p>"March 1, 1830, Abraham having just completed his twenty-first
+year, his father and family, with the families of the two daughters
+and sons-in-law of his stepmother, left the old homestead in
+Indiana and came to Illinois. Their mode of conveyance was wagons
+drawn by ox-teams, and Abraham drove one of the teams. They reached
+the county of Macon, and stopped there some time within the same
+month of March. His father and family settled a new place on the
+north side of the Sangamon River, at the junction of the timber
+land and prairie, about ten miles westerly from Decatur. Here they
+built a log cabin, into which they removed, and made sufficient of
+rails to fence ten acres of ground, fenced and broke the ground,
+and raised a crop of sown corn upon it the same year.... The
+sons-in-law were temporarily settled in other places in the county.
+In the autumn all hands were greatly afflicted with ague and fever,
+to which they had not been used, and by which they were greatly
+discouraged, so much so that they determined on leaving the county.
+They remained, however, through the succeeding winter, which was
+the winter of the very celebrated 'deep snow' of Illinois."</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="page21" id="page21"></a>
+<h2><a name="II" id="II"></a>II</h2>
+<br />
+<p><i>Flatboat&mdash;New Salem&mdash;Election
+Clerk&mdash;Store and Mill&mdash;Kirkham's
+"Grammar"</i>&mdash;"<i>Sangamo Journal</i>"&mdash;<i>The
+Talisman&mdash;Lincoln's Address, March 9,
+1832&mdash;Black Hawk War&mdash;Lincoln Elected
+Captain&mdash;Mustered out May 27,
+1832&mdash;Re&euml;nlisted in Independent Spy
+Battalion&mdash;Finally Mustered out, June 16,
+1832&mdash;Defeated for the
+Legislature&mdash;Blacksmith or Lawyer</i>?&mdash;<i>The
+Lincoln-Berry Store&mdash;Appointed Postmaster, May 7,
+1833&mdash;National Politics</i></p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<p>The life of Abraham Lincoln, or that part of it which will
+interest readers for all future time, properly begins in March,
+1831, after the winter of the "deep snow." According to frontier
+custom, being then twenty-one years old, he left his father's cabin
+to make his own fortune in the world. A man named Denton Offutt,
+one of a class of local traders and speculators usually found about
+early Western settlements, had probably heard something of young
+Lincoln's Indiana history, particularly that he had made a voyage
+on a flatboat from Indiana to New Orleans, and that he was strong,
+active, honest, and generally, as would be expressed in Western
+phrase, "a smart young fellow." He was therefore just the sort of
+man Offutt needed for one of his trading enterprises, and Mr.
+Lincoln himself relates somewhat in detail how Offutt engaged him
+and the beginning of the venture:</p>
+<p>"Abraham, together with his stepmother's son, John D. Johnston,
+and<a name="page22" id="page22"></a> John Hanks, yet residing in Macon County,
+hired themselves to Denton Offutt to take a flatboat from
+Beardstown, Illinois [on the Illinois River], to New Orleans; and
+for that purpose were to join him&mdash;Offutt&mdash;at
+Springfield, Illinois, so soon as the snow should go off. When it
+did go off, which was about the first of March, 1831, the county
+was so flooded as to make traveling by land impracticable, to
+obviate which difficulty they purchased a large canoe, and came
+down the Sangamon River in it. This is the time and the manner of
+Abraham's first entrance into Sangamon County. They found Offutt at
+Springfield, but learned from him that he had failed in getting a
+boat at Beardstown. This led to their hiring themselves to him for
+twelve dollars per month each, and getting the timber out of the
+trees and building a boat at Old Sangamon town on the Sangamon
+River, seven miles northwest of Springfield, which boat they took
+to New Orleans, substantially upon the old contract."</p>
+<p>It needs here to be recalled that Lincoln's father was a
+carpenter, and that Abraham had no doubt acquired considerable
+skill in the use of tools during his boyhood and a practical
+knowledge of the construction of flatboats during his previous New
+Orleans trip, sufficient to enable him with confidence to undertake
+this task in shipbuilding. From the after history of both Johnston
+and Hanks, we know that neither of them was gifted with skill or
+industry, and it becomes clear that Lincoln was from the first
+leader of the party, master of construction, and captain of the
+craft.</p>
+<p>It took some time to build the boat, and before it was finished
+the Sangamon River had fallen so that the new craft stuck midway
+across the dam at Rutledge's Mill, at New Salem, a village of
+fifteen or twenty houses. The inhabitants came down to the bank,
+and exhibited great<a name="page23" id="page23"></a> interest in the fate of the boat, which,
+with its bow in the air and its stern under water, was half bird
+and half fish, and they probably jestingly inquired of the young
+captain whether he expected to dive or to fly to New Orleans. He
+was, however, equal to the occasion. He bored a hole in the bottom
+of the boat at the bow, and rigged some sort of lever or derrick to
+lift the stern, so that the water she had taken in behind ran out
+in front, enabling her to float over the partly submerged dam; and
+this feat, in turn, caused great wonderment in the crowd at the
+novel expedient of bailing a boat by boring a hole in her
+bottom.</p>
+<p>This exploit of naval engineering fully established Lincoln's
+fame at New Salem, and grounded him so firmly in the esteem of his
+employer Offutt that the latter, already looking forward to his
+future usefulness, at once engaged him to come back to New Salem,
+after his New Orleans voyage, to act as his clerk in a store.</p>
+<p>Once over the dam and her cargo reloaded, partly there and
+partly at Beardstown, the boat safely made the remainder of her
+voyage to New Orleans; and, returning by steamer to St. Louis,
+Lincoln and Johnston (Hanks had turned back from St. Louis)
+continued on foot to Illinois, Johnston remaining at the family
+home, which had meanwhile been removed from Macon to Coles County,
+and Lincoln going to his employer and friends at New Salem. This
+was in July or August, 1831. Neither Offutt nor his goods had yet
+arrived, and during his waiting he had a chance to show the New
+Salemites another accomplishment. An election was to be held, and
+one of the clerks was sick and failed to come. Scribes were not
+plenty on the frontier, and Mentor Graham, the clerk who was
+present, looking around for a properly qualified colleague,
+noticed<a name="page24" id="page24"></a> Lincoln, and asked him if he could write,
+to which he answered, in local idiom, that he "could make a few
+rabbit tracks," and was thereupon immediately inducted into his
+first office. He performed his duties not only to the general
+satisfaction, but so as to interest Graham, who was a schoolmaster,
+and afterward made himself very useful to Lincoln.</p>
+<p>Offutt finally arrived with a miscellaneous lot of goods, which
+Lincoln opened and put in order in a room that a former New Salem
+storekeeper was just ready to vacate, and whose remnant stock
+Offutt also purchased. Trade was evidently not brisk at New Salem,
+for the commercial zeal of Offutt led him to increase his venture
+by renting the Rutledge and Cameron mill, on whose historic dam the
+flatboat had stuck. For a while the charge of the mill was added to
+Lincoln's duties, until another clerk was engaged to help him.
+There is likewise good evidence that in addition to his duties at
+the store and the mill, Lincoln made himself generally
+useful&mdash;that he cut down trees and split rails enough to make
+a large hog-pen adjoining the mill, a proceeding quite natural when
+we remember that his hitherto active life and still growing muscles
+imperatively demanded the exercise which measuring calico or
+weighing out sugar and coffee failed to supply.</p>
+<p>We know from other incidents that he was possessed of ample
+bodily strength. In frontier life it is not only needed for useful
+labor of many kinds, but is also called upon to aid in popular
+amusement. There was a settlement in the neighborhood of New Salem
+called Clary's Grove, where lived a group of restless, rollicking
+backwoodsmen with a strong liking for various forms of frontier
+athletics and rough practical jokes. In the progress of American
+settlement there has always been a<a name="page25" id="page25"></a> time, whether the frontier was
+in New England or Pennsylvania or Kentucky, or on the banks of the
+Mississippi, when the champion wrestler held some fraction of the
+public consideration accorded to the victor in the Olympic games of
+Greece. Until Lincoln came, Jack Armstrong was the champion
+wrestler of Clary's Grove and New Salem, and picturesque stories
+are told how the neighborhood talk, inflamed by Offutt's fulsome
+laudation of his clerk, made Jack Armstrong feel that his fame was
+in danger. Lincoln put off the encounter as long as he could, and
+when the wrestling match finally came off neither could throw the
+other. The bystanders became satisfied that they were equally
+matched in strength and skill, and the cool courage which Lincoln
+manifested throughout the ordeal prevented the usual close of such
+incidents with a fight. Instead of becoming chronic enemies and
+leaders of a neighborhood feud, Lincoln's self-possession and good
+temper turned the contest into the beginning of a warm and lasting
+friendship.</p>
+<p>If Lincoln's muscles were at times hungry for work, not less so
+was his mind. He was already instinctively feeling his way to his
+destiny when, in conversation with Mentor Graham, the schoolmaster,
+he indicated his desire to use some of his spare moments to
+increase his education, and confided to him his "notion to study
+English grammar." It was entirely in the nature of things that
+Graham should encourage this mental craving, and tell him: "If you
+expect to go before the public in any capacity, I think it the best
+thing you can do." Lincoln said that if he had a grammar he would
+begin at once. Graham was obliged to confess that there was no such
+book at New Salem, but remembered that there was one at Vaner's,
+six miles away. Promptly after breakfast the next
+morning<a name="page26" id="page26"></a> Lincoln walked to Vaner's and procured the
+precious volume, and, probably with Graham's occasional help, found
+no great difficulty in mastering its contents. While tradition does
+not mention any other study begun at that time, we may fairly infer
+that, slight as may have been Graham's education, he must have had
+other books from which, together with his friendly advice,
+Lincoln's intellectual hunger derived further stimulus and
+nourishment.</p>
+<p>In his duties at the store and his work at the mill, in his
+study of Kirkham's "Grammar," and educational conversations with
+Mentor Graham, in the somewhat rude but frank and hearty
+companionship of the citizens of New Salem and the exuberant boys
+of Clary's Grove, Lincoln's life for the second half of the year
+1831 appears not to have been eventful, but was doubtless more
+comfortable and as interesting as had been his flatboat building
+and New Orleans voyage during the first half. He was busy in useful
+labor, and, though he had few chances to pick up scraps of
+schooling, was beginning to read deeply in that book of human
+nature, the profound knowledge of which rendered him such immense
+service in after years.</p>
+<p>The restlessness and ambition of the village of New Salem was
+many times multiplied in the restlessness and ambition of
+Springfield, fifteen or twenty miles away, which, located
+approximately near the geographical center of Illinois, was already
+beginning to crave, if not yet to feel, its future destiny as the
+capital of the State. In November of the same year that aspiring
+town produced the first number of its weekly newspaper, the
+"Sangamo Journal," and in its columns we begin to find recorded
+historical data. Situated in a region of alternating spaces of
+prairie and forest, of attractive natural scenery and rich soil, it
+was<a name="page27" id="page27"></a> nevertheless at a great disadvantage in
+the means of commercial transportation. Lying sixty miles from
+Beardstown, the nearest landing on the Illinois River, the
+peculiarities of soil, climate, and primitive roads rendered travel
+and land carriage extremely difficult&mdash;often entirely
+impossible&mdash;for nearly half of every year. The very first
+number of the "Sangamo Journal" sounded its strongest note on the
+then leading tenet of the Whig party&mdash;internal improvements by
+the general government, and active politics to secure them. In
+later numbers we learn that a regular Eastern mail had not been
+received for three weeks. The tide of immigration which was pouring
+into Illinois is illustrated in a tabular statement on the commerce
+of the Illinois River, showing that the steamboat arrivals at
+Beardstown had risen from one each in the years 1828 and 1829, and
+only four in 1830, to thirty-two during the year 1831. This
+naturally directed the thoughts of travelers and traders to some
+better means of reaching the river landing than the frozen or muddy
+roads and impassable creeks and sloughs of winter and spring. The
+use of the Sangamon River, flowing within five miles of Springfield
+and emptying itself into the Illinois ten or fifteen miles from
+Beardstown, seemed for the present the only solution of the
+problem, and a public meeting was called to discuss the project.
+The deep snows of the winter of 1830-31 abundantly filled the
+channels of that stream, and the winter of 1831-32 substantially
+repeated its swelling floods. Newcomers in that region were
+therefore warranted in drawing the inference that it might remain
+navigable for small craft. Public interest on the topic was greatly
+heightened when one Captain Bogue, commanding a small steamer then
+at Cincinnati, printed a letter in the "Journal" of January
+26,<a name="page28" id="page28"></a> 1832, saying: "I intend to try to ascend
+the river [Sangamo] immediately on the breaking up of the ice." It
+was well understood that the chief difficulty would be that the
+short turns in the channels were liable to be obstructed by a gorge
+of driftwood and the limbs and trunks of overhanging trees. To
+provide for this, Captain Bogue's letter added: "I should be met at
+the mouth of the river by ten or twelve men, having axes with long
+handles under the direction of some experienced man. I shall
+deliver freight from St. Louis at the landing on the Sangamo River
+opposite the town of Springfield for thirty-seven and a half cents
+per hundred pounds." The "Journal" of February 16 contained an
+advertisement that the "splendid upper-cabin steamer
+<i>Talisman</i>" would leave for Springfield, and the paper of
+March 1 announced her arrival at St. Louis on the 22d of February
+with a full cargo. In due time the citizen committee appointed by
+the public meeting met the <i>Talisman</i> at the mouth of the
+Sangamon, and the "Journal" of March 29 announced with great
+flourish that the "steamboat <i>Talisman</i>, of one hundred and
+fifty tons burden, arrived at the Portland landing opposite this
+town on Saturday last." There was great local rejoicing over this
+demonstration that the Sangamon was really navigable, and the
+"Journal" proclaimed with exultation that Springfield "could no
+longer be considered an inland town."</p>
+<p>President Jackson's first term was nearing its close, and the
+Democratic party was preparing to re&euml;lect him. The Whigs, on
+their part, had held their first national convention in December,
+1831, and nominated Henry Clay to dispute the succession. This
+nomination, made almost a year in advance of the election,
+indicates an unusual degree of political activity in the East, and
+voters in the new State of Illinois were<a name="page29" id="page29"></a> fired with
+an equal party zeal. During the months of January and February,
+1832, no less than six citizens of Sangamon County announced
+themselves in the "Sangamo Journal" as candidates for the State
+legislature, the election for which was not to occur until August;
+and the "Journal" of March 15 printed a long letter, addressed "To
+the People of Sangamon County," under date of the ninth, signed A.
+Lincoln, and beginning:</p>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>"FELLOW-CITIZENS: Having become a candidate for the honorable
+office of one of your representatives in the next general assembly
+of this State, in accordance with an established custom and the
+principles of true republicanism, it becomes my duty to make known
+to you, the people whom I propose to represent, my sentiments with
+regard to local affairs." He then takes up and discusses in an
+eminently methodical and practical way the absorbing topic of the
+moment&mdash;the Whig doctrine of internal improvements and its
+local application, the improvement of the Sangamon River. He
+mentions that meetings have been held to propose the construction
+of a railroad, and frankly acknowledges that "no other improvement
+that reason will justify us in hoping for can equal in utility the
+railroad," but contends that its enormous cost precludes any such
+hope, and that, therefore, "the improvement of the Sangamon River
+is an object much better suited to our infant resources." Relating
+his experience in building and navigating his flatboat, and his
+observation of the stage of the water since then, he draws the very
+plausible conclusion that by straightening its channel and clearing
+away its driftwood the stream can be made navigable "to vessels of
+from twenty-five to thirty tons burden for at least one half of all
+common years, and to vessels of much greater burden a part of the
+time,"</p>
+</div>
+<p>His<a name="page30" id="page30"></a> letter very modestly touches a few other
+points of needed legislation&mdash;a law against usury, laws to
+promote education, and amendments to estray and road laws. The main
+interest for us, however, is in the frank avowal of his personal
+ambition.</p>
+<p>"Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether it be
+true or not, I can say, for one, that I have no other so great as
+that of being truly esteemed of my fellow-men by rendering myself
+worthy of their esteem. How far I shall succeed in gratifying this
+ambition is yet to be developed. I am young, and unknown to many of
+you. I was born, and have ever remained, in the most humble walks
+of life. I have no wealthy or popular relations or friends to
+recommend me. My case is thrown exclusively upon the independent
+voters of the country, and if elected they will have conferred a
+favor upon me for which I shall be unremitting in my labors to
+compensate. But if the good people in their wisdom shall see fit to
+keep me in the background, I have been too familiar with
+disappointments to be very much chagrined."</p>
+<p>This written and printed address gives us an accurate measure of
+the man and the time. When he wrote this document he was
+twenty-three years old. He had been in the town and county only
+about nine months of actual time. As Sangamon County covered an
+estimated area of twenty-one hundred and sixty square miles, he
+could know but little of either it or its people. How dared a
+"friendless, uneducated boy, working on a flatboat at twelve
+dollars a month," with "no wealthy or popular friends to recommend"
+him, aspire to the honors and responsibilities of a legislator? The
+only answer is that he was prompted by that intuition of genius,
+that consciousness of powers which justify their claims by their
+achievements. When we scan the circumstances more closely, we
+find<a name="page31" id="page31"></a> distinct evidence of some reason for his
+confidence. Relatively speaking, he was neither uneducated nor
+friendless. His acquirements were already far beyond the simple
+elements of reading, writing, and ciphering. He wrote a good,
+clear, serviceable hand; he could talk well and reason cogently.
+The simple, manly style of his printed address fully equals in
+literary ability that of the average collegian in the twenties. His
+migration from Indiana to Illinois and his two voyages to New
+Orleans had given him a glimpse of the outside world. His natural
+logic readily grasped the significance of the railroad as a new
+factor in transportation, although the first American locomotive
+had been built only one year, and ten to fifteen years were yet to
+elapse before the first railroad train was to run in Illinois.</p>
+<p>One other motive probably had its influence. He tells us that
+Offutt's business was failing, and his quick judgment warned him
+that he would soon be out of a job as clerk. This, however, could
+be only a secondary reason for announcing himself as a candidate,
+for the election was not to occur till August, and even if he were
+elected there would be neither service nor salary till the coming
+winter. His venture into politics must therefore be ascribed to the
+feeling which he so frankly announced in his letter, his ambition
+to become useful to his fellow-men&mdash;the impulse that
+throughout history has singled out the great leaders of
+mankind.</p>
+<p>In this particular instance a crisis was also at hand,
+calculated to develop and utilize the impulse. Just about a month
+after the publication of Lincoln's announcement the "Sangamo
+Journal" of April 19 printed an official call from Governor
+Reynolds, directed to General Neale of the Illinois militia, to
+organize six hundred volunteers of his brigade for military service
+in a campaign against the Indians under<a name="page32" id="page32"></a> Black Hawk,
+the war chief of the Sacs, who, in defiance of treaties and
+promises, had formed a combination with other tribes during the
+winter, and had now crossed back from the west to the east side of
+the Mississippi River with the determination to reoccupy their old
+homes in the Rock River country toward the northern end of the
+State.</p>
+<p>In the memoranda which Mr. Lincoln furnished for a campaign
+biography, he thus relates what followed the call for troops:</p>
+<p>"Abraham joined a volunteer company, and, to his own surprise,
+was elected captain of it. He says he has not since had any success
+in life which gave him so much satisfaction. He went to the
+campaign, served near three months, met the ordinary hardships of
+such an expedition, but was in no battle." Official documents
+furnish some further interesting details. As already said, the call
+was printed in the "Sangamo Journal" of April 19. On April 21 the
+company was organized at Richland, Sangamon County, and on April 28
+was inspected and mustered into service at Beardstown and attached
+to Colonel Samuel Thompson's regiment, the Fourth Illinois Mounted
+Volunteers. They marched at once to the hostile frontier. As the
+campaign shaped itself, it probably became evident to the company
+that they were not likely to meet any serious fighting, and, not
+having been enlisted for any stated period, they became clamorous
+to return home. The governor therefore had them and other companies
+mustered out of service, at the mouth of Fox River, on May 27. Not,
+however, wishing to weaken his forces before the arrival of new
+levies already on the way, he called for volunteers to remain
+twenty days longer. Lincoln had gone to the frontier to perform
+real service, not<a name="page33" id="page33"></a> merely to enjoy military rank or reap
+military glory. On the same day, therefore, on which he was
+mustered out as captain, he re&euml;nlisted, and became Private
+Lincoln in Captain Iles's company of mounted volunteers, organized
+apparently principally for scouting service, and sometimes called
+the Independent Spy Battalion. Among the other officers who
+imitated this patriotic example were General Whiteside and Major
+John T. Stuart, Lincoln's later law partner. The Independent Spy
+Battalion, having faithfully performed its new term of service, was
+finally mustered out on June 16, 1832. Lincoln and his messmate,
+George M. Harrison, had the misfortune to have their horses stolen
+the day before, but Harrison relates:</p>
+<p>"I laughed at our fate and he joked at it, and we all started
+off merrily. The generous men of our company walked and rode by
+turns with us, and we fared about equal with the rest. But for this
+generosity our legs would have had to do the better work; for in
+that day this dreary route furnished no horses to buy or to steal,
+and, whether on horse or afoot, we always had company, for many of
+the horses' backs were too sore for riding."</p>
+<p>Lincoln must have reached home about August 1, for the election
+was to occur in the second week of that month, and this left him
+but ten days in which to push his claims for popular indorsement.
+His friends, however had been doing manful duty for him during his
+three months' absence, and he lost nothing in public estimation by
+his prompt enlistment to defend the frontier. Successive
+announcements in the "Journal" had by this time swelled the list of
+candidates to thirteen. But Sangamon County was entitled to only
+four representatives and when the returns came in Lincoln was among
+those defeated. Nevertheless, he made a very respectable showing in
+the race. The list of successful and<a name="page34" id="page34"></a> unsuccessful aspirants and
+their votes was as follows:</p>
+<br />
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="votes">
+<tr>
+<td align='left'>E.D. Taylor</td>
+<td align='right'>1127</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='left'>John T. Stuart</td>
+<td align='right'>991</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='left'>Achilles Morris</td>
+<td align='right'>945</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='left'>Peter Cartwright</td>
+<td align='right'>815</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+<p>Under the plurality rule, these four had been elected. The
+unsuccessful candidates were:</p>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="votes">
+<tr>
+<td align='left'>A.G. Herndon</td>
+<td align='right'>806</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='left'>W. Carpenter</td>
+<td align='right'>774</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='left'>J. Dawson</td>
+<td align='right'>717</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='left'>A. Lincoln</td>
+<td align='right'>657</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='left'>T.M. Neale</td>
+<td align='right'>571</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='left'>R. Quinton</td>
+<td align='right'>485</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='left'>Z. Peter</td>
+<td align='right'>214</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='left'>E. Robinson</td>
+<td align='right'>169</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='left'>&mdash;&mdash; Kirkpatrick</td>
+<td align='right'>44</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+<p>The returns show that the total vote of the county was about
+twenty-one hundred and sixty-eight. Comparing this with the vote
+cast for Lincoln, we see that he received nearly one third of the
+total county vote, notwithstanding his absence from the canvass,
+notwithstanding the fact that his acquaintanceship was limited to
+the neighborhood of New Salem, notwithstanding the sharp
+competition. Indeed, his talent and fitness for active practical
+politics were demonstrated beyond question by the result in his
+home precinct of New Salem, which, though he ran as a Whig, gave
+two hundred and seventy-seven votes for him and only three against
+him. Three months later it gave one hundred and eighty-five for the
+Jackson and only seventy for the<a name="page35" id="page35"></a> Clay electors, proving
+Lincoln's personal popularity. He remembered for the remainder of
+his life with great pride that this was the only time he was ever
+beaten on a direct vote of the people.</p>
+<p>The result of the election brought him to one of the serious
+crises of his life, which he forcibly stated in after years in the
+following written words:</p>
+<p>"He was now without means and out of business, but was anxious
+to remain with his friends, who had treated him with so much
+generosity, especially as he had nothing elsewhere to go to. He
+studied what he should do; thought of learning the blacksmith
+trade, thought of trying to study law, rather thought he could not
+succeed at that without a better education."</p>
+<p>The perplexing problem between inclination and means to follow
+it, the struggle between conscious talent and the restraining
+fetters of poverty, has come to millions of young Americans before
+and since, but perhaps to none with a sharper trial of spirit or
+more resolute patience. Before he had definitely resolved upon
+either career, chance served not to solve, but to postpone his
+difficulty, and in the end to greatly increase it.</p>
+<p>New Salem, which apparently never had any good reason for
+becoming a town, seems already at that time to have entered on the
+road to rapid decay. Offutt's speculations had failed, and he had
+disappeared. The brothers Herndon, who had opened a new store,
+found business dull and unpromising. Becoming tired of their
+undertaking, they offered to sell out to Lincoln and Berry on
+credit, and took their promissory notes in payment. The new
+partners, in that excess of hope which usually attends all new
+ventures, also bought two other similar establishments that were in
+extremity, and for these likewise gave their notes. It is evident
+that the confidence which Lincoln had inspired while he was
+<a name="page36" id="page36"></a>
+a clerk in Offutt's store, and the enthusiastic support he had
+received as a candidate, were the basis of credit that sustained
+these several commercial transactions.</p>
+<p>It turned out in the long run that Lincoln's credit and the
+popular confidence that supported it were as valuable both to his
+creditors and himself as if the sums which stood over his signature
+had been gold coin in a solvent bank. But this transmutation was
+not attained until he had passed through a very furnace of
+financial embarrassment. Berry proved a worthless partner, and the
+business a sorry failure. Seeing this, Lincoln and Berry sold out
+again on credit&mdash;to the Trent brothers, who soon broke up and
+ran away. Berry also departed and died, and finally all the notes
+came back upon Lincoln for payment. He was unable to meet these
+obligations, but he did the next best thing. He remained, promised
+to pay when he could, and most of his creditors, maintaining their
+confidence in his integrity, patiently bided their time, till, in
+the course of long years, he fully justified it by paying, with
+interest every cent of what he learned to call, in humorous satire
+upon his own folly, the "national debt."</p>
+<p>With one of them he was not so fortunate. Van Bergen, who bought
+one of the Lincoln-Berry notes, obtained judgment, and, by
+peremptory sale, swept away the horse, saddle, and surveying
+instruments with the daily use of which Lincoln "procured bread and
+kept body and soul together," to use his own words. But here again
+Lincoln's recognized honesty was his safety. Out of personal
+friendship, James Short bought the property and restored it to the
+young surveyor, giving him time to repay. It was not until his
+return from Congress, seventeen years after the purchase of the
+store, that he finally relieved himself of the last instalments of
+his "national debt." But by these seventeen <a name="page37" id="page37"></a>years of
+sober industry, rigid economy, and unflinching faith to his
+obligations he earned the title of "Honest old Abe," which proved
+of greater service to himself and his country than if he had gained
+the wealth of Croesus.</p>
+<p>Out of this ill-starred commercial speculation, however, Lincoln
+derived one incidental benefit, and it may be said it became the
+determining factor in his career. It is evident from his own
+language that he underwent a severe mental struggle in deciding
+whether he would become a blacksmith or a lawyer. In taking a
+middle course, and trying to become a merchant, he probably kept
+the latter choice strongly in view. It seems well established by
+local tradition that during the period while the Lincoln-Berry
+store was running its fore-doomed course from bad to worse, Lincoln
+employed all the time he could spare from his customers (and he
+probably had many leisure hours) in reading and study of various
+kinds. This habit was greatly stimulated and assisted by his being
+appointed, May 7, 1833, postmaster at New Salem, which office he
+continued to hold until May 30, 1836, when New Salem partially
+disappeared and the office was removed to Petersburg. The
+influences which brought about the selection of Lincoln are not
+recorded, but it is suggested that he had acted for some time as
+deputy postmaster under the former incumbent, and thus became the
+natural successor. Evidently his politics formed no objection, as
+New Salem precinct had at the August election, when he ran as a
+Whig, given him its almost solid vote for representative
+notwithstanding the fact that it was more than two thirds
+Democratic. The postmastership increased his public consideration
+and authority, broadened his business experience, and the
+newspapers he handled provided him an abundance of reading matter
+<a name="page38" id="page38"></a>
+on topics of both local and national importance up to the latest
+dates.</p>
+<p>Those were stirring times, even on the frontier. The "Sangamo
+Journal" of December 30, 1832, printed Jackson's nullification
+proclamation. The same paper, of March 9, 1833, contained an
+editorial on Clay's compromise and that of the 16th had a notice of
+the great nullification debate in Congress. The speeches of Clay,
+Calhoun, and Webster were published in full during the following
+month, and Mr. Lincoln could not well help reading them and joining
+in the feelings and comments they provoked.</p>
+<p>While the town of New Salem was locally dying, the county of
+Sangamon and the State of Illinois were having what is now called a
+boom. Other wide-awake newspapers, such as the "Missouri
+Republican" and "Louisville Journal," abounded in notices of the
+establishment of new stage lines and the general rush of
+immigration. But the joyous dream of the New Salemites, that the
+Sangamon River would become a commercial highway, quickly faded.
+The <i>Talisman</i> was obliged to hurry back down the rapidly
+falling stream, tearing away a portion of the famous dam to permit
+her departure. There were rumors that another steamer, the
+<i>Sylph</i>, would establish regular trips between Springfield and
+Beardstown, but she never came. The freshets and floods of 1831 and
+1832 were succeeded by a series of dry seasons, and the navigation
+of the Sangamon River was never afterward a telling plank in the
+county platform of either political party.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="page39" id="page39"></a>
+<h2><a name="III" id="III"></a>III</h2>
+<br />
+<p><i>Appointed Deputy Surveyor&mdash;Elected to Legislature
+in 1834&mdash;Campaign Issues&mdash;Begins Study of
+Law&mdash;Internal Improvement System&mdash;The
+Lincoln-Stone Protest&mdash;Candidate for Speaker in 1838
+and 1840</i></p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<p>When Lincoln was appointed postmaster, in May, 1833, the
+Lincoln-Berry store had not yet completely "winked out," to use his
+own picturesque phrase. When at length he ceased to be a merchant,
+he yet remained a government official, a man of consideration and
+authority, who still had a responsible occupation and definite
+home, where he could read, write, and study. The proceeds of his
+office were doubtless very meager, but in that day, when the rate
+of postage on letters was still twenty-five cents, a little change
+now and then came into his hands, which, in the scarcity of money
+prevailing on the frontier, had an importance difficult for us to
+appreciate. His positions as candidate for the legislature and as
+postmaster probably had much to do in bringing him another piece of
+good fortune. In the rapid settlement of Illinois and Sangamon
+County, and the obtaining titles to farms by purchase or
+pre&euml;mption, as well as in the locating and opening of new
+roads, the county surveyor had more work on his hands than he could
+perform throughout a county extending forty miles east and west and
+fifty north and south, and was compelled to appoint deputies to
+assist him. The name of the county surveyor was John Calhoun,
+recognized by all his <a name="page40" id="page40"></a>contemporaries in Sangamon as a man of
+education and talent and an aspiring Democratic politician. It was
+not an easy matter for Calhoun to find properly qualified deputies,
+and when he became acquainted with Lincoln, and learned his
+attainments and aptitudes, and the estimation in which he was held
+by the people of New Salem, he wisely concluded to utilize his
+talents and standing, notwithstanding their difference in politics.
+The incident is thus recorded by Lincoln:</p>
+<p>"The surveyor of Sangamon offered to depute to Abraham that
+portion of his work which was within his part of the county. He
+accepted, procured a compass and chain, studied Flint and Gibson a
+little, and went at it. This procured bread, and kept soul and body
+together."</p>
+<p>Tradition has it that Calhoun not only gave him the appointment,
+but lent him the book in which to study the art, which he
+accomplished in a period of six weeks, aided by the schoolmaster,
+Mentor Graham. The exact period of this increase in knowledge and
+business capacity is not recorded, but it must have taken place in
+the summer of 1833, as there exists a certificate of survey in
+Lincoln's handwriting signed, "J. Calhoun, S.S.C., by A. Lincoln,"
+dated January 14, 1834. Before June of that year he had surveyed
+and located a public road from "Musick's Ferry on Salt Creek,
+<i>via</i> New Salem, to the county line in the direction to
+Jacksonville," twenty-six miles and seventy chains in length, the
+exact course of which survey, with detailed bearings and distances,
+was drawn on common white letter-paper pasted in a long slip, to a
+scale of two inches to the mile, in ordinary yet clear and distinct
+penmanship. The compensation he received for this service was three
+dollars per day for five days, and two dollars and fifty cents for
+making the plat and report.<a name="page41" id="page41"></a></p>
+<p>An advertisement in the "Journal" shows that the regular fees of
+another deputy were "two dollars per day, or one dollar per lot of
+eight acres or less, and fifty cents for a single line, with ten
+cents per mile for traveling."</p>
+<p>While this class of work and his post-office, with its
+emoluments, probably amply supplied his board, lodging and
+clothing, it left him no surplus with which to pay his debts, for
+it was in the latter part of that same year (1834) that Van Bergen
+caused his horse and surveying instruments to be sold under the
+hammer, as already related. Meanwhile, amid these fluctuations of
+good and bad luck, Lincoln maintained his equanimity, his steady,
+persevering industry, and his hopeful ambition and confidence in
+the future. Through all his misfortunes and his failures, he
+preserved his self-respect and his determination to succeed.</p>
+<p>Two years had nearly elapsed since he was defeated for the
+legislature, and, having received so flattering a vote on that
+occasion, it was entirely natural that he should determine to try a
+second chance. Four new representatives were to be chosen at the
+August election of 1834, and near the end of April Lincoln
+published his announcement that he would again be a candidate. He
+could certainly view his expectations in every way in a more
+hopeful light. His knowledge had increased, his experience
+broadened, his acquaintanceship greatly increased. His talents were
+acknowledged, his ability recognized. He was postmaster and deputy
+surveyor. He had become a public character whose services were in
+demand. As compared with the majority of his neighbors, he was a
+man of learning who had seen the world. Greater, however, than all
+these advantages, his sympathetic kindness of heart, his sincere,
+open frankness, his sturdy, unshrinking <a name="page42" id="page42"></a>honesty, and
+that inborn sense of justice that yielded to no influence, made up
+a nobility of character and bearing that impressed the rude
+frontiersmen as much as, if not more quickly and deeply than, it
+would have done the most polished and erudite society.</p>
+<p>Beginning his campaign in April, he had three full months before
+him for electioneering, and he evidently used the time to good
+advantage. The pursuit of popularity probably consisted mainly of
+the same methods that in backwoods districts prevail even to our
+day: personal visits and solicitations, attendance at various kinds
+of neighborhood gatherings, such as raisings of new cabins,
+horse-races, shooting-matches, sales of town lots or of personal
+property under execution, or whatever occasion served to call a
+dozen or two of the settlers together. One recorded incident
+illustrates the practical nature of the politician's art at that
+day:</p>
+<p>"He [Lincoln] came to my house, near Island Grove, during
+harvest. There were some thirty men in the field. He got his dinner
+and went out in the field where the men were at work. I gave him an
+introduction, and the boys said that they could not vote for a man
+unless he could make a hand. 'Well, boys,' said he, 'if that is
+all, I am sure of your votes.' He took hold of the cradle, and led
+the way all the round with perfect ease. The boys were satisfied,
+and I don't think he lost a vote in the crowd."</p>
+<p>Sometimes two or more candidates would meet at such places, and
+short speeches be called for and given. Altogether, the campaign
+was livelier than that of two years before. Thirteen candidates
+were again contesting for the four seats in the legislature, to say
+nothing of candidates for governor, for Congress, and for the State
+Senate. The scope of discussion was enlarged and localized. From
+the published address of an <a name="page43" id="page43"></a>industrious aspirant who received
+only ninety-two votes, we learn that the issues now were the
+construction by the general government of a canal from Lake
+Michigan to the Illinois River, the improvement of the Sangamon
+River, the location of the State capital at Springfield, a United
+States bank, a better road law, and amendments to the estray
+laws.</p>
+<p>When the election returns came in Lincoln had reason to be
+satisfied with the efforts he had made. He received the second
+highest number of votes in the long list of candidates. Those cast
+for the representatives chosen stood: Dawson, 1390; Lincoln, 1376;
+Carpenter 1170; Stuart, 1164. The location of the State capital had
+also been submitted to popular vote at this election. Springfield,
+being much nearer the geographical center of the State, was anxious
+to deprive Vandalia of that honor, and the activity of the Sangamon
+politicians proved it to be a dangerous rival. In the course of a
+month the returns from all parts of the State had come in, and
+showed that Springfield was third in the race.</p>
+<p>It must be frankly admitted that Lincoln's success at this
+juncture was one of the most important events of his life. A second
+defeat might have discouraged his efforts to lift himself to a
+professional career, and sent him to the anvil to make horseshoes
+and to iron wagons for the balance of his days. But this handsome
+popular indorsement assured his standing and confirmed his credit.
+With this lift in the clouds of his horizon, he could resolutely
+carry his burden of debt and hopefully look to wider fields of
+public usefulness. Already, during the progress of the canvass, he
+had received cheering encouragement and promise of most valuable
+help. One of the four successful candidates was John T. Stuart, who
+had been major of <a name="page44" id="page44"></a>volunteers in the Black Hawk War while Lincoln
+was captain, and who, together with Lincoln, had re&euml;nlisted as
+a private in the Independent Spy Battalion. There is every
+likelihood that the two had begun a personal friendship during
+their military service, which was of course strongly cemented by
+their being fellow-candidates and both belonging to the Whig party.
+Mr. Lincoln relates:</p>
+<p>"Major John T. Stuart, then in full practice of the law [at
+Springfield], was also elected. During the canvass, in a private
+conversation he encouraged Abraham to study law. After the
+election, he borrowed books of Stuart, took them home with him, and
+went at it in good earnest. He studied with nobody.... In the
+autumn of 1836 he obtained a law license, and on April 15, 1837,
+removed to Springfield and commenced the practice, his old friend
+Stuart taking him into partnership."</p>
+<p>From and after this election in 1834 as a representative,
+Lincoln was a permanent factor in the politics and the progress of
+Sangamon County. At a Springfield meeting in the following November
+to promote common schools, he was appointed one of eleven delegates
+to attend a convention at Vandalia called to deliberate on that
+subject. He was re&euml;lected to the legislature in 1836, in 1838,
+and in 1840, and thus for a period of eight years took a full share
+in shaping and enacting the public and private laws of Illinois,
+which in our day has become one of the leading States in the
+Mississippi valley. Of Lincoln's share in that legislation, it need
+only be said that it was as intelligent and beneficial to the
+public interest as that of the best of his colleagues. The most
+serious error committed by the legislature of Illinois during that
+period was that it enacted laws setting on foot an extensive system
+of <a name="page45" id="page45"></a>internal improvements, in the form of
+railroads and canals, altogether beyond the actual needs of
+transportation for the then existing population of the State, and
+the consequent reckless creation of a State debt for money borrowed
+at extravagant interest and liberal commissions. The State
+underwent a season of speculative intoxication, in which, by the
+promised and expected rush of immigration and the swelling currents
+of its business, its farms were suddenly to become villages, its
+villages spreading towns, and its towns transformed into great
+cities, while all its people were to be made rich by the increased
+value of their land and property. Both parties entered with equal
+recklessness into this ill-advised internal improvement system,
+which in the course of about four years brought the State to
+bankruptcy, with no substantial works to show for the foolishly
+expended millions.</p>
+<p>In voting for these measures, Mr. Lincoln represented the public
+opinion and wish of his county and the whole State; and while he
+was as blamable, he was at the same time no more so than the wisest
+of his colleagues. It must be remembered in extenuation that he was
+just beginning his parliamentary education. From the very first,
+however, he seems to have become a force in the legislature, and to
+have rendered special service to his constituents. It is conceded
+that the one object which Springfield and the most of Sangamon
+County had at heart was the removal of the capital from Vandalia to
+that place. This was accomplished in 1836, and the management of
+the measure appears to have been intrusted mainly to Mr.
+Lincoln.</p>
+<p>One incident of his legislative career stands out in such
+prominent relation to the great events of his after life that it
+deserves special explanation and emphasis. Even at that early date,
+a quarter of a century before <a name="page46" id="page46"></a>the outbreak of the Civil War,
+the slavery question was now and then obtruding itself as an
+irritating and perplexing element into the local legislation of
+almost every new State. Illinois, though guaranteed its freedom by
+the Ordinance of 1787, nevertheless underwent a severe political
+struggle in which, about four years after her admission into the
+Union, politicians and settlers from the South made a determined
+effort to change her to a slave State. The legislature of 1822-23,
+with a two-thirds pro-slavery majority of the State Senate, and a
+technical, but legally questionable, two-thirds majority in the
+House, submitted to popular vote an act calling a State convention
+to change the constitution. It happened, fortunately, that Governor
+Coles, though a Virginian, was strongly antislavery, and gave the
+weight of his official influence and his whole four years' salary
+to counteract the dangerous scheme. From the fact that southern
+Illinois up to that time was mostly peopled from the slave States,
+the result was seriously in doubt through an active and exciting
+campaign, and the convention was finally defeated by a majority of
+eighteen hundred in a total vote of eleven thousand six hundred and
+twelve. While this result effectually decided that Illinois would
+remain a free State, the propagandism and reorganization left a
+deep and tenacious undercurrent of pro-slavery opinion that for
+many years manifested itself in vehement and intolerant outcries
+against "abolitionism," which on one occasion caused the murder of
+Elijah P. Lovejoy for persisting in his right to print an
+antislavery newspaper at Alton.</p>
+<p>Nearly a year before this tragedy the Illinois legislature had
+under consideration certain resolutions from the Eastern States on
+the subject of slavery, and the committee to which they had been
+referred reported a <a name="page47" id="page47"></a>set of resolves "highly disapproving
+abolition societies," holding that "the right of property in slaves
+is secured to the slaveholding States by the Federal Constitution,"
+together with other phraseology calculated on the whole to soothe
+and comfort pro-slavery sentiment. After much irritating
+discussion, the committee's resolutions were finally passed, with
+but Lincoln and five others voting in the negative. No record
+remains whether or not Lincoln joined in the debate; but, to leave
+no doubt upon his exact position and feeling, he and his colleague,
+Dan Stone, caused the following protest to be formally entered on
+the journals of the House:</p>
+<p>"Resolutions upon the subject of domestic slavery having passed
+both branches of the General Assembly at its present session, the
+undersigned hereby protest against the passage of the same."</p>
+<p>"They believe that the institution of slavery is founded on both
+injustice and bad policy, but that the promulgation of abolition
+doctrines tends rather to increase than abate its evils."</p>
+<p>"They believe that the Congress of the United States has no
+power under the Constitution to interfere with the institution of
+slavery in the different States."</p>
+<p>"They believe that the Congress of the United States has the
+power, under the Constitution, to abolish slavery in the District
+of Columbia, but that the power ought not to be exercised, unless
+at the request of the people of the District."</p>
+<p>"The difference between these opinions and those contained in
+the said resolutions is their reasons for entering this
+protest."</p>
+<p>In view of the great scope and quality of Lincoln's public
+service in after life, it would be a waste of time to trace out in
+detail his words or his votes upon the <a name="page48" id="page48"></a>multitude of
+questions on which he acted during this legislative career of eight
+years. It needs only to be remembered that it formed a varied and
+thorough school of parliamentary practice and experience that laid
+the broad foundation of that extraordinary skill and sagacity in
+statesmanship which he afterward displayed in party controversy and
+executive direction. The quick proficiency and ready aptitude for
+leadership evidenced by him in this, as it may be called, his
+preliminary parliamentary school are strikingly proved by the fact
+that the Whig members of the Illinois House of Representatives gave
+him their full party vote for Speaker, both in 1838 and 1840. But
+being in a minority, they could not, of course, elect him.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="page49" id="page49"></a>
+<h2><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>IV</h2>
+<br />
+<p><i>Law Practice&mdash;Rules for a Lawyer&mdash;Law
+and Politics: Twin Occupations&mdash;The Springfield
+Coterie&mdash;Friendly Help&mdash;Anne
+Rutledge&mdash;Mary Owens</i></p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<p>Lincoln's removal from New Salem to Springfield and his entrance
+into a law partnership with Major John T. Stuart begin a
+distinctively new period in his career, From this point we need not
+trace in detail his progress in his new and this time deliberately
+chosen vocation. The lawyer who works his way up in professional
+merit from a five-dollar fee in a suit before a justice of the
+peace to a five-thousand-dollar fee before the Supreme Court of his
+State has a long and difficult path to climb. Mr. Lincoln climbed
+this path for twenty-five years with industry, perseverance,
+patience&mdash;above all, with that sense of moral responsibility
+that always clearly traced the dividing line between his duty to
+his client and his duty to society and truth. His unqualified
+frankness of statement assured him the confidence of judge and jury
+in every argument. His habit of fully admitting the weak points in
+his case gained their close attention to its strong ones, and when
+clients brought him bad cases, his uniform advice was not to begin
+the suit. Among his miscellaneous writings there exist some
+fragments of autograph notes, evidently intended for a little
+lecture or talk to law students which set forth with brevity and
+force his opinion of what a lawyer ought to be and do. He earnestly
+commends diligence in study, and, next to diligence, promptness in
+keeping up his work.<a name="page50" id="page50"></a></p>
+<p>"As a general rule, never take your whole fee in advance," he
+says, "nor any more than a small retainer. When fully paid
+beforehand, you are more than a common mortal if you can feel the
+same interest in the case as if something was still in prospect for
+you as well as for your client." "Extemporaneous speaking should be
+practised and cultivated. It is the lawyer's avenue to the public.
+However able and faithful he may be in other respects, people are
+slow to bring him business if he cannot make a speech. And yet,
+there is not a more fatal error to young lawyers than relying too
+much on speech-making. If any one, upon his rare powers of
+speaking, shall claim an exemption from the drudgery of the law,
+his case is a failure in advance. Discourage litigation. Persuade
+your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. Point out to them
+how the nominal winner is often a real loser&mdash;in fees,
+expenses, and waste of time. As a peacemaker, the lawyer has a
+superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be
+business enough. Never stir up litigation. A worse man can scarcely
+be found than one who does this. Who can be more nearly a fiend
+than he who habitually overhauls the register of deeds in search of
+defects in titles, whereon to stir up strife and put money in his
+pocket? A moral tone ought to be infused into the profession which
+should drive such men out of it." "There is a vague popular belief
+that lawyers are necessarily dishonest. I say vague because when we
+consider to what extent confidence and honors are reposed in and
+conferred upon lawyers by the people, it appears improbable that
+their impression of dishonesty is very distinct and vivid. Yet the
+impression is common&mdash;almost universal. Let no young man
+choosing the law for a calling for a moment yield to the popular
+belief. Resolve to be honest at all events; <a name="page51" id="page51"></a>and if, in
+your own judgment, you cannot be an honest lawyer, resolve to be
+honest without being a lawyer. Choose some other occupation, rather
+than one in the choosing of which you do, in advance, consent to be
+a knave."</p>
+<p>While Lincoln thus became a lawyer, he did not cease to remain a
+politician. In the early West, law and politics were parallel roads
+to usefulness as well as distinction. Newspapers had not then
+reached any considerable circulation. There existed neither fast
+presses to print them, mail routes to carry them, nor subscribers
+to read them. Since even the laws had to be newly framed for those
+new communities, the lawyer became the inevitable political
+instructor and guide as far as ability and fame extended. His
+reputation as a lawyer was a twin of his influence as an orator,
+whether through logic or eloquence. Local conditions fostered,
+almost necessitated, this double pursuit. Westward emigration was
+in its full tide, and population was pouring into the great State
+of Illinois with ever accelerating rapidity. Settlements were
+spreading, roads were being opened, towns laid out, the larger
+counties divided and new ones organized, and the enthusiastic
+visions of coming prosperity threw the State into that fever of
+speculation which culminated in wholesale internal improvements on
+borrowed capital and brought collapse, stagnation, and bankruptcy
+in its inevitable train. As already said, these swift changes
+required a plentiful supply of new laws, to frame which lawyers
+were in a large proportion sent to the legislature every two years.
+These same lawyers also filled the bar and recruited the bench of
+the new State, and, as they followed the itinerant circuit courts
+from county to county in their various sections, were called upon
+in these summer wanderings to explain in public speeches
+<a name="page52" id="page52"></a>
+their legislative work of the winter. By a natural connection, this
+also involved a discussion of national and party issues. It was
+also during this period that party activity was stimulated by the
+general adoption of the new system of party caucuses and party
+conventions to which President Jackson had given the impulse.</p>
+<p>In the American system of representative government, elections
+not only occur with the regularity of clockwork, but pervade the
+whole organism in every degree of its structure from top to
+bottom&mdash;Federal, State, county, township, and school district.
+In Illinois, even the State judiciary has at different times been
+chosen by popular ballot. The function of the politician,
+therefore, is one of continuous watchfulness and activity, and he
+must have intimate knowledge of details if he would work out grand
+results. Activity in politics also produces eager competition and
+sharp rivalry. In 1839 the seat of government was definitely
+transferred from Vandalia to Springfield, and there soon gathered
+at the new State capital a group of young men whose varied ability
+and future success in public service has rarely been
+excelled&mdash;Douglas, Shields, Calhoun, Stuart, Logan, Baker,
+Treat, Hardin, Trumbull, McClernand, Browning, McDougall, and
+others.</p>
+<p>His new surroundings greatly stimulated and reinforced Mr.
+Lincoln's growing experience and spreading acquaintance, giving him
+a larger share and wider influence in local and State politics. He
+became a valued and sagacious adviser in party caucuses, and a
+power in party conventions. Gradually, also, his gifts as an
+attractive and persuasive campaign speaker were making themselves
+felt and appreciated.</p>
+<p>His removal, in April, 1837, from a village of twenty houses to
+a "city" of about two thousand inhabitants placed him in striking
+new relations and necessities as <a name="page53" id="page53"></a>to dress, manners, and
+society, as well as politics; yet here again, as in the case of his
+removal from his father's cabin to New Salem six years before,
+peculiar conditions rendered the transition less abrupt than would
+at first appear. Springfield, notwithstanding its greater
+population and prospective dignity as the capital, was in many
+respects no great improvement on New Salem. It had no public
+buildings, its streets and sidewalks were unpaved, its stores, in
+spite of all their flourish of advertisements, were staggering
+under the hard times of 1837-39, and stagnation of business imposed
+a rigid economy on all classes. If we may credit tradition, this
+was one of the most serious crises of Lincoln's life. His intimate
+friend, William Butler, related to the writer that, having attended
+a session of the legislature at Vandalia, he and Lincoln returned
+together at its close to Springfield by the usual mode of horseback
+travel. At one of their stopping-places over night Lincoln, in one
+of his gloomy moods, told Butler the story of the almost hopeless
+prospects which lay immediately before him&mdash;that the session
+was over, his salary all drawn, and his money all spent; that he
+had no resources and no work; that he did not know where to turn to
+earn even a week's board. Butler bade him be of good cheer, and,
+without any formal proposition or agreement, took him and his
+belongings to his own house and domesticated him there as a
+permanent guest, with Lincoln's tacit compliance rather than any
+definite consent. Later Lincoln shared a room and genial
+companionship, which ripened into closest intimacy, in the store of
+his friend Joshua F. Speed, all without charge or expense; and
+these brotherly offerings helped the young lawyer over present
+necessities which might otherwise have driven him to muscular
+handiwork at weekly or monthly wages.<a name="page54" id="page54"></a></p>
+<p>From this time onward, in daily conversation, in argument at the
+bar, in political consultation and discussion, Lincoln's life
+gradually broadened into contact with the leading professional
+minds of the growing State of Illinois. The man who could not pay a
+week's board bill was twice more elected to the legislature, was
+invited to public banquets and toasted by name, became a popular
+speaker, moved in the best society of the new capital, and made
+what was considered a brilliant marriage.</p>
+<p>Lincoln's stature and strength, his intelligence and
+ambition&mdash;in short, all the elements which gave him popularity
+among men in New Salem, rendered him equally attractive to the fair
+sex of that village. On the other hand, his youth, his frank
+sincerity, his longing for sympathy and encouragement, made him
+peculiarly sensitive to the society and influence of women. Soon
+after coming to New Salem he chanced much in the society of Miss
+Anne Rutledge, a slender, blue-eyed blonde, nineteen years old,
+moderately educated, beautiful according to local
+standards&mdash;an altogether lovely, tender-hearted, universally
+admired, and generally fascinating girl. From the personal
+descriptions of her which tradition has preserved, the inference is
+naturally drawn that her temperament and disposition were very much
+akin to those of Mr. Lincoln himself. It is little wonder,
+therefore, that he fell in love with her. But two years before she
+had become engaged to a Mr. McNamar, who had gone to the East to
+settle certain family affairs, and whose absence became so
+unaccountably prolonged that Anne finally despaired of his return,
+and in time betrothed herself to Lincoln. A year or so after this
+event Anne Rutledge was taken sick and died&mdash;the neighbors
+said of a broken heart, but the doctor called it brain fever, and
+his science <a name="page55" id="page55"></a>was more likely to be correct than their
+psychology. Whatever may have been the truth upon this point, the
+incident threw Lincoln into profound grief, and a period of
+melancholy so absorbing as to cause his friends apprehension for
+his own health. Gradually, however, their studied and devoted
+companionship won him back to cheerfulness, and his second affair
+of the heart assumed altogether different characteristics, most of
+which may be gathered from his own letters.</p>
+<p>Two years before the death of Anne Rutledge, Mr. Lincoln had
+seen and made the acquaintance of Miss Mary Owens, who had come to
+visit her sister Mrs. Able, and had passed about four weeks in New
+Salem, after which she returned to Kentucky. Three years later, and
+perhaps a year after Miss Rutledge's death, Mrs. Able, before
+starting for Kentucky, told Mr. Lincoln probably more in jest than
+earnest, that she would bring her sister back with her on condition
+that he would become her&mdash;Mrs. Able's&mdash;brother-in-law.
+Lincoln, also probably more in jest than earnest, promptly agreed
+to the proposition; for he remembered Mary Owens as a tall,
+handsome, dark-haired girl, with fair skin and large blue eyes, who
+in conversation could be intellectual and serious as well as jovial
+and witty, who had a liberal education, and was considered
+wealthy&mdash;one of those well-poised, steady characters who look
+upon matrimony and life with practical views and social matronly
+instincts.</p>
+<p>The bantering offer was made and accepted in the autumn of 1836,
+and in the following April Mr. Lincoln removed to Springfield.
+Before this occurred, however, he was surprised to learn that Mary
+Owens had actually returned with her sister from Kentucky, and felt
+that the romantic jest had become a serious and practical question.
+Their first interview dissipated <a name="page56" id="page56"></a>some of the illusions in which
+each had indulged. The three years elapsed since they first met had
+greatly changed her personal appearance. She had become stout; her
+twenty-eight years (one year more than his) had somewhat hardened
+the lines of her face. Both in figure and feature she presented a
+disappointing contrast to the slim and not yet totally forgotten
+Anne Rutledge.</p>
+<p>On her part, it was more than likely that she did not find in
+him all the attractions her sister had pictured. The speech and
+manners of the Illinois frontier lacked much of the chivalric
+attentions and flattering compliments to which the Kentucky beaux
+were addicted. He was yet a diamond in the rough, and she would not
+immediately decide till she could better understand his character
+and prospects, so no formal engagement resulted.</p>
+<p>In December, Lincoln went to his legislative duties at Vandalia,
+and in the following April took up his permanent abode in
+Springfield. Such a separation was not favorable to rapid
+courtship, yet they had occasional interviews and exchanged
+occasional letters. None of hers to him have been preserved, and
+only three of his to her. From these it appears that they sometimes
+discussed their affair in a cold, hypothetical way, even down to
+problems of housekeeping, in the light of mere worldly prudence,
+much as if they were guardians arranging a <i>mariage de
+convenance</i>, rather than impulsive and ardent lovers wandering
+in Arcady. Without Miss Owens's letters it is impossible to know
+what she may have said to him, but in May, 1837, Lincoln wrote to
+her:</p>
+<p>"I am often thinking of what we said about your coming to live
+at Springfield. I am afraid you would not be satisfied. There is a
+great deal of flourishing <a name="page57" id="page57"></a>about in carriages here, which it would
+be your doom to see without sharing it. You would have to be poor,
+without the means of hiding your poverty. Do you believe you could
+bear that patiently? Whatever woman may cast her lot with mine,
+should any ever do so, it is my intention to do all in my power to
+make her happy and contented; and there is nothing I can imagine
+that would make me more unhappy than to fail in the effort. I know
+I should be much happier with you than the way I am, provided I saw
+no signs of discontent in you. What you have said to me may have
+been in the way of jest, or I may have misunderstood it. If so,
+then let it be forgotten; if otherwise, I much wish you would think
+seriously before you decide. What I have said I will most
+positively abide by, provided you wish it. My opinion is that you
+had better not do it. You have not been accustomed to hardship, and
+it may be more severe than you now imagine. I know you are capable
+of thinking correctly on any subject, and if you deliberate
+maturely upon this before you decide, then I am willing to abide
+your decision."</p>
+<p>Whether, after receiving this, she wrote him the "good long
+letter" he asked for in the same epistle is not known. Apparently
+they did not meet again until August, and the interview must have
+been marked by reserve and coolness on both sides, which left each
+more uncertain than before; for on the same day Lincoln again wrote
+her, and, after saying that she might perhaps be mistaken in regard
+to his real feelings toward her, continued thus:</p>
+<p>"I want in all cases to do right, and most particularly so in
+all cases with women. I want at this particular time, more than
+anything else, to do right with you; and if I knew it would be
+doing right, as I rather suspect it would, to let you alone, I
+would do it. And <a name="page58" id="page58"></a>for the purpose of making the matter as
+plain as possible, I now say that you can now drop the subject,
+dismiss your thoughts (if you ever had any) from me forever, and
+leave this letter unanswered, without calling forth one accusing
+murmur from me. And I will even go further, and say that if it will
+add anything to your comfort or peace of mind to do so, it is my
+sincere wish that you should. Do not understand by this that I wish
+to cut your acquaintance. I mean no such thing. What I do wish is
+that our further acquaintance shall depend upon yourself. If such
+further acquaintance would contribute nothing to your happiness, I
+am sure it would not to mine. If you feel yourself in any degree
+bound to me, I am now willing to release you, provided you wish it;
+while, on the other hand, I am willing and even anxious to bind you
+faster, if I can be convinced that it will in any considerable
+degree add to your happiness. This, indeed, is the whole question
+with me."</p>
+<p>All that we know of the sequel is contained in a letter which
+Lincoln wrote to his friend Mrs. Browning nearly a year later,
+after Miss Owens had finally returned to Kentucky, in which,
+without mentioning the lady's name, he gave a seriocomic
+description of what might be called a courtship to escape
+matrimony. He dwells on his disappointment at her changed
+appearance, and continues:</p>
+<p>"But what could I do? I had told her sister that I would take
+her for better or for worse, and I made a point of honor and
+conscience in all things to stick to my word, especially if others
+had been induced to act on it, which in this case I had no doubt
+they had; for I was now fairly convinced that no other man on earth
+would have her, and hence the conclusion that they were bent on
+holding me to my bargain. 'Well,'<a name="page59" id="page59"></a> thought I, 'I have said it,
+and, be the consequences what they may, it shall not be my fault if
+I fail to do it....' All this while, although I was fixed 'firm as
+the surge-repelling rock' in my resolution, I found I was
+continually repenting the rashness which had led me to make it.
+Through life I have been in no bondage, either real or imaginary,
+from the thraldom of which I so much desired to be free.... After I
+had delayed the matter as long as I thought I could in honor do
+(which, by the way, had brought me round into last fall), I
+concluded I might as well bring it to a consummation without
+further delay, and so I mustered my resolution and made the
+proposal to her direct; but, shocking to relate, she answered, No.
+At first I supposed she did it through an affectation of modesty,
+which I thought but ill became her under the peculiar circumstances
+of her case, but on my renewal of the charge I found she repelled
+it with greater firmness than before. I tried it again and again,
+but with the same success, or rather with the same want of success.
+I finally was forced to give it up, at which I very unexpectedly
+found myself mortified almost beyond endurance. I was mortified, it
+seemed to me, in a hundred different ways. My vanity was deeply
+wounded by the reflection that I had so long been too stupid to
+discover her intentions, and at the same time never doubting that I
+understood them perfectly; and also that she, whom I had taught
+myself to believe nobody else would have, had actually rejected me
+with all my fancied greatness. And, to cap the whole, I then for
+the first time began to suspect that I was really a little in love
+with her."</p>
+<p>The serious side of this letter is undoubtedly genuine and
+candid, while the somewhat over-exaggeration of the comic side
+points as clearly that he had not fully <a name="page60" id="page60"></a>recovered
+from the mental suffering he had undergone in the long conflict
+between doubt and duty. From the beginning, the match-making zeal
+of the sister had placed the parties in a false position, produced
+embarrassment, and created distrust. A different beginning might
+have resulted in a very different outcome, for Lincoln, while
+objecting to her corpulency, acknowledges that in both feature and
+intellect she was as attractive as any woman he had ever met; and
+Miss Owens's letters, written after his death, state that her
+principal objection lay in the fact that his training had been
+different from hers, and that "Mr. Lincoln was deficient in those
+little links which make up the chain of a woman's happiness." She
+adds: "The last message I ever received from him was about a year
+after we parted in Illinois. Mrs. Able visited Kentucky, and he
+said to her in Springfield, 'Tell your sister that I think she was
+a great fool because she did not stay here and marry me.'" She was
+even then not quite clear in her own mind but that his words were
+true.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="page61" id="page61"></a>
+<h2><a name="V" id="V"></a>V</h2>
+<br />
+<p><i>Springfield Society&mdash;Miss Mary Todd&mdash;Lincoln's
+Engagement&mdash;His Deep Despondency&mdash;Visit to
+Kentucky&mdash;Letters to Speed&mdash;The Shields
+Duel&mdash;Marriage&mdash;Law Partnership with Logan&mdash;Hardin
+Nominated for Congress, 1843&mdash;Baker Nominated for Congress,
+1844&mdash;Lincoln Nominated and Elected, 1846</i></p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<p>The deep impression which the Mary Owens affair made upon
+Lincoln is further shown by one of the concluding phrases of his
+letter to Mrs. Browning: "I have now come to the conclusion never
+again to think of marrying." But it was not long before a reaction
+set in from this pessimistic mood. The actual transfer of the seat
+of government from Vandalia to Springfield in 1839 gave the new
+capital fresh animation. Business revived, public improvements were
+begun, politics ran high. Already there was a spirit in the air
+that in the following year culminated in the extraordinary
+enthusiasm and fervor of the Harrison presidential campaign of
+1840, that rollicking and uproarious party carnival of humor and
+satire, of song and jollification, of hard cider and log cabins.
+While the State of Illinois was strongly Democratic, Sangamon
+County was as distinctly Whig, and the local party disputes were
+hot and aggressive. The Whig delegation of Sangamon in the
+legislature, popularly called the "Long Nine," because the sum of
+the stature of its members was fifty-four feet, became noted for
+its influence in legislation in a body where the majority
+<a name="page62" id="page62"></a>
+was against them; and of these Mr. Lincoln was the "tallest" both
+in person and ability, as was recognized by his twice receiving the
+minority vote for Speaker of the House.</p>
+<p>Society also began organizing itself upon metropolitan rather
+than provincial assumptions. As yet, however society was liberal.
+Men of either wealth or position were still too few to fill its
+ranks. Energy, ambition talent, were necessarily the standard of
+admission; and Lincoln, though poor as a church mouse, was as
+welcome as those who could wear ruffled shirts and carry gold
+watches. The meetings of the legislature at Springfield then first
+brought together that splendid group of young men of genius whose
+phenomenal careers and distinguished services have given Illinois
+fame in the history of the nation. It is a marked peculiarity of
+the American character that the bitterest foes in party warfare
+generally meet each other on terms of perfect social courtesy in
+the drawing-rooms of society; and future presidential candidates,
+cabinet members, senators, congressmen, jurists, orators, and
+battle heroes lent the little social reunions of Springfield a zest
+and exaltation never found&mdash;perhaps impossible&mdash;amid the
+heavy, oppressive surroundings of conventional ceremony, gorgeous
+upholstery, and magnificent decorations.</p>
+<p>It was at this period also that Lincoln began to feel and
+exercise his expanding influence and powers as a writer and
+speaker. Already, two years earlier, he had written and delivered
+before the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield an able address upon
+"The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions," strongly
+enforcing the doctrine of rigid obedience to law. In December,
+1839, Douglas, in a heated conversation, challenged the young Whigs
+present to a political <a name="page63" id="page63"></a>discussion. The challenge was immediately
+taken up, and the public of Springfield listened with eager
+interest to several nights of sharp debate between Whig and
+Democratic champions, in which Lincoln bore a prominent and
+successful share. In the following summer, Lincoln's name was
+placed upon the Harrison electoral ticket for Illinois, and he lent
+all his zeal and eloquence to swell the general popular enthusiasm
+for "Tippecanoe and Tyler too."</p>
+<p>In the midst of this political and social awakening of the new
+capital and the quickened interest and high hopes of leading
+citizens gathered there from all parts of the State, there came
+into the Springfield circles Miss Mary Todd of Kentucky, twenty-one
+years old, handsome, accomplished, vivacious, witty, a dashing and
+fascinating figure in dress and conversation, gracious and
+imperious by turns. She easily singled out and secured the
+admiration of such of the Springfield beaux as most pleased her
+somewhat capricious fancy. She was a sister of Mrs. Ninian W.
+Edwards, whose husband was one of the "Long Nine." This
+circumstance made Lincoln a frequent visitor at the Edwards house;
+and, being thus much thrown in her company, he found himself,
+almost before he knew it, entangled in a new love affair, and in
+the course of a twelvemonth engaged to marry her.</p>
+<p>Much to the surprise of Springfield society, however, the
+courtship took a sudden turn. Whether it was caprice or jealousy, a
+new attachment, or mature reflection will always remain a mystery.
+Every such case is a law unto itself, and neither science nor
+poetry is ever able to analyze and explain its causes and effects.
+The conflicting stories then current, and the varying traditions
+that yet exist, either fail to agree or to fit the sparse facts
+which came to light. There <a name="page64" id="page64"></a>remains no dispute, however, that the
+occurrence, whatever shape it took, threw Mr. Lincoln into a deeper
+despondency than any he had yet experienced, for on January 23,
+1841, he wrote to his law partner, John T. Stuart:</p>
+<p>"For not giving you a general summary of news you must pardon
+me; it is not in my power to do so. I am now the most miserable man
+living. If what I feel were equally distributed to the whole human
+family, there would not be one cheerful face on earth. Whether I
+shall ever be better, I cannot tell; I awfully forebode I shall
+not. To remain as I am is impossible; I must die or be better."</p>
+<p>Apparently his engagement to Miss Todd was broken off, but
+whether that was the result or the cause of his period of gloom
+seems still a matter of conjecture. His mind was so perturbed that
+he felt unable to attend the sessions of the legislature of which
+he was a member; and after its close his intimate friend Joshua F.
+Speed carried him off for a visit to Kentucky. The change of scene
+and surroundings proved of great benefit. He returned home about
+midsummer very much improved, but not yet completely restored to a
+natural mental equipoise. While on their visit to Kentucky, Speed
+had likewise fallen in love, and in the following winter had become
+afflicted with doubts and perplexities akin to those from which
+Lincoln had suffered. It now became his turn to give sympathy and
+counsel to his friend, and he did this with a warmth and delicacy
+born of his own spiritual trials, not yet entirely overmastered. He
+wrote letter after letter to Speed to convince him that his doubts
+about not truly loving the woman of his choice were all
+nonsense.</p>
+<p>"Why, Speed, if you did not love her, although you might not
+wish her death, you would most certainly <a name="page65" id="page65"></a>be resigned
+to it. Perhaps this point is no longer a question with you, and my
+pertinacious dwelling upon it is a rude intrusion upon your
+feelings. If so, you must pardon me. You know the hell I have
+suffered on that point, and how tender I am upon it.... I am now
+fully convinced that you love her, as ardently as you are capable
+of loving.... It is the peculiar misfortune of both you and me to
+dream dreams of Elysium far exceeding all that anything earthly can
+realize."</p>
+<p>When Lincoln heard that Speed was finally married, he wrote
+him:</p>
+<p>"It cannot be told how it now thrills me with joy to hear you
+say you are 'far happier than you ever expected to be,' That much,
+I know, is enough. I know you too well to suppose your expectations
+were not, at least, sometimes extravagant; and if the reality
+exceeds them all, I say, Enough, dear Lord. I am not going beyond
+the truth when I tell you that the short space it took me to read
+your last letter gave me more pleasure than the total sum of all I
+have enjoyed since the fatal first of January, 1841. Since then it
+seems to me I should have been entirely happy, but for the
+never-absent idea that there is one still unhappy whom I have
+contributed to make so. That still kills my soul. I cannot but
+reproach myself for even wishing to be happy while she is
+otherwise."</p>
+<p>It is quite possible that a series of incidents that occurred
+during the summer in which the above was written had something to
+do with bringing such a frame of mind to a happier conclusion.
+James Shields, afterward a general in two wars and a senator from
+two States, was at that time auditor of Illinois, with his office
+at Springfield. Shields was an Irishman by birth, and, for an
+active politician of the Democratic <a name="page66" id="page66"></a>party, had the misfortune to
+be both sensitive and irascible in party warfare. Shields, together
+with the Democratic governor and treasurer, issued a circular order
+forbidding the payment of taxes in the depreciated paper of the
+Illinois State banks, and the Whigs were endeavoring to make
+capital by charging that the order was issued for the purpose of
+bringing enough silver into the treasury to pay the salaries of
+these officials. Using this as a basis of argument, a couple of
+clever Springfield society girls wrote and printed in the "Sangamo
+Journal" a series of humorous letters in country dialect,
+purporting to come from the "Lost Townships," and signed by "Aunt
+Rebecca," who called herself a farmer's widow. It is hardly
+necessary to say that Mary Todd was one of the culprits. The young
+ladies originated the scheme more to poke fun at the personal
+weaknesses of Shields than for the sake of party effect, and they
+embellished their simulated plaint about taxes with an embroidery
+of fictitious social happenings and personal allusions to the
+auditor that put the town on a grin and Shields into fury. The fair
+and mischievous writers found it necessary to consult Lincoln about
+how they should frame the political features of their attack, and
+he set them a pattern by writing the first letter of the series
+himself.</p>
+<p>Shields sent a friend to the editor of the "Journal," and
+demanded the name of the real "Rebecca." The editor, as in duty
+bound, asked Lincoln what he should do, and was instructed to give
+Lincoln's name, and not to mention the ladies. Then followed a
+letter from Shields to Lincoln demanding retraction and apology,
+Lincoln's reply that he declined to answer under menace, and a
+challenge from Shields. Thereupon Lincoln instructed his "friend"
+as follows: If former offensive correspondence were withdrawn and a
+polite <a name="page67" id="page67"></a>and gentlemanly inquiry made, he was
+willing to explain that:</p>
+<p>"I did write the 'Lost Townships' letter which appeared in the
+'Journal' of the 2d instant, but had no participation in any form
+in any other article alluding to you. I wrote that wholly for
+political effect; I had no intention of injuring your personal or
+private character or standing as a man or a gentleman; and I did
+not then think, and do not now think, that that article could
+produce or has produced that effect against you, and had I
+anticipated such an effect I would have forborne to write it. And I
+will add that your conduct toward me, so far as I know, had always
+been gentlemanly, and that I had no personal pique against you and
+no cause for any.... If nothing like this is done, the
+preliminaries of the fight are to be:</p>
+<p>"<i>First</i>. Weapons: Cavalry broadswords of the largest size,
+precisely equal in all respects, and such as now used by the
+cavalry company at Jacksonville.</p>
+<p>"<i>Second</i>. Position: A plank ten feet long, and from nine
+to twelve inches broad, to be firmly fixed on edge, on the ground,
+as the line between us, which neither is to pass his foot over upon
+forfeit of his life. Next, a line drawn on the ground on either
+side of said plank and parallel with it, each at the distance of
+the whole length of the sword and three feet additional from the
+plank, and the passing of his own such line by either party during
+the fight shall be deemed a surrender of the contest."</p>
+<p>The two seconds met, and, with great unction, pledged "our honor
+to each other that we would endeavor to settle the matter
+amicably," but persistently higgled over points till publicity and
+arrests seemed imminent. Procuring the necessary broadswords, all
+parties then hurried away to an island in the Mississippi River
+opposite<a name="page68" id="page68"></a> Alton, where, long before the planks were
+set on edge or the swords drawn, mutual friends took the case out
+of the hands of the seconds and declared an adjustment. The terms
+of the fight as written by Mr. Lincoln show plainly enough that in
+his judgment it was to be treated as a farce, and would never
+proceed beyond "preliminaries." There, of course, ensued the usual
+very bellicose after-discussion in the newspapers, with additional
+challenges between the seconds about the proper etiquette of such
+farces, all resulting only in the shedding of much ink and
+furnishing Springfield with topics of lively conversation for a
+month. These occurrences, naturally enough, again drew Mr. Lincoln
+and Miss Todd together in friendly interviews, and Lincoln's letter
+to Speed detailing the news of the duels contains this significant
+paragraph:</p>
+<p>"But I began this letter not for what I have been writing, but
+to say something on that subject which you know to be of such
+infinite solicitude to me. The immense sufferings you endured from
+the first days of September till the middle of February you never
+tried to conceal from me, and I well understood. You have now been
+the husband of a lovely woman nearly eight months. That you are
+happier now than the day you married her I well know, for without
+you could not be living. But I have your word for it too, and the
+returning elasticity of spirits which is manifested in your
+letters. But I want to ask a close question. 'Are you now in
+feeling as well as judgment glad that you are married as you are?'
+From anybody but me this would be an impudent question not to be
+tolerated, but I know you will pardon it in me. Please answer it
+quickly, as I am impatient to know."</p>
+<p>The answer was evidently satisfactory, for on November 4, 1842,
+the Rev. Charles Dresser united <a name="page69" id="page69"></a>Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd in
+the holy bonds of matrimony.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p>
+<p>His marriage to Miss Todd ended all those mental perplexities
+and periods of despondency from which he had suffered more or less
+during his several love affairs, extending over nearly a decade.
+Out of the keen anguish he had endured, he finally gained that
+perfect mastery over his own spirit which Scripture declares to
+denote a greatness superior to that of him who takes a city. Few
+men have ever attained that complete domination of the will over
+the emotions, of reason over passion, by which he was able in the
+years to come to meet and solve the tremendous questions destiny
+had in store for him. His wedding once over, he took up with
+resolute patience the hard, practical routine of daily life, in
+which he had already been so severely schooled. Even his
+sentimental correspondence with his friend Speed lapsed into
+neglect. He was so poor that he and his bride could not make the
+contemplated visit to Kentucky they would both have so much
+enjoyed. His "national debt" of the old New Salem days was not yet
+fully paid off. "We are not keeping house, but boarding at the
+Globe tavern," he writes. "Our room ... and boarding only cost us
+four dollars a week."</p>
+<p>His law partnership with Stuart had lasted four years, but was
+dissolved by reason of Stuart's election <a name="page70" id="page70"></a>to Congress,
+and a new one was formed with Judge Stephen T. Logan, who had
+recently resigned from the circuit bench, where he had learned the
+quality and promise of Lincoln's talents. It was an opportune and
+important change. Stuart had devoted himself mainly to politics,
+while with Logan law was the primary object. Under Logan's guidance
+and encouragement, he took up both the study and practical work of
+the profession in a more serious spirit. Lincoln's interest in
+politics, however, was in no way diminished, and, in truth, his
+limited practice at that date easily afforded him the time
+necessary for both.</p>
+<p>Since 1840 he had declined a re&euml;lection to the legislature,
+and his ambition had doubtless contributed much to this decision.
+His late law partner, Stuart, had been three times a candidate for
+Congress. He was defeated in 1836, but successfully gained his
+election in 1838 and 1840, his service of two terms extending from
+December 2, 1839, to March 3, 1843. For some reason, the next
+election had been postponed from the year 1842 to 1843. It was but
+natural that Stuart's success should excite a similar desire in
+Lincoln, who had reached equal party prominence, and rendered even
+more conspicuous party service. Lincoln had profited greatly by the
+companionship and friendly emulation of the many talented young
+politicians of Springfield, but this same condition also increased
+competition and stimulated rivalry. Not only himself, but both
+Hardin and Baker desired the nomination, which, as the district
+then stood, was equivalent to an election.</p>
+<p>When the leading Whigs of Sangamon County met, Lincoln was under
+the impression that it was Baker and not Hardin who was his most
+dangerous rival, as appears in a letter to Speed of March 24,
+1843:<a name="page71" id="page71"></a></p>
+<p>"We had a meeting of the Whigs of the county here on last Monday
+to appoint delegates to a district convention, and Baker beat me
+and got the delegation instructed to go for him. The meeting, in
+spite of my attempt to decline it, appointed me one of the
+delegates, so that in getting Baker the nomination I shall be fixed
+a good deal like a fellow who is made groomsman to a man that has
+cut him out and is marrying his own dear 'gal.'"</p>
+<p>The causes that led to his disappointment are set forth more in
+detail in a letter, two days later, to a friend in the new county
+of Menard, which now included his old home, New Salem, whose
+powerful assistance was therefore lost from the party councils of
+Sangamon. The letter also dwells more particularly on the
+complicated influences which the practical politician has to reckon
+with, and shows that even his marriage had been used to turn
+popular opinion against him.</p>
+<p>"It is truly gratifying to me to learn that while the people of
+Sangamon have cast me off, my old friends of Menard, who have known
+me longest and best, stick to me. It would astonish, if not amuse,
+the older citizens to learn that I (a stranger, friendless,
+uneducated, penniless boy, working on a flatboat at ten dollars per
+month) have been put down here as the candidate of pride, wealth,
+and aristocratic family distinction. Yet so, chiefly, it was. There
+was, too, the strangest combination of church influence against me.
+Baker is a Campbellite, and therefore, as I suppose, with few
+exceptions got all that church. My wife has some relations in the
+Presbyterian churches and some with the Episcopal churches; and
+therefore, wherever it would tell, I was set down as either the one
+or the other, while it was everywhere contended that no Christian
+ought to go for me, because I belonged to no church, was
+<a name="page72" id="page72"></a>
+suspected of being a deist, and had talked about fighting a duel.
+With all these things, Baker of course had nothing to do. Nor do I
+complain of them. As to his own church going for him, I think that
+was right enough, and as to the influences I have spoken of in the
+other, though they were very strong, it would be grossly untrue and
+unjust to charge that they acted upon them in a body, or were very
+near so. I only mean that those influences levied a tax of a
+considerable per cent. upon my strength throughout the religious
+community."</p>
+<p>In the same letter we have a striking illustration of Lincoln's
+intelligence and skill in the intricate details of political
+management, together with the high sense of honor and manliness
+which directed his action in such matters. Speaking of the
+influences of Menard County, he wrote:</p>
+<p>"If she and Mason act circumspectly, they will in the convention
+be able so far to enforce their rights as to decide absolutely
+which one of the candidates shall be successful. Let me show the
+reason of this. Hardin, or some other Morgan candidate, will get
+Putnam, Marshall, Woodford, Tazewell, and Logan [counties], making
+sixteen. Then you and Mason, having three, can give the victory to
+either side. You say you shall instruct your delegates for me,
+unless I object. I certainly shall not object. That would be too
+pleasant a compliment for me to tread in the dust. And, besides, if
+anything should happen (which, however, is not probable) by which
+Baker should be thrown out of the fight, I would be at liberty to
+accept the nomination if I could get it. I do, however, feel myself
+bound not to hinder him in any way from getting the nomination. I
+should despise myself were I to attempt it. I think, then, it would
+be proper for your meeting to <a name="page73" id="page73"></a>appoint three delegates, and
+to instruct them to go for some one as a first choice, some one
+else as a second, and perhaps some one as a third; and if in those
+instructions I were named as the first choice it would gratify me
+very much. If you wish to hold the balance of power, it is
+important for you to attend to and secure the vote of Mason
+also."</p>
+<p>A few weeks again changed the situation, of which he informed
+Speed in a letter dated May 18:</p>
+<p>"In relation to our Congress matter here, you were right in
+supposing I would support the nominee. Neither Baker nor I,
+however, is the man&mdash;but Hardin, so far as I can judge from
+present appearances. We shall have no split or trouble about the
+matter; all will be harmony."</p>
+<p>In the following year (1844) Lincoln was once more compelled to
+exercise his patience. The Campbellite friends of Baker must have
+again been very active in behalf of their church favorite; for
+their influence, added to his dashing politics and eloquent
+oratory, appears to have secured him the nomination without serious
+contention, while Lincoln found a partial recompense in being
+nominated a candidate for presidential elector, which furnished him
+opportunity for all his party energy and zeal during the spirited
+but unsuccessful presidential campaign for Henry Clay. He not only
+made an extensive canvass in Illinois, but also made a number of
+speeches in the adjoining State of Indiana.</p>
+<p>It was probably during that year that a tacit agreement was
+reached among the Whig leaders in Sangamon County, that each would
+be satisfied with one term in Congress and would not seek a second
+nomination. But Hardin was the aspirant from the neighboring county
+of Morgan, and apparently therefore not <a name="page74" id="page74"></a>included in
+this arrangement. Already, in the fall of 1845, Lincoln
+industriously began his appeals and instructions to his friends in
+the district to secure the succession. Thus he wrote on November
+17:</p>
+<p>"The paper at Pekin has nominated Hardin for governor, and,
+commenting on this, the Alton paper indirectly nominated him for
+Congress. It would give Hardin a great start, and perhaps use me
+up, if the Whig papers of the district should nominate him for
+Congress. If your feelings toward me are the same as when I saw you
+(which I have no reason to doubt), I wish you would let nothing
+appear in your paper which may operate against me. You understand.
+Matters stand just as they did when I saw you. Baker is certainly
+off the track, and I fear Hardin intends to be on it."</p>
+<p>But again, as before, the spirit of absolute fairness governed
+all his movements, and he took special pains to guard against it
+being "suspected that I was attempting to juggle Hardin out of a
+nomination for Congress by juggling him into one for governor." "I
+should be pleased," he wrote again in January, "if I could concur
+with you in the hope that my name would be the only one presented
+to the convention; but I cannot. Hardin is a man of desperate
+energy and perseverance, and one that never backs out; and, I fear,
+to think otherwise is to be deceived in the character of our
+adversary. I would rejoice to be spared the labor of a contest,
+but, 'being in,' I shall go it thoroughly and to the bottom." He
+then goes on to recount in much detail the chances for and against
+him in the several counties of the district, and in later letters
+discusses the system of selecting candidates, where the convention
+ought to be held, how the delegates should be chosen, the
+instructions they should receive, and how <a name="page75" id="page75"></a>the places
+of absent delegates should be filled. He watched his field of
+operations, planned his strategy, and handled his forces almost
+with the vigilance of a military commander. As a result, he won
+both his nomination in May and his election to the Thirtieth
+Congress in August, 1846.</p>
+<p>In that same year the Mexican War broke out. Hardin became
+colonel of one of the three regiments of Illinois volunteers called
+for by President Polk, while Baker raised a fourth regiment, which
+was also accepted. Colonel Hardin was killed in the battle of Buena
+Vista, and Colonel Baker won great distinction in the fighting near
+the City of Mexico.</p>
+<p>Like Abraham Lincoln, Douglas was also elected to Congress in
+1846, where he had already served the two preceding terms. But
+these redoubtable Illinois champions were not to have a personal
+tilt in the House of Representatives. Before Congress met, the
+Illinois legislature elected Douglas to the United States Senate
+for six years from March 4, 1847.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="page76" id="page76"></a>
+<h2><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>VI</h2>
+<br />
+<p><i>First Session of the Thirtieth Congress&mdash;Mexican
+War&mdash;"Wilmot Proviso"&mdash;Campaign of 1848&mdash;Letters to
+Herndon about Young Men in Politics&mdash;Speech in Congress on the
+Mexican War&mdash;Second Session of the Thirtieth
+Congress&mdash;Bill to Prohibit Slavery in the District of
+Columbia&mdash;Lincoln's Recommendations of
+Office-Seekers&mdash;Letters to Speed&mdash;Commissioner of the
+General Land Office&mdash;Declines Governorship of Oregon</i></p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<p>Very few men are fortunate enough to gain distinction during
+their first term in Congress. The reason is obvious. Legally, a
+term extends over two years; practically, a session of five or six
+months during the first, and three months during the second year
+ordinarily reduce their opportunities more than one half. In those
+two sessions, even if we presuppose some knowledge of parliamentary
+law, they must learn the daily routine of business, make the
+acquaintance of their fellow-members, who already, in the Thirtieth
+Congress, numbered something over two hundred, study the past and
+prospective legislation on a multitude of minor national questions
+entirely new to the new members, and perform the drudgery of
+haunting the departments in the character of unpaid agent and
+attorney to attend to the private interests of constituents&mdash;a
+physical task of no small proportions in Lincoln's day, when there
+was neither street-car nor omnibus in the "city of magnificent
+distances," as Washington was nicknamed. Add to this that the
+principal <a name="page77" id="page77"></a>work of preparing legislation is done by
+the various committees in their committee-rooms, of which the
+public hears nothing, and that members cannot choose their own time
+for making speeches; still further, that the management of debate
+on prepared legislation must necessarily be intrusted to members of
+long experience as well as talent, and it will be seen that the
+novice need not expect immediate fame.</p>
+<p>It is therefore not to be wondered at that Lincoln's single term
+in the House of Representatives at Washington added practically
+nothing to his reputation. He did not attempt to shine forth in
+debate by either a stinging retort or a witty epigram, or by a
+sudden burst of inspired eloquence. On the contrary, he took up his
+task as a quiet but earnest and patient apprentice in the great
+workshop of national legislation, and performed his share of duty
+with industry and intelligence, as well as with a modest and
+appreciative respect for the ability and experience of his
+seniors.</p>
+<p>"As to speech-making," he wrote, "by way of getting the hang of
+the House, I made a little speech two or three days ago on a
+post-office question of no general interest. I find speaking here
+and elsewhere about the same thing. I was about as badly scared,
+and no worse, as I am when I speak in court. I expect to make one
+within a week or two in which I hope to succeed well enough to wish
+you to see it." And again, some weeks later: "I just take my pen to
+say that Mr. Stephens of Georgia, a little, slim, pale-faced
+consumptive man with a voice like Logan's, has just concluded the
+very best speech of an hour's length I ever heard. My old,
+withered, dry eyes are full of tears yet."</p>
+<p>He was appointed the junior Whig member of the Committee on
+Post-offices and Post-roads, and shared its prosaic but eminently
+useful labors both in the <a name="page78" id="page78"></a>committee-room and the House debates. His
+name appears on only one other committee,&mdash;that on
+Expenditures of the War Department,&mdash;and he seems to have
+interested himself in certain amendments of the law relating to
+bounty lands for soldiers and such minor military topics. He looked
+carefully after the interests of Illinois in certain grants of land
+to that State for railroads, but expressed his desire that the
+government price of the reserved sections should not be increased
+to actual settlers.</p>
+<p>During the first session of the Thirtieth Congress he delivered
+three set speeches in the House, all of them carefully prepared and
+fully written out. The first of these, on January 12, 1848, was an
+elaborate defense of the Whig doctrine summarized in a House
+resolution passed a week or ten days before, that the Mexican War
+"had been unnecessarily and unconstitutionally commenced by the
+President," James K. Polk. The speech is not a mere party diatribe,
+but a terse historical and legal examination of the origin of the
+Mexican War. In the after-light of our own times which shines upon
+these transactions, we may readily admit that Mr. Lincoln and the
+Whigs had the best of the argument, but it must be quite as readily
+conceded that they were far behind the President and his defenders
+in political and party strategy. The former were clearly wasting
+their time in discussing an abstract question of international law
+upon conditions existing twenty months before. During those twenty
+months the American arms had won victory after victory, and planted
+the American flag on the "halls of the Montezumas." Could even
+successful argument undo those victories or call back to life the
+brave American soldiers who had shed their blood to win them?</p>
+<p>It may be assumed as an axiom that Providence has <a name="page79" id="page79"></a>never gifted
+any political party with all of political wisdom or blinded it with
+all of political folly. Upon the foregoing point of controversy the
+Whigs were sadly thrown on the defensive, and labored heavily under
+their already discounted declamation. But instinct rather than
+sagacity led them to turn their eyes to the future, and
+successfully upon other points to retrieve their mistake. Within
+six weeks after Lincoln's speech President Polk sent to the Senate
+a treaty of peace, under which Mexico ceded to the United States an
+extent of territory equal in area to Germany, France, and Spain
+combined, and thereafter the origin of the war was an obsolete
+question. What should be done with the new territory was now the
+issue.</p>
+<p>This issue embraced the already exciting slavery question, and
+Mr. Lincoln was doubtless gratified that the Whigs had taken a
+position upon it so consonant with his own convictions. Already, in
+the previous Congress, the body of the Whig members had joined a
+small group of antislavery Democrats in fastening upon an
+appropriation bill the famous "Wilmot Proviso," that slavery should
+never exist in territory acquired from Mexico, and the Whigs of the
+Thirtieth Congress steadily followed the policy of voting for the
+same restriction in regard to every piece of legislation where it
+was applicable. Mr. Lincoln often said he had voted forty or fifty
+times for the Wilmot Proviso in various forms during his single
+term.</p>
+<p>Upon another point he and the other Whigs were equally wise.
+Repelling the Democratic charge that they were unpatriotic in
+denouncing the war, they voted in favor of every measure to
+sustain, supply, and encourage the soldiers in the field. But their
+most adroit piece of strategy, now that the war was ended, was in
+their movement to make General Taylor President.<a name="page80" id="page80"></a></p>
+<p>In this movement Mr. Lincoln took a leading and active part. No
+living American statesman has ever been idolized by his party
+adherents as was Henry Clay for a whole generation, and Mr. Lincoln
+fully shared this hero-worship. But his practical campaigning as a
+candidate for presidential elector in the Harrison campaign of
+1840, and the Clay campaign of 1844, in Illinois and the adjoining
+States, afforded him a basis for sound judgment, and convinced him
+that the day when Clay could have been elected President was
+forever passed.</p>
+<p>"Mr. Clay's chance for an election is just no chance at all," he
+wrote on April 30. "He might get New York, and that would have
+elected in 1844, but it will not now, because he must now, at the
+least, lose Tennessee which he had then, and in addition the
+fifteen new votes of Florida, Texas, Iowa, and Wisconsin.... In my
+judgment, we can elect nobody but General Taylor; and we cannot
+elect him without a nomination. Therefore don't fail to send a
+delegate." And again on the same day: "Mr. Clay's letter has not
+advanced his interests any here. Several who were against Taylor,
+but not for anybody particularly before, are since taking ground,
+some for Scott and some for McLean. Who will be nominated neither I
+nor any one else can tell. Now, let me pray to you in turn. My
+prayer is that you let nothing discourage or baffle you, but that,
+in spite of every difficulty, you send us a good Taylor delegate
+from your circuit. Make Baker, who is now with you, I suppose, help
+about it. He is a good hand to raise a breeze."</p>
+<p>In due time Mr. Lincoln's sagacity and earnestness were both
+justified; for on June 12 he was able to write to an Illinois
+friend:</p>
+<p>"On my return from Philadelphia, where I had been <a name="page81" id="page81"></a>attending
+the nomination of 'Old Rough,' I found your letter in a mass of
+others which had accumulated in my absence. By many, and often, it
+had been said they would not abide the nomination of Taylor; but
+since the deed has been done, they are fast falling in, and in my
+opinion we shall have a most overwhelming, glorious triumph. One
+unmistakable sign is that all the odds and ends are with
+us&mdash;Barnburners, Native Americans, Tyler men, disappointed
+office-seeking Locofocos, and the Lord knows what. This is
+important, if in nothing else, in showing which way the wind blows.
+Some of the sanguine men have set down all the States as certain
+for Taylor but Illinois, and it as doubtful. Cannot something be
+done even in Illinois? Taylor's nomination takes the Locos on the
+blind side. It turns the war-thunder against them. The war is now
+to them the gallows of Haman, which they built for us, and on which
+they are doomed to be hanged themselves."</p>
+<p>Nobody understood better than Mr. Lincoln the obvious truth that
+in politics it does not suffice merely to nominate candidates.
+Something must also be done to elect them. Two of the letters which
+he at this time wrote home to his young law partner, William H.
+Herndon, are especially worth quoting in part, not alone to show
+his own zeal and industry, but also as a perennial instruction and
+encouragement to young men who have an ambition to make a name and
+a place for themselves in American politics:</p>
+<p>"Last night I was attending a sort of caucus of the Whig
+members, held in relation to the coming presidential election. The
+whole field of the nation was scanned, and all is high hope and
+confidence.... Now, as to the young men. You must not wait to be
+brought forward by the older men. For instance, do <a name="page82" id="page82"></a>you suppose
+that I should ever have got into notice if I had waited to be
+hunted up and pushed forward by older men? You young men get
+together and form a 'Rough and Ready Club,' and have regular
+meetings and speeches.... Let every one play the part he can play
+best,&mdash;some speak, some sing, and all 'holler.' Your meetings
+will be of evenings; the older men, and the women, will go to hear
+you; so that it will not only contribute to the election of 'Old
+Zach,' but will be an interesting pastime, and improving to the
+intellectual faculties of all engaged."</p>
+<p>And in another letter, answering one from Herndon in which that
+young aspirant complains of having been neglected, he says:</p>
+<p>"The subject of that letter is exceedingly painful to me; and I
+cannot but think there is some mistake in your impression of the
+motives of the old men. I suppose I am now one of the old men; and
+I declare, on my veracity, which I think is good with you, that
+nothing could afford me more satisfaction than to learn that you
+and others of my young friends at home are doing battle in the
+contest, and endearing themselves to the people, and taking a stand
+far above any I have been able to reach in their admiration. I
+cannot conceive that other old men feel differently. Of course I
+cannot demonstrate what I say; but I was young once, and I am sure
+I was never ungenerously thrust back. I hardly know what to say.
+The way for a young man to rise is to improve himself every way he
+can, never suspecting that anybody wishes to hinder him. Allow me
+to assure you that suspicion and jealousy never did help any man in
+any situation. There may sometimes be ungenerous attempts to keep a
+young man down; and they will succeed, too, if he allows his mind
+to be diverted from its true channel to brood over the attempted
+<a name="page83" id="page83"></a>
+injury. Cast about, and see if this feeling has not injured every
+person you have ever known to fall into it."</p>
+<p>Mr. Lincoln's interest in this presidential campaign did not
+expend itself merely in advice to others. We have his own written
+record that he also took an active part for the election of General
+Taylor after his nomination, speaking a few times in Maryland near
+Washington, several times in Massachusetts, and canvassing quite
+fully his own district in Illinois. Before the session of Congress
+ended he also delivered two speeches in the House&mdash;one on the
+general subject of internal improvements, and the other the usual
+political campaign speech which members of Congress are in the
+habit of making to be printed for home circulation; made up mainly
+of humorous and satirical criticism, favoring the election of
+General Taylor, and opposing the election of General Cass, the
+Democratic candidate. Even this production, however, is lighted up
+by a passage of impressive earnestness and eloquence, in which he
+explains and defends the attitude of the Whigs in denouncing the
+origin of the Mexican War:</p>
+<p>"If to say 'the war was unnecessarily and unconstitutionally
+commenced by the President,' be opposing the war, then the Whigs
+have very generally opposed it. Whenever they have spoken at all
+they have said this; and they have said it on what has appeared
+good reason to them. The marching an army into the midst of a
+peaceful Mexican settlement, frightening the inhabitants away,
+leaving their growing crops and other property to destruction, to
+you may appear a perfectly amiable, peaceful, unprovoking
+procedure; but it does not appear so to us. So to call such an act,
+to us appears no other than a naked, impudent absurdity, and we
+speak of it accordingly. But if, when the war had begun, and had
+become the cause of the country, the <a name="page84" id="page84"></a>giving of our
+money and our blood, in common with yours, was support of the war,
+then it is not true that we have always opposed the war. With few
+individual exceptions, you have constantly had our votes here for
+all the necessary supplies. And, more than this, you have had the
+services, the blood, and the lives of our political brethren in
+every trial and on every field. The beardless boy and the mature
+man, the humble and the distinguished&mdash;you have had them.
+Through suffering and death, by disease and in battle, they have
+endured, and fought and fell with you. Clay and Webster each gave a
+son, never to be returned. From the State of my own residence,
+besides other worthy but less known Whig names, we sent Marshall,
+Morrison, Baker, and Hardin; they all fought and one fell, and in
+the fall of that one we lost our best Whig man. Nor were the Whigs
+few in number or laggard in the day of danger. In that fearful,
+bloody, breathless struggle at Buena Vista, where each man's hard
+task was to beat back five foes or die himself, of the five high
+officers who perished, four were Whigs. In speaking of this, I mean
+no odious comparison between the lion-hearted Whigs and the
+Democrats who fought there. On other occasions, and among the lower
+officers and privates on that occasion, I doubt not the proportion
+was different. I wish to do justice to all. I think of all those
+brave men as Americans, in whose proud fame, as an American, I,
+too, have a share. Many of them, Whigs and Democrats, are my
+constituents and personal friends; and I thank them&mdash;more than
+thank them&mdash;one and all, for the high, imperishable honor they
+have conferred on our common State."</p>
+<p>During the second session of the Thirtieth Congress Mr. Lincoln
+made no long speeches, but in addition to the usual routine work
+devolved on him by the <a name="page85" id="page85"></a>committee of which he was a member, he
+busied himself in preparing a special measure which, because of its
+relation to the great events of his later life, needs to be
+particularly mentioned. Slavery existed in Maryland and Virginia
+when these States ceded the territory out of which the District of
+Columbia was formed. Since, by that cession, this land passed under
+the exclusive control of the Federal government, the "institution"
+within this ten miles square could no longer be defended by the
+plea of State sovereignty, and antislavery sentiment naturally
+demanded that it should cease. Pro-slavery statesmen, on the other
+hand, as persistently opposed its removal, partly as a matter of
+pride and political consistency, partly because it was a
+convenience to Southern senators and members of Congress, when they
+came to Washington, to bring their family servants where the local
+laws afforded them the same security over their black chattels
+which existed at their homes. Mr. Lincoln, in his Peoria speech in
+1854, emphasized the sectional dispute with this vivid touch of
+local color:</p>
+<p>"The South clamored for a more efficient fugitive-slave law. The
+North clamored for the abolition of a peculiar species of slave
+trade in the District of Columbia, in connection with which, in
+view from the windows of the Capitol, a sort of negro
+livery-stable, where droves of negroes were collected, temporarily
+kept, and finally taken to Southern markets, precisely like droves
+of horses, had been openly maintained for fifty years."</p>
+<p>Thus the question remained a minor but never ending bone of
+contention and point of irritation, and excited debate arose in the
+Thirtieth Congress over a House resolution that the Committee on
+the Judiciary be instructed to report a bill as soon as practicable
+prohibiting the slave trade in the District of Columbia. In
+<a name="page86" id="page86"></a>
+this situation of affairs, Mr. Lincoln conceived the fond hope that
+he might be able to present a plan of compromise. He already
+entertained the idea which in later years during his presidency he
+urged upon both Congress and the border slave States, that the just
+and generous mode of getting rid of the barbarous institution of
+slavery was by a system of compensated emancipation giving freedom
+to the slave and a money indemnity to the owner. He therefore
+carefully framed a bill providing for the abolishment of slavery in
+the District upon the following principal conditions:</p>
+<p><i>First</i>. That the law should be adopted by a popular vote
+in the District.</p>
+<p><i>Second</i>. A temporary system of apprenticeship and gradual
+emancipation for children born of slave mothers after January 1,
+1850.</p>
+<p><i>Third</i>. The government to pay full cash value for slaves
+voluntarily manumitted by their owners.</p>
+<p><i>Fourth</i>. Prohibiting bringing slaves into the District, or
+selling them out of it.</p>
+<p><i>Fifth</i>. Providing that government officers, citizens of
+slave States, might bring with them and take away again, their
+slave house-servants.</p>
+<p><i>Sixth</i>. Leaving the existing fugitive-slave law in
+force.</p>
+<p>When Mr. Lincoln presented this amendment to the House, he said
+that he was authorized to state that of about fifteen of the
+leading citizens of the District of Columbia, to whom the
+proposition had been submitted, there was not one who did not
+approve the adoption of such a proposition. He did not wish to be
+misunderstood. He did not know whether or not they would vote for
+this bill on the first Monday in April; but he repeated that out of
+fifteen persons to whom it had been submitted, he had authority to
+say that every one of <a name="page87" id="page87"></a>them desired that some proposition like
+this should pass.</p>
+<p>While Mr. Lincoln did not so state to the House, it was well
+understood in intimate circles that the bill had the approval on
+the one hand of Mr. Seaton, the conservative mayor of Washington,
+and on the other hand of Mr. Giddings, the radical antislavery
+member of the House of Representatives. Notwithstanding the
+singular merit of the bill in reconciling such extremes of opposing
+factions in its support, the temper of Congress had already become
+too hot to accept such a rational and practical solution, and Mr.
+Lincoln's wise proposition was not allowed to come to a vote.</p>
+<p>The triumphant election of General Taylor to the presidency in
+November, 1848, very soon devolved upon Mr. Lincoln the delicate
+and difficult duty of making recommendations to the incoming
+administration of persons suitable to be appointed to fill the
+various Federal offices in Illinois, as Colonel E.D. Baker and
+himself were the only Whigs elected to Congress from that State. In
+performing this duty, one of his leading characteristics, impartial
+honesty and absolute fairness to political friends and foes alike,
+stands out with noteworthy clearness. His term ended with General
+Taylor's inauguration, and he appears to have remained in
+Washington but a few days thereafter. Before leaving, he wrote to
+the new Secretary of the Treasury:</p>
+<p>"Colonel E.D. Baker and myself are the only Whig members of
+Congress from Illinois&mdash;I of the Thirtieth, and he of the
+Thirty-first. We have reason to think the Whigs of that State hold
+us responsible, to some extent, for the appointments which may be
+made of our citizens. We do not know you personally, and our
+efforts to see you have, so far, been unavailing. I therefore hope
+I am not obtrusive in saying in this way, for <a name="page88" id="page88"></a>him and
+myself, that when a citizen of Illinois is to be appointed, in your
+department, to an office, either in or out of the State, we most
+respectfully ask to be heard."</p>
+<p>On the following day, March 10, 1849, he addressed to the
+Secretary of State his first formal recommendation. It is
+remarkable from the fact that between the two Whig applicants whose
+papers are transmitted, he says rather less in favor of his own
+choice than of the opposing claimant.</p>
+<p>"SIR: There are several applicants for the office of United
+States Marshal for the District of Illinois, among the most
+prominent of whom are Benjamin Bond, Esq., of Carlyle,
+and &mdash;&mdash; Thomas, Esq., of Galena. Mr. Bond I know to be
+personally every way worthy of the office; and he is very
+numerously and most respectably recommended. His papers I send to
+you; and I solicit for his claims a full and fair consideration.
+Having said this much, I add that in my individual judgment the
+appointment of Mr. Thomas would be the better.</p>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"Your obedient
+servant,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"A. LINCOLN"</span><br /></p>
+<p>(Indorsed on Mr. Bond's papers.)</p>
+<p>"In this and the accompanying envelop are the recommendations of
+about two hundred good citizens, of all parts of Illinois, that
+Benjamin Bond be appointed marshal for that district. They include
+the names of nearly all our Whigs who now are, or have ever been,
+members of the State legislature, besides forty-six of the
+Democratic members of the present legislature, and many other good
+citizens. I add that from personal knowledge I consider Mr. Bond
+every way worthy of the office, and qualified to fill it. Holding
+the individual opinion that the appointment of a different
+gentleman would be better, I ask especial attention and
+<a name="page89" id="page89"></a>
+consideration for his claims, and for the opinions expressed in his
+favor by those over whom I can claim no superiority."</p>
+<p>There were but three other prominent Federal appointments to be
+made in Mr. Lincoln's congressional district, and he waited until
+after his return home so that he might be better informed of the
+local opinion concerning them before making his recommendations. It
+was nearly a month after he left Washington before he sent his
+decision to the several departments at Washington. The letter
+quoted below, relating to one of these appointments, is in
+substance almost identical with the others, and particularly
+refrains from expressing any opinion of his own for or against the
+policy of political removals. He also expressly explains that
+Colonel Baker, the other Whig representative, claims no voice in
+the appointment.</p>
+<p>"DEAR SIR: I recommend that Walter Davis be appointed Receiver
+of the Land Office at this place, whenever there shall be a
+vacancy. I cannot say that Mr. Herndon, the present incumbent, has
+failed in the proper discharge of any of the duties of the office.
+He is a very warm partizan, and openly and actively opposed to the
+election of General Taylor. I also understand that since General
+Taylor's election he has received a reappointment from Mr. Polk,
+his old commission not having expired. Whether this is true the
+records of the department will show. I may add that the Whigs here
+almost universally desire his removal."</p>
+<p>If Mr. Lincoln's presence in Washington during two sessions in
+Congress did not add materially to either his local or national
+fame, it was of incalculable benefit in other respects. It afforded
+him a close inspection of the complex machinery of the Federal
+government and its relation to that of the States, and enabled him
+to <a name="page90" id="page90"></a>notice both the easy routine and the
+occasional friction of their movements. It brought him into contact
+and, to some degree, intimate companionship with political leaders
+from all parts of the Union, and gave him the opportunity of
+joining in the caucus and the national convention that nominated
+General Taylor for President. It broadened immensely the horizon of
+his observation, and the sharp personal rivalries he noted at the
+center of the nation opened to him new lessons in the study of
+human nature. His quick intelligence acquired knowledge quite as,
+or even more, rapidly by process of logical intuition than by mere
+dry, laborious study; and it was the inestimable experience of this
+single term in the Congress of the United States which prepared him
+for his coming, yet undreamed-of, responsibilities, as fully as it
+would have done the ordinary man in a dozen.</p>
+<p>Mr. Lincoln had frankly acknowledged to his friend Speed, after
+his election in 1846, that "being elected to Congress, though I am
+very grateful to our friends for having done it, has not pleased me
+as much as I expected." It has already been said that an agreement
+had been reached among the several Springfield aspirants, that they
+would limit their ambition to a single term, and take turns in
+securing and enjoying the coveted distinction; and Mr. Lincoln
+remained faithful to this agreement. When the time to prepare for
+the election of 1848 approached, he wrote to his law partner:</p>
+<p>"It is very pleasant to learn from you that there are some who
+desire that I should be re&euml;lected. I most heartily thank them
+for their kind partiality; and I can say, as Mr. Clay said of the
+annexation of Texas, that 'personally I would not object' to a
+re&euml;lection, although I thought at the time, and still think,
+it would be quite <a name="page91" id="page91"></a>as well for me to return to the law at the
+end of a single term. I made the declaration that I would not be a
+candidate again, more from a wish to deal fairly with others, to
+keep peace among our friends, and to keep the district from going
+to the enemy, than for any cause personal to myself; so that, 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."</p>
+<p>Judge Stephen T. Logan, his late law partner, was nominated for
+the place, and heartily supported not only by Mr. Lincoln, but also
+by the Whigs of the district. By this time, however, the politics
+of the district had undergone a change by reason of the heavy
+emigration to Illinois at that period, and Judge Logan was
+defeated.</p>
+<p>Mr. Lincoln's strict and sensitive adherence to his promises now
+brought him a disappointment which was one of those blessings in
+disguise so commonly deplored for the time being by the wisest and
+best. A number of the Western members of Congress had joined in a
+recommendation to President-elect Taylor to give Colonel E.D. Baker
+a place in his cabinet, a reward he richly deserved for his
+talents, his party service, and the military honor he had won in
+the Mexican War. When this application bore no fruit, the Whigs of
+Illinois, expecting at least some encouragement from the new
+administration, laid claim to a bureau appointment, that of
+Commissioner of the General Land Office, in the new Department of
+the Interior, recently established.</p>
+<p>"I believe that, so far as the Whigs in Congress are concerned,"
+wrote Lincoln to Speed twelve days before<a name="page92" id="page92"></a> Taylor's
+inauguration, "I could have the General Land Office almost by
+common consent; but then Sweet and Don Morrison and Browning and
+Cyrus Edwards all want it, and what is worse, while I think I could
+easily take it myself, I fear I shall have trouble to get it for
+any other man in Illinois."</p>
+<p>Unselfishly yielding his own chances, he tried to induce the
+four Illinois candidates to come to a mutual agreement in favor of
+one of their own number. They were so tardy in settling their
+differences as to excite his impatience, and he wrote to a
+Washington friend:</p>
+<p>"I learn from Washington that a man by the name of Butterfield
+will probably be appointed Commissioner of the General Land Office,
+This ought not to be.... Some kind friends think I ought to be an
+applicant, but I am for Mr. Edwards. Try to defeat Butterfield,
+and, in doing so, use Mr. Edwards, J.L.D. Morrison, or myself,
+whichever you can to best advantage."</p>
+<p>As the situation grew persistently worse, Mr. Lincoln at length,
+about the first of June, himself became a formal applicant. But the
+delay resulting from his devotion to his friends had dissipated his
+chances. Butterfield received the appointment, and the defeat was
+aggravated when, a few months later, his unrelenting spirit of
+justice and fairness impelled him to write a letter defending
+Butterfield and the Secretary of the Interior from an attack by one
+of Lincoln's warm personal but indiscreet friends in the Illinois
+legislature. It was, however, a fortunate escape. In the four
+succeeding years Mr. Lincoln qualified himself for better things
+than the monotonous drudgery of an administrative bureau at
+Washington. It is probable that this defeat also enabled him more
+easily to pass by another <a name="page93" id="page93"></a>temptation. The Taylor administration,
+realizing its ingratitude, at length, in September, offered him the
+governorship of the recently organized territory of Oregon; but he
+replied:</p>
+<p>"On as much reflection as I have had time to give the subject, I
+cannot consent to accept it."</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="page94" id="page94"></a>
+<h2><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>VII</h2>
+<br />
+<p><i>Repeal of the Missouri Compromise&mdash;State Fair
+Debate&mdash;Peoria Debate&mdash;Trumbull Elected&mdash;Letter to
+Robinson&mdash;The Know-Nothings&mdash;Decatur
+Meeting&mdash;Bloomington Convention&mdash;Philadelphia
+Convention&mdash;Lincoln's Vote for
+Vice-President&mdash;Fr&eacute;mont and Dayton&mdash;Lincoln's
+Campaign Speeches&mdash;Chicago Banquet Speech</i></p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<p>After the expiration of his term in Congress Mr. Lincoln applied
+himself with unremitting assiduity to the practice of law, which
+the growth of the State in population, and the widening of his
+acquaintanceship no less than his own growth in experience and
+legal acumen, rendered ever more important and absorbing.</p>
+<p>"In 1854," he writes, "his profession had almost superseded the
+thought of politics in his mind, when the repeal of the Missouri
+Compromise aroused him as he had never been before."</p>
+<p>Not alone Mr. Lincoln, but, indeed, the whole nation, was so
+aroused&mdash;the Democratic party, and nearly the entire South, to
+force the passage of that repeal through Congress, and an alarmed
+majority, including even a considerable minority of the Democratic
+party in the North, to resist its passage.</p>
+<p>Mr. Lincoln, of course, shared the general indignation of
+Northern sentiment that the whole of the remaining Louisiana
+Territory, out of which six States, and the greater part of two
+more, have since been <a name="page95" id="page95"></a>organized and admitted to the Union,
+should be opened to the possible extension of slavery. But two
+points served specially to enlist his energy in the controversy.
+One was personal, in that Senator Douglas of Illinois, by whom the
+repeal was championed, and whose influence as a free-State senator
+and powerful Democratic leader alone made the repeal possible, had
+been his personal antagonist in Illinois politics for almost twenty
+years. The other was moral, in that the new question involved the
+elemental principles of the American government, the fundamental
+maxim of the Declaration of Independence, that all men are created
+equal. His intuitive logic needed no demonstration that bank,
+tariff, internal improvements, the Mexican War, and their related
+incidents, were questions of passing expediency; but that this
+sudden reaction, needlessly grafted upon a routine statute to
+organize a new territory, was the unmistakable herald of a coming
+struggle which might transform republican institutions.</p>
+<p>It was in January, 1854, that the accidents of a Senate debate
+threw into Congress and upon the country the firebrand of the
+repeal of the Missouri Compromise. The repeal was not consummated
+till the month of May; and from May until the autumn elections the
+flame of acrimonious discussion ran over the whole country like a
+wild fire. There is no record that Mr. Lincoln took any public part
+in the discussion until the month of September, but it is very
+clear that he not only carefully watched its progress, but that he
+studied its phases of development, its historical origins, and its
+legal bearings with close industry, and gathered from party
+literature and legislative documents a harvest of substantial facts
+and data, rather than the wordy campaign phrases and explosive
+epithets with which more impulsive students and speakers were
+content <a name="page96" id="page96"></a>to produce their oratorical effects. Here
+we may again quote Mr. Lincoln's exact written statement of the
+manner in which he resumed his political activity:</p>
+<p>"In the autumn of that year [1854] he took the stump, with no
+broader practical aim or object than to secure, if possible, the
+re&euml;lection of Hon. Richard Yates to Congress. His speeches at
+once attracted a more marked attention than they had ever before
+done. As the canvass proceeded he was drawn to different parts of
+the State, outside of Mr. Yates's district. He did not abandon the
+law, but gave his attention by turns to that and politics. The
+State Agricultural Fair was at Springfield that year, and Douglas
+was announced to speak there."</p>
+<p>The new question had created great excitement and uncertainty in
+Illinois politics, and there were abundant signs that it was
+beginning to break up the organization of both the Whig and the
+Democratic parties. This feeling brought together at the State fair
+an unusual number of local leaders from widely scattered counties,
+and almost spontaneously a sort of political tournament of
+speech-making broke out. In this Senator Douglas, doubly
+conspicuous by his championship of the Nebraska Bill in Congress,
+was expected to play the leading part, while the opposition, by a
+common impulse, called upon Lincoln to answer him. Lincoln
+performed the task with such aptness and force, with such freshness
+of argument, illustrations from history, and citations from
+authorities, as secured him a decided oratorical triumph, and
+lifted him at a single bound to the leadership of the opposition to
+Douglas's propagandism. Two weeks later, Douglas and Lincoln met at
+Peoria in a similar debate, and on his return to Springfield
+Lincoln wrote out and printed his speech in full.<a name="page97" id="page97"></a></p>
+<p>The reader who carefully examines this speech will at once be
+impressed with the genius which immediately made Mr. Lincoln a
+power in American politics. His grasp of the subject is so
+comprehensive, his statement so clear, his reasoning so convincing,
+his language so strong and eloquent by turns, that the wonderful
+power he manifested in the discussions and debates of the six
+succeeding years does not surpass, but only amplifies this, his
+first examination of the whole brood of questions relating to
+slavery precipitated upon the country by Douglas's repeal. After a
+searching history of the Missouri Compromise, he attacks the
+demoralizing effects and portentous consequences of its repeal.</p>
+<p>"This declared indifference," he says, "but, as I must think,
+covert real zeal for the spread of slavery, I cannot but hate. I
+hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself. I
+hate it because it deprives our republican example of its just
+influence in the world; enables the enemies of free institutions,
+with plausibility, to taunt us as hypocrites; causes the real
+friends of freedom to doubt our sincerity; and especially because
+it forces so many good men among ourselves into an open war with
+the very fundamental principles of civil liberty, criticizing the
+Declaration of Independence, and insisting that there is no right
+principle of action but self-interest.... Slavery is founded in the
+selfishness of man's nature&mdash;opposition to it in his love of
+justice. These principles are an eternal antagonism, and when
+brought into collision so fiercely as slavery extension brings
+them, shocks and throes and convulsions must ceaselessly follow.
+Repeal the Missouri Compromise, repeal all compromises, repeal the
+Declaration of Independence, repeal all past history, you still
+cannot repeal human nature. It still will be the abundance of man's
+heart that slavery extension is wrong, <a name="page98" id="page98"></a>and out of
+the abundance of his heart his mouth will continue to speak."</p>
+<p>With argument as impetuous, and logic as inexorable, he disposes
+of Douglas's plea of popular sovereignty:</p>
+<p>"Here, or at Washington, I would not trouble myself with the
+oyster laws of Virginia, or the cranberry laws of Indiana. The
+doctrine of self-government is right&mdash;absolutely and eternally
+right&mdash;but it has no just application as here attempted. Or
+perhaps I should rather say, that whether it has such application
+depends upon whether a negro is not or is a man. If he is not a
+man, in that case, he who is a man may, as a matter of
+self-government, do just what he pleases with him. But if the negro
+is a man, is it not to that extent a total destruction of
+self-government to say that he too shall not govern himself? When
+the white man governs himself, that is self-government; but when he
+governs himself and also governs another man, that is more than
+self-government&mdash;that is despotism.... I particularly object
+to the new position which the avowed principle of this Nebraska law
+gives to slavery in the body politic. I object to it because it
+assumes that there can be moral right in the enslaving of one man
+by another. I object to it as a dangerous dalliance for a free
+people&mdash;a sad evidence that, feeling prosperity, we forget
+right; that liberty, as a principle, we have ceased to revere....
+Little by little, but steadily as man's march to the grave, we have
+been giving up the old for the new faith. Near eighty years ago we
+began by declaring that all men are created equal; but now, from
+that beginning, we have run down to the other declaration, that for
+some men to enslave others is a 'sacred right of self-government.'
+These principles cannot stand together. They are as opposite as God
+and Mammon."<a name="page99" id="page99"></a></p>
+<p>If one compares the serious tone of this speech with the hard
+cider and coon-skin buncombe of the Harrison campaign of 1840, and
+its lofty philosophical thought with the humorous declamation of
+the Taylor campaign of 1848, the speaker's advance in mental
+development at once becomes apparent. In this single effort Mr.
+Lincoln had risen from the class of the politician to the rank of
+the statesman. There is a well-founded tradition that Douglas,
+disconcerted and troubled by Lincoln's unexpected manifestation of
+power in the Springfield and Peoria debates, sought a friendly
+interview with his opponent, and obtained from him an agreement
+that neither one of them would make any further speeches before the
+election.</p>
+<p>The local interest in the campaign was greatly heightened by the
+fact that the term of Douglas's Democratic colleague in the United
+States Senate was about to expire, and that the State legislature
+to be elected would have the choosing of his successor. It is not
+probable that Lincoln built much hope upon this coming political
+chance, as the Democratic party had been throughout the whole
+history of the State in decided political control. It turned out,
+nevertheless, that in the election held on November 7, an
+opposition majority of members of the legislature was chosen, and
+Lincoln became, to outward appearances, the most available
+opposition candidate. But party disintegration had been only
+partial. Lincoln and his party friends still called themselves
+Whigs, though they could muster only a minority of the total
+membership of the legislature. The so-called Anti-Nebraska
+Democrats, opposing Douglas and his followers, were still too full
+of traditional party prejudice to help elect a pronounced Whig to
+the United States Senate, though as strongly "Anti-Nebraska" as
+themselves. Five of them brought forward, and stubbornly voted for,
+Lyman Trumbull, <a name="page100" id="page100"></a>an Anti-Nebraska Democrat of ability,
+who had been chosen representative in Congress from the eighth
+Illinois District in the recent election. On the ninth ballot it
+became evident to Lincoln that there was danger of a new Democratic
+candidate, neutral on the Nebraska question, being chosen. In this
+contingency, he manifested a personal generosity and political
+sagacity far above the comprehension of the ordinary smart
+politician. He advised and prevailed upon his Whig supporters to
+vote for Trumbull, and thus secure a vote in the United States
+Senate against slavery extension. He had rightly interpreted both
+statesmanship and human nature. His personal sacrifice on this
+occasion contributed essentially to the coming political
+regeneration of his State; and the five Anti-Nebraska Democrats,
+who then wrought his defeat, became his most devoted personal
+followers and efficient allies in his own later political triumph,
+which adverse currents, however, were still to delay to a
+tantalizing degree. The circumstances of his defeat at that
+critical stage of his career must have seemed especially
+irritating, yet he preserved a most remarkable equanimity of
+temper. "I regret my defeat moderately," he wrote to a sympathizing
+friend, "but I am not nervous about it."</p>
+<p>We may fairly infer that while Mr. Lincoln was not "nervous," he
+was nevertheless deeply impressed by the circumstance as an
+illustration of the grave nature of the pending political
+controversy. A letter written by him about half a year later to a
+friend in Kentucky, is full of such serious reflection as to show
+that the existing political conditions in the United States had
+engaged his most profound thought and investigation.</p>
+<p>"That spirit," he wrote, "which desired the peaceful extinction
+of slavery has itself become extinct with the occasion and the men
+of the Revolution. Under the <a name="page101" id="page101"></a>impulse of that occasion,
+nearly half the States adopted systems of emancipation at once, and
+it is a significant fact that not a single State has done the like
+since. So far as peaceful voluntary emancipation is concerned, the
+condition of the negro slave in America, scarcely less terrible to
+the contemplation of a free mind, is now as fixed and hopeless of
+change for the better as that of the lost souls of the finally
+impenitent. The Autocrat of all the Russias will resign his crown
+and proclaim his subjects free republicans sooner than will our
+American masters voluntarily give up their slaves. Our political
+problem now is, 'Can we as a nation continue together
+permanently&mdash;forever&mdash;half slave and half free?' The
+problem is too mighty for me&mdash;may God, in his mercy,
+superintend the solution."</p>
+<p>Not quite three years later Mr. Lincoln made the concluding
+problem of this letter the text of a famous speech. On the day
+before his first inauguration as President of the United States,
+the "Autocrat of all the Russias," Alexander II, by imperial decree
+emancipated his serfs; while six weeks after the inauguration the
+"American masters," headed by Jefferson Davis, began the greatest
+war of modern times to perpetuate and spread the institution of
+slavery.</p>
+<p>The excitement produced by the repeal of the Missouri Compromise
+in 1854, by the election forays of the Missouri Border Ruffians
+into Kansas in 1855, and by the succeeding civil strife in 1856 in
+that Territory, wrought an effective transformation of political
+parties in the Union, in preparation for the presidential election
+of that year. This transformation, though not seriously checked,
+was very considerably complicated by an entirely new faction, or
+rather by the sudden revival of an old one, which in the past had
+called itself Native Americanism, and now assumed the name of the
+<a name="page102" id="page102"></a>American Party, though it was more popularly
+known by the nickname of "Know-Nothings," because of its secret
+organization. It professed a certain hostility to foreign-born
+voters and to the Catholic religion, and demanded a change in the
+naturalization laws from a five years' to a twenty-one years'
+preliminary residence. This faction had gained some sporadic
+successes in Eastern cities, but when its national convention met
+in February, 1856, to nominate candidates for President and
+Vice-President, the pending slavery question, that it had hitherto
+studiously ignored, caused a disruption of its organization; and
+though the adhering delegates nominated Millard Fillmore for
+President and A.J. Donelson for Vice-President, who remained in the
+field and were voted for, to some extent, in the presidential
+election, the organization was present only as a crippled and
+disturbing factor, and disappeared totally from politics in the
+following years.</p>
+<p>Both North and South, party lines adjusted themselves defiantly
+upon the single issue, for or against men and measures representing
+the extension or restriction of slavery. The Democratic party,
+though radically changing its constituent elements, retained the
+party name, and became the party of slavery extension, having
+forced the repeal and supported the resulting measures; while the
+Whig party entirely disappeared, its members in the Northern States
+joining the Anti-Nebraska Democrats in the formation of the new
+Republican party. Southern Whigs either went boldly into the
+Democratic camp, or followed for a while the delusive prospects of
+the Know-Nothings.</p>
+<p>This party change went on somewhat slowly in the State of
+Illinois, because that State extended in territorial length from
+the latitude of Massachusetts to that of Virginia, and its
+population contained an equally <a name="page103" id="page103"></a>diverse local sentiment.
+The northern counties had at once become strongly Anti-Nebraska;
+the conservative Whig counties of the center inclined to the
+Know-Nothings; while the Kentuckians and Carolinians, who had
+settled the southern end, had strong antipathies to what they
+called abolitionism, and applauded Douglas and repeal.</p>
+<p>The agitation, however, swept on, and further hesitation became
+impossible. Early in 1856 Mr. Lincoln began to take an active part
+in organizing the Republican party. He attended a small gathering
+of Anti-Nebraska editors in February, at Decatur, who issued a call
+for a mass convention which met at Bloomington in May, at which the
+Republican party of Illinois was formally constituted by an
+enthusiastic gathering of local leaders who had formerly been
+bitter antagonists, but who now joined their efforts to resist
+slavery extension. They formulated an emphatic but not radical
+platform, and through a committee selected a composite ticket of
+candidates for State offices, which the convention approved by
+acclamation. The occasion remains memorable because of the closing
+address made by Mr. Lincoln in one of his most impressive
+oratorical moods. So completely were his auditors carried away by
+the force of his denunciation of existing political evils, and by
+the eloquence of his appeal for harmony and union to redress them,
+that neither a verbatim report nor even an authentic abstract was
+made during its delivery: but the lifting inspiration of its
+periods will never fade from the memory of those who heard it.</p>
+<p>About three weeks later, the first national convention of the
+Republican party met at Philadelphia, and nominated John C.
+Fr&eacute;mont of California for President. There was a certain
+fitness in this selection, from the <a name="page104" id="page104"></a>fact that he had been
+elected to the United States Senate when California applied for
+admission as a free State, and that the resistance of the South to
+her admission had been the entering wedge of the slavery agitation
+of 1850. This, however, was in reality a minor consideration. It
+was rather his romantic fame as a daring Rocky Mountain explorer,
+appealing strongly to popular imagination and sympathy, which gave
+him prestige as a presidential candidate.</p>
+<p>It was at this point that the career of Abraham Lincoln had a
+narrow and fortunate escape from a premature and fatal prominence.
+The Illinois Bloomington convention had sent him as a delegate to
+the Philadelphia convention; and, no doubt very unexpectedly to
+himself, on the first ballot for a candidate for Vice-President he
+received one hundred and ten votes against two hundred and
+fifty-nine votes for William L. Dayton of New Jersey, upon which
+the choice of Mr. Dayton was at once made unanimous. But the
+incident proves that Mr. Lincoln was already gaining a national
+fame among the advanced leaders of political thought. Happily, a
+mysterious Providence reserved him for larger and nobler uses.</p>
+<p>The nominations thus made at Philadelphia completed the array
+for the presidential battle of 1856. The Democratic national
+convention had met at Cincinnati on June 2, and nominated James
+Buchanan for President and John C. Breckinridge for Vice-President.
+Its work presented two points of noteworthy interest, namely: that
+the South, in an arrogant pro-slavery dictatorship, relentlessly
+cast aside the claims of Douglas and Pierce, who had effected the
+repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and nominated Buchanan, in
+apparently sure confidence of that super-serviceable zeal in behalf
+of slavery which he so <a name="page105" id="page105"></a>obediently rendered; also, that in a
+platform of intolerable length there was such a cunning ambiguity
+of word and concealment of sense, such a double dealing of phrase
+and meaning, as to render it possible that the pro-slavery
+Democrats of the South and some antislavery Democrats of the North
+might join for the last time to elect a "Northern man with Southern
+principles."</p>
+<p>Again, in this campaign, as in several former presidential
+elections, Mr. Lincoln was placed upon the electoral ticket of
+Illinois, and he made over fifty speeches in his own and adjoining
+States in behalf of Fr&eacute;mont and Dayton. Not one of these
+speeches was reported in full, but the few fragments which have
+been preserved show that he occupied no doubtful ground on the
+pending issues. Already the Democrats were raising the potent alarm
+cry that the Republican party was sectional, and that its success
+would dissolve the Union. Mr. Lincoln did not then dream that he
+would ever have to deal practically with such a contingency, but
+his mind was very clear as to the method of meeting it. Speaking
+for the Republican party, he said:</p>
+<p>"But the Union in any event will not be dissolved. We don't want
+to dissolve it, and if you attempt it, we won't let you. With the
+purse and sword, the army and navy and treasury, in our hands and
+at our command, you could not do it. This government would be very
+weak, indeed, if a majority, with a disciplined army and navy and a
+well-filled treasury, could not preserve itself when attacked by an
+unarmed, undisciplined, unorganized minority. All this talk about
+the dissolution of the Union is humbug, nothing but folly. We do
+not want to dissolve the Union; you shall not."</p>
+<p>While the Republican party was much cast down by the election of
+Buchanan in November, the <a name="page106" id="page106"></a>Democrats found significant
+cause for apprehension in the unexpected strength with which the
+Fr&eacute;mont ticket had been supported in the free States.
+Especially was this true in Illinois, where the adherents of
+Fr&eacute;mont and Fillmore had formed a fusion, and thereby
+elected a Republican governor and State officers. One of the strong
+elements of Mr. Lincoln's leadership was the cheerful hope he was
+always able to inspire in his followers, and his abiding faith in
+the correct political instincts of popular majorities. This trait
+was happily exemplified in a speech he made at a Republican banquet
+in Chicago about a month after the presidential election. Recalling
+the pregnant fact that though Buchanan gained a majority of the
+electoral vote, he was in a minority of about four hundred thousand
+of the popular vote for President, Mr. Lincoln thus summed up the
+chances of Republican success in the future:</p>
+<p>"Our government rests in public opinion. Whoever can change
+public opinion, can change the government, practically, just so
+much. Public opinion on any subject always has a 'central idea,'
+from which all its minor thoughts radiate. That 'central idea' in
+our political public opinion at the beginning was, and until
+recently has continued to be, 'the equality of men.' And although
+it has always submitted patiently to whatever of inequality there
+seemed to be as matter of actual necessity, its constant working
+has been a steady progress towards the practical equality of all
+men. The late presidential election was a struggle by one party to
+discard that central idea and to substitute for it the opposite
+idea that slavery is right in the abstract; the workings of which
+as a central idea may be the perpetuity of human slavery and its
+extension to all countries and colors.... All of us who did not
+vote for Mr. Buchanan, taken together, are a <a name="page107" id="page107"></a>majority of
+four hundred thousand. But in the late contest we were divided
+between Fr&eacute;mont and Fillmore. Can we not come together for
+the future? Let every one who really believes, and is resolved,
+that free society is not and shall not be a failure, and who can
+conscientiously declare that in the past contest he has done only
+what he thought best&mdash;let every such one have charity to
+believe that every other one can say as much. Thus let bygones be
+bygones; let past differences as nothing be; and with steady eye on
+the real issue, let us reinaugurate the good old 'central ideas' of
+the republic. We can do it. The human heart is with us; God is with
+us. We shall again be able, not to declare that 'all States as
+States are equal,' nor yet that 'all citizens as citizens are
+equal,' but to renew the broader, better declaration, including
+both these and much more, that 'all men are created equal.'"</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="page108" id="page108"></a>
+<h2><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a>VIII</h2>
+<br />
+<p><i>Buchanan Elected President&mdash;The Dred Scott
+Decision&mdash;Douglas's Springfield Speech, 1857&mdash;Lincoln's
+Answering Speech&mdash;Criticism of Dred Scott
+Decision&mdash;Kansas Civil War&mdash;Buchanan Appoints
+Walker&mdash;Walker's Letter on Kansas&mdash;The Lecompton
+Constitution&mdash;Revolt of Douglas</i></p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<p>The election of 1856 once more restored the Democratic party to
+full political control in national affairs. James Buchanan was
+elected President to succeed Pierce; the Senate continued, as
+before, to have a decided Democratic majority; and a clear
+Democratic majority of twenty-five was chosen to the House of
+Representatives to succeed the heavy opposition majority of the
+previous Congress.</p>
+<p>Though the new House did not organize till a year after it was
+elected, the certainty of its coming action was sufficient not only
+to restore, but greatly to accelerate the pro-slavery reaction
+begun by the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. This impending
+drift of national policy now received a powerful impetus by an act
+of the third co&ouml;rdinate branch, the judicial department of the
+government.</p>
+<p>Very unexpectedly to the public at large, the Supreme Court of
+the United States, a few days after Buchanan's inauguration,
+announced its judgment in what quickly became famous as the Dred
+Scott decision. Dred Scott, a negro slave in Missouri, sued for his
+freedom on the ground that his master had taken <a name="page109" id="page109"></a>him to
+reside in the State of Illinois and the Territory of Wisconsin,
+where slavery was prohibited by law. The question had been twice
+decided by Missouri courts, once for and then against Dred Scott's
+claim; and now the Supreme Court of the United States, after
+hearing the case twice elaborately argued by eminent counsel,
+finally decided that Dred Scott, being a negro, could not become a
+citizen, and therefore was not entitled to bring suit. This branch,
+under ordinary precedent, simply threw the case out of court; but
+in addition, the decision, proceeding with what lawyers call
+<i>obiter dictum</i>, went on to declare that under the
+Constitution of the United States neither Congress nor a
+territorial legislature possessed power to prohibit slavery in
+Federal Territories.</p>
+<p>The whole country immediately flared up with the agitation of
+the slavery question in this new form. The South defended the
+decision with heat, the North protested against it with
+indignation, and the controversy was greatly intensified by a
+phrase in the opinion of Chief Justice Taney, that at the time of
+the Declaration of Independence negroes were considered by general
+public opinion to be so far inferior "that they had no rights which
+the white man was bound to respect."</p>
+<p>This decision of the Supreme Court placed Senator Douglas in a
+curious dilemma. While it served to indorse and fortify his course
+in repealing the Missouri Compromise, it, on the other hand,
+totally negatived his theory by which he had sought to make the
+repeal palatable, that the people of a Territory, by the exercise
+of his great principle of popular sovereignty, could decide the
+slavery question for themselves. But, being a subtle sophist, he
+sought to maintain a show of consistency by an ingenious evasion.
+In the month of June following the decision, he made a speech
+at<a name="page110" id="page110"></a> Springfield, Illinois, in which he
+tentatively announced what in the next year became widely
+celebrated as his Freeport doctrine, and was immediately denounced
+by his political confr&egrave;res of the South as serious party
+heterodoxy. First lauding the Supreme Court as "the highest
+judicial tribunal on earth," and declaring that violent resistance
+to its decrees must be put down by the strong arm of the
+government, he went on thus to define a master's right to his slave
+in Kansas:</p>
+<p>"While the right continues in full force under the guarantees of
+the Constitution, and cannot be divested or alienated by an act of
+Congress, it necessarily remains a barren and a worthless right
+unless sustained, protected, and enforced by appropriate police
+regulations and local legislation prescribing adequate remedies for
+its violation. These regulations and remedies must necessarily
+depend entirely upon the will and wishes of the people of the
+Territory, as they can only be prescribed by the local
+legislatures. Hence, the great principle of popular sovereignty and
+self-government is sustained and firmly established by the
+authority of this decision."</p>
+<p>Both the legal and political aspects of the new question
+immediately engaged the earnest attention of Mr. Lincoln; and his
+splendid power of analysis set its ominous portent in a strong
+light. He made a speech in reply to Douglas about two weeks after,
+subjecting the Dred Scott decision to a searching and eloquent
+criticism. He said:</p>
+<p>"That decision declares two propositions&mdash;first, that a
+negro cannot sue in the United States courts; and secondly, that
+Congress cannot prohibit slavery in the Territories. It was made by
+a divided court&mdash;dividing differently on the different points.
+Judge Douglas does not discuss the merits of the decision, <a name="page111" id="page111"></a>
+and in that respect I shall follow his
+example, believing I could no more improve on McLean and Curtis
+than he could on Taney.... We think the Dred Scott decision was
+erroneous. We know the court that made it has often overruled its
+own decisions, and we shall do what we can to have it overrule
+this. We offer no resistance to it.... If this important decision
+had been made by the unanimous concurrence of the judges, and
+without any apparent partizan bias, and in accordance with legal
+public expectation and with the steady practice of the departments
+throughout our history and had been in no part based on assumed
+historical facts which are not really true; or if, wanting in some
+of these, it had been before the court more than once, and had
+there been affirmed and reaffirmed through a course of years, it
+then might be, perhaps would be, factious, nay, even revolutionary,
+not to acquiesce in it as a precedent. But when, as is true, we
+find it wanting in all these claims to the public confidence, it is
+not resistance, it is not factious, it is not even disrespectful,
+to treat it as not having yet quite established a settled doctrine
+for the country....</p>
+<p>"The Chief Justice does not directly assert, but plainly
+assumes, as a fact, that the public estimate of the black man is
+more favorable now than it was in the days of the Revolution. This
+assumption is a mistake. In some trifling particulars the condition
+of that race has been ameliorated; but as a whole, in this country,
+the change between then and now is decidedly the other way; and
+their ultimate destiny has never appeared so hopeless as in the
+last three or four years. In two of the five States&mdash;New
+Jersey and North Carolina&mdash;that then gave the free negro the
+right of voting, the right has since been taken away; and in the
+third&mdash;New York&mdash;it has been greatly abridged; while it
+has <a name="page112" id="page112"></a>not been extended, so far as I know, to
+a single additional State, though the number of the States has more
+than doubled. In those days, as I understand, masters could, at
+their own pleasure, emancipate their slaves; but since then such
+legal restraints have been made upon emancipation as to amount
+almost to prohibition. In those days, legislatures held the
+unquestioned power to abolish slavery in their respective States,
+but now it is becoming quite fashionable for State constitutions to
+withhold that power from the legislatures. In those days, by common
+consent, the spread of the black man's bondage to the new countries
+was prohibited, but now Congress decides that it will not continue
+the prohibition and the Supreme Court decides that it could not if
+it would. In those days, our Declaration of Independence was held
+sacred by all, and thought to include all; but now, to aid in
+making the bondage of the negro universal and eternal, it is
+assailed and sneered at and construed, and hawked at and torn,
+till, if its framers could rise from their graves, they could not
+at all recognize it. All the powers of earth seem rapidly combining
+against him. Mammon is after him, ambition follows, philosophy
+follows, and the theology of the day is fast joining the cry. They
+have him in his prison-house; they have searched his person, and
+left no prying instrument with him. One after another they have
+closed the heavy iron doors upon him; and now they have him, as it
+were, bolted in with a lock of a hundred keys, which can never be
+unlocked without the concurrence of every key&mdash;the keys in the
+hands of a hundred different men, and they scattered to a hundred
+different and distant places; and they stand musing as to what
+invention, in all the dominions of mind and matter, can be produced
+to make the impossibility of his escape more complete than it
+is."<a name="page113" id="page113"></a></p>
+<p>There is not room to quote the many other equally forcible
+points in Mr. Lincoln's speech. Our narrative must proceed to other
+significant events in the great pro-slavery reaction. Thus far the
+Kansas experiment had produced nothing but agitation, strife, and
+bloodshed. First the storm in Congress over repeal; then a mad rush
+of emigration to occupy the Territory. This was followed by the
+Border Ruffian invasions, in which Missouri voters elected a bogus
+territorial legislature, and the bogus legislature enacted a code
+of bogus laws. In turn, the more rapid emigration from free States
+filled the Territory with a majority of free-State voters, who
+quickly organized a compact free-State party, which sent a
+free-State constitution, known as the Topeka Constitution, to
+Congress, and applied for admission. This movement proved barren,
+because the two houses of Congress were divided in sentiment.
+Meanwhile, President Pierce recognized the bogus laws, and issued
+proclamations declaring the free-State movement illegal and
+insurrectionary; and the free-State party had in its turn baffled
+the enforcement of the bogus laws, partly by concerted action of
+nonconformity and neglect, partly by open defiance. The whole
+finally culminated in a chronic border war between Missouri raiders
+on one hand, and free-State guerrillas on the other; and it became
+necessary to send Federal troops to check the disorder. These were
+instructed by Jefferson Davis, then Secretary of War, that
+"rebellion must be crushed." The future Confederate President
+little suspected the tremendous prophetic import of his order. The
+most significant illustration of the underlying spirit of the
+struggle was that President Pierce had successively appointed three
+Democratic governors for the Territory, who, starting with
+pro-slavery bias, all became free-State <a name="page114" id="page114"></a>
+partizans, and were successively insulted and driven from the
+Territory by the pro-slavery faction when in manly protest they
+refused to carry out the behests of the Missouri conspiracy. After
+a three years' struggle neither faction had been successful,
+neither party was satisfied; and the administration of Pierce
+bequeathed to its successor the same old question embittered by
+rancor and defeat.</p>
+<p>President Buchanan began his administration with a boldly
+announced pro-slavery policy. In his inaugural address he invoked
+the popular acceptance of the Dred Scott decision, which he already
+knew was coming; and a few months later declared in a public letter
+that slavery "exists in Kansas under the Constitution of the United
+States.... How it ever could have been seriously doubted is a
+mystery." He chose for the governorship of Kansas, Robert J.
+Walker, a citizen of Mississippi of national fame and of pronounced
+pro-slavery views, who accepted his dangerous mission only upon
+condition that a new constitution, to be formed for that State,
+must be honestly submitted to the real voters of Kansas for
+adoption or rejection. President Buchanan and his advisers, as well
+as Senator Douglas, accepted this condition repeatedly and
+emphatically. But when the new governor went to the Territory, he
+soon became convinced, and reported to his chief, that to make a
+slave State of Kansas was a delusive hope. "Indeed," he wrote, "it
+is universally admitted here that the only real question is this:
+whether Kansas shall be a conservative, constitutional, Democratic,
+and ultimately free State, or whether it shall be a Republican and
+abolition State."</p>
+<p>As a compensation for the disappointment, however, he wrote
+later direct to the President:</p>
+<p>"But we must have a slave State out of the <a name="page115" id="page115"></a>southwestern
+Indian Territory, and then a calm will follow; Cuba be acquired
+with the acquiescence of the North; and your administration, having
+in reality settled the slavery question, be regarded in all time to
+come as a re-signing and re-sealing of the Constitution.... I shall
+be pleased soon to hear from you. Cuba! Cuba! (and Porto Rico, if
+possible) should be the countersign of your administration, and it
+will close in a blaze of glory."</p>
+<p>And the governor was doubtless much gratified to receive the
+President's unqualified indorsement in reply: "On the question of
+submitting the constitution to the <i>bona fide</i> resident
+settlers of Kansas, I am willing to stand or fall."</p>
+<p>The sequel to this heroic posturing of the chief magistrate is
+one of the most humiliating chapters in American politics.
+Attendant circumstances leave little doubt that a portion of Mr.
+Buchanan's cabinet, in secret league and correspondence with the
+pro-slavery Missouri-Kansas cabal, aided and abetted the framing
+and adoption of what is known to history as the Lecompton
+Constitution, an organic instrument of a radical pro-slavery type;
+that its pretended submission to popular vote was under
+phraseology, and in combination with such gigantic electoral frauds
+and dictatorial procedure, as to render the whole transaction a
+mockery of popular government; still worse, that President Buchanan
+himself, proving too weak in insight and will to detect the
+intrigue or resist the influence of his malign counselors,
+abandoned his solemn pledges to Governor Walker, adopted the
+Lecompton Constitution as an administration measure, and
+recommended it to Congress in a special message, announcing
+dogmatically: "Kansas is therefore at this moment as much a slave
+State as Georgia or South Carolina."<a name="page116" id="page116"></a></p>
+<p>The radical pro-slavery attitude thus assumed by President
+Buchanan and Southern leaders threw the Democratic party of the
+free States into serious disarray, while upon Senator Douglas the
+blow fell with the force of party treachery&mdash;almost of
+personal indignity. The Dred Scott decision had rudely brushed
+aside his theory of popular sovereignty, and now the Lecompton
+Constitution proceedings brutally trampled it down in practice. The
+disaster overtook him, too, at a critical moment. His senatorial
+term was about to expire; the next Illinois legislature would elect
+his successor. The prospect was none too bright for him, for at the
+late presidential election Illinois had chosen Republican State
+officers. He was compelled either to break his pledges to the
+Democratic voters of Illinois, or to lead a revolt against
+President Buchanan and the Democratic leaders in Congress. Party
+disgrace at Washington, or popular disgrace in Illinois, were the
+alternatives before him. To lose his re&euml;lection to the Senate
+would almost certainly end his public career. When, therefore,
+Congress met in December, 1857, Douglas boldly attacked and
+denounced the Lecompton Constitution, even before the President had
+recommended it in his special message.</p>
+<p>"Stand by the doctrine," he said, "that leaves the people
+perfectly free to form and regulate their institutions for
+themselves, in their own way, and your party will be united and
+irresistible in power.... If Kansas wants a slave-State
+constitution, she has a right to it; if she wants a free-State
+constitution, she has a right to it. It is none of my business
+which way the slavery clause is decided. I care not whether it is
+voted down or voted up. Do you suppose, after the pledges of my
+honor that I would go for that principle and leave the people to
+vote as they choose, that I <a name="page117" id="page117"></a>would now degrade myself by voting
+one way if the slavery clause be voted down, and another way if it
+be voted up? I care not how that vote may stand.... Ignore
+Lecompton; ignore Topeka; treat both those party movements as
+irregular and void; pass a fair bill&mdash;the one that we framed
+ourselves when we were acting as a unit; have a fair
+election&mdash;and you will have peace in the Democratic party, and
+peace throughout the country, in ninety days. The people want a
+fair vote. They will never be satisfied without it.... But if this
+constitution is to be forced down our throats in violation of the
+fundamental principle of free government, under a mode of
+submission that is a mockery and insult, I will resist it to the
+last."</p>
+<p>Walker, the fourth Democratic governor who had now been
+sacrificed to the interests of the Kansas pro-slavery cabal, also
+wrote a sharp letter of resignation denouncing the Lecompton fraud
+and policy; and such was the indignation aroused in the free
+States, that although the Senate passed the Lecompton Bill,
+twenty-two Northern Democrats joining their vote to that of the
+Republicans, the measure was defeated in the House of
+Representatives. The President and his Southern partizans bitterly
+resented this defeat; and the schism between them, on the one hand,
+and Douglas and his adherents, on the other, became permanent and
+irreconcilable.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="page118" id="page118"></a>
+<h2><a name="IX" id="IX"></a>IX</h2>
+<br />
+<p><i>The Senatorial Contest in Illinois&mdash;"House Divided
+against Itself" Speech&mdash;The Lincoln-Douglas Debates&mdash;The
+Freeport Doctrine&mdash;Douglas Deposed from Chairmanship of
+Committee on Territories&mdash;Benjamin on Douglas&mdash;Lincoln's
+Popular Majority&mdash;Douglas Gains Legislature&mdash;Greeley,
+Crittenden, et al.&mdash;"The Fight Must Go On"&mdash;Douglas's
+Southern Speeches&mdash;Senator Brown's Questions&mdash;Lincoln's
+Warning against Popular Sovereignty&mdash;The War of
+Pamphlets&mdash;Lincoln's Ohio Speeches&mdash;The John Brown
+Raid&mdash;Lincoln's Comment</i></p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<p>The hostility of the Buchanan administration to Douglas for his
+part in defeating the Lecompton Constitution, and the multiplying
+chances against him, served only to stimulate his followers in
+Illinois to greater efforts to secure his re&euml;lection.
+Precisely the same elements inspired the hope and increased the
+enthusiasm of the Republicans of the State to accomplish his
+defeat. For a candidate to oppose the "Little Giant," there could
+be no rival in the Republican ranks to Abraham Lincoln. He had in
+1854 yielded his priority of claim to Trumbull; he alone had
+successfully encountered Douglas in debate. The political events
+themselves seemed to have selected and pitted these two champions
+against each other. Therefore, when the Illinois State convention
+on June 16, 1858, passed by acclamation a separate resolution,
+"That Abraham Lincoln is the first and only choice of the
+Republicans <a name="page119" id="page119"></a>of Illinois for the United States Senate
+as the successor of Stephen A. Douglas," it only recorded the
+well-known judgment of the party. After its routine work was
+finished, the convention adjourned to meet again in the hall of the
+State House at Springfield at eight o'clock in the evening. At that
+hour Mr. Lincoln appeared before the assembled delegates and
+delivered a carefully studied speech, which has become historic.
+After a few opening sentences, he uttered the following significant
+prediction:</p>
+<p>"'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&mdash;I do not expect the
+house to fall&mdash;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 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."</p>
+<p>Then followed his critical analysis of the legislative objects
+and consequences of the Nebraska Bill, and the judicial effects and
+doctrines of the Dred Scott decision, with their attendant and
+related incidents. The first of these had opened all the national
+territory to slavery. The second established the constitutional
+interpretation that neither Congress nor a territorial legislature
+could exclude slavery from any United States territory. The
+President had declared Kansas to be already practically a slave
+State. Douglas had announced that he did not care whether slavery
+was voted down or voted up. Adding to these many other indications
+of current politics, Mr. Lincoln proceeded:</p>
+<p>"Put this and that together, and we have another <a name="page120" id="page120"></a>nice
+little niche, which we may, ere long, 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.... Such a decision is all that slavery now lacks of being
+alike lawful in all the States.... We shall lie down pleasantly
+dreaming that the people of Missouri are on the verge of making
+their State free, and we shall awake to the reality, instead, that
+the Supreme Court has made Illinois a slave State."</p>
+<p>To avert this danger, Mr. Lincoln declared it was the duty of
+Republicans to overthrow both Douglas and the Buchanan political
+dynasty.</p>
+<p>"Two years ago the Republicans of the nation mustered over
+thirteen hundred thousand strong. We did this under the single
+impulse of resistance to a common danger, with every external
+circumstance against us. Of strange, discordant, and even hostile
+elements, we gathered from the four winds, and formed and fought
+the battle through, under the constant hot fire of a disciplined,
+proud, and pampered enemy. Did we brave all then to falter
+now?&mdash;now, when that same enemy is wavering, dissevered, and
+belligerent? The result is not doubtful. We shall not fail&mdash;if
+we stand firm, we shall not fail. Wise counsels may accelerate or
+mistakes delay it, but, sooner or later, the victory is sure to
+come."</p>
+<p>Lincoln's speech excited the greatest interest everywhere
+throughout the free States. The grave peril he so clearly pointed
+out came home to the people of the North almost with the force of a
+revelation; and thereafter their eyes were fixed upon the Illinois
+senatorial campaign with undivided attention. Another incident also
+drew to it the equal notice and interest of the politicians of the
+slave States.<a name="page121" id="page121"></a></p>
+<p>Within a month from the date of Lincoln's speech, Douglas
+returned from Washington and began his campaign of active
+speech-making in Illinois. The fame he had acquired as the champion
+of the Nebraska Bill, and, more recently, the prominence into which
+his opposition to the Lecompton fraud had lifted him in Congress,
+attracted immense crowds to his meetings, and for a few days it
+seemed as if the mere contagion of popular enthusiasm would
+submerge all intelligent political discussion. To counteract this,
+Mr. Lincoln, at the advice of his leading friends, sent him a
+letter challenging him to joint public debate. Douglas accepted the
+challenge, but with evident hesitation; and it was arranged that
+they should jointly address the same meetings at seven towns in the
+State, on dates extending through August, September, and October.
+The terms were, that, alternately, one should speak an hour in
+opening, the other an hour and a half in reply, and the first again
+have half an hour in closing. This placed the contestants upon an
+equal footing before their audiences. Douglas's senatorial prestige
+afforded him no advantage. Face to face with the partizans of both,
+gathered in immense numbers and alert with critical and jealous
+watchfulness, there was no evading the square, cold, rigid test of
+skill in argument and truth in principle. The processions and
+banners, the music and fireworks, of both parties, were stilled and
+forgotten while the audience listened with high-strung nerves to
+the intellectual combat of three hours' duration.</p>
+<p>It would be impossible to give the scope and spirit of these
+famous debates in the space allotted to these pages, but one of the
+turning-points in the oratorical contest needs particular mention.
+Northern Illinois, peopled mostly from free States, and southern
+Illinois, peopled mostly from slave States, were radically
+<a name="page122" id="page122"></a>opposed in sentiment on the slavery
+question; even the old Whigs of central Illinois had to a large
+extent joined the Democratic party, because of their ineradicable
+prejudice against what they stigmatized as "abolitionism." To take
+advantage of this prejudice, Douglas, in his opening speech in the
+first debate at Ottawa in northern Illinois, propounded to Lincoln
+a series of questions designed to commit him to strong antislavery
+doctrines. He wanted to know whether Mr. Lincoln stood pledged to
+the repeal of the fugitive-slave law; against the admission of any
+more slave States; to the abolition of slavery in the District of
+Columbia; to the prohibition of the slave trade between different
+States; to prohibit slavery in all the Territories; to oppose the
+acquisition of any new territory unless slavery were first
+prohibited therein.</p>
+<p>In their second joint debate at Freeport, Lincoln answered that
+he was pledged to none of these propositions, except the
+prohibition of slavery in all Territories of the United States. In
+turn he propounded four questions to Douglas, the second of which
+was:</p>
+<p>"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?"</p>
+<p>Mr. Lincoln had long and carefully studied the import and effect
+of this interrogatory, and nearly a month before, in a private
+letter, accurately foreshadowed Douglas's course upon it:</p>
+<p>"You shall have hard work," he wrote, "to get him directly to
+the point whether a territorial legislature has or has not the
+power to exclude slavery. But if you succeed in bringing him to
+it&mdash;though he will be compelled to say it possesses no such
+power&mdash;he will instantly take ground that slavery cannot
+actually exist <a name="page123" id="page123"></a>in the Territories unless the people
+desire it and so give it protection by territorial legislation. If
+this offends the South, he will let it offend them, as at all
+events he means to hold on to his chances in Illinois."</p>
+<p>On the night before the Freeport debate the question had also
+been considered in a hurried caucus of Lincoln's party friends.
+They all advised against propounding it, saying, "If you do, you
+can never be senator." "Gentlemen," replied Lincoln, "I am killing
+larger game; if Douglas answers, he can never be President, and the
+battle of 1860 is worth a hundred of this."</p>
+<p>As Lincoln had predicted, Douglas had no resource but to repeat
+the sophism he had hastily invented in his Springfield speech of
+the previous year.</p>
+<p>"It matters not," replied he, "what way the Supreme Court may
+hereafter decide as to the abstract question whether slavery may or
+may not go into a Territory under the Constitution, the people have
+the lawful means to introduce it or exclude it, as they please, for
+the reason that slavery cannot exist a day or an hour anywhere
+unless it is supported by local police regulations. Those police
+regulations can only be established by the local legislature, and
+if the people are opposed to slavery they will elect
+representatives to that body who will by unfriendly legislation
+effectually prevent the introduction of it into their midst. If, on
+the contrary, they are for it, their legislation will favor its
+extension. Hence, no matter what the decision of the Supreme Court
+may be on that abstract question, still the right of the people to
+make a slave Territory or a free Territory is perfect and complete
+under the Nebraska Bill."</p>
+<p>In the course of the next joint debate at Jonesboro', Mr.
+Lincoln easily disposed of this sophism by <a name="page124" id="page124"></a>showing: 1.
+That, practically, slavery had worked its way into Territories
+without "police regulations" in almost every instance; 2. That
+United States courts were established to protect and enforce rights
+under the Constitution; 3. That members of a territorial
+legislature could not violate their oath to support the
+Constitution of the United States; and, 4. That in default of
+legislative support, Congress would be bound to supply it for any
+right under the Constitution.</p>
+<p>The serious aspect of the matter, however, to Douglas was not
+the criticism of the Republicans, but the view taken by Southern
+Democratic leaders, of his "Freeport doctrine," or doctrine of
+"unfriendly legislation." His opposition to the Lecompton
+Constitution in the Senate, grievous stumbling-block to their
+schemes as it had proved, might yet be passed over as a reckless
+breach of party discipline; but this new announcement at Freeport
+was unpardonable doctrinal heresy, as rank as the abolitionism of
+Giddings and Lovejoy.</p>
+<p>The Freeport joint debate took place August 27, 1858. When
+Congress convened on the first Monday in December of the same year,
+one of the first acts of the Democratic senators was to put him
+under party ban by removing him from the chairmanship of the
+Committee on Territories, a position he had held for eleven years.
+In due time, also, the Southern leaders broke up the Charleston
+convention rather than permit him to be nominated for President;
+and, three weeks later, Senator Benjamin of Louisiana frankly set
+forth, in a Senate speech, the light in which they viewed his
+apostacy:</p>
+<p>"We accuse him for this, to wit: that having bargained with us
+upon a point upon which we were at issue, that it should be
+considered a judicial point; that <a name="page125" id="page125"></a>he would abide the
+decision; that he would act under the decision, and consider it a
+doctrine of the party; that having said that to us here in the
+Senate, he went home, and, under the stress of a local election,
+his knees gave way; his whole person trembled. His adversary stood
+upon principle and was beaten; and, lo! he is the candidate of a
+mighty party for the presidency of the United States. The senator
+from Illinois faltered. He got the prize for which he faltered;
+but, lo! the grand prize of his ambition to-day slips from his
+grasp, because of his faltering in his former contest, and his
+success in the canvass for the Senate, purchased for an ignoble
+price, has cost him the loss of the presidency of the United
+States."</p>
+<p>In addition to the seven joint debates, both Lincoln and Douglas
+made speeches at separate meetings of their own during almost every
+day of the three months' campaign, and sometimes two or three
+speeches a day. At the election which was held on November 2, 1858,
+a legislature was chosen containing fifty-four Democrats and
+forty-six Republicans, notwithstanding the fact that the
+Republicans had a plurality of thirty-eight hundred and twenty-one
+on the popular vote. But the apportionment was based on the census
+of 1850, and did not reflect recent changes in political sentiment,
+which, if fairly represented, would have given them an increased
+strength of from six to ten members in the legislature. Another
+circumstance had great influence in causing Lincoln's defeat.
+Douglas's opposition to the Lecompton Constitution in Congress had
+won him great sympathy among a few Republican leaders in the
+Eastern States. It was even whispered that Seward wished Douglas to
+succeed as a strong rebuke to the Buchanan administration. The most
+potent expression and influence of this feeling came, <a name="page126" id="page126"></a>however,
+from another quarter. Senator Crittenden of Kentucky, who, since
+Clay's death in 1852, was the acknowledged leader of what remained
+of the Whig party, wrote a letter during the campaign, openly
+advocating the re&euml;lection of Douglas, and this, doubtless,
+influenced the vote of all the Illinois Whigs who had not yet
+formally joined the Republican party. Lincoln's own analysis gives,
+perhaps, the clearest view of the unusual political conditions:</p>
+<p>"Douglas had three or four very distinguished men of the most
+extreme antislavery views of any men in the Republican party
+expressing their desire for his re&euml;lection to the Senate last
+year. That would of itself have seemed to be a little wonderful,
+but that wonder is heightened when we see that Wise of Virginia, a
+man exactly opposed to them, a man who believes in the divine right
+of slavery, was also expressing his desire that Douglas should be
+re&euml;lected; that another man that may be said to be kindred to
+Wise, Mr. Breckinridge, the Vice-President, and of your own State,
+was also agreeing with the antislavery men in the North that
+Douglas ought to be re&euml;lected. Still to heighten the wonder, a
+senator from Kentucky, whom I have always loved with an affection
+as tender and endearing as I have ever loved any man, who was
+opposed to the antislavery men for reasons which seemed sufficient
+to him, and equally opposed to Wise and Breckinridge, was writing
+letters to Illinois to secure the re&euml;lection of Douglas. Now
+that all these conflicting elements should be brought, while at
+daggers' points with one another, to support him, is a feat that is
+worthy for you to note and consider. It is quite probable that each
+of these classes of men thought by the re&euml;lection of Douglas
+their peculiar views would gain something; it is probable that the<a name="page127" id="page127"></a> antislavery men thought their views
+would gain something that Wise and Breckinridge thought so too, as
+regards their opinions; that Mr. Crittenden thought that his views
+would gain something, although he was opposed to both these other
+men. It is probable that each and all of them thought they were
+using Douglas, and it is yet an unsolved problem whether he was not
+using them all."</p>
+<p>Lincoln, though beaten in his race for the Senate, was by no
+means dismayed, nor did he lose his faith in the ultimate triumph
+of the cause he had so ably championed. Writing to a friend, he
+said:</p>
+<p>"You doubtless have seen ere this the result of the election
+here. Of course I wished, but I did not much expect a better
+result.... I am glad I made the late race. It gave me a hearing on
+the great and durable question of the age, which I could have had
+in no other way; and though I now sink out of view, and shall be
+forgotten, I believe I have made some marks which will tell for the
+cause of civil liberty long after I am gone."</p>
+<p>And to another:</p>
+<p>"Yours of the 13th was received some days ago. The fight must go
+on. The cause of civil liberty must not be surrendered at the end
+of one or even one hundred defeats. Douglas had the ingenuity to be
+supported in the late contest, both as the best means to break down
+and to uphold the slave interest. No ingenuity can keep these
+antagonistic elements in harmony long. Another explosion will soon
+come."</p>
+<p>In his "House divided against itself" speech, Lincoln had
+emphatically cautioned Republicans not to be led on a false trail
+by the opposition Douglas had made to the Lecompton Constitution;
+that his temporary quarrel with the Buchanan administration could
+not <a name="page128" id="page128"></a>be relied upon to help overthrow that
+pro-slavery dynasty.</p>
+<p>"How can he oppose the advances of slavery? He don't care
+anything about it. His avowed mission is impressing the 'public
+heart' to care nothing about it.... Whenever, if ever, he and we
+can come together on principle so that our great cause may have
+assistance from his great ability, I hope to have interposed no
+adventitious obstacle. But, clearly, he is not now with us&mdash;he
+does not pretend to be&mdash;he does not promise ever to be. Our
+cause, then, must be intrusted to, and conducted by, its own
+undoubted friends&mdash;those whose hands are free, whose hearts
+are in the work, who do care for the result."</p>
+<p>Since the result of the Illinois senatorial campaign had assured
+the re&euml;lection of Douglas to the Senate, Lincoln's sage advice
+acquired a double significance and value. Almost immediately after
+the close of the campaign Douglas took a trip through the Southern
+States, and in speeches made by him at Memphis, at New Orleans, and
+at Baltimore sought to regain the confidence of Southern
+politicians by taking decidedly advanced ground toward Southern
+views on the slavery question. On the sugar plantations of
+Louisiana he said, it was not a question between the white man and
+the negro, but between the negro and the crocodile. He would say
+that between the negro and the crocodile, he took the side of the
+negro; but between the negro and the white man, he would go for the
+white man. The Almighty had drawn a line on this continent, on the
+one side of which the soil must be cultivated by slave labor? on
+the other, by white labor. That line did not run on 36&deg; and 30'
+[the Missouri Compromise line], for 36&deg; and 30' runs over
+mountains and through valleys. But this slave line, he <a name="page129" id="page129"></a>said,
+meanders in the sugar-fields and plantations of the South, and the
+people living in their different localities and in the Territories
+must determine for themselves whether their "middle belt" were best
+adapted to slavery or free labor. He advocated the eventual
+annexation of Cuba and Central America. Still going a step further,
+he laid down a far-reaching principle.</p>
+<p>"It is a law of humanity," he said, "a law of civilization that
+whenever a man or a race of men show themselves incapable of
+managing their own affairs, they must consent to be governed by
+those who are capable of performing the duty.... In accordance with
+this principle, I assert that the negro race, under all
+circumstances, at all times, and in all countries, has shown itself
+incapable of self-government."</p>
+<p>This pro-slavery coquetting, however, availed him nothing, as he
+felt himself obliged in the same speeches to defend his Freeport
+doctrine. Having taken his seat in Congress, Senator Brown of
+Mississippi, toward the close of the short session, catechized him
+sharply on this point.</p>
+<p>"If the territorial legislature refuses to act," he inquired
+"will you act? If it pass unfriendly acts, will you pass friendly?
+If it pass laws hostile to slavery, will you annul them, and
+substitute laws favoring slavery in their stead?"</p>
+<p>There was no evading these direct questions, and Douglas
+answered frankly:</p>
+<p>"I tell you, gentlemen of the South, in all candor, I do not
+believe a Democratic candidate can ever carry any one Democratic
+State of the North on the platform that it is the duty of the
+Federal government to force the people of a Territory to have
+slavery when they do not want it."</p>
+<p><a name="page130" id="page130"></a>An extended discussion between Northern
+and Southern Democratic senators followed the colloquy, which
+showed that the Freeport doctrine had opened up an irreparable
+schism between the Northern and Southern wings of the Democratic
+party.</p>
+<p>In all the speeches made by Douglas during his Southern tour, he
+continually referred to Mr. Lincoln as the champion of
+abolitionism, and to his doctrines as the platform of the abolition
+or Republican party. The practical effect of this course was to
+extend and prolong the Illinois senatorial campaign of 1858, to
+expand it to national breadth, and gradually to merge it in the
+coming presidential campaign. The effect of this was not only to
+keep before the public the position of Lincoln as the Republican
+champion of Illinois, but also gradually to lift him into general
+recognition as a national leader. Throughout the year 1859
+politicians and newspapers came to look upon Lincoln as the one
+antagonist who could at all times be relied on to answer and refute
+the Douglas arguments. His propositions were so forcible and
+direct, his phraseology so apt and fresh, that they held the
+attention and excited comment. A letter written by him in answer to
+an invitation to attend a celebration of Jefferson's birthday in
+Boston, contains some notable passages:</p>
+<p>"Soberly, it is now no child's play to save the principles of
+Jefferson from total overthrow in this nation. One would state with
+great confidence that he could convince any sane child that the
+simpler propositions of Euclid are true; but, nevertheless, he
+would fail, utterly, with one who should deny the definitions and
+axioms. The principles of Jefferson are the definitions and axioms
+of free society. And yet they are denied and evaded with no small
+show of success. One dashingly calls them 'glittering
+generalities.' Another <a name="page131" id="page131"></a>bluntly calls them 'self-evident lies.'
+And others insidiously argue that they apply to 'superior races.'
+These expressions, differing in form, are identical in object and
+effect&mdash;the supplanting the principles of free government, and
+restoring those of classification, caste, and legitimacy. They
+would delight a convocation of crowned heads plotting against the
+people. They are the vanguard, the miners and sappers of returning
+despotism. We must repulse them, or they will subjugate us. This is
+a world of compensation; and he who would be no slave must consent
+to have no slave. Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not
+for themselves, and, under a just God, cannot long retain it."</p>
+<p>Douglas's quarrel with the Buchanan administration had led many
+Republicans to hope that they might be able to utilize his name and
+his theory of popular sovereignty to aid them in their local
+campaigns. Lincoln knew from his recent experience the peril of
+this delusive party strategy, and was constant and earnest in his
+warnings against adopting it. In a little speech after the Chicago
+municipal election on March 1, 1859, he said:</p>
+<p>"If we, the Republicans of this State, had made Judge Douglas
+our candidate for the Senate of the United States last year, and
+had elected him, there would to-day be no Republican party in this
+Union.... Let the Republican party of Illinois dally with Judge
+Douglas, let them fall in behind him and make him their candidate,
+and they do not absorb him&mdash;he absorbs them. They would come
+out at the end all Douglas men, all claimed by him as having
+indorsed every one of his doctrines upon the great subject with
+which the whole nation is engaged at this hour&mdash;that the
+question of negro slavery is simply a question of <a name="page132" id="page132"></a>dollars
+and cents? that the Almighty has drawn a line across the continent,
+on one side of which labor&mdash;the cultivation of the
+soil&mdash;must always be performed by slaves. It would be claimed
+that we, like him, do not care whether slavery is voted up or voted
+down. Had we made him our candidate and given him a great majority,
+we should never have heard an end of declarations by him that we
+had indorsed all these dogmas."</p>
+<p>To a Kansas friend he wrote on May 14, 1859:</p>
+<p>"You will probably adopt resolutions in the nature of a
+platform. I think the only temptation will be to lower the
+Republican standard in order to gather recruits In my judgment,
+such a step would be a serious mistake, and open a gap through
+which more would pass out than pass in. And this would be the same
+whether the letting down should be in deference to Douglasism, or
+to the Southern opposition element; either would surrender the
+object of the Republican organization&mdash;the preventing of the
+spread and nationalization of slavery.... Let a union be attempted
+on the basis of ignoring the slavery question, and magnifying other
+questions which the people are just now not caring about, and it
+will result in gaining no single electoral vote in the South, and
+losing every one in the North."</p>
+<p>To Schuyler Colfax (afterward Vice-President) he said in a
+letter dated July 6, 1859:</p>
+<p>"My main object in such conversation would be to hedge against
+divisions in the Republican ranks generally and particularly for
+the contest of 1860. The point of danger is the temptation in
+different localities to 'platform' for something which will be
+popular just there, but which, nevertheless, will be a firebrand
+elsewhere and especially in a national convention. As instances:
+the movement against foreigners in <a name="page133" id="page133"></a>Massachusetts;
+in New Hampshire, to make obedience to the fugitive-slave law
+punishable as a crime; in Ohio, to repeal the fugitive-slave law;
+and squatter sovereignty, in Kansas. In these things there is
+explosive matter enough to blow up half a dozen national
+conventions, if it gets into them; and what gets very rife outside
+of conventions is very likely to find its way into them."</p>
+<p>And again, to another warm friend in Columbus, Ohio, he wrote in
+a letter dated July 28, 1859:</p>
+<p>"There is another thing our friends are doing which gives me
+some uneasiness. It is their leaning toward 'popular sovereignty.'
+There are three substantial objections to this. First, no party can
+command respect which sustains this year what it opposed last.
+Secondly Douglas (who is the most dangerous enemy of liberty,
+because the most insidious one) would have little support in the
+North, and, by consequence, no capital to trade on in the South, if
+it were not for his friends thus magnifying him and his humbug. But
+lastly, and chiefly, Douglas's popular sovereignty, accepted by the
+public mind as a just principle, nationalizes slavery, and revives
+the African slave-trade inevitably. Taking slaves into new
+Territories, and buying slaves in Africa, are identical things,
+identical rights or identical wrongs, and the argument which
+establishes one will establish the other. Try a thousand years for
+a sound reason why Congress shall not hinder the people of Kansas
+from having slaves, and when you have found it, it will be an
+equally good one why Congress should not hinder the people of
+Georgia from importing slaves from Africa."</p>
+<p>An important election occurred in the State of Ohio in the
+autumn of 1859, and during the canvass Douglas made two speeches in
+which, as usual, his pointed attacks were directed against Lincoln
+by name. Quite <a name="page134" id="page134"></a>naturally, the Ohio Republicans called
+Lincoln to answer him, and the marked impression created by
+Lincoln's replies showed itself not alone in their unprecedented
+circulation in print in newspapers and pamphlets, but also in the
+decided success which the Ohio Republicans gained at the polls.
+About the same time, also, Douglas printed a long political essay
+in "Harper's Magazine," using as a text quotations from Lincoln's
+"House divided against itself" speech, and Seward's Rochester
+speech defining the "irrepressible conflict." Attorney-General
+Black of President Buchanan's cabinet here entered the lists with
+an anonymously printed pamphlet in pungent criticism of Douglas's
+"Harper" essay; which again was followed by reply and rejoinder on
+both sides.</p>
+<p>Into this field of overheated political controversy the news of
+the John Brown raid at Harper's Ferry on Sunday, October 19, fell
+with startling portent. The scattering and tragic fighting in the
+streets of the little town on Monday; the dramatic capture of the
+fanatical leader on Tuesday by a detachment of Federal marines
+under the command of Robert E. Lee, the famous Confederate general
+of subsequent years; the undignified haste of his trial and
+condemnation by the Virginia authorities; the interviews of
+Governor Wise, Senator Mason, and Representative Vallandigham with
+the prisoner; his sentence, and execution on the gallows on
+December 2; and the hysterical laudations of his acts by a few
+prominent and extreme abolitionists in the East, kept public
+opinion, both North and South, in an inflamed and feverish state
+for nearly six weeks.</p>
+<p>Mr. Lincoln's habitual freedom from passion, and the steady and
+common-sense judgment he applied to this exciting event, which
+threw almost everybody into <a name="page135" id="page135"></a>an extreme of feeling or utterance,
+are well illustrated by the temperate criticism he made of it a few
+months later:</p>
+<p>"John Brown's effort was peculiar. It was not a slave
+insurrection. It was an attempt by white men to get up a revolt
+among slaves, in which the slaves refused to participate. In fact,
+it was so absurd that the slaves, with all their ignorance, saw
+plainly enough it could not succeed. That affair, in its
+philosophy, corresponds with the many attempts, related in history,
+at the assassination of kings and emperors. An enthusiast broods
+over the oppression of a people till he fancies himself
+commissioned by Heaven to liberate them. He ventures the attempt,
+which ends in little else than his own execution. Orsini's attempt
+on Louis Napoleon and John Brown's attempt at Harper's Ferry were,
+in their philosophy, precisely the same. The eagerness to cast
+blame on old England in the one case, and on New England in the
+other, does not disprove the sameness of the two things."</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="page136" id="page136"></a>
+<h2><a name="X" id="X"></a>X</h2>
+<br />
+<p><i>Lincoln's Kansas Speeches&mdash;The Cooper Institute
+Speech&mdash;New England Speeches&mdash;The Democratic
+Schism&mdash;Senator Brown's Resolutions&mdash;Jefferson Davis's
+Resolutions&mdash;The Charleston Convention&mdash;Majority and
+Minority Reports&mdash;Cotton State Delegations
+Secede&mdash;Charleston Convention Adjourns&mdash;Democratic
+Baltimore Convention Splits&mdash;Breckinridge
+Nominated&mdash;Douglas Nominated&mdash;Bell Nominated by Union
+Constitutional Convention&mdash;Chicago Convention&mdash;Lincoln's
+Letters to Pickett and Judd&mdash;The Pivotal States&mdash;Lincoln
+Nominated</i></p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<p>During the month of December, 1859, Mr. Lincoln was invited to
+the Territory of Kansas, where he made speeches at a number of its
+new and growing towns. In these speeches he laid special emphasis
+upon the necessity of maintaining undiminished the vigor of the
+Republican organization and the high plane of the Republican
+doctrine.</p>
+<p>"We want, and must have," said he, "a national policy as to
+slavery which deals with it as being a wrong. Whoever would prevent
+slavery becoming national and perpetual yields all when he yields
+to a policy which treats it either as being right, or as being a
+matter of indifference." "To effect our main object we have to
+employ auxiliary means. We must hold conventions, adopt platforms,
+select candidates, and carry elections. At every step we must be
+true to the main purpose. If we adopt a platform falling short
+<a name="page137" id="page137"></a>of our principle, or elect a man
+rejecting our principle, we not only take nothing affirmative by
+our success, but we draw upon us the positive embarrassment of
+seeming ourselves to have abandoned our principle."</p>
+<p>A still more important service, however, in giving the
+Republican presidential campaign of 1860 precise form and issue was
+rendered by him during the first three months of the new year. The
+public mind had become so preoccupied with the dominant subject of
+national politics, that a committee of enthusiastic young
+Republicans of New York and Brooklyn arranged a course of public
+lectures by prominent statesmen and Mr. Lincoln was invited to
+deliver the third one of the series. The meeting took place in the
+hall of the Cooper Institute in New York, on the evening of
+February 27, 1860; and the audience was made up of ladies and
+gentlemen comprising the leading representatives of the wealth,
+culture, and influence of the great metropolis.</p>
+<p>Mr. Lincoln's name and arguments had filled so large a space in
+Eastern newspapers, both friendly and hostile, that the listeners
+before him were intensely curious to see and hear this rising
+Western politician. The West was even at that late day but
+imperfectly understood by the East. The poets and editors, the
+bankers and merchants of New York vaguely remembered having read in
+their books that it was the home of Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett,
+the country of bowie-knives and pistols, of steamboat explosions
+and mobs, of wild speculation and the repudiation of State debts;
+and these half-forgotten impressions had lately been vividly
+recalled by a several years' succession of newspaper reports
+retailing the incidents of Border Ruffian violence and free-State
+guerrilla reprisals during the civil war in Kansas. What was to be
+the type, <a name="page138" id="page138"></a>the character, the language of this
+speaker? How would he impress the great editor Horace Greeley, who
+sat among the invited guests? David Dudley Field, the great lawyer,
+who escorted him to the platform; William Cullen Bryant, the great
+poet, who presided over the meeting?</p>
+<p>Judging from after effects, the audience quickly forgot these
+questioning thoughts. They had but time to note Mr. Lincoln's
+impressive stature, his strongly marked features, the clear ring of
+his rather high-pitched voice, and the almost commanding
+earnestness of his manner. His beginning foreshadowed a dry
+argument using as a text Douglas's phrase that "our fathers, when
+they framed the government under which we live, understood this
+question just as well and even better than we do now," But the
+concise statements, the strong links of reasoning, and the
+irresistible conclusions of the argument with which the speaker
+followed his close historical analysis of how "our fathers"
+understood "this question," held every listener as though each were
+individually merged in the speaker's thought and demonstration.</p>
+<p>"It is surely safe to assume," said he, with emphasis, "that the
+thirty-nine framers of the original Constitution and the
+seventy-six members of the Congress which framed the amendments
+thereto, taken together, do certainly include those who may be
+fairly called 'our fathers who framed the government under which we
+live.' And, so assuming, I defy any man to show that any one of
+them ever, in his whole life, declared that, in his understanding,
+any proper division of local from Federal authority, or any part of
+the Constitution, forbade the Federal government to control as to
+slavery in the Federal Territories."</p>
+<p>With equal skill he next dissected the complaints, <a name="page139" id="page139"></a>the
+demands, and the threats to dissolve the Union made by the Southern
+States, pointed out their emptiness, their fallacy, and their
+injustice, and defined the exact point and center of the
+agitation.</p>
+<p>"Holding, as they do," said he, "that slavery is morally right
+and socially elevating, they cannot cease to demand a full national
+recognition of it, as a legal right and a social blessing. Nor can
+we justifiably withhold this on any ground, save our conviction
+that slavery is wrong. 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 justly object to
+its nationality&mdash;its universality! If it is wrong, they cannot
+justly insist upon its extension&mdash;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.... 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 the free States? If our sense of duty forbids this, then let us
+stand by our duty, fearlessly and effectively. Let us be diverted
+by none of those sophistical contrivances wherewith we are so
+industriously plied and belabored, contrivances such as groping for
+some middle ground between the right and the wrong, vain as the
+search for a man who should be neither a living man nor a dead man;
+such as a policy of 'don't care,' on a question about which all
+true men do care; such as Union appeals beseeching true Union men
+to yield to <a name="page140" id="page140"></a>disunionists; reversing the divine rule,
+and calling, not the sinners, but the righteous to repentance; such
+as invocations to Washington, imploring men to unsay what
+Washington said, and undo what Washington did. Neither let us be
+slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, nor
+frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the government nor
+of dungeons to ourselves. Let us have faith that right makes might,
+and in that faith let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we
+understand it."</p>
+<p>The close attention bestowed on its delivery, the hearty
+applause that greeted its telling points, and the enthusiastic
+comments of the Republican journals next morning showed that
+Lincoln's Cooper Institute speech had taken New York by storm. It
+was printed in full in four of the leading New York dailies, and at
+once went into large circulation in carefully edited pamphlet
+editions. From New York, Lincoln made a tour of speech-making
+through several of the New England States, and was everywhere
+received with enthusiastic welcome and listened to with an
+eagerness that bore a marked result in their spring elections. The
+interest of the factory men who listened to these addresses was
+equaled, perhaps excelled, by the gratified surprise of college
+professors when they heard the style and method of a popular
+Western orator that would bear the test of their professional
+criticism and compare with the best examples in their standard
+text-books.</p>
+<p>The attitude of the Democratic party in the coming presidential
+campaign was now also rapidly taking shape. Great curiosity existed
+whether the radical differences between its Northern and Southern
+wings could by any possibility be removed or adjusted, whether the
+adherents of Douglas and those of Buchanan could be brought to join
+in a common platform and in the <a name="page141" id="page141"></a>support of a single candidate.
+The Democratic leaders in the Southern States had become more and
+more out-spoken in their pro-slavery demands. They had advanced
+step by step from the repeal of the Missouri Compromise in 1854,
+the attempt to capture Kansas by Missouri invasions in 1855 and
+1856, the support of the Dred Scott decision and the Lecompton
+fraud in 1857, the repudiation of Douglas's Freeport heresy in
+1858, to the demand for a congressional slave code for the
+Territories and the recognition of the doctrine of property in
+slaves. These last two points they had distinctly formulated in the
+first session of the Thirty-sixth Congress. On January 18, 1860,
+Senator Brown of Mississippi introduced into the Senate two
+resolutions, one asserting the nationality of slavery, the other
+that, when necessary, Congress should pass laws for its protection
+in the Territories. On February 2 Jefferson Davis introduced
+another series of resolutions intended to serve as a basis for the
+national Democratic platform, the central points of which were that
+the right to take and hold slaves in the Territories could neither
+be impaired nor annulled, and that it was the duty of Congress to
+supply any deficiency of laws for its protection. Perhaps even more
+significant than these formulated doctrines was the pro-slavery
+spirit manifested in the congressional debates. Two months were
+wasted in a parliamentary struggle to prevent the election of the
+Republican, John Sherman, as Speaker of the House of
+Representatives, because the Southern members charged that he had
+recommended an "abolition" book; during which time the most
+sensational and violent threats of disunion were made in both the
+House and the Senate, containing repeated declarations that they
+would never submit to the inauguration of a "Black Republican"
+President.<a name="page142" id="page142"></a></p>
+<p>When the national Democratic convention met at Charleston, on
+April 23, 1860, there at once became evident the singular condition
+that the delegates from the free States were united and
+enthusiastic in their determination to secure the nomination of
+Douglas as the Democratic candidate for President, while the
+delegates from the slave States were equally united and determined
+upon forcing the acceptance of an extreme pro-slavery platform. All
+expectations of a compromise, all hope of coming to an
+understanding by juggling omissions or evasions in their
+declaration of party principles were quickly dissipated. The
+platform committee, after three days and nights of fruitless
+effort, presented two antagonistic reports. The majority report
+declared that neither Congress nor a territorial legislature could
+abolish or prohibit slavery in the Territories, and that it was the
+duty of the Federal government to protect it when necessary. To
+this doctrine the Northern members could not consent; but they were
+willing to adopt the ambiguous declaration that property rights in
+slaves were judicial in their character, and that they would abide
+the decisions of the Supreme Court on such questions.</p>
+<p>The usual expedient of recommitting both reports brought no
+relief from the deadlock. A second majority and a second minority
+report exhibited the same irreconcilable divergence in slightly
+different language, and the words of mutual defiance exchanged in
+debating the first report rose to a parliamentary storm when the
+second came under discussion. On the seventh day the convention
+came to a vote, and, the Northern delegates being in the majority,
+the minority report was substituted for that of the majority of the
+committee by one hundred and sixty-five to one hundred and
+thirty-eight delegates&mdash;in other words, the Douglas<a name="page143" id="page143"></a> platform was declared adopted. Upon this
+the delegates of the cotton States&mdash;Alabama, Mississippi,
+Louisiana, South Carolina, Florida, Texas, and
+Arkansas&mdash;withdrew from the convention. It soon appeared,
+however, that the Douglas delegates had achieved only a barren
+victory. Their majority could indeed adopt a platform, but, under
+the acknowledged two-thirds rule which governs Democratic national
+conventions, they had not sufficient votes to nominate their
+candidate. During the fifty-seven ballots taken, the Douglas men
+could muster only one hundred and fifty-two and one half votes of
+the two hundred and two necessary to a choice; and to prevent mere
+slow disintegration the convention adjourned on the tenth day,
+under a resolution to reassemble in Baltimore on June 18.</p>
+<p>Nothing was gained, however, by the delay. In the interim,
+Jefferson Davis and nineteen other Southern leaders published an
+address commending the withdrawal of the cotton States delegates,
+and in a Senate debate Davis laid down the plain proposition, "We
+want nothing more than a simple declaration that negro slaves are
+property, and we want the recognition of the obligation of the
+Federal government to protect that property like all other."</p>
+<p>Upon the reassembling of the Charleston convention at Baltimore,
+it underwent a second disruption on the fifth day; the Northern
+wing nominated Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois, and the Southern
+wing John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky as their respective
+candidates for President. In the meanwhile, also, regular and
+irregular delegates from some twenty-two States, representing
+fragments of the old Whig party, had convened at Baltimore on May 9
+and nominated John Bell of Tennessee as their candidate for
+President, upon <a name="page144" id="page144"></a>a platform ignoring the slavery issue
+and declaring that they would "recognize no other political
+principle than the Constitution of the country, the union of the
+States, and the enforcement of the laws."</p>
+<p>In the long contest between slavery extension and slavery
+restriction which was now approaching its culmination the growing
+demands and increasing bitterness of the pro-slavery party had
+served in an equal degree to intensify the feelings and stimulate
+the efforts of the Republican party; and, remembering the
+encouraging opposition strength which the united vote of
+Fr&eacute;mont and Fillmore had shown in 1856, they felt encouraged
+to hope for possible success in 1860, since the Fillmore party had
+practically disappeared throughout the free States. When,
+therefore, the Charleston convention was rent asunder and adjourned
+on May 10 without making a nomination, the possibility of
+Republican victory seemed to have risen to probability. Such a
+feeling inspired the eager enthusiasm of the delegates to the
+Republican national convention which met, according to appointment,
+at Chicago on May 16.</p>
+<p>A large, temporary wooden building, christened "The Wigwam," had
+been erected in which to hold its sessions, and it was estimated
+that ten thousand persons were assembled in it to witness the
+proceedings. William H. Seward of New York was recognized as the
+leading candidate, but Chase of Ohio, Cameron of Pennsylvania,
+Bates of Missouri, and several prominent Republicans from other
+States were known to have active and zealous followers. The name of
+Abraham Lincoln had also often been mentioned during his growing
+fame, and, fully a year before, an ardent Republican editor of
+Illinois had requested permission to announce him in his newspaper.
+Lincoln, <a name="page145" id="page145"></a>however, discouraged such action at that
+time, answering him:</p>
+<p>"As to the other matter you kindly mention, I must in candor say
+I do not think myself fit for the presidency. I certainly am
+flattered and gratified that some partial friends think of me in
+that connection; but I really think it best for our cause that no
+concerted effort, such as you suggest, should be made."</p>
+<p>He had given an equally positive answer to an eager Ohio friend
+in the preceding July; but about Christmas 1859, an influential
+caucus of his strongest Illinois adherents made a personal request
+that he would permit them to use his name, and he gave his consent,
+not so much in any hope of becoming the nominee for President, as
+in possibly reaching the second place on the ticket; or at least of
+making such a showing of strength before the convention as would
+aid him in his future senatorial ambition at home, or perhaps carry
+him into the cabinet of the Republican President, should one
+succeed. He had not been eager to enter the lists, but once having
+agreed to do so, it was but natural that he should manifest a
+becoming interest, subject, however, now as always, to his
+inflexible rule of fair dealing and honorable faith to all his
+party friends.</p>
+<p>"I do not understand Trumbull and myself to be rivals," he wrote
+December 9, 1859. "You know I am pledged not to enter a struggle
+with him for the seat in the Senate now occupied by him; and yet I
+would rather have a full term in the Senate than in the
+presidency."</p>
+<p>And on February 9 he wrote to the same Illinois friend:</p>
+<p>"I am not in a position where it would hurt much for me not to
+be nominated on the national ticket; but I <a name="page146" id="page146"></a>am where
+it would hurt some for me not to get the Illinois delegates. What I
+expected when I wrote the the letter to Messrs. Dole and others is
+now happening. Your discomfited assailants are most bitter against
+me; and they will, for revenge upon me, lay to the Bates egg in the
+South, and to the Seward egg in the North, and go far toward
+squeezing me out in the middle with nothing. Can you not help me a
+little in this matter in your end of the vineyard?"</p>
+<p>It turned out that the delegates whom the Illinois State
+convention sent to the national convention at Chicago were men not
+only of exceptional standing and ability, but filled with the
+warmest zeal for Mr. Lincoln's success; and they were able at once
+to impress upon delegates from other States his sterling personal
+worth and fitness, and his superior availability. It needed but
+little political arithmetic to work out the sum of existing
+political chances. It was almost self-evident that in the coming
+November election victory or defeat would hang upon the result in
+the four pivotal States of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and
+Illinois. It was quite certain that no Republican candidate could
+carry a single one of the fifteen slave States; and equally sure
+that Breckinridge, on his extreme pro-slavery platform, could not
+carry a single one of the eighteen free States. But there was a
+chance that one or more of these four pivotal free States might
+cast its vote for Douglas and popular sovereignty.</p>
+<p>A candidate was needed, therefore, who could successfully cope
+with Douglas and the Douglas theory; and this ability had been
+convincingly demonstrated by Lincoln. As a mere personal choice, a
+majority of the convention would have preferred Seward; but in the
+four pivotal States there were many voters who <a name="page147" id="page147"></a>believed
+Seward's antislavery views to be too radical. They shrank
+apprehensively from the phrase in one of his speeches that "there
+is a higher law than the Constitution." These pivotal States all
+lay adjoining slave States, and their public opinion was infected
+with something of the undefined dread of "abolitionism." When the
+delegates of the pivotal States were interviewed, they frankly
+confessed that they could not carry their States for Seward, and
+that would mean certain defeat if he were the nominee for
+President. For their voters Lincoln stood on more acceptable
+ground. His speeches had been more conservative; his local
+influence in his own State of Illinois was also a factor not to be
+idly thrown away.</p>
+<p>Plain, practical reasoning of this character found ready
+acceptance among the delegates to the convention. Their eagerness
+for the success of the cause largely overbalanced their personal
+preferences for favorite aspirants. When the convention met, the
+fresh, hearty hopefulness of its members was a most inspiring
+reflection of the public opinion in the States that sent them. They
+went at their work with an earnestness which was an encouraging
+premonition of success, and they felt a gratifying support in the
+presence of the ten thousand spectators who looked on at their
+work. Few conventions have ever been pervaded by such a depth of
+feeling, or exhibited such a reserve of latent enthusiasm. The
+cheers that greeted the entrance of popular favorites, and the
+short speeches on preliminary business, ran and rolled through the
+great audience in successive moving waves of sound that were echoed
+and re&euml;choed from side to side of the vast building. Not alone
+the delegates on the central platform, but the multitude of
+spectators as well, felt that they were playing a part in a great
+historical event.<a name="page148" id="page148"></a></p>
+<p>The temporary, and afterward the permanent organization, was
+finished on the first day, with somewhat less than usual of the
+wordy and tantalizing small talk which these routine proceedings
+always call forth. On the second day the platform committee
+submitted its work, embodying the carefully considered and
+skilfully framed body of doctrines upon which the Republican party,
+made up only four years before from such previously heterogeneous
+and antagonistic political elements was now able to find common and
+durable ground of agreement. Around its central tenet, which denied
+"the authority of Congress, of a territorial legislature, or of any
+individuals, to give legal existence to slavery in any territory of
+the United States," were grouped vigorous denunciations of the
+various steps and incidents of the pro-slavery reaction, and its
+prospective demands; while its positive recommendations embraced
+the immediate admission of Kansas, free homesteads to actual
+settlers, river and harbor improvements of a national character, a
+railroad to the Pacific Ocean, and the maintenance of existing
+naturalization laws.</p>
+<p>The platform was about to be adopted without objection when a
+flurry of discussion arose over an amendment, proposed by Mr.
+Giddings of Ohio, to incorporate in it that phrase of the
+Declaration of Independence which declares the right of all men to
+life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Impatience was at once
+manifested lest any change should produce endless delay and
+dispute. "I believe in the Ten Commandments," commented a member,
+"but I do not want them in a political platform"; and the
+proposition was voted down. Upon this the old antislavery veteran
+felt himself agrieved, and, taking up his hat, marched out of the
+convention. In the course of an <a name="page149" id="page149"></a>hour's desultory discussion
+however, a member, with stirring oratorical emphasis, asked whether
+the convention was prepared to go upon record before the country as
+voting down the words of the Declaration of
+Independence&mdash;whether the men of 1860, on the free prairies of
+the West, quailed before repeating the words enunciated by the men
+of '76 at Philadelphia. In an impulse of patriotic reaction, the
+amendment was incorporated into the platform, and Mr. Giddings was
+brought back by his friends, his face beaming with triumph; and the
+stormy acclaim of the audience manifested the deep feeling which
+the incident evoked.</p>
+<p>On the third day it was certain that balloting would begin, and
+crowds hurried to the Wigwam in a fever of curiosity. Having grown
+restless at the indispensable routine preliminaries, when Mr.
+Evarts nominated William H. Seward of New York for President, they
+greeted his name with a perfect storm of applause. Then Mr. Judd
+nominated Abraham Lincoln of Illinois and in the tremendous
+cheering that broke from the throats of his admirers and followers
+the former demonstration dwindled to comparative feebleness. Again
+and again these contests of lungs and enthusiasm were repeated as
+the choice of New York was seconded by Michigan, and that of
+Illinois by Indiana.</p>
+<p>When other names had been duly presented, the cheering at length
+subsided, and the chairman announced that balloting would begin.
+Many spectators had provided themselves with tally-lists, and when
+the first roll-call was completed were able at once to perceive the
+drift of popular preference. Cameron, Chase, Bates, McLean, Dayton,
+and Collamer were indorsed by the substantial votes of their own
+States; but two names stood out in marked superiority: Seward, who<a name="page150" id="page150"></a> had received one hundred and
+seventy-three and one half votes, and Lincoln, one hundred and
+two.</p>
+<p>The New York delegation was so thoroughly persuaded of the final
+success of their candidate that they did not comprehend the
+significance of this first ballot. Had they reflected that their
+delegation alone had contributed seventy votes to Seward's total,
+they would have understood that outside of the Empire State, upon
+this first showing, Lincoln held their favorite almost an even
+race. As the second ballot progressed, their anxiety visibly
+increased. They watched with eagerness as the complimentary votes
+first cast for State favorites were transferred now to one, now to
+the other of the recognized leaders in the contest, and their hopes
+sank when the result of the second ballot was announced: Seward,
+one hundred and eighty-four and one half, Lincoln, one hundred and
+eighty-one; and a volume of applause, which was with difficulty
+checked by the chairman, shook the Wigwam at this announcement.</p>
+<p>Then followed a short interval of active caucusing in the
+various delegations, while excited men went about rapidly
+interchanging questions, solicitations, and messages between
+delegations from different States. Neither candidate had yet
+received a majority of all the votes cast, and the third ballot was
+begun amid a deep, almost painful suspense, delegates and
+spectators alike recording each announcement of votes on their
+tally-sheets with nervous fingers. But the doubt was of short
+duration. The second ballot had unmistakably pointed out the
+winning man. Hesitating delegations and fragments from many States
+steadily swelled the Lincoln column. Long before the secretaries
+made the official announcement, the totals had been figured up:
+Lincoln, two hundred and thirty <a name="page151" id="page151"></a>one and one half, Seward,
+one hundred and eighty. Counting the scattering votes, four hundred
+and sixty-five ballots had been cast, and two hundred and
+thirty-three were necessary to a choice. Seward had lost four and
+one half, Lincoln had gained fifty and one half, and only one and
+one half votes more were needed to make a nomination.</p>
+<p>The Wigwam suddenly became as still as a church, and everybody
+leaned forward to see whose voice would break the spell. Before the
+lapse of a minute, David K. Cartter sprang upon his chair and
+reported a change of four Ohio votes from Chase to Lincoln. Then a
+teller shouted a name toward the skylight, and the boom of cannon
+from the roof of the Wigwam announced the nomination and started
+the cheering of the overjoyed Illinoisans down the long Chicago
+streets; while in the Wigwam, delegation after delegation changed
+its vote to the victor amid a tumult of hurrahs. When quiet was
+somewhat restored, Mr. Evarts, speaking for New York and for
+Seward, moved to make the nomination unanimous, and Mr. Browning
+gracefully returned the thanks of Illinois for the honor the
+convention had conferred upon the State. In the afternoon the
+convention completed its work by nominating Hannibal Hamlin of
+Maine for Vice-President; and as the delegates sped homeward in the
+night trains, they witnessed, in the bonfires and cheering crowds
+at the stations, that a memorable presidential campaign was already
+begun.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="page152" id="page152"></a>
+<h2><a name="XI" id="XI"></a>XI</h2>
+<br />
+<p><i>Candidates and Platforms&mdash;The Political
+Chances&mdash;Decatur Lincoln Resolution&mdash;John Hanks and the
+Lincoln Rails&mdash;The Rail-Splitter Candidate&mdash;The
+Wide-Awakes&mdash;Douglas's Southern Tour&mdash;Jefferson Davis's
+Address&mdash;Fusion&mdash;Lincoln at the State House&mdash;The
+Election Result</i></p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<p>The nomination of Lincoln at Chicago completed the preparations
+of the different parties of the country for the presidential
+contest of 1860; and presented the unusual occurrence of an appeal
+to the voters of the several States by four distinct political
+organizations. In the order of popular strength which they
+afterward developed, they were:</p>
+<p>1. The Republican party, whose platform declared in substance
+that slavery was wrong, and that its further extension should be
+prohibited by Congress. Its candidates were Abraham Lincoln of
+Illinois for President and Hannibal Hamlin of Maine for
+Vice-president.</p>
+<p>2. The Douglas wing of the Democratic party, which declared
+indifference whether slavery were right or wrong, extended or
+prohibited, and proposed to permit the people of a Territory to
+decide whether they would prevent or establish it. Its candidates
+were Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois for President, and Herschel V.
+Johnson of Georgia for Vice-President.</p>
+<p>3. The Buchanan wing of the Democratic party, which declared
+that slavery was right and beneficial, <a name="page153" id="page153"></a>and whose
+policy was to extend the institution, and create new slave States.
+Its candidates were John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky for President,
+and Joseph Lane of Oregon for Vice-President.</p>
+<p>4. The Constitutional Union party, which professed to ignore the
+question of slavery, and declared it would recognize no political
+principles other than "the Constitution of the country, the union
+of the States, and the enforcement of the laws." Its candidates
+were John Bell of Tennessee for President, and Edward Everett of
+Massachusetts for Vice-President.</p>
+<p>In the array of these opposing candidates and their platforms,
+it could be easily calculated from the very beginning that neither
+Lincoln nor Douglas had any chance to carry a slave State, nor
+Breckinridge nor Bell to carry a free State; and that neither
+Douglas in the free States, nor Bell in either section could obtain
+electoral votes enough to succeed. Therefore, but two alternatives
+seemed probable. Either Lincoln would be chosen by electoral votes,
+or, upon his failure to obtain a sufficient number, the election
+would be thrown into the House of Representatives, in which case
+the course of combination, chance, or intrigue could not be
+foretold. The political situation and its possible results thus
+involved a degree of uncertainty sufficient to hold out a
+contingent hope to all the candidates and to inspire the followers
+of each to active exertion. This hope and inspiration, added to the
+hot temper which the long discussion of antagonistic principles had
+engendered, served to infuse into the campaign enthusiasm,
+earnestness, and even bitterness, according to local conditions in
+the different sections.</p>
+<p>In campaign enthusiasm the Republican party easily took the
+lead. About a week before his nomination, Mr. Lincoln had been
+present at the Illinois State <a name="page154" id="page154"></a>convention at Decatur in Coles
+County, not far from the old Lincoln home, when, at a given signal,
+there marched into the convention old John Hanks, one of his
+boyhood companions, and another pioneer, who bore on their
+shoulders two long fence rails decorated with a banner inscribed:
+"Two rails from a lot made by Abraham Lincoln and John Hanks in the
+Sangamon Bottom in the year 1830." They were greeted with a
+tremendous shout of applause from the whole convention succeeded by
+a united call for Lincoln, who sat on the platform. The tumult
+would not subside until he rose to speak, when he said:</p>
+<p>"GENTLEMEN: I suppose you want to know something about those
+things [pointing to old John and the rails]. Well, the truth is,
+John Hanks and I did make rails in the Sagamon Bottom. I don't know
+whether we made those rails or not; fact is, I don't think they are
+a credit to the makers [laughing as he spoke]. But I do know this:
+I made rails then, and I think I could make better ones than these
+now."</p>
+<p>Still louder cheering followed this short, but effective reply.
+But the convention was roused to its full warmth of enthusiasm when
+a resolution was immediately and unanimously adopted declaring that
+"Abraham Lincoln is the first choice of the Republican party of
+Illinois for the Presidency," and directing the delegates to the
+Chicago convention "to use all honorable means to secure his
+nomination, and to cast the vote of the State as a unit for
+him."</p>
+<p>It was this resolution which the Illinois delegation had so
+successfully carried out at Chicago. And, besides they had carried
+with them the two fence rails, and set them up in state at the
+Lincoln headquarters at their hotel, where enthusiastic lady
+friends gaily trimmed them with flowers and ribbons and lighted<a name="page155" id="page155"></a> them up with tapers. These slight
+preliminaries, duly embellished in the newspapers, gave the key to
+the Republican campaign, which designated Lincoln as the
+Rail-splitter Candidate, and, added to his common Illinois
+sobriquet of "Honest Old Abe," furnished both country and city
+campaign orators a powerfully sympathetic appeal to the rural and
+laboring element of the United States.</p>
+<p>When these homely but picturesque appellations were fortified by
+the copious pamphlet and newspaper biographies in which people read
+the story of his humble beginnings, and how he had risen, by dint
+of simple, earnest work and native genius, through privation and
+difficulty, first to fame and leadership in his State, and now to
+fame and leadership in the nation, they grew quickly into symbols
+of a faith and trust destined to play no small part in a political
+revolution of which the people at large were not as yet even
+dreaming.</p>
+<p>Another feature of the campaign also quickly developed itself.
+On the preceding 5th of March, one of Mr. Lincoln's New England
+speeches had been made at Hartford, Connecticut; and at its close
+he was escorted to his hotel by a procession of the local
+Republican club, at the head of which marched a few of its members
+bearing torches and wearing caps and capes of glazed oilcloth, the
+primary purpose of which was to shield their clothes from the
+dripping oil of their torches. Both the simplicity and the
+efficiency of the uniform caught the popular eye, as did also the
+name, "Wide-Awakes," applied to them by the "Hartford Courant." The
+example found quick imitation in Hartford and adjoining towns, and
+when Mr. Lincoln was made candidate for President, every city,
+town, and nearly every village in the North, within a brief space,
+had its organized Wide-Awake club, with their <a name="page156" id="page156"></a>
+half-military uniform and drill; and these clubs were often, later
+in the campaign, gathered into imposing torch-light processions,
+miles in length, on occasions of important party meetings and
+speech-making. It was the revived spirit of the Harrison campaign
+of twenty years before; but now, shorn of its fun and frolic, it
+was strengthened by the power of organization and the tremendous
+impetus of earnest devotion to a high principle.</p>
+<p>It was a noteworthy feature of the campaign that the letters of
+acceptance of all the candidates, either in distinct words or
+unmistakable implication, declared devotion to the Union, while at
+the same time the adherents of each were charging disunion
+sentiments and intentions upon the other three parties. Douglas
+himself made a tour of speech-making through the Southern States,
+in which, while denouncing the political views of both Lincoln and
+Breckinridge, he nevertheless openly declared, in response to
+direct questions, that no grievance could justify disunion, and
+that he was ready "to put the hemp around the neck and hang any man
+who would raise the arm of resistance to the constituted
+authorities of the country."</p>
+<p>During the early part of the campaign the more extreme Southern
+fire-eaters abated somewhat of their violent menaces of disunion.
+Between the Charleston and the Baltimore Democratic conventions an
+address published by Jefferson Davis and other prominent leaders
+had explained that the seventeen Democratic States which had voted
+at Charleston for the seceders' platform could, if united with
+Pennsylvania alone, elect the Democratic nominees against all
+opposition. This hope doubtless floated before their eyes like a
+will-o'-the-wisp until the October elections dispelled all
+possibility of securing Pennsylvania for Breckinridge.<a name="page157" id="page157"></a> From that
+time forward there began a renewal of disunion threats, which, by
+their constant increase throughout the South, prepared the public
+mind of that section for the coming secession.</p>
+<p>As the chances of Republican success gradually grew stronger, an
+undercurrent of combination developed itself among those
+politicians of the three opposing parties more devoted to patronage
+than principle, to bring about the fusion of Lincoln's opponents on
+some agreed ratio of a division of the spoils. Such a combination
+made considerable progress in the three Northern States of New
+York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. It appears to have been
+engineered mainly by the Douglas faction, though, it must be said
+to his credit, against the open and earnest protest of Douglas
+himself. But the thrifty plotters cared little for his
+disapproval.</p>
+<p>By the secret manipulations of conventions and committees a
+fusion electoral ticket was formed in New York, made up of
+adherents of the three different factions in the following
+proportion: Douglas, eighteen; Bell, ten; Breckinridge, seven; and
+the whole opposition vote of the State of New York was cast for
+this fusion ticket. The same tactics were pursued in Pennsylvania,
+where, however, the agreement was not so openly avowed. One third
+of the Pennsylvania fusion electoral candidates were pledged to
+Douglas; the division of the remaining two thirds between Bell and
+Breckinridge was not made public. The bulk of the Pennsylvania
+opposition vote was cast for this fusion ticket, but a respectable
+percentage refused to be bargained away, and voted directly for
+Douglas or Bell. In New Jersey a definite agreement was reached by
+the managers, and an electoral ticket formed, composed of two
+adherents of Bell, two of Breckinridge, and three <a name="page158" id="page158"></a>of
+Douglas; and in this State a practical result was effected by the
+movement. A fraction of the Douglas voters formed a straight
+electoral ticket, adopting the three Douglas candidates on the
+fusion ticket, and by this action these three Douglas electors
+received a majority vote in New Jersey, On the whole, however, the
+fusion movement proved ineffectual to defeat Lincoln and, indeed,
+it would not have done so even had the fusion electoral tickets
+deceived a majority in all three of the above-named States.</p>
+<p>The personal habits and surroundings of Mr. Lincoln were varied
+somewhat, though but slightly, during the whole of this election
+summer. Naturally, he withdrew at once from active work, leaving
+his law office and his whole law business to his partner, William
+H. Herndon; while his friends installed him in the governor's room
+in the State House at Springfield, which was not otherwise needed
+during the absence of the legislature. Here he spent the time
+during the usual business hours of the day, attended only by his
+private secretary, Mr. Nicolay. Friends and strangers alike were
+thus able to visit him freely and without ceremony and they availed
+themselves largely of the opportunity. Few, if any, went away
+without being favorably impressed by his hearty Western greeting,
+and the frank sincerity of his manner and conversation, in which,
+naturally, all subjects of controversy were courteously and
+instinctively avoided by both the candidate and his visitors.</p>
+<p>By none was this free, neighborly intercourse enjoyed more than
+by the old-time settlers of Sangamon and the adjoining counties,
+who came to revive the incidents and memories of pioneer days with
+one who could give them such thorough and appreciative interest and
+sympathy. He employed no literary bureau, <a name="page159" id="page159"></a>wrote no
+public letters, made no set or impromptu speeches, except that once
+or twice during great political meetings at Springfield he uttered
+a few words of greeting and thanks to passing street processions.
+All these devices of propagandism he left to the leaders and
+committees of his adherents in their several States. Even the
+strictly confidential letters in which he indicated his advice on
+points in the progress of the campaign did not exceed a dozen in
+number; and when politicians came to interview him at Springfield,
+he received them in the privacy of his own home, and generally
+their presence created little or no public notice. Cautious
+politician as he was, he did not permit himself to indulge in any
+over-confidence, but then, as always before, showed unusual skill
+in estimating political chances. Thus he wrote about a week after
+the Chicago convention:</p>
+<p>"So far as I can learn, the nominations start well everywhere;
+and, if they get no backset, it would seem as if they are going
+through."</p>
+<p>Again, on July 4:</p>
+<p>"Long before this you have learned who was nominated at Chicago.
+We know not what a day may bring forth, but to-day it looks as if
+the Chicago ticket will be elected."</p>
+<p>And on September 22, to a friend in Oregon:</p>
+<p>"No one on this side of the mountains pretends that any ticket
+can be elected by the people, unless it be ours. Hence, great
+efforts to combine against us are being made, which, however, as
+yet have not had much success Besides what we see in the
+newspapers, I have a good deal of private correspondence; and,
+without giving details, I will only say it all looks very favorable
+to our success."</p>
+<p>His judgment was abundantly verified at the <a name="page160" id="page160"></a>presidential
+election, which occurred upon November 6, 1860. Lincoln electors
+were chosen in every one of the free States except New Jersey,
+where, as has already been stated, three Douglas electors received
+majorities because their names were on both the fusion ticket and
+the straight Douglas ticket; while the other four Republican
+electors in that State succeeded. Of the slave States, eleven chose
+Breckinridge electors, three of them Bell electors, and one of
+them&mdash;Missouri&mdash;Douglas electors. As provided by law, the
+electors met in their several States on December 5, to officially
+cast their votes, and on February 13, 1861, Congress in joint
+session of the two Houses made the official count as follows: for
+Lincoln, one hundred and eighty; for Breckinridge, seventy-two; for
+Bell, thirty-nine; and for Douglas, twelve; giving Lincoln a clear
+majority of fifty-seven in the whole electoral college. Thereupon
+Breckinridge, who presided over the joint session, officially
+declared that Abraham Lincoln was duly elected President of the
+United States for four years, beginning March 4, 1861.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="page161" id="page161"></a>
+<h2><a name="XII" id="XII"></a>XII</h2>
+<br />
+<p><i>Lincoln's Cabinet Program&mdash;Members from the
+South&mdash;Questions and Answers&mdash;Correspondence with
+Stephens&mdash;Action of Congress&mdash;Peace
+Convention&mdash;Preparation of the Inaugural&mdash;Lincoln's
+Farewell Address&mdash;The Journey to Washington&mdash;Lincoln's
+Midnight Journey</i></p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<p>During the long presidential campaign of 1860, between the
+Chicago convention in the middle of May and the election at the
+beginning of November, Mr. Lincoln, relieved from all other duties,
+had watched political developments with very close attention not
+merely to discern the progress of his own chances, but, doubtless,
+also, much more seriously to deliberate upon the future in case he
+should be elected. But it was only when, on the night of November
+6, he sat in the telegraph office at Springfield, from which all
+but himself and the operators were excluded, and read the telegrams
+as they fell from the wires, that little by little the accumulating
+Republican majorities reported from all directions convinced him of
+the certainty of his success; and with that conviction there fell
+upon him the overwhelming, almost crushing weight of his coming
+duties and responsibilities. He afterward related that in that
+supreme hour, grappling resolutely with the mighty problem before
+him, he practically completed the first essential act of his
+<a name="page162" id="page162"></a>administration, the selection of his
+future cabinet&mdash;the choice of the men who were to aid him.</p>
+<p>From what afterward occurred, we may easily infer the general
+principle which guided his choice. One of his strongest
+characteristics, as his speeches abundantly show, was his belief in
+the power of public opinion, and his respect for the popular will.
+That was to be found and to be wielded by the leaders of public
+sentiment In the present instance there were no truer
+representatives of that will than the men who had been prominently
+supported by the delegates to the Chicago convention for the
+presidential nominations. Of these he would take at least three,
+perhaps four, to compose one half of his cabinet. In selecting
+Seward, Chase, Bates, and Cameron, he could also satisfy two other
+points of the representative principle, the claims of locality and
+the elements of former party divisions now joined in the newly
+organized Republican party. With Seward from New York, Cameron from
+Pennsylvania, Chase from Ohio, and himself from Illinois, the four
+leading free States had each a representative. With Bates from
+Missouri, the South could not complain of being wholly excluded
+from the cabinet. New England was properly represented by
+Vice-President Hamlin. When, after the inauguration, Smith from
+Indiana Welles from Connecticut, and Blair from Maryland were added
+to make up the seven cabinet members, the local distribution
+between East and West, North and South, was in no wise disturbed.
+It was, indeed, complained that in this arrangement there were four
+former Democrats, and only three former Whigs; to which Lincoln
+laughingly replied that he had been a Whig, and would be there to
+make the number even.</p>
+<p>It is not likely that this exact list was in Lincoln's mind on
+the night of the November election, but only <a name="page163" id="page163"></a>the
+principal names in it; and much delay and some friction occurred
+before its completion. The post of Secretary of State was offered
+to Seward on December 8.</p>
+<p>"Rumors have got into the newspapers," wrote Lincoln, "to the
+effect that the department named above would be tendered you as a
+compliment, and with the expectation that you would decline it. I
+beg you to be assured that I have said nothing to justify these
+rumors. On the contrary, it has been my purpose, from the day of
+the nomination at Chicago, to assign you, by your leave, this place
+in the administration."</p>
+<p>Seward asked a few days for reflection, and then cordially
+accepted. Bates was tendered the Attorney-Generalship on December
+15, while making a personal visit to Springfield. Word had been
+meanwhile sent to Smith that he would probably be included. The
+assignment of places to Chase and Cameron worked less smoothly.
+Lincoln wrote Cameron a note on January 3, saying he would nominate
+him for either Secretary of the Treasury or Secretary of War, he
+had not yet decided which; and on the same day, in an interview
+with Chase, whom he had invited to Springfield, said to him:</p>
+<p>"I have done with you what I would not perhaps have ventured to
+do with any other man in the country&mdash;sent for you to ask
+whether you will accept the appointment of Secretary of the
+Treasury, without, however, being exactly prepared to offer it to
+you."</p>
+<p>They discussed the situation very fully, but without reaching a
+definite conclusion, agreeing to await the advice of friends.
+Meanwhile, the rumor that Cameron was to go into the cabinet
+excited such hot opposition that Lincoln felt obliged to recall his
+tender in a confidential letter; and asked him to write a public
+letter <a name="page164" id="page164"></a>declining the place. Instead of doing
+this, Cameron fortified himself with recommendations from prominent
+Pennsylvanians, and demonstrated that in his own State he had at
+least three advocates to one opponent.</p>
+<p>Pending the delay which this contest consumed, another cabinet
+complication found its solution. It had been warmly urged by
+conservatives that, in addition to Bates, another cabinet member
+should be taken from one of the Southern States. The difficulty of
+doings this had been clearly foreshadowed by Mr. Lincoln in a
+little editorial which he wrote for the Springfield "Journal" on
+December 12:</p>
+<p>"<i>First</i>. Is it known that any such gentleman of character
+would accept a place in the cabinet?</p>
+<p>"<i>Second</i>. If yea, on what terms does he surrender to Mr.
+Lincoln, or Mr. Lincoln to him, on the political differences
+between them, or do they enter upon the administration in open
+opposition to each other?"</p>
+<p>It was very soon demonstrated that these differences were
+insurmountable. Through Mr. Seward, who was attending his
+senatorial duties at Washington, Mr. Lincoln tentatively offered a
+cabinet appointment successively to Gilmer of North Carolina, Hunt
+of Louisiana and Scott of Virginia, no one of whom had the courage
+to accept.</p>
+<p>Toward the end of the recent canvass, and still more since the
+election, Mr. Lincoln had received urgent letters to make some
+public declaration to reassure and pacify the South, especially the
+cotton States, which were manifesting a constantly growing spirit
+of rebellion. Most of such letters remained unanswered, but in a
+number of strictly confidential replies he explained the reasons
+for his refusal.</p>
+<p>"I appreciate your motive," he wrote October 23, "when you
+suggest the propriety of my writing for <a name="page165" id="page165"></a>the
+public something disclaiming all intention to interfere with slaves
+or slavery in the States: but, in my judgment, it would do no good.
+I have already done this many, many times; and it is in print, and
+open to all who will read. Those who will not read or heed what I
+have already publicly said, would not read or heed a repetition of
+it. 'If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be
+persuaded though one rose from the dead.'"</p>
+<p>To the editor of the "Louisville Journal" he wrote October
+29:</p>
+<p>"For the good men of the South&mdash;and I regard the majority
+of them as such&mdash;I have no objection to repeat seventy and
+seven times. But I have bad men to deal with, both North and South;
+men who are eager for something new upon which to base new
+misrepresentations; men who would like to frighten me, or at least
+to fix upon me the character of timidity and cowardice."</p>
+<p>Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia, who afterward became
+Confederate Vice-President, made a strong speech against secession
+in that State on November 14; and Mr. Lincoln wrote him a few lines
+asking for a revised copy of it. In the brief correspondence which
+ensued, Mr. Lincoln again wrote him under date of December 22:</p>
+<p>"I fully appreciate the present peril the country is in, and the
+weight of responsibility on me. Do the people of the South really
+entertain fears that a Republican administration would, directly or
+indirectly, interfere with the slaves, or with them about the
+slaves? If they do, I wish to assure you, as once a friend, and
+still, I hope, not an enemy, that there is no cause for such fears.
+The South would be in no more danger in this respect than it was in
+the days of Washington. I <a name="page166" id="page166"></a>suppose, however, this does
+not meet the case. You think slavery is right and ought to be
+extended, while we think it is wrong and ought to be restricted.
+That, I suppose, is the rub. It certainly is the only substantial
+difference between us."</p>
+<p>So, also, replying a few days earlier in a long letter to Hon.
+John A. Gilmer of North Carolina, to whom, as already stated, he
+offered a cabinet appointment, he said:</p>
+<p>"On the territorial question I am inflexible, as you see my
+position in the book. On that there is a difference between you and
+us; and it is the only substantial difference. You think slavery is
+right and ought to be extended; we think it is wrong and ought to
+be restricted. For this neither has any just occasion to be angry
+with the other. As to the State laws, mentioned in your sixth
+question, I really know very little of them. I never have read one.
+If any of them are in conflict with the fugitive-slave clause, or
+any other part of the Constitution, I certainly shall be glad of
+their repeal; but I could hardly be justified, as a citizen of
+Illinois, or as President of the United States, to recommend the
+repeal of a statute of Vermont or South Carolina."</p>
+<p>Through his intimate correspondence with Mr. Seward and personal
+friends in Congress, Mr. Lincoln was kept somewhat informed of the
+hostile temper of the Southern leaders, and that a tremendous
+pressure was being brought upon that body by timid conservatives
+and the commercial interests in the North to bring about some kind
+of compromise which would stay the progress of disunion; and on
+this point he sent an emphatic monition to Representative Washburne
+on December 13:</p>
+<p>"Your long letter received. Prevent as far as <a name="page167" id="page167"></a>possible any
+of our friends from demoralizing themselves and their cause by
+entertaining propositions for compromise of any sort on slavery
+extension. There is no possible compromise upon it but what puts us
+under again, and all our work to do over again. Whether it be a
+Missouri line or Eli Thayer's popular sovereignty, it is all the
+same. Let either be done, and immediately filibustering and
+extending slavery recommences. On that point hold firm as a chain
+of steel."</p>
+<p>Between the day when a President is elected by popular vote and
+that on which he is officially inaugurated there exists an interim
+of four long months, during which he has no more direct power in
+the affairs of government than any private citizen. However
+anxiously Mr. Lincoln might watch the development of public events
+at Washington and in the cotton States; whatever appeals might come
+to him through interviews or correspondence, no positive action of
+any kind was within his power, beyond an occasional word of advice
+or suggestion. The position of the Republican leaders in Congress
+was not much better. Until the actual secession of States, and the
+departure of their representatives, they were in a minority in the
+Senate; while the so-called South Americans and Anti-Lecompton
+Democrats held the balance of power in the House. The session was
+mainly consumed in excited, profitless discussion. Both the Senate
+and House appointed compromise committees, which met and labored,
+but could find no common ground of agreement. A peace convention
+met and deliberated at Washington, with no practical result, except
+to waste the powder for a salute of one hundred guns over a sham
+report to which nobody paid the least attention.</p>
+<p>Throughout this period Mr. Lincoln was by no means idle. Besides
+the many difficulties he had to <a name="page168" id="page168"></a>overcome in completing his
+cabinet, he devoted himself to writing his inaugural address.
+Withdrawing himself some hours each day from his ordinary
+receptions, he went to a quiet room on the second floor of the
+store occupied by his brother-in-law, on the south side of the
+public square in Springfield, where he could think and write in
+undisturbed privacy. When, after abundant reflection and revision,
+he had finished the document, he placed it in the hands of Mr.
+William H. Bailhache, one of the editors of the "Illinois State
+Journal," who locked himself and a single compositor into the
+composing-room of the "Journal." Here, in Mr. Bailhache's presence,
+it was set up, proof taken and read, and a dozen copies printed;
+after which the types were again immediately distributed. The alert
+newspaper correspondents in Springfield, who saw Mr. Lincoln every
+day as usual, did not obtain the slightest hint of what was going
+on.</p>
+<p>Having completed his arrangements, Mr. Lincoln started on his
+journey to Washington on February 11, 1861, on a special train,
+accompanied by Mrs. Lincoln and their three children, his two
+private secretaries, and a suite of about a dozen personal friends.
+Mr. Seward had suggested that in view of the feverish condition of
+public affairs, he should come a week earlier; but Mr. Lincoln
+allowed himself only time enough comfortably to fill the
+appointments he had made to visit the capitals and principal cities
+of the States on his route, in accordance with non-partizan
+invitations from their legislatures and mayors, which he had
+accepted. Standing on the front platform of the car, as the
+conductor was about to pull the bell-rope, Mr. Lincoln made the
+following brief and pathetic address of farewell to his friends and
+neighbors of Springfield&mdash;the last time his voice was ever to
+be heard in the city which had been his home for so many
+years:<a name="page169" id="page169"></a></p>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>"My friends: No one, not in my situation, can appreciate my
+feeling of sadness at this parting. To this place, and the kindness
+of these people, I owe everything. Here I have lived a quarter of a
+century, and have passed from a young to an old man. Here my
+children have been born, and one is buried. I now leave, not
+knowing when or whether ever I may return, with a task before me
+greater than that which rested upon Washington. Without the
+assistance of that Divine Being who ever attended him, I cannot
+succeed. With that assistance, I cannot fail. Trusting in Him who
+can go with me, and remain with you, and be everywhere for good,
+let us confidently hope that all will yet be well. To His care
+commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will commend me, I
+bid you an affectionate farewell."</p>
+</div>
+<p>It was the beginning of a memorable journey. On the whole route
+from Springfield to Washington, at almost every station, even the
+smallest, was gathered a crowd of people in hope to catch a glimpse
+of the face of the President-elect, or, at least, to see the flying
+train. At the larger stopping-places these gatherings were swelled
+to thousands, and in the great cities into almost unmanageable
+assemblages. Everywhere there were vociferous calls for Mr.
+Lincoln, and, if he showed himself, for a speech. Whenever there
+was sufficient time, he would step to the rear platform of the car
+and bow his acknowledgments as the train was moving away, and
+sometimes utter a few words of thanks and greeting. At the capitals
+of Indiana, Ohio, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, as also
+in the cities of Cincinnati, Cleveland, Buffalo, New York, and
+Philadelphia, a halt was made for one or two days, and a program
+was carried out of a formal visit and brief address to each house
+of the legislature, street processions, large receptions in the
+evening, and other similar <a name="page170" id="page170"></a>ceremonies; and in each of them there
+was an unprecedented outpouring of the people to take advantage of
+every opportunity to see and to hear the future Chief Magistrate of
+the Union.</p>
+<p>Party foes as well as party friends made up these expectant
+crowds. The public suspense was at a degree of tension which
+rendered every eye and ear eager to catch even the slightest
+indication of the thoughts or intentions of the man who was to be
+the official guide of the nation in a crisis the course and end of
+which even the wisest dared not predict. In the twenty or thirty
+brief addresses delivered by Mr. Lincoln on this journey, he
+observed the utmost caution of utterance and reticence of
+declaration; yet the shades of meaning in his carefully chosen
+sentences were enough to show how alive he was to the trials and
+dangers confronting his administration, and to inspire hope and
+confidence in his judgment. He repeated that he regarded the public
+demonstrations not as belonging to himself, but to the high office
+with which the people had clothed him; and that if he failed, they
+could four years later substitute a better man in his place; and in
+his very first address, at Indianapolis, he thus emphasized their
+reciprocal duties:</p>
+<p>"If the union of these States and the liberties of this people
+shall be lost, it is but little to any one man of fifty-two years
+of age, but a great deal to the thirty millions of people who
+inhabit these United States, and to their posterity in all coming
+time. It is your business to rise up and preserve the Union and
+liberty for yourselves and not for me.... I appeal to you again to
+constantly bear in mind that not with politicians, not with
+Presidents, not with office-seekers, but with you, is the question,
+Shall the Union and shall the liberties of this country be
+preserved to the latest generations?"</p>
+<p><a name="page171" id="page171"></a>Many salient and interesting quotations
+could be made from his other addresses, but a comparatively few
+sentences will be sufficient to enable the reader to infer what was
+likely to be his ultimate conclusion and action. In his second
+speech at Indianapolis he asked the question:</p>
+<p>"On what rightful principle may a State, being not more than
+one-fiftieth part of the nation in soil and population, break up
+the nation, and then coerce a proportionally larger subdivision of
+itself in the most arbitrary way?"</p>
+<p>At Steubenville:</p>
+<p>"If the majority should not rule, who would be the judge? Where
+is such a judge to be found? We should all be bound by the majority
+of the American people&mdash;if not, then the minority must
+control. Would that be right?"</p>
+<p>At Trenton:</p>
+<p>"I shall do all that may be in my power to promote a peaceful
+settlement of all our difficulties. The man does not live who is
+more devoted to peace than I am, none who would do more to preserve
+it, but it may be necessary to put the foot down firmly."</p>
+<p>At Harrisburg:</p>
+<p>"While I am exceedingly gratified to see the manifestation upon
+your streets of your military force here, and exceedingly gratified
+at your promise to use that force upon a proper
+emergency&mdash;while I make these acknowledgments, I desire to
+repeat, in order to preclude any possible misconstruction, that I
+do most sincerely hope that we shall have no use for them; that it
+will never become their duty to shed blood, and most especially
+never to shed fraternal blood. I promise that so far as I may have
+wisdom to direct, if so painful a result shall in any wise be
+brought about, it shall be through no fault of mine."<a name="page172" id="page172"></a></p>
+<p>While Mr. Lincoln was yet at Philadelphia, he was met by Mr.
+Frederick W. Seward, son of Senator Seward, who brought him an
+important communication from his father and General Scott at
+Washington. About the beginning of the year serious apprehension
+had been felt lest a sudden uprising of the secessionists in
+Virginia and Maryland might endeavor to gain possession of the
+national capital. An investigation by a committee of Congress found
+no active military preparation to exist for such a purpose, but
+considerable traces of disaffection and local conspiracy in
+Baltimore; and, to guard against such an outbreak, President
+Buchanan had permitted his Secretary of War, Mr. Holt, to call
+General Scott to Washington and charge him with the safety of the
+city, not only at that moment, but also during the counting of the
+presidential returns in February, and the coming inauguration of
+Mr. Lincoln. For this purpose General Scott had concentrated at
+Washington a few companies from the regular army, and also, in
+addition, had organized and armed about nine hundred men of the
+militia of the District of Columbia.</p>
+<p>In connection with these precautions, Colonel Stone, who
+commanded these forces, had kept himself informed about the
+disaffection in Baltimore, through the agency of the New York
+police department. The communication brought by young Mr. Seward
+contained besides notes from his father and General Scott, a short
+report from Colonel Stone, stating that there had arisen within the
+past few days imminent danger of violence to and the assassination
+of Mr. Lincoln in his passage through Baltimore, should the time of
+that passage be known.</p>
+<p>"All risk," he suggested, "might be easily avoided by a change
+in the traveling arrangements which would <a name="page173" id="page173"></a>bring Mr.
+Lincoln and a portion of his party through Baltimore by a night
+train without previous notice."</p>
+<p>The seriousness of this information was doubled by the fact that
+Mr. Lincoln had, that same day, held an interview with a prominent
+Chicago detective who had been for some weeks employed by the
+president of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore railway to
+investigate the danger to their property and trains from the
+Baltimore secessionists. The investigations of this detective, a
+Mr. Pinkerton, had been carried on without the knowledge of the New
+York detective, and he reported not identical, but almost similar,
+conditions of insurrectionary feeling and danger, and recommended
+the same precaution.</p>
+<p>Mr. Lincoln very earnestly debated the situation with his
+intimate personal friend, Hon. N.B. Judd of Chicago, perhaps the
+most active and influential member of his suite, who advised him to
+proceed to Washington that same evening on the eleven-o'clock
+train. "I cannot go to-night," replied Mr. Lincoln; "I have
+promised to raise the flag over Independence Hall to-morrow morning,
+and to visit the legislature at Harrisburg. Beyond that I have no
+engagements."</p>
+<p>The railroad schedule by which Mr. Lincoln had hitherto been
+traveling included a direct trip from Harrisburg, through
+Baltimore, to Washington on Saturday, February 23. When the
+Harrisburg ceremonies had been concluded on the afternoon of the
+22d, the danger and the proposed change of program were for the
+first time fully laid before a confidential meeting of the
+prominent members of Mr. Lincoln's suite. Reasons were strongly
+urged both for and against the plan; but Mr. Lincoln finally
+decided and explained that while he himself was not afraid he would
+be assassinated, nevertheless, since the possibility of
+<a name="page174" id="page174"></a>danger had been made known from two
+entirely independent sources, and officially communicated to him by
+his future prime minister and the general of the American armies,
+he was no longer at liberty to disregard it; that it was not the
+question of his private life, but the regular and orderly
+transmission of the authority of the government of the United
+States in the face of threatened revolution, which he had no right
+to put in the slightest jeopardy. He would, therefore, carry out
+the plan, the full details of which had been arranged with the
+railroad officials.</p>
+<p>Accordingly, that same evening, he, with a single companion,
+Colonel W. H. Lamon, took a car from Harrisburg back to
+Philadelphia, at which place, about midnight, they boarded the
+through train from New York to Washington, and without recognition
+or any untoward incident passed quietly through Baltimore, and
+reached the capital about daylight on the morning of February 23,
+where they were met by Mr. Seward and Representative Washburne of
+Illinois, and conducted to Willard's Hotel.</p>
+<p>When Mr. Lincoln's departure from Harrisburg became known, a
+reckless newspaper correspondent telegraphed to New York the
+ridiculous invention that he traveled disguised in a Scotch cap and
+long military cloak. There was not one word of truth in the absurd
+statement. Mr. Lincoln's family and suite proceeded to Washington
+by the originally arranged train and schedule, and witnessed great
+crowds in the streets of Baltimore, but encountered neither
+turbulence nor incivility of any kind. There was now, of course, no
+occasion for any, since the telegraph had definitely announced that
+the President-elect was already in Washington.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="page175" id="page175" ></a>
+<h2><a name="XIII" id="XIII"></a>XIII</h2>
+<br />
+<p><i>The Secession Movement&mdash;South Carolina
+Secession&mdash;Buchanan's Neglect&mdash;Disloyal
+Cabinet Members&mdash;Washington Central
+Cabal&mdash;Anderson's Transfer to Sumter&mdash;Star
+of the West&mdash;Montgomery Rebellion&mdash;Davis
+and Stephens&mdash;Corner-stone Theory&mdash;Lincoln
+Inaugurated&mdash;His Inaugural
+Address&mdash;Lincoln's Cabinet&mdash;The Question of
+Sumter&mdash;Seward's Memorandum&mdash;Lincoln's
+Answer&mdash;Bombardment of Sumter&mdash;Anderson's
+Capitulation</i></p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<p>It is not the province of these chapters to relate in detail the
+course of the secession movement in the cotton States in the
+interim which elapsed between the election and inauguration of
+President Lincoln. Still less can space be given to analyze and set
+forth the lamentable failure of President Buchanan to employ the
+executive authority and power of the government to prevent it, or
+even to hinder its development, by any vigorous opposition or
+adequate protest. The determination of South Carolina to secede was
+announced by the governor of that State a month before the
+presidential election, and on the day before the election he sent
+the legislature of the State a revolutionary message to formally
+inaugurate it. From that time forward the whole official machinery
+of the State not only led, but forced the movement which culminated
+on December 20 in the ordinance of secession by the South Carolina
+convention.</p>
+<p>This official revolution in South Carolina was quickly<a name="page176" id="page176"></a> imitated by similar official revolutions
+ending in secession ordinances in the States of Mississippi, on
+January 9, 1861; Florida, January 10; Alabama, January 11; Georgia,
+January 19; Louisiana, January 26; and by a still bolder usurpation
+in Texas, culminating on February 1. From the day of the
+presidential election all these proceedings were known probably
+more fully to President Buchanan than to the general public,
+because many of the actors were his personal and party friends;
+while almost at their very beginning he became aware that three
+members of his cabinet were secretly or openly abetting and
+promoting them by their official influence and power.</p>
+<p>Instead of promptly dismissing these unfaithful servants, he
+retained one of them a month, and the others twice that period, and
+permitted them so far to influence his official conduct, that in
+his annual message to Congress he announced the fallacious and
+paradoxical doctrine that though a State had no right to secede,
+the Federal government had no right to coerce her to remain in the
+Union.</p>
+<p>Nor could he justify his non-action by the excuse that
+contumacious speeches and illegal resolves of parliamentary bodies
+might be tolerated under the American theory of free assemblage and
+free speech. Almost from the beginning of the secession movement,
+it was accompanied from time to time by overt acts both of treason
+and war; notably, by the occupation and seizure by military order
+and force of the seceding States, of twelve or fifteen harbor
+forts, one extensive navy-yard, half a dozen arsenals, three mints,
+four important custom-houses, three revenue cutters, and a variety
+of miscellaneous Federal property; for all of which insults to the
+flag, and infractions of the sovereignty of the United States,
+President Buchanan <a name="page177" id="page177"></a>could recommend no more efficacious
+remedy or redress than to ask the voters of the country to reverse
+their decision given at the presidential election, and to appoint a
+day of fasting and prayer on which to implore the Most High "to
+remove from our hearts that false pride of opinion which would
+impel us to persevere in wrong for the sake of consistency."</p>
+<p>Nor must mention be omitted of the astounding phenomenon that,
+encouraged by President Buchanan's doctrine of non-coercion and
+purpose of non-action, a central cabal of Southern senators and
+representatives issued from Washington, on December 14, their
+public proclamation of the duty of secession; their executive
+committee using one of the rooms of the Capitol building itself as
+the headquarters of the conspiracy and rebellion they were
+appointed to lead and direct.</p>
+<p>During the month of December, while the active treason of
+cotton-State officials and the fatal neglect of the Federal
+executive were in their most damaging and demoralizing stages, an
+officer of the United States army had the high courage and
+distinguished honor to give the ever-growing revolution its first
+effective check. Major Robert Anderson, though a Kentuckian by
+birth and allied by marriage to a Georgia family, was, late in
+November, placed in command of the Federal forts in Charleston
+harbor; and having repeatedly reported that his little garrison of
+sixty men was insufficient for the defense of Fort Moultrie, and
+vainly asked for reinforcements which were not sent him, he
+suddenly and secretly, on the night after Christmas, transferred
+his command from the insecure position of Moultrie to the strong
+and unapproachable walls of Fort Sumter, midway in the mouth of
+Charleston harbor, where he could not be assailed by the raw
+Charleston militia companies that had for weeks been <a name="page178" id="page178"></a>
+threatening him with a storming assault. In this stronghold,
+surrounded on all sides by water, he loyally held possession for
+the government and sovereignty of the United States.</p>
+<p>The surprised and baffled rage of the South Carolina rebels
+created a crisis at Washington that resulted in the expulsion of
+the President's treacherous counselors and the reconstruction of
+Mr. Buchanan's cabinet to unity and loyalty. The new cabinet,
+though unable to obtain President Buchanan's consent to aggressive
+measures to re&euml;stablish the Federal authority, was,
+nevertheless, able to prevent further concessions to the
+insurrection, and to effect a number of important defensive
+precautions, among which was the already mentioned concentration of
+a small military force to protect the national capital.</p>
+<p>Meanwhile, the governor of South Carolina had begun the erection
+of batteries to isolate and besiege Fort Sumter; and the first of
+these, on a sand-spit of Morris Island commanding the main
+ship-channel, by a few shots turned back, on January 9, the
+merchant steamer <i>Star of the West</i>, in which General Scott
+had attempted to send a reinforcement of two hundred recruits to
+Major Anderson. Battery building was continued with uninterrupted
+energy until a triangle of siege works was established on the
+projecting points of neighboring islands, mounting a total of
+thirty guns and seventeen mortars, manned and supported by a
+volunteer force of from four to six thousand men.</p>
+<p>Military preparation, though not on so extensive or definite a
+scale, was also carried on in the other revolted States; and while
+Mr. Lincoln was making his memorable journey from Springfield to
+Washington, telegrams were printed in the newspapers, from day to
+day, showing that their delegates had met at
+Montgomery,<a name="page179" id="page179"></a> Alabama, formed a provisional congress,
+and adopted a constitution and government under the title of The
+Confederate States of America, of which they elected Jefferson
+Davis of Mississippi President, and Alexander H. Stephens of
+Georgia Vice-President.</p>
+<p>It needs to be constantly borne in mind that the beginning of
+this vast movement was not a spontaneous revolution, but a chronic
+conspiracy. "The secession of South Carolina," truly said one of
+the chief actors, "is not an event of a day. It is not anything
+produced by Mr. Lincoln's election, or by the non-execution of the
+fugitive-slave law. It is a matter which has been gathering head
+for thirty years." The central motive and dominating object of the
+revolution was frankly avowed by Vice-President Stephens in a
+speech he made at Savannah a few weeks after his inauguration:</p>
+<p>"The prevailing ideas entertained by him [Jefferson] and most of
+the leading statesmen at the time of the formation of the old
+Constitution, were that the enslavement of the African was in
+violation of the laws of nature; that it was wrong in
+<i>principle</i>, socially, morally, and politically.... Our new
+government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its
+foundations are laid, its corner-stone rests upon the great truth,
+that the negro is not equal to the white man; that
+slavery&mdash;subordination to the superior race&mdash;is his
+natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the
+first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical,
+philosophical, and moral truth."</p>
+<p>In the week which elapsed between Mr. Lincoln's arrival in
+Washington and the day of inauguration, he exchanged the customary
+visits of ceremony with President Buchanan, his cabinet, the
+Supreme Court, the two Houses of Congress, and other dignitaries.
+In his rooms at Willard's Hotel he also held consultations
+<a name="page180" id="page180"></a> with leading Republicans about the final
+composition of his cabinet and pressing questions of public policy.
+Careful preparations had been made for the inauguration, and under
+the personal eye of General Scott the military force in the city
+was ready instantly to suppress any attempt to disturb the peace or
+quiet of the day.</p>
+<p>On March 4 the outgoing and incoming Presidents rode side by
+side in a carriage from the Executive Mansion to the Capitol and
+back, escorted by an imposing military and civic procession; and an
+immense throng of spectators heard the new Executive read his
+inaugural address from the east portico of the Capitol. He stated
+frankly that a disruption of the Federal Union was being formidably
+attempted, and discussed dispassionately the theory and illegality
+of secession. He held that the Union was perpetual; that resolves
+and ordinances of disunion are legally void; and announced that to
+the extent of his ability he would faithfully execute the laws of
+the Union in all the States. The power confided to him would be
+used to hold, occupy, and possess the property and places belonging
+to the government, and to collect the duties and imposts. But
+beyond what might be necessary for these objects there would be no
+invasion, no using of force against or among the people anywhere.
+Where hostility to the United States in any interior locality
+should be so great and universal as to prevent competent resident
+citizens from holding the Federal offices, there would be no
+attempt to force obnoxious strangers among them for that object.
+The mails, unless repelled, would continue to be furnished in all
+parts of the Union; and this course would be followed until current
+events and experience should show a change to be necessary. To the
+South he made an earnest <a name="page181" id="page181"></a>plea against the folly of disunion,
+and in favor of maintaining peace and fraternal good will;
+declaring that their property, peace, and personal security were in
+no danger from a Republican administration.</p>
+<p>"One section of our country believes slavery is right and ought
+to be extended," he said, "while the other believes it is wrong and
+ought not to be extended; that is the only substantial dispute....
+Physically speaking, we cannot separate. We cannot remove our
+respective sections from each other, nor build an impassable wall
+between them. A husband and wife may be divorced, and go out of the
+presence and beyond the reach of each other; but the different
+parts of our country cannot do this. They cannot but remain face to
+face, and intercourse, either amicable or hostile, must continue
+between them. Is it possible, then, to make that intercourse more
+advantageous or more satisfactory after separation than before? Can
+aliens make treaties easier than friends can make laws? Can
+treaties be more faithfully enforced between aliens, than laws can
+among friends? Suppose you go to war, you cannot fight always; and
+when, after much loss on both sides and no gain on either, you
+cease fighting, the identical old questions as to terms of
+intercourse are again upon you.... In your hands, my dissatisfied
+fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil
+war. The government will not assail you. You can have no conflict
+without being yourselves the aggressors.... I am loath to close. We
+are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though
+passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of
+affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every
+battle-field and patriot grave to every living heart and
+hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of
+<a name="page182" id="page182"></a> the Union, when again touched, as surely
+they will be, by the better angels of our nature."</p>
+<p>But the peaceful policy here outlined was already more difficult
+to follow than Mr. Lincoln was aware. On the morning after
+inauguration the Secretary of War brought to his notice freshly
+received letters from Major Anderson, commanding Fort Sumter in
+Charleston harbor, announcing that in the course of a few weeks the
+provisions of the garrison would be exhausted, and therefore an
+evacuation or surrender would become necessary, unless the fort
+were relieved by supplies or reinforcements; and this information
+was accompanied by the written opinions of the officers that to
+relieve the fort would require a well-appointed army of twenty
+thousand men.</p>
+<p>The new President had appointed as his cabinet William H.
+Seward, Secretary of State; Salmon P. Chase, Secretary of the
+Treasury; Simon Cameron, Secretary of War; Gideon Welles, Secretary
+of the Navy; Caleb B. Smith, Secretary of the Interior; Montgomery
+Blair, Postmaster-General; and Edward Bates, Attorney-General. The
+President and his official advisers at once called into counsel the
+highest military and naval officers of the Union to consider the
+new and pressing emergency revealed by the unexpected news from
+Sumter. The professional experts were divided in opinion. Relief by
+a force of twenty thousand men was clearly out of the question. No
+such Union army existed, nor could one be created within the limit
+of time. The officers of the navy thought that men and supplies
+might be thrown into the fort by swift-going vessels, while on the
+other hand the army officers believed that such an expedition would
+surely be destroyed by the formidable batteries which the
+insurgents had erected to close the harbor. In view <a name="page183" id="page183"></a>of all
+the conditions, Lieutenant-General Scott, general-in-chief of the
+army, recommended the evacuation of the fort as a military
+necessity.</p>
+<p>President Lincoln thereupon asked the several members of his
+cabinet the written question: "Assuming it to be possible to now
+provision Fort Sumter, under all the circumstances is it wise to
+attempt it?" Only two members replied in the affirmative, while the
+other five argued against the attempt, holding that the country
+would recognize that the evacuation of the fort was not an
+indication of policy, but a necessity created by the neglect of the
+old administration. Under this advice, the President withheld his
+decision until he could gather further information.</p>
+<p>Meanwhile, three commissioners had arrived from the provisional
+government at Montgomery, Alabama, under instructions to endeavor
+to negotiate a <i>de facto</i> and <i>de jure</i> recognition of
+the independence of the Confederate States. They were promptly
+informed by Mr. Seward that he could not receive them; that he did
+not see in the Confederate States a rightful and accomplished
+revolution and an independent nation; and that he was not at
+liberty to recognize the commissioners as diplomatic agents, or to
+hold correspondence with them. Failing in this direct application,
+they made further efforts through Mr. Justice Campbell of the
+Supreme Court, as a friendly intermediary, who came to Seward in
+the guise of a loyal official, though his correspondence with
+Jefferson Davis soon revealed a treasonable intent; and, replying
+to Campbell's earnest entreaties that peace should be maintained,
+Seward informed him confidentially that the military status at
+Charleston would not be changed without notice to the governor of
+South Carolina. On March 29 a cabinet meeting for the second time
+<a name="page184" id="page184"></a>discussed the question of Sumter. Four of
+the seven members now voted in favor of an attempt to supply the
+fort with provisions, and the President signed a memorandum order
+to prepare certain ships for such an expedition, under the command
+of Captain G.V. Fox.</p>
+<p>So far, Mr. Lincoln's new duties as President of the United
+States had not in any wise put him at a disadvantage with his
+constitutional advisers. Upon the old question of slavery he was as
+well informed and had clearer convictions and purposes than either
+Seward or Chase. And upon the newer question of secession, and the
+immediate decision about Fort Sumter which it involved, the members
+of his cabinet were, like himself, compelled to rely on the
+professional advice of experienced army and navy officers. Since
+these differed radically in their opinions, the President's own
+powers of perception and logic were as capable of forming a correct
+decision as men who had been governors and senators. He had reached
+at least a partial decision in the memorandum he gave Fox to
+prepare ships for the Sumter expedition.</p>
+<p>It must therefore have been a great surprise to the President
+when, on April 1, Secretary of State Seward handed him a memorandum
+setting forth a number of most extraordinary propositions. For a
+full enumeration of the items the reader must carefully study the
+entire document, which is printed below in a foot-note;<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> but the principal points for which it had
+evidently been written and presented can be given in a few
+sentences.</p>
+<p>A month has elapsed, and the administration has neither a
+domestic nor a foreign policy. The administration must at once
+adopt and carry out a novel, radical, and aggressive policy. It
+must cease saying a word about slavery, and raise a great outcry
+about Union. It must declare war against France and Spain, and
+combine and organize all the governments of North and South America
+in a crusade to enforce the Monroe Doctrine. This policy once
+adopted, it must be the business of some one incessantly to pursue
+it. "It is not in my especial province," wrote Mr. Seward; "but I
+neither seek to evade nor assume responsibility." This phrase,
+which is a key to the whole memorandum, enables the reader easily
+to translate its meaning into something like the following:</p>
+<p>After a month's trial, you, Mr. Lincoln, are a failure as
+President. The country is in desperate straits, and must use a
+desperate remedy. That remedy is to submerge the South Carolina
+insurrection in a continental war. Some new man must take the
+executive helm, and wield the undivided presidential authority. I
+should have been nominated at Chicago, and elected in November, but
+am willing to take your place and perform your <a name="page185" id="page185"></a>
+duties.</p>
+<p><a name="page186" id="page186"></a>Why William H. Seward, who is fairly
+entitled to rank as a great statesman, should have written this
+memorandum and presented it to Mr. Lincoln, has never been
+explained; nor is it capable of explanation. Its suggestions were
+so visionary, its reasoning so fallacious, its assumptions so
+unwarranted, its conclusions so malapropos, that it falls below
+critical examination. Had Mr. Lincoln been an envious or a
+resentful man, he could not have wished for a better occasion to
+put a rival under his feet.</p>
+<p>The President doubtless considered the incident one of
+phenomenal strangeness, but it did not in the least disturb his
+unselfish judgment or mental equipoise. There was in his answer no
+trace of excitement or passion. He pointed out in a few sentences
+of simple, quiet explanation that what the administration had done
+was exactly a foreign and domestic policy which <a name="page187" id="page187"></a>the
+Secretary of State himself had concurred in and helped to frame.
+Only, that Mr. Seward proposed to go further and give up Sumter.
+Upon the central suggestion that some one mind must direct, Mr.
+Lincoln wrote with simple dignity:</p>
+<p>"If this must be done, I must do it. When a general line of
+policy is adopted, I apprehend there is no danger of its being
+changed without good reason, or continuing to be a subject of
+unnecessary debate; still, upon points arising in its progress I
+wish, and suppose I am entitled to have, the advice of all the
+cabinet."</p>
+<p>Mr. Lincoln's unselfish magnanimity is the central marvel of the
+whole affair. His reply ended the argument. Mr. Seward doubtless
+saw at once how completely he had put himself in the President's
+power. Apparently, neither of the men ever again alluded to the
+incident. No other persons except Mr. Seward's son and the
+President's private secretary ever saw the correspondence, or knew
+of the occurrence. The President put the papers away in an envelop,
+and no word of the affair came to the public until a quarter of a
+century later, when the details were published in Mr. Lincoln's
+biography. In one mind, at least, there was no further doubt that
+the cabinet had a master, for only some weeks later Mr. Seward is
+known to have written: "There is but one vote in the cabinet, and
+that is cast by the President." This mastery Mr. Lincoln retained
+with a firm dignity throughout his administration. When, near the
+close of the war, he sent Mr. Seward to meet the rebel
+commissioners at the Hampton Roads conference, he finished his
+short letter of instructions with the imperative sentence: "You
+will not assume to definitely consummate anything."</p>
+<p>From this strange episode our narrative must return to the
+question of Fort Sumter. On April 4, official <a name="page188" id="page188"></a>notice
+was sent to Major Anderson of the coming relief, with the
+instruction to hold out till the eleventh or twelfth if possible;
+but authorizing him to capitulate whenever it might become
+necessary to save himself and command. Two days later the President
+sent a special messenger with written notice to the governor of
+South Carolina that an attempt would be made to supply Fort Sumter
+with provisions only; and that if such attempt were not resisted,
+no further effort would be made to throw in men, arms, or
+ammunition, without further notice, or unless in case of an attack
+on the fort.</p>
+<p>The building of batteries around Fort Sumter had been begun,
+under the orders of Governor Pickens, about the first of January,
+and continued with industry and energy; and about the first of
+March General Beauregard, an accomplished engineer officer, was
+sent by the Confederate government to take charge of and complete
+the works. On April 1 he telegraphed to Montgomery: "Batteries
+ready to open Wednesday or Thursday. What instructions?"</p>
+<p>At this point, the Confederate authorities at Montgomery found
+themselves face to face with the fatal alternative either to begin
+war or to allow their rebellion to collapse. Their claim to
+independence was denied, their commissioners were refused a
+hearing; yet not an angry word, provoking threat, nor harmful act
+had come from President Lincoln. He had promised them peace,
+protection, freedom from irritation; had offered them the benefit
+of the mails. Even now, all he proposed to do was&mdash;not to send
+guns or ammunition or men to Sumter, but only bread and provisions
+to Anderson and his soldiers. His prudent policy placed them in the
+exact attitude described a month earlier in his inaugural; they
+could have no <a name="page189" id="page189"></a>conflict without being themselves the
+aggressors. But the rebellion was organized by ambitious men with
+desperate intentions. A member of the Alabama legislature, present
+at Montgomery, said to Jefferson Davis and three members of his
+cabinet: "Gentlemen, unless you sprinkle blood in the face of the
+people of Alabama, they will be back in the old Union in less than
+ten days." And the sanguinary advice was adopted. In answer to his
+question, "What instructions?" Beauregard on April 10 was ordered
+to demand the evacuation of Fort Sumter, and, in case of refusal,
+to reduce it.</p>
+<p>The demand was presented to Anderson, who replied that he would
+evacuate the fort by noon of April 15, unless assailed, or unless
+he received supplies or controlling instructions from his
+government. This answer being unsatisfactory to Beauregard, he sent
+Anderson notice that he would open fire on Sumter at 4:20 on the
+morning of April 12.</p>
+<p>Promptly at the hour indicated the bombardment was begun. As has
+been related, the rebel siege-works were built on the points of the
+islands forming the harbor, at distances varying from thirteen
+hundred to twenty-five hundred yards, and numbered nineteen
+batteries, with an armament of forty-seven guns, supported by a
+land force of from four to six thousand volunteers. The
+disproportion between means of attack and defense was enormous.
+Sumter, though a work three hundred by three hundred and fifty feet
+in size, with well-constructed walls and casemates of brick, was in
+very meager preparation for such a conflict. Of its forty-eight
+available guns, only twenty-one were in the casemates, twenty-seven
+being on the rampart <i>en barbette</i>. The garrison consisted of
+nine commissioned officers, sixty-eight non-commissioned officers
+and privates, eight musicians, and forty-three <a name="page190" id="page190"></a>
+non-combatant workmen compelled by the besiegers to remain to
+hasten the consumption of provisions.</p>
+<p>Under the fire of the seventeen mortars in the rebel batteries,
+Anderson could reply only with a vertical fire from the guns of
+small caliber in his casemates, which was of no effect against the
+rebel bomb-proofs of sand and roofs of sloping railroad iron; but,
+refraining from exposing his men to serve his barbette guns, his
+garrison was also safe in its protecting casemates. It happened,
+therefore, that although the attack was spirited and the defense
+resolute, the combat went on for a day and a half without a single
+casualty. It came to an end on the second day only when the
+cartridges of the garrison were exhausted, and the red-hot shot
+from the rebel batteries had set the buildings used as officers'
+quarters on fire, creating heat and smoke that rendered further
+defense impossible.</p>
+<p>There was also the further discouragement that the expedition of
+relief which Anderson had been instructed to look for on the
+eleventh or twelfth, had failed to appear. Several unforeseen
+contingencies had prevented the assembling of the vessels at the
+appointed rendezvous outside Charleston harbor, though some of them
+reached it in time to hear the opening guns of the bombardment. But
+as accident had deranged and thwarted the plan agreed upon, they
+could do nothing except impatiently await the issue of the
+fight.</p>
+<p>A little after noon of April 13, when the flagstaff of the fort
+had been shot away and its guns remained silent, an invitation to
+capitulate with the honors of war came from General Beauregard,
+which Anderson accepted; and on the following day, Sunday, April
+14, he hauled down his flag with impressive ceremonies, and leaving
+the fort with his faithful garrison, proceeded in a steamer to New
+York.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="page191" id="page191"></a>
+<h2><a name="XIV" id="XIV"></a>XIV</h2>
+<br />
+<p><i>President's Proclamation Calling for Seventy-five
+Regiments&mdash;Responses of the Governors&mdash;Maryland and
+Virginia&mdash;The Baltimore Riot&mdash;Washington
+Isolated&mdash;Lincoln Takes the Responsibility&mdash;Robert E.
+Lee&mdash;Arrival of the New York Seventh&mdash;Suspension of
+Habeas Corpus&mdash;The Annapolis Route&mdash;Butler in
+Baltimore&mdash;Taney on the Merryman
+Case&mdash;Kentucky&mdash;Missouri&mdash;Lyon Captures Camp
+Jackson&mdash;Boonville Skirmish&mdash;The Missouri
+Convention&mdash;Gamble made Governor&mdash;The Border
+States</i></p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<p>The bombardment of Fort Sumter changed the political situation
+as if by magic. There was no longer room for doubt, hesitation,
+concession, or compromise. Without awaiting the arrival of the
+ships that were bringing provisions to Anderson's starving
+garrison, the hostile Charleston batteries had opened their fire on
+the fort by the formal order of the Confederate government, and
+peaceable secession was, without provocation, changed to active
+war. The rebels gained possession of Charleston harbor; but their
+mode of obtaining it awakened the patriotism of the American people
+to a stern determination that the insult to the national authority
+and flag should be redressed, and the unrighteous experiment of a
+rival government founded on slavery as its corner-stone should
+never succeed. Under the conflict thus begun the long-tolerated
+barbarous institution itself was destined ignobly to
+perish.<a name="page192" id="page192"></a></p>
+<p>On his journey from Springfield to Washington Mr. Lincoln had
+said that, devoted as he was to peace, he might find it necessary
+"to put the foot down firmly." That time had now come. On the
+morning of April 15, 1861, the leading newspapers of the country
+printed the President's proclamation reciting that, whereas the
+laws of the United States were opposed and the execution thereof
+obstructed in the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama,
+Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, by combinations too
+powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial
+proceedings, the militia of the several States of the Union, to the
+aggregate number of seventy-five thousand, was called forth to
+suppress said combinations and cause the laws to be duly executed.
+The orders of the War Department specified that the period of
+service under this call should be for three months; and to further
+conform to the provisions of the Act of 1795, under which the call
+was issued, the President's proclamation also convened the Congress
+in special session on the coming fourth of July.</p>
+<p>Public opinion in the free States, which had been sadly
+demoralized by the long discussions over slavery, and by the
+existence of four factions in the late presidential campaign, was
+instantly crystallized and consolidated by the Sumter bombardment
+and the President's proclamation into a sentiment of united support
+to the government for the suppression of the rebellion. The several
+free-State governors sent loyal and enthusiastic responses to the
+call for militia, and tendered double the numbers asked for. The
+people of the slave States which had not yet joined the Montgomery
+Confederacy&mdash;namely, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee,
+Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and
+Delaware&mdash;remained, however, more or less <a name="page193" id="page193"></a>divided on
+the issue as it now presented itself. The governors of the first
+six of these were already so much engaged in the secret intrigues
+of the secession movement that they sent the Secretary of War
+contumacious and insulting replies, and distinct refusals to the
+President's call for troops. The governor of Delaware answered that
+there was no organized militia in his State which he had legal
+authority to command, but that the officers of organized volunteer
+regiments might at their own option offer their services to the
+United States; while the governor of Maryland, in complying with
+the requisition, stipulated that the regiments from his State
+should not be required to serve outside its limits, except to
+defend the District of Columbia.</p>
+<p>A swift, almost bewildering rush of events, however, quickly
+compelled most of them to take sides. Secession feeling was rampant
+in Baltimore; and when the first armed and equipped Northern
+regiment, the Massachusetts Sixth, passed through that city on the
+morning of April 19, on its way to Washington, the last four of its
+companies were assailed by street mobs with missiles and firearms
+while marching from one depot to the other; and in the running
+fight which ensued, four of its soldiers were killed and about
+thirty wounded, while the mob probably lost two or three times as
+many. This tragedy instantly threw the whole city into a wild
+frenzy of insurrection. That same afternoon an immense secession
+meeting in Monument Square listened to a torrent of treasonable
+protest and denunciation, in which Governor Hicks himself was made
+momentarily to join. The militia was called out, preparations were
+made to arm the city, and that night the railroad bridges were
+burned between Baltimore and the Pennsylvania line to prevent the
+further transit of Union regiments. The revolutionary furor spread<a name="page194" id="page194"></a> to the country towns, and for a whole
+week the Union flag practically disappeared from Maryland.</p>
+<p>While these events were taking place to the north, equally
+threatening incidents were occurring to the south of Washington.
+The State of Virginia had been for many weeks balancing uneasily
+between loyalty and secession. In the new revolutionary stress her
+weak remnant of conditional Unionism gave way; and on April 17, two
+days after the President's call, her State convention secretly
+passed a secession ordinance, while Governor Letcher ordered a
+military seizure of the United States navy-yard at Norfolk and the
+United States armory at Harper's Ferry. Under orders from
+Washington, both establishments were burned to prevent their
+falling into insurrectionary hands; but the destruction in each
+case was only partial, and much valuable war material thus passed
+to rebel uses.</p>
+<p>All these hostile occurrences put the national capital in the
+greatest danger. For three days it was entirely cut off from
+communication with the North by either telegraph or mail. Under the
+orders of General Scott, the city was hastily prepared for a
+possible siege. The flour at the mills, and other stores of
+provisions were taken possession of. The Capitol and other public
+buildings were barricaded, and detachments of troops stationed in
+them. Business was suspended by a common impulse; streets were
+almost deserted except by squads of military patrol; shutters of
+stores, and even many residences, remained unopened throughout the
+day. The signs were none too reassuring. In addition to the public
+rumors whispered about by serious faces on the streets, General
+Scott reported in writing to President Lincoln on the evening of
+April 22:</p>
+<p>"Of rumors, the following are probable, viz.: <i>First</i>,<a name="page195" id="page195"></a> that from fifteen hundred to two
+thousand troops are at the White House (four miles below Mount
+Vernon, a narrow point in the Potomac), engaged in erecting a
+battery; <i>Second</i>, that an equal force is collected or in
+progress of assemblage on the two sides of the river to attack Fort
+Washington; and <i>Third</i>, that extra cars went up yesterday to
+bring down from Harper's Ferry about two thousand other troops to
+join in a general attack on this capital&mdash;that is, on many of
+its fronts at once. I feel confident that with our present forces
+we can defend the Capitol, the Arsenal, and all the executive
+buildings (seven) against ten thousand troops not better than our
+District volunteers."</p>
+<p>Throughout this crisis President Lincoln not only maintained his
+composure, but promptly assumed the high responsibilities the
+occasion demanded. On Sunday, April 21, he summoned his cabinet to
+meet at the Navy Department, and with their unanimous concurrence
+issued a number of emergency orders relating to the purchase of
+ships, the transportation of troops and munitions of war, the
+advance of $2,000,000 of money to a Union Safety Committee in New
+York, and other military and naval measures, which were despatched
+in duplicate by private messengers over unusual and circuitous
+routes. In a message to Congress, in which he afterward explained
+these extraordinary transactions, he said:</p>
+<p>"It became necessary for me to choose whether, using only the
+existing means, agencies, and processes which Congress had
+provided, I should let the government fall at once into ruin, or
+whether, availing myself of the broader powers conferred by the
+Constitution in cases of insurrection, I would make an effort to
+save it with all its blessings for the present age and for
+posterity."<a name="page196" id="page196"></a></p>
+<p>Unwelcome as was the thought of a possible capture of Washington
+city, President Lincoln's mind was much more disturbed by many
+suspicious indications of disloyalty in public officials, and
+especially in officers of the army and navy. Hundreds of clerks of
+Southern birth employed in the various departments suddenly left
+their desks and went South. The commandant of the Washington
+navy-yard and the quartermaster-general of the army resigned their
+positions to take service under Jefferson Davis. One morning the
+captain of a light battery on which General Scott had placed
+special reliance for the defense of Washington came to the
+President at the White House to asseverate and protest his loyalty
+and fidelity; and that same night secretly left his post and went
+to Richmond to become a Confederate officer.</p>
+<p>The most prominent case, however, was that of Colonel Robert E.
+Lee, the officer who captured John Brown at Harper's Ferry, and who
+afterward became the leader of the Confederate armies. As a
+lieutenant he had served on the staff of General Scott in the war
+with Mexico. Personally knowing his ability, Scott recommended him
+to Lincoln as the most suitable officer to command the Union army
+about to be assembled under the President's call for seventy-five
+regiments; and this command was informally tendered him through a
+friend. Lee, however, declined the offer, explaining that "though
+opposed to secession, and deprecating war, I could take no part in
+an invasion of the Southern States." He resigned his commission in
+a letter written on April 20, and, without waiting for notice of
+its acceptance, which alone could discharge him from his military
+obligation, proceeded to Richmond, where he was formally and
+publicly invested with the command of the Virginia military and
+naval <a name="page197" id="page197"></a>forces on April 22; while, two days
+later, the rebel Vice-President, Alexander H. Stephens, and a
+committee of the Richmond convention signed a formal military
+league making Virginia an immediate member of the Confederate
+States, and placing her armies under the command of Jefferson
+Davis.</p>
+<p>The sudden uprising in Maryland and the insurrectionary activity
+in Virginia had been largely stimulated by the dream of the leading
+conspirators that their new confederacy would combine all the slave
+States, and that by the adhesion of both Maryland and Virginia they
+would fall heir to a ready-made seat of government. While the
+bombardment of Sumter was in progress, the rebel Secretary of War,
+announcing the news in a jubilant speech at Montgomery, in the
+presence of Jefferson Davis and his colleagues, confidently
+predicted that the rebel flag would before the end of May "float
+over the dome of the Capitol at Washington." The disloyal
+demonstrations in Maryland and Virginia rendered such a hope so
+plausible that Jefferson Davis telegraphed to Governor Letcher at
+Richmond that he was preparing to send him thirteen regiments, and
+added: "Sustain Baltimore if practicable. We reinforce you"; while
+Senator Mason hurried to that city personally to furnish advice and
+military assistance.</p>
+<p>But the flattering expectation was not realized. The requisite
+preparation and concert of action were both wanting. The Union
+troops from New York and New England, pouring into Philadelphia,
+flanked the obstructions of the Baltimore route by devising a new
+one by way of Chesapeake Bay and Annapolis; and the opportune
+arrival of the Seventh Regiment of New York in Washington, on April
+25, rendered that city entirely safe against surprise or attack,
+relieved the <a name="page198" id="page198"></a>apprehension of officials and citizens,
+and renewed its business and public activity. The mob frenzy of
+Baltimore and the Maryland towns subsided almost as quickly as it
+had risen. The Union leaders and newspapers asserted themselves,
+and soon demonstrated their superiority in numbers and
+activity.</p>
+<p>Serious embarrassment had been created by the timidity of
+Governor Hicks, who, while Baltimore remained under mob terrorism,
+officially protested against the landing of Union troops at
+Annapolis; and, still worse, summoned the Maryland legislature to
+meet on April 26&mdash;a step which he had theretofore stubbornly
+refused to take. This event had become doubly dangerous, because a
+Baltimore city election held during the same terror week had
+reinforced the legislature with ten secession members, creating a
+majority eager to pass a secession ordinance at the first
+opportunity. The question of either arresting or dispersing the
+body by military force was one of the problems which the crisis
+forced upon President Lincoln. On full reflection he decided
+against either measure.</p>
+<p>"I think it would not be justifiable," he wrote to General
+Scott, "nor efficient for the desired object. <i>First</i>, they
+have a clearly legal right to assemble; and we cannot know in
+advance that their action will not be lawful and peaceful. And if
+we wait until they shall have acted, their arrest or dispersion
+will not lessen the effect of their action. <i>Secondly</i>, we
+cannot permanently prevent their action. If we arrest them, we
+cannot long hold them as prisoners; and, when liberated, they will
+immediately reassemble and take their action. And precisely the
+same if we simply disperse them: they will immediately reassemble
+in some other place. I therefore conclude that it is only left to
+the commanding general to watch and await their action, <a name="page199" id="page199"></a>
+which, if it shall be to arm their
+people against the United States, he is to adopt the most prompt
+and efficient means to counteract, even if necessary to the
+bombardment of their cities; and, in the extremest necessity, the
+suspension of the writ of <i>habeas corpus</i>."</p>
+<p>Two days later the President formally authorized General Scott
+to suspend the writ of <i>habeas corpus</i> along his military
+lines, or in their vicinity, if resistance should render it
+necessary. Arrivals of additional troops enabled the General to
+strengthen his military hold on Annapolis and the railroads; and on
+May 13 General B.F. Butler, with about one thousand men, moved into
+Baltimore and established a fortified camp on Federal Hill, the
+bulk of his force being the Sixth Massachusetts, which had been
+mobbed in that city on April 19. Already, on the previous day, the
+bridges and railroad had been repaired, and the regular transit of
+troops through the city re&euml;stablished.</p>
+<p>Under these changing conditions the secession majority of the
+Maryland legislature did not venture on any official treason. They
+sent a committee to interview the President, vented their hostility
+in spiteful reports and remonstrances, and prolonged their session
+by a recess. Nevertheless, so inveterate was their disloyalty and
+plotting against the authority of the Union, that four months later
+it became necessary to place the leaders under arrest, finally to
+head off their darling project of a Maryland secession
+ordinance.</p>
+<p>One additional incident of this insurrectionary period remains
+to be noticed. One John Merryman, claiming to be a Confederate
+lieutenant, was arrested in Baltimore for enlisting men for the
+rebellion, and Chief Justice Taney of the United States Supreme
+Court, the famous author of the Dred Scott decision, issued a writ
+of <i>habeas corpus</i> to obtain his release from<a name="page200" id="page200"></a> Fort
+McHenry. Under the President's orders, General Cadwalader of course
+declined to obey the writ. Upon this, the chief justice ordered the
+general's arrest for contempt, but the officer sent to serve the
+writ was refused entrance to the fort. In turn, the indignant chief
+justice, taking counsel of his passion instead of his patriotism,
+announced dogmatically that "the President, under the Constitution
+and laws of the United States, cannot suspend the privilege of the
+writ of <i>habeas corpus</i>, nor authorize any military officer to
+do so"; and some weeks afterward filed a long written opinion in
+support of this dictum. It is unnecessary here to quote the
+opinions of several eminent jurists who successfully refuted his
+labored argument, nor to repeat the vigorous analysis with which,
+in his special message to Congress of July 4, President Lincoln
+vindicated his own authority.</p>
+<p>While these events were occurring in Maryland and Virginia, the
+remaining slave States were gradually taking sides, some for,
+others against rebellion. Under radical and revolutionary
+leadership similar to that of the cotton States, the governors and
+State officials of North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas placed
+their States in an attitude of insurrection, and before the middle
+of May practically joined them to the Confederate government by the
+formalities of military leagues and secession ordinances.</p>
+<p>But in the border slave States&mdash;that is, those contiguous
+to the free States&mdash;the eventual result was different. In
+these, though secession intrigue and sympathy were strong, and
+though their governors and State officials favored the rebellion,
+the underlying loyalty and Unionism of the people thwarted their
+revolutionary schemes. This happened even in the northwestern part
+of Virginia itself. The forty-eight <a name="page201" id="page201"></a>counties of
+that State lying north of the Alleghanies and adjoining
+Pennsylvania and Ohio repudiated the action at Richmond, seceded
+from secession, and established a loyal provisional State
+government. President Lincoln recognized them and sustained them
+with military aid; and in due time they became organized and
+admitted to the Union as the State of West Virginia. In Delaware,
+though some degree of secession feeling existed, it was too
+insignificant to produce any noteworthy public demonstration.</p>
+<p>In Kentucky the political struggle was deep and prolonged. The
+governor twice called the legislature together to initiate
+secession proceedings; but that body refused compliance, and warded
+off his scheme by voting to maintain the State neutrality. Next,
+the governor sought to utilize the military organization known as
+the State Guard to effect his object. The Union leaders offset this
+movement by enlisting several volunteer Union regiments. At the
+June election nine Union congressmen were chosen, and only one
+secessionist; while in August a new legislature was elected with a
+three-fourths Union majority in each branch. Other secession
+intrigues proved equally abortive; and when, finally, in September,
+Confederate armies invaded Kentucky at three different points, the
+Kentucky legislature invited the Union armies of the West into the
+State to expel them, and voted to place forty thousand Union
+volunteers at the service of President Lincoln.</p>
+<p>In Missouri the struggle was more fierce, but also more brief.
+As far back as January, the conspirators had perfected a scheme to
+obtain possession, through the treachery of the officer in charge,
+of the important Jefferson Barracks arsenal at St. Louis, with its
+store of sixty thousand stand of arms and a million and a<a name="page202" id="page202"></a> half cartridges. The project, however,
+failed. Rumors of the danger came to General Scott, who ordered
+thither a company of regulars under command of Captain Nathaniel
+Lyon, an officer not only loyal by nature and habit, but also
+imbued with strong antislavery convictions. Lyon found valuable
+support in the watchfulness of a Union Safety Committee composed of
+leading St. Louis citizens, who secretly organized a number of
+Union regiments recruited largely from the heavy German population;
+and from these sources Lyon was enabled to make such a show of
+available military force as effectively to deter any mere popular
+uprising to seize the arsenal.</p>
+<p>A State convention, elected to pass a secession ordinance,
+resulted, unexpectedly to the conspirators, in the return of a
+majority of Union delegates, who voted down the secession program
+and adjourned to the following December. Thereupon, the secession
+governor ordered his State militia into temporary camps of
+instruction, with the idea of taking Missouri out of the Union by a
+concerted military movement. One of these encampments, established
+at St. Louis and named Camp Jackson in honor of the governor,
+furnished such unquestionable evidences of intended treason that
+Captain Lyon, whom President Lincoln had meanwhile authorized to
+enlist ten thousand Union volunteers, and, if necessary, to
+proclaim martial law, made a sudden march upon Camp Jackson with
+his regulars and six of his newly enlisted regiments, stationed his
+force in commanding positions around the camp, and demanded its
+surrender. The demand was complied with after but slight
+hesitation, and the captured militia regiments were, on the
+following day, disbanded under parole. Unfortunately, as the
+prisoners were being marched away a secession mob insulted and
+attacked some of<a name="page203" id="page203"></a> Lyon's regiments and provoked a return
+fire, in which about twenty persons, mainly lookers-on, were killed
+or wounded; and for a day or two the city was thrown into the panic
+and lawlessness of a reign of terror.</p>
+<p>Upon this, the legislature, in session at Jefferson City, the
+capital of the State, with a three-fourths secession majority,
+rushed through the forms of legislation a military bill placing the
+military and financial resources of Missouri under the governor's
+control. For a month longer various incidents delayed the
+culmination of the approaching struggle, each side continuing its
+preparations, and constantly accentuating the rising antagonism.
+The crisis came when, on June 11, Governor Jackson and Captain
+Lyon, now made brigadier-general by the President, met in an
+interview at St. Louis. In this interview the governor demanded
+that he be permitted to exercise sole military command to maintain
+the neutrality of Missouri, while Lyon insisted that the Federal
+military authority must be left in unrestricted control. It being
+impossible to reach any agreement, Governor Jackson hurried back to
+his capital, burning railroad bridges behind him as he went, and on
+the following day, June 12, issued his proclamation calling out
+fifty thousand State militia, and denouncing the Lincoln
+administration as "an unconstitutional military despotism."</p>
+<p>Lyon was also prepared for this contingency. On the afternoon of
+June 13, he embarked with a regular battery and several battalions
+of his Union volunteers on steamboats, moved rapidly up the
+Missouri River to Jefferson City, drove the governor and the
+secession legislature into precipitate flight, took possession of
+the capital, and, continuing his expedition, scattered, after a
+slight skirmish, a small rebel military force which had hastily
+collected at Boonville. Rapidly <a name="page204" id="page204"></a>following these events, the
+loyal members of the Missouri State convention, which had in
+February refused to pass a secession ordinance, were called
+together, and passed ordinances under which was constituted a loyal
+State government that maintained the local civil authority of the
+United States throughout the greater part of Missouri during the
+whole of the Civil War, only temporarily interrupted by invasions
+of transient Confederate armies from Arkansas.</p>
+<p>It will be seen from the foregoing outline that the original
+hope of the Southern leaders to make the Ohio River the northern
+boundary of their slave empire was not realized. They indeed
+secured the adhesion of Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and
+Arkansas, by which the territory of the Confederate States
+government was enlarged nearly one third and its population and
+resources nearly doubled. But the northern tier of slave
+States&mdash;Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, and
+Missouri&mdash;not only decidedly refused to join the rebellion,
+but remained true to the Union; and this reduced the contest to a
+trial of military strength between eleven States with 5,115,790
+whites, and 3,508,131 slaves, against twenty-four States with
+21,611,422 whites and 342,212 slaves, and at least a proportionate
+difference in all other resources of war. At the very outset the
+conditions were prophetic of the result.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="page205" id="page205"></a>
+<h2><a name="XV" id="XV"></a>XV</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p><i>Davis's Proclamation for Privateers&mdash;Lincoln's
+Proclamation of Blockade&mdash;The Call for Three Years'
+Volunteers&mdash;Southern Military Preparations&mdash;Rebel Capital
+Moved to Richmond&mdash;Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and
+Arkansas Admitted to Confederate States&mdash;Desertion of Army and
+Navy Officers&mdash;Union Troops Fortify Virginia Shore of the
+Potomac&mdash;Concentration at Harper's Ferry&mdash;Concentration
+at Fortress Monroe and Cairo&mdash;English
+Neutrality&mdash;Seward's 21st-of-May Despatch&mdash;Lincoln's
+Corrections&mdash;Preliminary Skirmishes&mdash;Forward to
+Richmond&mdash;Plan of McDowell's Campaign</i></p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<p>From the slower political developments in the border slave
+States we must return and follow up the primary hostilities of the
+rebellion. The bombardment of Sumter, President Lincoln's call for
+troops, the Baltimore riot, the burning of Harper's Ferry armory
+and Norfolk navy-yard, and the interruption of railroad
+communication which, for nearly a week, isolated the capital and
+threatened it with siege and possible capture, fully demonstrated
+the beginning of serious civil war.</p>
+<p>Jefferson Davis's proclamation, on April 17, of intention to
+issue letters of marque, was met two days later by President
+Lincoln's counter-proclamation instituting a blockade of the
+Southern ports, and declaring that privateers would be held
+amenable to the laws against piracy. His first call for
+seventy-five thousand three <a name="page206" id="page206"></a>months' militia was dictated as to
+numbers by the sudden emergency, and as to form and term of service
+by the provisions of the Act of 1795. It needed only a few days to
+show that this form of enlistment was both cumbrous and inadequate;
+and the creation of a more powerful army was almost immediately
+begun. On May 3 a new proclamation was issued, calling into service
+42,034 three years' volunteers, 22,714 enlisted men to add ten
+regiments to the regular army, and 18,000 seamen for blockade
+service: a total immediate increase of 82,748, swelling the entire
+military establishment to an army of 156,861 and a navy of
+25,000.</p>
+<p>No express authority of law yet existed for these measures; but
+President Lincoln took the responsibility of ordering them,
+trusting that Congress would legalize his acts. His confidence was
+entirely justified. At the special session which met under his
+proclamation, on the fourth of July, these acts were declared
+valid, and he was authorized, moreover, to raise an army of a
+million men and $250,000,000 in money to carry on the war to
+suppress the rebellion; while other legislation conferred upon him
+supplementary authority to meet the emergency.</p>
+<p>Meanwhile, the first effort of the governors of the loyal States
+was to furnish their quotas under the first call for militia. This
+was easy enough as to men. It required only a few days to fill the
+regiments and forward them to the State capitals and principal
+cities; but to arm and equip them for the field on the spur of the
+moment was a difficult task which involved much confusion and
+delay, even though existing armories and foundries pushed their
+work to the utmost and new ones were established. Under the militia
+call, the governors appointed all the officers required by their
+respective quotas, from company lieutenant to <a name="page207" id="page207"></a>major-general
+of division; while under the new call for three years' volunteers,
+their authority was limited to the simple organization of
+regiments.</p>
+<p>In the South, war preparation also immediately became active.
+All the indications are that up to their attack on Sumter, the
+Southern leaders hoped to effect separation through concession and
+compromise by the North. That hope, of course, disappeared with
+South Carolina's opening guns, and the Confederate government made
+what haste it could to meet the ordeal it dreaded even while it had
+provoked it. The rebel Congress was hastily called together, and
+passed acts recognizing war and regulating privateering; admitting
+Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas to the
+Confederate States; authorizing a $50,000,000 loan; practically
+confiscating debts due from Southern to Northern citizens; and
+removing the seat of government from Montgomery, Alabama, to
+Richmond, Virginia.</p>
+<p>Four different calls for Southern volunteers had been made,
+aggregating 82,000 men; and Jefferson Davis's message now proposed
+to further organize and hold in readiness an army of 100,000. The
+work of erecting forts and batteries for defense was being rapidly
+pushed at all points: on the Atlantic coast, on the Potomac, and on
+the Mississippi and other Western streams. For the present the
+Confederates were well supplied with cannon and small arms from the
+captured navy-yards at Norfolk and Pensacola and the six or eight
+arsenals located in the South. The martial spirit of their people
+was roused to the highest enthusiasm, and there was no lack of
+volunteers to fill the companies and regiments which the
+Confederate legislators authorized Davis to accept, either by
+regular calls on State executives in accordance with, <a name="page208" id="page208"></a>or singly
+in defiance of, their central dogma of States Rights, as he might
+prefer.</p>
+<p>The secession of the Southern States not only strengthened the
+rebellion with the arms and supplies stored in the various military
+and naval depots within their limits, and the fortifications
+erected for their defense: what was of yet greater help to the
+revolt, a considerable portion of the officers of the army and
+navy&mdash;perhaps one third&mdash;abandoned the allegiance which
+they had sworn to the United States, and, under the false doctrine
+of State supremacy taught by Southern leaders, gave their
+professional skill and experience to the destruction of the
+government which had educated and honored them. The defection of
+Robert E. Lee was a conspicuous example, and his loss to the Union
+and service to the rebel army cannot easily be measured. So, also,
+were the similar cases of Adjutant-General Cooper and
+Quartermaster-General Johnston. In gratifying contrast stands the
+steadfast loyalty and devotion of Lieutenant-General Winfield
+Scott, who, though he was a Virginian and loved his native State,
+never wavered an instant in his allegiance to the flag he had
+heroically followed in the War of 1812, and triumphantly planted
+over the capital of Mexico in 1847. Though unable to take the
+field, he as general-in-chief directed the assembling and first
+movements of the Union troops.</p>
+<p>The largest part of the three months' regiments were ordered to
+Washington city as the most important position in a political, and
+most exposed in a military point of view. The great machine of war,
+once started, moved, as it always does, by its own inherent energy
+from arming to concentration, from concentration to skirmish and
+battle. It was not long before Washington was a military camp.
+Gradually the <a name="page209" id="page209"></a>hesitation to "invade" the "sacred soil" of
+the South faded out under the stern necessity to forestall an
+invasion of the equally sacred soil of the North; and on May 24 the
+Union regiments in Washington crossed the Potomac and planted
+themselves in a great semicircle of formidable earthworks eighteen
+miles long on the Virginia shore, from Chain Bridge to Hunting
+Creek, below Alexandria.</p>
+<p>Meanwhile, a secondary concentration of force developed itself
+at Harper's Ferry, forty-nine miles northwest of Washington. When,
+on April 20, a Union detachment had burned and abandoned the armory
+at that point, it was at once occupied by a handful of rebel
+militia; and immediately thereafter Jefferson Davis had hurried his
+regiments thither to "sustain" or overawe Baltimore; and when that
+prospect failed, it became a rebel camp of instruction. Afterward,
+as Major-General Patterson collected his Pennsylvania quota, he
+turned it toward that point as a probable field of operations. As a
+mere town, Harper's Ferry was unimportant; but, lying on the
+Potomac, and being at the head of the great Shenandoah valley, down
+which not only a good turnpike, but also an effective railroad ran
+southeastward to the very heart of the Confederacy, it was, and
+remained through the entire war, a strategical line of the first
+importance, protected, as the Shenandoah valley was, by the main
+chain of the Alleghanies on the west and the Blue Ridge on the
+east.</p>
+<p>A part of the eastern quotas had also been hurried to Fortress
+Monroe, Virginia, lying at the mouth of Chesapeake Bay, which
+became and continued an important base for naval as well as
+military operations. In the West, even more important than St.
+Louis was the little town of Cairo, lying at the extreme southern<a name="page210" id="page210"></a> end of the State of Illinois, at the
+confluence of the Ohio River with the Mississippi. Commanding, as
+it did, thousands of miles of river navigation in three different
+directions, and being also the southernmost point of the earliest
+military frontier, it had been the first care of General Scott to
+occupy it; and, indeed, it proved itself to be the military key of
+the whole Mississippi valley.</p>
+<p>It was not an easy thing promptly to develop a military policy
+for the suppression of the rebellion. The so-called Confederate
+States of America covered a military field having more than six
+times the area of Great Britain, with a coast-line of over
+thirty-five hundred miles, and an interior frontier of over seven
+thousand miles. Much less was it possible promptly to plan and set
+on foot concise military campaigns to reduce the insurgent States
+to allegiance. Even the great military genius of General Scott was
+unable to do more than suggest a vague outline for the work. The
+problem was not only too vast, but as yet too indefinite, since the
+political future of West Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri still
+hung in more or less uncertainty.</p>
+<p>The passive and negligent attitude which the Buchanan
+administration had maintained toward the insurrection during the
+whole three months between the presidential election and Mr.
+Lincoln's inauguration, gave the rebellion an immense advantage in
+the courts and cabinets of Europe. Until within three days of the
+end of Buchanan's term not a word of protest or even explanation
+was sent to counteract the impression that disunion was likely to
+become permanent. Indeed, the non-coercion doctrine of Buchanan's
+message was, in the eyes of European statesmen, equivalent to an
+acknowledgment of such a result; and the formation of the
+Confederate government, followed so quickly <a name="page211" id="page211"></a>by the
+fall of Fort Sumter, seemed to them a practical realization of
+their forecast. The course of events appeared not merely to fulfil
+their expectations, but also, in the case of England and France,
+gratified their eager hopes. To England it promised cheap cotton
+and free trade with the South. To France it appeared to open the
+way for colonial ambitions which Napoleon III so soon set on foot
+on an imperial scale.</p>
+<p>Before Charles Francis Adams, whom President Lincoln appointed
+as the new minister to England, arrived in London and obtained an
+interview with Lord John Russell, Mr. Seward had already received
+several items of disagreeable news. One was that, prior to his
+arrival, the Queen's proclamation of neutrality had been published,
+practically raising the Confederate States to the rank of a
+belligerent power, and, before they had a single privateer afloat,
+giving these an equality in British ports with United States ships
+of war. Another was that an understanding had been reached between
+England and France which would lead both governments to take the
+same course as to recognition, whatever that course might be.
+Third, that three diplomatic agents of the Confederate States were
+in London, whom the British minister had not yet seen, but whom he
+had caused to be informed that he was not unwilling to see
+unofficially.</p>
+<p>Under the irritation produced by this hasty and equivocal action
+of the British government, Mr. Seward wrote a despatch to Mr. Adams
+under date of May 21, which, had it been sent in the form of the
+original draft, would scarcely have failed to lead to war between
+the two nations. While it justly set forth with emphasis and
+courage what the government of the United States would endure and
+what it would not endure from foreign powers during the Southern
+<a name="page212" id="page212"></a>insurrection, its phraseology, written in
+a heat of indignation, was so blunt and exasperating as to imply
+intentional disrespect.</p>
+<p>When Mr. Seward read the document to President Lincoln, the
+latter at once perceived its objectionable tone, and retained it
+for further reflection. A second reading confirmed his first
+impression. Thereupon, taking his pen, the frontier lawyer, in a
+careful revision of the whole despatch, so amended and changed the
+work of the trained and experienced statesman, as entirely to
+eliminate its offensive crudeness, and bring it within all the
+dignity and reserve of the most studied diplomatic courtesy. If,
+after Mr. Seward's remarkable memorandum of April 1, the Secretary
+of State had needed any further experience to convince him of the
+President's mastery in both administrative and diplomatic judgment,
+this second incident afforded him the full evidence.</p>
+<p>No previous President ever had such a sudden increase of
+official work devolve upon him as President Lincoln during the
+early months of his administration. The radical change of parties
+through which he was elected not only literally filled the White
+House with applicants for office, but practically compelled a
+wholesale substitution of new appointees for the old, to represent
+the new thought and will of the nation. The task of selecting these
+was greatly complicated by the sharp competition between the
+heterogeneous elements of which the Republican party was composed.
+This work was not half completed when the Sumter bombardment
+initiated active rebellion, and precipitated the new difficulty of
+sifting the loyal from the disloyal, and the yet more pressing
+labor of scrutinizing the organization of the immense new volunteer
+army called into service by the proclamation of May 3. Mr.
+<a name="page213" id="page213"></a> Lincoln used often to say at this period,
+when besieged by claims to appointment, that he felt like a man
+letting rooms at one end of his house, while the other end was on
+fire. In addition to this merely routine work was the much more
+delicate and serious duty of deciding the hundreds of novel
+questions affecting the constitutional principles and theories of
+administration.</p>
+<p>The great departments of government, especially those of war and
+navy, could not immediately expedite either the supervision or
+clerical details of this sudden expansion, and almost every case of
+resulting confusion and delay was brought by impatient governors
+and State officials to the President for complaint and correction.
+Volunteers were coming rapidly enough to the various rendezvous in
+the different States, but where were the rations to feed them,
+money to pay them, tents to shelter them, uniforms to clothe them,
+rifles to arm them, officers to drill and instruct them, or
+transportation to carry them? In this carnival of patriotism, this
+hurly-burly of organization, the weaknesses as well as the virtues
+of human nature quickly developed themselves, and there was
+manifest not only the inevitable friction of personal rivalry, but
+also the disturbing and baneful effects of occasional falsehood and
+dishonesty, which could not always be immediately traced to the
+responsible culprit. It happened in many instances that there were
+alarming discrepancies between the full paper regiments and
+brigades reported as ready to start from State capitals, and the
+actual number of recruits that railroad trains brought to the
+Washington camps; and Mr. Lincoln several times ironically compared
+the process to that of a man trying to shovel a bushel of fleas
+across a barn floor.</p>
+<p>While the month of May insensibly slipped away amid these
+preparatory vexations, camps of instruction <a name="page214" id="page214"></a>rapidly
+grew to small armies at a few principal points, even under such
+incidental delay and loss; and during June the confronting Union
+and Confederate forces began to produce the conflicts and
+casualties of earnest war. As yet they were both few and
+unimportant: the assassination of Ellsworth when Alexandria was
+occupied; a slight cavalry skirmish at Fairfax Court House; the
+rout of a Confederate regiment at Philippi, West Virginia; the
+blundering leadership through which two Union detachments fired
+upon each other in the dark at Big Bethel, Virginia; the ambush of
+a Union railroad train at Vienna Station; and Lyon's skirmish,
+which scattered the first collection of rebels at Boonville,
+Missouri. Comparatively speaking all these were trivial in numbers
+of dead and wounded&mdash;the first few drops of blood before the
+heavy sanguinary showers the future was destined to bring. But the
+effect upon the public was irritating and painful to a degree
+entirely out of proportion to their real extent and gravity.</p>
+<p>The relative loss and gain in these affairs was not greatly
+unequal. The victories of Philippi and Boonville easily offset the
+disasters of Big Bethel and Vienna. But the public mind was not yet
+schooled to patience and to the fluctuating chances of war. The
+newspapers demanded prompt progress and ample victory as
+imperatively as they were wont to demand party triumph in politics
+or achievement in commercial enterprise. "Forward to Richmond,"
+repeated the "New York Tribune," day after day, and many sheets of
+lesser note and influence echoed the cry. There seemed, indeed, a
+certain reason for this clamor, because the period of enlistment of
+the three months' regiments was already two thirds gone, and they
+were not yet all armed and equipped for field service.<a name="page215" id="page215"></a></p>
+<p>President Lincoln was fully alive to the need of meeting this
+popular demand. The special session of Congress was soon to begin,
+and to it the new administration must look, not only to ratify what
+had been done, but to authorize a large increase of the military
+force, and heavy loans for coming expenses of the war. On June 29,
+therefore, he called his cabinet and principal military officers to
+a council of war at the Executive Mansion, to discuss a more
+formidable campaign than had yet been planned. General Scott was
+opposed to such an undertaking at that time. He preferred waiting
+until autumn, meanwhile organizing and drilling a large army, with
+which to move down the Mississippi and end the war with a final
+battle at New Orleans. Aside from the obvious military objections
+to this course, such a procrastination, in the present irritation
+of the public temper, was not to be thought of; and the old general
+gracefully waived his preference and contributed his best judgment
+to the perfecting of an immediate campaign into Virginia.</p>
+<p>The Confederate forces in Virginia had been gathered by the
+orders of General Lee into a defensive position at Manassas
+Junction, where a railroad from Richmond and another from Harper's
+Ferry come together. Here General Beauregard, who had organized and
+conducted the Sumter bombardment, had command of a total of about
+twenty-five thousand men which he was drilling. The Junction was
+fortified with some slight field-works and fifteen heavy guns,
+supported by a garrison of two thousand; while the main body was
+camped in a line of seven miles' length behind Bull Run, a winding,
+sluggish stream flowing southeasterly toward the Potomac. The
+distance was about thirty-two miles southwest of Washington.
+Another Confederate force of about ten thousand, under General
+J.E.<a name="page216" id="page216"></a> Johnston, was collected at Winchester
+and Harper's Ferry on the Potomac, to guard the entrance to the
+Shenandoah valley; and an understanding existed between Johnston
+and Beauregard, that in case either were attacked, the other would
+come to his aid by the quick railroad transportation between the
+two places.</p>
+<p>The new Union plan contemplated that Brigadier-General McDowell
+should march from Washington against Manassas and Bull Run, with a
+force sufficient to beat Beauregard, while General Patterson, who
+had concentrated the bulk of the Pennsylvania regiments in the
+neighborhood of Harper's Ferry, in numbers nearly or quite double
+that of his antagonist, should move against Johnston, and either
+fight or hold him so that he could not come to the aid of
+Beauregard. At the council McDowell emphasized the danger of such a
+junction; but General Scott assured him: "If Johnston joins
+Beauregard, he shall have Patterson on his heels." With this
+understanding, McDowell's movement was ordered to begin on July
+9.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="page217" id="page217"></a>
+<h2><a name="XVI" id="XVI"></a>XVI</h2>
+<br />
+<p><i>Congress&mdash;The President's Message&mdash;Men and Money
+Voted&mdash;The Contraband&mdash;Dennison Appoints
+McClellan&mdash;Rich Mountain&mdash;McDowell&mdash;Bull
+Run&mdash;Patterson's Failure&mdash;McClellan at Washington</i></p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<p>While these preparations for a Virginia campaign were going on,
+another campaign was also slowly shaping itself in Western
+Virginia; but before either of them reached any decisive results
+the Thirty-seventh Congress, chosen at the presidential election of
+1860, met in special session on the fourth of July, 1861, in
+pursuance of the President's proclamation of April 15. There being
+no members present in either branch from the seceded States, the
+number in each house was reduced nearly one third. A great change
+in party feeling was also manifest. No more rampant secession
+speeches were to be heard. Of the rare instances of men who were
+yet to join the rebellion, ex-Vice-President Breckinridge was the
+most conspicuous example; and their presence was offset by
+prominent Southern Unionists like Andrew Johnson of Tennessee, and
+John J. Crittenden of Kentucky. The heated antagonisms which had
+divided the previous Congress into four clearly defined factions
+were so far restrained or obliterated by the events of the past
+four months, as to leave but a feeble opposition to the Republican
+majority now dominant in both branches, which was itself rendered
+moderate and prudent by the new conditions.</p>
+<p><a name="page218" id="page218"></a>The message of President Lincoln was
+temperate in spirit, but positive and strong in argument. Reciting
+the secession and rebellion of the Confederate States, and their
+unprovoked assault on Fort Sumter, he continued:</p>
+<p>"Having said to them in the inaugural address, 'You can have no
+conflict without being yourselves the aggressors,' he took pains
+not only to keep this declaration good, but also to keep the case
+so free from the power of ingenious sophistry that the world should
+not be able to misunderstand it. By the affair at Fort Sumter, with
+its surrounding circumstances, that point was reached. Then and
+thereby the assailants of the government began the conflict of
+arms, without a gun in sight or in expectancy to return their fire,
+save only the few in the fort sent to that harbor years before for
+their own protection, and still ready to give that protection in
+whatever was lawful.... This issue embraces more than the fate of
+these United States. It presents to the whole family of man the
+question whether a constitutional republic or democracy&mdash;a
+government of the people by the same people&mdash;can or cannot
+maintain its territorial integrity against its own domestic
+foes."</p>
+<p>With his singular felicity of statement, he analyzed and refuted
+the sophism that secession was lawful and constitutional.</p>
+<p>"This sophism derives much, perhaps the whole, of its currency
+from the assumption that there is some omnipotent and sacred
+supremacy pertaining to a State&mdash;to each State of our Federal
+Union. Our States have neither more nor less power than that
+reserved to them in the Union by the Constitution&mdash;no one of
+them ever having been a State out of the Union.... The States have
+their status in the Union, and they have <a name="page219" id="page219"></a>no other
+legal status. If they break from this, they can only do so against
+law and by revolution. The Union, and not themselves separately,
+procured their independence and their liberty. By conquest or
+purchase the Union gave each of them whatever of independence or
+liberty it has. The Union is older than any of the States, and, in
+fact, it created them as States. Originally some dependent colonies
+made the Union, and, in turn, the Union threw off their old
+dependence for them, and made them States, such as they are. Not
+one of them ever had a State constitution independent of the
+Union."</p>
+<p>A noteworthy point in the message is President Lincoln's
+expression of his abiding confidence in the intelligence and virtue
+of the people of the United States.</p>
+<p>"It may be affirmed," said he, "without extravagance that the
+free institutions we enjoy have developed the powers and improved
+the condition of our whole people beyond any example in the world.
+Of this we now have a striking and an impressive illustration. So
+large an army as the government has now on foot was never before
+known, without a soldier in it but who has taken his place there of
+his own free choice. But more than this, there are many single
+regiments whose members, one and another, possess full practical
+knowledge of all the arts, sciences, professions and whatever else,
+whether useful or elegant, is known in the world; and there is
+scarcely one from which there could not be selected a President, a
+cabinet a congress, and, perhaps, a court, abundantly competent to
+administer the government itself.... 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 lift <a name="page220" id="page220"></a>artificial
+weights from all shoulders; to clear the paths of laudable pursuit
+for all; to afford all an unfettered start, and a fair chance in
+the race of life.... I am most happy to believe that the plain
+people understand and appreciate this. It is worthy of note that
+while in this, the government's hour of trial, large numbers of
+those in the army and navy who have been favored with the offices
+have resigned and proved false to the hand which had pampered them,
+not one common soldier or common sailor is known to have deserted
+his flag."</p>
+<p>Hearty applause greeted that portion of the message which asked
+for means to make the contest short and decisive; and Congress
+acted promptly by authorizing a loan of $250,000,000 and an army
+not to exceed one million men. All of President Lincoln's war
+measures for which no previous sanction of law existed were duly
+legalized; additional direct income and tariff taxes were laid; and
+the Force Bill of 1795, and various other laws relating to
+conspiracy, piracy, unlawful recruiting, and kindred topics, were
+amended or passed.</p>
+<p>Throughout the whole history of the South, by no means the least
+of the evils entailed by the institution of slavery was the dread
+of slave insurrections which haunted every master's household; and
+this vague terror was at once intensified by the outbreak of civil
+war. It stands to the lasting credit of the negro race in the
+United States that the wrongs of their long bondage provoked them
+to no such crime, and that the Civil War appears not to have even
+suggested, much less started, any such organization or attempt. But
+the John Brown raid had indicated some possibility of the kind, and
+when the Union troops began their movements Generals Butler in
+Maryland and Patterson in<a name="page221" id="page221"></a> Pennsylvania, moving toward Harper's
+Ferry, and McClellan in West Virginia, in order to reassure
+non-combatants, severally issued orders that all attempts at slave
+insurrection should be suppressed. It was a most pointed and
+significant warning to the leaders of the rebellion how much more
+vulnerable the peculiar institution was in war than in peace, and
+that their ill-considered scheme to protect and perpetuate slavery
+would prove the most potent engine for its destruction.</p>
+<p>The first effect of opening hostilities was to give adventurous
+or discontented slaves the chance to escape into Union camps,
+where, even against orders to the contrary, they found practical
+means of protection or concealment for the sake of the help they
+could render as cooks, servants, or teamsters, or for the
+information they could give or obtain, or the invaluable service
+they could render as guides. Practically, therefore, at the very
+beginning, the war created a bond of mutual sympathy based on
+mutual helpfulness, between the Southern negro and the Union
+volunteer; and as fast as the Union troops advanced, and secession
+masters fled, more or less slaves found liberation and refuge in
+the Union camps.</p>
+<p>At some points, indeed, this tendency created an embarrassment
+to Union commanders. A few days after General Butler assumed
+command of the Union troops at Fortress Monroe, the agent of a
+rebel master who had fled from the neighborhood came to demand,
+under the provisions of the fugitive-slave law, three field hands
+alleged to be in Butler's camp. Butler responded that as Virginia
+claimed to be a foreign country the fugitive-slave law was clearly
+inoperative, unless the owner would come and take an oath of
+allegiance to the United States. In connection with this incident,
+the newspaper report stated that as the breast<a name="page222" id="page222"></a> works and
+batteries which had been so rapidly erected for Confederate defense
+in every direction on the Virginia peninsula were built by enforced
+negro labor under rigorous military impressment, negroes were
+manifestly contraband of war under international law. The dictum
+was so pertinent, and the equity so plain, that, though it was not
+officially formulated by the general until two months later, it
+sprang at once into popular acceptance and application; and from
+that time forward the words "slave" and "negro" were everywhere
+within the Union lines replaced by the familiar, significant term
+"contraband."</p>
+<p>While Butler's happy designation had a more convincing influence
+on public thought than a volume of discussion, it did not
+immediately solve the whole question. Within a few days he reported
+that he had slave property to the value of $60,000 in his hands,
+and by the end of July nine hundred "contrabands," men, women, and
+children, of all ages. What was their legal status, and how should
+they be disposed of? It was a knotty problem, for upon its solution
+might depend the sensitive public opinion and balancing, undecided
+loyalty and political action of the border slave States of
+Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri. In solving the
+problem, President Lincoln kept in mind the philosophic maxim of
+one of his favorite stories, that when the Western Methodist
+presiding elder, riding about the circuit during the spring
+freshets, was importuned by his young companion how they should
+ever be able to get across the swollen waters of Fox River, which
+they were approaching, the elder quieted him by saying he had made
+it the rule of his life never to cross Fox River till he came to
+it.</p>
+<p>The President did not immediately decide, but left it to be
+treated as a question of camp and local police, <a name="page223" id="page223"></a>in the
+discretion of each commander. Under this theory, later in the war,
+some commanders excluded, others admitted such fugitives to their
+camps; and the curt formula of General Orders, "We have nothing to
+do with slaves. We are neither negro stealers nor negro catchers,"
+was easily construed by subordinate officers to justify the
+practice of either course. <i>Inter arma silent leges</i>. For the
+present, Butler was instructed not to surrender such fugitives, but
+to employ them in suitable labor, and leave the question of their
+final disposition for future determination. Congress greatly
+advanced the problem, soon after the battle of Bull Run, by
+adopting an amendment which confiscated a rebel master's right to
+his slave when, by his consent, such slave was employed in service
+or labor hostile to the United States. The debates exhibited but
+little spirit of partizanship, even on this feature of the slavery
+question. The border State members did not attack the justice of
+such a penalty. They could only urge that it was unconstitutional
+and inexpedient. On the general policy of the war, both houses,
+with but few dissenting votes, passed the resolution, offered by
+Mr. Crittenden, which declared that the war was not waged for
+oppression or subjugation, or to interfere with the rights or
+institutions of States, "but to defend and maintain the supremacy
+of the Constitution, and to preserve the Union with all the
+dignity, equality, and rights of the several States unimpaired."
+The special session adjourned on August 6, having in a single month
+completed and enacted a thorough and comprehensive system of war
+legislation.</p>
+<p>The military events that were transpiring in the meanwhile
+doubtless had their effect in hastening the decision and shortening
+the labors of Congress. To command the thirteen regiments of
+militia furnished <a name="page224" id="page224"></a>by the State of Ohio, Governor Dennison
+had given a commission of major-general to George B. McClellan, who
+had been educated at West Point and served with distinction in the
+Mexican War, and who, through unusual opportunities in travel and
+special duties in surveys and exploration, had gained acquirements
+and qualifications that appeared to fit him for a brilliant career.
+Being but thirty-five years old, and having reached only the grade
+of captain, he had resigned from the army, and was at the moment
+serving as president of the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad. General
+Scott warmly welcomed his appointment to lead the Ohio contingent,
+and so industriously facilitated his promotion that by the
+beginning of June McClellan's militia commission as major-general
+had been changed to a commission for the same grade in the regular
+army, and he found himself assigned to the command of a military
+department extending from Western Virginia to Missouri. Though this
+was a leap in military title, rank, and power which excels the
+inventions of romance, it was necessitated by the sudden exigencies
+of army expansion over the vast territory bordering the
+insurrection, and for a while seemed justified by the hopeful
+promise indicated in the young officer's zeal and activity.</p>
+<p>His instructions made it a part of his duty to encourage and
+support the Unionists of Western Virginia in their political
+movement to divide the State and erect a Union commonwealth out of
+that portion of it lying northwest of the Alleghanies. General Lee,
+not fully informed of the adverse popular sentiment, sent a few
+Confederate regiments into that region to gather recruits and hold
+the important mountain passes. McClellan, in turn, advanced a
+detachment eastward from Wheeling, to protect the Baltimore and
+Ohio <a name="page225" id="page225"></a>railroad; and at the beginning of June,
+an expedition of two regiments, led by Colonel Kelly, made a
+spirited dash upon Philippi, where, by a complete surprise, he
+routed and scattered Porterfield's recruiting detachment of one
+thousand Confederates. Following up this initial success, McClellan
+threw additional forces across the Ohio, and about a month later
+had the good fortune, on July 11, by a flank movement under
+Rosecrans, to drive a regiment of the enemy out of strong
+intrenchments on Rich Mountain, force the surrender of the
+retreating garrison on the following day, July 12, and to win a
+third success on the thirteenth over another flying detachment at
+Carrick's Ford, one of the crossings of the Cheat River, where the
+Confederate General Garnett was killed in a skirmish-fire between
+sharp-shooters.</p>
+<p>These incidents, happening on three successive days, and in
+distance forty miles apart, made a handsome showing for the young
+department commander when gathered into the single, short telegram
+in which he reported to Washington that Garnett was killed, his
+force routed, at least two hundred of the enemy killed, and seven
+guns and one thousand prisoners taken. "Our success is complete,
+and secession is killed in this country," concluded the despatch.
+The result, indeed, largely overshadowed in importance the means
+which accomplished it. The Union loss was only thirteen killed and
+forty wounded. In subsequent effect, these two comparatively
+insignificant skirmishes permanently recovered the State of West
+Virginia to the Union. The main credit was, of course, due to the
+steadfast loyalty of the people of that region.</p>
+<p>This victory afforded welcome relief to the strained and
+impatient public opinion of the Northern States, and sharpened the
+eager expectation of the authorities <a name="page226" id="page226"></a>at Washington of similar
+results from the projected Virginia campaign. The organization and
+command of that column were intrusted to Brigadier-General
+McDowell, advanced to this grade from his previous rank of major.
+He was forty-two years old, an accomplished West Point graduate,
+and had won distinction in the Mexican War, though since that time
+he had been mainly engaged in staff duty. On the morning of July
+16, he began his advance from the fortifications of Washington,
+with a marching column of about twenty-eight thousand men and a
+total of forty-nine guns, an additional division of about six
+thousand being left behind to guard his communications. Owing to
+the rawness of his troops, the first few days' march was
+necessarily cautious and cumbersome.</p>
+<p>The enemy, under Beauregard, had collected about twenty-three
+thousand men and thirty-five guns, and was posted behind Bull Run.
+A preliminary engagement occurred on Thursday, July 18, at
+Blackburn's Ford on that stream, which served to develop the
+enemy's strong position, but only delayed the advance until the
+whole of McDowell's force reached Centreville Here McDowell halted,
+spent Friday and Saturday in reconnoitering, and on Sunday, July
+21, began the battle by a circuitous march across Bull Run and
+attacking the enemy's left flank.</p>
+<p>It proved that the plan was correctly chosen, but, by a
+confusion in the march, the attack, intended for day-break, was
+delayed until nine o'clock. Nevertheless, the first half of the
+battle, during the forenoon, was entirely successful, the Union
+lines steadily driving the enemy southward, and enabling additional
+Union brigades to join the attacking column by a direct march from
+Centreville.</p>
+<p>At noon, however, the attack came to a halt, partly<a name="page227" id="page227"></a> through
+the fatigue of the troops, partly because the advancing line,
+having swept the field for nearly a mile, found itself in a valley,
+from which further progress had to be made with all the advantage
+of the ground in favor of the enemy. In the lull of the conflict
+which for a while ensued, the Confederate commander, with little
+hope except to mitigate a defeat, hurriedly concentrated his
+remaining artillery and supporting regiments into a semicircular
+line of defense at the top of the hill that the Federals would be
+obliged to mount, and kept them well concealed among the young
+pines at the edge of the timber, with an open field in their
+front.</p>
+<p>Against this second position of the enemy, comprising twelve
+regiments, twenty-two guns, and two companies of cavalry, McDowell
+advanced in the afternoon with an attacking force of fourteen
+regiments, twenty-four guns, and a single battalion of cavalry, but
+with all the advantages of position against him. A fluctuating and
+intermitting attack resulted. The nature of the ground rendered a
+combined advance impossible. The Union brigades were sent forward
+and repulsed by piecemeal. A battery was lost by mistaking a
+Confederate for a Union regiment. Even now the victory seemed to
+vibrate, when a new flank attack by seven rebel regiments, from an
+entirely unexpected direction, suddenly impressed the Union troops
+with the belief that Johnston's army from Harper's Ferry had
+reached the battle-field; and, demoralized by this belief, the
+Union commands, by a common impulse, gave up the fight as lost, and
+half marched, half ran from the field. Before reaching Centreville,
+the retreat at one point degenerated into a downright panic among
+army teamsters and a considerable crowd of miscellaneous
+camp-followers; and here a charge or two by the Confederate<a name="page228" id="page228"></a> cavalry companies captured thirteen
+Union guns and quite a harvest of army wagons.</p>
+<p>When the truth came to be known, it was found that through the
+want of skill and courage on the part of General Patterson in his
+operations at Harper's Ferry, General Johnston, with his whole
+Confederate army, had been allowed to slip away; and so far from
+coming suddenly into the battle of Bull Run, the bulk of them were
+already in Beauregard's camps on Saturday, and performed the
+heaviest part of the fighting in Sunday's conflict.</p>
+<p>The sudden cessation of the battle left the Confederates in
+doubt whether their victory was final, or only a prelude to a fresh
+Union attack. But as the Union forces not only retreated from the
+field, but also from Centreville, it took on, in their eyes, the
+proportions of a great triumph; confirming their expectation of
+achieving ultimate independence, and, in fact, giving them a
+standing in the eyes of foreign nations which they had hardly dared
+hope for so soon. In numbers of killed and wounded, the two armies
+suffered about equally; and General Johnston writes: "The
+Confederate army was more disorganized by victory than that of the
+United States by defeat." Manassas was turned into a fortified
+camp, but the rebel leaders felt themselves unable to make an
+aggressive movement during the whole of the following autumn and
+winter.</p>
+<p>The shock of the defeat was deep and painful to the
+administration and the people of the North. Up to late Sunday
+afternoon favorable reports had come to Washington from the
+battle-field, and every one believed in an assured victory. When a
+telegram came about five o'clock in the afternoon, that the day was
+lost, and McDowell's army in full retreat through Centreville,
+General Scott refused to credit the news, <a name="page229" id="page229"></a>so
+contradictory of everything which had been heard up to that hour.
+But the intelligence was quickly confirmed. The impulse of retreat
+once started, McDowell's effort to arrest it at Centreville proved
+useless. The regiments and brigades not completely disorganized
+made an unmolested and comparatively orderly march back to the
+fortifications of Washington, while on the following day a horde of
+stragglers found their way across the bridges of the Potomac into
+the city.</p>
+<p>President Lincoln received the news quietly and without any
+visible sign of perturbation or excitement; but he remained awake
+and in the executive office all of Sunday night, listening to the
+personal narratives of a number of congressmen and senators who
+had, with undue curiosity, followed the army and witnessed some of
+the sounds and sights of the battle. By the dawn of Monday morning
+the President had substantially made up his judgment of the battle
+and its probable results, and the action dictated by the untoward
+event. This was, in brief, that the militia regiments enlisted
+under the three months' call should be mustered out as soon as
+practicable; the organization of the new three years' forces be
+pushed forward both east and west; Manassas and Harper's Ferry and
+the intermediate lines of communication be seized and held; and a
+joint movement organized from Cincinnati on East Tennessee, and
+from Cairo on Memphis.</p>
+<p>Meanwhile, General McClellan was ordered from West Virginia to
+Washington, where he arrived on July 26, and assumed command of the
+Division of the Potomac, comprising the troops in and around
+Washington on both sides of the river. He quickly cleared the city
+of stragglers, and displayed a gratifying activity in beginning the
+organization of the Army of the <a name="page230" id="page230"></a>Potomac from the new three
+years' volunteers that were pouring into Washington by every train.
+He was received by the administration and the army with the warmest
+friendliness and confidence, and for awhile seemed to reciprocate
+these feelings with zeal and gratitude.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="page231" id="page231"></a>
+<h2><a name="XVII" id="XVII"></a>XVII</h2>
+<br />
+<p><i>General Scott's Plans&mdash;Criticized as the
+"Anaconda"&mdash;The Three Fields of
+Conflict&mdash;Fr&eacute;mont Appointed
+Major-General&mdash;His Military
+Failures&mdash;Battle of Wilson's Creek&mdash;Hunter
+Ordered to Fr&eacute;mont&mdash;Fr&eacute;mont's
+Proclamation&mdash;President Revokes Fr&eacute;mont's
+Proclamation&mdash;Lincoln's Letter to
+Browning&mdash;Surrender of
+Lexington&mdash;Fr&eacute;mont Takes the
+Field&mdash;Cameron's Visit to
+Fr&eacute;mont&mdash;Fr&eacute;mont's Removal</i></p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<p>The military genius and experience of General Scott, from the
+first, pretty correctly divined the grand outline of military
+operations which would become necessary in reducing the revolted
+Southern States to renewed allegiance. Long before the battle of
+Bull Run was planned, he urged that the first seventy-five
+regiments of three months' militia could not be relied on for
+extensive campaigns, because their term of service would expire
+before they could be well organized. His outline suggestion,
+therefore, was that the new three years' volunteer army be placed
+in ten or fifteen healthy camps and given at least four months of
+drill and tactical instruction; and when the navy had, by a rigid
+blockade, closed all the harbors along the seaboard of the Southern
+States, the fully prepared army should, by invincible columns, move
+down the Mississippi River to New Orleans, leaving a strong cordon
+of military posts behind it to keep open the stream, join hands
+with the blockade, and thus envelop the <a name="page232" id="page232"></a>principal area
+of rebellion in a powerful military grasp which would paralyze and
+effectually kill the insurrection. Even while suggesting this plan,
+however, the general admitted that the great obstacle to its
+adoption would be the impatience of the patriotic and loyal Union
+people and leaders, who would refuse to wait the necessary length
+of time.</p>
+<p>The general was correct in his apprehension. The newspapers
+criticized his plan in caustic editorials and ridiculous cartoons
+as "Scott's Anaconda," and public opinion rejected it in an
+overwhelming demand for a prompt and energetic advance. Scott was
+correct in military theory, while the people and the administration
+were right in practice, under existing political conditions.
+Although Bull Run seemed to justify the general, West Virginia and
+Missouri vindicated the President and the people.</p>
+<p>It can now be seen that still a third
+element&mdash;geography&mdash;intervened to give shape and sequence
+to the main outlines of the Civil War. When, at the beginning of
+May, General Scott gave his advice, the seat of government of the
+first seven Confederate States was still at Montgomery, Alabama. By
+the adhesion of the four interior border States to the
+insurrection, and the removal of the archives and administration of
+Jefferson Davis to Richmond, Virginia, toward the end of June, as
+the capital of the now eleven Confederate States, Washington
+necessarily became the center of Union attack, and Richmond the
+center of Confederate defense. From the day when McDowell began his
+march to Bull Run, to that when Lee evacuated Richmond in his final
+hopeless flight, the route between these two opposing capitals
+remained the principal and dominating line of military operations,
+and the region between Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac River on the<a name="page233" id="page233"></a> east, and the chain of the Alleghanies
+on the west, the primary field of strategy.</p>
+<p>According to geographical features, the second great field of
+strategy lay between the Alleghany Mountains and the Mississippi
+River, and the third between the Mississippi River, the Rocky
+Mountains, and the Rio Grande. Except in Western Virginia, the
+attitude of neutrality assumed by Kentucky for a considerable time
+delayed the definition of the military frontier and the beginning
+of active hostilities in the second field, thus giving greater
+momentary importance to conditions existing and events transpiring
+in Missouri, with the city of St. Louis as the principal center of
+the third great military field.</p>
+<p>The same necessity which dictated the promotion of General
+McClellan at one bound from captain to major-general compelled a
+similar phenomenal promotion, not alone of officers of the regular
+army, but also of eminent civilians to high command and military
+responsibility in the immense volunteer force authorized by
+Congress. Events, rather than original purpose, had brought
+McClellan into prominence and ranking duty; but now, by design, the
+President gave John C. Fr&eacute;mont a commission of
+major-general, and placed him in command of the third great
+military field, with headquarters at St. Louis, with the leading
+idea that he should organize the military strength of the
+Northwest, first, to hold Missouri to the Union, and, second, by a
+carefully prepared military expedition open the Mississippi River.
+By so doing, he would sever the Confederate States, reclaim or
+conquer the region lying west of the great stream, and thus reduce
+by more than one half the territorial area of the insurrection.
+Though he had been an army lieutenant, he had no experience in
+active war; yet the talent and energy <a name="page234" id="page234"></a>he had
+displayed in Western military exploration, and the political
+prominence he had reached as candidate of the Republican party for
+President in 1856, seemed to fit him pre&euml;minently for such a
+duty.</p>
+<p>While most of the volunteers from New England and the Middle
+States were concentrated at Washington and dependent points, the
+bulk of the Western regiments was, for the time being, put under
+the command of Fr&eacute;mont for present and prospective duty. But
+the high hopes which the administration placed in the general were
+not realized. The genius which could lead a few dozen or a few
+hundred Indian scouts and mountain trappers over desert plains and
+through the fastnesses of the Sierra Nevada, that could defy savage
+hostilities and outlive starvation amid imprisoning snows, failed
+signally before the task of animating and combining the patriotic
+enthusiasm of eight or ten great northwestern States, and
+organizing and leading an army of one hundred thousand eager
+volunteers in a comprehensive and decisive campaign to recover a
+great national highway. From the first, Fr&eacute;mont failed in
+promptness, in foresight, in intelligent supervision and, above
+all, in inspiring confidence and attracting assistance and
+devotion. His military administration created serious extravagance
+and confusion, and his personal intercourse excited the distrust
+and resentment of the governors and civilian officials, whose
+counsel and co&ouml;peration were essential to his usefulness and
+success.</p>
+<p>While his resources were limited, and while he fortified St.
+Louis and reinforced Cairo, a yet more important point needed his
+attention and help. Lyon, who had followed Governor Jackson and
+General Price in their flight from Boonville to Springfield in
+southern Missouri, found his forces diminished beyond his
+<a name="page235" id="page235"></a>expectation by the expiration of the term
+of service of his three months' regiments, and began to be
+threatened by a northward concentration of Confederate detachments
+from the Arkansas line and the Indian Territory. The neglect of his
+appeals for help placed him in the situation where he could neither
+safely remain inactive, nor safely retreat. He therefore took the
+chances of scattering the enemy before him by a sudden, daring
+attack with his five thousand effectives, against nearly treble
+numbers, in the battle of Wilson's Creek, at daylight on August 10.
+The casualties on the two sides were nearly equal, and the enemy
+was checked and crippled; but the Union army sustained a fatal loss
+in the death of General Lyon, who was instantly killed while
+leading a desperate bayonet charge. His skill and activity had, so
+far, been the strength of the Union cause in Missouri. The absence
+of his counsel and personal example rendered a retreat to the
+railroad terminus at Rolla necessary. This discouraging event
+turned public criticism sharply upon Fr&eacute;mont. Loath to yield
+to mere public clamor, and averse to hasty changes in military
+command, Mr. Lincoln sought to improve the situation by sending
+General David Hunter to take a place on Fr&eacute;mont's staff.</p>
+<p>"General Fr&eacute;mont needs assistance," said his note to
+Hunter, "which it is difficult to give him. He is losing the
+confidence of men near him, whose support any man in his position
+must have to be successful. His cardinal mistake is that he
+isolates himself, and allows nobody to see him; and by which he
+does not know what is going on in the very matter he is dealing
+with. 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
+to be ordered to it; but will you not serve the country and oblige
+me by taking it voluntarily?"<a name="page236" id="page236"></a></p>
+<p>This note indicates, better than pages of description, the kind,
+helpful, and forbearing spirit with which the President, through
+the long four years' war, treated his military commanders and
+subordinates; and which, in several instances, met such ungenerous
+return. But even while Mr. Lincoln was attempting to smooth this
+difficulty, Fr&eacute;mont had already burdened him with two
+additional embarrassments. One was a perplexing personal quarrel
+the general had begun with the influential Blair family,
+represented by Colonel Frank Blair, the indefatigable Unionist
+leader in Missouri, and Montgomery Blair, the postmaster-general in
+Lincoln's cabinet, who had hitherto been Fr&eacute;mont's most
+influential friends and supporters; and, in addition, the father of
+these, Francis P. Blair, Sr., a veteran politician whose influence
+dated from Jackson's administration, and through whose assistance
+Fr&eacute;mont had been nominated as presidential candidate in
+1856.</p>
+<p>The other embarrassment was of a more serious and far-reaching
+nature. Conscious that he was losing the esteem and confidence of
+both civil and military leaders in the West, Fr&eacute;mont's
+adventurous fancy caught at the idea of rehabilitating himself
+before the public by a bold political manoeuver. Day by day the
+relation of slavery to the Civil War was becoming a more
+troublesome question, and exciting impatient and angry discussion.
+Without previous consultation with the President or any of his
+advisers or friends, Fr&eacute;mont, on August 30, wrote and
+printed, as commander of the Department of the West, a proclamation
+establishing martial law throughout the State of Missouri, and
+announcing that:</p>
+<p>"All persons who shall be taken with arms in their hands within
+these lines shall be tried by court-martial, and if found guilty
+will be shot. The property, real <a name="page237" id="page237"></a>and personal, of all
+persons in the State of Missouri who shall take up arms against the
+United States, or who shall be directly proven to have taken an
+active part with their enemies in the field, is declared to be
+confiscated to the public use; and their slaves, if any they have,
+are hereby declared freemen."</p>
+<p>The reason given in the proclamation for this drastic and
+dictatorial measure was to suppress disorder, maintain the public
+peace, and protect persons and property of loyal citizens&mdash;all
+simple police duties. For issuing his proclamation without
+consultation with the President, he could offer only the flimsy
+excuse that it involved two days of time to communicate with
+Washington, while he well knew that no battle was pending and no
+invasion in progress. This reckless misuse of power President
+Lincoln also corrected with his dispassionate prudence and habitual
+courtesy. He immediately wrote to the general:</p>
+<p>"MY DEAR SIR: Two points in your proclamation of August 30 give
+me some anxiety:</p>
+<p>"<i>First</i>. Should you shoot a man, according to the
+proclamation, the Confederates would very certainly shoot our best
+men in their hands, in retaliation; and so, man for man,
+indefinitely. It is, therefore, my order that you allow no man to
+be shot under the proclamation, without first having my approbation
+or consent.</p>
+<p>"<i>Second</i>. I think there is great danger that the closing
+paragraph, in relation to the confiscation of property and the
+liberating slaves of traitorous owners, will alarm our Southern
+Union friends and turn them against us; perhaps ruin our rather
+fair prospect for Kentucky. Allow me, therefore, to ask that you
+will, as of your own motion, modify that paragraph so as to conform
+to the first and fourth sections of the act <a name="page238" id="page238"></a>of
+Congress entitled, 'An act to confiscate property used for
+insurrectionary purposes,' approved August 6, 1861, and a copy of
+which act I herewith send you.</p>
+<p>"This letter is written in a spirit of caution, and not of
+censure. I send it by a special messenger, in order that it may
+certainly and speedily reach you."</p>
+<p>But the headstrong general was too blind and selfish to accept
+this mild redress of a fault that would have justified instant
+displacement from command. He preferred that the President should
+openly direct him to make the correction. Admitting that he decided
+in one night upon the measure, he added: "If I were to retract it
+of my own accord, it would imply that I myself thought it wrong,
+and that I had acted without the reflection which the gravity of
+the point demanded." The inference is plain that Fr&eacute;mont was
+unwilling to lose the influence of his hasty step upon public
+opinion. But by this course he deliberately placed himself in an
+attitude of political hostility to the administration.</p>
+<p>The incident produced something of the agitation which the
+general had evidently counted upon. Radical antislavery men
+throughout the free States applauded his act and condemned the
+President, and military emancipation at once became a subject of
+excited discussion. Even strong conservatives were carried away by
+the feeling that rebels would be but properly punished by the loss
+of their slaves. To Senator Browning, the President's intimate
+personal friend, who entertained this feeling, Mr. Lincoln wrote a
+searching analysis of Fr&eacute;mont's proclamation and its
+dangers:</p>
+<p>"Yours of the seventeenth is just received; and, coming from
+you, I confess it astonishes me. That you should object to my
+adhering to a law which you had assisted in making and presenting
+to me, less than a month before, is odd enough. But this is a very
+small <a name="page239" id="page239"></a>part. General Fr&eacute;mont's
+proclamation as to confiscation of property and the liberation of
+slaves is purely political, and not within the range of military
+law or necessity. If a commanding general finds a necessity to
+seize the farm of a private owner, for a pasture, an encampment, or
+a fortification, he has the right to do so, and to so hold it as
+long as the necessity lasts; and this is within military law,
+because within military necessity. But to say the farm shall no
+longer belong to the owner or his heirs forever, and this as well
+when the farm is not needed for military purposes as when it is, is
+purely political, without the savor of military law about it. And
+the same is true of slaves. If the general needs them he can seize
+them and use them, but when the need is past, it is not for him to
+fix their permanent future condition. That must be settled
+according to laws made by law-makers, and not by military
+proclamations. The proclamation in the point in question is simply
+'dictatorship.' It assumes that the general may do anything he
+pleases&mdash;confiscate the lands and free the slaves of loyal
+people, as well as of disloyal ones. And going the whole figure, I
+have no doubt, would be more popular, with some thoughtless people,
+than that which has been done! But I cannot assume this reckless
+position, nor allow others to assume it on my responsibility.</p>
+<p>"You speak of it as being the only means of saving the
+government. On the contrary, it is itself the surrender of the
+government. Can it be pretended that it is any longer the
+government of the United States&mdash;any government of
+constitution and laws&mdash;wherein a general or a president may
+make permanent rules of property by proclamation? I do not say
+Congress might not, with propriety, pass a law on the point, just
+such as General Fr&eacute;mont proclaimed. I do not say I<a name="page240" id="page240"></a> might not, as a member of Congress, vote
+for it. What I object to is, that I, as President, shall expressly
+or impliedly seize and exercize the permanent legislative functions
+of the government.</p>
+<p>"So much as to principle. Now as to policy. No doubt the thing
+was popular in some quarters, and would have been more so if it had
+been a general declaration of emancipation. The Kentucky
+legislature would not budge till that proclamation was modified;
+and General Anderson telegraphed me that on the news of General
+Fr&eacute;mont having actually issued deeds of manumission, a whole
+company of our volunteers threw down their arms and disbanded. I
+was so assured as to think it probable that the very arms we had
+furnished Kentucky would be turned against us. I think to lose
+Kentucky is nearly the same as to lose the whole game. Kentucky
+gone, we cannot hold Missouri, nor, as I think, Maryland. These all
+against us, and the job on our hands is too large for us. We would
+as well consent to separation at once, including the surrender of
+this capital."</p>
+<p>If it be objected that the President himself decreed military
+emancipation a year later, then it must be remembered that
+Fr&eacute;mont's proclamation differed in many essential
+particulars from the President's edict of January 1, 1863. By that
+time, also, the entirely changed conditions justified a complete
+change of policy; but, above all, the supreme reason of military
+necessity, upon which alone Mr. Lincoln based the constitutionality
+of his edict of freedom, was entirely wanting in the case of
+Fr&eacute;mont.</p>
+<p>The harvest of popularity which Fr&eacute;mont evidently hoped
+to secure by his proclamation was soon blighted by a new military
+disaster. The Confederate forces which had been united in the
+battle of Wilson's Creek <a name="page241" id="page241"></a>quickly became disorganized through
+the disagreement of their leaders and the want of provisions and
+other military supplies, and mainly returned to Arkansas and the
+Indian Territory, whence they had come. But General Price, with his
+Missouri contingent, gradually increased his followers, and as the
+Union retreat from Springfield to Rolla left the way open, began a
+northward march through the western part of the State to attack
+Colonel Mulligan, who, with about twenty-eight hundred Federal
+troops, intrenched himself at Lexington on the Missouri River.
+Secession sympathy was strong along the line of his march, and
+Price gained adherents so rapidly that on September 18 he was able
+to invest Mulligan's position with a somewhat irregular army
+numbering about twenty thousand. After a two days' siege, the
+garrison was compelled to surrender, through the exhaustion of the
+supply of water in their cisterns. The victory won, Price again
+immediately retreated southward, losing his army almost as fast as
+he had collected it, made up, as it was, more in the spirit and
+quality of a sudden border foray than an organized campaign.</p>
+<p>For this new loss, Fr&eacute;mont was subjected to a shower of
+fierce criticism, which this time he sought to disarm by
+ostentatious announcements of immediate activity. "I am taking the
+field myself," he telegraphed, "and hope to destroy the enemy
+either before or after the junction of forces under McCulloch."
+Four days after the surrender, the St. Louis newspapers printed his
+order organizing an army of five divisions. The document made a
+respectable show of force on paper, claiming an aggregate of nearly
+thirty-nine thousand. In reality, however, being scattered and
+totally unprepared for the field, it possessed no such effective
+strength. For a month longer <a name="page242" id="page242"></a>extravagant newspaper reports
+stimulated the public with the hope of substantial results from
+Fr&eacute;mont's intended campaign. Before the end of that time,
+however, President Lincoln, under growing apprehension, sent
+Secretary of War Cameron and the adjutant-general of the army to
+Missouri to make a personal investigation. Reaching
+Fr&eacute;mont's camp on October 13, they found the movement to be
+a mere forced, spasmodic display, without substantial strength,
+transportation, or coherent and feasible plan; and that at least
+two of the division commanders were without means to execute the
+orders they had received, and utterly without confidence in their
+leader, or knowledge of his intentions.</p>
+<p>To give Fr&eacute;mont yet another chance, the Secretary of War
+withheld the President's order to relieve the general from command,
+which he had brought with him, on Fr&eacute;mont's insistence that
+a victory was really within his reach. When this hope also proved
+delusive, and suspicion was aroused that the general might be
+intending not only to deceive, but to defy the administration,
+President Lincoln sent the following letter by a special friend to
+General Curtis, commanding at St. Louis:</p>
+<p>"DEAR SIR: On receipt of this, with the accompanying inclosures,
+you will take safe, certain, and suitable measures to have the
+inclosure addressed to Major-General Fr&eacute;mont delivered to
+him with all reasonable dispatch, subject to these conditions only,
+that if, when General Fr&eacute;mont shall be reached by the
+messenger&mdash;yourself, or any one sent by you&mdash;he shall
+then have, in personal command, fought and won a battle, or shall
+then be actually in a battle, or shall then be in the immediate
+presence of the enemy in expectation of a battle, it is not to be
+delivered, but held for <a name="page243" id="page243"></a>further orders. After, and not till
+after, the delivery to General Fr&eacute;mont, let the inclosure
+addressed to General Hunter be delivered to him."</p>
+<p>The order of removal was delivered to Fr&eacute;mont on November
+2. By that date he had reached Springfield, but had won no victory,
+fought no battle, and was not in the presence of the enemy. Two of
+his divisions were not yet even with him. Still laboring under the
+delusion, perhaps imposed on him by his scouts, his orders stated
+that the enemy was only a day's march distant, and advancing to
+attack him. The inclosure mentioned in the President's letter to
+Curtis was an order to General David Hunter to relieve
+Fr&eacute;mont. When he arrived and assumed command the scouts he
+sent forward found no enemy within reach, and no such contingency
+of battle or hope of victory as had been rumored and assumed.</p>
+<p>Fr&eacute;mont's personal conduct in these disagreeable
+circumstances was entirely commendable. He took leave of the army
+in a short farewell order, couched in terms of perfect obedience to
+authority and courtesy to his successor, asking for him the same
+cordial support he had himself received. Nor did he by word or act
+justify the suspicions of insubordination for which some of his
+indiscreet adherents had given cause. Under the instructions
+President Lincoln had outlined in his order to Hunter, that general
+gave up the idea of indefinitely pursuing Price, and divided the
+army into two corps of observation, which were drawn back and
+posted, for the time being, at the two railroad termini of Rolla
+and Sedalia, to be recruited and prepared for further service.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="page244" id="page244"></a>
+<h2><a name="XVIII" id="XVIII"></a>XVIII</h2>
+<br />
+<p><i>Blockade&mdash;Hatteras Inlet&mdash;Port Royal
+Captured&mdash;The Trent Affair&mdash;Lincoln Suggests
+Arbitration&mdash;Seward's Despatch&mdash;McClellan at
+Washington&mdash;Army of the Potomac&mdash;McClellan's Quarrel with
+Scott&mdash;Retirement of Scott&mdash;Lincoln's
+Memorandum&mdash;"All Quiet on the Potomac"&mdash;Conditions in
+Kentucky&mdash;Cameron's Visit to Sherman&mdash;East
+Tennessee&mdash;Instructions to Buell&mdash;Buell's
+Neglect&mdash;Halleck in Missouri</i></p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<p>Following the fall of Fort Sumter, the navy of the United States
+was in no condition to enforce the blockade from Chesapeake Bay to
+the Rio Grande declared by Lincoln's proclamation of April 19. Of
+the forty-two vessels then in commission nearly all were on foreign
+stations. Another serious cause of weakness was that within a few
+days after the Sumter attack one hundred and twenty-four officers
+of the navy resigned, or were dismissed for disloyalty, and the
+number of such was doubled before the fourth of July. Yet by the
+strenuous efforts of the department in fitting out ships that had
+been laid up, in completing those under construction, and in
+extensive purchases and arming of all classes of vessels that could
+be put to use, from screw and side-wheel merchant steamers to
+ferry-boats and tugs, a legally effective blockade was established
+within a period of six months. A considerable number of new
+war-ships was also immediately placed under construction. The
+special session of Congress created a commission to study the
+subject of ironclads, <a name="page245" id="page245"></a>and on its recommendation three
+experimental vessels of this class were placed under contract. One
+of these, completed early in the following year, rendered a
+momentous service, hereafter to be mentioned, and completely
+revolutionized naval warfare.</p>
+<p>Meanwhile, as rapidly as vessels could be gathered and prepared,
+the Navy Department organized effective expeditions to operate
+against points on the Atlantic coast. On August 29 a small fleet,
+under command of Flag Officer Stringham, took possession of
+Hatteras Inlet, after silencing the forts the insurgents had
+erected to guard the entrance, and captured twenty-five guns and
+seven hundred prisoners. This success, achieved without the loss of
+a man to the Union fleet, was of great importance, opening, as it
+did, the way for a succession of victories in the interior waters
+of North Carolina early in the following year.</p>
+<p>A more formidable expedition, and still greater success soon
+followed. Early in November, Captain Du-Pont assembled a fleet of
+fifty sail, including transports, before Port Royal Sound. Forming
+a column of nine war-ships with a total of one hundred and twelve
+guns, the line steamed by the mid-channel between Fort Beauregard
+to the right, and Fort Walker to the left, the first of twenty and
+the second of twenty-three guns, each ship delivering its fire as
+it passed the forts. Turning at the proper point, they again gave
+broadside after broadside while steaming out, and so repeated their
+circular movement. The battle was decided when, on the third round,
+the forts failed to respond to the fire of the ships. When
+Commander Rodgers carried and planted the Stars and Stripes on the
+ramparts, he found them utterly deserted, everything having been
+abandoned by the flying garrisons. Further reconnaissance proved
+that the panic extended <a name="page246" id="page246"></a>itself over the whole network of sea
+islands between Charleston and Savannah, permitting the immediate
+occupation of the entire region, and affording a military base for
+both the navy and the army of incalculable advantage in the further
+reduction of the coast.</p>
+<p>Another naval exploit, however, almost at the same time,
+absorbed greater public attention, and for a while created an
+intense degree of excitement and suspense. Ex-Senators J.M. Mason
+and John Slidell, having been accredited by the Confederate
+government as envoys to European courts, had managed to elude the
+blockade and reach Havana. Captain Charles Wilkes, commanding the
+<i>San Jacinto</i>, learning that they were to take passage for
+England on the British mail steamer <i>Trent</i>, intercepted that
+vessel on November 8 near the coast of Cuba, took the rebel
+emissaries prisoner by the usual show of force, and brought them to
+the United States, but allowed the <i>Trent</i> to proceed on her
+voyage. The incident and alleged insult produced as great
+excitement in England as in the United States, and the British
+government began instant and significant preparations for war for
+what it hastily assumed to be a violation of international law and
+an outrage on the British flag. Instructions were sent to Lord
+Lyons, the British minister at Washington, to demand the release of
+the prisoners and a suitable apology; and, if this demand were not
+complied with within a single week, to close his legation and
+return to England.</p>
+<p>In the Northern States the capture was greeted with great
+jubilation. Captain Wilkes was applauded by the press; his act was
+officially approved by the Secretary of the Navy, and the House of
+Representatives unanimously passed a resolution thanking him for
+his "brave, adroit, and patriotic conduct." While the President<a name="page247" id="page247"></a> and cabinet shared the first impulses of
+rejoicing, second thoughts impressed them with the grave nature of
+the international question involved, and the serious dilemma of
+disavowal or war precipitated by the imperative British demand. It
+was fortunate that Secretary Seward and Lord Lyons were close
+personal friends, and still more that though British public opinion
+had strongly favored the rebellion, the Queen of England
+entertained the kindliest feelings for the American government.
+Under her direction, Prince Albert instructed the British cabinet
+to formulate and present the demand in the most courteous
+diplomatic language, while, on their part, the American President
+and cabinet discussed the affair in a temper of judicious
+reserve.</p>
+<p>President Lincoln's first desire was to refer the difficulty to
+friendly arbitration, and his mood is admirably expressed in the
+autograph experimental draft of a despatch suggesting this
+course.</p>
+<p>"The President is unwilling to believe," he wrote, "that her
+Majesty's government will press for a categorical answer upon what
+appears to him to be only a partial record, in the making up of
+which he has been allowed no part. He is reluctant to volunteer his
+view of the case, with no assurance that her Majesty's government
+will consent to hear him; yet this much he directs me to say, that
+this government has intended no affront to the British flag, or to
+the British nation; nor has it intended to force into discussion an
+embarrassing question; all which is evident by the fact hereby
+asserted, that the act complained of was done by the officer
+without orders from, or expectation of, the government. But, being
+done, it was no longer left to us to consider whether we might not,
+to avoid a controversy, waive an unimportant though a strict right;
+be<a name="page248" id="page248"></a> cause we, too, as well as Great Britain,
+have a people justly jealous of their rights, and in whose presence
+our government could undo the act complained of only upon a fair
+showing that it was wrong, or at least very questionable. The
+United States government and people are still willing to make
+reparation upon such showing.</p>
+<p>"Accordingly, I am instructed by the President to inquire
+whether her Majesty's government will hear the United States upon
+the matter in question. The President desires, among other things,
+to bring into view, and have considered, the existing rebellion in
+the United States; the position Great Britain has assumed,
+including her Majesty's proclamation in relation thereto; the
+relation the persons whose seizure is the subject of complaint bore
+to the United States, and the object of their voyage at the time
+they were seized; the knowledge which the master of the
+<i>Trent</i> had of their relation to the United States, and of the
+object of their voyage, at the time he received them on board for
+the voyage; the place of the seizure; and the precedents and
+respective positions assumed in analogous cases between Great
+Britain and the United States.</p>
+<p>"Upon a submission containing the foregoing facts, with those
+set forth in the before-mentioned despatch to your lordship,
+together with all other facts which either party may deem material,
+I am instructed to say the government of the United States will, if
+agreed to by her Majesty's government, go to such friendly
+arbitration as is usual among nations, and will abide the
+award."</p>
+<p>The most practised diplomatic pen in Europe could not have
+written a more dignified, courteous, or succinct presentation of
+the case; and yet, under the <a name="page249" id="page249"></a>necessities of the moment, it
+was impossible to adopt this procedure. Upon full discussion, it
+was decided that war with Great Britain must be avoided, and Mr.
+Seward wrote a despatch defending the course of Captain Wilkes up
+to the point where he permitted the <i>Trent</i> to proceed on her
+voyage. It was his further duty to have brought her before a prize
+court. Failing in this, he had left the capture incomplete under
+rules of international law, and the American government had thereby
+lost the right and the legal evidence to establish the contraband
+character of the vessel and the persons seized. Under the
+circumstances, the prisoners were therefore willingly released.
+Excited American feeling was grievously disappointed at the result;
+but American good sense readily accommodated itself both to the
+correctness of the law expounded by the Secretary of State, and to
+the public policy that averted a great international danger;
+particularly as this decision forced Great Britain to depart from
+her own and to adopt the American traditions respecting this class
+of neutral rights.</p>
+<p>It has already been told how Captain George B. McClellan was
+suddenly raised in rank, at the very outset of the war, first to a
+major-generalship in the three months' militia, then to the command
+of the military department of the Ohio; from that to a
+major-generalship in the regular army; and after his successful
+campaign in West Virginia was called to Washington and placed in
+command of the Division of the Potomac, which comprised all the
+troops in and around Washington, on both sides of the river. Called
+thus to the capital of the nation to guard it against the results
+of the disastrous battle of Bull Run, and to organize a new army
+for extended offensive operations, the surrounding conditions
+naturally suggested to him that in all <a name="page250" id="page250"></a>
+likelihood he would play a conspicuous part in the great drama of
+the Civil War. His ambition rose eagerly to the prospect. On the
+day on which he assumed command, July 27, he wrote to his wife:</p>
+<p>"I find myself in a new and strange position here; President,
+cabinet, General Scott, and all, deferring to me. By some strange
+operation of magic I seem to have become the power of the
+land."</p>
+<p>And three days later:</p>
+<p>"They give me my way in everything, full swing and unbounded
+confidence.... Who would have thought, when we were married, that I
+should so soon be called upon to save my country?"</p>
+<p>And still a few days afterward:</p>
+<p>"I shall carry this thing <i>en grande</i>, and crush the rebels
+in one campaign."</p>
+<p>From the giddy elevation to which such an imaginary achievement
+raised his dreams, there was but one higher step, and his colossal
+egotism immediately mounted to occupy it. On August 9, just two
+weeks after his arrival in Washington, he wrote:</p>
+<p>"I would cheerfully take the dictatorship and agree to lay down
+my life when the country is saved;" while in the same letter he
+adds, with the most na&iuml;ve unconsciousness of his
+hallucination: "I am not spoiled by my unexpected new
+position."</p>
+<p>Coming to the national capital in the hour of deepest public
+depression over the Bull Run defeat, McClellan was welcomed by the
+President, the cabinet, and General Scott with sincere friendship,
+by Congress with a hopeful eagerness, by the people with
+enthusiasm, and by Washington society with adulation. Externally he
+seemed to justify such a greeting. He was young, handsome,
+accomplished, genial and winning in conversation and manner. He at
+once manifested <a name="page251" id="page251"></a>great industry and quick decision, and
+speedily exhibited a degree of ability in army organization which
+was not equaled by any officer during the Civil War. Under his eye
+the stream of the new three years' regiments pouring into the city
+went to their camps, fell into brigades and divisions, were
+supplied with equipments, horses, and batteries, and underwent the
+routine of drill, tactics, and reviews, which, without the least
+apparent noise or friction, in three months made the Army of the
+Potomac a perfect fighting machine of over one hundred and fifty
+thousand men and more than two hundred guns.</p>
+<p>Recognizing his ability in this work, the government had indeed
+given him its full confidence, and permitted him to exercise almost
+unbounded authority; which he fully utilized in favoring his
+personal friends, and drawing to himself the best resources of the
+whole country in arms, supplies, and officers of education and
+experience. For a while his outward demeanor indicated respect and
+gratitude for the promotion and liberal favors bestowed upon him.
+But his phenomenal rise was fatal to his usefulness. The dream that
+he was to be the sole savior of his country, announced
+confidentially to his wife just two weeks after his arrival in
+Washington, never again left him so long as he continued in
+command. Coupled with this dazzling vision, however, was soon
+developed the tormenting twofold hallucination: first, that
+everybody was conspiring to thwart him; and, second, that the enemy
+had from double to quadruple numbers to defeat him.</p>
+<p>For the first month he could not sleep for the nightmare that
+Beauregard's demoralized army had by a sudden bound from Manassas
+seized the city of Washington. He immediately began a quarrel with
+General Scott, which, by the first of November, drove the old<a name="page252" id="page252"></a> hero into retirement and out of his
+pathway. The cabinet members who, wittingly or unwittingly, had
+encouraged him in this he some weeks later stigmatized as a set of
+geese. Seeing that President Lincoln was kind and unassuming in
+discussing military questions, McClellan quickly contracted the
+habit of expressing contempt for him in his confidential letters;
+and the feeling rapidly grew until it reached a mark of open
+disrespect. The same trait manifested itself in his making
+exclusive confidants of only two or three of his subordinate
+generals, and ignoring the counsel of all the others; and when,
+later on, Congress appointed a standing committee of leading
+senators and representatives to examine into the conduct of the
+war, he placed himself in a similar attitude respecting their
+inquiry and advice.</p>
+<p>McClellan's activity and judgment as an army organizer naturally
+created great hopes that he would be equally efficient as a
+commander in the field. But these hopes were grievously
+disappointed. To his first great defect of estimating himself as
+the sole savior of the country, must at once be added the second,
+of his utter inability to form any reasonable judgment of the
+strength of the enemy in his front. On September 8, when the
+Confederate army at Manassas numbered forty-one thousand, he rated
+it at one hundred and thirty thousand. By the end of October that
+estimate had risen to one hundred and fifty thousand, to meet which
+he asked that his own force should be raised to an aggregate of two
+hundred and forty thousand, with a total of effectives of two
+hundred and eight thousand, and four hundred and eighty-eight guns.
+He suggested that to gather this force all other points should be
+left on the defensive; that the Army of the Potomac held the fate
+of the country in its hands; that <a name="page253" id="page253"></a>the advance should not be
+postponed beyond November 25; and that a single will should direct
+the plan of accomplishing a crushing defeat of the rebel army at
+Manassas.</p>
+<p>On the first of November the President, yielding at last to
+General Scott's urgent solicitation, issued the orders placing him
+on the retired list, and in his stead appointing General McClellan
+to the command of all the armies. The administration indulged the
+expectation that at last "The Young Napoleon," as the newspapers
+often called him, would take advantage of the fine autumn weather,
+and, by a bold move with his single will and his immense force,
+outnumbering the enemy nearly four to one, would redeem his promise
+to crush the army at Manassas and "save the country." But the
+November days came and went, as the October days had come and gone.
+McClellan and his brilliant staff galloped unceasingly from camp to
+camp, and review followed review, while autumn imperceptibly gave
+place to the cold and storms of winter; and still there was no sign
+of forward movement.</p>
+<p>Under his own growing impatience, as well as that of the public,
+the President, about the first of December, inquired pointedly, in
+a memorandum suggesting a plan of campaign, how long it would
+require to actually get in motion. McClellan answered: "By December
+15,&mdash;probably 25"; and put aside the President's suggestion by
+explaining: "I have now my mind actively turned toward another plan
+of campaign that I do not think at all anticipated by the enemy,
+nor by many of our own people."</p>
+<p>December 25 came, as November 25 had come, and still there was
+no plan, no preparation, no movement. Then McClellan fell seriously
+ill. By a spontaneous and most natural impulse, the soldiers of the
+various <a name="page254" id="page254"></a>camps began the erection of huts to
+shelter them from snow and storm. In a few weeks the Army of the
+Potomac was practically, if not by order, in winter quarters; and
+day after day the monotonous telegraphic phrase "All quiet on the
+Potomac" was read from Northern newspapers in Northern homes, until
+by mere iteration it degenerated from an expression of deep
+disappointment to a note of sarcastic criticism.</p>
+<p>While so unsatisfactory a condition of affairs existed in the
+first great military field east of the Alleghanies, the outlook was
+quite as unpromising both in the second&mdash;between the
+Alleghanies and the Mississippi&mdash;and in the third&mdash;west
+of the Mississippi. When the Confederates, about September 1, 1861,
+invaded Kentucky, they stationed General Pillow at the strongly
+fortified town of Columbus on the Mississippi River, with about six
+thousand men; General Buckner at Bowling Green, on the railroad
+north of Nashville, with five thousand; and General Zollicoffer,
+with six regiments, in eastern Kentucky, fronting Cumberland Gap.
+Up to that time there were no Union troops in Kentucky, except a
+few regiments of Home Guards. Now, however, the State legislature
+called for active help; and General Anderson, exercising nominal
+command from Cincinnati, sent Brigadier-General Sherman to
+Nashville to confront Buckner, and Brigadier-General Thomas to Camp
+Dick Robinson, to confront Zollicoffer.</p>
+<p>Neither side was as yet in a condition of force and preparation
+to take the aggressive. When, a month later, Anderson, on account
+of ill health turned over the command to Sherman, the latter had
+gathered only about eighteen thousand men, and was greatly
+discouraged by the task of defending three hundred miles of
+frontier with that small force. In an interview with<a name="page255" id="page255"></a> Secretary
+of War Cameron, who called upon him on his return from
+Fr&eacute;mont's camp, about the middle of October, he strongly
+urged that he needed for immediate defense sixty thousand, and for
+ultimate offense "two hundred thousand before we were done." "Great
+God!" exclaimed Cameron, "where are they to come from?" Both
+Sherman's demand and Cameron's answer were a pertinent comment on
+McClellan's policy of collecting the whole military strength of the
+country at Washington to fight the one great battle for which he
+could never get ready.</p>
+<p>Sherman was so distressed by the seeming magnitude of his burden
+that he soon asked to be relieved; and when Brigadier-General Buell
+was sent to succeed him in command of that part of Kentucky lying
+east of the Cumberland River, it was the expectation of the
+President that he would devote his main attention and energy to the
+accomplishment of a specific object which Mr. Lincoln had very much
+at heart.</p>
+<p>Ever since the days in June, when President Lincoln had presided
+over the council of war which discussed and decided upon the Bull
+Run campaign, he had devoted every spare moment of his time to the
+study of such military books and leading principles of the art of
+war as would aid him in solving questions that must necessarily
+come to himself for final decision. His acute perceptions,
+retentive memory, and unusual power of logic enabled him to make
+rapid progress in the acquisition of the fixed and accepted rules
+on which military writers agree. In this, as in other sciences, the
+main difficulty, of course, lies in applying fixed theories to
+variable conditions. When, however, we remember that at the
+outbreak of hostilities all the great commanders of the Civil War
+had experience only as captains and lieutenants, it is not strange <a name="page256" id="page256"></a>
+that in speculative military problems
+the President's mature reasoning powers should have gained almost
+as rapidly by observation and criticism as theirs by practice and
+experiment. The mastery he attained of the difficult art, and how
+intuitively correct was his grasp of military situations, has been
+attested since in the enthusiastic admiration of brilliant
+technical students, amply fitted by training and intellect to
+express an opinion, whose comment does not fall short of declaring
+Mr. Lincoln "the ablest strategist of the war."</p>
+<p>The President had early discerned what must become the
+dominating and decisive lines of advance in gaining and holding
+military control of the Southern States. Only two days after the
+battle of Bull Run, he had written a memorandum suggesting three
+principal objects for the army when reorganized: First, to gather a
+force to menace Richmond; second, a movement from Cincinnati upon
+Cumberland Gap and East Tennessee; third, an expedition from Cairo
+against Memphis. In his eyes, the second of these objectives never
+lost its importance; and it was in fact substantially adopted by
+indirection and by necessity in the closing periods of the war. The
+eastern third of the State of Tennessee remained from the first
+stubbornly and devotedly loyal to the Union. At an election on June
+8, 1861, the people of twenty-nine counties, by more than two to
+one, voted against joining the Confederacy; and the most rigorous
+military repression by the orders of Jefferson Davis and Governor
+Harris was necessary to prevent a general uprising against the
+rebellion.</p>
+<p>The sympathy of the President, even more than that of the whole
+North, went out warmly to these unfortunate Tennesseeans, and he
+desired to convert their mountain fastnesses into an impregnable
+patriotic <a name="page257" id="page257"></a>stronghold. Had his advice been
+followed, it would have completely severed railroad communication,
+by way of the Shenandoah valley, Knoxville, and Chattanooga,
+between Virginia and the Gulf States, accomplishing in the winter
+of 1861 what was not attained until two years later. Mr. Lincoln
+urged this in a second memorandum, made late in September; and
+seeing that the principal objection to it lay in the long and
+difficult line of land transportation, his message to Congress of
+December 3, 1861, recommended, as a military measure, the
+construction of a railroad to connect Cincinnati, by way of
+Lexington, Kentucky, with that mountain region.</p>
+<p>A few days after the message, he personally went to the
+President's room in the Capitol building, and calling around him a
+number of leading senators and representatives, and pointing out on
+a map before them the East Tennessee region, said to them in
+substance:</p>
+<p>I am thoroughly convinced that the closing struggle of the war
+will occur somewhere in this mountain country. By our superior
+numbers and strength we will everywhere drive the rebel armies back
+from the level districts lying along the coast, from those lying
+south of the Ohio River, and from those lying east of the
+Mississippi River. Yielding to our superior force, they will
+gradually retreat to the more defensible mountain districts, and
+make their final stand in that part of the South where the seven
+States of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia,
+Tennessee, Kentucky, and West Virginia come together. The
+population there is overwhelmingly and devotedly loyal to the
+Union. The despatches from Brigadier-General Thomas of October 28
+and November 5 show that, with four additional good regiments, he
+is willing to undertake the campaign and is confident <a name="page258" id="page258"></a>he can
+take immediate possession. Once established, the people will rally
+to his support, and by building a railroad, over which to forward
+him regular supplies and needed reinforcements from time to time,
+we can hold it against all attempts to dislodge us, and at the same
+time menace the enemy in any one of the States I have named.</p>
+<p>While his hearers listened with interest, it was evident that
+their minds were still full of the prospect of a great battle in
+Virginia, the capture of Richmond, and an early suppression of the
+rebellion. Railroad building appeared to them altogether too slow
+an operation of war. To show how sagacious was the President's
+advice, we may anticipate by recalling that in the following summer
+General Buell spent as much time, money, and military strength in
+his attempted march from Corinth to East Tennessee as would have
+amply sufficed to build the line from Lexington to Knoxville
+recommended by Mr. Lincoln&mdash;the general's effort resulting
+only in his being driven back to Louisville; that in 1863,
+Burnside, under greater difficulties, made the march and
+successfully held Knoxville, even without a railroad, which Thomas
+with a few regiments could have accomplished in 1861; and that in
+the final collapse of the rebellion, in the spring of 1865, the
+beaten armies of both Johnston and Lee attempted to retreat for a
+last stand to this same mountain region which Mr. Lincoln pointed
+out in December, 1861.</p>
+<p>Though the President received no encouragement from senators and
+representatives in his plan to take possession of East Tennessee,
+that object was specially enjoined in the instructions to General
+Buell when he was sent to command in Kentucky.</p>
+<p>"It so happens that a large majority of the inhabitants of
+eastern Tennessee are in favor of the Union; <a name="page259" id="page259"></a>it
+therefore seems proper that you should remain on the defensive on
+the line from Louisville to Nashville, while you throw the mass of
+your forces by rapid marches by Cumberland Gap or Walker's Gap on
+Knoxville, in order to occupy the railroad at that point, and thus
+enable the loyal citizens of eastern Tennessee to rise, while you
+at the same time cut off the railway communication between eastern
+Virginia and the Mississippi."</p>
+<p>Three times within the same month McClellan repeated this
+injunction to Buell with additional emphasis. Senator Andrew
+Johnson and Representative Horace Maynard telegraphed him from
+Washington:</p>
+<p>"Our people are oppressed and pursued as beasts of the forest;
+the government must come to their relief."</p>
+<p>Buell replied, keeping the word of promise to the ear, but, with
+his ambition fixed on a different campaign, gradually but doggedly
+broke it to the hope. When, a month later, he acknowledged that his
+preparations and intent were to move against Nashville, the
+President wrote him:</p>
+<p>"Of the two, I would rather have a point on the railroad south
+of Cumberland Gap than Nashville. <i>First</i>, because it cuts a
+great artery of the enemy's communication which Nashville does not;
+and, <i>secondly</i>, because it is in the midst of loyal people,
+who would rally around it, while Nashville is not.... But my
+distress is that our friends in East Tennessee are being hanged and
+driven to despair, and even now, I fear, are thinking of taking
+rebel arms for the sake of personal protection. In this we lose the
+most valuable stake we have in the South."</p>
+<p>McClellan's comment amounted to a severe censure, and this was
+quickly followed by an almost positive <a name="page260" id="page260"></a>command
+to "advance on eastern Tennessee at once." Again Buell promised
+compliance, only, however, again to report in a few weeks his
+conviction "that an advance into East Tennessee is impracticable at
+this time on any scale which would be sufficient." It is difficult
+to speculate upon the advantages lost by this unwillingness of a
+commander to obey instructions. To say nothing of the strategical
+value of East Tennessee to the Union, the fidelity of its people is
+shown in the reports sent to the Confederate government that "the
+whole country is now in a state of rebellion"; that "civil war has
+broken out in East Tennessee"; and that "they look for the
+re&euml;stablishment of the Federal authority in the South with as
+much confidence as the Jews look for the coming of the
+Messiah."</p>
+<p>Henry W. Halleck, born in 1815, graduated from West Point in
+1839, who, after distinguished service in the Mexican war, had been
+brevetted captain of Engineers, but soon afterward resigned from
+the army to pursue the practice of law in San Francisco, was,
+perhaps, the best professionally equipped officer among the number
+of those called by General Scott in the summer of 1861 to assume
+important command in the Union army. It is probable that Scott
+intended he should succeed himself as general-in-chief; but when he
+reached Washington the autumn was already late, and because of
+Fr&eacute;mont's conspicuous failure it seemed necessary to send
+Halleck to the Department of the Missouri, which, as reconstituted,
+was made to include, in addition to several northwestern States,
+Missouri and Arkansas, and so much of Kentucky as lay west of the
+Cumberland River. This change of department lines indicates the
+beginning of what soon became a dominant feature of military
+operations; namely, that instead of the vast regions lying west of
+the Mississippi, <a name="page261" id="page261"></a>the great river itself, and the country
+lying immediately adjacent to it on either side, became the third
+principal field of strategy and action, under the necessity of
+opening and holding it as a great military and commercial
+highway.</p>
+<p>While the intention of the government to open the Mississippi
+River by a powerful expedition received additional emphasis through
+Halleck's appointment, that general found no immediate means
+adequate to the task when he assumed command at St. Louis.
+Fr&eacute;mont's r&eacute;gime had left the whole department in the
+most deplorable confusion. Halleck reported that he had no army,
+but, rather, a military rabble to command and for some weeks
+devoted himself with energy and success to bringing order out of
+the chaos left him by his predecessor. A large element of his
+difficulty lay in the fact that the population of the whole State
+was tainted with disloyalty to a degree which rendered Missouri
+less a factor in the larger questions of general army operations,
+than from the beginning to the end of the war a local district of
+bitter and relentless factional hatred and guerrilla or, as the
+term was constantly employed, "bushwhacking" warfare, intensified
+and kept alive by annual roving Confederate incursions from
+Arkansas and the Indian Territory in desultory summer
+campaigns.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="page262" id="page262"></a>
+<h2><a name="XIX" id="XIX"></a>XIX</h2>
+<br />
+<p><i>Lincoln Directs Co&ouml;peration&mdash;Halleck and
+Buell&mdash;Ulysses S. Grant&mdash;Grant's
+Demonstration&mdash;Victory at Mill River&mdash;Fort
+Henry&mdash;Fort Donelson&mdash;Buell's Tardiness&mdash;Halleck's
+Activity&mdash;Victory of Pea Ridge&mdash;Halleck Receives General
+Command&mdash;Pittsburg Landing&mdash;Island No. 10&mdash;Halleck's
+Corinth Campaign&mdash;Halleck's Mistakes</i></p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<p>Toward the end of December, 1861, the prospects of the
+administration became very gloomy. McClellan had indeed organized a
+formidable army at Washington, but it had done nothing to efface
+the memory of the Bull Run defeat. On the contrary, a practical
+blockade of the Potomac by rebel batteries on the Virginia shore,
+and another small but irritating defeat at Ball's Bluff, greatly
+heightened public impatience. The necessary surrender of Mason and
+Slidell to England was exceedingly unpalatable. Government
+expenditures had risen to $2,000,000 a day, and a financial crisis
+was imminent. Buell would not move into East Tennessee, and Halleck
+seemed powerless in Missouri. Added to this, McClellan's illness
+completed a stagnation of military affairs both east and west.
+Congress was clamoring for results, and its joint Committee on the
+Conduct of the War was pushing a searching inquiry into the causes
+of previous defeats.</p>
+<p>To remove this inertia, President Lincoln directed specific
+questions to the Western commanders. "Are<a name="page263" id="page263"></a> General
+Buell and yourself in concert?" he telegraphed Halleck on December
+31. And next day he wrote:</p>
+<p>"I am very anxious that, in case of General Buell's moving
+toward Nashville, the enemy shall not be greatly reinforced, and I
+think there is danger he will be from Columbus. It seems to me that
+a real or feigned attack on Columbus from up-river at the same time
+would either prevent this, or compensate for it by throwing
+Columbus into our hands."</p>
+<p>Similar questions also went to Buell, and their replies showed
+that no concert, arrangement, or plans existed, and that Halleck
+was not ready to co&ouml;perate. The correspondence started by the
+President's inquiry for the first time clearly brought out an
+estimate of the Confederate strength opposed to a southward
+movement in the West. Since the Confederate invasion of Kentucky on
+September 4, the rebels had so strongly fortified Columbus on the
+Mississippi River that it came to be called the "Gibraltar of the
+West," and now had a garrison of twenty thousand to hold it; while
+General Buckner was supposed to have a force of forty thousand at
+Bowling Green on the railroad between Louisville and Nashville. For
+more than a month Buell and Halleck had been aware that a joint
+river and land expedition southward up the Tennessee or the
+Cumberland River, which would outflank both positions and cause
+their evacuation, was practicable with but little opposition. Yet
+neither Buell nor Halleck had exchanged a word about it, or made
+the slightest preparation to begin it; each being busy in his own
+field, and with his own plans. Even now, when the President had
+started the subject, Halleck replied that it would be bad strategy
+for himself to move against Columbus, or Buell against Bowling
+Green; but he had nothing to say about a Tennessee River
+expedition, or <a name="page264" id="page264"></a>co&ouml;peration with Buell to effect
+it, except by indirectly complaining that to withdraw troops from
+Missouri would risk the loss of that State.</p>
+<p>The President, however, was no longer satisfied with indecision
+and excuses, and telegraphed to Buell on January 7:</p>
+<p>"Please name as early a day as you safely can on or before which
+you can be ready to move southward in concert with Major-General
+Halleck. Delay is ruining us, and it is indispensable for me to
+have something definite. I send a like despatch to Major-General
+Halleck."</p>
+<p>To this Buell made no direct reply, while Halleck answered that
+he had asked Buell to designate a date for a demonstration, and
+explained two days later: "I can make, with the gunboats and
+available troops, a pretty formidable demonstration, but no real
+attack." In point of fact, Halleck had on the previous day, January
+6, written to Brigadier-General U.S. Grant: "I wish you to make a
+demonstration in force": and he added full details, to which Grant
+responded on January 8: "Your instructions of the sixth were
+received this morning, and immediate preparations made for carrying
+them out"; also adding details on his part.</p>
+<p>Ulysses S. Grant was born on April 27, 1822, was graduated from
+West Point in 1843, and brevetted captain for gallant conduct in
+the Mexican War; but resigned from the army and was engaged with
+his father in a leather store at Galena, Illinois, when the Civil
+War broke out. Employed by the governor of Illinois a few weeks at
+Springfield to assist in organizing militia regiments under the
+President's first call, Grant wrote a letter to the War Department
+at Washington tendering his services, and saying: "I feel myself
+competent to command a regiment, if the President in his judgment <a name="page265" id="page265"></a>
+should see fit to intrust one to me."
+For some reason, never explained, this letter remained unanswered,
+though the department was then and afterward in constant need of
+educated and experienced officers. A few weeks later, however,
+Governor Yates commissioned him colonel of one of the Illinois
+three years' regiments. From that time until the end of 1861,
+Grant, by constant and specially meritorious service, rose in rank
+to brigadier-general and to the command of the important post of
+Cairo, Illinois, having meanwhile, on November 7, won the battle of
+Belmont on the Missouri shore opposite Columbus.</p>
+<p>The "demonstration'" ordered by Halleck was probably intended
+only as a passing show of activity; but it was executed by Grant,
+though under strict orders to "avoid a battle," with a degree of
+promptness and earnestness that drew after it momentous
+consequences. He pushed a strong reconnaissance by eight thousand
+men within a mile or two of Columbus, and sent three gunboats up
+the Tennessee River, which drew the fire of Fort Henry. The results
+of the combined expedition convinced Grant that a real movement in
+that direction was practicable, and he hastened to St. Louis to lay
+his plan personally before Halleck. At first that general would
+scarcely listen to it; but, returning to Cairo, Grant urged it
+again and again, and the rapidly changing military conditions soon
+caused Halleck to realize its importance.</p>
+<p>Within a few days, several items of interesting information
+reached Halleck: that General Thomas, in eastern Kentucky, had won
+a victory over the rebel General Zollicoffer, capturing his
+fortified camp on Cumberland River, annihilating his army of over
+ten regiments, and fully exposing Cumberland Gap; that the
+Confederates were about to throw strong <a name="page266" id="page266"></a>reinforcements
+into Columbus; that seven formidable Union ironclad river gunboats
+were ready for service; and that a rise of fourteen feet had taken
+place in the Tennessee River, greatly weakening the rebel batteries
+on that stream and the Cumberland. The advantages on the one hand,
+and the dangers on the other, which these reports indicated, moved
+Halleck to a sudden decision. When Grant, on January 28,
+telegraphed him: "With permission, I will take Fort Henry on the
+Tennessee, and establish and hold a large camp there," Halleck
+responded on the thirtieth: "Make your preparations to take and
+hold Fort Henry."</p>
+<p>It would appear that Grant's preparations were already quite
+complete when he received written instructions by mail on February
+1, for on the next day he started fifteen thousand men on
+transports, and on February 4 himself followed with seven gunboats
+under command of Commodore Foote. Two days later, Grant had the
+satisfaction of sending a double message in return: "Fort Henry is
+ours.... I shall take and destroy Fort Donelson on the eighth."</p>
+<p>Fort Henry had been an easy victory. The rebel commander,
+convinced that he could not defend the place, had early that
+morning sent away his garrison of three thousand on a retreat to
+Fort Donelson, and simply held out during a two hours' bombardment
+until they could escape capture. To take Fort Donelson was a more
+serious enterprise. That stronghold, lying twelve miles away on the
+Cumberland River, was a much larger work, with a garrison of six
+thousand, and armed with seventeen heavy and forty-eight field
+guns. If Grant could have marched immediately to an attack of the
+combined garrisons, there would have been a chance of quick
+success. But the high water presented unlooked-for obstacles, and
+nearly a week <a name="page267" id="page267"></a>elapsed before his army began stretching
+itself cautiously around the three miles of Donelson's
+intrenchments. During this delay, the conditions became greatly
+changed. When the Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston
+received news that Fort Henry had fallen, he held a council at
+Bowling Green with his subordinate generals Hardee and Beauregard,
+and seeing that the Union success would, if not immediately
+counteracted, render both Nashville and Columbus untenable,
+resolved, to use his own language, "To defend Nashville at
+Donelson."</p>
+<p>An immediate retreat was begun from Bowling Green to Nashville,
+and heavy reinforcements were ordered to the garrison of Fort
+Donelson. It happened, therefore, that when Grant was ready to
+begin his assault the Confederate garrison with its reinforcements
+outnumbered his entire army. To increase the discouragement, the
+attack by gunboats on the Cumberland River on the afternoon of
+February 14 was repulsed, seriously damaging two of them, and a
+heavy sortie from the fort threw the right of Grant's investing
+line into disorder. Fortunately, General Halleck at St. Louis
+strained all his energies to send reinforcements, and these arrived
+in time to restore Grant's advantage in numbers.</p>
+<p>Serious disagreement among the Confederate commanders also
+hastened the fall of the place. On February 16, General Buckner, to
+whom the senior officers had turned over the command, proposed an
+armistice, and the appointment of commissioners to agree on terms
+of capitulation. To this Grant responded with a characteristic
+spirit of determination: "No terms except unconditional and
+immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately
+upon your works." Buckner complained that the terms were
+<a name="page268" id="page268"></a>ungenerous and unchivalric, but that
+necessity compelled him to accept them; and Grant telegraphed
+Halleck on February 16: "We have taken Fort Donelson, and from
+twelve to fifteen thousand prisoners." The senior Confederate
+generals, Pillow and Floyd, and a portion of the garrison had
+escaped by the Cumberland River during the preceding night.</p>
+<p>Since the fall of Fort Henry on February 6, a lively
+correspondence had been going on, in which General Halleck besought
+Buell to come with his available forces, assist in capturing
+Donelson, and command the column up the Cumberland to cut off both
+Columbus and Nashville. President Lincoln, scanning the news with
+intense solicitude, and losing no opportunity to urge effective
+co&ouml;peration, telegraphed Halleck:</p>
+<p>"You have Fort Donelson safe, unless Grant shall be overwhelmed
+from outside: to prevent which latter will, I think, require all
+the vigilance, energy, and skill of yourself and Buell, acting in
+full co&ouml;peration. Columbus will not get at Grant, but the
+force from Bowling Green will. They hold the railroad from Bowling
+Green to within a few miles of Fort Donelson, with the bridge at
+Clarksville undisturbed. It is unsafe to rely that they will not
+dare to expose Nashville to Buell. A small part of their force can
+retire slowly toward Nashville, breaking up the railroad as they
+go, and keep Buell out of that city twenty days. Meantime,
+Nashville will be abundantly defended by forces from all south and
+perhaps from here at Manassas. Could not a cavalry force from
+General Thomas on the upper Cumberland dash across, almost
+unresisted, and cut the railroad at or near Knoxville, Tennessee?
+In the midst of a bombardment at Fort Donelson, why could not a
+gunboat run up and destroy the bridge at Clarksville? Our success
+or failure at Fort Donelson <a name="page269" id="page269"></a>is vastly important, and I beg you to
+put your soul in the effort. I send a copy of this to Buell."</p>
+<p>This telegram abundantly shows with what minute understanding
+and accurate judgment the President comprehended military
+conditions and results in the West. Buell, however, was too intent
+upon his own separate movement to seize the brilliant opportunity
+offered him. As he only in a feeble advance followed up the
+retreating Confederate column from Bowling Green to Nashville,
+Halleck naturally appropriated to himself the merit of the
+campaign, and telegraphed to Washington on the day after the
+surrender:</p>
+<p>"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."</p>
+<p>The eagerness of General Halleck for superior command in the
+West was, to say the least, very pardonable. A vast horizon of
+possibilities was opening up to his view. Two other campaigns under
+his direction were exciting his liveliest hopes. Late in December
+he had collected an army of ten thousand at the railroad terminus
+at Rolla, Missouri, under command of Brigadier-General Curtis, for
+the purpose of scattering the rebel forces under General Price at
+Springfield or driving them out of the State. Despite the hard
+winter weather, Halleck urged on the movement with almost
+peremptory orders, and Curtis executed the intentions of his chief
+with such alacrity that Price was forced into a rapid and damaging
+retreat from Springfield toward Arkansas. While forcing this
+enterprise in the southwest, Halleck had also determined on an
+important campaign in southeast Missouri.</p>
+<p>Next to Columbus, which the enemy evacuated on March 2, the
+strongest Confederate fortifications on <a name="page270" id="page270"></a>the
+Mississippi River were at Island No. 10, about forty miles farther
+to the south. To operate against these, he planned an expedition
+under Brigadier-General Pope to capture the town of New Madrid as a
+preliminary step. Columbus and Nashville were almost sure to fall
+as the result of Donelson. If now he could bring his two Missouri
+campaigns into a combination with two swift and strong Tennessee
+expeditions, while the enemy was in scattered retreat, he could
+look forward to the speedy capture of Memphis. But to the
+realization of such a project, the hesitation and slowness of Buell
+were a serious hindrance. That general had indeed started a
+division under Nelson to Grant's assistance, but it was not yet in
+the Cumberland when Donelson surrendered. Halleck's demand for
+enlarged power, therefore, became almost imperative. He pleaded
+earnestly with Buell:</p>
+<p>"I have asked the President to make you a major-general. Come
+down to the Cumberland and take command. The battle of the West is
+to be fought in that vicinity.... There will be no battle at
+Nashville." His telegrams to McClellan were more urgent. "Give it
+[the Western Division] to me, and I will split secession in twain
+in one month." And again: "I must have command of the armies in the
+West. Hesitation and delay are losing us the golden opportunity.
+Lay this before the President and Secretary of War. May I assume
+the command? Answer quickly."</p>
+<p>But McClellan was in no mood to sacrifice the ambition of his
+intimate friend and favorite, General Buell, and induced the
+President to withhold his consent; and while the generals were
+debating by telegraph, Nelson's division of the army of Buell moved
+up the Cumberland and occupied Nashville under the orders of Grant.
+Halleck, however, held tenaciously to his views and <a name="page271" id="page271"></a>requests,
+explaining to McClellan that he himself proposed going to
+Tennessee:</p>
+<p>"That is now the great strategic line of the western campaign,
+and I am surprised that General Buell should hesitate to reinforce
+me. He was too late at Fort Donelson.... Believe me, General, you
+make a serious mistake in having three independent commands in the
+West. There never will and never can be any co&ouml;peration at the
+critical moment; all military history proves it."</p>
+<p>This insistence had greater point because of the news received
+that Curtis, energetically following Price into Arkansas, had won a
+great Union victory at Pea Ridge, between March 5 and 8, over the
+united forces of Price and McCulloch, commanded by Van Dorn. At
+this juncture, events at Washington, hereafter to be mentioned,
+caused a reorganization of military commands and President
+Lincoln's Special War Order No. 3 consolidated the western
+departments of Hunter, Halleck, and Buell, as far east as
+Knoxville, Tennessee, under the title of the Department of the
+Mississippi, and placed General Halleck in command of the whole.
+Meanwhile, Halleck had ordered the victorious Union army at Fort
+Donelson to move forward to Savannah on the Tennessee River under
+the command of Grant; and, now that he had superior command,
+directed Buell to march all of his forces not required to defend
+Nashville "as rapidly as possible" to the same point. Halleck was
+still at St. Louis; and through the indecision of his further
+orders, through the slowness of Buell's march, and through the
+unexplained inattention of Grant, the Union armies narrowly escaped
+a serious disaster, which, however, the determined courage of the
+troops and subordinate officers turned into a most important
+victory.<a name="page272" id="page272"></a></p>
+<p>The "golden opportunity" so earnestly pointed out by Halleck,
+while not entirely lost, was nevertheless seriously diminished by
+the hesitation and delay of the Union commanders to agree upon some
+plan of effective co&ouml;peration. When, at the fall of Fort
+Donelson the Confederates retreated from Nashville toward
+Chattanooga, and from Columbus toward Jackson, a swift advance by
+the Tennessee River could have kept them separated; but as that
+open highway was not promptly followed in force, the flying
+Confederate detachments found abundant leisure to form a
+junction.</p>
+<p>Grant reached Savannah, on the east bank of the Tennessee River,
+about the middle of March, and in a few days began massing troops
+at Pittsburg Landing, six miles farther south, on the west bank of
+the Tennessee; still keeping his headquarters at Savannah, to await
+the arrival of Buell and his army. During the next two weeks he
+reported several times that the enemy was concentrating at Corinth,
+Mississippi, an important railroad crossing twenty miles from
+Pittsburg Landing, the estimate of their number varying from forty
+to eighty thousand. All this time his mind was so filled with an
+eager intention to begin a march upon Corinth, and a confidence
+that he could win a victory by a prompt attack, that he neglected
+the essential precaution of providing against an attack by the
+enemy, which at the same time was occupying the thoughts of the
+Confederate commander General Johnston.</p>
+<p>General Grant was therefore greatly surprised on the morning of
+April 6, when he proceeded from Savannah to Pittsburg Landing, to
+learn the cause of a fierce cannonade. He found that the
+Confederate army, forty thousand strong, was making an unexpected
+and determined attack in force on the Union camp, whose five
+divisions numbered a total of about <a name="page273" id="page273"></a>thirty-three thousand. The
+Union generals had made no provision against such an attack. No
+intrenchments had been thrown up, no plan or understanding
+arranged. A few preliminary picket skirmishes had, indeed, put the
+Union front on the alert, but the commanders of brigades and
+regiments were not prepared for the impetuous rush with which the
+three successive Confederate lines began the main battle. On their
+part, the enemy did not realize their hope of effecting a complete
+surprise, and the nature of the ground was so characterized by a
+network of local roads, alternating patches of woods and open
+fields, miry hollows and abrupt ravines, that the lines of conflict
+were quickly broken into short, disjointed movements that admitted
+of little or no combined or systematic direction. The effort of the
+Union officers was necessarily limited to a continuous resistance
+to the advance of the enemy, from whatever direction it came; that
+of the Confederate leaders to the general purpose of forcing the
+Union lines away from Pittsburg Landing so that they might destroy
+the Federal transports and thus cut off all means of retreat. In
+this effort, although during the whole of Sunday, April 6, the
+Union front had been forced back a mile and a half, the enemy had
+not entirely succeeded. About sunset, General Beauregard, who, by
+the death of General Johnston during the afternoon, succeeded to
+the Confederate command, gave orders to suspend the attack, in the
+firm expectation however, that he would be able to complete his
+victory the next morning.</p>
+<p>But in this hope he was disappointed. During the day the
+vanguard of Buell's army had arrived on the opposite bank of the
+river. Before nightfall one of his brigades was ferried across and
+deployed in front of the exultant enemy. During the night and
+early<a name="page274" id="page274"></a> Monday morning three superb divisions of
+Buell's army, about twenty thousand fresh, well-drilled troops,
+were advanced to the front under Buell's own direction; and by
+three o'clock of that day the two wings of the Union army were once
+more in possession of all the ground that had been lost on the
+previous day, while the foiled and disorganized Confederates were
+in full retreat upon Corinth. The severity of the battle may be
+judged by the losses. In the Union army: killed, 1754; wounded,
+8408; missing, 2885. In the Confederate army: killed, 1728;
+wounded, 8012; missing. 954.</p>
+<p>Having comprehended the uncertainty of Buell's successful
+junction with Grant, Halleck must have received tidings of the
+final victory at Pittsburg Landing with emotions of deep
+satisfaction. To this was now joined the further gratifying news
+that the enemy on that same momentous April 7 had surrendered
+Island No. 10, together with six or seven thousand Confederate
+troops, including three general officers, to the combined
+operations of General Pope and Flag-Officer Foote. Full particulars
+of these two important victories did not reach Halleck for several
+days. Following previous suggestions, Pope and Foote promptly moved
+their gunboats and troops down the river to the next Confederate
+stronghold, Fort Pillow, where extensive fortifications, aided by
+an overflow of the adjacent river banks, indicated strong
+resistance and considerable delay. When all the conditions became
+more fully known, Halleck at length adopted the resolution, to
+which he had been strongly leaning for some time, to take the field
+himself. About April 10 he proceeded from St. Louis to Pittsburg
+Landing, and on the fifteenth ordered Pope with his army to join
+him there, which the latter, having his troops already on
+transports succeeded in accomplishing by April 22. <a name="page275" id="page275"></a>Halleck
+immediately effected a new organization, combining the armies of
+the Tennessee, of the Ohio, and of the Mississippi into
+respectively his right wing, center, and left wing. He assumed
+command of the whole himself, and nominally made Grant second in
+command. Practically, however, he left Grant so little authority or
+work that the latter felt himself slighted, and asked leave to
+proceed to another field of duty.</p>
+<p>It required but a few weeks to demonstrate that however high
+were Halleck's professional acquirements in other respects, he was
+totally unfit for a commander in the field. Grant had undoubtedly
+been careless in not providing against the enemy's attack at
+Pittsburg Landing. Halleck, on the other extreme, was now doubly
+over-cautious in his march upon Corinth. From first to last, his
+campaign resembled a siege. With over one hundred thousand men
+under his hand, he moved at a snail's pace, building roads and
+breastworks, and consuming more than a month in advancing a
+distance of twenty miles; during which period Beauregard managed to
+collect about fifty thousand effective Confederates and construct
+defensive fortifications with equal industry around Corinth. When,
+on May 29, Halleck was within assaulting distance of the rebel
+intrenchments Beauregard had leisurely removed his sick and
+wounded, destroyed or carried away his stores, and that night
+finally evacuated the place, leaving Halleck to reap, practically,
+a barren victory.</p>
+<p>Nor were the general's plans and actions any more fruitful
+during the following six weeks. He wasted the time and energy of
+his soldiers multiplying useless fortifications about Corinth. He
+despatched Buell's wing of the army on a march toward eastern
+Tennessee but under such instructions and limitations that long
+before reaching its objective it was met by a <a name="page276" id="page276"></a>Confederate
+army under General Bragg, and forced into a retrograde movement
+which carried it back to Louisville. More deplorable, however, than
+either of these errors of judgment was Halleck's neglect to seize
+the opportune moment when, by a vigorous movement in
+co&ouml;peration with the brilliant naval victories under
+Flag-Officer Farragut, commanding a formidable fleet of Union
+war-ships, he might have completed the over-shadowing military task
+of opening the Mississippi River.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="page277" id="page277"></a>
+<h2><a name="XX" id="XX"></a>XX</h2>
+<br />
+<p><i>The Blockade&mdash;Hatteras Inlet&mdash;Roanoke
+Island&mdash;Fort Pulaski&mdash;Merrimac and Monitor&mdash;The
+Cumberland Sunk&mdash;The Congress Burned&mdash;Battle of the
+Ironclads&mdash;Flag-officer Farragut&mdash;Forts Jackson and St.
+Philip&mdash;New Orleans Captured&mdash;Farragut at
+Vicksburg&mdash;Farragut's Second Expedition to
+Vicksburg&mdash;Return to New Orleans</i></p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<p>In addition to its heavy work of maintaining the Atlantic
+blockade, the navy of the United States contributed signally toward
+the suppression of the rebellion by three brilliant victories which
+it gained during the first half of the year 1862. After careful
+preparation during several months, a joint expedition under the
+command of General Ambrose E. Burnside and Flag-Officer
+Goldsborough, consisting of more than twelve thousand men and
+twenty ships of war, accompanied by numerous transports, sailed
+from Fort Monroe on January 11, with the object of occupying the
+interior waters of the North Carolina coast. Before the larger
+vessels could effect their entrance through Hatteras Inlet,
+captured in the previous August, a furious storm set in, which
+delayed the expedition nearly a month. By February 7, however, that
+and other serious difficulties were overcome, and on the following
+day the expedition captured Roanoke Island, and thus completely
+opened the whole interior water-system of Albemarle and Pamlico
+sounds to the easy approach of the Union fleet and
+forces.<a name="page278" id="page278"></a></p>
+<p>From Roanoke Island as a base, minor expeditions within a short
+period effected the destruction of the not very formidable fleet
+which the enemy had been able to organize, and the reduction of
+Fort Macon and the rebel defenses of Elizabeth City, New Berne, and
+other smaller places. An eventual advance upon Goldsboro' formed
+part of the original plan; but, before it could be executed,
+circumstances intervened effectually to thwart that object.</p>
+<p>While the gradual occupation of the North Carolina coast was
+going on, two other expeditions of a similar nature were making
+steady progress. One of them, under the direction of General Quincy
+A. Gillmore, carried on a remarkable siege operation against Fort
+Pulaski, standing on an isolated sea marsh at the mouth of the
+Savannah River. Here not only the difficulties of approach, but the
+apparently insurmountable obstacle of making the soft, unctuous mud
+sustain heavy batteries, was overcome, and the fort compelled to
+surrender on April 11, after an effective bombardment. The second
+was an expedition of nineteen ships, which, within a few days
+during the month of March, without serious resistance, occupied the
+whole remaining Atlantic coast southward as far as St.
+Augustine.</p>
+<p>When, at the outbreak of the rebellion, the navy-yard at
+Norfolk, Virginia, had to be abandoned to the enemy, the
+destruction at that time attempted by Commodore Paulding remained
+very incomplete. Among the vessels set on fire, the screw-frigate
+<i>Merrimac</i>, which had been scuttled, was burned only to the
+water's edge, leaving her hull and machinery entirely uninjured. In
+due time she was raised by the Confederates, covered with a sloping
+roof of railroad iron, provided with a huge wedge-shaped prow of
+cast iron, and armed with a formidable battery of ten guns. Secret
+<a name="page279" id="page279"></a>information came to the Navy Department of
+the progress of this work, and such a possibility was kept in mind
+by the board of officers that decided upon the construction of the
+three experimental ironclads in September, 1861.</p>
+<p>The particular one of these three especially intended for this
+peculiar emergency was a ship of entirely novel design, made by the
+celebrated inventor John Ericsson, a Swede by birth, but American
+by adoption&mdash;a man who combined great original genius with
+long scientific study and experience. His invention may be most
+quickly described as having a small, very low hull, covered by a
+much longer and wider flat deck only a foot or two above the
+water-line, upon which was placed a revolving iron turret twenty
+feet in diameter, nine feet high, and eight inches thick, on the
+inside of which were two eleven-inch guns trained side by side and
+revolving with the turret. This unique naval structure was promptly
+nicknamed "a cheese-box on a raft," and the designation was not at
+all inapt. Naval experts at once recognized that her sea-going
+qualities were bad; but compensation was thought to exist in the
+belief that her iron turret would resist shot and shell, and that
+the thin edge of her flat deck would offer only a minimum mark to
+an enemy's guns: in other words, that she was no cruiser, but would
+prove a formidable floating battery; and this belief she abundantly
+justified.</p>
+<p>The test of her fighting qualities was attended by what almost
+suggested a miraculous coincidence. On Saturday, March 8, 1862,
+about noon, a strange-looking craft resembling a huge turtle was
+seen coming into Hampton Roads out of the mouth of Elizabeth River,
+and it quickly became certain that this was the much talked of
+rebel ironclad <i>Merrimac</i>, or, as the Confederates had renamed
+her, the <i>Virginia</i>. She steamed <a name="page280" id="page280"></a>rapidly
+toward Newport News, three miles to the southwest, where the Union
+ships <i>Congress</i> and <i>Cumberland</i> lay at anchor. These
+saw the uncouth monster coming and prepared for action. The
+<i>Minnesota</i>, the <i>St. Lawrence</i>, and the <i>Roanoke</i>,
+lying at Fortress Monroe also saw her and gave chase, but, the
+water being low, they all soon grounded. The broadsides of the
+<i>Congress</i>, as the <i>Merrimac</i> passed her at three hundred
+yards' distance, seemed to produce absolutely no effect upon her
+sloping iron roof. Neither did the broadsides of her intended prey,
+nor the fire of the shore batteries, for even an instant arrest her
+speed as, rushing on, she struck the <i>Cumberland</i>, and with
+her iron prow broke a hole as large as a hogshead in her side. Then
+backing away and hovering over her victim at convenient distance,
+she raked her decks with shot and shell until, after three quarters
+of an hour's combat, the <i>Cumberland</i> and her heroic
+defenders, who had maintained the fight with unyielding
+stubbornness, went to the bottom in fifty feet of water with colors
+flying.</p>
+<p>Having sunk the <i>Cumberland</i>, the <i>Merrimac</i> next
+turned her attention to the <i>Congress</i>, which had meanwhile
+run into shoal water and grounded where the rebel vessel could not
+follow. But the <i>Merrimac</i>, being herself apparently proof
+against shot and shell by her iron plating, took up a raking
+position two cables' length away, and during an hour's firing
+deliberately reduced the <i>Congress</i> to helplessness and to
+surrender&mdash;her commander being killed and the vessel set on
+fire. The approach, the manoeuvering, and the two successive
+combats consumed the afternoon, and toward nightfall the
+<i>Merrimac</i> and her three small consorts that had taken little
+part in the action withdrew to the rebel batteries on the Virginia
+shore: not alone because of the approaching darkness and the
+fatigue of <a name="page281" id="page281"></a>the crew, but because the rebel ship had
+really suffered considerable damage in ramming the
+<i>Cumberland</i>, as well as from one or two chance shots that
+entered her port-holes.</p>
+<p>That same night, while the burning <i>Congress</i> yet lighted
+up the waters of Hampton Roads, a little ship, as strange-looking
+and as new to marine warfare as the rebel turtleback herself,
+arrived by sea in tow from New York, and receiving orders to
+proceed at once to the scene of conflict, stationed herself near
+the grounded <i>Minnesota</i>. This was Ericsson's "cheese-box on a
+raft," named by him the <i>Monitor</i>. The Union officers who had
+witnessed the day's events with dismay, and were filled with gloomy
+forebodings for the morrow, while welcoming this providential
+reinforcement, were by no means reassured. The <i>Monitor</i> was
+only half the size of her antagonist, and had only two guns to the
+other's ten. But this very disparity proved an essential advantage.
+With only ten feet draft to the <i>Merrimac's</i> twenty-two, she
+not only possessed superior mobility, but might run where the
+<i>Merrimac</i> could not follow. When, therefore, at eight o'clock
+on Sunday, March 9, the <i>Merrimac</i> again came into Hampton
+Roads to complete her victory, Lieutenant John L. Worden,
+commanding the <i>Monitor</i>, steamed boldly out to meet her.</p>
+<p>Then ensued a three hours' naval conflict which held the
+breathless attention of the active participants and the spectators
+on ship and shore, and for many weeks excited the wonderment of the
+reading world. If the <i>Monitor's</i> solid eleven-inch balls
+bounded without apparent effect from the sloping roof of the
+<i>Merrimac</i>, so, in turn, the <i>Merrimac's</i> broadsides
+passed harmlessly over the low deck of the <i>Monitor</i>, or
+rebounded from the round sides of her iron turret. When the<a name="page282" id="page282"></a> unwieldy rebel turtleback, with her
+slow, awkward movement, tried to ram the pointed raft that carried
+the cheese-box, the little vessel, obedient to her rudder, easily
+glided out of the line of direct impact.</p>
+<p>Each ship passed through occasional moments of danger, but the
+long three hours' encounter ended without other serious damage than
+an injury to Lieutenant Worden by the explosion of a rebel shell
+against a crevice of the <i>Monitor's</i> pilot-house through which
+he was looking, which, temporarily blinding his eye-sight, disabled
+him from command. At that point the battle ended by mutual consent.
+The <i>Monitor</i>, unharmed except by a few unimportant dents in
+her plating, ran into shoal water to permit surgical attendance to
+her wounded officer. On her part, the <i>Merrimac</i>, abandoning
+any further molestation of the other ships, steamed away at noon to
+her retreat in Elizabeth River. The forty-one rounds fired from the
+<i>Monitor's</i> guns had so far weakened the <i>Merrimac's</i>
+armor that, added to the injuries of the previous day, it was of
+the highest prudence to avoid further conflict. A tragic fate soon
+ended the careers of both vessels. Owing to other military events,
+the <i>Merrimac</i> was abandoned, burned, and blown up by her
+officers about two months later; and in the following December, the
+<i>Monitor</i> foundered in a gale off Cape Hatteras. But the types
+of these pioneer ironclads, which had demonstrated such
+unprecedented fighting qualities, were continued. Before the end of
+the war the Union navy had more than twenty monitors in service;
+and the structure of the <i>Merrimac</i> was in a number of
+instances repeated by the Confederates.</p>
+<p>The most brilliant of all the exploits of the navy during the
+year 1862 were those carried on under the command of Flag-Officer
+David G. Farragut, who, <a name="page283" id="page283"></a>though a born Southerner and residing in
+Virginia when the rebellion broke out, remained loyal to the
+government and true to the flag he had served for forty-eight
+years. Various preparations had been made and various plans
+discussed for an effective attempt against some prominent point on
+the Gulf coast. Very naturally, all examinations of the subject
+inevitably pointed to the opening of the Mississippi as the
+dominant problem to be solved; and on January 9, Farragut was
+appointed to the command of the western Gulf blockading squadron,
+and eleven days thereafter received his confidential instructions
+to attempt the capture of the city of New Orleans.</p>
+<p>Thus far in the war, Farragut had been assigned to no prominent
+service, but the patience with which he had awaited his opportunity
+was now more than compensated by the energy and thoroughness with
+which he superintended the organization of his fleet. By the middle
+of April he was in the lower Mississippi with seventeen men-of-war
+and one hundred and seventy-seven guns. With him were Commander
+David D. Porter, in charge of a mortar flotilla of nineteen
+schooners and six armed steamships, and General Benjamin F. Butler,
+at the head of an army contingent of six thousand men, soon to be
+followed by considerable reinforcements.</p>
+<p>The first obstacle to be overcome was the fire from the twin
+forts Jackson and St. Philip, situated nearly opposite each other
+at a bend of the Mississippi twenty-five miles above the mouth of
+the river, while the city of New Orleans itself lies seventy-five
+miles farther up the stream. These were formidable forts of
+masonry, with an armament together of over a hundred guns, and
+garrisons of about six hundred men each. They also had auxiliary
+defenses: first, of a strong river <a name="page284" id="page284"></a>barrier of log rafts and
+other obstructions connected by powerful chains, half a mile below
+the forts; second, of an improvised fleet of sixteen rebel gunboats
+and a formidable floating battery. None of Farragut's ships were
+ironclad. He had, from the beginning of the undertaking, maintained
+the theory that a wooden fleet, properly handled, could
+successfully pass the batteries of the forts. "I would as soon have
+a paper ship as an ironclad; only give me <i>men</i> to fight her!"
+he said. He might not come back; but New Orleans would be won. In
+his hazardous undertaking his faith was based largely on the skill
+and courage of his subordinate commanders of ships, and this faith
+was fully sustained by their gallantry and devotion.</p>
+<p>Porter's flotilla of nineteen schooners carrying two mortars
+each, anchored below the forts, maintained a heavy bombardment for
+five days, and then Farragut decided to try his ships. On the night
+of the twentieth the daring work of two gunboats cut an opening
+through the river barrier through which the vessels might pass; and
+at two o'clock on the morning of April 24, Farragut gave the signal
+to advance. The first division of his fleet, eight vessels, led by
+Captain Bailey, successfully passed the barrier. The second
+division of nine ships was not quite so fortunate. Three of them
+failed to pass the barrier, but the others, led by Farragut himself
+in his flag-ship, the <i>Hartford</i>, followed the advance.</p>
+<p>The starlit night was quickly obscured by the smoke of the
+general cannonade from both ships and forts; but the heavy
+batteries of the latter had little effect on the passing fleet.
+Farragut's flag-ship was for a short while in great danger. At a
+moment when she slightly grounded a huge fire-raft, fully ablaze,
+was pushed against her by a rebel tug, and the flames caught in the
+<a name="page285" id="page285"></a> paint on her side, and mounted into her
+rigging. But this danger had also been provided against, and by
+heroic efforts the <i>Hartford</i> freed herself from her peril.
+Immediately above the forts, the fleet of rebel gunboats joined in
+the battle, which now resolved itself into a series of conflicts
+between single vessels or small groups. But the stronger and
+better-armed Union ships quickly destroyed the Confederate
+flotilla, with the single exception that two of the enemy's
+gunboats rammed the <i>Varuna</i> from opposite sides and sank her.
+Aside from this, the Union fleet sustained much miscellaneous
+damage, but no serious injury in the furious battle of an hour and
+a half.</p>
+<p>With but a short halt at Quarantine, six miles above the forts,
+Farragut and his thirteen ships of war pushed on rapidly over the
+seventy-five miles, and on the forenoon of April 25 New Orleans lay
+helpless under the guns of the Union fleet. The city was promptly
+evacuated by the Confederate General Lovell. Meanwhile, General
+Butler was busy moving his transports and troops around outside by
+sea to Quarantine; and, having occupied that point in force, Forts
+Jackson and St. Philip capitulated on April 28. This last
+obstruction removed, Butler, after having garrisoned the forts,
+brought the bulk of his army up to New Orleans, and on May 1
+Farragut turned over to him the formal possession of the city,
+where Butler continued in command of the Department of the Gulf
+until the following December.</p>
+<p>Farragut immediately despatched an advance section of his fleet
+up the Mississippi. None of the important cities on its banks below
+Vicksburg had yet been fortified, and, without serious opposition,
+they surrendered as the Union ships successively reached them.
+Farragut himself, following with the remainder of his fleet,
+<a name="page286" id="page286"></a> arrived at Vicksburg on May 20. This
+city, by reason of the high bluffs on which it stands, was the most
+defensible point on the whole length of the great river within the
+Southern States; but so confidently had the Confederates trusted to
+the strength of their works at Columbus, Island No. 10, Fort
+Pillow, and other points, that the fortifications of Vicksburg had
+thus far received comparatively little attention. The recent Union
+victories, however, both to the north and south, had awakened them
+to their danger; and when Lovell evacuated New Orleans, he shipped
+heavy guns and sent five Confederate regiments to Vicksburg; and
+during the eight days between their arrival on May 12 and the
+twentieth, on which day Farragut reached the city, six rebel
+batteries were put in readiness to fire on his ships.</p>
+<p>General Halleck, while pushing his siege works toward Corinth,
+was notified as early as April 27 that Farragut was coming, and the
+logic of the situation ought to have induced him to send a
+co&ouml;perating force to Farragut's assistance, or, at the very
+least, to have matured plans for such co&ouml;peration. All the
+events would have favored an expedition of this kind. When Corinth,
+at the end of May, fell into Halleck's hands, Forts Pillow and
+Randolph on the Mississippi River were hastily evacuated by the
+enemy, and on June 6 the Union flotilla of river gunboats which had
+rendered such signal service at Henry, Donelson, and Island No. 10,
+reinforced by a hastily constructed flotilla of heavy river tugs
+converted into rams, gained another brilliant victory in a most
+dramatic naval battle at Memphis, during which an opposing
+Confederate flotilla of similar rams and gunboats was almost
+completely destroyed, and the immediate evacuation of Memphis by
+the Confederates thereby forced.<a name="page287" id="page287"></a></p>
+<p>This left Vicksburg as the single barrier to the complete
+opening of the Mississippi, and that barrier was defended by only
+six batteries and a garrison of six Confederate regiments at the
+date of Farragut's arrival before it. But Farragut had with his
+expedition only two regiments of troops, and the rebel batteries
+were situated at such an elevation that the guns of the Union fleet
+could not be raised sufficiently to silence them. Neither help nor
+promise of help came from Halleck's army, and Farragut could
+therefore do nothing but turn his vessels down stream and return to
+New Orleans. There, about June 1, he received news from the Navy
+Department that the administration was exceedingly anxious to have
+the Mississippi opened; and this time, taking with him Porter's
+mortar flotilla and three thousand troops, he again proceeded up
+the river, and a second time reached Vicksburg on June 25.</p>
+<p>The delay, however, had enabled the Confederates greatly to
+strengthen the fortifications and the garrison of the city. Neither
+a bombardment from Porter's mortar sloops, nor the running of
+Farragut's ships past the batteries, where they were joined by the
+Union gunboat flotilla from above, sufficed to bring the
+Confederates to a surrender. Farragut estimated that a
+co&ouml;perating land force of twelve to fifteen thousand would
+have enabled him to take the works; and Halleck, on June 28 and
+July 3, partially promised early assistance. But on July 14 he
+reported definitely that it would be impossible for him to render
+the expected aid. Under these circumstances, the Navy Department
+ordered Farragut back to New Orleans, lest his ships of deep draft
+should be detained in the river by the rapidly falling water. The
+capture of Vicksburg was postponed for a whole year, and the early
+transfer of Halleck to Washington changed the current of Western
+campaigns.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="page288" id="page288"></a>
+<h2><a name="XXI" id="XXI"></a>XXI</h2>
+<br />
+<p><i>McClellan's Illness&mdash;Lincoln Consults McDowell and
+Franklin&mdash;President's Plan against Manassas&mdash;McClellan's
+Plan against Richmond&mdash;Cameron and Stanton&mdash;President's
+War Order No. 1&mdash;Lincoln's Questions to McClellan&mdash;News
+from the West&mdash;Death of Willie Lincoln&mdash;The Harper's
+Ferry Fiasco&mdash;President's War Order No. 3&mdash;The News from
+Hampton Roads&mdash;Manassas Evacuated&mdash;Movement to the
+Peninsular&mdash;Yorktown&mdash;The Peninsula Campaign&mdash;Seven
+Days' Battles&mdash;Retreat to Harrison's Landing</i></p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<p>We have seen how the express orders of President Lincoln in the
+early days of January, 1862, stirred the Western commanders to the
+beginning of active movements that brought about an important
+series of victories during the first half of the year. The results
+of his determination to break a similar military stagnation in the
+East need now to be related.</p>
+<p>The gloomy outlook at the beginning of the year has already been
+mentioned. Finding on January 10 that General McClellan was still
+ill and unable to see him, he called Generals McDowell and Franklin
+into conference with himself, Seward, Chase, and the Assistant
+Secretary of War; and, explaining to them his dissatisfaction and
+distress at existing conditions, said to them that "if something
+were 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 <a name="page289" id="page289"></a> to borrow it, provided he could see how
+it could be made to do something."</p>
+<p>The two generals, differing on some other points, agreed,
+however, in a memorandum prepared next day at the President's
+request, that a direct movement against the Confederate army at
+Manassas was preferable to a movement by water against Richmond;
+that preparations for the former could be made in a week, while the
+latter would require a month or six weeks. Similar discussions were
+held on the eleventh and twelfth, and finally, on January 13, by
+which date General McClellan had sufficiently recovered to be
+present. McClellan took no pains to hide his displeasure at the
+proceedings, and ventured no explanation when the President asked
+what and when anything could be done. Chase repeated the direct
+interrogatory to McClellan himself, inquiring what he intended
+doing with his army, and when he intended doing it. McClellan
+stated his unwillingness to develop his plans, but said he would
+tell them if he was ordered to do so. The President then asked him
+if he had in his own mind any particular time fixed when a movement
+could be commenced. McClellan replied that he had. "Then," rejoined
+the President, "I will adjourn this meeting."</p>
+<p>While these conferences were going on, a change occurred in the
+President's cabinet; Secretary of War Cameron, who had repeatedly
+expressed a desire to be relieved from the onerous duties of the
+War Department, was made minister to Russia and Edwin M. Stanton
+appointed to succeed him. Stanton had been Attorney-General during
+the last months of President Buchanan's administration, and, though
+a lifelong Democrat, had freely conferred and co&ouml;perated with
+Republican leaders in the Senate and House of Representatives in
+thwarting secession schemes. He was <a name="page290" id="page290"></a>a lawyer of ability and
+experience, and, possessing organizing qualities of a high degree
+combined with a strong will and great physical endurance, gave his
+administration of the War Department a record for efficiency which
+it will be difficult for any future minister to equal; and for
+which service his few mistakes and subordinate faults of character
+will be readily forgotten. In his new functions, Stanton
+enthusiastically seconded the President's efforts to rouse the Army
+of the Potomac to speedy and vigorous action.</p>
+<p>In his famous report, McClellan states that very soon after
+Stanton became Secretary of War he explained verbally to the latter
+his plan of a campaign against Richmond by way of the lower
+Chesapeake Bay, and at Stanton's direction also explained it to the
+President. It is not strange that neither the President nor the new
+Secretary approved it. The reasons which then existed against it in
+theory, and were afterward demonstrated in practice, are altogether
+too evident. As this first plan was never reduced to writing, it
+may be fairly inferred that it was one of those mere suggestions
+which, like all that had gone before, would serve only to postpone
+action.</p>
+<p>The patience of the President was at length so far exhausted
+that on January 27 he wrote his General War Order No. I, which
+directed "that the 22d day of February, 1862, be the day for a
+general movement of all the land and naval forces of the United
+States against the insurgent forces," and that the Secretaries of
+War and of the Navy, the general-in-chief, and all other commanders
+and subordinates of land and naval forces "will severally be held
+to their strict and full responsibilities for prompt execution of
+this order." To leave no doubt of his intention that the Army of
+the Potomac should make a beginning, the President, <a name="page291" id="page291"></a>four days
+later, issued his Special War Order No. I, directing that after
+providing safely for the defense of Washington, it should move
+against the Confederate army at Manassas Junction, on or before the
+date announced.</p>
+<p>As McClellan had been allowed to have his way almost without
+question for six months past, it was, perhaps, as much through mere
+habit of opposition as from any intelligent decision in his own
+mind that he again requested permission to present his objections
+to the President's plan. Mr. Lincoln, thereupon, to bring the
+discussion to a practical point, wrote him the following list of
+queries on February 3:</p>
+<p>"MY DEAR SIR: You and I have distinct and different plans for a
+movement of the Army of the Potomac&mdash;yours to be down the
+Chesapeake, up the Rappahannock to Urbana, and across land to the
+terminus of the railroad on the York River; mine, to move directly
+to a point on the railroad southwest of Manassas.</p>
+<p>"If you will give me satisfactory answers to the following
+questions, I shall gladly yield my plan to yours.</p>
+<p>"<i>First</i>. Does not your plan involve a greatly larger
+expenditure of time and money than mine?"</p>
+<p>"<i>Second</i>. Wherein is a victory more certain by your plan
+than mine?"</p>
+<p>"<i>Third</i>. Wherein is a victory more valuable by your plan
+than mine?"</p>
+<p>"<i>Fourth</i>. 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?"</p>
+<p>"<i>Fifth</i>. In case of disaster, would not a retreat be more
+difficult by your plan than mine?"</p>
+<p>Instead of specifically answering the President's
+<a name="page292" id="page292"></a> concise interrogatories, McClellan, on the
+following day, presented to the Secretary of War a long letter,
+reciting in much detail his statement of what he had done since
+coming to Washington, and giving a rambling outline of what he
+thought might be accomplished in the future prosecution of the war.
+His reasoning in favor of an advance by Chesapeake Bay upon
+Richmond, instead of against Manassas Junction, rests principally
+upon the assumption that at Manassas the enemy is prepared to
+resist, while at Richmond there are no preparations; that to win
+Manassas would give us only the field of battle and the moral
+effect of a victory, while to win Richmond would give us the rebel
+capital with its communications and supplies; that at Manassas we
+would fight on a field chosen by the enemy, while at Richmond we
+would fight on one chosen by ourselves. If as a preliminary
+hypothesis these comparisons looked plausible, succeeding events
+quickly exposed their fallacy.</p>
+<p>The President, in his anxious studies and exhaustive discussion
+with military experts in the recent conferences, fully comprehended
+that under McClellan's labored strategical theories lay a
+fundamental error. It was not the capture of a place, but the
+destruction of the rebel armies that was needed to subdue the
+rebellion. But Mr. Lincoln also saw the fearful responsibility he
+would be taking upon himself if he forced McClellan to fight
+against his own judgment and protest, even though that judgment was
+incorrect. The whole subject, therefore, underwent a new and yet
+more elaborate investigation. The delay which this rendered
+necessary was soon greatly lengthened by two other causes. It was
+about this time that the telegraph brought news from the West of
+the surrender of Fort Henry, February 6, the investment of
+Fort<a name="page293" id="page293"></a> Donelson on the thirteenth, and its
+surrender on the sixteenth, incidents which absorbed the constant
+attention of the President and the Secretary of War. Almost
+simultaneously, a heavy domestic sorrow fell upon Mr. Lincoln in
+the serious illness of his son Willie, an interesting and most
+promising lad of twelve, and his death in the White House on
+February 20.</p>
+<p>When February 22 came, while there was plainly no full
+compliance with the President's War Order No. I, there was,
+nevertheless, such promise of a beginning, even at Washington, as
+justified reasonable expectation. The authorities looked almost
+hourly for the announcement of two preliminary movements which had
+been preparing for many days: one, to attack rebel batteries on the
+Virginia shore of the Potomac; the other to throw bridges&mdash;one
+of pontoons, the second a permanent bridge of
+canal-boats&mdash;across the river at Harper's Ferry, and an
+advance by Banks's division on Winchester to protect the opening of
+the Baltimore and Ohio railroad and re&euml;stablish transportation
+to and from the West over that important route.</p>
+<p>On the evening of February 27, Secretary Stanton came to the
+President, and, after locking the door to prevent interruption,
+opened and read two despatches from McClellan, who had gone
+personally to superintend the crossing. The first despatch from the
+general described the fine spirits of the troops, and the splendid
+throwing of the pontoon bridge by Captain Duane and his three
+lieutenants, for whom he at once recommended brevets, and the
+immediate crossing of eighty-five hundred infantry. This despatch
+was dated at ten o'clock the previous night. "The next is not so
+good," remarked the Secretary of War. It stated that the lift lock
+was too small to permit the canal-boats to enter the river, so that
+it was impossible to <a name="page294" id="page294"></a>construct the permanent bridge. He would
+therefore be obliged to fall back upon the safe and slow plan of
+merely covering the reconstruction of the railroad, which would be
+tedious and make it impossible to seize Winchester.</p>
+<p>"What does this mean?" asked the President, in amazement.</p>
+<p>"It means," said the Secretary of War, "that it is a damned
+fizzle. It means that he doesn't intend to do anything."</p>
+<p>The President's indignation was intense; and when, a little
+later, General Marcy, McClellan's father-in-law and chief of staff,
+came in, Lincoln's criticism of the affair was in sharper language
+than was his usual habit.</p>
+<p>"Why, in the name of common sense," said he, excitedly,
+"couldn't the general have known whether canal-boats would go
+through that lock before he spent a million dollars getting them
+there? I am almost despairing at these results. Everything seems to
+fail. The impression is daily gaining ground that the general does
+not intend to do anything. By a failure like this we lose all the
+prestige gained by the capture of Fort Donelson."</p>
+<p>The prediction of the Secretary of War proved correct. That same
+night, McClellan revoked Hooker's authority to cross the lower
+Potomac and demolish the rebel batteries about the Occoquan River.
+It was doubtless this Harper's Ferry incident which finally
+convinced the President that he could no longer leave McClellan
+intrusted with the sole and unrestricted exercise of military
+affairs. Yet that general had shown such decided ability in certain
+lines of his profession, and had plainly in so large a degree won
+the confidence of the Army of the Potomac itself, that he
+<a name="page295" id="page295"></a> did not wish entirely to lose the
+benefit of his services. He still hoped that, once actively started
+in the field, he might yet develop valuable qualities of
+leadership. He had substantially decided to let him have his own
+way in his proposed campaign against Richmond by water, and orders
+to assemble the necessary vessels had been given before the
+Harper's Ferry failure was known.</p>
+<p>Early on the morning of March 8, the President made one more
+effort to convert McClellan to a direct movement against Manassas,
+but without success. On the contrary, the general convened twelve
+of his division commanders in a council, who voted eight to four
+for the water route. This finally decided the question in the
+President's mind, but he carefully qualified the decision by two
+additional war orders of his own, written without consultation.
+President's General War Order No. 2 directed that the Army of the
+Potomac should be immediately organized into four army corps, to be
+respectively commanded by McDowell, Sumner, Heintzelman, and Keyes,
+and a fifth under Banks. It is noteworthy that the first three of
+these had always earnestly advocated the Manassas movement.
+President's General War Order No. 3 directed, in substance:
+<i>First</i>. An immediate effort to capture the Potomac batteries.
+<i>Second</i>. That until that was accomplished not more than two
+army corps should be started on the Chesapeake campaign toward
+Richmond <i>Third</i>. That any Chesapeake movement should begin in
+ten days; and&mdash;<i>Fourth</i>. That no such movement should be
+ordered without leaving Washington entirely secure.</p>
+<p>Even while the President was completing the drafting and copying
+of these important orders, events were transpiring which once more
+put a new face upon the <a name="page296" id="page296"></a>proposed campaign against Richmond.
+During the forenoon of the next day, March 9, a despatch was
+received from Fortress Monroe, reporting the appearance of the
+rebel ironclad <i>Merrimac</i>, and the havoc she had wrought the
+previous afternoon&mdash;the <i>Cumberland</i> sunk, the
+<i>Congress</i> surrendered and burned, the <i>Minnesota</i>
+aground and about to be attacked. There was a quick gathering of
+officials at the Executive Mansion&mdash;Secretaries Stanton,
+Seward, Welles, Generals McClellan, Meigs, Totten, Commodore Smith,
+and Captain Dahlgren&mdash;and a scene of excitement ensued,
+unequaled by any other in the President's office during the war.
+Stanton walked up and down like a caged lion, and eager discussion
+animated cabinet and military officers. Two other despatches soon
+came, one from the captain of a vessel at Baltimore, who had left
+Fortress Monroe on the evening of the eighth, and a copy of a
+telegram to the "New York Tribune," giving more details.</p>
+<p>President Lincoln was the coolest man in the whole gathering,
+carefully analyzing the language of the telegrams, to give their
+somewhat confused statements intelligible coherence. Wild
+suggestions flew from speaker to speaker about possible danger to
+be apprehended from the new marine terror&mdash;whether she might
+not be able to go to New York or Philadelphia and levy tribute, to
+Baltimore or Annapolis to destroy the transports gathered for
+McClellan's movement, or even to come up the Potomac and burn
+Washington; and all sorts of prudential measures and safeguards
+were proposed.</p>
+<p>In the afternoon, however, apprehension was greatly quieted.
+That very day a cable was laid across the bay, giving direct
+telegraphic communication with Fortress Monroe, and Captain Fox,
+who happened to <a name="page297" id="page297"></a>be on the spot, concisely reported at
+about 4 P.M. the dramatic sequel&mdash;the timely arrival of the
+<i>Monitor</i>, the interesting naval battle between the two
+ironclads, and that at noon the <i>Merrimac</i> had withdrawn from
+the conflict, and with her three small consorts steamed back into
+Elizabeth River.</p>
+<p>Scarcely had the excitement over the <i>Monitor</i> and
+<i>Merrimac</i> news begun to subside, when, on the same afternoon,
+a new surprise burst upon the military authorities in a report that
+the whole Confederate army had evacuated its stronghold at Manassas
+and the batteries on the Potomac, and had retired southward to a
+new line behind the Rappahannock. General McClellan hastened across
+the river, and, finding the news to be correct, issued orders
+during the night for a general movement of the army next morning to
+the vacated rebel camps. The march was promptly accomplished,
+notwithstanding the bad roads, and the troops had the meager
+satisfaction of hoisting the Union flag over the deserted rebel
+earthworks.</p>
+<p>For two weeks the enemy had been preparing for this retreat;
+and, beginning their evacuation on the seventh, their whole
+retrograde movement was completed by March 11, by which date they
+were secure in their new line of defense, "prepared for such an
+emergency&mdash;the south bank of the Rappahannock strengthened by
+field-works, and provided with a depot of food," writes General
+Johnston. No further comment is needed to show McClellan's utter
+incapacity or neglect, than that for full two months he had
+commanded an army of one hundred and ninety thousand, present for
+duty, within two days' march of the forty-seven thousand
+Confederates, present for duty, whom he thus permitted to march
+away to their new strongholds without a gun fired or even a
+meditated attack.<a name="page298" id="page298"></a></p>
+<p>General McClellan had not only lost the chance of an easy and
+brilliant victory near Washington, but also the possibility of his
+favorite plan to move by water to Urbana on the lower Rappahannock,
+and from there by a land march <i>via</i> West Point toward
+Richmond. On that route the enemy was now in his way. He therefore,
+on March 13, hastily called a council of his corps commanders, who
+decided that under the new conditions it would be best to proceed
+by water to Fortress Monroe, and from there move up the Peninsula
+toward Richmond. To this new plan, adopted in the stress of
+excitement and haste, the President answered through the Secretary
+of War on the same day:</p>
+<p>"<i>First</i>. Leave such force at Manassas Junction as shall
+make it entirely certain that the enemy shall not repossess himself
+of that position and line of communication."</p>
+<p>"<i>Second</i>. Leave Washington entirely secure."</p>
+<p>"<i>Third</i>. Move the remainder of the force down the Potomac,
+choosing a new base at Fort Monroe, or anywhere between here and
+there; or, at all events, move such remainder of the army at once
+in pursuit of the enemy by some route."</p>
+<p>Two days before, the President had also announced a step which
+he had doubtless had in contemplation for many days, if not many
+weeks, namely, that&mdash;</p>
+<p>"Major-General McClellan having personally taken the field at
+the head of the Army of the Potomac, until otherwise ordered, he is
+relieved from the command of the other military departments, he
+retaining command of the Department of the Potomac."</p>
+<p>This order of March 11 included also the already mentioned
+consolidation of the western departments under Halleck; and out of
+the region lying between Halleck's command and McClellan's command
+it <a name="page299" id="page299"></a>created the Mountain Department, the
+command of which he gave to General Fr&eacute;mont, whose
+reinstatement had been loudly clamored for by many prominent and
+enthusiastic followers.</p>
+<p>As the preparations for a movement by water had been in progress
+since February 27, there was little delay in starting the Army of
+the Potomac on its new campaign. The troops began their embarkation
+on March 17, and by April 5 over one hundred thousand men, with all
+their material of war, had been transported to Fortress Monroe,
+where General McClellan himself arrived on the second of the month,
+and issued orders to begin his march on the fourth.</p>
+<p>Unfortunately, right at the outset of this new campaign, General
+McClellan's incapacity and want of candor once more became sharply
+evident. In the plan formulated by the four corps commanders, and
+approved by himself, as well as emphatically repeated by the
+President's instructions, was the essential requirement that
+Washington should be left entirely secure. Learning that the
+general had neglected this positive injunction, the President
+ordered McDowell's corps to remain for the protection of the
+capital; and when the general complained of this, Mr. Lincoln wrote
+him on April 9:</p>
+<p>"After you left I ascertained that less than twenty thousand
+unorganized men, without a single field-battery, were all you
+designed to be left for the defense of Washington and Manassas
+Junction; and part of this, even, was to go to General Hooker's old
+position. General Banks's corps, once designed for Manassas
+Junction, was divided and tied up on the line of Winchester and
+Strasburg, and could not leave it without again exposing the upper
+Potomac and the Baltimore and Ohio railroad. This presented (or
+would present <a name="page300" id="page300"></a>when McDowell and Sumner should be gone)
+a great temptation to the enemy to turn back from the Rappahannock
+and sack Washington. My explicit order that Washington should, by
+the judgment of all the commanders of corps, be left entirely
+secure, had been neglected. It was precisely this that drove me to
+detain McDowell.</p>
+<p>"I do not forget that I was satisfied with your arrangement to
+leave Banks at Manassas Junction; but when that arrangement was
+broken up and nothing was substituted for it, of course I was not
+satisfied. I was constrained to substitute something for it
+myself."</p>
+<p>"And now allow me to ask, do you really think I should permit
+the line from Richmond <i>via</i> Manassas Junction to this city to
+be entirely open, except what resistance could be presented by less
+than twenty thousand unorganized troops? This is a question which
+the country will not allow me to evade...."</p>
+<p>"By delay, the enemy will relatively gain upon you&mdash;that
+is, he will gain faster by fortifications and reinforcements than
+you can by reinforcements alone. And once more let me tell you it
+is indispensable to you that you strike a blow. I am powerless to
+help this. You will do me the justice to remember I always insisted
+that going down the bay in search of a field, instead of fighting
+at or near Manassas, was only shifting and not surmounting a
+difficulty; that we would find the same enemy and the same or equal
+intrenchments at either place. The country will not fail to
+note&mdash;is noting now&mdash;that the present hesitation to move
+upon an intrenched enemy is but the story of Manassas
+repeated."</p>
+<p>General McClellan's expectations in coming to the Peninsula,
+first, that he would find few or no rebel intrenchments, and,
+second, that he would be able to <a name="page301" id="page301"></a>make rapid movements, at
+once signally failed. On the afternoon of the second day's march he
+came to the first line of the enemy's defenses, heavy
+fortifications at Yorktown on the York River, and a strong line of
+intrenchments and dams flooding the Warwick River, extending to an
+impassable inlet from James River. But the situation was not yet
+desperate. Magruder, the Confederate commander, had only eleven
+thousand men to defend Yorktown and the thirteen-mile line of the
+Warwick. McClellan, on the contrary, had fifty thousand at hand,
+and as many more within call, with which to break the Confederate
+line and continue his proposed "rapid movements." But now, without
+any adequate reconnaissance or other vigorous effort, he at once
+gave up his thoughts of rapid movement, one of the main advantages
+he had always claimed for the water route, and adopted the slow
+expedient of a siege of Yorktown. Not alone was his original plan
+of campaign demonstrated to be faulty, but by this change in the
+method of its execution it became fatal.</p>
+<p>It would be weary and exasperating to recount in detail the
+remaining principal episodes of McClellan's operations to gain
+possession of the Confederate capital. The whole campaign is a
+record of hesitation, delay, and mistakes in the chief command,
+brilliantly relieved by the heroic fighting and endurance of the
+troops and subordinate officers, gathering honor out of defeat, and
+shedding the luster of renown over a result of barren failure.
+McClellan wasted a month raising siege-works to bombard Yorktown,
+when he might have turned the place by two or three days'
+operations with his superior numbers of four to one. By his failure
+to give instructions after Yorktown was evacuated, he allowed a
+single division of his <a name="page302" id="page302"></a>advance-guard to be beaten back at
+Williamsburg, when thirty thousand of their comrades were within
+reach, but without orders. He wrote to the President that he would
+have to fight double numbers intrenched, when his own army was
+actually twice as strong as that of his antagonist. Placing his
+army astride the Chickahominy, he afforded that antagonist, General
+Johnston, the opportunity, at a sudden rise of the river, to fall
+on one portion of his divided forces at Fair Oaks with overwhelming
+numbers. Finally, when he was within four miles of Richmond and was
+attacked by General Lee, he began a retreat to the James River, and
+after his corps commanders held the attacking enemy at bay by a
+successful battle on each of six successive days, he day after day
+gave up each field won or held by the valor and blood of his heroic
+soldiers. On July 1, the collected Union army made a stand at the
+battle of Malvern Hill, inflicting a defeat on the enemy which
+practically shattered the Confederate army, and in the course of a
+week caused it to retire within the fortifications of Richmond.
+During all this magnificent fighting, however, McClellan was
+oppressed by the apprehension of impending defeat; and even after
+the brilliant victory of Malvern Hill, continued his retreat to
+Harrison's Landing, where the Union gunboats on the James River
+assured him of safety and supplies.</p>
+<p>It must be borne in mind that this Peninsula campaign, from the
+landing at Fortress Monroe to the battle at Malvern Hill, occupied
+three full months, and that during the first half of that period
+the government, yielding to McClellan's constant faultfinding and
+clamor for reinforcements, sent him forty thousand additional men;
+also that in the opinion of competent critics, both Union and
+Confederate, he had, after the <a name="page303" id="page303"></a>battle of Fair Oaks, and
+twice during the seven days' battles, a brilliant opportunity to
+take advantage of Confederate mistakes, and by a vigorous offensive
+to capture Richmond. But constitutional indecision unfitted him to
+seize the fleeting chances of war. His hope of victory was always
+overawed by his fear of defeat. While he commanded during a large
+part of the campaign double, and always superior, numbers to the
+enemy, his imagination led him continually to double their strength
+in his reports. This delusion so wrought upon him that on the night
+of June 27 he sent the Secretary of War an almost despairing and
+insubordinate despatch, containing these inexcusable phrases:</p>
+<p>"Had I twenty thousand or even ten thousand fresh troops to use
+to-morrow, I could take Richmond; but I have not a man in reserve,
+and shall be glad to cover my retreat and save the material and
+personnel of the army.... If I save this army now, I tell you
+plainly that I owe no thanks to you or to any other persons in
+Washington. You have done your best to sacrifice this army."</p>
+<p>Under almost any other ruler such language would have been
+quickly followed by trial and dismissal, if not by much severer
+punishment. But while Mr. Lincoln was shocked by McClellan's
+disrespect, he was yet more startled by the implied portent of the
+despatch. It indicated a loss of confidence and a perturbation of
+mind which rendered possible even a surrender of the whole army.
+The President, therefore, with his habitual freedom from passion,
+merely sent an unmoved and kind reply:</p>
+<p>"Save your army at all events. Will send reinforcements as fast
+as we can. Of course they cannot reach you to-day, to-morrow, or
+next day. I have not <a name="page304" id="page304"></a>said you were ungenerous for saying you
+needed reinforcements. I thought you were ungenerous in assuming
+that I did not send them as fast as I could. I feel any misfortune
+to you and your army quite as keenly as you feel it yourself. If
+you have had a drawn battle or a repulse, it is the price we pay
+for the enemy not being in Washington."</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="page305" id="page305"></a>
+<h2><a name="XXII" id="XXII"></a>XXII</h2>
+<br />
+<p><i>Jackson's Valley Campaign&mdash;Lincoln's Visit to
+Scott&mdash;Pope Assigned to Command&mdash;Lee's Attack on
+McClellan&mdash;Retreat to Harrison's Landing&mdash;Seward Sent to
+New York&mdash;Lincoln's Letter to Seward&mdash;Lincoln's Letter to
+McClellan&mdash;Lincoln's Visit to McClellan&mdash;Halleck made
+General-in-Chief&mdash;Halleck's Visit to
+McClellan&mdash;Withdrawal from Harrison's Landing&mdash;Pope
+Assumes Command&mdash;Second Battle of Bull Run&mdash;The Cabinet
+Protest&mdash;McClellan Ordered to Defend Washington&mdash;The
+Maryland Campaign&mdash;Battle of Antietam&mdash;Lincoln Visits
+Antietam&mdash;Lincoln's Letter to McClellan&mdash;McClellan
+Removed from Command</i></p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<p>During the month of May, while General McClellan was slowly
+working his way across the Chickahominy by bridge-building and
+intrenching, there occurred the episode of Stonewall Jackson's
+valley campaign, in which that eccentric and daring Confederate
+commander made a rapid and victorious march up the Shenandoah
+valley nearly to Harper's Ferry. Its principal effect upon the
+Richmond campaign was to turn back McDowell, who had been started
+on a land march to unite with the right wing of McClellan's army,
+under instructions, however, always to be in readiness to interpose
+his force against any attempt of the enemy to march upon
+Washington. This campaign of Stonewall Jackson's has been much
+lauded by military writers; but its temporary success resulted from
+good luck rather than military ability.<a name="page306" id="page306"></a>
+Rationally considered, it was an imprudent and even reckless
+adventure that courted and would have resulted in destruction or
+capture had the junction of forces under McDowell, Shields, and
+Fr&eacute;mont, ordered by President Lincoln, not been thwarted by
+the mistake and delay of Fr&eacute;mont. It was an episode that
+signally demonstrated the wisdom of the President in having
+retained McDowell's corps for the protection of the national
+capital.</p>
+<p>That, however, was not the only precaution to which the
+President had devoted his serious attention. During the whole of
+McClellan's Richmond campaign he had continually borne in mind the
+possibility of his defeat, and the eventualities it might create.
+Little by little, that general's hesitation, constant complaints,
+and exaggerated reports of the enemy's strength changed the
+President's apprehensions from possibility to probability; and he
+took prompt measures to be prepared as far as possible, should a
+new disaster arise. On June 24 he made a hurried visit to the
+veteran General Scott at West Point, for consultation on the
+existing military conditions, and on his return to Washington
+called General Pope from the West, and, by an order dated June 26,
+specially assigned him to the command of the combined forces under
+Fr&eacute;mont, Banks, and McDowell, to be called the Army of
+Virginia, whose duty it should be to guard the Shenandoah valley
+and Washington city, and, as far as might be, render aid to
+McClellan's campaign against Richmond.</p>
+<p>The very day on which the President made this order proved to be
+the crisis of McClellan's campaign. That was the day he had fixed
+upon for a general advance; but so far from realizing this hope, it
+turned out, also, to be the day on which General Lee began his
+attack on the Army of the Potomac, which formed the
+<a name="page307" id="page307"></a> beginning of the seven days' battles, and
+changed McClellan's intended advance against Richmond to a retreat
+to the James River. It was after midnight of the next day that
+McClellan sent Stanton his despairing and insubordinate despatch
+indicating the possibility of losing his entire army.</p>
+<p>Upon the receipt of this alarming piece of news, President
+Lincoln instantly took additional measures of safety. He sent a
+telegram to General Burnside in North Carolina to come with all the
+reinforcements he could spare to McClellan's help. Through the
+Secretary of War he instructed General Halleck at Corinth to send
+twenty-five thousand infantry to McClellan by way of Baltimore and
+Washington. His most important action was to begin the formation of
+a new army. On the same day he sent Secretary of State Seward to
+New York with a letter to be confidentially shown to such of the
+governors of States as could be hurriedly called together, setting
+forth his view of the present condition of the war, and his own
+determination in regard to its prosecution. After outlining the
+reverse at Richmond and the new problems it created, the letter
+continued:</p>
+<p>"What should be done is to hold what we have in the West, open
+the Mississippi, and take Chattanooga and East Tennessee without
+more. A reasonable force should in every event be kept about
+Washington for its protection. Then let the country give us a
+hundred thousand new troops in the shortest possible time, which,
+added to McClellan directly or indirectly, will take Richmond
+without endangering any other place which we now hold, and will
+substantially end the war. I expect to maintain this contest until
+successful, or till I die, or am conquered, or my term expires, or
+Congress or the country forsake me; and I would <a name="page308" id="page308"></a>publicly
+appeal to the country for this new force were it not that I fear a
+general panic and stampede would follow, so hard it is to have a
+thing understood as it really is."</p>
+<p>Meanwhile, by the news of the victory of Malvern Hill and the
+secure position to which McClellan had retired at Harrison's
+Landing, the President learned that the condition of the Army of
+the Potomac was not as desperate as at first had seemed. The result
+of Seward's visit to New York is shown in the President's letter of
+July 2, answering McClellan's urgent call for heavy
+reinforcements:</p>
+<p>"The idea of sending you fifty thousand, or any other
+considerable force, promptly, is simply absurd. If, in your
+frequent mention of responsibility, you have the impression that I
+blame you for not doing more than you can, please be relieved of
+such impression. I only beg that in like manner you will not ask
+impossibilities of me. If you think you are not strong enough to
+take Richmond just now, I do not ask you to try just now. Save the
+army, material and personnel, and I will strengthen it for the
+offensive again as fast as I can. The governors of eighteen States
+offer me a new levy of three hundred thousand, which I accept."</p>
+<p>And in another letter, two days later:</p>
+<p>"To reinforce you so as to enable you to resume the offensive
+within a month, or even six weeks, is impossible.... Under these
+circumstances, the defensive for the present must be your only
+care. Save the army&mdash;first, where you are, if you can;
+secondly, by removal, if you must."</p>
+<p>To satisfy himself more fully about the actual situation, the
+President made a visit to Harrison's Landing on July 8 and 9, and
+held personal interviews with McClellan and his leading generals.
+While the <a name="page309" id="page309"></a>question of removing the army underwent
+considerable discussion, the President left it undecided for the
+present; but on July 11, soon after his return to Washington, he
+issued an order:</p>
+<p>"That Major-General Henry W. Halleck be assigned to command the
+whole land forces of the United States, as general-in-chief, and
+that he repair to this capital so soon as he can with safety to the
+positions and operations within the department now under his
+charge."</p>
+<p>Though General Halleck was loath to leave his command in the
+West, he made the necessary dispositions there, and in obedience to
+the President's order reached Washington on July 23, and assumed
+command of all the armies as general-in-chief. On the day following
+he proceeded to General McClellan's headquarters at Harrison's
+Landing, and after two days' consultation reached the same
+conclusion at which the President had already arrived, that the
+Army of the Potomac must be withdrawn. McClellan strongly objected
+to this course. He wished to be reinforced so that he might resume
+his operations against Richmond. To do this he wanted fifty
+thousand more men, which number it was impossible to give him, as
+he had already been pointedly informed by the President. On
+Halleck's return to Washington, it was, on further consultation,
+resolved to bring the Army of the Potomac back to Acquia Creek and
+unite it with the army of Pope.</p>
+<p>On July 30, McClellan received a preliminary order to send away
+his sick, and the withdrawal of his entire force was ordered by
+telegraph on August 3. With the obstinacy and persistence that
+characterized his course from first to last, McClellan still
+protested against the change, and when Halleck in a calm letter
+answered his objections with both the advantages and the
+<a name="page310" id="page310"></a> necessity of the order, McClellan's movement
+of withdrawal was so delayed that fully eleven days of inestimable
+time were unnecessarily lost, and the army of Pope was thereby put
+in serious peril.</p>
+<p>Meanwhile, under President Lincoln's order of June 26, General
+Pope had left the West, and about the first of July reached
+Washington, where for two weeks, in consultation with the President
+and the Secretary of War, he studied the military situation, and on
+July 14 assumed command of the Army of Virginia, consisting of the
+corps of General Fr&eacute;mont, eleven thousand five hundred
+strong, and that of General Banks, eight thousand strong, in the
+Shenandoah valley, and the corps of General McDowell, eighteen
+thousand five hundred strong, with one division at Manassas and the
+other at Fredericksburg. It is unnecessary to relate in detail the
+campaign which followed. Pope intelligently and faithfully
+performed the task imposed on him to concentrate his forces and
+hold in check the advance of the enemy, which began as soon as the
+Confederates learned of the evacuation of Harrison's Landing.</p>
+<p>When the Army of the Potomac was ordered to be withdrawn it was
+clearly enough seen that the movement might put the Army of
+Virginia in jeopardy; but it was hoped that if the transfer to
+Acquia Creek and Alexandria were made as promptly as the order
+contemplated, the two armies would be united before the enemy could
+reach them. McClellan, however, continued day after day to protest
+against the change, and made his preparations and embarkation with
+such exasperating slowness as showed that he still hoped to induce
+the government to change its plans.</p>
+<p>Pope, despite the fact that he had managed his retreat with
+skill and bravery, was attacked by Lee's <a name="page311" id="page311"></a>army, and
+fought the second battle of Bull Run on August 30, under the
+disadvantage of having one of McClellan's divisions entirely absent
+and the other failing to respond to his order to advance to the
+attack on the first day. McClellan had reached Alexandria on August
+24; and notwithstanding telegram after telegram from Halleck,
+ordering him to push Franklin's division out to Pope's support,
+excuse and delay seemed to be his only response, ending at last in
+his direct suggestion that Franklin's division be kept to defend
+Washington, and Pope be left to "get out of his scrape" as best he
+might.</p>
+<p>McClellan's conduct and language had awakened the indignation of
+the whole cabinet, roused Stanton to fury, and greatly outraged the
+feelings of President Lincoln. But even under such irritation the
+President was, as ever, the very incarnation of cool, dispassionate
+judgment, allowing nothing but the daily and hourly logic of facts
+to influence his suggestions or decision. In these moments of
+crisis and danger he felt more keenly than ever the awful
+responsibilities of rulership, and that the fate of the nation hung
+upon his words and acts from hour to hour.</p>
+<p>His official counselors, equally patriotic and sincere, were not
+his equals in calmness of temper. On Friday, August 29, Stanton
+went to Chase, and after an excited conference drew up a memorandum
+of protest, to be signed by the members of the cabinet, which drew
+a gloomy picture of present and apprehended dangers, and
+recommended the immediate removal of McClellan from command. Chase
+and Stanton signed the paper, as also did Bates, whom they
+immediately consulted, and somewhat later Smith added his
+signature. But when they presented it to Welles, he firmly refused,
+stating that though he concurred with them <a name="page312" id="page312"></a>in
+judgment, it would be discourteous and unfriendly to the President
+to adopt such a course. They did not go to Seward and Blair,
+apparently believing them to be friendly to McClellan, and
+therefore probably unwilling to give their assent. The refusal of
+Mr. Welles to sign had evidently caused a more serious discussion
+among them about the form and language of the protest; for on
+Monday, September 1, it was entirely rewritten by Bates, cut down
+to less than half its original length as drafted by Stanton, and
+once more signed by the same four members of the cabinet.</p>
+<p>Presented for the second time to Mr. Welles, he reiterated his
+objection, and again refused his signature. Though in the new form
+it bore the signatures of a majority of the cabinet, the paper was
+never presented to Mr. Lincoln. The signers may have adopted the
+feeling of Mr. Welles that it was discourteous; or they may have
+thought that with only four members of the cabinet for it and three
+against it, it would be ineffectual; or, more likely than either,
+the mere progress of events may have brought them to consider it
+inexpedient.</p>
+<p>The defeat of Pope became final and conclusive on the afternoon
+of August 30, and his telegram announcing it conveyed an intimation
+that he had lost control of his army. President Lincoln had,
+therefore, to confront a most serious crisis and danger. Even
+without having seen the written and signed protest, he was well
+aware of the feelings of the cabinet against McClellan. With what
+began to look like a serious conspiracy among McClellan's officers
+against Pope, with Pope's army in a disorganized retreat upon
+Washington, with the capital in possible danger of capture by Lee,
+and with a distracted and half-mutinous cabinet, the President had
+need of all his caution and all his <a name="page313" id="page313"></a>wisdom. Both his patience
+and his judgment proved equal to the demand.</p>
+<p>On Monday, September 1, repressing every feeling of indignation,
+and solicitous only to make every expedient contribute to the
+public safety, he called McClellan from Alexandria to Washington
+and asked him to use his personal influence with the officers who
+had been under his command to give a hearty and loyal support to
+Pope as a personal favor to their former general, and McClellan at
+once sent a telegram in this spirit.</p>
+<p>That afternoon, also, Mr. Lincoln despatched a member of General
+Halleck's staff to the Virginia side of the Potomac, who reported
+the disorganization and discouragement among the retreating troops
+as even more than had been expected. Worse than all, Halleck, the
+general-in-chief, who was much worn out by the labors of the past
+few days, seemed either unable or unwilling to act with prompt
+direction and command equal to the emergency, though still willing
+to give his advice and suggestion.</p>
+<p>Under such conditions, Mr. Lincoln saw that it was necessary for
+him personally to exercise at the moment his military functions and
+authority as commander-in-chief of the army and navy. On the
+morning of September 2, therefore, he gave a verbal order, which
+during the day was issued in regular form as coming from the
+general-in-chief, that Major-General McClellan be placed in command
+of the fortifications around Washington and the troops for the
+defense of the capital. Mr. Lincoln made no concealment of his
+belief that McClellan had acted badly toward Pope and really wanted
+him to fail; "but there is no one in the army who can man these
+fortifications and lick these troops of ours into shape half as
+well as he can," he <a name="page314" id="page314"></a>said. "We must use the tools we have; if
+he cannot fight himself, he excels in making others ready to
+fight."</p>
+<p>It turned out that the second battle of Bull Run had by no means
+so seriously disorganized the Union army as was reported, and that
+Washington had been exposed to no real danger. The Confederate army
+hovered on its front for a day or two, but made neither attack nor
+demonstration. Instead of this, Lee entered upon a campaign into
+Maryland, hoping that his presence might stimulate a secession
+revolt in that State, and possibly create the opportunity
+successfully to attack Baltimore or Philadelphia.</p>
+<p>Pope having been relieved and sent to another department,
+McClellan soon restored order among the troops, and displayed
+unwonted energy and vigilance in watching the movements of the
+enemy, as Lee gradually moved his forces northwestward toward
+Leesburg, thirty miles from Washington, where he crossed the
+Potomac and took position at Frederick, ten miles farther away.
+McClellan gradually followed the movement of the enemy, keeping the
+Army of the Potomac constantly in a position to protect both
+Washington and Baltimore against an attack. In this way it happened
+that without any order or express intention on the part of either
+the general or the President, McClellan's duty became imperceptibly
+changed from that of merely defending Washington city to that of an
+active campaign into Maryland to follow the Confederate army.</p>
+<p>This movement into Maryland was begun by both armies about
+September 4. On the thirteenth of that month McClellan had reached
+Frederick, while Lee was by that time across the Catoctin range at
+Boonsboro', but his army was divided. He had sent a large
+<a name="page315" id="page315"></a> part of it back across the Potomac to
+capture Harper's Ferry and Martinsburg. On that day there fell into
+McClellan's hands the copy of an order issued by General Lee three
+days before, which, as McClellan himself states in his report,
+fully disclosed Lee's plans. The situation was therefore, as
+follows: It was splendid September weather, with the roads in fine
+condition. McClellan commanded a total moving force of more than
+eighty thousand; Lee, a total moving force of forty thousand. The
+Confederate army was divided. Each of the separate portions was
+within twenty miles of the Union columns; and before half-past six
+on the evening of September 13, McClellan had full knowledge of the
+enemy's plans.</p>
+<p>General Palfrey, an intelligent critic friendly to McClellan,
+distinctly admits that the Union army, properly commanded, could
+have absolutely annihilated the Confederate forces. But the result
+proved quite different. Even such advantages in McClellan's hands
+failed to rouse him to vigorous and decisive action. As usual,
+hesitation and tardiness characterized the orders and movements of
+the Union forces, and during the four days succeeding, Lee had
+captured Harper's Ferry with eleven thousand prisoners and
+seventy-three pieces of artillery, reunited his army, and fought
+the defensive battle of Antietam on September 17, with almost every
+Confederate soldier engaged, while one third of McClellan's army
+was not engaged at all and the remainder went into action piecemeal
+and successively, under such orders that co&ouml;perative movement
+and mutual support were practically impossible. Substantially, it
+was a drawn battle, with appalling slaughter on both sides.</p>
+<p>Even after such a loss of opportunity, there still remained a
+precious balance of advantage in McClellan's <a name="page316" id="page316"></a>hands.
+Because of its smaller total numbers, the Confederate army was
+disproportionately weakened by the losses in battle. The Potomac
+River was almost immediately behind it, and had McClellan renewed
+his attack on the morning of the eighteenth, as several of his best
+officers advised, a decisive victory was yet within his grasp. But
+with his usual hesitation, notwithstanding the arrival of two
+divisions of reinforcements, he waited all day to make up his mind.
+He indeed gave orders to renew the attack at daylight on the
+nineteenth, but before that time the enemy had retreated across the
+Potomac, and McClellan telegraphed, apparently with great
+satisfaction, that Maryland was free and Pennsylvania safe.</p>
+<p>The President watched the progress of this campaign with an
+eagerness born of the lively hope that it might end the war. He
+sent several telegrams to the startled Pennsylvania authorities to
+assure them that Philadelphia and Harrisburg were in no danger. He
+ordered a reinforcement of twenty-one thousand to join McClellan.
+He sent a prompting telegram to that general: "Please do not let
+him [the enemy] get off without being hurt." He recognized the
+battle of Antietam as a substantial, if not a complete victory, and
+seized the opportunity it afforded him to issue his preliminary
+proclamation of emancipation on September 22.</p>
+<p>For two weeks after the battle of Antietam, General McClellan
+kept his army camped on various parts of the field, and so far from
+exhibiting any disposition of advancing against the enemy in the
+Shenandoah valley, showed constant apprehension lest the enemy
+might come and attack him. On October 1, the President and several
+friends made a visit to Antietam, and during the three succeeding
+days reviewed the troops <a name="page317" id="page317"></a>and went over the various
+battle-grounds in company with the general. The better insight
+which the President thus received of the nature and results of the
+late battle served only to deepen in his mind the conviction he had
+long entertained&mdash;how greatly McClellan's defects overbalanced
+his merits as a military leader; and his impatience found vent in a
+phrase of biting irony. In a morning walk with a friend, waving his
+arm toward the white tents of the great army, he asked: "Do you
+know what that is?" The friend, not catching the drift of his
+thought, said, "It is the Army of the Potomac, I suppose." "So it
+is called," responded the President, in a tone of suppressed
+indignation, "But that is a mistake. It is only McClellan's
+body-guard."</p>
+<p>At that time General McClellan commanded a total force of one
+hundred thousand men present for duty under his immediate eye, and
+seventy-three thousand present for duty under General Banks about
+Washington. It is, therefore, not to be wondered at that on October
+6, the second day after Mr. Lincoln's return to Washington, the
+following telegram went to the general from Halleck:</p>
+<p>"I am instructed to telegraph you as follows: The President
+directs that you cross the Potomac and give battle to the enemy, or
+drive him south. Your army must move now while the roads are good.
+If you cross the river between the enemy and Washington, and cover
+the latter by your operation, you can be reinforced with thirty
+thousand men. If you move up the valley of the Shenandoah, not more
+than twelve thousand or fifteen thousand can be sent to you. The
+President advises the interior line, between Washington and the
+enemy, but does not order it. He is very desirous that your army
+move as soon as possible. You will immediately report what line you
+<a name="page318" id="page318"></a> adopt, and when you intend to cross the
+river; also to what point the reinforcements are to be sent. It is
+necessary that the plan of your operations be positively determined
+on before orders are given for building bridges and repairing
+railroads. I am directed to add that the Secretary of War and the
+general-in-chief fully concur with the President in these
+instructions."</p>
+<p>This express order was reinforced by a long letter from the
+President, dated October 13, specifically pointing out the decided
+advantages McClellan possessed over the enemy, and suggesting a
+plan of campaign even to details, the importance and value of which
+was self-evident.</p>
+<p>"You remember my speaking to you of what I called your
+over-cautiousness. Are you not over-cautious when you assume that
+you cannot do what the enemy is constantly doing? Should you not
+claim to be at least his equal in prowess, and act upon the
+claim?... Change positions with the enemy, and think you not he
+would break your communication with Richmond within the next
+twenty-four hours? You dread his going into Pennsylvania, but if he
+does so in full force, he gives up his communications to you
+absolutely, and you have nothing to do but to follow and ruin him.
+If he does so with less than full force, fall upon and beat what is
+left behind all the easier. Exclusive of the water-line, you are
+now nearer Richmond than the enemy is by the route that you can and
+he must take. Why can you not reach there before him, unless you
+admit that he is more than your equal on a march? His route is the
+arc of a circle, while yours is the chord. The roads are as good on
+yours as on his. You know I desired, but did not order, you to
+cross the Potomac below instead of above the Shenandoah and Blue
+Ridge. My idea was that this would at once <a name="page319" id="page319"></a>menace
+the enemy's communications, which I would seize, if he would
+permit. If he should move northward I would follow him closely,
+holding his communications. If he should prevent our seizing his
+communications and move toward Richmond, I would press closely to
+him, fight him, if a favorable opportunity should present, and at
+least try to beat him to Richmond on the inside track. I say 'try';
+if we never try we shall never succeed. If he makes a stand at
+Winchester, moving neither north nor south, I would fight him
+there, on the idea that if we cannot beat him when he bears the
+wastage of coming to us, we never can when we bear the wastage of
+going to him."</p>
+<p>But advice, expostulation, argument, orders, were all wasted,
+now as before, on the unwilling, hesitating general. When he had
+frittered away another full month in preparation, in slowly
+crossing the Potomac, and in moving east of the Blue Ridge and
+massing his army about Warrenton, a short distance south of the
+battle-field of Bull Run, without a vigorous offensive, or any
+discernible intention to make one, the President's patience was
+finally exhausted, and on November 5 he sent him an order removing
+him from command. And so ended General McClellan's military
+career.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="page320" id="page320"></a>
+<h2><a name="XXIII" id="XXIII"></a>XXIII</h2>
+<br />
+<p><i>Cameron's Report&mdash;Lincoln's Letter to
+Bancroft&mdash;Annual Message on Slavery&mdash;The Delaware
+Experiment&mdash;Joint Resolution on Compensated
+Abolishment&mdash;First Border State Interview&mdash;Stevens's
+Comment&mdash;District of Columbia Abolishment&mdash;Committee on
+Abolishment&mdash;Hunter's Order Revoked&mdash;Antislavery Measures
+of Congress&mdash;Second Border State Interview&mdash;Emancipation
+Proposed and Postponed</i></p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<p>The relation of the war to the institution of slavery has been
+touched upon in describing several incidents which occurred during
+1861, namely, the designation of fugitive slaves as "contraband,"
+the Crittenden resolution and the confiscation act of the special
+session of Congress, the issuing and revocation of Fr&eacute;mont's
+proclamation, and various orders relating to contrabands in Union
+camps. The already mentioned resignation of Secretary Cameron had
+also grown out of a similar question. In the form in which it was
+first printed, his report as Secretary of War to the annual session
+of Congress which met on December 3, 1861, announced:</p>
+<p>"If it shall be found that the men who have been held by the
+rebels as slaves are capable of bearing arms and performing
+efficient military service, it is the right, and may become the
+duty, of the government to arm and equip them, and employ their
+services against the rebels, under proper military regulation,
+discipline, and command."<a name="page321" id="page321"></a></p>
+<p>The President was not prepared to permit a member of his
+cabinet, without his consent, to commit the administration to so
+radical a policy at that early date. He caused the advance copies
+of the document to be recalled and modified to the simple
+declaration that fugitive and abandoned slaves, being clearly an
+important military resource, should not be returned to rebel
+masters, but withheld from the enemy to be disposed of in future as
+Congress might deem best. Mr. Lincoln saw clearly enough what a
+serious political r&ocirc;le the slavery question was likely to
+play during the continuance of the war. Replying to a letter from
+the Hon. George Bancroft, in which that accomplished historian
+predicted that posterity would not be satisfied with the results of
+the war unless it should effect an increase of the free States, the
+President wrote:</p>
+<p>"The main thought in the closing paragraph of your letter is one
+which does not escape my attention, and with which I must deal in
+all due caution, and with the best judgment I can bring to it."</p>
+<p>This caution was abundantly manifested in his annual message to
+Congress of December 3, 1861:</p>
+<p>"In considering the policy to be adopted for suppressing the
+insurrection," he wrote, "I have been anxious and careful that the
+inevitable conflict for this purpose shall not degenerate into a
+violent and remorseless revolutionary struggle. I have, therefore,
+in every case, thought it proper to keep the integrity of the Union
+prominent as the primary object of the contest on our part, leaving
+all questions which are not of vital military importance to the
+more deliberate action of the legislature.... The Union must be
+preserved; and hence all indispensable means must be employed. We
+should not be in haste to determine that <a name="page322" id="page322"></a>radical
+and extreme measures, which may reach the loyal as well as the
+disloyal, are indispensable."</p>
+<p>The most conservative opinion could not take alarm at
+phraseology so guarded and at the same time so decided; and yet it
+proved broad enough to include every great exigency which the
+conflict still had in store.</p>
+<p>Mr. Lincoln had indeed already maturely considered and in his
+own mind adopted a plan of dealing with the slavery question: the
+simple plan which, while a member of Congress, he had proposed for
+adoption in the District of Columbia&mdash;the plan of voluntary
+compensated abolishment. At that time local and national prejudice
+stood in the way of its practicability; but to his logical and
+reasonable mind it seemed now that the new conditions opened for it
+a prospect at least of initial success.</p>
+<p>In the late presidential election the little State of Delaware
+had, by a fusion between the Bell and the Lincoln vote, chosen a
+Union member of Congress, who identified himself in thought and
+action with the new administration. While Delaware was a slave
+State, only the merest remnant of the institution existed
+there&mdash;seventeen hundred and ninety-eight slaves all told.
+Without any public announcement of his purpose, the President now
+proposed to the political leaders of Delaware, through their
+representative, a scheme for the gradual emancipation of these
+seventeen hundred and ninety-eight slaves, on the payment therefore
+by the United States at the rate of four hundred dollars per slave,
+in annual instalments during thirty-one years to that State, the
+sum to be distributed by it to the individual owners. The President
+believed that if Delaware could be induced to take this step,
+Maryland might follow, and that these examples would <a name="page323" id="page323"></a>create a
+sentiment that would lead other States into the same easy and
+beneficent path. But the ancient prejudice still had its relentless
+grip upon some of the Delaware law-makers. A majority of the
+Delaware House indeed voted to entertain the scheme. But five of
+the nine members of the Delaware Senate, with hot partizan
+anathemas, scornfully repelled the "abolition bribe," as they
+called it, and the project withered in the bud.</p>
+<p>Mr. Lincoln did not stop at the failure of his Delaware
+experiment, but at once took an appeal to a broader section of
+public opinion. On March 6, 1862, he sent a special message to the
+two houses of Congress recommending the adoption of the following
+joint resolution:</p>
+<p>"<i>Resolved</i>, that the United States ought to co&ouml;perate
+with any State which may adopt gradual abolishment of slavery,
+giving to such State pecuniary aid, to be used by such State, in
+its discretion, to compensate for the inconveniences, public and
+private, produced by such change of system."</p>
+<p>"The point is not," said his explanatory message, "that all the
+States tolerating slavery would very soon, if at all, initiate
+emancipation; but that while the offer is equally made to all, the
+more northern shall, by such initiation, make it certain to the
+more southern that in no event will the former ever join the latter
+in their proposed Confederacy. I say 'initiation' because, in my
+judgment, gradual, and not sudden, emancipation is better for
+all.... Such a proposition on the part of the general government
+sets up no claim of a right by Federal authority to interfere with
+slavery within State limits, referring, as it does, the absolute
+control of the subject in each case to the State and its people
+immediately interested. It is proposed as a matter <a name="page324" id="page324"></a>of
+perfectly free choice with them. In the annual message last
+December I thought fit to say, 'The Union must be preserved; and
+hence, all indispensable means must be employed.' I said this, not
+hastily, but deliberately. War has been made, and continues to be,
+an indispensable means to this end. A practical reacknowledgment of
+the national authority would render the war unnecessary, and it
+would at once cease. If, however, resistance continues, the war
+must also continue; and it is impossible to foresee all the
+incidents which may attend and all the ruin which may follow it.
+Such as may seem indispensable, or may obviously promise great
+efficiency toward ending the struggle, must and will come."</p>
+<p>The Republican journals of the North devoted considerable
+discussion to the President's message and plan, which, in the main,
+were very favorably received. Objection was made, however, in some
+quarters that the proposition would be likely to fail on the score
+of expense, and this objection the President conclusively answered
+in a private letter to a senator.</p>
+<p>"As to the expensiveness of the plan of gradual emancipation,
+with compensation, proposed in the late message, please allow me
+one or two brief suggestions. Less than one half-day's cost of this
+war would pay for all the slaves in Delaware at four hundred
+dollars per head.... Again, less than eighty-seven days' cost of
+this war would, at the same price, pay for all in Delaware,
+Maryland, District of Columbia, Kentucky and Missouri.... Do you
+doubt that taking the initiatory steps on the part of those States
+and this District would shorten the war more than eighty-seven
+days, and thus be an actual saving of expense?"</p>
+<p>Four days after transmitting the message the President called
+together the delegations in Congress from <a name="page325" id="page325"></a>the
+border slave States, and in a long and earnest personal interview,
+in which he repeated and enforced the arguments of his message,
+urged upon them the expediency of adopting his plan, which he
+assured them he had proposed in the most friendly spirit, and with
+no intent to injure the interests or wound the sensibilities of the
+slave States. On the day following this interview the House of
+Representatives adopted the joint resolution by more than a
+two-thirds vote; ayes eighty-nine, nays thirty-one. Only a very few
+of the border State members had the courage to vote in the
+affirmative. The Senate also passed the joint resolution, by about
+a similar party division, not quite a month later; the delay
+occurring through press of business rather than unwillingness.</p>
+<p>As yet, however, the scheme was tolerated rather than heartily
+indorsed by the more radical elements in Congress. Stevens, the
+cynical Republican leader of the House of Representatives,
+said:</p>
+<p>"I confess I have not been able to see what makes one side so
+anxious to pass it, or the other side so anxious to defeat it. I
+think it is about the most diluted milk-and-water-gruel proposition
+that was ever given to the American nation."</p>
+<p>But the bulk of the Republicans, though it proposed no immediate
+practical legislation, nevertheless voted for it, as a declaration
+of purpose in harmony with a pending measure, and as being, on the
+one hand, a tribute to antislavery opinion in the North, and, on
+the other, an expression of liberality toward the border States.
+The concurrent measure of practical legislation was a bill for the
+immediate emancipation of the slaves in the District of Columbia,
+on the payment to their loyal owners of an average sum of three
+hundred dollars for each slave, and for the appointment of a
+<a name="page326" id="page326"></a> commission to assess and award the amount.
+The bill was introduced early in the session, and its discussion
+was much stimulated by the President's special message and joint
+resolution. Like other antislavery measures, it was opposed by the
+Democrats and supported by the Republicans, with but trifling
+exceptions; and by the same majority of two thirds was passed by
+the Senate on April 3, and the House on April 11, and became a law
+by the President's signature on April 16.</p>
+<p>The Republican majority in Congress as well as the President was
+thus pledged to the policy of compensated abolishment, both by the
+promise of the joint resolution and the fulfilment carried out in
+the District bill. If the representatives and senators of the
+border slave States had shown a willingness to accept the
+generosity of the government, they could have avoided the pecuniary
+sacrifice which overtook the slave owners in those States not quite
+three years later. On April 14, in the House of Representatives,
+the subject was taken up by Mr. White of Indiana, at whose instance
+a select committee on emancipation, consisting of nine members, a
+majority of whom were from border slave States, was appointed; and
+this committee on July 16 reported a comprehensive bill authorizing
+the President to give compensation at the rate of three hundred
+dollars for each slave to any one of the States of Delaware,
+Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and Missouri, that might
+adopt immediate or gradual emancipation. Some subsequent
+proceedings on this subject occurred in Congress in the case of
+Missouri; but as to the other States named in the bill, either the
+neglect or open opposition of their people and representatives and
+senators prevented any further action from the committee.</p>
+<p>Meanwhile a new incident once more brought the <a name="page327" id="page327"></a>question
+of military emancipation into sharp public discussion. On May 9,
+General David Hunter, commanding the Department of the South, which
+consisted mainly of some sixty or seventy miles of the South
+Carolina coast between North Edisto River and Warsaw Sound,
+embracing the famous Sea Island cotton region which fell into Union
+hands by the capture of Port Royal in 1861, issued a military order
+which declared:</p>
+<p>"Slavery and martial law in a free country are altogether
+incompatible; the persons in these three States&mdash;Georgia,
+Florida, and South Carolina&mdash;heretofore held as slaves are
+therefore declared forever free."</p>
+<p>The news of this order, coming by the slow course of ocean
+mails, greatly surprised Mr. Lincoln, and his first comment upon it
+was positive and emphatic. "No commanding general shall do such a
+thing, upon my responsibility, without consulting me," he wrote to
+Secretary Chase. Three days later, May 19, 1862, he published a
+proclamation declaring Hunter's order entirely unauthorized and
+void, and adding:</p>
+<p>"I further make known that whether it be competent for me, as
+commander-in-chief of the army and navy, to declare the slaves of
+any State or States free, and whether, at any time, in any case, it
+shall have become a necessity indispensable to the maintenance of
+the government to exercise such supposed power, are questions
+which, under my responsibility, I reserve to myself, and which I
+cannot feel justified in leaving to the decision of commanders in
+the field. These are totally different questions from those of
+police regulations in armies and camps."</p>
+<p>This distinct reservation of executive power, and equally plain
+announcement of the contingency which would justify its exercise,
+was coupled with a renewed <a name="page328" id="page328"></a>recital of his plan and offer of
+compensated abolishment and reinforced by a powerful appeal to the
+public opinion of the border slave States.</p>
+<p>"I do not argue," continued the proclamation, "I beseech you to
+make the arguments for yourselves. You cannot, if you would, be
+blind to the signs of the times. I beg of you a calm and enlarged
+consideration of them, ranging, if it may be, far above personal
+and partizan politics. This proposal makes common cause for a
+common object, casting no reproaches upon any. It acts not the
+Pharisee. The change it contemplates would come gently as the dews
+of heaven, not rending or wrecking anything. Will you not embrace
+it? So much good has not been done, by one effort, in all past
+time, as in the providence of God it is now your high privilege to
+do. May the vast future not have to lament that you have neglected
+it."</p>
+<p>This proclamation of President Lincoln's naturally created
+considerable and very diverse comment, but much less than would
+have occurred had not military events intervened which served in a
+great degree to absorb public attention. At the date of the
+proclamation McClellan, with the Army of the Potomac, was just
+reaching the Chickahominy in his campaign toward Richmond;
+Stonewall Jackson was about beginning his startling raid into the
+Shenandoah valley; and Halleck was pursuing his somewhat leisurely
+campaign against Corinth. On the day following the proclamation the
+victorious fleet of Farragut reached Vicksburg in its first ascent
+of the Mississippi. Congress was busy with the multifarious work
+that crowded the closing weeks of the long session; and among this
+congressional work the debates and proceedings upon several
+measures of positive and immediate antislavery legislation were
+significant "signs of <a name="page329" id="page329"></a>the times." During the session, and
+before it ended, acts or amendments were passed prohibiting the
+army from returning fugitive slaves; recognizing the independence
+and sovereignty of Haiti and Liberia; providing for carrying into
+effect the treaty with England to suppress the African slave trade;
+restoring the Missouri Compromise and extending its provisions to
+all United States Territories; greatly increasing the scope of the
+confiscation act in freeing slaves actually employed in hostile
+military service; and giving the President authority, if not in
+express terms, at least by easy implication, to organize and arm
+negro regiments for the war.</p>
+<p>But between the President's proclamation and the adjournment of
+Congress military affairs underwent a most discouraging change.
+McClellan's advance upon Richmond became a retreat to Harrison's
+Landing Halleck captured nothing but empty forts at Corinth.
+Farragut found no co&ouml;peration at Vicksburg, and returned to
+New Orleans, leaving its hostile guns still barring the commerce of
+the great river. Still worse, the country was plunged into gloomy
+forebodings by the President's call for three hundred thousand new
+troops.</p>
+<p>About a week before the adjournment of Congress the President
+again called together the delegations from the border slave States,
+and read to them, in a carefully prepared paper, a second and most
+urgent appeal to adopt his plan of compensated abolishment.</p>
+<p>"Let the States which are in rebellion see definitely and
+certainly that in no event will the States you represent ever join
+their proposed confederacy, and they cannot much longer maintain
+the contest. But you cannot divest them of their hope to ultimately
+have you with them so long as you show a determination to
+per<a name="page330" id="page330"></a>petuate the institution within your own
+States. Beat them at elections, as you have overwhelmingly done,
+and, nothing daunted, they still claim you as their own. You and I
+know what the lever of their power is. Break that lever before
+their faces, and they can shake you no more forever.... If the war
+continues long, as it must if the object be not sooner attained,
+the institution in your States will be extinguished by mere
+friction and abrasion&mdash;by the mere incidents of the war. It
+will be gone, and you will have nothing valuable in lieu of it.
+Much of its value is gone already. How much better for you and for
+your people to take the step which at once shortens the war and
+secures substantial compensation for that which is sure to be
+wholly lost in any other event. How much better to thus save the
+money which else we sink forever in the war.... Our common country
+is in great peril, demanding the loftiest views and boldest action
+to bring it speedy relief. Once relieved, its form of government is
+saved to the world, its beloved history and cherished memories are
+vindicated, and its happy future fully assured and rendered
+inconceivably grand. To you, more than to any others, the privilege
+is given to assure that happiness and swell that grandeur, and to
+link your own names therewith forever."</p>
+<p>Even while the delegations listened, Mr. Lincoln could see that
+events had not yet ripened their minds to the acceptance of his
+proposition. In their written replies, submitted a few days
+afterward, two thirds of them united in a qualified refusal, which,
+while recognizing the President's patriotism and reiterating their
+own loyalty, urged a number of rather unsubstantial excuses. The
+minority replies promised to submit the proposal fairly to the
+people of their States, but could of course give no assurance that
+it would be <a name="page331" id="page331"></a>welcomed by their constituents. The
+interview itself only served to confirm the President in an
+alternative course of action upon which his mind had doubtless
+dwelt for a considerable time with intense solicitude, and which is
+best presented in the words of his own recital.</p>
+<p>"It had got to be," said he, in a conversation with the artist
+F.B. Carpenter, "midsummer, 1862. Things had gone on from bad to
+worse, until I felt that we had reached the end of our rope on the
+plan of operations we had been pursuing; that we had about played
+our last card, and must change our tactics, or lose the game. I now
+determined upon the adoption of the emancipation policy; and,
+without consultation with, or the knowledge of, the cabinet, I
+prepared the original draft of the proclamation, and after much
+anxious thought called a cabinet meeting upon the subject.... All
+were present excepting Mr. Blair, the Postmaster-General, who was
+absent at the opening of the discussion, but came in subsequently.
+I said to the cabinet that I had resolved upon this step, and had
+not called them together to ask their advice, but to lay the
+subject-matter of a proclamation before them, suggestions as to
+which would be in order after they had heard it read."</p>
+<p>It was on July 22 that the President read to his cabinet the
+draft of this first emancipation proclamation, which, after a
+formal warning against continuing the rebellion, was in the
+following words:</p>
+<p>"And I hereby make known that it is my purpose, upon the next
+meeting of Congress, to again recommend the adoption of a practical
+measure for tendering pecuniary aid to the free choice or rejection
+of any and all States which may then be recognizing and practically
+sustaining the authority of the United States, and which may then
+have voluntarily adopted, <a name="page332" id="page332"></a>or thereafter may voluntarily adopt,
+gradual abolishment of slavery within such State or States; that
+the object is to practically restore, thenceforward to be
+maintained, the constitutional relation between the general
+government and each and all the States wherein that relation is now
+suspended or disturbed; and that for this object the war, as it has
+been, will be prosecuted. And as a fit and necessary military
+measure for effecting this object, I, as commander-in-chief of the
+army and navy of the United States, do order and declare that on
+the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand
+eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within
+any State or States wherein the constitutional authority of the
+United States shall not then be practically recognized, submitted
+to, and maintained, shall then, thenceforward, and forever be
+free."</p>
+<p>Mr. Lincoln had given a confidential intimation of this step to
+Mr. Seward and Mr. Welles on the day following the border State
+interview, but to all the other members of the cabinet it came as a
+complete surprise. Blair thought it would cost the administration
+the fall elections. Chase preferred that emancipation should be
+proclaimed by commanders in the several military districts. Seward,
+approving the measure, suggested that it be postponed until it
+could be given to the country supported by military success,
+instead of issuing it, as would be the case then, upon the greatest
+disasters of the war. Mr. Lincoln's recital continues:</p>
+<p>"The wisdom of the view of the Secretary of State struck me with
+very great force. It was an aspect of the case that, in all my
+thought upon the subject, I had entirely overlooked. The result was
+that I put the draft of the proclamation aside, as you do your
+sketch for a picture, waiting for a victory."</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="page333" id="page333"></a>
+<h2><a name="XXIV" id="XXIV"></a>XXIV</h2>
+<br />
+<p><i>Criticism of the President for his Action on
+Slavery&mdash;Lincoln's Letters to Louisiana
+Friends&mdash;Greeley's Open Letter&mdash;Mr. Lincoln's
+Reply&mdash;Chicago Clergymen Urge Emancipation&mdash;Lincoln's
+Answer&mdash;Lincoln Issues Preliminary
+Proclamation&mdash;President Proposes Constitutional
+Amendment&mdash;Cabinet Considers Final Proclamation&mdash;Cabinet
+Discusses Admission of West Virginia&mdash;Lincoln Signs Edict of
+Freedom&mdash;Lincoln's Letter to Hodges</i></p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<p>The secrets of the government were so well kept that no hint
+whatever came to the public that the President had submitted to the
+cabinet the draft of an emancipation proclamation. Between that
+date and the battle of the second Bull Run intervened the period of
+a full month, during which, in the absence of military movements or
+congressional proceedings to furnish exciting news, both private
+individuals and public journals turned a new and somewhat
+vindictive fire of criticism upon the administration. For this they
+seized upon the ever-ready text of the ubiquitous slavery question.
+Upon this issue the conservatives protested indignantly that the
+President had been too fast, while, contrarywise, the radicals
+clamored loudly that he had been altogether too slow. We have seen
+how his decision was unalterably taken and his course distinctly
+marked out, but that he was not yet ready publicly to announce it.
+Therefore, during this period <a name="page334" id="page334"></a>of waiting for victory, he
+underwent the difficult task of restraining the impatience of both
+sides, which he did in very positive language. Thus, under date of
+July 26, 1862, he wrote to a friend in Louisiana:</p>
+<p>"Yours of the sixteenth, by the hand of Governor Shepley, is
+received. It seems the Union feeling in Louisiana is being crushed
+out by the course of General Phelps. Please pardon me for believing
+that is a false pretense. The people of Louisiana&mdash;all
+intelligent people everywhere&mdash;know full well that I never had
+a wish to touch the foundations of their society, or any right of
+theirs. With perfect knowledge of this, they forced a necessity
+upon me to send armies among them, and it is their own fault, not
+mine, that they are annoyed by the presence of General Phelps. They
+also know the remedy&mdash;know how to be cured of General Phelps.
+Remove the necessity of his presence.... I am a patient
+man&mdash;always willing to forgive on the Christian terms of
+repentance, and also to give ample time for repentance. Still, I
+must save this government if possible. What I cannot do, of course
+I will not do; but it may as well be understood, once for all, that
+I shall not surrender this game leaving any available card
+unplayed."</p>
+<p>Two days later he answered another Louisiana critic:</p>
+<p>"Mr. Durant complains that, in various ways, the relation of
+master and slave is disturbed by the presence of our army, and he
+considers it particularly vexatious that this, in part, is done
+under cover of an act of Congress, while constitutional guarantees
+are suspended on the plea of military necessity. The truth is that
+what is done and omitted about slaves is done <a name="page335" id="page335"></a>and
+omitted on the same military necessity. It is a military necessity
+to have men and money; and we can get neither in sufficient numbers
+or amounts if we keep from or drive from our lines slaves coming to
+them. Mr. Durant cannot be ignorant of the pressure in this
+direction, nor of my efforts to hold it within bounds till he and
+such as he shall have time to help themselves.... What would you do
+in my position? Would you drop the war where it is? Or would you
+prosecute it in future with elder-stalk squirts charged with
+rose-water? Would you deal lighter blows rather than heavier ones?
+Would you give up the contest, leaving any available means
+unapplied? I am in no boastful mood. I shall not do more than I
+can, and I shall do all I can, to save the government, which is my
+sworn duty as well as my personal inclination. I shall do nothing
+in malice. What I deal with is too vast for malicious dealing."</p>
+<p>The President could afford to overlook the misrepresentations
+and invective of the professedly opposition newspapers, but he had
+also to meet the over-zeal of influential Republican editors of
+strong antislavery bias. Horace Greeley printed, in the New York
+"Tribune" of August 20, a long "open letter" ostentatiously
+addressed to Mr. Lincoln, full of unjust censure all based on the
+general accusation that the President and many army officers as
+well, were neglecting their duty under pro-slavery influences and
+sentiments. The open letter which Mr. Lincoln wrote in reply is
+remarkable not alone for the skill with which it separated the true
+from the false issue of the moment, but also for the equipoise and
+dignity with which it maintained his authority as moral arbiter
+between the contending factions.<a name="page336" id="page336"></a></p>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"EXECUTIVE MANSION,
+WASHINGTON,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">August 22, 1862.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"HON. HORACE
+GREELEY.</span><br /></p>
+<p>"DEAR SIR: I have just read yours of the nineteenth, addressed
+to myself through the New York 'Tribune.' If there be in it any
+statements or assumptions of fact which I may know to be erroneous,
+I do not, now and here, controvert them. If there be in it any
+inferences which I may believe to be falsely drawn, I do not, now
+and here, argue against them. If there be perceptible in it an
+impatient and dictatorial tone, I waive it in deference to an old
+friend whose heart I have always supposed to be right.</p>
+<p>"As to the policy I 'seem to be pursuing,' as you say, I have
+not meant to leave any one in doubt.</p>
+<p>"I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under
+the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be
+restored, the nearer the Union will be 'the Union as it was.' If
+there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at
+the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be
+those who would not save the Union unless they could, at the same
+time, destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount
+object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to
+save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without
+freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing
+all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing
+some and leaving others alone, I would also do that. What I do
+about slavery and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps
+to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not
+believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I
+shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more
+whenever I shall <a name="page337" id="page337"></a>believe doing more will help the cause.
+I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors, and I shall
+adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views.</p>
+<p>"I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official
+duty; and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal
+wish that all men everywhere could be free.</p>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"Yours,</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"A. LINCOLN."</span><br /></p>
+<p>It can hardly be doubted that President Lincoln, when he wrote
+this letter, intended that it should have a twofold effect upon
+public opinion: first, that it should curb extreme antislavery
+sentiment to greater patience; secondly, that it should rouse
+dogged pro-slavery conservatism, and prepare it for the
+announcement which he had resolved to make at the first fitting
+opportunity. At the date of the letter, he very well knew that a
+serious conflict of arms was soon likely to occur in Virginia; and
+he had strong reason to hope that the junction of the armies of
+McClellan and Pope which had been ordered, and was then in
+progress, could be successfully effected, and would result in a
+decisive Union victory. This hope, however, was sadly disappointed.
+The second battle of Bull Run, which occurred one week after the
+Greeley letter, proved a serious defeat, and necessitated a further
+postponement of his contemplated action.</p>
+<p>As a secondary effect of the new disaster, there came upon him
+once more an increased pressure to make reprisal upon what was
+assumed to be the really vulnerable side of the rebellion. On
+September 13, he was visited by an influential deputation from the
+religious denominations of Chicago, urging him to issue at once <a name="page338" id="page338"></a>
+a proclamation of universal
+emancipation. His reply to them, made in the language of the most
+perfect courtesy nevertheless has in it a tone of rebuke that
+indicates the state of irritation and high sensitiveness under
+which he was living from day to day. In the actual condition of
+things, he could neither safely satisfy them nor deny them. As any
+answer he could make would be liable to misconstruction, he devoted
+the larger part of it to pointing out the unreasonableness of their
+dogmatic insistence:</p>
+<p>"I am approached with the most opposite opinions and advice, and
+that by religious men, who are equally certain that they represent
+the divine will. I am sure that either the one or the other class
+is mistaken in that belief, and perhaps, in some respects, both. I
+hope it will not be irreverent for me to say that if it is probable
+that God would reveal his will to others, on a point so connected
+with my duty, it might be supposed he would reveal it directly to
+me.... What good would a proclamation of emancipation from me do,
+especially as we are now situated? I do not want to issue a
+document that the whole world will see must necessarily be
+inoperative, like the Pope's bull against the comet.... Understand,
+I raise no objections against it on legal or constitutional
+grounds, for, as commander-in-chief of the army and navy in time of
+war, I suppose I have a right to take any measure which may best
+subdue the enemy; nor do I urge objections of a moral nature, in
+view of possible consequences of insurrection and massacre at the
+South. I view this matter as a practical war measure, to be decided
+on according to the advantages or disadvantages it may offer to the
+suppression of the rebellion.... Do not misunderstand me because I
+have mentioned these objections. They indicate the difficulties
+that have thus far prevented my action in some such way
+<a name="page339" id="page339"></a> as you desire. I have not decided
+against a proclamation of liberty to the slaves, but hold the
+matter under advisement. And I can assure you that the subject is
+on my mind, by day and night, more than any other. Whatever shall
+appear to be God's will, I will do."</p>
+<p>Four days after this interview the battle of Antietam was
+fought, and when, after a few days of uncertainty it was
+ascertained that it could be reasonably claimed as a Union victory,
+the President resolved to carry out his long-matured purpose. The
+diary of Secretary Chase has recorded a very full report of the
+interesting transaction. On this ever memorable September 22, 1862,
+after some playful preliminary talk, Mr. Lincoln said to his
+cabinet:</p>
+<p>"GENTLEMEN: I have, as you are aware, thought a great deal about
+the relation of this war to slavery; and you all remember that,
+several weeks ago, I read to you an order I had prepared on this
+subject, which, on account of objections made by some of you, was
+not issued. Ever since then my mind has been much occupied with
+this subject, and I have thought, all along, that the time for
+acting on it might probably come. I think the time has come now. I
+wish it was a better time. I wish that we were in a better
+condition. The action of the army against the rebels has not been
+quite what I should have best liked. But they have been driven out
+of Maryland, and Pennsylvania is no longer in danger of invasion.
+When the rebel army was at Frederick, I determined, as soon as it
+should be driven out of Maryland, to issue a proclamation of
+emancipation, such as I thought most likely to be useful. I said
+nothing to any one, but I made the promise to myself and
+[hesitating a little] to my Maker. The rebel army is now driven
+out, and I am going to fulfil that promise. I have got you together
+to hear what I have written down. I do not wish your advice about
+<a name="page340" id="page340"></a> the main matter, for that I have
+determined for myself. This I say without intending anything but
+respect for any one of you. But I already know the views of each on
+this question. They have been heretofore expressed, and I have
+considered them as thoroughly and carefully as I can. What I have
+written is that which my reflections have determined me to say. If
+there is anything in the expressions I use, or in any minor matter
+which any one of you thinks had best be changed, I shall be glad to
+receive the suggestions. One other observation I will make. I know
+very well that many others might, in this matter as in others, do
+better than I can; and if I was satisfied that the public
+confidence was more fully possessed by any one of them than by me,
+and knew of any constitutional way in which he could be put in my
+place, he should have it. I would gladly yield it to him. But,
+though I believe that I have not so much of the confidence of the
+people as I had some time since, I do not know that, all things
+considered any other person has more; and, however this may be,
+there is no way in which I can have any other man put where I am. I
+am here; I must do the best I can, and bear the responsibility of
+taking the course which I feel I ought to take."</p>
+<p>The members of the cabinet all approved the policy of the
+measure; Mr. Blair only objecting that he thought the time
+inopportune, while others suggested some slight amendments. In the
+new form in which it was printed on the following morning, the
+document announced a renewal of the plan of compensated
+abolishment, a continuance of the effort at voluntary colonization,
+a promise to recommend ultimate compensation to loyal owners,
+and&mdash;</p>
+<p>"That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one
+thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all <a name="page341" id="page341"></a>persons
+held as slaves within any State, or designated part of a State, the
+people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United
+States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the
+executive government of the United States, including the military
+and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the
+freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such
+persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their
+actual freedom."</p>
+<p>Pursuant to these announcements, the President's annual message
+of December 1, 1862, recommended to Congress the passage of a joint
+resolution proposing to the legislatures of the several States a
+constitutional amendment consisting of three articles, namely: One
+providing compensation in bonds for every State which should
+abolish slavery before the year 1900; another securing freedom to
+all slaves who, during the rebellion, had enjoyed actual freedom by
+the chances of war&mdash;also providing compensation to legal
+owners; the third authorizing Congress to provide for colonization.
+The long and practical argument in which he renewed this plan, "not
+in exclusion of, but additional to, all others for restoring and
+preserving the national authority throughout the Union," concluded
+with the following eloquent sentences:</p>
+<p>"We can succeed only by concert. It is not, 'Can any of us
+imagine better?' but, 'Can we all do better?' Object whatsoever is
+possible, still the question recurs, 'Can we do better?' The dogmas
+of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The
+occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the
+occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew.
+We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our
+country.</p>
+<p>"Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We, of <a name="page342" id="page342"></a>this
+Congress and this administration, will be remembered in spite of
+ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare
+one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will
+light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation. We
+say we are for the Union. The world will not forget that we say
+this. We know how to save the Union. The world knows we do know how
+to save it. We&mdash;even we here&mdash;hold the power and bear the
+responsibility. In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom
+to the free&mdash;honorable alike in what we give and what we
+preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last, best hope
+of earth. Other means may succeed, this could not fail. The way is
+plain, peaceful generous, just&mdash;a way which, if followed, the
+world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless."</p>
+<p>But Mr. Lincoln was not encouraged by any response to this
+earnest appeal, either from Congress or by manifestations of public
+opinion. Indeed, it may be fairly presumed that he expected none.
+Perhaps he considered it already a sufficient gain that it was
+silently accepted as another admonition of the consequences which
+not he nor his administration, but the Civil War, with its
+relentless agencies, was rapidly bringing about. He was becoming
+more and more conscious of the silent influence of his official
+utterances on public sentiment, if not to convert obstinate
+opposition, at least to reconcile it to patient submission.</p>
+<p>In that faith he steadfastly went on carrying out his
+well-matured plan, the next important step of which was the
+fulfilment of the announcements made in the preliminary
+emancipation proclamation of September 22. On December 30, he
+presented to each member of his cabinet a copy of the draft he had
+carefully made <a name="page343" id="page343"></a>of the new and final proclamation to be
+issued on New Year's day. It will be remembered that as early as
+July 22, he informed the cabinet that the main question involved he
+had decided for himself. Now, as twice before it was only upon
+minor points that he asked their advice and suggestion, for which
+object he placed these drafts in their hands for verbal and
+collateral criticism.</p>
+<p>In addition to the central point of military emancipation in all
+the States yet in rebellion, the President's draft for the first
+time announced his intention to incorporate a portion of the newly
+liberated slaves into the armies of the Union. This policy had also
+been under discussion at the first consideration of the subject in
+July. Mr. Lincoln had then already seriously considered it, but
+thought it inexpedient and productive of more evil than good at
+that date. In his judgment, the time had now arrived for
+energetically adopting it.</p>
+<p>On the following day, December 31, the members brought back to
+the cabinet meeting their several criticisms and suggestions on the
+draft he had given them. Perhaps the most important one was that
+earnestly pressed by Secretary Chase, that the new proclamation
+should make no exceptions of fractional parts of States controlled
+by the Union armies, as in Louisiana and Virginia, save the
+forty-eight counties of the latter designated as West Virginia,
+then in process of formation and admission as a new State; the
+constitutionality of which, on this same December 31, was
+elaborately discussed in writing by the members of the cabinet, and
+affirmatively decided by the President.</p>
+<p>On the afternoon of December 31, the cabinet meeting being over,
+Mr. Lincoln once more carefully rewrote the proclamation, embodying
+in it the suggestions which had been made as to mere verbal
+<a name="page344" id="page344"></a> improvements; but he rigidly adhered to
+his own draft in retaining the exceptions as to fractional parts of
+States and the forty-eight counties of West Virginia; and also his
+announcement of intention to enlist the freedmen in military
+service. Secretary Chase had submitted the form of a closing
+paragraph. This the President also adopted, but added to it, after
+the words "warranted by the Constitution," his own important
+qualifying correction, "upon military necessity."</p>
+<p>The full text of the weighty document will be found in a
+foot-note.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p>
+<p>It recited the announcement of the <a name="page345" id="page345"></a>September
+proclamation; defined its character and authority as a military
+decree; designated the States and parts of States that day in
+rebellion against the government; ordered and declared that all
+persons held as slaves therein "are and henceforward shall be
+free"; and that such persons of suitable condition would be
+received into the military service. "And upon this act, sincerely
+believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution
+upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of
+mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God."</p>
+<p>The conclusion of the momentous transaction was <a name="page346" id="page346"></a>as
+deliberate and simple as had been its various stages of
+preparation. The morning and midday of January 1, 1863, were
+occupied by the half-social, half-official ceremonial of the usual
+New Year's day reception at the Executive Mansion, established by
+long custom. At about three o'clock in the afternoon, after full
+three hours of greetings and handshakings, Mr. Lincoln and perhaps
+a dozen persons assembled in the executive office, and, without any
+prearranged ceremony the President affixed his signature to the
+great Edict of Freedom. No better commentary will ever be written
+upon this far-reaching act than that which he himself embodied in a
+letter written to a friend a little more than a year later:</p>
+<p>"I am naturally antislavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is
+wrong. I cannot remember when I did not so think and feel, and yet
+I have never understood that the Presidency conferred upon me an
+unrestricted right to act officially upon this judgment and
+feeling. It was in the oath I took that I would, to the best of my
+ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the
+United States. I could not take the office without taking the oath.
+Nor was it my view that I might take an oath to get power, and
+break the oath in using the power. I understood, too, that in
+ordinary civil administration this oath even forbade me to
+practically indulge my primary abstract judgment on the moral
+question of slavery. I had publicly declared this many times, and
+in many ways. And I aver that, to this day, I have done no official
+act in mere deference to my abstract judgment and feeling on
+slavery. I did understand, however, that my oath to preserve the
+Constitution to the best of my ability imposed upon me the duty of
+preserving, by every indispensable means, that government, that
+nation, of which that<a name="page347" id="page347"></a> Constitution was the organic law. Was it
+possible to lose the nation and yet preserve the Constitution? By
+general law, life and limb must be protected, yet often a limb must
+be amputated to save a life; but a life is never wisely given to
+save a limb. I felt that measures otherwise unconstitutional might
+become lawful by becoming indispensable to the preservation of the
+Constitution, through the preservation of the nation. Right or
+wrong, I assumed this ground, and now avow it. I could not feel
+that, to the best of my ability, I had even tried to preserve the
+Constitution if, to save slavery or any minor matter, I should
+permit the wreck of government, country, and Constitution all
+together. When, early in the war, General Fr&eacute;mont attempted
+military emancipation, I forbade it, because I did not then think
+it an indispensable necessity. When, a little later, General
+Cameron, then Secretary of War, suggested the arming of the blacks,
+I objected because I did not yet think it an indispensable
+necessity. When, still later, General Hunter attempted military
+emancipation, I again forbade it, because I did not yet think the
+indispensable necessity had come. When in March and May and July,
+1862, I made earnest and successive appeals to the border States to
+favor compensated emancipation, I believed the indispensable
+necessity for military emancipation and arming the blacks would
+come unless averted by that measure. They declined the proposition,
+and I was, in my best judgment, driven to the alternative of either
+surrendering the Union, and with it the Constitution, or of laying
+strong hand upon the colored element. I chose the latter."</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="page348" id="page348"></a>
+<h2><a name="XXV" id="XXV"></a>XXV</h2>
+<br />
+<p><i>Negro Soldiers&mdash;Fort
+Pillow&mdash;Retaliation&mdash;Draft&mdash;Northern
+Democrats&mdash;Governor Seymour's Attitude&mdash;Draft Riots in
+New York&mdash;Vallandigham&mdash;Lincoln on his Authority to
+Suspend Writ of Habeas Corpus&mdash;Knights of the Golden
+Circle&mdash;Jacob Thompson in Canada</i></p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<p>On the subject of negro soldiers, as on many other topics, the
+period of active rebellion and civil war had wrought a profound
+change in public opinion. From the foundation of the government to
+the Rebellion, the horrible nightmare of a possible slave
+insurrection had brooded over the entire South. This feeling
+naturally had a sympathetic reflection in the North, and at first
+produced an instinctive shrinking from any thought of placing arms
+in the hands of the blacks whom the chances of war had given
+practical or legal freedom. During the year 1862, a few sporadic
+efforts were made by zealous individuals, under apparently favoring
+conditions, to begin the formation of colored regiments. The
+eccentric Senator Lane tried it in Kansas, or, rather, along the
+Missouri border without success. General Hunter made an experiment
+in South Carolina, but found the freedmen too unwilling to enlist,
+and the white officers too prejudiced to instruct them. General
+Butler, at New Orleans, infused his wonted energy into a similar
+attempt, with somewhat better results. He found that before the
+capture of the city, Governor Moore of Louisiana had <a name="page349" id="page349"></a>begun the
+organization of a regiment of free colored men for local defense.
+Butler resuscitated this organization for which he thus had the
+advantage of Confederate example and precedent, and against which
+the accusation of arming slaves could not be urged. Early in
+September, Butler reported, with his usual biting sarcasm:</p>
+<p>"I shall also have within ten days a regiment, one thousand
+strong, of native guards (colored), the darkest of whom will be
+about the complexion of the late Mr. Webster."</p>
+<p>All these efforts were made under implied, rather than expressed
+provisions of law, and encountered more or less embarrassment in
+obtaining pay and supplies, because they were not distinctly
+recognized in the army regulations. This could not well be done so
+long as the President considered the policy premature. His spirit
+of caution in this regard was set forth by the Secretary of War in
+a letter of instruction dated July 3, 1862:</p>
+<p>"He is of opinion," wrote Mr. Stanton, "that under the laws of
+Congress, they [the former slaves] cannot be sent back to their
+masters; that in common humanity they must not be permitted to
+suffer for want of food, shelter, or other necessaries of life;
+that to this end they should be provided for by the quartermaster's
+and commissary's departments, and that those who are capable of
+labor should be set to work and paid reasonable wages. In directing
+this to be done, the President does not mean, at present, to settle
+any general rule in respect to slaves or slavery, but simply to
+provide for the particular case under the circumstances in which it
+is now presented."</p>
+<p>All this was changed by the final proclamation of emancipation,
+which authoritatively announced that <a name="page350" id="page350"></a>persons of suitable
+condition, whom it declared free, would be received into the armed
+service of the United States. During the next few months, the
+President wrote several personal letters to General Dix, commanding
+at Fortress Monroe; to Andrew Johnson, military governor of
+Tennessee; to General Banks, commanding at New Orleans; and to
+General Hunter, in the Department of the South, urging their
+attention to promoting the new policy; and, what was yet more to
+the purpose, a bureau was created in the War Department having
+special charge of the duty, and the adjutant-general of the army
+was personally sent to the Union camps on the Mississippi River to
+superintend the recruitment and enlistment of the negroes, where,
+with the hearty co&ouml;peration of General Grant and other Union
+commanders, he met most encouraging and gratifying success.</p>
+<p>The Confederate authorities made a great outcry over the new
+departure. They could not fail to see the immense effect it was
+destined to have in the severe military struggle, and their
+prejudice of generations greatly intensified the gloomy
+apprehensions they no doubt honestly felt. Yet even allowing for
+this, the exaggerated language in which they described it became
+absolutely ludicrous. The Confederate War Department early declared
+Generals Hunter and Phelps to be outlaws, because they were
+drilling and organizing slaves; and the sensational proclamation
+issued by Jefferson Davis on December 23, 1862, ordered that Butler
+and his commissioned officers, "robbers and criminals deserving
+death, ... be, whenever captured, reserved for execution."</p>
+<p>Mr. Lincoln's final emancipation proclamation excited them to a
+still higher frenzy. The Confederate Senate talked of raising the
+black flag; Jefferson Davis's message stigmatized it as "the most
+execrable <a name="page351" id="page351"></a>measure recorded in the history of
+guilty man"; and a joint resolution of the Confederate Congress
+prescribed that white officers of negro Union soldiers "shall, if
+captured, be put to death, or be otherwise punished at the
+discretion of the court." The general orders of some subordinate
+Confederate commanders repeated or rivaled such denunciations and
+threats.</p>
+<p>Fortunately, the records of the war are not stained with either
+excesses by the colored troops or even a single instance of such
+proclaimed barbarity upon white Union officers; and the visitation
+of vengeance upon negro soldiers is confined, so far as known, to
+the single instance of the massacre at Fort Pillow. In that
+deplorable affair, the Confederate commander reported, by
+telegraph, that in thirty minutes he stormed a fort manned by seven
+hundred, and captured the entire garrison killing five hundred and
+taking one hundred prisoners while he sustained a loss of only
+twenty killed and sixty wounded. It is unnecessary to explain that
+the bulk of the slain were colored soldiers. Making due allowance
+for the heat of battle, history can considerately veil closer
+scrutiny into the realities wrapped in the exaggerated boast of
+such a victory.</p>
+<p>The Fort Pillow incident, which occurred in the spring of 1864,
+brought upon President Lincoln the very serious question of
+enforcing an order of retaliation which had been issued on July 30,
+1863, as an answer to the Confederate joint resolution of May 1.
+Mr. Lincoln's freedom from every trace of passion was as
+conspicuous in this as in all his official acts. In a little
+address at Baltimore, while referring to the rumor of the massacre
+which had just been received, Mr. Lincoln said:</p>
+<p>"We do not to-day know that a colored soldier, or white officer
+commanding colored soldiers, has been <a name="page352" id="page352"></a>massacred
+by the rebels when made a prisoner. We fear it, believe it, I may
+say, but we do not know it. To take the life of one of their
+prisoners on the assumption that they murder ours, when it is short
+of certainty that they do murder ours, might be too serious, too
+cruel, a mistake."</p>
+<p>When more authentic information arrived, the matter was very
+earnestly debated by the assembled cabinet; but the discussion only
+served to bring out in stronger light the inherent dangers of
+either course. In this nice balancing of weighty reasons, two
+influences decided the course of the government against
+retaliation. One was that General Grant was about to begin his
+memorable campaign against Richmond, and that it would be most
+impolitic to preface a great battle by the tragic spectacle of a
+military punishment, however justifiable. The second was the
+tender-hearted humanity of the ever merciful President. Frederick
+Douglass has related the answer Mr. Lincoln made to him in a
+conversation nearly a year earlier:</p>
+<p>"I shall never forget the benignant expression of his face, the
+tearful look of his eye, and the quiver in his voice when he
+deprecated a resort to retaliatory measures. 'Once begun,' said he,
+'I do not know where such a measure would stop.' He said he could
+not take men out and kill them in cold blood for what was done by
+others. If he could get hold of the persons who were guilty of
+killing the colored prisoners in cold blood, the case would be
+different, but he could not kill the innocent for the guilty."</p>
+<p>Amid the sanguinary reports and crowding events that held public
+attention for a year, from the Wilderness to Appomattox, the Fort
+Pillow affair was forgotten, not only by the cabinet, but by the
+country.</p>
+<p>The related subjects of emancipation and negro <a name="page353" id="page353"></a>soldiers
+would doubtless have been discussed with much more passion and
+friction, had not public thought been largely occupied during the
+year 1863 by the enactment of the conscription law and the
+enforcement of the draft. In the hard stress of politics and war
+during the years 1861 and 1862, the popular enthusiasm with which
+the free States responded to the President's call to put down the
+rebellion by force of arms had become measurably exhausted. The
+heavy military reverses which attended the failure of McClellan's
+campaign against Richmond, Pope's defeat at the second Bull Run,
+McClellan's neglect to follow up the drawn battle of Antietam with
+energetic operations, the gradual change of early Western victories
+to a cessation of all effort to open the Mississippi, and the
+scattering of the Western forces to the spiritless routine of
+repairing and guarding long railroad lines, all operated together
+practically to stop volunteering and enlistment by the end of
+1862.</p>
+<p>Thus far, the patriotic record was a glorious one. Almost one
+hundred thousand three months' militia had shouldered muskets to
+redress the fall of Fort Sumter; over half a million three years'
+volunteers promptly enlisted to form the first national army under
+the laws of Congress passed in August, 1861; nearly half a million
+more volunteers came forward under the tender of the governors of
+free States and the President's call of July, 1862, to repair the
+failure of McClellan's Peninsula campaign. Several minor calls for
+shorter terms of enlistment, aggregating more than forty thousand,
+are here omitted for brevity's sake. Had the Western victories
+continued, had the Mississippi been opened, had the Army of the
+Potomac been more fortunate, volunteering would doubtless have
+continued at quite or nearly the same rate. But with success
+<a name="page354" id="page354"></a> delayed, with campaigns thwarted, with
+public sentiment despondent, armies ceased to fill. An emergency
+call for three hundred thousand nine months' men, issued on August
+4, 1862, produced a total of only eighty-six thousand eight hundred
+and sixty; and an attempt to supply these in some of the States by
+a draft under State laws demonstrated that mere local statutes and
+machinery for that form of military recruitment were defective and
+totally inadequate.</p>
+<p>With the beginning of the third year of the war, more energetic
+measures to fill the armies were seen to be necessary; and after
+very hot and acrimonious debate for about a month, Congress, on
+March 3, 1863, passed a national conscription law, under which all
+male citizens between the ages of twenty and forty-five were
+enrolled to constitute the national forces, and the President was
+authorized to call them into service by draft as occasion might
+require. The law authorized the appointment of a
+provost-marshal-general, and under him a provost-marshal, a
+commissioner, and a surgeon, to constitute a board of enrollment in
+each congressional district; who, with necessary deputies, were
+required to carry out the law by national authority, under the
+supervision of the provost-marshal-general.</p>
+<p>For more than a year past, the Democratic leaders in the
+Northern States had assumed an attitude of violent partizanship
+against the administration, their hostility taking mainly the form
+of stubborn opposition to the antislavery enactments of Congress
+and the emancipation measures of the President. They charged with
+loud denunciation that he was converting the maintenance of the
+Union into a war for abolition, and with this and other clamors had
+gained considerable successes in the autumn congressional elections
+of<a name="page355" id="page355"></a> 1862, though not enough to break the
+Republican majority in the House of Representatives. General
+McClellan was a Democrat, and, since his removal from command, they
+proclaimed him a martyr to this policy, and were grooming him to be
+their coming presidential candidate.</p>
+<p>The passage of the conscription law afforded them a new pretext
+to assail the administration; and Democratic members of both Houses
+of Congress denounced it with extravagant partizan bitterness as a
+violation of the Constitution, and subversive of popular liberty.
+In the mouths of vindictive cross-roads demagogues, and in the
+columns of irresponsible newspapers that supply the political
+reading among the more reckless elements of city populations, the
+extravagant language of Democratic leaders degenerated in many
+instances into unrestrained abuse and accusation. Yet, considering
+that this was the first conscription law ever enacted in the United
+States, considering the multitude of questions and difficulties
+attending its application, considering that the necessity of its
+enforcement was, in the nature of things, unwelcome to the friends
+of the government, and, as naturally, excited all the enmity and
+cunning of its foes to impede, thwart, and evade it, the law was
+carried out with a remarkably small proportion of delay,
+obstruction, or resulting violence.</p>
+<p>Among a considerable number of individual violations of the act,
+in which prompt punishment prevented a repetition, only two
+prominent incidents arose which had what may be called a national
+significance. In the State of New York the partial political
+reaction of 1862 had caused the election of Horatio Seymour, a
+Democrat, as governor. A man of high character and great ability,
+he, nevertheless, permitted his partizan <a name="page356" id="page356"></a>feeling
+to warp and color his executive functions to a dangerous extent.
+The spirit of his antagonism is shown in a phrase of his
+fourth-of-July oration:</p>
+<p>"The Democratic organization look upon this administration as
+hostile to their rights and liberties; they look upon their
+opponents as men who would do them wrong in regard to their most
+sacred franchises."</p>
+<p>Believing&mdash;perhaps honestly&mdash;the conscription law to
+be unconstitutional, he endeavored, by protest, argument and
+administrative non-compliance, to impede its execution on the plea
+of first demanding a Supreme Court decision as to its legality. To
+this President Lincoln replied:</p>
+<p>"I cannot consent to suspend the draft in New York, as you
+request, because, among other reasons, time is too important.... I
+do not object to abide a decision of the United States Supreme
+Court, or of the judges thereof, on the constitutionality of the
+draft law. In fact, I should be willing to facilitate the obtaining
+of it; but I cannot consent to lose the time while it is being
+obtained. We are contending with an enemy who, as I understand,
+drives every able-bodied man he can reach into his ranks, very much
+as a butcher drives bullocks into a slaughter-pen. No time is
+wasted, no argument is used. This produces an army which will soon
+turn upon our now victorious soldiers already in the field, if they
+shall not be sustained by recruits as they should be."</p>
+<p>Notwithstanding Governor Seymour's neglect to give the enrolling
+officers any co&ouml;peration, preparations for the draft went on
+in New York city without prospect of serious disturbance, except
+the incendiary language of low newspapers and handbills. But
+scarcely had the wheel begun to turn, and the drawing commenced on
+July 13, when a sudden riot broke out.<a name="page357" id="page357"></a> First
+demolishing the enrolling-office, the crowd next attacked an
+adjoining block of stores, which they plundered and set on fire,
+refusing to let the firemen put out the flames. From this point the
+excitement and disorder spread over the city, which for three days
+was at many points subjected to the uncontrolled fury of the mob.
+Loud threats to destroy the New York "Tribune" office, which the
+inmates as vigorously prepared to defend, were made. The most
+savage brutality was wreaked upon colored people. The fine building
+of the colored Orphan Asylum, where several hundred children barely
+found means of escape, was plundered and set on fire. It was
+notable that foreigners of recent importation were the principal
+leaders and actors in this lawlessness in which two million dollars
+worth of property was destroyed, and several hundred persons lost
+their lives.</p>
+<p>The disturbance came to an end on the night of the fourth day,
+when a small detachment of soldiers met a body of rioters, and
+firing into them, killed thirteen, and wounded eighteen more.
+Governor Seymour gave but little help in the disorder, and left a
+stain on the record of his courage by addressing a portion of the
+mob as "my friends." The opportune arrival of national troops
+restored, and thereafter maintained, quiet and safety.</p>
+<p>Some temporary disturbance occurred in Boston, but was promptly
+put down, and loud appeals came from Philadelphia and Chicago to
+stop the draft. The final effect of the conscription law was not so
+much to obtain recruits for the service, as to stimulate local
+effort throughout the country to promote volunteering, whereby the
+number drafted was either greatly lessened or, in many localities,
+entirely avoided by filling the State quotas.<a name="page358" id="page358"></a></p>
+<p>The military arrest of Clement L. Vallandigham, a Democratic
+member of Congress from Ohio, for incendiary language denouncing
+the draft, also grew to an important incident. Arrested and tried
+under the orders of General Burnside, a military commission found
+him guilty of having violated General Order No. 38, by "declaring
+disloyal sentiments and opinions with the object and purpose of
+weakening the power of the government in its efforts to suppress an
+unlawful rebellion"; and sentenced him to military confinement
+during the war. Judge Leavitt of the United States Circuit Court
+denied a writ of <i>habeas corpus</i> in the case. President
+Lincoln regretted the arrest, but felt it imprudent to annul the
+action of the general and the military tribunal. Conforming to a
+clause of Burnside's order, he modified the sentence by sending
+Vallandigham south beyond the Union military lines. The affair
+created a great sensation, and, in a spirit of party protest, the
+Ohio Democrats unanimously nominated Vallandigham for governor.
+Vallandigham went to Richmond, held a conference with the
+Confederate authorities, and, by way of Bermuda, went to Canada,
+from whence he issued a political address. The Democrats of both
+Ohio and New York took up the political and legal discussion with
+great heat, and sent imposing committees to present long addresses
+to the President on the affair.</p>
+<p>Mr. Lincoln made long written replies to both addresses of which
+only so much needs quoting here as concisely states his
+interpretation of his authority to suspend the privilege of the
+writ of <i>habeas corpus</i>:</p>
+<p>"You ask, in substance, whether I really claim that I may
+override all the guaranteed rights of individuals, on the plea of
+conserving the public safety&mdash;when I may choose to say the
+public safety requires it. This <a name="page359" id="page359"></a>question, divested of the
+phraseology calculated to represent me as struggling for an
+arbitrary personal prerogative, is either simply a question who
+shall decide or an affirmation that nobody shall decide, what the
+public safety does require in cases of rebellion or invasion. The
+Constitution contemplates the question as likely to occur for
+decision, but it does not expressly declare who is to decide it. By
+necessary implication, when rebellion or invasion comes, the
+decision is to be made from time to time; and I think the man whom,
+for the time, the people have, under the Constitution, made the
+commander-in-chief of their army and navy, is the man who holds the
+power and bears the responsibility of making it. If he uses the
+power justly, the same people will probably justify him; if he
+abuses it, he is in their hands, to be dealt with by all the modes
+they have reserved to themselves in the Constitution."</p>
+<p>Forcible and convincing as was this legal analysis, a single
+sympathetic phrase of the President's reply had a much greater
+popular effect:</p>
+<p>"Must I shoot a simple-minded soldier boy who deserts while I
+must not touch a hair of a wily agitator who induces him to
+desert?"</p>
+<p>The term so accurately described the character of Vallandigham,
+and the pointed query so touched the hearts of the Union people
+throughout the land whose favorite "soldier boys" had volunteered
+to fill the Union armies, that it rendered powerless the crafty
+criticism of party diatribes. The response of the people of Ohio
+was emphatic. At the October election Vallandigham was defeated by
+more than one hundred thousand majority.</p>
+<p>In sustaining the arrest of Vallandigham, President Lincoln had
+acted not only within his constitutional, but also strictly within
+his legal, authority. In the<a name="page360" id="page360"></a> preceding March, Congress had
+passed an act legalizing all orders of this character made by the
+President at any time during the rebellion, and accorded him full
+indemnity for all searches, seizures, and arrests or imprisonments
+made under his orders. The act also provided:</p>
+<p>"That, during the present rebellion, the President of the United
+States, whenever in his judgment the public safety may require it,
+is authorized to suspend the privilege of the writ of <i>habeas
+corpus</i> in any case, throughout the United States or any part
+thereof."</p>
+<p>About the middle of September, Mr. Lincoln's proclamation
+formally put the law in force, to obviate any hindering or delaying
+the prompt execution of the draft law.</p>
+<p>Though Vallandigham and the Democrats of his type were unable to
+prevent or even delay the draft, they yet managed to enlist the
+sympathies and secure the adhesion of many uneducated and
+unthinking men by means of secret societies, known as "Knights of
+the Golden Circle," "The Order of American Knights," "Order of the
+Star," "Sons of Liberty," and by other equally high-sounding names,
+which they adopted and discarded in turn, as one after the other
+was discovered and brought into undesired prominence. The titles
+and grips and passwords of these secret military organizations, the
+turgid eloquence of their meetings, and the clandestine drill of
+their oath-bound members, doubtless exercised quite as much
+fascination on such followers as their unlawful object of aiding
+and abetting the Southern cause. The number of men thus enlisted in
+the work of inducing desertion among Union soldiers, fomenting
+resistance to the draft, furnishing the Confederates with arms, and
+conspiring to establish a Northwestern Confederacy in full accord
+with the South, which formed the ultimate dream of their
+<a name="page361" id="page361"></a> leaders, is hard to determine.
+Vallandigham, the real head of the movement, claimed five hundred
+thousand, and Judge Holt, in an official report, adopted that as
+being somewhere near the truth, though others counted them at a
+full million.</p>
+<p>The government, cognizant of their existence, and able to
+produce abundant evidence against the ring-leaders whenever it
+chose to do so, wisely paid little heed to these dark-lantern
+proceedings, though, as was perhaps natural, military officers
+commanding the departments in which they were most numerous were
+inclined to look upon them more seriously; and Governor Morton of
+Indiana was much disquieted by their work in his State.</p>
+<p>Mr. Lincoln's attitude toward them was one of good-humored
+contempt. "Nothing can make me believe that one hundred thousand
+Indiana Democrats are disloyal," he said; and maintained that there
+was more folly than crime in their acts. Indeed, though prolific
+enough of oaths and treasonable utterances, these organizations
+were singularly lacking in energy and initiative. Most of the
+attempts made against the public peace in the free States and along
+the northern border came, not from resident conspirators, but from
+Southern emissaries and their Canadian sympathizers; and even these
+rarely rose above the level of ordinary arson and highway
+robbery.</p>
+<p>Jacob Thompson, who had been Secretary of the Interior under
+President Buchanan, was the principal agent of the Confederate
+government in Canada, where he carried on operations as remarkable
+for their impracticability as for their malignity. One plan during
+the summer of 1864 contemplated nothing less than seizing and
+holding the three great States of Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, with
+the aid of disloyal Democrats, <a name="page362" id="page362"></a>whereupon it was supposed
+Missouri and Kentucky would quickly join them and make an end of
+the war.</p>
+<p>Becoming convinced, when this project fell through, that nothing
+could be expected from Northern Democrats he placed his reliance on
+Canadian sympathizers, and turned his attention to liberating the
+Confederate prisoners confined on Johnson's Island in Sandusky Bay
+and at Camp Douglas near Chicago. But both these elaborate schemes,
+which embraced such magnificent details as capturing the war
+steamer <i>Michigan</i> on Lake Erie, came to naught. Nor did the
+plans to burn St. Louis and New York, and to destroy steamboats on
+the Mississippi River, to which he also gave his sanction, succeed
+much better. A very few men were tried and punished for these and
+similar crimes, despite the voluble protest of the Confederate
+government but the injuries he and his agents were able to inflict,
+like the acts of the Knights of the Golden Circle on the American
+side of the border, amounted merely to a petty annoyance, and never
+reached the dignity of real menace to the government.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="page363" id="page363"></a>
+<h2><a name="XXVI" id="XXVI"></a>XXVI</h2>
+<br />
+<p><i>Burnside&mdash;Fredericksburg&mdash;A Tangle of
+Cross-Purposes&mdash;Hooker Succeeds Burnside&mdash;Lincoln to
+Hooker&mdash;Chancellorsville&mdash;Lee's Second
+Invasion&mdash;Lincoln's Criticisms of Hooker's Plans&mdash;Hooker
+Relieved&mdash;Meade&mdash;Gettysburg&mdash;Lee's
+Retreat&mdash;Lincoln's Letter to Meade&mdash;Lincoln's Gettysburg
+Address&mdash;Autumn Strategy&mdash;The Armies go into Winter
+Quarters</i></p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<p>It was not without well-meditated reasons that Mr. Lincoln had
+so long kept McClellan in command of the Army of the Potomac. He
+perfectly understood that general's defects, his want of
+initiative, his hesitations, his delays, his never-ending
+complaints. But he had long foreseen the difficulty which would and
+did immediately arise when, on November 5, 1862, he removed him
+from command. Whom should he appoint as McClellan's successor? What
+officer would be willing and competent to play a better part? That
+important question had also long been considered; several promising
+generals had been consulted, who, as gracefully as they could,
+shrank from the responsibility even before it was formally offered
+them.</p>
+<p>The President finally appointed General Ambrose E. Burnside to
+the command. He was a West Point graduate, thirty-eight years old,
+of handsome presence, brave and generous to a fault, and
+McClellan's intimate friend. He had won a favorable reputation in
+leading the expedition against Roanoke Island and the North
+Carolina coast; and, called to reinforce<a name="page364" id="page364"></a>McClellan
+after the Peninsula disaster, commanded the left wing of the Army
+of the Potomac at Antietam. He was not covetous of the honor now
+given him. He had already twice declined it, and only now accepted
+the command as a duty under the urgent advice of members of his
+staff. His instincts were better than the judgment of his friends.
+A few brief weeks sufficed to demonstrate what he had told
+them&mdash;that he "was not competent to command such a large
+army."</p>
+<p>The very beginning of his work proved the truth of his
+self-criticism. Rejecting all the plans of campaign which were
+suggested to him, he found himself incapable of forming any very
+plausible or consistent one of his own. As a first move he
+concentrated his army opposite the town of Fredericksburg on the
+lower Rappahannock, but with such delays that General Lee had time
+to seize and strongly fortify the town and the important adjacent
+heights on the south bank; and when Burnside's army crossed on
+December 11, and made its main and direct attack on the formidable
+and practically impregnable Confederate intrenchments on the
+thirteenth, a crushing repulse and defeat of the Union forces, with
+a loss of over ten thousand killed and wounded, was the quick and
+direful result.</p>
+<p>It was in a spirit of stubborn determination rather than clear,
+calculating courage that he renewed his orders for an attack on the
+fourteenth; but, dissuaded by his division and corps commanders
+from the rash experiment, succeeded without further damage in
+withdrawing his forces on the night of the fifteenth to their old
+camps north of the river. In manly words his report of the
+unfortunate battle gave generous praise to his officers and men,
+and assumed for himself all the responsibility for the attack and
+its failure. But its secondary consequences soon became
+<a name="page365" id="page365"></a> irremediable. By that gloomy disaster Burnside
+almost completely lost the confidence of his officers and men, and
+rumors soon came to the President that a spirit akin to mutiny
+pervaded the army. When information came that, on the day after
+Christmas, Burnside was preparing for a new campaign, the President
+telegraphed him:</p>
+<p>"I have good reason for saying you must not make a general
+movement of the army without letting me know."</p>
+<p>This, naturally, brought Burnside to the President for
+explanation, and, after a frank and full discussion between them,
+Mr. Lincoln, on New Year's day, wrote the following letter to
+General Halleck:</p>
+<p>"General Burnside wishes to cross the Rappahannock with his
+army, but his grand division commanders all oppose the movement. If
+in such a difficulty as this you do not help, you fail me precisely
+in the point for which I sought your assistance. You know what
+General Burnside's plan is, and it is my wish that you go with him
+to the ground, examine it as far as practicable, confer with the
+officers, getting their judgment and ascertaining their temper; in
+a word, gather all the elements for forming a judgment of your own,
+and then tell General Burnside that you do approve, or that you do
+not approve, his plan. Your military skill is useless to me if you
+will not do this."</p>
+<p>Halleck's moral and official courage, however, failed the
+President in this emergency. He declined to give his military
+opinion, and asked to be relieved from further duties as
+general-in-chief. This left Mr. Lincoln no option, and still having
+need of the advice of his general-in-chief on other questions, he
+indorsed on his own letter, "withdrawn because considered harsh by
+General Halleck." The complication, however, <a name="page366" id="page366"></a>continued
+to grow worse, and the correspondence more strained. Burnside
+declared that the country had lost confidence in both the Secretary
+of War and the general-in-chief; also, that his own generals were
+unanimously opposed to again crossing the Rappahannock. Halleck, on
+the contrary, urged another crossing, but that it must be made on
+Burnside's own decision, plan, and responsibility. Upon this the
+President, on January 8, 1863, again wrote Burnside:</p>
+<p>"I understand General Halleck has sent you a letter of which
+this is a copy. I approve this letter. I deplore the want of
+concurrence with you in opinion by your general officers, but I do
+not see the remedy. Be cautious, and do not understand that the
+government or country is driving you. I do not yet see how I could
+profit by changing the command of the Army of the Potomac; and if I
+did, I should not wish to do it by accepting the resignation of
+your commission."</p>
+<p>Once more Burnside issued orders against which his generals
+protested, and which a storm turned into the fruitless and
+impossible "mud march" before he reached the intended crossings of
+the Rappahannock. Finally, on January 23, Burnside presented to the
+President the alternative of either approving an order dismissing
+about a dozen generals, or accepting his own resignation, and Mr.
+Lincoln once more had before him the difficult task of finding a
+new commander for the Army of the Potomac. On January 25, 1863, the
+President relieved Burnside and assigned Major-General Joseph
+Hooker to duty as his successor; and in explanation of his action
+wrote him the following characteristic letter:</p>
+<p>"I have placed you at the head of the Army of the Potomac. Of
+course I have done this upon what appear to me to be sufficient
+reasons, and yet I think it <a name="page367" id="page367"></a>best for you to know that there are
+some things in regard to which I am not quite satisfied with you. I
+believe you to be a brave and skilful soldier, which, of course, I
+like. I also believe you do not mix politics with your profession,
+in which you are right. You have confidence in yourself, which is a
+valuable, if not an indispensable quality. You are ambitious,
+which, within reasonable bounds, does good rather than harm; but I
+think that during General Burnside's command of the army you have
+taken counsel of your ambition and thwarted him as much as you
+could, in which you did a great wrong to the country, and to a most
+meritorious and honorable brother officer. I have heard, in such a
+way as to believe it, of your recently saying that both the army
+and the government needed a dictator. Of course it was not for
+this, but in spite of it, that I have given you the command. Only
+those generals who gain successes can set up dictators. What I now
+ask of you is military success, and I will risk the dictatorship.
+The government will support you to the utmost of its ability, which
+is neither more nor less than it has done and will do for all
+commanders. I much fear that the spirit which you have aided to
+infuse into the army, of criticizing their commander and
+withholding confidence from him, will now turn upon you. I shall
+assist you as far as I can to put it down. Neither you nor
+Napoleon, if he were alive again, could get any good out of an army
+while such a spirit prevails in it; and now beware of rashness.
+Beware of rashness, but with energy and sleepless vigilance go
+forward and give us victories."</p>
+<p>Perhaps the most remarkable thing in this letter is the evidence
+it gives how completely the genius of President Lincoln had by
+this, the middle of his presidential <a name="page368" id="page368"></a>term, risen to the full
+height of his great national duties and responsibilities. From
+beginning to end it speaks the language and breathes the spirit of
+the great ruler, secure in popular confidence and official
+authority, equal to the great emergencies that successively rose
+before him. Upon General Hooker its courteous praise and frank
+rebuke, its generous trust and distinct note of fatherly warning,
+made a profound impression. He strove worthily to redeem his past
+indiscretions by devoting himself with great zeal and energy to
+improving the discipline and morale of his army, recalling its
+absentees, and restoring its spirit by increased drill and renewed
+activity. He kept the President well informed of what he was doing,
+and early in April submitted a plan of campaign on which Mr.
+Lincoln indorsed, on the eleventh of that month:</p>
+<p>"My opinion is that just now, with the enemy directly ahead of
+us, there is no eligible route for us into Richmond; and
+consequently a question of preference between the Rappahannock
+route and the James River route is a contest about nothing. Hence,
+our prime object is the enemy's army in front of us, and is not
+with or about Richmond at all, unless it be incidental to the main
+object."</p>
+<p>Having raised his effective force to about one hundred and
+thirty thousand men, and learning that Lee's army was weakened by
+detachments to perhaps half that number, Hooker, near the end of
+the month, prepared and executed a bold movement which for a while
+was attended with encouraging progress. Sending General Sedgwick
+with three army corps to make a strong demonstration and crossing
+below Fredericksburg, Hooker with his remaining four corps made a
+somewhat long and circuitous march by which he crossed both the
+Rappahannock and the Rapidan above <a name="page369" id="page369"></a>the town without serious
+opposition, and on the evening of April 30 had his four corps at
+Chancellorsville, south of the Rappahannock, from whence he could
+advance against the rear of the enemy. But his advantage of
+position was neutralized by the difficulties of the ground. He was
+in the dense and tangled forest known as the Wilderness, and the
+decision and energy of his brilliant and successful advance were
+suddenly succeeded by a spirit of hesitation and delay in which the
+evident and acknowledged chances of victory were gradually lost.
+The enemy found time to rally from his surprise and astonishment,
+to gather a strong line of defense, and finally, to organize a
+counter flank movement under Stonewall Jackson, which fell upon the
+rear of the Union right and created a panic in the Eleventh Corps.
+Sedgwick's force had crossed below and taken Fredericksburg; but
+the divided Union army could not effect a junction; and the
+fighting from May 1 to May 4 finally ended by the withdrawal of
+both sections of the Union army north of the Rappahannock. The
+losses suffered by the Union and the Confederate forces were about
+equal, but the prestige of another brilliant victory fell to
+General Lee, seriously balanced, however, by the death of Stonewall
+Jackson, who was accidentally killed by the fire of his own
+men.</p>
+<p>In addition to his evident very unusual diminution of vigor and
+will, Hooker had received a personal injury on the third, which for
+some hours rendered him incapable of command; and he said in his
+testimony before the Committee on the Conduct of the War:</p>
+<p>"When I returned from Chancellorsville I felt that I had fought
+no battle; in fact, I had more men than I could use, and I fought
+no general battle for the reason that I could not get my men in
+position to do so <a name="page370" id="page370"></a>probably not more than three or three
+and a half corps on the right were engaged in the fight."</p>
+<p>Hooker's defeat at Chancellorsville had not been so great a
+disaster as that of Burnside at Fredericksburg; and while his
+influence was greatly impaired, his usefulness did not immediately
+cease. The President and the Secretary of War still had faith in
+him. The average opinion of his qualities has been tersely
+expressed by one of his critics, who wrote: "As an inferior he
+planned badly and fought well; as a chief he planned well and
+fought badly." The course of war soon changed, so that he was
+obliged to follow rather than permitted to lead the developments of
+a new campaign.</p>
+<p>The brilliant victories gained by Lee inspired the Confederate
+authorities and leaders with a greatly exaggerated hope of the
+ultimate success of the rebellion. It was during the summer of 1863
+that the Confederate armies reached, perhaps, their highest
+numerical strength and greatest degree of efficiency. Both the long
+dreamed of possibility of achieving Southern independence and the
+newly flushed military ardor of officers and men, elated by what
+seemed to them an unbroken record of successes on the Virginia
+battle-fields moved General Lee to the bold hazard of a second
+invasion of the North. Early in June, Hooker gave it as his opinion
+that Lee intended to move against Washington, and asked whether in
+that case he should attack the Confederate rear. To this Lincoln
+answered on the fifth of that month:</p>
+<p>"In case you find Lee coming to the north of the Rappahannock, I
+would by no means cross to the south of it. If he should leave a
+rear force at Fredericksburg tempting you to fall upon it, it would
+fight in intrenchments and have you at disadvantage, and so, man
+for man, worst you at that point, while his main <a name="page371" id="page371"></a>force
+would in some way be getting an advantage of you northward. In one
+word, I would not take any risk of being entangled upon the river,
+like an ox jumped half over a fence and liable to be torn by dogs
+front and rear, without a fair chance to gore one way or kick the
+other."</p>
+<p>Five days later, Hooker, having become convinced that a large
+part of Lee's army was in motion toward the Shenandoah valley,
+proposed the daring plan of a quick and direct march to capture
+Richmond. But the President immediately telegraphed him a
+convincing objection:</p>
+<p>"If left to me, I would not go south of the Rappahannock upon
+Lee's moving north of it. If you had Richmond invested to-day, you
+would not be able to take it in twenty days; meanwhile, your
+communications, and with them your army, would be ruined. I think
+Lee's army, and not Richmond, is your true objective point. If he
+comes toward the upper Potomac, follow on his flank and on his
+inside track, shortening your lines while he lengthens his. Fight
+him, too, when opportunity offers. If he stays where he is, fret
+him and fret him."</p>
+<p>The movement northward of Lee's army, effectually masked for
+some days by frequent cavalry skirmishes, now became evident to the
+Washington authorities. On June 14, Lincoln telegraphed Hooker:</p>
+<p>"So far as we can make out here, the enemy have Milroy
+surrounded at Winchester, and Tyler at Martinsburg If they could
+hold out a few days, could you help them? If the head of Lee's army
+is at Martinsburg, and the tail of it on the plank road between
+Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, the animal must be very slim
+somewhere. Could you not break him?"</p>
+<p>While Lee, without halting, crossed the Potomac <a name="page372" id="page372"></a>above
+Harper's Ferry, and continued his northward march into Maryland and
+Pennsylvania, Hooker prudently followed on the "inside track" as
+Mr. Lincoln had suggested, interposing the Union army effectually
+to guard Washington and Baltimore. But at this point a
+long-standing irritation and jealousy between Hooker and Halleck
+became so acute that on the general-in-chief's refusing a
+comparatively minor request, Hooker asked to be relieved from
+command. The President, deeming divided counsel at so critical a
+juncture more hazardous than a change of command, took Hooker at
+his word, and appointed General George G. Meade as his
+successor.</p>
+<p>Meade had, since Chancellorsville, been as caustic a critic of
+Hooker as Hooker was of Burnside at and after Fredericksburg. But
+all spirit of insubordination vanished in the exciting stress of a
+pursuing campaign and the new and retiring leaders of the Army of
+the Potomac exchanged compliments in General Orders with high
+chivalric courtesy, while the army continued its northward march
+with undiminished ardor and unbroken step. When Meade crossed the
+Pennsylvania line, Lee was already far ahead, threatening
+Harrisburg. The Confederate invasion spread terror and loss among
+farms and villages, and created almost a panic in the great cities.
+Under the President's call for one hundred thousand six months'
+militia six of the adjoining States were sending hurried and
+improvised forces to the banks of the Susquehanna, under the
+command of General Couch. Lee, finding that stream too well
+guarded, turned his course directly east, which, with Meade
+marching to the north, brought the opposing armies into inevitable
+contact and collision at the town of Gettysburg.</p>
+<p>Meade had both expected and carefully prepared <a name="page373" id="page373"></a>to
+receive the attack and fight a defensive battle on the line of Pipe
+Creek. But when, on the afternoon of July 1, 1863, the advance
+detachments of each army met and engaged in a fierce conflict for
+the possession of the town, Meade, on learning the nature of the
+fight, and the situation of the ground, instantly decided to accept
+it, and ordering forward his whole force, made it the principal and
+most decisive battle-field of the whole war.</p>
+<p>The Union troops made a violent and stubborn effort to hold the
+town of Gettysburg; but the early Confederate arrivals, taking
+position in a half-circle on the west, north, and east, drove them
+through and out of it. The seeming reverse proved an advantage.
+Half a mile to the south it enabled the Union detachments to seize
+and establish themselves on Cemetery Ridge and Hill. This, with
+several rocky elevations, and a crest of boulders making a curve to
+the east at the northern end, was in itself almost a natural
+fortress, and with the intrenchments thrown up by the expert
+veterans, soon became nearly impregnable. Beyond a wide valley to
+the west, and parallel with it, lay Seminary Ridge, on which the
+Confederate army established itself with equal rapidity. Lee had
+also hoped to fight a defensive battle; but thus suddenly arrested
+in his eastward march in a hostile country, could not afford to
+stand still and wait.</p>
+<p>On the morning of July 2, both commanding generals were in the
+field. After careful studies and consultations Lee ordered an
+attack on both the extreme right and extreme left of the Union
+position, meeting some success in the former, but a complete
+repulse in the latter. That night, Meade's council of war,
+coinciding with his own judgment, resolved to stand and fight it
+out; while Lee, against the advice of <a name="page374" id="page374"></a>Longstreet,
+his ablest general, with equal decision determined to risk the
+chance of a final and determined attack.</p>
+<p>It was Meade who began the conflict at dawn on the morning of
+July 3, but only long enough to retake and hold the intrenchments
+on his extreme right, which he had lost the evening before; then
+for some hours an ominous lull and silence fell over the whole
+battle-field. But these were hours of stern preparation At midday a
+furious cannonade began from one hundred and thirty Confederate
+guns on Seminary Ridge, which was answered with promptness and
+spirit by about seventy Union guns from the crests and among the
+boulders of Cemetery Ridge; and the deafening roar of artillery
+lasted for about an hour, at the end of which time the Union guns
+ceased firing and were allowed to cool, and to be made ready to
+meet the assault that was sure to come. There followed a period of
+waiting almost painful to officers and men, in its intense
+expectancy; and then across the broad, undulating, and highly
+cultivated valley swept the long attacking line of seventeen
+thousand rebel infantry, the very flower of the Confederate army.
+But it was a hopeless charge. Thinned, almost mowed down by the
+grape-shot of the Union batteries and the deadly aim of the Union
+riflemen behind their rocks and intrenchments the Confederate
+assault wavered, hesitated, struggled on, and finally melted away
+before the destructive fire. A few rebel battle-flags reached the
+crest, only, however, to fall, and their bearers and supporters to
+be made prisoners. The Confederate dream of taking Philadelphia and
+dictating peace and separation in Independence Hall was over
+forever.</p>
+<p>It is doubtful whether Lee immediately realized the full measure
+of his defeat, or Meade the magnitude of <a name="page375" id="page375"></a>his
+victory. The terrible losses of the battle of Gettysburg&mdash;over
+three thousand killed, fourteen thousand wounded, and five thousand
+captured or missing of the Union army; and twenty-six hundred
+killed, twelve thousand wounded, and five thousand missing of the
+Confederates&mdash;largely occupied the thoughts and labors of both
+sides during the national holiday which followed. It was a surprise
+to Meade that on the morning of July 5 the Confederate army had
+disappeared, retreating as rapidly as might be to the neighborhood
+of Harper's Ferry. Unable immediately to cross because the Potomac
+was swollen by heavy rains, and Meade having followed and arrived
+in Lee's front on July 10, President Lincoln had the liveliest
+hopes that Meade would again attack and capture or destroy the
+Confederate army. Generous praise for his victory, and repeated and
+urgent suggestions to renew his attack and end the rebellion, had
+gone to Meade from the President and General Halleck. But Meade
+hesitated, and his council of war objected; and on the night of
+July 13 Lee recrossed the Potomac in retreat. When he heard the
+news, Mr. Lincoln sat down and wrote a letter of criticism and
+disappointment which reflects the intensity of his feeling at the
+escape of Lee:</p>
+<p>"The case, summarily stated, is this: You fought and beat the
+enemy at Gettysburg, and, of course, to say the least, his loss was
+as great as yours. He retreated and you did not, as it seemed to
+me, pressingly pursue him; but a flood in the river detained him
+till, by slow degrees, you were again upon him. You had at least
+twenty thousand veteran troops directly with you, and as many more
+raw ones within supporting distance, all in addition to those who
+fought with you at Gettysburg, while it was not possible that he
+had received a single recruit, and yet you stood and let the
+<a name="page376" id="page376"></a> flood run down, bridges be built, and
+the enemy move away at his leisure, without attacking him....
+Again, my dear general, I do not believe you appreciate the
+magnitude of the misfortune involved in Lee's escape. He was within
+your easy grasp, and to have closed upon him would, in connection
+with our other late successes, have ended the war. As it is, the
+war will be prolonged indefinitely. If you could not safely attack
+Lee last Monday, how can you possibly do so south of the river,
+when you can take with you very few more than two thirds of the
+force you then had in hand? It would be unreasonable to expect, and
+I do not expect [that] you can now effect much. Your golden
+opportunity is gone, and I am distressed immeasurably because of
+it."</p>
+<p>Clearly as Mr. Lincoln had sketched and deeply as he felt
+Meade's fault of omission, so quick was the President's spirit of
+forgiveness, and so thankful was he for the measure of success
+which had been gained, that he never signed or sent the letter.</p>
+<p>Two memorable events are forever linked with the Gettysburg
+victory: the surrender of Vicksburg to Grant on the same fourth of
+July, described in the next chapter, and the dedication of the
+Gettysburg battle-field as a national cemetery for Union soldiers,
+on November 19, 1863, on which occasion President Lincoln crowned
+that imposing ceremonial with an address of such literary force,
+brevity, and beauty, that critics have assigned it a high rank
+among the world's historic orations. He said:</p>
+<p>"Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this
+continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the
+proposition that all men are created equal.</p>
+<p>"Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing <a name="page377" id="page377"></a>whether
+that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long
+endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have
+come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place
+for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It
+is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.</p>
+<p>"But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate&mdash;we cannot
+consecrate&mdash;we cannot hallow&mdash;this ground. The brave men,
+living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it far above
+our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor
+long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they
+did here. It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated here to
+the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so
+nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the
+great task remaining before us&mdash;that from these honored dead
+we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the
+last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that
+these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under
+God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the
+people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the
+earth."</p>
+<p>Having safely crossed the Potomac, the Confederate army
+continued its retreat without halting to the familiar camps in
+central Virginia it had so long and valiantly defended. Meade
+followed with alert but prudent vigilance, but did not again find
+such chances as he lost on the fourth of July, or while the swollen
+waters of the Potomac held his enemy as in a trap. During the
+ensuing autumn months there went on between the opposing generals
+an unceasing game of strategy, a succession of moves and
+counter-moves in which the opposing commanders handled their great
+armies with <a name="page378" id="page378"></a>the same consumate skill with which the
+expert fencing-master uses his foil, but in which neither could
+break through the other's guard. Repeated minor encounters took
+place which, in other wars, would have rated as heavy battles; but
+the weeks lengthened into months without decisive results, and when
+the opposing armies finally went into winter quarters in December,
+1863, they again confronted each other across the Rapidan in
+Virginia, not very far south of where they lay in the winter of
+1861.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="page379" id="page379"></a>
+<h2><a name="XXVII" id="XXVII"></a>XXVII</h2>
+<br />
+<p><i>Buell and
+Bragg&mdash;Perryville&mdash;Rosecrans and
+Murfreesboro&mdash;Grant's Vicksburg
+Experiments&mdash;Grant's May Battles&mdash;Siege and
+Surrender of Vicksburg&mdash;Lincoln to
+Grant&mdash;Rosecrans's March to Chattanooga&mdash;Battle
+of Chickamauga&mdash;Grant at
+Chattanooga&mdash;Battle of Chattanooga&mdash;Burnside at
+Knoxville&mdash;Burnside Repulses Longstreet</i></p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<p>From the Virginia campaigns of 1863 we must return to the
+Western campaigns of the same year, or, to be more precise,
+beginning with the middle of 1862. When, in July of that year,
+Halleck was called to Washington to become general-in-chief, the
+principal plan he left behind was that Buell, with the bulk of the
+forces which had captured Corinth, should move from that place
+eastward to occupy eastern Tennessee. Buell, however, progressed so
+leisurely that before he reached Chattanooga the Confederate
+General Bragg, by a swift northward movement, advanced into eastern
+Kentucky, enacted the farce of appointing a Confederate governor
+for that State, and so threatened Louisville that Buell was
+compelled abruptly to abandon his eastward march and, turning to
+the north, run a neck-and-neck race to save Louisville from rebel
+occupation. Successful in this, Buell immediately turned and,
+pursuing the now retreating forces of Bragg, brought them to bay at
+Perryville, where, on October 8, was fought a considerable battle
+from which Bragg immediately retreated out of Kentucky.<a name="page380" id="page380"></a></p>
+<p>While on one hand Bragg had suffered defeat, he had on the other
+caused Buell to give up all idea of moving into East Tennessee, an
+object on which the President had specially and repeatedly
+insisted. When Halleck specifically ordered Buell to resume and
+execute that plan, Buell urged such objections, and intimated such
+unwillingness, that on October 24, 1862, he was relieved from
+command, and General Rosecrans was appointed to succeed him.
+Rosecrans neglected the East Tennessee orders as heedlessly as
+Buell had done; but, reorganizing the Army of the Cumberland and
+strengthening his communications, marched against Bragg, who had
+gone into winter quarters at Murfreesboro. The severe engagement of
+that name, fought on December 31, 1862, and the three succeeding
+days of the new year, between forces numbering about forty-three
+thousand on each side, was tactically a drawn battle, but its
+results rendered it an important Union victory, compelling Bragg to
+retreat; though, for reasons which he never satisfactorily
+explained, Rosecrans failed for six months to follow up his evident
+advantages.</p>
+<p>The transfer of Halleck from the West to Washington in the
+summer of 1862, left Grant in command of the district of West
+Tennessee. But Buell's eastward expedition left him so few movable
+troops that during the summer and most of the autumn he was able to
+accomplish little except to defend his department by the repulse of
+the enemy at Iuka in September, and at Corinth early in October,
+Rosecrans being in local command at both places. It was for these
+successes that Rosecrans was chosen to succeed Buell.</p>
+<p>Grant had doubtless given much of his enforced leisure to
+studying the great problem of opening the Mississippi, a task which
+was thus left in his own <a name="page381" id="page381"></a>hands, but for which, as yet, he
+found neither a theoretical solution, nor possessed an army
+sufficiently strong to begin practical work. Under the most
+favorable aspects, it was a formidable undertaking. Union gunboats
+had full control of the great river from Cairo as far south as
+Vicksburg; and Farragut's fleet commanded it from New Orleans as
+far north as Port Hudson. But the intervening link of two hundred
+miles between these places was in as complete possession of the
+Confederates, giving the rebellion uninterrupted access to the
+immense resources in men and supplies of the trans-Mississippi
+country, and effectually barring the free navigation of the river.
+Both the cities named were strongly fortified, but Vicksburg, on
+the east bank, by its natural situation on a bluff two hundred feet
+high, rising almost out of the stream, was unassailable from the
+river front. Farragut had, indeed, in midsummer passed up and down
+before it with little damage from its fire; but, in return, his own
+guns could no more do harm to its batteries than they could have
+bombarded a fortress in the clouds.</p>
+<p>When, by the middle of November, 1862, Grant was able to reunite
+sufficient reinforcements, he started on a campaign directly
+southward toward Jackson, the capital of Mississippi, and sent
+Sherman, with an expedition from Memphis, down the river to the
+mouth of the Yazoo, hoping to unite these forces against Vicksburg.
+But before Grant reached Grenada his railroad communications were
+cut by a Confederate raid, and his great depot of supplies at Holly
+Springs captured and burned, leaving him for two weeks without
+other provisions than such as he could gather by foraging. The
+costly lesson proved a valuable experience to him, which he soon
+put to use. Sherman's expedition also met disaster. Landing at
+Milliken's Bend, <a name="page382" id="page382"></a>on the west bank of the Mississippi, he
+ventured a daring storming assault from the east bank of the Yazoo
+at Haines's Bluff, ten miles north of Vicksburg, but met a bloody
+repulse.</p>
+<p>Having abandoned his railroad advance, Grant next joined Sherman
+at Milliken's Bend in January, 1863, where also Admiral Porter,
+with a river squadron of seventy vessels, eleven of them ironclads,
+was added to his force. For the next three months Grant kept his
+large army and flotilla busy with four different experiments to
+gain a practicable advance toward Vicksburg, until his fifth highly
+novel and, to other minds, seemingly reckless and impossible plan
+secured him a brilliant success and results of immense military
+advantage. One experiment was to cut a canal across the tongue of
+land opposite Vicksburg, through which the flotilla might pass out
+of range of the Vicksburg guns. A second was to force the gunboats
+and transports up the tortuous and swampy Yazoo to find a landing
+far north of Haines's Bluff. A third was for the flotilla to enter
+through Yazoo Pass and Cold Water River, two hundred miles above,
+and descend the Yazoo to a hoped-for landing. Still a fourth
+project was to cut a canal into Lake Providence west of the
+Mississippi, seventy miles above, find a practicable waterway
+through two hundred miles of bayous and rivers, and establish
+communication with Banks and Farragut, who were engaged in an
+effort to capture Port Hudson.</p>
+<p>The time, the patience, the infinite labor, and enormous expense
+of these several projects were utterly wasted. Early in April,
+Grant began an entirely new plan, which was opposed by all his
+ablest generals, and, tested by the accepted rules of military
+science, looked like a headlong venture of rash desperation. During
+the month of April he caused Admiral Porter to prepare <a name="page383" id="page383"></a>fifteen
+or twenty vessels&mdash;ironclads, steam transports, and provision
+barges&mdash;and run them boldly by night past the Vicksburg and,
+later, past the Grand Gulf batteries, which the admiral happily
+accomplished with very little loss. Meanwhile, the general, by a
+very circuitous route of seventy miles, marched an army of
+thirty-five thousand down the west bank of the Mississippi and,
+with Porter's vessels and transports, crossed them to the east side
+of the river at Bruinsburg. From this point, with an improvised
+train of country vehicles to carry his ammunition, and living
+meanwhile entirely upon the country, as he had learned to do in his
+baffled Grenada expedition, he made one of the most rapid and
+brilliant campaigns in military history. In the first twenty days
+of May he marched one hundred and eighty miles, and fought five
+winning battles&mdash;respectively Port Gibson, Raymond, Jackson,
+Champion's Hill, and Big Black River&mdash;in each of which he
+brought his practically united force against the enemy's separated
+detachments, capturing altogether eighty-eight guns and over six
+thousand prisoners, and shutting up the Confederate General
+Pemberton in Vicksburg. By a rigorous siege of six weeks he then
+compelled his antagonist to surrender the strongly fortified city
+with one hundred and seventy-two cannon, and his army of nearly
+thirty thousand men. On the fourth of July, 1863, the day after
+Meade's crushing defeat of Lee at Gettysburg, the surrender took
+place, citizens and Confederate soldiers doubtless rejoicing that
+the old national holiday gave them escape from their caves and
+bomb-proofs, and full Yankee rations to still their long-endured
+hunger.</p>
+<p>The splendid victory of Grant brought about a quick and
+important echo. About the time that the Union army closed around
+Vicksburg, General Banks, on the <a name="page384" id="page384"></a>lower Mississippi, began a
+close investment and siege of Port Hudson, which he pushed with
+determined tenacity. When the rebel garrison heard the artillery
+salutes which were fired by order of Banks to celebrate the
+surrender of Vicksburg, and the rebel commander was informed of
+Pemberton's disaster, he also gave up the defense, and on July 9
+surrendered Port Hudson with six thousand prisoners and fifty-one
+guns.</p>
+<p>Great national rejoicing followed this double success of the
+Union arms on the Mississippi, which, added to Gettysburg, formed
+the turning tide in the war of the rebellion; and no one was more
+elated over these Western victories, which fully restored the free
+navigation of the Mississippi, than President Lincoln. Like that of
+the whole country, his patience had been severely tried by the long
+and ineffectual experiments of Grant. But from first to last Mr.
+Lincoln had given him firm and undeviating confidence and support.
+He not only gave the general quick promotion, but crowned the
+official reward with the following generous letter:</p>
+<p>"My Dear General: I do not remember that you and I ever met
+personally. I write this now as a grateful acknowledgment for the
+almost inestimable service you have done the country. I wish to say
+a word further. When you first reached the vicinity of Vicksburg, I
+thought you should do what you finally did&mdash;march the troops
+across the neck, run the batteries with the transports, and thus go
+below; and I never had any faith, except a general hope that you
+knew better than I, that the Yazoo Pass expedition and the like
+could succeed. When you got below and took Port Gibson, Grand Gulf,
+and vicinity, I thought you should go down the river and join
+General Banks, and when you turned northward, east of the Big
+Black, I feared it was a mistake. I now wish to make the
+<a name="page385" id="page385"></a> personal acknowledgment that you were
+right and I was wrong."</p>
+<p>It has already been mentioned that General Rosecrans after
+winning the battle of Murfreesboro at the beginning of 1863,
+remained inactive at that place nearly six months, though, of
+course, constantly busy recruiting his army, gathering supplies,
+and warding off several troublesome Confederate cavalry raids. The
+defeated General Bragg retreated only to Shelbyville, ten miles
+south of the battle-field he had been obliged to give up, and the
+military frontier thus divided Tennessee between the contestants.
+Against repeated prompting and urging from Washington, Rosecrans
+continued to find real or imaginary excuses for delay until
+midsummer, when, as if suddenly awaking from a long lethargy, he
+made a bold advance and, by a nine days' campaign of skilful
+strategy, forced Bragg into a retreat that stopped only at
+Chattanooga, south of the Tennessee River, which, with the
+surrounding mountains, made it the strategical center and military
+key to the heart of Georgia and the South. This march of Rosecrans,
+ending the day before the Vicksburg surrender, again gave the Union
+forces full possession of middle Tennessee down to its southern
+boundary.</p>
+<p>The march completed, and the enemy thus successfully manoeuvered
+out of the State, Rosecrans once more came to a halt, and made no
+further movement for six weeks. The President and General Halleck
+were already out of patience with Rosecrans for his long previous
+delay. Bragg's retreat to Chattanooga was such a gratifying and
+encouraging supplement to the victories of Vicksburg and Port
+Hudson, that they felt the Confederate army should not be allowed
+to rest, recruit, and fortify the important gateway to the heart
+<a name="page386" id="page386"></a> of the Southern Confederacy, and early
+in August sent Rosecrans peremptory orders to advance. This
+direction seemed the more opportune and necessary, since Burnside
+had organized a special Union force in eastern Kentucky, and was
+about starting on a direct campaign into East Tennessee.</p>
+<p>Finally, obeying this explicit injunction, Rosecrans took the
+initiative in the middle of August by a vigorous southward
+movement. Threatening Chattanooga from the north, he marched
+instead around the left flank of Bragg's army, boldly crossing the
+Cumberland Mountains, the Tennessee River, and two mountain ranges
+beyond. Bragg, seriously alarmed lest Rosecrans should seize the
+railroad communications behind him, hastily evacuated Chattanooga,
+but not with the intention of flight, as Rosecrans erroneously
+believed and reported. When, on September 9, the left of
+Rosecrans's army marched into Chattanooga without firing a shot,
+the Union detachments were so widely scattered in separating
+mountain valleys, in pursuit of Bragg's imaginary retreat, that
+Bragg believed he saw his chance to crush them in detail before
+they could unite.</p>
+<p>With this resolve, Bragg turned upon his antagonist but his
+effort at quick concentration was delayed by the natural
+difficulties of the ground. By September 19, both armies were well
+gathered on opposite sides of Chickamauga Creek, eight miles
+southeast of Chattanooga; each commander being as yet, however,
+little informed of the other's position and strength. Bragg had
+over seventy-one thousand men; Rosecrans, fifty-seven thousand. The
+conflict was finally begun, rather by accident than design, and on
+that day and the twentieth was fought the battle of Chickamauga,
+one of the severest encounters of the whole war. Developing itself
+without clear knowledge on either side, it became <a name="page387" id="page387"></a>a moving
+conflict, Bragg constantly extending his attack toward his right,
+and Rosecrans meeting the onset with prompt shifting toward his
+left.</p>
+<p>In this changing contest Rosecrans's army underwent an alarming
+crisis on the second day of the battle. A mistake or miscarriage of
+orders opened a gap of two brigades in his line, which the enemy
+quickly found, and through which the Confederate battalions rushed
+with an energy that swept away the whole Union right in a
+disorderly retreat. Rosecrans himself was caught in the panic, and,
+believing the day irretrievably lost, hastened back to Chattanooga
+to report the disaster and collect what he might of his flying
+army. The hopeless prospect, however, soon changed. General Thomas,
+second in command, and originally in charge of the center, had been
+sent by Rosecrans to the extreme left, and had, while the right was
+giving way, successfully repulsed the enemy in his front. He had
+been so fortunate as to secure a strong position on the head of a
+ridge, around which he gathered such remnants of the beaten
+detachments as he could collect, amounting to about half the Union
+army, and here, from two o'clock in the afternoon until dark, he
+held his semicircular line against repeated assaults of the enemy,
+with a heroic valor that earned him the sobriquet of "The Rock of
+Chickamauga." At night, Thomas retired, under orders, to Rossville,
+half way to Chattanooga.</p>
+<p>The President was of course greatly disappointed when Rosecrans
+telegraphed that he had met a serious disaster, but this
+disappointment was mitigated by the quickly following news of the
+magnificent defense and the successful stand made by General Thomas
+at the close of the battle. Mr. Lincoln immediately wrote in a note
+to Halleck:<a name="page388" id="page388"></a></p>
+<p>"I think it very important for General Rosecrans to hold his
+position at or about Chattanooga, because, if held, from that place
+to Cleveland, both inclusive, it keeps all Tennessee clear of the
+enemy, and also breaks one of his most important railroad lines....
+If he can only maintain this position, without more, this rebellion
+can only eke out a short and feeble existence, as an animal
+sometimes may with a thorn in its vitals."</p>
+<p>And to Rosecrans he telegraphed directly, bidding him be of good
+cheer, and adding: "We shall do our utmost to assist you." To this
+end the administration took instant and energetic measures. On the
+night of September 23, the President, General Halleck, several
+members of the cabinet, and leading army and railroad officials met
+in an improvised council at the War Department, and issued
+emergency orders under which two army corps from the Army of the
+Potomac, numbering twenty thousand men in all, with their arms and
+equipments ready for the field, the whole under command of General
+Hooker, were transported from their camps on the Rapidan by railway
+to Nashville and the Tennessee River in the next eight days.
+Burnside, who had arrived at Knoxville early in September, was
+urged by repeated messages to join Rosecrans, and other
+reinforcements were already on the way from Memphis and
+Vicksburg.</p>
+<p>All this help, however, was not instantly available. Before it
+could arrive Rosecrans felt obliged to draw together within the
+fortifications of Chattanooga, while Bragg quickly closed about
+him, and, by practically blockading Rosecrans's river
+communication, placed him in a state of siege. In a few weeks the
+limited supplies brought the Union army face to face with famine.
+It having become evident that Rosecrans was incapable of
+extricating it from its peril, he was <a name="page389" id="page389"></a>relieved
+and the command given to Thomas, while the three western
+departments were consolidated under General Grant, and he was
+ordered personally to proceed to Chattanooga, which place he
+reached on October 22.</p>
+<p>Before his arrival, General W.F. Smith had devised and prepared
+an ingenious plan to regain control of river communication. Under
+the orders of Grant, Smith successfully executed it, and full
+rations soon restored vigor and confidence to the Union troops. The
+considerable reinforcements under Hooker and Sherman coming up, put
+the besieging enemy on the defensive, and active preparations were
+begun, which resulted in the famous battle and overwhelming Union
+victory of Chattanooga on November 23, 24, and 25, 1863.</p>
+<p>The city of Chattanooga lies on the southeastern bank of the
+Tennessee River. Back of the city, Chattanooga valley forms a level
+plain about two miles in width to Missionary Ridge, a narrow
+mountain range five hundred feet high, generally parallel to the
+course of the Tennessee, extending far to the southwest. The
+Confederates had fortified the upper end of Missionary Ridge to a
+length of five to seven miles opposite the city, lining its long
+crest with about thirty guns, amply supported by infantry. This
+formidable barrier was still further strengthened by two lines of
+rifle-pits, one at the base of Missionary Ridge next to the city,
+and another with advanced pickets still nearer Chattanooga
+Northward, the enemy strongly held the end of Missionary Ridge
+where the railroad tunnel passes through it; southward, they held
+the yet stronger point of Lookout Mountain, whose rocky base turns
+the course of the Tennessee River in a short bend to the
+north.<a name="page390" id="page390"></a></p>
+<p>Grant's plan in rough outline was, that Sherman, with the Army
+of the Tennessee, should storm the northern end of Missionary Ridge
+at the railroad tunnel; Hooker, stationed at Wauhatchie, thirteen
+miles to the southwest with his two corps from the Army of the
+Potomac, should advance toward the city, storming the point of
+Lookout Mountain on his way; and Thomas, in the city, attack the
+direct front of Missionary Ridge. The actual beginning slightly
+varied this program, with a change of corps and divisions, but the
+detail is not worth noting.</p>
+<p>Beginning on the night of November 23, Sherman crossed his
+command over the Tennessee, and on the afternoon of the
+twenty-fourth gained the northern end of Missionary Ridge, driving
+the enemy before him as far as the railroad tunnel. Here, however,
+he found a deep gap in the ridge, previously unknown to him, which
+barred his further progress. That same afternoon Hooker's troops
+worked their way through mist and fog up the rugged sides of
+Lookout Mountain, winning the brilliant success which has become
+famous as the "battle above the clouds." That same afternoon, also,
+two divisions of the center, under the eyes of Grant and Thomas,
+pushed forward the Union line about a mile, seizing and fortifying
+a hill called Orchard Knob, capturing Bragg's first line of
+rifle-pits and several hundred prisoners.</p>
+<p>So far, everything had occurred to inspirit the Union troops and
+discourage the enemy. But the main incident was yet to come, on the
+afternoon of November 25. All the forenoon of that day Grant waited
+eagerly to see Sherman making progress along the north end of
+Missionary Ridge, not knowing that he had met an impassable valley.
+Grant's patience was equally tried at hearing no news from Hooker,
+though that <a name="page391" id="page391"></a>general had successfully reached
+Missionary Ridge, and was ascending the gap near Rossville.</p>
+<p>At three o'clock in the afternoon Grant at length gave Thomas
+the order to advance. Eleven Union brigades rushed forward with
+orders to take the enemy's rifle-pits at the base of Missionary
+Ridge, and then halt to reform. But such was the ease of this first
+capture, such the eagerness of the men who had been waiting all day
+for the moment of action, that, after but a slight pause, without
+orders, and moved by a common impulse, they swept on and up the
+steep and rocky face of Missionary Ridge, heedless of the enemy's
+fire from rifle and cannon at the top, until in fifty-five minutes
+after leaving their positions they almost simultaneously broke over
+the crest of the ridge in six different places, capturing the
+batteries and making prisoners of the supporting infantry, who,
+surprised and bewildered by the daring escalade, made little or no
+further resistance. Bragg's official report soundly berates the
+conduct of his men, apparently forgetting the heavy loss they had
+inflicted on their assailants but regardless of which the Union
+veterans mounted to victory in an almost miraculous exaltation of
+patriotic heroism.</p>
+<p>Bragg's Confederate army was not only beaten, but hopelessly
+demoralized by the fiery Union assault, and fled in panic and
+retreat. Grant kept up a vigorous pursuit to a distance of twenty
+miles, which he ceased in order to send an immediate strong
+reinforcement under Sherman to relieve Burnside, besieged by the
+Confederate General Longstreet at Knoxville. But before this help
+arrived, Burnside had repulsed Longstreet who, promptly informed of
+the Chattanooga disaster, retreated in the direction of Virginia.
+Not being pursued, however, this general again wintered
+<a name="page392" id="page392"></a> in East Tennessee; and for the same
+reason, the beaten army of Bragg halted in its retreat from
+Missionary Ridge at Dalton, where it also went into winter
+quarters. The battle of Chattanooga had opened the great central
+gateway to the south, but the rebel army, still determined and
+formidable, yet lay in its path, only twenty-eight miles away.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="page393" id="page393"></a>
+<h2><a name="XXVIII" id="XXVIII"></a>XXVIII</h2>
+<br />
+<p><i>Grant Lieutenant-General&mdash;Interview with
+Lincoln&mdash;Grant Visits Sherman&mdash;Plan of
+Campaigns&mdash;Lincoln to Grant&mdash;From the
+Wilderness to Cold Harbor&mdash;The Move to City
+Point&mdash;Siege of Petersburg&mdash;Early Menaces
+Washington&mdash;Lincoln under Fire&mdash;Sheridan in
+the Shenandoah Valley</i></p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<p>The army rank of lieutenant-general had, before the Civil War,
+been conferred only twice on American commanders; on Washington,
+for service in the War of Independence, and on Scott, for his
+conquest of Mexico. As a reward for the victories of Donelson,
+Vicksburg, and Chattanooga, Congress passed, and the President
+signed in February, 1864, an act to revive that grade. Calling
+Grant to Washington, the President met him for the first time at a
+public reception at the Executive Mansion on March 8, when the
+famous general was received with all the manifestations of interest
+and enthusiasm possible in a social state ceremonial. On the
+following day, at one o'clock, the general's formal investiture
+with his new rank and authority took place in the presence of Mr.
+Lincoln, the cabinet, and a few other officials.</p>
+<p>"General Grant," said the President, "the nation's appreciation
+of what you have done, and its reliance upon you for what remains
+to do in the existing great struggle, are now presented, with this
+commission constituting you Lieutenant-General in the Army of the
+United States. With this high honor devolves upon <a name="page394" id="page394"></a>you,
+also, a corresponding responsibility. As the country herein trusts
+you, so, under God, it will sustain you. I scarcely need to add
+that with what I here speak for the nation, goes my own hearty
+personal concurrence."</p>
+<p>General Grant's reply was modest and also very brief:</p>
+<p>"Mr. President, I accept this commission with gratitude for the
+high honor conferred. With the aid of the noble armies that have
+fought on so many fields for our common country, it will be my
+earnest endeavor not to disappoint your expectations. I feel the
+full weight of the responsibilities now devolving on me; and I know
+that if they are met, it will be due to those armies, and above all
+to the favor of that Providence which leads both nations and
+men."</p>
+<p>In the informal conversation which followed, General Grant
+inquired what special service was expected of him; to which the
+President replied that the country wanted him to take Richmond; and
+being asked if he could do so, replied that he could if he had the
+troops, which he was assured would be furnished him. On the
+following day, Grant went to the Army of the Potomac, where Meade
+received him with frank courtesy, generously suggesting that he was
+ready to yield the command to any one Grant might prefer. Grant,
+however, informed Meade that he desired to make no change; and,
+returning to Washington, started west without a moment's loss of
+time. On March 12, 1864, formal orders of the War Department placed
+Grant in command of all the armies of the United States, while
+Halleck, relieved from that duty, was retained at Washington as the
+President's chief of staff.</p>
+<p>Grant frankly confesses in his "Memoirs" that when he started
+east it was with a firm determination to accept no appointment
+requiring him to leave the West; <a name="page395" id="page395"></a>but "when I got to
+Washington and saw the situation, it was plain that here was the
+point for the commanding general to be." His short visit had
+removed several false impressions, and future experience was to
+cure him of many more.</p>
+<p>When Grant again met Sherman in the West, he outlined to that
+general, who had become his most intimate and trusted brother
+officer, the very simple and definite military policy which was to
+be followed during the year 1864. There were to be but two leading
+campaigns. Sherman, starting from Chattanooga, full master of his
+own movements, was to lead the combined western forces against the
+Confederate army under Johnston, the successor of Bragg. Grant
+would personally conduct the campaign in the East against Richmond,
+or rather against the rebel army under Lee. Meade would be left in
+immediate command of the Army of the Potomac, to execute the
+personal daily directions of Grant. The two Confederate armies were
+eight hundred miles apart, and should either give way, it was to be
+followed without halt or delay to battle or surrender, to prevent
+its junction with the other. Scattered as a large portion of the
+Union forces were in garrisons and detachments at widely separated
+points, there were, of course, many details to be arranged, and a
+few expeditions already in progress; but these were of minor
+importance, and for contributory, rather than main objects, and
+need not here be described.</p>
+<p>Returning promptly to Washington, Grant established his
+headquarters with the Army of the Potomac, at Culpepper, and for
+about a month actively pushed his military preparations. He seems
+at first to have been impressed with a dread that the President
+might wish to influence or control his plans. But the few
+interviews between them removed the suspicion which <a name="page396" id="page396"></a>reckless
+newspaper accusation had raised; and all doubt on this point
+vanished, when, on the last day of April, Mr. Lincoln sent him the
+following explicit letter:</p>
+<p>"Not expecting to see you again before the spring campaign
+opens, I wish to express in this way my entire satisfaction with
+what you have done up to this time, so far as I understand it. The
+particulars of your plan I neither know nor seek to know. You are
+vigilant and self-reliant; and, pleased with this, I wish not to
+obtrude any constraints or restraints upon you. While I am very
+anxious that any great disaster or capture of our men in great
+numbers shall be avoided, I know these points are less likely to
+escape your attention than they would be mine. If there is anything
+wanting which is within my power to give, do not fail to let me
+know it. And now, with a brave army and a just cause, may God
+sustain you."</p>
+<p>Grant's immediate reply confessed the groundlessness of his
+apprehensions:</p>
+<p>"From my first entrance into the volunteer service of the
+country to the present day, I have never had cause of
+complaint&mdash;have never expressed or implied a complaint against
+the administration, or the Secretary of War, for throwing any
+embarrassment in the way of my vigorously prosecuting what appeared
+to me my duty. Indeed, since the promotion which placed me in
+command of all the armies, and in view of the great responsibility
+and importance of success, I have been astonished at the readiness
+with which everything asked for has been yielded, without even an
+explanation being asked. Should my success be less than I desire
+and expect, the least I can say is, the fault is not with you."</p>
+<p>The Union army under Grant, one hundred and twenty-two thousand
+strong, on April 30, was <a name="page397" id="page397"></a>encamped north of the Rapidan River.
+The Confederate army under Lee, numbering sixty-two thousand, lay
+south of that stream. Nearly three years before, these opposing
+armies had fought their first battle of Bull Run, only a
+comparatively short distance north of where they now confronted
+each other. Campaign and battle between them had surged far to the
+north and to the south, but neither could as yet claim over the
+other any considerable gain of ground or of final advantage in the
+conflict. Broadly speaking, relative advance and retreat, as well
+as relative loss and gain of battle-fields substantially balanced
+each other. Severe as had been their struggles in the past, a more
+arduous trial of strength was before them. Grant had two to one in
+numbers; Lee the advantage of a defensive campaign. He could retire
+toward cumulative reserves, and into prepared fortifications; knew
+almost by heart every road, hill, and forest of Virginia; had for
+his friendly scout every white inhabitant. Perhaps his greatest
+element of strength lay in the conscious pride of the Confederate
+army that through all fluctuations of success and failure, it had
+for three years effectually barred the way of the Army of the
+Potomac to Richmond. But to offset this there now menaced it what
+was before absent in every encounter, the grim, unflinching will of
+the new Union commander.</p>
+<p>General Grant devised no plan of complicated strategy for the
+problem before him, but proposed to solve it by plain, hard,
+persistent fighting. He would endeavor to crush the army of Lee
+before it could reach Richmond or unite with the army of Johnston;
+or, failing in that, he would shut it up in that stronghold and
+reduce it by a siege. With this in view, he instructed Meade at the
+very outset: "Lee's army will be your objective point. Where Lee
+goes, there you will go, <a name="page398" id="page398"></a>also." Everything being ready, on the
+night of May 4, Meade threw five bridges across the Rapidan, and
+before the following night the whole Union army, with its trains,
+was across the stream moving southward by the left flank, past the
+right flank of the Confederates.</p>
+<p>Sudden as was the advance, it did not escape the vigilant
+observation of Lee, who instantly threw his force against the
+flanks of the Union columns, and for two days there raged in that
+difficult, broken, and tangled region known as the Wilderness, a
+furious battle of detachments along a line five miles in length.
+Thickets, swamps, and ravines, rendered intelligent direction and
+concerted manoeuvering impossible, and furious and bloody as was
+the conflict, its results were indecisive. No enemy appearing on
+the seventh, Grant boldly started to Spottsylvania Court House,
+only, however, to find the Confederates ahead of him; and on the
+eighth and ninth these turned their position, already strong by
+nature, into an impregnable intrenched camp. Grant assaulted their
+works on the tenth, fiercely, but unsuccessfully. There followed
+one day of inactivity, during which Grant wrote his report, only
+claiming that after six days of hard fighting and heavy losses "the
+result up to this time is much in our favor"; but expressing, in
+the phrase which immediately became celebrated, his firm resolution
+to "fight it out on this line if it takes all summer."</p>
+<p>On May 12, 1864, Grant ordered a yet more determined attack, in
+which, with fearful carnage on both sides, the Union forces finally
+stormed the earthworks which have become known as the "bloody
+angle." But finding that other and more formidable intrenchments
+still resisted his entrance to the Confederate camp, Grant once
+more moved by the left flank past his enemy <a name="page399" id="page399"></a>toward
+Richmond. Lee followed with equal swiftness along the interior
+lines. Days passed in an intermitting, and about equally matched
+contest of strategy and fighting. The difference was that Grant was
+always advancing and Lee always retiring. On May 26, Grant reported
+to Washington:</p>
+<p>"Lee's army is really whipped. The prisoners we now take show
+it, and the action of his army shows it unmistakably. A battle with
+them outside of intrenchments cannot be had. Our men feel that they
+have gained the <i>morale</i> over the enemy, and attack him with
+confidence. I may be mistaken, but I feel that our success over
+Lee's army is already assured."</p>
+<p>That same night, Grant's advance crossed the Pamunkey River at
+Hanover Town, and during another week, with a succession of
+marching, flanking, and fighting. Grant pushed the Union army
+forward to Cold Harbor. Here Lee's intrenched army was again
+between him and Richmond, and on June 3, Grant ordered another
+determined attack in front, to break through that constantly
+resisting barrier. But a disastrous repulse was the consequence.
+Its effect upon the campaign is best given in Grant's own letter,
+written to Washington on June 5:</p>
+<p>"My idea from the start has been to beat Lee's army, if
+possible, north of Richmond; then, after destroying his lines of
+communication on the north side of the James River, to transfer the
+army to the south side and besiege Lee in Richmond, or follow him
+south if he should retreat. I now find, after over thirty days of
+trial, the enemy deems it of the first importance to run no risks
+with the armies they now have. They act purely on the defensive
+behind breastworks, or feebly on the offensive immediately in front
+of them, and where, in case of repulse, they can instantly retire
+be<a name="page400" id="page400"></a>hind them. Without a greater sacrifice
+of human life than I am willing to make, all cannot be accomplished
+that I had designed outside of the city."</p>
+<p>During the week succeeding the severe repulse at Cold Harbor,
+which closed what may be summed up as Grant's campaign against
+Richmond, he made his preparations to enter upon the second element
+of his general plan, which may be most distinctively denominated
+the siege of Petersburg, though, in fuller phraseology, it might be
+called the siege of Petersburg and Richmond combined. But the
+amplification is not essential; for though the operation and the
+siege-works embraced both cities, Petersburg was the vital and
+vulnerable point. When Petersburg fell, Richmond fell of necessity.
+The reason was, that Lee's army, inclosed within the combined
+fortifications, could only be fed by the use of three railroads
+centering at Petersburg; one from the southeast, one from the
+south, and one with general access from the southwest. Between
+these, two plank roads added a partial means of supply. Thus far,
+Grant's active campaign, though failing to destroy Lee's army, had
+nevertheless driven it into Richmond, and obviously his next step
+was either to dislodge it, or compel it to surrender.</p>
+<p>Cold Harbor was about ten miles from Richmond, and that city was
+inclosed on the Washington side by two circles of fortifications
+devised with the best engineering skill. On June 13, Grant threw
+forward an army corps across the Chickahominy, deceiving Lee into
+the belief that he was making a real direct advance upon the city;
+and so skilfully concealed his intention that by midnight of the
+sixteenth he had moved the whole Union army with its artillery and
+trains about twenty miles directly south and across the James
+River, on a pontoon bridge over two thousand feet long,
+to<a name="page401" id="page401"></a> City Point. General Butler, with an
+expedition from Fortress Monroe, moving early in May, had been
+ordered to capture Petersburg; and though he failed in this, he had
+nevertheless seized and held City Point, and Grant thus effected an
+immediate junction with Butler's force of thirty-two thousand.
+Butler's second attempt to seize Petersburg while Grant was
+marching to join him also failed, and Grant, unwilling to make any
+needless sacrifice, now limited his operations to the processes of
+a regular siege.</p>
+<p>This involved a complete change of method. The campaign against
+Richmond, from the crossing of the Rapidan and battle of the
+Wilderness, to Cold Harbor, and the change of base to City Point,
+occupied a period of about six weeks of almost constant swift
+marching and hard fighting. The siege of Petersburg was destined to
+involve more than nine months of mingled engineering and fighting.
+The Confederate army forming the combined garrisons of Richmond and
+Petersburg numbered about seventy thousand. The army under Grant,
+though in its six weeks' campaign it had lost over sixty thousand
+in killed, wounded, and missing, was again raised by the
+reinforcements sent to it, and by its junction with Butler, to a
+total of about one hundred and fifty thousand. With this
+superiority of numbers, Grant pursued the policy of alternately
+threatening the defenses of Lee, sometimes south, sometimes north
+of the James River, and at every favorable opportunity pushing his
+siege-works westward in order to gradually gain and command the
+three railroads and two plank roads that brought the bulk of
+absolutely necessary food and supplies to the Confederate armies
+and the inhabitants of Petersburg and Richmond. It is estimated
+that this gradual westward extension of Grant's lines, redoubts,
+and trenches, when added to <a name="page402" id="page402"></a>those threatening Richmond and
+Petersburg on the east, finally reached a total development of
+about forty miles. The catastrophe came when Lee's army grew
+insufficient to man his defensive line along this entire length,
+and Grant, finding the weakened places, eventually broke through
+it, compelling the Confederate general and army to evacuate and
+abandon both cities and seek safety in flight.</p>
+<p>The central military drama, the first two distinctive acts of
+which are outlined above, had during this long period a running
+accompaniment of constant under-plot and shifting and exciting
+episodes. The Shenandoah River, rising northwest of Richmond, but
+flowing in a general northeast course to join the Potomac at
+Harper's Ferry, gives its name to a valley twenty to thirty miles
+wide, highly fertile and cultivated, and having throughout its
+length a fine turnpike, which in ante-railroad days was an active
+commercial highway between North and South. Bordered on the west by
+the rugged Alleghany Mountains, and on the east by the single
+outlying range called the Blue Ridge, it formed a protected
+military lane or avenue, having vital relation to the strategy of
+campaigns on the open Atlantic slopes of central Virginia. The
+Shenandoah valley had thus played a not unimportant part in almost
+every military operation of the war, from the first battle of Bull
+Run to the final defense of Richmond.</p>
+<p>The plans of General Grant did not neglect so essential a
+feature of his task. While he was fighting his way toward the
+Confederate capital, his instructions contemplated the possession
+and occupation of the Shenandoah valley as part of the system which
+should isolate and eventually besiege Richmond. But this part of
+his plan underwent many fluctuations. He had scarcely reached City
+Point when he became aware <a name="page403" id="page403"></a>that General Lee, equally alive to
+the advantages of the Shenandoah valley, had dispatched General
+Early with seventeen thousand men on a flying expedition up that
+convenient natural sally-port, which was for the moment
+undefended.</p>
+<p>Early made such speed that he crossed the Potomac during the
+first week of July, made a devastating raid through Maryland and
+southern Pennsylvania, threatened Baltimore, and turning sharply to
+the south, was, on the eleventh of the month, actually at the
+outskirts of Washington city, meditating its assault and capture.
+Only the opportune arrival of the Sixth Army Corps under General
+Wright, on the afternoon of that day, sent hurriedly by Grant from
+City Point, saved the Federal capital from occupation and perhaps
+destruction by the enemy.</p>
+<p>Certain writers have represented the government as
+panic-stricken during the two days that this menace lasted; but
+neither Mr. Lincoln, nor Secretary Stanton, nor General Halleck,
+whom it has been even more the fashion to abuse, lacked coolness or
+energy in the emergency. Indeed, the President's personal unconcern
+was such as to give his associates much uneasiness. On the tenth,
+he rode out as was his usual custom during the summer months, to
+spend the night at the Soldiers' Home, in the suburbs; but
+Secretary Stanton, learning that Early was advancing in heavy
+force, sent after him to compel his return to the city; and twice
+afterward, intent on watching the fighting which took place near
+Fort Stevens, he exposed his tall form to the gaze and bullets of
+the enemy in a manner to call forth earnest remonstrance from those
+near him.</p>
+<p>The succeeding military events in the Shenandoah valley must
+here be summed up in the brief statement that General Sheridan,
+being placed in command of the<a name="page404" id="page404"></a> Middle Military Division
+and given an army of thirty or forty thousand men, finally drove
+back the Confederate detachments upon Richmond, in a series of
+brilliant victories, and so devastated the southern end of the
+valley as to render it untenable for either army; and by the
+destruction of the James River Canal and the Virginia Central
+Railroad, succeeded in practically carrying out Grant's intention
+of effectually closing the avenue of supplies to Richmond from the
+northwest.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="page405" id="page405"></a>
+<h2><a name="XXIX" id="XXIX"></a>XXIX</h2>
+<br />
+<p><i>Sherman's Meridian Expedition&mdash;Capture of
+Atlanta&mdash;Hood Supersedes Johnston&mdash;Hood's Invasion of
+Tennessee&mdash;Franklin and Nashville&mdash;Sherman's March to the
+Sea&mdash;Capture of Savannah&mdash;Sherman to
+Lincoln&mdash;Lincoln to Sherman&mdash;Sherman's March through the
+Carolinas&mdash;The Burning of Charleston and
+Columbia&mdash;Arrival at Goldsboro&mdash;Junction with
+Schofield&mdash;Visit to Grant</i></p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<p>While Grant was making his marches, fighting his battles, and
+carrying on his siege operations in Virginia, Sherman in the West
+was performing the task assigned to him by his chief, to pursue,
+destroy, or capture the principal western Confederate army, now
+commanded by General Johnston. The forces which under Bragg had
+been defeated in the previous autumn at Lookout Mountain and
+Missionary Ridge, had halted as soon as pursuit ceased, and
+remained in winter quarters at and about Dalton, only twenty-eight
+or thirty miles on the railroad southeast of Chattanooga where
+their new commander, Johnston, had, in the spring of 1864, about
+sixty-eight thousand men with which to oppose the Union
+advance.</p>
+<p>A few preliminary campaigns and expeditions in the West need not
+here be detailed, as they were not decisive. One, however, led by
+Sherman himself from Vicksburg to Meridian, must be mentioned,
+since, during the month of February, it destroyed about one hundred
+miles of the several railroads centering at the latter place, and
+rendered the whole railroad system <a name="page406" id="page406"></a>of Mississippi practically
+useless to the Confederates, thus contributing essentially to the
+success of his future operations.</p>
+<p>Sherman prepared himself by uniting at Chattanooga the best
+material of the three Union armies, that of the Cumberland, that of
+the Tennessee, and that of the Ohio, forming a force of nearly one
+hundred thousand men with two hundred and fifty-four guns. They
+were seasoned veterans, whom three years of campaigning had taught
+how to endure every privation, and avail themselves of every
+resource. They were provided with every essential supply, but
+carried with them not a pound of useless baggage or impedimenta
+that could retard the rapidity of their movements.</p>
+<p>Sherman had received no specific instructions from Grant, except
+to fight the enemy and damage the war resources of the South; but
+the situation before him clearly indicated the city of Atlanta,
+Georgia, as his first objective, and as his necessary route, the
+railroad leading thither from Chattanooga. It was obviously a
+difficult line of approach, for it traversed a belt of the
+Alleghanies forty miles in width, and in addition to the natural
+obstacles they presented, the Confederate commander, anticipating
+his movement, had prepared elaborate defensive works at the several
+most available points.</p>
+<p>As agreed upon with Grant, Sherman began his march on May 5,
+1864, the day following that on which Grant entered upon his
+Wilderness campaign in Virginia. These pages do not afford space to
+describe his progress. It is enough to say that with his double
+numbers he pursued the policy of making strong demonstrations in
+front, with effective flank movements to threaten the railroad in
+the Confederate rear, by which means he forced back the enemy
+successively <a name="page407" id="page407"></a>from point to point, until by the middle
+of July he was in the vicinity of Atlanta, having during his
+advance made only one serious front attack, in which he met a
+costly repulse. His progress was by no means one of mere
+strategical manoeuver. Sherman says that during the month of May,
+across nearly one hundred miles of as difficult country as was ever
+fought over by civilized armies, the fighting was continuous,
+almost daily, among trees and bushes, on ground where one could
+rarely see one hundred yards ahead.</p>
+<p>However skilful and meritorious may have been the retreat into
+which Johnston had been forced, it was so unwelcome to the Richmond
+authorities, and damaging to the Confederate cause, that about the
+middle of July, Jefferson Davis relieved him, and appointed one of
+his corps commanders, General J.B. Hood, in his place; whose
+personal qualities and free criticism of his superior led them to
+expect a change from a defensive to an aggressive campaign.
+Responding to this expectation, Hood almost immediately took the
+offensive, and made vigorous attacks on the Union positions, but
+met disastrous repulse, and found himself fully occupied in
+guarding the defenses of Atlanta. For some weeks each army tried
+ineffectual methods to seize the other's railroad communications.
+But toward the end of August, Sherman's flank movements gained such
+a hold of the Macon railroad at Jonesboro, twenty-five miles south
+of Atlanta, as to endanger Hood's security; and when, in addition,
+a detachment sent to dislodge Sherman was defeated, Hood had no
+alternative but to order an evacuation. On September 3, Sherman
+telegraphed to Washington:</p>
+<p>"Atlanta is ours, and fairly won.... Since May 5 we have been in
+one constant battle or skirmish, and need rest."<a name="page408" id="page408"></a></p>
+<p>The fall of Atlanta was a heavy blow to the Confederates. They
+had, during the war, transformed it into a city of mills,
+foundries, and workshops, from which they drew supplies,
+ammunition, and equipments, and upon which they depended largely
+for the manufacture and repair of arms. But perhaps even more
+important than the military damage to the South resulting from its
+capture, was its effect upon Northern politics. Until then the
+presidential campaign in progress throughout the free States was
+thought by many to involve fluctuating chances under the heavy
+losses and apparently slow progress of both eastern and western
+armies. But the capture of Atlanta instantly infused new zeal and
+confidence among the Union voters, and from that time onward, the
+re&euml;lection of Mr. Lincoln was placed beyond reasonable
+doubt.</p>
+<p>Sherman personally entered the city on September 8, and took
+prompt measures to turn it into a purely military post. He occupied
+only the inner line of its formidable defenses, but so strengthened
+them as to make the place practically impregnable. He proceeded at
+once to remove all its non-combatant inhabitants with their
+effects, arranging a truce with Hood under which he furnished
+transportation to the south for all those whose sympathies were
+with the Confederate cause, and sent to the north those who
+preferred that destination. Hood raised a great outcry against what
+he called such barbarity and cruelty, but Sherman replied that war
+is war, and if the rebel families wanted peace they and their
+relatives must stop fighting.</p>
+<p>"God will judge us in due time, and he will pronounce whether it
+be more humane to fight with a town full of women, and the families
+of a brave people at our back, or to remove them in time to places
+of safety among their own friends and people."<a name="page409" id="page409"></a></p>
+<p>Up to his occupation of Atlanta, Sherman's further plans had
+neither been arranged by Grant nor determined by himself, and for a
+while remained somewhat undecided. For the time being, he was
+perfectly secure in the new stronghold he had captured and
+completed. But his supplies depended upon a line of about one
+hundred and twenty miles of railroad from Atlanta to Chattanooga,
+and very near one hundred and fifty miles more from Chattanooga to
+Nashville. Hood, held at bay at Lovejoy's Station, was not strong
+enough to venture a direct attack or undertake a siege, but chose
+the more feasible policy of operating systematically against
+Sherman's long line of communications. In the course of some weeks
+both sides grew weary of the mere waste of time and military
+strength consumed in attacking and defending railroad stations, and
+interrupting and re&euml;stablishing the regularities of provision
+trains. Toward the end of September, Jefferson Davis visited Hood,
+and in rearranging some army assignments, united Hood's and an
+adjoining Confederate department under the command of Beauregard;
+partly with a view to adding the counsels of the latter to the
+always energetic and bold, but sometimes rash, military judgment of
+Hood.</p>
+<p>Between these two Hood's eccentric and futile operations against
+Sherman's communications were gradually shaded off into a plan for
+a Confederate invasion of Tennessee. Sherman, on his part, finally
+matured his judgment that instead of losing a thousand men a month
+merely defending the railroad, without other advantage, he would
+divide his army, send back a portion of it under the command of
+General Thomas to defend the State of Tennessee against the
+impending invasion; and, abandoning the whole line of railroad from
+Chattanooga to Atlanta, and cutting entirely loose <a name="page410" id="page410"></a>from his
+base of supplies, march with the remainder to the sea; living upon
+the country, and "making the interior of Georgia feel the weight of
+war." Grant did not immediately fall in with Sherman's suggestion;
+and Sherman prudently waited until the Confederate plan of invading
+Tennessee became further developed. It turned out as he hoped and
+expected. Having gradually ceased his raids upon the railroad,
+Hood, by the end of October, moved westward to Tuscumbia on the
+Tennessee River, where he gathered an army of about thirty-five
+thousand, to which a cavalry force under Forrest of ten thousand
+more was soon added.</p>
+<p>Under Beauregard's orders to assume the offensive, he began a
+rapid march northward, and for a time with a promise of cutting off
+some advanced Union detachments. We need not follow the fortunes of
+this campaign further than to state that the Confederate invasion
+of Tennessee ended in disastrous failure. It was severely checked
+at the battle of Franklin on November 30; and when, in spite of
+this reverse, Hood pushed forward and set his army down before
+Nashville as if for attack or siege, the Union army, concentrated
+and reinforced to about fifty-five thousand, was ready. A severe
+storm of rain and sleet held the confronting armies in forced
+immobility for a week; but on the morning of December 15, 1864,
+General Thomas moved forward to an attack in which on that and the
+following day he inflicted so terrible a defeat upon his adversary,
+that the Confederate army not only retreated in rout and panic, but
+soon literally went to pieces in disorganization, and disappeared
+as a military entity from the western conflict.</p>
+<p>Long before this, Sherman had started on his famous march to the
+sea. His explanations to Grant were so convincing, that the
+general-in-chief, on November 2, <a name="page411" id="page411"></a>telegraphed him: "Go on as
+you propose." In anticipation of this permission, he had been
+preparing himself ever since Hood left him a clear path by starting
+westward on his campaign of invasion. From Atlanta, he sent back
+his sick and wounded and surplus stores to Chattanooga, withdrew
+the garrisons, burned the bridges, broke up the railroad, and
+destroyed the mills, foundries, shops and public buildings in
+Atlanta. With sixty thousand of his best soldiers, and sixty-five
+guns, he started on November 15 on his march of three hundred miles
+to the Atlantic. They carried with them twenty days' supplies of
+provisions, five days' supply of forage, and two hundred rounds of
+ammunition, of which each man carried forty rounds.</p>
+<p>With perfect confidence in their leader, with perfect trust in
+each others' valor, endurance and good comradeship, in the fine
+weather of the Southern autumn, and singing the inspiring melody of
+"John Brown's Body," Sherman's army began its "marching through
+Georgia" as gaily as if it were starting on a holiday. And, indeed,
+it may almost be said such was their experience in comparison with
+the hardships of war which many of these veterans had seen in their
+varied campaigning. They marched as nearly as might be in four
+parallel columns abreast, making an average of about fifteen miles
+a day. Kilpatrick's admirable cavalry kept their front and flanks
+free from the improvised militia and irregular troopers of the
+enemy. Carefully organized foraging parties brought in their daily
+supply of miscellaneous provisions&mdash;corn, meat, poultry, and
+sweet potatoes, of which the season had yielded an abundant harvest
+along their route.</p>
+<p>The Confederate authorities issued excited proclamations and
+orders, calling on the people to "fly to arms," and to "assail the
+invader in front, flank, and <a name="page412" id="page412"></a>rear, by night and by day."
+But no rising occurred that in any way checked the constant
+progress of the march. The Southern whites were, of course, silent
+and sullen, but the negroes received the Yankees with
+demonstrations of welcome and good will, and in spite of Sherman's
+efforts, followed in such numbers as to embarrass his progress. As
+he proceeded, he destroyed the railroads by filling up cuts,
+burning ties, heating the rails red hot and twisting them around
+trees and into irreparable spirals. Threatening the principal
+cities to the right and left, he marched skilfully between and past
+them.</p>
+<p>He reached the outer defenses of Savannah on December 10, easily
+driving before him about ten thousand of the enemy. On December 13,
+he stormed Fort McAllister, and communicated with the Union fleet
+through Ossabaw Sound, reporting to Washington that his march had
+been most agreeable, that he had not lost a wagon on the trip, that
+he had utterly destroyed over two hundred miles of rails, and
+consumed stores and provisions that were essential to Lee's and
+Hood's armies. With pardonable exultation General Sherman
+telegraphed to President Lincoln on December 22:</p>
+<p>"I beg to present to you as a Christmas gift the city of
+Savannah, with one hundred and fifty heavy guns and plenty of
+ammunition. Also about twenty-five thousand bales of cotton."</p>
+<p>He had reason to be gratified with the warm acknowledgment which
+President Lincoln wrote him in the following letter:</p>
+<p>"MY DEAR GENERAL SHERMAN: Many, many thanks for your Christmas
+gift, the capture of Savannah. When you were about leaving Atlanta
+for the Atlantic coast I was anxious, if not fearful; but feeling
+<a name="page413" id="page413"></a> that you were the better judge, and
+remembering that 'nothing risked, nothing gained,' I did not
+interfere. Now, the undertaking being a success, the honor is all
+yours, for I believe none of us went farther than to acquiesce. And
+taking the work of General Thomas into the count, as it should be
+taken, it is, indeed, a great success. Not only does it afford the
+obvious and immediate military advantages, but in showing to the
+world that your army could be divided, putting the stronger part to
+an important new service, and yet leaving enough to vanquish the
+old opposing force of the whole&mdash;Hood's army&mdash;it brings
+those who sat in darkness to see a great light. But what next? I
+suppose it will be safe if I leave General Grant and yourself to
+decide. Please make my grateful acknowledgments to your whole army,
+officers and men."</p>
+<p>It was again General Sherman who planned and decided the next
+step of the campaign. Grant sent him orders to fortify a strong
+post, leave his artillery and cavalry, and bring his infantry by
+sea to unite with the Army of the Potomac before Petersburg.
+Greatly to Sherman's satisfaction, this order was soon revoked, and
+he was informed that Grant wished "the whole matter of your future
+actions should be left entirely to your own discretion." In
+Sherman's mind, the next steps to be taken were "as clear as
+daylight." The progress of the war in the West could now be
+described step by step, and its condition and probable course be
+estimated with sound judgment. The opening of the Mississippi River
+in the previous year had cut off from the rebellion the vast
+resources west of the great river. Sherman's Meridian campaign in
+February had rendered useless the railroads of the State of
+Mississippi. The capture of Atlanta and the march to the sea had
+ruined the railroads of Georgia, cutting off another <a name="page414" id="page414"></a>huge
+slice of Confederate resources. The battles of Franklin and
+Nashville had practically annihilated the principal Confederate
+army in the West. Sherman now proposed to Grant that he would
+subject the two Carolinas to the same process, by marching his army
+through the heart of them from Savannah to Raleigh.</p>
+<p>"The game is then up with Lee," he confidently added, "unless he
+comes out of Richmond, avoids you, and fights me, in which case I
+should reckon on your being on his heels.... If you feel confident
+that you can whip Lee outside of his intrenchments, I feel equally
+confident that I can handle him in the open country."</p>
+<p>Grant promptly adopted the plan, and by formal orders directed
+Sherman to execute it. Several minor western expeditions were
+organized to contribute to its success. The Union fleet on the
+coast was held in readiness to co&ouml;perate as far as possible
+with Sherman's advance, and to afford him a new base of supply, if,
+at some suitable point he should desire to establish communications
+with it. When, in the middle of January, 1865, a naval expedition
+captured Fort Fisher at the mouth of Cape Fear River, an army corps
+under General Schofield was brought east from Thomas's Army of the
+Tennessee, and sent by sea to the North Carolina coast to penetrate
+into the interior and form a junction with Sherman when he should
+arrive.</p>
+<p>Having had five weeks for rest and preparation, Sherman began
+the third stage of his campaign on February 1, with a total of
+sixty thousand men, provisions for twenty days, forage for seven,
+and a full supply of ammunition for a great battle. This new
+undertaking proved a task of much greater difficulty and severer
+hardship than his march to the sea. Instead of the genial autumn
+weather, the army had now to face <a name="page415" id="page415"></a>the wintry storms that blew
+in from the neighboring coast. Instead of the dry Georgia uplands,
+his route lay across a low sandy country cut by rivers with
+branches at right angles to his line of march, and bordered by
+broad and miry swamps. But this was an extraordinary army, which
+faced exposure, labor and peril with a determination akin to
+contempt. Here were swamps and water-courses to be waded waist
+deep; endless miles of corduroy road to be laid and relaid as
+course after course sank into the mud under the heavy army wagons;
+frequent head-water channels of rivers to be bridged; the lines of
+railroad along their route to be torn up and rendered incapable of
+repair; food to be gathered by foraging; keeping up, meanwhile a
+daily average of ten or twelve miles of marching. Under such
+conditions, Sherman's army made a mid-winter march of four hundred
+and twenty-five miles in fifty days, crossing five navigable
+rivers, occupying three important cities, and rendering the whole
+railroad system of South Carolina useless to the enemy.</p>
+<p>The ten to fifteen thousand Confederates with which General
+Hardee had evacuated Savannah and retreated to Charleston could, of
+course, oppose no serious opposition to Sherman's march. On the
+contrary, when Sherman reached Columbia, the capital of South
+Carolina, on February 16, Hardee evacuated Charleston, which had
+been defended for four long years against every attack of a most
+powerful Union fleet, and where the most ingenious siege-works and
+desperate storming assault had failed to wrest Fort Wagner from the
+enemy. But though Charleston fell without a battle, and was
+occupied by the Union troops on the eighteenth, the destructive
+hand of war was at last heavily laid upon her. The Confederate
+government pertinaciously adhered to the policy of burning
+accumulations of <a name="page416" id="page416"></a>cotton to prevent it falling into Union
+hands; and the supply gathered in Charleston to be sent abroad by
+blockade runners, having been set on fire by the evacuating
+Confederate officials, the flames not only spread to the adjoining
+buildings, but grew into a great conflagration that left the heart
+of the city a waste of blackened walls to illustrate the folly of
+the first secession ordinance. Columbia, the capital, underwent the
+same fate, to even a broader extent. Here the cotton had been piled
+in a narrow street, and when the torch was applied by similar
+Confederate orders, the rising wind easily floated the blazing
+flakes to the near roofs of buildings. On the night following
+Sherman's entrance the wind rose to a gale, and neither the efforts
+of the citizens, nor the ready help of Sherman's soldiers were able
+to check the destruction. Confederate writers long nursed the
+accusation that it was the Union army which burned the city as a
+deliberate act of vengeance. Contrary proof is furnished by the
+orders of Sherman, leaving for the sufferers a generous supply of
+food, as well as by the careful investigation by the mixed
+commission on American and British claims, under the treaty of
+Washington.</p>
+<p>Still pursuing his march, Sherman arrived at Cheraw March 3, and
+opened communication with General Terry, who had advanced from Fort
+Fisher to Wilmington. Hitherto, his advance had been practically
+unopposed. But now he learned that General Johnston had once more
+been placed in command of the Confederate forces, and was
+collecting an army near Raleigh, North Carolina. Well knowing the
+ability of this general, Sherman became more prudent in his
+movements. But Johnston was able to gather a force of only
+twenty-five or thirty thousand men, of which the troops Hardee
+brought from Charleston formed the <a name="page417" id="page417"></a>nucleus; and the two minor
+engagements on March 16 and 19 did little to impede Sherman's
+advance to Goldsboro, where he arrived on March 23, forming a
+junction with the Union army sent by sea under Schofield, that had
+reached the same point the previous day.</p>
+<p>The third giant stride of Sherman's great campaign was thus
+happily accomplished. His capture of Atlanta, his march to the sea
+and capture of Savannah, his progress through the Carolinas, and
+the fall of Charleston, formed an aggregate expedition covering
+nearly a thousand miles, with military results that rendered
+rebellion powerless in the central States of the Southern
+Confederacy. Several Union cavalry raids had accomplished similar
+destruction of Confederate resources in Alabama and the country
+bordering on East Tennessee. Military affairs were plainly in a
+condition which justified Sherman in temporarily devolving his
+command on General Schofield and hurrying by sea to make a brief
+visit for urgent consultation with General Grant at his
+headquarters before Richmond and Petersburg.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="page418" id="page418"></a>
+<h2><a name="XXX" id="XXX"></a>XXX</h2>
+<br />
+<p><i>Military Governors&mdash;Lincoln's Theory of
+Reconstruction&mdash;Congressional Election in
+Louisiana&mdash;Letter to Military Governors&mdash;Letter to
+Shepley&mdash;Amnesty Proclamation, December 8,
+1863&mdash;Instructions to Banks&mdash;Banks's Action in
+Louisiana&mdash;Louisiana Abolishes Slavery&mdash;Arkansas
+Abolishes Slavery&mdash;Reconstruction in Tennessee&mdash;Missouri
+Emancipation&mdash;Lincoln's Letter to Drake&mdash;Missouri
+Abolishes Slavery&mdash;Emancipation in Maryland&mdash;Maryland
+Abolishes Slavery</i></p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<p>To subdue the Confederate armies and establish order under
+martial law was not the only task before President Lincoln. As
+rapidly as rebel States or portions of States were occupied by
+Federal troops, it became necessary to displace usurping
+Confederate officials and appoint in their stead loyal State,
+county, and subordinate officers to restore the administration of
+local civil law under the authority of the United States. In
+western Virginia the people had spontaneously effected this reform,
+first by repudiating the Richmond secession ordinance and
+organizing a provisional State government, and, second, by adopting
+a new constitution and obtaining admission to the Union as the new
+State of West Virginia. In Missouri the State convention which
+refused to pass a secession ordinance effected the same object by
+establishing a provisional State government. In both these States
+the whole process of what in subsequent years was comprehensively
+designated "reconstruction" was carried <a name="page419" id="page419"></a>on by
+popular local action, without any Federal initiative or
+interference other than prompt Federal recognition and substantial
+military support and protection.</p>
+<p>But in other seceded States there was no such groundwork of
+loyal popular authority upon which to rebuild the structure of
+civil government. Therefore, when portions of Tennessee, Louisiana,
+Arkansas, and North Carolina came under Federal control, President
+Lincoln, during the first half of 1862, appointed military
+governors to begin the work of temporary civil administration. He
+had a clear and consistent constitutional theory under which this
+could be done. In his first inaugural he announced the doctrine
+that "the union of these States is perpetual" and "unbroken." His
+special message to Congress on July 4, 1861, added the
+supplementary declaration that "the States have their status in the
+Union, and they have no other legal status." The same message
+contained the further definition:</p>
+<p>"The people of Virginia have thus allowed this giant
+insurrection to make its nest within her borders; and this
+government has no choice left but to deal with it where it finds
+it. And it has the less regret, as the loyal citizens have, in due
+form, claimed its protection. Those loyal citizens this government
+is bound to recognize and protect, as being Virginia."</p>
+<p>The action of Congress entirely conformed to this theory. That
+body admitted to seats senators and representatives from the
+provisional State governments of West Virginia and Missouri; and
+also allowed Senator Andrew Johnson of Tennessee to retain his
+seat, and admitted Horace Maynard and Andrew J. Clements as
+representatives from the same State, though since their election
+Tennessee had undergone the usual <a name="page420" id="page420"></a>secession usurpation, and
+had as yet organized no loyal provisional government.</p>
+<p>The progress of the Union armies was so far checked during the
+second half of 1862, that Military Governor Phelps, appointed for
+Arkansas, did not assume his functions; and Military Governor
+Stanley wielded but slight authority in North Carolina. Senator
+Andrew Johnson, appointed military governor of Tennessee,
+established himself at Nashville, the capital, and, though Union
+control of Tennessee fluctuated greatly, he was able, by appointing
+loyal State and county officers, to control the administration of
+civil government in considerable districts, under substantial
+Federal jurisdiction.</p>
+<p>In the State of Louisiana the process of restoring Federal
+authority was carried on a step farther, owing largely to the fact
+that the territory occupied by the Union army, though quite
+limited, comprising only the city of New Orleans and a few adjacent
+parishes, was more securely held, and its hostile frontier less
+disturbed. It soon became evident that considerable Union sentiment
+yet existed in the captured city and surrounding districts, and
+when some of the loyal citizens began to manifest impatience at the
+restraints of martial law, President Lincoln in a frank letter
+pointed the way to a remedy:</p>
+<p>"The people of Louisiana," he wrote under date of July 28, 1862,
+"who wish protection to person and property, have but to reach
+forth their hands and take it. Let them in good faith reinaugurate
+the national authority and set up a State government conforming
+thereto under the Constitution. They know how to do it, and can
+have the protection of the army while doing it. The army will be
+withdrawn so soon as such State government can dispense with its
+presence, and <a name="page421" id="page421"></a>the people of the State can then, upon
+the old constitutional terms, govern themselves to their own
+liking."</p>
+<p>At about this date there occurred the serious military crisis in
+Virginia; and the battles of the Peninsula, of the second Bull Run,
+and of Antietam necessarily compelled the postponement of minor
+questions. But during this period the President's policy on the
+slavery question reached its development and solution, and when, on
+September 22, he issued his preliminary proclamation of
+emancipation, it also paved the way for a further defining of his
+policy of reconstruction.</p>
+<p>That proclamation announced the penalty of military emancipation
+against all States in rebellion on the succeeding first day of
+January; but also provided that if the people thereof were
+represented in Congress by properly elected members, they should be
+deemed not in rebellion, and thereby escape the penalty. Wishing
+now to prove the sincerity of what he said in the Greeley letter,
+that his paramount object was to save the Union, and not either to
+save or destroy slavery, he wrote a circular letter to the military
+governors and commanders in Louisiana, Tennessee, and Arkansas,
+instructing them to permit and aid the people within the districts
+held by them to hold elections for members of Congress, and perhaps
+a legislature, State officers, and United States senators.</p>
+<p>"In all available ways," he wrote, "give the people a chance to
+express their wishes at these elections. Follow forms of law as far
+as convenient, but at all events get the expression of the largest
+number of the people possible. All see how such action will connect
+with and affect the proclamation of September 22. Of course the men
+elected should be gentlemen of character, willing to swear support
+to the Constitution as of <a name="page422" id="page422"></a>old, and known to be above reasonable
+suspicion of duplicity."</p>
+<p>But the President wished this to be a real and not a sham
+proceeding, as he explained a month later in a letter to Governor
+Shepley:</p>
+<p>"We do not particularly need members of Congress from there to
+enable us to get along with legislation here. What we do want is
+the conclusive evidence that respectable citizens of Louisiana are
+willing to be members of Congress and to swear support to the
+Constitution, and that other respectable citizens there are willing
+to vote for them and send them. To send a parcel of Northern men
+here as representatives, elected, as would be understood (and
+perhaps really so), at the point of the bayonet, would be
+disgraceful and outrageous; and were I a member of Congress here, I
+would vote against admitting any such man to a seat."</p>
+<p>Thus instructed, Governor Shepley caused an election to be held
+in the first and second congressional districts of Louisiana on
+December 3, 1862, at which members of Congress were chosen. No
+Federal office-holder was a candidate, and about one half the usual
+vote was polled. The House of Representatives admitted them to
+seats after full scrutiny, the chairman of the committee declaring
+this "had every essential of a regular election in a time of most
+profound peace, with the exception of the fact that the
+proclamation was issued by the military instead of the civil
+governor of Louisiana."</p>
+<p>Military affairs were of such importance and absorbed so much
+attention during the year 1863, both at Washington and at the
+headquarters of the various armies, that the subject of
+reconstruction was of necessity somewhat neglected. The military
+governor of Louisiana indeed ordered a registration of loyal
+voters, <a name="page423" id="page423"></a>about the middle of June, for the
+purpose of organizing a loyal State government; but its only result
+was to develop an inevitable antagonism and contest between
+conservatives who desired that the old constitution of Louisiana
+prior to the rebellion should be revived, by which the institution
+of slavery as then existing would be maintained, and the free-State
+party which demanded that an entirely new constitution be framed
+and adopted, in which slavery should be summarily abolished. The
+conservatives asked President Lincoln to adopt their plan. While
+the President refused this, he in a letter to General Banks dated
+August 5, 1863, suggested the middle course of gradual
+emancipation.</p>
+<p>"For my own part," he wrote, "I think I shall not, in any event,
+retract the emancipation proclamation; nor, as Executive, ever
+return to slavery any person who is freed by the terms of that
+proclamation, or by any of the acts of Congress. If Louisiana shall
+send members to Congress, their admission to seats will depend, as
+you know, upon the respective houses and not upon the
+President."</p>
+<p>"I would be glad for her to make a new constitution recognizing
+the emancipation proclamation and adopting emancipation in those
+parts of the State to which the proclamation does not apply. And
+while she is at it, I think it would not be objectionable for her
+to adopt some practical system by which the two races could
+gradually live themselves out of their old relation to each other,
+and both come out better prepared for the new. Education for young
+blacks should be included in the plan. After all, the power or
+element of 'contract' may be sufficient for this probationary
+period, and by its simplicity and flexibility may be the
+better."</p>
+<p>During the autumn months the President's mind <a name="page424" id="page424"></a>dwelt
+more and more on the subject of reconstruction, and he matured a
+general plan which he laid before Congress in his annual message to
+that body on December 8, 1863. He issued on the same day a
+proclamation of amnesty, on certain conditions, to all persons in
+rebellion except certain specified classes, who should take a
+prescribed oath of allegiance. The proclamation further provided
+that whenever a number of persons so amnestied in any rebel State,
+equal to one tenth the vote cast at the presidential election of
+1860, should "re&euml;stablish a State government which shall be
+republican, and in no wise contravening said oath," such would be
+recognized as the true government of the State. The annual message
+discussed and advocated the plan at length, but also added: "Saying
+that reconstruction will be accepted if presented in a specified
+way, it is not said it will never be accepted in any other
+way."</p>
+<p>This plan of reconstructing what came to be called "ten percent
+States," met much opposition in Congress, and that body, reversing
+its action in former instances, long refused admission to members
+and senators from States similarly organized; but the point needs
+no further mention here.</p>
+<p>A month before the amnesty proclamation the President had
+written to General Banks, expressing his great disappointment that
+the reconstruction in Louisiana had been permitted to fall in
+abeyance by the leading Union officials there, civil and
+military.</p>
+<p>"I do, however," he wrote, "urge both you and them to lose no
+more time. Governor Shepley has special instructions from the War
+Department. I wish him&mdash;these gentlemen and others
+co&ouml;perating&mdash;without waiting for more territory, to go to
+work and give me a tangible nucleus which the remainder of the
+State may <a name="page425" id="page425"></a>rally around as fast as it can, and
+which I can at once recognize and sustain as the true State
+government."</p>
+<p>He urged that such reconstruction should have in view a new
+free-State constitution, for, said he:</p>
+<p>"If a few professedly loyal men shall draw the disloyal about
+them, and colorably set up a State government repudiating the
+emancipation proclamation and re&euml;stablishing slavery, I cannot
+recognize or sustain their work.... I have said, and say again,
+that if a new State government, acting in harmony with this
+government and consistently with general freedom, shall think best
+to adopt a reasonable temporary arrangement in relation to the
+landless and houseless freed people, I do not object; but my word
+is out to be for and not against them on the question of their
+permanent freedom."</p>
+<p>General Banks in reply excused his inaction by explaining that
+the military governor and others had given him to understand that
+they were exclusively charged with the work of reconstruction in
+Louisiana. To this the President rejoined under date of December
+24, 1863:</p>
+<p>"I have all the while intended you to be master, as well in
+regard to reorganizing a State government for Louisiana as in
+regard to the military matters of the department, and hence my
+letters on reconstruction have nearly, if not quite, all been
+addressed to you. My error has been that it did not occur to me
+that Governor Shepley or any one else would set up a claim to act
+independently of you.... I now distinctly tell you that you are
+master of all, and that I wish you to take the case as you find it,
+and give us a free-State reorganization of Louisiana in the
+shortest possible time."</p>
+<p>Under this explicit direction of the President, and <a name="page426" id="page426"></a>basing
+his action on martial law as the fundamental law of the State, the
+general caused a governor and State officials to be elected on
+February 22, 1864. To override the jealousy and quarrels of both
+the conservative and free-State parties, he set out in his
+proclamation that the officials to be chosen should&mdash;</p>
+<p>"Until others are appointed by competent authority, constitute
+the civil government of the State, under the constitution and laws
+of Louisiana, except so much of the said constitution and laws as
+recognize, regulate, or relate to slavery; which, being
+inconsistent with the present condition of public affairs, and
+plainly inapplicable to any class of persons now existing within
+its limits, must be suspended, and they are therefore and hereby
+declared to be inoperative and void."</p>
+<p>The newly elected governor was inaugurated on March 4, with
+imposing public ceremonies, and the President also invested him
+"with the powers exercised hitherto by the military governor of
+Louisiana." General Banks further caused delegates to a State
+convention to be chosen, who, in a session extending from April 6
+to July 25, perfected and adopted a new constitution, which was
+again adopted by popular vote on September 5 following. General
+Banks reported the constitution to be "one of the best ever
+penned.... It abolishes slavery in the State, and forbids the
+legislature to enact any law recognizing property in man. The
+emancipation is instantaneous and absolute, without condition or
+compensation, and nearly unanimous."</p>
+<p>The State of Arkansas had been forced into rebellion by military
+terrorism, and remained under Confederate domination only because
+the Union armies could afford the latent loyal sentiment of the
+State no effective support until the fall of Vicksburg and the
+opening of the Mississippi. After that decisive victory,
+General<a name="page427" id="page427"></a> Steele marched a Union column of about
+thirteen thousand from Helena to Little Rock, the capital, which
+surrendered to him on the evening of September 10, 1863. By
+December, eight regiments of Arkansas citizens had been formed for
+service in the Union army; and, following the amnesty proclamation
+of December 8, the reorganization of a loyal State government was
+speedily brought about, mainly by spontaneous popular action, of
+course under the direction and with the assistance of General
+Steele.</p>
+<p>In response to a petition, President Lincoln sent General Steele
+on January 20, 1864, a letter repeating substantially the
+instructions he had given General Banks for Louisiana. Before these
+could be carried out, popular action had assembled at Little Rock
+on January 8, 1864, a formal delegate convention, composed of
+forty-four delegates who claimed to represent twenty-two out of the
+fifty-four counties of the State. On January 22 this convention
+adopted an amended constitution which declared the act of secession
+null and void, abolished slavery immediately and unconditionally,
+and wholly repudiated the Confederate debt. The convention
+appointed a provisional State government, and under its schedule an
+election was held on March 14, 1864. During the three days on which
+the polls were kept open, under the orders of General Steele, who
+by the President's suggestion adopted the convention program, a
+total vote of 12,179 was cast for the constitution, and only 226
+against it; while the provisional governor was also elected for a
+new term, together with members of Congress and a legislature which
+in due time chose United States senators. By this time Congress had
+manifested its opposition to the President's plan, but Mr. Lincoln
+stood firm, and on June 29 wrote to General Steele:<a name="page428" id="page428"></a></p>
+<p>"I understand that Congress declines to admit to seats the
+persons sent as senators and representatives from Arkansas. These
+persons apprehend that in consequence you may not support the new
+State government there as you otherwise would. My wish is that you
+give that government and the people there the same support and
+protection that you would if the members had been admitted, because
+in no event, nor in any view of the case, can this do any harm,
+while it will be the best you can do toward suppressing the
+rebellion."</p>
+<p>While Military Governor Andrew Johnson had been the earliest to
+begin the restoration of loyal Federal authority in the State of
+Tennessee, the course of campaign and battle in that State delayed
+its completion to a later period than in the others. The invasion
+of Tennessee by the Confederate General Bragg in the summer of
+1862, and the long delay of the Union General Rosecrans to begin an
+active campaign against him during the summer of 1863, kept civil
+reorganization in a very uncertain and chaotic condition. When at
+length Rosecrans advanced and occupied Chattanooga, President
+Lincoln deemed it a propitious time to vigorously begin
+reorganization, and under date of September 11, 1863, he wrote the
+military governor emphatic suggestions that:</p>
+<p>"The reinauguration must not be such as to give control of the
+State and its representation in Congress to the enemies of the
+Union, driving its friends there into political exile.... You must
+have it otherwise. Let the reconstruction be the work of such men
+only as can be trusted for the Union. Exclude all others; and trust
+that your government so organized will be recognized here as being
+the one of republican form to be guaranteed to the State, and to be
+protected against invasion and domestic violence. It is
+<a name="page429" id="page429"></a>something on the question of time to
+remember that it cannot be known who is next to occupy the position
+I now hold, nor what he will do. I see that you have declared in
+favor of emancipation in Tennessee, for which, may God bless you.
+Get emancipation into your new State
+government&mdash;constitution&mdash;and there will be no such word
+as fail for your case."</p>
+<p>In another letter of September 19, the President sent the
+governor specific authority to execute the scheme outlined in his
+letter of advice; but no substantial success had yet been reached
+in the process of reconstruction in Tennessee during the year 1864,
+when the Confederate army under Hood turned northward from Atlanta
+to begin its third and final invasion of the State. This once more
+delayed all work of reconstruction until the Confederate army was
+routed and dispersed by the battle of Nashville on December 15,
+1864. Previous popular action had called a State convention, which,
+taking immediate advantage of the expulsion of the enemy, met in
+Nashville on January 9, 1865, in which fifty-eight counties and
+some regiments were represented by about four hundred and
+sixty-seven delegates. After six days of deliberation the
+convention adopted a series of amendments to the constitution, the
+main ordinance of which provided:</p>
+<p>"That slavery and involuntary servitude, except as a punishment
+for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, are
+hereby forever abolished and prohibited throughout the State."</p>
+<p>These amendments were duly adopted at a popular election held on
+February 22, and the complete organization of a loyal State
+government under them followed in due course.</p>
+<p>The State of Missouri needed no reconstruction. It has already
+been said that her local affairs were <a name="page430" id="page430"></a>
+administered by a provisional State government instituted by the
+State convention chosen by popular election before rebellion broke
+out. In this State, therefore, the institution of slavery was
+suppressed by the direct action of the people, but not without a
+long and bitter conflict of party factions and military strife.
+There existed here two hostile currents of public opinion, one, the
+intolerant pro-slavery prejudices of its rural population; the
+other, the progressive and liberal spirit dominant in the city of
+St. Louis, with its heavy German population, which, as far back as
+1856, had elected to Congress a candidate who boldly advocated
+gradual emancipation: St. Louis, with outlying cities and towns,
+supplying during the whole rebellion the dominating influence that
+held the State in the Union, and at length transformed her from a
+slave to a free State.</p>
+<p>Missouri suffered severely in the war, but not through important
+campaigns or great battles. Persistent secession conspiracy, the
+Kansas episodes of border strife, and secret orders of Confederate
+agents from Arkansas instigating unlawful warfare, made Missouri a
+hotbed of guerrilla uprisings and of relentless neighborhood feuds,
+in which armed partizan conflict often degenerated into shocking
+barbarity, and the pretense of war into the malicious execution of
+private vengeance. President Lincoln drew a vivid picture of the
+chronic disorders in Missouri in reply to complaints demanding the
+removal of General Schofield from local military command:</p>
+<p>"We are in civil war. In such cases there always is a main
+question; but in this case that question is a perplexing
+compound&mdash;Union and slavery. It thus becomes a question not of
+two sides merely, but of at least four sides, even among those who
+are for the<a name="page431" id="page431"></a> Union, saying nothing of those who are
+against it. Thus, those who are for the Union <i>with</i>, but not
+<i>without</i>, slavery&mdash;those for it <i>without</i>, but not
+<i>with</i>&mdash;those for it <i>with</i> or <i>without</i>, but
+prefer it <i>with</i>&mdash;and those for it <i>with or
+without</i>, but prefer it <i>without</i>. Among these again is a
+subdivision of those who are for <i>gradual</i> but not for
+<i>immediate</i>, and those who are for <i>immediate</i>, but not
+for <i>gradual</i> extinction of slavery. It is easy to conceive
+that all these shades of opinion, and even more, may be sincerely
+entertained by honest and truthful men. Yet, all being for the
+Union, by reason of these differences each will prefer a different
+way of sustaining the Union. At once sincerity is questioned, and
+motives are assailed. Actual war coming, blood grows hot, and blood
+is spilled. Thought is forced from old channels into confusion.
+Deception breeds and thrives. Confidence dies and universal
+suspicion reigns. Each man feels an impulse to kill his neighbor,
+lest he be first killed by him. Revenge and retaliation follow. And
+all this, as before said, may be among honest men only. But this is
+not all. Every foul bird comes abroad and every dirty reptile rises
+up. These add crime to confusion. Strong measures deemed
+indispensable, but harsh at best, such men make worse by
+maladministration. Murders for old grudges, and murders for pelf,
+proceed under any cloak that will best cover for the occasion.
+These causes amply account for what has occurred in Missouri,
+without ascribing it to the weakness or wickedness of any general.
+The newspaper files, those chroniclers of current events, will show
+that the evils now complained of were quite as prevalent under
+Fr&eacute;mont, Hunter, Halleck, and Curtis, as under
+Schofield.... I do not feel justified to enter upon the broad field
+you present in regard to the political differences between
+<a name="page432" id="page432"></a> radicals and conservatives. From time to
+time I have done and said what appeared to me proper to do and say.
+The public knows it all. It obliges nobody to follow me, and I
+trust it obliges me to follow nobody. The radicals and
+conservatives each agree with me in some things and disagree in
+others. I could wish both to agree with me in all things; for then
+they would agree with each other, and would be too strong for any
+foe from any quarter. They, however, choose to do otherwise, and I
+do not question their right. I, too, shall do what seems to be my
+duty. I hold whoever commands in Missouri, or elsewhere,
+responsible to me, and not to either radicals or conservatives. It
+is my duty to hear all; but at last I must, within my sphere, judge
+what to do and what to forbear."</p>
+<p>It is some consolation to history, that out of this blood and
+travail grew the political regeneration of the State. Slavery and
+emancipation never gave each other a moment's truce. The issue was
+raised to an acute stage by Fr&eacute;mont's proclamation in
+August, 1861. Though that ill-advised measure was revoked by
+President Lincoln, the friction and irritation of war kept it
+alive, and in the following year a member of the Missouri State
+convention offered a bill to accept and apply President Lincoln's
+plan of compensated abolishment. Further effort was made in this
+direction in Congress, where in January, 1863, the House passed a
+bill appropriating ten million dollars, and in February, the Senate
+another bill appropriating fifteen million dollars to aid
+compensated abolishment in Missouri. But the stubborn opposition of
+three pro-slavery Missouri members of the House prevented action on
+the latter bill or any compromise.</p>
+<p>The question, however, continually grew among the people of
+Missouri, and made such advance that parties, <a name="page433" id="page433"></a>accepting
+the main point as already practically decided at length only
+divided upon the mode of procedure The conservatives wanted the
+work to be done by the old State convention, the radicals desired
+to submit it to a new convention fresh from the people. Legislative
+agreement having failed, the provisional governor called the old
+State convention together. The convention leaders who controlled
+that body inquired of the President whether he would sustain their
+action. To this he made answer in a letter to Schofield dated June
+22, 1863:</p>
+<p>"Your despatch, asking in substance whether, in case Missouri
+shall adopt gradual emancipation, the general government will
+protect slave-owners in that species of property during the short
+time it shall be permitted by the State to exist within it, has
+been received. Desirous as I am that emancipation shall be adopted
+by Missouri, and believing as I do that gradual can be made better
+than immediate for both black and white, except when military
+necessity changes the case, my impulse is to say that such
+protection would be given. I cannot know exactly what shape an act
+of emancipation may take. If the period from the initiation to the
+final end should be comparatively short, and the act should prevent
+persons being sold during that period into more lasting slavery,
+the whole would be easier. I do not wish to pledge the general
+government to the affirmative support of even temporary slavery
+beyond what can be fairly claimed under the Constitution. I
+suppose, however, this is not desired, but that it is desired for
+the military force of the United States, while in Missouri, to not
+be used in subverting the temporarily reserved legal rights in
+slaves during the progress of emancipation. This I would desire
+also."<a name="page434" id="page434"></a></p>
+<p>Proceeding with its work, the old State convention, which had
+hitherto made a most honorable record, neglected a great
+opportunity. It indeed adopted an ordinance of gradual emancipation
+on July 1, 1863, but of such an uncertain and dilatory character,
+that public opinion in the State promptly rejected it. By the death
+of the provisional governor on January 31, 1864, the conservative
+party of Missouri lost its most trusted leader, and thereafter the
+radicals succeeded to the political power of the State. At the
+presidential election of 1864, that party chose a new State
+convention, which met in St. Louis on January 6, 1865, and on the
+sixth day of its session (January 11) formally adopted an ordinance
+of immediate emancipation.</p>
+<p>Maryland, like Missouri, had no need of reconstruction. Except
+for the Baltimore riot and the arrest of her secession legislature
+during the first year of the war, her State government continued
+its regular functions. But a strong popular undercurrent of
+virulent secession sympathy among a considerable minority of her
+inhabitants was only held in check by the military power of the
+Union, and for two years emancipation found no favor in the public
+opinion of the State. Her representatives, like those of most other
+border States, coldly refused President Lincoln's earnest plea to
+accept compensated abolishment; and a bill in Congress to give
+Maryland ten million dollars for that object was at once blighted
+by the declaration of one of her leading representatives that
+Maryland did not ask for it. Nevertheless, the subject could no
+more be ignored there than in other States; and after the
+President's emancipation proclamation an emancipation party
+developed itself in Maryland.</p>
+<p>There was no longer any evading the practical issue, when, by
+the President's direction, the Secretary of<a name="page435" id="page435"></a> War
+issued a military order, early in October, 1863, regulating the
+raising of colored troops in certain border States, which decreed
+that slaves might be enlisted without consent of their owners, but
+provided compensation in such cases. At the November election of
+that year the emancipation party of Maryland elected its ticket by
+an overwhelming majority, and a legislature that enacted laws under
+which a State convention was chosen to amend the constitution. Of
+the delegates elected on April 6, 1864, sixty-one were
+emancipationists, and only thirty-five opposed.</p>
+<p>After two months' debate this convention by nearly two thirds
+adopted an article:</p>
+<p>"That hereafter in this State there shall be neither slavery nor
+involuntary servitude except in punishment of crime whereof the
+party shall have been duly convicted; and all persons held to
+service or labor as slaves are hereby declared free."</p>
+<p>The decisive test of a popular vote accepting the amended
+constitution as a whole, remained, however, yet to be undergone.
+President Lincoln willingly complied with a request to throw his
+official voice and influence in favor of the measure, and wrote, on
+October 10, 1864:</p>
+<p>"A convention of Maryland has framed a new constitution for the
+State; a public meeting is called for this evening at Baltimore to
+aid in securing its ratification by the people; and you ask a word
+from me for the occasion. I presume the only feature of the
+instrument about which there is serious controversy is that which
+provides for the extinction of slavery. It needs not to be a
+secret, and I presume it is no secret, that I wish success to this
+provision. I desire it on every consideration. I wish all men to be
+free. I wish the material prosperity of the already free, which I
+feel <a name="page436" id="page436"></a>sure the extinction of slavery would
+bring. I wish to see in process of disappearing that only thing
+which ever could bring this nation to civil war. I attempt no
+argument. Argument upon the question is already exhausted by the
+abler, better informed, and more immediately interested sons of
+Maryland herself. I only add that I shall be gratified exceedingly
+if the good people of the State shall, by their votes, ratify the
+new constitution."</p>
+<p>At the election which was held on October 12 and 13, stubborn
+Maryland conservatism, whose roots reached far back to the colonial
+days, made its last desperate stand, and the constitution was
+ratified by a majority of only three hundred and seventy-five votes
+out of a total of nearly sixty thousand. But the result was
+accepted as decisive, and in due time the governor issued his
+proclamation, declaring the new constitution legally adopted.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="page437" id="page437"></a>
+<h2><a name="XXXI" id="XXXI"></a>XXXI</h2>
+<br />
+<p><i>Shaping of the Presidential Campaign&mdash;Criticisms
+of Mr. Lincoln&mdash;Chase's Presidential
+Ambitions&mdash;The Pomeroy Circular&mdash;Cleveland
+Convention&mdash;Attempt to Nominate
+Grant&mdash;Meeting of Baltimore
+Convention&mdash;Lincoln's Letter to
+Schurz&mdash;Platform of Republican
+Convention&mdash;Lincoln Renominated&mdash;Refuses to
+Indicate Preference for Vice-President&mdash;Johnson
+Nominated for Vice-President&mdash;Lincoln's Speech to
+Committee of Notification&mdash;Reference to Mexico in his
+Letter of Acceptance&mdash;The French in Mexico</i></p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<p>The final shaping of the campaign, the definition of the issues,
+the wording of the platforms, and selection of the candidates, had
+grown much more out of national politics than out of mere party
+combination or personal intrigues. The success of the war, and fate
+of the Union, of course dominated every other consideration; and
+next to this the treatment of the slavery question became in a
+hundred forms almost a direct personal interest. Mere party
+feeling, which had utterly vanished for a few months in the first
+grand uprising of the North, had been once more awakened by the
+first Bull Run defeat, and from that time onward was heard in loud
+and constant criticism of Mr. Lincoln and the acts of his
+supporters wherever they touched the institution of slavery. The
+Democratic party, which had been allied with the Southern
+politicians in the interests of that institution through so many
+decades, quite naturally took up its habitual <a name="page438" id="page438"></a>
+r&ocirc;le of protest that slavery should receive no hurt or damage
+from the incidents of war, where, in the border States, it still
+had constitutional existence among loyal Union men.</p>
+<p>On the other hand, among Republicans who had elected Mr.
+Lincoln, and who, as a partizan duty, indorsed and sustained his
+measures, Fr&eacute;mont's proclamation of military emancipation in
+the first year of the war excited the over-hasty zeal of
+antislavery extremists, and developed a small but very active
+faction which harshly denounced the President when Mr. Lincoln
+revoked that premature and ill-considered measure. No matter what
+the President subsequently did about slavery, the Democratic press
+and partizans always assailed him for doing too much, while the
+Fr&eacute;mont press and partizans accused him of doing too
+little.</p>
+<p>Meanwhile, personal considerations were playing their minor, but
+not unimportant parts. When McClellan was called to Washington, and
+during all the hopeful promise of the great victories he was
+expected to win, a few shrewd New York Democratic politicians
+grouped themselves about him, and put him in training as the future
+Democratic candidate for President; and the general fell easily
+into their plans and ambitions. Even after he had demonstrated his
+military incapacity, when he had reaped defeat instead of victory,
+and earned humiliation instead of triumph, his partizan adherents
+clung to the desperate hope that though they could not win applause
+for him as a conqueror, they might yet create public sympathy in
+his behalf as a neglected and persecuted genius.</p>
+<p>The cabinets of Presidents frequently develop rival presidential
+aspirants, and that of Mr. Lincoln was no exception. Considering
+the strong men who <a name="page439" id="page439"></a>composed it, the only wonder is that there
+was so little friction among them. They disagreed constantly and
+heartily on minor questions, both with Mr. Lincoln and with each
+other, but their great devotion to the Union, coupled with his
+kindly forbearance, and the clear vision which assured him mastery
+over himself and others, kept peace and even personal affection in
+his strangely assorted official family.</p>
+<p>The man who developed the most serious presidential aspirations
+was Salmon P. Chase, his Secretary of the Treasury, who listened to
+and actively encouraged the overtures of a small faction of the
+Republican party which rallied about him at the end of the year
+1863. Pure and disinterested, and devoted with all his energies and
+powers to the cause of the Union, he was yet singularly ignorant of
+current public thought, and absolutely incapable of judging men in
+their true relations He regarded himself as the friend of Mr.
+Lincoln and made strong protestations to him and to others of this
+friendship, but he held so poor an opinion of the President's
+intellect and character, compared with his own, that he could not
+believe the people blind enough to prefer the President to himself.
+He imagined that he did not covet advancement, and was anxious only
+for the public good; yet, in the midst of his enormous labors found
+time to write letters to every part of the country, protesting his
+indifference to the presidency, but indicating his willingness to
+accept it, and painting pictures so dark of the chaotic state of
+affairs in the government, that the irresistible inference was that
+only he could save the country. From the beginning Mr. Lincoln had
+been aware of this quasi-candidacy, which continued all through the
+winter Indeed, it was impossible to remain unconscious of it,
+although he discouraged all conversation on the <a name="page440" id="page440"></a>subject,
+and refused to read letters relating to it. He had his own opinion
+of the taste and judgment displayed by Mr. Chase in his criticisms
+of the President and his colleagues in the cabinet, but he took no
+note of them.</p>
+<p>"I have determined," he said, "to shut my eyes, so far as
+possible, to everything of the sort. Mr. Chase makes a good
+secretary, and I shall keep him where he is. If he becomes
+President, all right. I hope we may never have a worse man."</p>
+<p>And he went on appointing Mr. Chase's partizans and adherents to
+places in the government. Although his own renomination was a
+matter in regard to which he refused to talk much, even with
+intimate friends, he was perfectly aware of the true drift of
+things. In capacity of appreciating popular currents Chase was as a
+child beside him; and he allowed the opposition to himself in his
+own cabinet to continue, without question or remark, all the more
+patiently, because he knew how feeble it really was.</p>
+<p>The movement in favor of Mr. Chase culminated in the month of
+February, 1864, in a secret circular signed by Senator Pomeroy of
+Kansas, and widely circulated through the Union; which criticised
+Mr. Lincoln's "tendency toward compromises and temporary
+expedients"; explained that even if his re&euml;lection were
+desirable, it was practically impossible in the face of the
+opposition that had developed; and lauded Chase as the statesman
+best fitted to rescue the country from present perils and guard it
+against future ills. Of course copies of this circular soon reached
+the White House, but Mr. Lincoln refused to look at them, and they
+accumulated unread in the desk of his secretary. Finally, it got
+into print, whereupon Mr. Chase wrote to the President to assure
+him he had no knowledge of <a name="page441" id="page441"></a>the letter before seeing it in the
+papers. To this Mr. Lincoln replied:</p>
+<p>"I was not shocked or surprised by the appearance of the letter,
+because I had had knowledge of Mr. Pomeroy's committee, and of
+secret issues which I supposed came from it, ... for several weeks.
+I have known just as little of these things as my friends have
+allowed me to know.... I fully concur with you that neither of us
+can be justly held responsible for what our respective friends may
+do without our instigation or countenance.... Whether you shall
+remain at the head of the Treasury Department is a question which I
+will not allow myself to consider from any standpoint other than my
+judgment of the public service, and, in that view, I do not
+perceive occasion for a change."</p>
+<p>Even before the President wrote this letter, Mr. Chase's
+candidacy had passed out of sight. In fact, it never really existed
+save in the imagination of the Secretary of the Treasury and a
+narrow circle of his adherents. He was by no means the choice of
+the body of radicals who were discontented with Mr. Lincoln because
+of his deliberation in dealing with the slavery question, or of
+those others who thought he was going entirely too fast and too
+far.</p>
+<p>Both these factions, alarmed at the multiplying signs which
+foretold his triumphant renomination, issued calls for a mass
+convention of the people, to meet at Cleveland, Ohio, on May 31, a
+week before the assembling of the Republican national convention at
+Baltimore, to unite in a last attempt to stem the tide in his
+favor. Democratic newspapers naturally made much of this, heralding
+it as a hopeless split in the Republican ranks, and printing
+fictitious despatches from Cleveland reporting that city thronged
+with <a name="page442" id="page442"></a>influential and earnest delegates. Far
+from this being the case, there was no crowd and still less
+enthusiasm. Up to the very day of its meeting no place was provided
+for the sessions of the convention, which finally came together in
+a small hall whose limited capacity proved more than ample for both
+delegates and spectators. Though organization was delayed nearly
+two hours in the vain hope that more delegates would arrive, the
+men who had been counted upon to give character to the gathering
+remained notably absent. The delegates prudently refrained from
+counting their meager number, and after preliminaries of a more or
+less farcical nature, voted for a platform differing little from
+that afterward adopted at Baltimore, listened to the reading of a
+vehement letter from Wendell Phillips denouncing Mr. Lincoln's
+administration and counseling the choice of Fr&eacute;mont for
+President, nominated that general by acclamation, with General John
+Cochrane of New York for his running-mate, christened themselves
+the "Radical Democracy," and adjourned.</p>
+<p>The press generally greeted the convention and its work with a
+chorus of ridicule, though certain Democratic newspapers, from
+motives harmlessly transparent, gave it solemn and unmeasured
+praise. General Fr&eacute;mont, taking his candidacy seriously,
+accepted the nomination, but three months later, finding no
+response from the public, withdrew from the contest.</p>
+<p>At this fore-doomed Cleveland meeting a feeble attempt had been
+made by the men who considered Mr. Lincoln too radical, to nominate
+General Grant for President, instead of Fr&eacute;mont; but he had
+been denounced as a Lincoln hireling, and his name unceremoniously
+swept aside. During the same week another effort in the same
+direction was made in New York, though the committee having the
+matter in charge <a name="page443" id="page443"></a> made no public avowal of its intention
+beforehand, merely calling a meeting to express the gratitude of
+the country to the general for his signal services; and even
+inviting Mr. Lincoln to take part in the proceedings. This he
+declined to do, but wrote:</p>
+<p>"I approve, nevertheless, whatever may tend to strengthen and
+sustain General Grant and the noble armies now under his direction.
+My previous high estimate of General Grant has been maintained and
+heightened by what has occurred in the remarkable campaign he is
+now conducting, while the magnitude and difficulty of the task
+before him do not prove less than I expected. He and his brave
+soldiers are now in the midst of their great trial, and I trust
+that at your meeting you will so shape your good words that they
+may turn to men and guns, moving to his and their support."</p>
+<p>With such gracious approval of the movement the meeting
+naturally fell into the hands of the Lincoln men. General Grant
+neither at this time nor at any other, gave the least countenance
+to the efforts which were made to array him in political opposition
+to the President.</p>
+<p>These various attempts to discredit the name of Mr. Lincoln and
+nominate some one else in his place caused hardly a ripple on the
+great current of public opinion. Death alone could have prevented
+his choice by the Union convention. So absolute and universal was
+the tendency that most of the politicians made no effort to direct
+or guide it; they simply exerted themselves to keep in the van and
+not be overwhelmed. The convention met on June 7, but irregular
+nominations of Mr. Lincoln for President had begun as early as
+January 6, when the first State convention of the year was held in
+New Hampshire.</p>
+<p><a name="page444" id="page444"></a> From one end of the country to the other
+such spontaneous nominations had joyously echoed his name. Only in
+Missouri did it fail of overwhelming adhesion, and even in the
+Missouri Assembly the resolution in favor of his renomination was
+laid upon the table by a majority of only eight. The current swept
+on irresistibly throughout the spring. A few opponents of Mr.
+Lincoln endeavored to postpone the meeting of the national
+convention until September, knowing that their only hope lay in
+some possible accident of the summer. But though supported by so
+powerful an influence as the New York "Tribune," the National
+Committee paid no attention to this appeal. Indeed, they might as
+well have considered the request of a committee of prominent
+citizens to check an impending thunderstorm.</p>
+<p>Mr. Lincoln took no measures whatever to promote his own
+candidacy. While not assuming airs of reluctance or bashfulness, he
+discouraged on the part of strangers any suggestion as to his
+re&euml;lection. Among his friends he made no secret of his
+readiness to continue the work he was engaged in, if such should be
+the general wish. "A second term would be a great honor and a great
+labor, which together, perhaps, I would not decline if tendered,"
+he wrote Elihu B. Washburne. He not only opposed no obstacle to the
+ambitions of Chase, but received warnings to beware of Grant in the
+same serene manner, answering tranquilly, "If he takes Richmond,
+let him have it." And he discouraged office-holders, civil or
+military, who showed any special zeal in his behalf. To General
+Schurz, who wrote asking permission to take an active part in the
+presidential campaign, he replied:</p>
+<p>"Allow me to suggest that if you wish to remain in the military
+service, it is very dangerous for you to get <a name="page445" id="page445"></a>
+temporarily out of it; because, with a major-general once out, it
+is next to impossible for even the President to get him in
+again.... Of course I would be very glad to have your service for
+the country in the approaching political canvass; but I fear we
+cannot properly have it without separating you from the military."
+And in a later letter he added: "I perceive no objection to your
+making a political speech when you are where one is to be made; but
+quite surely, speaking in the North and fighting in the South at
+the same time are not possible; nor could I be justified to detail
+any officer to the political campaign during its continuance and
+then return him to the army."</p>
+<p>Not only did he firmly take this stand as to his own nomination,
+but enforced it even more rigidly in cases where he learned that
+Federal office-holders were working to defeat the return of certain
+Republican congressmen. In several such instances he wrote
+instructions of which the following is a type:</p>
+<p>"Complaint is made to me that you are using your official power
+to defeat Judge Kelley's renomination to Congress.... The correct
+principle, I think, is that all our friends should have absolute
+freedom of choice among our friends. My wish, therefore, is that
+you will do just as you think fit with your own suffrage in the
+case, and not constrain any of your subordinates to do other than
+as he thinks fit with his."</p>
+<p>He made, of course, no long speeches during the campaign, and in
+his short addresses, at Sanitary Fairs, in response to visiting
+delegations, or on similar occasions where custom and courtesy
+decreed that he must say something, preserved his mental balance
+undisturbed, speaking heartily and to the point, but skilfully
+avoiding the perils that beset the candidate who talks.<a name="page446" id="page446"></a></p>
+<p>When at last the Republican convention came together on June 7,
+1864, it had less to do than any other convention in our political
+history; for its delegates were bound by a peremptory mandate. It
+was opened by brief remarks from Senator Morgan of New York, whose
+significant statement that the convention would fall far short of
+accomplishing its great mission unless it declared for a
+Constitutional amendment prohibiting African slavery, was loudly
+cheered. In their speeches on taking the chair, both the temporary
+chairman, Rev. Robert J. Breckinridge of Kentucky, and the
+permanent chairman, William Dennison of Ohio, treated Mr. Lincoln's
+nomination as a foregone conclusion, and the applause which greeted
+his name showed that the delegates did not resent this disregard of
+customary etiquette. There were, in fact, but three tasks before
+the convention&mdash;to settle the status of contesting
+delegations, to agree upon a platform, and to nominate a candidate
+for Vice-President.</p>
+<p>The platform declared in favor of crushing rebellion and
+maintaining the integrity of the Union, commending the government's
+determination to enter into no compromise with the rebels. It
+applauded President Lincoln's patriotism and fidelity in the
+discharge of his duties, and stated that only those in harmony with
+"these resolutions" ought to have a voice in the administration of
+the government. This, while intended to win support of radicals
+throughout the Union, was aimed particularly at Postmaster General
+Blair, who had made many enemies. It approved all acts directed
+against slavery; declared in favor of a constitutional amendment
+forever abolishing it; claimed full protection of the laws of war
+for colored troops; expressed gratitude to the soldiers and sailors
+of the Union; pronounced in favor of encouraging foreign
+immigration; <a name="page447" id="page447"></a> of building a Pacific railway; of
+keeping inviolate the faith of the nation, pledged to redeem the
+national debt; and vigorously reaffirmed the Monroe Doctrine.</p>
+<p>Then came the nominations. The only delay in registering the
+will of the convention occurred as a consequence of the attempt of
+members to do it by irregular and summary methods. When Mr. Delano
+of Ohio made the customary motion to proceed to the nomination,
+Simon Cameron moved as a substitute the renomination of Lincoln and
+Hamlin by acclamation. A long wrangle ensued on the motion to lay
+this substitute on the table, which was finally brought to an end
+by the cooler heads, who desired that whatever opposition to Mr.
+Lincoln there might be in the convention should have fullest
+opportunity of expression. The nominations, therefore, proceeded by
+call of States in the usual way. The interminable nominating
+speeches of recent years had not yet come into fashion. B.C. Cook,
+the chairman of the Illinois delegation, merely said:</p>
+<p>"The State of Illinois again presents to the loyal people of
+this nation for President of the United States, Abraham
+Lincoln&mdash;God bless him!"</p>
+<p>Others, who seconded the nomination, were equally brief. Every
+State gave its undivided vote for Lincoln, with the exception of
+Missouri, which cast its vote, under positive instructions, as the
+chairman stated, for Grant. But before the result was announced,
+John F. Hume of Missouri moved that Mr. Lincoln's nomination be
+declared unanimous. This could not be done until the result of the
+balloting was made known&mdash;four hundred and eighty-four for
+Lincoln, twenty-two for Grant. Missouri then changed its vote, and
+the secretary read the grand total of five hundred and six for
+Lincoln; the announcement being <a name="page448" id="page448"></a> greeted with a storm of
+cheering which lasted many minutes.</p>
+<p>The principal names mentioned for the vice-presidency were
+Hannibal Hamlin, the actual incumbent; Andrew Johnson of Tennessee;
+and Daniel S. Dickinson of New York. Besides these, General L.H.
+Rousseau had the vote of his own State&mdash;Kentucky. The radicals
+of Missouri favored General B.F. Butler, who had a few scattered
+votes also from New England. Among the principal candidates,
+however, the voters were equally enough divided to make the contest
+exceedingly spirited and interesting.</p>
+<p>For several days before the convention met Mr. Lincoln had been
+besieged by inquiries as to his personal wishes in regard to his
+associate on the ticket. He had persistently refused to give the
+slightest intimation of such wish. His private secretary, Mr.
+Nicolay, who was at Baltimore in attendance at the convention, was
+well acquainted with this attitude; but at last, over-borne by the
+solicitations of the chairman of the Illinois delegation, who had
+been perplexed at the advocacy of Joseph Holt by Leonard Swett, one
+of the President's most intimate friends, Mr. Nicolay wrote to Mr.
+Hay, who had been left in charge of the executive office in his
+absence:</p>
+<p>"Cook wants to know, confidentially, whether Swett is all right;
+whether in urging Holt for Vice-President he reflects the
+President's wishes; whether the President has any preference,
+either personal or on the score of policy; or whether he wishes not
+even to interfere by a confidential intimation.... Please get this
+information for me, if possible."</p>
+<p>The letter was shown to the President, who indorsed upon it:</p>
+<p>"Swett is unquestionably all right. Mr. Holt is a <a name="page449" id="page449"></a>good man,
+but I had not heard or thought of him for V.P. Wish not to
+interfere about V.P. Cannot interfere about platform. Convention
+must judge for itself."</p>
+<p>This positive and final instruction was sent at once to Mr.
+Nicolay, and by him communicated to the President's most intimate
+friends in the convention. It was therefore with minds absolutely
+untrammeled by even any knowledge of the President's wishes that
+the convention went about its work of selecting his associate on
+the ticket. It is altogether probable that the ticket of 1860 would
+have been nominated without a contest had it not been for the
+general impression, in and out of the convention, that it would be
+advisable to select as a candidate for the vice-presidency a war
+Democrat. Mr. Dickinson, while not putting himself forward as a
+candidate, had sanctioned the use of his name on the special ground
+that his candidacy might attract to the support of the Union party
+many Democrats who would have been unwilling to support a ticket
+avowedly Republican; but these considerations weighed with still
+greater force in favor of Mr. Johnson, who was not only a Democrat,
+but also a citizen of a slave State. The first ballot showed that
+Mr. Johnson had received two hundred votes, Mr. Hamlin one hundred
+and fifty, and Mr. Dickinson one hundred and eight; and before the
+result was announced almost the whole convention turned their votes
+to Johnson; whereupon his nomination was declared unanimous. The
+work was so quickly done that Mr. Lincoln received notice of the
+action of the convention only a few minutes after the telegram
+announcing his own renomination had reached him.</p>
+<p>Replying next day to a committee of notification, he said in
+part:<a name="page450" id="page450"></a></p>
+<p>"I will neither conceal my gratification nor restrain the
+expression of my gratitude that the Union people, through their
+convention, in the continued effort to save and advance the nation,
+have deemed me not unworthy to remain in my present position. I
+know no reason to doubt that I shall accept the nomination tendered
+and yet, perhaps I should not declare definitely before reading and
+considering what is called the platform. I will say now, however, I
+approve the declaration in favor of so amending the Constitution as
+to prohibit slavery throughout the nation. When the people in
+revolt, with a hundred days of explicit notice that they could
+within those days resume their allegiance without the overthrow of
+their institutions, and that they could not resume it afterward,
+elected to stand out, such amendment to the Constitution as is now
+proposed became a fitting and necessary conclusion to the final
+success of the Union cause.... In the joint names of Liberty and
+Union, let us labor to give it legal form and practical
+effect."</p>
+<p>In his letter of June 29, formally accepting the nomination, the
+President observed the same wise rule of brevity which he had
+followed four years before. He made but one specific reference to
+any subject of discussion. While he accepted the convention's
+resolution reaffirming the Monroe Doctrine, he gave the convention
+and the country distinctly to understand that he stood by the
+action already adopted by himself and the Secretary of State. He
+said:</p>
+<p>"There might be misunderstanding were I not to say that the
+position of the government in relation to the action of France in
+Mexico, as assumed through the State Department and approved and
+indorsed by the convention among the measures and acts of the
+Executive will be faithfully maintained so long as the state
+<a name="page451" id="page451"></a> of facts shall leave that position
+pertinent and applicable."</p>
+<p>This resolution, which was, in truth, a more vigorous assertion
+of the Monroe Doctrine than the author of that famous tenet ever
+dreamed of making, had been introduced in the convention by the
+radicals as a covert censure of Mr. Lincoln's attitude toward the
+French invasion of our sister republic; but through skilful wording
+of the platform had been turned by his friends into an indorsement
+of the administration.</p>
+<p>And, indeed, this was most just, since from the beginning
+President Lincoln and Mr. Seward had done all in their power to
+discourage the presence of foreign troops on Mexican territory.
+When a joint expedition by England, France, and Spain had been
+agreed upon to seize certain Mexican ports in default of a money
+indemnity demanded by those countries for outrages against their
+subjects, England had invited the United States to be a party to
+the convention. Instead, Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Seward attempted to
+aid Mexico with a sufficient sum to meet these demands, and
+notified Great Britain of their intention to do so, and the motives
+which prompted them. The friendly assistance came to naught; but as
+the three powers vigorously disclaimed any designs against Mexico's
+territory or her form of government, the United States saw no
+necessity for further action, beyond a clear definition of its own
+attitude for the benefit of all the parties.</p>
+<p>This it continued to repeat after England withdrew from the
+expedition, and Spain, soon recalling her troops, left Napoleon III
+to set the Archduke Maximilian on his shadowy throne, and to
+develop in the heart of America his scheme of an empire friendly to
+the South. At the moment the government was unable to do more,
+though recognizing the veiled <a name="page452" id="page452"></a>hostility of Europe which thus
+manifested itself in a movement on what may be called the right
+flank of the republic. While giving utterance to no expressions of
+indignation at the aggressions, or of gratification at disaster
+which met the aggressor, the President and Mr. Seward continued to
+assert, at every proper opportunity the adherence of the American
+government to its traditional policy of discouraging European
+intervention in the affairs of the New World.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="page453" id="page453"></a>
+<h2><a name="XXXII" id="XXXII"></a>XXXII</h2>
+<br />
+<p><i>The Bogus Proclamation&mdash;The Wade-Davis
+Manifesto&mdash;Resignation of Mr.
+Chase&mdash;Fessenden Succeeds Him&mdash;The Greeley
+Peace Conference&mdash;Jaquess-Gilmore
+Mission&mdash;Letter of Raymond&mdash;Bad Outlook for
+the Election&mdash;Mr. Lincoln on the Issues of the
+Campaign</i> &mdash;<i>President's Secret
+Memorandum&mdash;Meeting of Democratic National
+Convention&mdash;McClellan Nominated&mdash;His
+Letter of Acceptance&mdash;Lincoln
+Re&euml;lected&mdash;His Speech on Night of
+Election&mdash;The Electoral Vote&mdash;Annual
+Message of December 6, 1864&mdash;Resignation of McClellan
+from the Army</i></p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<p>The seizure of the New York "Journal of Commerce" and New York
+"World," in May, 1864, for publishing a forged proclamation calling
+for four hundred thousand more troops, had caused great excitement
+among the critics of Mr. Lincoln's administration. The terrible
+slaughter of Grant's opening campaign against Richmond rendered the
+country painfully sensitive to such news at the moment; and the
+forgery, which proved to be the work of two young Bohemians of the
+press, accomplished its purpose of raising the price of gold, and
+throwing the Stock Exchange into a temporary fever. Telegraphic
+announcement of the imposture soon quieted the flurry, and the
+quick detection of the guilty parties reduced the incident to its
+true rank; but the fact that the fiery Secretary of War had
+meanwhile issued orders for the suppression of both newspapers and
+the arrest of their editors was <a name="page454" id="page454"></a> neither forgiven nor
+forgotten. The editors were never incarcerated, and the journals
+resumed publication after an interval of only two days, but the
+incident was vigorously employed during the entire summer as a
+means of attack upon the administration.</p>
+<p>Violent opposition to Mr. Lincoln came also from those members
+of both Houses of Congress who disapproved his attitude on
+reconstruction. Though that part of his message of December 8,
+1863, relating to the formation of loyal State governments in
+districts which had been in rebellion at first received
+enthusiastic commendation from both conservatives and radicals, it
+was soon evident that the millennium had not yet arrived, and that
+in a Congress composed of men of such positive convictions and
+vehement character, there were many who would not submit
+permanently to the leadership of any man, least of all to that of
+one so reasonable, so devoid of malice, as the President.</p>
+<p>Henry Winter Davis at once moved that that part of the message
+be referred to a special committee of which he was chairman, and on
+February 15 reported a bill whose preamble declared the Confederate
+States completely out of the Union; prescribing a totally different
+method of re&euml;stablishing loyal State governments, one of the
+essentials being the prohibition of slavery. Congress rejected the
+preamble, but after extensive debate accepted the bill, which
+breathed the same spirit throughout. The measure was also finally
+acceded to in the Senate, and came to Mr. Lincoln for signature in
+the closing hours of the session. He laid it aside and went on with
+other business, despite the evident anxiety of several friends, who
+feared his failure to indorse it would lose the Republicans many
+votes in the Northwest. In stating his attitude to his cabinet he
+said:<a name="page455" id="page455"></a></p>
+<p>"This bill and the position of these gentlemen seem to me, in
+asserting that the insurrectionary States are no longer in the
+Union, to make the fatal admission that States, whenever they
+please, may of their own motion dissolve their connection with the
+Union. Now we cannot survive that admission, I am convinced. If
+that be true, I am not President; these gentlemen are not Congress.
+I have laboriously endeavored to avoid that question ever since it
+first began to be mooted, and thus to avoid confusion and
+disturbance in our own councils. It was to obviate this question
+that I earnestly favored the movement for an amendment to the
+Constitution abolishing slavery, which passed the Senate and failed
+in the House. I thought it much better, if it were possible, to
+restore the Union without the necessity of a violent quarrel among
+its friends as to whether certain States have been in or out of the
+Union during the war&mdash;a merely metaphysical question and one
+unnecessary to be forced into discussion."</p>
+<p>But though every member of the cabinet agreed with him, he
+foresaw the importance of the step he had resolved to take, and its
+possible disastrous consequences to himself. When some one said
+that the threats of the radicals were without foundation, and that
+the people would not bolt their ticket on a question of
+metaphysics, he answered:</p>
+<p>"If they choose to make a point upon this, I do not doubt that
+they can do harm. They have never been friendly to me. At all
+events, I must keep some consciousness of being somewhere near
+right. I must keep some standard or principle fixed within
+myself."</p>
+<p>Convinced, after fullest deliberation, that the bill was too
+restrictive in its provisions, and yet unwilling to reject whatever
+of practical good might be <a name="page456" id="page456"></a>accomplished by it, he
+disregarded precedents, and acting on his lifelong rule of taking
+the people into his confidence, issued a proclamation on July 8,
+giving a copy of the bill of Congress, reciting the circumstances
+under which it was passed, and announcing that while he was
+unprepared by formal approval of the bill to be inflexibly
+committed to any single plan of restoration, or to set aside the
+free-State governments already adopted in Arkansas and Louisiana,
+or to declare that Congress was competent to decree the abolishment
+of slavery; yet he was fully satisfied with the plan as one very
+proper method of reconstruction, and promised executive aid to any
+State that might see fit to adopt it.</p>
+<p>The great mass of Republican voters, who cared little for the
+"metaphysics" of the case, accepted this proclamation, as they had
+accepted that issued six months before, as the wisest and most
+practicable method of handling the question; but among those
+already hostile to the President, and those whose devotion to the
+cause of freedom was so ardent as to make them look upon him as
+lukewarm, the exasperation which was already excited increased. The
+indignation of Mr. Davis and of Mr. Wade, who had called the bill
+up in the Senate, at seeing their work thus brought to nothing,
+could not be restrained; and together they signed and published in
+the New York "Tribune" of August 5 the most vigorous attack ever
+directed against the President from his own party; insinuating that
+only the lowest motives dictated his action, since by refusing to
+sign the bill he held the electoral votes of the rebel States at
+his personal dictation; calling his approval of the bill of
+Congress as a very proper plan for any State choosing to adopt it,
+a "studied outrage"; and admonishing the people to "consider the
+remedy of these <a name="page457" id="page457"></a>usurpations, and, having found it," to
+"fearlessly execute it."</p>
+<p>Congress had already repealed the fugitive-slave law, and to the
+voters at large, who joyfully accepted the emancipation
+proclamation, it mattered very little whether the "institution"
+came to its inevitable end, in the fragments of territory where it
+yet remained, by virtue of congressional act or executive decree.
+This tempest over the method of reconstruction had, therefore,
+little bearing on the presidential campaign, and appealed more to
+individual critics of the President than to the mass of the
+people.</p>
+<p>Mr. Chase entered in his diary: "The President pocketed the
+great bill.... He did not venture to veto, and so put it in his
+pocket. It was a condemnation of his amnesty proclamation and of
+his general policy of reconstruction, rejecting the idea of
+possible reconstruction with slavery, which neither the President
+nor his chief advisers have, in my opinion, abandoned." Mr. Chase
+was no longer one of the chief advisers. After his withdrawal from
+his hopeless contest for the presidency, his sentiments toward Mr.
+Lincoln took on a tinge of bitterness which increased until their
+friendly association in the public service became no longer
+possible; and on June 30 he sent the President his resignation,
+which was accepted. There is reason to believe that he did not
+expect such a prompt severing of their official relations, since
+more than once, in the months of friction which preceded this
+culmination, he had used a threat to resign as means to carry some
+point in controversy.</p>
+<p>Mr. Lincoln, on accepting his resignation, sent the name of
+David Tod of Ohio to the Senate as his successor; but, receiving a
+telegram from Mr. Tod declining on the plea of ill health,
+substituted that of<a name="page458" id="page458"></a> William Pitt Fessenden, chairman of the
+Senate Committee on Finance, whose nomination was instantly
+confirmed and commanded general approval.</p>
+<p>Horace Greeley, editor of the powerful New York "Tribune," had
+become one of those patriots whose discouragement and discontent
+led them, during the summer of 1864, to give ready hospitality to
+any suggestions to end the war. In July he wrote to the President,
+forwarding the letter of one "Wm. Cornell Jewett of Colorado,"
+which announced the arrival in Canada of two ambassadors from
+Jefferson Davis with full powers to negotiate a peace. Mr. Greeley
+urged, in his over-fervid letter of transmittal, that the President
+make overtures on the following plan of adjustment: First. The
+Union to be restored and declared perpetual. Second. Slavery to be
+utterly and forever abolished. Third. A complete amnesty for all
+political offenses. Fourth. Payment of four hundred million dollars
+to the slave States, pro rata, for their slaves. Fifth. Slave
+States to be represented in proportion to their total population.
+Sixth. A national convention to be called at once.</p>
+<p>Though Mr. Lincoln had no faith in Jewett's story, and doubted
+whether the embassy had any existence, he determined to take
+immediate action on this proposition. He felt the unreasonableness
+and injustice of Mr. Greeley's letter, which in effect charged his
+administration with a cruel disinclination to treat with the
+rebels, and resolved to convince him at least, and perhaps others,
+that there was no foundation for these reproaches. So he arranged
+that the witness of his willingness to listen to any overtures that
+might come from the South should be Mr. Greeley himself, and
+answering his letter at once on July 9, said:</p>
+<p>"If you can find any person, anywhere, professing <a name="page459" id="page459"></a>to have
+any proposition of Jefferson Davis in writing, for peace, embracing
+the restoration of the Union and abandonment of slavery, whatever
+else it embraces, say to him he may come to me with you, and that
+if he really brings such proposition he shall at the least have
+safe conduct with the paper (and without publicity, if he chooses)
+to the point where you shall have met him. The same if there be two
+or more persons."</p>
+<p>This ready acquiescence evidently surprised and somewhat
+embarrassed Mr. Greeley, who replied by several letters of
+different dates, but made no motion to produce his commissioners.
+At last, on the fifteenth, to end a correspondence which promised
+to be indefinitely prolonged, the President telegraphed him: "I was
+not expecting you to send me a letter, but to bring me a man or
+men." Mr. Greeley then went to Niagara, and wrote from there to the
+alleged commissioners, Clement C. Clay and James P. Holcombe,
+offering to conduct them to Washington, but neglecting to mention
+the two conditions&mdash;restoration of the Union and abandonment
+of slavery&mdash;laid down in Mr. Lincoln's note of the ninth and
+repeated by him on the fifteenth. Even with this great advantage,
+Clay and Holcombe felt themselves too devoid of credentials to
+accept Mr. Greeley's offer, but replied that they could easily get
+credentials, or that other agents could be accredited, if they
+could be sent to Richmond armed with "the circumstances disclosed
+in this correspondence."</p>
+<p>This, of course, meant that Mr. Lincoln should take the
+initiative in suing the Richmond authorities for peace on terms
+proposed by them. The essential impossibility of these terms was
+not, however, apparent to Mr. Greeley, who sent them on to
+Washington, soliciting fresh instructions. With unwearied
+patience,<a name="page460" id="page460"></a> Mr. Lincoln drew up a final paper, "To
+Whom it may Concern," formally restating his position, and
+despatched Major Hay with it to Niagara. This ended the conference;
+the Confederates charging the President through the newspapers with
+a "sudden and entire change of views"; while Mr. Greeley, being
+attacked by his colleagues of the press for his action, could
+defend himself only by implied censure of the President, utterly
+overlooking the fact that his own original letter had contained the
+identical propositions Mr. Lincoln insisted upon.</p>
+<p>The discussion grew so warm that both he and his assailants at
+last joined in a request to Mr. Lincoln to permit the publication
+of the correspondence. This was, of course, an excellent
+opportunity for the President to vindicate his own proceeding. But
+he rarely looked at such matters from the point of view of personal
+advantage, and he feared that the passionate, almost despairing
+appeals of the most prominent Republican editor of the North for
+peace at any cost, disclosed in the correspondence, would deepen
+the gloom in the public mind and have an injurious effect upon the
+Union cause. The spectacle of the veteran journalist, who was
+justly regarded as the leading controversial writer on the
+antislavery side, ready to sacrifice everything for peace, and
+frantically denouncing the government for refusing to surrender the
+contest, would have been, in its effect upon public opinion, a
+disaster equal to the loss of a great battle. He therefore proposed
+to Mr. Greeley, in case the letters were published, to omit some of
+the most vehement passages; and took Mr. Greeley's refusal to
+assent to this as a veto on their publication.</p>
+<p>It was characteristic of him that, seeing the temper in which
+Mr. Greeley regarded the transaction, he <a name="page461" id="page461"></a> dropped
+the matter and submitted in silence to the misrepresentations to
+which he was subjected by reason of it. Some thought he erred in
+giving any hearing to the rebels; some criticized his choice of a
+commissioner; and the opposition naturally made the most of his
+conditions of negotiation, and accused him of embarking in a war of
+extermination in the interests of the negro. Though making no
+public effort to set himself right, he was keenly alive to their
+attitude. To a friend he wrote:</p>
+<p>"Saying reunion and abandonment of slavery would be considered,
+if offered, is not saying that nothing else or less would be
+considered, if offered.... Allow me to remind you that no one,
+having control of the rebel armies, or, in fact, having any
+influence whatever in the rebellion, has offered, or intimated, a
+willingness to a restoration of the Union, in any event, or on any
+condition whatever.... If Jefferson Davis wishes for himself, or
+for the benefit of his friends at the North, to know what I would
+do if he were to offer peace and reunion, saying nothing about
+slavery, let him try me."</p>
+<p>If the result of Mr. Greeley's Niagara efforts left any doubt
+that peace was at present unattainable, the fact was demonstrated
+beyond question by the published report of another unofficial and
+volunteer negotiation which was proceeding at the same time. In
+May, 1863, James F. Jaquess, D.D., a Methodist clergyman of piety
+and religious enthusiasm, who had been appointed by Governor Yates
+colonel of an Illinois regiment, applied for permission to go
+South, urging that by virtue of his church relations he could,
+within ninety days, obtain acceptable terms of peace from the
+Confederates. The military superiors to whom he submitted the
+request forwarded it to Mr.<a name="page462" id="page462"></a> Lincoln with a favorable indorsement;
+and the President replied, consenting that they grant him a
+furlough, if they saw fit, but saying:</p>
+<p>"He cannot go with any government authority whatever. This is
+absolute and imperative."</p>
+<p>Eleven days later he was back again within Union lines, claiming
+to have valuable "unofficial" proposals for peace. President
+Lincoln paid no attention to his request for an interview, and in
+course of time he returned to his regiment. Nothing daunted,
+however, a year later he applied for and received permission to
+repeat his visit, this time in company with J.R. Gilmore, a
+lecturer and writer, but, as before, expressly without instruction
+or authority from Mr. Lincoln. They went to Richmond, and had an
+extended interview with Mr. Davis, during which they proposed to
+him a plan of adjustment as visionary as it was unauthorized, its
+central feature being a general election to be held over the whole
+country, North and South, within sixty days, on the two
+propositions,&mdash;peace with disunion and Southern independence,
+or peace with Union, emancipation, no confiscation, and universal
+amnesty,&mdash;the majority vote to decide, and the governments at
+Washington and Richmond to be finally bound by the decision.</p>
+<p>The interview resulted in nothing but a renewed declaration from
+Mr. Davis that he would fight for separation to the bitter
+end&mdash;a declaration which, on the whole, was of service to the
+Union cause, since, to a great extent, it stopped the clamor of the
+peace factionists during the presidential campaign. Not entirely,
+however. There was still criticism enough to induce Henry J.
+Raymond, chairman of the executive committee of the Republican
+party, to write a letter on August 22, suggesting to Mr. Lincoln
+that he ought <a name="page463" id="page463"></a> to appoint a commission in due form to
+make proffers of peace to Davis on the sole condition of
+acknowledging the supremacy of the Constitution; all other
+questions to be settled in a convention of the people of all the
+States.</p>
+<p>Mr. Lincoln answered this patiently and courteously, framing, to
+give point to his argument, an experimental draft of instructions
+with which he proposed, in case such proffers were made, to send
+Mr. Raymond himself to the rebel authorities. On seeing these in
+black and white, Raymond, who had come to Washington to urge his
+project, readily agreed with the President and Secretaries Seward,
+Stanton, and Fessenden, that to carry it out would be worse than
+losing the presidential contest: it would be ignominiously
+surrendering it in advance.</p>
+<p>"Nevertheless," wrote an inmate of the White House, "the visit
+of himself and committee here did great good. They found the
+President and cabinet much better informed than themselves, and
+went home encouraged and cheered."</p>
+<p>The Democratic managers had called the national convention of
+their party to meet on the fourth of July, 1864; but after the
+nomination of Fr&eacute;mont at Cleveland, and of Lincoln at
+Baltimore, it was thought prudent to postpone it to a later date,
+in the hope that something in the chapter of accidents might arise
+to the advantage of the opposition. It appeared for a while as if
+this manoeuver were to be successful. The military situation was
+far from satisfactory. The terrible fighting of Grant's army in
+Virginia had profoundly shocked and depressed the country; and its
+movement upon Petersburg, so far without decisive results, had
+contributed little hope or encouragement. The campaign of Sherman
+in Georgia gave as yet no <a name="page464" id="page464"></a>positive assurance of the
+brilliant results it afterward attained. The Confederate raid into
+Maryland and Pennsylvania in July was the cause of great annoyance
+and exasperation.</p>
+<p>This untoward state of things in the field of military
+operations found its exact counterpart in the political campaign.
+Several circumstances contributed to divide and discourage the
+administration party. The resignation of Mr. Chase had seemed to
+not a few leading Republicans a presage of disintegration in the
+government. Mr. Greeley's mission at Niagara Falls had unsettled
+and troubled the minds of many. The Democrats, not having as yet
+appointed a candidate or formulated a platform, were free to devote
+all their leisure to attacks upon the administration. The rebel
+emissaries in Canada, being in thorough concert with the leading
+peace men of the North, redoubled their efforts to disturb the
+public tranquility, and not without success. In the midst of these
+discouraging circumstances the manifesto of Wade and Davis had
+appeared to add its depressing influence to the general gloom.</p>
+<p>Mr. Lincoln realized to the full the tremendous issues of the
+campaign. Asked in August by a friend who noted his worn looks, if
+he could not go away for a fortnight's rest, he replied:</p>
+<p>"I cannot fly from my thoughts&mdash;my solicitude for this
+great country follows me wherever I go. I do not think it is
+personal vanity or ambition, though I am not free from these
+infirmities, but I cannot but feel that the weal or woe of this
+great nation will be decided in November. There is no program
+offered by any wing of the Democratic party, but that must result
+in the permanent destruction of the Union."</p>
+<p>"But, Mr. President," his friend objected, "General<a name="page465" id="page465"></a> McClellan
+is in favor of crushing out this rebellion by force. He will be the
+Chicago candidate."</p>
+<p>"Sir, the slightest knowledge of arithmetic will prove to any
+man that the rebel armies cannot be destroyed by Democratic
+strategy. It would sacrifice all the white men of the North to do
+it. There are now in the service of the United States nearly one
+hundred and fifty thousand able-bodied colored men, most of them
+under arms, defending and acquiring Union territory. The Democratic
+strategy demands that these forces be disbanded, and that the
+masters be conciliated by restoring them to slavery.... You cannot
+conciliate the South if you guarantee to them ultimate success; and
+the experience of the present war proves their successes inevitable
+if you fling the compulsory labor of millions of black men into
+their side of the scale.... Abandon all the posts now garrisoned by
+black men, take one hundred and fifty thousand men from our side
+and put them in the battle-field or corn-field against us, and we
+would be compelled to abandon the war in three weeks.... My enemies
+pretend I am now carrying on this war for the sole purpose of
+abolition. So long as I am President it shall be carried on for the
+sole purpose of restoring the Union. But no human power can subdue
+this rebellion without the use of the emancipation policy and every
+other policy calculated to weaken the moral and physical forces of
+the rebellion.... Let my enemies prove to the country that the
+destruction of slavery is not necessary to a restoration of the
+Union. I will abide the issue."</p>
+<p>The political situation grew still darker. When at last, toward
+the end of August, the general gloom had enveloped even the
+President himself, his action was most original and characteristic.
+Feeling that the <a name="page466" id="page466"></a> campaign was going against him, he made
+up his mind deliberately as to the course he should pursue, and
+laid down for himself the action demanded by his conviction of
+duty. He wrote on August 23 the following memorandum:</p>
+<p>"This morning, as for some days past, it seems exceedingly
+probable that this administration will not be re&euml;lected. Then
+it will be my duty to so co&ouml;perate with the President-elect as
+to save the Union between the election and the inauguration, as he
+will have secured his election on such ground that he cannot
+possibly save it afterwards."</p>
+<p>He then folded and pasted the sheet in such manner that its
+contents could not be read, and as the cabinet came together he
+handed this paper to each member successively, requesting them to
+write their names across the back of it. In this peculiar fashion
+he pledged himself and the administration to accept loyally the
+anticipated verdict of the people against him, and to do their
+utmost to save the Union in the brief remainder of his term of
+office. He gave no intimation to any member of his cabinet of the
+nature of the paper they had signed until after his
+re&euml;lection.</p>
+<p>The Democratic convention was finally called to meet in Chicago
+on August 29. Much had been expected by the peace party from the
+strength and audacity of its adherents in the Northwest; and,
+indeed, the day of the meeting of the convention was actually the
+date appointed by rebel emissaries in Canada for an outbreak which
+should effect that revolution in the northwestern States which had
+long been their chimerical dream. This scheme of the American
+Knights, however, was discovered and guarded against through the
+usual treachery of some of their members; and it <a name="page467" id="page467"></a> is
+doubtful if the Democrats reaped any real, permanent advantage from
+the delay of their convention.</p>
+<p>On coming together, the only manner in which the peace men and
+war Democrats could arrive at an agreement was by mutual deception.
+The war Democrats, led by the delegation from New York, were
+working for a military candidate; while the peace Democrats, under
+the leadership of Vallandigham, who had returned from Canada and
+was allowed to remain at large through the half-contemptuous and
+half-calculated leniency of the government he defied, bent all
+their energies to a clear statement of their principles in the
+platform.</p>
+<p>Both got what they desired. General McClellan was nominated on
+the first ballot, and Vallandigham wrote the only plank worth
+quoting in the platform. It asserted: "That after four years of
+failure to restore the Union by the experiment of war, during which
+... the Constitution itself has been disregarded in every part,"
+public welfare demands "that immediate efforts be made for a
+cessation of hostilities." It is altogether probable that this
+distinct proposition of surrender to the Confederates might have
+been modified or defeated in full convention if the war Democrats
+had had the courage of their convictions; but they were so intent
+upon the nomination of McClellan, that they considered the platform
+of secondary importance, and the fatal resolutions were adopted
+without debate.</p>
+<p>Mr. Vallandigham, having thus taken possession of the
+convention, next adopted the candidate, and put the seal of his
+sinister approval on General McClellan by moving that his
+nomination be made unanimous, which was done amid great cheering.
+George H. Pendleton was nominated for Vice-President, and the
+<a name="page468" id="page468"></a> convention adjourned&mdash;not <i>sine
+die</i>, as is customary, but "subject to be called at any time and
+place the executive national committee shall designate." The
+motives of this action were not avowed, but it was taken as a
+significant warning that the leaders of the Democratic party held
+themselves ready for any extraordinary measures which the
+exigencies of the time might provoke or invite.</p>
+<p>The New-Yorkers, however, had the last word, for Governor
+Seymour, in his letter as chairman of the committee to inform
+McClellan of his nomination, assured him that "those for whom we
+speak were animated with the most earnest, devoted, and prayerful
+desire for the salvation of the American Union"; and the general,
+knowing that the poison of death was in the platform, took occasion
+in his letter of acceptance to renew his assurances of devotion to
+the Union, the Constitution, the laws, and the flag of his country.
+After having thus absolutely repudiated the platform upon which he
+was nominated, he coolly concluded:</p>
+<p>"Believing that the views here expressed are those of the
+convention and the people you represent, I accept the
+nomination."</p>
+<p>His only possible chance of success lay, of course, in his war
+record. His position as a candidate on a platform of dishonorable
+peace would have been no less desperate than ridiculous. But the
+stars in their courses fought against the Democratic candidates.
+Even before the convention that nominated them, Farragut had won
+the splendid victory of Mobile Bay; during the very hours when the
+streets of Chicago were blazing with Democratic torches, Hood was
+preparing to evacuate Atlanta; and the same newspaper that printed
+Vallandigham's peace platform announced Sherman's entrance into the
+manufacturing metropolis of Georgia.<a name="page469" id="page469"></a> The darkest hour had
+passed; dawn was at hand, and amid the thanksgivings of a grateful
+people, and the joyful salutes of great guns, the presidential
+campaign began.</p>
+<p>When the country awoke to the true significance of the Chicago
+platform, the successes of Sherman excited the enthusiasm of the
+people, and the Unionists, arousing from their midsummer languor,
+began to show their confidence in the Republican candidate, the
+hopelessness of all efforts to undermine him became evident.</p>
+<p>The electoral contest began with the picket firing in Vermont
+and Maine in September, was continued in what might be called the
+grand guard fighting in October in the great States of
+Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana, and the final battle took place
+all along the line on November 8. To Mr. Lincoln this was one of
+the most solemn days of his life. Assured of his personal success,
+and made devoutly confident by the military successes of the last
+few weeks that the day of peace and the re&euml;stablishment of the
+Union was at hand, he felt no elation, and no sense of triumph over
+his opponents. The thoughts that filled his mind were expressed in
+the closing sentences of the little speech he made in response to a
+group of serenaders that greeted him when, in the early morning
+hours, he left the War Department, where he had gone on the evening
+of election to receive the returns:</p>
+<p>"I am thankful to God for this approval of the people; but,
+while deeply grateful for this mark of their confidence in me, if I
+know my heart, my gratitude is free from any taint of personal
+triumph. I do not impugn the motives of any one opposed to me. It
+is no pleasure to me to triumph over any one, but I give thanks to
+the Almighty for this evidence of the <a name="page470" id="page470"></a>people's
+resolution to stand by free government and the rights of
+humanity."</p>
+<p>Lincoln and Johnson received a popular majority of 411,281, and
+two hundred and twelve out of two hundred and thirty-three
+electoral votes, only those of New Jersey, Delaware, and Kentucky,
+twenty-one in all, being cast for McClellan. In his annual message
+to Congress, which met on December 5, President Lincoln gave the
+best summing up of the results of the election that has ever been
+written:</p>
+<p>"The purpose of the people within the loyal States to maintain
+the integrity of the Union was never more firm nor more nearly
+unanimous than now.... No candidate for any office whatever, high
+or low, has ventured to seek votes on the avowal that he was for
+giving up the Union. There have been much impugning of motives and
+much heated controversy as to the proper means and best mode of
+advancing the Union cause; but on the distinct issue of Union or no
+Union the politicians have shown their instinctive knowledge that
+there is no diversity among the people. In affording the people the
+fair opportunity of showing one to another and to the world this
+firmness and unanimity of purpose, the election has been of vast
+value to the national cause."</p>
+<p>On the day of election General McClellan resigned his commission
+in the army, and the place thus made vacant was filled by the
+appointment of General Philip H. Sheridan, a fit type and
+illustration of the turn in the tide of affairs, which was to sweep
+from that time rapidly onward to the great decisive national
+triumph.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="page471" id="page471"></a>
+<h2><a name="XXXIII" id="XXXIII"></a>XXXIII</h2>
+<br />
+<p><i>The Thirteenth Amendment&mdash;The President's Speech on its
+Adoption&mdash;The Two Constitutional Amendments of Lincoln's
+Term&mdash;Lincoln on Peace and Slavery in his Annual Message of
+December 6, 1864&mdash;Blair's Mexican Project&mdash;The Hampton
+Roads Conference</i></p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<p>A joint resolution proposing an amendment to the Constitution
+prohibiting slavery throughout the United States had passed the
+Senate on April 8, 1864, but had failed of the necessary two-thirds
+vote in the House. The two most vital thoughts which animated the
+Baltimore convention when it met in June had been the renomination
+of Mr. Lincoln and the success of this constitutional amendment.
+The first was recognized as a popular decision needing only the
+formality of an announcement by the convention; and the full
+emphasis of speech and resolution had therefore been centered on
+the latter as the dominant and aggressive reform upon which the
+party would stake its political fortunes in the presidential
+campaign. Mr. Lincoln had himself suggested to Mr. Morgan the
+wisdom of sounding that key-note in his opening speech before the
+convention; and the great victory gained at the polls in November
+not only demonstrated his sagacity, but enabled him to take up the
+question with confidence among his recommendations to Congress in
+the annual message of December 6, 1864. Relating the fate of the
+measure at the preceding session, he said:</p>
+<p>"Without questioning the wisdom or patriotism of <a name="page472" id="page472"></a> those who
+stood in opposition, I venture to recommend the reconsideration and
+passage of the measure at the present session. Of course the
+abstract question is not changed, but an intervening election
+shows, almost certainly, that the next Congress will pass the
+measure if this does not. Hence there is only a question of time as
+to when the proposed amendment will go to the States for their
+action. And as it is to so go at all events, may we not agree that
+the sooner the better? It is not claimed that the election has
+imposed a duty on members to change their views or their votes any
+further than, as an additional element to be considered, their
+judgment may be affected by it. It is the voice of the people, now
+for the first time heard upon the question. In a great national
+crisis like ours, unanimity of action among those seeking a common
+end is very desirable&mdash;almost indispensable. And yet no
+approach to such unanimity is attainable unless some deference
+shall be paid to the will of the majority, simply because it is the
+will of the majority. In this case the common end is the
+maintenance of the Union; and among the means to secure that end,
+such will, through the election, is most clearly declared in favor
+of such constitutional amendment."</p>
+<p>The joint resolution was called up in the House on January 6,
+1865, and general discussion followed from time to time, occupying
+perhaps half the days of that month. As at the previous session,
+the Republicans all favored, while the Democrats mainly opposed it;
+but important exceptions among the latter showed what immense gains
+the proposition had made in popular opinion and in congressional
+willingness to recognize and embody it. The logic of events had
+become more powerful than party creed or strategy. For fifteen
+years the Democratic party had stood as sentinel and <a name="page473" id="page473"></a> bulwark
+to slavery, and yet, despite its alliance and championship, the
+"peculiar institution" was being consumed in the fire of war. It
+had withered in popular elections, been paralyzed by confiscation
+laws, crushed by executive decrees, trampled upon by marching Union
+armies. More notable than all, the agony of dissolution had come
+upon it in its final stronghold&mdash;the constitutions of the
+slave States. Local public opinion had throttled it in West
+Virginia, in Missouri, in Arkansas, in Louisiana, in Maryland, and
+the same spirit of change was upon Tennessee, and even showing
+itself in Kentucky. The Democratic party did not, and could not,
+shut its eyes to the accomplished facts.</p>
+<p>The issue was decided on the afternoon of January 31, 1865. The
+scene was one of unusual interest. The galleries were filled to
+overflowing, and members watched the proceedings with unconcealed
+solicitude. "Up to noon," said a contemporaneous report, "the
+pro-slavery party are said to have been confident of defeating the
+amendment; and after that time had passed, one of the most earnest
+advocates of the measure said: "'Tis the toss of a copper." At four
+o'clock the House came to a final vote, and the roll-call showed:
+yeas, one hundred and nineteen; nays, fifty-six; not voting, eight.
+Scattering murmurs of applause followed affirmative votes from
+several Democratic members; but when the Speaker finally announced
+the result, members on the Republican side of the House sprang to
+their feet, and, regardless of parliamentary rules, applauded with
+cheers and hand-clappings&mdash;an exhibition of enthusiasm quickly
+echoed by the spectators in the crowded galleries, where waving of
+hats and handkerchiefs and similar demonstrations of joy lasted for
+several minutes.</p>
+<p>A salute of one hundred guns soon made the <a name="page474" id="page474"></a>occasion
+the subject of comment and congratulation throughout the city. On
+the following night a considerable procession marched with music to
+the Executive Mansion to carry popular greetings to the President.
+In response to their calls he appeared at a window and made a brief
+speech, of which only an abstract report was preserved, but which
+is nevertheless important as showing the searching analysis of
+cause and effect this question had undergone in his mind, the deep
+interest he felt in it, and the far-reaching consequences he
+attached to the measure and its success:</p>
+<p>"The occasion was one of congratulation to the country and to
+the whole world. But there is a task yet before us&mdash;to go
+forward and have consummated by the votes of the States that which
+Congress had so nobly begun yesterday. He had the honor to inform
+those present that Illinois had already to-day done the work.
+Maryland was about half through, but he felt proud that Illinois
+was a little ahead. He thought this measure was a very fitting, if
+not an indispensable, adjunct to the winding up of the great
+difficulty. He wished the reunion of all the States perfected, and
+so effected as to remove all causes of disturbance in the future;
+and to attain this end it was necessary that the original
+disturbing cause should, if possible, be rooted out. He thought all
+would bear him witness that he had never shrunk from doing all that
+he could to eradicate slavery, by issuing an emancipation
+proclamation. But that proclamation falls far short of what the
+amendment will be when fully consummated. A question might be
+raised whether the proclamation was legally valid. It might be
+urged that it only aided those that came into our lines, and that
+it was inoperative as to those who did not give themselves up; or
+that it <a name="page475" id="page475"></a> would have no effect upon the children
+of slaves born hereafter; in fact, it would be urged that it did
+not meet the evil. But this amendment is a king's cure-all for all
+the evils. It winds the whole thing up. He would repeat that it was
+the fitting, if not the indispensable, adjunct to the consummation
+of the great game we are playing."</p>
+<p>Widely divergent views were expressed by able constitutional
+lawyers as to what would constitute a valid ratification of the
+Thirteenth Amendment; some contending that ratification by three
+fourths of the loyal States would be sufficient, others that three
+fourths of all the States, whether loyal or insurrectionary, was
+necessary. Mr. Lincoln, in a speech on Louisiana reconstruction,
+while expressing no opinion against the first proposition,
+nevertheless declared with great argumentative force that the
+latter "would be unquestioned and unquestionable"; and this view
+appears to have governed the action of his successor.</p>
+<p>As Mr. Lincoln mentioned with just pride, Illinois was the first
+State to ratify the amendment. On December 18, 1865, Mr. Seward,
+who remained as Secretary of State in the cabinet of President
+Johnson, made official proclamation that the legislatures of
+twenty-seven States, constituting three fourths of the thirty-six
+States of the Union, had ratified the amendment, and that it had
+become valid as a part of the Constitution. Four of the States
+constituting this number&mdash;Virginia, Louisiana, Tennessee, and
+Arkansas&mdash;were those whose reconstruction had been effected
+under the direction of President Lincoln. Six more States
+subsequently ratified the amendment, Texas ending the list in
+February, 1870.</p>
+<p>The profound political transformation which the American
+Republic had undergone can perhaps best <a name="page476" id="page476"></a> be
+measured by contrasting the two constitutional amendments which
+Congress made it the duty of the Lincoln administration to submit
+officially to the States. The first, signed by President Buchanan
+as one of his last official acts, and accepted and indorsed by
+Lincoln in his inaugural address, was in these words:</p>
+<p>"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."</p>
+<p>Between Lincoln's inauguration and the outbreak of war, the
+Department of State transmitted this amendment to the several
+States for their action; and had the South shown a willingness to
+desist from secession and accept it as a peace offering, there is
+little doubt that it would have become a part of the Constitution.
+But the thunder of Beauregard's guns drove away all possibility of
+such a ratification, and within four years the Lincoln
+administration sent forth the amendment of 1865, sweeping out of
+existence by one sentence the institution to which it had in its
+first proposal offered a virtual claim to perpetual recognition and
+tolerance. The "new birth of freedom" which Lincoln invoked for the
+nation in his Gettysburg address, was accomplished.</p>
+<p>The closing paragraphs of President Lincoln's message to
+Congress of December 6, 1864, were devoted to a summing up of the
+existing situation. The verdict of the ballot-box had not only
+decided the continuance of a war administration and war policy, but
+renewed the assurance of a public sentiment to sustain its
+prosecution. Inspired by this majestic manifestation of the popular
+will, he was able to speak of the future with hope and confidence.
+But with characteristic prudence <a name="page477" id="page477"></a> and good taste, he uttered
+no word of boasting, and indulged in no syllable of acrimony; on
+the contrary, in terms of fatherly kindness he again offered the
+rebellious States the generous conditions he had previously
+tendered them.</p>
+<p>"The national resources, then, are unexhausted, and, as we
+believe, inexhaustible. The public purpose to re&euml;stablish and
+maintain the national authority is unchanged and, as we believe,
+unchangeable. The manner of continuing the effort remains to
+choose. On careful consideration of all the evidence accessible, it
+seems to me that no attempt at negotiation with the insurgent
+leader could result in any good. He would accept nothing short of
+severance of the Union&mdash;precisely what we will not and cannot
+give. His declarations to this effect are explicit and
+oft-repeated.... What is true, however, of him who heads the
+insurgent cause is not necessarily true of those who follow.
+Although he cannot reaccept the Union, they can. Some of them, we
+know, already desire peace and reunion. The number of such may
+increase. They can, at any moment, have peace simply by laying down
+their arms and submitting to the national authority under the
+Constitution. After so much, the government could not, if it would,
+maintain war against them. The loyal people would not sustain or
+allow it. If questions should remain, we would adjust them by the
+peaceful means of legislation, conference, courts, and votes,
+operating only in constitutional and lawful channels.... In
+presenting the abandonment of armed resistance to the national
+authority, on the part of the insurgents, as the only indispensable
+condition to ending the war on the part of the government, I
+retract nothing heretofore said as to slavery. I repeat the
+declaration made a year <a name="page478" id="page478"></a> ago, that 'While I remain in my present
+position I shall not attempt to retract or modify the emancipation
+proclamation, nor shall I return to slavery any person who is free
+by the terms of that proclamation, or by any of the acts of
+Congress.' If the people should, by whatever mode or means, make it
+an executive duty to re&euml;nslave such persons, another, and not
+I, must be their instrument to perform it. In stating a single
+condition of peace, I mean simply to say that the war will cease on
+the part of the government whenever it shall have ceased on the
+part of those who began it." The country was about to enter upon
+the fifth year of actual war; but all indications were pointing to
+a speedy collapse of the rebellion. This foreshadowed disaster to
+the Confederate armies gave rise to another volunteer peace
+negotiation, which, from the boldness of its animating thought and
+the prominence of its actors, assumes a special importance. The
+veteran politician Francis P. Blair, Sr., who, from his long
+political and personal experience in Washington, knew, perhaps
+better than almost any one else, the individual characters and
+tempers of Southern leaders, conceived that the time had come when
+he might take up the r&ocirc;le of successful mediator between the
+North and the South. He gave various hints of his desire to
+President Lincoln, but received neither encouragement nor
+opportunity to unfold his plans. "Come to me after Savannah falls,"
+was Lincoln's evasive reply. On the surrender of that city, Mr.
+Blair hastened to put his design into execution, and with a simple
+card from Mr. Lincoln, dated December 28, saying, "Allow the
+bearer, F.P. Blair, Sr., to pass our lines, go south and return,"
+as his only credential, set out for Richmond. From General Grant's
+camp he forwarded two letters to Jefferson Davis: one, a brief
+request to be <a name="page479" id="page479"></a> allowed to go to Richmond in search of
+missing title papers presumably taken from his Maryland home during
+Early's raid; the other, a longer letter, explaining the real
+object of his visit, but stating with the utmost candor that he
+came wholly unaccredited, save for permission to pass the lines,
+and that he had not offered the suggestions he wished to submit in
+person to Mr. Davis to any one in authority at Washington.</p>
+<p>After some delay, he found himself in Richmond, and was accorded
+a confidential interview by the rebel President on January 12,
+1865, when he unfolded his project, which proved to be nothing less
+than a proposition that the Union and Confederate armies cease
+fighting each other and unite to drive the French from Mexico. He
+supported this daring idea in a paper of some length, pointing out
+that as slavery, the real cause of the war, was hopelessly doomed,
+nothing now remained to keep the two sections of the country apart
+except the possible intervention of foreign soldiery. Hence, all
+considerations pointed to the wisdom of dislodging the French
+invaders from American soil, and thus baffling "the designs of
+Napoleon to subject our Southern people to the 'Latin race.'"</p>
+<p>"He who expels the Bonaparte-Hapsburg dynasty from our southern
+flank," the paper said further, "will ally his name with those of
+Washington and Jackson as a defender of the liberty of the country.
+If in delivering Mexico he should model its States in form and
+principle to adapt them to our Union, and add a new southern
+constellation to its benignant sky while rounding off our
+possessions on the continent at the Isthmus, ... he would complete
+the work of Jefferson, who first set one foot of our colossal
+government on the Pacific by a stride from the Gulf of
+Mexico...."<a name="page480" id="page480"></a></p>
+<p>"I then said to him, 'There is my problem, Mr. Davis; do you
+think it possible to be solved?' After consideration, he said: 'I
+think so.' I then said, 'You see that I make the great point of
+this matter that the war is no longer made for slavery, but
+monarchy. You know that if the war is kept up and the Union kept
+divided, armies must be kept afoot on both sides, and this state of
+things has never continued long without resulting in monarchy on
+one side or the other, and on both generally.' He assented to
+this."</p>
+<p>The substantial accuracy of Mr. Blair's report is confirmed by
+the memorandum of the same interview which Jefferson Davis wrote at
+the time. In this conversation, the rebel leader took little pains
+to disguise his entire willingness to enter upon the wild scheme of
+military conquest and annexation which could easily be read between
+the lines of a political crusade to rescue the Monroe Doctrine from
+its present peril. If Mr. Blair felt elated at having so quickly
+made a convert of the Confederate President, he was further
+gratified at discovering yet more favorable symptoms in his
+official surroundings at Richmond. In the three or four days he
+spent at the rebel capital he found nearly every prominent
+personage convinced of the hopeless condition of the rebellion, and
+even eager to seize upon any contrivance to help them out of their
+direful prospects.</p>
+<p>But the government councils at Washington were not ruled by the
+spirit of political adventure. Abraham Lincoln had a loftier
+conception of patriotic duty, and a higher ideal of national
+ethics. His whole interest in Mr. Blair's mission lay in the rebel
+despondency it disclosed, and the possibility it showed of bringing
+the Confederates to an abandonment of their resistance. Mr. Davis
+had, indeed, given Mr. Blair a letter, to be <a name="page481" id="page481"></a> shown to
+President Lincoln, stating his willingness, "notwithstanding the
+rejection of our former offers," to appoint a commissioner to enter
+into negotiations "with a view to secure peace to the two
+countries." This was, of course, the old impossible attitude. In
+reply the President wrote Mr. Blair on January 18 the following
+note:</p>
+<p>"SIR: You having shown me Mr. Davis's letter to you of the
+twelfth instant, you may say to him that I have constantly been, am
+now, and shall continue ready to receive any agent whom he, or any
+other influential person now resisting the national authority, may
+informally send to me, with the view of securing peace to the
+people of our one common country."</p>
+<p>With this, Mr. Blair returned to Richmond, giving Mr. Davis such
+excuses as he could hastily frame why the President had rejected
+his plan for a joint invasion of Mexico. Jefferson Davis therefore
+had only two alternatives before him&mdash;either to repeat his
+stubborn ultimatum of separation and independence, or frankly to
+accept Lincoln's ultimatum of reunion. The principal Richmond
+authorities knew, and some of them admitted, that their Confederacy
+was nearly in collapse. Lee sent a despatch saying he had not two
+days' rations for his army. Richmond was already in a panic at
+rumors of evacuation. Flour was selling at a thousand dollars a
+barrel in Confederate currency. The recent fall of Fort Fisher had
+closed the last avenue through which blockade-runners could bring
+in foreign supplies. Governor Brown of Georgia was refusing to obey
+orders from Richmond, and characterizing them as "despotic." Under
+such circumstances a defiant cry of independence would not reassure
+anybody; nor, on the other hand, was it longer possible to remain
+silent. Mr. Blair's first visit had created general interest; when
+<a name="page482" id="page482"></a> he came a second time, wonder and rumor
+rose to fever heat.</p>
+<p>Impelled to take action, Mr. Davis had not the courage to be
+frank. After consultation with his cabinet, a peace commission of
+three was appointed, consisting of Alexander H. Stephens,
+Vice-President; R.M.T. Hunter, senator and ex-Secretary of State;
+and John A. Campbell, Assistant Secretary of War&mdash;all of them
+convinced that the rebellion was hopeless, but unwilling to admit
+the logical consequences and necessities. The drafting of
+instructions for their guidance was a difficult problem, since the
+explicit condition prescribed by Mr. Lincoln's note was that he
+would receive only an agent sent him "with the view of securing
+peace to the people of our one common country." The rebel Secretary
+of State proposed, in order to make the instructions "as vague and
+general as possible," the simple direction to confer "upon the
+subject to which it relates"; but his chief refused the suggestion,
+and wrote the following instruction, which carried a palpable
+contradiction on its face:</p>
+<p>"In conformity with the letter of Mr. Lincoln, of which the
+foregoing is a copy, you are requested to proceed to Washington
+City for informal conference with him upon the issues involved in
+the existing war, and for the purpose of securing peace to the two
+countries."</p>
+<p>With this the commissioners presented themselves at the Union
+lines on the evening of January 29, but instead of showing their
+double-meaning credential, asked admission, "in accordance with an
+understanding claimed to exist with Lieutenant-General Grant." Mr.
+Lincoln, being apprised of the application, promptly despatched
+Major Thomas T. Eckert, of the War Department, with written
+directions to admit them under safe-conduct, if they would say in
+writing that they <a name="page483" id="page483"></a> came for the purpose of an informal
+conference on the basis of his note of January 18 to Mr. Blair. The
+commissioners having meantime reconsidered the form of their
+application and addressed a new one to General Grant which met the
+requirements, were provisionally conveyed to Grant's headquarters;
+and on January 31 the President commissioned Secretary Seward to
+meet them, saying in his written instructions:</p>
+<p>"You will make known to them that three things are
+indispensable, to wit: First. The restoration of the national
+authority throughout all the States. Second. No receding by the
+Executive of the United States on the slavery question from the
+position assumed thereon in the late annual message to Congress,
+and in preceding documents. Third. No cessation of hostilities
+short of an end of the war, and the disbanding of all forces
+hostile to the government. You will inform them that all
+propositions of theirs, not inconsistent with the above, will be
+considered and passed upon in a spirit of sincere liberality. You
+will hear all they may choose to say, and report it to me. You will
+not assume to definitely consummate anything."</p>
+<p>Mr. Seward started on the morning of February 1, and
+simultaneously with his departure the President repeated to General
+Grant the monition already sent him two days before: "Let nothing
+which is transpiring change, hinder, or delay your military
+movements or plans." Major Eckert had arrived while Mr. Seward was
+yet on the way, and on seeing Jefferson Davis's instructions,
+promptly notified the commissioners that they could not proceed
+further without complying strictly with President Lincoln's terms.
+Thus, at half-past nine on the night of February 1, their mission
+was practically at an end, though next day they again recanted and
+accepted the President's conditions in <a name="page484" id="page484"></a>writing. Mr.
+Lincoln, on reading Major Eckert's report on the morning of
+February 2, was about to recall Secretary Seward by telegraph, when
+he was shown a confidential despatch from General Grant to the
+Secretary of War, stating his belief that the intention of the
+commissioners was good, and their desire for peace sincere, and
+regretting that Mr. Lincoln could not have an interview with them.
+This communication served to change his purpose. Resolving not to
+neglect the indications of sincerity here described, he telegraphed
+at once, "Say to the gentlemen I will meet them personally at
+Fortress Monroe as soon as I can get there," and joined Secretary
+Seward that same night.</p>
+<p>On the morning of February 3, 1865, the rebel commissioners were
+conducted on board the <i>River Queen</i>, lying at anchor near
+Fort Monroe, where President Lincoln and Secretary Seward awaited
+them. It was agreed beforehand that no writing or memorandum should
+be made at the time, so the record of the interview remains only in
+the separate accounts which the rebel commissioners wrote out
+afterward from memory, neither Mr. Seward nor President Lincoln
+ever having made any report in detail. In a careful analysis of
+these reports, the first striking feature is the difference of
+intention between the parties. It is apparent that Mr. Lincoln went
+honestly and frankly to offer them the best terms he could to,
+secure peace and reunion, but to abate no jot of official duty or
+personal dignity; while the main thought of the commissioners was
+to evade the express condition on which they had been admitted to
+conference, to seek to postpone the vital issue, and to propose an
+armistice by debating a mere juggling expedient against which they
+had in a private agreement with one another already committed
+themselves.<a name="page485" id="page485"></a></p>
+<p>At the first hint of Blair's Mexican project, however, Mr.
+Lincoln firmly disclaimed any responsibility for the suggestion, or
+any intention of adopting it, and during the four hours' talk led
+the conversation continually back to the original object of the
+conference. But though he patiently answered the many questions
+addressed him by the commissioners, as to what would probably be
+done on various important subjects that must arise at once if the
+Confederate States consented, carefully discriminating in his
+answers between what he was authorized under the Constitution to do
+as Executive, and what would devolve upon co&ouml;rdinate branches
+of the government, the interview came to nothing. The commissioners
+returned to Richmond in great disappointment, and communicated the
+failure of their efforts to Jefferson Davis, whose chagrin was
+equal to their own. They had all caught eagerly at the hope that
+this negotiation would somehow extricate them from the dilemmas and
+dangers of their situation. Davis took the only course open to him
+after refusing the honorable peace Mr. Lincoln had tendered. He
+transmitted the commissioners' report to the rebel Congress, with a
+brief and dry message stating that the enemy refused any terms
+except those the conqueror might grant; and then arranged as
+vigorous an effort as circumstances permitted once more to "fire
+the Southern heart." A public meeting was called, where the
+speeches, judging from the meager reports printed, were as
+denunciatory and bellicose as the bitterest Confederate could
+desire. Davis particularly is represented to have excelled himself
+in defiant heroics. "Sooner than we should ever be united again,"
+he said, "he would be willing to yield up everything he had on
+earth&mdash;if it were possible, he would sacrifice a thousand
+lives"; and he further announced his confidence <a name="page486" id="page486"></a> that they
+would yet "compel the Yankees, in less than twelve months, to
+petition us for peace on our own terms."</p>
+<p>This extravagant rhetoric would seem merely grotesque, were it
+not embittered by the reflection that it was the signal which
+carried many additional thousands of brave soldiers to death, in
+continuing a palpably hopeless military struggle.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="page487" id="page487"></a>
+<h2><a name="XXXIV" id="XXXIV"></a>XXXIV</h2>
+<br />
+<p><i>Blair&mdash;Chase Chief Justice&mdash;Speed Succeeds
+Bates&mdash;McCulloch Succeeds Fessenden&mdash;Resignation of Mr.
+Usher&mdash;Lincoln's Offer of $400,000,000&mdash;The Second
+Inaugural&mdash;Lincoln's Literary Rank&mdash;His Last
+Speech</i></p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<p>The principal concession in the Baltimore platform made by the
+friends of the administration to their opponents, the radicals, was
+the resolution which called for harmony in the cabinet. The
+President at first took no notice, either publicly or privately, of
+this resolution, which was in effect a recommendation that he
+dismiss those members of his council who were stigmatized as
+conservatives; and the first cabinet change which actually took
+place after the adjournment of the convention filled the radical
+body of his supporters with dismay, since they had looked upon Mr.
+Chase as their special representative in the government. The
+publication of the Wade-Davis manifesto still further increased
+their restlessness, and brought upon Mr. Lincoln a powerful
+pressure from every quarter to satisfy radical demands by
+dismissing Montgomery Blair, his Postmaster-General. Mr. Blair had
+been one of the founders of the Republican party, and in the very
+forefront of opposition to slavery extension, but had gradually
+attracted to himself the hostility of all the radical Republicans
+in the country. The immediate cause of this estrangement was the
+bitter quarrel that developed between his family and General
+Fr&eacute;mont in Missouri: a quarrel in which the Blairs were
+undoubtedly right in the beginning, but which broadened
+<a name="page488" id="page488"></a> and extended until it landed them
+finally in the Democratic party.</p>
+<p>The President considered the dispute one of form rather than
+substance, and having a deep regard, not only for the
+Postmaster-General, but for his brother, General Frank Blair, and
+for his distinguished father, was most reluctant to take action
+against him. Even in the bosom of the government, however, a strong
+hostility to Mr. Blair manifested itself. As long as Chase remained
+in the cabinet there was smoldering hostility between them, and his
+attitude toward Seward and Stanton was one of increasing enmity.
+General Halleck, incensed at some caustic remarks Blair was
+reported to have made about the defenders of the capital after
+Early's raid, during which the family estate near Washington had
+suffered, sent an angry note to the War Department, wishing to know
+if such "wholesale denouncement" had the President's sanction;
+adding that either the names of the officers accused should be
+stricken from the rolls, or the "slanderer dismissed from the
+cabinet." Mr. Stanton sent the letter to the President without
+comment. This was too much; and the Secretary received an answer on
+the very same day, written in Mr. Lincoln's most masterful
+manner:</p>
+<p>"Whether the remarks were really made I do not know, nor do I
+suppose such knowledge is necessary to a correct response. If they
+were made, I do not approve them; and yet, under the circumstances,
+I would not dismiss a member of the cabinet therefore. I do not
+consider what may have been hastily said in a moment of vexation at
+so severe a loss is sufficient ground for so grave a step.... I
+propose continuing to be myself the judge as to when a member of
+the cabinet shall be dismissed."<a name="page489" id="page489"></a></p>
+<p>Not content with this, the President, when the cabinet came
+together, read them this impressive little lecture:</p>
+<p>"I must myself be the judge how long to retain in and when to
+remove any of you from his position. It would greatly pain me to
+discover any of you endeavoring to procure another's removal, or in
+any way to prejudice him before the public. Such endeavor would be
+a wrong to me, and, much worse, a wrong to the country. My wish is
+that on this subject no remark be made nor question asked by any of
+you, here or elsewhere, now or hereafter."</p>
+<p>This is one of the most remarkable speeches ever made by a
+President. The tone of authority is unmistakable. Washington was
+never more dignified; Jackson was never more peremptory.</p>
+<p>The feeling against Mr. Blair and the pressure upon the
+President for his removal increased throughout the summer. All
+through the period of gloom and discouragement he refused to act,
+even when he believed the verdict of the country likely to go
+against him, and was assured on every side that such a concession
+to the radical spirit might be greatly to his advantage. But after
+the turn had come, and the prospective triumph of the Union cause
+became evident, he felt that he ought no longer to retain in his
+cabinet a member who, whatever his personal merits, had lost the
+confidence of the great body of Republicans; and on September 9
+wrote him a kindly note, requesting his resignation.</p>
+<p>Mr. Blair accepted his dismissal in a manner to be expected from
+his manly and generous character, not pretending to be pleased, but
+assuming that the President had good reason for his action; and, on
+turning over his office to his successor, ex-Governor
+William<a name="page490" id="page490"></a> Dennison of Ohio, went at once to
+Maryland and entered into the campaign, working heartily for Mr.
+Lincoln's re&euml;lection.</p>
+<p>After the death of Judge Taney in October, Mr. Blair for a while
+indulged the hope that he might be appointed chief justice, a
+position for which his natural abilities and legal acquirements
+eminently fitted him. But Mr. Chase was chosen, to the bitter
+disappointment of Mr. Blair's family, though even this did not
+shake their steadfast loyalty to the Union cause or their personal
+friendship for the President. Immediately after his second
+inauguration, Mr. Lincoln offered Montgomery Blair his choice of
+the Spanish or the Austrian mission, an offer which he peremptorily
+though respectfully declined.</p>
+<p>The appointment of Mr. Chase as chief justice had probably been
+decided on in Mr. Lincoln's own mind from the first, though he gave
+no public intimation of his decision before sending the nomination
+to the Senate on December 6. Mr. Chase's partizans claimed that the
+President had already virtually promised him the place; his
+opponents counted upon the ex-secretary's attitude of criticism to
+work against his appointment. But Mr. Lincoln sternly checked all
+presentations of this personal argument; nor were the prayers of
+those who urged him to overlook the harsh and indecorous things Mr.
+Chase had said of him at all necessary. To one who spoke in this
+latter strain the President replied:</p>
+<p>"Oh, as to that I care nothing. Of Mr. Chase's ability, and of
+his soundness on the general issues of the war, there is, of
+course, no question. I have only one doubt about his appointment.
+He is a man of unbounded ambition, and has been working all his
+life to become President. That he can never be; and I fear
+<a name="page491" id="page491"></a> that if I make him chief justice he will
+simply become more restless and uneasy and neglect the place in his
+strife and intrigue to make himself President. If I were sure that
+he would go on the bench and give up his aspirations, and do
+nothing but make himself a great judge, I would not hesitate a
+moment."</p>
+<p>He wrote out Mr. Chase's nomination with his own hand, and sent
+it to the Senate the day after Congress came together. It was
+confirmed at once, without reference to a committee, and Mr. Chase,
+on learning of his new dignity, sent the President a cordial note,
+thanking him for the manner of his appointment, and adding: "I
+prize your confidence and good will more than any nomination to
+office." But Mr. Lincoln's fears were better founded than his
+hopes. Though Mr. Chase took his place on the bench with a
+conscientious desire to do his whole duty in his great office, he
+could not dismiss the political affairs of the country from his
+mind, and still considered himself called upon to counteract the
+mischievous tendencies of the President toward conciliation and
+hasty reconstruction.</p>
+<p>The reorganization of the cabinet went on by gradual
+disintegration rather than by any brusque or even voluntary action
+on the part of Mr. Lincoln. Mr. Bates, the attorney-general,
+growing weary of the labors of his official position, resigned
+toward the end of November. Mr. Lincoln, on whom the claim of
+localities always had great weight, unable to decide upon another
+Missourian fitted for the place, offered it to Joseph Holt of
+Kentucky, who declined, and then to James Speed, also a Kentuckian
+of high professional and social standing, the brother of his early
+friend Joshua F. Speed. Soon after the opening of the new year, Mr.
+Fessenden, having been again elected to the Senate from Maine,
+resigned his office as <a name="page492" id="page492"></a>
+Secretary of the Treasury. The place thus
+vacated instantly excited a wide and spirited competition of
+recommendations. The President wished to appoint Governor Morgan of
+New York, who declined, and the choice finally fell upon Hugh
+McCulloch of Indiana, who had made a favorable record as
+comptroller of the currency. Thus only two of Mr. Lincoln's
+original cabinet, Mr. Seward and Mr. Welles, were in office at the
+date of his second inauguration; and still another change was in
+contemplation. Mr. Usher of Indiana, who had for some time
+discharged the duties of Secretary of the Interior, desiring, as he
+said, to relieve the President from any possible embarrassment
+which might arise from the fact that two of his cabinet were from
+the same State, sent in his resignation, which Mr. Lincoln indorsed
+"To take effect May 15, 1865."</p>
+<p>The tragic events of the future were mercifully hidden. Mr.
+Lincoln, looking forward to four years more of personal leadership,
+was planning yet another generous offer to shorten the period of
+conflict. His talk with the commissioners at Hampton Roads had
+probably revealed to him the undercurrent of their hopelessness and
+anxiety; and he had told them that personally he would be in favor
+of the government paying a liberal indemnity for the loss of slave
+property, on absolute cessation of the war and the voluntary
+abolition of slavery by the Southern States.</p>
+<p>This was indeed going to the extreme of magnanimity; but Mr.
+Lincoln remembered that the rebels, notwithstanding all their
+offenses and errors, were yet American citizens, members of the
+same nation, brothers of the same blood. He remembered, too, that
+the object of the war, equally with peace and freedom, was the
+maintenance of one government and the perpetuation of one Union.
+Not only must hostilities <a name="page493" id="page493"></a> cease, but dissension, suspicion, and
+estrangement be eradicated. Filled with such thoughts and purposes,
+he spent the day after his return from Hampton Roads in considering
+and perfecting a new proposal, designed as a peace offering to the
+States in rebellion. On the evening of February 5, 1865, he called
+his cabinet together, and read to them the draft of a joint
+resolution and proclamation embodying this idea, offering the
+Southern States four hundred million dollars, or a sum equal to the
+cost of the war for two hundred days, on condition that hostilities
+cease by the first of April, 1865; to be paid in six per cent.
+government bonds, pro rata on their slave populations as shown by
+the census of 1860&mdash;one half on April 1, the other half only
+upon condition that the Thirteenth Amendment be ratified by a
+requisite number of States before July 1, 1865.</p>
+<p>It turned out that he was more humane and liberal than his
+constitutional advisers. The indorsement in his own handwriting on
+the manuscript draft records the result of his appeal and
+suggestion:</p>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>"February 5, 1865. To-day, these papers, which explain
+themselves, were drawn up and submitted to the cabinet, and
+unanimously disapproved by them.</p>
+<p>"A. LINCOLN."</p>
+</div>
+<p>With the words, "You are all opposed to me," sadly uttered, the
+President folded up the paper and ceased the discussion.</p>
+<p>The formal inauguration of Mr. Lincoln for his second
+presidential term took place at the appointed time, March 4, 1865.
+There is little variation in the simple but impressive pageantry
+with which the official ceremony is celebrated. The principal
+novelty commented <a name="page494" id="page494"></a> upon by the newspapers was the share
+which the hitherto enslaved race had for the first time in this
+public and political drama. Civic associations of negro citizens
+joined in the procession, and a battalion of negro soldiers formed
+part of the military escort. The weather was sufficiently favorable
+to allow the ceremonies to take place on the eastern portico of the
+Capitol, in view of a vast throng of spectators. The central act of
+the occasion was President Lincoln's second inaugural address,
+which enriched the political literature of the Union with another
+masterpiece, and deserves to be quoted in full. He said:</p>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>"FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN: At this second appearing to take the oath of
+the presidential office, there is less occasion for an extended
+address than there was at the first. Then, a statement, somewhat in
+detail, of a course to be pursued, seemed fitting and proper. Now,
+at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations
+have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the
+great contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the
+energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The
+progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as
+well known to the public as to myself; and it is, I trust,
+reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for
+the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured.</p>
+<p>"On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all
+thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All
+dreaded it&mdash;all sought to avert it. While the inaugural
+address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to
+saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city
+seeking to destroy it without war&mdash;seeking to dissolve
+the<a name="page495" id="page495"></a> Union, and divide effects, by
+negotiation. Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would
+make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would
+accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came.</p>
+<p>"One eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not
+distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the Southern
+part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful
+interest. All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of
+the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was
+the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union, even by
+war; while the government claimed no right to do more than to
+restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected
+for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already
+attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might
+cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should cease. Each
+looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and
+astounding. Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and
+each invokes his aid against the other. It may seem strange that
+any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing
+their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge
+not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be
+answered&mdash;that of neither has been answered fully. The
+Almighty has his own purposes. 'Woe unto the world because of
+offenses! for it must needs be that offenses come; but woe to that
+man by whom the offense cometh.' If we shall suppose that American
+slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God,
+must needs come, but which, having continued through his appointed
+time, he now wills to remove, and that he gives to both North and
+South <a name="page496" id="page496"></a> this terrible war, as the woe due to
+those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any
+departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a
+living God always ascribe to him? Fondly do we hope&mdash;fervently
+do we pray&mdash;that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass
+away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled
+by the bondman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil
+shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash
+shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three
+thousand years ago, so still it must be said, 'The judgments of the
+Lord are true and righteous altogether.'</p>
+<p>"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in
+the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to
+finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds, to care
+for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his
+orphan&mdash;to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and
+lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations."</p>
+</div>
+<p>The address being concluded, Chief Justice Chase administered
+the oath of office; and listeners who heard Abraham Lincoln for the
+second time repeat, "I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully
+execute the office of President of the United States, and will, to
+the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the
+Constitution of the United States," went from the impressive scene
+to their several homes with thankfulness and with confidence that
+the destiny of the country and the liberty of the citizen were in
+safe keeping. "The fiery trial" through which he had hitherto
+walked showed him possessed of the capacity, the courage, and the
+will to keep the promise of his oath.</p>
+<p>Among the many criticisms passed by writers and thinkers upon
+the second inaugural, none will so <a name="page497" id="page497"></a>interest the reader as that
+of Mr. Lincoln himself, written about ten days after its delivery,
+in the following letter to a friend:</p>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>"DEAR MR. WEED: Every one likes a compliment. Thank you for
+yours on my little notification speech, and on the recent inaugural
+address. I expect the latter to wear as well as, perhaps better
+than, anything I have produced; but I believe it is not immediately
+popular. Men are not flattered by being shown that there has been a
+difference of purpose between the Almighty and them. To deny it,
+however, in this case, is to deny that there is a God governing the
+world. It is a truth which I thought needed to be told, and, as
+whatever of humiliation there is in it falls most directly on
+myself, I thought others might afford for me to tell it."</p>
+</div>
+<p>Nothing would have more amazed Mr. Lincoln than to hear himself
+called a man of letters; but this age has produced few greater
+writers. Emerson ranks him with Aesop; Montalembert commends his
+style as a model for the imitation of princes. It is true that in
+his writings the range of subjects is not great. He was chiefly
+concerned with the political problems of the time, and the moral
+considerations involved in them. But the range of treatment is
+remarkably wide, running from the wit, the gay humor, the florid
+eloquence of his stump speeches, to the marvelous sententiousness
+and brevity of the address at Gettysburg, and the sustained and
+lofty grandeur of his second inaugural; while many of his phrases
+have already passed into the daily speech of mankind.</p>
+<p>A careful student of Mr. Lincoln's character will find this
+inaugural address instinct with another meaning, which, very
+naturally, the President's own <a name="page498" id="page498"></a>comment did not touch. The
+eternal law of compensation, which it declares and applies to the
+sin and fall of American slavery, in a diction rivaling the fire
+and dignity of the old Hebrew prophecies, may, without violent
+inference, be interpreted to foreshadow an intention to renew at a
+fitting moment the brotherly goodwill gift to the South which has
+already been treated of. Such an inference finds strong
+corroboration in the sentences which closed the last public address
+he ever made. On Tuesday evening, April 11, a considerable
+assemblage of citizens of Washington gathered at the Executive
+Mansion to celebrate the victory of Grant over Lee. The rather long
+and careful speech which Mr. Lincoln made on that occasion was,
+however, less about the past than the future. It discussed the
+subject of reconstruction as illustrated in the case of Louisiana,
+showing also how that issue was related to the questions of
+emancipation, the condition of the freedmen, the welfare of the
+South, and the ratification of the constitutional amendment.</p>
+<p>"So new and unprecedented is the whole case," he concluded,
+"that no exclusive and inflexible plan can safely be prescribed as
+to details and collaterals. Such exclusive and inflexible plan
+would surely become a new entanglement. Important principles may
+and must be inflexible. In the present situation, as the phrase
+goes, it may be my duty to make some new announcement to the people
+of the South. I am considering, and shall not fail to act when
+satisfied that action will be proper."</p>
+<p>Can any one doubt that this "new announcement" which was taking
+shape in his mind would again have embraced and combined justice to
+the blacks and generosity to the whites of the South, with Union
+and liberty for the whole country?</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="page499" id="page499"></a>
+<h2><a name="XXXV" id="XXXV"></a>XXXV</h2>
+<br />
+<p><i>Depreciation of Confederate Currency&mdash;Rigor of
+Conscription&mdash;Dissatisfaction with the Confederate
+Government&mdash;Lee General-in-Chief&mdash;J.E. Johnston
+Reappointed to Oppose Sherman's March&mdash;Value of Slave Property
+Gone in Richmond&mdash;Davis's Recommendation of
+Emancipation&mdash;Benjamin's Last Despatch to
+Slidell&mdash;Condition of the Army when Lee took Command&mdash;Lee
+Attempts Negotiations with Grant&mdash;Lincoln's
+Directions&mdash;Lee and Davis Agree upon Line of
+Retreat&mdash;Assault on Fort Stedman&mdash;Five
+Forks&mdash;Evacuation of Petersburg&mdash;Surrender of
+Richmond&mdash;Pursuit of Lee&mdash;Surrender of Lee&mdash;Burning
+of Richmond&mdash;Lincoln in Richmond</i></p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<p>From the hour of Mr. Lincoln's re&euml;lection the Confederate
+cause was doomed. The cheering of the troops which greeted the news
+from the North was heard within the lines at Richmond and at
+Petersburg; and although the leaders maintained their attitude of
+defiance, the impression rapidly gained ground among the people
+that the end was not far off. The stimulus of hope being gone, they
+began to feel the pinch of increasing want. Their currency had
+become almost worthless. In October, a dollar in gold was worth
+thirty-five dollars in Confederate money. With the opening of the
+new year the price rose to sixty dollars, and, despite the efforts
+of the Confederate treasury, which would occasionally rush into the
+market and beat down the price of gold ten or twenty per cent. a
+day, the currency gradually depreciated until a <a name="page500" id="page500"></a>hundred for
+one was offered and not taken. It was natural for the citizens of
+Richmond to think that monstrous prices were being extorted for
+food, clothing, and supplies, when in fact they were paying no more
+than was reasonable. To pay a thousand dollars for a barrel of
+flour was enough to strike a householder with terror but ten
+dollars is not a famine price. High prices, however, even if paid
+in dry leaves, are a hardship when dry leaves are not plentiful;
+and there was scarcity even of Confederate money in the South.</p>
+<p>At every advance of Grant's lines a new alarm was manifested in
+Richmond, the first proof of which was always a fresh rigor in
+enforcing the conscription laws and the arbitrary orders of the
+frightened authorities. After the capture of Fort Harrison, north
+of the James, squads of guards were sent into the streets with
+directions to arrest every able-bodied man they met. It is said
+that the medical boards were ordered to exempt no one capable of
+bearing arms for ten days. Human nature will not endure such a
+strain as this, and desertion grew too common to punish.</p>
+<p>As disaster increased, the Confederate government steadily lost
+ground in the confidence and respect of the Southern people. Mr.
+Davis and his councilors were doing their best, but they no longer
+got any credit for it. From every part of the Confederacy came
+complaints of what was done, demands for what was impossible to do.
+Some of the States were in a condition near to counter-revolution.
+A slow paralysis was benumbing the limbs of the insurrection, and
+even at the heart its vitality was plainly declining. The
+Confederate Congress, which had hitherto been the mere register of
+the President's will, now turned upon him. On January 19 it passed
+a resolution making Lee general-in-chief of the army. This Mr.
+Davis might have <a name="page501" id="page501"></a> borne with patience, although it was
+intended as a notification that his meddling with military affairs
+must come to an end. But far worse was the bitter necessity put
+upon him as a sequel to this act, of reappointing General Joseph E.
+Johnston to the command of the army which was to resist Sherman's
+victorious march to the north. Mr. Seddon, rebel Secretary of War,
+thinking his honor impugned by a vote of the Virginia delegation in
+Congress, resigned. Warnings of serious demoralization came daily
+from the army, and disaffection was so rife in official circles in
+Richmond that it was not thought politic to call public attention
+to it by measures of repression.</p>
+<p>It is curious and instructive to note how the act of
+emancipation had by this time virtually enforced itself in
+Richmond. The value of slave property was gone. It is true that a
+slave was still occasionally sold, at a price less than one tenth
+of what he would have brought before the war, but servants could be
+hired of their nominal owners for almost nothing&mdash;merely
+enough to keep up a show of vassalage. In effect, any one could
+hire a negro for his keeping&mdash;which was all that anybody in
+Richmond, black or white, got for his work. Even Mr. Davis had at
+last become docile to the stern teaching of events. In his message
+of November he had recommended the employment of forty thousand
+slaves in the army&mdash;not as soldiers, it is true, save in the
+last extremity&mdash;with emancipation to come.</p>
+<p>On December 27, Mr. Benjamin wrote his last important
+instruction to John Slidell, the Confederate commissioner in
+Europe. It is nothing less than a cry of despair. Complaining
+bitterly of the attitude of foreign nations while the South is
+fighting the battles of England and France against the North, he
+asks: "Are they determined never to recognize the Southern
+<a name="page502" id="page502"></a> Confederacy until the United States assent
+to such action on their part?" And with a frantic offer to submit
+to any terms which Europe might impose as the price of recognition,
+and a scarcely veiled threat of making peace with the North unless
+Europe should act speedily, the Confederate Department of State
+closed its four years of fruitless activity.</p>
+<p>Lee assumed command of all the Confederate armies on February 9.
+His situation was one of unprecedented gloom. The day before he had
+reported that his troops, who had been in line of battle for two
+days at Hatcher's Run, exposed to the bad winter weather, had been
+without meat for three days. A prodigious effort was made, and the
+danger of starvation for the moment averted, but no permanent
+improvement resulted. The armies of the Union were closing in from
+every point of the compass. Grant was every day pushing his
+formidable left wing nearer the only roads by which Lee could
+escape; Thomas was threatening the Confederate communications from
+Tennessee; Sheridan was riding for the last time up the Shenandoah
+valley to abolish Early; while from the south the redoubtable
+columns of Sherman were moving northward with the steady pace and
+irresistible progress of a tragic fate.</p>
+<p>A singular and significant attempt at negotiation was made at
+this time by General Lee. He was so strong in the confidence of the
+people of the South, and the government at Richmond was so rapidly
+becoming discredited, that he could doubtless have obtained the
+popular support and compelled the assent of the Executive to any
+measures he thought proper for the attainment of peace. From this
+it was easy for him and for others to come to the wholly erroneous
+conclusion that General Grant held a similar relation to the
+government and people of the United<a name="page503" id="page503"></a> States. General Lee seized
+upon the pretext of a conversation reported to him by General
+Longstreet as having been held with General E.O.C. Ord under an
+ordinary flag of truce for the exchange of prisoners, to address a
+letter to Grant, sanctioned by Mr. Davis, saying he had been
+informed that General Ord had said General Grant would not decline
+an interview with a view "to a satisfactory adjustment of the
+present unhappy difficulties by means of a military convention,"
+provided Lee had authority to act. He therefore proposed to meet
+General Grant "with the hope that ... it may be found practicable
+to submit the subjects of controversy ... to a convention of the
+kind mentioned"; professing himself "authorized to do whatever the
+result of the proposed interview may render necessary."</p>
+<p>Grant at once telegraphed these overtures to Washington. Stanton
+received the despatch at the Capitol, where the President was,
+according to his custom, passing the last night of the session of
+Congress, for the convenience of signing bills. The Secretary
+handed the telegram to Mr. Lincoln, who read it in silence. He
+asked no advice or suggestion from any one about him, but, taking
+up a pen, wrote with his usual slowness and precision a despatch in
+Stanton's name, which he showed to Seward, and then handed to
+Stanton to be signed and sent. The language is that of an
+experienced ruler, perfectly sure of himself and of his duty:</p>
+<p>"The President directs me to say that he wishes you to have no
+conference with General Lee, unless it be for capitulation of
+General Lee's army, or on some minor or purely military matter. He
+instructs me to say that you are not to decide, discuss, or confer
+upon any political questions. Such questions the President
+<a name="page504" id="page504"></a> holds in his own hands, and will submit
+them to no military conferences or conventions. Meanwhile, you are
+to press to the utmost your military advantages."</p>
+<p>Grant answered Lee that he had no authority to accede to his
+proposition, and explained that General Ord's language must have
+been misunderstood. This closed to the Confederate authorities the
+last avenue of hope of any compromise by which the alternative of
+utter defeat or unconditional surrender might be avoided.</p>
+<p>Early in March, General Lee visited Richmond for conference with
+Mr. Davis on the measures to be adopted in the crisis which he saw
+was imminent. He had never sympathized with the slight Congress had
+intended to put upon Mr. Davis when it gave him supreme military
+authority, and continued to the end to treat his President as
+commander-in-chief of the forces. There is direct contradiction
+between Mr. Davis and General Lee as to how Davis received this
+statement of the necessities of the situation. Mr. Davis says he
+suggested immediate withdrawal from Richmond, but that Lee said his
+horses were too weak for the roads in their present condition, and
+that he must wait. General Lee, on the other hand, is quoted as
+saying that he wished to retire behind the Staunton River, from
+which point he might have indefinitely protracted the war, but that
+the President overruled him. Both agreed, however, that sooner or
+later Richmond must be abandoned, and that the next move should be
+to Danville.</p>
+<p>But before he turned his back forever upon the lines he had so
+stoutly defended, Lee resolved to dash once more at the toils by
+which he was surrounded. He placed half his army under the command
+of General John B. Gordon, with orders to break through
+<a name="page505" id="page505"></a> the Union lines at Fort Stedman and take
+possession of the high ground behind them. A month earlier Grant
+had foreseen some such move on Lee's part, and had ordered General
+Parke to be prepared to meet an assault on his center, and to have
+his commanders ready to bring all their resources to bear on the
+point in danger, adding: "With proper alacrity in this respect I
+would have no objection to seeing the enemy get through." This
+characteristic phrase throws the strongest light both on Grant's
+temperament, and on the mastery of his business at which he had
+arrived. Under such generalship, an army's lines are a trap into
+which entrance is suicide.</p>
+<p>The assault was made with great spirit at half-past four on the
+morning of March 25. Its initial success was due to a singular
+cause. The spot chosen was a favorite point for deserters to pass
+into the Union lines, which they had of late been doing in large
+numbers. When Gordon's skirmishers, therefore, came stealing
+through the darkness, they were mistaken for an unusually large
+party of deserters, and they over-powered several picket-posts
+without firing a shot. The storming party, following at once, took
+the trenches with a rush, and in a few minutes had possession of
+the main line on the right of the fort, and, next, of the fort
+itself. It was hard in the semi-darkness to distinguish friends
+from foes, and for a time General Parke was unable to make headway;
+but with the growing light his troops advanced from every direction
+to mend the breach, and, making short work of the Confederate
+detachments, recaptured the fort, opening a cross-fire of artillery
+so withering that few of the Confederates could get back to their
+own lines. This was, moreover, not the only damage the Confederates
+suffered. Humphreys and Wright, on the Union left, rightly
+<a name="page506" id="page506"></a> assuming that Parke could take care of
+himself, instantly searched the lines in their front to see if they
+had been essentially weakened to support Gordon's attack. They
+found they had not, but in gaining this knowledge captured the
+enemy's intrenched picket-lines in front of them, which, being
+held, gave inestimable advantage to the Union army in the struggle
+of the next week.</p>
+<p>Grant's chief anxiety for some time had been lest Lee should
+abandon his lines; but though burning to attack, he was delayed by
+the same bad roads which kept Lee in Richmond, and by another
+cause. He did not wish to move until Sheridan had completed the
+work assigned him in the Shenandoah valley and joined either
+Sherman or the army at Petersburg. On March 24, however, at the
+very moment Gordon was making his plans for next day's sortie,
+Grant issued his order for the great movement to the left which was
+to finish the war. He intended to begin on the twenty-ninth, but
+Lee's desperate dash of the twenty-fifth convinced him that not a
+moment was to be lost. Sheridan reached City Point on the
+twenty-sixth. Sherman came up from North Carolina for a brief visit
+next day. The President was also there, and an interesting meeting
+took place between these famous brothers in arms and Mr. Lincoln;
+after which Sherman went back to Goldsboro, and Grant began pushing
+his army to the left with even more than his usual iron energy.</p>
+<p>It was a great army&mdash;the result of all the power and wisdom
+of the government, all the devotion of the people, all the
+intelligence and teachableness of the soldiers themselves, and all
+the ability which a mighty war had developed in the officers. In
+command of all was Grant, the most extraordinary military
+temperament this country has ever seen. The numbers of the
+<a name="page507" id="page507"></a> respective armies in this last grapple
+have been the occasion of endless controversy. As nearly as can be
+ascertained, the grand total of all arms on the Union side was
+124,700; on the Confederate side, 57,000.</p>
+<p>Grant's plan, as announced in his instructions of March 24, was
+at first to despatch Sheridan to destroy the South Side and
+Danville railroads, at the same time moving a heavy force to the
+left to insure the success of this raid, and then to turn Lee's
+position. But his purpose developed from hour to hour, and before
+he had been away from his winter headquarters one day, he gave up
+this comparatively narrow scheme, and adopted the far bolder plan
+which he carried out to his immortal honor. He ordered Sheridan not
+to go after the railroads, but to push for the enemy's right rear,
+writing him: "I now feel like ending the matter.... We will act all
+together as one army here, until it is seen what can be done with
+the enemy."</p>
+<p>On the thirtieth, Sheridan advanced to Five Forks, where he
+found a heavy force of the enemy. Lee, justly alarmed by Grant's
+movements, had despatched a sufficient detachment to hold that
+important cross-roads, and taken personal command of the remainder
+on White Oak Ridge. A heavy rain-storm, beginning on the night of
+the twenty-ninth and continuing more than twenty-four hours,
+greatly impeded the march of the troops. On the thirty-first,
+Warren, working his way toward the White Oak road, was attacked by
+Lee and driven back on the main line, but rallied, and in the
+afternoon drove the enemy again into his works. Sheridan, opposed
+by Pickett with a large force of infantry and cavalry, was also
+forced back, fighting obstinately, as far as Dinwiddie Court House,
+from which point he hopefully reported his situation to Grant at
+dark. Grant, more disturbed than Sheridan himself, <a name="page508" id="page508"></a> rained
+orders and suggestions all night to effect a concentration at
+daylight on that portion of the enemy in front of Sheridan; but
+Pickett, finding himself out of position, silently withdrew during
+the night, and resumed his strongly intrenched post at Five Forks.
+Here Sheridan followed him on April 1, and repeated the successful
+tactics of his Shenandoah valley exploits so brilliantly that Lee's
+right was entirely shattered.</p>
+<p>This battle of Five Forks should have ended the war. Lee's right
+was routed; his line had been stretched westward until it broke;
+there was no longer any hope of saving Richmond, or even of
+materially delaying its fall. But Lee apparently thought that even
+the gain of a day was of value to the Richmond government, and what
+was left of his Army of Northern Virginia was still so perfect in
+discipline that it answered with unabated spirit every demand made
+upon it. Grant, who feared Lee might get away from Petersburg and
+overwhelm Sheridan on the White Oak road, directed that an assault
+be made all along the line at four o'clock on the morning of the
+second. His officers responded with enthusiasm; and Lee, far from
+dreaming of attacking any one after the stunning blow he had
+received the day before, made what hasty preparations he could to
+resist them.</p>
+<p>It is painful to record the hard fighting which followed.
+Wright, in his assault in front of Forts Fisher and Walsh, lost
+eleven hundred men in fifteen minutes of murderous conflict that
+made them his own; and other commands fared scarcely better, Union
+and Confederate troops alike displaying a gallantry distressing to
+contemplate when one reflects that, the war being already decided,
+all this heroic blood was shed in vain. The Confederates, from the
+Appomattox to the Weldon road, fell slowly back to their inner line
+of <a name="page509" id="page509"></a> works; and Lee, watching the formidable
+advance before which his weakened troops gave way, sent a message
+to Richmond announcing his purpose of concentrating on the Danville
+road, and made preparations for the evacuation which was now the
+only resort left him.</p>
+<p>Some Confederate writers express surprise that General Grant did
+not attack and destroy Lee's army on April 2; but this is a view,
+after the fact, easy to express. The troops on the Union left had
+been on foot for eighteen hours, had fought an important battle,
+marched and countermarched many miles, and were now confronted by
+Longstreet's fresh corps behind formidable works, while the
+attitude of the force under Gordon on the south side of the town
+was such as to require the close attention of Parke. Grant,
+anticipating an early retirement of Lee from his citadel, wisely
+resolved to avoid the waste and bloodshed of an immediate assault
+on the inner lines of Petersburg. He ordered Sheridan to get upon
+Lee's line of retreat; sent Humphreys to strengthen him; then,
+directing a general bombardment for five o'clock next morning, and
+an assault at six, gave himself and his soldiers a little of the
+rest they had so richly earned and so seriously needed.</p>
+<p>He had telegraphed during the day to President Lincoln, who was
+still at City Point, the news as it developed from hour to hour.
+Prisoners he regarded as so much net gain: he was weary of
+slaughter, and wanted the war ended with as little bloodshed as
+possible; and it was with delight that he summed up on Sunday
+afternoon: "The whole captures since the army started out gunning
+will not amount to less than twelve thousand men, and probably
+fifty pieces of artillery."</p>
+<p>Lee bent all his energies to saving his army and leading it out
+of its untenable position on the James to a <a name="page510" id="page510"></a> point
+from which he could effect a junction with Johnston in North
+Carolina. The place selected for this purpose was Burkeville, at
+the crossing of the South Side and Danville roads, fifty miles
+southwest from Richmond, whence a short distance would bring him to
+Danville, where the desired junction could be made. Even yet he was
+able to cradle himself in the illusion that it was only a campaign
+that had failed, and that he might continue the war indefinitely in
+another field. At nightfall all his preparations were completed,
+and dismounting at the mouth of the road leading to Amelia Court
+House, the first point of rendezvous, where he had directed
+supplies to be sent, he watched his troops file noiselessly by in
+the darkness. By three o'clock the town was abandoned; at half-past
+four it was formally surrendered. Meade, reporting the news to
+Grant, received orders to march his army immediately up the
+Appomattox; and divining Lee's intentions, Grant also sent word to
+Sheridan to push with all speed to the Danville road.</p>
+<p>Thus flight and pursuit began almost at the same moment. The
+swift-footed Army of Northern Virginia was racing for its life, and
+Grant, inspired with more than his habitual tenacity and energy,
+not only pressed his enemy in the rear, but hung upon his flank,
+and strained every nerve to get in his front. He did not even allow
+himself the pleasure of entering Richmond, which surrendered to
+Weitzel early on the morning of the third.</p>
+<p>All that day Lee pushed forward toward Amelia Court House. There
+was little fighting except among the cavalry. A terrible
+disappointment awaited Lee on his arrival at Amelia Court House on
+the fourth. He had ordered supplies to be forwarded there, but his
+half-starved troops found no food awaiting them, <a name="page511" id="page511"></a> and
+nearly twenty-four hours were lost in collecting subsistence for
+men and horses. When he started again on the night of the fifth,
+the whole pursuing force was south and stretching out to the west
+of him. Burkeville was in Grant's possession; the way to Danville
+was barred; the supply of provisions to the south cut off. He was
+compelled to change his route to the west, and started for
+Lynchburg, which he was destined never to reach.</p>
+<p>It had been the intention to attack Lee at Amelia Court House on
+the morning of April 6, but learning of his turn to the west,
+Meade, who was immediately in pursuit, quickly faced his army about
+and followed. A running fight ensued for fourteen miles, the enemy,
+with remarkable quickness and dexterity, halting and partly
+intrenching themselves from time to time, and the national forces
+driving them out of every position; the Union cavalry, meanwhile,
+harassing the moving left flank of the Confederates, and working
+havoc on the trains. They also caused a grievous loss to history by
+burning Lee's headquarters baggage, with all its wealth of returns
+and reports. At Sailor's Creek, a rivulet running north into the
+Appomattox, Ewell's corps was brought to bay, and important
+fighting occurred; the day's loss to Lee, there and elsewhere,
+amounting to eight thousand in all, with several of his generals
+among the prisoners. This day's work was of incalculable value to
+the national arms. Sheridan's unerring eye appreciated the full
+importance of it, his hasty report ending with the words: "If the
+thing is pressed, I think that Lee will surrender." Grant sent the
+despatch to President Lincoln, who instantly replied:</p>
+<p>"Let the thing be pressed."</p>
+<p>In fact, after nightfall of the sixth, Lee's army <a name="page512" id="page512"></a> could
+only flutter like a wounded bird with one wing shattered. There was
+no longer any possibility of escape; but Lee found it hard to
+relinquish the illusion of years, and as soon as night came down he
+again began his weary march westward. A slight success on the next
+day once more raised his hopes; but his optimism was not shared by
+his subordinates, and a number of his principal officers, selecting
+General Pendleton as their spokesman, made known to him on the
+seventh their belief that further resistance was useless, and
+advised surrender. Lee told them that they had yet too many men to
+think of laying down their arms, but in answer to a courteous
+summons from Grant sent that same day, inquired what terms he would
+be willing to offer. Without waiting for a reply, he again put his
+men in motion, and during all of the eighth the chase and pursuit
+continued through a part of Virginia green with spring, and until
+then unvisited by hostile armies.</p>
+<p>Sheridan, by unheard-of exertions, at last accomplished the
+important task of placing himself squarely on Lee's line of
+retreat. About sunset of the eighth, his advance captured
+Appomattox Station and four trains of provisions. Shortly after, a
+reconnaissance revealed the fact that Lee's entire army was coming
+up the road. Though he had nothing but cavalry, Sheridan resolved
+to hold the inestimable advantage he had gained, and sent a request
+to Grant to hurry up the required infantry support; saying that if
+it reached him that night, they "might perhaps finish the job in
+the morning." He added, with singular prescience, referring to the
+negotiations which had been opened: "I do not think Lee means to
+surrender until compelled to do so."</p>
+<p>This was strictly true. When Grant replied to Lee's question
+about terms, saying that the only condition <a name="page513" id="page513"></a> he
+insisted upon was that the officers and men surrendered should be
+disqualified from taking up arms again until properly exchanged,
+Lee disclaimed any intention to surrender his army, but proposed to
+meet Grant to discuss the restoration of peace. It appears from his
+own report that even on the night of the eighth he had no intention
+of giving up the fight. He expected to find only cavalry before him
+next morning, and thought his remnant of infantry could break
+through while he himself was amusing Grant with platonic
+discussions in the rear. But on arriving at the rendezvous he had
+suggested, he received Grant's courteous but decided refusal to
+enter into a political negotiation, and also the news that a
+formidable force of infantry barred the way and covered the
+adjacent hills and valley. The marching of the Confederate army was
+over forever, and Lee, suddenly brought to a sense of his real
+situation, sent orders to cease hostilities, and wrote another note
+to Grant, asking an interview for the purpose of surrendering his
+army.</p>
+<p>The meeting took place at the house of Wilmer McLean, in the
+edge of the village of Appomattox, on April 9, 1865. Lee met Grant
+at the threshold, and ushered him into a small and barely furnished
+parlor, where were soon assembled the leading officers of the
+national army. General Lee was accompanied only by his secretary,
+Colonel Charles Marshall. A short conversation led up to a request
+from Lee for the terms on which the surrender of his army would be
+received. Grant briefly stated them, and then wrote them out. Men
+and officers were to be paroled, and the arms, artillery, and
+public property turned over to the officer appointed to receive
+them.</p>
+<p>"This," he added, "will not embrace the side-arms of the
+officers, nor their private horses or baggage.<a name="page514" id="page514"></a> This
+done, each officer and man will be allowed to return to their
+homes, not to be disturbed by United States authority so long as
+they observe their parole and the laws in force where they may
+reside."</p>
+<p>General Grant says in his "Memoirs" that up to the moment when
+he put pen to paper he had not thought of a word that he should
+write. The terms he had verbally proposed were soon put in writing,
+and there he might have stopped. But as he wrote a feeling of
+sympathy for his gallant antagonist came over him, and he added the
+extremely liberal terms with which his letter closed. The sight of
+Lee's fine sword suggested the paragraph allowing officers to
+retain their side-arms; and he ended with a phrase he evidently had
+not thought of, and for which he had no authority, which
+practically pardoned and amnestied every man in Lee's army&mdash;a
+thing he had refused to consider the day before, and which had been
+expressly forbidden him in the President's order of March 3. Yet so
+great was the joy over the crowning victory, and so deep the
+gratitude of the government and people to Grant and his heroic
+army, that his terms were accepted as he wrote them, and his
+exercise of the Executive prerogative of pardon entirely
+overlooked. It must be noticed here, however, that a few days later
+it led the greatest of Grant's generals into a serious error.</p>
+<p>Lee must have read the memorandum with as much surprise as
+gratification. He suggested and gained another important
+concession&mdash;that those of the cavalry and artillery who owned
+their own horses should be allowed to take them home to put in
+their crops; and wrote a brief reply accepting the terms. He then
+remarked that his army was in a starving condition, and asked Grant
+to provide them with subsistence and forage; to which he at once
+assented, inquiring for <a name="page515" id="page515"></a> how many men the rations would be
+wanted. Lee answered, "About twenty-five thousand"; and orders were
+given to issue them. The number turned out to be even greater, the
+paroles signed amounting to twenty-eight thousand two hundred and
+thirty-one. If we add to this the captures made during the
+preceding week, and the thousands who deserted the failing cause at
+every by-road leading to their homes, we see how considerable an
+army Lee commanded when Grant "started out gunning."</p>
+<p>With these brief and simple formalities, one of the most
+momentous transactions of modern times was concluded. The Union
+gunners prepared to fire a national salute, but Grant forbade any
+rejoicing over a fallen enemy, who, he hoped, would be an enemy no
+longer. The next day he rode to the Confederate lines to make a
+visit of farewell to General Lee. They parted with courteous good
+wishes, and Grant, without pausing to look at the city he had
+taken, or the enormous system of works which had so long held him
+at bay, hurried away to Washington, intent only upon putting an end
+to the waste and burden of war.</p>
+<p>A very carnival of fire and destruction had attended the flight
+of the Confederate authorities from Richmond. On Sunday night,
+April 2, Jefferson Davis, with his cabinet and their more important
+papers, hurriedly left the doomed city on one of the crowded and
+overloaded railroad trains. The legislature of Virginia and the
+governor of the State departed in a canal-boat toward Lynchburg;
+and every available vehicle was pressed into service by the frantic
+inhabitants, all anxious to get away before their capital was
+desecrated by the presence of "Yankee invaders." By the time the
+military left, early next morning, a conflagration was already
+under way. The rebel Congress <a name="page516" id="page516"></a> had passed a law ordering
+government tobacco and other public property to be burned. General
+Ewell, the military commander, asserts that he took the
+responsibility of disobeying the law, and that they were not fired
+by his orders. However that may be, flames broke out in various
+parts of the city, while a miscellaneous mob, inflamed by
+excitement and by the alcohol which had run freely in the gutters
+the night before, rushed from store to store, smashing in the doors
+and indulging all the wantonness of pillage and greed. Public
+spirit was paralyzed, and the whole fabric of society seemed
+crumbling to pieces, when the convicts from the penitentiary, a
+shouting, leaping crowd of party-colored demons, overcoming their
+guard, and drunk with liberty, appeared upon the streets, adding
+their final dramatic horror to the pandemonium.</p>
+<p>It is quite probable that the very magnitude and rapidity of the
+disaster served in a measure to mitigate its evil results. The
+burning of seven hundred buildings, comprising the entire business
+portion of Richmond warehouses, manufactories, mills, depots, and
+stores, all within the brief space of a day, was a visitation so
+sudden, so unexpected, so stupefying, as to overawe and terrorize
+even wrong-doers, and made the harvest of plunder so abundant as to
+serve to scatter the mob and satisfy its rapacity to quick
+repletion.</p>
+<p>Before a new hunger could arise, assistance was at hand. General
+Weitzel, to whom the city was surrendered, taking up his
+headquarters in the house lately occupied by Jefferson Davis,
+promptly set about the work of relief; organizing efficient
+resistance to the fire, which, up to this time, seems scarcely to
+have been attempted; issuing rations to the poor, who had been
+relentlessly exposed to starvation by the action of the rebel
+Congress; and restoring order and personal <a name="page517" id="page517"></a>
+authority. That a regiment of black soldiers assisted in this noble
+work must have seemed to the white inhabitants of Richmond the
+final drop in their cup of misery.</p>
+<p>Into the capital, thus stricken and laid waste, came President
+Lincoln on the morning of April 4. Never in the history of the
+world did the head of a mighty nation and the conqueror of a great
+rebellion enter the captured chief city of the insurgents in such
+humbleness and simplicity. He had gone two weeks before to City
+Point for a visit to General Grant, and to his son, Captain Robert
+Lincoln, who was serving on Grant's staff. Making his home on the
+steamer which brought him, and enjoying what was probably the most
+satisfactory relaxation in which he had been able to indulge during
+his whole presidential service, he had visited the various camps of
+the great army in company with the general, cheered everywhere by
+the loving greetings of the soldiers. He had met Sherman when that
+commander hurried up fresh from his victorious march, and after
+Grant started on his final pursuit of Lee the President still
+lingered; and it was at City Point that he received the news of the
+fall of Richmond.</p>
+<p>Between the receipt of this news and the following forenoon, but
+before any information of the great fire had reached them, a visit
+was arranged for the President and Rear-Admiral Porter. Ample
+precautions were taken at the start. The President went in his own
+steamer, the <i>River Queen</i>, with her escort, the <i>Bat</i>,
+and a tug used at City Point in landing from the steamer. Admiral
+Porter went in his flag-ship, the <i>Malvern</i>, and a transport
+carried a small cavalry escort and ambulances for the party. But
+the obstructions in the river soon made it impossible to proceed in
+this fashion.<a name="page518" id="page518"></a> One unforeseen accident after another
+rendered it necessary to leave behind even the smaller boats, until
+finally the party went on in Admiral Porter's barge, rowed by
+twelve sailors, and without escort of any kind. In this manner the
+President made his advent into Richmond, landing near Libby Prison.
+As the party stepped ashore they found a guide among the
+contrabands who quickly crowded the streets, for the possible
+coming of the President had been circulated through the city. Ten
+of the sailors, armed with carbines, were formed as a guard, six in
+front and four in rear, and between them the President, Admiral
+Porter, and the three officers who accompanied them walked the long
+distance, perhaps a mile and a half, to the center of the town.</p>
+<p>The imagination can easily fill up the picture of a gradually
+increasing crowd, principally of negroes, following the little
+group of marines and officers, with the tall form of the President
+in its center; and, having learned that it was indeed Mr. Lincoln,
+giving expression to joy and gratitude in the picturesque emotional
+ejaculations of the colored race. It is easy also to imagine the
+sharp anxiety of those who had the President's safety in charge
+during this tiresome and even foolhardy march through a city still
+in flames, whose white inhabitants were sullenly resentful at best,
+and whose grief and anger might at any moment culminate against the
+man they looked upon as the incarnation of their misfortunes. But
+no accident befell him. Reaching General Weitzel's headquarters,
+Mr. Lincoln rested in the mansion Jefferson Davis had occupied as
+President of the Confederacy, and after a day of sight-seeing
+returned to his steamer and to Washington, to be stricken down by
+an assassin's bullet, literally "in the house of his friends."</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="page519" id="page519"></a>
+<h2><a name="XXXVI" id="XXXVI"></a>XXXVI</h2>
+<br />
+<p><i>Lincoln's Interviews with Campbell&mdash;Withdraws Authority
+for Meeting of Virginia Legislature&mdash;Conference of Davis and
+Johnston at Greensboro&mdash;Johnston Asks for an
+Armistice&mdash;Meeting of Sherman and Johnston&mdash;Their
+Agreement&mdash;Rejected at Washington&mdash;Surrender of
+Johnston&mdash;Surrender of other Confederate Forces&mdash;End of
+the Rebel Navy&mdash;Capture of Jefferson Davis&mdash;Surrender of
+E. Kirby Smith&mdash;Number of Confederates Surrendered and
+Exchanged&mdash;Reduction of Federal Army to a Peace
+Footing&mdash;Grand Review of the Army</i></p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<p>While in Richmond, Mr. Lincoln had two interviews with John A.
+Campbell, rebel Secretary of War, who had not accompanied the other
+fleeing officials, preferring instead to submit to Federal
+authority. Mr. Campbell had been one of the commissioners at the
+Hampton Roads conference, and Mr. Lincoln now gave him a written
+memorandum repeating in substance the terms he had then offered the
+Confederates. On Campbell's suggestion that the Virginia
+legislature, if allowed to come together, would at once repeal its
+ordinance of secession and withdraw all Virginia troops from the
+field, he also gave permission for its members to assemble for that
+purpose. But this, being distorted into authority to sit in
+judgment on the political consequences of the war, was soon
+withdrawn.</p>
+<p>Jefferson Davis and his cabinet proceeded to Danville, where,
+two days after his arrival, the rebel President made still another
+effort to fire the Southern heart, <a name="page520" id="page520"></a> announcing, "We have now
+entered upon a new phase of the struggle. Relieved from the
+necessity of guarding particular points, our army will be free to
+move from point to point to strike the enemy in detail far from his
+base. Let us but will it and we are free"; and declaring in
+sonorous periods his purpose never to abandon one foot of ground to
+the invader.</p>
+<p>The ink was hardly dry on the document when news came of the
+surrender of Lee's army, and that the Federal cavalry was pushing
+southward west of Danville. So the Confederate government again
+hastily packed its archives and moved to Greensboro, North
+Carolina, where its headquarters were prudently kept on the train
+at the depot. Here Mr. Davis sent for Generals Johnston and
+Beauregard, and a conference took place between them and the
+members of the fleeing government&mdash;a conference not unmixed
+with embarrassment, since Mr. Davis still "willed" the success of
+the Confederacy too strongly to see the true hopelessness of the
+situation, while the generals and most of his cabinet were agreed
+that their cause was lost. The council of war over, General
+Johnston returned to his army to begin negotiations with Sherman;
+and on the following day, April 14, Davis and his party left
+Greensboro to continue their journey southward.</p>
+<p>Sherman had returned to Goldsboro from his visit to City Point,
+and set himself at once to the reorganization of his army and the
+replenishment of his stores. He still thought there was a hard
+campaign with desperate fighting ahead of him. Even on April 6,
+when he received news of the fall of Richmond and the flight of Lee
+and the Confederate government, he was unable to understand the
+full extent of the national triumph. He admired Grant so far as a
+man might, short of idolatry, yet the long habit of respect for Lee
+led him to think he would somehow get away and join<a name="page521" id="page521"></a> Johnston
+in his front with at least a portion of the Army of Northern
+Virginia. He had already begun his march upon Johnston when he
+learned of Lee's surrender at Appomattox.</p>
+<p>Definitely relieved from apprehension of a junction of the two
+Confederate armies, he now had no fear except of a flight and
+dispersal of Johnston's forces into guerrilla bands. If they ran
+away, he felt he could not catch them; the country was too open.
+They could scatter and meet again, and so continue a partizan
+warfare indefinitely. He could not be expected to know that this
+resolute enemy was sick to the heart of war, and that the desire
+for more fighting survived only in a group of fugitive politicians
+flying through the pine forests of the Carolinas from a danger
+which did not exist.</p>
+<p>Entering Raleigh on the morning of the thirteenth, he turned his
+heads of column southwest, hoping to cut off Johnston's southward
+march, but made no great haste, thinking Johnston's cavalry
+superior to his own, and desiring Sheridan to join him before he
+pushed the Confederates to extremities. While here, however, he
+received a communication from General Johnston, dated the
+thirteenth, proposing an armistice to enable the National and
+Confederate governments to negotiate on equal terms. It had been
+dictated by Jefferson Davis during the conference at Greensboro,
+written down by S.R. Mallory, and merely signed by Johnston, and
+was inadmissible and even offensive in its terms; but Sherman,
+anxious for peace, and himself incapable of discourtesy to a brave
+enemy, took no notice of its language, and answered so cordially
+that the Confederates were probably encouraged to ask for better
+conditions of surrender than they had expected to receive.</p>
+<p>The two great antagonists met on April 17, when<a name="page522" id="page522"></a> Sherman
+offered Johnston the same terms that had been accorded Lee, and
+also communicated the news he had that morning received of the
+murder of Mr. Lincoln. The Confederate general expressed his
+unfeigned sorrow at this calamity, which smote the South, he said,
+as deeply as the North; and in this mood of sympathy the discussion
+began. Johnston asserted that he would not be justified in such a
+capitulation as Sherman proposed, but suggested that together they
+might arrange the terms of a permanent peace. This idea pleased
+Sherman, to whom the prospect of ending the war without shedding
+another drop of blood was so tempting that he did not sufficiently
+consider the limits of his authority in the matter. It can be said,
+moreover, in extenuation of his course, that President Lincoln's
+despatch to Grant of March 3, which expressly forbade Grant to
+"decide, discuss, or to confer upon any political question," had
+never been communicated to Sherman; while the very liberality of
+Grant's terms led him to believe that he was acting in accordance
+with the views of the administration.</p>
+<p>But the wisdom of Lincoln's peremptory order was completely
+vindicated. With the best intentions in the world, Sherman,
+beginning very properly by offering his antagonist the same terms
+accorded Lee, ended, after two days' negotiation, by making a
+treaty of peace with the Confederate States, including a
+preliminary armistice, the disbandment of the Confederate armies,
+recognition by the United States Executive of the several State
+governments, re&euml;stablishment of the Federal courts, and a
+general amnesty. "Not being fully empowered by our respective
+principals to fulfil these terms," the agreement truthfully
+concluded, "we individually and officially pledge ourselves to
+promptly obtain the necessary authority."</p>
+<p><a name="page523" id="page523"></a> The rebel President, with unnecessary
+formality, required a report from General Breckinridge, his
+Secretary of War, on the desirability of ratifying this most
+favorable convention. Scarcely had he given it his indorsement when
+news came that it had been disapproved at Washington, and that
+Sherman had been directed to continue his military operations; and
+the peripatetic government once more took up its southward
+flight.</p>
+<p>The moment General Grant read the agreement he saw it was
+entirely inadmissible. The new President called his cabinet
+together, and Mr. Lincoln's instructions of March 3 to Grant were
+repeated to Sherman&mdash;somewhat tardily, it must be
+confessed&mdash;as his rule of action. All this was a matter of
+course, and General Sherman could not properly, and perhaps would
+not, have objected to it. But the calm spirit of Lincoln was now
+absent from the councils of the government; and it was not in
+Andrew Johnson and Mr. Stanton to pass over a mistake like this,
+even in the case of one of the most illustrious captains of the
+age. They ordered Grant to proceed at once to Sherman's
+headquarters, and to direct operations against the enemy; and, what
+was worse, Mr. Stanton printed in the newspapers the reasons of the
+government for disapproving the agreement in terms of sharpest
+censure of General Sherman. This, when it came to his notice some
+weeks later, filled him with hot indignation, and, coupled with
+some orders Halleck, who had been made commander of the armies of
+the Potomac and the James, issued to Meade, to disregard Sherman's
+truce and push forward against Johnston, roused him to open
+defiance of the authorities he thought were persecuting him, and
+made him declare in a report to Grant, that he would have
+maintained his truce at any cost of life. Halleck's order,
+<a name="page524" id="page524"></a> however, had been nullified by
+Johnston's surrender, and Grant, suggesting that this outburst was
+uncalled for, offered Sherman the opportunity to correct the
+statement. This he refused, insisting that his record stand as
+written, although avowing his readiness to obey all future orders
+of Grant and the President.</p>
+<p>So far as Johnston was concerned, the war was indeed over. He
+was unable longer to hold his men together. Eight thousand of them
+left their camps and went home in the week of the truce, many
+riding away on the artillery horses and train mules. On notice of
+Federal disapproval of his negotiations with Sherman, he
+disregarded Jefferson Davis's instructions to disband the infantry
+and try to escape with the cavalry and light guns, and answered
+Sherman's summons by inviting another conference, at which, on
+April 26, he surrendered all the forces in his command on the same
+terms granted Lee at Appomattox; Sherman supplying, as did Grant,
+rations for the beaten army. Thirty-seven thousand men and officers
+were paroled in North Carolina&mdash;exclusive, of course, of the
+thousands who had slipped away to their homes during the suspension
+of hostilities.</p>
+<p>After Appomattox the rebellion fell to pieces all at once. Lee
+surrendered less than one sixth of the Confederates in arms on
+April 9. The armies that still remained, though inconsiderable when
+compared with the mighty host under the national colors, were yet
+infinitely larger than any Washington ever commanded, and capable
+of strenuous resistance and of incalculable mischief. But the march
+of Sherman from Atlanta to the sea, and his northward progress
+through the Carolinas, had predisposed the great interior region to
+make an end of strife: a tendency which was greatly promoted by the
+masterly raid of General J.H. Wilson's <a name="page525" id="page525"></a> cavalry
+through Alabama, and his defeat of Forrest at Selma. An officer of
+Taylor's staff came to Canby's headquarters on April 19 to make
+arrangements for the surrender of all the Confederate forces east
+of the Mississippi not already paroled by Sherman and Wilson,
+embracing some forty-two thousand men. The terms were agreed upon
+and signed on May 4, at the village of Citronelle in Alabama. At
+the same time and place the Confederate Commodore Farrand
+surrendered to Rear-Admiral Thatcher all the naval forces Of the
+Confederacy in the neighborhood of Mobile&mdash;a dozen vessels and
+some hundreds of officers.</p>
+<p>The rebel navy had practically ceased to exist some months
+before. The splendid fight in Mobile Bay on August 5, 1864, between
+Farragut's fleet and the rebel ram <i>Tennessee</i>, with her three
+attendant gunboats, and Cushing's daring destruction of the
+powerful <i>Albemarle</i> in Albemarle Sound on October 27, marked
+its end in Confederate waters. The duel between the
+<i>Kearsarge</i> and the <i>Alabama</i> off Cherbourg had already
+taken place; a few more encounters, at or near foreign ports,
+furnished occasion for personal bravery and subsequent lively
+diplomatic correspondence; and rebel vessels, fitted out under the
+unduly lenient "neutrality" of France and England, continued for a
+time to work havoc with American shipping in various parts of the
+world. But these two Union successes, and the final capture of Fort
+Fisher and of Wilmington early in 1865, which closed the last haven
+for daring blockade-runners, practically silenced the Confederate
+navy.</p>
+<p>General E. Kirby Smith commanded all the insurgent forces west
+of the Mississippi. On him the desperate hopes of Mr. Davis and his
+flying cabinet were fixed, after the successive surrenders of Lee
+and Johnston had left them no prospect in the east. They
+<a name="page526" id="page526"></a> imagined they could move westward,
+gathering up stragglers as they fled, and, crossing the river, join
+Smith's forces, and there continue the war. But after a time even
+this hope failed them. Their escort melted away; members of the
+cabinet dropped off on various pretexts, and Mr. Davis, abandoning
+the attempt to reach the Mississippi River, turned again toward the
+east in an effort to gain the Florida coast and escape by means of
+a sailing vessel to Texas.</p>
+<p>The two expeditions sent in pursuit of him by General Wilson did
+not allow this consummation, which the government at Washington
+might possibly have viewed with equanimity. His camp near
+Irwinville, Georgia, was surrounded by Lieutenant-Colonel
+Pritchard's command at dawn on May 10, and he was captured as he
+was about to mount horse with a few companions and ride for the
+coast, leaving his family to follow more slowly. The tradition that
+he was captured in disguise, having donned female dress in a last
+desperate attempt to escape, has only this foundation, that Mrs.
+Davis threw a cloak over her husband's shoulders, and a shawl over
+his head, on the approach of the Federal soldiers. He was taken to
+Fortress Monroe, and there kept in confinement for about two years;
+was arraigned before the United States Circuit Court for the
+District of Virginia for the crime of treason, and released on
+bail; and was finally restored to all the duties and privileges of
+citizenship, except the right to hold office, by President
+Johnson's proclamation of amnesty of December 25, 1868.</p>
+<p>General E. Kirby Smith, on whom Davis's last hopes of success
+had centered, kept up so threatening an attitude that Sherman was
+sent from Washington to bring him to reason. But he did not long
+hold his position of solitary defiance. One more needless
+<a name="page527" id="page527"></a> skirmish took place near Brazos, Texas,
+and then Smith followed the example of Taylor and surrendered his
+entire force, some eighteen thousand, to General Canby, on May 26.
+One hundred and seventy-five thousand men in all were surrendered
+by the different Confederate commanders, and there were, in
+addition to these, about ninety-nine thousand prisoners in national
+custody during the year. One third of these were exchanged, and two
+thirds released. This was done as rapidly as possible by successive
+orders of the War Department, beginning on May 9 and continuing
+through the summer.</p>
+<p>The first object of the government was to stop the waste of war.
+Recruiting ceased immediately after Lee's surrender, and measures
+were taken to reduce as promptly as possible the vast military
+establishment. Every chief of bureau was ordered, on April 28, to
+proceed at once to the reduction of expenses in his department to a
+peace footing; and this before Taylor or Smith had surrendered, and
+while Jefferson Davis was still at large. The army of a million men
+was brought down, with incredible ease and celerity, to one of
+twenty-five thousand.</p>
+<p>Before the great army melted away into the greater body of
+citizens, the soldiers enjoyed one final triumph, a march through
+the capital, undisturbed by death or danger, under the eyes of
+their highest commanders, military and civilian, and the
+representatives of the people whose nationality they had saved.
+Those who witnessed this solemn yet joyous pageant will never
+forget it, and will pray that their children may never witness
+anything like it. For two days this formidable host marched the
+long stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue, starting from the shadow of
+the dome of the Capitol, and filling that wide thoroughfare to
+Georgetown with <a name="page528" id="page528"></a> a serried mass, moving with the easy yet
+rapid pace of veterans in cadence step. As a mere spectacle this
+march of the mightiest host the continent has ever seen gathered
+together was grand and imposing; but it was not as a spectacle
+alone that it affected the beholder most deeply. It was not a mere
+holiday parade; it was an army of citizens on their way home after
+a long and terrible war. Their clothes were worn and pierced with
+bullets; their banners had been torn with shot and shell, and
+lashed in the winds of a thousand battles; the very drums and fifes
+had called out the troops to numberless night alarms, and sounded
+the onset on historic fields. The whole country claimed these
+heroes as a part of themselves. And now, done with fighting, they
+were going joyously and peaceably to their homes, to take up again
+the tasks they had willingly laid down in the hour of their
+country's peril.</p>
+<p>The world had many lessons to learn from this great conflict,
+which liberated a subject people and changed the tactics of modern
+warfare; but the greatest lesson it taught the nations of waiting
+Europe was the conservative power of democracy&mdash;that a million
+men, flushed with victory, and with arms in their hands, could be
+trusted to disband the moment the need for their services was over,
+and take up again the soberer labors of peace.</p>
+<p>Friends loaded these veterans with flowers as they swung down
+the Avenue, both men and officers, until some were fairly hidden
+under their fragrant burden. There was laughter and applause;
+grotesque figures were not absent as Sherman's legions passed, with
+their "bummers" and their regimental pets; but with all the
+shouting and the laughter and the joy of this unprecedented
+ceremony, there was one sad and dominant thought which could not be
+driven from the minds of <a name="page529" id="page529"></a> those who saw it&mdash;that of the
+men who were absent, and who had, nevertheless, richly earned the
+right to be there. The soldiers in their shrunken companies were
+conscious of the ever-present memories of the brave comrades who
+had fallen by the way; and in the whole army there was the
+passionate and unavailing regret for their wise, gentle, and
+powerful friend, Abraham Lincoln, gone forever from the house by
+the Avenue, who had called the great host into being, directed the
+course of the nation during the four years they had been fighting
+for its preservation, and for whom, more than for any other, this
+crowning peaceful pageant would have been fraught with deep and
+happy meaning.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="page530" id="page530"></a>
+<h2><a name="XXXVII" id="XXXVII"></a>XXXVII</h2>
+<br />
+<p><i>The 14th of April&mdash;Celebration at Fort
+Sumter&mdash;Last Cabinet Meeting&mdash;Lincoln's
+Attitude toward Threats of Assassination&mdash;Booth's
+Plot&mdash;Ford's Theater&mdash;Fate of the
+Assassins&mdash;The Mourning Pageant</i></p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<p>Mr. Lincoln had returned to Washington, refreshed by his visit
+to City Point, and cheered by the unmistakable signs that the war
+was almost over. With that ever-present sense of responsibility
+which distinguished him, he gave his thoughts to the momentous
+question of the restoration of the Union and of harmony between the
+lately warring sections. His whole heart was now enlisted in the
+work of "binding up the nation's wounds," and of doing all which
+might "achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace."</p>
+<p>April 14 was a day of deep and tranquil happiness throughout the
+United States. It was Good Friday, observed by a portion of the
+people as an occasion of fasting and religious meditation; though
+even among the most devout the great tidings of the preceding week
+exerted their joyous influence, and changed this period of
+traditional mourning into an occasion of general thanksgiving. But
+though the Misereres turned of themselves to Te Deums, the date was
+not to lose its awful significance in the calendar: at night it was
+claimed once more by a world-wide sorrow.</p>
+<p>The thanksgiving of the nation found its principal expression at
+Charleston Harbor, where the flag of the Union received that day a
+conspicuous reparation on <a name="page531" id="page531"></a> the spot where it had first been
+outraged. At noon General Robert Anderson raised over Fort Sumter
+the identical flag lowered and saluted by him four years before;
+the surrender of Lee giving a more transcendent importance to this
+ceremony, made stately with orations, music, and military
+display.</p>
+<p>In Washington it was a day of deep peace and thankfulness. Grant
+had arrived that morning, and, going to the Executive Mansion, had
+met the cabinet, Friday being their regular day for assembling. He
+expressed some anxiety as to the news from Sherman which he was
+expecting hourly. The President answered him in that singular vein
+of poetic mysticism which, though constantly held in check by his
+strong common sense, formed such a remarkable element in his
+character. He assured Grant that the news would come soon and come
+favorably, for he had last night had his usual dream which preceded
+great events. He seemed to be, he said, in a singular and
+indescribable vessel, but always the same, moving with great
+rapidity toward a dark and indefinite shore; he had had this dream
+before Antietam, Murfreesboro, Gettysburg, and Vicksburg. The
+cabinet were greatly impressed by this story; but Grant, most
+matter-of-fact of created beings, made the characteristic response
+that "Murfreesboro was no victory, and had no important results."
+The President did not argue this point with him, but repeated that
+Sherman would beat or had beaten Johnston; that his dream must
+relate to that, since he knew of no other important event likely at
+present to occur.</p>
+<p>Questions of trade between the States, and of various phases of
+reconstruction, occupied the cabinet on this last day of Lincoln's
+firm and tolerant rule. The President spoke at some length,
+disclosing his hope that much could be done to reanimate the States
+<a name="page532" id="page532"></a> and get their governments in successful
+operation before Congress came together. He was anxious to close
+the period of strife without over-much discussion. Particularly did
+he desire to avoid the shedding of blood, or any vindictiveness of
+punishment. "No one need expect that he would take any part in
+hanging or killing these men, even the worst of them." "Enough
+lives have been sacrificed," he exclaimed; "we must extinguish our
+resentments if we expect harmony and union." He did not wish the
+autonomy nor the individuality of the States disturbed; and he
+closed the session by commending the whole subject to the most
+careful consideration of his advisers. It was, he said, the great
+question pending&mdash;they must now begin to act in the interest
+of peace. Such were the last words that Lincoln spoke to his
+cabinet. They dispersed with these sentences of clemency and good
+will in their ears, never again to meet under his wise and
+benignant chairmanship. He had told them that morning a strange
+story, which made some demand upon their faith, but the
+circumstances under which they were next to come together were
+beyond the scope of the wildest fancy.</p>
+<p>The day was one of unusual enjoyment to Mr. Lincoln. His son
+Robert had returned from the field with General Grant, and the
+President spent an hour with the young captain in delighted
+conversation over the campaign. He denied himself generally to the
+throng of visitors, admitting only a few friends. In the afternoon
+he went for a long drive with Mrs. Lincoln. His mood, as it had
+been all day, was singularly happy and tender. He talked much of
+the past and future; after four years of trouble and tumult he
+looked forward to four years of comparative quiet and normal work;
+after that he expected to go back to Illinois and <a name="page533" id="page533"></a> practise
+law again. He was never simpler or gentler than on this day of
+unprecedented triumph; his heart overflowed with sentiments of
+gratitude to Heaven, which took the shape, usual to generous
+natures, of love and kindness to all men.</p>
+<p>From the very beginning of his presidency, Mr. Lincoln had been
+constantly subject to the threats of his enemies. His mail was
+infested with brutal and vulgar menace, and warnings of all sorts
+came to him from zealous or nervous friends. Most of these
+communications received no notice. In cases where there seemed a
+ground for inquiry, it was made, as carefully as possible, by the
+President's private secretary, or by the War Department; but always
+without substantial result. Warnings that appeared most definite,
+when examined, proved too vague and confused for further attention.
+The President was too intelligent not to know that he was in some
+danger. Madmen frequently made their way to the very door of the
+executive office, and sometimes into Mr. Lincoln's presence. But he
+had himself so sane a mind, and a heart so kindly, even to his
+enemies, that it was hard for him to believe in political hatred so
+deadly as to lead to murder.</p>
+<p>He knew, indeed, that incitements to murder him were not
+uncommon in the South, but as is the habit of men constitutionally
+brave, he considered the possibilities of danger remote, and
+positively refused to torment himself with precautions for his own
+safety; summing the matter up by saying that both friends and
+strangers must have daily access to him; that his life was
+therefore in reach of any one, sane or mad, who was ready to murder
+and be hanged for it; and that he could not possibly guard against
+all danger unless he shut himself up in an iron box, in which
+condition he could scarcely perform the duties of a President. He
+<a name="page534" id="page534"></a> therefore went in and out before the
+people, always unarmed, generally unattended. He received hundreds
+of visitors in a day, his breast bare to pistol or knife. He walked
+at midnight, with a single secretary, or alone, from the Executive
+Mansion to the War Department and back. He rode through the lonely
+roads of an uninhabited suburb from the White House to the
+Soldiers' Home in the dusk of the evening, and returned to his work
+in the morning before the town was astir. He was greatly annoyed
+when it was decided that there must be a guard at the Executive
+Mansion, and that a squad of cavalry must accompany him on his
+daily drive; but he was always reasonable, and yielded to the best
+judgment of others.</p>
+<p>Four years of threats and boastings that were unfounded, and of
+plots that came to nothing, thus passed away; but precisely at the
+time when the triumph of the nation seemed assured, and a feeling
+of peace and security was diffused over the country, one of the
+conspiracies, apparently no more important than the others, ripened
+in the sudden heat of hatred and despair. A little band of
+malignant secessionists, consisting of John Wilkes Booth, an actor
+of a family of famous players; Lewis Powell, alias Payne, a
+disbanded rebel soldier from Florida; George Atzerodt, formerly a
+coachmaker, but more recently a spy and blockade-runner of the
+Potomac; David E. Herold, a young druggist's clerk; Samuel Arnold
+and Michael O'Laughlin, Maryland secessionists and Confederate
+soldiers; and John H. Surratt, had their ordinary rendezvous at the
+house of Mrs. Mary E. Surratt, the widowed mother of the last
+named, formerly a woman of some property in Maryland, but reduced
+by reverses to keeping a small boarding-house in Washington.</p>
+<p>Booth was the leader of the little coterie. He was a
+<a name="page535" id="page535"></a> young man of twenty-six, strikingly
+handsome, with that ease and grace of manner which came to him of
+right from his theatrical ancestors. He had played for several
+seasons with only indifferent success, his value as an actor lying
+rather in his romantic beauty of person than in any talent or
+industry he possessed. He was a fanatical secessionist, and had
+imbibed at Richmond and other Southern cities where he played a
+furious spirit of partizanship against Lincoln and the Union party.
+After the re&euml;lection of Mr. Lincoln, he visited Canada,
+consorted with the rebel emissaries there, and&mdash;whether or not
+at their instigation cannot certainly be said&mdash;conceived a
+scheme to capture the President and take him to Richmond. He passed
+a great part of the autumn and winter pursuing this fantastic
+enterprise, seeming to be always well supplied with money; but the
+winter wore away, and nothing was accomplished. On March 4 he was
+at the Capitol, and created a disturbance by trying to force his
+way through the line of policemen who guarded the passage through
+which the President walked to the east front of the building. His
+intentions at this time are not known; he afterward said he lost an
+excellent chance of killing the President that day.</p>
+<p>His ascendancy over his fellow-conspirators seems to have been
+complete. After the surrender of Lee, in an access of malice and
+rage akin to madness he called them together and assigned each his
+part in the new crime which had risen in his mind out of the
+abandoned abduction scheme. This plan was as brief and simple as it
+was horrible. Powell, alias Payne, the stalwart, brutal,
+simple-minded boy from Florida, was to murder Seward; Atzerodt, the
+comic villain of the drama, was assigned to remove Andrew Johnson;
+Booth reserved for himself the most conspicuous r&ocirc;le of the
+tragedy.<a name="page536" id="page536"></a> It was Herold's duty to attend him as
+page and aid him in his escape. Minor parts were given to
+stage-carpenters and other hangers-on, who probably did not
+understand what it all meant. Herold, Atzerodt, and Surratt had
+previously deposited at a tavern at Surrattsville, Maryland, owned
+by Mrs. Surratt, but kept by a man named Lloyd, a quantity of arms
+and materials to be used in the abduction scheme. Mrs. Surratt,
+being at the tavern on the eleventh, warned Lloyd to have the
+"shooting-irons" in readiness, and, visiting the place again on the
+fourteenth, told him they would probably be called for that
+night.</p>
+<p>The preparations for the final blow were made with feverish
+haste. It was only about noon of the fourteenth that Booth learned
+that the President was to go to Ford's Theater that night to see
+the play "Our American Cousin." It has always been a matter of
+surprise in Europe that he should have been at a place of amusement
+on Good Friday; but the day was not kept sacred in America, except
+by the members of certain churches. The President was fond of the
+theater. It was one of his few means of recreation. Besides, the
+town was thronged with soldiers and officers, all eager to see him;
+by appearing in public he would gratify many people whom he could
+not otherwise meet. Mrs. Lincoln had asked General and Mrs. Grant
+to accompany her; they had accepted, and the announcement that they
+would be present had been made in the evening papers; but they
+changed their plans, and went north by an afternoon train. Mrs.
+Lincoln then invited in their stead Miss Harris and Major Rathbone,
+the daughter and the stepson of Senator Ira Harris. Being detained
+by visitors, the play had made some progress when the President
+appeared. The band struck up "Hail to the Chief," the actors ceased
+<a name="page537" id="page537"></a> playing, the audience rose, cheering
+tumultuously, the President bowed in acknowledgment, and the play
+went on.</p>
+<p>From the moment he learned of the President's intention, Booth's
+every action was alert and energetic. He and his confederates were
+seen on horseback in every part of the city. He had a hurried
+conference with Mrs. Surratt before she started for Lloyd's tavern.
+He intrusted to an actor named Matthews a carefully prepared
+statement of his reasons for committing the murder, which he
+charged him to give to the publisher of the "National
+Intelligencer," but which Matthews, in the terror and dismay of the
+night, burned without showing to any one. Booth was perfectly at
+home in Ford's Theater. Either by himself, or with the aid of
+friends, he arranged his whole plan of attack and escape during the
+afternoon. He counted upon address and audacity to gain access to
+the small passage behind the President's box. Once there, he
+guarded against interference by an arrangement of a wooden bar to
+be fastened by a simple mortise in the angle of the wall and the
+door by which he had entered, so that the door could not be opened
+from without. He even provided for the contingency of not gaining
+entrance to the box by boring a hole in its door, through which he
+might either observe the occupants, or take aim and shoot. He hired
+at a livery-stable a small, fleet horse.</p>
+<p>A few minutes before ten o'clock, leaving his horse at the rear
+of the theater in charge of a call-boy, he went into a neighboring
+saloon, took a drink of brandy, and, entering the theater, passed
+rapidly to the little hallway leading to the President's box.
+Showing a card to the servant in attendance, he was allowed to
+enter, closed the door noiselessly, and secured it with the wooden
+bar he had previously made ready, without <a name="page538" id="page538"></a>
+disturbing any of the occupants of the box, between whom and
+himself yet remained the partition and the door through which he
+had made the hole.</p>
+<p>No one, not even the comedian who uttered them, could ever
+remember the last words of the piece that were spoken that
+night&mdash;the last Abraham Lincoln heard upon earth. The tragedy
+in the box turned play and players to the most unsubstantial of
+phantoms. Here were five human beings in a narrow space&mdash;the
+greatest man of his time, in the glory of the most stupendous
+success of our history; his wife, proud and happy; a pair of
+betrothed lovers, with all the promise of felicity that youth,
+social position, and wealth could give them; and this handsome
+young actor, the pet of his little world. The glitter of fame,
+happiness, and ease was upon the entire group; yet in an instant
+everything was to be changed. Quick death was to come to the
+central figure&mdash;the central figure of the century's great and
+famous men. Over the rest hovered fates from which a mother might
+pray kindly death to save her children in their infancy. One was to
+wander with the stain of murder upon his soul, in frightful
+physical pain, with a price upon his head and the curse of a world
+upon his name, until he died a dog's death in a burning barn; the
+wife was to pass the rest of her days in melancholy and madness;
+and one of the lovers was to slay the other, and end his life a
+raving maniac.</p>
+<p>The murderer seemed to himself to be taking part in a play. Hate
+and brandy had for weeks kept his brain in a morbid state. Holding
+a pistol in one hand and a knife in the other, he opened the box
+door, put the pistol to the President's head, and fired. Major
+Rathbone sprang to grapple with him, and received a savage knife
+wound in the arm. Then, rushing forward,<a name="page539" id="page539"></a> Booth
+placed his hand on the railing of the box and vaulted to the stage.
+It was a high leap, but nothing to such an athlete. He would have
+got safely away but for his spur catching in the flag that draped
+the front of the box. He fell, the torn flag trailing on his spur;
+but, though the fall had broken his leg, he rose instantly and
+brandishing his knife and shouting, "Sic Semper Tyrannis!" fled
+rapidly across the stage and out of sight. Major Rathbone called,
+"Stop him!" The cry rang out, "He has shot the President!" and from
+the audience, stupid at first with surprise, and wild afterward
+with excitement and horror, two or three men jumped upon the stage
+in pursuit of the assassin. But he ran through the familiar
+passages, leaped upon his horse, rewarding with a kick and a curse
+the boy who held him, and escaped into the night.</p>
+<p>The President scarcely moved; his head drooped forward slightly,
+his eyes closed. Major Rathbone, not regarding his own grievous
+hurt, rushed to the door of the box to summon aid. He found it
+barred, and some one on the outside beating and clamoring for
+admittance. It was at once seen that the President's wound was
+mortal. A large derringer bullet had entered the back of the head,
+on the left side, and, passing through the brain, lodged just
+behind the left eye. He was carried to a house across the street,
+and laid upon a bed in a small room at the rear of the hall on the
+ground floor. Mrs. Lincoln followed, tenderly cared for by Miss
+Harris. Rathbone, exhausted by loss of blood, fainted, and was
+taken home. Messengers were sent for the cabinet, for the
+surgeon-general, for Dr. Stone, Mr. Lincoln's family physician, and
+for others whose official or private relations to the President
+gave them the right to be there. A crowd of people rushed
+instinctively to the White House, and, bursting<a name="page540" id="page540"></a>
+through the doors, shouted the dreadful news to Robert Lincoln and
+Major Hay, who sat together in an upper room. They ran down-stairs,
+and as they were entering a carriage to drive to Tenth Street, a
+friend came up and told them that Mr. Seward and most of the
+cabinet had been murdered. The news seemed so improbable that they
+hoped it was all untrue; but, on reaching Tenth Street, the
+excitement and the gathering crowds prepared them for the worst. In
+a few moments those who had been sent for and many others were
+assembled in the little chamber where the chief of the state lay in
+his agony. His son was met at the door by Dr. Stone, who with grave
+tenderness informed him that there was no hope.</p>
+<p>The President had been shot a few minutes after ten. The wound
+would have brought instant death to most men, but his vital
+tenacity was remarkable. He was, of course, unconscious from the
+first moment; but he breathed with slow and regular respiration
+throughout the night. As the dawn came and the lamplight grew pale,
+his pulse began to fail; but his face, even then, was scarcely more
+haggard than those of the sorrowing men around him. His automatic
+moaning ceased, a look of unspeakable peace came upon his worn
+features, and at twenty-two minutes after seven he died. Stanton
+broke the silence by saying:</p>
+<p>"Now he belongs to the ages."</p>
+<p>Booth had done his work efficiently. His principal subordinate,
+Payne, had acted with equal audacity and cruelty, but not with
+equally fatal result. Going to the home of the Secretary of State,
+who lay ill in bed, he had forced his way to Mr. Seward's room, on
+the pretext of being a messenger from the physician with a packet
+of medicine to deliver. The servant at the door tried to prevent
+him from going up-stairs; the<a name="page541" id="page541"></a> Secretary's son, Frederick
+W. Seward, hearing the noise, stepped out into the hall to check
+the intruders. Payne rushed upon him with a pistol which missed
+fire, then rained blows with it upon his head, and, grappling and
+struggling, the two came to the Secretary's room and fell together
+through the door. Frederick Seward soon became unconscious, and
+remained so for several weeks, being, perhaps, the last man in the
+civilized world to learn the strange story of the night. The
+Secretary's daughter and a soldier nurse were in the room. Payne
+struck them right and left, wounding the nurse with his knife, and
+then, rushing to the bed, began striking at the throat of the
+crippled statesman, inflicting three terrible wounds on his neck
+and cheek. The nurse recovered himself and seized the assassin from
+behind, while another son, roused by his sister's screams, came
+into the room and managed at last to force him outside the
+door&mdash;not, however, until he and the nurse had been stabbed
+repeatedly. Payne broke away at last, and ran down-stairs,
+seriously wounding an attendant on the way, reached the door
+unhurt, sprang upon his horse, and rode leisurely away. When
+surgical aid arrived, the Secretary's house looked like a field
+hospital. Five of its inmates were bleeding from ghastly wounds,
+and two of them, among the highest officials of the nation, it was
+thought might never see the light of another day; though all
+providentially recovered.</p>
+<p>The assassin left behind him his hat, which apparently trivial
+loss cost him and one of his fellow conspirators their lives.
+Fearing that the lack of it would arouse suspicion, he abandoned
+his horse, instead of making good his escape, and hid himself in
+the woods east of Washington for two days. Driven at last by
+hunger, he returned to the city and presented himself
+at<a name="page542" id="page542"></a> Mrs. Surratt's house at the very moment
+when all its inmates had been arrested and were about to be taken
+to the office of the provost-marshal. Payne thus fell into the
+hands of justice, and the utterance of half a dozen words by him
+and the unhappy woman whose shelter he sought proved the
+death-warrant of them both.</p>
+<p>Booth had been recognized by dozens of people as he stood before
+the footlights and brandished his dagger; but his swift horse
+quickly carried him beyond any haphazard pursuit. He crossed the
+Navy-Yard bridge and rode into Maryland, being joined very soon by
+Herold. The assassin and his wretched acolyte came at midnight to
+Mrs. Surratt's tavern, and afterward pushed on through the
+moonlight to the house of an acquaintance of Booth, a surgeon named
+Mudd, who set Booth's leg and gave him a room, where he rested
+until evening, when Mudd sent them on their desolate way south.
+After parting with him they went to the residence of Samuel Cox
+near Port Tobacco, and were by him given into the charge of Thomas
+Jones, a contraband trader between Maryland and Richmond, a man so
+devoted to the interests of the Confederacy that treason and murder
+seemed every-day incidents to be accepted as natural and necessary.
+He kept Booth and Herold in hiding at the peril of his life for a
+week, feeding and caring for them in the woods near his house,
+watching for an opportunity to ferry them across the Potomac; doing
+this while every wood-path was haunted by government detectives,
+well knowing that death would promptly follow his detection, and
+that a reward was offered for the capture of his helpless charge
+that would make a rich man of any one who gave him up.</p>
+<p>With such devoted aid Booth might have wandered <a name="page543" id="page543"></a> a long
+way; but there is no final escape but suicide for an assassin with
+a broken leg. At each painful move the chances of discovery
+increased. Jones was able, after repeated failures, to row his
+fated guests across the Potomac. Arriving on the Virginia side,
+they lived the lives of hunted animals for two or three days
+longer, finding to their horror that they were received by the
+strongest Confederates with more of annoyance than enthusiasm,
+though none, indeed, offered to betray them. Booth had by this time
+seen the comments of the newspapers on his work, and bitterer than
+death or bodily suffering was the blow to his vanity. He confided
+his feelings of wrong to his diary, comparing himself favorably
+with Brutus and Tell, and complaining: "I am abandoned, with the
+curse of Cain upon me, when, if the world knew my heart, that one
+blow would have made me great."</p>
+<p>On the night of April 25, he and Herold were surrounded by a
+party under Lieutenant E.P. Doherty, as they lay sleeping in a barn
+belonging to one Garrett, in Caroline County, Virginia, on the road
+to Bowling Green. When called upon to surrender, Booth refused. A
+parley took place, after which Doherty told him he would fire the
+barn. At this Herold came out and surrendered. The barn was fired,
+and while it was burning, Booth, clearly visible through the cracks
+in the building, was shot by Boston Corbett, a sergeant of cavalry.
+He was hit in the back of the neck, not far from the place where he
+had shot the President, lingered about three hours in great pain,
+and died at seven in the morning.</p>
+<p>The surviving conspirators, with the exception of John H.
+Surratt, were tried by military commission sitting in Washington in
+the months of May and June. The charges against them specified that
+they were<a name="page544" id="page544"></a> "incited and encouraged" to treason and
+murder by Jefferson Davis and the Confederate emissaries in Canada.
+This was not proved on the trial; though the evidence bearing on
+the case showed frequent communications between Canada and Richmond
+and the Booth coterie in Washington, and some transactions in
+drafts at the Montreal Bank, where Jacob Thompson and Booth both
+kept accounts. Mrs. Surratt, Payne, Herold, and Atzerodt were
+hanged on July 7; Mudd, Arnold, and O'Laughlin were imprisoned for
+life at the Tortugas, the term being afterward shortened; and
+Spangler, the scene-shifter at the theater, was sentenced to six
+years in jail. John H. Surratt escaped to Canada, and from there to
+England. He wandered over Europe, and finally was detected in Egypt
+and brought back to Washington in 1867, where his trial lasted two
+months, and ended in a disagreement of the jury.</p>
+<p>Upon the hearts of a people glowing with the joy of victory, the
+news of the President's assassination fell as a great shock. It was
+the first time the telegraph had been called upon to spread over
+the world tidings of such deep and mournful significance. In the
+stunning effect of the unspeakable calamity the country lost sight
+of the national success of the past week, and it thus came to pass
+that there was never any organized expression of the general
+exultation or rejoicing in the North over the downfall of the
+rebellion. It was unquestionably best that it should be so; and
+Lincoln himself would not have had it otherwise. He hated the
+arrogance of triumph; and even in his cruel death he would have
+been glad to know that his passage to eternity would prevent too
+loud an exultation over the vanquished. As it was, the South could
+take no umbrage at a grief so genuine and so legitimate; the
+<a name="page545" id="page545"></a> people of that section even shared, to a
+certain degree, in the lamentations over the bier of one whom in
+their inmost hearts they knew to have wished them well.</p>
+<p>There was one exception to the general grief too remarkable to
+be passed over in silence. Among the extreme radicals in Congress,
+Mr. Lincoln's determined clemency and liberality toward the
+Southern people had made an impression so unfavorable that, though
+they were naturally shocked at his murder, they did not, among
+themselves, conceal their gratification that he was no longer in
+the way. In a political caucus, held a few hours after the
+President's death, "the feeling was nearly universal," to quote the
+language of one of their most prominent representatives, "that the
+accession of Johnson to the presidency would prove a godsend to the
+country."</p>
+<p>In Washington, with this singular exception, the manifestation
+of public grief was immediate and demonstrative. Within an hour
+after the body was taken to the White House, the town was shrouded
+in black. Not only the public buildings, the shops, and the better
+residences were draped in funeral decorations, but still more
+touching proof of affection was seen in the poorest class of
+houses, where laboring men of both colors found means in their
+penury to afford some scanty show of mourning. The interest and
+veneration of the people still centered in the White House, where,
+under a tall catafalque in the East Room, the late chief lay in the
+majesty of death, and not at the modest tavern on Pennsylvania
+Avenue, where the new President had his lodging, and where
+Chief-Justice Chase administered the oath of office to him at
+eleven o'clock on the morning of April 15.</p>
+<p>It was determined that the funeral ceremonies in Washington
+should be celebrated on Wednesday, April<a name="page546" id="page546"></a> 19, and
+all the churches throughout the country were invited to join at the
+same time in appropriate observances. The ceremonies in the East
+Room were brief and simple&mdash;the burial service, a prayer, and
+a short address; while all the pomp and circumstance which the
+government could command was employed to give a fitting escort from
+the White House to the Capitol, where the body of the President was
+to lie in state. The vast procession moved amid the booming of
+minute-guns, and the tolling of all the bells in Washington
+Georgetown, and Alexandria; and to associate the pomp of the day
+with the greatest work of Lincoln's life, a detachment of colored
+troops marched at the head of the line.</p>
+<p>As soon as it was announced that Mr. Lincoln was to be buried at
+Springfield, Illinois, every town and city on the route begged that
+the train might halt within its limits and give its people the
+opportunity of testifying their grief and reverence. It was finally
+arranged that the funeral cortege should follow substantially the
+same route over which he had come in 1861 to take possession of the
+office to which he had given a new dignity and value for all time.
+On April 21, accompanied by a guard of honor, and in a train decked
+with somber trappings, the journey was begun. At Baltimore through
+which, four years before, it was a question whether the
+President-elect could pass with safety to his life, the coffin was
+taken with reverent care to the great dome of the Exchange, where,
+surrounded with evergreens and lilies, it lay for several hours,
+the people passing by in mournful throngs. The same demonstration
+was repeated, gaining continually in intensity of feeling and
+solemn splendor of display, in every city through which the
+procession passed. The reception in New York was worthy alike
+<a name="page547" id="page547"></a> of the great city and of the memory of
+the man they honored. The body lay in state in the City Hall, and a
+half-million people passed in deep silence before it. Here General
+Scott came, pale and feeble, but resolute, to pay his tribute of
+respect to his departed friend and commander.</p>
+<p>The train went up the Hudson River by night, and at every town
+and village on the way vast waiting crowds were revealed by the
+fitful glare of torches, and dirges and hymns were sung. As the
+train passed into Ohio, the crowds increased in density, and the
+public grief seemed intensified at every step westward. The people
+of the great central basin were claiming their own. The day spent
+at Cleveland was unexampled in the depth of emotion it brought to
+life. Some of the guard of honor have said that it was at this
+point they began to appreciate the place which Lincoln was to hold
+in history.</p>
+<p>The last stage of this extraordinary progress was completed, and
+Springfield reached at nine o'clock on the morning of May 3.
+Nothing had been done or thought of for two weeks in Springfield
+but the preparations for this day, and they had been made with a
+thoroughness which surprised the visitors from the East. The body
+lay in state in the Capitol, which was richly draped from roof to
+basement in black velvet and silver fringe. Within it was a bower
+of bloom and fragrance. For twenty-four hours an unbroken stream of
+people passed through, bidding their friend and neighbor welcome
+home and farewell; and at ten o'clock on May 4, the coffin lid was
+closed, and a vast procession moved out to Oak Ridge, where the
+town had set apart a lovely spot for his grave, and where the dead
+President was committed to the soil of the State which had so loved
+and honored him. The <a name="page548" id="page548"></a>ceremonies at the grave were simple and
+touching. Bishop Simpson delivered a pathetic oration; prayers were
+offered and hymns were sung; but the weightiest and most eloquent
+words uttered anywhere that day were those of the second inaugural,
+which the committee had wisely ordained to be read over his grave,
+as the friends of Raphael chose the incomparable canvas of the
+Transfiguration to be the chief ornament of his funeral.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="page549" id="page549"></a>
+<h2><a name="XXXVIII" id="XXXVIII"></a>XXXVIII</h2>
+<br />
+<p><i>Lincoln's Early Environment&mdash;Its Effect on his
+Character&mdash;His Attitude toward Slavery and the
+Slaveholder&mdash;His Schooling in Disappointment&mdash;His Seeming
+Failures&mdash;His Real Successes&mdash;The Final Trial&mdash;His
+Achievements&mdash;His Place in History</i></p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<p>A child born to an inheritance of want; a boy growing into a
+narrow world of ignorance; a youth taking up the burden of coarse
+manual labor; a man entering on the doubtful struggle of a local
+backwoods career&mdash;these were the beginnings of Abraham
+Lincoln, if we analyze them under the hard practical cynical
+philosophy which takes for its motto that "nothing succeeds but
+success." If, however, we adopt a broader philosophy, and apply the
+more generous and more universal principle that "everything
+succeeds which attacks favorable opportunity with fitting
+endeavor," then we see that it was the strong vitality, the active
+intelligence, and the indefinable psychological law of moral growth
+that assimilates the good and rejects the bad, which Nature gave
+this obscure child, that carried him to the service of mankind and
+to the admiration of the centuries with the same certainty with
+which the acorn grows to be the oak.</p>
+<p>We see how even the limitations of his environment helped the
+end. Self-reliance, that most vital characteristic of the pioneer,
+was his by blood and birth and training; and developed through the
+privations of his lot and the genius that was in him to the mighty
+<a name="page550" id="page550"></a> strength needed to guide our great
+country through the titanic struggle of the Civil War.</p>
+<p>The sense of equality was his, also by virtue of his pioneer
+training&mdash;a consciousness fostered by life from childhood to
+manhood in a state of society where there were neither rich to envy
+nor poor to despise, where the gifts and hardships of the forest
+were distributed impartially to each, and where men stood indeed
+equal before the forces of unsubdued nature.</p>
+<p>The same great forces taught liberality, modesty, charity,
+sympathy&mdash;in a word, neighborliness. In that hard life, far
+removed from the artificial aids and comforts of civilization,
+where all the wealth of Croesus, had a man possessed it, would not
+have sufficed to purchase relief from danger, or help in time of
+need, neighborliness became of prime importance. A good neighbor
+doubled his safety and his resources, a group of good neighbors
+increased his comfort and his prospects in a ratio that grew like
+the cube root. Here was opportunity to practise that virtue that
+Christ declared to be next to the love of God&mdash;the fruitful
+injunction to "love thy neighbor as thyself."</p>
+<p>Here, too, in communities far from the customary restraints of
+organized law, the common native intelligence of the pioneer was
+brought face to face with primary and practical questions of
+natural right. These men not only understood but appreciated the
+American doctrine of self-government. It was this understanding,
+this feeling, which taught Lincoln to write: "When the white man
+governs himself, that is self-government; but when he governs
+himself and also governs another man, that is more than
+self-government&mdash;that is despotism"; and its philosophic
+corollary: "He who would be no slave must consent to have no
+slave."</p>
+<p><a name="page551" id="page551"></a> Abraham Lincoln sprang from exceptional
+conditions&mdash;was in truth, in the language of Lowell, a "new
+birth of our new soil." But this distinction was not due alone to
+mere environment. The ordinary man, with ordinary natural gifts,
+found in Western pioneer communities a development essentially the
+same as he would have found under colonial Virginia or Puritan New
+England: a commonplace life, varying only with the changing ideas
+and customs of time and locality. But for the man with
+extraordinary powers of body and mind; for the individual gifted by
+nature with the genius which Abraham Lincoln possessed; the pioneer
+condition, with its severe training in self-denial, patience, and
+industry, was favorable to a development of character that helped
+in a pre&euml;minent degree to qualify him for the duties and
+responsibilities of leadership and government. He escaped the
+formal conventionalities which beget insincerity and dissimulation.
+He grew up without being warped by erroneous ideas or false
+principles; without being dwarfed by vanity, or tempted by
+self-interest.</p>
+<p>Some pioneer communities carried with them the institution of
+slavery; and in the slave State of Kentucky Lincoln was born. He
+remained there only a short time, and we have every reason to
+suppose that wherever he might have grown to maturity his very
+mental and moral fiber would have spurned the doctrine and practice
+of human slavery. And yet so subtle is the influence of birth and
+custom, that we can trace one lasting effect of this early and
+brief environment. Though he ever hated slavery, he never hated the
+slaveholder. This ineradicable feeling of pardon and sympathy for
+Kentucky and the South played no insignificant part in his dealings
+with grave problems of statesmanship. He struck slavery its
+death-blow with <a name="page552" id="page552"></a> the hand of war, but he tendered the
+slaveholder a golden equivalent with the hand of friendship and
+peace.</p>
+<p>His advancement in the astonishing career which carried him from
+obscurity to world-wide fame; from postmaster of New Salem village
+to President of the United States; from captain of a backwoods
+volunteer company to commander-in-chief of the army and navy, was
+neither sudden, nor accidental, nor easy. He was both ambitious and
+successful, but his ambition was moderate and his success was slow.
+And because his success was slow, his ambition never outgrew either
+his judgment or his powers. From the day when he left the paternal
+roof and launched his canoe on the head waters of the Sangamon
+River to begin life on his own account, to the day of his first
+inauguration, there intervened full thirty years of toil, of study,
+self-denial, patience; often of effort baffled, of hope deferred;
+sometimes of bitter disappointment. Given the natural gift of great
+genius, given the condition of favorable environment, it yet
+required an average lifetime and faithful unrelaxing effort to
+transform the raw country stripling into a competent ruler for this
+great nation.</p>
+<p>Almost every success was balanced&mdash;sometimes overbalanced
+by a seeming failure. Reversing the usual promotion, he went into
+the Black Hawk War a captain and, through no fault of his own, came
+out a private. He rode to the hostile frontier on horseback, and
+trudged home on foot. His store "winked out." His surveyor's
+compass and chain, with which he was earning a scanty living, were
+sold for debt. He was defeated in his first campaign for the
+legislature; defeated in his first attempt to be nominated for
+Congress; defeated in his application to be appointed commissioner
+<a name="page553" id="page553"></a> of the General Land Office; defeated for
+the Senate in the Illinois legislature of 1854, when he had
+forty-five votes to begin with, by Trumbull, who had only five
+votes to begin with; defeated in the legislature of 1858, by an
+antiquated apportionment, when his joint debates with Douglas had
+won him a popular plurality of nearly four thousand in a Democratic
+State; defeated in the nomination for Vice-President on the
+Fr&eacute;mont ticket in 1856, when a favorable nod from half a
+dozen wire-workers would have brought him success.</p>
+<p>Failures? Not so. Every seeming defeat was a slow success. His
+was the growth of the oak, and not of Jonah's gourd. Every
+scaffolding of temporary elevation he pulled down, every ladder of
+transient expectation which broke under his feet accumulated his
+strength, and piled up a solid mound which raised him to wider
+usefulness and clearer vision. He could not become a master workman
+until he had served a tedious apprenticeship. It was the quarter of
+a century of reading thinking, speech-making and legislating which
+qualified him for selection as the chosen champion of the Illinois
+Republicans in the great Lincoln-Douglas joint debates of 1858. It
+was the great intellectual victory won in these debates, plus the
+title "Honest old Abe," won by truth and manhood among his
+neighbors during a whole generation, that led the people of the
+United States to confide to his hands the duties and powers of
+President.</p>
+<p>And when, after thirty years of endeavor, success had beaten
+down defeat; when Lincoln had been nominated elected, and
+inaugurated, came the crowning trial of his faith and constancy.
+When the people, by free and lawful choice, had placed honor and
+power in his hands; when his signature could convene Congress,
+<a name="page554" id="page554"></a> approve laws, make ministers, cause
+ships to sail and armies to move; when he could speak with
+potential voice to other rulers of other lands, there suddenly came
+upon the government and the nation the symptoms of a fatal
+paralysis; honor seemed to dwindle and power to vanish. Was he
+then, after all, not to be President? Was patriotism dead? Was the
+Constitution waste paper? Was the Union gone?</p>
+<p>The indications were, indeed, ominous. Seven States were in
+rebellion. There was treason in Congress, treason in the Supreme
+Court, treason in the army and navy. Confusion and discord rent
+public opinion. To use Lincoln's own forcible simile, sinners were
+calling the righteous to repentance. Finally, the flag, insulted on
+the <i>Star of the West</i>, trailed in capitulation at Sumter and
+then came the humiliation of the Baltimore riot, and the President
+practically for a few days a prisoner in the capital of the
+nation.</p>
+<p>But his apprenticeship had been served, and there was no more
+failure. With faith and justice and generosity he conducted for
+four long years a civil war whose frontiers stretched from the
+Potomac to the Rio Grande; whose soldiers numbered a million men on
+each side; in which, counting skirmishes and battles small and
+great, was fought an average of two engagements every day; and
+during which every twenty-four hours saw an expenditure of two
+millions of money. The labor, the thought, the responsibility, the
+strain of intellect and anguish of soul that he gave to this great
+task, who can measure?</p>
+<p>The sincerity of the fathers of the Republic was impugned he
+justified them. The Declaration of Independence was called a
+"string of glittering generalities" and a "self-evident lie"; he
+refuted the aspersion. The Constitution was perverted; he corrected
+the error. The flag was insulted; he redressed the offense. The
+<a name="page555" id="page555"></a> government was assailed? he restored its
+authority. Slavery thrust the sword of civil war at the heart of
+the nation? he crushed slavery, and cemented the purified Union in
+new and stronger bonds.</p>
+<p>And all the while conciliation was as active as vindication was
+stern. He reasoned and pleaded with the anger of the South; he gave
+insurrection time to repent; he forbore to execute retaliation; he
+offered recompense to slaveholders; he pardoned treason.</p>
+<p>What but lifetime schooling in disappointment; what but the
+pioneer's self-reliance and freedom from prejudice; what but the
+patient faith, the clear perceptions of natural right, the unwarped
+sympathy and unbounding charity of this man with spirit so humble
+and soul so great, could have carried him through the labors he
+wrought to the victory he attained?</p>
+<p>As the territory may be said to be its body, and its material
+activities its blood, so patriotism may be said to be the vital
+breath of a nation. When patriotism dies, the nation dies, and its
+resources as well as its territory go to other peoples with
+stronger vitality.</p>
+<p>Patriotism can in no way be more effectively cultivated than by
+studying <a name="page556" id="page556"></a> and commemorating the achievements and
+virtues of our great men&mdash;the men who have lived and died for
+the nation, who have advanced its <a name="page557" id="page557"></a> prosperity, increased its
+power, added to its glory. In our brief history the United States
+can boast of many great men, and the achievement by its sons of
+many great deeds; and if we accord the first <a name="page558" id="page558"></a> rank to
+Washington as founder, so we must unhesitatingly give to Lincoln
+the second place as preserver and regenerator of American liberty.
+So far, however from being opposed or subordinated either to the
+other, the popular heart has already canonized these two as twin
+heroes in our national pantheon, as twin stars in the firmament of
+our national fame.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="page559" id="page559"></a>
+<h2><a name="INDEX" id="INDEX"></a>INDEX</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p><b>Able, Mrs.</b>, sister of Mary Owens, <a href='#page55'>55</a>, <a href='#page60'>60</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Adams, Charles Francis</b>, member of Congress, United States
+minister to England, sent to England, <a href='#page211'>211</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Alabama</b>, State of, admitted as State, 1819, <a href='#page19'>19</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Alabama</b>, the, Confederate cruiser, sunk by the
+<i>Kearsarge</i>, <a href='#page525'>525</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Albemarle</b>, the, Confederate ironclad, destruction of,
+October 27 1864, <a href='#page525'>525</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Albert</b>, Prince Consort, drafts note to Lord Russell about
+<i>Trent</i> affair, <a href='#page247'>247</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Alexander II</b>, Czar of Russia, emancipates Russian serfs,
+<a href='#page101'>101</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Alexandria</b>, Virginia, occupation of, <a href='#page214'>214</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>American Party</b>, principles of, <a href='#page101'>101</a>,
+<a href='#page102'>102</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nominates Millard Fillmore for
+President 1856, <a href='#page102'>102</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Anderson, Robert</b>, brevet major-general United States army,
+transfers his command to Fort Sumter, <a href='#page177'>177</a>,
+<a href='#page178'>178</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reports condition of Fort Sumter,
+<a href='#page182'>182</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">notified of coming relief, <a href='#page188'>188</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">defense and surrender of Fort
+Sumter, <a href='#page189'>189</a>, <a href='#page190'>190</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">telegram about Fr&eacute;mont's
+proclamation, <a href='#page240'>240</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sends Sherman to Nashville,
+<a href='#page254'>254</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">turns over command to Sherman,
+<a href='#page254'>254</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">raises flag over Fort Sumter,
+<a href='#page531'>531</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Antietam</b>, Maryland, battle of, September 17 1862, <a href='#page31'>31</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Arkansas</b>, State of, joins Confederacy, <a href='#page200'>200</a>, <a href='#page204'>204</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">military governor appointed for,
+<a href='#page419'>419</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reconstruction in, <a href='#page426'>426</a>, <a href='#page427'>427</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">slavery abolished in, <a href='#page427'>427</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">slavery in, throttled by public
+opinion, <a href='#page473'>473</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ratifies Thirteenth Amendment,
+<a href='#page475'>475</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Armies of the United States</b>, enlistment in, since beginning
+of the war, <a href='#page353'>353</a>, <a href='#page354'>354</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">numbers under Grant's command,
+March 1865, <a href='#page507'>507</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reduction of, to peace footing,
+<a href='#page527'>527</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">grand review of, <a href='#page527'>527-529</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Armstrong, Jack</b>, wrestles with Lincoln, <a href='#page25'>25</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Arnold, Samuel</b>, in conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln,
+<a href='#page534'>534</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">imprisoned, <a href='#page544'>544</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Atlanta</b>, Georgia, siege of, July 22 to September 1 1864,
+<a href='#page407'>407</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Atzerodt, George</b>, in conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln,
+<a href='#page534'>534</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">assigned to murder Andrew Johnson,
+<a href='#page535'>535</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">deposits arms in tavern at
+Surrattsville, <a href='#page536'>536</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">execution of, <a href='#page544'>544</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<b>Bailey, Theodorus</b>, rear-admiral United States navy,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in expedition against New Orleans,
+<a href='#page284'>284</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Bailhache, William H.</b>, prints Lincoln's first inaugural,
+<a href='#page168'>168</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Baker, Edward D.</b>, member of Congress, United States
+senator,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">brevet major-general United States
+Volunteers, at Springfield, Illinois, <a href='#page52'>52</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nominated for Congress, <a href='#page73'>73</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Mexican War, <a href='#page75'>75</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Ball's Bluff</b>, Virginia, battle of, October 21, 1861,
+<a href='#page262'>262</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Baltimore</b>, Maryland, Massachusetts Sixth mobbed in, <a href='#page193'>193</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">occupied by General Butler,
+<a href='#page199'>199</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">threatened by Early, <a href='#page403'>403</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">funeral honors to Lincoln in,
+<a href='#page546'>546</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Bancroft, George</b>, Secretary of the Navy, historian,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">minister to Prussia, letter to
+Lincoln, <a href='#page321'>321</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Banks, Nathaniel P.</b>, Speaker of the House of
+Representatives,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">major-general United States
+Volunteers, in Army of Virginia, <a href='#page310'>310</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">forces under, for defense of
+Washington, <a href='#page317'>317</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">operations against Port Hudson,
+<a href='#page382'>382</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">captures Port Hudson, <a href='#page383'>383</a>, <a href='#page384'>384</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reply to Lincoln, <a href='#page425'>425</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">causes election of State officers
+in Louisiana, <a href='#page425'>425</a>, <a href='#page426'>426</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">opinion of new Louisiana
+constitution, <a href='#page426'>426</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Barton, William</b>, governor of Delaware,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reply to Lincoln's call for
+volunteers, <a href='#page193'>193</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Bates, Edward</b>, member of Congress, Attorney-General,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">candidate for presidential
+nomination 1860, <a href='#page144'>144</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">vote for, in Chicago convention,
+<a href='#page149'>149</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">tendered cabinet appointment,
+<a href='#page163'>163</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">appointed Attorney-General,
+<a href='#page182'>182</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">signs cabinet protest, <a href='#page311'>311</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">rewrites cabinet protest, <a href='#page312'>312</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">resigns from cabinet, <a href='#page491'>491</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Beauregard, G.T.</b>, Confederate general, reduces Fort Sumter,
+<a href='#page188'>188</a> -<a href='#page190'>190</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in command at Manassas Junction,
+<a href='#page215'>215</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">understanding with Johnston,
+<a href='#page216'>216</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">battle of Bull Run, July 21 1861,
+<a href='#page226'>226-229</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">council with Johnston and Hardee,
+<a href='#page267'>267</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">succeeds to command at Pittsburg
+Landing, <a href='#page273'>273</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">losses at Pittsburg Landing,
+<a href='#page274'>274</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">evacuates Corinth, <a href='#page275'>275</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">united with Hood, <a href='#page409'>409</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">orders Hood to assume offensive,
+<a href='#page410'>410</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">interview with Davis and Johnston,
+<a href='#page520'>520</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Bell, John</b>, member of Congress, Secretary of War,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">United States senator, nominated
+for President 1860, <a href='#page143'>143</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">vote for, <a href='#page160'>160</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Benjamin, Judah P.</b>, United States senator,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Confederate Secretary of State,
+suggestions about</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">instructions to peace
+commissioners, <a href='#page482'>482</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">last instructions to Slidell,
+<a href='#page501'>501</a>, <a href='#page502'>502</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Berry, William F.</b>, partner of Lincoln in a store, <a href='#page35'>35</a>;<br />
+<a name="page560" id="page560"></a> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">death
+of, <a href='#page36'>36</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Big Bethel</b>, Virginia, disaster at, <a href='#page214'>214</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Blackburn's Ford</b>, Virginia, engagement at, July 18 1861,
+<a href='#page226'>226</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Black Hawk</b>, chief of the Sac Indians,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">crosses Mississippi into Illinois,
+<a href='#page32'>32</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Black, Jeremiah S.</b>, Attorney-General, Secretary of
+State,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">war of pamphlets with Douglas,
+<a href='#page134'>134</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Blair, Francis P.</b>, Sr., quarrel with Fr&eacute;mont,
+<a href='#page236'>236</a>, <a href='#page487'>487</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">asks permission to go South,
+<a href='#page478'>478</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">interviews with Jefferson Davis,
+<a href='#page479'>479-482</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his Mexican project, <a href='#page479'>479</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Blair, Francis P.</b>, Jr., member of Congress
+major-general<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">United States Volunteers quarrel
+with Fr&eacute;mont, <a href='#page236'>236</a>, <a href='#page487'>487</a>, <a href='#page488'>488</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Blair, Montgomery</b>, Postmaster-General,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">appointed Postmaster-General,
+<a href='#page182'>182</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">quarrel with Fr&eacute;mont,
+<a href='#page236'>236</a>, <a href='#page487'>487</a>, <a href='#page488'>488</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at cabinet meeting, July 22 1862,
+<a href='#page331'>331</a>, <a href='#page332'>332</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">objects to time for issuing
+emancipation proclamation, <a href='#page340'>340</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">resolution in Republican platform
+aimed at, <a href='#page446'>446</a>, <a href='#page487'>487</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">relations with members of the
+cabinet, <a href='#page488'>488</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">remarks after Early's raid,
+<a href='#page488'>488</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">retires from cabinet, <a href='#page489'>489</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">works for Lincoln's
+re&euml;lection, <a href='#page489'>489</a>, <a href='#page490'>490</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">wishes to be chief justice,
+<a href='#page490'>490</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">declines foreign mission, <a href='#page490'>490</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Bogue, Captain Vincent</b>, navigates Sangamon River in<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">steamer <i>Talisman</i>, <a href='#page27'>27</a>, <a href='#page28'>28</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Boonville</b>, Missouri, battle of, June 17 1861, <a href='#page214'>214</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Booth, John Wilkes</b>, personal description of, <a href='#page534'>534</a>, <a href='#page535'>535</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">scheme to abduct Lincoln, <a href='#page535'>535</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">creates disturbance at Lincoln's
+second inauguration, <a href='#page535'>535</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">assigns parts in conspiracy to
+assassinate Lincoln, <a href='#page535'>535</a>, <a href='#page536'>536</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">final preparations, <a href='#page536'>536</a>, <a href='#page537'>537</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">shoots the President, <a href='#page538'>538</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">wounds Major Rathbone
+538;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">escape of, <a href='#page539'>539</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">flight and capture of, <a href='#page542'>542</a>, <a href='#page543'>543</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">death of, <a href='#page543'>543</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">account at Montreal Bank, <a href='#page544'>544</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Bragg, Braxton</b>, Confederate general,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">forces Buell back to Louisville,
+<a href='#page275'>275</a>, <a href='#page276'>276</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">threatens Louisville, <a href='#page379'>379</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">battle of Perryville, <a href='#page379'>379</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">battle of Murfreesboro, <a href='#page380'>380</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">retreat to Chattanooga, <a href='#page385'>385</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Chattanooga and Chickamauga,
+<a href='#page386'>386-392</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">retreats to Dalton, <a href='#page392'>392</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">superseded by Johnston, <a href='#page395'>395</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his invasion delays reconstruction
+in Tennessee, <a href='#page428'>428</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Breckinridge, John C.</b>, Vice-President, Confederate major-general, and Secretary of War, nominated for
+Vice-President 1856, <a href='#page104'>104</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">desires Douglas's re&euml;lection
+to United States Senate, <a href='#page126'>126</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nominated for President 1860,
+<a href='#page143'>143</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">vote for, <a href='#page160'>160</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">joins the rebellion, <a href='#page217'>217</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">required by Davis to report on
+Johnston-Sherman agreement, <a href='#page523'>523</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Breckinridge, Robert J.</b>, D.D., LL.D.,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">temporary chairman Republican
+national convention 1864, <a href='#page446'>446</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Brown, Albert G.</b>, member of Congress, United States
+senator,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">questions Douglas, <a href='#page129'>129</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">demands congressional slave code,
+<a href='#page141'>141</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Brown, John</b>, raid at Harper's Ferry, trial and execution of,
+<a href='#page134'>134</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Brown, Joseph E.</b>, governor of Georgia, United States
+senator,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">refuses to obey orders from
+Richmond, <a href='#page481'>481</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Browning, Orville H.</b>, United States senator, Secretary of
+the Interior<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">under President Johnson, at
+Springfield, Illinois, <a href='#page52'>52</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">speech in Chicago convention,
+<a href='#page151'>151</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Browning, Mrs. O.H.</b>, Lincoln's letter to, <a href='#page58'>58</a>, <a href='#page59'>59</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Bryant, William Cullen</b>, presides over Cooper Institute
+meeting, <a href='#page138'>138</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Buchanan, Franklin</b>, captain United States navy, admiral
+Confederate navy,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">resigns from Washington navy-yard
+and joins the Confederacy, <a href='#page196'>196</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Buchanan, James</b>, fifteenth President of the United
+States,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nominated for President 1856,
+<a href='#page104'>104</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">elected President, <a href='#page105'>105</a>, <a href='#page108'>108</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">announces pro-slavery policy,
+<a href='#page114'>114</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">appoints Walker governor of Kansas,
+<a href='#page114'>114</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reply to Walker's letter, <a href='#page115'>115</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">special message recommending
+Lecompton Constitution, <a href='#page115'>115</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">permits Scott to be called to
+Washington, <a href='#page172'>172</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">non-action regarding secession,
+<a href='#page176'>176</a>, <a href='#page177'>177</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reconstruction of his cabinet,
+<a href='#page178'>178</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">rides with Lincoln in inauguration
+procession, <a href='#page180'>180</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">non-coercion doctrine of, <a href='#page210'>210</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">signs resolution for constitutional
+amendment, <a href='#page476'></a><a href='#page476'>476</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Buckner, Simon B.</b>, Confederate lieutenant-general,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">stationed at Bowling Green,
+<a href='#page254'>254</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">force of, <a href='#page263'>263</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">surrenders Fort Donelson, <a href='#page267'>267</a>, <a href='#page268'>268</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Buell, Don Carlos</b>, major-general United States
+Volunteers,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">succeeds Sherman in Kentucky,
+<a href='#page255'>255</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">driven back to Louisville 1862,
+<a href='#page258'>258</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">instructions about East Tennessee,
+<a href='#page258'>258</a>, <a href='#page259'>259</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reluctance to move into East
+Tennessee, <a href='#page260'>260</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reluctance to co&ouml;perate with
+Halleck, <a href='#page263'>263</a>, <a href='#page264'>264</a>,
+<a href='#page269'>269</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ordered forward to Savannah,
+<a href='#page271'>271</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">arrives at Pittsburg Landing,
+<a href='#page273'>273</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">retreats to Louisville, <a href='#page275'>275</a>, <a href='#page276'>276</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">battle of Perryville, <a href='#page379'>379</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">relieved from command, <a href='#page380'>380</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Bull Run</b>, Virginia, battle of, July 21 1861, <a href='#page226'>226-229</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">second battle of, August 30 1862,
+<a href='#page310'>310</a>, <a href='#page311'>311</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Burnside, Ambrose E.</b>, major-general United States
+Volunteers,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">holds Knoxville 1863, <a href='#page258'>258</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">commands force in Roanoke Island
+expedition, <a href='#page277'>277</a>, <a href='#page278'>278</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ordered to reinforce McClellan,
+<a href='#page307'>307</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">orders arrest of Vallandigham,
+<a href='#page358'>358</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">appointed to command Army of the
+Potomac, <a href='#page363'>363</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">previous services, <a href='#page363'>363</a>, <a href='#page364'>364</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">battle of Fredericksburg, <a href='#page364'>364</a>, <a href='#page365'>365</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">relieved from command, <a href='#page366'>366</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ordered to reinforce Rosecrans,
+<a href='#page388'>388</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">besieged at Knoxville, <a href='#page391'>391</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">repulses Longstreet, <a href='#page391'>391</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Butler, Benjamin F.</b>, major-general United States
+Volunteers,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">member of Congress, occupies
+Baltimore, <a href='#page199'>199</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">orders concerning slaves, <a href='#page220'>220-222</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">instructions to, about slaves,
+<a href='#page223'>223</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">commands land</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">force in Farragut's expedition
+against New Orleans, <a href='#page283'>283</a>;</span><br />
+<a name="page561" id="page561"></a> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">in
+command at New Orleans, <a href='#page285'>285</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">report about negro soldiers,
+<a href='#page348'>348</a>, <a href='#page349'>349</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">proclaimed an outlaw by Jefferson
+Davis, <a href='#page350'>350</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">seizes City Point, <a href='#page401'>401</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">receives votes for Vice-President
+at Baltimore convention, <a href='#page448'>448</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Butler, William</b>, relates incident about Lincoln, <a href='#page53'>53</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Butterfield, Justin</b>, appointed Commissioner of General Land
+Office, <a href='#page92'>92</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">defended by Lincoln from political
+attack, <a href='#page92'>92</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<b>Cadwalader, George</b>, major-general United States
+Volunteers,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">action in Merryman case, <a href='#page199'>199</a>, <a href='#page200'>200</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Cairo</b>, Illinois, military importance of, <a href='#page209'>209</a>, <a href='#page210'>210</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Calhoun, John</b>, appoints Lincoln deputy surveyor, <a href='#page39'>39</a>, <a href='#page40'>40</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Springfield, Illinois, <a href='#page52'>52</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Cameron, Simon</b>, United States senator, Secretary of
+War,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">candidate for presidential
+nomination 1860, <a href='#page144'>144</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">vote for, in Chicago convention,
+<a href='#page149'>149</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">tendered cabinet appointment,
+<a href='#page163'>163</a>, <a href='#page164'>164</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">appointed Secretary of War,
+<a href='#page182'>182</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">brings letters of Anderson to
+Lincoln, <a href='#page182'>182</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">visits Fr&eacute;mont, <a href='#page242'>242</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">interview with Sherman, <a href='#page255'>255</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">appointed minister to Russia,
+<a href='#page289'>289</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reference to slavery in report to
+Congress, <a href='#page320'>320</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">moves renomination of Lincoln and
+Hamlin by acclamation, <a href='#page447'>447</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Campbell, John A.</b>, justice United States Supreme
+Court;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Confederate commissioner;
+intermediary of Confederate commissioners, <a href='#page183'>183</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Hampton Roads conference,
+<a href='#page482'>482-485</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">interviews with Lincoln, <a href='#page519'>519</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Canby, E.R.S.</b>, brevet major-general United States
+army,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">receives surrender of Taylor,
+<a href='#page525'>525</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">receives surrender of E. Kirby
+Smith, <a href='#page526'>526</a>, <a href='#page527'>527</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Carpenter, Frank B.</b>, conversation with Lincoln about<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">emancipation proclamation, <a href='#page331'>331</a>, <a href='#page332'>332</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Carpenter, W.</b>, defeated for Illinois legislature 1832,
+<a href='#page34'>34</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">elected in 1834, <a href='#page43'>43</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Carrick's Ford</b>, Virginia, battle of, July 13 1861, <a href='#page225'>225</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Cartter, David K.</b>, announces change of vote to Lincoln<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Chicago convention, <a href='#page151'>151</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Cartwright, Peter</b>, elected to Illinois legislature in 1832,
+<a href='#page34'>34</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Chancellorsville</b>, Virginia, battle of, May 1-4 1863,
+<a href='#page369'>369</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Charleston</b>, South Carolina, capture of, February 18 1865,
+<a href='#page415'>415</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">burning of, <a href='#page416'>416</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Chase, Salmon P.</b>, United States senator, Secretary of the
+Treasury,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">chief justice United States Supreme
+Court,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">candidate for presidential
+nomination 1860, <a href='#page144'>144</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">vote for, in Chicago convention,
+<a href='#page149'>149</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">summoned to Springfield, <a href='#page163'>163</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">appointed Secretary of the
+Treasury, <a href='#page182'>182</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">questions McClellan at council of
+war, <a href='#page289'>289</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">signs cabinet protest, <a href='#page311'>311</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">favors emancipation by military
+commanders, <a href='#page332'>332</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">urges that parts of States be not
+exempted</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in final emancipation proclamation,
+<a href='#page343'>343</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">submits form of closing paragraph,
+<a href='#page344'>344</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">presidential aspirations of,
+<a href='#page439'>439-441</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to Lincoln, <a href='#page440'>440</a>, <a href='#page441'>441</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">resigns from cabinet, <a href='#page457'>457</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">effect of his resignation on the
+political situation, <a href='#page464'>464</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">looked upon by radicals as their
+representative in the cabinet, <a href='#page487'>487</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">hostility to Montgomery Blair,
+<a href='#page488'>488</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">made chief justice, <a href='#page490'>490</a>, <a href='#page491'>491</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">note of thanks to Lincoln, <a href='#page491'>491</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">opinion of Lincoln, <a href='#page491'>491</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">administers oath of office to
+Lincoln at second inauguration, <a href='#page496'>496</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">administers oath of office to
+President Johnson, <a href='#page545'>545</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Chattanooga</b>, Tennessee, battle of, November 23-25 1863
+<a href='#page389'>389-392</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Chickamauga</b>, Tennessee, battle of, September 18-20 1863,
+<a href='#page386'>386</a>, <a href='#page387'>387</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Clary's Grove</b>, Illinois, settlement of, <a href='#page24'>24</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Clay, Clement C., Jr.</b>, United States senator,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Confederate agent in Canada,
+correspondence with Horace Greeley, <a href='#page459'>459</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Clay, Henry</b>, nominated for President, <a href='#page28'>28</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Clements, Andrew J.</b>, member of Congress, elected to
+Congress, <a href='#page419'>419</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Cleveland</b>, Ohio, funeral honors to Lincoln in, <a href='#page547'>547</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Cochrane, John</b>, member of Congress, brigadier-general United
+States<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Volunteers, nominated for
+Vice-President 1864, <a href='#page442'>442</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Cold Harbor</b>, Virginia, battle of, June 1-12, 1864, <a href='#page399'>399</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Colfax, Schuyler</b>, member of Congress, Vice-President,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to, from Lincoln, <a href='#page132'>132</a>, <a href='#page133'>133</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Collamer, Jacob</b>, member of Congress,
+Postmaster-General,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">United States senator, vote for, in
+Chicago convention, <a href='#page149'>149</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Columbia</b>, South Carolina, capture and burning of, <a href='#page415'>415</a>, <a href='#page416'>416</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Columbus</b>, Kentucky, evacuation of, <a href='#page269'>269</a><br />
+<br />
+<a name='cs' id='cs'></a> <b>Confederate States of America</b>,
+formed by seceding States, <a href='#page178'>178</a>, <a href='#page179'>179</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"corner-stone" theory, <a href='#page179'>179</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">government of, fires on Fort
+Sumter, <a href='#page189'>189</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">joined by North Carolina,
+Tennessee, and Arkansas, <a href='#page200'>200</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">strength of, <a href='#page204'>204</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">war measures of, <a href='#page207'>207</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">capital removed to Richmond,
+<a href='#page207'>207</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">strength of, in the West, <a href='#page263'>263</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">outcry of, against emancipation
+proclamation and arming of negroes, <a href='#page350'>350</a>,
+<a href='#page351'>351</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">efficiency of armies of, in 1863,
+<a href='#page370'>370</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">proclamation calling on people to
+resist Sherman's march, <a href='#page411'>411</a>, <a href='#page412'>412</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nearly in state of collapse,
+<a href='#page481'>481</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">doomed from the hour of Lincoln's
+re&euml;lection, <a href='#page499'>499</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">depreciation of its currency,
+<a href='#page499'>499</a>, <a href='#page500'>500</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">conscription laws of, <a href='#page500'>500</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Confederate Congress makes Lee
+general-in-chief, <a href='#page500'>500</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">number of soldiers in final
+struggle, <a href='#page507'>507</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">flight of, from Richmond, <a href='#page515'>515</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">collapse of the rebellion, <a href='#page524'>524-527</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">number of troops surrendered,
+<a href='#page527'>527</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<a name="page562" id="page562"></a> <b>Congress of the United States</b>,
+passes act organizing<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">territory of Illinois, <a href='#page19'>19</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">fixes number of stars and stripes
+in the flag, <a href='#page19'>19</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">admits as States Illinois, Alabama,
+Maine, and Missouri, <a href='#page19'>19</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nullification debate in, <a href='#page38'>38</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lincoln's service in, <a href='#page75'>75-90</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Missouri Compromise, <a href='#page94'>94-96</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Democratic majorities chosen in, in
+1856, <a href='#page108'>108</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">agitation over Kansas in, <a href='#page113'>113</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Senator Brown's resolutions,
+<a href='#page141'>141</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">official count of electoral votes,
+<a href='#page160'>160</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">appoints compromise committees,
+<a href='#page167'>167</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Buchanan's annual message to,
+December 1860, <a href='#page176'>176</a>, <a href='#page177'>177</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">convened in special session by
+President Lincoln, <a href='#page192'>192</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lincoln's message to,&nbsp; May 26
+1862, <a href='#page195'>195</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">legalizes Lincoln's war measures,
+<a href='#page206'>206</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">meeting and measures of special
+session of</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thirty-seventh Congress, <a href='#page217'>217-220</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Southern unionists in, <a href='#page217'>217</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lincoln's message to, July 4 1861,
+<a href='#page218'>218-220</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">action on slavery, <a href='#page223'>223</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">special session adjourns, <a href='#page223'>223</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">House passes resolution of thanks
+to Captain Wilkes, <a href='#page246'>246</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">friendly to McClellan, <a href='#page250'>250</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lincoln's message of December 3
+1861, <a href='#page257'>257</a>, <a href='#page321'>321</a>,
+<a href='#page322'>322</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">interview of border State
+delegations with Lincoln, <a href='#page257'>257</a>, <a href='#page258'>258</a>, <a href='#page324'>324</a>, <a href='#page325'>325</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lincoln's special message, March 6
+1862, <a href='#page323'>323</a>, <a href='#page324'>324</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">passes joint resolution favoring
+compensated emancipation, <a href='#page325'>325</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">passes bill for compensated
+emancipation in District of Columbia, <a href='#page325'>325</a>,
+<a href='#page336'>336</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">House bill to aid emancipation in
+Delaware, Maryland,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and
+Missouri, <a href='#page326'>326</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">slavery measures of 1862, <a href='#page329'>329</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">President's second interview with
+border slave State delegations, <a href='#page329'>329-331</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">President's annual message,
+December 1 1862, <a href='#page341'>341</a>, <a href='#page342'>342</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">passes national conscription law,
+<a href='#page354'>354</a>, <a href='#page355'>355</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">act authorizing the President to
+suspend writ of habeas corpus, <a href='#page359'>359</a>, <a href='#page360'>360</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">confers rank of lieutenant-general
+on Grant, <a href='#page393'>393</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">admits representatives and senators
+from States with</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">provisional governments, <a href='#page419'>419</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">President's annual message,
+December 8 1863, <a href='#page424'>424</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reverses former action about
+seating members from "ten-per-cent States,"<a href='#page424'>424</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">bills to aid compensated
+abolishment in Missouri, <a href='#page432'>432</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">opposition to Lincoln in, <a href='#page454'>454</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">action on bill of Henry Winter
+Davis, <a href='#page454'>454</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">repeals fugitive-slave law,
+<a href='#page457'>457</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">confirms Fessenden's nomination,
+<a href='#page458'>458</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lincoln's message of December 5
+1864, <a href='#page470'>470-472</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">joint resolution proposing
+constitutional amendment to prohibit</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">slavery throughout United States,
+<a href='#page471'>471-476</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the two constitutional amendments
+submitted to the States during</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lincoln's term, <a href='#page475'>475</a>, <a href='#page476'>476</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Senate confirms Chase's nomination
+as chief justice, <a href='#page491'>491</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Congress</b>, the, Union sailing frigate, burned by
+<i>Merrimac</i>, <a href='#page280'>280</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Constitutional Union Party</b>, candidates in 1860, <a href='#page153'>153</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Conventions</b>: first national convention of Whig party,
+<a href='#page28'>28</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">President Jackson gives impetus to
+system of, <a href='#page52'>52</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Illinois State convention nominates
+Lincoln for Congress <a href='#page74'>74</a>, <a href='#page75'>75</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">convention of "Know-Nothing" party
+1856, <a href='#page102'>102</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bloomington convention, May 1856,
+<a href='#page103'>103</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">first national convention of
+Republican party, June 17 1856, <a href='#page103'>103</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Democratic national convention,
+June 2 1856, <a href='#page104'>104</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Democratic national convention,
+Charleston, April 23 1860, <a href='#page142'>142</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">it adjourns to reassemble at
+Baltimore, June 18 1860, <a href='#page143'>143</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Constitutional Union Convention,
+Baltimore, May 9 1860, <a href='#page143'>143</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Republican national convention,
+Chicago, May 16 1860, <a href='#page144'>144</a>, <a href='#page147'>147-151</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Decatur, Illinois, State
+convention, <a href='#page154'>154</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cleveland convention, May 31 1864,
+<a href='#page441'>441</a>, <a href='#page442'>442</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">meeting in New York to nominate
+Grant, <a href='#page442'>442</a>, <a href='#page443'>443</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">New Hampshire State convention,
+January 6 1864, <a href='#page443'>443</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Republican national convention,
+June 7 1864, <a href='#page446'>446-449</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Democratic national convention
+1864, postponed, <a href='#page463'>463</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Democratic national convention meets, <a href='#page466'>466-468</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">resolution of Baltimore convention
+hostile to Montgomery Blair, <a href='#page487'>487</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Cook, B.C.</b>, member of Congress, nominates Lincoln<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Baltimore convention, <a href='#page447'>447</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">seeks to learn Lincoln's wishes
+about Vice-Presidency, <a href='#page448'>448</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Cooper, Samuel</b>, Confederate adjutant-general,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">joins the Confederacy, <a href='#page208'>208</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Corbett, Boston</b>, sergeant United States army, shoots Booth,
+<a href='#page543'>543</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Corinth</b>, Mississippi, captured by Halleck, <a href='#page275'>275</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Couch, Darius N.</b>, major-general United States
+Volunteers,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">militia force under, in
+Pennsylvania, <a href='#page372'>372</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Cox, Samuel</b>, assists Booth and Herold, <a href='#page542'>542</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Crawford, Andrew</b>, teacher of President Lincoln, <a href='#page12'>12</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Crittenden, John J.</b>, Attorney-General, United States
+senator,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">advocates re&euml;lection of
+Douglas to United States Senate, <a href='#page126'>126</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Thirty-seventh Congress,
+<a href='#page217'>217</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">presents resolution, <a href='#page223'>223</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Cumberland</b>, the, Union frigate, sunk by <i>Merrimac</i>,
+<a href='#page280'>280</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Curtis, Samuel R.</b>, member of Congress, major-general<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">United States Volunteers, sends
+order of removal to Fr&eacute;mont, <a href='#page242'>242</a>,
+<a href='#page243'>243</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">campaign in Missouri, <a href='#page269'>269</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">victory at Pea Ridge, <a href='#page271'>271</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Cushing, William B.</b>, commander United States navy,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">destruction of the
+<i>Albemarle</i>, <a href='#page525'>525</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<b>Dahlgren, John A.</b>, rear-admiral United States navy,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at gathering of officials to
+discuss fight between <i>Monitor</i></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and <i>Merrimac</i>, <a href='#page296'>296</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Davis, Henry Winter</b>, member of Congress, bill
+prescribing<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">method of reconstruction, <a href='#page454'>454</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">signs Wade-Davis manifesto,
+<a href='#page456'>456</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Davis, Jefferson</b>, Secretary of War, United States
+senator,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Confederate President, orders
+that</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"rebellion must be crushed" in
+Kansas, <a href='#page113'>113</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Senate resolutions of, <a href='#page141'>141</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">signs address commending Charleston
+disruption, <a href='#page143'>143</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">statement in Senate, <a href='#page143'>143</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">elected President of Confederate
+States of America, <a href='#page179'>179</a>;</span><br />
+<a name="page563" id="page563"></a> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">telegram
+to Governor Letcher, <a href='#page197'>197</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">proclamation offering letters of
+marque to privateers, <a href='#page205'>205</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">camp of instruction at Harper's
+Ferry, <a href='#page209'>209</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">proclamation of outlawry, <a href='#page350'>350</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">message on emancipation
+proclamation, <a href='#page350'>350</a>, <a href='#page351'>351</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">appoints Hood to succeed Johnston,
+<a href='#page407'>407</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">visits Hood, and unites commands of
+Beauregard and Hood, <a href='#page409'>409</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">interview with Jaquess and Gilmore,
+<a href='#page462'>462</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">interviews with F.P. Blair, Sr.,
+<a href='#page479'>479-481</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">gives Blair a letter to show
+Lincoln, <a href='#page481'>481</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">appoints peace commission, <a href='#page482'>482</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">instructions to peace
+commissioners, <a href='#page482'>482</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reports Hampton Roads conference to
+rebel Congress, <a href='#page485'>485</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">speech at public meeting, <a href='#page485'>485</a>, <a href='#page486'>486</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Confederate Congress shows
+hostility to, <a href='#page500'>500</a>, <a href='#page501'>501</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reappoints J.E. Johnston to resist
+Sherman, <a href='#page501'>501</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">recommendations concerning slaves
+in rebel army, <a href='#page501'>501</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sanctions Lee's letter to Grant,
+<a href='#page503'>503</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">conference with Lee, <a href='#page504'>504</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">flight from Richmond, <a href='#page515'>515</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">proclamation from Danville,
+<a href='#page519'>519</a>, <a href='#page520'>520</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">retreat to Greensboro, North
+Carolina, <a href='#page520'>520</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">interview with Johnston and
+Beauregard, <a href='#page520'>520</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">continues southward, <a href='#page520'>520</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">dictates proposition of armistice
+presented by Johnston to Sherman, <a href='#page521'>521</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">requires report from Breckinridge
+about Johnston-Sherman agreement, <a href='#page523'>523</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">instructions to Johnston, <a href='#page524'>524</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">attempt to reach E. Kirby Smith,
+<a href='#page525'>525</a>, <a href='#page526'>526</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">effort to gain Florida coast,
+<a href='#page526'>526</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">capture, imprisonment, and release
+of, <a href='#page526'>526</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Davis, Mrs. Jefferson</b>, captured with her husband, <a href='#page526'>526</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Dawson, John</b>, defeated for Illinois legislature, 1832, <a href='#page34'>34</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">elected in 1834, <a href='#page43'>43</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Dayton, William L.</b>, United States senator minister to
+France,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nominated for Vice-President,
+<a href='#page104'>104</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">vote for, in Chicago convention,
+<a href='#page149'>149</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Delano, Columbus</b>, member of Congress, Secretary of the
+Interior,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Baltimore convention, <a href='#page447'>447</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Delaware</b>, State of, secession feeling in, <a href='#page201'>201</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">rejects compensated abolishment,
+<a href='#page322'>322</a>, <a href='#page323'>323</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Democratic Party</b>, party of slavery extension, <a href='#page102'>102</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nominates Buchanan and Breckinridge
+in 1856, <a href='#page104'>104</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">disturbed by Buchanan's attitude on
+slavery, <a href='#page116'>116</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">pro-slavery demands of, <a href='#page140'>140</a>, <a href='#page141'>141</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">national conventions of 1860,
+<a href='#page142'>142-144</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">candidates in 1860, <a href='#page152'>152</a>, <a href='#page153'>153</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">opposition to emancipation measures
+and conscription law, <a href='#page354'>354</a>, <a href='#page355'>355</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">adopts McClellan for presidential
+candidate, <a href='#page355'>355</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">interest in Vallandigham, <a href='#page358'>358</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">attitude on slavery, <a href='#page437'>437</a>, <a href='#page438'>438</a>, <a href='#page472'>472</a>, <a href='#page473'>473</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">convention postponed, <a href='#page463'>463</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">national convention 1864, <a href='#page466'>466-468</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Dennison, William</b>, governor of Ohio,
+Postmaster-General,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">permanent chairman of Republican
+national convention 1864, <a href='#page446'>446</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">succeeds Blair as
+Postmaster-General, <a href='#page489'>489</a>, <a href='#page490'>490</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Dickinson, Daniel S.</b>, United States senator, candidate<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">for vice-presidential nomination
+1864, <a href='#page448'>448</a>, <a href='#page449'>449</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Doherty, E.P.</b>, lieutenant United States army,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">captures Booth and Herold, <a href='#page543'>543</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Donelson, Andrew J.</b>, nominated for Vice-President, <a href='#page102'>102</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Dorsey, Azel W.</b>, teacher of President Lincoln, <a href='#page12'>12</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Douglas, Stephen A.</b>, member of Congress, United States
+senator,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Springfield, Illinois, <a href='#page52'>52</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">challenges young Whigs of
+Springfield to debate, <a href='#page62'>62</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">elected to United States Senate,
+<a href='#page75'>75</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">champions repeal of Missouri
+Compromise, <a href='#page95'>95</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">speech at Illinois State fair,
+<a href='#page96'>96</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Peoria, <a href='#page96'>96</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">agreement with Lincoln, <a href='#page99'>99</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on Dred Scott case, <a href='#page109'>109</a>, <a href='#page110'>110</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">denounces Lecompton Constitution,
+<a href='#page116'>116</a>, <a href='#page117'>117</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">hostility of Buchanan
+administration toward, <a href='#page117'>117</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lincoln-Douglas joint debate,
+<a href='#page121'>121-125</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">speeches in the South, <a href='#page128'>128</a>, <a href='#page129'>129</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">answer to Senator Brown, <a href='#page129'>129</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">references to Lincoln, <a href='#page130'>130</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ohio speeches, <a href='#page133'>133</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Harper's Magazine" essay, <a href='#page134'>134</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">fight over nomination of, for
+President 1860, <a href='#page142'>142-144</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nominated for President, <a href='#page143'>143</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">speeches during campaign of 1860,
+<a href='#page156'>156</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">vote for, <a href='#page160'>160</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Douglass, Frederick</b>, conversation with Lincoln, <a href='#page352'>352</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Draft</b>, Congress passes national conscription law, <a href='#page354'>354</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">opposition of Governor Seymour to,
+<a href='#page355'>355-357</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">riots in New York, <a href='#page356'>356</a>, <a href='#page357'>357</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">dissatisfaction in other places,
+<a href='#page357'>357</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">opposition of Vallandigham to,
+<a href='#page358'>358</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Dred Scott</b> case, decision of Supreme Court in, <a href='#page108'>108</a>, <a href='#page109'>109</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">protest of North against, <a href='#page109'>109</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Senator Douglas on, <a href='#page109'>109</a>, <a href='#page110'>110</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Dresser, Rev. Charles</b>, marries Abraham Lincoln and Mary
+Todd, <a href='#page68'>68</a>, <a href='#page69'>69</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Du-Pont, Samuel F.</b>, rear-admiral United States navy,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">commands fleet in Port Royal
+expedition, <a href='#page245'>245</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Durant, Thomas J.</b>, mentioned in letter of Lincoln's,
+<a href='#page334'>334</a>, <a href='#page335'>335</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<b>Early, Jubal A.</b>, Confederate lieutenant-general,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">threatens Washington, <a href='#page403'>403</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">inflicts damage on Blair's estate,
+<a href='#page488'>488</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Eckert, Thomas T.</b>, brevet brigadier-general United States
+Volunteers,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sent to meet peace commissioners at
+Hampton Roads, <a href='#page482'>482</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">refuses to allow peace
+commissioners to proceed, <a href='#page483'>483</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Edwards, Cyrus</b>, desires commissionership of General Land
+Office, <a href='#page92'>92</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Edwards, Ninian W.</b>, one of "Long Nine," <a href='#page63'>63</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Edwards, Mrs. Ninian W.</b>, sister of Mrs. Lincoln, <a href='#page63'>63</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Ellsworth, E.E.</b>, colonel United States Volunteers,
+assassination of, <a href='#page214'>214</a><br />
+<br />
+<a name='emanc' id='emanc'></a> <b>Emancipation</b>, Lincoln-Stone
+protest, <a href='#page47'>47</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lincoln's bill for, in District of
+Columbia, <a href='#page86'>86</a>, <a href='#page87'>87</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Missouri Compromise, <a href='#page94'>94</a>, <a href='#page95'>95</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Fr&eacute;mont's proclamation of,
+<a href='#page236'>236-238</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">discussed in President's message of
+December 3 1861, <a href='#page321'>321</a>, <a href='#page322'>322</a>;</span><br />
+<a name="page564" id="page564"></a> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lincoln
+offers Delaware compensated abolishment, <a href='#page322'>322</a>, <a href='#page323'>323</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">special message of March 6 1862,
+<a href='#page323'>323</a>, <a href='#page324'>324</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Congress passes bill for, in
+District of Columbia, <a href='#page325'>325</a>, <a href='#page326'>326</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">bill to aid it in border slave
+States, <a href='#page326'>326</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hunter's order of, <a href='#page327'>327</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">measures in Congress relating to,
+<a href='#page328'>328</a>, <a href='#page329'>329</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lincoln's second interview with
+delegations from border slave States, <a href='#page329'>329-331</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lincoln's conversation with
+Carpenter about, <a href='#page331'>331</a>, <a href='#page332'>332</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">first draft of emancipation
+proclamation read to cabinet, <a href='#page331'>331</a>, <a href='#page332'>332</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">President's interview with Chicago
+clergymen, <a href='#page337'>337-339</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lincoln issues preliminary
+emancipation proclamation, <a href='#page339'>339-341</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">annual message of December 1 1862,
+<a href='#page341'>341</a>, <a href='#page342'>342</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">President issues final emancipation
+proclamation, <a href='#page342'>342-346</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">President's views on, <a href='#page346'>346</a>, <a href='#page347'>347</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">arming of negro soldiers, <a href='#page348'>348</a>, <a href='#page350'>350</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lincoln's letters to Banks about
+emancipation in Louisiana, <a href='#page423'>423-425</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">slavery abolished in Louisiana,
+<a href='#page426'>426</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">slavery abolished in Arkansas,
+<a href='#page427'>427</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">slavery abolished in Tennessee,
+<a href='#page429'>429</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">slavery abolished in Missouri,
+<a href='#page432'>432-434</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Maryland refuses offer of
+compensated abolishment, <a href='#page434'>434</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">slavery abolished in Maryland,
+<a href='#page435'>435</a>, <a href='#page436'>436</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Republican national platform favors
+Constitutional</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">amendment abolishing slavery,
+<a href='#page446'>446</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Constitutional amendment
+prohibiting slavery in United States, <a href='#page471'>471-476</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">two Constitutional amendments
+affecting slavery offered during</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lincoln's term, <a href='#page475'>475</a>,476;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lincoln's draft of joint resolution
+offering the South $400,000,000, <a href='#page493'>493</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Jefferson Davis recommends
+employment of negroes in army,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">with emancipation to follow,
+<a href='#page501'>501</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">See <a href='#slavery'><i>Slavery</i></a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>England</b>, public opinion in, favorable to the South, <a href='#page211'>211</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">excitement in, over <i>Trent</i>
+affair, <a href='#page246'>246</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">joint expedition to Mexico,
+<a href='#page451'>451</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"neutrality" of, <a href='#page525'>525</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Ericsson</b>, John, inventor of the <i>Monitor</i>, <a href='#page279'>279</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Evarts</b>, William M., Secretary of State, United States
+senator,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nominates Seward for President,
+<a href='#page149'>149</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">moves to make Lincoln's nomination
+unanimous, <a href='#page151'>151</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Everett</b>, Edward, member of Congress, minister to
+England,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Secretary of State, United States
+senator,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">candidate for Vice-President 1860,
+<a href='#page153'>153</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Ewell</b>, Richard S., Confederate lieutenant-general,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in retreat to Appomattox, <a href='#page511'>511</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">statement about burning of
+Richmond, <a href='#page516'>516</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Ewing</b>, Thomas, Secretary of the Interior defended by
+Lincoln<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">against political attack, <a href='#page92'>92</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<b>Fair Oaks</b>, Virginia, battle of, <a href='#page302'>302</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Farragut</b>, David G., admiral United States navy,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">captures New Orleans and ascends
+the Mississippi, <a href='#page282'>282-287</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ascends Mississippi a second time,
+<a href='#page287'>287</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">mentioned 328, <a href='#page329'>329</a>, <a href='#page381'>381</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">operations against Port Hudson,
+<a href='#page382'>382</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mobile Bay, <a href='#page468'>468</a>, <a href='#page525'>525</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Farrand</b>, Ebenezer, captain Confederate navy, surrender of,
+<a href='#page525'>525</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Fessenden</b>, William P., United States senator,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Secretary of the Treasury, becomes
+Secretary of the Treasury, <a href='#page458'>458</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">agrees with President against
+making proffers of peace to Davis, <a href='#page463'>463</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">resigns from cabinet, <a href='#page491'>491</a>, <a href='#page492'>492</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Field</b>, David Dudley, escorts Lincoln to platform at Cooper
+Institute, <a href='#page138'>138</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Fillmore</b>, Millard, thirteenth President of the United
+States,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nominated by Know-Nothing party for
+President 1856, <a href='#page102'>102</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Five Forks</b>, Virginia, battle of, April 1 1865, <a href='#page507'>507-509</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Floyd</b>, John B., Secretary of War, Confederate
+brigadier-general,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">escapes from Fort Donelson,
+<a href='#page268'>268</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Foote</b>, Andrew H., rear-admiral United States navy,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">capture of Island No. 10, <a href='#page274'>274</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">proceeds to Fort Pillow, <a href='#page274'>274</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Forrest</b>, Nathan B., Confederate lieutenant-general,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">with Hood's army, <a href='#page410'>410</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">defeat of, <a href='#page525'>525</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Fort Donelson</b>, Tennessee, capture of, <a href='#page266'>266-268</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Fort Fisher</b>, North Carolina, capture of, <a href='#page414'>414</a>, <a href='#page481'>481</a>, <a href='#page525'>525</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Fort Harrison</b>, Virginia, capture of, <a href='#page560'>560</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Fort Henry</b>, Tennessee, capture of, <a href='#page266'>266</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Fort Jackson</b>, Louisiana, capture of, <a href='#page282'>282-285</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Fort McAllister</b>, Georgia, stormed by Sherman, <a href='#page412'>412</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Fort Pillow</b>, Tennessee, evacuation of, <a href='#page286'>286</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">massacre of negro troops at,
+<a href='#page351'>351</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Fort Pulaski</b>, Georgia, capture of, <a href='#page278'>278</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Fort Randolph</b>, Tennessee, evacuation of, <a href='#page286'>286</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Fort Stedman</b>, Virginia, assault of, <a href='#page505'>505</a>, <a href='#page506'>506</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Fort St. Philip</b>, Louisiana, capture of, <a href='#page282'>282-285</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Fort Sumter</b>, South Carolina, occupied by Anderson, <a href='#page177'>177</a>, <a href='#page178'>178</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">attempt to reinforce
+178;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">cabinet consultations about,
+<a href='#page182'>182-184</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">defense and capture of, <a href='#page189'>189</a>, <a href='#page190'>190</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Fortress Monroe</b>, Virginia, importance of, <a href='#page209'>209</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Fox</b>, Gustavus V., Assistant Secretary of the Navy,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ordered to aid Sumter, <a href='#page184'>184</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sends the President additional news
+about fight between <i>Monitor</i></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and <i>Merrimac</i>, <a href='#page296'>296</a>, <a href='#page297'>297</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>France</b>, public opinion in, favorable to the South, <a href='#page211'>211</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">joint expedition to Mexico,
+<a href='#page451'>451</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"neutrality" of, <a href='#page525'>525</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Franklin</b>, Benjamin, on American forests and the spirit<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of independence they fostered,
+<a href='#page17'>17</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Franklin</b>, Tennessee, battle of, November 30 1864, <a href='#page410'>410</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Franklin</b>, W.B., brevet major-general United States
+army,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">advises movement on Manassas,
+<a href='#page289'>289</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Fredericksburg</b>, Virginia, battle of, December 13 1862,
+<a href='#page364'>364</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Fr&eacute;mont</b>, John C., United States senator,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">major-general United States army,
+nominated for President 1856, <a href='#page103'>103</a>;</span><br />
+<a name="page565" id="page565"></a> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">made
+major-general, <a href='#page233'>233</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">opportunities and limitations of,
+<a href='#page233'>233-235</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">criticism of, <a href='#page235'>235</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">quarrel with Blair family, <a href='#page236'>236</a>, <a href='#page487'>487</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">proclamation freeing slaves,
+<a href='#page236'>236</a>, <a href='#page237'>237</a>, <a href='#page432'>432</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">refuses to revoke proclamation,
+<a href='#page238'>238</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">removed from command of Western
+Department, <a href='#page241'>241-243</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">commands Mountain Department,
+<a href='#page299'>299</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ordered to form junction with
+McDowell and Shields, <a href='#page306'>306</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Army of Virginia, <a href='#page310'>310</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nominated for President 1864,
+<a href='#page442'>442</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">withdraws from the contest,
+<a href='#page442'>442</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Fusion</b>, attempts at, in campaign of 1860, <a href='#page157'>157</a>, <a href='#page158'>158</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<b>Gamble, Hamilton R.</b>, provisional governor of Missouri,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">calls State convention together,
+<a href='#page433'>433</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">death of, <a href='#page434'>434</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Garnett, Robert S.</b>, Confederate brigadier-general,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">killed at Carrick's Ford, <a href='#page225'>225</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Gentry, Allen</b>, makes flatboat trip with Lincoln, <a href='#page16'>16</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Gentry, James</b>, enters land at Gentryville, <a href='#page9'>9</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sends Lincoln to New Orleans,
+<a href='#page16'>16</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Gettysburg</b>, Pennsylvania, battle of, July 1-3 1863, <a href='#page372'>372-375</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">address of Mr. Lincoln at, <a href='#page376'>376</a>, <a href='#page377'>377</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Giddings, Joshua R.</b>, member of Congress approves<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lincoln's bill abolishing slavery
+in District of Columbia, <a href='#page87'>87</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">amendment to Chicago platform,
+<a href='#page148'>148</a>, <a href='#page149'>149</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Gillmore, Quincy A.</b>, brevet major-general United States
+army,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">siege of Fort Pulaski, <a href='#page278'>278</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Gilmer, John A.</b>, member of Congress, tendered cabinet
+appointment, <a href='#page164'>164</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Gilmore, J.R.</b>, visits Jefferson Davis with Jaquess, <a href='#page462'>462</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Gist, William H.</b>, governor of South Carolina, inaugurates
+secession, <a href='#page175'>175</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Goldsborough, L.M.</b>, rear-admiral United States navy,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">commands fleet in Roanoke Island
+expedition, <a href='#page277'>277</a>, <a href='#page278'>278</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Gordon, John B.</b>, Confederate lieutenant-general,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">United States senator, in assault
+of Fort Stedman, <a href='#page504'>504</a>, <a href='#page505'>505</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in defense of Petersburg, <a href='#page509'>509</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Graham, Mentor</b>, makes Lincoln election clerk, <a href='#page23'>23</a>, <a href='#page24'>24</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">advises Lincoln to study grammar,
+<a href='#page25'>25</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">aids Lincoln to study surveying,
+<a href='#page40'>40</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Grant, Ulysses S.</b>, eighteenth President of the United
+States,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">general, and general-in-chief
+United States army, early life, <a href='#page264'>264</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter offering services to War
+Department, <a href='#page264'>264</a>, <a href='#page265'>265</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">commissioned by Governor Yates,
+<a href='#page265'>265</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reconnaissance toward Columbus,
+<a href='#page265'>265</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">urges movement on Fort Henry,
+<a href='#page265'>265</a>, <a href='#page266'>266</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">capture of Forts Henry and
+Donelson, <a href='#page266'>266-268</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ordered forward to Savannah,
+<a href='#page271'>271</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Pittsburg Landing, <a href='#page272'>272-274</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">asks to be relieved, <a href='#page275'>275</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">co-operates with adjutant-general
+of the army in arming negroes, <a href='#page350'>350</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">repulses rebels at Iuka and
+Corinth, <a href='#page380'>380</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Vicksburg campaign, <a href='#page380'>380-383</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ordered to Chattanooga, <a href='#page389'>389</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">battle of Chattanooga, <a href='#page390'>390</a>, <a href='#page391'>391</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">pursuit of Bragg, <a href='#page391'>391</a>, <a href='#page392'>392</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">speech on accepting commission of
+lieutenant-general, <a href='#page394'>394</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">visits Army of the Potomac and
+starts west, <a href='#page394'>394</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">placed in command of all the
+armies, <a href='#page394'>394</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">conference with Sherman, <a href='#page395'>395</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">plan of campaign, <a href='#page395'>395</a>, <a href='#page397'>397</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">returns to Culpepper, <a href='#page395'>395</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">fear of presidential interference,
+<a href='#page395'>395</a>, <a href='#page396'>396</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to Lincoln, <a href='#page396'>396</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">strength and position of his army,
+<a href='#page396'>396</a>, <a href='#page397'>397</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">instructions to Meade, <a href='#page397'>397</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">battle of the Wilderness, <a href='#page398'>398</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Spottsylvania Court House, <a href='#page398'>398</a>, <a href='#page399'>399</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">report to Washington, <a href='#page399'>399</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cold Harbor, <a href='#page399'>399</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to Washington, <a href='#page399'>399</a>, <a href='#page400'>400</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">siege of Petersburg, <a href='#page400'>400-402</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sends Wright to Washington,
+<a href='#page403'>403</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">withholds consent to Sherman's
+plan, <a href='#page410'>410</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">gives his consent, <a href='#page411'>411</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">orders to Sherman, <a href='#page413'>413</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">adopts Sherman's plan, <a href='#page414'>414</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">attempt to nominate him for
+President 1864, <a href='#page442'>442</a>, <a href='#page443'>443</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">depressing influence on political
+situation of his heavy fighting, <a href='#page463'>463</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">admits peace commissioners to his
+headquarters, <a href='#page483'>483</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">despatch to Stanton, <a href='#page484'>484</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">pushing forward, <a href='#page502'>502</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">telegraphs Lee's letter to
+Washington, <a href='#page503'>503</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reply to Lee, <a href='#page504'>504</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">orders to General Parke, <a href='#page505'>505</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">issues orders for the final
+movement of the war, <a href='#page506'>506</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">number of men under his command in
+final struggle, <a href='#page507'>507</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his plan, <a href='#page507'>507</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">battle of Five Forks, <a href='#page507'>507-509</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">orders Sheridan to get on Lee's
+line of retreat, <a href='#page509'>509</a>, <a href='#page510'>510</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sends Humphreys to Sheridan's
+assistance, <a href='#page509'>509</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">telegram to Lincoln, <a href='#page509'>509</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">pursuit of Lee, <a href='#page510'>510-513</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sends Sheridan's despatch to
+Lincoln, <a href='#page511'>511</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">correspondence with Lee, <a href='#page512'>512</a>, <a href='#page513'>513</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">receives Lee's surrender, <a href='#page513'>513-515</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">forbids salute in honor of Lee's
+surrender, <a href='#page515'>515</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">visit to Lee, <a href='#page515'>515</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">goes to Washington, <a href='#page515'>515</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">learns terms of agreement between
+Sherman and Johnson, <a href='#page523'>523</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ordered to Sherman's headquarters,
+<a href='#page523'>523</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">gives Sherman opportunity to modify
+his report, <a href='#page523'>523</a>, <a href='#page524'>524</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Lincoln's last cabinet meeting,
+<a href='#page531'>531</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">invited by Mrs. Lincoln to Ford's
+Theater, <a href='#page536'>536</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Grant, Mrs. U.S.</b>, invited by Mrs. Lincoln to Ford's Theater,
+<a href='#page536'>536</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Greeley, Horace</b>, hears Lincoln's Cooper Institute speech,
+<a href='#page138'>138</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"open letter" to Lincoln, <a href='#page335'>335</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Niagara Falls conference, <a href='#page458'>458-461</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">effect of his mission on political
+situation, <a href='#page464'>464</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<b>Halleck, Henry Wager</b>, major-general and
+general-in-chief<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">United States army, succeeds
+Fr&eacute;mont, <a href='#page260'>260</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reluctance to co&ouml;perate with
+Buell, <a href='#page263'>263</a>, <a href='#page264'>264</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">answers to Lincoln, <a href='#page263'>263</a>, <a href='#page264'>264</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">instructions to Grant, <a href='#page264'>264</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">orders Grant to take Fort Henry,
+<a href='#page266'>266</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sends reinforcements to Grant,
+<a href='#page267'>267</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">asks for command in the West,
+<a href='#page269'>269</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">plans expedition under Pope,
+<a href='#page270'>270</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">message to Buell, <a href='#page270'>270</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">telegrams to McClellan, <a href='#page270'>270</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">appeal to McClellan, <a href='#page271'>271</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">commands Department of the
+Mississippi, <a href='#page271'>271</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">orders Pope to join him, <a href='#page274'>274</a>;</span><br />
+<a name="page566" id="page566"></a> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">march on
+Corinth, <a href='#page275'>275</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">capture of Corinth, <a href='#page275'>275</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sends Buell to East Tennessee,
+<a href='#page275'>275</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ordered to reinforce McClellan,
+<a href='#page307'>307</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">general-in-chief, <a href='#page309'>309</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">visit to McClellan, <a href='#page309'>309</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">orders Army of Potomac back to
+Acquia Creek, <a href='#page309'>309</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to McClellan, <a href='#page309'>309</a>, <a href='#page310'>310</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">orders McClellan to support Pope,
+<a href='#page311'>311</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">telegram to McClellan, <a href='#page317'>317</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">mentioned, <a href='#page328'>328</a>, <a href='#page329'>329</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">asks to be relieved, <a href='#page365'>365</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">quarrel with Hooker, <a href='#page372'>372</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">urges Meade to active pursuit of
+Lee, <a href='#page375'>375</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">plans for Western campaign,
+<a href='#page379'>379</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">urges Buell to move into East
+Tennessee, <a href='#page380'>380</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">orders Rosecrans to advance,
+<a href='#page385'>385</a>, <a href='#page386'>386</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at council to consider news of
+Chattanooga, <a href='#page388'>388</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">President's chief of staff,
+<a href='#page394'>394</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">conduct during Early's raid,
+<a href='#page403'>403</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">note to War Department about Blair,
+<a href='#page488'>488</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">orders to Meade, <a href='#page523'>523</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Hamlin, Hannibal</b>, United States senator,
+Vice-President,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nominated for Vice-President,
+<a href='#page151'>151</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cameron moves his renomination,
+<a href='#page447'>447</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">candidate for vice-presidential
+nomination in 1864, <a href='#page448'>448</a>, <a href='#page449'>449</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Hanks, John</b>, tells of Lincoln's frontier labors, <a href='#page15'>15</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">flatboat voyage with Lincoln,
+<a href='#page22'>22</a>, <a href='#page23'>23</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Decatur convention, <a href='#page154'>154</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Hanks, Joseph</b>, teaches Thomas Lincoln carpenter's trade,
+<a href='#page5'>5</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Hanks, Nancy</b>. See <a href='#nhl'><i>Lincoln, Nancy
+Hanks</i></a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Hardee, William J.</b>, lieutenant-colonel United States
+army,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Confederate lieutenant-general,
+council with Johnston and Beauregard, <a href='#page267'>267</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">evacuates Savannah and Charleston,
+<a href='#page415'>415</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">joins Johnston, <a href='#page416'>416</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Hardin, John J.</b>, member of Congress, colonel United States
+Volunteers,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Springfield, Illinois, <a href='#page52'>52</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">elected to Congress, <a href='#page73'>73</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">killed in Mexican War, <a href='#page75'>75</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Harper's Ferry</b>, Virginia, John Brown raid at, <a href='#page134'>134</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">burning of armory, <a href='#page209'>209</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">captured by Lee, September 15 1862,
+<a href='#page315'>315</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Harris, Miss Clara W.</b>, attends Ford's Theater with Mrs.
+Lincoln, <a href='#page536'>536</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">assists Mrs. Lincoln, <a href='#page539'>539</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Harrison, George M.</b>, Lincoln's messmate in Black Hawk War,
+<a href='#page33'>33</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Hartford</b>, the, Union cruiser, Farragut's flag-ship, <a href='#page284'>284</a>, <a href='#page285'>285</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Hatteras Inlet</b>, North Carolina, capture of forts at, August
+29 1861, <a href='#page245'>245</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Hay, John</b>, assistant private secretary to Lincoln,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">brevet colonel and assistant
+adjutant-general United States Volunteers,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ambassador to England, Secretary of
+State, accompanies</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mr. Lincoln to Washington, <a href='#page168'>168</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">shows Lincoln letter of inquiry
+about Vice-Presidency, <a href='#page448'>448</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">mission to Canada, <a href='#page460'>460</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Lincoln's death-bed, <a href='#page540'>540</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Hazel, Caleb</b>, teacher of President Lincoln, <a href='#page6'>6</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Herndon, A.G.</b>, defeated for Illinois legislature, 1832, <a href='#page34'>34</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Herndon, "Jim" and "Row,"</b> sell Lincoln and Berry their
+store, <a href='#page35'>35</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Herndon, William H.</b>, Lincoln's law partner, <a href='#page158'>158</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">assumes Lincoln's law business
+during campaign, <a href='#page158'>158</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Herold, David E.</b>, in conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln,
+<a href='#page534'>534</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">chosen to assist Booth, <a href='#page536'>536</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">deposits arms in tavern at
+Surrattsville, <a href='#page536'>536</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">accompanies Booth in his flight,
+<a href='#page542'>542</a>, <a href='#page543'>543</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">capture of, <a href='#page543'>543</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">execution of, <a href='#page544'>544</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Hicks, Thomas H.</b>, governor of Maryland, United States
+senator,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reply to Lincoln's call for
+volunteers, <a href='#page193'>193</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">speech at mass-meeting, <a href='#page193'>193</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">protest against landing of troops
+at Annapolis, <a href='#page198'>198</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">calls meeting of Maryland
+legislature, <a href='#page198'>198</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Holcomb, James P.</b>, Confederate agent in Canada,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">correspondence with Horace Greeley,
+<a href='#page459'>459</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Holt, Joseph</b>, Postmaster-General, Secretary of War,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">judge-advocate general United
+States army, calls Scott to Washington, <a href='#page172'>172</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">report on Knights of the Golden
+Circle, <a href='#page361'>361</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">favored by Swett for
+Vice-President, <a href='#page448'>448</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">declines attorney-generalship,
+<a href='#page491'>491</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Hood, John B.</b>, Confederate general, succeeds Johnston,
+<a href='#page407'>407</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">evacuates Atlanta, <a href='#page407'>407</a>, <a href='#page468'>468</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">truce with Sherman, <a href='#page408'>408</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">placed under command of Beauregard,
+<a href='#page409'>409</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">moves to Tuscumbia, <a href='#page410'>410</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Franklin and Nashville, <a href='#page410'>410</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his movements delay reconstruction
+in Tennessee, <a href='#page429'>429</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Hooker, Joseph</b>, brevet major-general United States
+army,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">succeeds Burnside in command of
+Army of the Potomac, <a href='#page366'>366</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">submits plan of campaign to
+Lincoln, <a href='#page368'>368</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">battle of Chancellorsville,
+<a href='#page369'>369</a>, <a href='#page370'>370</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">criticism of, <a href='#page370'>370</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">foresees Lee's northward campaign,
+<a href='#page370'>370</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">proposes quick march to capture
+Richmond, <a href='#page371'>371</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">follows Lee, <a href='#page372'>372</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">asks to be relieved, <a href='#page372'>372</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ordered to reinforce Rosecrans,
+<a href='#page388'>388</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reaches Chattanooga, <a href='#page389'>389</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in battle of Chattanooga, <a href='#page390'>390-391</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Hume, John F.</b>, moves that Lincoln's nomination be made
+unanimous, <a href='#page447'>447</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Humphreys, Andrew A.</b>, brevet major-general United States
+army,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in recapture of Fort Stedman,
+<a href='#page505'>505</a>, <a href='#page506'>506</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ordered to assist Sheridan,
+<a href='#page509'>509</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Hunt, Randall</b>, tendered cabinet appointment, <a href='#page164'>164</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Hunter, David</b>, brevet major-general, United States
+army,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">asked to assist Fr&eacute;mont,
+<a href='#page235'>235</a>, <a href='#page236'>236</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ordered to relieve Fr&eacute;mont,
+<a href='#page243'>243</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">order of emancipation, <a href='#page327'>327</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">experiment with negro soldiers,
+<a href='#page348'>348</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">declared an outlaw by Confederate
+War Department, <a href='#page350'>350</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Hunter, R.M.T.</b>, United States senator, Confederate Secretary
+of State,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">appointed peace commissioner,
+<a href='#page482'>482</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Hampton Roads conference,
+<a href='#page482'>482-485</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<b>Iles, Elijah</b>, captain Illinois Volunteers, commands company
+in<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Black Hawk War, <a href='#page33'>33</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Illinois</b>, State of, organized as Territory, 1809, <a href='#page19'>19</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">admitted as State, 1818, <a href='#page19'>19</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">legislative schemes of internal improvement, <a href='#page44'>44</a>, <a href='#page45'>45</a>;</span><br />
+<a name="page567" id="page567"></a> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">capital
+removed to Springfield, <a href='#page45'>45</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">political struggles over slavery, <a href='#page45'>45</a>, <a href='#page46'>46</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lincoln-Douglas senatorial campaign
+in, <a href='#page118'>118-125</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ratifies Thirteenth Amendment,
+<a href='#page474'>474</a>, <a href='#page475'>475</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Island No. 10</b>, Tennessee, fortifications at, <a href='#page269'>269</a>, <a href='#page270'>270</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">surrender of, <a href='#page274'>274</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<b>Jackson, Andrew</b>, seventh President of the United
+States,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">gives impetus to system of party
+caucuses and conventions, <a href='#page52'>52</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Jackson, Claiborne F.</b>, governor of Missouri,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">attempts to force Missouri
+secession, <a href='#page202'>202-204</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">flight to Springfield, Missouri,
+<a href='#page234'>234</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Jackson, Thomas Jonathan ("Stonewall")</b>, Confederate
+lieutenant-general,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Shenandoah valley campaign,
+<a href='#page305'>305</a>, <a href='#page306'>306</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">mentioned, <a href='#page328'>328</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">killed at Chancellorsville,
+<a href='#page369'>369</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Jaquess, James F.</b>, D.D., colonel United States
+Volunteers,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">visits to the South, <a href='#page461'>461</a>, <a href='#page462'>462</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">interview with Jefferson Davis,
+<a href='#page462'>462</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Jewett, William Cornell</b>, letter to Greeley, <a href='#page458'>458</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Johnson, Andrew</b>, seventeenth President of the United
+States,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in thirty-seventh Congress,
+<a href='#page217'>217</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">telegram about East Tennessee,
+<a href='#page259'>259</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">retains seat in Senate, <a href='#page419'>419</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">appointed military governor of
+Tennessee, <a href='#page420'>420</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">begins work of reconstruction,
+<a href='#page428'>428</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nominated for Vice-President,
+<a href='#page448'>448</a>, <a href='#page449'>449</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">popular and electoral votes for,
+<a href='#page470'>470</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">disapproves Sherman's agreement
+with Johnston, <a href='#page523'>523</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">proclamation of amnesty, <a href='#page526'>526</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">plot to murder, <a href='#page535'>535</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">rejoicing of radicals on his
+accession to the Presidency, <a href='#page545'>545</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">takes oath of office, <a href='#page545'>545</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Johnson, Herschel V.</b>, candidate for Vice-President 1860,
+<a href='#page152'>152</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Johnston, Albert Sidney</b>, Confederate general,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">council with Hardee and Beauregard,
+<a href='#page267'>267</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">killed at Pittsburg Landing,
+<a href='#page273'>273</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Johnston, Joseph E.</b>, quartermaster-general United States
+army,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Confederate general, member of
+Congress, joins Confederacy, <a href='#page196'>196</a>, <a href='#page208'>208</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">understanding with Beauregard,
+<a href='#page215'>215</a>, <a href='#page216'>216</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">joins Beauregard at Bull Run,
+<a href='#page228'>228</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">opinion of battle of Bull Run,
+<a href='#page228'>228</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">retrograde movement, <a href='#page297'>297</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">defeats McClellan at Fair Oaks,
+<a href='#page302'>302</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">succeeds Bragg, <a href='#page395'>395</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">strength of, in spring of 1864,
+<a href='#page405'>405</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">superseded by Hood, <a href='#page407'>407</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">again placed in command, <a href='#page416'>416</a>, <a href='#page501'>501</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">interview with Davis, <a href='#page520'>520</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">begins negotiations with Sherman,
+<a href='#page520'>520</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">meetings with Sherman, <a href='#page521'>521</a>, <a href='#page522'>522</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">agreement between them, <a href='#page522'>522</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">agreement disapproved at
+Washington, <a href='#page523'>523</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">surrender of, <a href='#page524'>524</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<a name='sbj' id='sbj'></a> <b>Johnston, Sarah Bush</b>, marries
+Thomas Lincoln, <a href='#page10'>10</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">improves the condition of his
+household, <a href='#page10'>10</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">tells of Lincoln's studious habits,
+<a href='#page13'>13</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Jones, Thomas</b>, assists Booth and Herold, <a href='#page542'>542</a>, <a href='#page543'>543</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Judd, Norman B.</b>, minister to Prussia, member of
+Congress,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nominates Lincoln for President
+1860, <a href='#page149'>149</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">member of Lincoln's suite, <a href='#page173'>173</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<b>Kansas</b>, State of, slavery struggle in, <a href='#page113'>113-115</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lecompton Bill defeated in
+Congress, <a href='#page117'>117</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Kearsarge</b>, the, Union cruiser, battle with the
+<i>Alabama</i>, <a href='#page525'>525</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Kelly, Benjamin F.</b>, brevet major-general United States
+Volunteers,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">dash upon Philippi, <a href='#page225'>225</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Kentucky</b>, State of, action concerning secession, <a href='#page201'>201</a>, <a href='#page204'>204</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">legislature asks Anderson for help,
+<a href='#page254'>254</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">public opinion in, regarding
+slavery, <a href='#page473'>473</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Kilpatrick, Judson</b>, brevet major-general United States
+army,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">minister to Chili, with Sherman on
+march to the sea, <a href='#page411'>411</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Kirkpatrick</b>, defeated for Illinois legislature 1832,
+<a href='#page34'>34</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Knights of Golden Circle</b>, extensive organization of,
+<a href='#page360'>360</a>, <a href='#page361'>361</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">plans and failures of, <a href='#page360'>360-362</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">projected revolution in
+Northwestern States, <a href='#page466'>466</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Know-Nothing Party</b>, principles of, <a href='#page101'>101</a>, <a href='#page102'>102</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nominates Millard Fillmore for
+President 1856, <a href='#page102'>102</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<b>Lamon, Ward H.</b>, accompanies Lincoln on night journey to
+Washington, <a href='#page174'>174</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Lane, Joseph</b>, brevet major-general United States army,
+governor,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">United States senator candidate for
+Vice-President in 1860, <a href='#page153'>153</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">attempt to arm negroes, <a href='#page348'>348</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Leavitt, Humphrey H.</b>, member of Congress,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">judge United States Circuit
+Court,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">denies motion for habeas corpus for
+Vallandigham, <a href='#page358'>358</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Lecompton Constitution</b>, adopted in Kansas, <a href='#page115'>115</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">defeated in Congress, <a href='#page117'>117</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Lee, Robert E.</b>, colonel United States army,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Confederate general, captures John
+Brown, <a href='#page134'>134</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">enters service of Confederacy,
+<a href='#page196'>196</a>, <a href='#page197'>197</a>, <a href='#page208'>208</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">concentrates troops at Manassas
+Junction, <a href='#page215'>215</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sends troops into West Virginia,
+<a href='#page224'>224</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">attacks McClellan near Richmond,
+<a href='#page302'>302</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">campaign into Maryland, <a href='#page314'>314</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">captures Harper's Ferry, <a href='#page315'>315</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">battle of Antietam, <a href='#page315'>315</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">retreats across the Potomac,
+<a href='#page316'>316</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">battle of Chancellorsville,
+<a href='#page369'>369</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">resolves on invasion of the North,
+<a href='#page370'>370</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">crosses the Potomac, <a href='#page371'>371</a>, <a href='#page372'>372</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">battle of Gettysburg, <a href='#page372'>372-374</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">retreats across the Potomac,
+<a href='#page375'>375</a>, <a href='#page377'>377</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">strength and position of his army,
+<a href='#page397'>397</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">battle of the Wilderness, <a href='#page398'>398</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Spottsylvania Court House, <a href='#page398'>398</a>, <a href='#page399'>399</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cold Harbor, <a href='#page399'>399</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">defense of Petersburg, <a href='#page400'>400-402</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sends Early up the Shenandoah
+valley, <a href='#page403'>403</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">despatch about rations for his
+army, <a href='#page481'>481</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">made general-in-chief, <a href='#page500'>500</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">assumes command of all the
+Confederate armies, <a href='#page502'>502</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">attempt to negotiate with Grant,
+<a href='#page502'>502</a>, <a href='#page503'>503</a>;</span><br />
+<a name="page568" id="page568"></a> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">conference with Davis, <a href='#page504'>504</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">attempt to break through Grant's
+lines, <a href='#page504'>504-506</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">number of men under his command in
+final struggle, <a href='#page507'>507</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">takes command in person, <a href='#page507'>507</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">attacks Warren, <a href='#page507'>507</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">battle of Five Forks, <a href='#page507'>507-509</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">makes preparations to evacuate
+Petersburg and Richmond, <a href='#page509'>509</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">begins retreat, <a href='#page510'>510</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">surrender of Richmond, <a href='#page510'>510</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reaches Amelia Court House,
+<a href='#page510'>510</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">starts toward Lynchburg, <a href='#page511'>511</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reply to generals advising him to
+surrender, <a href='#page512'>512</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">correspondence with Grant, <a href='#page512'>512</a>, <a href='#page513'>513</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">surrender of, <a href='#page513'>513-515</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">size of army surrendered by,
+<a href='#page524'>524</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Letcher, John</b>, member of Congress, governor of
+Virginia,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">orders seizure of government
+property, <a href='#page194'>194</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Lincoln, Abraham</b>, sixteenth President of the United States,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">born February 12, 1800, <a href='#page3'>3</a>, <a href='#page6'>6</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">goes to A B C schools, <a href='#page6'>6</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">early schooling in Indiana, <a href='#page10'>10-13</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">home studies and youthful habits, <a href='#page13'>13-19</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">manages ferry-boat, <a href='#page15'>15</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">flatboat trip to New Orleans, <a href='#page15'>15</a>, <a href='#page16'>16</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">employed in Gentryville store, <a href='#page16'>16</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">no hunter, <a href='#page17'>17</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">kills wild turkey, <a href='#page17'>17</a>, <a href='#page18'>18</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">emigrates to Illinois, March 1, 1830, <a href='#page20'>20</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">leaves his father's cabin, <a href='#page21'>21</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">engaged by Denton Offutt, <a href='#page21'>21</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">builds flatboat and takes it to New Orleans, <a href='#page22'>22</a>, <a href='#page23'>23</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">incident at Rutledge's Mill, <a href='#page22'>22</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">returns to New Salem, <a href='#page23'>23</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">election clerk, <a href='#page23'>23</a>, <a href='#page24'>24</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">clerk in Offutt's store, <a href='#page24'>24</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">wrestles with Jack Armstrong, <a href='#page25'>25</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">candidate for legislature, 1832, <a href='#page29'>29</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">address "To the Voters of Sangamon County," <a href='#page29'>29</a>, <a href='#page30'>30</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">volunteers for Black Hawk War,
+<a href='#page32'>32</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">elected captain of volunteer
+company, <a href='#page32'>32</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">mustered out and re&euml;nlists as
+private, <a href='#page32'>32</a>, <a href='#page33'>33</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">finally mustered out, <a href='#page33'>33</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">returns to New Salem, <a href='#page33'>33</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">defeated for legislature, <a href='#page33'>33</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">enters into partnership with Berry,
+<a href='#page35'>35</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sells out to the Trent brothers,
+<a href='#page36'>36</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">fails, but promises to pay his
+debts, <a href='#page36'>36</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">surveying instruments sold for
+debt, <a href='#page36'>36</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Honest old Abe," <a href='#page37'>37</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">appointed postmaster of New Salem,
+<a href='#page37'>37</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">made deputy surveyor, <a href='#page39'>39</a>, <a href='#page40'>40</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">candidate for legislature, 1834, <a href='#page41'>41</a>, <a href='#page42'>42</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">elected to legislature, <a href='#page43'>43</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">begins study of law, <a href='#page44'>44</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">admitted to practice, <a href='#page44'>44</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">removes to Springfield and forms
+law partnership with J.T. Stuart, <a href='#page44'>44</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">re&euml;lected to legislature,
+<a href='#page44'>44</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">services in legislature, <a href='#page44'>44-48</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">manages removal of State capital to
+Springfield, <a href='#page45'>45</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lincoln-Stone protest, <a href='#page47'>47</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">vote for, for Speaker of Illinois
+House, <a href='#page48'>48</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his methods in law practice,
+<a href='#page49'>49</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">notes for law lecture, <a href='#page49'>49-51</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his growing influence, <a href='#page52'>52</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">guest of William Butler, <a href='#page53'>53</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">intimacy with Joshua F. Speed,
+<a href='#page53'>53</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">engaged to Anne Rutledge, <a href='#page54'>54</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">her death, <a href='#page54'>54</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his grief, <a href='#page55'>55</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">courtship of Mary Owens, <a href='#page55'>55-60</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">member of "Long Nine," <a href='#page61'>61</a>, <a href='#page62'>62</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">debate with Douglas and others, 1839, <a href='#page62'>62</a>, <a href='#page63'>63</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">meets and becomes engaged to Mary Todd, <a href='#page63'>63</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">engagement broken, <a href='#page64'>64</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his deep melancholy, <a href='#page64'>64</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to Stuart, <a href='#page64'>64</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">visit to Kentucky, <a href='#page64'>64</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letters to Speed, <a href='#page64'>64</a>, <a href='#page65'>65</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Lost Townships" letters, <a href='#page66'>66</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">challenged by Shields, <a href='#page66'>66</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">prescribes terms of the duel,
+<a href='#page67'>67</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">duel prevented, <a href='#page68'>68</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to Speed, <a href='#page68'>68</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">marriage to Mary Todd, November 4, 1842, <a href='#page68'>68</a>, <a href='#page69'>69</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">children of, <a href='#page69'>69</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">partnership with Stuart dissolved, <a href='#page69'>69</a>, <a href='#page70'>70</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">law partnership with S.T. Logan, <a href='#page70'>70</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">declines re&euml;lection to legislature, <a href='#page70'>70</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to Speed, <a href='#page71'>71</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to Martin Morris, <a href='#page71'>71-73</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to Speed, <a href='#page73'>73</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">presidential elector, 1844, <a href='#page73'>73</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letters to B.F. James, <a href='#page74'>74</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">elected to Congress, 1846, <a href='#page75'>75</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">service and speeches in Congress, <a href='#page76'>76-90</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">votes for Wilmot Proviso, <a href='#page79'>79</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">presidential elector in 1840 and 1844, <a href='#page80'>80</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">favors General Taylor for President, <a href='#page80'>80-83</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letters about Taylor's nomination, <a href='#page80'>80-82</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letters to Herndon, <a href='#page81'>81-83</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">speeches for Taylor, <a href='#page83'>83</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">bill to prohibit slavery in District of Columbia, <a href='#page86'>86</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letters recommending office-seekers, <a href='#page87'>87-89</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to W.H. Herndon, <a href='#page90'>90</a>, <a href='#page91'>91</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to Speed, <a href='#page91'>91</a>, <a href='#page92'>92</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to Duff Green, <a href='#page92'>92</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">applies for commissionership of General Land Office, <a href='#page92'>92</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">defends Butterfield against political attack, <a href='#page92'>92</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">refuses governorship of Oregon, <a href='#page93'>93</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">indignation at repeal of Missouri Compromise, <a href='#page94'>94</a>, <a href='#page95'>95</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">advocates re&euml;lection of Richard Yates to Congress, <a href='#page96'>96</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">speech at Illinois State Fair, <a href='#page96'>96</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">debate with Douglas at Peoria, <a href='#page96'>96-99</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">agreement with Douglas, <a href='#page99'>99</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">candidate for United States Senate before Illinois legislature, 1855, <a href='#page99'>99</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">withdraws in favor of Trumbull, <a href='#page100'>100</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to Robertson, <a href='#page100'>100</a>, <a href='#page101'>101</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">speech at Bloomington convention 1856, <a href='#page103'>103</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">vote for, for Vice-President 1856, <a href='#page104'>104</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">presidential elector 1856, <a href='#page105'>105</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">speeches in campaign of 1856,
+<a href='#page105'>105</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">speech at Republican banquet in
+Chicago, <a href='#page106'>106</a>, <a href='#page107'>107</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">speech on Dred Scott case, <a href='#page110'>110-112</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nominated for senator, <a href='#page118'>118</a>, <a href='#page119'>119</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"House divided against itself"
+speech, <a href='#page119'>119</a>, <a href='#page120'>120</a>,
+<a href='#page127'>127</a>, <a href='#page128'>128</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lincoln-Douglas joint debate,
+<a href='#page121'>121-125</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">defeated for United States Senate,
+<a href='#page125'>125</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">analysis of causes which led to his
+defeat, <a href='#page126'>126</a>, <a href='#page127'>127</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letters to H. Asbury and A.G.
+Henry, <a href='#page127'>127</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to A.L. Pierce and others,
+<a href='#page130'>130</a>, <a href='#page131'>131</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">speech in Chicago, <a href='#page131'>131</a>, <a href='#page132'>132</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to M.W. Delahay, <a href='#page132'>132</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to Colfax, <a href='#page132'>132</a>, <a href='#page133'>133</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to S. Galloway, <a href='#page133'>133</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ohio speeches, <a href='#page133'>133</a>, <a href='#page134'>134</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">criticism of John Brown raid,
+<a href='#page134'>134</a>, <a href='#page135'>135</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">speeches in Kansas, <a href='#page136'>136</a>, <a href='#page137'>137</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cooper Institute speech, <a href='#page137'>137-140</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">speeches in New England, <a href='#page140'>140</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to T.J. Pickett, <a href='#page145'>145</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">candidate for presidential
+nomination 1860, <a href='#page145'>145</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letters to N.B. Judd, <a href='#page145'>145</a>, <a href='#page146'>146</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nominated for President 1860,
+<a href='#page149'>149-151</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">speech at Decatur convention,
+<a href='#page153'>153</a>, <a href='#page154'>154</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">daily routine during campaign,
+<a href='#page158'>158</a>, <a href='#page159'>159</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letters during campaign, <a href='#page159'>159</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">elected President, <a href='#page160'>160</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his cabinet program, <a href='#page161'>161-163</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to Seward offering cabinet
+appointment, <a href='#page163'>163</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">offers Bates and Cameron cabinet
+appointments, <a href='#page163'>163</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">summons Chase to Springfield,
+<a href='#page163'>163</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">withdraws offer to Cameron,
+<a href='#page163'>163</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">editorial in Springfield "Journal,"
+164;</span><br />
+<a name="page569" id="page569"></a> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">offers
+cabinet appointments to Gilmer, Hunt, and Scott, <a href='#page164'>164</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letters to W.S. Speer and G.D.
+Prentiss, <a href='#page164'>164</a>, <a href='#page165'>165</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">correspondence with Alexander H.
+Stephens, <a href='#page165'>165</a>, <a href='#page166'>166</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to Gilmer, <a href='#page166'>166</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to Washburne, <a href='#page166'>166</a>, <a href='#page167'>167</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">writes his inaugural, <a href='#page167'>167</a>, <a href='#page168'>168</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">journey to Washington, <a href='#page168'>168-174</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">farewell address at Springfield,
+<a href='#page169'>169</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">speeches on journey to Washington,
+<a href='#page169'>169-171</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">consultation with Judd, <a href='#page173'>173</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">night journey to Washington,
+<a href='#page173'>173</a>, <a href='#page174'>174</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">visits of ceremony, <a href='#page179'>179</a>, <a href='#page180'>180</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">first inauguration of, <a href='#page180'>180-182</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">inaugural address, <a href='#page180'>180-182</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">calls council to consider question
+of Sumter, <a href='#page182'>182</a>, <a href='#page183'>183</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">signs order for relief of Sumter,
+<a href='#page184'>184</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">answer to Seward's memorandum of
+April 1 1861, <a href='#page187'>187</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">instructions to Seward 1865,
+<a href='#page187'>187</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">notice to Governor Pickens,
+<a href='#page188'>188</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">issues call for 75,000 volunteers,
+<a href='#page192'>192</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">assumes responsibility for war
+measures, <a href='#page195'>195</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">opinion against dispersing Maryland
+legislature, <a href='#page198'>198</a>, <a href='#page199'>199</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">authorizes Scott to suspend writ of
+habeas corpus, <a href='#page199'>199</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">action in Merryman case, <a href='#page200'>200</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">institutes blockade, <a href='#page205'>205</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">calls for three years' volunteers,
+<a href='#page206'>206</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">appoints Charles Francis Adams
+minister to England, <a href='#page211'>211</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">modifies Seward's despatch of May
+21, <a href='#page212'>212</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his immense duties, <a href='#page212'>212</a>, <a href='#page213'>213</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">calls council of war, <a href='#page215'>215</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">message to Congress, July 4 1861,
+<a href='#page218'>218-220</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">postpones decision about slaves,
+<a href='#page222'>222</a>, <a href='#page223'>223</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">receives news of defeat at Bull
+Run, <a href='#page229'>229</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to Hunter, <a href='#page235'>235</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to Fr&eacute;mont, <a href='#page237'>237</a>, <a href='#page238'>238</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to Browning, <a href='#page238'>238-240</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sends Cameron to visit
+Fr&eacute;mont, <a href='#page242'>242</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to General Curtis about
+Fr&eacute;mont, <a href='#page242'>242</a>, <a href='#page243'>243</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">draft of despatch about Trent
+affair, <a href='#page247'>247</a>, <a href='#page248'>248</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">welcomes McClellan to Washington,
+<a href='#page250'>250</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">orders retirement of General Scott,
+<a href='#page253'>253</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">memorandum to McClellan, <a href='#page253'>253</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his grasp of military problems,
+<a href='#page255'>255</a>, <a href='#page256'>256</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">memorandum after battle of Bull
+Run, <a href='#page256'>256</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">interest in East Tennessee,
+<a href='#page256'>256</a>, <a href='#page257'>257</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">personally urges on Congress the
+construction of railroad</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in East Tennessee, <a href='#page257'>257</a>, <a href='#page258'>258</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to Buell, <a href='#page258'>258</a>, <a href='#page259'>259</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">telegrams and letters to Buell and
+Halleck, <a href='#page262'>262-264</a>,
+<a href='#page268'>268</a>, <a href='#page269'>269</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">places Halleck in command of
+Department of the Mississippi, <a href='#page271'>271</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">calls councils of war, <a href='#page288'>288</a>, <a href='#page289'>289</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">General War Order No. 1, <a href='#page290'>290</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Special War Order No. 1, <a href='#page291'>291</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to McClellan about plan of
+campaign, <a href='#page291'>291</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">interview with Stanton, <a href='#page293'>293</a>, <a href='#page294'>294</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">interview with McClellan, <a href='#page295'>295</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">President's General War Orders No.
+2 and No. 3, <a href='#page295'>295</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">receives news of fight between
+<i>Monitor</i> and <i>Merrimac</i>, <a href='#page296'>296</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">relieves McClellan from command of
+all troops except</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Army of the Potomac, <a href='#page298'>298</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">orders McDowell to protect
+Washington, <a href='#page299'>299</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to McClellan, <a href='#page299'>299</a>, <a href='#page300'>300</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to McClellan, <a href='#page303'>303</a>, <a href='#page304'>304</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">visit to General Scott, <a href='#page306'>306</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">assigns General Pope to command of
+Army of Virginia, <a href='#page306'>306</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">orders Burnside and Halleck to
+reinforce McClellan, <a href='#page307'>307</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to governors of free States,
+<a href='#page307'>307</a>, <a href='#page308'>308</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">accepts 300,000 new troops,
+<a href='#page308'>308</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letters to McClellan, <a href='#page308'>308</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">visit to Harrison's Landing,
+<a href='#page308'>308</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">appoints Halleck general-in-chief,
+<a href='#page309'>309</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his dispassionate calmness in
+considering McClellan's conduct, <a href='#page311'>311</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">asks McClellan to use his influence
+with Pope's officers, <a href='#page313'>313</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">places McClellan in command of
+defenses of Washington, <a href='#page313'>313</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">orders reinforcements to McClellan,
+<a href='#page316'>316</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">telegram to McClellan, <a href='#page316'>316</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">visit to Antietam, <a href='#page316'>316</a>, <a href='#page317'>317</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">directions and letter to McClellan,
+<a href='#page317'>317-319</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">removes him from command, <a href='#page319'>319</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to Bancroft, <a href='#page321'>321</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reference to slavery in message to
+Congress, December 3 1861, <a href='#page321'>321</a>, <a href='#page322'>322</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">offers Delaware compensated
+abolishment, <a href='#page322'>322</a>, <a href='#page323'>323</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">special message of March 6 1862,
+proposing joint</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">resolution favoring gradual
+abolishment, <a href='#page323'>323</a>, <a href='#page324'>324</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to McDougall, <a href='#page324'>324</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">interview with delegations from
+border slave States, <a href='#page324'>324</a>, <a href='#page325'>325</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">signs bill for compensated
+emancipation in District of Columbia, <a href='#page326'>326</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to Chase about Hunter's
+order of emancipation, <a href='#page327'>327</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">proclamation revoking Hunter's
+order, <a href='#page327'>327</a>, <a href='#page328'>328</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">second interview with border State
+delegations in Congress, <a href='#page329'>329-331</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">conversation with Carpenter about
+emancipation, <a href='#page331'>331</a>, <a href='#page332'>332</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reads draft of first emancipation
+proclamation to cabinet, <a href='#page331'>331</a>, <a href='#page332'>332</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">tells Seward and Welles of his
+purpose to issue</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">emancipation proclamation, <a href='#page332'>332</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to Reverdy Johnson, <a href='#page334'>334</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to Cuthbert Bullitt,
+<a href='#page334'>334</a>, <a href='#page335'>335</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to Horace Greeley, <a href='#page335'>335-337</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">interview with Chicago clergymen,
+<a href='#page337'>337-339</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">issues preliminary emancipation
+proclamation, <a href='#page339'>339-341</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">annual message of December 1 1862,
+<a href='#page341'>341</a>, <a href='#page342'>342</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">issues final emancipation
+proclamation, January 1 1863, <a href='#page342'>342-346</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to A.G. Hodges, <a href='#page346'>346</a>, <a href='#page347'>347</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letters about arming negroes,
+<a href='#page350'>350</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">speech about Fort Pillow massacre,
+<a href='#page351'>351</a>, <a href='#page352'>352</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">interview with Frederick Douglass,
+<a href='#page352'>352</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to Governor Seymour,
+<a href='#page356'>356</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">action in case of Vallandigham,
+<a href='#page358'>358</a>, <a href='#page359'>359</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">suspends privilege of writ of
+habeas corpus, <a href='#page360'>360</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">attitude toward Knights of the
+Golden Circle, <a href='#page361'>361</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">appoints Burnside to command Army
+of the Potomac, <a href='#page363'>363</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">telegram to Burnside, and letter to
+Halleck about Burnside, <a href='#page365'>365</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to Burnside, <a href='#page366'>366</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">relieves Burnside and appoints
+Hooker to succeed him, <a href='#page366'>366</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to Hooker, <a href='#page366'>366-368</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">criticism on Hooker's plan of
+campaign, <a href='#page368'>368</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">continued belief in Hooker,
+<a href='#page370'>370</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">instructions to Hooker, <a href='#page370'>370</a>, <a href='#page371'>371</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">telegrams to Hooker, <a href='#page371'>371</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">appoints Meade to command Army of
+the Potomac, <a href='#page372'>372</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">urges Meade to active pursuit of
+Lee, <a href='#page375'>375</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to Meade, <a href='#page375'>375</a>, <a href='#page376'>376</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gettysburg address, <a href='#page376'>376</a>, <a href='#page377'>377</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to Grant, <a href='#page384'>384</a>, <a href='#page385'>385</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">orders Rosecrans to advance,
+<a href='#page385'>385</a>, <a href='#page386'>386</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">note to Halleck, <a href='#page388'>388</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">telegram to Rosecrans, <a href='#page388'>388</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">orders reinforcements to Rosecrans,
+<a href='#page388'>388</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">signs bill making Grant
+lieutenant-general, <a href='#page393'>393</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">address on presenting his
+commission, <a href='#page393'>393</a>, <a href='#page394'>394</a>;</span><br />
+<a name="page570" id="page570"></a> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter
+to Grant, <a href='#page396'>396</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">under fire, <a href='#page403'>403</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to Sherman, <a href='#page412'>412</a>, <a href='#page413'>413</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">appoints military governors for
+Tennessee, Louisiana,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Arkansas, and North Carolina,
+<a href='#page419'>419</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his theory of "reconstruction,"
+<a href='#page419'>419</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">message to Congress, July 4 1861,
+<a href='#page419'>419</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to Cuthbert Bullitt,
+<a href='#page420'>420</a>, <a href='#page421'>421</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">circular letter to military
+governors, <a href='#page421'>421</a>, <a href='#page422'>422</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to Governor Shepley,
+<a href='#page422'>422</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to General Banks, <a href='#page423'>423</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">references to reconstruction in
+message to Congress,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">December 8 1863, <a href='#page424'>424</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">amnesty proclamation, December 8
+1863, <a href='#page424'>424</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to General Banks, <a href='#page424'>424</a>, <a href='#page425'>425</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letters to General Steele, <a href='#page427'>427</a>, <a href='#page428'>428</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letters to Johnson, <a href='#page428'>428</a>, <a href='#page429'>429</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to Drake and others,
+<a href='#page430'>430-432</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">revokes Fr&eacute;mont's
+proclamation freeing slaves, <a href='#page432'>432</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to General Schofield,
+<a href='#page433'>433</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">directs Stanton to issue order
+regulating raising</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of colored troops, <a href='#page434'>434</a>, <a href='#page435'>435</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to H.W. Hoffman, <a href='#page435'>435</a>, <a href='#page436'>436</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Democrats and Fr&eacute;mont
+Republicans criticize</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his action on slavery, <a href='#page437'>437</a>, <a href='#page438'>438</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">relations with his cabinet,
+<a href='#page438'>438</a>, <a href='#page439'>439</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">attitude toward Chase, <a href='#page439'>439-441</a>, <a href='#page444'>444</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to Chase, <a href='#page441'>441</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to F.A. Conkling and others,
+<a href='#page443'>443</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sentiment in favor of his
+re&euml;lection, <a href='#page443'>443</a>, <a href='#page444'>444</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to Washburne about second
+term, <a href='#page444'>444</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letters to General Schurz, <a href='#page444'>444</a>, <a href='#page445'>445</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">instructions to office-holders,
+<a href='#page445'>445</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">speeches during campaign, <a href='#page445'>445</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">renominated for President, <a href='#page447'>447</a>, <a href='#page448'>448</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">refuses to intimate his preference
+for Vice-President, <a href='#page448'>448</a>, <a href='#page449'>449</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">indorsement on Nicolay's letter,
+<a href='#page448'>448</a>, <a href='#page449'>449</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reply to committee of notification,
+<a href='#page450'>450</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter accepting nomination,
+<a href='#page450'>450</a>, <a href='#page451'>451</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his attitude toward the French in
+Mexico, <a href='#page451'>451</a>, <a href='#page452'>452</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">opposition to, in Congress,
+<a href='#page454'>454</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on Davis's reconstruction bill,
+<a href='#page454'>454-456</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">proclamation of July 8 1864,
+<a href='#page456'>456</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">accepts Chase's resignation,
+<a href='#page457'>457</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nominates David Tod to succeed him,
+<a href='#page457'>457</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">substitutes name of W.P. Fessenden,
+<a href='#page457'>457</a>, <a href='#page458'>458</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">correspondence with Greeley,
+<a href='#page458'>458-460</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">criticized because of Niagara
+conference, <a href='#page460'>460</a>, <a href='#page461'>461</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">draft of letter to C.D. Robinson,
+<a href='#page461'>461</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">indorsement on Jaquess's
+application to go South, <a href='#page462'>462</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">answer to Raymond's proposition,
+<a href='#page463'>463</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">interview with John T. Mills,
+<a href='#page464'>464</a>, <a href='#page465'>465</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">memorandum, August 23 1864,
+<a href='#page466'>466</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">speech on morning after election,
+<a href='#page469'>469</a>, <a href='#page470'>470</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">popular and electoral votes for,
+<a href='#page470'>470</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">summing up of results of the
+election, <a href='#page470'>470</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">suggests key-note of Morgan's
+opening speech before Baltimore convention, <a href='#page471'>471</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">message to Congress, December 6
+1864, <a href='#page471'>471</a>, <a href='#page472'>472</a>,
+<a href='#page476'>476-478</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">answer to serenade, <a href='#page474'>474</a>, <a href='#page475'>475</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">opinion on ratification of
+Thirteenth Amendment, <a href='#page475'>475</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">two constitutional amendments
+offered to the</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">people during his administration,
+<a href='#page476'>476</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">gives Blair permission to go South,
+<a href='#page478'>478</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to Blair in reply to
+Jefferson Davis, <a href='#page481'>481</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sends Major Eckert to meet peace
+commissioners, <a href='#page482'>482</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">instructions to Seward, <a href='#page483'>483</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">instructions to Grant, <a href='#page483'>483</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">goes to Fortress Monroe, <a href='#page484'>484</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">conference with peace
+commissioners, <a href='#page484'>484</a>, <a href='#page485'>485</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">pressure upon him to dismiss
+Montgomery Blair, <a href='#page487'>487</a>, <a href='#page489'>489</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">personal regard for the Blairs,
+<a href='#page488'>488</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to Stanton, <a href='#page488'>488</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">lecture to cabinet, <a href='#page489'>489</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">requests resignation of Blair,
+<a href='#page489'>489</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nominates Chase for chief justice,
+<a href='#page490'>490</a>, <a href='#page491'>491</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">opinion of Chase, <a href='#page490'>490</a>, <a href='#page491'>491</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">offers attorney-generalship to Holt
+and Speed, <a href='#page491'>491</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">offers cabinet appointment to
+Governor Morgan, <a href='#page492'>492</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">appoints Hugh McCulloch Secretary
+of the Treasury, <a href='#page492'>492</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">indorsements on Usher's
+resignation, <a href='#page492'>492</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his plans for the future, <a href='#page492'>492</a>, <a href='#page493'>493</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">submits to cabinet draft of joint
+resolution offering</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the South $400,000,000, <a href='#page493'>493</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his second inauguration, <a href='#page493'>493-496</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the second inaugural, <a href='#page494'>494-496</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to Weed, <a href='#page497'>497</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his literary rank, <a href='#page497'>497</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">last public address, <a href='#page498'>498</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">despatch to Grant, March 3 1865,
+<a href='#page503'>503</a>, <a href='#page504'>504</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at City Point, <a href='#page506'>506</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">telegraphs Grant, "Let the thing be
+pressed," <a href='#page511'>511</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">visit to Richmond, <a href='#page517'>517</a>, <a href='#page518'>518</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">interviews with John A. Campbell,
+<a href='#page519'>519</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">gives permission for meeting of
+Virginia legislature, <a href='#page519'>519</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">regret of army for, <a href='#page529'>529</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">return to Washington, <a href='#page530'>530</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">last cabinet meeting, <a href='#page531'>531</a>, <a href='#page532'>532</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">14th of April, <a href='#page532'>532</a>, <a href='#page533'>533</a>, <a href='#page536'>536-540</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">danger from assassination, <a href='#page533'>533</a>, <a href='#page534'>534</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">interest in the theater, <a href='#page536'>536</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">attends Ford's Theater, <a href='#page536'>536</a>, <a href='#page537'>537</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">death of, <a href='#page538'>538-540</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his death prevents organized
+rejoicing at downfall of rebellion, <a href='#page544'>544</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">mourning for, <a href='#page544'>544-548</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">feeling of radicals at death of,
+<a href='#page545'>545</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">funeral ceremonies of, in
+Washington, <a href='#page545'>545</a>, <a href='#page546'>546</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">funeral journey to Springfield,
+Illinois, <a href='#page546'>546</a>, <a href='#page547'>547</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">burial at Springfield, <a href='#page547'>547</a>, <a href='#page548'>548</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his character and career, <a href='#page549'>549-555</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his place in history, <a href='#page555'>555</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Lincoln, Abraham</b>, grandfather of the President,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">emigrates from Virginia to
+Kentucky, <a href='#page3'>3</a>, <a href='#page4'>4</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">killed by Indians, <a href='#page4'>4</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Lincoln, Edward Baker</b>, son of President Lincoln, birth of,
+<a href='#page69'>69</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">death of, <a href='#page69'>69</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Lincoln, Isaac</b>, settles on Holston River, <a href='#page5'>5</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Lincoln, Josiah</b>, uncle of the President,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">goes to fort for assistance
+against Indians, <a href='#page4'>4</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Lincoln, Mary</b>, aunt of the President, <a href='#page4'>4</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Lincoln, Mary Todd</b>, wife of the President, engagement to Lincoln, <a href='#page63'>63</a>, <a href='#page64'>64</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">writes "Lost Townships" letters, <a href='#page66'>66</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">marriage to Lincoln, November 4, 1842, <a href='#page68'>68</a>, <a href='#page69'>69</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">children of, <a href='#page69'>69</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">death of, <a href='#page69'>69</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">accompanies Mr. Lincoln to Washington, <a href='#page168'>168</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">drive with her husband, April 14 1865, <a href='#page532'>532</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">invites friends to attend Ford's Theater, <a href='#page536'>536</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">attends theater with her husband, <a href='#page538'>538</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Lincoln's death-bed, <a href='#page539'>539</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Lincoln, Mordecai</b>, uncle of the President<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">defends homestead against Indians, <a href='#page4'>4</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">inherits his father's lands, <a href='#page4'>4</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Lincoln, Nancy</b>, aunt of the President, <a href='#page4'>4</a><br />
+<br />
+<a name='nhl' id='nhl'></a> <b>Lincoln, Nancy Hanks</b>, mother of the President,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">marries Thomas Lincoln, June 12, 1806, <a href='#page5'>5</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">teaches her husband to sign his name, <a href='#page5'>5</a>;</span><br />
+<a name="page571" id="page571"></a> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">birth of
+daughter, <a href='#page5'>5</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">birth of Abraham, son of, <a href='#page6'>6</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">death of, <a href='#page9'>9</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Lincoln, Robert Todd</b>, son of the President,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Secretary of War, minister to
+England, birth of, <a href='#page69'>69</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">public services, <a href='#page69'>69</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">accompanies Mr. Lincoln to
+Washington, <a href='#page168'>168</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on Grant's staff, <a href='#page517'>517</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">with his father April 14 1865,
+<a href='#page532'>532</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Lincoln's death-bed, <a href='#page540'>540</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Lincoln, Samuel</b>, ancestor of the President, emigrates to
+America, <a href='#page3'>3</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Lincoln, Sarah</b>, sister of the President, born, <a href='#page5'>5</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">goes to school, <a href='#page6'>6</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Lincoln, Sarah Bush Johnston</b>. See <a href='#sbj'><i>Johnston, Sarah Bush</i></a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Lincoln, Thomas</b>, father of the President, <a href='#page3'>3</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">narrowly escapes capture by Indians, <a href='#page4'>4</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">learns carpenter's trade, <a href='#page5'>5</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">marries Nancy Hanks, June 12, 1806, <a href='#page5'>5</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">daughter of, born, <a href='#page5'>5</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">removes to Rock Spring Farm, <a href='#page5'>5</a>, <a href='#page6'>6</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Abraham, son of, born, <a href='#page6'>6</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">buys farm on Knob Creek, <a href='#page6'>6</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">emigrates to Indiana, <a href='#page7'>7</a>, <a href='#page8'>8</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">death of his wife, <a href='#page9'>9</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">marries Sally Bush Johnston,
+<a href='#page10'>10</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">emigrates to Illinois, <a href='#page20'>20</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Lincoln, Thomas</b>, son of President Lincoln, birth of,
+<a href='#page69'>69</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">death of, <a href='#page69'>69</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">accompanies Mr. Lincoln to
+Washington, <a href='#page168'>168</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Lincoln, William Wallace</b>, son of President Lincoln, birth
+of, <a href='#page69'>69</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">death of, <a href='#page69'>69</a>,
+<a href='#page293'>293</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">accompanies Mr. Lincoln to
+Washington, <a href='#page168'>168</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Lloyd, John M.</b>, keeps tavern at Surrattsville, Maryland,
+<a href='#page536'>536</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Logan, Stephen T.</b>, at Springfield, Illinois, <a href='#page52'>52</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">law partnership with Lincoln,
+<a href='#page70'>70</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">defeated for Congress, <a href='#page91'>91</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>"Long Nine,"</b> a power in Illinois legislature, <a href='#page61'>61</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Longstreet, James</b>, Confederate lieutenant-general,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">besieges Burnside at Knoxville,
+<a href='#page391'>391</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">retreats toward Virginia, <a href='#page391'>391</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reports conversation with Ord,
+<a href='#page503'>503</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in final defense of Richmond,
+<a href='#page509'>509</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Louisiana</b>, State of, military governor appointed for,
+<a href='#page419'>419</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">election for members of Congress,
+<a href='#page422'>422</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">contest over slavery clause in new
+constitution, <a href='#page422'>422</a>, <a href='#page423'>423</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">election of State officers in,
+<a href='#page425'>425</a>, <a href='#page426'>426</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">adopts new constitution abolishing
+slavery, <a href='#page426'>426</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">slavery in, throttled by public
+opinion, <a href='#page473'>473</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ratifies Thirteenth Amendment,
+<a href='#page475'>475</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Lovejoy, Elijah P.</b>, murder of, <a href='#page46'>46</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Lovell, Mansfield</b>, Confederate major-general,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">evacuates New Orleans, <a href='#page285'>285</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sends men and guns to Vicksburg,
+<a href='#page286'>286</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Lyon, Nathaniel</b>, brigadier-general United States
+Volunteers,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">service in Missouri, <a href='#page202'>202-204</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">killed at Wilson's Creek, <a href='#page234'>234</a>, <a href='#page235'>235</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Lyons, Richard Bickerton Pemell</b>, baron, afterward
+earl,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">British minister at
+Washington,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">instructed to demand apology for
+<i>Trent</i> affair, <a href='#page246'>246</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<b>McClellan, George B.</b>, major-general, general-in-chief,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">United States army, orders
+concerning slaves, <a href='#page221'>221</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">commissioned by Governor Dennison,
+<a href='#page224'>224</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his previous career, <a href='#page224'>224</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">quick promotion of, <a href='#page224'>224</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">successes in western Virginia,
+<a href='#page224'>224</a>, <a href='#page225'>225</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ordered to Washington, <a href='#page229'>229</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his ambition, <a href='#page249'>249-251</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">organizes Army of the Potomac,
+<a href='#page250'>250</a>, <a href='#page251'>251</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his hallucinations, <a href='#page251'>251</a>, <a href='#page252'>252</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">quarrel with General Scott,
+<a href='#page251'>251</a>, <a href='#page252'>252</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">expresses contempt for the
+President, <a href='#page252'>252</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">answer to President's inquiry,
+<a href='#page253'>253</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">illness of, <a href='#page253'>253</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">instructions to Buell, <a href='#page258'>258-260</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">unwilling to promote Halleck,
+<a href='#page270'>270</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">attends council of war, <a href='#page289'>289</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">explains plan of campaign to
+Stanton, <a href='#page290'>290</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to Stanton, <a href='#page292'>292</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">revokes Hooker's authority to cross
+lower Potomac, <a href='#page294'>294</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">council of his officers votes in
+favor of water route, <a href='#page295'>295</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at gathering of officials to
+discuss news of fight</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">between <i>Monitor</i> and
+<i>Merrimac</i>, <a href='#page296'>296</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">occupies abandoned rebel position,
+<a href='#page297'>297</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">calls council of corps commanders,
+<a href='#page298'>298</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">relieved from command of all troops
+save Army of the Potomac, <a href='#page298'>298</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">arrives at Fortress Monroe,
+<a href='#page299'>299</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">siege of Yorktown, <a href='#page301'>301</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his incapacity and hallucination,
+<a href='#page302'>302-304</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">retreat to James River, <a href='#page302'>302</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to Stanton, <a href='#page303'>303</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">protests against withdrawal of Army
+of the Potomac, <a href='#page309'>309</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reaches Alexandria, <a href='#page311'>311</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">suggests leaving Pope to his fate,
+<a href='#page311'>311</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">telegram to Pope's officers,
+<a href='#page313'>313</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in command of defenses of
+Washington, <a href='#page313'>313</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">follows Lee into Maryland, <a href='#page314'>314</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">learns Lee's plans, <a href='#page315'>315</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">battle of Antietam, <a href='#page315'>315</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">forces under his command, <a href='#page317'>317</a>, <a href='#page318'>318</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">removed from command, <a href='#page319'>319</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">mentioned, <a href='#page328'>328</a>, <a href='#page329'>329</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">adopted by Democrats for
+presidential candidate, <a href='#page355'>355</a>, <a href='#page438'>438</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nominated for President, <a href='#page467'>467</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter of acceptance, <a href='#page468'>468</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">electoral votes for, <a href='#page470'>470</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">resigns from the army, <a href='#page470'>470</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>McClernand, John A.</b>, member of Congress,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">major-general United States
+Volunteers at Springfield, Illinois, <a href='#page52'>52</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>McCulloch, Ben</b>, Confederate brigadier-general, defeat at Pea
+Ridge, <a href='#page271'>271</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>McCulloch, Hugh</b>, Secretary of the Treasury,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">enters Lincoln's cabinet, <a href='#page492'>492</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>McDougall, James A.</b>, member of Congress,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">United States senator, at
+Springfield, Illinois, <a href='#page52'>52</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>McDowell, Irvin</b>, brevet major-general United States
+army,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">fears junction of Johnston and
+Beauregard, <a href='#page216'>216</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">advances against Beauregard,
+<a href='#page226'>226</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">battle of Bull Run, July 21 1861,
+<a href='#page226'>226-229</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">advises movement on Manassas,
+<a href='#page289'>289</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ordered by Lincoln to protect
+Washington, <a href='#page299'>299</a>, <a href='#page305'>305</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ordered to form junction with
+Shields and Fr&eacute;mont, <a href='#page306'>306</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Army of Virginia, <a href='#page310'>310</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>McLean, John</b>, justice United States Supreme Court,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">vote for, in Chicago convention,
+<a href='#page149'>149</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>McNamar, John</b>, engaged to Anne Rutledge, <a href='#page54'>54</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Magoffin, Beriah</b>, governor of Kentucky,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">efforts in behalf of secession,
+<a href='#page201'>201</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Magruder, John B.</b>, brevet lieutenant-colonel United States
+army,<br />
+<a name="page572" id="page572"></a> Confederate major-general, joins the
+Confederacy, <a href='#page196'>196</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">opposes McClellan with inferior
+numbers, <a href='#page301'>301</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Maine</b>, State of, admitted as State, 1820, <a href='#page19'>19</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Mallory, S.R.</b>, United States senator,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Confederate Secretary of the
+Navy,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">writes proposition of armistice
+dictated</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">by Davis and signed by Johnston,
+<a href='#page521'>521</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Malvern Hill</b>, Virginia, battle of, July 1 1862, <a href='#page302'>302</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Marcy, R.B.</b>, brevet major-general United States army,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">McClellan's chief of staff,
+<a href='#page294'>294</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Marshall, Charles</b>, Confederate colonel,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">present at Lee's surrender,
+<a href='#page513'>513</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Maryland</b>, State of, secession feeling in, <a href='#page193'>193</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">arrest and dispersion of its
+legislature, <a href='#page199'>199</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">refuses offer of compensated
+abolishment, <a href='#page434'>434</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">emancipation party in, <a href='#page434'>434</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">abolishes slavery, <a href='#page435'>435</a>, <a href='#page436'>436</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">slavery in, throttled by public
+opinion, <a href='#page473'>473</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ratifies Thirteenth Amendment,
+<a href='#page474'>474</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Mason, James M.</b>, United States senator,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Confederate commissioner to Europe,
+interview with John Brown, <a href='#page134'>134</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">goes to Baltimore, <a href='#page197'>197</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">capture of, <a href='#page246'>246-249</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Matthews, J.</b>, burns Booth's letter, <a href='#page537'>537</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Maximilian (Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph)</b>,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Archduke of Austria and Emperor of
+Mexico,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">established by Napoleon III in
+Mexico, <a href='#page451'>451</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Maynard, Horace</b>, member of Congress,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">minister to Turkey, telegram about
+East Tennessee, <a href='#page259'>259</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">elected to Congress, <a href='#page419'>419</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Meade, George G.</b>, major-general United States army,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">succeeds Hooker in command of Army
+of the Potomac, <a href='#page372'>372</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">battle of Gettysburg, <a href='#page372'>372-374</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">pursuit of Lee, <a href='#page375'>375</a>, <a href='#page377'>377</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">offers to give up command of Army
+of the Potomac, <a href='#page394'>394</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">continued in command, <a href='#page395'>395</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reports surrender of Richmond,
+<a href='#page510'>510</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ordered to pursue Lee, <a href='#page510'>510</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">pursuit of Lee, <a href='#page511'>511</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ordered to disregard Sherman's
+truce, <a href='#page523'>523</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Meigs, Montgomery C.</b>, brevet major-general<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and quartermaster-general United
+States army,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at gathering of officials to
+discuss news of</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">battle between <i>Monitor</i> and
+<i>Merrimac</i>, <a href='#page296'>296</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Memphis</b>, Tennessee, river battle at, <a href='#page286'>286</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Merrimac</b>, the, Confederate ironclad,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">battle with <i>Monitor</i>,
+<a href='#page278'>278-282</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Merryman, John</b>, arrest of, <a href='#page199'>199</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Minnesota</b>, the, Union steam frigate,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in fight between <i>Monitor</i> and
+<i>Merrimac</i>, <a href='#page280'>280</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Missouri</b>, State of, admitted as State, 1821, <a href='#page19'>19</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">action concerning secession,
+<a href='#page201'>201-204</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">provisional State government
+established, <a href='#page418'>418</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">struggle over slavery, <a href='#page430'>430-434</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">adopts ordinance of emancipation,
+<a href='#page434'>434</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">resolution in Assembly favoring
+Lincoln's renomination, <a href='#page444'>444</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">votes for Grant in Baltimore
+convention, <a href='#page447'>447</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">slavery in, throttled by public
+opinion, <a href='#page473'>473</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Missouri Compromise</b>, repeal of, <a href='#page94'>94</a>,
+<a href='#page95'>95</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Mobile Bay</b>, Alabama, battle of, August 5 1864, <a href='#page468'>468</a>, <a href='#page525'>525</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Monitor</b>, the, Union ironclad, battle with <i>Merrimac</i>,
+<a href='#page279'>279-282</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Montgomery</b>, Alabama, capital of Confederacy removed
+from,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">to Richmond, <a href='#page207'>207</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Moore, Thomas O.</b>, governor of Louisiana,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">arms free colored men, <a href='#page348'>348</a>, <a href='#page349'>349</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Morgan, Edwin D.</b>, governor of New York,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">United States senator, opens
+Republican national convention 1864, <a href='#page446'>446</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">declines cabinet appointment,
+<a href='#page492'>492</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Morris, Achilles</b>, elected to Illinois legislature in 1832,
+<a href='#page34'>34</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Morrison, James L.D.</b>, desires commissionership<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of General Land Office, <a href='#page92'>92</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Mudd, Samuel</b>, assists Booth and Herold, <a href='#page542'>542</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">imprisoned, <a href='#page544'>544</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Mulligan, James A.</b>, brevet brigadier-general<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">United States Volunteers, captured
+by Price, <a href='#page241'>241</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Murfreesboro</b>, Tennessee, battle of,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">December 31 1862, to January 3
+1863, <a href='#page380'>380</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<b>Napoleon III</b>, colonial ambitions of, <a href='#page211'>211</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">establishes Maximilian in Mexico,
+<a href='#page451'>451</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Nashville</b>, Tennessee, battle of, December 15, <a href='#page16'>16</a> 1864, <a href='#page410'>410</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Neale, T.M.</b>, commands troops in Black Hawk War, <a href='#page31'>31</a>, <a href='#page32'>32</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">defeated for Illinois legislature, 1832, <a href='#page34'>34</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<a name='negro' id='negro'></a> <b>Negro soldiers</b>, experiments
+with, early in the war, <a href='#page348'>348</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">governor of Louisiana arms free
+blacks, <a href='#page348'>348</a>, <a href='#page349'>349</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reference to, in emancipation
+proclamation, <a href='#page349'>349</a>, <a href='#page350'>350</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lincoln's interest in, <a href='#page350'>350</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">attitude of Confederates toward,
+<a href='#page350'>350</a>, <a href='#page351'>351</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">massacre of, at Fort Pillow,
+<a href='#page351'>351</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">President's conversation with
+Frederick Douglass</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">about retaliation, <a href='#page352'>352</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Stanton's order regulating raising
+of, <a href='#page435'>435</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Republican national platform claims
+protection of laws of war for, <a href='#page446'>446</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">take part in second inauguration of
+Lincoln, <a href='#page493'>493</a>, <a href='#page494'>494</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Jefferson Davis's recommendation
+concerning slaves in rebel army, <a href='#page501'>501</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">assist in restoring order in
+Richmond, <a href='#page517'>517</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Lincoln's funeral procession,
+<a href='#page546'>546</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">See <a href='#slavery'><i>Slavery</i></a> and <a href='#emanc'><i>Emancipation</i></a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Nelson, William</b>, lieutenant-commander United States
+navy,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">major-general United States
+Volunteers, occupies Nashville, <a href='#page270'>270</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>New Orleans</b>, Louisiana, capture of, <a href='#page283'>283-285</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Confederate negro regiment in,
+<a href='#page348'>348</a>, <a href='#page349'>349</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Union sentiment in, <a href='#page420'>420</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>New Salem</b>, Illinois, town of, <a href='#page22'>22-26</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>New York City</b>, draft riots in, <a href='#page356'>356</a>,
+<a href='#page357'>357</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">funeral honors to Lincoln in,
+<a href='#page546'>546</a>, <a href='#page547'>547</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Nicolay, John G.</b>, Lincoln's private secretary, <a href='#page158'>158</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">accompanies Mr. Lincoln to
+Washington, <a href='#page168'>168</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in attendance at Baltimore
+convention, <a href='#page448'>448</a>, <a href='#page449'>449</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to Hay, <a href='#page448'>448</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>North Carolina</b>, State of, joins Confederacy, <a href='#page200'>200</a>, <a href='#page204'>204</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">military governor appointed for,
+<a href='#page419'>419</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Offutt, Denton</b>, engages Lincoln to take flatboat<br />
+<a name="page573" id="page573"></a> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">to New
+Orleans, <a href='#page21'>21</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">disappears from New Salem, <a href='#page35'>35</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>O'Laughlin, Michael</b>, in conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln,
+<a href='#page534'>534</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">imprisoned, <a href='#page544'>544</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Ord, Edward O.C.</b>, brevet major-general United States
+army,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">conversation with Longstreet,
+<a href='#page503'>503</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Owens, Mary S.</b>, Lincoln's attentions to, correspondence
+with<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and proposal of marriage to,
+<a href='#page55'>55-60</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<b>Palfrey, F.W.</b>, Confederate brigadier-general,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">statement about strength of Army of
+the Potomac, <a href='#page315'>315</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Parke, John G.</b>, brevet major-general United States
+army,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in recapture of Fort Stedman,
+<a href='#page505'>505</a>, <a href='#page506'>506</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in assault at Petersburg
+509</span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Patterson, Robert</b>, major-general Pennsylvania militia,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">turns troops toward Harper's Ferry,
+<a href='#page209'>209</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">part in campaign against Manassas,
+<a href='#page216'>216</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">orders concerning slaves, <a href='#page220'>220</a>, <a href='#page221'>221</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">failure at Harper's Ferry, <a href='#page228'>228</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Paulding, Hiram</b>, rear-admiral United States navy,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">burns Norfolk navy-yard, <a href='#page278'>278</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Pea Ridge</b>, Arkansas, battle of, <a href='#page271'>271</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Pemberton, John C.</b>, Confederate lieutenant-general,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">surrenders Vicksburg, <a href='#page383'>383</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Pendleton, George H.</b>, member of Congress minister to
+Prussia,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nominated for Vice-President,
+<a href='#page467'>467</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Pendleton, William N.</b>, Confederate brigadier-general,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">advises Lee to surrender <a href='#page512'>512</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Perryville</b>, Kentucky, battle of, October 8 1862, <a href='#page379'>379</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Peter, Z.</b>, defeated for Illinois legislature, 1832, <a href='#page34'>34</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Petersburg</b>, Virginia, operations against, <a href='#page400'>400-402</a>, <a href='#page507'>507-510</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">evacuation of, April 2 1865,
+<a href='#page510'>510</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Phelps, John S.</b>, member of Congress, appointed
+military<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">governor of Arkansas, <a href='#page420'>420</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Phelps, J.W.</b>, brigadier-general United States
+Volunteers,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">mentioned in letter of Lincoln,
+<a href='#page334'>334</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">declared an outlaw by Confederate
+War Department, <a href='#page350'>350</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Philippi</b>, West Virginia, battle of, June 3 1861, <a href='#page214'>214</a>, <a href='#page225'>225</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Phillips, Wendell</b>, letter to Cleveland convention, <a href='#page442'>442</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Pickens, Francis W.</b>, member of Congress, minister to
+Russia,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">governor of South Carolina, fires
+on <i>Star of the West</i>, <a href='#page178'>178</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Pickett, George E.</b>, Confederate major-general, in battle of
+Five Forks, <a href='#page507'>507</a>, <a href='#page508'>508</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Pierce, Franklin</b>, fourteenth President of the United
+States,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">recognizes bogus laws in Kansas,
+<a href='#page113'>113</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">appoints governors for Kansas,
+<a href='#page113'>113</a>, <a href='#page114'>114</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Pillow, Gideon J.</b>, Confederate major-general,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">stationed at Columbus, <a href='#page254'>254</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">escapes from Fort Donelson,
+<a href='#page268'>268</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Pinkerton, Allen</b>, detective work of, <a href='#page173'>173</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Pittsburg Landing</b>, Tennessee, battle of,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">April 6, 7 1862, <a href='#page272'>272-274</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Polk, James K.</b>, eleventh President of the United
+States,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sends treaty of peace with Mexico
+to Senate, <a href='#page79'>79</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Pomeroy, Samuel C.</b>, United States senator, secret circular
+of, <a href='#page440'>440</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Pope, John</b>, brevet major-general United States army,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sent to New Madrid, <a href='#page270'>270</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">capture of Island No. 10, <a href='#page274'>274</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">proceeds to Fort Pillow, <a href='#page274'>274</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">joins Halleck, <a href='#page274'>274</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">assigned to command Army of
+Virginia, <a href='#page306'>306</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">assumes command of Army of Virginia
+310;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">second battle of Bull Run, <a href='#page310'>310</a>, <a href='#page311'>311</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">despatch announcing his defeat,
+<a href='#page312'>312</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">relieved from command of Army of
+the Potomac, <a href='#page314'>314</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Porter, David D.</b>, admiral United States navy,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">commands mortar flotilla in
+expedition with Farragut, <a href='#page282'>282-287</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in second expedition to Vicksburg,
+<a href='#page287'>287</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in operations about Vicksburg,
+<a href='#page382'>382</a>, <a href='#page383'>383</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">visits Richmond with Lincoln,
+<a href='#page517'>517</a>, <a href='#page518'>518</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Porterfield, G.A.</b>, Confederate colonel, routed at Philippi,
+<a href='#page225'>225</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Port Hudson</b>, Louisiana, siege and surrender of, <a href='#page383'>383</a>, <a href='#page384'>384</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Port Royal</b>, South Carolina, expedition against, <a href='#page245'>245</a>, <a href='#page246'>246</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Powell, Lewis</b>, <i>alias</i> Lewis Payne, in conspiracy<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">to assassinate Lincoln, <a href='#page534'>534</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">assigned to murder Seward, <a href='#page535'>535</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">attack upon Seward, <a href='#page540'>540</a>, <a href='#page541'>541</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">escape and capture of, <a href='#page541'>541</a>, <a href='#page542'>542</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">execution of, <a href='#page544'>544</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Price, Sterling</b>, Confederate major-general retreat<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">to Springfield, Missouri, <a href='#page234'>234</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">captures Mulligan, <a href='#page241'>241</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">retreats toward Arkansas, <a href='#page269'>269</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">defeat at Pea Ridge, <a href='#page271'>271</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Pritchard, Benjamin D.</b>, brevet brigadier-general<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">United States Volunteers, captures
+Jefferson Davis, <a href='#page526'>526</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<b>Quinton, R.</b>, defeated for Illinois legislature 1832,
+<a href='#page34'>34</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<b>Rathbone, Henry R.</b>, brevet colonel United States army,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">attends Ford's Theater with Mrs.
+Lincoln and Miss Harris, <a href='#page536'>536</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">wounded by Booth, <a href='#page538'>538</a>, <a href='#page539'>539</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Raymond, Henry J.</b>, member of Congress letter to Lincoln,
+<a href='#page462'>462</a>, <a href='#page463'>463</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">visits Washington, <a href='#page463'>463</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Reconstruction</b>, in West Virginia and Missouri, <a href='#page418'>418</a>, <a href='#page419'>419</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lincoln's theory of, <a href='#page419'>419</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Louisiana, <a href='#page420'>420-426</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Arkansas, <a href='#page426'>426</a>, <a href='#page427'>427</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Tennessee, <a href='#page428'>428</a>, <a href='#page429'>429</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">opposition in Congress to Lincoln's
+action concerning, <a href='#page454'>454</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Henry Winter Davis's bill
+prescribing method of, <a href='#page454'>454</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lincoln's proclamation of, July 8
+1864, <a href='#page456'>456</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Wade-Davis manifesto, <a href='#page456'>456</a>, <a href='#page457'>457</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Republican Party</b>, formation of, <a href='#page102'>102</a>,
+<a href='#page103'>103</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nominates Fr&eacute;mont and Dayton
+1856, <a href='#page103'>103</a>, <a href='#page104'>104</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">national convention of 1860,
+<a href='#page144'>144-151</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">candidates in 1860, <a href='#page152'>152</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">campaign of 1860, <a href='#page153'>153-160</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Fr&eacute;mont faction denounces
+Lincoln's attitude on slavery, <a href='#page438'>438</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Chase faction, <a href='#page439'>439-441</a>;</span><br />
+<a name="page574" id="page574"></a> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">national
+convention of 1864, <a href='#page446'>446-449</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">gloomy prospects of, <a href='#page462'>462-466</a>: success in elections
+of 1864, <a href='#page469'>469</a>, <a href='#page470'>470</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Retaliation,</b> rebel threats of, <a href='#page350'>350</a>,
+<a href='#page351'>351</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">cabinet action on Fort Pillow
+massacre, <a href='#page352'>352</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">conversation between Lincoln and
+Frederick Douglass about, <a href='#page352'>352</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Reynolds,</b> John, governor of Illinois, issues call<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">for volunteers for Black Hawk War,
+<a href='#page31'>31</a>, <a href='#page32'>32</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Richmond,</b> Virginia, becomes capital of Confederate States,
+<a href='#page207'>207</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">panic in, at rumors of evacuation,
+<a href='#page481'>481</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">high prices in, <a href='#page481'>481</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">excitement created by Blair's
+visits, <a href='#page481'>481</a>, <a href='#page482'>482</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">alarm at Grant's advance, <a href='#page500'>500</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">surrender of, April 3 1865,
+<a href='#page510'>510</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">burning of, <a href='#page515'>515</a>, <a href='#page516'>516</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Rich Mountain,</b> Virginia, battle of, July 11 1861, <a href='#page225'>225</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Riney, Zachariah,</b> teacher of President Lincoln, <a href='#page6'>6</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Roanoke,</b> the, Union steam frigate, in fight<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">between <i>Monitor</i> and
+<i>Merrimac</i>, <a href='#page280'>280</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Robinson, E.,</b> defeated for Illinois legislature, 1832, <a href='#page34'>34</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Rodgers, John,</b> rear-admiral United States navy,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">takes part in Port Royal
+expedition, <a href='#page245'>245</a>, <a href='#page246'>246</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Romine, Gideon,</b> merchant at Gentryville, <a href='#page9'>9</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Rosecrans, William S.,</b> brevet major-general United States
+army,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">success at Rich Mountain, <a href='#page225'>225</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">succeeds Buell in Kentucky,
+<a href='#page380'>380</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">battle of Murfreesboro, <a href='#page380'>380</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Iuka and Corinth, <a href='#page380'>380</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">drives Bragg to Chattanooga,
+<a href='#page385'>385</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Chattanooga and Chickamauga,
+<a href='#page386'>386-388</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">relieved from command, <a href='#page388'>388</a>, <a href='#page389'>389</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">dilatory movements delay
+reconstruction in Tennessee, <a href='#page428'>428</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Russell, Lord John,</b> British minister for foreign
+affairs,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">interview with Charles Francis
+Adams, <a href='#page211'>211</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Rutledge, Anne,</b> engagement to Lincoln, <a href='#page54'>54</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">death of, <a href='#page54'>54</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<b>Savannah,</b> Georgia, occupied by Sherman, December 21 1864,
+<a href='#page412'>412</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Schofield, J.M.,</b> brevet major-general,
+general-in-chief,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">United States army, ordered to join
+Sherman, <a href='#page414'>414</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">joins Sherman <a href='#page417'>417</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Schurz, Carl,</b> major-general United States Volunteers,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">United States senator,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Secretary of the Interior, asks
+permission to take part</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in presidential campaign, <a href='#page444'>444</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Scott Dred,</b> case of, <a href='#page108'>108</a>, <a href='#page109'>109</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Scott, Robert E.,</b> tendered cabinet appointment 164<br />
+<br />
+<b>Scott, Winfield,</b> lieutenant-general United States
+army,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">warning to Lincoln about plot in
+Baltimore, <a href='#page172'>172</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">charged with safety of Washington,
+<a href='#page172'>172</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">attempt to reinforce Anderson,
+<a href='#page178'>178</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">advises evacuation of Sumter,
+<a href='#page183'>183</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">orders Washington prepared for a
+siege, <a href='#page194'>194</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">report to President Lincoln,
+<a href='#page194'>194</a>, <a href='#page195'>195</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">offers Lee command of seventy-five
+regiments, <a href='#page196'>196</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">orders Lyon to St. Louis, <a href='#page202'>202</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">loyalty of, <a href='#page208'>208</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">occupies Cairo, Illinois, <a href='#page210'>210</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">military problem before, <a href='#page210'>210</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">plan of campaign 215, <a href='#page216'>216</a>, <a href='#page231'>231</a>, <a href='#page232'>232</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">refuses to credit news of defeat at
+Bull Run, <a href='#page228'>228</a>, <a href='#page229'>229</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">welcomes McClellan to Washington,
+<a href='#page250'>250</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">quarrel with McClellan, <a href='#page251'>251</a>, <a href='#page252'>252</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">retirement of, <a href='#page251'>251-253</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">rank as lieutenant-general,
+<a href='#page393'>393</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">attends Lincoln's funeral in New
+York, <a href='#page547'>547</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Seaton, William W.,</b> mayor of Washington approves<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lincoln's bill abolishing slavery
+in District of Columbia, <a href='#page87'>87</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Secession,</b> South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi
+Alabama,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas join
+the movement, <a href='#page175'>175</a>, <a href='#page176'>176</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">action of central cabal, <a href='#page177'>177</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sentiment in Maryland, <a href='#page193'>193</a>, <a href='#page194'>194</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Virginia passes ordinance of,
+<a href='#page194'>194</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tennessee, North Carolina, and
+Arkansas join the movement, <a href='#page200'>200</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sentiment in Delaware, <a href='#page201'>201</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Kentucky, <a href='#page201'>201</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Missouri, <a href='#page201'>201-204</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">numerical strength of, <a href='#page204'>204</a>. See <a href='#cs'><i>Confederate States of
+America</i></a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Seddon, James A.,</b> member of Congress, Confederate<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Secretary of War, resignation of,
+<a href='#page501'>501</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Sedgwick, John,</b> major-general United States
+Volunteers,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">crosses Rappahannock and takes
+Fredericksburg, <a href='#page368'>368</a>, <a href='#page369'>369</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Seven Days' Battles,</b> <a href='#page302'>302</a>, <a href='#page306'>306</a>, <a href='#page307'>307</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Seward, Augustus H.,</b> brevet colonel United States
+army,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">stabbed by Powell, <i>alias</i>
+Payne, <a href='#page541'>541</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Seward, Frederick W.,</b> Assistant Secretary of State,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">visits Lincoln in Philadelphia,
+<a href='#page172'>172</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">wounded by Powell, <i>alias</i>,
+Payne, <a href='#page540'>540</a>, <a href='#page541'>541</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Seward, William H.,</b> United States senator, Secretary of
+State,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">desires re&euml;lection of Douglas
+to United States Senate, <a href='#page125'>125</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">candidate for presidential
+nomination 1860, <a href='#page144'>144</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">votes for, in Chicago convention,
+<a href='#page149'>149-151</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">accepts cabinet appointment,
+<a href='#page163'>163</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">transmits offers of cabinet
+appointments, <a href='#page164'>164</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">suggestions to Lincoln about
+journey to Washington, <a href='#page168'>168</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">warning to Lincoln about plot in
+Baltimore, <a href='#page172'>172</a>, <a href='#page173'>173</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">meets Lincoln at railway station in
+Washington, <a href='#page174'>174</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">appointed Secretary of State,
+<a href='#page182'>182</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reply to Confederate commissioners,
+<a href='#page183'>183</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reply to Judge Campbell, <a href='#page183'>183</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">memorandum of April 1 1861,
+<a href='#page184'>184-187</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">opinion of Lincoln, <a href='#page187'>187</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">despatch of May 21, <a href='#page211'>211</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">friendship for Lord Lyons, <a href='#page247'>247</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">despatch in <i>Trent</i> affair,
+<a href='#page249'>249</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at gathering of officials to
+discuss news of <i>Monitor</i></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and <i>Merrimac</i>, <a href='#page296'>296</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">goes to New York with President's
+letter, <a href='#page307'>307</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lincoln tells him of coming
+emancipation proclamation, <a href='#page332'>332</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">suggests postponement of
+emancipation proclamation, <a href='#page332'>332</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">attitude toward the French in
+Mexico, <a href='#page451'>451</a>, <a href='#page452'>452</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">agrees with President against
+making proffers of peace to Davis, <a href='#page463'>463</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">proclaims ratification of
+Thirteenth Amendment, <a href='#page475'>475</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">goes to Hampton Roads, <a href='#page483'>483</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">relations with Montgomery Blair,
+<a href='#page488'>488</a>;</span><br />
+<a name="page575" id="page575"></a> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">plot to
+murder, <a href='#page535'>535</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">attacked by Powell, <i>alias</i>
+Payne, <a href='#page540'>540</a>, <a href='#page541'>541</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Seymour, Horatio</b>, governor of New York, opposition to the
+draft, <a href='#page355'>355-357</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">correspondence with Lincoln,
+<a href='#page356'>356</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">notifies McClellan of his
+nomination, <a href='#page468'>468</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Shepley, G.F.</b>, brigadier-general United States
+Volunteers,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">military governor of Louisiana,
+orders election</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">for members of Congress, <a href='#page422'>422</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">orders registration of loyal
+voters, <a href='#page422'>422</a>, <a href='#page423'>423</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Sheridan, Philip H.</b>, lieutenant-general,
+general-in-chief,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">United States army, operations in
+Shenandoah valley, <a href='#page403'>403</a>, <a href='#page404'>404</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">succeeds McClellan, <a href='#page470'>470</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Shenandoah valley, <a href='#page502'>502</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reaches City Point, <a href='#page506'>506</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">advance to Five Forks, <a href='#page507'>507</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reports situation to Grant,
+<a href='#page507'>507</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">battle of Five Forks, <a href='#page508'>508</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ordered to get on Lee's line of
+retreat, <a href='#page509'>509</a>, <a href='#page510'>510</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">despatch to Grant, <a href='#page511'>511</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">captures Appomattox Station,
+<a href='#page512'>512</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">despatch to Grant, <a href='#page512'>512</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Sherman, John</b>, member of Congress, Secretary of the
+Treasury,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">United States senator,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">candidate for Speaker of the House
+of Representatives, <a href='#page141'>141</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Sherman, William Tecumseh</b>, lieutenant-general,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">general-in-chief United States
+army, sent to Nashville, <a href='#page254'>254</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">succeeds Anderson, <a href='#page254'>254</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">interview with Cameron, <a href='#page255'>255</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">asks to be relieved, <a href='#page255'>255</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in operations about Vicksburg,
+<a href='#page381'>381</a>, <a href='#page382'>382</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reaches Chattanooga, <a href='#page389'>389</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in battle of Chattanooga, <a href='#page390'>390</a>, <a href='#page391'>391</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">conference with Grant, <a href='#page395'>395</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">master in the West, <a href='#page395'>395</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Meridian campaign, <a href='#page405'>405</a>, <a href='#page406'>406</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">concentrates troops at Chattanooga,
+<a href='#page406'>406</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">march on Atlanta, <a href='#page408'>408</a>, <a href='#page468'>468</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">truce with Hood, <a href='#page408'>408</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">divides his army, <a href='#page409'>409</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">march to the sea, <a href='#page410'>410-412</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">telegram to President Lincoln,
+<a href='#page412'>412</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">proposes to march through the
+Carolinas, <a href='#page414'>414</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">from Savannah to Goldsboro,
+<a href='#page414'>414-417</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">visit to Grant, <a href='#page417'>417</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">march northward, <a href='#page502'>502</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">visit to Lincoln and Grant,
+<a href='#page506'>506</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">admiration for Grant and respect
+for Lee, <a href='#page520'>520</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">enters Raleigh, <a href='#page521'>521</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">receives communication from
+Johnston, <a href='#page521'>521</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">meetings with Johnston, <a href='#page521'>521</a>, <a href='#page522'>522</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">agreement between them, <a href='#page522'>522</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">agreement disapproved at
+Washington, <a href='#page523'>523</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">report to Grant, <a href='#page523'>523</a>, <a href='#page524'>524</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">receives Johnston's surrender,
+<a href='#page524'>524</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">effect of his march through the
+South, <a href='#page524'>524</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sent against E. Kirby Smith,
+<a href='#page526'>526</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">soldiers of, in grand review,
+<a href='#page528'>528</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Shields, James</b>, United States senator,
+brigadier-general<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">United States Volunteers, at
+Springfield, Illinois, <a href='#page52'>52</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">auditor of Illinois, <a href='#page65'>65</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">challenges Lincoln to a duel,
+<a href='#page66'>66-68</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ordered to form junction with
+McDowell and Fr&eacute;mont, <a href='#page306'>306</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Short, James</b>, buys Lincoln's surveying instruments<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and restores them to him, <a href='#page36'>36</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Simpson, M.</b>, Bishop of the Methodist Church,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">oration at Lincoln's funeral,
+<a href='#page548'>548</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<a name='slavery' id='slavery'></a> <b>Slavery</b>, agitation in
+Illinois, <a href='#page45'>45</a>, <a href='#page46'>46</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lincoln-Stone protest, <a href='#page47'>47</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lincoln's bill to abolish, in
+District of Columbia, <a href='#page85'>85-87</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">repeal of Missouri Compromise,
+<a href='#page94'>94</a>, <a href='#page95'>95</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Peoria debate of Lincoln and
+Douglas, <a href='#page96'>96-98</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lincoln's Chicago banquet speech,
+<a href='#page106'>106</a>, <a href='#page107'>107</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dred Scott case, <a href='#page108'>108-112</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">pro-slavery reaction, <a href='#page113'>113</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">slavery agitation in Kansas,
+<a href='#page113'>113-117</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lincoln's "House divided against
+itself" speech, <a href='#page119'>119</a>, <a href='#page120'>120</a>, <a href='#page127'>127</a>, <a href='#page128'>128</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lincoln-Douglas joint debate,
+<a href='#page121'>121-125</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">John Brown raid, <a href='#page134'>134</a>, <a href='#page135'>135</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lincoln's speeches in Kansas and
+the East, <a href='#page136'>136-140</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">pro-slavery demands of Democratic
+leaders, <a href='#page141'>141</a>, <a href='#page142'>142</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">attitude of political parties upon,
+in 1860, <a href='#page152'>152</a>, <a href='#page153'>153</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"corner-stone" theory of the
+Confederate States, <a href='#page179'>179</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">dream of the conspirators, <a href='#page197'>197</a>, <a href='#page204'>204</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">dread of slave insurrections in the
+South, <a href='#page220'>220</a>, <a href='#page221'>221</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">action of Union commanders about,
+<a href='#page220'>220-223</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Fr&eacute;mont's proclamation,
+<a href='#page236'>236-238</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lincoln to Browning about
+Fr&eacute;mont's proclamation, <a href='#page238'>238-240</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">President's interview with border
+State delegations, <a href='#page257'>257</a>, <a href='#page258'>258</a>, <a href='#page324'>324</a>, <a href='#page325'>325</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">references to, in Cameron's report,
+<a href='#page320'>320</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Lincoln's message of December 3
+1861, <a href='#page321'>321</a>, <a href='#page322'>322</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Delaware offered compensated
+abolishment, <a href='#page322'>322</a>, <a href='#page323'>323</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lincoln's special message to
+Congress, March 6 1862, <a href='#page323'>323</a>, <a href='#page324'>324</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">President's letter to McDougall,
+<a href='#page324'>324</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Congress passes bill for
+compensated emancipation</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in District of Columbia, <a href='#page325'>325</a>, <a href='#page326'>326</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">bill in Congress to aid
+emancipation in Delaware, Maryland,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and
+Missouri, <a href='#page326'>326</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lincoln revokes Hunter's order,
+<a href='#page327'>327</a>, <a href='#page328'>328</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">measures relating to, in Congress
+1862, <a href='#page329'>329</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">President's second interview with
+border State delegations, <a href='#page329'>329-331</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lincoln reads first draft of
+emancipation proclamation to cabinet, <a href='#page331'>331</a>,
+<a href='#page332'>332</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">President's interview with Chicago
+clergymen, <a href='#page337'>337-339</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">President issues preliminary
+emancipation proclamation, <a href='#page339'>339-341</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">annual message of December 1 1862,
+on, <a href='#page341'>341</a>, <a href='#page342'>342</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">President issues final emancipation
+proclamation, <a href='#page342'>342-346</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">President's views on, <a href='#page346'>346</a>, <a href='#page347'>347</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">arming of negro soldiers, <a href='#page348'>348-350</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">instructions from War Department
+about slaves, <a href='#page349'>349</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">contest over slavery clause in new
+Louisiana constitution, <a href='#page423'>423</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">slavery abolished in Louisiana,
+<a href='#page426'>426</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">abolished in Arkansas, <a href='#page427'>427</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">abolished in Tennessee, <a href='#page429'>429</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">abolished in Missouri, <a href='#page434'>434</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">abolished in Maryland, <a href='#page435'>435</a>, <a href='#page436'>436</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">attitude of Democratic party on,
+<a href='#page437'>437</a>, <a href='#page438'>438</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Republican national platform favors
+constitutional</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">amendment abolishing, <a href='#page446'>446</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">fugitive-slave law repealed,
+<a href='#page457'>457</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">constitutional amendment
+prohibiting, in United States, <a href='#page471'>471-476</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">public opinion on, in certain
+States, <a href='#page473'>473</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">two constitutional amendments
+offered during Lincoln's term, <a href='#page475'>475</a>, <a href='#page476'>476</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lincoln's draft of joint resolution
+offering South $400,000,000, <a href='#page493'>493</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">decline in value of slave property
+in the South, <a href='#page501'>501</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">effect on Lincoln's character,
+<a href='#page551'>551</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">See <a href='#emanc'><i>Emancipation</i></a> and <a href='#negro'><i>Negro
+soldiers</i></a></span><br />
+<a name="page576" id="page576"></a><br />
+<b>Slidell, John</b>, minister to Mexico, United States
+senator,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Confederate commissioner to Europe,
+capture of, <a href='#page246'>246-249</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">last instructions from Confederate
+Secretary of State to, <a href='#page501'>501</a>, <a href='#page502'>502</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Smith, Caleb B.</b>, member of Congress, Secretary of the
+Interior,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">judge United States District
+Court,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">appointed Secretary of the
+Interior, <a href='#page182'>182</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">signs cabinet protest, <a href='#page311'>311</a>, <a href='#page312'>312</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Smith, E. Kirby</b>, Confederate general,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">commands forces west of the
+Mississippi, <a href='#page525'>525</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">surrender of, <a href='#page526'>526</a>, <a href='#page527'>527</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Smith, Melancton</b>, rear-admiral United States navy,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at gathering of officials to
+discuss fight between <i>Monitor</i></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and <i>Merrimac</i>, <a href='#page296'>296</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Smith, William F.</b>, brevet major-general United States
+army,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">service at Chattanooga
+389</span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Spain</b>, joint expedition to Mexico, <a href='#page451'>451</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Spangler, Edward</b>, imprisoned for complicity in Booth's plot,
+<a href='#page544'>544</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Speed, James</b>, Attorney-General, appointed Attorney-General,
+<a href='#page491'>491</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Speed, Joshua F.</b>, intimacy with Lincoln, <a href='#page53'>53</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lincoln's letters to, <a href='#page64'>64</a>, <a href='#page65'>65</a>, <a href='#page68'>68</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">marriage, <a href='#page65'>65</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Spottsylvania</b>, Virginia, battle of, May 8-<a href='#page19'>19</a> 1864, <a href='#page398'>398</a>, <a href='#page399'>399</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Springfield</b>, Illinois, its ambition, <a href='#page26'>26</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">first newspaper, <a href='#page26'>26</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">becomes capital of Illinois,
+<a href='#page45'>45</a>, <a href='#page52'>52</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in 1837-<a href='#page39'>39</a>,
+<a href='#page53'>53</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">revival of business in, <a href='#page61'>61</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">society in, <a href='#page62'>62</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lincoln's speech of farewell at,
+<a href='#page169'>169</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">funeral honors to Lincoln in,
+<a href='#page547'>547</a>, <a href='#page548'>548</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Stanley, Edward</b>, member of Congress, appointed
+military<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">governor of North Carolina,
+<a href='#page420'>420</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Stanton, Edwin M.</b>, Attorney-General, Secretary of War,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">succeeds Cameron as Secretary of
+War, <a href='#page289'>289</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his efficiency, <a href='#page289'>289</a>, <a href='#page290'>290</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">interview with the President,
+<a href='#page293'>293</a>, <a href='#page294'>294</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at gathering of officials to
+discuss news of <i>Monitor</i></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and <i>Merrimac</i>, <a href='#page296'>296</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">conveys President's reply to
+McClellan's plan of campaign, <a href='#page298'>298</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">indignation at McClellan, <a href='#page311'>311</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">draws up and signs memorandum of
+protest against continuing</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">McClellan in command, <a href='#page311'>311</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">instruction about slaves, <a href='#page349'>349</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">faith in Hooker, <a href='#page370'>370</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">anxiety for Lincoln during Early's
+raid, <a href='#page403'>403</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">order regulating raising of colored
+troops, <a href='#page435'>435</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">orders suppression of two New York
+newspapers and arrest</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of their editors, <a href='#page453'>453</a>, <a href='#page454'>454</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">agrees with President against
+making proffers of peace to Davis, <a href='#page463'>463</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sends Halleck's letter to
+President, <a href='#page488'>488</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">shows Lincoln Grant's despatch
+transmitting Lee's overtures, <a href='#page503'>503</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">disapproves Sherman's agreement
+with Johnston, <a href='#page523'>523</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Lincoln's death-bed, <a href='#page540'>540</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Star of the West</b>, merchant vessel, unsuccessful
+attempt<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">to reinforce Fort Sumter, <a href='#page178'>178</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Steele, Frederick</b>, brevet major-general United States
+army,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">marches from Helena to Little Rock,
+Arkansas, <a href='#page427'>427</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">assists reconstruction in Arkansas,
+<a href='#page427'>427</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Stephens, Alexander H.</b>; member of Congress,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Confederate Vice-President,
+correspondence with Lincoln, <a href='#page165'>165</a>, <a href='#page166'>166</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">elected Vice-President Confederate
+States of America, <a href='#page179'>179</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"corner-stone" theory, <a href='#page179'>179</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">signs military league, <a href='#page197'>197</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">appointed peace commissioner,
+<a href='#page482'>482</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Hampton Roads conference,
+<a href='#page482'>482-485</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Stevens, Thaddeus</b>, member of Congress, criticism of
+joint<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">resolution offering compensated
+emancipation, <a href='#page325'>325</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>St. Lawrence</b>, the, in fight between <i>Monitor</i><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and <i>Merrimac</i>, <a href='#page280'>280</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Stone, Charles P.</b>, brigadier-general United States
+Volunteers,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">report about danger to Lincoln in
+Baltimore, <a href='#page172'>172</a>, <a href='#page173'>173</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Stone, Dan</b>, member of Illinois legislature,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">protest with Lincoln against
+resolutions on slavery, <a href='#page47'>47</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Stone, Dr. Robert K.</b>, at Lincoln's death-bed, <a href='#page539'>539</a>, <a href='#page540'>540</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Stringham, Silas H.</b>, rear-admiral United States navy,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">commands Hatteras expedition,
+<a href='#page245'>245</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Stuart, John T.</b>, major Illinois Volunteers, member of
+Congress,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">re&euml;nlists as private in Black
+Hawk War, <a href='#page33'>33</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">elected to Illinois legislature in
+1832, <a href='#page34'>34</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">re&euml;lected in 1834, <a href='#page43'>43</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">encourages Lincoln to study law,
+<a href='#page44'>44</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Springfield, Illinois, <a href='#page52'>52</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">elected to Congress, <a href='#page69'>69</a>, <a href='#page70'>70</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Surratt, John H.</b>, in conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln,
+<a href='#page534'>534</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">deposits arms in tavern at
+Surrattsville, <a href='#page536'>536</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">escape to Canada, subsequent
+capture and trial, <a href='#page544'>544</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Surratt, Mrs. Mary E.</b>, in conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln,
+<a href='#page534'>534</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">visits tavern at Surrattsville,
+<a href='#page536'>536</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">fate of, <a href='#page541'>541</a>, <a href='#page542'>542</a>, <a href='#page544'>544</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Swaney</b>, teacher of President Lincoln, <a href='#page12'>12</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Swett, Leonard</b>, favors Holt for Vice-President, <a href='#page448'>448</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<b>Taney, Roger B.</b>, chief justice of the Supreme Court<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of the United States, opinion in
+Dred Scott case, <a href='#page109'>109</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">action in Merryman case, <a href='#page199'>199</a>, <a href='#page200'>200</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">death of, <a href='#page490'>490</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Taylor, E.D.</b>, elected to Illinois legislature in 1832,
+<a href='#page34'>34</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Taylor, Richard</b>, Confederate lieutenant-general,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">surrenders to Canby, <a href='#page525'>525</a>, <a href='#page527'>527</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Taylor, Zachary</b>, twelfth President of the United
+States,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nominated for President, <a href='#page80'>80</a>, <a href='#page81'>81</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">elected President, <a href='#page87'>87</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Tennessee</b>, the, Confederate ram, in battle of Mobile Bay,
+<a href='#page525'>525</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Tennessee</b>, State of, joins Confederacy, <a href='#page200'>200</a>, <a href='#page204'>204</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">military governor appointed for,
+<a href='#page419'>419</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">secession usurpation in, <a href='#page420'>420</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">delay of reconstruction in,
+<a href='#page428'>428</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">organization of State government
+and abolishment of slavery, <a href='#page429'>429</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">public opinion in, regarding
+slavery, <a href='#page473'>473</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ratifies Thirteenth Amendment,
+<a href='#page475'>475</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Terry, Alfred H.</b>, brevet major-general United States
+army,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">communicates with Sherman, <a href='#page416'>416</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Texas</b>, State of, ratifies Thirteenth Amendment, <a href='#page475'>475</a><br />
+<a name="page577" id="page577"></a><br />
+<b>Thatcher, Henry K.</b>, rear-admiral United States navy,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">receives surrender of Farrand,
+<a href='#page525'>525</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Thirteenth Amendment</b>, joint resolution proposing, <a href='#page471'>471-475</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ratification of, <a href='#page475'>475</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Thomas, George H.</b>, major-general United States army,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ordered to oppose Zollicoffer,
+<a href='#page254'>254</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">victory over Zollicoffer, <a href='#page265'>265</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at battle of Chickamauga, <a href='#page387'>387</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">succeeds Rosecrans at Chattanooga,
+<a href='#page389'>389</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in battle of Chattanooga, <a href='#page390'>390</a>, <a href='#page391'>391</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sent by Sherman to defend
+Tennessee, <a href='#page409'>409</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Franklin and Nashville, <a href='#page410'>410</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">threatens Confederate
+communications from Tennessee, <a href='#page502'>502</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Thompson, Jacob</b>, member of Congress, Secretary of the
+Interior,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">agent of Confederate government in
+Canada, <a href='#page361'>361</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his visionary plans, <a href='#page361'>361</a>, <a href='#page362'>362</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">account at Montreal Bank, <a href='#page544'>544</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Thompson, Samuel</b>, colonel Illinois Volunteers,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">commands regiment in Black Hawk
+War, <a href='#page32'>32</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Tod, David</b>, minister to Brazil, governor of Ohio,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">declines nomination for Secretary
+of the Treasury, <a href='#page457'>457</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Todd, Mary</b>, see <i>Lincoln, Mary Todd</i><br />
+<br />
+<b>Totten, Joseph G.</b>, brevet major-general United States
+army,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at gathering of officials to
+discuss news of fight of <i>Monitor</i></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and <i>Merrimac</i>, <a href='#page296'>296</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Treat, Samuel H.</b>, United States district judge,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Springfield, Illinois, <a href='#page52'>52</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Trent Brothers</b>, buy store of Lincoln and Berry, <a href='#page36'>36</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Trent</b>, the, British mail-steamer, overhauled<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">by the <i>San Jacinto</i>, <a href='#page246'>246</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Trumbull, Lyman</b>, member of Congress, United States
+senator,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Springfield, Illinois, <a href='#page52'>52</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">elected to United States Senate, 1855, <a href='#page100'>100</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Turnham, David</b>, lends Lincoln "Revised Statutes of Indiana,"
+<a href='#page14'>14</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<b>Usher, John P.</b>, Secretary of the Treasury, resigns from
+cabinet, <a href='#page492'>492</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<b>Vallandigham, Clement L.</b>, member of Congress,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">interview with John Brown, <a href='#page134'>134</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">arrest and banishment of, <a href='#page358'>358</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">head of Knights of Golden Circle,
+etc., <a href='#page360'>360</a>, <a href='#page361'>361</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Democratic national convention,
+<a href='#page467'>467</a>, <a href='#page468'>468</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Van Bergen</b>, sues Lincoln for debt, <a href='#page36'>36</a>,
+<a href='#page41'>41</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Vandalia</b>, Illinois, removal of State capital from,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">to Springfield, <a href='#page45'>45</a>, <a href='#page52'>52</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Van Dorn, Earl</b>, Confederate major-general, defeat at Pea
+Ridge, <a href='#page271'>271</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Varuna</b>, the, sunk in expedition against New Orleans,
+<a href='#page285'>285</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Vicksburg</b>, Mississippi, fortifications of, <a href='#page287'>287</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">surrender of, July 4 1863, <a href='#page376'>376</a>, <a href='#page383'>383</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">situation of <a href='#page381'>381</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">operations against, <a href='#page381'>381-383</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Victoria</b>, Queen of Great Britain and Ireland,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">proclamation of neutrality,
+<a href='#page211'>211</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">kindly feelings toward United
+States, <a href='#page247'>247</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Vienna Station</b>, ambush at, <a href='#page214'>214</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Virginia</b>, State of, passes ordinance of secession, <a href='#page194'>194</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in the Confederacy, <a href='#page204'>204</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ratifies Thirteenth Amendment,
+<a href='#page475'>475</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<b>Wade, Benjamin F.</b>, United States senator,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">signs Wade-Davis manifesto,
+<a href='#page456'>456</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Walker, Leroy Pope</b>, Confederate Secretary of War<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and brigadier-general, speech at
+Montgomery, <a href='#page197'>197</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Walker, Robert J.</b>, United States senator Secretary<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of the Treasury, appointed governor
+of Kansas, <a href='#page114'>114</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to Buchanan <a href='#page114'>114</a>, <a href='#page115'>115</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">resigns, <a href='#page117'>117</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Warren, Gouverneur K.</b>, brevet major-general United<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">States army, attacked by Lee,
+<a href='#page507'>507</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Washburne, Elihu B.</b>, member of Congress,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">minister to France, meets Lincoln
+at railway station in Washington, <a href='#page174'>174</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Washington City</b>, cutoff from the North, <a href='#page194'>194-197</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">communication restored, <a href='#page197'>197</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">fortifications of, <a href='#page208'>208</a>, <a href='#page209'>209</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">threatened by Early, <a href='#page403'>403</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">grand review of Union army in,
+<a href='#page527'>527-529</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Washington, George</b>, first President of the United
+States,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">rank of lieutenant-general,
+<a href='#page393'>393</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">size of his armies compared with
+Lee's, <a href='#page524'>524</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his place in United States history,
+<a href='#page555'>555</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Weitzel, Godfrey</b>, brevet major-general United States
+army,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">receives surrender of Richmond,
+<a href='#page510'>510</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sets about work of relief, <a href='#page516'>516</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Welles, Gideon</b>, Secretary of the Navy,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">appointed Secretary of the Navy,
+<a href='#page182'>182</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">approves course of Captain Wilkes,
+<a href='#page246'>246</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at gathering of officials to
+discuss news of fight</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">between <i>Monitor</i> and
+<i>Merrimac</i>, <a href='#page296'>296</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">refuses to sign cabinet protest,
+<a href='#page311'>311</a>, <a href='#page312'>312</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lincoln tells him of coming
+emancipation proclamation, <a href='#page332'>332</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>West Virginia</b>, State of, formation of, <a href='#page200'>200</a>, <a href='#page201'>201</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">true to the Union, <a href='#page204'>204</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">effect on, of McClellan's campaign,
+<a href='#page225'>225</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">admission to the Union, <a href='#page418'>418</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">slavery in throttled by public
+opinion, <a href='#page473'>473</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Whig Party</b>, first national convention of, <a href='#page28'>28</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nominates Henry Clay, <a href='#page28'>28</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">convention of 1860, <a href='#page143'>143</a>, <a href='#page144'>144</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>White, Albert S.</b>, member of Congress, United States
+senator,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">judge of District Court of
+Indiana,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reports bill to aid emancipation in
+Delaware,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky,
+Tennessee, and Missouri, <a href='#page326'>326</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Whitesides, Samuel</b>, general Illinois Volunteers,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">re&euml;nlists as private in Black
+Hawk War, <a href='#page33'>33</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Wide Awakes</b>, origin and campaign work of, <a href='#page155'>155</a>, <a href='#page156'>156</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Wilderness</b>, Virginia, battle of, May 5, 6 1864, <a href='#page398'>398</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Wilkes, Charles</b>, rear-admiral United States navy,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">capture of the <i>Trent</i>,
+<a href='#page246'>246-249</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Wilmington</b>, North Carolina, occupation of, February 22 1865,
+<a href='#page525'>525</a><br />
+<a name="page578" id="page578"></a><br />
+<b>Wilson, James H.</b>, brevet major-general United States
+army,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">cavalry raid, and defeat of
+Forrest, <a href='#page524'>524</a>, <a href='#page525'>525</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Wilson's Creek</b>, Missouri, battle of, August 10 1861,
+<a href='#page235'>235</a><br />
+<br />
+<b>Wise, Henry A.</b>, minister to Brazil;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">governor of Virginia, Confederate
+brigadier-general desires</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Douglas's re&euml;lection to United
+States Senate, <a href='#page126'>126</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">interview with John Brown, <a href='#page134'>134</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Worden, John L.</b>, rear-admiral United States navy,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">commands the <i>Monitor</i>,
+<a href='#page282'>282</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Wright, Horatio G.</b>, brevet major-general United States
+army,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sent to Washington
+403;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in recapture of Fort Stedman,
+<a href='#page505'>505</a>, <a href='#page506'>506</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in assault at Petersburg, <a href='#page508'>508</a>, <a href='#page509'>509</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<b>Yates, Richard</b>, member of Congress, governor of
+Illinois,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">United States senator Lincoln
+advocates his re&euml;lection, <a href='#page96'>96</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">commissions Grant, <a href='#page265'>265</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">appoints J.F. Jaquess colonel of
+volunteer regiment, <a href='#page461'>461</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>Yorktown</b>, Virginia, siege of, April 5 to May 3 1862,
+<a href='#page301'>301</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<b>Zollicoffer, Felix K.</b>, member of Congress,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Confederate brigadier-general, in
+eastern Kentucky, <a href='#page254'>254</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">defeated by Thomas, <a href='#page265'>265</a></span><br /></p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<h2><a name="footnotes" id="footnotes"></a>FOOTNOTES:</h2>
+<br />
+
+<div class="footnote">
+<p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> By the law of
+primogeniture, which at that date was still unrepealed in Virginia,
+the family estate went to Mordecai, the eldest son.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="footnote">
+<p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Franklin points
+out how much this resource of the early Americans contributed to
+their spirit of independence by saying:</p>
+<p>"I can retire cheerfully with my little family into the
+boundless woods of America, which are sure to afford freedom and
+subsistence to any man who can bait a hook or pull a trigger."</p>
+<p>(See "The Century Magazine," "Franklin as a Diplomatist,"
+October, 1899, p. 888.)</p>
+</div>
+<div class="footnote">
+<p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> The following
+children were born of this marriage:</p>
+<p>Robert Todd, August 1, 1843; Edward Baker, March 10, 1846;
+William Wallace, December 21, 1850; Thomas, April 4, 1853.</p>
+<p>Edward died in infancy; William in the White House, February 20,
+1862; Thomas in Chicago, July 15, 1871; and the mother, Mary
+Lincoln, in Springfield, July 16, 1882.</p>
+<p>Robert, who filled the office of Secretary of War with
+distinction under the administrations of Presidents Garfield and
+Arthur, as well William as that of minister to England under the
+administration of President Harrison, now resides in Chicago,
+Illinois.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="footnote">
+<p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> SOME THOUGHTS
+FOR THE PRESIDENT'S CONSIDERATION. APRIL 1, 1861.</p>
+<p>First. We are at the end of a month's administration, and yet
+without a policy, either domestic or foreign.</p>
+<p>Second. This, however, is not culpable, and it has even been
+unavoidable. The presence of the Senate, with the need to meet
+applications for patronage, have prevented attention to other and
+more grave matters.</p>
+<p>Third. But further delay to adopt and prosecute our policies for
+both domestic and foreign affairs would not only bring scandal on
+the administration, but danger upon the country.</p>
+<p>Fourth. To do this we must dismiss the applicants for office.
+But how? I suggest that we make the local appointments forthwith,
+leaving foreign or general ones for ulterior and occasional
+action.</p>
+<p>Fifth. The policy at home. I am aware that my views are singular
+and perhaps not sufficiently explained My system is built upon this
+idea as a ruling one, namely, that we must</p>
+<p>CHANGE THE QUESTION BEFORE THE PUBLIC FROM ONE UPON SLAVERY, OR
+ABOUT SLAVERY, for a question upon UNION OR DISUNION.</p>
+<p>In other words, from what would be regarded as a party question,
+to one of <i>Patriotism</i> or <i>Union</i>.</p>
+<p>The occupation or evacuation of Fort Sumter, although not in
+fact a slavery or a party question, is so regarded. Witness the
+temper manifested by the Republicans in the free States, and even
+by the Union men in the South.</p>
+<p>I would therefore terminate it as a safe means for changing the
+issue. I deem it fortunate that the last administration created the
+necessity.</p>
+<p>For the rest, I would simultaneously defend and reinforce all
+the ports in the Gulf, and have the navy recalled from foreign
+stations to be prepared for a blockade. Put the island of Key West
+under martial law.</p>
+<p>This will raise distinctly the question of <i>Union</i> or
+<i>Disunion</i>. I would maintain every fort and possession in the
+South.</p>
+<p>FOR FOREIGN NATIONS.</p>
+<p>I would demand explanations from Spain and France,
+categorically, at once.</p>
+<p>I would seek explanations from Great Britain and Russia, and
+send agents into Canada, Mexico, and Central America, to rouse a
+vigorous continental spirit of independence on this continent
+against European intervention.</p>
+<p>And, if satisfactory explanations are not received from Spain
+and France,</p>
+<p>Would convene Congress and declare war against them.</p>
+<p>But whatever policy we adopt, there must be an energetic
+prosecution of it.</p>
+<p>For this purpose it must be somebody's business to pursue and
+direct it incessantly.</p>
+<p>Either the President must do it himself, and be all the while
+active in it, or</p>
+<p>Devolve it on some member of his cabinet. Once adopted, debates
+on it must end, and all agree and abide.</p>
+<p>It is not in my especial province.</p>
+<p>But I neither seek to evade nor assume responsibility.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="footnote">
+<p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a></p>
+<p><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">BY THE PRESIDENT OF
+THE</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">UNITED STATES OF
+AMERICA:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">A PROCLAMATION.</span><br /></p>
+<p>Whereas on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of
+our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation
+was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among
+other things, the following, to wit:</p>
+<p>"That on the first day of January in the year of our Lord one
+thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves
+within any State, or designated part of a State, the people whereof
+shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be
+then, thenceforward and forever free; and the executive government
+of the United States, including the military and naval authority
+thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons,
+and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them,
+in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.</p>
+<p>"That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid,
+by proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any,
+in which the people thereof respectively shall then be in rebellion
+against the United States; and the fact that any State, or the
+people thereof, shall on that day be in good faith represented in
+the Congress of the United States by members chosen thereto at
+elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such State
+shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong
+counter-vailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such
+State and the people thereof are not then in rebellion against the
+United States."</p>
+<p>Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United
+States, by virtue of the power in me vested as commander-in-chief
+of the army and navy of the United States, in time of actual armed
+rebellion against the authority and government of the United
+States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said
+rebellion, do, on this first day of January, in the year of our
+Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance
+with my purpose so to do, publicly proclaimed for the full period
+of one hundred days from the day first above mentioned, order and
+designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people
+thereof, respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United
+States, the following, to wit:</p>
+<p>Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana (except
+the parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St.
+Charles, St. James, Ascension, Assumption, Terre Bonne, Lafourche,
+St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the city of New
+Orleans), Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina,
+North Carolina, and Virginia (except the forty-eight counties
+designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkeley,
+Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Anne, and
+Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth), and which
+excepted parts are for the present left precisely as if this
+proclamation were not issued.</p>
+<p>And by virtue of the power and for the purpose aforesaid, I do
+order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said
+designated States and parts of States are, and henceforward shall
+be, free; and that the executive government of the United States,
+including the military and naval authorities thereof will recognize
+and maintain the freedom of said persons.</p>
+<p>And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to
+abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defense; and I
+recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor
+faithfully for reasonable wages.</p>
+<p>And I further declare and make known that such persons of
+suitable condition will be received into the armed service of the
+United States to garrison forts, positions, stations and other
+places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service.</p>
+<p>And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice,
+warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity, I invoke the
+considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty
+God.</p>
+<p>In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the
+seal of the United States to be affixed.</p>
+<p>Done at the city of Washington, this first day of January, in
+the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three,
+and of the independence of the United States of America the
+eighty-seventh.</p>
+<p>ABRAHAM LINCOLN.</p>
+<p>BY THE PRESIDENT: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, <i>Secretary of
+State</i>.</p>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's A Short Life of Abraham Lincoln, by John G. Nicolay
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+Project Gutenberg's A Short Life of Abraham Lincoln, by John G. Nicolay
+
+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: A Short Life of Abraham Lincoln
+       Condensed from Nicolay & Hay's Abraham Lincoln: A History
+
+Author: John G. Nicolay
+
+Release Date: July 19, 2005 [EBook #16332]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A SHORT LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Chuck Greif and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+[Illustration: PRESIDENT LINCOLN AND HIS SON "TAD."]
+
+
+
+
+A SHORT LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
+
+
+CONDENSED FROM NICOLAY & HAY'S
+ABRAHAM LINCOLN: A HISTORY
+
+BY
+
+JOHN G. NICOLAY
+
+
+NEW YORK
+The Century Co.
+1904
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Published October, 1902_
+
+THE DEVINNE PRESS.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+I
+
+Ancestry--Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks--Rock Spring Farm--Lincoln's
+Birth--Kentucky Schools--The Journey to Indiana--Pigeon Creek
+Settlement--Indiana Schools--Sally Bush Lincoln--Gentryville--Work and
+Books--Satires and Sermons--Flatboat Voyage to New Orleans--The Journey
+to Illinois
+
+II
+
+Flatboat--New Salem--Election Clerk--Store and Mill--Kirkham's
+"Grammar"--"Sangamo Journal"--The Talisman--Lincoln's Address, March 9,
+1832--Black Hawk War--Lincoln Elected Captain--Mustered out May 27,
+1832--Re-enlisted in Independent Spy Battalion--Finally Mustered out,
+June 16, 1832--Defeated for the Legislature--Blacksmith or Lawyer?--The
+Lincoln-Berry Store--Appointed Postmaster, May 7, 1833--National
+Politics
+
+III
+
+Appointed Deputy Surveyor--Elected to Legislature in 1834--Campaign
+Issues--Begins Study of Law--Internal Improvement System--The
+Lincoln-Stone Protest--Candidate for Speaker in 1838 and 1840
+
+IV
+
+Law Practice--Rules for a Lawyer--Law and Politics: Twin
+Occupations--The Springfield Coterie--Friendly Help--Anne Rutledge--Mary
+Owens
+
+V
+
+Springfield Society--Miss Mary Todd--Lincoln's Engagement--His Deep
+Despondency--Visit to Kentucky--Letters to Speed--The Shields
+Duel--Marriage--Law Partnership with Logan--Hardin Nominated for
+Congress, 1843--Baker Nominated for Congress, 1844--Lincoln Nominated
+and Elected, 1846
+
+VI
+
+First Session of the Thirtieth Congress--Mexican War--"Wilmot
+Proviso"--Campaign of 1848--Letters to Herndon about Young Men in
+Politics--Speech in Congress on the Mexican War--Second Session of the
+Thirtieth Congress--Bill to Prohibit Slavery in the District of
+Columbia--Lincoln's Recommendations of Office-Seekers--Letters to
+Speed--Commissioner of the General Land Office--Declines Governorship of
+Oregon
+
+VII
+
+Repeal of the Missouri Compromise--State Fair Debate--Peoria
+Debate--Trumbull Elected--Letter to Robinson--The Know-Nothings--Decatur
+Meeting--Bloomington Convention--Philadelphia Convention--Lincoln's Vote
+for Vice-President--Fremont and Dayton--Lincoln's Campaign
+Speeches--Chicago Banquet Speech
+
+VIII
+
+Buchanan Elected President--The Dred Scott Decision--Douglas's
+Springfield Speech, 1857--Lincoln's Answering Speech--Criticism of Dred
+Scott Decision--Kansas Civil War--Buchanan Appoints Walker--Walker's
+Letter on Kansas--The Lecompton Constitution--Revolt of Douglas
+
+IX
+
+The Senatorial Contest in Illinois--"House Divided against Itself"
+Speech--The Lincoln-Douglas Debates--The Freeport Doctrine--Douglas
+Deposed from Chairmanship of Committee on Territories--Benjamin on
+Douglas--Lincoln's Popular Majority--Douglas Gains Legislature--Greeley,
+Crittenden _et al._--"The Fight Must Go On"--Douglas's Southern
+Speeches--Senator Brown's Questions--Lincoln's Warning against Popular
+Sovereignty--The War of Pamphlets--Lincoln's Ohio Speeches--The John
+Brown Raid--Lincoln's Comment
+
+X
+
+Lincoln's Kansas Speeches--The Cooper Institute Speech--New England
+Speeches--The Democratic Schism--Senator Brown's Resolutions--Jefferson
+Davis's Resolutions--The Charleston Convention--Majority and Minority
+Reports--Cotton State Delegations Secede--Charleston Convention
+Adjourns--Democratic Baltimore Convention Splits--Breckinridge
+Nominated--Douglas Nominated--Bell Nominated by Union Constitutional
+Convention--Chicago Convention--Lincoln's Letters to Pickett and
+Judd--The Pivotal States--Lincoln Nominated
+
+XI
+
+Candidates and Platforms--The Political Chances--Decatur Lincoln
+Resolution--John Hanks and the Lincoln Rails--The Rail-Splitter
+Candidate--The Wide-Awakes--Douglas's Southern Tour--Jefferson Davis's
+Address--Fusion--Lincoln at the State House--The Election Result
+
+XII
+
+Lincoln's Cabinet Program--Members from the South--Questions and
+Answers--Correspondence with Stephens--Action of Congress--Peace
+Convention--Preparation of the Inaugural--Lincoln's Farewell
+Address--The Journey to Washington--Lincoln's Midnight Journey
+
+XIII
+
+The Secession Movement--South Carolina Secession--Buchanan's
+Neglect--Disloyal Cabinet Members--Washington Central Cabal--Anderson's
+Transfer to Sumter--Star of the West--Montgomery Rebellion--Davis and
+Stephens--Corner-stone Theory--Lincoln Inaugurated--His Inaugural
+Address--Lincoln's Cabinet--The Question of Sumter--Seward's
+Memorandum--Lincoln's Answer--Bombardment of Sumter--Anderson's
+Capitulation
+
+XIV
+
+President's Proclamation Calling for Seventy-five Regiments--Responses of
+the Governors--Maryland and Virginia--The Baltimore Riot--Washington
+Isolated--Lincoln Takes the Responsibility--Robert E. Lee--Arrival of the
+New York Seventh--Suspension of Habeas Corpus--The Annapolis Route--Butler
+in Baltimore--Taney on the Merryman Case--Kentucky--Missouri--Lyon
+Captures Camp Jackson--Boonville Skirmish--The Missouri Convention--Gamble
+made Governor--The Border States
+
+XV
+
+Davis's Proclamation for Privateers--Lincoln's Proclamation of
+Blockade--The Call for Three Years' Volunteers--Southern Military
+Preparations--Rebel Capital Moved to Richmond--Virginia, North Carolina,
+Tennessee, and Arkansas Admitted to Confederate States--Desertion of
+Army and Navy Officers--Union Troops Fortify Virginia Shore of the
+Potomac--Concentration at Harper's Ferry--Concentration at Fortress
+Monroe and Cairo--English Neutrality--Seward's 21st-of-May
+Despatch--Lincoln's Corrections--Preliminary Skirmishes--Forward to
+Richmond--Plan of McDowell's Campaign
+
+XVI
+
+Congress--The President's Message--Men and Money Voted--The
+Contraband--Dennison Appoints McClellan--Rich Mountain--McDowell--Bull
+Run--Patterson's Failure--McClellan at Washington
+
+XVII
+
+General Scott's Plans--Criticized as the "Anaconda"--The Three Fields of
+Conflict--Fremont Appointed Major-General--His Military Failures--Battle
+of Wilson's Creek--Hunter Ordered to Fremont--Fremont's
+Proclamation--President Revokes Fremont's Proclamation--Lincoln's Letter
+to Browning--Surrender of Lexington--Fremont Takes the Field--Cameron's
+Visit to Fremont--Fremont's Removal
+
+XVIII
+
+Blockade--Hatteras Inlet--Port Royal Captured--The Trent Affair--Lincoln
+Suggests Arbitration--Seward's Despatch--McClellan at Washington--Army
+of the Potomac--McClellan's Quarrel with Scott--Retirement of
+Scott--Lincoln's Memorandum--"All Quiet on the Potomac"--Conditions in
+Kentucky--Cameron's Visit to Sherman--East Tennessee--Instructions to
+Buell--Buell's Neglect--Halleck in Missouri
+
+XIX
+
+Lincoln Directs Cooeperation--Halleck and Buell--Ulysses S.
+Grant--Grant's Demonstration--Victory at Mill River--Fort Henry--Fort
+Donelson--Buell's Tardiness--Halleck's Activity--Victory of Pea
+Ridge--Halleck Receives General Command--Pittsburg Landing--Island No.
+10--Halleck's Corinth Campaign--Halleck's Mistakes
+
+XX
+
+The Blockade--Hatteras Inlet--Roanoke Island--Fort Pulaski--_Merrimac_
+and _Monitor_--The _Cumberland_ Sunk--The _Congress_ Burned--Battle of
+the Ironclads--Flag-Officer Farragut--Forts Jackson and St. Philip--New
+Orleans Captured--Farragut at Vicksburg--Farragut's Second Expedition to
+Vicksburg--Return to New Orleans
+
+XXI
+
+McClellan's Illness--Lincoln Consults McDowell and Franklin--President's
+Plan against Manassas--McClellan's Plan against Richmond--Cameron and
+Stanton--President's War Order No. 1--Lincoln's Questions to
+McClellan--News from the West--Death of Willie Lincoln--The Harper's
+Ferry Fiasco--President's War Order No. 3--The News from Hampton
+Roads--Manassas Evacuated--Movement to the Peninsula--Yorktown--The
+Peninsula Campaign--Seven Days' Battles--Retreat to Harrison's Landing
+
+XXII
+
+Jackson's Valley Campaign--Lincoln's Visit to Scott--Pope Assigned to
+Command--Lee's Attack on McClellan--Retreat to Harrison's
+Landing--Seward Sent to New York--Lincoln's Letter to Seward--Lincoln's
+Letter to McClellan--Lincoln's Visit to McClellan--Halleck Made
+General-in-Chief--Halleck's Visit to McClellan--Withdrawal from
+Harrison's Landing--Pope Assumes Command--Second Battle of Bull Run--The
+Cabinet Protest--McClellan Ordered to Defend Washington--The Maryland
+Campaign--Battle of Antietam--Lincoln visits Antietam--Lincoln's Letter
+to McClellan--McClellan Removed from Command
+
+XXIII
+
+Cameron's Report--Lincoln's Letter to Bancroft--Annual Message on
+Slavery--The Delaware Experiment--Joint Resolution on Compensated
+Abolishment--First Border State Interview--Stevens's Comment--District
+of Columbia Abolishment--Committee on Abolishment--Hunter's Order
+Revoked--Antislavery Measures of Congress--Second Border State
+Interview--Emancipation Proposed and Postponed
+
+XXIV
+
+Criticism of the President for his Action on Slavery--Lincoln's Letters
+to Louisiana Friends--Greeley's Open Letter--Mr. Lincoln's
+Reply--Chicago Clergymen Urge Emancipation--Lincoln's Answer--Lincoln
+Issues Preliminary Proclamation--President Proposes Constitutional
+Amendment--Cabinet Considers Final Proclamation--Cabinet Discusses
+Admission of West Virginia--Lincoln Signs Edict of Freedom--Lincoln's
+Letter to Hodges
+
+XXV
+
+Negro Soldiers--Fort Pillow--Retaliation--Draft--Northern
+Democrats--Governor Seymour's Attitude--Draft Riots in New
+York--Vallandigham--Lincoln on his Authority to Suspend Writ of Habeas
+Corpus--Knights of the Golden Circle--Jacob Thompson in Canada
+
+XXVI
+
+Burnside--Fredericksburg--A Tangle of Cross-Purposes--Hooker Succeeds
+Burnside--Lincoln to Hooker--Chancellorsville--Lee's Second
+Invasion--Lincoln's Criticisms of Hooker's Plans--Hooker
+Relieved--Meade--Gettysburg--Lee's Retreat--Lincoln's Letter to
+Meade--Lincoln's Gettysburg Address--Autumn Strategy--The Armies go into
+Winter Quarters
+
+XXVII
+
+Buell and Bragg--Perryville--Rosecrans and Murfreesboro--Grant's
+Vicksburg Experiments--Grant's May Battles--Siege and Surrender of
+Vicksburg--Lincoln to Grant--Rosecrans's March to Chattanooga--Battle of
+Chickamauga--Grant at Chattanooga--Battle of Chattanooga--Burnside at
+Knoxville--Burnside Repulses Longstreet
+
+XXVIII
+
+Grant Lieutenant-General--Interview with Lincoln--Grant Visits
+Sherman--Plan of Campaigns--Lincoln to Grant--From the Wilderness to
+Cold Harbor--The Move to City Point--Siege of Petersburg--Early Menaces
+Washington--Lincoln under Fire--Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley
+
+XXIX
+
+Sherman's Meridian Expedition--Capture of Atlanta--Hood Supersedes
+Johnston--Hood's Invasion of Tennessee--Franklin and Nashville--Sherman's
+March to the Sea--Capture of Savannah--Sherman to Lincoln--Lincoln to
+Sherman--Sherman's March through the Carolinas--The Burning of Charleston
+and Columbia--Arrival at Goldsboro--Junction with Schofield--Visit to
+Grant
+
+XXX
+
+Military Governors--Lincoln's Theory of Reconstruction--Congressional
+Election in Louisiana--Letter to Military Governors--Letter to
+Shepley--Amnesty Proclamation, December 8, 1863--Instructions to
+Banks--Banks's Action in Louisiana--Louisiana Abolishes
+Slavery--Arkansas Abolishes Slavery--Reconstruction in
+Tennessee--Missouri Emancipation--Lincoln's Letter to Drake--Missouri
+Abolishes Slavery--Emancipation in Maryland--Maryland Abolishes Slavery
+
+XXXI
+
+Shaping of the Presidential Campaign--Criticisms of Mr. Lincoln--Chase's
+Presidential Ambitions--The Pomeroy Circular--Cleveland
+Convention--Attempt to Nominate Grant--Meeting of Baltimore
+Convention--Lincoln's Letter to Schurz--Platform of Republican
+Convention--Lincoln Renominated--Refuses to Indicate Preference for
+Vice-President--Johnson Nominated for Vice-President--Lincoln's Speech
+to Committee of Notification--Reference to Mexico in his Letter of
+Acceptance--The French in Mexico
+
+XXXII
+
+The Bogus Proclamation--The Wade-Davis Manifesto--Resignation of Mr.
+Chase--Fessenden Succeeds Him--The Greeley Peace
+Conference--Jaquess-Gilmore Mission--Letter of Raymond--Bad Outlook for
+the Election--Mr. Lincoln on the Issues of the Campaign--President's
+Secret Memorandum--Meeting of Democratic National Convention--McClellan
+Nominated--His Letter of Acceptance--Lincoln Reelected--His Speech on
+Night of Election--The Electoral Vote--Annual Message of December 6,
+1864--Resignation of McClellan from the Army
+
+XXXIII
+
+The Thirteenth Amendment--The President's Speech on its Adoption--The
+Two Constitutional Amendments of Lincoln's Term--Lincoln on Peace and
+Slavery in his Annual Message of December 6, 1864--Blair's Mexican
+Project--The Hampton Roads Conference
+
+XXXIV
+
+Blair--Chase Chief Justice--Speed Succeeds Bates--McCulloch Succeeds
+Fessenden--Resignation of Mr. Usher--Lincoln's Offer of
+$400,000,000--The Second Inaugural--Lincoln's Literary Rank--His Last
+Speech
+
+XXXV
+
+Depreciation of Confederate Currency--Rigor of
+Conscription--Dissatisfaction with the Confederate Government--Lee
+General-in-Chief--J.E. Johnston Reappointed to Oppose Sherman's
+March--Value of Slave Property Gone in Richmond--Davis's Recommendation
+of Emancipation--Benjamin's Last Despatch to Slidell--Condition of the
+Army when Lee took Command--Lee Attempts Negotiations with
+Grant--Lincoln's Directions--Lee and Davis Agree upon Line of
+Retreat--Assault on Fort Stedman--Five Forks--Evacuation of
+Petersburg--Surrender of Richmond--Pursuit of Lee--Surrender of
+Lee--Burning of Richmond--Lincoln in Richmond
+
+XXXVI
+
+Lincoln's Interviews with Campbell--Withdraws Authority for Meeting of
+Virginia Legislature--Conference of Davis and Johnston at
+Greensboro--Johnston Asks for an Armistice--Meeting of Sherman and
+Johnston--Their Agreement--Rejected at Washington--Surrender of
+Johnston--Surrender of other Confederate Forces--End of the Rebel
+Navy--Capture of Jefferson Davis--Surrender of E. Kirby Smith--Number of
+Confederates Surrendered and Exchanged--Reduction of Federal Army to a
+Peace Footing--Grand Review of the Army
+
+XXXVII
+
+The 14th of April--Celebration at Fort Sumter--Last Cabinet
+Meeting--Lincoln's Attitude toward Threats of Assassination--Booth's
+Plot--Ford's Theater--Fate of the Assassins--The Mourning Pageant
+
+XXXVIII
+
+Lincoln's Early Environment--Its Effect on his Character--His Attitude
+toward Slavery and the Slaveholder--His Schooling in Disappointment--His
+Seeming Failures--His Real Successes--The Final Trial--His
+Achievements--His Place in History
+
+Index
+
+
+
+
+ABRAHAM LINCOLN
+
+
+
+I
+
+Ancestry--Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks--Rock Spring Farm--Lincoln's
+Birth--Kentucky Schools--The Journey to Indiana--Pigeon Creek
+Settlement--Indiana Schools--Sally Bush Lincoln--Gentryville--Work and
+Books--Satires and Sermons--Flatboat Voyage to New Orleans--The Journey
+to Illinois
+
+
+Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth President of the United States, was born
+in a log cabin in the backwoods of Kentucky on the 12th day of February
+1809. His father, Thomas Lincoln, was sixth in direct line of descent
+from Samuel Lincoln, who emigrated from England to Massachusetts in 1638.
+Following the prevailing drift of American settlement, these descendants
+had, during a century and a half, successively moved from Massachusetts
+to New Jersey, from New Jersey to Pennsylvania, from Pennsylvania to
+Virginia, and from Virginia to Kentucky; while collateral branches of the
+family eventually made homes in other parts of the West. In Pennsylvania
+and Virginia some of them had acquired considerable property and local
+prominence.
+
+In the year 1780, Abraham Lincoln, the President's grandfather, was able
+to pay into the public treasury of Virginia "one hundred and sixty
+pounds, current money," for which he received a warrant, directed to the
+"Principal Surveyor of any County within the commonwealth of Virginia,"
+to lay off in one or more surveys for Abraham Linkhorn, his heirs or
+assigns, the quantity of four hundred acres of land. The error in
+spelling the name was a blunder of the clerk who made out the warrant.
+
+With this warrant and his family of five children--Mordecai, Josiah,
+Mary, Nancy, and Thomas--he moved to Kentucky, then still a county of
+Virginia, in 1780, and began opening a farm. Four years later, while at
+work with his three boys in the edge of his clearing, a party of
+Indians, concealed in the brush, shot and killed him. Josiah, the second
+son, ran to a neighboring fort for assistance; Mordecai, the eldest,
+hurried to the cabin for his gun, leaving Thomas, youngest of the
+family, a child of six years, by his father. Mordecai had just taken
+down his rifle from its convenient resting-place over the door of the
+cabin when, turning, he saw an Indian in his war-paint stooping to seize
+the child. He took quick aim through a loop-hole, shot, and killed the
+savage, at which the little boy also ran to the house, and from this
+citadel Mordecai continued firing at the Indians until Josiah brought
+help from the fort.
+
+It was doubtless this misfortune which rapidly changed the circumstances
+of the family.[1] Kentucky was yet a wild, new country. As compared with
+later periods of emigration, settlement was slow and pioneer life a hard
+struggle. So it was probably under the stress of poverty, as well as by
+the marriage of the older children, that the home was gradually broken
+up, and Thomas Lincoln became "even in childhood ... a wandering
+laboring boy, and grew up literally without education.... Before he was
+grown he passed one year as a hired hand with his uncle Isaac on
+Watauga, a branch of the Holston River." Later, he seems to have
+undertaken to learn the trade of carpenter in the shop of Joseph Hanks
+in Elizabethtown.
+
+ [Footnote 1: By the law of primogeniture, which at that date was
+ still unrepealed in Virginia, the family estate went to Mordecai,
+ the eldest son.]
+
+When Thomas Lincoln was about twenty-eight years old he married Nancy
+Hanks, a niece of his employer, near Beechland, in Washington County.
+She was a good-looking young woman of twenty-three, also from Virginia,
+and so far superior to her husband in education that she could read and
+write, and taught him how to sign his name. Neither one of the young
+couple had any money or property; but in those days living was not
+expensive, and they doubtless considered his trade a sufficient
+provision for the future. He brought her to a little house in
+Elizabethtown, where a daughter was born to them the following year.
+
+During the next twelvemonth Thomas Lincoln either grew tired of his
+carpenter work, or found the wages he was able to earn insufficient to
+meet his growing household expenses. He therefore bought a little farm
+on the Big South Fork of Nolin Creek, in what was then Hardin and is now
+La Rue County, three miles from Hodgensville, and thirteen miles from
+Elizabethtown. Having no means, he of course bought the place on credit,
+a transaction not so difficult when we remember that in that early day
+there was plenty of land to be bought for mere promises to pay; under
+the disadvantage, however, that farms to be had on these terms were
+usually of a very poor quality, on which energetic or forehanded men did
+not care to waste their labor. It was a kind of land generally known in
+the West as "barrens"--rolling upland, with very thin, unproductive
+soil. Its momentary usefulness was that it was partly cleared and
+cultivated, that an indifferent cabin stood on it ready to be occupied,
+and that it had one specially attractive as well as useful feature--a
+fine spring of water, prettily situated amid a graceful clump of
+foliage, because of which the place was called Rock Spring Farm. The
+change of abode was perhaps in some respects an improvement upon
+Elizabethtown. To pioneer families in deep poverty, a little farm
+offered many more resources than a town lot--space, wood, water, greens
+in the spring, berries in the summer, nuts in the autumn, small game
+everywhere--and they were fully accustomed to the loss of
+companionship. On this farm, and in this cabin, the future President of
+the United States was born, on the 12th of February, 1809, and here the
+first four years of his childhood were spent.
+
+When Abraham was about four years old the Lincoln home was changed to a
+much better farm of two hundred and thirty-eight acres on Knob Creek,
+six miles from Hodgensville, bought by Thomas Lincoln, again on credit,
+for the promise to pay one hundred and eighteen pounds. A year later he
+conveyed two hundred acres of it by deed to a new purchaser. In this new
+home the family spent four years more, and while here Abraham and his
+sister Sarah began going to A B C schools. Their first teacher was
+Zachariah Riney, who taught near the Lincoln cabin; the next, Caleb
+Hazel, at a distance of about four miles.
+
+Thomas Lincoln was evidently one of those easy-going, good-natured men
+who carry the virtue of contentment to an extreme. He appears never to
+have exerted himself much beyond the attainment of a necessary
+subsistence. By a little farming and occasional jobs at his trade, he
+seems to have supplied his family with food and clothes. There is no
+record that he made any payment on either of his farms. The fever of
+westward emigration was in the air, and, listening to glowing accounts
+of rich lands and newer settlements in Indiana, he had neither valuable
+possessions nor cheerful associations to restrain the natural impulse of
+every frontiersman to "move." In this determination his carpenter's
+skill served him a good purpose, and made the enterprise not only
+feasible but reasonably cheap. In the fall of 1816 he built himself a
+small flatboat, which he launched at the mouth of Knob Creek, half a
+mile from his cabin, on the waters of the Rolling Fork. This stream
+would float him to Salt River, and Salt River to the Ohio. He also
+thought to combine a little speculation with his undertaking. Part of
+his personal property he traded for four hundred gallons of whisky;
+then, loading the rest on his boat with his carpenter's tools and the
+whisky, he made the voyage, with the help of the current, down the
+Rolling Fork to Salt River, down Salt River to the Ohio, and down the
+Ohio to Thompson's Ferry, in Perry County, on the Indiana shore. The
+boat capsized once on the way, but he saved most of the cargo.
+
+Sixteen miles out from the river he found a location in the forest which
+suited him. Since his boat would not float up-stream, he sold it, left
+his property with a settler, and trudged back home to Kentucky, all the
+way on foot, to bring his wife and the two children--Sarah, nine years
+old, and Abraham, seven. Another son had been born to them some years
+before, but had died when only three days old. This time the trip to
+Indiana was made with the aid of two horses, used by the wife and
+children for riding and to carry their little equipage for camping at
+night by the way. In a straight line, the distance is about fifty miles;
+but it was probably doubled by the very few roads it was possible to
+follow.
+
+Having reached the Ohio and crossed to where he had left his goods on
+the Indiana side, he hired a wagon, which carried them and his family
+the remaining sixteen miles through the forest to the spot he had
+chosen, which in due time became the Lincoln farm. It was a piece of
+heavily timbered land, one and a half miles east of what has since
+become the village of Gentryville, in Spencer County. The lateness of
+the autumn compelled him to provide a shelter as quickly as possible,
+and he built what is known on the frontier as a half-faced camp, about
+fourteen feet square. This structure differed from a cabin in that it
+was closed on only three sides, and open to the weather on the fourth.
+It was usual to build the fire in front of the open side, and the
+necessity of providing a chimney was thus avoided. He doubtless intended
+it for a mere temporary shelter, and as such it would have sufficed for
+good weather in the summer season. But it was a rude provision for the
+winds and snows of an Indiana winter. It illustrates Thomas Lincoln's
+want of energy, that the family remained housed in this primitive camp
+for nearly a whole year. He must, however, not be too hastily blamed for
+his dilatory improvement. It is not likely that he remained altogether
+idle. A more substantial cabin was probably begun, and, besides, there
+was the heavy work of clearing away the timber--that is, cutting down
+the large trees, chopping them into suitable lengths, and rolling them
+together into great log-heaps to be burned, or splitting them into rails
+to fence the small field upon which he managed to raise a patch of corn
+and other things during the ensuing summer.
+
+Thomas Lincoln's arrival was in the autumn of 1816. That same winter
+Indiana was admitted to the Union as a State. There were as yet no roads
+worthy of the name to or from the settlement formed by himself and seven
+or eight neighbors at various distances. The village of Gentryville was
+not even begun. There was no sawmill to saw lumber. Breadstuff could be
+had only by sending young Abraham, on horseback, seven miles, with a bag
+of corn to be ground on a hand grist-mill. In the course of two or three
+years a road from Corydon to Evansville was laid out, running past the
+Lincoln farm; and perhaps two or three years afterward another from
+Rockport to Bloomington crossing the former. This gave rise to
+Gentryville. James Gentry entered the land at the cross-roads. Gideon
+Romine opened a small store, and their joint efforts succeeded in
+getting a post-office established from which the village gradually grew.
+For a year after his arrival Thomas Lincoln remained a mere squatter.
+Then he entered the quarter-section (one hundred and sixty acres) on
+which he opened his farm, and made some payments on his entry, but only
+enough in eleven years to obtain a patent for one half of it.
+
+About the time that he moved into his new cabin, relatives and friends
+followed from Kentucky, and some of them in turn occupied the half-faced
+camp. In the ensuing autumn much sickness prevailed in the Pigeon Creek
+settlement. It was thirty miles to the nearest doctor, and several
+persons died, among them Nancy Hanks Lincoln, the mother of young
+Abraham. The mechanical skill of Thomas was called upon to make the
+coffins, the necessary lumber for which had to be cut with a whip-saw.
+
+The death of Mrs. Lincoln was a serious loss to her husband and
+children. Abraham's sister Sarah was only eleven years old, and the
+tasks and cares of the little household were altogether too heavy for
+her years and experience. Nevertheless, they struggled on bravely
+through the winter and next summer, but in the autumn of 1819 Thomas
+Lincoln went back to Kentucky and married Sally Bush Johnston, whom he
+had known and, it is said, courted when she was merely Sally Bush.
+Johnston, to whom she was married about the time Lincoln married Nancy
+Hanks, had died, leaving her with three children. She came of a better
+station in life than Thomas, and is represented as a woman of uncommon
+energy and thrift, possessing excellent qualities both of head and
+heart. The household goods which she brought to the Lincoln home in
+Indiana filled a four-horse wagon. Not only were her own three children
+well clothed and cared for, but she was able at once to provide little
+Abraham and Sarah with home comforts to which they had been strangers
+during the whole of their young lives. Under her example and urging,
+Thomas at once supplied the yet unfinished cabin with floor, door, and
+windows, and existence took on a new aspect for all the inmates. Under
+her management and control, all friction and jealousy was avoided
+between the two sets of children, and contentment, if not happiness,
+reigned in the little cabin.
+
+The new stepmother quickly perceived the superior aptitudes and
+abilities of Abraham. She became very fond of him, and in every way
+encouraged his marked inclination to study and improve himself. The
+opportunities for this were meager enough. Mr. Lincoln himself has drawn
+a vivid outline of the situation:
+
+"It was a wild region, with many bears and other wild animals still in
+the woods. There I grew up. There were some schools so called, but no
+qualification was ever required of a teacher beyond readin', writin',
+and cipherin' to the Rule of Three. If a straggler supposed to
+understand Latin happened to sojourn in the neighborhood, he was looked
+upon as a wizard. There was absolutely nothing to excite ambition for
+education."
+
+As Abraham was only in his eighth year when he left Kentucky, the little
+beginnings he had learned in the schools kept by Riney and Hazel in that
+State must have been very slight--probably only his alphabet, or
+possibly three or four pages of Webster's "Elementary Spelling Book." It
+is likely that the multiplication table was as yet an unfathomed
+mystery, and that he could not write or read more than the words he
+spelled. There is no record at what date he was able again to go to
+school in Indiana. Some of his schoolmates think it was in his tenth
+year, or soon after he fell under the care of his stepmother. The
+school-house was a low cabin of round logs, a mile and a half from the
+Lincoln home, with split logs or "puncheons" for a floor, split logs
+roughly leveled with an ax and set up on legs for benches, and a log cut
+out of one end and the space filled in with squares of greased paper for
+window panes. The main light in such primitive halls of learning was
+admitted by the open door. It was a type of school building common in
+the early West, in which many a statesman gained the first rudiments of
+knowledge. Very often Webster's "Elementary Spelling Book" was the only
+text-book. Abraham's first Indiana school was probably held five years
+before Gentryville was located and a store established there. Until then
+it was difficult, if not impossible, to obtain books, slates, pencils,
+pen, ink, and paper, and their use was limited to settlers who had
+brought them when they came. It is reasonable to infer that the Lincoln
+family had no such luxuries, and, as the Pigeon Creek settlement
+numbered only eight or ten families there must have been very few pupils
+to attend this first school. Nevertheless, it is worthy of special note
+that even under such difficulties and limitations, the American thirst
+for education planted a school-house on the very forefront of every
+settlement.
+
+Abraham's second school in Indiana was held about the time he was
+fourteen years old, and the third in his seventeenth year. By this time
+he probably had better teachers and increased facilities, though with
+the disadvantage of having to walk four or five miles to the
+school-house. He learned to write, and was provided with pen, ink, and a
+copy-book, and probably a very limited supply of writing-paper, for
+facsimiles have been printed of several scraps and fragments upon which
+he had carefully copied tables, rules, and sums from his arithmetic,
+such as those of long measure, land measure, and dry measure, and
+examples in multiplication and compound division. All this indicates
+that he pursued his studies with a very unusual purpose and
+determination, not only to understand them at the moment, but to imprint
+them indelibly upon his memory, and even to regain them in visible form
+for reference when the school-book might no longer be in his hands or
+possession.
+
+Mr. Lincoln has himself written that these three different schools were
+"kept successively by Andrew Crawford, ---- Swaney, and Azel W. Dorsey."
+Other witnesses state the succession somewhat differently. The important
+fact to be gleaned from what we learn about Mr. Lincoln's schooling is
+that the instruction given him by these five different teachers--two in
+Kentucky and three in Indiana, in short sessions of attendance scattered
+over a period of nine years--made up in all less than a twelvemonth.
+He said of it in 1860, "Abraham now thinks that the aggregate of all his
+schooling did not amount to one year." This distribution of the tuition
+he received was doubtless an advantage. Had it all been given him at his
+first school in Indiana, it would probably not have carried him half
+through Webster's "Elementary Spelling Book." The lazy or indifferent
+pupils who were his schoolmates doubtless forgot what was taught them at
+one time before they had opportunity at another; but to the exceptional
+character of Abraham, these widely separated fragments of instruction
+were precious steps to self-help, of which he made unremitting use.
+
+It is the concurrent testimony of his early companions that he employed
+all his spare moments in keeping on with some one of his studies. His
+stepmother says: "Abe read diligently.... He read every book he could
+lay his hands on; and when he came across a passage that struck him, he
+would write it down on boards, if he had no paper, and keep it there
+until he did get paper. Then he would rewrite it, look at it, repeat it.
+He had a copy-book, a kind of scrap-book, in which he put down all
+things, and thus preserved them." There is no mention that either he or
+other pupils had slates and slate-pencils to use at school or at home,
+but he found a ready substitute in pieces of board. It is stated that he
+occupied his long evenings at home doing sums on the fire-shovel. Iron
+fire-shovels were a rarity among pioneers; they used, instead a broad,
+thin clapboard with one end narrowed to a handle. In cooking by the open
+fire, this domestic implement was of the first necessity to arrange
+piles of live coals on the hearth, over which they set their "skillet"
+and "oven," upon the lids of which live coals were also heaped.
+
+Upon such a wooden shovel Abraham was able to work his sums by the
+flickering firelight. If he had no pencil, he could use charcoal, and
+probably did so. When it was covered with figures he would take a
+drawing-knife, shave it off clean, and begin again. Under these various
+disadvantages, and by the help of such troublesome expedients, Abraham
+Lincoln worked his way to so much of an education as placed him far
+ahead of his schoolmates, and quickly abreast of the acquirements of his
+various teachers. The field from which he could glean knowledge was very
+limited, though he diligently borrowed every book in the neighborhood.
+The list is a short one--"Robinson Crusoe," Aesop's "Fables," Bunyan's
+"Pilgrim's Progress," Weems's "Life of Washington," and a "History of
+the United States." When he had exhausted other books, he even
+resolutely attacked the Revised Statutes of Indiana, which Dave Turnham,
+the constable, had in daily use and permitted him to come to his house
+and read.
+
+It needs to be borne in mind that all this effort at self-education
+extended from first to last over a period of twelve or thirteen years,
+during which he was also performing hard manual labor, and proves a
+degree of steady, unflinching perseverance in a line of conduct that
+brings into strong relief a high aim and the consciousness of abundant
+intellectual power. He was not permitted to forget that he was on an
+uphill path, a stern struggle with adversity. The leisure hours which he
+was able to devote to his reading, his penmanship, and his arithmetic
+were by no means overabundant. Writing of his father's removal from
+Kentucky to Indiana, he says:
+
+"He settled in an unbroken forest, and the clearing away of surplus wood
+was the great task ahead. Abraham, though very young, was large of his
+age, and had an ax put into his hands at once; and from that till within
+his twenty-third year he was almost constantly handling that most useful
+instrument--less, of course, in plowing and harvesting seasons."
+
+John Hanks mentions the character of his work a little more in detail.
+"He and I worked barefoot, grubbed it, plowed, mowed, and cradled
+together; plowed corn, gathered it, and shucked corn." The sum of it all
+is that from his boyhood until after he was of age, most of his time was
+spent in the hard and varied muscular labor of the farm and the forest,
+sometimes on his father's place, sometimes as a hired hand for other
+pioneers. In this very useful but commonplace occupation he had,
+however, one advantage. He was not only very early in his life a tall,
+strong country boy, but as he grew up he soon became a tall, strong,
+sinewy man. He early attained the unusual height of six feet four
+inches, with arms of proportionate length. This gave him a degree of
+power and facility as an ax-man which few had or were able to acquire.
+He was therefore usually able to lead his fellows in efforts of both
+muscle and mind. He performed the tasks of his daily labor and mastered
+the lessons of his scanty schooling with an ease and rapidity they were
+unable to attain.
+
+Twice during his life in Indiana this ordinary routine was somewhat
+varied. When he was sixteen, while working for a man who lived at the
+mouth of Anderson's Creek, it was part of his duty to manage a
+ferry-boat which transported passengers across the Ohio River. It was
+doubtless this which three years later brought him a new experience,
+that he himself related in these words:
+
+"When he was nineteen, still residing in Indiana, he made his first
+trip upon a flatboat to New Orleans. He was a hired hand merely, and he
+and a son of the owner, without other assistance, made the trip. The
+nature of part of the 'cargo load,' as it was called, made it necessary
+for them to linger and trade along the sugar-coast, and one night they
+were attacked by seven negroes with intent to kill and rob them. They
+were hurt some in the melee, but succeeded in driving the negroes from
+the boat, and then 'cut cable,' 'weighed anchor,' and left."
+
+This commercial enterprise was set on foot by Mr. Gentry, the founder of
+Gentryville. The affair shows us that Abraham had gained an enviable
+standing in the village as a man of honesty, skill, and judgment--one
+who could be depended on to meet such emergencies as might arise in
+selling their bacon and other produce to the cotton-planters along the
+shores of the lower Mississippi.
+
+By this time Abraham's education was well advanced. His handwriting, his
+arithmetic, and his general intelligence were so good that he had
+occasionally been employed to help in the Gentryville store, and Gentry
+thus knew by personal test that he was entirely capable of assisting his
+son Allen in the trading expedition to New Orleans. For Abraham, on the
+other hand, it was an event which must have opened up wide vistas of
+future hope and ambition. Allen Gentry probably was nominal supercargo
+and steersman, but we may easily surmise that Lincoln, as the "bow oar,"
+carried his full half of general responsibility. For this service the
+elder Gentry paid him eight dollars a month and his passage home on a
+steamboat. It was the future President's first eager look into the wide,
+wide world.
+
+Abraham's devotion to his books and his sums stands forth in more
+striking light from the fact that his habits differed from those of most
+frontier boys in one important particular. Almost every youth of the
+backwoods early became a habitual hunter and superior marksman. The
+Indiana woods were yet swarming with game, and the larder of every cabin
+depended largely upon this great storehouse of wild meat.[2] The Pigeon
+Creek settlement was especially fortunate on this point. There was in
+the neighborhood of the Lincoln home what was known in the West as a
+deer-lick--that is, there existed a feeble salt-spring, which
+impregnated the soil in its vicinity or created little pools of brackish
+water--and various kinds of animals, particularly deer, resorted there
+to satisfy their natural craving for salt by drinking from these or
+licking the moist earth. Hunters took advantage of this habit, and one
+of their common customs was to watch in the dusk or at night, and secure
+their approaching prey by an easy shot. Skill with the rifle and success
+in the chase were points of friendly emulation. In many localities the
+boy or youth who shot a squirrel in any part of the animal except its
+head became the butt of the jests of his companions and elders. Yet,
+under such conditions and opportunities Abraham was neither a hunter nor
+a marksman. He tells us:
+
+"A few days before the completion of his eighth year, in the absence of
+his father, a flock of wild turkeys approached the new log cabin, and
+Abraham, with a rifle gun, standing inside, shot through a crack and
+killed one of them. He has never since pulled a trigger on any larger
+game."
+
+ [Footnote 2: Franklin points out how much this resource of the
+ early Americans contributed to their spirit of independence by
+ saying:
+
+ "I can retire cheerfully with my little family into the boundless
+ woods of America, which are sure to afford freedom and subsistence
+ to any man who can bait a hook or pull a trigger."
+
+ (See "The Century Magazine," "Franklin as a Diplomatist," October,
+ 1899, p. 888.)]
+
+The hours which other boys spent in roaming the woods or lying in ambush
+at the deer-lick, he preferred to devote to his effort at mental
+improvement. It can hardly be claimed that he did this from calculating
+ambition. It was a native intellectual thirst, the significance of which
+he did not himself yet understand. Such exceptional characteristics
+manifested themselves only in a few matters. In most particulars he grew
+up as the ordinary backwoods boy develops into the youth and man. As he
+was subjected to their usual labors, so also he was limited to their
+usual pastimes and enjoyments.
+
+The varied amusements common to our day were not within their reach. The
+period of the circus, the political speech, and the itinerant show had
+not yet come. Schools, as we have seen, and probably meetings or church
+services, were irregular, to be had only at long intervals. Primitive
+athletic games and commonplace talk, enlivened by frontier jests and
+stories, formed the sum of social intercourse when half a dozen or a
+score of settlers of various ages came together at a house-raising or
+corn-husking, or when mere chance brought them at the same time to the
+post-office or the country store. On these occasions, however, Abraham
+was, according to his age, always able to contribute his full share or
+more. Most of his natural aptitudes equipped him especially to play his
+part well. He had quick intelligence, ready sympathy, a cheerful
+temperament, a kindling humor, a generous and helpful spirit. He was
+both a ready talker and appreciative listener. By virtue of his tall
+stature and unusual strength of sinew and muscle, he was from the
+beginning a leader in all athletic games; by reason of his studious
+habits and his extraordinarily retentive memory he quickly became the
+best story-teller among his companions. Even the slight training he
+gained from his studies greatly quickened his perceptions and broadened
+and steadied the strong reasoning faculty with which nature had endowed
+him.
+
+As the years of his youth passed by, his less gifted comrades learned to
+accept his judgments and to welcome his power to entertain and instruct
+them. On his own part, he gradually learned to write not merely with the
+hand, but also with the mind--to think. It was an easy transition for
+him from remembering the jingle of a commonplace rhyme to the
+constructing of a doggerel verse, and he did not neglect the opportunity
+of practising his penmanship in such impromptus. Tradition also relates
+that he added to his list of stories and jokes humorous imitations from
+the sermons of eccentric preachers. But tradition has very likely both
+magnified and distorted these alleged exploits of his satire and
+mimicry. All that can be said of them is that his youth was marked by
+intellectual activity far beyond that of his companions.
+
+It is an interesting coincidence that nine days before the birth of
+Abraham Lincoln Congress passed the act to organize the Territory of
+Illinois, which his future life and career were destined to render so
+illustrious. Another interesting coincidence may be found in the fact
+that in the same year (1818) in which Congress definitely fixed the
+number of stars and stripes in the national flag, Illinois was admitted
+as a State to the Union. The Star of Empire was moving westward at an
+accelerating speed. Alabama was admitted in 1819, Maine in 1820,
+Missouri in 1821. Little by little the line of frontier settlement was
+pushing itself toward the Mississippi. No sooner had the pioneer built
+him a cabin and opened his little farm, than during every summer
+canvas-covered wagons wound their toilsome way over the new-made roads
+into the newer wilderness, while his eyes followed them with wistful
+eagerness. Thomas Lincoln and his Pigeon Creek relatives and neighbors
+could not forever withstand the contagion of this example, and at length
+they yielded to the irrepressible longing by a common impulse. Mr.
+Lincoln writes:
+
+"March 1, 1830, Abraham having just completed his twenty-first year, his
+father and family, with the families of the two daughters and
+sons-in-law of his stepmother, left the old homestead in Indiana and
+came to Illinois. Their mode of conveyance was wagons drawn by ox-teams,
+and Abraham drove one of the teams. They reached the county of Macon,
+and stopped there some time within the same month of March. His father
+and family settled a new place on the north side of the Sangamon River,
+at the junction of the timber land and prairie, about ten miles westerly
+from Decatur. Here they built a log cabin, into which they removed, and
+made sufficient of rails to fence ten acres of ground, fenced and broke
+the ground, and raised a crop of sown corn upon it the same year.... The
+sons-in-law were temporarily settled in other places in the county. In
+the autumn all hands were greatly afflicted with ague and fever, to
+which they had not been used, and by which they were greatly
+discouraged, so much so that they determined on leaving the county. They
+remained, however, through the succeeding winter, which was the winter
+of the very celebrated 'deep snow' of Illinois."
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+Flatboat--New Salem--Election Clerk--Store and Mill--Kirkham's
+"Grammar"--"Sangamo Journal"--The Talisman--Lincoln's Address, March 9,
+1832--Black Hawk War--Lincoln Elected Captain--Mustered out May 27,
+1832--Reenlisted in Independent Spy Battalion--Finally Mustered out, June
+16, 1832--Defeated for the Legislature--Blacksmith or Lawyer?--The
+Lincoln-Berry Store--Appointed Postmaster, May 7, 1833--National Politics
+
+
+The life of Abraham Lincoln, or that part of it which will interest
+readers for all future time, properly begins in March, 1831, after the
+winter of the "deep snow." According to frontier custom, being then
+twenty-one years old, he left his father's cabin to make his own fortune
+in the world. A man named Denton Offutt, one of a class of local traders
+and speculators usually found about early Western settlements, had
+probably heard something of young Lincoln's Indiana history,
+particularly that he had made a voyage on a flatboat from Indiana to New
+Orleans, and that he was strong, active, honest, and generally, as would
+be expressed in Western phrase, "a smart young fellow." He was therefore
+just the sort of man Offutt needed for one of his trading enterprises,
+and Mr. Lincoln himself relates somewhat in detail how Offutt engaged
+him and the beginning of the venture:
+
+"Abraham, together with his stepmother's son, John D. Johnston, and
+John Hanks, yet residing in Macon County, hired themselves to Denton
+Offutt to take a flatboat from Beardstown, Illinois [on the Illinois
+River], to New Orleans; and for that purpose were to join
+him--Offutt--at Springfield, Illinois, so soon as the snow should go
+off. When it did go off, which was about the first of March, 1831, the
+county was so flooded as to make traveling by land impracticable, to
+obviate which difficulty they purchased a large canoe, and came down the
+Sangamon River in it. This is the time and the manner of Abraham's first
+entrance into Sangamon County. They found Offutt at Springfield, but
+learned from him that he had failed in getting a boat at Beardstown.
+This led to their hiring themselves to him for twelve dollars per month
+each, and getting the timber out of the trees and building a boat at Old
+Sangamon town on the Sangamon River, seven miles northwest of
+Springfield, which boat they took to New Orleans, substantially upon the
+old contract."
+
+It needs here to be recalled that Lincoln's father was a carpenter, and
+that Abraham had no doubt acquired considerable skill in the use of
+tools during his boyhood and a practical knowledge of the construction
+of flatboats during his previous New Orleans trip, sufficient to enable
+him with confidence to undertake this task in shipbuilding. From the
+after history of both Johnston and Hanks, we know that neither of them
+was gifted with skill or industry, and it becomes clear that Lincoln was
+from the first leader of the party, master of construction, and captain
+of the craft.
+
+It took some time to build the boat, and before it was finished the
+Sangamon River had fallen so that the new craft stuck midway across the
+dam at Rutledge's Mill, at New Salem, a village of fifteen or twenty
+houses. The inhabitants came down to the bank, and exhibited great
+interest in the fate of the boat, which, with its bow in the air and its
+stern under water, was half bird and half fish, and they probably
+jestingly inquired of the young captain whether he expected to dive or
+to fly to New Orleans. He was, however, equal to the occasion. He bored
+a hole in the bottom of the boat at the bow, and rigged some sort of
+lever or derrick to lift the stern, so that the water she had taken in
+behind ran out in front, enabling her to float over the partly submerged
+dam; and this feat, in turn, caused great wonderment in the crowd at the
+novel expedient of bailing a boat by boring a hole in her bottom.
+
+This exploit of naval engineering fully established Lincoln's fame at
+New Salem, and grounded him so firmly in the esteem of his employer
+Offutt that the latter, already looking forward to his future
+usefulness, at once engaged him to come back to New Salem, after his New
+Orleans voyage, to act as his clerk in a store.
+
+Once over the dam and her cargo reloaded, partly there and partly at
+Beardstown, the boat safely made the remainder of her voyage to New
+Orleans; and, returning by steamer to St. Louis, Lincoln and Johnston
+(Hanks had turned back from St. Louis) continued on foot to Illinois,
+Johnston remaining at the family home, which had meanwhile been removed
+from Macon to Coles County, and Lincoln going to his employer and
+friends at New Salem. This was in July or August, 1831. Neither Offutt
+nor his goods had yet arrived, and during his waiting he had a chance to
+show the New Salemites another accomplishment. An election was to be
+held, and one of the clerks was sick and failed to come. Scribes were
+not plenty on the frontier, and Mentor Graham, the clerk who was
+present, looking around for a properly qualified colleague, noticed
+Lincoln, and asked him if he could write, to which he answered, in local
+idiom, that he "could make a few rabbit tracks," and was thereupon
+immediately inducted into his first office. He performed his duties not
+only to the general satisfaction, but so as to interest Graham, who was
+a schoolmaster, and afterward made himself very useful to Lincoln.
+
+Offutt finally arrived with a miscellaneous lot of goods, which Lincoln
+opened and put in order in a room that a former New Salem storekeeper
+was just ready to vacate, and whose remnant stock Offutt also purchased.
+Trade was evidently not brisk at New Salem, for the commercial zeal of
+Offutt led him to increase his venture by renting the Rutledge and
+Cameron mill, on whose historic dam the flatboat had stuck. For a while
+the charge of the mill was added to Lincoln's duties, until another
+clerk was engaged to help him. There is likewise good evidence that in
+addition to his duties at the store and the mill, Lincoln made himself
+generally useful--that he cut down trees and split rails enough to make
+a large hog-pen adjoining the mill, a proceeding quite natural when we
+remember that his hitherto active life and still growing muscles
+imperatively demanded the exercise which measuring calico or weighing
+out sugar and coffee failed to supply.
+
+We know from other incidents that he was possessed of ample bodily
+strength. In frontier life it is not only needed for useful labor of
+many kinds, but is also called upon to aid in popular amusement. There
+was a settlement in the neighborhood of New Salem called Clary's Grove,
+where lived a group of restless, rollicking backwoodsmen with a strong
+liking for various forms of frontier athletics and rough practical
+jokes. In the progress of American settlement there has always been a
+time, whether the frontier was in New England or Pennsylvania or
+Kentucky, or on the banks of the Mississippi, when the champion wrestler
+held some fraction of the public consideration accorded to the victor in
+the Olympic games of Greece. Until Lincoln came, Jack Armstrong was the
+champion wrestler of Clary's Grove and New Salem, and picturesque
+stories are told how the neighborhood talk, inflamed by Offutt's fulsome
+laudation of his clerk, made Jack Armstrong feel that his fame was in
+danger. Lincoln put off the encounter as long as he could, and when the
+wrestling match finally came off neither could throw the other. The
+bystanders became satisfied that they were equally matched in strength
+and skill, and the cool courage which Lincoln manifested throughout the
+ordeal prevented the usual close of such incidents with a fight. Instead
+of becoming chronic enemies and leaders of a neighborhood feud,
+Lincoln's self-possession and good temper turned the contest into the
+beginning of a warm and lasting friendship.
+
+If Lincoln's muscles were at times hungry for work, not less so was his
+mind. He was already instinctively feeling his way to his destiny when,
+in conversation with Mentor Graham, the schoolmaster, he indicated his
+desire to use some of his spare moments to increase his education, and
+confided to him his "notion to study English grammar." It was entirely
+in the nature of things that Graham should encourage this mental
+craving, and tell him: "If you expect to go before the public in any
+capacity, I think it the best thing you can do." Lincoln said that if he
+had a grammar he would begin at once. Graham was obliged to confess that
+there was no such book at New Salem, but remembered that there was one
+at Vaner's, six miles away. Promptly after breakfast the next morning
+Lincoln walked to Vaner's and procured the precious volume, and,
+probably with Graham's occasional help, found no great difficulty in
+mastering its contents. While tradition does not mention any other study
+begun at that time, we may fairly infer that, slight as may have been
+Graham's education, he must have had other books from which, together
+with his friendly advice, Lincoln's intellectual hunger derived further
+stimulus and nourishment.
+
+In his duties at the store and his work at the mill, in his study of
+Kirkham's "Grammar," and educational conversations with Mentor Graham,
+in the somewhat rude but frank and hearty companionship of the citizens
+of New Salem and the exuberant boys of Clary's Grove, Lincoln's life for
+the second half of the year 1831 appears not to have been eventful, but
+was doubtless more comfortable and as interesting as had been his
+flatboat building and New Orleans voyage during the first half. He was
+busy in useful labor, and, though he had few chances to pick up scraps
+of schooling, was beginning to read deeply in that book of human nature,
+the profound knowledge of which rendered him such immense service in
+after years.
+
+The restlessness and ambition of the village of New Salem was many times
+multiplied in the restlessness and ambition of Springfield, fifteen or
+twenty miles away, which, located approximately near the geographical
+center of Illinois, was already beginning to crave, if not yet to feel,
+its future destiny as the capital of the State. In November of the same
+year that aspiring town produced the first number of its weekly
+newspaper, the "Sangamo Journal," and in its columns we begin to find
+recorded historical data. Situated in a region of alternating spaces of
+prairie and forest, of attractive natural scenery and rich soil, it was
+nevertheless at a great disadvantage in the means of commercial
+transportation. Lying sixty miles from Beardstown, the nearest landing
+on the Illinois River, the peculiarities of soil, climate, and primitive
+roads rendered travel and land carriage extremely difficult--often
+entirely impossible--for nearly half of every year. The very first
+number of the "Sangamo Journal" sounded its strongest note on the then
+leading tenet of the Whig party--internal improvements by the general
+government, and active politics to secure them. In later numbers we
+learn that a regular Eastern mail had not been received for three weeks.
+The tide of immigration which was pouring into Illinois is illustrated
+in a tabular statement on the commerce of the Illinois River, showing
+that the steamboat arrivals at Beardstown had risen from one each in the
+years 1828 and 1829, and only four in 1830, to thirty-two during the
+year 1831. This naturally directed the thoughts of travelers and traders
+to some better means of reaching the river landing than the frozen or
+muddy roads and impassable creeks and sloughs of winter and spring. The
+use of the Sangamon River, flowing within five miles of Springfield and
+emptying itself into the Illinois ten or fifteen miles from Beardstown,
+seemed for the present the only solution of the problem, and a public
+meeting was called to discuss the project. The deep snows of the winter
+of 1830-31 abundantly filled the channels of that stream, and the winter
+of 1831-32 substantially repeated its swelling floods. Newcomers in that
+region were therefore warranted in drawing the inference that it might
+remain navigable for small craft. Public interest on the topic was
+greatly heightened when one Captain Bogue, commanding a small steamer
+then at Cincinnati, printed a letter in the "Journal" of January 26,
+1832, saying: "I intend to try to ascend the river [Sangamo] immediately
+on the breaking up of the ice." It was well understood that the chief
+difficulty would be that the short turns in the channels were liable to
+be obstructed by a gorge of driftwood and the limbs and trunks of
+overhanging trees. To provide for this, Captain Bogue's letter added: "I
+should be met at the mouth of the river by ten or twelve men, having
+axes with long handles under the direction of some experienced man. I
+shall deliver freight from St. Louis at the landing on the Sangamo River
+opposite the town of Springfield for thirty-seven and a half cents per
+hundred pounds." The "Journal" of February 16 contained an advertisement
+that the "splendid upper-cabin steamer _Talisman_" would leave for
+Springfield, and the paper of March 1 announced her arrival at St. Louis
+on the 22d of February with a full cargo. In due time the citizen
+committee appointed by the public meeting met the _Talisman_ at the
+mouth of the Sangamon, and the "Journal" of March 29 announced with
+great flourish that the "steamboat _Talisman_, of one hundred and fifty
+tons burden, arrived at the Portland landing opposite this town on
+Saturday last." There was great local rejoicing over this demonstration
+that the Sangamon was really navigable, and the "Journal" proclaimed
+with exultation that Springfield "could no longer be considered an
+inland town."
+
+President Jackson's first term was nearing its close, and the Democratic
+party was preparing to reelect him. The Whigs, on their part, had held
+their first national convention in December, 1831, and nominated Henry
+Clay to dispute the succession. This nomination, made almost a year in
+advance of the election, indicates an unusual degree of political
+activity in the East, and voters in the new State of Illinois were
+fired with an equal party zeal. During the months of January and
+February, 1832, no less than six citizens of Sangamon County announced
+themselves in the "Sangamo Journal" as candidates for the State
+legislature, the election for which was not to occur until August; and
+the "Journal" of March 15 printed a long letter, addressed "To the
+People of Sangamon County," under date of the ninth, signed A. Lincoln,
+and beginning:
+
+"FELLOW-CITIZENS: Having become a candidate for the honorable office of
+one of your representatives in the next general assembly of this State,
+in accordance with an established custom and the principles of true
+republicanism, it becomes my duty to make known to you, the people whom
+I propose to represent, my sentiments with regard to local affairs." He
+then takes up and discusses in an eminently methodical and practical way
+the absorbing topic of the moment--the Whig doctrine of internal
+improvements and its local application, the improvement of the Sangamon
+River. He mentions that meetings have been held to propose the
+construction of a railroad, and frankly acknowledges that "no other
+improvement that reason will justify us in hoping for can equal in
+utility the railroad," but contends that its enormous cost precludes any
+such hope, and that, therefore, "the improvement of the Sangamon River
+is an object much better suited to our infant resources." Relating his
+experience in building and navigating his flatboat, and his observation
+of the stage of the water since then, he draws the very plausible
+conclusion that by straightening its channel and clearing away its
+driftwood the stream can be made navigable "to vessels of from
+twenty-five to thirty tons burden for at least one half of all common
+years, and to vessels of much greater burden a part of the time," His
+letter very modestly touches a few other points of needed legislation--a
+law against usury, laws to promote education, and amendments to estray
+and road laws. The main interest for us, however, is in the frank avowal
+of his personal ambition.
+
+"Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether it be true or
+not, I can say, for one, that I have no other so great as that of being
+truly esteemed of my fellow-men by rendering myself worthy of their
+esteem. How far I shall succeed in gratifying this ambition is yet to be
+developed. I am young, and unknown to many of you. I was born, and have
+ever remained, in the most humble walks of life. I have no wealthy or
+popular relations or friends to recommend me. My case is thrown
+exclusively upon the independent voters of the country, and if elected
+they will have conferred a favor upon me for which I shall be
+unremitting in my labors to compensate. But if the good people in their
+wisdom shall see fit to keep me in the background, I have been too
+familiar with disappointments to be very much chagrined."
+
+This written and printed address gives us an accurate measure of the man
+and the time. When he wrote this document he was twenty-three years old.
+He had been in the town and county only about nine months of actual
+time. As Sangamon County covered an estimated area of twenty-one hundred
+and sixty square miles, he could know but little of either it or its
+people. How dared a "friendless, uneducated boy, working on a flatboat
+at twelve dollars a month," with "no wealthy or popular friends to
+recommend" him, aspire to the honors and responsibilities of a
+legislator? The only answer is that he was prompted by that intuition of
+genius, that consciousness of powers which justify their claims by their
+achievements. When we scan the circumstances more closely, we find
+distinct evidence of some reason for his confidence. Relatively
+speaking, he was neither uneducated nor friendless. His acquirements
+were already far beyond the simple elements of reading, writing, and
+ciphering. He wrote a good, clear, serviceable hand; he could talk well
+and reason cogently. The simple, manly style of his printed address
+fully equals in literary ability that of the average collegian in the
+twenties. His migration from Indiana to Illinois and his two voyages to
+New Orleans had given him a glimpse of the outside world. His natural
+logic readily grasped the significance of the railroad as a new factor
+in transportation, although the first American locomotive had been built
+only one year, and ten to fifteen years were yet to elapse before the
+first railroad train was to run in Illinois.
+
+One other motive probably had its influence. He tells us that Offutt's
+business was failing, and his quick judgment warned him that he would
+soon be out of a job as clerk. This, however, could be only a secondary
+reason for announcing himself as a candidate, for the election was not
+to occur till August, and even if he were elected there would be neither
+service nor salary till the coming winter. His venture into politics
+must therefore be ascribed to the feeling which he so frankly announced
+in his letter, his ambition to become useful to his fellow-men--the
+impulse that throughout history has singled out the great leaders of
+mankind.
+
+In this particular instance a crisis was also at hand, calculated to
+develop and utilize the impulse. Just about a month after the
+publication of Lincoln's announcement the "Sangamo Journal" of April 19
+printed an official call from Governor Reynolds, directed to General
+Neale of the Illinois militia, to organize six hundred volunteers of his
+brigade for military service in a campaign against the Indians under
+Black Hawk, the war chief of the Sacs, who, in defiance of treaties and
+promises, had formed a combination with other tribes during the winter,
+and had now crossed back from the west to the east side of the
+Mississippi River with the determination to reoccupy their old homes in
+the Rock River country toward the northern end of the State.
+
+In the memoranda which Mr. Lincoln furnished for a campaign biography,
+he thus relates what followed the call for troops:
+
+"Abraham joined a volunteer company, and, to his own surprise, was
+elected captain of it. He says he has not since had any success in life
+which gave him so much satisfaction. He went to the campaign, served
+near three months, met the ordinary hardships of such an expedition, but
+was in no battle." Official documents furnish some further interesting
+details. As already said, the call was printed in the "Sangamo Journal"
+of April 19. On April 21 the company was organized at Richland, Sangamon
+County, and on April 28 was inspected and mustered into service at
+Beardstown and attached to Colonel Samuel Thompson's regiment, the
+Fourth Illinois Mounted Volunteers. They marched at once to the hostile
+frontier. As the campaign shaped itself, it probably became evident to
+the company that they were not likely to meet any serious fighting, and,
+not having been enlisted for any stated period, they became clamorous to
+return home. The governor therefore had them and other companies
+mustered out of service, at the mouth of Fox River, on May 27. Not,
+however, wishing to weaken his forces before the arrival of new levies
+already on the way, he called for volunteers to remain twenty days
+longer. Lincoln had gone to the frontier to perform real service, not
+merely to enjoy military rank or reap military glory. On the same day,
+therefore, on which he was mustered out as captain, he reenlisted, and
+became Private Lincoln in Captain Iles's company of mounted volunteers,
+organized apparently principally for scouting service, and sometimes
+called the Independent Spy Battalion. Among the other officers who
+imitated this patriotic example were General Whiteside and Major John T.
+Stuart, Lincoln's later law partner. The Independent Spy Battalion,
+having faithfully performed its new term of service, was finally
+mustered out on June 16, 1832. Lincoln and his messmate, George M.
+Harrison, had the misfortune to have their horses stolen the day before,
+but Harrison relates:
+
+"I laughed at our fate and he joked at it, and we all started off
+merrily. The generous men of our company walked and rode by turns with
+us, and we fared about equal with the rest. But for this generosity our
+legs would have had to do the better work; for in that day this dreary
+route furnished no horses to buy or to steal, and, whether on horse or
+afoot, we always had company, for many of the horses' backs were too
+sore for riding."
+
+Lincoln must have reached home about August 1, for the election was to
+occur in the second week of that month, and this left him but ten days
+in which to push his claims for popular indorsement. His friends,
+however had been doing manful duty for him during his three months'
+absence, and he lost nothing in public estimation by his prompt
+enlistment to defend the frontier. Successive announcements in the
+"Journal" had by this time swelled the list of candidates to thirteen.
+But Sangamon County was entitled to only four representatives and when
+the returns came in Lincoln was among those defeated. Nevertheless, he
+made a very respectable showing in the race. The list of successful and
+unsuccessful aspirants and their votes was as follows:
+
+    E.D. Taylor................   1127
+    John T. Stuart..............   991
+    Achilles Morris.............   945
+    Peter Cartwright............   815
+
+Under the plurality rule, these four had been elected. The unsuccessful
+candidates were:
+
+    A.G. Herndon..............    806
+    W. Carpenter...............   774
+    J. Dawson..................   717
+    A. Lincoln.................   657
+    T.M. Neale................    571
+    R. Quinton.................   485
+    Z. Peter...................   214
+    E. Robinson................   169
+    ---- Kirkpatrick...........    44
+
+The returns show that the total vote of the county was about twenty-one
+hundred and sixty-eight. Comparing this with the vote cast for Lincoln,
+we see that he received nearly one third of the total county vote,
+notwithstanding his absence from the canvass, notwithstanding the fact
+that his acquaintanceship was limited to the neighborhood of New Salem,
+notwithstanding the sharp competition. Indeed, his talent and fitness
+for active practical politics were demonstrated beyond question by the
+result in his home precinct of New Salem, which, though he ran as a
+Whig, gave two hundred and seventy-seven votes for him and only three
+against him. Three months later it gave one hundred and eighty-five for
+the Jackson and only seventy for the Clay electors, proving Lincoln's
+personal popularity. He remembered for the remainder of his life with
+great pride that this was the only time he was ever beaten on a direct
+vote of the people.
+
+The result of the election brought him to one of the serious crises of
+his life, which he forcibly stated in after years in the following
+written words:
+
+"He was now without means and out of business, but was anxious to remain
+with his friends, who had treated him with so much generosity,
+especially as he had nothing elsewhere to go to. He studied what he
+should do; thought of learning the blacksmith trade, thought of trying
+to study law, rather thought he could not succeed at that without a
+better education."
+
+The perplexing problem between inclination and means to follow it, the
+struggle between conscious talent and the restraining fetters of
+poverty, has come to millions of young Americans before and since, but
+perhaps to none with a sharper trial of spirit or more resolute
+patience. Before he had definitely resolved upon either career, chance
+served not to solve, but to postpone his difficulty, and in the end to
+greatly increase it.
+
+New Salem, which apparently never had any good reason for becoming a
+town, seems already at that time to have entered on the road to rapid
+decay. Offutt's speculations had failed, and he had disappeared. The
+brothers Herndon, who had opened a new store, found business dull and
+unpromising. Becoming tired of their undertaking, they offered to sell
+out to Lincoln and Berry on credit, and took their promissory notes in
+payment. The new partners, in that excess of hope which usually attends
+all new ventures, also bought two other similar establishments that were
+in extremity, and for these likewise gave their notes. It is evident
+that the confidence which Lincoln had inspired while he was a clerk in
+Offutt's store, and the enthusiastic support he had received as a
+candidate, were the basis of credit that sustained these several
+commercial transactions.
+
+It turned out in the long run that Lincoln's credit and the popular
+confidence that supported it were as valuable both to his creditors and
+himself as if the sums which stood over his signature had been gold coin
+in a solvent bank. But this transmutation was not attained until he had
+passed through a very furnace of financial embarrassment. Berry proved a
+worthless partner, and the business a sorry failure. Seeing this,
+Lincoln and Berry sold out again on credit--to the Trent brothers, who
+soon broke up and ran away. Berry also departed and died, and finally
+all the notes came back upon Lincoln for payment. He was unable to meet
+these obligations, but he did the next best thing. He remained, promised
+to pay when he could, and most of his creditors, maintaining their
+confidence in his integrity, patiently bided their time, till, in the
+course of long years, he fully justified it by paying, with interest
+every cent of what he learned to call, in humorous satire upon his own
+folly, the "national debt."
+
+With one of them he was not so fortunate. Van Bergen, who bought one of
+the Lincoln-Berry notes, obtained judgment, and, by peremptory sale,
+swept away the horse, saddle, and surveying instruments with the daily
+use of which Lincoln "procured bread and kept body and soul together,"
+to use his own words. But here again Lincoln's recognized honesty was
+his safety. Out of personal friendship, James Short bought the property
+and restored it to the young surveyor, giving him time to repay. It was
+not until his return from Congress, seventeen years after the purchase
+of the store, that he finally relieved himself of the last instalments
+of his "national debt." But by these seventeen years of sober industry,
+rigid economy, and unflinching faith to his obligations he earned the
+title of "Honest old Abe," which proved of greater service to himself
+and his country than if he had gained the wealth of Croesus.
+
+Out of this ill-starred commercial speculation, however, Lincoln derived
+one incidental benefit, and it may be said it became the determining
+factor in his career. It is evident from his own language that he
+underwent a severe mental struggle in deciding whether he would become a
+blacksmith or a lawyer. In taking a middle course, and trying to become
+a merchant, he probably kept the latter choice strongly in view. It
+seems well established by local tradition that during the period while
+the Lincoln-Berry store was running its fore-doomed course from bad to
+worse, Lincoln employed all the time he could spare from his customers
+(and he probably had many leisure hours) in reading and study of various
+kinds. This habit was greatly stimulated and assisted by his being
+appointed, May 7, 1833, postmaster at New Salem, which office he
+continued to hold until May 30, 1836, when New Salem partially
+disappeared and the office was removed to Petersburg. The influences
+which brought about the selection of Lincoln are not recorded, but it is
+suggested that he had acted for some time as deputy postmaster under the
+former incumbent, and thus became the natural successor. Evidently his
+politics formed no objection, as New Salem precinct had at the August
+election, when he ran as a Whig, given him its almost solid vote for
+representative notwithstanding the fact that it was more than two thirds
+Democratic. The postmastership increased his public consideration and
+authority, broadened his business experience, and the newspapers he
+handled provided him an abundance of reading matter on topics of both
+local and national importance up to the latest dates.
+
+Those were stirring times, even on the frontier. The "Sangamo Journal"
+of December 30, 1832, printed Jackson's nullification proclamation. The
+same paper, of March 9, 1833, contained an editorial on Clay's
+compromise and that of the 16th had a notice of the great nullification
+debate in Congress. The speeches of Clay, Calhoun, and Webster were
+published in full during the following month, and Mr. Lincoln could not
+well help reading them and joining in the feelings and comments they
+provoked.
+
+While the town of New Salem was locally dying, the county of Sangamon
+and the State of Illinois were having what is now called a boom. Other
+wide-awake newspapers, such as the "Missouri Republican" and "Louisville
+Journal," abounded in notices of the establishment of new stage lines
+and the general rush of immigration. But the joyous dream of the New
+Salemites, that the Sangamon River would become a commercial highway,
+quickly faded. The _Talisman_ was obliged to hurry back down the rapidly
+falling stream, tearing away a portion of the famous dam to permit her
+departure. There were rumors that another steamer, the _Sylph_, would
+establish regular trips between Springfield and Beardstown, but she
+never came. The freshets and floods of 1831 and 1832 were succeeded by a
+series of dry seasons, and the navigation of the Sangamon River was
+never afterward a telling plank in the county platform of either
+political party.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+Appointed Deputy Surveyor--Elected to Legislature in 1834--Campaign
+Issues--Begins Study of Law--Internal Improvement System--The
+Lincoln-Stone Protest--Candidate for Speaker in 1838 and 1840
+
+
+When Lincoln was appointed postmaster, in May, 1833, the Lincoln-Berry
+store had not yet completely "winked out," to use his own picturesque
+phrase. When at length he ceased to be a merchant, he yet remained a
+government official, a man of consideration and authority, who still had
+a responsible occupation and definite home, where he could read, write,
+and study. The proceeds of his office were doubtless very meager, but in
+that day, when the rate of postage on letters was still twenty-five
+cents, a little change now and then came into his hands, which, in the
+scarcity of money prevailing on the frontier, had an importance
+difficult for us to appreciate. His positions as candidate for the
+legislature and as postmaster probably had much to do in bringing him
+another piece of good fortune. In the rapid settlement of Illinois and
+Sangamon County, and the obtaining titles to farms by purchase or
+preemption, as well as in the locating and opening of new roads, the
+county surveyor had more work on his hands than he could perform
+throughout a county extending forty miles east and west and fifty north
+and south, and was compelled to appoint deputies to assist him. The name
+of the county surveyor was John Calhoun, recognized by all his
+contemporaries in Sangamon as a man of education and talent and an
+aspiring Democratic politician. It was not an easy matter for Calhoun to
+find properly qualified deputies, and when he became acquainted with
+Lincoln, and learned his attainments and aptitudes, and the estimation
+in which he was held by the people of New Salem, he wisely concluded to
+utilize his talents and standing, notwithstanding their difference in
+politics. The incident is thus recorded by Lincoln:
+
+"The surveyor of Sangamon offered to depute to Abraham that portion of
+his work which was within his part of the county. He accepted, procured
+a compass and chain, studied Flint and Gibson a little, and went at it.
+This procured bread, and kept soul and body together."
+
+Tradition has it that Calhoun not only gave him the appointment, but
+lent him the book in which to study the art, which he accomplished in a
+period of six weeks, aided by the schoolmaster, Mentor Graham. The exact
+period of this increase in knowledge and business capacity is not
+recorded, but it must have taken place in the summer of 1833, as there
+exists a certificate of survey in Lincoln's handwriting signed, "J.
+Calhoun, S.S.C., by A. Lincoln," dated January 14, 1834. Before June of
+that year he had surveyed and located a public road from "Musick's Ferry
+on Salt Creek, _via_ New Salem, to the county line in the direction to
+Jacksonville," twenty-six miles and seventy chains in length, the exact
+course of which survey, with detailed bearings and distances, was drawn
+on common white letter-paper pasted in a long slip, to a scale of two
+inches to the mile, in ordinary yet clear and distinct penmanship. The
+compensation he received for this service was three dollars per day for
+five days, and two dollars and fifty cents for making the plat and
+report.
+
+An advertisement in the "Journal" shows that the regular fees of another
+deputy were "two dollars per day, or one dollar per lot of eight acres
+or less, and fifty cents for a single line, with ten cents per mile for
+traveling."
+
+While this class of work and his post-office, with its emoluments,
+probably amply supplied his board, lodging and clothing, it left him no
+surplus with which to pay his debts, for it was in the latter part of
+that same year (1834) that Van Bergen caused his horse and surveying
+instruments to be sold under the hammer, as already related. Meanwhile,
+amid these fluctuations of good and bad luck, Lincoln maintained his
+equanimity, his steady, persevering industry, and his hopeful ambition
+and confidence in the future. Through all his misfortunes and his
+failures, he preserved his self-respect and his determination to
+succeed.
+
+Two years had nearly elapsed since he was defeated for the legislature,
+and, having received so flattering a vote on that occasion, it was
+entirely natural that he should determine to try a second chance. Four
+new representatives were to be chosen at the August election of 1834,
+and near the end of April Lincoln published his announcement that he
+would again be a candidate. He could certainly view his expectations in
+every way in a more hopeful light. His knowledge had increased, his
+experience broadened, his acquaintanceship greatly increased. His
+talents were acknowledged, his ability recognized. He was postmaster and
+deputy surveyor. He had become a public character whose services were in
+demand. As compared with the majority of his neighbors, he was a man of
+learning who had seen the world. Greater, however, than all these
+advantages, his sympathetic kindness of heart, his sincere, open
+frankness, his sturdy, unshrinking honesty, and that inborn sense of
+justice that yielded to no influence, made up a nobility of character
+and bearing that impressed the rude frontiersmen as much as, if not more
+quickly and deeply than, it would have done the most polished and
+erudite society.
+
+Beginning his campaign in April, he had three full months before him for
+electioneering, and he evidently used the time to good advantage. The
+pursuit of popularity probably consisted mainly of the same methods that
+in backwoods districts prevail even to our day: personal visits and
+solicitations, attendance at various kinds of neighborhood gatherings,
+such as raisings of new cabins, horse-races, shooting-matches, sales of
+town lots or of personal property under execution, or whatever occasion
+served to call a dozen or two of the settlers together. One recorded
+incident illustrates the practical nature of the politician's art at
+that day:
+
+"He [Lincoln] came to my house, near Island Grove, during harvest. There
+were some thirty men in the field. He got his dinner and went out in the
+field where the men were at work. I gave him an introduction, and the
+boys said that they could not vote for a man unless he could make a
+hand. 'Well, boys,' said he, 'if that is all, I am sure of your votes.'
+He took hold of the cradle, and led the way all the round with perfect
+ease. The boys were satisfied, and I don't think he lost a vote in the
+crowd."
+
+Sometimes two or more candidates would meet at such places, and short
+speeches be called for and given. Altogether, the campaign was livelier
+than that of two years before. Thirteen candidates were again contesting
+for the four seats in the legislature, to say nothing of candidates for
+governor, for Congress, and for the State Senate. The scope of
+discussion was enlarged and localized. From the published address of an
+industrious aspirant who received only ninety-two votes, we learn that
+the issues now were the construction by the general government of a
+canal from Lake Michigan to the Illinois River, the improvement of the
+Sangamon River, the location of the State capital at Springfield, a
+United States bank, a better road law, and amendments to the estray
+laws.
+
+When the election returns came in Lincoln had reason to be satisfied
+with the efforts he had made. He received the second highest number of
+votes in the long list of candidates. Those cast for the representatives
+chosen stood: Dawson, 1390; Lincoln, 1376; Carpenter 1170; Stuart, 1164.
+The location of the State capital had also been submitted to popular
+vote at this election. Springfield, being much nearer the geographical
+center of the State, was anxious to deprive Vandalia of that honor, and
+the activity of the Sangamon politicians proved it to be a dangerous
+rival. In the course of a month the returns from all parts of the State
+had come in, and showed that Springfield was third in the race.
+
+It must be frankly admitted that Lincoln's success at this juncture was
+one of the most important events of his life. A second defeat might have
+discouraged his efforts to lift himself to a professional career, and
+sent him to the anvil to make horseshoes and to iron wagons for the
+balance of his days. But this handsome popular indorsement assured his
+standing and confirmed his credit. With this lift in the clouds of his
+horizon, he could resolutely carry his burden of debt and hopefully look
+to wider fields of public usefulness. Already, during the progress of
+the canvass, he had received cheering encouragement and promise of most
+valuable help. One of the four successful candidates was John T. Stuart,
+who had been major of volunteers in the Black Hawk War while Lincoln
+was captain, and who, together with Lincoln, had reenlisted as a private
+in the Independent Spy Battalion. There is every likelihood that the two
+had begun a personal friendship during their military service, which was
+of course strongly cemented by their being fellow-candidates and both
+belonging to the Whig party. Mr. Lincoln relates:
+
+"Major John T. Stuart, then in full practice of the law [at
+Springfield], was also elected. During the canvass, in a private
+conversation he encouraged Abraham to study law. After the election, he
+borrowed books of Stuart, took them home with him, and went at it in
+good earnest. He studied with nobody.... In the autumn of 1836 he
+obtained a law license, and on April 15, 1837, removed to Springfield
+and commenced the practice, his old friend Stuart taking him into
+partnership."
+
+From and after this election in 1834 as a representative, Lincoln was a
+permanent factor in the politics and the progress of Sangamon County. At
+a Springfield meeting in the following November to promote common
+schools, he was appointed one of eleven delegates to attend a convention
+at Vandalia called to deliberate on that subject. He was reelected to
+the legislature in 1836, in 1838, and in 1840, and thus for a period of
+eight years took a full share in shaping and enacting the public and
+private laws of Illinois, which in our day has become one of the leading
+States in the Mississippi valley. Of Lincoln's share in that
+legislation, it need only be said that it was as intelligent and
+beneficial to the public interest as that of the best of his colleagues.
+The most serious error committed by the legislature of Illinois during
+that period was that it enacted laws setting on foot an extensive system
+of internal improvements, in the form of railroads and canals,
+altogether beyond the actual needs of transportation for the then
+existing population of the State, and the consequent reckless creation
+of a State debt for money borrowed at extravagant interest and liberal
+commissions. The State underwent a season of speculative intoxication,
+in which, by the promised and expected rush of immigration and the
+swelling currents of its business, its farms were suddenly to become
+villages, its villages spreading towns, and its towns transformed into
+great cities, while all its people were to be made rich by the increased
+value of their land and property. Both parties entered with equal
+recklessness into this ill-advised internal improvement system, which in
+the course of about four years brought the State to bankruptcy, with no
+substantial works to show for the foolishly expended millions.
+
+In voting for these measures, Mr. Lincoln represented the public opinion
+and wish of his county and the whole State; and while he was as
+blamable, he was at the same time no more so than the wisest of his
+colleagues. It must be remembered in extenuation that he was just
+beginning his parliamentary education. From the very first, however, he
+seems to have become a force in the legislature, and to have rendered
+special service to his constituents. It is conceded that the one object
+which Springfield and the most of Sangamon County had at heart was the
+removal of the capital from Vandalia to that place. This was
+accomplished in 1836, and the management of the measure appears to have
+been intrusted mainly to Mr. Lincoln.
+
+One incident of his legislative career stands out in such prominent
+relation to the great events of his after life that it deserves special
+explanation and emphasis. Even at that early date, a quarter of a
+century before the outbreak of the Civil War, the slavery question was
+now and then obtruding itself as an irritating and perplexing element
+into the local legislation of almost every new State. Illinois, though
+guaranteed its freedom by the Ordinance of 1787, nevertheless underwent
+a severe political struggle in which, about four years after her
+admission into the Union, politicians and settlers from the South made a
+determined effort to change her to a slave State. The legislature of
+1822-23, with a two-thirds pro-slavery majority of the State Senate, and
+a technical, but legally questionable, two-thirds majority in the House,
+submitted to popular vote an act calling a State convention to change
+the constitution. It happened, fortunately, that Governor Coles, though
+a Virginian, was strongly antislavery, and gave the weight of his
+official influence and his whole four years' salary to counteract the
+dangerous scheme. From the fact that southern Illinois up to that time
+was mostly peopled from the slave States, the result was seriously in
+doubt through an active and exciting campaign, and the convention was
+finally defeated by a majority of eighteen hundred in a total vote of
+eleven thousand six hundred and twelve. While this result effectually
+decided that Illinois would remain a free State, the propagandism and
+reorganization left a deep and tenacious undercurrent of pro-slavery
+opinion that for many years manifested itself in vehement and intolerant
+outcries against "abolitionism," which on one occasion caused the murder
+of Elijah P. Lovejoy for persisting in his right to print an antislavery
+newspaper at Alton.
+
+Nearly a year before this tragedy the Illinois legislature had under
+consideration certain resolutions from the Eastern States on the subject
+of slavery, and the committee to which they had been referred reported a
+set of resolves "highly disapproving abolition societies," holding that
+"the right of property in slaves is secured to the slaveholding States
+by the Federal Constitution," together with other phraseology calculated
+on the whole to soothe and comfort pro-slavery sentiment. After much
+irritating discussion, the committee's resolutions were finally passed,
+with but Lincoln and five others voting in the negative. No record
+remains whether or not Lincoln joined in the debate; but, to leave no
+doubt upon his exact position and feeling, he and his colleague, Dan
+Stone, caused the following protest to be formally entered on the
+journals of the House:
+
+"Resolutions upon the subject of domestic slavery having passed both
+branches of the General Assembly at its present session, the undersigned
+hereby protest against the passage of the same."
+
+"They believe that the institution of slavery is founded on both
+injustice and bad policy, but that the promulgation of abolition
+doctrines tends rather to increase than abate its evils."
+
+"They believe that the Congress of the United States has no power under
+the Constitution to interfere with the institution of slavery in the
+different States."
+
+"They believe that the Congress of the United States has the power,
+under the Constitution, to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia,
+but that the power ought not to be exercised, unless at the request of
+the people of the District."
+
+"The difference between these opinions and those contained in the said
+resolutions is their reasons for entering this protest."
+
+In view of the great scope and quality of Lincoln's public service in
+after life, it would be a waste of time to trace out in detail his words
+or his votes upon the multitude of questions on which he acted during
+this legislative career of eight years. It needs only to be remembered
+that it formed a varied and thorough school of parliamentary practice
+and experience that laid the broad foundation of that extraordinary
+skill and sagacity in statesmanship which he afterward displayed in
+party controversy and executive direction. The quick proficiency and
+ready aptitude for leadership evidenced by him in this, as it may be
+called, his preliminary parliamentary school are strikingly proved by
+the fact that the Whig members of the Illinois House of Representatives
+gave him their full party vote for Speaker, both in 1838 and 1840. But
+being in a minority, they could not, of course, elect him.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+Law Practice--Rules for a Lawyer--Law and Politics: Twin Occupations--The
+Springfield Coterie--Friendly Help--Anne Rutledge--Mary Owens
+
+
+Lincoln's removal from New Salem to Springfield and his entrance into a
+law partnership with Major John T. Stuart begin a distinctively new
+period in his career, From this point we need not trace in detail his
+progress in his new and this time deliberately chosen vocation. The
+lawyer who works his way up in professional merit from a five-dollar fee
+in a suit before a justice of the peace to a five-thousand-dollar fee
+before the Supreme Court of his State has a long and difficult path to
+climb. Mr. Lincoln climbed this path for twenty-five years with
+industry, perseverance, patience--above all, with that sense of moral
+responsibility that always clearly traced the dividing line between his
+duty to his client and his duty to society and truth. His unqualified
+frankness of statement assured him the confidence of judge and jury in
+every argument. His habit of fully admitting the weak points in his case
+gained their close attention to its strong ones, and when clients
+brought him bad cases, his uniform advice was not to begin the suit.
+Among his miscellaneous writings there exist some fragments of autograph
+notes, evidently intended for a little lecture or talk to law students
+which set forth with brevity and force his opinion of what a lawyer
+ought to be and do. He earnestly commends diligence in study, and, next
+to diligence, promptness in keeping up his work.
+
+"As a general rule, never take your whole fee in advance," he says, "nor
+any more than a small retainer. When fully paid beforehand, you are more
+than a common mortal if you can feel the same interest in the case as if
+something was still in prospect for you as well as for your client."
+"Extemporaneous speaking should be practised and cultivated. It is the
+lawyer's avenue to the public. However able and faithful he may be in
+other respects, people are slow to bring him business if he cannot make
+a speech. And yet, there is not a more fatal error to young lawyers than
+relying too much on speech-making. If any one, upon his rare powers of
+speaking, shall claim an exemption from the drudgery of the law, his
+case is a failure in advance. Discourage litigation. Persuade your
+neighbors to compromise whenever you can. Point out to them how the
+nominal winner is often a real loser--in fees, expenses, and waste of
+time. As a peacemaker, the lawyer has a superior opportunity of being a
+good man. There will still be business enough. Never stir up litigation.
+A worse man can scarcely be found than one who does this. Who can be
+more nearly a fiend than he who habitually overhauls the register of
+deeds in search of defects in titles, whereon to stir up strife and put
+money in his pocket? A moral tone ought to be infused into the
+profession which should drive such men out of it." "There is a vague
+popular belief that lawyers are necessarily dishonest. I say vague
+because when we consider to what extent confidence and honors are
+reposed in and conferred upon lawyers by the people, it appears
+improbable that their impression of dishonesty is very distinct and
+vivid. Yet the impression is common--almost universal. Let no young man
+choosing the law for a calling for a moment yield to the popular belief.
+Resolve to be honest at all events; and if, in your own judgment, you
+cannot be an honest lawyer, resolve to be honest without being a lawyer.
+Choose some other occupation, rather than one in the choosing of which
+you do, in advance, consent to be a knave."
+
+While Lincoln thus became a lawyer, he did not cease to remain a
+politician. In the early West, law and politics were parallel roads to
+usefulness as well as distinction. Newspapers had not then reached any
+considerable circulation. There existed neither fast presses to print
+them, mail routes to carry them, nor subscribers to read them. Since
+even the laws had to be newly framed for those new communities, the
+lawyer became the inevitable political instructor and guide as far as
+ability and fame extended. His reputation as a lawyer was a twin of his
+influence as an orator, whether through logic or eloquence. Local
+conditions fostered, almost necessitated, this double pursuit. Westward
+emigration was in its full tide, and population was pouring into the
+great State of Illinois with ever accelerating rapidity. Settlements
+were spreading, roads were being opened, towns laid out, the larger
+counties divided and new ones organized, and the enthusiastic visions of
+coming prosperity threw the State into that fever of speculation which
+culminated in wholesale internal improvements on borrowed capital and
+brought collapse, stagnation, and bankruptcy in its inevitable train. As
+already said, these swift changes required a plentiful supply of new
+laws, to frame which lawyers were in a large proportion sent to the
+legislature every two years. These same lawyers also filled the bar and
+recruited the bench of the new State, and, as they followed the
+itinerant circuit courts from county to county in their various
+sections, were called upon in these summer wanderings to explain in
+public speeches their legislative work of the winter. By a natural
+connection, this also involved a discussion of national and party
+issues. It was also during this period that party activity was
+stimulated by the general adoption of the new system of party caucuses
+and party conventions to which President Jackson had given the impulse.
+
+In the American system of representative government, elections not only
+occur with the regularity of clockwork, but pervade the whole organism
+in every degree of its structure from top to bottom--Federal, State,
+county, township, and school district. In Illinois, even the State
+judiciary has at different times been chosen by popular ballot. The
+function of the politician, therefore, is one of continuous watchfulness
+and activity, and he must have intimate knowledge of details if he would
+work out grand results. Activity in politics also produces eager
+competition and sharp rivalry. In 1839 the seat of government was
+definitely transferred from Vandalia to Springfield, and there soon
+gathered at the new State capital a group of young men whose varied
+ability and future success in public service has rarely been
+excelled--Douglas, Shields, Calhoun, Stuart, Logan, Baker, Treat,
+Hardin, Trumbull, McClernand, Browning, McDougall, and others.
+
+His new surroundings greatly stimulated and reinforced Mr. Lincoln's
+growing experience and spreading acquaintance, giving him a larger share
+and wider influence in local and State politics. He became a valued and
+sagacious adviser in party caucuses, and a power in party conventions.
+Gradually, also, his gifts as an attractive and persuasive campaign
+speaker were making themselves felt and appreciated.
+
+His removal, in April, 1837, from a village of twenty houses to a "city"
+of about two thousand inhabitants placed him in striking new relations
+and necessities as to dress, manners, and society, as well as politics;
+yet here again, as in the case of his removal from his father's cabin to
+New Salem six years before, peculiar conditions rendered the transition
+less abrupt than would at first appear. Springfield, notwithstanding its
+greater population and prospective dignity as the capital, was in many
+respects no great improvement on New Salem. It had no public buildings,
+its streets and sidewalks were unpaved, its stores, in spite of all
+their flourish of advertisements, were staggering under the hard times
+of 1837-39, and stagnation of business imposed a rigid economy on all
+classes. If we may credit tradition, this was one of the most serious
+crises of Lincoln's life. His intimate friend, William Butler, related
+to the writer that, having attended a session of the legislature at
+Vandalia, he and Lincoln returned together at its close to Springfield
+by the usual mode of horseback travel. At one of their stopping-places
+over night Lincoln, in one of his gloomy moods, told Butler the story of
+the almost hopeless prospects which lay immediately before him--that the
+session was over, his salary all drawn, and his money all spent; that he
+had no resources and no work; that he did not know where to turn to earn
+even a week's board. Butler bade him be of good cheer, and, without any
+formal proposition or agreement, took him and his belongings to his own
+house and domesticated him there as a permanent guest, with Lincoln's
+tacit compliance rather than any definite consent. Later Lincoln shared
+a room and genial companionship, which ripened into closest intimacy, in
+the store of his friend Joshua F. Speed, all without charge or expense;
+and these brotherly offerings helped the young lawyer over present
+necessities which might otherwise have driven him to muscular handiwork
+at weekly or monthly wages.
+
+From this time onward, in daily conversation, in argument at the bar, in
+political consultation and discussion, Lincoln's life gradually
+broadened into contact with the leading professional minds of the
+growing State of Illinois. The man who could not pay a week's board bill
+was twice more elected to the legislature, was invited to public
+banquets and toasted by name, became a popular speaker, moved in the
+best society of the new capital, and made what was considered a
+brilliant marriage.
+
+Lincoln's stature and strength, his intelligence and ambition--in short,
+all the elements which gave him popularity among men in New Salem,
+rendered him equally attractive to the fair sex of that village. On the
+other hand, his youth, his frank sincerity, his longing for sympathy and
+encouragement, made him peculiarly sensitive to the society and
+influence of women. Soon after coming to New Salem he chanced much in
+the society of Miss Anne Rutledge, a slender, blue-eyed blonde, nineteen
+years old, moderately educated, beautiful according to local
+standards--an altogether lovely, tender-hearted, universally admired,
+and generally fascinating girl. From the personal descriptions of her
+which tradition has preserved, the inference is naturally drawn that her
+temperament and disposition were very much akin to those of Mr. Lincoln
+himself. It is little wonder, therefore, that he fell in love with her.
+But two years before she had become engaged to a Mr. McNamar, who had
+gone to the East to settle certain family affairs, and whose absence
+became so unaccountably prolonged that Anne finally despaired of his
+return, and in time betrothed herself to Lincoln. A year or so after
+this event Anne Rutledge was taken sick and died--the neighbors said of
+a broken heart, but the doctor called it brain fever, and his science
+was more likely to be correct than their psychology. Whatever may have
+been the truth upon this point, the incident threw Lincoln into profound
+grief, and a period of melancholy so absorbing as to cause his friends
+apprehension for his own health. Gradually, however, their studied and
+devoted companionship won him back to cheerfulness, and his second
+affair of the heart assumed altogether different characteristics, most
+of which may be gathered from his own letters.
+
+Two years before the death of Anne Rutledge, Mr. Lincoln had seen and
+made the acquaintance of Miss Mary Owens, who had come to visit her
+sister Mrs. Able, and had passed about four weeks in New Salem, after
+which she returned to Kentucky. Three years later, and perhaps a year
+after Miss Rutledge's death, Mrs. Able, before starting for Kentucky,
+told Mr. Lincoln probably more in jest than earnest, that she would
+bring her sister back with her on condition that he would become
+her--Mrs. Able's--brother-in-law. Lincoln, also probably more in jest
+than earnest, promptly agreed to the proposition; for he remembered Mary
+Owens as a tall, handsome, dark-haired girl, with fair skin and large
+blue eyes, who in conversation could be intellectual and serious as well
+as jovial and witty, who had a liberal education, and was considered
+wealthy--one of those well-poised, steady characters who look upon
+matrimony and life with practical views and social matronly instincts.
+
+The bantering offer was made and accepted in the autumn of 1836, and in
+the following April Mr. Lincoln removed to Springfield. Before this
+occurred, however, he was surprised to learn that Mary Owens had
+actually returned with her sister from Kentucky, and felt that the
+romantic jest had become a serious and practical question. Their first
+interview dissipated some of the illusions in which each had indulged.
+The three years elapsed since they first met had greatly changed her
+personal appearance. She had become stout; her twenty-eight years (one
+year more than his) had somewhat hardened the lines of her face. Both in
+figure and feature she presented a disappointing contrast to the slim
+and not yet totally forgotten Anne Rutledge.
+
+On her part, it was more than likely that she did not find in him all
+the attractions her sister had pictured. The speech and manners of the
+Illinois frontier lacked much of the chivalric attentions and flattering
+compliments to which the Kentucky beaux were addicted. He was yet a
+diamond in the rough, and she would not immediately decide till she
+could better understand his character and prospects, so no formal
+engagement resulted.
+
+In December, Lincoln went to his legislative duties at Vandalia, and in
+the following April took up his permanent abode in Springfield. Such a
+separation was not favorable to rapid courtship, yet they had occasional
+interviews and exchanged occasional letters. None of hers to him have
+been preserved, and only three of his to her. From these it appears that
+they sometimes discussed their affair in a cold, hypothetical way, even
+down to problems of housekeeping, in the light of mere worldly prudence,
+much as if they were guardians arranging a _mariage de convenance_,
+rather than impulsive and ardent lovers wandering in Arcady. Without
+Miss Owens's letters it is impossible to know what she may have said to
+him, but in May, 1837, Lincoln wrote to her:
+
+"I am often thinking of what we said about your coming to live at
+Springfield. I am afraid you would not be satisfied. There is a great
+deal of flourishing about in carriages here, which it would be your
+doom to see without sharing it. You would have to be poor, without the
+means of hiding your poverty. Do you believe you could bear that
+patiently? Whatever woman may cast her lot with mine, should any ever do
+so, it is my intention to do all in my power to make her happy and
+contented; and there is nothing I can imagine that would make me more
+unhappy than to fail in the effort. I know I should be much happier with
+you than the way I am, provided I saw no signs of discontent in you.
+What you have said to me may have been in the way of jest, or I may have
+misunderstood it. If so, then let it be forgotten; if otherwise, I much
+wish you would think seriously before you decide. What I have said I
+will most positively abide by, provided you wish it. My opinion is that
+you had better not do it. You have not been accustomed to hardship, and
+it may be more severe than you now imagine. I know you are capable of
+thinking correctly on any subject, and if you deliberate maturely upon
+this before you decide, then I am willing to abide your decision."
+
+Whether, after receiving this, she wrote him the "good long letter" he
+asked for in the same epistle is not known. Apparently they did not meet
+again until August, and the interview must have been marked by reserve
+and coolness on both sides, which left each more uncertain than before;
+for on the same day Lincoln again wrote her, and, after saying that she
+might perhaps be mistaken in regard to his real feelings toward her,
+continued thus:
+
+"I want in all cases to do right, and most particularly so in all cases
+with women. I want at this particular time, more than anything else, to
+do right with you; and if I knew it would be doing right, as I rather
+suspect it would, to let you alone, I would do it. And for the purpose
+of making the matter as plain as possible, I now say that you can now
+drop the subject, dismiss your thoughts (if you ever had any) from me
+forever, and leave this letter unanswered, without calling forth one
+accusing murmur from me. And I will even go further, and say that if it
+will add anything to your comfort or peace of mind to do so, it is my
+sincere wish that you should. Do not understand by this that I wish to
+cut your acquaintance. I mean no such thing. What I do wish is that our
+further acquaintance shall depend upon yourself. If such further
+acquaintance would contribute nothing to your happiness, I am sure it
+would not to mine. If you feel yourself in any degree bound to me, I am
+now willing to release you, provided you wish it; while, on the other
+hand, I am willing and even anxious to bind you faster, if I can be
+convinced that it will in any considerable degree add to your happiness.
+This, indeed, is the whole question with me."
+
+All that we know of the sequel is contained in a letter which Lincoln
+wrote to his friend Mrs. Browning nearly a year later, after Miss Owens
+had finally returned to Kentucky, in which, without mentioning the
+lady's name, he gave a seriocomic description of what might be called a
+courtship to escape matrimony. He dwells on his disappointment at her
+changed appearance, and continues:
+
+"But what could I do? I had told her sister that I would take her for
+better or for worse, and I made a point of honor and conscience in all
+things to stick to my word, especially if others had been induced to act
+on it, which in this case I had no doubt they had; for I was now fairly
+convinced that no other man on earth would have her, and hence the
+conclusion that they were bent on holding me to my bargain. 'Well,'
+thought I, 'I have said it, and, be the consequences what they may, it
+shall not be my fault if I fail to do it....' All this while, although I
+was fixed 'firm as the surge-repelling rock' in my resolution, I found I
+was continually repenting the rashness which had led me to make it.
+Through life I have been in no bondage, either real or imaginary, from
+the thraldom of which I so much desired to be free.... After I had
+delayed the matter as long as I thought I could in honor do (which, by
+the way, had brought me round into last fall), I concluded I might as
+well bring it to a consummation without further delay, and so I mustered
+my resolution and made the proposal to her direct; but, shocking to
+relate, she answered, No. At first I supposed she did it through an
+affectation of modesty, which I thought but ill became her under the
+peculiar circumstances of her case, but on my renewal of the charge I
+found she repelled it with greater firmness than before. I tried it
+again and again, but with the same success, or rather with the same want
+of success. I finally was forced to give it up, at which I very
+unexpectedly found myself mortified almost beyond endurance. I was
+mortified, it seemed to me, in a hundred different ways. My vanity was
+deeply wounded by the reflection that I had so long been too stupid to
+discover her intentions, and at the same time never doubting that I
+understood them perfectly; and also that she, whom I had taught myself
+to believe nobody else would have, had actually rejected me with all my
+fancied greatness. And, to cap the whole, I then for the first time
+began to suspect that I was really a little in love with her."
+
+The serious side of this letter is undoubtedly genuine and candid, while
+the somewhat over-exaggeration of the comic side points as clearly that
+he had not fully recovered from the mental suffering he had undergone
+in the long conflict between doubt and duty. From the beginning, the
+match-making zeal of the sister had placed the parties in a false
+position, produced embarrassment, and created distrust. A different
+beginning might have resulted in a very different outcome, for Lincoln,
+while objecting to her corpulency, acknowledges that in both feature and
+intellect she was as attractive as any woman he had ever met; and Miss
+Owens's letters, written after his death, state that her principal
+objection lay in the fact that his training had been different from
+hers, and that "Mr. Lincoln was deficient in those little links which
+make up the chain of a woman's happiness." She adds: "The last message I
+ever received from him was about a year after we parted in Illinois.
+Mrs. Able visited Kentucky, and he said to her in Springfield, 'Tell
+your sister that I think she was a great fool because she did not stay
+here and marry me.'" She was even then not quite clear in her own mind
+but that his words were true.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+Springfield Society--Miss Mary Todd--Lincoln's Engagement--His Deep
+Despondency--Visit to Kentucky--Letters to Speed--The Shields
+Duel--Marriage--Law Partnership with Logan--Hardin Nominated for
+Congress, 1843--Baker Nominated for Congress, 1844--Lincoln Nominated and
+Elected, 1846
+
+
+The deep impression which the Mary Owens affair made upon Lincoln is
+further shown by one of the concluding phrases of his letter to Mrs.
+Browning: "I have now come to the conclusion never again to think of
+marrying." But it was not long before a reaction set in from this
+pessimistic mood. The actual transfer of the seat of government from
+Vandalia to Springfield in 1839 gave the new capital fresh animation.
+Business revived, public improvements were begun, politics ran high.
+Already there was a spirit in the air that in the following year
+culminated in the extraordinary enthusiasm and fervor of the Harrison
+presidential campaign of 1840, that rollicking and uproarious party
+carnival of humor and satire, of song and jollification, of hard cider
+and log cabins. While the State of Illinois was strongly Democratic,
+Sangamon County was as distinctly Whig, and the local party disputes were
+hot and aggressive. The Whig delegation of Sangamon in the legislature,
+popularly called the "Long Nine," because the sum of the stature of its
+members was fifty-four feet, became noted for its influence in
+legislation in a body where the majority was against them; and of these
+Mr. Lincoln was the "tallest" both in person and ability, as was
+recognized by his twice receiving the minority vote for Speaker of the
+House.
+
+Society also began organizing itself upon metropolitan rather than
+provincial assumptions. As yet, however society was liberal. Men of
+either wealth or position were still too few to fill its ranks. Energy,
+ambition talent, were necessarily the standard of admission; and
+Lincoln, though poor as a church mouse, was as welcome as those who
+could wear ruffled shirts and carry gold watches. The meetings of the
+legislature at Springfield then first brought together that splendid
+group of young men of genius whose phenomenal careers and distinguished
+services have given Illinois fame in the history of the nation. It is a
+marked peculiarity of the American character that the bitterest foes in
+party warfare generally meet each other on terms of perfect social
+courtesy in the drawing-rooms of society; and future presidential
+candidates, cabinet members, senators, congressmen, jurists, orators,
+and battle heroes lent the little social reunions of Springfield a zest
+and exaltation never found--perhaps impossible--amid the heavy,
+oppressive surroundings of conventional ceremony, gorgeous upholstery,
+and magnificent decorations.
+
+It was at this period also that Lincoln began to feel and exercise his
+expanding influence and powers as a writer and speaker. Already, two
+years earlier, he had written and delivered before the Young Men's
+Lyceum of Springfield an able address upon "The Perpetuation of Our
+Political Institutions," strongly enforcing the doctrine of rigid
+obedience to law. In December, 1839, Douglas, in a heated conversation,
+challenged the young Whigs present to a political discussion. The
+challenge was immediately taken up, and the public of Springfield
+listened with eager interest to several nights of sharp debate between
+Whig and Democratic champions, in which Lincoln bore a prominent and
+successful share. In the following summer, Lincoln's name was placed
+upon the Harrison electoral ticket for Illinois, and he lent all his
+zeal and eloquence to swell the general popular enthusiasm for
+"Tippecanoe and Tyler too."
+
+In the midst of this political and social awakening of the new capital
+and the quickened interest and high hopes of leading citizens gathered
+there from all parts of the State, there came into the Springfield
+circles Miss Mary Todd of Kentucky, twenty-one years old, handsome,
+accomplished, vivacious, witty, a dashing and fascinating figure in
+dress and conversation, gracious and imperious by turns. She easily
+singled out and secured the admiration of such of the Springfield beaux
+as most pleased her somewhat capricious fancy. She was a sister of Mrs.
+Ninian W. Edwards, whose husband was one of the "Long Nine." This
+circumstance made Lincoln a frequent visitor at the Edwards house; and,
+being thus much thrown in her company, he found himself, almost before
+he knew it, entangled in a new love affair, and in the course of a
+twelvemonth engaged to marry her.
+
+Much to the surprise of Springfield society, however, the courtship took
+a sudden turn. Whether it was caprice or jealousy, a new attachment, or
+mature reflection will always remain a mystery. Every such case is a law
+unto itself, and neither science nor poetry is ever able to analyze and
+explain its causes and effects. The conflicting stories then current,
+and the varying traditions that yet exist, either fail to agree or to
+fit the sparse facts which came to light. There remains no dispute,
+however, that the occurrence, whatever shape it took, threw Mr. Lincoln
+into a deeper despondency than any he had yet experienced, for on
+January 23, 1841, he wrote to his law partner, John T. Stuart:
+
+"For not giving you a general summary of news you must pardon me; it is
+not in my power to do so. I am now the most miserable man living. If
+what I feel were equally distributed to the whole human family, there
+would not be one cheerful face on earth. Whether I shall ever be better,
+I cannot tell; I awfully forebode I shall not. To remain as I am is
+impossible; I must die or be better."
+
+Apparently his engagement to Miss Todd was broken off, but whether that
+was the result or the cause of his period of gloom seems still a matter
+of conjecture. His mind was so perturbed that he felt unable to attend
+the sessions of the legislature of which he was a member; and after its
+close his intimate friend Joshua F. Speed carried him off for a visit to
+Kentucky. The change of scene and surroundings proved of great benefit.
+He returned home about midsummer very much improved, but not yet
+completely restored to a natural mental equipoise. While on their visit
+to Kentucky, Speed had likewise fallen in love, and in the following
+winter had become afflicted with doubts and perplexities akin to those
+from which Lincoln had suffered. It now became his turn to give sympathy
+and counsel to his friend, and he did this with a warmth and delicacy
+born of his own spiritual trials, not yet entirely overmastered. He
+wrote letter after letter to Speed to convince him that his doubts about
+not truly loving the woman of his choice were all nonsense.
+
+"Why, Speed, if you did not love her, although you might not wish her
+death, you would most certainly be resigned to it. Perhaps this point
+is no longer a question with you, and my pertinacious dwelling upon it
+is a rude intrusion upon your feelings. If so, you must pardon me. You
+know the hell I have suffered on that point, and how tender I am upon
+it.... I am now fully convinced that you love her, as ardently as you
+are capable of loving.... It is the peculiar misfortune of both you and
+me to dream dreams of Elysium far exceeding all that anything earthly
+can realize."
+
+When Lincoln heard that Speed was finally married, he wrote him:
+
+"It cannot be told how it now thrills me with joy to hear you say you
+are 'far happier than you ever expected to be,' That much, I know, is
+enough. I know you too well to suppose your expectations were not, at
+least, sometimes extravagant; and if the reality exceeds them all, I
+say, Enough, dear Lord. I am not going beyond the truth when I tell you
+that the short space it took me to read your last letter gave me more
+pleasure than the total sum of all I have enjoyed since the fatal first
+of January, 1841. Since then it seems to me I should have been entirely
+happy, but for the never-absent idea that there is one still unhappy
+whom I have contributed to make so. That still kills my soul. I cannot
+but reproach myself for even wishing to be happy while she is
+otherwise."
+
+It is quite possible that a series of incidents that occurred during the
+summer in which the above was written had something to do with bringing
+such a frame of mind to a happier conclusion. James Shields, afterward a
+general in two wars and a senator from two States, was at that time
+auditor of Illinois, with his office at Springfield. Shields was an
+Irishman by birth, and, for an active politician of the Democratic
+party, had the misfortune to be both sensitive and irascible in party
+warfare. Shields, together with the Democratic governor and treasurer,
+issued a circular order forbidding the payment of taxes in the
+depreciated paper of the Illinois State banks, and the Whigs were
+endeavoring to make capital by charging that the order was issued for
+the purpose of bringing enough silver into the treasury to pay the
+salaries of these officials. Using this as a basis of argument, a couple
+of clever Springfield society girls wrote and printed in the "Sangamo
+Journal" a series of humorous letters in country dialect, purporting to
+come from the "Lost Townships," and signed by "Aunt Rebecca," who called
+herself a farmer's widow. It is hardly necessary to say that Mary Todd
+was one of the culprits. The young ladies originated the scheme more to
+poke fun at the personal weaknesses of Shields than for the sake of
+party effect, and they embellished their simulated plaint about taxes
+with an embroidery of fictitious social happenings and personal
+allusions to the auditor that put the town on a grin and Shields into
+fury. The fair and mischievous writers found it necessary to consult
+Lincoln about how they should frame the political features of their
+attack, and he set them a pattern by writing the first letter of the
+series himself.
+
+Shields sent a friend to the editor of the "Journal," and demanded the
+name of the real "Rebecca." The editor, as in duty bound, asked Lincoln
+what he should do, and was instructed to give Lincoln's name, and not to
+mention the ladies. Then followed a letter from Shields to Lincoln
+demanding retraction and apology, Lincoln's reply that he declined to
+answer under menace, and a challenge from Shields. Thereupon Lincoln
+instructed his "friend" as follows: If former offensive correspondence
+were withdrawn and a polite and gentlemanly inquiry made, he was
+willing to explain that:
+
+"I did write the 'Lost Townships' letter which appeared in the 'Journal'
+of the 2d instant, but had no participation in any form in any other
+article alluding to you. I wrote that wholly for political effect; I had
+no intention of injuring your personal or private character or standing
+as a man or a gentleman; and I did not then think, and do not now think,
+that that article could produce or has produced that effect against you,
+and had I anticipated such an effect I would have forborne to write it.
+And I will add that your conduct toward me, so far as I know, had always
+been gentlemanly, and that I had no personal pique against you and no
+cause for any.... If nothing like this is done, the preliminaries of the
+fight are to be:
+
+"_First_. Weapons: Cavalry broadswords of the largest size, precisely
+equal in all respects, and such as now used by the cavalry company at
+Jacksonville.
+
+"_Second_. Position: A plank ten feet long, and from nine to twelve
+inches broad, to be firmly fixed on edge, on the ground, as the line
+between us, which neither is to pass his foot over upon forfeit of his
+life. Next, a line drawn on the ground on either side of said plank and
+parallel with it, each at the distance of the whole length of the sword
+and three feet additional from the plank, and the passing of his own
+such line by either party during the fight shall be deemed a surrender
+of the contest."
+
+The two seconds met, and, with great unction, pledged "our honor to each
+other that we would endeavor to settle the matter amicably," but
+persistently higgled over points till publicity and arrests seemed
+imminent. Procuring the necessary broadswords, all parties then hurried
+away to an island in the Mississippi River opposite Alton, where, long
+before the planks were set on edge or the swords drawn, mutual friends
+took the case out of the hands of the seconds and declared an
+adjustment. The terms of the fight as written by Mr. Lincoln show
+plainly enough that in his judgment it was to be treated as a farce, and
+would never proceed beyond "preliminaries." There, of course, ensued the
+usual very bellicose after-discussion in the newspapers, with additional
+challenges between the seconds about the proper etiquette of such
+farces, all resulting only in the shedding of much ink and furnishing
+Springfield with topics of lively conversation for a month. These
+occurrences, naturally enough, again drew Mr. Lincoln and Miss Todd
+together in friendly interviews, and Lincoln's letter to Speed detailing
+the news of the duels contains this significant paragraph:
+
+"But I began this letter not for what I have been writing, but to say
+something on that subject which you know to be of such infinite
+solicitude to me. The immense sufferings you endured from the first days
+of September till the middle of February you never tried to conceal from
+me, and I well understood. You have now been the husband of a lovely
+woman nearly eight months. That you are happier now than the day you
+married her I well know, for without you could not be living. But I have
+your word for it too, and the returning elasticity of spirits which is
+manifested in your letters. But I want to ask a close question. 'Are you
+now in feeling as well as judgment glad that you are married as you
+are?' From anybody but me this would be an impudent question not to be
+tolerated, but I know you will pardon it in me. Please answer it
+quickly, as I am impatient to know."
+
+The answer was evidently satisfactory, for on November 4, 1842, the Rev.
+Charles Dresser united Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd in the holy bonds
+of matrimony.[3]
+
+ [Footnote 3: The following children were born of this marriage:
+
+ Robert Todd, August 1, 1843; Edward Baker, March 10, 1846; William
+ Wallace, December 21, 1850; Thomas, April 4, 1853.
+
+ Edward died in infancy; William in the White House, February 20,
+ 1862; Thomas in Chicago, July 15, 1871; and the mother, Mary
+ Lincoln, in Springfield, July 16, 1882.
+
+ Robert, who filled the office of Secretary of War with distinction
+ under the administrations of Presidents Garfield and Arthur, as
+ well William as that of minister to England under the
+ administration of President Harrison, now resides in Chicago,
+ Illinois.]
+
+His marriage to Miss Todd ended all those mental perplexities and
+periods of despondency from which he had suffered more or less during
+his several love affairs, extending over nearly a decade. Out of the
+keen anguish he had endured, he finally gained that perfect mastery over
+his own spirit which Scripture declares to denote a greatness superior
+to that of him who takes a city. Few men have ever attained that
+complete domination of the will over the emotions, of reason over
+passion, by which he was able in the years to come to meet and solve the
+tremendous questions destiny had in store for him. His wedding once
+over, he took up with resolute patience the hard, practical routine of
+daily life, in which he had already been so severely schooled. Even his
+sentimental correspondence with his friend Speed lapsed into neglect. He
+was so poor that he and his bride could not make the contemplated visit
+to Kentucky they would both have so much enjoyed. His "national debt" of
+the old New Salem days was not yet fully paid off. "We are not keeping
+house, but boarding at the Globe tavern," he writes. "Our room ... and
+boarding only cost us four dollars a week."
+
+His law partnership with Stuart had lasted four years, but was dissolved
+by reason of Stuart's election to Congress, and a new one was formed
+with Judge Stephen T. Logan, who had recently resigned from the circuit
+bench, where he had learned the quality and promise of Lincoln's
+talents. It was an opportune and important change. Stuart had devoted
+himself mainly to politics, while with Logan law was the primary object.
+Under Logan's guidance and encouragement, he took up both the study and
+practical work of the profession in a more serious spirit. Lincoln's
+interest in politics, however, was in no way diminished, and, in truth,
+his limited practice at that date easily afforded him the time necessary
+for both.
+
+Since 1840 he had declined a reelection to the legislature, and his
+ambition had doubtless contributed much to this decision. His late law
+partner, Stuart, had been three times a candidate for Congress. He was
+defeated in 1836, but successfully gained his election in 1838 and 1840,
+his service of two terms extending from December 2, 1839, to March 3,
+1843. For some reason, the next election had been postponed from the
+year 1842 to 1843. It was but natural that Stuart's success should
+excite a similar desire in Lincoln, who had reached equal party
+prominence, and rendered even more conspicuous party service. Lincoln
+had profited greatly by the companionship and friendly emulation of the
+many talented young politicians of Springfield, but this same condition
+also increased competition and stimulated rivalry. Not only himself, but
+both Hardin and Baker desired the nomination, which, as the district
+then stood, was equivalent to an election.
+
+When the leading Whigs of Sangamon County met, Lincoln was under the
+impression that it was Baker and not Hardin who was his most dangerous
+rival, as appears in a letter to Speed of March 24, 1843:
+
+"We had a meeting of the Whigs of the county here on last Monday to
+appoint delegates to a district convention, and Baker beat me and got
+the delegation instructed to go for him. The meeting, in spite of my
+attempt to decline it, appointed me one of the delegates, so that in
+getting Baker the nomination I shall be fixed a good deal like a fellow
+who is made groomsman to a man that has cut him out and is marrying his
+own dear 'gal.'"
+
+The causes that led to his disappointment are set forth more in detail
+in a letter, two days later, to a friend in the new county of Menard,
+which now included his old home, New Salem, whose powerful assistance
+was therefore lost from the party councils of Sangamon. The letter also
+dwells more particularly on the complicated influences which the
+practical politician has to reckon with, and shows that even his
+marriage had been used to turn popular opinion against him.
+
+"It is truly gratifying to me to learn that while the people of Sangamon
+have cast me off, my old friends of Menard, who have known me longest
+and best, stick to me. It would astonish, if not amuse, the older
+citizens to learn that I (a stranger, friendless, uneducated, penniless
+boy, working on a flatboat at ten dollars per month) have been put down
+here as the candidate of pride, wealth, and aristocratic family
+distinction. Yet so, chiefly, it was. There was, too, the strangest
+combination of church influence against me. Baker is a Campbellite, and
+therefore, as I suppose, with few exceptions got all that church. My
+wife has some relations in the Presbyterian churches and some with the
+Episcopal churches; and therefore, wherever it would tell, I was set
+down as either the one or the other, while it was everywhere contended
+that no Christian ought to go for me, because I belonged to no church,
+was suspected of being a deist, and had talked about fighting a duel.
+With all these things, Baker of course had nothing to do. Nor do I
+complain of them. As to his own church going for him, I think that was
+right enough, and as to the influences I have spoken of in the other,
+though they were very strong, it would be grossly untrue and unjust to
+charge that they acted upon them in a body, or were very near so. I only
+mean that those influences levied a tax of a considerable per cent. upon
+my strength throughout the religious community."
+
+In the same letter we have a striking illustration of Lincoln's
+intelligence and skill in the intricate details of political management,
+together with the high sense of honor and manliness which directed his
+action in such matters. Speaking of the influences of Menard County, he
+wrote:
+
+"If she and Mason act circumspectly, they will in the convention be able
+so far to enforce their rights as to decide absolutely which one of the
+candidates shall be successful. Let me show the reason of this. Hardin,
+or some other Morgan candidate, will get Putnam, Marshall, Woodford,
+Tazewell, and Logan [counties], making sixteen. Then you and Mason,
+having three, can give the victory to either side. You say you shall
+instruct your delegates for me, unless I object. I certainly shall not
+object. That would be too pleasant a compliment for me to tread in the
+dust. And, besides, if anything should happen (which, however, is not
+probable) by which Baker should be thrown out of the fight, I would be
+at liberty to accept the nomination if I could get it. I do, however,
+feel myself bound not to hinder him in any way from getting the
+nomination. I should despise myself were I to attempt it. I think, then,
+it would be proper for your meeting to appoint three delegates, and to
+instruct them to go for some one as a first choice, some one else as a
+second, and perhaps some one as a third; and if in those instructions I
+were named as the first choice it would gratify me very much. If you
+wish to hold the balance of power, it is important for you to attend to
+and secure the vote of Mason also."
+
+A few weeks again changed the situation, of which he informed Speed in a
+letter dated May 18:
+
+"In relation to our Congress matter here, you were right in supposing I
+would support the nominee. Neither Baker nor I, however, is the man--but
+Hardin, so far as I can judge from present appearances. We shall have no
+split or trouble about the matter; all will be harmony."
+
+In the following year (1844) Lincoln was once more compelled to exercise
+his patience. The Campbellite friends of Baker must have again been very
+active in behalf of their church favorite; for their influence, added to
+his dashing politics and eloquent oratory, appears to have secured him
+the nomination without serious contention, while Lincoln found a partial
+recompense in being nominated a candidate for presidential elector,
+which furnished him opportunity for all his party energy and zeal during
+the spirited but unsuccessful presidential campaign for Henry Clay. He
+not only made an extensive canvass in Illinois, but also made a number
+of speeches in the adjoining State of Indiana.
+
+It was probably during that year that a tacit agreement was reached
+among the Whig leaders in Sangamon County, that each would be satisfied
+with one term in Congress and would not seek a second nomination. But
+Hardin was the aspirant from the neighboring county of Morgan, and
+apparently therefore not included in this arrangement. Already, in the
+fall of 1845, Lincoln industriously began his appeals and instructions
+to his friends in the district to secure the succession. Thus he wrote
+on November 17:
+
+"The paper at Pekin has nominated Hardin for governor, and, commenting
+on this, the Alton paper indirectly nominated him for Congress. It would
+give Hardin a great start, and perhaps use me up, if the Whig papers of
+the district should nominate him for Congress. If your feelings toward
+me are the same as when I saw you (which I have no reason to doubt), I
+wish you would let nothing appear in your paper which may operate
+against me. You understand. Matters stand just as they did when I saw
+you. Baker is certainly off the track, and I fear Hardin intends to be
+on it."
+
+But again, as before, the spirit of absolute fairness governed all his
+movements, and he took special pains to guard against it being
+"suspected that I was attempting to juggle Hardin out of a nomination
+for Congress by juggling him into one for governor." "I should be
+pleased," he wrote again in January, "if I could concur with you in the
+hope that my name would be the only one presented to the convention; but
+I cannot. Hardin is a man of desperate energy and perseverance, and one
+that never backs out; and, I fear, to think otherwise is to be deceived
+in the character of our adversary. I would rejoice to be spared the
+labor of a contest, but, 'being in,' I shall go it thoroughly and to the
+bottom." He then goes on to recount in much detail the chances for and
+against him in the several counties of the district, and in later
+letters discusses the system of selecting candidates, where the
+convention ought to be held, how the delegates should be chosen, the
+instructions they should receive, and how the places of absent
+delegates should be filled. He watched his field of operations, planned
+his strategy, and handled his forces almost with the vigilance of a
+military commander. As a result, he won both his nomination in May and
+his election to the Thirtieth Congress in August, 1846.
+
+In that same year the Mexican War broke out. Hardin became colonel of
+one of the three regiments of Illinois volunteers called for by
+President Polk, while Baker raised a fourth regiment, which was also
+accepted. Colonel Hardin was killed in the battle of Buena Vista, and
+Colonel Baker won great distinction in the fighting near the City of
+Mexico.
+
+Like Abraham Lincoln, Douglas was also elected to Congress in 1846,
+where he had already served the two preceding terms. But these
+redoubtable Illinois champions were not to have a personal tilt in the
+House of Representatives. Before Congress met, the Illinois legislature
+elected Douglas to the United States Senate for six years from March 4,
+1847.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+First Session of the Thirtieth Congress--Mexican War--"Wilmot
+Proviso"--Campaign of 1848--Letters to Herndon about Young Men
+in Politics--Speech in Congress on the Mexican War--Second Session
+of the Thirtieth Congress--Bill to Prohibit Slavery in the District
+of Columbia--Lincoln's Recommendations of Office-Seekers--Letters
+to Speed--Commissioner of the General Land Office--Declines Governorship
+of Oregon
+
+
+Very few men are fortunate enough to gain distinction during their first
+term in Congress. The reason is obvious. Legally, a term extends over
+two years; practically, a session of five or six months during the
+first, and three months during the second year ordinarily reduce their
+opportunities more than one half. In those two sessions, even if we
+presuppose some knowledge of parliamentary law, they must learn the
+daily routine of business, make the acquaintance of their
+fellow-members, who already, in the Thirtieth Congress, numbered
+something over two hundred, study the past and prospective legislation
+on a multitude of minor national questions entirely new to the new
+members, and perform the drudgery of haunting the departments in the
+character of unpaid agent and attorney to attend to the private
+interests of constituents--a physical task of no small proportions in
+Lincoln's day, when there was neither street-car nor omnibus in the
+"city of magnificent distances," as Washington was nicknamed. Add to
+this that the principal work of preparing legislation is done by the
+various committees in their committee-rooms, of which the public hears
+nothing, and that members cannot choose their own time for making
+speeches; still further, that the management of debate on prepared
+legislation must necessarily be intrusted to members of long experience
+as well as talent, and it will be seen that the novice need not expect
+immediate fame.
+
+It is therefore not to be wondered at that Lincoln's single term in the
+House of Representatives at Washington added practically nothing to his
+reputation. He did not attempt to shine forth in debate by either a
+stinging retort or a witty epigram, or by a sudden burst of inspired
+eloquence. On the contrary, he took up his task as a quiet but earnest
+and patient apprentice in the great workshop of national legislation,
+and performed his share of duty with industry and intelligence, as well
+as with a modest and appreciative respect for the ability and experience
+of his seniors.
+
+"As to speech-making," he wrote, "by way of getting the hang of the
+House, I made a little speech two or three days ago on a post-office
+question of no general interest. I find speaking here and elsewhere
+about the same thing. I was about as badly scared, and no worse, as I am
+when I speak in court. I expect to make one within a week or two in
+which I hope to succeed well enough to wish you to see it." And again,
+some weeks later: "I just take my pen to say that Mr. Stephens of
+Georgia, a little, slim, pale-faced consumptive man with a voice like
+Logan's, has just concluded the very best speech of an hour's length I
+ever heard. My old, withered, dry eyes are full of tears yet."
+
+He was appointed the junior Whig member of the Committee on Post-offices
+and Post-roads, and shared its prosaic but eminently useful labors both
+in the committee-room and the House debates. His name appears on only
+one other committee,--that on Expenditures of the War Department,--and
+he seems to have interested himself in certain amendments of the law
+relating to bounty lands for soldiers and such minor military topics. He
+looked carefully after the interests of Illinois in certain grants of
+land to that State for railroads, but expressed his desire that the
+government price of the reserved sections should not be increased to
+actual settlers.
+
+During the first session of the Thirtieth Congress he delivered three
+set speeches in the House, all of them carefully prepared and fully
+written out. The first of these, on January 12, 1848, was an elaborate
+defense of the Whig doctrine summarized in a House resolution passed a
+week or ten days before, that the Mexican War "had been unnecessarily
+and unconstitutionally commenced by the President," James K. Polk. The
+speech is not a mere party diatribe, but a terse historical and legal
+examination of the origin of the Mexican War. In the after-light of our
+own times which shines upon these transactions, we may readily admit
+that Mr. Lincoln and the Whigs had the best of the argument, but it must
+be quite as readily conceded that they were far behind the President and
+his defenders in political and party strategy. The former were clearly
+wasting their time in discussing an abstract question of international
+law upon conditions existing twenty months before. During those twenty
+months the American arms had won victory after victory, and planted the
+American flag on the "halls of the Montezumas." Could even successful
+argument undo those victories or call back to life the brave American
+soldiers who had shed their blood to win them?
+
+It may be assumed as an axiom that Providence has never gifted any
+political party with all of political wisdom or blinded it with all of
+political folly. Upon the foregoing point of controversy the Whigs were
+sadly thrown on the defensive, and labored heavily under their already
+discounted declamation. But instinct rather than sagacity led them to
+turn their eyes to the future, and successfully upon other points to
+retrieve their mistake. Within six weeks after Lincoln's speech
+President Polk sent to the Senate a treaty of peace, under which Mexico
+ceded to the United States an extent of territory equal in area to
+Germany, France, and Spain combined, and thereafter the origin of the
+war was an obsolete question. What should be done with the new territory
+was now the issue.
+
+This issue embraced the already exciting slavery question, and Mr.
+Lincoln was doubtless gratified that the Whigs had taken a position upon
+it so consonant with his own convictions. Already, in the previous
+Congress, the body of the Whig members had joined a small group of
+antislavery Democrats in fastening upon an appropriation bill the famous
+"Wilmot Proviso," that slavery should never exist in territory acquired
+from Mexico, and the Whigs of the Thirtieth Congress steadily followed
+the policy of voting for the same restriction in regard to every piece
+of legislation where it was applicable. Mr. Lincoln often said he had
+voted forty or fifty times for the Wilmot Proviso in various forms
+during his single term.
+
+Upon another point he and the other Whigs were equally wise. Repelling
+the Democratic charge that they were unpatriotic in denouncing the war,
+they voted in favor of every measure to sustain, supply, and encourage
+the soldiers in the field. But their most adroit piece of strategy, now
+that the war was ended, was in their movement to make General Taylor
+President.
+
+In this movement Mr. Lincoln took a leading and active part. No living
+American statesman has ever been idolized by his party adherents as was
+Henry Clay for a whole generation, and Mr. Lincoln fully shared this
+hero-worship. But his practical campaigning as a candidate for
+presidential elector in the Harrison campaign of 1840, and the Clay
+campaign of 1844, in Illinois and the adjoining States, afforded him a
+basis for sound judgment, and convinced him that the day when Clay could
+have been elected President was forever passed.
+
+"Mr. Clay's chance for an election is just no chance at all," he wrote
+on April 30. "He might get New York, and that would have elected in
+1844, but it will not now, because he must now, at the least, lose
+Tennessee which he had then, and in addition the fifteen new votes of
+Florida, Texas, Iowa, and Wisconsin.... In my judgment, we can elect
+nobody but General Taylor; and we cannot elect him without a nomination.
+Therefore don't fail to send a delegate." And again on the same day:
+"Mr. Clay's letter has not advanced his interests any here. Several who
+were against Taylor, but not for anybody particularly before, are since
+taking ground, some for Scott and some for McLean. Who will be nominated
+neither I nor any one else can tell. Now, let me pray to you in turn. My
+prayer is that you let nothing discourage or baffle you, but that, in
+spite of every difficulty, you send us a good Taylor delegate from your
+circuit. Make Baker, who is now with you, I suppose, help about it. He
+is a good hand to raise a breeze."
+
+In due time Mr. Lincoln's sagacity and earnestness were both justified;
+for on June 12 he was able to write to an Illinois friend:
+
+"On my return from Philadelphia, where I had been attending the
+nomination of 'Old Rough,' I found your letter in a mass of others which
+had accumulated in my absence. By many, and often, it had been said they
+would not abide the nomination of Taylor; but since the deed has been
+done, they are fast falling in, and in my opinion we shall have a most
+overwhelming, glorious triumph. One unmistakable sign is that all the
+odds and ends are with us--Barnburners, Native Americans, Tyler men,
+disappointed office-seeking Locofocos, and the Lord knows what. This is
+important, if in nothing else, in showing which way the wind blows. Some
+of the sanguine men have set down all the States as certain for Taylor
+but Illinois, and it as doubtful. Cannot something be done even in
+Illinois? Taylor's nomination takes the Locos on the blind side. It
+turns the war-thunder against them. The war is now to them the gallows
+of Haman, which they built for us, and on which they are doomed to be
+hanged themselves."
+
+Nobody understood better than Mr. Lincoln the obvious truth that in
+politics it does not suffice merely to nominate candidates. Something
+must also be done to elect them. Two of the letters which he at this
+time wrote home to his young law partner, William H. Herndon, are
+especially worth quoting in part, not alone to show his own zeal and
+industry, but also as a perennial instruction and encouragement to young
+men who have an ambition to make a name and a place for themselves in
+American politics:
+
+"Last night I was attending a sort of caucus of the Whig members, held
+in relation to the coming presidential election. The whole field of the
+nation was scanned, and all is high hope and confidence.... Now, as to
+the young men. You must not wait to be brought forward by the older men.
+For instance, do you suppose that I should ever have got into notice if
+I had waited to be hunted up and pushed forward by older men? You young
+men get together and form a 'Rough and Ready Club,' and have regular
+meetings and speeches.... Let every one play the part he can play
+best,--some speak, some sing, and all 'holler.' Your meetings will be of
+evenings; the older men, and the women, will go to hear you; so that it
+will not only contribute to the election of 'Old Zach,' but will be an
+interesting pastime, and improving to the intellectual faculties of all
+engaged."
+
+And in another letter, answering one from Herndon in which that young
+aspirant complains of having been neglected, he says:
+
+"The subject of that letter is exceedingly painful to me; and I cannot
+but think there is some mistake in your impression of the motives of the
+old men. I suppose I am now one of the old men; and I declare, on my
+veracity, which I think is good with you, that nothing could afford me
+more satisfaction than to learn that you and others of my young friends
+at home are doing battle in the contest, and endearing themselves to the
+people, and taking a stand far above any I have been able to reach in
+their admiration. I cannot conceive that other old men feel differently.
+Of course I cannot demonstrate what I say; but I was young once, and I
+am sure I was never ungenerously thrust back. I hardly know what to say.
+The way for a young man to rise is to improve himself every way he can,
+never suspecting that anybody wishes to hinder him. Allow me to assure
+you that suspicion and jealousy never did help any man in any situation.
+There may sometimes be ungenerous attempts to keep a young man down; and
+they will succeed, too, if he allows his mind to be diverted from its
+true channel to brood over the attempted injury. Cast about, and see if
+this feeling has not injured every person you have ever known to fall
+into it."
+
+Mr. Lincoln's interest in this presidential campaign did not expend
+itself merely in advice to others. We have his own written record that
+he also took an active part for the election of General Taylor after his
+nomination, speaking a few times in Maryland near Washington, several
+times in Massachusetts, and canvassing quite fully his own district in
+Illinois. Before the session of Congress ended he also delivered two
+speeches in the House--one on the general subject of internal
+improvements, and the other the usual political campaign speech which
+members of Congress are in the habit of making to be printed for home
+circulation; made up mainly of humorous and satirical criticism,
+favoring the election of General Taylor, and opposing the election of
+General Cass, the Democratic candidate. Even this production, however,
+is lighted up by a passage of impressive earnestness and eloquence, in
+which he explains and defends the attitude of the Whigs in denouncing
+the origin of the Mexican War:
+
+"If to say 'the war was unnecessarily and unconstitutionally commenced
+by the President,' be opposing the war, then the Whigs have very
+generally opposed it. Whenever they have spoken at all they have said
+this; and they have said it on what has appeared good reason to them.
+The marching an army into the midst of a peaceful Mexican settlement,
+frightening the inhabitants away, leaving their growing crops and other
+property to destruction, to you may appear a perfectly amiable,
+peaceful, unprovoking procedure; but it does not appear so to us. So to
+call such an act, to us appears no other than a naked, impudent
+absurdity, and we speak of it accordingly. But if, when the war had
+begun, and had become the cause of the country, the giving of our money
+and our blood, in common with yours, was support of the war, then it is
+not true that we have always opposed the war. With few individual
+exceptions, you have constantly had our votes here for all the necessary
+supplies. And, more than this, you have had the services, the blood, and
+the lives of our political brethren in every trial and on every field.
+The beardless boy and the mature man, the humble and the
+distinguished--you have had them. Through suffering and death, by
+disease and in battle, they have endured, and fought and fell with you.
+Clay and Webster each gave a son, never to be returned. From the State
+of my own residence, besides other worthy but less known Whig names, we
+sent Marshall, Morrison, Baker, and Hardin; they all fought and one
+fell, and in the fall of that one we lost our best Whig man. Nor were
+the Whigs few in number or laggard in the day of danger. In that
+fearful, bloody, breathless struggle at Buena Vista, where each man's
+hard task was to beat back five foes or die himself, of the five high
+officers who perished, four were Whigs. In speaking of this, I mean no
+odious comparison between the lion-hearted Whigs and the Democrats who
+fought there. On other occasions, and among the lower officers and
+privates on that occasion, I doubt not the proportion was different. I
+wish to do justice to all. I think of all those brave men as Americans,
+in whose proud fame, as an American, I, too, have a share. Many of them,
+Whigs and Democrats, are my constituents and personal friends; and I
+thank them--more than thank them--one and all, for the high,
+imperishable honor they have conferred on our common State."
+
+During the second session of the Thirtieth Congress Mr. Lincoln made no
+long speeches, but in addition to the usual routine work devolved on him
+by the committee of which he was a member, he busied himself in
+preparing a special measure which, because of its relation to the great
+events of his later life, needs to be particularly mentioned. Slavery
+existed in Maryland and Virginia when these States ceded the territory
+out of which the District of Columbia was formed. Since, by that
+cession, this land passed under the exclusive control of the Federal
+government, the "institution" within this ten miles square could no
+longer be defended by the plea of State sovereignty, and antislavery
+sentiment naturally demanded that it should cease. Pro-slavery
+statesmen, on the other hand, as persistently opposed its removal,
+partly as a matter of pride and political consistency, partly because it
+was a convenience to Southern senators and members of Congress, when
+they came to Washington, to bring their family servants where the local
+laws afforded them the same security over their black chattels which
+existed at their homes. Mr. Lincoln, in his Peoria speech in 1854,
+emphasized the sectional dispute with this vivid touch of local color:
+
+"The South clamored for a more efficient fugitive-slave law. The North
+clamored for the abolition of a peculiar species of slave trade in the
+District of Columbia, in connection with which, in view from the windows
+of the Capitol, a sort of negro livery-stable, where droves of negroes
+were collected, temporarily kept, and finally taken to Southern markets,
+precisely like droves of horses, had been openly maintained for fifty
+years."
+
+Thus the question remained a minor but never ending bone of contention
+and point of irritation, and excited debate arose in the Thirtieth
+Congress over a House resolution that the Committee on the Judiciary be
+instructed to report a bill as soon as practicable prohibiting the slave
+trade in the District of Columbia. In this situation of affairs, Mr.
+Lincoln conceived the fond hope that he might be able to present a plan
+of compromise. He already entertained the idea which in later years
+during his presidency he urged upon both Congress and the border slave
+States, that the just and generous mode of getting rid of the barbarous
+institution of slavery was by a system of compensated emancipation
+giving freedom to the slave and a money indemnity to the owner. He
+therefore carefully framed a bill providing for the abolishment of
+slavery in the District upon the following principal conditions:
+
+_First_. That the law should be adopted by a popular vote in the
+District.
+
+_Second_. A temporary system of apprenticeship and gradual emancipation
+for children born of slave mothers after January 1, 1850.
+
+_Third_. The government to pay full cash value for slaves voluntarily
+manumitted by their owners.
+
+_Fourth_. Prohibiting bringing slaves into the District, or selling them
+out of it.
+
+_Fifth_. Providing that government officers, citizens of slave States,
+might bring with them and take away again, their slave house-servants.
+
+_Sixth_. Leaving the existing fugitive-slave law in force.
+
+When Mr. Lincoln presented this amendment to the House, he said that he
+was authorized to state that of about fifteen of the leading citizens of
+the District of Columbia, to whom the proposition had been submitted,
+there was not one who did not approve the adoption of such a
+proposition. He did not wish to be misunderstood. He did not know
+whether or not they would vote for this bill on the first Monday in
+April; but he repeated that out of fifteen persons to whom it had been
+submitted, he had authority to say that every one of them desired that
+some proposition like this should pass.
+
+While Mr. Lincoln did not so state to the House, it was well understood
+in intimate circles that the bill had the approval on the one hand of
+Mr. Seaton, the conservative mayor of Washington, and on the other hand
+of Mr. Giddings, the radical antislavery member of the House of
+Representatives. Notwithstanding the singular merit of the bill in
+reconciling such extremes of opposing factions in its support, the
+temper of Congress had already become too hot to accept such a rational
+and practical solution, and Mr. Lincoln's wise proposition was not
+allowed to come to a vote.
+
+The triumphant election of General Taylor to the presidency in November,
+1848, very soon devolved upon Mr. Lincoln the delicate and difficult
+duty of making recommendations to the incoming administration of persons
+suitable to be appointed to fill the various Federal offices in
+Illinois, as Colonel E.D. Baker and himself were the only Whigs elected
+to Congress from that State. In performing this duty, one of his leading
+characteristics, impartial honesty and absolute fairness to political
+friends and foes alike, stands out with noteworthy clearness. His term
+ended with General Taylor's inauguration, and he appears to have
+remained in Washington but a few days thereafter. Before leaving, he
+wrote to the new Secretary of the Treasury:
+
+"Colonel E.D. Baker and myself are the only Whig members of Congress
+from Illinois--I of the Thirtieth, and he of the Thirty-first. We have
+reason to think the Whigs of that State hold us responsible, to some
+extent, for the appointments which may be made of our citizens. We do
+not know you personally, and our efforts to see you have, so far, been
+unavailing. I therefore hope I am not obtrusive in saying in this way,
+for him and myself, that when a citizen of Illinois is to be appointed,
+in your department, to an office, either in or out of the State, we most
+respectfully ask to be heard."
+
+On the following day, March 10, 1849, he addressed to the Secretary of
+State his first formal recommendation. It is remarkable from the fact
+that between the two Whig applicants whose papers are transmitted, he
+says rather less in favor of his own choice than of the opposing
+claimant.
+
+"SIR: There are several applicants for the office of United States
+Marshal for the District of Illinois, among the most prominent of whom
+are Benjamin Bond, Esq., of Carlyle, and ---- Thomas, Esq., of Galena.
+Mr. Bond I know to be personally every way worthy of the office; and he
+is very numerously and most respectably recommended. His papers I send
+to you; and I solicit for his claims a full and fair consideration.
+Having said this much, I add that in my individual judgment the
+appointment of Mr. Thomas would be the better.
+
+     "Your obedient servant,
+     "A. LINCOLN"
+
+(Indorsed on Mr. Bond's papers.)
+
+"In this and the accompanying envelop are the recommendations of about
+two hundred good citizens, of all parts of Illinois, that Benjamin Bond
+be appointed marshal for that district. They include the names of nearly
+all our Whigs who now are, or have ever been, members of the State
+legislature, besides forty-six of the Democratic members of the present
+legislature, and many other good citizens. I add that from personal
+knowledge I consider Mr. Bond every way worthy of the office, and
+qualified to fill it. Holding the individual opinion that the
+appointment of a different gentleman would be better, I ask especial
+attention and consideration for his claims, and for the opinions
+expressed in his favor by those over whom I can claim no superiority."
+
+There were but three other prominent Federal appointments to be made in
+Mr. Lincoln's congressional district, and he waited until after his
+return home so that he might be better informed of the local opinion
+concerning them before making his recommendations. It was nearly a month
+after he left Washington before he sent his decision to the several
+departments at Washington. The letter quoted below, relating to one of
+these appointments, is in substance almost identical with the others,
+and particularly refrains from expressing any opinion of his own for or
+against the policy of political removals. He also expressly explains
+that Colonel Baker, the other Whig representative, claims no voice in
+the appointment.
+
+"DEAR SIR: I recommend that Walter Davis be appointed Receiver of the
+Land Office at this place, whenever there shall be a vacancy. I cannot
+say that Mr. Herndon, the present incumbent, has failed in the proper
+discharge of any of the duties of the office. He is a very warm
+partizan, and openly and actively opposed to the election of General
+Taylor. I also understand that since General Taylor's election he has
+received a reappointment from Mr. Polk, his old commission not having
+expired. Whether this is true the records of the department will show. I
+may add that the Whigs here almost universally desire his removal."
+
+If Mr. Lincoln's presence in Washington during two sessions in Congress
+did not add materially to either his local or national fame, it was of
+incalculable benefit in other respects. It afforded him a close
+inspection of the complex machinery of the Federal government and its
+relation to that of the States, and enabled him to notice both the easy
+routine and the occasional friction of their movements. It brought him
+into contact and, to some degree, intimate companionship with political
+leaders from all parts of the Union, and gave him the opportunity of
+joining in the caucus and the national convention that nominated General
+Taylor for President. It broadened immensely the horizon of his
+observation, and the sharp personal rivalries he noted at the center of
+the nation opened to him new lessons in the study of human nature. His
+quick intelligence acquired knowledge quite as, or even more, rapidly by
+process of logical intuition than by mere dry, laborious study; and it
+was the inestimable experience of this single term in the Congress of
+the United States which prepared him for his coming, yet undreamed-of,
+responsibilities, as fully as it would have done the ordinary man in a
+dozen.
+
+Mr. Lincoln had frankly acknowledged to his friend Speed, after his
+election in 1846, that "being elected to Congress, though I am very
+grateful to our friends for having done it, has not pleased me as much
+as I expected." It has already been said that an agreement had been
+reached among the several Springfield aspirants, that they would limit
+their ambition to a single term, and take turns in securing and enjoying
+the coveted distinction; and Mr. Lincoln remained faithful to this
+agreement. When the time to prepare for the election of 1848 approached,
+he wrote to his law partner:
+
+"It is very pleasant to learn from you that there are some who desire
+that I should be reelected. I most heartily thank them for their kind
+partiality; and I can say, as Mr. Clay said of the annexation of Texas,
+that 'personally I would not object' to a reelection, although I thought
+at the time, and still think, it would be quite as well for me to
+return to the law at the end of a single term. I made the declaration
+that I would not be a candidate again, more from a wish to deal fairly
+with others, to keep peace among our friends, and to keep the district
+from going to the enemy, than for any cause personal to myself; so that,
+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."
+
+Judge Stephen T. Logan, his late law partner, was nominated for the
+place, and heartily supported not only by Mr. Lincoln, but also by the
+Whigs of the district. By this time, however, the politics of the
+district had undergone a change by reason of the heavy emigration to
+Illinois at that period, and Judge Logan was defeated.
+
+Mr. Lincoln's strict and sensitive adherence to his promises now brought
+him a disappointment which was one of those blessings in disguise so
+commonly deplored for the time being by the wisest and best. A number of
+the Western members of Congress had joined in a recommendation to
+President-elect Taylor to give Colonel E.D. Baker a place in his
+cabinet, a reward he richly deserved for his talents, his party service,
+and the military honor he had won in the Mexican War. When this
+application bore no fruit, the Whigs of Illinois, expecting at least
+some encouragement from the new administration, laid claim to a bureau
+appointment, that of Commissioner of the General Land Office, in the new
+Department of the Interior, recently established.
+
+"I believe that, so far as the Whigs in Congress are concerned," wrote
+Lincoln to Speed twelve days before Taylor's inauguration, "I could
+have the General Land Office almost by common consent; but then Sweet
+and Don Morrison and Browning and Cyrus Edwards all want it, and what is
+worse, while I think I could easily take it myself, I fear I shall have
+trouble to get it for any other man in Illinois."
+
+Unselfishly yielding his own chances, he tried to induce the four
+Illinois candidates to come to a mutual agreement in favor of one of
+their own number. They were so tardy in settling their differences as to
+excite his impatience, and he wrote to a Washington friend:
+
+"I learn from Washington that a man by the name of Butterfield will
+probably be appointed Commissioner of the General Land Office, This
+ought not to be.... Some kind friends think I ought to be an applicant,
+but I am for Mr. Edwards. Try to defeat Butterfield, and, in doing so,
+use Mr. Edwards, J.L.D. Morrison, or myself, whichever you can to best
+advantage."
+
+As the situation grew persistently worse, Mr. Lincoln at length, about
+the first of June, himself became a formal applicant. But the delay
+resulting from his devotion to his friends had dissipated his chances.
+Butterfield received the appointment, and the defeat was aggravated
+when, a few months later, his unrelenting spirit of justice and fairness
+impelled him to write a letter defending Butterfield and the Secretary
+of the Interior from an attack by one of Lincoln's warm personal but
+indiscreet friends in the Illinois legislature. It was, however, a
+fortunate escape. In the four succeeding years Mr. Lincoln qualified
+himself for better things than the monotonous drudgery of an
+administrative bureau at Washington. It is probable that this defeat
+also enabled him more easily to pass by another temptation. The Taylor
+administration, realizing its ingratitude, at length, in September,
+offered him the governorship of the recently organized territory of
+Oregon; but he replied:
+
+"On as much reflection as I have had time to give the subject, I cannot
+consent to accept it."
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+Repeal of the Missouri Compromise--State Fair Debate--Peoria
+Debate--Trumbull Elected--Letter to Robinson--The Know-Nothings--Decatur
+Meeting--Bloomington Convention--Philadelphia Convention--Lincoln's Vote
+for Vice-President--Fremont and Dayton--Lincoln's Campaign
+Speeches--Chicago Banquet Speech
+
+
+After the expiration of his term in Congress Mr. Lincoln applied himself
+with unremitting assiduity to the practice of law, which the growth of
+the State in population, and the widening of his acquaintanceship no
+less than his own growth in experience and legal acumen, rendered ever
+more important and absorbing.
+
+"In 1854," he writes, "his profession had almost superseded the thought
+of politics in his mind, when the repeal of the Missouri Compromise
+aroused him as he had never been before."
+
+Not alone Mr. Lincoln, but, indeed, the whole nation, was so
+aroused--the Democratic party, and nearly the entire South, to force the
+passage of that repeal through Congress, and an alarmed majority,
+including even a considerable minority of the Democratic party in the
+North, to resist its passage.
+
+Mr. Lincoln, of course, shared the general indignation of Northern
+sentiment that the whole of the remaining Louisiana Territory, out of
+which six States, and the greater part of two more, have since been
+organized and admitted to the Union, should be opened to the possible
+extension of slavery. But two points served specially to enlist his
+energy in the controversy. One was personal, in that Senator Douglas of
+Illinois, by whom the repeal was championed, and whose influence as a
+free-State senator and powerful Democratic leader alone made the repeal
+possible, had been his personal antagonist in Illinois politics for
+almost twenty years. The other was moral, in that the new question
+involved the elemental principles of the American government, the
+fundamental maxim of the Declaration of Independence, that all men are
+created equal. His intuitive logic needed no demonstration that bank,
+tariff, internal improvements, the Mexican War, and their related
+incidents, were questions of passing expediency; but that this sudden
+reaction, needlessly grafted upon a routine statute to organize a new
+territory, was the unmistakable herald of a coming struggle which might
+transform republican institutions.
+
+It was in January, 1854, that the accidents of a Senate debate threw
+into Congress and upon the country the firebrand of the repeal of the
+Missouri Compromise. The repeal was not consummated till the month of
+May; and from May until the autumn elections the flame of acrimonious
+discussion ran over the whole country like a wild fire. There is no
+record that Mr. Lincoln took any public part in the discussion until the
+month of September, but it is very clear that he not only carefully
+watched its progress, but that he studied its phases of development, its
+historical origins, and its legal bearings with close industry, and
+gathered from party literature and legislative documents a harvest of
+substantial facts and data, rather than the wordy campaign phrases and
+explosive epithets with which more impulsive students and speakers were
+content to produce their oratorical effects. Here we may again quote
+Mr. Lincoln's exact written statement of the manner in which he resumed
+his political activity:
+
+"In the autumn of that year [1854] he took the stump, with no broader
+practical aim or object than to secure, if possible, the reelection of
+Hon. Richard Yates to Congress. His speeches at once attracted a more
+marked attention than they had ever before done. As the canvass
+proceeded he was drawn to different parts of the State, outside of Mr.
+Yates's district. He did not abandon the law, but gave his attention by
+turns to that and politics. The State Agricultural Fair was at
+Springfield that year, and Douglas was announced to speak there."
+
+The new question had created great excitement and uncertainty in
+Illinois politics, and there were abundant signs that it was beginning
+to break up the organization of both the Whig and the Democratic
+parties. This feeling brought together at the State fair an unusual
+number of local leaders from widely scattered counties, and almost
+spontaneously a sort of political tournament of speech-making broke out.
+In this Senator Douglas, doubly conspicuous by his championship of the
+Nebraska Bill in Congress, was expected to play the leading part, while
+the opposition, by a common impulse, called upon Lincoln to answer him.
+Lincoln performed the task with such aptness and force, with such
+freshness of argument, illustrations from history, and citations from
+authorities, as secured him a decided oratorical triumph, and lifted him
+at a single bound to the leadership of the opposition to Douglas's
+propagandism. Two weeks later, Douglas and Lincoln met at Peoria in a
+similar debate, and on his return to Springfield Lincoln wrote out and
+printed his speech in full.
+
+The reader who carefully examines this speech will at once be impressed
+with the genius which immediately made Mr. Lincoln a power in American
+politics. His grasp of the subject is so comprehensive, his statement so
+clear, his reasoning so convincing, his language so strong and eloquent
+by turns, that the wonderful power he manifested in the discussions and
+debates of the six succeeding years does not surpass, but only amplifies
+this, his first examination of the whole brood of questions relating to
+slavery precipitated upon the country by Douglas's repeal. After a
+searching history of the Missouri Compromise, he attacks the
+demoralizing effects and portentous consequences of its repeal.
+
+"This declared indifference," he says, "but, as I must think, covert
+real zeal for the spread of slavery, I cannot but hate. I hate it
+because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself. I hate it because
+it deprives our republican example of its just influence in the world;
+enables the enemies of free institutions, with plausibility, to taunt us
+as hypocrites; causes the real friends of freedom to doubt our
+sincerity; and especially because it forces so many good men among
+ourselves into an open war with the very fundamental principles of civil
+liberty, criticizing the Declaration of Independence, and insisting that
+there is no right principle of action but self-interest.... Slavery is
+founded in the selfishness of man's nature--opposition to it in his love
+of justice. These principles are an eternal antagonism, and when brought
+into collision so fiercely as slavery extension brings them, shocks and
+throes and convulsions must ceaselessly follow. Repeal the Missouri
+Compromise, repeal all compromises, repeal the Declaration of
+Independence, repeal all past history, you still cannot repeal human
+nature. It still will be the abundance of man's heart that slavery
+extension is wrong, and out of the abundance of his heart his mouth
+will continue to speak."
+
+With argument as impetuous, and logic as inexorable, he disposes of
+Douglas's plea of popular sovereignty:
+
+"Here, or at Washington, I would not trouble myself with the oyster laws
+of Virginia, or the cranberry laws of Indiana. The doctrine of
+self-government is right--absolutely and eternally right--but it has no
+just application as here attempted. Or perhaps I should rather say, that
+whether it has such application depends upon whether a negro is not or
+is a man. If he is not a man, in that case, he who is a man may, as a
+matter of self-government, do just what he pleases with him. But if the
+negro is a man, is it not to that extent a total destruction of
+self-government to say that he too shall not govern himself? When the
+white man governs himself, that is self-government; but when he governs
+himself and also governs another man, that is more than
+self-government--that is despotism.... I particularly object to the new
+position which the avowed principle of this Nebraska law gives to
+slavery in the body politic. I object to it because it assumes that
+there can be moral right in the enslaving of one man by another. I
+object to it as a dangerous dalliance for a free people--a sad evidence
+that, feeling prosperity, we forget right; that liberty, as a principle,
+we have ceased to revere.... Little by little, but steadily as man's
+march to the grave, we have been giving up the old for the new faith.
+Near eighty years ago we began by declaring that all men are created
+equal; but now, from that beginning, we have run down to the other
+declaration, that for some men to enslave others is a 'sacred right of
+self-government.' These principles cannot stand together. They are as
+opposite as God and Mammon."
+
+If one compares the serious tone of this speech with the hard cider and
+coon-skin buncombe of the Harrison campaign of 1840, and its lofty
+philosophical thought with the humorous declamation of the Taylor
+campaign of 1848, the speaker's advance in mental development at once
+becomes apparent. In this single effort Mr. Lincoln had risen from the
+class of the politician to the rank of the statesman. There is a
+well-founded tradition that Douglas, disconcerted and troubled by
+Lincoln's unexpected manifestation of power in the Springfield and
+Peoria debates, sought a friendly interview with his opponent, and
+obtained from him an agreement that neither one of them would make any
+further speeches before the election.
+
+The local interest in the campaign was greatly heightened by the fact
+that the term of Douglas's Democratic colleague in the United States
+Senate was about to expire, and that the State legislature to be elected
+would have the choosing of his successor. It is not probable that
+Lincoln built much hope upon this coming political chance, as the
+Democratic party had been throughout the whole history of the State in
+decided political control. It turned out, nevertheless, that in the
+election held on November 7, an opposition majority of members of the
+legislature was chosen, and Lincoln became, to outward appearances, the
+most available opposition candidate. But party disintegration had been
+only partial. Lincoln and his party friends still called themselves
+Whigs, though they could muster only a minority of the total membership
+of the legislature. The so-called Anti-Nebraska Democrats, opposing
+Douglas and his followers, were still too full of traditional party
+prejudice to help elect a pronounced Whig to the United States Senate,
+though as strongly "Anti-Nebraska" as themselves. Five of them brought
+forward, and stubbornly voted for, Lyman Trumbull, an Anti-Nebraska
+Democrat of ability, who had been chosen representative in Congress from
+the eighth Illinois District in the recent election. On the ninth ballot
+it became evident to Lincoln that there was danger of a new Democratic
+candidate, neutral on the Nebraska question, being chosen. In this
+contingency, he manifested a personal generosity and political sagacity
+far above the comprehension of the ordinary smart politician. He advised
+and prevailed upon his Whig supporters to vote for Trumbull, and thus
+secure a vote in the United States Senate against slavery extension. He
+had rightly interpreted both statesmanship and human nature. His
+personal sacrifice on this occasion contributed essentially to the
+coming political regeneration of his State; and the five Anti-Nebraska
+Democrats, who then wrought his defeat, became his most devoted personal
+followers and efficient allies in his own later political triumph, which
+adverse currents, however, were still to delay to a tantalizing degree.
+The circumstances of his defeat at that critical stage of his career
+must have seemed especially irritating, yet he preserved a most
+remarkable equanimity of temper. "I regret my defeat moderately," he
+wrote to a sympathizing friend, "but I am not nervous about it."
+
+We may fairly infer that while Mr. Lincoln was not "nervous," he was
+nevertheless deeply impressed by the circumstance as an illustration of
+the grave nature of the pending political controversy. A letter written
+by him about half a year later to a friend in Kentucky, is full of such
+serious reflection as to show that the existing political conditions in
+the United States had engaged his most profound thought and
+investigation.
+
+"That spirit," he wrote, "which desired the peaceful extinction of
+slavery has itself become extinct with the occasion and the men of the
+Revolution. Under the impulse of that occasion, nearly half the States
+adopted systems of emancipation at once, and it is a significant fact
+that not a single State has done the like since. So far as peaceful
+voluntary emancipation is concerned, the condition of the negro slave in
+America, scarcely less terrible to the contemplation of a free mind, is
+now as fixed and hopeless of change for the better as that of the lost
+souls of the finally impenitent. The Autocrat of all the Russias will
+resign his crown and proclaim his subjects free republicans sooner than
+will our American masters voluntarily give up their slaves. 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."
+
+Not quite three years later Mr. Lincoln made the concluding problem of
+this letter the text of a famous speech. On the day before his first
+inauguration as President of the United States, the "Autocrat of all the
+Russias," Alexander II, by imperial decree emancipated his serfs; while
+six weeks after the inauguration the "American masters," headed by
+Jefferson Davis, began the greatest war of modern times to perpetuate
+and spread the institution of slavery.
+
+The excitement produced by the repeal of the Missouri Compromise in
+1854, by the election forays of the Missouri Border Ruffians into Kansas
+in 1855, and by the succeeding civil strife in 1856 in that Territory,
+wrought an effective transformation of political parties in the Union,
+in preparation for the presidential election of that year. This
+transformation, though not seriously checked, was very considerably
+complicated by an entirely new faction, or rather by the sudden revival
+of an old one, which in the past had called itself Native Americanism,
+and now assumed the name of the American Party, though it was more
+popularly known by the nickname of "Know-Nothings," because of its
+secret organization. It professed a certain hostility to foreign-born
+voters and to the Catholic religion, and demanded a change in the
+naturalization laws from a five years' to a twenty-one years'
+preliminary residence. This faction had gained some sporadic successes
+in Eastern cities, but when its national convention met in February,
+1856, to nominate candidates for President and Vice-President, the
+pending slavery question, that it had hitherto studiously ignored,
+caused a disruption of its organization; and though the adhering
+delegates nominated Millard Fillmore for President and A.J. Donelson for
+Vice-President, who remained in the field and were voted for, to some
+extent, in the presidential election, the organization was present only
+as a crippled and disturbing factor, and disappeared totally from
+politics in the following years.
+
+Both North and South, party lines adjusted themselves defiantly upon the
+single issue, for or against men and measures representing the extension
+or restriction of slavery. The Democratic party, though radically
+changing its constituent elements, retained the party name, and became
+the party of slavery extension, having forced the repeal and supported
+the resulting measures; while the Whig party entirely disappeared, its
+members in the Northern States joining the Anti-Nebraska Democrats in
+the formation of the new Republican party. Southern Whigs either went
+boldly into the Democratic camp, or followed for a while the delusive
+prospects of the Know-Nothings.
+
+This party change went on somewhat slowly in the State of Illinois,
+because that State extended in territorial length from the latitude of
+Massachusetts to that of Virginia, and its population contained an
+equally diverse local sentiment. The northern counties had at once
+become strongly Anti-Nebraska; the conservative Whig counties of the
+center inclined to the Know-Nothings; while the Kentuckians and
+Carolinians, who had settled the southern end, had strong antipathies to
+what they called abolitionism, and applauded Douglas and repeal.
+
+The agitation, however, swept on, and further hesitation became
+impossible. Early in 1856 Mr. Lincoln began to take an active part in
+organizing the Republican party. He attended a small gathering of
+Anti-Nebraska editors in February, at Decatur, who issued a call for a
+mass convention which met at Bloomington in May, at which the Republican
+party of Illinois was formally constituted by an enthusiastic gathering
+of local leaders who had formerly been bitter antagonists, but who now
+joined their efforts to resist slavery extension. They formulated an
+emphatic but not radical platform, and through a committee selected a
+composite ticket of candidates for State offices, which the convention
+approved by acclamation. The occasion remains memorable because of the
+closing address made by Mr. Lincoln in one of his most impressive
+oratorical moods. So completely were his auditors carried away by the
+force of his denunciation of existing political evils, and by the
+eloquence of his appeal for harmony and union to redress them, that
+neither a verbatim report nor even an authentic abstract was made during
+its delivery: but the lifting inspiration of its periods will never fade
+from the memory of those who heard it.
+
+About three weeks later, the first national convention of the Republican
+party met at Philadelphia, and nominated John C. Fremont of California
+for President. There was a certain fitness in this selection, from the
+fact that he had been elected to the United States Senate when
+California applied for admission as a free State, and that the
+resistance of the South to her admission had been the entering wedge of
+the slavery agitation of 1850. This, however, was in reality a minor
+consideration. It was rather his romantic fame as a daring Rocky
+Mountain explorer, appealing strongly to popular imagination and
+sympathy, which gave him prestige as a presidential candidate.
+
+It was at this point that the career of Abraham Lincoln had a narrow and
+fortunate escape from a premature and fatal prominence. The Illinois
+Bloomington convention had sent him as a delegate to the Philadelphia
+convention; and, no doubt very unexpectedly to himself, on the first
+ballot for a candidate for Vice-President he received one hundred and
+ten votes against two hundred and fifty-nine votes for William L. Dayton
+of New Jersey, upon which the choice of Mr. Dayton was at once made
+unanimous. But the incident proves that Mr. Lincoln was already gaining
+a national fame among the advanced leaders of political thought.
+Happily, a mysterious Providence reserved him for larger and nobler
+uses.
+
+The nominations thus made at Philadelphia completed the array for the
+presidential battle of 1856. The Democratic national convention had met
+at Cincinnati on June 2, and nominated James Buchanan for President and
+John C. Breckinridge for Vice-President. Its work presented two points
+of noteworthy interest, namely: that the South, in an arrogant
+pro-slavery dictatorship, relentlessly cast aside the claims of Douglas
+and Pierce, who had effected the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and
+nominated Buchanan, in apparently sure confidence of that
+super-serviceable zeal in behalf of slavery which he so obediently
+rendered; also, that in a platform of intolerable length there was such
+a cunning ambiguity of word and concealment of sense, such a double
+dealing of phrase and meaning, as to render it possible that the
+pro-slavery Democrats of the South and some antislavery Democrats of the
+North might join for the last time to elect a "Northern man with
+Southern principles."
+
+Again, in this campaign, as in several former presidential elections,
+Mr. Lincoln was placed upon the electoral ticket of Illinois, and he
+made over fifty speeches in his own and adjoining States in behalf of
+Fremont and Dayton. Not one of these speeches was reported in full, but
+the few fragments which have been preserved show that he occupied no
+doubtful ground on the pending issues. Already the Democrats were
+raising the potent alarm cry that the Republican party was sectional,
+and that its success would dissolve the Union. Mr. Lincoln did not then
+dream that he would ever have to deal practically with such a
+contingency, but his mind was very clear as to the method of meeting it.
+Speaking for the Republican party, he said:
+
+"But the Union in any event will not be dissolved. We don't want to
+dissolve it, and if you attempt it, we won't let you. With the purse and
+sword, the army and navy and treasury, in our hands and at our command,
+you could not do it. This government would be very weak, indeed, if a
+majority, with a disciplined army and navy and a well-filled treasury,
+could not preserve itself when attacked by an unarmed, undisciplined,
+unorganized minority. All this talk about the dissolution of the Union
+is humbug, nothing but folly. We do not want to dissolve the Union; you
+shall not."
+
+While the Republican party was much cast down by the election of
+Buchanan in November, the Democrats found significant cause for
+apprehension in the unexpected strength with which the Fremont ticket
+had been supported in the free States. Especially was this true in
+Illinois, where the adherents of Fremont and Fillmore had formed a
+fusion, and thereby elected a Republican governor and State officers.
+One of the strong elements of Mr. Lincoln's leadership was the cheerful
+hope he was always able to inspire in his followers, and his abiding
+faith in the correct political instincts of popular majorities. This
+trait was happily exemplified in a speech he made at a Republican
+banquet in Chicago about a month after the presidential election.
+Recalling the pregnant fact that though Buchanan gained a majority of
+the electoral vote, he was in a minority of about four hundred thousand
+of the popular vote for President, Mr. Lincoln thus summed up the
+chances of Republican success in the future:
+
+"Our government rests in public opinion. Whoever can change public
+opinion, can change the government, practically, just so much. Public
+opinion on any subject always has a 'central idea,' from which all its
+minor thoughts radiate. That 'central idea' in our political public
+opinion at the beginning was, and until recently has continued to be,
+'the equality of men.' And although it has always submitted patiently to
+whatever of inequality there seemed to be as matter of actual necessity,
+its constant working has been a steady progress towards the practical
+equality of all men. The late presidential election was a struggle by
+one party to discard that central idea and to substitute for it the
+opposite idea that slavery is right in the abstract; the workings of
+which as a central idea may be the perpetuity of human slavery and its
+extension to all countries and colors.... All of us who did not vote for
+Mr. Buchanan, taken together, are a majority of four hundred thousand.
+But in the late contest we were divided between Fremont and Fillmore.
+Can we not come together for the future? Let every one who really
+believes, and is resolved, that free society is not and shall not be a
+failure, and who can conscientiously declare that in the past contest he
+has done only what he thought best--let every such one have charity to
+believe that every other one can say as much. Thus let bygones be
+bygones; let past differences as nothing be; and with steady eye on the
+real issue, let us reinaugurate the good old 'central ideas' of the
+republic. We can do it. The human heart is with us; God is with us. We
+shall again be able, not to declare that 'all States as States are
+equal,' nor yet that 'all citizens as citizens are equal,' but to renew
+the broader, better declaration, including both these and much more,
+that 'all men are created equal.'"
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+Buchanan Elected President--The Dred Scott Decision--Douglas's
+Springfield Speech, 1857--Lincoln's Answering Speech--Criticism of Dred
+Scott Decision--Kansas Civil War--Buchanan Appoints Walker--Walker's
+Letter on Kansas--The Lecompton Constitution--Revolt of Douglas
+
+
+The election of 1856 once more restored the Democratic party to full
+political control in national affairs. James Buchanan was elected
+President to succeed Pierce; the Senate continued, as before, to have a
+decided Democratic majority; and a clear Democratic majority of
+twenty-five was chosen to the House of Representatives to succeed the
+heavy opposition majority of the previous Congress.
+
+Though the new House did not organize till a year after it was elected,
+the certainty of its coming action was sufficient not only to restore,
+but greatly to accelerate the pro-slavery reaction begun by the repeal
+of the Missouri Compromise. This impending drift of national policy now
+received a powerful impetus by an act of the third cooerdinate branch,
+the judicial department of the government.
+
+Very unexpectedly to the public at large, the Supreme Court of the
+United States, a few days after Buchanan's inauguration, announced its
+judgment in what quickly became famous as the Dred Scott decision. Dred
+Scott, a negro slave in Missouri, sued for his freedom on the ground
+that his master had taken him to reside in the State of Illinois and
+the Territory of Wisconsin, where slavery was prohibited by law. The
+question had been twice decided by Missouri courts, once for and then
+against Dred Scott's claim; and now the Supreme Court of the United
+States, after hearing the case twice elaborately argued by eminent
+counsel, finally decided that Dred Scott, being a negro, could not
+become a citizen, and therefore was not entitled to bring suit. This
+branch, under ordinary precedent, simply threw the case out of court;
+but in addition, the decision, proceeding with what lawyers call _obiter
+dictum_, went on to declare that under the Constitution of the United
+States neither Congress nor a territorial legislature possessed power to
+prohibit slavery in Federal Territories.
+
+The whole country immediately flared up with the agitation of the
+slavery question in this new form. The South defended the decision with
+heat, the North protested against it with indignation, and the
+controversy was greatly intensified by a phrase in the opinion of Chief
+Justice Taney, that at the time of the Declaration of Independence
+negroes were considered by general public opinion to be so far inferior
+"that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect."
+
+This decision of the Supreme Court placed Senator Douglas in a curious
+dilemma. While it served to indorse and fortify his course in repealing
+the Missouri Compromise, it, on the other hand, totally negatived his
+theory by which he had sought to make the repeal palatable, that the
+people of a Territory, by the exercise of his great principle of popular
+sovereignty, could decide the slavery question for themselves. But,
+being a subtle sophist, he sought to maintain a show of consistency by
+an ingenious evasion. In the month of June following the decision, he
+made a speech at Springfield, Illinois, in which he tentatively
+announced what in the next year became widely celebrated as his Freeport
+doctrine, and was immediately denounced by his political confreres of
+the South as serious party heterodoxy. First lauding the Supreme Court
+as "the highest judicial tribunal on earth," and declaring that violent
+resistance to its decrees must be put down by the strong arm of the
+government, he went on thus to define a master's right to his slave in
+Kansas:
+
+"While the right continues in full force under the guarantees of the
+Constitution, and cannot be divested or alienated by an act of Congress,
+it necessarily remains a barren and a worthless right unless sustained,
+protected, and enforced by appropriate police regulations and local
+legislation prescribing adequate remedies for its violation. These
+regulations and remedies must necessarily depend entirely upon the will
+and wishes of the people of the Territory, as they can only be
+prescribed by the local legislatures. Hence, the great principle of
+popular sovereignty and self-government is sustained and firmly
+established by the authority of this decision."
+
+Both the legal and political aspects of the new question immediately
+engaged the earnest attention of Mr. Lincoln; and his splendid power of
+analysis set its ominous portent in a strong light. He made a speech in
+reply to Douglas about two weeks after, subjecting the Dred Scott
+decision to a searching and eloquent criticism. He said:
+
+"That decision declares two propositions--first, that a negro cannot sue
+in the United States courts; and secondly, that Congress cannot prohibit
+slavery in the Territories. It was made by a divided court--dividing
+differently on the different points. Judge Douglas does not discuss the
+merits of the decision, and in that respect I shall follow his example,
+believing I could no more improve on McLean and Curtis than he could on
+Taney.... We think the Dred Scott decision was erroneous. We know the
+court that made it has often overruled its own decisions, and we shall
+do what we can to have it overrule this. We offer no resistance to
+it.... If this important decision had been made by the unanimous
+concurrence of the judges, and without any apparent partizan bias, and
+in accordance with legal public expectation and with the steady practice
+of the departments throughout our history and had been in no part based
+on assumed historical facts which are not really true; or if, wanting in
+some of these, it had been before the court more than once, and had
+there been affirmed and reaffirmed through a course of years, it then
+might be, perhaps would be, factious, nay, even revolutionary, not to
+acquiesce in it as a precedent. But when, as is true, we find it wanting
+in all these claims to the public confidence, it is not resistance, it
+is not factious, it is not even disrespectful, to treat it as not having
+yet quite established a settled doctrine for the country....
+
+"The Chief Justice does not directly assert, but plainly assumes, as a
+fact, that the public estimate of the black man is more favorable now
+than it was in the days of the Revolution. This assumption is a mistake.
+In some trifling particulars the condition of that race has been
+ameliorated; but as a whole, in this country, the change between then
+and now is decidedly the other way; and their ultimate destiny has never
+appeared so hopeless as in the last three or four years. In two of the
+five States--New Jersey and North Carolina--that then gave the free
+negro the right of voting, the right has since been taken away; and in
+the third--New York--it has been greatly abridged; while it has not
+been extended, so far as I know, to a single additional State, though
+the number of the States has more than doubled. In those days, as I
+understand, masters could, at their own pleasure, emancipate their
+slaves; but since then such legal restraints have been made upon
+emancipation as to amount almost to prohibition. In those days,
+legislatures held the unquestioned power to abolish slavery in their
+respective States, but now it is becoming quite fashionable for State
+constitutions to withhold that power from the legislatures. In those
+days, by common consent, the spread of the black man's bondage to the
+new countries was prohibited, but now Congress decides that it will not
+continue the prohibition and the Supreme Court decides that it could not
+if it would. In those days, our Declaration of Independence was held
+sacred by all, and thought to include all; but now, to aid in making the
+bondage of the negro universal and eternal, it is assailed and sneered
+at and construed, and hawked at and torn, till, if its framers could
+rise from their graves, they could not at all recognize it. All the
+powers of earth seem rapidly combining against him. Mammon is after him,
+ambition follows, philosophy follows, and the theology of the day is
+fast joining the cry. They have him in his prison-house; they have
+searched his person, and left no prying instrument with him. One after
+another they have closed the heavy iron doors upon him; and now they
+have him, as it were, bolted in with a lock of a hundred keys, which can
+never be unlocked without the concurrence of every key--the keys in the
+hands of a hundred different men, and they scattered to a hundred
+different and distant places; and they stand musing as to what
+invention, in all the dominions of mind and matter, can be produced to
+make the impossibility of his escape more complete than it is."
+
+There is not room to quote the many other equally forcible points in Mr.
+Lincoln's speech. Our narrative must proceed to other significant events
+in the great pro-slavery reaction. Thus far the Kansas experiment had
+produced nothing but agitation, strife, and bloodshed. First the storm
+in Congress over repeal; then a mad rush of emigration to occupy the
+Territory. This was followed by the Border Ruffian invasions, in which
+Missouri voters elected a bogus territorial legislature, and the bogus
+legislature enacted a code of bogus laws. In turn, the more rapid
+emigration from free States filled the Territory with a majority of
+free-State voters, who quickly organized a compact free-State party,
+which sent a free-State constitution, known as the Topeka Constitution,
+to Congress, and applied for admission. This movement proved barren,
+because the two houses of Congress were divided in sentiment. Meanwhile,
+President Pierce recognized the bogus laws, and issued proclamations
+declaring the free-State movement illegal and insurrectionary; and the
+free-State party had in its turn baffled the enforcement of the bogus
+laws, partly by concerted action of nonconformity and neglect, partly by
+open defiance. The whole finally culminated in a chronic border war
+between Missouri raiders on one hand, and free-State guerrillas on the
+other; and it became necessary to send Federal troops to check the
+disorder. These were instructed by Jefferson Davis, then Secretary of
+War, that "rebellion must be crushed." The future Confederate President
+little suspected the tremendous prophetic import of his order. The most
+significant illustration of the underlying spirit of the struggle was
+that President Pierce had successively appointed three Democratic
+governors for the Territory, who, starting with pro-slavery bias, all
+became free-State partizans, and were successively insulted and driven
+from the Territory by the pro-slavery faction when in manly protest they
+refused to carry out the behests of the Missouri conspiracy. After a
+three years' struggle neither faction had been successful, neither party
+was satisfied; and the administration of Pierce bequeathed to its
+successor the same old question embittered by rancor and defeat.
+
+President Buchanan began his administration with a boldly announced
+pro-slavery policy. In his inaugural address he invoked the popular
+acceptance of the Dred Scott decision, which he already knew was coming;
+and a few months later declared in a public letter that slavery "exists
+in Kansas under the Constitution of the United States.... How it ever
+could have been seriously doubted is a mystery." He chose for the
+governorship of Kansas, Robert J. Walker, a citizen of Mississippi of
+national fame and of pronounced pro-slavery views, who accepted his
+dangerous mission only upon condition that a new constitution, to be
+formed for that State, must be honestly submitted to the real voters of
+Kansas for adoption or rejection. President Buchanan and his advisers,
+as well as Senator Douglas, accepted this condition repeatedly and
+emphatically. But when the new governor went to the Territory, he soon
+became convinced, and reported to his chief, that to make a slave State
+of Kansas was a delusive hope. "Indeed," he wrote, "it is universally
+admitted here that the only real question is this: whether Kansas shall
+be a conservative, constitutional, Democratic, and ultimately free
+State, or whether it shall be a Republican and abolition State."
+
+As a compensation for the disappointment, however, he wrote later direct
+to the President:
+
+"But we must have a slave State out of the southwestern Indian
+Territory, and then a calm will follow; Cuba be acquired with the
+acquiescence of the North; and your administration, having in reality
+settled the slavery question, be regarded in all time to come as a
+re-signing and re-sealing of the Constitution.... I shall be pleased
+soon to hear from you. Cuba! Cuba! (and Porto Rico, if possible) should
+be the countersign of your administration, and it will close in a blaze
+of glory."
+
+And the governor was doubtless much gratified to receive the President's
+unqualified indorsement in reply: "On the question of submitting the
+constitution to the _bona fide_ resident settlers of Kansas, I am
+willing to stand or fall."
+
+The sequel to this heroic posturing of the chief magistrate is one of
+the most humiliating chapters in American politics. Attendant
+circumstances leave little doubt that a portion of Mr. Buchanan's
+cabinet, in secret league and correspondence with the pro-slavery
+Missouri-Kansas cabal, aided and abetted the framing and adoption of
+what is known to history as the Lecompton Constitution, an organic
+instrument of a radical pro-slavery type; that its pretended submission
+to popular vote was under phraseology, and in combination with such
+gigantic electoral frauds and dictatorial procedure, as to render the
+whole transaction a mockery of popular government; still worse, that
+President Buchanan himself, proving too weak in insight and will to
+detect the intrigue or resist the influence of his malign counselors,
+abandoned his solemn pledges to Governor Walker, adopted the Lecompton
+Constitution as an administration measure, and recommended it to
+Congress in a special message, announcing dogmatically: "Kansas is
+therefore at this moment as much a slave State as Georgia or South
+Carolina."
+
+The radical pro-slavery attitude thus assumed by President Buchanan and
+Southern leaders threw the Democratic party of the free States into
+serious disarray, while upon Senator Douglas the blow fell with the
+force of party treachery--almost of personal indignity. The Dred Scott
+decision had rudely brushed aside his theory of popular sovereignty, and
+now the Lecompton Constitution proceedings brutally trampled it down in
+practice. The disaster overtook him, too, at a critical moment. His
+senatorial term was about to expire; the next Illinois legislature would
+elect his successor. The prospect was none too bright for him, for at
+the late presidential election Illinois had chosen Republican State
+officers. He was compelled either to break his pledges to the Democratic
+voters of Illinois, or to lead a revolt against President Buchanan and
+the Democratic leaders in Congress. Party disgrace at Washington, or
+popular disgrace in Illinois, were the alternatives before him. To lose
+his reelection to the Senate would almost certainly end his public
+career. When, therefore, Congress met in December, 1857, Douglas boldly
+attacked and denounced the Lecompton Constitution, even before the
+President had recommended it in his special message.
+
+"Stand by the doctrine," he said, "that leaves the people perfectly free
+to form and regulate their institutions for themselves, in their own
+way, and your party will be united and irresistible in power.... If
+Kansas wants a slave-State constitution, she has a right to it; if she
+wants a free-State constitution, she has a right to it. It is none of my
+business which way the slavery clause is decided. I care not whether it
+is voted down or voted up. Do you suppose, after the pledges of my honor
+that I would go for that principle and leave the people to vote as they
+choose, that I would now degrade myself by voting one way if the
+slavery clause be voted down, and another way if it be voted up? I care
+not how that vote may stand.... Ignore Lecompton; ignore Topeka; treat
+both those party movements as irregular and void; pass a fair bill--the
+one that we framed ourselves when we were acting as a unit; have a fair
+election--and you will have peace in the Democratic party, and peace
+throughout the country, in ninety days. The people want a fair vote.
+They will never be satisfied without it.... But if this constitution is
+to be forced down our throats in violation of the fundamental principle
+of free government, under a mode of submission that is a mockery and
+insult, I will resist it to the last."
+
+Walker, the fourth Democratic governor who had now been sacrificed to
+the interests of the Kansas pro-slavery cabal, also wrote a sharp letter
+of resignation denouncing the Lecompton fraud and policy; and such was
+the indignation aroused in the free States, that although the Senate
+passed the Lecompton Bill, twenty-two Northern Democrats joining their
+vote to that of the Republicans, the measure was defeated in the House
+of Representatives. The President and his Southern partizans bitterly
+resented this defeat; and the schism between them, on the one hand, and
+Douglas and his adherents, on the other, became permanent and
+irreconcilable.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+The Senatorial Contest in Illinois--"House Divided against Itself"
+Speech--The Lincoln-Douglas Debates--The Freeport Doctrine--Douglas
+Deposed from Chairmanship of Committee on Territories--Benjamin on
+Douglas--Lincoln's Popular Majority--Douglas Gains Legislature--Greeley,
+Crittenden, _et al._--"The Fight Must Go On"--Douglas's Southern
+Speeches--Senator Brown's Questions--Lincoln's Warning against Popular
+Sovereignty--The War of Pamphlets--Lincoln's Ohio Speeches--The John
+Brown Raid--Lincoln's Comment
+
+
+The hostility of the Buchanan administration to Douglas for his part in
+defeating the Lecompton Constitution, and the multiplying chances
+against him, served only to stimulate his followers in Illinois to
+greater efforts to secure his reelection. Precisely the same elements
+inspired the hope and increased the enthusiasm of the Republicans of the
+State to accomplish his defeat. For a candidate to oppose the "Little
+Giant," there could be no rival in the Republican ranks to Abraham
+Lincoln. He had in 1854 yielded his priority of claim to Trumbull; he
+alone had successfully encountered Douglas in debate. The political
+events themselves seemed to have selected and pitted these two champions
+against each other. Therefore, when the Illinois State convention on
+June 16, 1858, passed by acclamation a separate resolution, "That
+Abraham Lincoln is the first and only choice of the Republicans of
+Illinois for the United States Senate as the successor of Stephen A.
+Douglas," it only recorded the well-known judgment of the party. After
+its routine work was finished, the convention adjourned to meet again in
+the hall of the State House at Springfield at eight o'clock in the
+evening. At that hour Mr. Lincoln appeared before the assembled
+delegates and delivered a carefully studied speech, which has become
+historic. After a few opening sentences, he uttered the following
+significant prediction:
+
+"'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 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."
+
+Then followed his critical analysis of the legislative objects and
+consequences of the Nebraska Bill, and the judicial effects and
+doctrines of the Dred Scott decision, with their attendant and related
+incidents. The first of these had opened all the national territory to
+slavery. The second established the constitutional interpretation that
+neither Congress nor a territorial legislature could exclude slavery
+from any United States territory. The President had declared Kansas to
+be already practically a slave State. Douglas had announced that he did
+not care whether slavery was voted down or voted up. Adding to these
+many other indications of current politics, Mr. Lincoln proceeded:
+
+"Put this and that together, and we have another nice little niche,
+which we may, ere long, 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.... Such a decision is all that
+slavery now lacks of being alike lawful in all the States.... We shall
+lie down pleasantly dreaming that the people of Missouri are on the
+verge of making their State free, and we shall awake to the reality,
+instead, that the Supreme Court has made Illinois a slave State."
+
+To avert this danger, Mr. Lincoln declared it was the duty of
+Republicans to overthrow both Douglas and the Buchanan political
+dynasty.
+
+"Two years ago the Republicans of the nation mustered over thirteen
+hundred thousand strong. We did this under the single impulse of
+resistance to a common danger, with every external circumstance against
+us. Of strange, discordant, and even hostile elements, we gathered from
+the four winds, and formed and fought the battle through, under the
+constant hot fire of a disciplined, proud, and pampered enemy. Did we
+brave all then to falter now?--now, when that same enemy is wavering,
+dissevered, and belligerent? The result is not doubtful. We shall not
+fail--if we stand firm, we shall not fail. Wise counsels may accelerate
+or mistakes delay it, but, sooner or later, the victory is sure to
+come."
+
+Lincoln's speech excited the greatest interest everywhere throughout the
+free States. The grave peril he so clearly pointed out came home to the
+people of the North almost with the force of a revelation; and
+thereafter their eyes were fixed upon the Illinois senatorial campaign
+with undivided attention. Another incident also drew to it the equal
+notice and interest of the politicians of the slave States.
+
+Within a month from the date of Lincoln's speech, Douglas returned from
+Washington and began his campaign of active speech-making in Illinois.
+The fame he had acquired as the champion of the Nebraska Bill, and, more
+recently, the prominence into which his opposition to the Lecompton
+fraud had lifted him in Congress, attracted immense crowds to his
+meetings, and for a few days it seemed as if the mere contagion of
+popular enthusiasm would submerge all intelligent political discussion.
+To counteract this, Mr. Lincoln, at the advice of his leading friends,
+sent him a letter challenging him to joint public debate. Douglas
+accepted the challenge, but with evident hesitation; and it was arranged
+that they should jointly address the same meetings at seven towns in the
+State, on dates extending through August, September, and October. The
+terms were, that, alternately, one should speak an hour in opening, the
+other an hour and a half in reply, and the first again have half an hour
+in closing. This placed the contestants upon an equal footing before
+their audiences. Douglas's senatorial prestige afforded him no
+advantage. Face to face with the partizans of both, gathered in immense
+numbers and alert with critical and jealous watchfulness, there was no
+evading the square, cold, rigid test of skill in argument and truth in
+principle. The processions and banners, the music and fireworks, of both
+parties, were stilled and forgotten while the audience listened with
+high-strung nerves to the intellectual combat of three hours' duration.
+
+It would be impossible to give the scope and spirit of these famous
+debates in the space allotted to these pages, but one of the
+turning-points in the oratorical contest needs particular mention.
+Northern Illinois, peopled mostly from free States, and southern
+Illinois, peopled mostly from slave States, were radically opposed in
+sentiment on the slavery question; even the old Whigs of central
+Illinois had to a large extent joined the Democratic party, because of
+their ineradicable prejudice against what they stigmatized as
+"abolitionism." To take advantage of this prejudice, Douglas, in his
+opening speech in the first debate at Ottawa in northern Illinois,
+propounded to Lincoln a series of questions designed to commit him to
+strong antislavery doctrines. He wanted to know whether Mr. Lincoln
+stood pledged to the repeal of the fugitive-slave law; against the
+admission of any more slave States; to the abolition of slavery in the
+District of Columbia; to the prohibition of the slave trade between
+different States; to prohibit slavery in all the Territories; to oppose
+the acquisition of any new territory unless slavery were first
+prohibited therein.
+
+In their second joint debate at Freeport, Lincoln answered that he was
+pledged to none of these propositions, except the prohibition of slavery
+in all Territories of the United States. In turn he propounded four
+questions to Douglas, the second of which was:
+
+"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?"
+
+Mr. Lincoln had long and carefully studied the import and effect of this
+interrogatory, and nearly a month before, in a private letter,
+accurately foreshadowed Douglas's course upon it:
+
+"You shall have hard work," he wrote, "to get him directly to the point
+whether a territorial legislature has or has not the power to exclude
+slavery. But if you succeed in bringing him to it--though he will be
+compelled to say it possesses no such power--he will instantly take
+ground that slavery cannot actually exist in the Territories unless the
+people desire it and so give it protection by territorial legislation.
+If this offends the South, he will let it offend them, as at all events
+he means to hold on to his chances in Illinois."
+
+On the night before the Freeport debate the question had also been
+considered in a hurried caucus of Lincoln's party friends. They all
+advised against propounding it, saying, "If you do, you can never be
+senator." "Gentlemen," replied Lincoln, "I am killing larger game; if
+Douglas answers, he can never be President, and the battle of 1860 is
+worth a hundred of this."
+
+As Lincoln had predicted, Douglas had no resource but to repeat the
+sophism he had hastily invented in his Springfield speech of the
+previous year.
+
+"It matters not," replied he, "what way the Supreme Court may hereafter
+decide as to the abstract question whether slavery may or may not go
+into a Territory under the Constitution, the people have the lawful
+means to introduce it or exclude it, as they please, for the reason that
+slavery cannot exist a day or an hour anywhere unless it is supported by
+local police regulations. Those police regulations can only be
+established by the local legislature, and if the people are opposed to
+slavery they will elect representatives to that body who will by
+unfriendly legislation effectually prevent the introduction of it into
+their midst. If, on the contrary, they are for it, their legislation
+will favor its extension. Hence, no matter what the decision of the
+Supreme Court may be on that abstract question, still the right of the
+people to make a slave Territory or a free Territory is perfect and
+complete under the Nebraska Bill."
+
+In the course of the next joint debate at Jonesboro', Mr. Lincoln easily
+disposed of this sophism by showing: 1. That, practically, slavery had
+worked its way into Territories without "police regulations" in almost
+every instance; 2. That United States courts were established to protect
+and enforce rights under the Constitution; 3. That members of a
+territorial legislature could not violate their oath to support the
+Constitution of the United States; and, 4. That in default of
+legislative support, Congress would be bound to supply it for any right
+under the Constitution.
+
+The serious aspect of the matter, however, to Douglas was not the
+criticism of the Republicans, but the view taken by Southern Democratic
+leaders, of his "Freeport doctrine," or doctrine of "unfriendly
+legislation." His opposition to the Lecompton Constitution in the
+Senate, grievous stumbling-block to their schemes as it had proved,
+might yet be passed over as a reckless breach of party discipline; but
+this new announcement at Freeport was unpardonable doctrinal heresy, as
+rank as the abolitionism of Giddings and Lovejoy.
+
+The Freeport joint debate took place August 27, 1858. When Congress
+convened on the first Monday in December of the same year, one of the
+first acts of the Democratic senators was to put him under party ban by
+removing him from the chairmanship of the Committee on Territories, a
+position he had held for eleven years. In due time, also, the Southern
+leaders broke up the Charleston convention rather than permit him to be
+nominated for President; and, three weeks later, Senator Benjamin of
+Louisiana frankly set forth, in a Senate speech, the light in which they
+viewed his apostacy:
+
+"We accuse him for this, to wit: that having bargained with us upon a
+point upon which we were at issue, that it should be considered a
+judicial point; that he would abide the decision; that he would act
+under the decision, and consider it a doctrine of the party; that having
+said that to us here in the Senate, he went home, and, under the stress
+of a local election, his knees gave way; his whole person trembled. His
+adversary stood upon principle and was beaten; and, lo! he is the
+candidate of a mighty party for the presidency of the United States. The
+senator from Illinois faltered. He got the prize for which he faltered;
+but, lo! the grand prize of his ambition to-day slips from his grasp,
+because of his faltering in his former contest, and his success in the
+canvass for the Senate, purchased for an ignoble price, has cost him the
+loss of the presidency of the United States."
+
+In addition to the seven joint debates, both Lincoln and Douglas made
+speeches at separate meetings of their own during almost every day of
+the three months' campaign, and sometimes two or three speeches a day.
+At the election which was held on November 2, 1858, a legislature was
+chosen containing fifty-four Democrats and forty-six Republicans,
+notwithstanding the fact that the Republicans had a plurality of
+thirty-eight hundred and twenty-one on the popular vote. But the
+apportionment was based on the census of 1850, and did not reflect
+recent changes in political sentiment, which, if fairly represented,
+would have given them an increased strength of from six to ten members
+in the legislature. Another circumstance had great influence in causing
+Lincoln's defeat. Douglas's opposition to the Lecompton Constitution in
+Congress had won him great sympathy among a few Republican leaders in
+the Eastern States. It was even whispered that Seward wished Douglas to
+succeed as a strong rebuke to the Buchanan administration. The most
+potent expression and influence of this feeling came, however, from
+another quarter. Senator Crittenden of Kentucky, who, since Clay's death
+in 1852, was the acknowledged leader of what remained of the Whig party,
+wrote a letter during the campaign, openly advocating the reelection of
+Douglas, and this, doubtless, influenced the vote of all the Illinois
+Whigs who had not yet formally joined the Republican party. Lincoln's
+own analysis gives, perhaps, the clearest view of the unusual political
+conditions:
+
+"Douglas had three or four very distinguished men of the most extreme
+antislavery views of any men in the Republican party expressing their
+desire for his reelection to the Senate last year. That would of itself
+have seemed to be a little wonderful, but that wonder is heightened when
+we see that Wise of Virginia, a man exactly opposed to them, a man who
+believes in the divine right of slavery, was also expressing his desire
+that Douglas should be reelected; that another man that may be said to
+be kindred to Wise, Mr. Breckinridge, the Vice-President, and of your
+own State, was also agreeing with the antislavery men in the North that
+Douglas ought to be reelected. Still to heighten the wonder, a senator
+from Kentucky, whom I have always loved with an affection as tender and
+endearing as I have ever loved any man, who was opposed to the
+antislavery men for reasons which seemed sufficient to him, and equally
+opposed to Wise and Breckinridge, was writing letters to Illinois to
+secure the reelection of Douglas. Now that all these conflicting
+elements should be brought, while at daggers' points with one another,
+to support him, is a feat that is worthy for you to note and consider.
+It is quite probable that each of these classes of men thought by the
+reelection of Douglas their peculiar views would gain something; it is
+probable that the antislavery men thought their views would gain
+something that Wise and Breckinridge thought so too, as regards their
+opinions; that Mr. Crittenden thought that his views would gain
+something, although he was opposed to both these other men. It is
+probable that each and all of them thought they were using Douglas, and
+it is yet an unsolved problem whether he was not using them all."
+
+Lincoln, though beaten in his race for the Senate, was by no means
+dismayed, nor did he lose his faith in the ultimate triumph of the cause
+he had so ably championed. Writing to a friend, he said:
+
+"You doubtless have seen ere this the result of the election here. Of
+course I wished, but I did not much expect a better result.... I am glad
+I made the late race. It gave me a hearing on the great and durable
+question of the age, which I could have had in no other way; and though
+I now sink out of view, and shall be forgotten, I believe I have made
+some marks which will tell for the cause of civil liberty long after I
+am gone."
+
+And to another:
+
+"Yours of the 13th was received some days ago. The fight must go on. The
+cause of civil liberty must not be surrendered at the end of one or even
+one hundred defeats. Douglas had the ingenuity to be supported in the
+late contest, both as the best means to break down and to uphold the
+slave interest. No ingenuity can keep these antagonistic elements in
+harmony long. Another explosion will soon come."
+
+In his "House divided against itself" speech, Lincoln had emphatically
+cautioned Republicans not to be led on a false trail by the opposition
+Douglas had made to the Lecompton Constitution; that his temporary
+quarrel with the Buchanan administration could not be relied upon to
+help overthrow that pro-slavery dynasty.
+
+"How can he oppose the advances of slavery? He don't care anything about
+it. His avowed mission is impressing the 'public heart' to care nothing
+about it.... Whenever, if ever, he and we can come together on principle
+so that our great cause may have assistance from his great ability, I
+hope to have interposed no adventitious obstacle. But, clearly, he is
+not now with us--he does not pretend to be--he does not promise ever to
+be. Our cause, then, must be intrusted to, and conducted by, its own
+undoubted friends--those whose hands are free, whose hearts are in the
+work, who do care for the result."
+
+Since the result of the Illinois senatorial campaign had assured the
+reelection of Douglas to the Senate, Lincoln's sage advice acquired a
+double significance and value. Almost immediately after the close of the
+campaign Douglas took a trip through the Southern States, and in
+speeches made by him at Memphis, at New Orleans, and at Baltimore sought
+to regain the confidence of Southern politicians by taking decidedly
+advanced ground toward Southern views on the slavery question. On the
+sugar plantations of Louisiana he said, it was not a question between
+the white man and the negro, but between the negro and the crocodile. He
+would say that between the negro and the crocodile, he took the side of
+the negro; but between the negro and the white man, he would go for the
+white man. The Almighty had drawn a line on this continent, on the one
+side of which the soil must be cultivated by slave labor? on the other,
+by white labor. That line did not run on 36 deg. and 30' [the Missouri
+Compromise line], for 36 deg. and 30' runs over mountains and through
+valleys. But this slave line, he said, meanders in the sugar-fields and
+plantations of the South, and the people living in their different
+localities and in the Territories must determine for themselves whether
+their "middle belt" were best adapted to slavery or free labor. He
+advocated the eventual annexation of Cuba and Central America. Still
+going a step further, he laid down a far-reaching principle.
+
+"It is a law of humanity," he said, "a law of civilization that whenever
+a man or a race of men show themselves incapable of managing their own
+affairs, they must consent to be governed by those who are capable of
+performing the duty.... In accordance with this principle, I assert that
+the negro race, under all circumstances, at all times, and in all
+countries, has shown itself incapable of self-government."
+
+This pro-slavery coquetting, however, availed him nothing, as he felt
+himself obliged in the same speeches to defend his Freeport doctrine.
+Having taken his seat in Congress, Senator Brown of Mississippi, toward
+the close of the short session, catechized him sharply on this point.
+
+"If the territorial legislature refuses to act," he inquired "will you
+act? If it pass unfriendly acts, will you pass friendly? If it pass laws
+hostile to slavery, will you annul them, and substitute laws favoring
+slavery in their stead?"
+
+There was no evading these direct questions, and Douglas answered
+frankly:
+
+"I tell you, gentlemen of the South, in all candor, I do not believe a
+Democratic candidate can ever carry any one Democratic State of the
+North on the platform that it is the duty of the Federal government to
+force the people of a Territory to have slavery when they do not want
+it."
+
+An extended discussion between Northern and Southern Democratic
+senators followed the colloquy, which showed that the Freeport doctrine
+had opened up an irreparable schism between the Northern and Southern
+wings of the Democratic party.
+
+In all the speeches made by Douglas during his Southern tour, he
+continually referred to Mr. Lincoln as the champion of abolitionism, and
+to his doctrines as the platform of the abolition or Republican party.
+The practical effect of this course was to extend and prolong the
+Illinois senatorial campaign of 1858, to expand it to national breadth,
+and gradually to merge it in the coming presidential campaign. The
+effect of this was not only to keep before the public the position of
+Lincoln as the Republican champion of Illinois, but also gradually to
+lift him into general recognition as a national leader. Throughout the
+year 1859 politicians and newspapers came to look upon Lincoln as the
+one antagonist who could at all times be relied on to answer and refute
+the Douglas arguments. His propositions were so forcible and direct, his
+phraseology so apt and fresh, that they held the attention and excited
+comment. A letter written by him in answer to an invitation to attend a
+celebration of Jefferson's birthday in Boston, contains some notable
+passages:
+
+"Soberly, it is now no child's play to save the principles of Jefferson
+from total overthrow in this nation. One would state with great
+confidence that he could convince any sane child that the simpler
+propositions of Euclid are true; but, nevertheless, he would fail,
+utterly, with one who should deny the definitions and axioms. The
+principles of Jefferson are the definitions and axioms of free society.
+And yet they are denied and evaded with no small show of success. One
+dashingly calls them 'glittering generalities.' Another bluntly calls
+them 'self-evident lies.' And others insidiously argue that they apply
+to 'superior races.' These expressions, differing in form, are identical
+in object and effect--the supplanting the principles of free government,
+and restoring those of classification, caste, and legitimacy. They would
+delight a convocation of crowned heads plotting against the people. They
+are the vanguard, the miners and sappers of returning despotism. We must
+repulse them, or they will subjugate us. This is a world of
+compensation; and he who would be no slave must consent to have no
+slave. Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves,
+and, under a just God, cannot long retain it."
+
+Douglas's quarrel with the Buchanan administration had led many
+Republicans to hope that they might be able to utilize his name and his
+theory of popular sovereignty to aid them in their local campaigns.
+Lincoln knew from his recent experience the peril of this delusive party
+strategy, and was constant and earnest in his warnings against adopting
+it. In a little speech after the Chicago municipal election on March 1,
+1859, he said:
+
+"If we, the Republicans of this State, had made Judge Douglas our
+candidate for the Senate of the United States last year, and had elected
+him, there would to-day be no Republican party in this Union.... Let the
+Republican party of Illinois dally with Judge Douglas, let them fall in
+behind him and make him their candidate, and they do not absorb him--he
+absorbs them. They would come out at the end all Douglas men, all
+claimed by him as having indorsed every one of his doctrines upon the
+great subject with which the whole nation is engaged at this hour--that
+the question of negro slavery is simply a question of dollars and
+cents? that the Almighty has drawn a line across the continent, on one
+side of which labor--the cultivation of the soil--must always be
+performed by slaves. It would be claimed that we, like him, do not care
+whether slavery is voted up or voted down. Had we made him our candidate
+and given him a great majority, we should never have heard an end of
+declarations by him that we had indorsed all these dogmas."
+
+To a Kansas friend he wrote on May 14, 1859:
+
+"You will probably adopt resolutions in the nature of a platform. I
+think the only temptation will be to lower the Republican standard in
+order to gather recruits In my judgment, such a step would be a serious
+mistake, and open a gap through which more would pass out than pass in.
+And this would be the same whether the letting down should be in
+deference to Douglasism, or to the Southern opposition element; either
+would surrender the object of the Republican organization--the
+preventing of the spread and nationalization of slavery.... Let a union
+be attempted on the basis of ignoring the slavery question, and
+magnifying other questions which the people are just now not caring
+about, and it will result in gaining no single electoral vote in the
+South, and losing every one in the North."
+
+To Schuyler Colfax (afterward Vice-President) he said in a letter dated
+July 6, 1859:
+
+"My main object in such conversation would be to hedge against divisions
+in the Republican ranks generally and particularly for the contest of
+1860. The point of danger is the temptation in different localities to
+'platform' for something which will be popular just there, but which,
+nevertheless, will be a firebrand elsewhere and especially in a national
+convention. As instances: the movement against foreigners in
+Massachusetts; in New Hampshire, to make obedience to the
+fugitive-slave law punishable as a crime; in Ohio, to repeal the
+fugitive-slave law; and squatter sovereignty, in Kansas. In these things
+there is explosive matter enough to blow up half a dozen national
+conventions, if it gets into them; and what gets very rife outside of
+conventions is very likely to find its way into them."
+
+And again, to another warm friend in Columbus, Ohio, he wrote in a
+letter dated July 28, 1859:
+
+"There is another thing our friends are doing which gives me some
+uneasiness. It is their leaning toward 'popular sovereignty.' There are
+three substantial objections to this. First, no party can command
+respect which sustains this year what it opposed last. Secondly Douglas
+(who is the most dangerous enemy of liberty, because the most insidious
+one) would have little support in the North, and, by consequence, no
+capital to trade on in the South, if it were not for his friends thus
+magnifying him and his humbug. But lastly, and chiefly, Douglas's
+popular sovereignty, accepted by the public mind as a just principle,
+nationalizes slavery, and revives the African slave-trade inevitably.
+Taking slaves into new Territories, and buying slaves in Africa, are
+identical things, identical rights or identical wrongs, and the argument
+which establishes one will establish the other. Try a thousand years for
+a sound reason why Congress shall not hinder the people of Kansas from
+having slaves, and when you have found it, it will be an equally good
+one why Congress should not hinder the people of Georgia from importing
+slaves from Africa."
+
+An important election occurred in the State of Ohio in the autumn of
+1859, and during the canvass Douglas made two speeches in which, as
+usual, his pointed attacks were directed against Lincoln by name. Quite
+naturally, the Ohio Republicans called Lincoln to answer him, and the
+marked impression created by Lincoln's replies showed itself not alone
+in their unprecedented circulation in print in newspapers and pamphlets,
+but also in the decided success which the Ohio Republicans gained at the
+polls. About the same time, also, Douglas printed a long political essay
+in "Harper's Magazine," using as a text quotations from Lincoln's "House
+divided against itself" speech, and Seward's Rochester speech defining
+the "irrepressible conflict." Attorney-General Black of President
+Buchanan's cabinet here entered the lists with an anonymously printed
+pamphlet in pungent criticism of Douglas's "Harper" essay; which again
+was followed by reply and rejoinder on both sides.
+
+Into this field of overheated political controversy the news of the John
+Brown raid at Harper's Ferry on Sunday, October 19, fell with startling
+portent. The scattering and tragic fighting in the streets of the little
+town on Monday; the dramatic capture of the fanatical leader on Tuesday
+by a detachment of Federal marines under the command of Robert E. Lee,
+the famous Confederate general of subsequent years; the undignified
+haste of his trial and condemnation by the Virginia authorities; the
+interviews of Governor Wise, Senator Mason, and Representative
+Vallandigham with the prisoner; his sentence, and execution on the
+gallows on December 2; and the hysterical laudations of his acts by a
+few prominent and extreme abolitionists in the East, kept public
+opinion, both North and South, in an inflamed and feverish state for
+nearly six weeks.
+
+Mr. Lincoln's habitual freedom from passion, and the steady and
+common-sense judgment he applied to this exciting event, which threw
+almost everybody into an extreme of feeling or utterance, are well
+illustrated by the temperate criticism he made of it a few months later:
+
+"John Brown's effort was peculiar. It was not a slave insurrection. It
+was an attempt by white men to get up a revolt among slaves, in which
+the slaves refused to participate. In fact, it was so absurd that the
+slaves, with all their ignorance, saw plainly enough it could not
+succeed. That affair, in its philosophy, corresponds with the many
+attempts, related in history, at the assassination of kings and
+emperors. An enthusiast broods over the oppression of a people till he
+fancies himself commissioned by Heaven to liberate them. He ventures the
+attempt, which ends in little else than his own execution. Orsini's
+attempt on Louis Napoleon and John Brown's attempt at Harper's Ferry
+were, in their philosophy, precisely the same. The eagerness to cast
+blame on old England in the one case, and on New England in the other,
+does not disprove the sameness of the two things."
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+Lincoln's Kansas Speeches--The Cooper Institute Speech--New England
+Speeches--The Democratic Schism--Senator Brown's Resolutions--Jefferson
+Davis's Resolutions--The Charleston Convention--Majority and Minority
+Reports--Cotton State Delegations Secede--Charleston Convention
+Adjourns--Democratic Baltimore Convention Splits--Breckinridge
+Nominated--Douglas Nominated--Bell Nominated by Union Constitutional
+Convention--Chicago Convention--Lincoln's Letters to Pickett and
+Judd--The Pivotal States--Lincoln Nominated
+
+
+During the month of December, 1859, Mr. Lincoln was invited to the
+Territory of Kansas, where he made speeches at a number of its new and
+growing towns. In these speeches he laid special emphasis upon the
+necessity of maintaining undiminished the vigor of the Republican
+organization and the high plane of the Republican doctrine.
+
+"We want, and must have," said he, "a national policy as to slavery
+which deals with it as being a wrong. Whoever would prevent slavery
+becoming national and perpetual yields all when he yields to a policy
+which treats it either as being right, or as being a matter of
+indifference." "To effect our main object we have to employ auxiliary
+means. We must hold conventions, adopt platforms, select candidates, and
+carry elections. At every step we must be true to the main purpose. If
+we adopt a platform falling short of our principle, or elect a man
+rejecting our principle, we not only take nothing affirmative by our
+success, but we draw upon us the positive embarrassment of seeming
+ourselves to have abandoned our principle."
+
+A still more important service, however, in giving the Republican
+presidential campaign of 1860 precise form and issue was rendered by him
+during the first three months of the new year. The public mind had
+become so preoccupied with the dominant subject of national politics,
+that a committee of enthusiastic young Republicans of New York and
+Brooklyn arranged a course of public lectures by prominent statesmen and
+Mr. Lincoln was invited to deliver the third one of the series. The
+meeting took place in the hall of the Cooper Institute in New York, on
+the evening of February 27, 1860; and the audience was made up of ladies
+and gentlemen comprising the leading representatives of the wealth,
+culture, and influence of the great metropolis.
+
+Mr. Lincoln's name and arguments had filled so large a space in Eastern
+newspapers, both friendly and hostile, that the listeners before him
+were intensely curious to see and hear this rising Western politician.
+The West was even at that late day but imperfectly understood by the
+East. The poets and editors, the bankers and merchants of New York
+vaguely remembered having read in their books that it was the home of
+Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett, the country of bowie-knives and pistols,
+of steamboat explosions and mobs, of wild speculation and the
+repudiation of State debts; and these half-forgotten impressions had
+lately been vividly recalled by a several years' succession of newspaper
+reports retailing the incidents of Border Ruffian violence and
+free-State guerrilla reprisals during the civil war in Kansas. What was
+to be the type, the character, the language of this speaker? How would
+he impress the great editor Horace Greeley, who sat among the invited
+guests? David Dudley Field, the great lawyer, who escorted him to the
+platform; William Cullen Bryant, the great poet, who presided over the
+meeting?
+
+Judging from after effects, the audience quickly forgot these
+questioning thoughts. They had but time to note Mr. Lincoln's impressive
+stature, his strongly marked features, the clear ring of his rather
+high-pitched voice, and the almost commanding earnestness of his manner.
+His beginning foreshadowed a dry argument using as a text Douglas's
+phrase that "our fathers, when they framed the government under which we
+live, understood this question just as well and even better than we do
+now," But the concise statements, the strong links of reasoning, and the
+irresistible conclusions of the argument with which the speaker followed
+his close historical analysis of how "our fathers" understood "this
+question," held every listener as though each were individually merged
+in the speaker's thought and demonstration.
+
+"It is surely safe to assume," said he, with emphasis, "that the
+thirty-nine framers of the original Constitution and the seventy-six
+members of the Congress which framed the amendments thereto, taken
+together, do certainly include those who may be fairly called 'our
+fathers who framed the government under which we live.' And, so
+assuming, I defy any man to show that any one of them ever, in his whole
+life, declared that, in his understanding, any proper division of local
+from Federal authority, or any part of the Constitution, forbade the
+Federal government to control as to slavery in the Federal Territories."
+
+With equal skill he next dissected the complaints, the demands, and the
+threats to dissolve the Union made by the Southern States, pointed out
+their emptiness, their fallacy, and their injustice, and defined the
+exact point and center of the agitation.
+
+"Holding, as they do," said he, "that slavery is morally right and
+socially elevating, they cannot cease to demand a full national
+recognition of it, as a legal right and a social blessing. Nor can we
+justifiably withhold this on any ground, save our conviction that
+slavery is wrong. 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 justly object to its
+nationality--its universality! If it is wrong, they cannot justly insist
+upon its extension--its enlargement. All they ask we could readily
+grant, if we thought slavery right; all we ask they could as readily
+grant, if they thought it wrong. Their thinking it right, and our
+thinking it wrong, is the precise fact upon which depends the whole
+controversy.... 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 the free States? If our sense of duty forbids this,
+then let us stand by our duty, fearlessly and effectively. Let us be
+diverted by none of those sophistical contrivances wherewith we are so
+industriously plied and belabored, contrivances such as groping for some
+middle ground between the right and the wrong, vain as the search for a
+man who should be neither a living man nor a dead man; such as a policy
+of 'don't care,' on a question about which all true men do care; such as
+Union appeals beseeching true Union men to yield to disunionists;
+reversing the divine rule, and calling, not the sinners, but the
+righteous to repentance; such as invocations to Washington, imploring
+men to unsay what Washington said, and undo what Washington did. Neither
+let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, nor
+frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the government nor of
+dungeons to ourselves. Let us have faith that right makes might, and in
+that faith let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it."
+
+The close attention bestowed on its delivery, the hearty applause that
+greeted its telling points, and the enthusiastic comments of the
+Republican journals next morning showed that Lincoln's Cooper Institute
+speech had taken New York by storm. It was printed in full in four of
+the leading New York dailies, and at once went into large circulation in
+carefully edited pamphlet editions. From New York, Lincoln made a tour
+of speech-making through several of the New England States, and was
+everywhere received with enthusiastic welcome and listened to with an
+eagerness that bore a marked result in their spring elections. The
+interest of the factory men who listened to these addresses was equaled,
+perhaps excelled, by the gratified surprise of college professors when
+they heard the style and method of a popular Western orator that would
+bear the test of their professional criticism and compare with the best
+examples in their standard text-books.
+
+The attitude of the Democratic party in the coming presidential campaign
+was now also rapidly taking shape. Great curiosity existed whether the
+radical differences between its Northern and Southern wings could by any
+possibility be removed or adjusted, whether the adherents of Douglas and
+those of Buchanan could be brought to join in a common platform and in
+the support of a single candidate. The Democratic leaders in the
+Southern States had become more and more out-spoken in their pro-slavery
+demands. They had advanced step by step from the repeal of the Missouri
+Compromise in 1854, the attempt to capture Kansas by Missouri invasions
+in 1855 and 1856, the support of the Dred Scott decision and the
+Lecompton fraud in 1857, the repudiation of Douglas's Freeport heresy in
+1858, to the demand for a congressional slave code for the Territories
+and the recognition of the doctrine of property in slaves. These last
+two points they had distinctly formulated in the first session of the
+Thirty-sixth Congress. On January 18, 1860, Senator Brown of Mississippi
+introduced into the Senate two resolutions, one asserting the
+nationality of slavery, the other that, when necessary, Congress should
+pass laws for its protection in the Territories. On February 2 Jefferson
+Davis introduced another series of resolutions intended to serve as a
+basis for the national Democratic platform, the central points of which
+were that the right to take and hold slaves in the Territories could
+neither be impaired nor annulled, and that it was the duty of Congress
+to supply any deficiency of laws for its protection. Perhaps even more
+significant than these formulated doctrines was the pro-slavery spirit
+manifested in the congressional debates. Two months were wasted in a
+parliamentary struggle to prevent the election of the Republican, John
+Sherman, as Speaker of the House of Representatives, because the
+Southern members charged that he had recommended an "abolition" book;
+during which time the most sensational and violent threats of disunion
+were made in both the House and the Senate, containing repeated
+declarations that they would never submit to the inauguration of a
+"Black Republican" President.
+
+When the national Democratic convention met at Charleston, on April 23,
+1860, there at once became evident the singular condition that the
+delegates from the free States were united and enthusiastic in their
+determination to secure the nomination of Douglas as the Democratic
+candidate for President, while the delegates from the slave States were
+equally united and determined upon forcing the acceptance of an extreme
+pro-slavery platform. All expectations of a compromise, all hope of
+coming to an understanding by juggling omissions or evasions in their
+declaration of party principles were quickly dissipated. The platform
+committee, after three days and nights of fruitless effort, presented
+two antagonistic reports. The majority report declared that neither
+Congress nor a territorial legislature could abolish or prohibit slavery
+in the Territories, and that it was the duty of the Federal government
+to protect it when necessary. To this doctrine the Northern members
+could not consent; but they were willing to adopt the ambiguous
+declaration that property rights in slaves were judicial in their
+character, and that they would abide the decisions of the Supreme Court
+on such questions.
+
+The usual expedient of recommitting both reports brought no relief from
+the deadlock. A second majority and a second minority report exhibited
+the same irreconcilable divergence in slightly different language, and
+the words of mutual defiance exchanged in debating the first report rose
+to a parliamentary storm when the second came under discussion. On the
+seventh day the convention came to a vote, and, the Northern delegates
+being in the majority, the minority report was substituted for that of
+the majority of the committee by one hundred and sixty-five to one
+hundred and thirty-eight delegates--in other words, the Douglas
+platform was declared adopted. Upon this the delegates of the cotton
+States--Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, South Carolina, Florida, Texas,
+and Arkansas--withdrew from the convention. It soon appeared, however,
+that the Douglas delegates had achieved only a barren victory. Their
+majority could indeed adopt a platform, but, under the acknowledged
+two-thirds rule which governs Democratic national conventions, they had
+not sufficient votes to nominate their candidate. During the fifty-seven
+ballots taken, the Douglas men could muster only one hundred and
+fifty-two and one half votes of the two hundred and two necessary to a
+choice; and to prevent mere slow disintegration the convention adjourned
+on the tenth day, under a resolution to reassemble in Baltimore on June
+18.
+
+Nothing was gained, however, by the delay. In the interim, Jefferson
+Davis and nineteen other Southern leaders published an address
+commending the withdrawal of the cotton States delegates, and in a
+Senate debate Davis laid down the plain proposition, "We want nothing
+more than a simple declaration that negro slaves are property, and we
+want the recognition of the obligation of the Federal government to
+protect that property like all other."
+
+Upon the reassembling of the Charleston convention at Baltimore, it
+underwent a second disruption on the fifth day; the Northern wing
+nominated Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois, and the Southern wing John C.
+Breckinridge of Kentucky as their respective candidates for President.
+In the meanwhile, also, regular and irregular delegates from some
+twenty-two States, representing fragments of the old Whig party, had
+convened at Baltimore on May 9 and nominated John Bell of Tennessee as
+their candidate for President, upon a platform ignoring the slavery
+issue and declaring that they would "recognize no other political
+principle than the Constitution of the country, the union of the States,
+and the enforcement of the laws."
+
+In the long contest between slavery extension and slavery restriction
+which was now approaching its culmination the growing demands and
+increasing bitterness of the pro-slavery party had served in an equal
+degree to intensify the feelings and stimulate the efforts of the
+Republican party; and, remembering the encouraging opposition strength
+which the united vote of Fremont and Fillmore had shown in 1856, they
+felt encouraged to hope for possible success in 1860, since the Fillmore
+party had practically disappeared throughout the free States. When,
+therefore, the Charleston convention was rent asunder and adjourned on
+May 10 without making a nomination, the possibility of Republican
+victory seemed to have risen to probability. Such a feeling inspired the
+eager enthusiasm of the delegates to the Republican national convention
+which met, according to appointment, at Chicago on May 16.
+
+A large, temporary wooden building, christened "The Wigwam," had been
+erected in which to hold its sessions, and it was estimated that ten
+thousand persons were assembled in it to witness the proceedings.
+William H. Seward of New York was recognized as the leading candidate,
+but Chase of Ohio, Cameron of Pennsylvania, Bates of Missouri, and
+several prominent Republicans from other States were known to have
+active and zealous followers. The name of Abraham Lincoln had also often
+been mentioned during his growing fame, and, fully a year before, an
+ardent Republican editor of Illinois had requested permission to
+announce him in his newspaper. Lincoln, however, discouraged such
+action at that time, answering him:
+
+"As to the other matter you kindly mention, I must in candor say I do
+not think myself fit for the presidency. I certainly am flattered and
+gratified that some partial friends think of me in that connection; but
+I really think it best for our cause that no concerted effort, such as
+you suggest, should be made."
+
+He had given an equally positive answer to an eager Ohio friend in the
+preceding July; but about Christmas 1859, an influential caucus of his
+strongest Illinois adherents made a personal request that he would
+permit them to use his name, and he gave his consent, not so much in any
+hope of becoming the nominee for President, as in possibly reaching the
+second place on the ticket; or at least of making such a showing of
+strength before the convention as would aid him in his future senatorial
+ambition at home, or perhaps carry him into the cabinet of the
+Republican President, should one succeed. He had not been eager to enter
+the lists, but once having agreed to do so, it was but natural that he
+should manifest a becoming interest, subject, however, now as always, to
+his inflexible rule of fair dealing and honorable faith to all his party
+friends.
+
+"I do not understand Trumbull and myself to be rivals," he wrote
+December 9, 1859. "You know I am pledged not to enter a struggle with
+him for the seat in the Senate now occupied by him; and yet I would
+rather have a full term in the Senate than in the presidency."
+
+And on February 9 he wrote to the same Illinois friend:
+
+"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. What I expected when I wrote the
+the letter to Messrs. Dole and others is now happening. Your discomfited
+assailants are most bitter against me; and they will, for revenge upon
+me, lay to the Bates egg in the South, and to the Seward egg in the
+North, and go far toward squeezing me out in the middle with nothing.
+Can you not help me a little in this matter in your end of the
+vineyard?"
+
+It turned out that the delegates whom the Illinois State convention sent
+to the national convention at Chicago were men not only of exceptional
+standing and ability, but filled with the warmest zeal for Mr. Lincoln's
+success; and they were able at once to impress upon delegates from other
+States his sterling personal worth and fitness, and his superior
+availability. It needed but little political arithmetic to work out the
+sum of existing political chances. It was almost self-evident that in
+the coming November election victory or defeat would hang upon the
+result in the four pivotal States of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indiana,
+and Illinois. It was quite certain that no Republican candidate could
+carry a single one of the fifteen slave States; and equally sure that
+Breckinridge, on his extreme pro-slavery platform, could not carry a
+single one of the eighteen free States. But there was a chance that one
+or more of these four pivotal free States might cast its vote for
+Douglas and popular sovereignty.
+
+A candidate was needed, therefore, who could successfully cope with
+Douglas and the Douglas theory; and this ability had been convincingly
+demonstrated by Lincoln. As a mere personal choice, a majority of the
+convention would have preferred Seward; but in the four pivotal States
+there were many voters who believed Seward's antislavery views to be
+too radical. They shrank apprehensively from the phrase in one of his
+speeches that "there is a higher law than the Constitution." These
+pivotal States all lay adjoining slave States, and their public opinion
+was infected with something of the undefined dread of "abolitionism."
+When the delegates of the pivotal States were interviewed, they frankly
+confessed that they could not carry their States for Seward, and that
+would mean certain defeat if he were the nominee for President. For
+their voters Lincoln stood on more acceptable ground. His speeches had
+been more conservative; his local influence in his own State of Illinois
+was also a factor not to be idly thrown away.
+
+Plain, practical reasoning of this character found ready acceptance
+among the delegates to the convention. Their eagerness for the success
+of the cause largely overbalanced their personal preferences for
+favorite aspirants. When the convention met, the fresh, hearty
+hopefulness of its members was a most inspiring reflection of the public
+opinion in the States that sent them. They went at their work with an
+earnestness which was an encouraging premonition of success, and they
+felt a gratifying support in the presence of the ten thousand spectators
+who looked on at their work. Few conventions have ever been pervaded by
+such a depth of feeling, or exhibited such a reserve of latent
+enthusiasm. The cheers that greeted the entrance of popular favorites,
+and the short speeches on preliminary business, ran and rolled through
+the great audience in successive moving waves of sound that were echoed
+and reechoed from side to side of the vast building. Not alone the
+delegates on the central platform, but the multitude of spectators as
+well, felt that they were playing a part in a great historical event.
+
+The temporary, and afterward the permanent organization, was finished on
+the first day, with somewhat less than usual of the wordy and
+tantalizing small talk which these routine proceedings always call
+forth. On the second day the platform committee submitted its work,
+embodying the carefully considered and skilfully framed body of
+doctrines upon which the Republican party, made up only four years
+before from such previously heterogeneous and antagonistic political
+elements was now able to find common and durable ground of agreement.
+Around its central tenet, which denied "the authority of Congress, of a
+territorial legislature, or of any individuals, to give legal existence
+to slavery in any territory of the United States," were grouped vigorous
+denunciations of the various steps and incidents of the pro-slavery
+reaction, and its prospective demands; while its positive
+recommendations embraced the immediate admission of Kansas, free
+homesteads to actual settlers, river and harbor improvements of a
+national character, a railroad to the Pacific Ocean, and the maintenance
+of existing naturalization laws.
+
+The platform was about to be adopted without objection when a flurry of
+discussion arose over an amendment, proposed by Mr. Giddings of Ohio, to
+incorporate in it that phrase of the Declaration of Independence which
+declares the right of all men to life, liberty, and the pursuit of
+happiness. Impatience was at once manifested lest any change should
+produce endless delay and dispute. "I believe in the Ten Commandments,"
+commented a member, "but I do not want them in a political platform";
+and the proposition was voted down. Upon this the old antislavery
+veteran felt himself agrieved, and, taking up his hat, marched out of
+the convention. In the course of an hour's desultory discussion
+however, a member, with stirring oratorical emphasis, asked whether the
+convention was prepared to go upon record before the country as voting
+down the words of the Declaration of Independence--whether the men of
+1860, on the free prairies of the West, quailed before repeating the
+words enunciated by the men of '76 at Philadelphia. In an impulse of
+patriotic reaction, the amendment was incorporated into the platform,
+and Mr. Giddings was brought back by his friends, his face beaming with
+triumph; and the stormy acclaim of the audience manifested the deep
+feeling which the incident evoked.
+
+On the third day it was certain that balloting would begin, and crowds
+hurried to the Wigwam in a fever of curiosity. Having grown restless at
+the indispensable routine preliminaries, when Mr. Evarts nominated
+William H. Seward of New York for President, they greeted his name with
+a perfect storm of applause. Then Mr. Judd nominated Abraham Lincoln of
+Illinois and in the tremendous cheering that broke from the throats of
+his admirers and followers the former demonstration dwindled to
+comparative feebleness. Again and again these contests of lungs and
+enthusiasm were repeated as the choice of New York was seconded by
+Michigan, and that of Illinois by Indiana.
+
+When other names had been duly presented, the cheering at length
+subsided, and the chairman announced that balloting would begin. Many
+spectators had provided themselves with tally-lists, and when the first
+roll-call was completed were able at once to perceive the drift of
+popular preference. Cameron, Chase, Bates, McLean, Dayton, and Collamer
+were indorsed by the substantial votes of their own States; but two
+names stood out in marked superiority: Seward, who had received one
+hundred and seventy-three and one half votes, and Lincoln, one hundred
+and two.
+
+The New York delegation was so thoroughly persuaded of the final success
+of their candidate that they did not comprehend the significance of this
+first ballot. Had they reflected that their delegation alone had
+contributed seventy votes to Seward's total, they would have understood
+that outside of the Empire State, upon this first showing, Lincoln held
+their favorite almost an even race. As the second ballot progressed,
+their anxiety visibly increased. They watched with eagerness as the
+complimentary votes first cast for State favorites were transferred now
+to one, now to the other of the recognized leaders in the contest, and
+their hopes sank when the result of the second ballot was announced:
+Seward, one hundred and eighty-four and one half, Lincoln, one hundred
+and eighty-one; and a volume of applause, which was with difficulty
+checked by the chairman, shook the Wigwam at this announcement.
+
+Then followed a short interval of active caucusing in the various
+delegations, while excited men went about rapidly interchanging
+questions, solicitations, and messages between delegations from
+different States. Neither candidate had yet received a majority of all
+the votes cast, and the third ballot was begun amid a deep, almost
+painful suspense, delegates and spectators alike recording each
+announcement of votes on their tally-sheets with nervous fingers. But
+the doubt was of short duration. The second ballot had unmistakably
+pointed out the winning man. Hesitating delegations and fragments from
+many States steadily swelled the Lincoln column. Long before the
+secretaries made the official announcement, the totals had been figured
+up: Lincoln, two hundred and thirty one and one half, Seward, one
+hundred and eighty. Counting the scattering votes, four hundred and
+sixty-five ballots had been cast, and two hundred and thirty-three were
+necessary to a choice. Seward had lost four and one half, Lincoln had
+gained fifty and one half, and only one and one half votes more were
+needed to make a nomination.
+
+The Wigwam suddenly became as still as a church, and everybody leaned
+forward to see whose voice would break the spell. Before the lapse of a
+minute, David K. Cartter sprang upon his chair and reported a change of
+four Ohio votes from Chase to Lincoln. Then a teller shouted a name
+toward the skylight, and the boom of cannon from the roof of the Wigwam
+announced the nomination and started the cheering of the overjoyed
+Illinoisans down the long Chicago streets; while in the Wigwam,
+delegation after delegation changed its vote to the victor amid a tumult
+of hurrahs. When quiet was somewhat restored, Mr. Evarts, speaking for
+New York and for Seward, moved to make the nomination unanimous, and Mr.
+Browning gracefully returned the thanks of Illinois for the honor the
+convention had conferred upon the State. In the afternoon the convention
+completed its work by nominating Hannibal Hamlin of Maine for
+Vice-President; and as the delegates sped homeward in the night trains,
+they witnessed, in the bonfires and cheering crowds at the stations,
+that a memorable presidential campaign was already begun.
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+Candidates and Platforms--The Political Chances--Decatur Lincoln
+Resolution--John Hanks and the Lincoln Rails--The Rail-Splitter
+Candidate--The Wide-Awakes--Douglas's Southern Tour--Jefferson Davis's
+Address--Fusion--Lincoln at the State House--The Election Result
+
+
+The nomination of Lincoln at Chicago completed the preparations of the
+different parties of the country for the presidential contest of 1860;
+and presented the unusual occurrence of an appeal to the voters of the
+several States by four distinct political organizations. In the order of
+popular strength which they afterward developed, they were:
+
+1. The Republican party, whose platform declared in substance that
+slavery was wrong, and that its further extension should be prohibited
+by Congress. Its candidates were Abraham Lincoln of Illinois for
+President and Hannibal Hamlin of Maine for Vice-president.
+
+2. The Douglas wing of the Democratic party, which declared indifference
+whether slavery were right or wrong, extended or prohibited, and
+proposed to permit the people of a Territory to decide whether they
+would prevent or establish it. Its candidates were Stephen A. Douglas of
+Illinois for President, and Herschel V. Johnson of Georgia for
+Vice-President.
+
+3. The Buchanan wing of the Democratic party, which declared that
+slavery was right and beneficial, and whose policy was to extend the
+institution, and create new slave States. Its candidates were John C.
+Breckinridge of Kentucky for President, and Joseph Lane of Oregon for
+Vice-President.
+
+4. The Constitutional Union party, which professed to ignore the
+question of slavery, and declared it would recognize no political
+principles other than "the Constitution of the country, the union of the
+States, and the enforcement of the laws." Its candidates were John Bell
+of Tennessee for President, and Edward Everett of Massachusetts for
+Vice-President.
+
+In the array of these opposing candidates and their platforms, it could
+be easily calculated from the very beginning that neither Lincoln nor
+Douglas had any chance to carry a slave State, nor Breckinridge nor Bell
+to carry a free State; and that neither Douglas in the free States, nor
+Bell in either section could obtain electoral votes enough to succeed.
+Therefore, but two alternatives seemed probable. Either Lincoln would be
+chosen by electoral votes, or, upon his failure to obtain a sufficient
+number, the election would be thrown into the House of Representatives,
+in which case the course of combination, chance, or intrigue could not
+be foretold. The political situation and its possible results thus
+involved a degree of uncertainty sufficient to hold out a contingent
+hope to all the candidates and to inspire the followers of each to
+active exertion. This hope and inspiration, added to the hot temper
+which the long discussion of antagonistic principles had engendered,
+served to infuse into the campaign enthusiasm, earnestness, and even
+bitterness, according to local conditions in the different sections.
+
+In campaign enthusiasm the Republican party easily took the lead. About
+a week before his nomination, Mr. Lincoln had been present at the
+Illinois State convention at Decatur in Coles County, not far from the
+old Lincoln home, when, at a given signal, there marched into the
+convention old John Hanks, one of his boyhood companions, and another
+pioneer, who bore on their shoulders two long fence rails decorated with
+a banner inscribed: "Two rails from a lot made by Abraham Lincoln and
+John Hanks in the Sangamon Bottom in the year 1830." They were greeted
+with a tremendous shout of applause from the whole convention succeeded
+by a united call for Lincoln, who sat on the platform. The tumult would
+not subside until he rose to speak, when he said:
+
+"GENTLEMEN: I suppose you want to know something about those things
+[pointing to old John and the rails]. Well, the truth is, John Hanks and
+I did make rails in the Sagamon Bottom. I don't know whether we made
+those rails or not; fact is, I don't think they are a credit to the
+makers [laughing as he spoke]. But I do know this: I made rails then,
+and I think I could make better ones than these now."
+
+Still louder cheering followed this short, but effective reply. But the
+convention was roused to its full warmth of enthusiasm when a resolution
+was immediately and unanimously adopted declaring that "Abraham Lincoln
+is the first choice of the Republican party of Illinois for the
+Presidency," and directing the delegates to the Chicago convention "to
+use all honorable means to secure his nomination, and to cast the vote
+of the State as a unit for him."
+
+It was this resolution which the Illinois delegation had so successfully
+carried out at Chicago. And, besides they had carried with them the two
+fence rails, and set them up in state at the Lincoln headquarters at
+their hotel, where enthusiastic lady friends gaily trimmed them with
+flowers and ribbons and lighted them up with tapers. These slight
+preliminaries, duly embellished in the newspapers, gave the key to the
+Republican campaign, which designated Lincoln as the Rail-splitter
+Candidate, and, added to his common Illinois sobriquet of "Honest Old
+Abe," furnished both country and city campaign orators a powerfully
+sympathetic appeal to the rural and laboring element of the United
+States.
+
+When these homely but picturesque appellations were fortified by the
+copious pamphlet and newspaper biographies in which people read the
+story of his humble beginnings, and how he had risen, by dint of simple,
+earnest work and native genius, through privation and difficulty, first
+to fame and leadership in his State, and now to fame and leadership in
+the nation, they grew quickly into symbols of a faith and trust destined
+to play no small part in a political revolution of which the people at
+large were not as yet even dreaming.
+
+Another feature of the campaign also quickly developed itself. On the
+preceding 5th of March, one of Mr. Lincoln's New England speeches had
+been made at Hartford, Connecticut; and at its close he was escorted to
+his hotel by a procession of the local Republican club, at the head of
+which marched a few of its members bearing torches and wearing caps and
+capes of glazed oilcloth, the primary purpose of which was to shield
+their clothes from the dripping oil of their torches. Both the
+simplicity and the efficiency of the uniform caught the popular eye, as
+did also the name, "Wide-Awakes," applied to them by the "Hartford
+Courant." The example found quick imitation in Hartford and adjoining
+towns, and when Mr. Lincoln was made candidate for President, every
+city, town, and nearly every village in the North, within a brief space,
+had its organized Wide-Awake club, with their half-military uniform and
+drill; and these clubs were often, later in the campaign, gathered into
+imposing torch-light processions, miles in length, on occasions of
+important party meetings and speech-making. It was the revived spirit of
+the Harrison campaign of twenty years before; but now, shorn of its fun
+and frolic, it was strengthened by the power of organization and the
+tremendous impetus of earnest devotion to a high principle.
+
+It was a noteworthy feature of the campaign that the letters of
+acceptance of all the candidates, either in distinct words or
+unmistakable implication, declared devotion to the Union, while at the
+same time the adherents of each were charging disunion sentiments and
+intentions upon the other three parties. Douglas himself made a tour of
+speech-making through the Southern States, in which, while denouncing
+the political views of both Lincoln and Breckinridge, he nevertheless
+openly declared, in response to direct questions, that no grievance
+could justify disunion, and that he was ready "to put the hemp around
+the neck and hang any man who would raise the arm of resistance to the
+constituted authorities of the country."
+
+During the early part of the campaign the more extreme Southern
+fire-eaters abated somewhat of their violent menaces of disunion.
+Between the Charleston and the Baltimore Democratic conventions an
+address published by Jefferson Davis and other prominent leaders had
+explained that the seventeen Democratic States which had voted at
+Charleston for the seceders' platform could, if united with Pennsylvania
+alone, elect the Democratic nominees against all opposition. This hope
+doubtless floated before their eyes like a will-o'-the-wisp until the
+October elections dispelled all possibility of securing Pennsylvania for
+Breckinridge. From that time forward there began a renewal of disunion
+threats, which, by their constant increase throughout the South,
+prepared the public mind of that section for the coming secession.
+
+As the chances of Republican success gradually grew stronger, an
+undercurrent of combination developed itself among those politicians of
+the three opposing parties more devoted to patronage than principle, to
+bring about the fusion of Lincoln's opponents on some agreed ratio of a
+division of the spoils. Such a combination made considerable progress in
+the three Northern States of New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. It
+appears to have been engineered mainly by the Douglas faction, though,
+it must be said to his credit, against the open and earnest protest of
+Douglas himself. But the thrifty plotters cared little for his
+disapproval.
+
+By the secret manipulations of conventions and committees a fusion
+electoral ticket was formed in New York, made up of adherents of the
+three different factions in the following proportion: Douglas, eighteen;
+Bell, ten; Breckinridge, seven; and the whole opposition vote of the
+State of New York was cast for this fusion ticket. The same tactics were
+pursued in Pennsylvania, where, however, the agreement was not so openly
+avowed. One third of the Pennsylvania fusion electoral candidates were
+pledged to Douglas; the division of the remaining two thirds between
+Bell and Breckinridge was not made public. The bulk of the Pennsylvania
+opposition vote was cast for this fusion ticket, but a respectable
+percentage refused to be bargained away, and voted directly for Douglas
+or Bell. In New Jersey a definite agreement was reached by the managers,
+and an electoral ticket formed, composed of two adherents of Bell, two
+of Breckinridge, and three of Douglas; and in this State a practical
+result was effected by the movement. A fraction of the Douglas voters
+formed a straight electoral ticket, adopting the three Douglas
+candidates on the fusion ticket, and by this action these three Douglas
+electors received a majority vote in New Jersey, On the whole, however,
+the fusion movement proved ineffectual to defeat Lincoln and, indeed, it
+would not have done so even had the fusion electoral tickets deceived a
+majority in all three of the above-named States.
+
+The personal habits and surroundings of Mr. Lincoln were varied
+somewhat, though but slightly, during the whole of this election summer.
+Naturally, he withdrew at once from active work, leaving his law office
+and his whole law business to his partner, William H. Herndon; while his
+friends installed him in the governor's room in the State House at
+Springfield, which was not otherwise needed during the absence of the
+legislature. Here he spent the time during the usual business hours of
+the day, attended only by his private secretary, Mr. Nicolay. Friends
+and strangers alike were thus able to visit him freely and without
+ceremony and they availed themselves largely of the opportunity. Few, if
+any, went away without being favorably impressed by his hearty Western
+greeting, and the frank sincerity of his manner and conversation, in
+which, naturally, all subjects of controversy were courteously and
+instinctively avoided by both the candidate and his visitors.
+
+By none was this free, neighborly intercourse enjoyed more than by the
+old-time settlers of Sangamon and the adjoining counties, who came to
+revive the incidents and memories of pioneer days with one who could
+give them such thorough and appreciative interest and sympathy. He
+employed no literary bureau, wrote no public letters, made no set or
+impromptu speeches, except that once or twice during great political
+meetings at Springfield he uttered a few words of greeting and thanks to
+passing street processions. All these devices of propagandism he left to
+the leaders and committees of his adherents in their several States.
+Even the strictly confidential letters in which he indicated his advice
+on points in the progress of the campaign did not exceed a dozen in
+number; and when politicians came to interview him at Springfield, he
+received them in the privacy of his own home, and generally their
+presence created little or no public notice. Cautious politician as he
+was, he did not permit himself to indulge in any over-confidence, but
+then, as always before, showed unusual skill in estimating political
+chances. Thus he wrote about a week after the Chicago convention:
+
+"So far as I can learn, the nominations start well everywhere; and, if
+they get no backset, it would seem as if they are going through."
+
+Again, on July 4:
+
+"Long before this you have learned who was nominated at Chicago. We know
+not what a day may bring forth, but to-day it looks as if the Chicago
+ticket will be elected."
+
+And on September 22, to a friend in Oregon:
+
+"No one on this side of the mountains pretends that any ticket can be
+elected by the people, unless it be ours. Hence, great efforts to
+combine against us are being made, which, however, as yet have not had
+much success Besides what we see in the newspapers, I have a good deal
+of private correspondence; and, without giving details, I will only say
+it all looks very favorable to our success."
+
+His judgment was abundantly verified at the presidential election,
+which occurred upon November 6, 1860. Lincoln electors were chosen in
+every one of the free States except New Jersey, where, as has already
+been stated, three Douglas electors received majorities because their
+names were on both the fusion ticket and the straight Douglas ticket;
+while the other four Republican electors in that State succeeded. Of the
+slave States, eleven chose Breckinridge electors, three of them Bell
+electors, and one of them--Missouri--Douglas electors. As provided by
+law, the electors met in their several States on December 5, to
+officially cast their votes, and on February 13, 1861, Congress in joint
+session of the two Houses made the official count as follows: for
+Lincoln, one hundred and eighty; for Breckinridge, seventy-two; for
+Bell, thirty-nine; and for Douglas, twelve; giving Lincoln a clear
+majority of fifty-seven in the whole electoral college. Thereupon
+Breckinridge, who presided over the joint session, officially declared
+that Abraham Lincoln was duly elected President of the United States for
+four years, beginning March 4, 1861.
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+Lincoln's Cabinet Program--Members from the South--Questions and
+Answers--Correspondence with Stephens--Action of Congress--Peace
+Convention--Preparation of the Inaugural--Lincoln's Farewell
+Address--The Journey to Washington--Lincoln's Midnight Journey
+
+
+During the long presidential campaign of 1860, between the Chicago
+convention in the middle of May and the election at the beginning of
+November, Mr. Lincoln, relieved from all other duties, had watched
+political developments with very close attention not merely to discern
+the progress of his own chances, but, doubtless, also, much more
+seriously to deliberate upon the future in case he should be elected.
+But it was only when, on the night of November 6, he sat in the
+telegraph office at Springfield, from which all but himself and the
+operators were excluded, and read the telegrams as they fell from the
+wires, that little by little the accumulating Republican majorities
+reported from all directions convinced him of the certainty of his
+success; and with that conviction there fell upon him the overwhelming,
+almost crushing weight of his coming duties and responsibilities. He
+afterward related that in that supreme hour, grappling resolutely with
+the mighty problem before him, he practically completed the first
+essential act of his administration, the selection of his future
+cabinet--the choice of the men who were to aid him.
+
+From what afterward occurred, we may easily infer the general principle
+which guided his choice. One of his strongest characteristics, as his
+speeches abundantly show, was his belief in the power of public opinion,
+and his respect for the popular will. That was to be found and to be
+wielded by the leaders of public sentiment In the present instance there
+were no truer representatives of that will than the men who had been
+prominently supported by the delegates to the Chicago convention for the
+presidential nominations. Of these he would take at least three, perhaps
+four, to compose one half of his cabinet. In selecting Seward, Chase,
+Bates, and Cameron, he could also satisfy two other points of the
+representative principle, the claims of locality and the elements of
+former party divisions now joined in the newly organized Republican
+party. With Seward from New York, Cameron from Pennsylvania, Chase from
+Ohio, and himself from Illinois, the four leading free States had each a
+representative. With Bates from Missouri, the South could not complain
+of being wholly excluded from the cabinet. New England was properly
+represented by Vice-President Hamlin. When, after the inauguration,
+Smith from Indiana Welles from Connecticut, and Blair from Maryland were
+added to make up the seven cabinet members, the local distribution
+between East and West, North and South, was in no wise disturbed. It
+was, indeed, complained that in this arrangement there were four former
+Democrats, and only three former Whigs; to which Lincoln laughingly
+replied that he had been a Whig, and would be there to make the number
+even.
+
+It is not likely that this exact list was in Lincoln's mind on the night
+of the November election, but only the principal names in it; and much
+delay and some friction occurred before its completion. The post of
+Secretary of State was offered to Seward on December 8.
+
+"Rumors have got into the newspapers," wrote Lincoln, "to the effect
+that the department named above would be tendered you as a compliment,
+and with the expectation that you would decline it. I beg you to be
+assured that I have said nothing to justify these rumors. On the
+contrary, it has been my purpose, from the day of the nomination at
+Chicago, to assign you, by your leave, this place in the
+administration."
+
+Seward asked a few days for reflection, and then cordially accepted.
+Bates was tendered the Attorney-Generalship on December 15, while making
+a personal visit to Springfield. Word had been meanwhile sent to Smith
+that he would probably be included. The assignment of places to Chase
+and Cameron worked less smoothly. Lincoln wrote Cameron a note on
+January 3, saying he would nominate him for either Secretary of the
+Treasury or Secretary of War, he had not yet decided which; and on the
+same day, in an interview with Chase, whom he had invited to
+Springfield, said to him:
+
+"I have done with you what I would not perhaps have ventured to do with
+any other man in the country--sent for you to ask whether you will
+accept the appointment of Secretary of the Treasury, without, however,
+being exactly prepared to offer it to you."
+
+They discussed the situation very fully, but without reaching a definite
+conclusion, agreeing to await the advice of friends. Meanwhile, the
+rumor that Cameron was to go into the cabinet excited such hot
+opposition that Lincoln felt obliged to recall his tender in a
+confidential letter; and asked him to write a public letter declining
+the place. Instead of doing this, Cameron fortified himself with
+recommendations from prominent Pennsylvanians, and demonstrated that in
+his own State he had at least three advocates to one opponent.
+
+Pending the delay which this contest consumed, another cabinet
+complication found its solution. It had been warmly urged by
+conservatives that, in addition to Bates, another cabinet member should
+be taken from one of the Southern States. The difficulty of doings this
+had been clearly foreshadowed by Mr. Lincoln in a little editorial which
+he wrote for the Springfield "Journal" on December 12:
+
+"_First_. Is it known that any such gentleman of character would accept
+a place in the cabinet?
+
+"_Second_. If yea, on what terms does he surrender to Mr. Lincoln, or
+Mr. Lincoln to him, on the political differences between them, or do
+they enter upon the administration in open opposition to each other?"
+
+It was very soon demonstrated that these differences were
+insurmountable. Through Mr. Seward, who was attending his senatorial
+duties at Washington, Mr. Lincoln tentatively offered a cabinet
+appointment successively to Gilmer of North Carolina, Hunt of Louisiana
+and Scott of Virginia, no one of whom had the courage to accept.
+
+Toward the end of the recent canvass, and still more since the election,
+Mr. Lincoln had received urgent letters to make some public declaration
+to reassure and pacify the South, especially the cotton States, which
+were manifesting a constantly growing spirit of rebellion. Most of such
+letters remained unanswered, but in a number of strictly confidential
+replies he explained the reasons for his refusal.
+
+"I appreciate your motive," he wrote October 23, "when you suggest the
+propriety of my writing for the public something disclaiming all
+intention to interfere with slaves or slavery in the States: but, in my
+judgment, it would do no good. I have already done this many, many
+times; and it is in print, and open to all who will read. Those who will
+not read or heed what I have already publicly said, would not read or
+heed a repetition of it. 'If they hear not Moses and the prophets,
+neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead.'"
+
+To the editor of the "Louisville Journal" he wrote October 29:
+
+"For the good men of the South--and I regard the majority of them as
+such--I have no objection to repeat seventy and seven times. But I have
+bad men to deal with, both North and South; men who are eager for
+something new upon which to base new misrepresentations; men who would
+like to frighten me, or at least to fix upon me the character of
+timidity and cowardice."
+
+Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia, who afterward became Confederate
+Vice-President, made a strong speech against secession in that State on
+November 14; and Mr. Lincoln wrote him a few lines asking for a revised
+copy of it. In the brief correspondence which ensued, Mr. Lincoln again
+wrote him under date of December 22:
+
+"I fully appreciate the present peril the country is in, and the weight
+of responsibility on me. Do the people of the South really entertain
+fears that a Republican administration would, directly or indirectly,
+interfere with the slaves, or with them about the slaves? If they do, I
+wish to assure you, as once a friend, and still, I hope, not an enemy,
+that there is no cause for such fears. The South would be in no more
+danger in this respect than it was in the days of Washington. I
+suppose, however, this does not meet the case. You think slavery is
+right and ought to be extended, while we think it is wrong and ought to
+be restricted. That, I suppose, is the rub. It certainly is the only
+substantial difference between us."
+
+So, also, replying a few days earlier in a long letter to Hon. John A.
+Gilmer of North Carolina, to whom, as already stated, he offered a
+cabinet appointment, he said:
+
+"On the territorial question I am inflexible, as you see my position in
+the book. On that there is a difference between you and us; and it is
+the only substantial difference. You think slavery is right and ought to
+be extended; we think it is wrong and ought to be restricted. For this
+neither has any just occasion to be angry with the other. As to the
+State laws, mentioned in your sixth question, I really know very little
+of them. I never have read one. If any of them are in conflict with the
+fugitive-slave clause, or any other part of the Constitution, I
+certainly shall be glad of their repeal; but I could hardly be
+justified, as a citizen of Illinois, or as President of the United
+States, to recommend the repeal of a statute of Vermont or South
+Carolina."
+
+Through his intimate correspondence with Mr. Seward and personal friends
+in Congress, Mr. Lincoln was kept somewhat informed of the hostile
+temper of the Southern leaders, and that a tremendous pressure was being
+brought upon that body by timid conservatives and the commercial
+interests in the North to bring about some kind of compromise which
+would stay the progress of disunion; and on this point he sent an
+emphatic monition to Representative Washburne on December 13:
+
+"Your long letter received. Prevent as far as possible any of our
+friends from demoralizing themselves and their cause by entertaining
+propositions for compromise of any sort on slavery extension. There is
+no possible compromise upon it but what puts us under again, and all our
+work to do over again. Whether it be a Missouri line or Eli Thayer's
+popular sovereignty, it is all the same. Let either be done, and
+immediately filibustering and extending slavery recommences. On that
+point hold firm as a chain of steel."
+
+Between the day when a President is elected by popular vote and that on
+which he is officially inaugurated there exists an interim of four long
+months, during which he has no more direct power in the affairs of
+government than any private citizen. However anxiously Mr. Lincoln might
+watch the development of public events at Washington and in the cotton
+States; whatever appeals might come to him through interviews or
+correspondence, no positive action of any kind was within his power,
+beyond an occasional word of advice or suggestion. The position of the
+Republican leaders in Congress was not much better. Until the actual
+secession of States, and the departure of their representatives, they
+were in a minority in the Senate; while the so-called South Americans
+and Anti-Lecompton Democrats held the balance of power in the House. The
+session was mainly consumed in excited, profitless discussion. Both the
+Senate and House appointed compromise committees, which met and labored,
+but could find no common ground of agreement. A peace convention met and
+deliberated at Washington, with no practical result, except to waste the
+powder for a salute of one hundred guns over a sham report to which
+nobody paid the least attention.
+
+Throughout this period Mr. Lincoln was by no means idle. Besides the
+many difficulties he had to overcome in completing his cabinet, he
+devoted himself to writing his inaugural address. Withdrawing himself
+some hours each day from his ordinary receptions, he went to a quiet
+room on the second floor of the store occupied by his brother-in-law, on
+the south side of the public square in Springfield, where he could think
+and write in undisturbed privacy. When, after abundant reflection and
+revision, he had finished the document, he placed it in the hands of Mr.
+William H. Bailhache, one of the editors of the "Illinois State
+Journal," who locked himself and a single compositor into the
+composing-room of the "Journal." Here, in Mr. Bailhache's presence, it
+was set up, proof taken and read, and a dozen copies printed; after
+which the types were again immediately distributed. The alert newspaper
+correspondents in Springfield, who saw Mr. Lincoln every day as usual,
+did not obtain the slightest hint of what was going on.
+
+Having completed his arrangements, Mr. Lincoln started on his journey to
+Washington on February 11, 1861, on a special train, accompanied by Mrs.
+Lincoln and their three children, his two private secretaries, and a
+suite of about a dozen personal friends. Mr. Seward had suggested that
+in view of the feverish condition of public affairs, he should come a
+week earlier; but Mr. Lincoln allowed himself only time enough
+comfortably to fill the appointments he had made to visit the capitals
+and principal cities of the States on his route, in accordance with
+non-partizan invitations from their legislatures and mayors, which he
+had accepted. Standing on the front platform of the car, as the
+conductor was about to pull the bell-rope, Mr. Lincoln made the
+following brief and pathetic address of farewell to his friends and
+neighbors of Springfield--the last time his voice was ever to be heard
+in the city which had been his home for so many years:
+
+     "My friends: No one, not in my situation, can appreciate my feeling
+     of sadness at this parting. To this place, and the kindness of
+     these people, I owe everything. Here I have lived a quarter of a
+     century, and have passed from a young to an old man. Here my
+     children have been born, and one is buried. I now leave, not
+     knowing when or whether ever I may return, with a task before me
+     greater than that which rested upon Washington. Without the
+     assistance of that Divine Being who ever attended him, I cannot
+     succeed. With that assistance, I cannot fail. Trusting in Him who
+     can go with me, and remain with you, and be everywhere for good,
+     let us confidently hope that all will yet be well. To His care
+     commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will commend me, I
+     bid you an affectionate farewell."
+
+It was the beginning of a memorable journey. On the whole route from
+Springfield to Washington, at almost every station, even the smallest,
+was gathered a crowd of people in hope to catch a glimpse of the face of
+the President-elect, or, at least, to see the flying train. At the
+larger stopping-places these gatherings were swelled to thousands, and
+in the great cities into almost unmanageable assemblages. Everywhere
+there were vociferous calls for Mr. Lincoln, and, if he showed himself,
+for a speech. Whenever there was sufficient time, he would step to the
+rear platform of the car and bow his acknowledgments as the train was
+moving away, and sometimes utter a few words of thanks and greeting. At
+the capitals of Indiana, Ohio, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania,
+as also in the cities of Cincinnati, Cleveland, Buffalo, New York, and
+Philadelphia, a halt was made for one or two days, and a program was
+carried out of a formal visit and brief address to each house of the
+legislature, street processions, large receptions in the evening, and
+other similar ceremonies; and in each of them there was an
+unprecedented outpouring of the people to take advantage of every
+opportunity to see and to hear the future Chief Magistrate of the Union.
+
+Party foes as well as party friends made up these expectant crowds. The
+public suspense was at a degree of tension which rendered every eye and
+ear eager to catch even the slightest indication of the thoughts or
+intentions of the man who was to be the official guide of the nation in
+a crisis the course and end of which even the wisest dared not predict.
+In the twenty or thirty brief addresses delivered by Mr. Lincoln on this
+journey, he observed the utmost caution of utterance and reticence of
+declaration; yet the shades of meaning in his carefully chosen sentences
+were enough to show how alive he was to the trials and dangers
+confronting his administration, and to inspire hope and confidence in
+his judgment. He repeated that he regarded the public demonstrations not
+as belonging to himself, but to the high office with which the people
+had clothed him; and that if he failed, they could four years later
+substitute a better man in his place; and in his very first address, at
+Indianapolis, he thus emphasized their reciprocal duties:
+
+"If the union of these States and the liberties of this people shall be
+lost, it is but little to any one man of fifty-two years of age, but a
+great deal to the thirty millions of people who inhabit these United
+States, and to their posterity in all coming time. It is your business
+to rise up and preserve the Union and liberty for yourselves and not for
+me.... I appeal to you again to constantly bear in mind that not with
+politicians, not with Presidents, not with office-seekers, but with you,
+is the question, Shall the Union and shall the liberties of this country
+be preserved to the latest generations?"
+
+Many salient and interesting quotations could be made from his other
+addresses, but a comparatively few sentences will be sufficient to
+enable the reader to infer what was likely to be his ultimate conclusion
+and action. In his second speech at Indianapolis he asked the question:
+
+"On what rightful principle may a State, being not more than
+one-fiftieth part of the nation in soil and population, break up the
+nation, and then coerce a proportionally larger subdivision of itself in
+the most arbitrary way?"
+
+At Steubenville:
+
+"If the majority should not rule, who would be the judge? Where is such
+a judge to be found? We should all be bound by the majority of the
+American people--if not, then the minority must control. Would that be
+right?"
+
+At Trenton:
+
+"I shall do all that may be in my power to promote a peaceful settlement
+of all our difficulties. The man does not live who is more devoted to
+peace than I am, none who would do more to preserve it, but it may be
+necessary to put the foot down firmly."
+
+At Harrisburg:
+
+"While I am exceedingly gratified to see the manifestation upon your
+streets of your military force here, and exceedingly gratified at your
+promise to use that force upon a proper emergency--while I make these
+acknowledgments, I desire to repeat, in order to preclude any possible
+misconstruction, that I do most sincerely hope that we shall have no use
+for them; that it will never become their duty to shed blood, and most
+especially never to shed fraternal blood. I promise that so far as I may
+have wisdom to direct, if so painful a result shall in any wise be
+brought about, it shall be through no fault of mine."
+
+While Mr. Lincoln was yet at Philadelphia, he was met by Mr. Frederick
+W. Seward, son of Senator Seward, who brought him an important
+communication from his father and General Scott at Washington. About the
+beginning of the year serious apprehension had been felt lest a sudden
+uprising of the secessionists in Virginia and Maryland might endeavor to
+gain possession of the national capital. An investigation by a committee
+of Congress found no active military preparation to exist for such a
+purpose, but considerable traces of disaffection and local conspiracy in
+Baltimore; and, to guard against such an outbreak, President Buchanan
+had permitted his Secretary of War, Mr. Holt, to call General Scott to
+Washington and charge him with the safety of the city, not only at that
+moment, but also during the counting of the presidential returns in
+February, and the coming inauguration of Mr. Lincoln. For this purpose
+General Scott had concentrated at Washington a few companies from the
+regular army, and also, in addition, had organized and armed about nine
+hundred men of the militia of the District of Columbia.
+
+In connection with these precautions, Colonel Stone, who commanded these
+forces, had kept himself informed about the disaffection in Baltimore,
+through the agency of the New York police department. The communication
+brought by young Mr. Seward contained besides notes from his father and
+General Scott, a short report from Colonel Stone, stating that there had
+arisen within the past few days imminent danger of violence to and the
+assassination of Mr. Lincoln in his passage through Baltimore, should
+the time of that passage be known.
+
+"All risk," he suggested, "might be easily avoided by a change in the
+traveling arrangements which would bring Mr. Lincoln and a portion of
+his party through Baltimore by a night train without previous notice."
+
+The seriousness of this information was doubled by the fact that Mr.
+Lincoln had, that same day, held an interview with a prominent Chicago
+detective who had been for some weeks employed by the president of the
+Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore railway to investigate the danger
+to their property and trains from the Baltimore secessionists. The
+investigations of this detective, a Mr. Pinkerton, had been carried on
+without the knowledge of the New York detective, and he reported not
+identical, but almost similar, conditions of insurrectionary feeling and
+danger, and recommended the same precaution.
+
+Mr. Lincoln very earnestly debated the situation with his intimate
+personal friend, Hon. N.B. Judd of Chicago, perhaps the most active and
+influential member of his suite, who advised him to proceed to
+Washington that same evening on the eleven-o'clock train. "I cannot go
+to-night," replied Mr. Lincoln; "I have promised to raise the flag over
+Independence Hall to-morrow morning, and to visit the legislature at
+Harrisburg. Beyond that I have no engagements."
+
+The railroad schedule by which Mr. Lincoln had hitherto been traveling
+included a direct trip from Harrisburg, through Baltimore, to Washington
+on Saturday, February 23. When the Harrisburg ceremonies had been
+concluded on the afternoon of the 22d, the danger and the proposed
+change of program were for the first time fully laid before a
+confidential meeting of the prominent members of Mr. Lincoln's suite.
+Reasons were strongly urged both for and against the plan; but Mr.
+Lincoln finally decided and explained that while he himself was not
+afraid he would be assassinated, nevertheless, since the possibility of
+danger had been made known from two entirely independent sources, and
+officially communicated to him by his future prime minister and the
+general of the American armies, he was no longer at liberty to disregard
+it; that it was not the question of his private life, but the regular
+and orderly transmission of the authority of the government of the
+United States in the face of threatened revolution, which he had no
+right to put in the slightest jeopardy. He would, therefore, carry out
+the plan, the full details of which had been arranged with the railroad
+officials.
+
+Accordingly, that same evening, he, with a single companion, Colonel W.
+H. Lamon, took a car from Harrisburg back to Philadelphia, at which
+place, about midnight, they boarded the through train from New York to
+Washington, and without recognition or any untoward incident passed
+quietly through Baltimore, and reached the capital about daylight on the
+morning of February 23, where they were met by Mr. Seward and
+Representative Washburne of Illinois, and conducted to Willard's Hotel.
+
+When Mr. Lincoln's departure from Harrisburg became known, a reckless
+newspaper correspondent telegraphed to New York the ridiculous invention
+that he traveled disguised in a Scotch cap and long military cloak.
+There was not one word of truth in the absurd statement. Mr. Lincoln's
+family and suite proceeded to Washington by the originally arranged
+train and schedule, and witnessed great crowds in the streets of
+Baltimore, but encountered neither turbulence nor incivility of any
+kind. There was now, of course, no occasion for any, since the telegraph
+had definitely announced that the President-elect was already in
+Washington.
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+The Secession Movement--South Carolina Secession--Buchanan's
+Neglect--Disloyal Cabinet Members---Washington Central Cabal--Anderson's
+Transfer to Sumter--Star of the West--Montgomery Rebellion---Davis and
+Stephens--Corner-stone Theory--Lincoln Inaugurated--His Inaugural
+Address--Lincoln's Cabinet--The Question of Sumter--Seward's
+Memorandum--Lincoln's Answer--Bombardment of Sumter--Anderson's
+Capitulation
+
+
+It is not the province of these chapters to relate in detail the course
+of the secession movement in the cotton States in the interim which
+elapsed between the election and inauguration of President Lincoln.
+Still less can space be given to analyze and set forth the lamentable
+failure of President Buchanan to employ the executive authority and
+power of the government to prevent it, or even to hinder its
+development, by any vigorous opposition or adequate protest. The
+determination of South Carolina to secede was announced by the governor
+of that State a month before the presidential election, and on the day
+before the election he sent the legislature of the State a revolutionary
+message to formally inaugurate it. From that time forward the whole
+official machinery of the State not only led, but forced the movement
+which culminated on December 20 in the ordinance of secession by the
+South Carolina convention.
+
+This official revolution in South Carolina was quickly imitated by
+similar official revolutions ending in secession ordinances in the
+States of Mississippi, on January 9, 1861; Florida, January 10; Alabama,
+January 11; Georgia, January 19; Louisiana, January 26; and by a still
+bolder usurpation in Texas, culminating on February 1. From the day of
+the presidential election all these proceedings were known probably more
+fully to President Buchanan than to the general public, because many of
+the actors were his personal and party friends; while almost at their
+very beginning he became aware that three members of his cabinet were
+secretly or openly abetting and promoting them by their official
+influence and power.
+
+Instead of promptly dismissing these unfaithful servants, he retained
+one of them a month, and the others twice that period, and permitted
+them so far to influence his official conduct, that in his annual
+message to Congress he announced the fallacious and paradoxical doctrine
+that though a State had no right to secede, the Federal government had
+no right to coerce her to remain in the Union.
+
+Nor could he justify his non-action by the excuse that contumacious
+speeches and illegal resolves of parliamentary bodies might be tolerated
+under the American theory of free assemblage and free speech. Almost
+from the beginning of the secession movement, it was accompanied from
+time to time by overt acts both of treason and war; notably, by the
+occupation and seizure by military order and force of the seceding
+States, of twelve or fifteen harbor forts, one extensive navy-yard, half
+a dozen arsenals, three mints, four important custom-houses, three
+revenue cutters, and a variety of miscellaneous Federal property; for
+all of which insults to the flag, and infractions of the sovereignty of
+the United States, President Buchanan could recommend no more
+efficacious remedy or redress than to ask the voters of the country to
+reverse their decision given at the presidential election, and to
+appoint a day of fasting and prayer on which to implore the Most High
+"to remove from our hearts that false pride of opinion which would impel
+us to persevere in wrong for the sake of consistency."
+
+Nor must mention be omitted of the astounding phenomenon that,
+encouraged by President Buchanan's doctrine of non-coercion and purpose
+of non-action, a central cabal of Southern senators and representatives
+issued from Washington, on December 14, their public proclamation of the
+duty of secession; their executive committee using one of the rooms of
+the Capitol building itself as the headquarters of the conspiracy and
+rebellion they were appointed to lead and direct.
+
+During the month of December, while the active treason of cotton-State
+officials and the fatal neglect of the Federal executive were in their
+most damaging and demoralizing stages, an officer of the United States
+army had the high courage and distinguished honor to give the
+ever-growing revolution its first effective check. Major Robert
+Anderson, though a Kentuckian by birth and allied by marriage to a
+Georgia family, was, late in November, placed in command of the Federal
+forts in Charleston harbor; and having repeatedly reported that his
+little garrison of sixty men was insufficient for the defense of Fort
+Moultrie, and vainly asked for reinforcements which were not sent him,
+he suddenly and secretly, on the night after Christmas, transferred his
+command from the insecure position of Moultrie to the strong and
+unapproachable walls of Fort Sumter, midway in the mouth of Charleston
+harbor, where he could not be assailed by the raw Charleston militia
+companies that had for weeks been threatening him with a storming
+assault. In this stronghold, surrounded on all sides by water, he
+loyally held possession for the government and sovereignty of the United
+States.
+
+The surprised and baffled rage of the South Carolina rebels created a
+crisis at Washington that resulted in the expulsion of the President's
+treacherous counselors and the reconstruction of Mr. Buchanan's cabinet
+to unity and loyalty. The new cabinet, though unable to obtain President
+Buchanan's consent to aggressive measures to reestablish the Federal
+authority, was, nevertheless, able to prevent further concessions to the
+insurrection, and to effect a number of important defensive precautions,
+among which was the already mentioned concentration of a small military
+force to protect the national capital.
+
+Meanwhile, the governor of South Carolina had begun the erection of
+batteries to isolate and besiege Fort Sumter; and the first of these, on
+a sand-spit of Morris Island commanding the main ship-channel, by a few
+shots turned back, on January 9, the merchant steamer _Star of the
+West_, in which General Scott had attempted to send a reinforcement of
+two hundred recruits to Major Anderson. Battery building was continued
+with uninterrupted energy until a triangle of siege works was
+established on the projecting points of neighboring islands, mounting a
+total of thirty guns and seventeen mortars, manned and supported by a
+volunteer force of from four to six thousand men.
+
+Military preparation, though not on so extensive or definite a scale,
+was also carried on in the other revolted States; and while Mr. Lincoln
+was making his memorable journey from Springfield to Washington,
+telegrams were printed in the newspapers, from day to day, showing that
+their delegates had met at Montgomery, Alabama, formed a provisional
+congress, and adopted a constitution and government under the title of
+The Confederate States of America, of which they elected Jefferson Davis
+of Mississippi President, and Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia
+Vice-President.
+
+It needs to be constantly borne in mind that the beginning of this vast
+movement was not a spontaneous revolution, but a chronic conspiracy.
+"The secession of South Carolina," truly said one of the chief actors,
+"is not an event of a day. It is not anything produced by Mr. Lincoln's
+election, or by the non-execution of the fugitive-slave law. It is a
+matter which has been gathering head for thirty years." The central
+motive and dominating object of the revolution was frankly avowed by
+Vice-President Stephens in a speech he made at Savannah a few weeks
+after his inauguration:
+
+"The prevailing ideas entertained by him [Jefferson] and most of the
+leading statesmen at the time of the formation of the old Constitution,
+were that the enslavement of the African was in violation of the laws of
+nature; that it was wrong in _principle_, socially, morally, and
+politically.... Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite
+idea; its foundations are laid, its corner-stone rests upon the great
+truth, that the negro is not equal to the white man; that
+slavery--subordination to the superior race--is his natural and normal
+condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the
+world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth."
+
+In the week which elapsed between Mr. Lincoln's arrival in Washington
+and the day of inauguration, he exchanged the customary visits of
+ceremony with President Buchanan, his cabinet, the Supreme Court, the
+two Houses of Congress, and other dignitaries. In his rooms at Willard's
+Hotel he also held consultations with leading Republicans about the
+final composition of his cabinet and pressing questions of public
+policy. Careful preparations had been made for the inauguration, and
+under the personal eye of General Scott the military force in the city
+was ready instantly to suppress any attempt to disturb the peace or
+quiet of the day.
+
+On March 4 the outgoing and incoming Presidents rode side by side in a
+carriage from the Executive Mansion to the Capitol and back, escorted by
+an imposing military and civic procession; and an immense throng of
+spectators heard the new Executive read his inaugural address from the
+east portico of the Capitol. He stated frankly that a disruption of the
+Federal Union was being formidably attempted, and discussed
+dispassionately the theory and illegality of secession. He held that the
+Union was perpetual; that resolves and ordinances of disunion are
+legally void; and announced that to the extent of his ability he would
+faithfully execute the laws of the Union in all the States. The power
+confided to him would be used to hold, occupy, and possess the property
+and places belonging to the government, and to collect the duties and
+imposts. But beyond what might be necessary for these objects there
+would be no invasion, no using of force against or among the people
+anywhere. Where hostility to the United States in any interior locality
+should be so great and universal as to prevent competent resident
+citizens from holding the Federal offices, there would be no attempt to
+force obnoxious strangers among them for that object. The mails, unless
+repelled, would continue to be furnished in all parts of the Union; and
+this course would be followed until current events and experience should
+show a change to be necessary. To the South he made an earnest plea
+against the folly of disunion, and in favor of maintaining peace and
+fraternal good will; declaring that their property, peace, and personal
+security were in no danger from a Republican administration.
+
+"One section of our country believes slavery is right and ought to be
+extended," he said, "while the other believes it is wrong and ought not
+to be extended; that is the only substantial dispute.... Physically
+speaking, we cannot separate. We cannot remove our respective sections
+from each other, nor build an impassable wall between them. A husband
+and wife may be divorced, and go out of the presence and beyond the
+reach of each other; but the different parts of our country cannot do
+this. They cannot but remain face to face, and intercourse, either
+amicable or hostile, must continue between them. Is it possible, then,
+to make that intercourse more advantageous or more satisfactory after
+separation than before? Can aliens make treaties easier than friends can
+make laws? Can treaties be more faithfully enforced between aliens, than
+laws can among friends? Suppose you go to war, you cannot fight always;
+and when, after much loss on both sides and no gain on either, you cease
+fighting, the identical old questions as to terms of intercourse are
+again upon you.... In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and
+not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will
+not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the
+aggressors.... I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We
+must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break
+our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from
+every battle-field and patriot grave to every living heart and
+hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the
+Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels
+of our nature."
+
+But the peaceful policy here outlined was already more difficult to
+follow than Mr. Lincoln was aware. On the morning after inauguration the
+Secretary of War brought to his notice freshly received letters from
+Major Anderson, commanding Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor, announcing
+that in the course of a few weeks the provisions of the garrison would
+be exhausted, and therefore an evacuation or surrender would become
+necessary, unless the fort were relieved by supplies or reinforcements;
+and this information was accompanied by the written opinions of the
+officers that to relieve the fort would require a well-appointed army of
+twenty thousand men.
+
+The new President had appointed as his cabinet William H. Seward,
+Secretary of State; Salmon P. Chase, Secretary of the Treasury; Simon
+Cameron, Secretary of War; Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy; Caleb
+B. Smith, Secretary of the Interior; Montgomery Blair,
+Postmaster-General; and Edward Bates, Attorney-General. The President
+and his official advisers at once called into counsel the highest
+military and naval officers of the Union to consider the new and
+pressing emergency revealed by the unexpected news from Sumter. The
+professional experts were divided in opinion. Relief by a force of
+twenty thousand men was clearly out of the question. No such Union army
+existed, nor could one be created within the limit of time. The officers
+of the navy thought that men and supplies might be thrown into the fort
+by swift-going vessels, while on the other hand the army officers
+believed that such an expedition would surely be destroyed by the
+formidable batteries which the insurgents had erected to close the
+harbor. In view of all the conditions, Lieutenant-General Scott,
+general-in-chief of the army, recommended the evacuation of the fort as
+a military necessity.
+
+President Lincoln thereupon asked the several members of his cabinet the
+written question: "Assuming it to be possible to now provision Fort
+Sumter, under all the circumstances is it wise to attempt it?" Only two
+members replied in the affirmative, while the other five argued against
+the attempt, holding that the country would recognize that the
+evacuation of the fort was not an indication of policy, but a necessity
+created by the neglect of the old administration. Under this advice, the
+President withheld his decision until he could gather further
+information.
+
+Meanwhile, three commissioners had arrived from the provisional
+government at Montgomery, Alabama, under instructions to endeavor to
+negotiate a _de facto_ and _de jure_ recognition of the independence of
+the Confederate States. They were promptly informed by Mr. Seward that
+he could not receive them; that he did not see in the Confederate States
+a rightful and accomplished revolution and an independent nation; and
+that he was not at liberty to recognize the commissioners as diplomatic
+agents, or to hold correspondence with them. Failing in this direct
+application, they made further efforts through Mr. Justice Campbell of
+the Supreme Court, as a friendly intermediary, who came to Seward in the
+guise of a loyal official, though his correspondence with Jefferson
+Davis soon revealed a treasonable intent; and, replying to Campbell's
+earnest entreaties that peace should be maintained, Seward informed him
+confidentially that the military status at Charleston would not be
+changed without notice to the governor of South Carolina. On March 29 a
+cabinet meeting for the second time discussed the question of Sumter.
+Four of the seven members now voted in favor of an attempt to supply the
+fort with provisions, and the President signed a memorandum order to
+prepare certain ships for such an expedition, under the command of
+Captain G.V. Fox.
+
+So far, Mr. Lincoln's new duties as President of the United States had
+not in any wise put him at a disadvantage with his constitutional
+advisers. Upon the old question of slavery he was as well informed and
+had clearer convictions and purposes than either Seward or Chase. And
+upon the newer question of secession, and the immediate decision about
+Fort Sumter which it involved, the members of his cabinet were, like
+himself, compelled to rely on the professional advice of experienced
+army and navy officers. Since these differed radically in their
+opinions, the President's own powers of perception and logic were as
+capable of forming a correct decision as men who had been governors and
+senators. He had reached at least a partial decision in the memorandum
+he gave Fox to prepare ships for the Sumter expedition.
+
+It must therefore have been a great surprise to the President when, on
+April 1, Secretary of State Seward handed him a memorandum setting forth
+a number of most extraordinary propositions. For a full enumeration of
+the items the reader must carefully study the entire document, which is
+printed below in a foot-note;[4] but the principal points for which it
+had evidently been written and presented can be given in a few
+sentences.
+
+ [Footnote 4: SOME THOUGHTS FOR THE PRESIDENT'S CONSIDERATION. APRIL
+ 1, 1861.
+
+ First. We are at the end of a month's administration, and yet
+ without a policy, either domestic or foreign.
+
+ Second. This, however, is not culpable, and it has even been
+ unavoidable. The presence of the Senate, with the need to meet
+ applications for patronage, have prevented attention to other and
+ more grave matters.
+
+ Third. But further delay to adopt and prosecute our policies for
+ both domestic and foreign affairs would not only bring scandal on
+ the administration, but danger upon the country.
+
+ Fourth. To do this we must dismiss the applicants for office. But
+ how? I suggest that we make the local appointments forthwith,
+ leaving foreign or general ones for ulterior and occasional action.
+
+ Fifth. The policy at home. I am aware that my views are singular
+ and perhaps not sufficiently explained My system is built upon this
+ idea as a ruling one, namely, that we must
+
+ CHANGE THE QUESTION BEFORE THE PUBLIC FROM ONE UPON SLAVERY, OR
+ ABOUT SLAVERY, for a question upon UNION OR DISUNION.
+
+ In other words, from what would be regarded as a party question, to
+ one of _Patriotism_ or _Union_.
+
+ The occupation or evacuation of Fort Sumter, although not in fact a
+ slavery or a party question, is so regarded. Witness the temper
+ manifested by the Republicans in the free States, and even by the
+ Union men in the South.
+
+ I would therefore terminate it as a safe means for changing the
+ issue. I deem it fortunate that the last administration created the
+ necessity.
+
+ For the rest, I would simultaneously defend and reinforce all the
+ ports in the Gulf, and have the navy recalled from foreign stations
+ to be prepared for a blockade. Put the island of Key West under
+ martial law.
+
+ This will raise distinctly the question of _Union_ or _Disunion_. I
+ would maintain every fort and possession in the South.
+
+
+ FOR FOREIGN NATIONS.
+
+ 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 continental 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.]
+
+A month has elapsed, and the administration has neither a domestic nor a
+foreign policy. The administration must at once adopt and carry out a
+novel, radical, and aggressive policy. It must cease saying a word about
+slavery, and raise a great outcry about Union. It must declare war
+against France and Spain, and combine and organize all the governments
+of North and South America in a crusade to enforce the Monroe Doctrine.
+This policy once adopted, it must be the business of some one
+incessantly to pursue it. "It is not in my especial province," wrote Mr.
+Seward; "but I neither seek to evade nor assume responsibility." This
+phrase, which is a key to the whole memorandum, enables the reader
+easily to translate its meaning into something like the following:
+
+After a month's trial, you, Mr. Lincoln, are a failure as President. The
+country is in desperate straits, and must use a desperate remedy. That
+remedy is to submerge the South Carolina insurrection in a continental
+war. Some new man must take the executive helm, and wield the undivided
+presidential authority. I should have been nominated at Chicago, and
+elected in November, but am willing to take your place and perform your
+duties.
+
+Why William H. Seward, who is fairly entitled to rank as a great
+statesman, should have written this memorandum and presented it to Mr.
+Lincoln, has never been explained; nor is it capable of explanation. Its
+suggestions were so visionary, its reasoning so fallacious, its
+assumptions so unwarranted, its conclusions so malapropos, that it falls
+below critical examination. Had Mr. Lincoln been an envious or a
+resentful man, he could not have wished for a better occasion to put a
+rival under his feet.
+
+The President doubtless considered the incident one of phenomenal
+strangeness, but it did not in the least disturb his unselfish judgment
+or mental equipoise. There was in his answer no trace of excitement or
+passion. He pointed out in a few sentences of simple, quiet explanation
+that what the administration had done was exactly a foreign and domestic
+policy which the Secretary of State himself had concurred in and helped
+to frame. Only, that Mr. Seward proposed to go further and give up
+Sumter. Upon the central suggestion that some one mind must direct, Mr.
+Lincoln wrote with simple dignity:
+
+"If this must be done, I must do it. When a general line of policy is
+adopted, I apprehend there is no danger of its being changed without
+good reason, or continuing to be a subject of unnecessary debate; still,
+upon points arising in its progress I wish, and suppose I am entitled to
+have, the advice of all the cabinet."
+
+Mr. Lincoln's unselfish magnanimity is the central marvel of the whole
+affair. His reply ended the argument. Mr. Seward doubtless saw at once
+how completely he had put himself in the President's power. Apparently,
+neither of the men ever again alluded to the incident. No other persons
+except Mr. Seward's son and the President's private secretary ever saw
+the correspondence, or knew of the occurrence. The President put the
+papers away in an envelop, and no word of the affair came to the public
+until a quarter of a century later, when the details were published in
+Mr. Lincoln's biography. In one mind, at least, there was no further
+doubt that the cabinet had a master, for only some weeks later Mr.
+Seward is known to have written: "There is but one vote in the cabinet,
+and that is cast by the President." This mastery Mr. Lincoln retained
+with a firm dignity throughout his administration. When, near the close
+of the war, he sent Mr. Seward to meet the rebel commissioners at the
+Hampton Roads conference, he finished his short letter of instructions
+with the imperative sentence: "You will not assume to definitely
+consummate anything."
+
+From this strange episode our narrative must return to the question of
+Fort Sumter. On April 4, official notice was sent to Major Anderson of
+the coming relief, with the instruction to hold out till the eleventh or
+twelfth if possible; but authorizing him to capitulate whenever it might
+become necessary to save himself and command. Two days later the
+President sent a special messenger with written notice to the governor
+of South Carolina that an attempt would be made to supply Fort Sumter
+with provisions only; and that if such attempt were not resisted, no
+further effort would be made to throw in men, arms, or ammunition,
+without further notice, or unless in case of an attack on the fort.
+
+The building of batteries around Fort Sumter had been begun, under the
+orders of Governor Pickens, about the first of January, and continued
+with industry and energy; and about the first of March General
+Beauregard, an accomplished engineer officer, was sent by the
+Confederate government to take charge of and complete the works. On
+April 1 he telegraphed to Montgomery: "Batteries ready to open Wednesday
+or Thursday. What instructions?"
+
+At this point, the Confederate authorities at Montgomery found
+themselves face to face with the fatal alternative either to begin war
+or to allow their rebellion to collapse. Their claim to independence was
+denied, their commissioners were refused a hearing; yet not an angry
+word, provoking threat, nor harmful act had come from President Lincoln.
+He had promised them peace, protection, freedom from irritation; had
+offered them the benefit of the mails. Even now, all he proposed to do
+was--not to send guns or ammunition or men to Sumter, but only bread and
+provisions to Anderson and his soldiers. His prudent policy placed them
+in the exact attitude described a month earlier in his inaugural; they
+could have no conflict without being themselves the aggressors. But the
+rebellion was organized by ambitious men with desperate intentions. A
+member of the Alabama legislature, present at Montgomery, said to
+Jefferson Davis and three members of his cabinet: "Gentlemen, unless you
+sprinkle blood in the face of the people of Alabama, they will be back
+in the old Union in less than ten days." And the sanguinary advice was
+adopted. In answer to his question, "What instructions?" Beauregard on
+April 10 was ordered to demand the evacuation of Fort Sumter, and, in
+case of refusal, to reduce it.
+
+The demand was presented to Anderson, who replied that he would evacuate
+the fort by noon of April 15, unless assailed, or unless he received
+supplies or controlling instructions from his government. This answer
+being unsatisfactory to Beauregard, he sent Anderson notice that he
+would open fire on Sumter at 4:20 on the morning of April 12.
+
+Promptly at the hour indicated the bombardment was begun. As has been
+related, the rebel siege-works were built on the points of the islands
+forming the harbor, at distances varying from thirteen hundred to
+twenty-five hundred yards, and numbered nineteen batteries, with an
+armament of forty-seven guns, supported by a land force of from four to
+six thousand volunteers. The disproportion between means of attack and
+defense was enormous. Sumter, though a work three hundred by three
+hundred and fifty feet in size, with well-constructed walls and
+casemates of brick, was in very meager preparation for such a conflict.
+Of its forty-eight available guns, only twenty-one were in the
+casemates, twenty-seven being on the rampart _en barbette_. The garrison
+consisted of nine commissioned officers, sixty-eight non-commissioned
+officers and privates, eight musicians, and forty-three non-combatant
+workmen compelled by the besiegers to remain to hasten the consumption
+of provisions.
+
+Under the fire of the seventeen mortars in the rebel batteries, Anderson
+could reply only with a vertical fire from the guns of small caliber in
+his casemates, which was of no effect against the rebel bomb-proofs of
+sand and roofs of sloping railroad iron; but, refraining from exposing
+his men to serve his barbette guns, his garrison was also safe in its
+protecting casemates. It happened, therefore, that although the attack
+was spirited and the defense resolute, the combat went on for a day and
+a half without a single casualty. It came to an end on the second day
+only when the cartridges of the garrison were exhausted, and the red-hot
+shot from the rebel batteries had set the buildings used as officers'
+quarters on fire, creating heat and smoke that rendered further defense
+impossible.
+
+There was also the further discouragement that the expedition of relief
+which Anderson had been instructed to look for on the eleventh or
+twelfth, had failed to appear. Several unforeseen contingencies had
+prevented the assembling of the vessels at the appointed rendezvous
+outside Charleston harbor, though some of them reached it in time to
+hear the opening guns of the bombardment. But as accident had deranged
+and thwarted the plan agreed upon, they could do nothing except
+impatiently await the issue of the fight.
+
+A little after noon of April 13, when the flagstaff of the fort had been
+shot away and its guns remained silent, an invitation to capitulate with
+the honors of war came from General Beauregard, which Anderson accepted;
+and on the following day, Sunday, April 14, he hauled down his flag with
+impressive ceremonies, and leaving the fort with his faithful garrison,
+proceeded in a steamer to New York.
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+President's Proclamation Calling for Seventy-five Regiments--Responses
+of the Governors--Maryland and Virginia--The Baltimore Riot--Washington
+Isolated--Lincoln Takes the Responsibility--Robert E. Lee--Arrival of
+the New York Seventh--Suspension of Habeas Corpus--The Annapolis
+Route--Butler in Baltimore--Taney on the Merryman
+Case--Kentucky--Missouri--Lyon Captures Camp Jackson--Boonville
+Skirmish--The Missouri Convention--Gamble made Governor--The Border
+States
+
+
+The bombardment of Fort Sumter changed the political situation as if by
+magic. There was no longer room for doubt, hesitation, concession, or
+compromise. Without awaiting the arrival of the ships that were bringing
+provisions to Anderson's starving garrison, the hostile Charleston
+batteries had opened their fire on the fort by the formal order of the
+Confederate government, and peaceable secession was, without
+provocation, changed to active war. The rebels gained possession of
+Charleston harbor; but their mode of obtaining it awakened the
+patriotism of the American people to a stern determination that the
+insult to the national authority and flag should be redressed, and the
+unrighteous experiment of a rival government founded on slavery as its
+corner-stone should never succeed. Under the conflict thus begun the
+long-tolerated barbarous institution itself was destined ignobly to
+perish.
+
+On his journey from Springfield to Washington Mr. Lincoln had said that,
+devoted as he was to peace, he might find it necessary "to put the foot
+down firmly." That time had now come. On the morning of April 15, 1861,
+the leading newspapers of the country printed the President's
+proclamation reciting that, whereas the laws of the United States were
+opposed and the execution thereof obstructed in the States of South
+Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas,
+by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of
+judicial proceedings, the militia of the several States of the Union, to
+the aggregate number of seventy-five thousand, was called forth to
+suppress said combinations and cause the laws to be duly executed. The
+orders of the War Department specified that the period of service under
+this call should be for three months; and to further conform to the
+provisions of the Act of 1795, under which the call was issued, the
+President's proclamation also convened the Congress in special session
+on the coming fourth of July.
+
+Public opinion in the free States, which had been sadly demoralized by
+the long discussions over slavery, and by the existence of four factions
+in the late presidential campaign, was instantly crystallized and
+consolidated by the Sumter bombardment and the President's proclamation
+into a sentiment of united support to the government for the suppression
+of the rebellion. The several free-State governors sent loyal and
+enthusiastic responses to the call for militia, and tendered double the
+numbers asked for. The people of the slave States which had not yet
+joined the Montgomery Confederacy--namely, Virginia, North Carolina,
+Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and
+Delaware--remained, however, more or less divided on the issue as it
+now presented itself. The governors of the first six of these were
+already so much engaged in the secret intrigues of the secession
+movement that they sent the Secretary of War contumacious and insulting
+replies, and distinct refusals to the President's call for troops. The
+governor of Delaware answered that there was no organized militia in his
+State which he had legal authority to command, but that the officers of
+organized volunteer regiments might at their own option offer their
+services to the United States; while the governor of Maryland, in
+complying with the requisition, stipulated that the regiments from his
+State should not be required to serve outside its limits, except to
+defend the District of Columbia.
+
+A swift, almost bewildering rush of events, however, quickly compelled
+most of them to take sides. Secession feeling was rampant in Baltimore;
+and when the first armed and equipped Northern regiment, the
+Massachusetts Sixth, passed through that city on the morning of April
+19, on its way to Washington, the last four of its companies were
+assailed by street mobs with missiles and firearms while marching from
+one depot to the other; and in the running fight which ensued, four of
+its soldiers were killed and about thirty wounded, while the mob
+probably lost two or three times as many. This tragedy instantly threw
+the whole city into a wild frenzy of insurrection. That same afternoon
+an immense secession meeting in Monument Square listened to a torrent of
+treasonable protest and denunciation, in which Governor Hicks himself
+was made momentarily to join. The militia was called out, preparations
+were made to arm the city, and that night the railroad bridges were
+burned between Baltimore and the Pennsylvania line to prevent the
+further transit of Union regiments. The revolutionary furor spread to
+the country towns, and for a whole week the Union flag practically
+disappeared from Maryland.
+
+While these events were taking place to the north, equally threatening
+incidents were occurring to the south of Washington. The State of
+Virginia had been for many weeks balancing uneasily between loyalty and
+secession. In the new revolutionary stress her weak remnant of
+conditional Unionism gave way; and on April 17, two days after the
+President's call, her State convention secretly passed a secession
+ordinance, while Governor Letcher ordered a military seizure of the
+United States navy-yard at Norfolk and the United States armory at
+Harper's Ferry. Under orders from Washington, both establishments were
+burned to prevent their falling into insurrectionary hands; but the
+destruction in each case was only partial, and much valuable war
+material thus passed to rebel uses.
+
+All these hostile occurrences put the national capital in the greatest
+danger. For three days it was entirely cut off from communication with
+the North by either telegraph or mail. Under the orders of General
+Scott, the city was hastily prepared for a possible siege. The flour at
+the mills, and other stores of provisions were taken possession of. The
+Capitol and other public buildings were barricaded, and detachments of
+troops stationed in them. Business was suspended by a common impulse;
+streets were almost deserted except by squads of military patrol;
+shutters of stores, and even many residences, remained unopened
+throughout the day. The signs were none too reassuring. In addition to
+the public rumors whispered about by serious faces on the streets,
+General Scott reported in writing to President Lincoln on the evening of
+April 22:
+
+"Of rumors, the following are probable, viz.: _First_, that from
+fifteen hundred to two thousand troops are at the White House (four
+miles below Mount Vernon, a narrow point in the Potomac), engaged in
+erecting a battery; _Second_, that an equal force is collected or in
+progress of assemblage on the two sides of the river to attack Fort
+Washington; and _Third_, that extra cars went up yesterday to bring down
+from Harper's Ferry about two thousand other troops to join in a general
+attack on this capital--that is, on many of its fronts at once. I feel
+confident that with our present forces we can defend the Capitol, the
+Arsenal, and all the executive buildings (seven) against ten thousand
+troops not better than our District volunteers."
+
+Throughout this crisis President Lincoln not only maintained his
+composure, but promptly assumed the high responsibilities the occasion
+demanded. On Sunday, April 21, he summoned his cabinet to meet at the
+Navy Department, and with their unanimous concurrence issued a number of
+emergency orders relating to the purchase of ships, the transportation
+of troops and munitions of war, the advance of $2,000,000 of money to a
+Union Safety Committee in New York, and other military and naval
+measures, which were despatched in duplicate by private messengers over
+unusual and circuitous routes. In a message to Congress, in which he
+afterward explained these extraordinary transactions, he said:
+
+"It became necessary for me to choose whether, using only the existing
+means, agencies, and processes which Congress had provided, I should let
+the government fall at once into ruin, or whether, availing myself of
+the broader powers conferred by the Constitution in cases of
+insurrection, I would make an effort to save it with all its blessings
+for the present age and for posterity."
+
+Unwelcome as was the thought of a possible capture of Washington city,
+President Lincoln's mind was much more disturbed by many suspicious
+indications of disloyalty in public officials, and especially in
+officers of the army and navy. Hundreds of clerks of Southern birth
+employed in the various departments suddenly left their desks and went
+South. The commandant of the Washington navy-yard and the
+quartermaster-general of the army resigned their positions to take
+service under Jefferson Davis. One morning the captain of a light
+battery on which General Scott had placed special reliance for the
+defense of Washington came to the President at the White House to
+asseverate and protest his loyalty and fidelity; and that same night
+secretly left his post and went to Richmond to become a Confederate
+officer.
+
+The most prominent case, however, was that of Colonel Robert E. Lee, the
+officer who captured John Brown at Harper's Ferry, and who afterward
+became the leader of the Confederate armies. As a lieutenant he had
+served on the staff of General Scott in the war with Mexico. Personally
+knowing his ability, Scott recommended him to Lincoln as the most
+suitable officer to command the Union army about to be assembled under
+the President's call for seventy-five regiments; and this command was
+informally tendered him through a friend. Lee, however, declined the
+offer, explaining that "though opposed to secession, and deprecating
+war, I could take no part in an invasion of the Southern States." He
+resigned his commission in a letter written on April 20, and, without
+waiting for notice of its acceptance, which alone could discharge him
+from his military obligation, proceeded to Richmond, where he was
+formally and publicly invested with the command of the Virginia military
+and naval forces on April 22; while, two days later, the rebel
+Vice-President, Alexander H. Stephens, and a committee of the Richmond
+convention signed a formal military league making Virginia an immediate
+member of the Confederate States, and placing her armies under the
+command of Jefferson Davis.
+
+The sudden uprising in Maryland and the insurrectionary activity in
+Virginia had been largely stimulated by the dream of the leading
+conspirators that their new confederacy would combine all the slave
+States, and that by the adhesion of both Maryland and Virginia they
+would fall heir to a ready-made seat of government. While the
+bombardment of Sumter was in progress, the rebel Secretary of War,
+announcing the news in a jubilant speech at Montgomery, in the presence
+of Jefferson Davis and his colleagues, confidently predicted that the
+rebel flag would before the end of May "float over the dome of the
+Capitol at Washington." The disloyal demonstrations in Maryland and
+Virginia rendered such a hope so plausible that Jefferson Davis
+telegraphed to Governor Letcher at Richmond that he was preparing to
+send him thirteen regiments, and added: "Sustain Baltimore if
+practicable. We reinforce you"; while Senator Mason hurried to that city
+personally to furnish advice and military assistance.
+
+But the flattering expectation was not realized. The requisite
+preparation and concert of action were both wanting. The Union troops
+from New York and New England, pouring into Philadelphia, flanked the
+obstructions of the Baltimore route by devising a new one by way of
+Chesapeake Bay and Annapolis; and the opportune arrival of the Seventh
+Regiment of New York in Washington, on April 25, rendered that city
+entirely safe against surprise or attack, relieved the apprehension of
+officials and citizens, and renewed its business and public activity.
+The mob frenzy of Baltimore and the Maryland towns subsided almost as
+quickly as it had risen. The Union leaders and newspapers asserted
+themselves, and soon demonstrated their superiority in numbers and
+activity.
+
+Serious embarrassment had been created by the timidity of Governor
+Hicks, who, while Baltimore remained under mob terrorism, officially
+protested against the landing of Union troops at Annapolis; and, still
+worse, summoned the Maryland legislature to meet on April 26--a step
+which he had theretofore stubbornly refused to take. This event had
+become doubly dangerous, because a Baltimore city election held during
+the same terror week had reinforced the legislature with ten secession
+members, creating a majority eager to pass a secession ordinance at the
+first opportunity. The question of either arresting or dispersing the
+body by military force was one of the problems which the crisis forced
+upon President Lincoln. On full reflection he decided against either
+measure.
+
+"I think it would not be justifiable," he wrote to General Scott, "nor
+efficient for the desired object. _First_, they have a clearly legal
+right to assemble; and we cannot know in advance that their action will
+not be lawful and peaceful. And if we wait until they shall have acted,
+their arrest or dispersion will not lessen the effect of their action.
+_Secondly_, we cannot permanently prevent their action. If we arrest
+them, we cannot long hold them as prisoners; and, when liberated, they
+will immediately reassemble and take their action. And precisely the
+same if we simply disperse them: they will immediately reassemble in
+some other place. I therefore conclude that it is only left to the
+commanding general to watch and await their action, which, if it shall
+be to arm their people against the United States, he is to adopt the
+most prompt and efficient means to counteract, even if necessary to the
+bombardment of their cities; and, in the extremest necessity, the
+suspension of the writ of _habeas corpus_."
+
+Two days later the President formally authorized General Scott to
+suspend the writ of _habeas corpus_ along his military lines, or in
+their vicinity, if resistance should render it necessary. Arrivals of
+additional troops enabled the General to strengthen his military hold on
+Annapolis and the railroads; and on May 13 General B.F. Butler, with
+about one thousand men, moved into Baltimore and established a fortified
+camp on Federal Hill, the bulk of his force being the Sixth
+Massachusetts, which had been mobbed in that city on April 19. Already,
+on the previous day, the bridges and railroad had been repaired, and the
+regular transit of troops through the city reestablished.
+
+Under these changing conditions the secession majority of the Maryland
+legislature did not venture on any official treason. They sent a
+committee to interview the President, vented their hostility in spiteful
+reports and remonstrances, and prolonged their session by a recess.
+Nevertheless, so inveterate was their disloyalty and plotting against
+the authority of the Union, that four months later it became necessary
+to place the leaders under arrest, finally to head off their darling
+project of a Maryland secession ordinance.
+
+One additional incident of this insurrectionary period remains to be
+noticed. One John Merryman, claiming to be a Confederate lieutenant, was
+arrested in Baltimore for enlisting men for the rebellion, and Chief
+Justice Taney of the United States Supreme Court, the famous author of
+the Dred Scott decision, issued a writ of _habeas corpus_ to obtain his
+release from Fort McHenry. Under the President's orders, General
+Cadwalader of course declined to obey the writ. Upon this, the chief
+justice ordered the general's arrest for contempt, but the officer sent
+to serve the writ was refused entrance to the fort. In turn, the
+indignant chief justice, taking counsel of his passion instead of his
+patriotism, announced dogmatically that "the President, under the
+Constitution and laws of the United States, cannot suspend the privilege
+of the writ of _habeas corpus_, nor authorize any military officer to do
+so"; and some weeks afterward filed a long written opinion in support of
+this dictum. It is unnecessary here to quote the opinions of several
+eminent jurists who successfully refuted his labored argument, nor to
+repeat the vigorous analysis with which, in his special message to
+Congress of July 4, President Lincoln vindicated his own authority.
+
+While these events were occurring in Maryland and Virginia, the
+remaining slave States were gradually taking sides, some for, others
+against rebellion. Under radical and revolutionary leadership similar to
+that of the cotton States, the governors and State officials of North
+Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas placed their States in an attitude of
+insurrection, and before the middle of May practically joined them to
+the Confederate government by the formalities of military leagues and
+secession ordinances.
+
+But in the border slave States--that is, those contiguous to the free
+States--the eventual result was different. In these, though secession
+intrigue and sympathy were strong, and though their governors and State
+officials favored the rebellion, the underlying loyalty and Unionism of
+the people thwarted their revolutionary schemes. This happened even in
+the northwestern part of Virginia itself. The forty-eight counties of
+that State lying north of the Alleghanies and adjoining Pennsylvania and
+Ohio repudiated the action at Richmond, seceded from secession, and
+established a loyal provisional State government. President Lincoln
+recognized them and sustained them with military aid; and in due time
+they became organized and admitted to the Union as the State of West
+Virginia. In Delaware, though some degree of secession feeling existed,
+it was too insignificant to produce any note-worthy public
+demonstration.
+
+In Kentucky the political struggle was deep and prolonged. The governor
+twice called the legislature together to initiate secession proceedings;
+but that body refused compliance, and warded off his scheme by voting to
+maintain the State neutrality. Next, the governor sought to utilize the
+military organization known as the State Guard to effect his object. The
+Union leaders offset this movement by enlisting several volunteer Union
+regiments. At the June election nine Union congressmen were chosen, and
+only one secessionist; while in August a new legislature was elected
+with a three-fourths Union majority in each branch. Other secession
+intrigues proved equally abortive; and when, finally, in September,
+Confederate armies invaded Kentucky at three different points, the
+Kentucky legislature invited the Union armies of the West into the State
+to expel them, and voted to place forty thousand Union volunteers at the
+service of President Lincoln.
+
+In Missouri the struggle was more fierce, but also more brief. As far
+back as January, the conspirators had perfected a scheme to obtain
+possession, through the treachery of the officer in charge, of the
+important Jefferson Barracks arsenal at St. Louis, with its store of
+sixty thousand stand of arms and a million and a half cartridges. The
+project, however, failed. Rumors of the danger came to General Scott,
+who ordered thither a company of regulars under command of Captain
+Nathaniel Lyon, an officer not only loyal by nature and habit, but also
+imbued with strong antislavery convictions. Lyon found valuable support
+in the watchfulness of a Union Safety Committee composed of leading St.
+Louis citizens, who secretly organized a number of Union regiments
+recruited largely from the heavy German population; and from these
+sources Lyon was enabled to make such a show of available military force
+as effectively to deter any mere popular uprising to seize the arsenal.
+
+A State convention, elected to pass a secession ordinance, resulted,
+unexpectedly to the conspirators, in the return of a majority of Union
+delegates, who voted down the secession program and adjourned to the
+following December. Thereupon, the secession governor ordered his State
+militia into temporary camps of instruction, with the idea of taking
+Missouri out of the Union by a concerted military movement. One of these
+encampments, established at St. Louis and named Camp Jackson in honor of
+the governor, furnished such unquestionable evidences of intended
+treason that Captain Lyon, whom President Lincoln had meanwhile
+authorized to enlist ten thousand Union volunteers, and, if necessary,
+to proclaim martial law, made a sudden march upon Camp Jackson with his
+regulars and six of his newly enlisted regiments, stationed his force in
+commanding positions around the camp, and demanded its surrender. The
+demand was complied with after but slight hesitation, and the captured
+militia regiments were, on the following day, disbanded under parole.
+Unfortunately, as the prisoners were being marched away a secession mob
+insulted and attacked some of Lyon's regiments and provoked a return
+fire, in which about twenty persons, mainly lookers-on, were killed or
+wounded; and for a day or two the city was thrown into the panic and
+lawlessness of a reign of terror.
+
+Upon this, the legislature, in session at Jefferson City, the capital of
+the State, with a three-fourths secession majority, rushed through the
+forms of legislation a military bill placing the military and financial
+resources of Missouri under the governor's control. For a month longer
+various incidents delayed the culmination of the approaching struggle,
+each side continuing its preparations, and constantly accentuating the
+rising antagonism. The crisis came when, on June 11, Governor Jackson
+and Captain Lyon, now made brigadier-general by the President, met in an
+interview at St. Louis. In this interview the governor demanded that he
+be permitted to exercise sole military command to maintain the
+neutrality of Missouri, while Lyon insisted that the Federal military
+authority must be left in unrestricted control. It being impossible to
+reach any agreement, Governor Jackson hurried back to his capital,
+burning railroad bridges behind him as he went, and on the following
+day, June 12, issued his proclamation calling out fifty thousand State
+militia, and denouncing the Lincoln administration as "an
+unconstitutional military despotism."
+
+Lyon was also prepared for this contingency. On the afternoon of June
+13, he embarked with a regular battery and several battalions of his
+Union volunteers on steamboats, moved rapidly up the Missouri River to
+Jefferson City, drove the governor and the secession legislature into
+precipitate flight, took possession of the capital, and, continuing his
+expedition, scattered, after a slight skirmish, a small rebel military
+force which had hastily collected at Boonville. Rapidly following these
+events, the loyal members of the Missouri State convention, which had in
+February refused to pass a secession ordinance, were called together,
+and passed ordinances under which was constituted a loyal State
+government that maintained the local civil authority of the United
+States throughout the greater part of Missouri during the whole of the
+Civil War, only temporarily interrupted by invasions of transient
+Confederate armies from Arkansas.
+
+It will be seen from the foregoing outline that the original hope of the
+Southern leaders to make the Ohio River the northern boundary of their
+slave empire was not realized. They indeed secured the adhesion of
+Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas, by which the
+territory of the Confederate States government was enlarged nearly one
+third and its population and resources nearly doubled. But the northern
+tier of slave States--Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, and
+Missouri--not only decidedly refused to join the rebellion, but remained
+true to the Union; and this reduced the contest to a trial of military
+strength between eleven States with 5,115,790 whites, and 3,508,131
+slaves, against twenty-four States with 21,611,422 whites and 342,212
+slaves, and at least a proportionate difference in all other resources
+of war. At the very outset the conditions were prophetic of the result.
+
+
+
+
+XV
+
+Davis's Proclamation for Privateers--Lincoln's Proclamation of
+Blockade--The Call for Three Years' Volunteers--Southern Military
+Preparations--Rebel Capital Moved to Richmond--Virginia, North Carolina,
+Tennessee and Arkansas Admitted to Confederate States--Desertion of Army
+and Navy Officers--Union Troops Fortify Virginia Shore of the
+Potomac--Concentration at Harper's Ferry--Concentration at Fortress
+Monroe and Cairo--English Neutrality--Seward's 21st-of-May
+Despatch--Lincoln's Corrections--Preliminary Skirmishes--Forward to
+Richmond--Plan of McDowell's Campaign
+
+
+From the slower political developments in the border slave States we
+must return and follow up the primary hostilities of the rebellion. The
+bombardment of Sumter, President Lincoln's call for troops, the
+Baltimore riot, the burning of Harper's Ferry armory and Norfolk
+navy-yard, and the interruption of railroad communication which, for
+nearly a week, isolated the capital and threatened it with siege and
+possible capture, fully demonstrated the beginning of serious civil war.
+
+Jefferson Davis's proclamation, on April 17, of intention to issue
+letters of marque, was met two days later by President Lincoln's
+counter-proclamation instituting a blockade of the Southern ports, and
+declaring that privateers would be held amenable to the laws against
+piracy. His first call for seventy-five thousand three months' militia
+was dictated as to numbers by the sudden emergency, and as to form and
+term of service by the provisions of the Act of 1795. It needed only a
+few days to show that this form of enlistment was both cumbrous and
+inadequate; and the creation of a more powerful army was almost
+immediately begun. On May 3 a new proclamation was issued, calling into
+service 42,034 three years' volunteers, 22,714 enlisted men to add ten
+regiments to the regular army, and 18,000 seamen for blockade service: a
+total immediate increase of 82,748, swelling the entire military
+establishment to an army of 156,861 and a navy of 25,000.
+
+No express authority of law yet existed for these measures; but
+President Lincoln took the responsibility of ordering them, trusting
+that Congress would legalize his acts. His confidence was entirely
+justified. At the special session which met under his proclamation, on
+the fourth of July, these acts were declared valid, and he was
+authorized, moreover, to raise an army of a million men and $250,000,000
+in money to carry on the war to suppress the rebellion; while other
+legislation conferred upon him supplementary authority to meet the
+emergency.
+
+Meanwhile, the first effort of the governors of the loyal States was to
+furnish their quotas under the first call for militia. This was easy
+enough as to men. It required only a few days to fill the regiments and
+forward them to the State capitals and principal cities; but to arm and
+equip them for the field on the spur of the moment was a difficult task
+which involved much confusion and delay, even though existing armories
+and foundries pushed their work to the utmost and new ones were
+established. Under the militia call, the governors appointed all the
+officers required by their respective quotas, from company lieutenant to
+major-general of division; while under the new call for three years'
+volunteers, their authority was limited to the simple organization of
+regiments.
+
+In the South, war preparation also immediately became active. All the
+indications are that up to their attack on Sumter, the Southern leaders
+hoped to effect separation through concession and compromise by the
+North. That hope, of course, disappeared with South Carolina's opening
+guns, and the Confederate government made what haste it could to meet
+the ordeal it dreaded even while it had provoked it. The rebel Congress
+was hastily called together, and passed acts recognizing war and
+regulating privateering; admitting Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee,
+and Arkansas to the Confederate States; authorizing a $50,000,000 loan;
+practically confiscating debts due from Southern to Northern citizens;
+and removing the seat of government from Montgomery, Alabama, to
+Richmond, Virginia.
+
+Four different calls for Southern volunteers had been made, aggregating
+82,000 men; and Jefferson Davis's message now proposed to further
+organize and hold in readiness an army of 100,000. The work of erecting
+forts and batteries for defense was being rapidly pushed at all points:
+on the Atlantic coast, on the Potomac, and on the Mississippi and other
+Western streams. For the present the Confederates were well supplied
+with cannon and small arms from the captured navy-yards at Norfolk and
+Pensacola and the six or eight arsenals located in the South. The
+martial spirit of their people was roused to the highest enthusiasm, and
+there was no lack of volunteers to fill the companies and regiments
+which the Confederate legislators authorized Davis to accept, either by
+regular calls on State executives in accordance with, or singly in
+defiance of, their central dogma of States Rights, as he might prefer.
+
+The secession of the Southern States not only strengthened the rebellion
+with the arms and supplies stored in the various military and naval
+depots within their limits, and the fortifications erected for their
+defense: what was of yet greater help to the revolt, a considerable
+portion of the officers of the army and navy--perhaps one
+third--abandoned the allegiance which they had sworn to the United
+States, and, under the false doctrine of State supremacy taught by
+Southern leaders, gave their professional skill and experience to the
+destruction of the government which had educated and honored them. The
+defection of Robert E. Lee was a conspicuous example, and his loss to
+the Union and service to the rebel army cannot easily be measured. So,
+also, were the similar cases of Adjutant-General Cooper and
+Quartermaster-General Johnston. In gratifying contrast stands the
+steadfast loyalty and devotion of Lieutenant-General Winfield Scott,
+who, though he was a Virginian and loved his native State, never wavered
+an instant in his allegiance to the flag he had heroically followed in
+the War of 1812, and triumphantly planted over the capital of Mexico in
+1847. Though unable to take the field, he as general-in-chief directed
+the assembling and first movements of the Union troops.
+
+The largest part of the three months' regiments were ordered to
+Washington city as the most important position in a political, and most
+exposed in a military point of view. The great machine of war, once
+started, moved, as it always does, by its own inherent energy from
+arming to concentration, from concentration to skirmish and battle. It
+was not long before Washington was a military camp. Gradually the
+hesitation to "invade" the "sacred soil" of the South faded out under
+the stern necessity to forestall an invasion of the equally sacred soil
+of the North; and on May 24 the Union regiments in Washington crossed
+the Potomac and planted themselves in a great semicircle of formidable
+earthworks eighteen miles long on the Virginia shore, from Chain Bridge
+to Hunting Creek, below Alexandria.
+
+Meanwhile, a secondary concentration of force developed itself at
+Harper's Ferry, forty-nine miles northwest of Washington. When, on April
+20, a Union detachment had burned and abandoned the armory at that
+point, it was at once occupied by a handful of rebel militia; and
+immediately thereafter Jefferson Davis had hurried his regiments thither
+to "sustain" or overawe Baltimore; and when that prospect failed, it
+became a rebel camp of instruction. Afterward, as Major-General
+Patterson collected his Pennsylvania quota, he turned it toward that
+point as a probable field of operations. As a mere town, Harper's Ferry
+was unimportant; but, lying on the Potomac, and being at the head of the
+great Shenandoah valley, down which not only a good turnpike, but also
+an effective railroad ran southeastward to the very heart of the
+Confederacy, it was, and remained through the entire war, a strategical
+line of the first importance, protected, as the Shenandoah valley was,
+by the main chain of the Alleghanies on the west and the Blue Ridge on
+the east.
+
+A part of the eastern quotas had also been hurried to Fortress Monroe,
+Virginia, lying at the mouth of Chesapeake Bay, which became and
+continued an important base for naval as well as military operations. In
+the West, even more important than St. Louis was the little town of
+Cairo, lying at the extreme southern end of the State of Illinois, at
+the confluence of the Ohio River with the Mississippi. Commanding, as it
+did, thousands of miles of river navigation in three different
+directions, and being also the southernmost point of the earliest
+military frontier, it had been the first care of General Scott to occupy
+it; and, indeed, it proved itself to be the military key of the whole
+Mississippi valley.
+
+It was not an easy thing promptly to develop a military policy for the
+suppression of the rebellion. The so-called Confederate States of
+America covered a military field having more than six times the area of
+Great Britain, with a coast-line of over thirty-five hundred miles, and
+an interior frontier of over seven thousand miles. Much less was it
+possible promptly to plan and set on foot concise military campaigns to
+reduce the insurgent States to allegiance. Even the great military
+genius of General Scott was unable to do more than suggest a vague
+outline for the work. The problem was not only too vast, but as yet too
+indefinite, since the political future of West Virginia, Kentucky, and
+Missouri still hung in more or less uncertainty.
+
+The passive and negligent attitude which the Buchanan administration had
+maintained toward the insurrection during the whole three months between
+the presidential election and Mr. Lincoln's inauguration, gave the
+rebellion an immense advantage in the courts and cabinets of Europe.
+Until within three days of the end of Buchanan's term not a word of
+protest or even explanation was sent to counteract the impression that
+disunion was likely to become permanent. Indeed, the non-coercion
+doctrine of Buchanan's message was, in the eyes of European statesmen,
+equivalent to an acknowledgment of such a result; and the formation of
+the Confederate government, followed so quickly by the fall of Fort
+Sumter, seemed to them a practical realization of their forecast. The
+course of events appeared not merely to fulfil their expectations, but
+also, in the case of England and France, gratified their eager hopes. To
+England it promised cheap cotton and free trade with the South. To
+France it appeared to open the way for colonial ambitions which Napoleon
+III so soon set on foot on an imperial scale.
+
+Before Charles Francis Adams, whom President Lincoln appointed as the
+new minister to England, arrived in London and obtained an interview
+with Lord John Russell, Mr. Seward had already received several items of
+disagreeable news. One was that, prior to his arrival, the Queen's
+proclamation of neutrality had been published, practically raising the
+Confederate States to the rank of a belligerent power, and, before they
+had a single privateer afloat, giving these an equality in British ports
+with United States ships of war. Another was that an understanding had
+been reached between England and France which would lead both
+governments to take the same course as to recognition, whatever that
+course might be. Third, that three diplomatic agents of the Confederate
+States were in London, whom the British minister had not yet seen, but
+whom he had caused to be informed that he was not unwilling to see
+unofficially.
+
+Under the irritation produced by this hasty and equivocal action of the
+British government, Mr. Seward wrote a despatch to Mr. Adams under date
+of May 21, which, had it been sent in the form of the original draft,
+would scarcely have failed to lead to war between the two nations. While
+it justly set forth with emphasis and courage what the government of the
+United States would endure and what it would not endure from foreign
+powers during the Southern insurrection, its phraseology, written in a
+heat of indignation, was so blunt and exasperating as to imply
+intentional disrespect.
+
+When Mr. Seward read the document to President Lincoln, the latter at
+once perceived its objectionable tone, and retained it for further
+reflection. A second reading confirmed his first impression. Thereupon,
+taking his pen, the frontier lawyer, in a careful revision of the whole
+despatch, so amended and changed the work of the trained and experienced
+statesman, as entirely to eliminate its offensive crudeness, and bring
+it within all the dignity and reserve of the most studied diplomatic
+courtesy. If, after Mr. Seward's remarkable memorandum of April 1, the
+Secretary of State had needed any further experience to convince him of
+the President's mastery in both administrative and diplomatic judgment,
+this second incident afforded him the full evidence.
+
+No previous President ever had such a sudden increase of official work
+devolve upon him as President Lincoln during the early months of his
+administration. The radical change of parties through which he was
+elected not only literally filled the White House with applicants for
+office, but practically compelled a wholesale substitution of new
+appointees for the old, to represent the new thought and will of the
+nation. The task of selecting these was greatly complicated by the sharp
+competition between the heterogeneous elements of which the Republican
+party was composed. This work was not half completed when the Sumter
+bombardment initiated active rebellion, and precipitated the new
+difficulty of sifting the loyal from the disloyal, and the yet more
+pressing labor of scrutinizing the organization of the immense new
+volunteer army called into service by the proclamation of May 3. Mr.
+Lincoln used often to say at this period, when besieged by claims to
+appointment, that he felt like a man letting rooms at one end of his
+house, while the other end was on fire. In addition to this merely
+routine work was the much more delicate and serious duty of deciding the
+hundreds of novel questions affecting the constitutional principles and
+theories of administration.
+
+The great departments of government, especially those of war and navy,
+could not immediately expedite either the supervision or clerical
+details of this sudden expansion, and almost every case of resulting
+confusion and delay was brought by impatient governors and State
+officials to the President for complaint and correction. Volunteers were
+coming rapidly enough to the various rendezvous in the different States,
+but where were the rations to feed them, money to pay them, tents to
+shelter them, uniforms to clothe them, rifles to arm them, officers to
+drill and instruct them, or transportation to carry them? In this
+carnival of patriotism, this hurly-burly of organization, the weaknesses
+as well as the virtues of human nature quickly developed themselves, and
+there was manifest not only the inevitable friction of personal rivalry,
+but also the disturbing and baneful effects of occasional falsehood and
+dishonesty, which could not always be immediately traced to the
+responsible culprit. It happened in many instances that there were
+alarming discrepancies between the full paper regiments and brigades
+reported as ready to start from State capitals, and the actual number of
+recruits that railroad trains brought to the Washington camps; and Mr.
+Lincoln several times ironically compared the process to that of a man
+trying to shovel a bushel of fleas across a barn floor.
+
+While the month of May insensibly slipped away amid these preparatory
+vexations, camps of instruction rapidly grew to small armies at a few
+principal points, even under such incidental delay and loss; and during
+June the confronting Union and Confederate forces began to produce the
+conflicts and casualties of earnest war. As yet they were both few and
+unimportant: the assassination of Ellsworth when Alexandria was
+occupied; a slight cavalry skirmish at Fairfax Court House; the rout of
+a Confederate regiment at Philippi, West Virginia; the blundering
+leadership through which two Union detachments fired upon each other in
+the dark at Big Bethel, Virginia; the ambush of a Union railroad train
+at Vienna Station; and Lyon's skirmish, which scattered the first
+collection of rebels at Boonville, Missouri. Comparatively speaking all
+these were trivial in numbers of dead and wounded--the first few drops
+of blood before the heavy sanguinary showers the future was destined to
+bring. But the effect upon the public was irritating and painful to a
+degree entirely out of proportion to their real extent and gravity.
+
+The relative loss and gain in these affairs was not greatly unequal. The
+victories of Philippi and Boonville easily offset the disasters of Big
+Bethel and Vienna. But the public mind was not yet schooled to patience
+and to the fluctuating chances of war. The newspapers demanded prompt
+progress and ample victory as imperatively as they were wont to demand
+party triumph in politics or achievement in commercial enterprise.
+"Forward to Richmond," repeated the "New York Tribune," day after day,
+and many sheets of lesser note and influence echoed the cry. There
+seemed, indeed, a certain reason for this clamor, because the period of
+enlistment of the three months' regiments was already two thirds gone,
+and they were not yet all armed and equipped for field service.
+
+President Lincoln was fully alive to the need of meeting this popular
+demand. The special session of Congress was soon to begin, and to it the
+new administration must look, not only to ratify what had been done, but
+to authorize a large increase of the military force, and heavy loans for
+coming expenses of the war. On June 29, therefore, he called his cabinet
+and principal military officers to a council of war at the Executive
+Mansion, to discuss a more formidable campaign than had yet been
+planned. General Scott was opposed to such an undertaking at that time.
+He preferred waiting until autumn, meanwhile organizing and drilling a
+large army, with which to move down the Mississippi and end the war with
+a final battle at New Orleans. Aside from the obvious military
+objections to this course, such a procrastination, in the present
+irritation of the public temper, was not to be thought of; and the old
+general gracefully waived his preference and contributed his best
+judgment to the perfecting of an immediate campaign into Virginia.
+
+The Confederate forces in Virginia had been gathered by the orders of
+General Lee into a defensive position at Manassas Junction, where a
+railroad from Richmond and another from Harper's Ferry come together.
+Here General Beauregard, who had organized and conducted the Sumter
+bombardment, had command of a total of about twenty-five thousand men
+which he was drilling. The Junction was fortified with some slight
+field-works and fifteen heavy guns, supported by a garrison of two
+thousand; while the main body was camped in a line of seven miles'
+length behind Bull Run, a winding, sluggish stream flowing southeasterly
+toward the Potomac. The distance was about thirty-two miles southwest of
+Washington. Another Confederate force of about ten thousand, under
+General J.E. Johnston, was collected at Winchester and Harper's Ferry
+on the Potomac, to guard the entrance to the Shenandoah valley; and an
+understanding existed between Johnston and Beauregard, that in case
+either were attacked, the other would come to his aid by the quick
+railroad transportation between the two places.
+
+The new Union plan contemplated that Brigadier-General McDowell should
+march from Washington against Manassas and Bull Run, with a force
+sufficient to beat Beauregard, while General Patterson, who had
+concentrated the bulk of the Pennsylvania regiments in the neighborhood
+of Harper's Ferry, in numbers nearly or quite double that of his
+antagonist, should move against Johnston, and either fight or hold him
+so that he could not come to the aid of Beauregard. At the council
+McDowell emphasized the danger of such a junction; but General Scott
+assured him: "If Johnston joins Beauregard, he shall have Patterson on
+his heels." With this understanding, McDowell's movement was ordered to
+begin on July 9.
+
+
+
+
+XVI
+
+Congress--The President's Message--Men and Money Voted--The
+Contraband--Dennison Appoints McClellan--Rich Mountain--McDowell--Bull
+Run--Patterson's Failure--McClellan at Washington
+
+
+While these preparations for a Virginia campaign were going on, another
+campaign was also slowly shaping itself in Western Virginia; but before
+either of them reached any decisive results the Thirty-seventh Congress,
+chosen at the presidential election of 1860, met in special session on
+the fourth of July, 1861, in pursuance of the President's proclamation
+of April 15. There being no members present in either branch from the
+seceded States, the number in each house was reduced nearly one third. A
+great change in party feeling was also manifest. No more rampant
+secession speeches were to be heard. Of the rare instances of men who
+were yet to join the rebellion, ex-Vice-President Breckinridge was the
+most conspicuous example; and their presence was offset by prominent
+Southern Unionists like Andrew Johnson of Tennessee, and John J.
+Crittenden of Kentucky. The heated antagonisms which had divided the
+previous Congress into four clearly defined factions were so far
+restrained or obliterated by the events of the past four months, as to
+leave but a feeble opposition to the Republican majority now dominant in
+both branches, which was itself rendered moderate and prudent by the new
+conditions.
+
+The message of President Lincoln was temperate in spirit, but positive
+and strong in argument. Reciting the secession and rebellion of the
+Confederate States, and their unprovoked assault on Fort Sumter, he
+continued:
+
+"Having said to them in the inaugural address, 'You can have no conflict
+without being yourselves the aggressors,' he took pains not only to keep
+this declaration good, but also to keep the case so free from the power
+of ingenious sophistry that the world should not be able to
+misunderstand it. By the affair at Fort Sumter, with its surrounding
+circumstances, that point was reached. Then and thereby the assailants
+of the government began the conflict of arms, without a gun in sight or
+in expectancy to return their fire, save only the few in the fort sent
+to that harbor years before for their own protection, and still ready to
+give that protection in whatever was lawful.... This issue embraces more
+than the fate of these United States. It presents to the whole family of
+man the question whether a constitutional republic or democracy--a
+government of the people by the same people--can or cannot maintain its
+territorial integrity against its own domestic foes."
+
+With his singular felicity of statement, he analyzed and refuted the
+sophism that secession was lawful and constitutional.
+
+"This sophism derives much, perhaps the whole, of its currency from the
+assumption that there is some omnipotent and sacred supremacy pertaining
+to a State--to each State of our Federal Union. Our States have neither
+more nor less power than that reserved to them in the Union by the
+Constitution--no one of them ever having been a State out of the
+Union.... The States have their status in the Union, and they have no
+other legal status. If they break from this, they can only do so against
+law and by revolution. The Union, and not themselves separately,
+procured their independence and their liberty. By conquest or purchase
+the Union gave each of them whatever of independence or liberty it has.
+The Union is older than any of the States, and, in fact, it created them
+as States. Originally some dependent colonies made the Union, and, in
+turn, the Union threw off their old dependence for them, and made them
+States, such as they are. Not one of them ever had a State constitution
+independent of the Union."
+
+A noteworthy point in the message is President Lincoln's expression of
+his abiding confidence in the intelligence and virtue of the people of
+the United States.
+
+"It may be affirmed," said he, "without extravagance that the free
+institutions we enjoy have developed the powers and improved the
+condition of our whole people beyond any example in the world. Of this
+we now have a striking and an impressive illustration. So large an army
+as the government has now on foot was never before known, without a
+soldier in it but who has taken his place there of his own free choice.
+But more than this, there are many single regiments whose members, one
+and another, possess full practical knowledge of all the arts, sciences,
+professions and whatever else, whether useful or elegant, is known in
+the world; and there is scarcely one from which there could not be
+selected a President, a cabinet a congress, and, perhaps, a court,
+abundantly competent to administer the government itself.... 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
+lift artificial weights from all shoulders; to clear the paths of
+laudable pursuit for all; to afford all an unfettered start, and a fair
+chance in the race of life.... I am most happy to believe that the plain
+people understand and appreciate this. It is worthy of note that while
+in this, the government's hour of trial, large numbers of those in the
+army and navy who have been favored with the offices have resigned and
+proved false to the hand which had pampered them, not one common soldier
+or common sailor is known to have deserted his flag."
+
+Hearty applause greeted that portion of the message which asked for
+means to make the contest short and decisive; and Congress acted
+promptly by authorizing a loan of $250,000,000 and an army not to exceed
+one million men. All of President Lincoln's war measures for which no
+previous sanction of law existed were duly legalized; additional direct
+income and tariff taxes were laid; and the Force Bill of 1795, and
+various other laws relating to conspiracy, piracy, unlawful recruiting,
+and kindred topics, were amended or passed.
+
+Throughout the whole history of the South, by no means the least of the
+evils entailed by the institution of slavery was the dread of slave
+insurrections which haunted every master's household; and this vague
+terror was at once intensified by the outbreak of civil war. It stands
+to the lasting credit of the negro race in the United States that the
+wrongs of their long bondage provoked them to no such crime, and that
+the Civil War appears not to have even suggested, much less started, any
+such organization or attempt. But the John Brown raid had indicated some
+possibility of the kind, and when the Union troops began their movements
+Generals Butler in Maryland and Patterson in Pennsylvania, moving
+toward Harper's Ferry, and McClellan in West Virginia, in order to
+reassure non-combatants, severally issued orders that all attempts at
+slave insurrection should be suppressed. It was a most pointed and
+significant warning to the leaders of the rebellion how much more
+vulnerable the peculiar institution was in war than in peace, and that
+their ill-considered scheme to protect and perpetuate slavery would
+prove the most potent engine for its destruction.
+
+The first effect of opening hostilities was to give adventurous or
+discontented slaves the chance to escape into Union camps, where, even
+against orders to the contrary, they found practical means of protection
+or concealment for the sake of the help they could render as cooks,
+servants, or teamsters, or for the information they could give or
+obtain, or the invaluable service they could render as guides.
+Practically, therefore, at the very beginning, the war created a bond of
+mutual sympathy based on mutual helpfulness, between the Southern negro
+and the Union volunteer; and as fast as the Union troops advanced, and
+secession masters fled, more or less slaves found liberation and refuge
+in the Union camps.
+
+At some points, indeed, this tendency created an embarrassment to Union
+commanders. A few days after General Butler assumed command of the Union
+troops at Fortress Monroe, the agent of a rebel master who had fled from
+the neighborhood came to demand, under the provisions of the
+fugitive-slave law, three field hands alleged to be in Butler's camp.
+Butler responded that as Virginia claimed to be a foreign country the
+fugitive-slave law was clearly inoperative, unless the owner would come
+and take an oath of allegiance to the United States. In connection with
+this incident, the newspaper report stated that as the breastworks and
+batteries which had been so rapidly erected for Confederate defense in
+every direction on the Virginia peninsula were built by enforced negro
+labor under rigorous military impressment, negroes were manifestly
+contraband of war under international law. The dictum was so pertinent,
+and the equity so plain, that, though it was not officially formulated
+by the general until two months later, it sprang at once into popular
+acceptance and application; and from that time forward the words "slave"
+and "negro" were everywhere within the Union lines replaced by the
+familiar, significant term "contraband."
+
+While Butler's happy designation had a more convincing influence on
+public thought than a volume of discussion, it did not immediately solve
+the whole question. Within a few days he reported that he had slave
+property to the value of $60,000 in his hands, and by the end of July
+nine hundred "contrabands," men, women, and children, of all ages. What
+was their legal status, and how should they be disposed of? It was a
+knotty problem, for upon its solution might depend the sensitive public
+opinion and balancing, undecided loyalty and political action of the
+border slave States of Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri.
+In solving the problem, President Lincoln kept in mind the philosophic
+maxim of one of his favorite stories, that when the Western Methodist
+presiding elder, riding about the circuit during the spring freshets,
+was importuned by his young companion how they should ever be able to
+get across the swollen waters of Fox River, which they were approaching,
+the elder quieted him by saying he had made it the rule of his life
+never to cross Fox River till he came to it.
+
+The President did not immediately decide, but left it to be treated as a
+question of camp and local police, in the discretion of each commander.
+Under this theory, later in the war, some commanders excluded, others
+admitted such fugitives to their camps; and the curt formula of General
+Orders, "We have nothing to do with slaves. We are neither negro
+stealers nor negro catchers," was easily construed by subordinate
+officers to justify the practice of either course. _Inter arma silent
+leges_. For the present, Butler was instructed not to surrender such
+fugitives, but to employ them in suitable labor, and leave the question
+of their final disposition for future determination. Congress greatly
+advanced the problem, soon after the battle of Bull Run, by adopting an
+amendment which confiscated a rebel master's right to his slave when, by
+his consent, such slave was employed in service or labor hostile to the
+United States. The debates exhibited but little spirit of partizanship,
+even on this feature of the slavery question. The border State members
+did not attack the justice of such a penalty. They could only urge that
+it was unconstitutional and inexpedient. On the general policy of the
+war, both houses, with but few dissenting votes, passed the resolution,
+offered by Mr. Crittenden, which declared that the war was not waged for
+oppression or subjugation, or to interfere with the rights or
+institutions of States, "but to defend and maintain the supremacy of the
+Constitution, and to preserve the Union with all the dignity, equality,
+and rights of the several States unimpaired." The special session
+adjourned on August 6, having in a single month completed and enacted a
+thorough and comprehensive system of war legislation.
+
+The military events that were transpiring in the meanwhile doubtless had
+their effect in hastening the decision and shortening the labors of
+Congress. To command the thirteen regiments of militia furnished by the
+State of Ohio, Governor Dennison had given a commission of major-general
+to George B. McClellan, who had been educated at West Point and served
+with distinction in the Mexican War, and who, through unusual
+opportunities in travel and special duties in surveys and exploration,
+had gained acquirements and qualifications that appeared to fit him for
+a brilliant career. Being but thirty-five years old, and having reached
+only the grade of captain, he had resigned from the army, and was at the
+moment serving as president of the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad.
+General Scott warmly welcomed his appointment to lead the Ohio
+contingent, and so industriously facilitated his promotion that by the
+beginning of June McClellan's militia commission as major-general had
+been changed to a commission for the same grade in the regular army, and
+he found himself assigned to the command of a military department
+extending from Western Virginia to Missouri. Though this was a leap in
+military title, rank, and power which excels the inventions of romance,
+it was necessitated by the sudden exigencies of army expansion over the
+vast territory bordering the insurrection, and for a while seemed
+justified by the hopeful promise indicated in the young officer's zeal
+and activity.
+
+His instructions made it a part of his duty to encourage and support the
+Unionists of Western Virginia in their political movement to divide the
+State and erect a Union commonwealth out of that portion of it lying
+northwest of the Alleghanies. General Lee, not fully informed of the
+adverse popular sentiment, sent a few Confederate regiments into that
+region to gather recruits and hold the important mountain passes.
+McClellan, in turn, advanced a detachment eastward from Wheeling, to
+protect the Baltimore and Ohio railroad; and at the beginning of June,
+an expedition of two regiments, led by Colonel Kelly, made a spirited
+dash upon Philippi, where, by a complete surprise, he routed and
+scattered Porterfield's recruiting detachment of one thousand
+Confederates. Following up this initial success, McClellan threw
+additional forces across the Ohio, and about a month later had the good
+fortune, on July 11, by a flank movement under Rosecrans, to drive a
+regiment of the enemy out of strong intrenchments on Rich Mountain,
+force the surrender of the retreating garrison on the following day,
+July 12, and to win a third success on the thirteenth over another
+flying detachment at Carrick's Ford, one of the crossings of the Cheat
+River, where the Confederate General Garnett was killed in a
+skirmish-fire between sharp-shooters.
+
+These incidents, happening on three successive days, and in distance
+forty miles apart, made a handsome showing for the young department
+commander when gathered into the single, short telegram in which he
+reported to Washington that Garnett was killed, his force routed, at
+least two hundred of the enemy killed, and seven guns and one thousand
+prisoners taken. "Our success is complete, and secession is killed in
+this country," concluded the despatch. The result, indeed, largely
+overshadowed in importance the means which accomplished it. The Union
+loss was only thirteen killed and forty wounded. In subsequent effect,
+these two comparatively insignificant skirmishes permanently recovered
+the State of West Virginia to the Union. The main credit was, of course,
+due to the steadfast loyalty of the people of that region.
+
+This victory afforded welcome relief to the strained and impatient
+public opinion of the Northern States, and sharpened the eager
+expectation of the authorities at Washington of similar results from
+the projected Virginia campaign. The organization and command of that
+column were intrusted to Brigadier-General McDowell, advanced to this
+grade from his previous rank of major. He was forty-two years old, an
+accomplished West Point graduate, and had won distinction in the Mexican
+War, though since that time he had been mainly engaged in staff duty. On
+the morning of July 16, he began his advance from the fortifications of
+Washington, with a marching column of about twenty-eight thousand men
+and a total of forty-nine guns, an additional division of about six
+thousand being left behind to guard his communications. Owing to the
+rawness of his troops, the first few days' march was necessarily
+cautious and cumbersome.
+
+The enemy, under Beauregard, had collected about twenty-three thousand
+men and thirty-five guns, and was posted behind Bull Run. A preliminary
+engagement occurred on Thursday, July 18, at Blackburn's Ford on that
+stream, which served to develop the enemy's strong position, but only
+delayed the advance until the whole of McDowell's force reached
+Centreville Here McDowell halted, spent Friday and Saturday in
+reconnoitering, and on Sunday, July 21, began the battle by a circuitous
+march across Bull Run and attacking the enemy's left flank.
+
+It proved that the plan was correctly chosen, but, by a confusion in the
+march, the attack, intended for day-break, was delayed until nine
+o'clock. Nevertheless, the first half of the battle, during the
+forenoon, was entirely successful, the Union lines steadily driving the
+enemy southward, and enabling additional Union brigades to join the
+attacking column by a direct march from Centreville.
+
+At noon, however, the attack came to a halt, partly through the fatigue
+of the troops, partly because the advancing line, having swept the field
+for nearly a mile, found itself in a valley, from which further progress
+had to be made with all the advantage of the ground in favor of the
+enemy. In the lull of the conflict which for a while ensued, the
+Confederate commander, with little hope except to mitigate a defeat,
+hurriedly concentrated his remaining artillery and supporting regiments
+into a semicircular line of defense at the top of the hill that the
+Federals would be obliged to mount, and kept them well concealed among
+the young pines at the edge of the timber, with an open field in their
+front.
+
+Against this second position of the enemy, comprising twelve regiments,
+twenty-two guns, and two companies of cavalry, McDowell advanced in the
+afternoon with an attacking force of fourteen regiments, twenty-four
+guns, and a single battalion of cavalry, but with all the advantages of
+position against him. A fluctuating and intermitting attack resulted.
+The nature of the ground rendered a combined advance impossible. The
+Union brigades were sent forward and repulsed by piecemeal. A battery
+was lost by mistaking a Confederate for a Union regiment. Even now the
+victory seemed to vibrate, when a new flank attack by seven rebel
+regiments, from an entirely unexpected direction, suddenly impressed the
+Union troops with the belief that Johnston's army from Harper's Ferry
+had reached the battle-field; and, demoralized by this belief, the Union
+commands, by a common impulse, gave up the fight as lost, and half
+marched, half ran from the field. Before reaching Centreville, the
+retreat at one point degenerated into a downright panic among army
+teamsters and a considerable crowd of miscellaneous camp-followers; and
+here a charge or two by the Confederate cavalry companies captured
+thirteen Union guns and quite a harvest of army wagons.
+
+When the truth came to be known, it was found that through the want of
+skill and courage on the part of General Patterson in his operations at
+Harper's Ferry, General Johnston, with his whole Confederate army, had
+been allowed to slip away; and so far from coming suddenly into the
+battle of Bull Run, the bulk of them were already in Beauregard's camps
+on Saturday, and performed the heaviest part of the fighting in Sunday's
+conflict.
+
+The sudden cessation of the battle left the Confederates in doubt
+whether their victory was final, or only a prelude to a fresh Union
+attack. But as the Union forces not only retreated from the field, but
+also from Centreville, it took on, in their eyes, the proportions of a
+great triumph; confirming their expectation of achieving ultimate
+independence, and, in fact, giving them a standing in the eyes of
+foreign nations which they had hardly dared hope for so soon. In numbers
+of killed and wounded, the two armies suffered about equally; and
+General Johnston writes: "The Confederate army was more disorganized by
+victory than that of the United States by defeat." Manassas was turned
+into a fortified camp, but the rebel leaders felt themselves unable to
+make an aggressive movement during the whole of the following autumn and
+winter.
+
+The shock of the defeat was deep and painful to the administration and
+the people of the North. Up to late Sunday afternoon favorable reports
+had come to Washington from the battle-field, and every one believed in
+an assured victory. When a telegram came about five o'clock in the
+afternoon, that the day was lost, and McDowell's army in full retreat
+through Centreville, General Scott refused to credit the news, so
+contradictory of everything which had been heard up to that hour. But
+the intelligence was quickly confirmed. The impulse of retreat once
+started, McDowell's effort to arrest it at Centreville proved useless.
+The regiments and brigades not completely disorganized made an
+unmolested and comparatively orderly march back to the fortifications of
+Washington, while on the following day a horde of stragglers found their
+way across the bridges of the Potomac into the city.
+
+President Lincoln received the news quietly and without any visible sign
+of perturbation or excitement; but he remained awake and in the
+executive office all of Sunday night, listening to the personal
+narratives of a number of congressmen and senators who had, with undue
+curiosity, followed the army and witnessed some of the sounds and sights
+of the battle. By the dawn of Monday morning the President had
+substantially made up his judgment of the battle and its probable
+results, and the action dictated by the untoward event. This was, in
+brief, that the militia regiments enlisted under the three months' call
+should be mustered out as soon as practicable; the organization of the
+new three years' forces be pushed forward both east and west; Manassas
+and Harper's Ferry and the intermediate lines of communication be seized
+and held; and a joint movement organized from Cincinnati on East
+Tennessee, and from Cairo on Memphis.
+
+Meanwhile, General McClellan was ordered from West Virginia to
+Washington, where he arrived on July 26, and assumed command of the
+Division of the Potomac, comprising the troops in and around Washington
+on both sides of the river. He quickly cleared the city of stragglers,
+and displayed a gratifying activity in beginning the organization of the
+Army of the Potomac from the new three years' volunteers that were
+pouring into Washington by every train. He was received by the
+administration and the army with the warmest friendliness and
+confidence, and for awhile seemed to reciprocate these feelings with
+zeal and gratitude.
+
+
+
+
+XVII
+
+General Scott's Plans--Criticized as the "Anaconda"--The Three Fields of
+Conflict--Fremont Appointed Major-General--His Military Failures--Battle
+of Wilson's Creek--Hunter Ordered to Fremont--Fremont's
+Proclamation--President Revokes Fremont's Proclamation--Lincoln's Letter
+to Browning--Surrender of Lexington--Fremont Takes the Field--Cameron's
+Visit to Fremont--Fremont's Removal
+
+
+The military genius and experience of General Scott, from the first,
+pretty correctly divined the grand outline of military operations which
+would become necessary in reducing the revolted Southern States to
+renewed allegiance. Long before the battle of Bull Run was planned, he
+urged that the first seventy-five regiments of three months' militia
+could not be relied on for extensive campaigns, because their term of
+service would expire before they could be well organized. His outline
+suggestion, therefore, was that the new three years' volunteer army be
+placed in ten or fifteen healthy camps and given at least four months of
+drill and tactical instruction; and when the navy had, by a rigid
+blockade, closed all the harbors along the seaboard of the Southern
+States, the fully prepared army should, by invincible columns, move down
+the Mississippi River to New Orleans, leaving a strong cordon of
+military posts behind it to keep open the stream, join hands with the
+blockade, and thus envelop the principal area of rebellion in a
+powerful military grasp which would paralyze and effectually kill the
+insurrection. Even while suggesting this plan, however, the general
+admitted that the great obstacle to its adoption would be the impatience
+of the patriotic and loyal Union people and leaders, who would refuse to
+wait the necessary length of time.
+
+The general was correct in his apprehension. The newspapers criticized
+his plan in caustic editorials and ridiculous cartoons as "Scott's
+Anaconda," and public opinion rejected it in an overwhelming demand for
+a prompt and energetic advance. Scott was correct in military theory,
+while the people and the administration were right in practice, under
+existing political conditions. Although Bull Run seemed to justify the
+general, West Virginia and Missouri vindicated the President and the
+people.
+
+It can now be seen that still a third element--geography--intervened to
+give shape and sequence to the main outlines of the Civil War. When, at
+the beginning of May, General Scott gave his advice, the seat of
+government of the first seven Confederate States was still at
+Montgomery, Alabama. By the adhesion of the four interior border States
+to the insurrection, and the removal of the archives and administration
+of Jefferson Davis to Richmond, Virginia, toward the end of June, as the
+capital of the now eleven Confederate States, Washington necessarily
+became the center of Union attack, and Richmond the center of
+Confederate defense. From the day when McDowell began his march to Bull
+Run, to that when Lee evacuated Richmond in his final hopeless flight,
+the route between these two opposing capitals remained the principal and
+dominating line of military operations, and the region between
+Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac River on the east, and the chain of the
+Alleghanies on the west, the primary field of strategy.
+
+According to geographical features, the second great field of strategy
+lay between the Alleghany Mountains and the Mississippi River, and the
+third between the Mississippi River, the Rocky Mountains, and the Rio
+Grande. Except in Western Virginia, the attitude of neutrality assumed
+by Kentucky for a considerable time delayed the definition of the
+military frontier and the beginning of active hostilities in the second
+field, thus giving greater momentary importance to conditions existing
+and events transpiring in Missouri, with the city of St. Louis as the
+principal center of the third great military field.
+
+The same necessity which dictated the promotion of General McClellan at
+one bound from captain to major-general compelled a similar phenomenal
+promotion, not alone of officers of the regular army, but also of
+eminent civilians to high command and military responsibility in the
+immense volunteer force authorized by Congress. Events, rather than
+original purpose, had brought McClellan into prominence and ranking
+duty; but now, by design, the President gave John C. Fremont a
+commission of major-general, and placed him in command of the third
+great military field, with headquarters at St. Louis, with the leading
+idea that he should organize the military strength of the Northwest,
+first, to hold Missouri to the Union, and, second, by a carefully
+prepared military expedition open the Mississippi River. By so doing, he
+would sever the Confederate States, reclaim or conquer the region lying
+west of the great stream, and thus reduce by more than one half the
+territorial area of the insurrection. Though he had been an army
+lieutenant, he had no experience in active war; yet the talent and
+energy he had displayed in Western military exploration, and the
+political prominence he had reached as candidate of the Republican party
+for President in 1856, seemed to fit him preeminently for such a duty.
+
+While most of the volunteers from New England and the Middle States were
+concentrated at Washington and dependent points, the bulk of the Western
+regiments was, for the time being, put under the command of Fremont for
+present and prospective duty. But the high hopes which the
+administration placed in the general were not realized. The genius which
+could lead a few dozen or a few hundred Indian scouts and mountain
+trappers over desert plains and through the fastnesses of the Sierra
+Nevada, that could defy savage hostilities and outlive starvation amid
+imprisoning snows, failed signally before the task of animating and
+combining the patriotic enthusiasm of eight or ten great northwestern
+States, and organizing and leading an army of one hundred thousand eager
+volunteers in a comprehensive and decisive campaign to recover a great
+national highway. From the first, Fremont failed in promptness, in
+foresight, in intelligent supervision and, above all, in inspiring
+confidence and attracting assistance and devotion. His military
+administration created serious extravagance and confusion, and his
+personal intercourse excited the distrust and resentment of the
+governors and civilian officials, whose counsel and cooeperation were
+essential to his usefulness and success.
+
+While his resources were limited, and while he fortified St. Louis and
+reinforced Cairo, a yet more important point needed his attention and
+help. Lyon, who had followed Governor Jackson and General Price in their
+flight from Boonville to Springfield in southern Missouri, found his
+forces diminished beyond his expectation by the expiration of the term
+of service of his three months' regiments, and began to be threatened by
+a northward concentration of Confederate detachments from the Arkansas
+line and the Indian Territory. The neglect of his appeals for help
+placed him in the situation where he could neither safely remain
+inactive, nor safely retreat. He therefore took the chances of
+scattering the enemy before him by a sudden, daring attack with his five
+thousand effectives, against nearly treble numbers, in the battle of
+Wilson's Creek, at daylight on August 10. The casualties on the two
+sides were nearly equal, and the enemy was checked and crippled; but the
+Union army sustained a fatal loss in the death of General Lyon, who was
+instantly killed while leading a desperate bayonet charge. His skill and
+activity had, so far, been the strength of the Union cause in Missouri.
+The absence of his counsel and personal example rendered a retreat to
+the railroad terminus at Rolla necessary. This discouraging event turned
+public criticism sharply upon Fremont. Loath to yield to mere public
+clamor, and averse to hasty changes in military command, Mr. Lincoln
+sought to improve the situation by sending General David Hunter to take
+a place on Fremont's staff.
+
+"General Fremont needs assistance," said his note to Hunter, "which it
+is difficult to give him. He is losing the confidence of men near him,
+whose support any man in his position must have to be successful. His
+cardinal mistake is that he isolates himself, and allows nobody to see
+him; and by which he does not know what is going on in the very matter
+he is dealing with. 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 to be ordered to it; but will you not serve the country
+and oblige me by taking it voluntarily?"
+
+This note indicates, better than pages of description, the kind,
+helpful, and forbearing spirit with which the President, through the
+long four years' war, treated his military commanders and subordinates;
+and which, in several instances, met such ungenerous return. But even
+while Mr. Lincoln was attempting to smooth this difficulty, Fremont had
+already burdened him with two additional embarrassments. One was a
+perplexing personal quarrel the general had begun with the influential
+Blair family, represented by Colonel Frank Blair, the indefatigable
+Unionist leader in Missouri, and Montgomery Blair, the
+postmaster-general in Lincoln's cabinet, who had hitherto been Fremont's
+most influential friends and supporters; and, in addition, the father of
+these, Francis P. Blair, Sr., a veteran politician whose influence dated
+from Jackson's administration, and through whose assistance Fremont had
+been nominated as presidential candidate in 1856.
+
+The other embarrassment was of a more serious and far-reaching nature.
+Conscious that he was losing the esteem and confidence of both civil and
+military leaders in the West, Fremont's adventurous fancy caught at the
+idea of rehabilitating himself before the public by a bold political
+manoeuver. Day by day the relation of slavery to the Civil War was
+becoming a more troublesome question, and exciting impatient and angry
+discussion. Without previous consultation with the President or any of
+his advisers or friends, Fremont, on August 30, wrote and printed, as
+commander of the Department of the West, a proclamation establishing
+martial law throughout the State of Missouri, and announcing that:
+
+"All persons who shall be taken with arms in their hands within these
+lines shall be tried by court-martial, and if found guilty will be shot.
+The property, real and personal, of all persons in the State of
+Missouri who shall take up arms against the United States, or who shall
+be directly proven to have taken an active part with their enemies in
+the field, is declared to be confiscated to the public use; and their
+slaves, if any they have, are hereby declared freemen."
+
+The reason given in the proclamation for this drastic and dictatorial
+measure was to suppress disorder, maintain the public peace, and protect
+persons and property of loyal citizens--all simple police duties. For
+issuing his proclamation without consultation with the President, he
+could offer only the flimsy excuse that it involved two days of time to
+communicate with Washington, while he well knew that no battle was
+pending and no invasion in progress. This reckless misuse of power
+President Lincoln also corrected with his dispassionate prudence and
+habitual courtesy. He immediately wrote to the general:
+
+"MY DEAR SIR: Two points in your proclamation of August 30 give me some
+anxiety:
+
+"_First_. Should you shoot a man, according to the proclamation, the
+Confederates would very certainly shoot our best men in their hands, in
+retaliation; and so, man for man, indefinitely. It is, therefore, my
+order that you allow no man to be shot under the proclamation, without
+first having my approbation or consent.
+
+"_Second_. I think there is great danger that the closing paragraph, in
+relation to the confiscation of property and the liberating slaves of
+traitorous owners, will alarm our Southern Union friends and turn them
+against us; perhaps ruin our rather fair prospect for Kentucky. Allow
+me, therefore, to ask that you will, as of your own motion, modify that
+paragraph so as to conform to the first and fourth sections of the act
+of Congress entitled, 'An act to confiscate property used for
+insurrectionary purposes,' approved August 6, 1861, and a copy of which
+act I herewith send you.
+
+"This letter is written in a spirit of caution, and not of censure. I
+send it by a special messenger, in order that it may certainly and
+speedily reach you."
+
+But the headstrong general was too blind and selfish to accept this mild
+redress of a fault that would have justified instant displacement from
+command. He preferred that the President should openly direct him to
+make the correction. Admitting that he decided in one night upon the
+measure, he added: "If I were to retract it of my own accord, it would
+imply that I myself thought it wrong, and that I had acted without the
+reflection which the gravity of the point demanded." The inference is
+plain that Fremont was unwilling to lose the influence of his hasty step
+upon public opinion. But by this course he deliberately placed himself
+in an attitude of political hostility to the administration.
+
+The incident produced something of the agitation which the general had
+evidently counted upon. Radical antislavery men throughout the free
+States applauded his act and condemned the President, and military
+emancipation at once became a subject of excited discussion. Even strong
+conservatives were carried away by the feeling that rebels would be but
+properly punished by the loss of their slaves. To Senator Browning, the
+President's intimate personal friend, who entertained this feeling, Mr.
+Lincoln wrote a searching analysis of Fremont's proclamation and its
+dangers:
+
+"Yours of the seventeenth is just received; and, coming from you, I
+confess it astonishes me. That you should object to my adhering to a law
+which you had assisted in making and presenting to me, less than a month
+before, is odd enough. But this is a very small part. General Fremont's
+proclamation as to confiscation of property and the liberation of slaves
+is purely political, and not within the range of military law or
+necessity. If a commanding general finds a necessity to seize the farm
+of a private owner, for a pasture, an encampment, or a fortification, he
+has the right to do so, and to so hold it as long as the necessity
+lasts; and this is within military law, because within military
+necessity. But to say the farm shall no longer belong to the owner or
+his heirs forever, and this as well when the farm is not needed for
+military purposes as when it is, is purely political, without the savor
+of military law about it. And the same is true of slaves. If the general
+needs them he can seize them and use them, but when the need is past, it
+is not for him to fix their permanent future condition. That must be
+settled according to laws made by law-makers, and not by military
+proclamations. The proclamation in the point in question is simply
+'dictatorship.' It assumes that the general may do anything he
+pleases--confiscate the lands and free the slaves of loyal people, as
+well as of disloyal ones. And going the whole figure, I have no doubt,
+would be more popular, with some thoughtless people, than that which has
+been done! But I cannot assume this reckless position, nor allow others
+to assume it on my responsibility.
+
+"You speak of it as being the only means of saving the government. On
+the contrary, it is itself the surrender of the government. Can it be
+pretended that it is any longer the government of the United States--any
+government of constitution and laws--wherein a general or a president
+may make permanent rules of property by proclamation? I do not say
+Congress might not, with propriety, pass a law on the point, just such
+as General Fremont proclaimed. I do not say I might not, as a member of
+Congress, vote for it. What I object to is, that I, as President, shall
+expressly or impliedly seize and exercize the permanent legislative
+functions of the government.
+
+"So much as to principle. Now as to policy. No doubt the thing was
+popular in some quarters, and would have been more so if it had been a
+general declaration of emancipation. The Kentucky legislature would not
+budge till that proclamation was modified; and General Anderson
+telegraphed me that on the news of General Fremont having actually
+issued deeds of manumission, a whole company of our volunteers threw
+down their arms and disbanded. I was so assured as to think it probable
+that the very arms we had furnished Kentucky would be turned against us.
+I think to lose Kentucky is nearly the same as to lose the whole game.
+Kentucky gone, we cannot hold Missouri, nor, as I think, Maryland. These
+all against us, and the job on our hands is too large for us. We would
+as well consent to separation at once, including the surrender of this
+capital."
+
+If it be objected that the President himself decreed military
+emancipation a year later, then it must be remembered that Fremont's
+proclamation differed in many essential particulars from the President's
+edict of January 1, 1863. By that time, also, the entirely changed
+conditions justified a complete change of policy; but, above all, the
+supreme reason of military necessity, upon which alone Mr. Lincoln based
+the constitutionality of his edict of freedom, was entirely wanting in
+the case of Fremont.
+
+The harvest of popularity which Fremont evidently hoped to secure by his
+proclamation was soon blighted by a new military disaster. The
+Confederate forces which had been united in the battle of Wilson's Creek
+quickly became disorganized through the disagreement of their leaders
+and the want of provisions and other military supplies, and mainly
+returned to Arkansas and the Indian Territory, whence they had come. But
+General Price, with his Missouri contingent, gradually increased his
+followers, and as the Union retreat from Springfield to Rolla left the
+way open, began a northward march through the western part of the State
+to attack Colonel Mulligan, who, with about twenty-eight hundred Federal
+troops, intrenched himself at Lexington on the Missouri River. Secession
+sympathy was strong along the line of his march, and Price gained
+adherents so rapidly that on September 18 he was able to invest
+Mulligan's position with a somewhat irregular army numbering about
+twenty thousand. After a two days' siege, the garrison was compelled to
+surrender, through the exhaustion of the supply of water in their
+cisterns. The victory won, Price again immediately retreated southward,
+losing his army almost as fast as he had collected it, made up, as it
+was, more in the spirit and quality of a sudden border foray than an
+organized campaign.
+
+For this new loss, Fremont was subjected to a shower of fierce
+criticism, which this time he sought to disarm by ostentatious
+announcements of immediate activity. "I am taking the field myself," he
+telegraphed, "and hope to destroy the enemy either before or after the
+junction of forces under McCulloch." Four days after the surrender, the
+St. Louis newspapers printed his order organizing an army of five
+divisions. The document made a respectable show of force on paper,
+claiming an aggregate of nearly thirty-nine thousand. In reality,
+however, being scattered and totally unprepared for the field, it
+possessed no such effective strength. For a month longer extravagant
+newspaper reports stimulated the public with the hope of substantial
+results from Fremont's intended campaign. Before the end of that time,
+however, President Lincoln, under growing apprehension, sent Secretary
+of War Cameron and the adjutant-general of the army to Missouri to make
+a personal investigation. Reaching Fremont's camp on October 13, they
+found the movement to be a mere forced, spasmodic display, without
+substantial strength, transportation, or coherent and feasible plan; and
+that at least two of the division commanders were without means to
+execute the orders they had received, and utterly without confidence in
+their leader, or knowledge of his intentions.
+
+To give Fremont yet another chance, the Secretary of War withheld the
+President's order to relieve the general from command, which he had
+brought with him, on Fremont's insistence that a victory was really
+within his reach. When this hope also proved delusive, and suspicion was
+aroused that the general might be intending not only to deceive, but to
+defy the administration, President Lincoln sent the following letter by
+a special friend to General Curtis, commanding at St. Louis:
+
+"DEAR SIR: On receipt of this, with the accompanying inclosures, you
+will take safe, certain, and suitable measures to have the inclosure
+addressed to Major-General Fremont delivered to him with all reasonable
+dispatch, subject to these conditions only, that if, when General
+Fremont shall be reached by the messenger--yourself, or any one sent by
+you--he shall then have, in personal command, fought and won a battle,
+or shall then be actually in a battle, or shall then be in the immediate
+presence of the enemy in expectation of a battle, it is not to be
+delivered, but held for further orders. After, and not till after, the
+delivery to General Fremont, let the inclosure addressed to General
+Hunter be delivered to him."
+
+The order of removal was delivered to Fremont on November 2. By that
+date he had reached Springfield, but had won no victory, fought no
+battle, and was not in the presence of the enemy. Two of his divisions
+were not yet even with him. Still laboring under the delusion, perhaps
+imposed on him by his scouts, his orders stated that the enemy was only
+a day's march distant, and advancing to attack him. The inclosure
+mentioned in the President's letter to Curtis was an order to General
+David Hunter to relieve Fremont. When he arrived and assumed command the
+scouts he sent forward found no enemy within reach, and no such
+contingency of battle or hope of victory as had been rumored and
+assumed.
+
+Fremont's personal conduct in these disagreeable circumstances was
+entirely commendable. He took leave of the army in a short farewell
+order, couched in terms of perfect obedience to authority and courtesy
+to his successor, asking for him the same cordial support he had himself
+received. Nor did he by word or act justify the suspicions of
+insubordination for which some of his indiscreet adherents had given
+cause. Under the instructions President Lincoln had outlined in his
+order to Hunter, that general gave up the idea of indefinitely pursuing
+Price, and divided the army into two corps of observation, which were
+drawn back and posted, for the time being, at the two railroad termini
+of Rolla and Sedalia, to be recruited and prepared for further service.
+
+
+
+
+XVIII
+
+Blockade--Hatteras Inlet--Port Royal Captured--The Trent
+Affair--Lincoln Suggests Arbitration--Seward's Despatch--McClellan at
+Washington--Army of the Potomac--McClellan's Quarrel with
+Scott--Retirement of Scott--Lincoln's Memorandum--"All Quiet on the
+Potomac"--Conditions in Kentucky--Cameron's Visit to Sherman--East
+Tennessee--Instructions to Buell--Buell's Neglect--Halleck in Missouri
+
+
+Following the fall of Fort Sumter, the navy of the United States was in
+no condition to enforce the blockade from Chesapeake Bay to the Rio
+Grande declared by Lincoln's proclamation of April 19. Of the forty-two
+vessels then in commission nearly all were on foreign stations. Another
+serious cause of weakness was that within a few days after the Sumter
+attack one hundred and twenty-four officers of the navy resigned, or
+were dismissed for disloyalty, and the number of such was doubled before
+the fourth of July. Yet by the strenuous efforts of the department in
+fitting out ships that had been laid up, in completing those under
+construction, and in extensive purchases and arming of all classes of
+vessels that could be put to use, from screw and side-wheel merchant
+steamers to ferry-boats and tugs, a legally effective blockade was
+established within a period of six months. A considerable number of new
+war-ships was also immediately placed under construction. The special
+session of Congress created a commission to study the subject of
+ironclads, and on its recommendation three experimental vessels of this
+class were placed under contract. One of these, completed early in the
+following year, rendered a momentous service, hereafter to be mentioned,
+and completely revolutionized naval warfare.
+
+Meanwhile, as rapidly as vessels could be gathered and prepared, the
+Navy Department organized effective expeditions to operate against
+points on the Atlantic coast. On August 29 a small fleet, under command
+of Flag Officer Stringham, took possession of Hatteras Inlet, after
+silencing the forts the insurgents had erected to guard the entrance,
+and captured twenty-five guns and seven hundred prisoners. This success,
+achieved without the loss of a man to the Union fleet, was of great
+importance, opening, as it did, the way for a succession of victories in
+the interior waters of North Carolina early in the following year.
+
+A more formidable expedition, and still greater success soon followed.
+Early in November, Captain Du-Pont assembled a fleet of fifty sail,
+including transports, before Port Royal Sound. Forming a column of nine
+war-ships with a total of one hundred and twelve guns, the line steamed
+by the mid-channel between Fort Beauregard to the right, and Fort Walker
+to the left, the first of twenty and the second of twenty-three guns,
+each ship delivering its fire as it passed the forts. Turning at the
+proper point, they again gave broadside after broadside while steaming
+out, and so repeated their circular movement. The battle was decided
+when, on the third round, the forts failed to respond to the fire of the
+ships. When Commander Rodgers carried and planted the Stars and Stripes
+on the ramparts, he found them utterly deserted, everything having been
+abandoned by the flying garrisons. Further reconnaissance proved that
+the panic extended itself over the whole network of sea islands between
+Charleston and Savannah, permitting the immediate occupation of the
+entire region, and affording a military base for both the navy and the
+army of incalculable advantage in the further reduction of the coast.
+
+Another naval exploit, however, almost at the same time, absorbed
+greater public attention, and for a while created an intense degree of
+excitement and suspense. Ex-Senators J.M. Mason and John Slidell, having
+been accredited by the Confederate government as envoys to European
+courts, had managed to elude the blockade and reach Havana. Captain
+Charles Wilkes, commanding the _San Jacinto_, learning that they were to
+take passage for England on the British mail steamer _Trent_,
+intercepted that vessel on November 8 near the coast of Cuba, took the
+rebel emissaries prisoner by the usual show of force, and brought them
+to the United States, but allowed the _Trent_ to proceed on her voyage.
+The incident and alleged insult produced as great excitement in England
+as in the United States, and the British government began instant and
+significant preparations for war for what it hastily assumed to be a
+violation of international law and an outrage on the British flag.
+Instructions were sent to Lord Lyons, the British minister at
+Washington, to demand the release of the prisoners and a suitable
+apology; and, if this demand were not complied with within a single
+week, to close his legation and return to England.
+
+In the Northern States the capture was greeted with great jubilation.
+Captain Wilkes was applauded by the press; his act was officially
+approved by the Secretary of the Navy, and the House of Representatives
+unanimously passed a resolution thanking him for his "brave, adroit, and
+patriotic conduct." While the President and cabinet shared the first
+impulses of rejoicing, second thoughts impressed them with the grave
+nature of the international question involved, and the serious dilemma
+of disavowal or war precipitated by the imperative British demand. It
+was fortunate that Secretary Seward and Lord Lyons were close personal
+friends, and still more that though British public opinion had strongly
+favored the rebellion, the Queen of England entertained the kindliest
+feelings for the American government. Under her direction, Prince Albert
+instructed the British cabinet to formulate and present the demand in
+the most courteous diplomatic language, while, on their part, the
+American President and cabinet discussed the affair in a temper of
+judicious reserve.
+
+President Lincoln's first desire was to refer the difficulty to friendly
+arbitration, and his mood is admirably expressed in the autograph
+experimental draft of a despatch suggesting this course.
+
+"The President is unwilling to believe," he wrote, "that her Majesty's
+government will press for a categorical answer upon what appears to him
+to be only a partial record, in the making up of which he has been
+allowed no part. He is reluctant to volunteer his view of the case, with
+no assurance that her Majesty's government will consent to hear him; yet
+this much he directs me to say, that this government has intended no
+affront to the British flag, or to the British nation; nor has it
+intended to force into discussion an embarrassing question; all which is
+evident by the fact hereby asserted, that the act complained of was done
+by the officer without orders from, or expectation of, the government.
+But, being done, it was no longer left to us to consider whether we
+might not, to avoid a controversy, waive an unimportant though a strict
+right; because we, too, as well as Great Britain, have a people justly
+jealous of their rights, and in whose presence our government could undo
+the act complained of only upon a fair showing that it was wrong, or at
+least very questionable. The United States government and people are
+still willing to make reparation upon such showing.
+
+"Accordingly, I am instructed by the President to inquire whether her
+Majesty's government will hear the United States upon the matter in
+question. The President desires, among other things, to bring into view,
+and have considered, the existing rebellion in the United States; the
+position Great Britain has assumed, including her Majesty's proclamation
+in relation thereto; the relation the persons whose seizure is the
+subject of complaint bore to the United States, and the object of their
+voyage at the time they were seized; the knowledge which the master of
+the _Trent_ had of their relation to the United States, and of the
+object of their voyage, at the time he received them on board for the
+voyage; the place of the seizure; and the precedents and respective
+positions assumed in analogous cases between Great Britain and the
+United States.
+
+"Upon a submission containing the foregoing facts, with those set forth
+in the before-mentioned despatch to your lordship, together with all
+other facts which either party may deem material, I am instructed to say
+the government of the United States will, if agreed to by her Majesty's
+government, go to such friendly arbitration as is usual among nations,
+and will abide the award."
+
+The most practised diplomatic pen in Europe could not have written a
+more dignified, courteous, or succinct presentation of the case; and
+yet, under the necessities of the moment, it was impossible to adopt
+this procedure. Upon full discussion, it was decided that war with Great
+Britain must be avoided, and Mr. Seward wrote a despatch defending the
+course of Captain Wilkes up to the point where he permitted the _Trent_
+to proceed on her voyage. It was his further duty to have brought her
+before a prize court. Failing in this, he had left the capture
+incomplete under rules of international law, and the American government
+had thereby lost the right and the legal evidence to establish the
+contraband character of the vessel and the persons seized. Under the
+circumstances, the prisoners were therefore willingly released. Excited
+American feeling was grievously disappointed at the result; but American
+good sense readily accommodated itself both to the correctness of the
+law expounded by the Secretary of State, and to the public policy that
+averted a great international danger; particularly as this decision
+forced Great Britain to depart from her own and to adopt the American
+traditions respecting this class of neutral rights.
+
+It has already been told how Captain George B. McClellan was suddenly
+raised in rank, at the very outset of the war, first to a
+major-generalship in the three months' militia, then to the command of
+the military department of the Ohio; from that to a major-generalship in
+the regular army; and after his successful campaign in West Virginia was
+called to Washington and placed in command of the Division of the
+Potomac, which comprised all the troops in and around Washington, on
+both sides of the river. Called thus to the capital of the nation to
+guard it against the results of the disastrous battle of Bull Run, and
+to organize a new army for extended offensive operations, the
+surrounding conditions naturally suggested to him that in all
+likelihood he would play a conspicuous part in the great drama of the
+Civil War. His ambition rose eagerly to the prospect. On the day on
+which he assumed command, July 27, he wrote to his wife:
+
+"I find myself in a new and strange position here; President, cabinet,
+General Scott, and all, deferring to me. By some strange operation of
+magic I seem to have become the power of the land."
+
+And three days later:
+
+"They give me my way in everything, full swing and unbounded
+confidence.... Who would have thought, when we were married, that I
+should so soon be called upon to save my country?"
+
+And still a few days afterward:
+
+"I shall carry this thing _en grande_, and crush the rebels in one
+campaign."
+
+From the giddy elevation to which such an imaginary achievement raised
+his dreams, there was but one higher step, and his colossal egotism
+immediately mounted to occupy it. On August 9, just two weeks after his
+arrival in Washington, he wrote:
+
+"I would cheerfully take the dictatorship and agree to lay down my life
+when the country is saved;" while in the same letter he adds, with the
+most naive unconsciousness of his hallucination: "I am not spoiled by my
+unexpected new position."
+
+Coming to the national capital in the hour of deepest public depression
+over the Bull Run defeat, McClellan was welcomed by the President, the
+cabinet, and General Scott with sincere friendship, by Congress with a
+hopeful eagerness, by the people with enthusiasm, and by Washington
+society with adulation. Externally he seemed to justify such a greeting.
+He was young, handsome, accomplished, genial and winning in conversation
+and manner. He at once manifested great industry and quick decision,
+and speedily exhibited a degree of ability in army organization which
+was not equaled by any officer during the Civil War. Under his eye the
+stream of the new three years' regiments pouring into the city went to
+their camps, fell into brigades and divisions, were supplied with
+equipments, horses, and batteries, and underwent the routine of drill,
+tactics, and reviews, which, without the least apparent noise or
+friction, in three months made the Army of the Potomac a perfect
+fighting machine of over one hundred and fifty thousand men and more
+than two hundred guns.
+
+Recognizing his ability in this work, the government had indeed given
+him its full confidence, and permitted him to exercise almost unbounded
+authority; which he fully utilized in favoring his personal friends, and
+drawing to himself the best resources of the whole country in arms,
+supplies, and officers of education and experience. For a while his
+outward demeanor indicated respect and gratitude for the promotion and
+liberal favors bestowed upon him. But his phenomenal rise was fatal to
+his usefulness. The dream that he was to be the sole savior of his
+country, announced confidentially to his wife just two weeks after his
+arrival in Washington, never again left him so long as he continued in
+command. Coupled with this dazzling vision, however, was soon developed
+the tormenting twofold hallucination: first, that everybody was
+conspiring to thwart him; and, second, that the enemy had from double to
+quadruple numbers to defeat him.
+
+For the first month he could not sleep for the nightmare that
+Beauregard's demoralized army had by a sudden bound from Manassas seized
+the city of Washington. He immediately began a quarrel with General
+Scott, which, by the first of November, drove the old hero into
+retirement and out of his pathway. The cabinet members who, wittingly or
+unwittingly, had encouraged him in this he some weeks later stigmatized
+as a set of geese. Seeing that President Lincoln was kind and unassuming
+in discussing military questions, McClellan quickly contracted the habit
+of expressing contempt for him in his confidential letters; and the
+feeling rapidly grew until it reached a mark of open disrespect. The
+same trait manifested itself in his making exclusive confidants of only
+two or three of his subordinate generals, and ignoring the counsel of
+all the others; and when, later on, Congress appointed a standing
+committee of leading senators and representatives to examine into the
+conduct of the war, he placed himself in a similar attitude respecting
+their inquiry and advice.
+
+McClellan's activity and judgment as an army organizer naturally created
+great hopes that he would be equally efficient as a commander in the
+field. But these hopes were grievously disappointed. To his first great
+defect of estimating himself as the sole savior of the country, must at
+once be added the second, of his utter inability to form any reasonable
+judgment of the strength of the enemy in his front. On September 8, when
+the Confederate army at Manassas numbered forty-one thousand, he rated
+it at one hundred and thirty thousand. By the end of October that
+estimate had risen to one hundred and fifty thousand, to meet which he
+asked that his own force should be raised to an aggregate of two hundred
+and forty thousand, with a total of effectives of two hundred and eight
+thousand, and four hundred and eighty-eight guns. He suggested that to
+gather this force all other points should be left on the defensive; that
+the Army of the Potomac held the fate of the country in its hands; that
+the advance should not be postponed beyond November 25; and that a
+single will should direct the plan of accomplishing a crushing defeat of
+the rebel army at Manassas.
+
+On the first of November the President, yielding at last to General
+Scott's urgent solicitation, issued the orders placing him on the
+retired list, and in his stead appointing General McClellan to the
+command of all the armies. The administration indulged the expectation
+that at last "The Young Napoleon," as the newspapers often called him,
+would take advantage of the fine autumn weather, and, by a bold move
+with his single will and his immense force, outnumbering the enemy
+nearly four to one, would redeem his promise to crush the army at
+Manassas and "save the country." But the November days came and went, as
+the October days had come and gone. McClellan and his brilliant staff
+galloped unceasingly from camp to camp, and review followed review,
+while autumn imperceptibly gave place to the cold and storms of winter;
+and still there was no sign of forward movement.
+
+Under his own growing impatience, as well as that of the public, the
+President, about the first of December, inquired pointedly, in a
+memorandum suggesting a plan of campaign, how long it would require to
+actually get in motion. McClellan answered: "By December 15,--probably
+25"; and put aside the President's suggestion by explaining: "I have now
+my mind actively turned toward another plan of campaign that I do not
+think at all anticipated by the enemy, nor by many of our own people."
+
+December 25 came, as November 25 had come, and still there was no plan,
+no preparation, no movement. Then McClellan fell seriously ill. By a
+spontaneous and most natural impulse, the soldiers of the various camps
+began the erection of huts to shelter them from snow and storm. In a few
+weeks the Army of the Potomac was practically, if not by order, in
+winter quarters; and day after day the monotonous telegraphic phrase
+"All quiet on the Potomac" was read from Northern newspapers in Northern
+homes, until by mere iteration it degenerated from an expression of deep
+disappointment to a note of sarcastic criticism.
+
+While so unsatisfactory a condition of affairs existed in the first
+great military field east of the Alleghanies, the outlook was quite as
+unpromising both in the second--between the Alleghanies and the
+Mississippi--and in the third--west of the Mississippi. When the
+Confederates, about September 1, 1861, invaded Kentucky, they stationed
+General Pillow at the strongly fortified town of Columbus on the
+Mississippi River, with about six thousand men; General Buckner at
+Bowling Green, on the railroad north of Nashville, with five thousand;
+and General Zollicoffer, with six regiments, in eastern Kentucky,
+fronting Cumberland Gap. Up to that time there were no Union troops in
+Kentucky, except a few regiments of Home Guards. Now, however, the State
+legislature called for active help; and General Anderson, exercising
+nominal command from Cincinnati, sent Brigadier-General Sherman to
+Nashville to confront Buckner, and Brigadier-General Thomas to Camp Dick
+Robinson, to confront Zollicoffer.
+
+Neither side was as yet in a condition of force and preparation to take
+the aggressive. When, a month later, Anderson, on account of ill health
+turned over the command to Sherman, the latter had gathered only about
+eighteen thousand men, and was greatly discouraged by the task of
+defending three hundred miles of frontier with that small force. In an
+interview with Secretary of War Cameron, who called upon him on his
+return from Fremont's camp, about the middle of October, he strongly
+urged that he needed for immediate defense sixty thousand, and for
+ultimate offense "two hundred thousand before we were done." "Great
+God!" exclaimed Cameron, "where are they to come from?" Both Sherman's
+demand and Cameron's answer were a pertinent comment on McClellan's
+policy of collecting the whole military strength of the country at
+Washington to fight the one great battle for which he could never get
+ready.
+
+Sherman was so distressed by the seeming magnitude of his burden that he
+soon asked to be relieved; and when Brigadier-General Buell was sent to
+succeed him in command of that part of Kentucky lying east of the
+Cumberland River, it was the expectation of the President that he would
+devote his main attention and energy to the accomplishment of a specific
+object which Mr. Lincoln had very much at heart.
+
+Ever since the days in June, when President Lincoln had presided over
+the council of war which discussed and decided upon the Bull Run
+campaign, he had devoted every spare moment of his time to the study of
+such military books and leading principles of the art of war as would
+aid him in solving questions that must necessarily come to himself for
+final decision. His acute perceptions, retentive memory, and unusual
+power of logic enabled him to make rapid progress in the acquisition of
+the fixed and accepted rules on which military writers agree. In this,
+as in other sciences, the main difficulty, of course, lies in applying
+fixed theories to variable conditions. When, however, we remember that
+at the outbreak of hostilities all the great commanders of the Civil War
+had experience only as captains and lieutenants, it is not strange that
+in speculative military problems the President's mature reasoning powers
+should have gained almost as rapidly by observation and criticism as
+theirs by practice and experiment. The mastery he attained of the
+difficult art, and how intuitively correct was his grasp of military
+situations, has been attested since in the enthusiastic admiration of
+brilliant technical students, amply fitted by training and intellect to
+express an opinion, whose comment does not fall short of declaring Mr.
+Lincoln "the ablest strategist of the war."
+
+The President had early discerned what must become the dominating and
+decisive lines of advance in gaining and holding military control of the
+Southern States. Only two days after the battle of Bull Run, he had
+written a memorandum suggesting three principal objects for the army
+when reorganized: First, to gather a force to menace Richmond; second, a
+movement from Cincinnati upon Cumberland Gap and East Tennessee; third,
+an expedition from Cairo against Memphis. In his eyes, the second of
+these objectives never lost its importance; and it was in fact
+substantially adopted by indirection and by necessity in the closing
+periods of the war. The eastern third of the State of Tennessee remained
+from the first stubbornly and devotedly loyal to the Union. At an
+election on June 8, 1861, the people of twenty-nine counties, by more
+than two to one, voted against joining the Confederacy; and the most
+rigorous military repression by the orders of Jefferson Davis and
+Governor Harris was necessary to prevent a general uprising against the
+rebellion.
+
+The sympathy of the President, even more than that of the whole North,
+went out warmly to these unfortunate Tennesseeans, and he desired to
+convert their mountain fastnesses into an impregnable patriotic
+stronghold. Had his advice been followed, it would have completely
+severed railroad communication, by way of the Shenandoah valley,
+Knoxville, and Chattanooga, between Virginia and the Gulf States,
+accomplishing in the winter of 1861 what was not attained until two
+years later. Mr. Lincoln urged this in a second memorandum, made late in
+September; and seeing that the principal objection to it lay in the long
+and difficult line of land transportation, his message to Congress of
+December 3, 1861, recommended, as a military measure, the construction
+of a railroad to connect Cincinnati, by way of Lexington, Kentucky, with
+that mountain region.
+
+A few days after the message, he personally went to the President's room
+in the Capitol building, and calling around him a number of leading
+senators and representatives, and pointing out on a map before them the
+East Tennessee region, said to them in substance:
+
+I am thoroughly convinced that the closing struggle of the war will
+occur somewhere in this mountain country. By our superior numbers and
+strength we will everywhere drive the rebel armies back from the level
+districts lying along the coast, from those lying south of the Ohio
+River, and from those lying east of the Mississippi River. Yielding to
+our superior force, they will gradually retreat to the more defensible
+mountain districts, and make their final stand in that part of the South
+where the seven States of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina,
+Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, and West Virginia come together. The
+population there is overwhelmingly and devotedly loyal to the Union. The
+despatches from Brigadier-General Thomas of October 28 and November 5
+show that, with four additional good regiments, he is willing to
+undertake the campaign and is confident he can take immediate
+possession. Once established, the people will rally to his support, and
+by building a railroad, over which to forward him regular supplies and
+needed reinforcements from time to time, we can hold it against all
+attempts to dislodge us, and at the same time menace the enemy in any
+one of the States I have named.
+
+While his hearers listened with interest, it was evident that their
+minds were still full of the prospect of a great battle in Virginia, the
+capture of Richmond, and an early suppression of the rebellion. Railroad
+building appeared to them altogether too slow an operation of war. To
+show how sagacious was the President's advice, we may anticipate by
+recalling that in the following summer General Buell spent as much time,
+money, and military strength in his attempted march from Corinth to East
+Tennessee as would have amply sufficed to build the line from Lexington
+to Knoxville recommended by Mr. Lincoln--the general's effort resulting
+only in his being driven back to Louisville; that in 1863, Burnside,
+under greater difficulties, made the march and successfully held
+Knoxville, even without a railroad, which Thomas with a few regiments
+could have accomplished in 1861; and that in the final collapse of the
+rebellion, in the spring of 1865, the beaten armies of both Johnston and
+Lee attempted to retreat for a last stand to this same mountain region
+which Mr. Lincoln pointed out in December, 1861.
+
+Though the President received no encouragement from senators and
+representatives in his plan to take possession of East Tennessee, that
+object was specially enjoined in the instructions to General Buell when
+he was sent to command in Kentucky.
+
+"It so happens that a large majority of the inhabitants of eastern
+Tennessee are in favor of the Union; it therefore seems proper that you
+should remain on the defensive on the line from Louisville to Nashville,
+while you throw the mass of your forces by rapid marches by Cumberland
+Gap or Walker's Gap on Knoxville, in order to occupy the railroad at
+that point, and thus enable the loyal citizens of eastern Tennessee to
+rise, while you at the same time cut off the railway communication
+between eastern Virginia and the Mississippi."
+
+Three times within the same month McClellan repeated this injunction to
+Buell with additional emphasis. Senator Andrew Johnson and
+Representative Horace Maynard telegraphed him from Washington:
+
+"Our people are oppressed and pursued as beasts of the forest; the
+government must come to their relief."
+
+Buell replied, keeping the word of promise to the ear, but, with his
+ambition fixed on a different campaign, gradually but doggedly broke it
+to the hope. When, a month later, he acknowledged that his preparations
+and intent were to move against Nashville, the President wrote him:
+
+"Of the two, I would rather have a point on the railroad south of
+Cumberland Gap than Nashville. _First_, because it cuts a great artery
+of the enemy's communication which Nashville does not; and, _secondly_,
+because it is in the midst of loyal people, who would rally around it,
+while Nashville is not.... But my distress is that our friends in East
+Tennessee are being hanged and driven to despair, and even now, I fear,
+are thinking of taking rebel arms for the sake of personal protection.
+In this we lose the most valuable stake we have in the South."
+
+McClellan's comment amounted to a severe censure, and this was quickly
+followed by an almost positive command to "advance on eastern Tennessee
+at once." Again Buell promised compliance, only, however, again to
+report in a few weeks his conviction "that an advance into East
+Tennessee is impracticable at this time on any scale which would be
+sufficient." It is difficult to speculate upon the advantages lost by
+this unwillingness of a commander to obey instructions. To say nothing
+of the strategical value of East Tennessee to the Union, the fidelity of
+its people is shown in the reports sent to the Confederate government
+that "the whole country is now in a state of rebellion"; that "civil war
+has broken out in East Tennessee"; and that "they look for the
+reestablishment of the Federal authority in the South with as much
+confidence as the Jews look for the coming of the Messiah."
+
+Henry W. Halleck, born in 1815, graduated from West Point in 1839, who,
+after distinguished service in the Mexican war, had been brevetted
+captain of Engineers, but soon afterward resigned from the army to
+pursue the practice of law in San Francisco, was, perhaps, the best
+professionally equipped officer among the number of those called by
+General Scott in the summer of 1861 to assume important command in the
+Union army. It is probable that Scott intended he should succeed himself
+as general-in-chief; but when he reached Washington the autumn was
+already late, and because of Fremont's conspicuous failure it seemed
+necessary to send Halleck to the Department of the Missouri, which, as
+reconstituted, was made to include, in addition to several northwestern
+States, Missouri and Arkansas, and so much of Kentucky as lay west of
+the Cumberland River. This change of department lines indicates the
+beginning of what soon became a dominant feature of military operations;
+namely, that instead of the vast regions lying west of the Mississippi,
+the great river itself, and the country lying immediately adjacent to
+it on either side, became the third principal field of strategy and
+action, under the necessity of opening and holding it as a great
+military and commercial highway.
+
+While the intention of the government to open the Mississippi River by a
+powerful expedition received additional emphasis through Halleck's
+appointment, that general found no immediate means adequate to the task
+when he assumed command at St. Louis. Fremont's regime had left the
+whole department in the most deplorable confusion. Halleck reported that
+he had no army, but, rather, a military rabble to command and for some
+weeks devoted himself with energy and success to bringing order out of
+the chaos left him by his predecessor. A large element of his difficulty
+lay in the fact that the population of the whole State was tainted with
+disloyalty to a degree which rendered Missouri less a factor in the
+larger questions of general army operations, than from the beginning to
+the end of the war a local district of bitter and relentless factional
+hatred and guerrilla or, as the term was constantly employed,
+"bushwhacking" warfare, intensified and kept alive by annual roving
+Confederate incursions from Arkansas and the Indian Territory in
+desultory summer campaigns.
+
+
+
+
+XIX
+
+Lincoln Directs Cooeperation--Halleck and Buell--Ulysses S.
+Grant--Grant's Demonstration--Victory at Mill River--Fort Henry--Fort
+Donelson--Buell's Tardiness--Halleck's Activity--Victory of Pea
+Ridge--Halleck Receives General Command--Pittsburg Landing--Island No.
+10--Halleck's Corinth Campaign--Halleck's Mistakes
+
+
+Toward the end of December, 1861, the prospects of the administration
+became very gloomy. McClellan had indeed organized a formidable army at
+Washington, but it had done nothing to efface the memory of the Bull Run
+defeat. On the contrary, a practical blockade of the Potomac by rebel
+batteries on the Virginia shore, and another small but irritating defeat
+at Ball's Bluff, greatly heightened public impatience. The necessary
+surrender of Mason and Slidell to England was exceedingly unpalatable.
+Government expenditures had risen to $2,000,000 a day, and a financial
+crisis was imminent. Buell would not move into East Tennessee, and
+Halleck seemed powerless in Missouri. Added to this, McClellan's illness
+completed a stagnation of military affairs both east and west. Congress
+was clamoring for results, and its joint Committee on the Conduct of the
+War was pushing a searching inquiry into the causes of previous defeats.
+
+To remove this inertia, President Lincoln directed specific questions to
+the Western commanders. "Are General Buell and yourself in concert?" he
+telegraphed Halleck on December 31. And next day he wrote:
+
+"I am very anxious that, in case of General Buell's moving toward
+Nashville, the enemy shall not be greatly reinforced, and I think there
+is danger he will be from Columbus. It seems to me that a real or
+feigned attack on Columbus from up-river at the same time would either
+prevent this, or compensate for it by throwing Columbus into our hands."
+
+Similar questions also went to Buell, and their replies showed that no
+concert, arrangement, or plans existed, and that Halleck was not ready
+to cooeperate. The correspondence started by the President's inquiry for
+the first time clearly brought out an estimate of the Confederate
+strength opposed to a southward movement in the West. Since the
+Confederate invasion of Kentucky on September 4, the rebels had so
+strongly fortified Columbus on the Mississippi River that it came to be
+called the "Gibraltar of the West," and now had a garrison of twenty
+thousand to hold it; while General Buckner was supposed to have a force
+of forty thousand at Bowling Green on the railroad between Louisville
+and Nashville. For more than a month Buell and Halleck had been aware
+that a joint river and land expedition southward up the Tennessee or the
+Cumberland River, which would outflank both positions and cause their
+evacuation, was practicable with but little opposition. Yet neither
+Buell nor Halleck had exchanged a word about it, or made the slightest
+preparation to begin it; each being busy in his own field, and with his
+own plans. Even now, when the President had started the subject, Halleck
+replied that it would be bad strategy for himself to move against
+Columbus, or Buell against Bowling Green; but he had nothing to say
+about a Tennessee River expedition, or cooeperation with Buell to effect
+it, except by indirectly complaining that to withdraw troops from
+Missouri would risk the loss of that State.
+
+The President, however, was no longer satisfied with indecision and
+excuses, and telegraphed to Buell on January 7:
+
+"Please name as early a day as you safely can on or before which you can
+be ready to move southward in concert with Major-General Halleck. Delay
+is ruining us, and it is indispensable for me to have something
+definite. I send a like despatch to Major-General Halleck."
+
+To this Buell made no direct reply, while Halleck answered that he had
+asked Buell to designate a date for a demonstration, and explained two
+days later: "I can make, with the gunboats and available troops, a
+pretty formidable demonstration, but no real attack." In point of fact,
+Halleck had on the previous day, January 6, written to Brigadier-General
+U.S. Grant: "I wish you to make a demonstration in force": and he added
+full details, to which Grant responded on January 8: "Your instructions
+of the sixth were received this morning, and immediate preparations made
+for carrying them out"; also adding details on his part.
+
+Ulysses S. Grant was born on April 27, 1822, was graduated from West
+Point in 1843, and brevetted captain for gallant conduct in the Mexican
+War; but resigned from the army and was engaged with his father in a
+leather store at Galena, Illinois, when the Civil War broke out.
+Employed by the governor of Illinois a few weeks at Springfield to
+assist in organizing militia regiments under the President's first call,
+Grant wrote a letter to the War Department at Washington tendering his
+services, and saying: "I feel myself competent to command a regiment, if
+the President in his judgment should see fit to intrust one to me." For
+some reason, never explained, this letter remained unanswered, though
+the department was then and afterward in constant need of educated and
+experienced officers. A few weeks later, however, Governor Yates
+commissioned him colonel of one of the Illinois three years' regiments.
+From that time until the end of 1861, Grant, by constant and specially
+meritorious service, rose in rank to brigadier-general and to the
+command of the important post of Cairo, Illinois, having meanwhile, on
+November 7, won the battle of Belmont on the Missouri shore opposite
+Columbus.
+
+The "demonstration'" ordered by Halleck was probably intended only as a
+passing show of activity; but it was executed by Grant, though under
+strict orders to "avoid a battle," with a degree of promptness and
+earnestness that drew after it momentous consequences. He pushed a
+strong reconnaissance by eight thousand men within a mile or two of
+Columbus, and sent three gunboats up the Tennessee River, which drew the
+fire of Fort Henry. The results of the combined expedition convinced
+Grant that a real movement in that direction was practicable, and he
+hastened to St. Louis to lay his plan personally before Halleck. At
+first that general would scarcely listen to it; but, returning to Cairo,
+Grant urged it again and again, and the rapidly changing military
+conditions soon caused Halleck to realize its importance.
+
+Within a few days, several items of interesting information reached
+Halleck: that General Thomas, in eastern Kentucky, had won a victory
+over the rebel General Zollicoffer, capturing his fortified camp on
+Cumberland River, annihilating his army of over ten regiments, and fully
+exposing Cumberland Gap; that the Confederates were about to throw
+strong reinforcements into Columbus; that seven formidable Union
+ironclad river gunboats were ready for service; and that a rise of
+fourteen feet had taken place in the Tennessee River, greatly weakening
+the rebel batteries on that stream and the Cumberland. The advantages on
+the one hand, and the dangers on the other, which these reports
+indicated, moved Halleck to a sudden decision. When Grant, on January
+28, telegraphed him: "With permission, I will take Fort Henry on the
+Tennessee, and establish and hold a large camp there," Halleck responded
+on the thirtieth: "Make your preparations to take and hold Fort Henry."
+
+It would appear that Grant's preparations were already quite complete
+when he received written instructions by mail on February 1, for on the
+next day he started fifteen thousand men on transports, and on February
+4 himself followed with seven gunboats under command of Commodore Foote.
+Two days later, Grant had the satisfaction of sending a double message
+in return: "Fort Henry is ours.... I shall take and destroy Fort
+Donelson on the eighth."
+
+Fort Henry had been an easy victory. The rebel commander, convinced that
+he could not defend the place, had early that morning sent away his
+garrison of three thousand on a retreat to Fort Donelson, and simply
+held out during a two hours' bombardment until they could escape
+capture. To take Fort Donelson was a more serious enterprise. That
+stronghold, lying twelve miles away on the Cumberland River, was a much
+larger work, with a garrison of six thousand, and armed with seventeen
+heavy and forty-eight field guns. If Grant could have marched
+immediately to an attack of the combined garrisons, there would have
+been a chance of quick success. But the high water presented
+unlooked-for obstacles, and nearly a week elapsed before his army began
+stretching itself cautiously around the three miles of Donelson's
+intrenchments. During this delay, the conditions became greatly changed.
+When the Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston received news that
+Fort Henry had fallen, he held a council at Bowling Green with his
+subordinate generals Hardee and Beauregard, and seeing that the Union
+success would, if not immediately counteracted, render both Nashville
+and Columbus untenable, resolved, to use his own language, "To defend
+Nashville at Donelson."
+
+An immediate retreat was begun from Bowling Green to Nashville, and
+heavy reinforcements were ordered to the garrison of Fort Donelson. It
+happened, therefore, that when Grant was ready to begin his assault the
+Confederate garrison with its reinforcements outnumbered his entire
+army. To increase the discouragement, the attack by gunboats on the
+Cumberland River on the afternoon of February 14 was repulsed, seriously
+damaging two of them, and a heavy sortie from the fort threw the right
+of Grant's investing line into disorder. Fortunately, General Halleck at
+St. Louis strained all his energies to send reinforcements, and these
+arrived in time to restore Grant's advantage in numbers.
+
+Serious disagreement among the Confederate commanders also hastened the
+fall of the place. On February 16, General Buckner, to whom the senior
+officers had turned over the command, proposed an armistice, and the
+appointment of commissioners to agree on terms of capitulation. To this
+Grant responded with a characteristic spirit of determination: "No terms
+except unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose
+to move immediately upon your works." Buckner complained that the terms
+were ungenerous and unchivalric, but that necessity compelled him to
+accept them; and Grant telegraphed Halleck on February 16: "We have
+taken Fort Donelson, and from twelve to fifteen thousand prisoners." The
+senior Confederate generals, Pillow and Floyd, and a portion of the
+garrison had escaped by the Cumberland River during the preceding night.
+
+Since the fall of Fort Henry on February 6, a lively correspondence had
+been going on, in which General Halleck besought Buell to come with his
+available forces, assist in capturing Donelson, and command the column
+up the Cumberland to cut off both Columbus and Nashville. President
+Lincoln, scanning the news with intense solicitude, and losing no
+opportunity to urge effective cooeperation, telegraphed Halleck:
+
+"You have Fort Donelson safe, unless Grant shall be overwhelmed from
+outside: to prevent which latter will, I think, require all the
+vigilance, energy, and skill of yourself and Buell, acting in full
+cooeperation. Columbus will not get at Grant, but the force from Bowling
+Green will. They hold the railroad from Bowling Green to within a few
+miles of Fort Donelson, with the bridge at Clarksville undisturbed. It
+is unsafe to rely that they will not dare to expose Nashville to Buell.
+A small part of their force can retire slowly toward Nashville, breaking
+up the railroad as they go, and keep Buell out of that city twenty days.
+Meantime, Nashville will be abundantly defended by forces from all south
+and perhaps from here at Manassas. Could not a cavalry force from
+General Thomas on the upper Cumberland dash across, almost unresisted,
+and cut the railroad at or near Knoxville, Tennessee? In the midst of a
+bombardment at Fort Donelson, why could not a gunboat run up and destroy
+the bridge at Clarksville? Our success or failure at Fort Donelson is
+vastly important, and I beg you to put your soul in the effort. I send a
+copy of this to Buell."
+
+This telegram abundantly shows with what minute understanding and
+accurate judgment the President comprehended military conditions and
+results in the West. Buell, however, was too intent upon his own
+separate movement to seize the brilliant opportunity offered him. As he
+only in a feeble advance followed up the retreating Confederate column
+from Bowling Green to Nashville, Halleck naturally appropriated to
+himself the merit of the campaign, and telegraphed to Washington on the
+day after the surrender:
+
+"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."
+
+The eagerness of General Halleck for superior command in the West was,
+to say the least, very pardonable. A vast horizon of possibilities was
+opening up to his view. Two other campaigns under his direction were
+exciting his liveliest hopes. Late in December he had collected an army
+of ten thousand at the railroad terminus at Rolla, Missouri, under
+command of Brigadier-General Curtis, for the purpose of scattering the
+rebel forces under General Price at Springfield or driving them out of
+the State. Despite the hard winter weather, Halleck urged on the
+movement with almost peremptory orders, and Curtis executed the
+intentions of his chief with such alacrity that Price was forced into a
+rapid and damaging retreat from Springfield toward Arkansas. While
+forcing this enterprise in the southwest, Halleck had also determined on
+an important campaign in southeast Missouri.
+
+Next to Columbus, which the enemy evacuated on March 2, the strongest
+Confederate fortifications on the Mississippi River were at Island No.
+10, about forty miles farther to the south. To operate against these, he
+planned an expedition under Brigadier-General Pope to capture the town
+of New Madrid as a preliminary step. Columbus and Nashville were almost
+sure to fall as the result of Donelson. If now he could bring his two
+Missouri campaigns into a combination with two swift and strong
+Tennessee expeditions, while the enemy was in scattered retreat, he
+could look forward to the speedy capture of Memphis. But to the
+realization of such a project, the hesitation and slowness of Buell were
+a serious hindrance. That general had indeed started a division under
+Nelson to Grant's assistance, but it was not yet in the Cumberland when
+Donelson surrendered. Halleck's demand for enlarged power, therefore,
+became almost imperative. He pleaded earnestly with Buell:
+
+"I have asked the President to make you a major-general. Come down to
+the Cumberland and take command. The battle of the West is to be fought
+in that vicinity.... There will be no battle at Nashville." His
+telegrams to McClellan were more urgent. "Give it [the Western Division]
+to me, and I will split secession in twain in one month." And again: "I
+must have command of the armies in the West. Hesitation and delay are
+losing us the golden opportunity. Lay this before the President and
+Secretary of War. May I assume the command? Answer quickly."
+
+But McClellan was in no mood to sacrifice the ambition of his intimate
+friend and favorite, General Buell, and induced the President to
+withhold his consent; and while the generals were debating by telegraph,
+Nelson's division of the army of Buell moved up the Cumberland and
+occupied Nashville under the orders of Grant. Halleck, however, held
+tenaciously to his views and requests, explaining to McClellan that he
+himself proposed going to Tennessee:
+
+"That is now the great strategic line of the western campaign, and I am
+surprised that General Buell should hesitate to reinforce me. He was too
+late at Fort Donelson.... Believe me, General, you make a serious
+mistake in having three independent commands in the West. There never
+will and never can be any cooeperation at the critical moment; all
+military history proves it."
+
+This insistence had greater point because of the news received that
+Curtis, energetically following Price into Arkansas, had won a great
+Union victory at Pea Ridge, between March 5 and 8, over the united
+forces of Price and McCulloch, commanded by Van Dorn. At this juncture,
+events at Washington, hereafter to be mentioned, caused a reorganization
+of military commands and President Lincoln's Special War Order No. 3
+consolidated the western departments of Hunter, Halleck, and Buell, as
+far east as Knoxville, Tennessee, under the title of the Department of
+the Mississippi, and placed General Halleck in command of the whole.
+Meanwhile, Halleck had ordered the victorious Union army at Fort
+Donelson to move forward to Savannah on the Tennessee River under the
+command of Grant; and, now that he had superior command, directed Buell
+to march all of his forces not required to defend Nashville "as rapidly
+as possible" to the same point. Halleck was still at St. Louis; and
+through the indecision of his further orders, through the slowness of
+Buell's march, and through the unexplained inattention of Grant, the
+Union armies narrowly escaped a serious disaster, which, however, the
+determined courage of the troops and subordinate officers turned into a
+most important victory.
+
+The "golden opportunity" so earnestly pointed out by Halleck, while not
+entirely lost, was nevertheless seriously diminished by the hesitation
+and delay of the Union commanders to agree upon some plan of effective
+cooeperation. When, at the fall of Fort Donelson the Confederates
+retreated from Nashville toward Chattanooga, and from Columbus toward
+Jackson, a swift advance by the Tennessee River could have kept them
+separated; but as that open highway was not promptly followed in force,
+the flying Confederate detachments found abundant leisure to form a
+junction.
+
+Grant reached Savannah, on the east bank of the Tennessee River, about
+the middle of March, and in a few days began massing troops at Pittsburg
+Landing, six miles farther south, on the west bank of the Tennessee;
+still keeping his headquarters at Savannah, to await the arrival of
+Buell and his army. During the next two weeks he reported several times
+that the enemy was concentrating at Corinth, Mississippi, an important
+railroad crossing twenty miles from Pittsburg Landing, the estimate of
+their number varying from forty to eighty thousand. All this time his
+mind was so filled with an eager intention to begin a march upon
+Corinth, and a confidence that he could win a victory by a prompt
+attack, that he neglected the essential precaution of providing against
+an attack by the enemy, which at the same time was occupying the
+thoughts of the Confederate commander General Johnston.
+
+General Grant was therefore greatly surprised on the morning of April 6,
+when he proceeded from Savannah to Pittsburg Landing, to learn the cause
+of a fierce cannonade. He found that the Confederate army, forty
+thousand strong, was making an unexpected and determined attack in force
+on the Union camp, whose five divisions numbered a total of about
+thirty-three thousand. The Union generals had made no provision against
+such an attack. No intrenchments had been thrown up, no plan or
+understanding arranged. A few preliminary picket skirmishes had, indeed,
+put the Union front on the alert, but the commanders of brigades and
+regiments were not prepared for the impetuous rush with which the three
+successive Confederate lines began the main battle. On their part, the
+enemy did not realize their hope of effecting a complete surprise, and
+the nature of the ground was so characterized by a network of local
+roads, alternating patches of woods and open fields, miry hollows and
+abrupt ravines, that the lines of conflict were quickly broken into
+short, disjointed movements that admitted of little or no combined or
+systematic direction. The effort of the Union officers was necessarily
+limited to a continuous resistance to the advance of the enemy, from
+whatever direction it came; that of the Confederate leaders to the
+general purpose of forcing the Union lines away from Pittsburg Landing
+so that they might destroy the Federal transports and thus cut off all
+means of retreat. In this effort, although during the whole of Sunday,
+April 6, the Union front had been forced back a mile and a half, the
+enemy had not entirely succeeded. About sunset, General Beauregard, who,
+by the death of General Johnston during the afternoon, succeeded to the
+Confederate command, gave orders to suspend the attack, in the firm
+expectation however, that he would be able to complete his victory the
+next morning.
+
+But in this hope he was disappointed. During the day the vanguard of
+Buell's army had arrived on the opposite bank of the river. Before
+nightfall one of his brigades was ferried across and deployed in front
+of the exultant enemy. During the night and early Monday morning three
+superb divisions of Buell's army, about twenty thousand fresh,
+well-drilled troops, were advanced to the front under Buell's own
+direction; and by three o'clock of that day the two wings of the Union
+army were once more in possession of all the ground that had been lost
+on the previous day, while the foiled and disorganized Confederates were
+in full retreat upon Corinth. The severity of the battle may be judged
+by the losses. In the Union army: killed, 1754; wounded, 8408; missing,
+2885. In the Confederate army: killed, 1728; wounded, 8012; missing.
+954.
+
+Having comprehended the uncertainty of Buell's successful junction with
+Grant, Halleck must have received tidings of the final victory at
+Pittsburg Landing with emotions of deep satisfaction. To this was now
+joined the further gratifying news that the enemy on that same momentous
+April 7 had surrendered Island No. 10, together with six or seven
+thousand Confederate troops, including three general officers, to the
+combined operations of General Pope and Flag-Officer Foote. Full
+particulars of these two important victories did not reach Halleck for
+several days. Following previous suggestions, Pope and Foote promptly
+moved their gunboats and troops down the river to the next Confederate
+stronghold, Fort Pillow, where extensive fortifications, aided by an
+overflow of the adjacent river banks, indicated strong resistance and
+considerable delay. When all the conditions became more fully known,
+Halleck at length adopted the resolution, to which he had been strongly
+leaning for some time, to take the field himself. About April 10 he
+proceeded from St. Louis to Pittsburg Landing, and on the fifteenth
+ordered Pope with his army to join him there, which the latter, having
+his troops already on transports succeeded in accomplishing by April 22.
+Halleck immediately effected a new organization, combining the armies
+of the Tennessee, of the Ohio, and of the Mississippi into respectively
+his right wing, center, and left wing. He assumed command of the whole
+himself, and nominally made Grant second in command. Practically,
+however, he left Grant so little authority or work that the latter felt
+himself slighted, and asked leave to proceed to another field of duty.
+
+It required but a few weeks to demonstrate that however high were
+Halleck's professional acquirements in other respects, he was totally
+unfit for a commander in the field. Grant had undoubtedly been careless
+in not providing against the enemy's attack at Pittsburg Landing.
+Halleck, on the other extreme, was now doubly over-cautious in his march
+upon Corinth. From first to last, his campaign resembled a siege. With
+over one hundred thousand men under his hand, he moved at a snail's
+pace, building roads and breastworks, and consuming more than a month in
+advancing a distance of twenty miles; during which period Beauregard
+managed to collect about fifty thousand effective Confederates and
+construct defensive fortifications with equal industry around Corinth.
+When, on May 29, Halleck was within assaulting distance of the rebel
+intrenchments Beauregard had leisurely removed his sick and wounded,
+destroyed or carried away his stores, and that night finally evacuated
+the place, leaving Halleck to reap, practically, a barren victory.
+
+Nor were the general's plans and actions any more fruitful during the
+following six weeks. He wasted the time and energy of his soldiers
+multiplying useless fortifications about Corinth. He despatched Buell's
+wing of the army on a march toward eastern Tennessee but under such
+instructions and limitations that long before reaching its objective it
+was met by a Confederate army under General Bragg, and forced into a
+retrograde movement which carried it back to Louisville. More
+deplorable, however, than either of these errors of judgment was
+Halleck's neglect to seize the opportune moment when, by a vigorous
+movement in cooeperation with the brilliant naval victories under
+Flag-Officer Farragut, commanding a formidable fleet of Union war-ships,
+he might have completed the over-shadowing military task of opening the
+Mississippi River.
+
+
+
+
+XX
+
+The Blockade--Hatteras Inlet--Roanoke Island--Fort Pulaski--Merrimac
+and Monitor--The Cumberland Sunk--The Congress Burned--Battle of the
+Ironclads--Flag-officer Farragut--Forts Jackson and St. Philip--New
+Orleans Captured--Farragut at Vicksburg--Farragut's Second Expedition to
+Vicksburg--Return to New Orleans
+
+
+In addition to its heavy work of maintaining the Atlantic blockade, the
+navy of the United States contributed signally toward the suppression of
+the rebellion by three brilliant victories which it gained during the
+first half of the year 1862. After careful preparation during several
+months, a joint expedition under the command of General Ambrose E.
+Burnside and Flag-Officer Goldsborough, consisting of more than twelve
+thousand men and twenty ships of war, accompanied by numerous
+transports, sailed from Fort Monroe on January 11, with the object of
+occupying the interior waters of the North Carolina coast. Before the
+larger vessels could effect their entrance through Hatteras Inlet,
+captured in the previous August, a furious storm set in, which delayed
+the expedition nearly a month. By February 7, however, that and other
+serious difficulties were overcome, and on the following day the
+expedition captured Roanoke Island, and thus completely opened the whole
+interior water-system of Albemarle and Pamlico sounds to the easy
+approach of the Union fleet and forces.
+
+From Roanoke Island as a base, minor expeditions within a short period
+effected the destruction of the not very formidable fleet which the
+enemy had been able to organize, and the reduction of Fort Macon and the
+rebel defenses of Elizabeth City, New Berne, and other smaller places.
+An eventual advance upon Goldsboro' formed part of the original plan;
+but, before it could be executed, circumstances intervened effectually
+to thwart that object.
+
+While the gradual occupation of the North Carolina coast was going on,
+two other expeditions of a similar nature were making steady progress.
+One of them, under the direction of General Quincy A. Gillmore, carried
+on a remarkable siege operation against Fort Pulaski, standing on an
+isolated sea marsh at the mouth of the Savannah River. Here not only the
+difficulties of approach, but the apparently insurmountable obstacle of
+making the soft, unctuous mud sustain heavy batteries, was overcome, and
+the fort compelled to surrender on April 11, after an effective
+bombardment. The second was an expedition of nineteen ships, which,
+within a few days during the month of March, without serious resistance,
+occupied the whole remaining Atlantic coast southward as far as St.
+Augustine.
+
+When, at the outbreak of the rebellion, the navy-yard at Norfolk,
+Virginia, had to be abandoned to the enemy, the destruction at that time
+attempted by Commodore Paulding remained very incomplete. Among the
+vessels set on fire, the screw-frigate _Merrimac_, which had been
+scuttled, was burned only to the water's edge, leaving her hull and
+machinery entirely uninjured. In due time she was raised by the
+Confederates, covered with a sloping roof of railroad iron, provided
+with a huge wedge-shaped prow of cast iron, and armed with a formidable
+battery of ten guns. Secret information came to the Navy Department of
+the progress of this work, and such a possibility was kept in mind by
+the board of officers that decided upon the construction of the three
+experimental ironclads in September, 1861.
+
+The particular one of these three especially intended for this peculiar
+emergency was a ship of entirely novel design, made by the celebrated
+inventor John Ericsson, a Swede by birth, but American by adoption--a
+man who combined great original genius with long scientific study and
+experience. His invention may be most quickly described as having a
+small, very low hull, covered by a much longer and wider flat deck only
+a foot or two above the water-line, upon which was placed a revolving
+iron turret twenty feet in diameter, nine feet high, and eight inches
+thick, on the inside of which were two eleven-inch guns trained side by
+side and revolving with the turret. This unique naval structure was
+promptly nicknamed "a cheese-box on a raft," and the designation was not
+at all inapt. Naval experts at once recognized that her sea-going
+qualities were bad; but compensation was thought to exist in the belief
+that her iron turret would resist shot and shell, and that the thin edge
+of her flat deck would offer only a minimum mark to an enemy's guns: in
+other words, that she was no cruiser, but would prove a formidable
+floating battery; and this belief she abundantly justified.
+
+The test of her fighting qualities was attended by what almost suggested
+a miraculous coincidence. On Saturday, March 8, 1862, about noon, a
+strange-looking craft resembling a huge turtle was seen coming into
+Hampton Roads out of the mouth of Elizabeth River, and it quickly became
+certain that this was the much talked of rebel ironclad _Merrimac_, or,
+as the Confederates had renamed her, the _Virginia_. She steamed
+rapidly toward Newport News, three miles to the southwest, where the
+Union ships _Congress_ and _Cumberland_ lay at anchor. These saw the
+uncouth monster coming and prepared for action. The _Minnesota_, the
+_St. Lawrence_, and the _Roanoke_, lying at Fortress Monroe also saw her
+and gave chase, but, the water being low, they all soon grounded. The
+broadsides of the _Congress_, as the _Merrimac_ passed her at three
+hundred yards' distance, seemed to produce absolutely no effect upon her
+sloping iron roof. Neither did the broadsides of her intended prey, nor
+the fire of the shore batteries, for even an instant arrest her speed
+as, rushing on, she struck the _Cumberland_, and with her iron prow
+broke a hole as large as a hogshead in her side. Then backing away and
+hovering over her victim at convenient distance, she raked her decks
+with shot and shell until, after three quarters of an hour's combat, the
+_Cumberland_ and her heroic defenders, who had maintained the fight with
+unyielding stubbornness, went to the bottom in fifty feet of water with
+colors flying.
+
+Having sunk the _Cumberland_, the _Merrimac_ next turned her attention
+to the _Congress_, which had meanwhile run into shoal water and grounded
+where the rebel vessel could not follow. But the _Merrimac_, being
+herself apparently proof against shot and shell by her iron plating,
+took up a raking position two cables' length away, and during an hour's
+firing deliberately reduced the _Congress_ to helplessness and to
+surrender--her commander being killed and the vessel set on fire. The
+approach, the manoeuvering, and the two successive combats consumed the
+afternoon, and toward nightfall the _Merrimac_ and her three small
+consorts that had taken little part in the action withdrew to the rebel
+batteries on the Virginia shore: not alone because of the approaching
+darkness and the fatigue of the crew, but because the rebel ship had
+really suffered considerable damage in ramming the _Cumberland_, as well
+as from one or two chance shots that entered her port-holes.
+
+That same night, while the burning _Congress_ yet lighted up the waters
+of Hampton Roads, a little ship, as strange-looking and as new to marine
+warfare as the rebel turtleback herself, arrived by sea in tow from New
+York, and receiving orders to proceed at once to the scene of conflict,
+stationed herself near the grounded _Minnesota_. This was Ericsson's
+"cheese-box on a raft," named by him the _Monitor_. The Union officers
+who had witnessed the day's events with dismay, and were filled with
+gloomy forebodings for the morrow, while welcoming this providential
+reinforcement, were by no means reassured. The _Monitor_ was only half
+the size of her antagonist, and had only two guns to the other's ten.
+But this very disparity proved an essential advantage. With only ten
+feet draft to the _Merrimac's_ twenty-two, she not only possessed
+superior mobility, but might run where the _Merrimac_ could not follow.
+When, therefore, at eight o'clock on Sunday, March 9, the _Merrimac_
+again came into Hampton Roads to complete her victory, Lieutenant John
+L. Worden, commanding the _Monitor_, steamed boldly out to meet her.
+
+Then ensued a three hours' naval conflict which held the breathless
+attention of the active participants and the spectators on ship and
+shore, and for many weeks excited the wonderment of the reading world.
+If the _Monitor's_ solid eleven-inch balls bounded without apparent
+effect from the sloping roof of the _Merrimac_, so, in turn, the
+_Merrimac's_ broadsides passed harmlessly over the low deck of the
+_Monitor_, or rebounded from the round sides of her iron turret. When
+the unwieldy rebel turtleback, with her slow, awkward movement, tried
+to ram the pointed raft that carried the cheese-box, the little vessel,
+obedient to her rudder, easily glided out of the line of direct impact.
+
+Each ship passed through occasional moments of danger, but the long
+three hours' encounter ended without other serious damage than an injury
+to Lieutenant Worden by the explosion of a rebel shell against a crevice
+of the _Monitor's_ pilot-house through which he was looking, which,
+temporarily blinding his eye-sight, disabled him from command. At that
+point the battle ended by mutual consent. The _Monitor_, unharmed except
+by a few unimportant dents in her plating, ran into shoal water to
+permit surgical attendance to her wounded officer. On her part, the
+_Merrimac_, abandoning any further molestation of the other ships,
+steamed away at noon to her retreat in Elizabeth River. The forty-one
+rounds fired from the _Monitor's_ guns had so far weakened the
+_Merrimac's_ armor that, added to the injuries of the previous day, it
+was of the highest prudence to avoid further conflict. A tragic fate
+soon ended the careers of both vessels. Owing to other military events,
+the _Merrimac_ was abandoned, burned, and blown up by her officers about
+two months later; and in the following December, the _Monitor_ foundered
+in a gale off Cape Hatteras. But the types of these pioneer ironclads,
+which had demonstrated such unprecedented fighting qualities, were
+continued. Before the end of the war the Union navy had more than twenty
+monitors in service; and the structure of the _Merrimac_ was in a number
+of instances repeated by the Confederates.
+
+The most brilliant of all the exploits of the navy during the year 1862
+were those carried on under the command of Flag-Officer David G.
+Farragut, who, though a born Southerner and residing in Virginia when
+the rebellion broke out, remained loyal to the government and true to
+the flag he had served for forty-eight years. Various preparations had
+been made and various plans discussed for an effective attempt against
+some prominent point on the Gulf coast. Very naturally, all examinations
+of the subject inevitably pointed to the opening of the Mississippi as
+the dominant problem to be solved; and on January 9, Farragut was
+appointed to the command of the western Gulf blockading squadron, and
+eleven days thereafter received his confidential instructions to attempt
+the capture of the city of New Orleans.
+
+Thus far in the war, Farragut had been assigned to no prominent service,
+but the patience with which he had awaited his opportunity was now more
+than compensated by the energy and thoroughness with which he
+superintended the organization of his fleet. By the middle of April he
+was in the lower Mississippi with seventeen men-of-war and one hundred
+and seventy-seven guns. With him were Commander David D. Porter, in
+charge of a mortar flotilla of nineteen schooners and six armed
+steamships, and General Benjamin F. Butler, at the head of an army
+contingent of six thousand men, soon to be followed by considerable
+reinforcements.
+
+The first obstacle to be overcome was the fire from the twin forts
+Jackson and St. Philip, situated nearly opposite each other at a bend of
+the Mississippi twenty-five miles above the mouth of the river, while
+the city of New Orleans itself lies seventy-five miles farther up the
+stream. These were formidable forts of masonry, with an armament
+together of over a hundred guns, and garrisons of about six hundred men
+each. They also had auxiliary defenses: first, of a strong river
+barrier of log rafts and other obstructions connected by powerful
+chains, half a mile below the forts; second, of an improvised fleet of
+sixteen rebel gunboats and a formidable floating battery. None of
+Farragut's ships were ironclad. He had, from the beginning of the
+undertaking, maintained the theory that a wooden fleet, properly
+handled, could successfully pass the batteries of the forts. "I would as
+soon have a paper ship as an ironclad; only give me _men_ to fight her!"
+he said. He might not come back; but New Orleans would be won. In his
+hazardous undertaking his faith was based largely on the skill and
+courage of his subordinate commanders of ships, and this faith was fully
+sustained by their gallantry and devotion.
+
+Porter's flotilla of nineteen schooners carrying two mortars each,
+anchored below the forts, maintained a heavy bombardment for five days,
+and then Farragut decided to try his ships. On the night of the
+twentieth the daring work of two gunboats cut an opening through the
+river barrier through which the vessels might pass; and at two o'clock
+on the morning of April 24, Farragut gave the signal to advance. The
+first division of his fleet, eight vessels, led by Captain Bailey,
+successfully passed the barrier. The second division of nine ships was
+not quite so fortunate. Three of them failed to pass the barrier, but
+the others, led by Farragut himself in his flag-ship, the _Hartford_,
+followed the advance.
+
+The starlit night was quickly obscured by the smoke of the general
+cannonade from both ships and forts; but the heavy batteries of the
+latter had little effect on the passing fleet. Farragut's flag-ship was
+for a short while in great danger. At a moment when she slightly
+grounded a huge fire-raft, fully ablaze, was pushed against her by a
+rebel tug, and the flames caught in the paint on her side, and mounted
+into her rigging. But this danger had also been provided against, and by
+heroic efforts the _Hartford_ freed herself from her peril. Immediately
+above the forts, the fleet of rebel gunboats joined in the battle, which
+now resolved itself into a series of conflicts between single vessels or
+small groups. But the stronger and better-armed Union ships quickly
+destroyed the Confederate flotilla, with the single exception that two
+of the enemy's gunboats rammed the _Varuna_ from opposite sides and sank
+her. Aside from this, the Union fleet sustained much miscellaneous
+damage, but no serious injury in the furious battle of an hour and a
+half.
+
+With but a short halt at Quarantine, six miles above the forts, Farragut
+and his thirteen ships of war pushed on rapidly over the seventy-five
+miles, and on the forenoon of April 25 New Orleans lay helpless under
+the guns of the Union fleet. The city was promptly evacuated by the
+Confederate General Lovell. Meanwhile, General Butler was busy moving
+his transports and troops around outside by sea to Quarantine; and,
+having occupied that point in force, Forts Jackson and St. Philip
+capitulated on April 28. This last obstruction removed, Butler, after
+having garrisoned the forts, brought the bulk of his army up to New
+Orleans, and on May 1 Farragut turned over to him the formal possession
+of the city, where Butler continued in command of the Department of the
+Gulf until the following December.
+
+Farragut immediately despatched an advance section of his fleet up the
+Mississippi. None of the important cities on its banks below Vicksburg
+had yet been fortified, and, without serious opposition, they
+surrendered as the Union ships successively reached them. Farragut
+himself, following with the remainder of his fleet, arrived at
+Vicksburg on May 20. This city, by reason of the high bluffs on which it
+stands, was the most defensible point on the whole length of the great
+river within the Southern States; but so confidently had the
+Confederates trusted to the strength of their works at Columbus, Island
+No. 10, Fort Pillow, and other points, that the fortifications of
+Vicksburg had thus far received comparatively little attention. The
+recent Union victories, however, both to the north and south, had
+awakened them to their danger; and when Lovell evacuated New Orleans, he
+shipped heavy guns and sent five Confederate regiments to Vicksburg; and
+during the eight days between their arrival on May 12 and the twentieth,
+on which day Farragut reached the city, six rebel batteries were put in
+readiness to fire on his ships.
+
+General Halleck, while pushing his siege works toward Corinth, was
+notified as early as April 27 that Farragut was coming, and the logic of
+the situation ought to have induced him to send a cooeperating force to
+Farragut's assistance, or, at the very least, to have matured plans for
+such cooeperation. All the events would have favored an expedition of
+this kind. When Corinth, at the end of May, fell into Halleck's hands,
+Forts Pillow and Randolph on the Mississippi River were hastily
+evacuated by the enemy, and on June 6 the Union flotilla of river
+gunboats which had rendered such signal service at Henry, Donelson, and
+Island No. 10, reinforced by a hastily constructed flotilla of heavy
+river tugs converted into rams, gained another brilliant victory in a
+most dramatic naval battle at Memphis, during which an opposing
+Confederate flotilla of similar rams and gunboats was almost completely
+destroyed, and the immediate evacuation of Memphis by the Confederates
+thereby forced.
+
+This left Vicksburg as the single barrier to the complete opening of the
+Mississippi, and that barrier was defended by only six batteries and a
+garrison of six Confederate regiments at the date of Farragut's arrival
+before it. But Farragut had with his expedition only two regiments of
+troops, and the rebel batteries were situated at such an elevation that
+the guns of the Union fleet could not be raised sufficiently to silence
+them. Neither help nor promise of help came from Halleck's army, and
+Farragut could therefore do nothing but turn his vessels down stream and
+return to New Orleans. There, about June 1, he received news from the
+Navy Department that the administration was exceedingly anxious to have
+the Mississippi opened; and this time, taking with him Porter's mortar
+flotilla and three thousand troops, he again proceeded up the river, and
+a second time reached Vicksburg on June 25.
+
+The delay, however, had enabled the Confederates greatly to strengthen
+the fortifications and the garrison of the city. Neither a bombardment
+from Porter's mortar sloops, nor the running of Farragut's ships past
+the batteries, where they were joined by the Union gunboat flotilla from
+above, sufficed to bring the Confederates to a surrender. Farragut
+estimated that a cooeperating land force of twelve to fifteen thousand
+would have enabled him to take the works; and Halleck, on June 28 and
+July 3, partially promised early assistance. But on July 14 he reported
+definitely that it would be impossible for him to render the expected
+aid. Under these circumstances, the Navy Department ordered Farragut
+back to New Orleans, lest his ships of deep draft should be detained in
+the river by the rapidly falling water. The capture of Vicksburg was
+postponed for a whole year, and the early transfer of Halleck to
+Washington changed the current of Western campaigns.
+
+
+
+
+XXI
+
+McClellan's Illness--Lincoln Consults McDowell and Franklin--President's
+Plan against Manassas--McClellan's Plan against Richmond--Cameron and
+Stanton--President's War Order No. 1--Lincoln's Questions to
+McClellan--News from the West--Death of Willie Lincoln--The Harper's
+Ferry Fiasco--President's War Order No. 3--The News from Hampton
+Roads--Manassas Evacuated--Movement to the Peninsular--Yorktown--The
+Peninsula Campaign--Seven Days' Battles--Retreat to Harrison's Landing
+
+
+We have seen how the express orders of President Lincoln in the early
+days of January, 1862, stirred the Western commanders to the beginning
+of active movements that brought about an important series of victories
+during the first half of the year. The results of his determination to
+break a similar military stagnation in the East need now to be related.
+
+The gloomy outlook at the beginning of the year has already been
+mentioned. Finding on January 10 that General McClellan was still ill
+and unable to see him, he called Generals McDowell and Franklin into
+conference with himself, Seward, Chase, and the Assistant Secretary of
+War; and, explaining to them his dissatisfaction and distress at
+existing conditions, said to them that "if something were 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, differing on some other points, agreed, however, in a
+memorandum prepared next day at the President's request, that a direct
+movement against the Confederate army at Manassas was preferable to a
+movement by water against Richmond; that preparations for the former
+could be made in a week, while the latter would require a month or six
+weeks. Similar discussions were held on the eleventh and twelfth, and
+finally, on January 13, by which date General McClellan had sufficiently
+recovered to be present. McClellan took no pains to hide his displeasure
+at the proceedings, and ventured no explanation when the President asked
+what and when anything could be done. Chase repeated the direct
+interrogatory to McClellan himself, inquiring what he intended doing
+with his army, and when he intended doing it. McClellan stated his
+unwillingness to develop his plans, but said he would tell them if he
+was ordered to do so. The President then asked him if he had in his own
+mind any particular time fixed when a movement could be commenced.
+McClellan replied that he had. "Then," rejoined the President, "I will
+adjourn this meeting."
+
+While these conferences were going on, a change occurred in the
+President's cabinet; Secretary of War Cameron, who had repeatedly
+expressed a desire to be relieved from the onerous duties of the War
+Department, was made minister to Russia and Edwin M. Stanton appointed
+to succeed him. Stanton had been Attorney-General during the last months
+of President Buchanan's administration, and, though a lifelong Democrat,
+had freely conferred and cooeperated with Republican leaders in the
+Senate and House of Representatives in thwarting secession schemes. He
+was a lawyer of ability and experience, and, possessing organizing
+qualities of a high degree combined with a strong will and great
+physical endurance, gave his administration of the War Department a
+record for efficiency which it will be difficult for any future minister
+to equal; and for which service his few mistakes and subordinate faults
+of character will be readily forgotten. In his new functions, Stanton
+enthusiastically seconded the President's efforts to rouse the Army of
+the Potomac to speedy and vigorous action.
+
+In his famous report, McClellan states that very soon after Stanton
+became Secretary of War he explained verbally to the latter his plan of
+a campaign against Richmond by way of the lower Chesapeake Bay, and at
+Stanton's direction also explained it to the President. It is not
+strange that neither the President nor the new Secretary approved it.
+The reasons which then existed against it in theory, and were afterward
+demonstrated in practice, are altogether too evident. As this first plan
+was never reduced to writing, it may be fairly inferred that it was one
+of those mere suggestions which, like all that had gone before, would
+serve only to postpone action.
+
+The patience of the President was at length so far exhausted that on
+January 27 he wrote his General War Order No. I, which directed "that
+the 22d day of February, 1862, be the day for a general movement of all
+the land and naval forces of the United States against the insurgent
+forces," and that the Secretaries of War and of the Navy, the
+general-in-chief, and all other commanders and subordinates of land and
+naval forces "will severally be held to their strict and full
+responsibilities for prompt execution of this order." To leave no doubt
+of his intention that the Army of the Potomac should make a beginning,
+the President, four days later, issued his Special War Order No. I,
+directing that after providing safely for the defense of Washington, it
+should move against the Confederate army at Manassas Junction, on or
+before the date announced.
+
+As McClellan had been allowed to have his way almost without question
+for six months past, it was, perhaps, as much through mere habit of
+opposition as from any intelligent decision in his own mind that he
+again requested permission to present his objections to the President's
+plan. Mr. Lincoln, thereupon, to bring the discussion to a practical
+point, wrote him the following list of queries on February 3:
+
+"MY DEAR SIR: You and I have distinct and different plans for a movement
+of the Army of the Potomac--yours to be down the Chesapeake, up the
+Rappahannock to Urbana, and across land to the terminus of the railroad
+on the York River; mine, to move directly to a point on the railroad
+southwest of Manassas.
+
+"If you will give me satisfactory answers to the following questions, I
+shall gladly yield my plan to yours.
+
+"_First_. Does not your plan involve a greatly larger expenditure of
+time and money than mine?"
+
+"_Second_. Wherein is a victory more certain by your plan than mine?"
+
+"_Third_. Wherein is a victory more valuable by your plan than mine?"
+
+"_Fourth_. 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?"
+
+"_Fifth_. In case of disaster, would not a retreat be more difficult by
+your plan than mine?"
+
+Instead of specifically answering the President's concise
+interrogatories, McClellan, on the following day, presented to the
+Secretary of War a long letter, reciting in much detail his statement of
+what he had done since coming to Washington, and giving a rambling
+outline of what he thought might be accomplished in the future
+prosecution of the war. His reasoning in favor of an advance by
+Chesapeake Bay upon Richmond, instead of against Manassas Junction,
+rests principally upon the assumption that at Manassas the enemy is
+prepared to resist, while at Richmond there are no preparations; that to
+win Manassas would give us only the field of battle and the moral effect
+of a victory, while to win Richmond would give us the rebel capital with
+its communications and supplies; that at Manassas we would fight on a
+field chosen by the enemy, while at Richmond we would fight on one
+chosen by ourselves. If as a preliminary hypothesis these comparisons
+looked plausible, succeeding events quickly exposed their fallacy.
+
+The President, in his anxious studies and exhaustive discussion with
+military experts in the recent conferences, fully comprehended that
+under McClellan's labored strategical theories lay a fundamental error.
+It was not the capture of a place, but the destruction of the rebel
+armies that was needed to subdue the rebellion. But Mr. Lincoln also saw
+the fearful responsibility he would be taking upon himself if he forced
+McClellan to fight against his own judgment and protest, even though
+that judgment was incorrect. The whole subject, therefore, underwent a
+new and yet more elaborate investigation. The delay which this rendered
+necessary was soon greatly lengthened by two other causes. It was about
+this time that the telegraph brought news from the West of the surrender
+of Fort Henry, February 6, the investment of Fort Donelson on the
+thirteenth, and its surrender on the sixteenth, incidents which absorbed
+the constant attention of the President and the Secretary of War. Almost
+simultaneously, a heavy domestic sorrow fell upon Mr. Lincoln in the
+serious illness of his son Willie, an interesting and most promising lad
+of twelve, and his death in the White House on February 20.
+
+When February 22 came, while there was plainly no full compliance with
+the President's War Order No. I, there was, nevertheless, such promise
+of a beginning, even at Washington, as justified reasonable expectation.
+The authorities looked almost hourly for the announcement of two
+preliminary movements which had been preparing for many days: one, to
+attack rebel batteries on the Virginia shore of the Potomac; the other
+to throw bridges--one of pontoons, the second a permanent bridge of
+canal-boats--across the river at Harper's Ferry, and an advance by
+Banks's division on Winchester to protect the opening of the Baltimore
+and Ohio railroad and reestablish transportation to and from the West
+over that important route.
+
+On the evening of February 27, Secretary Stanton came to the President,
+and, after locking the door to prevent interruption, opened and read two
+despatches from McClellan, who had gone personally to superintend the
+crossing. The first despatch from the general described the fine spirits
+of the troops, and the splendid throwing of the pontoon bridge by
+Captain Duane and his three lieutenants, for whom he at once recommended
+brevets, and the immediate crossing of eighty-five hundred infantry.
+This despatch was dated at ten o'clock the previous night. "The next is
+not so good," remarked the Secretary of War. It stated that the lift
+lock was too small to permit the canal-boats to enter the river, so that
+it was impossible to construct the permanent bridge. He would therefore
+be obliged to fall back upon the safe and slow plan of merely covering
+the reconstruction of the railroad, which would be tedious and make it
+impossible to seize Winchester.
+
+"What does this mean?" asked the President, in amazement.
+
+"It means," said the Secretary of War, "that it is a damned fizzle. It
+means that he doesn't intend to do anything."
+
+The President's indignation was intense; and when, a little later,
+General Marcy, McClellan's father-in-law and chief of staff, came in,
+Lincoln's criticism of the affair was in sharper language than was his
+usual habit.
+
+"Why, in the name of common sense," said he, excitedly, "couldn't the
+general have known whether canal-boats would go through that lock before
+he spent a million dollars getting them there? I am almost despairing at
+these results. Everything seems to fail. The impression is daily gaining
+ground that the general does not intend to do anything. By a failure
+like this we lose all the prestige gained by the capture of Fort
+Donelson."
+
+The prediction of the Secretary of War proved correct. That same night,
+McClellan revoked Hooker's authority to cross the lower Potomac and
+demolish the rebel batteries about the Occoquan River. It was doubtless
+this Harper's Ferry incident which finally convinced the President that
+he could no longer leave McClellan intrusted with the sole and
+unrestricted exercise of military affairs. Yet that general had shown
+such decided ability in certain lines of his profession, and had plainly
+in so large a degree won the confidence of the Army of the Potomac
+itself, that he did not wish entirely to lose the benefit of his
+services. He still hoped that, once actively started in the field, he
+might yet develop valuable qualities of leadership. He had substantially
+decided to let him have his own way in his proposed campaign against
+Richmond by water, and orders to assemble the necessary vessels had been
+given before the Harper's Ferry failure was known.
+
+Early on the morning of March 8, the President made one more effort to
+convert McClellan to a direct movement against Manassas, but without
+success. On the contrary, the general convened twelve of his division
+commanders in a council, who voted eight to four for the water route.
+This finally decided the question in the President's mind, but he
+carefully qualified the decision by two additional war orders of his
+own, written without consultation. President's General War Order No. 2
+directed that the Army of the Potomac should be immediately organized
+into four army corps, to be respectively commanded by McDowell, Sumner,
+Heintzelman, and Keyes, and a fifth under Banks. It is noteworthy that
+the first three of these had always earnestly advocated the Manassas
+movement. President's General War Order No. 3 directed, in substance:
+_First_. An immediate effort to capture the Potomac batteries. _Second_.
+That until that was accomplished not more than two army corps should be
+started on the Chesapeake campaign toward Richmond _Third_. That any
+Chesapeake movement should begin in ten days; and--_Fourth_. That no
+such movement should be ordered without leaving Washington entirely
+secure.
+
+Even while the President was completing the drafting and copying of
+these important orders, events were transpiring which once more put a
+new face upon the proposed campaign against Richmond. During the
+forenoon of the next day, March 9, a despatch was received from Fortress
+Monroe, reporting the appearance of the rebel ironclad _Merrimac_, and
+the havoc she had wrought the previous afternoon--the _Cumberland_ sunk,
+the _Congress_ surrendered and burned, the _Minnesota_ aground and about
+to be attacked. There was a quick gathering of officials at the
+Executive Mansion--Secretaries Stanton, Seward, Welles, Generals
+McClellan, Meigs, Totten, Commodore Smith, and Captain Dahlgren--and a
+scene of excitement ensued, unequaled by any other in the President's
+office during the war. Stanton walked up and down like a caged lion, and
+eager discussion animated cabinet and military officers. Two other
+despatches soon came, one from the captain of a vessel at Baltimore, who
+had left Fortress Monroe on the evening of the eighth, and a copy of a
+telegram to the "New York Tribune," giving more details.
+
+President Lincoln was the coolest man in the whole gathering, carefully
+analyzing the language of the telegrams, to give their somewhat confused
+statements intelligible coherence. Wild suggestions flew from speaker to
+speaker about possible danger to be apprehended from the new marine
+terror--whether she might not be able to go to New York or Philadelphia
+and levy tribute, to Baltimore or Annapolis to destroy the transports
+gathered for McClellan's movement, or even to come up the Potomac and
+burn Washington; and all sorts of prudential measures and safeguards
+were proposed.
+
+In the afternoon, however, apprehension was greatly quieted. That very
+day a cable was laid across the bay, giving direct telegraphic
+communication with Fortress Monroe, and Captain Fox, who happened to be
+on the spot, concisely reported at about 4 P.M. the dramatic sequel--the
+timely arrival of the _Monitor_, the interesting naval battle between
+the two ironclads, and that at noon the _Merrimac_ had withdrawn from
+the conflict, and with her three small consorts steamed back into
+Elizabeth River.
+
+Scarcely had the excitement over the _Monitor_ and _Merrimac_ news begun
+to subside, when, on the same afternoon, a new surprise burst upon the
+military authorities in a report that the whole Confederate army had
+evacuated its stronghold at Manassas and the batteries on the Potomac,
+and had retired southward to a new line behind the Rappahannock. General
+McClellan hastened across the river, and, finding the news to be
+correct, issued orders during the night for a general movement of the
+army next morning to the vacated rebel camps. The march was promptly
+accomplished, notwithstanding the bad roads, and the troops had the
+meager satisfaction of hoisting the Union flag over the deserted rebel
+earthworks.
+
+For two weeks the enemy had been preparing for this retreat; and,
+beginning their evacuation on the seventh, their whole retrograde
+movement was completed by March 11, by which date they were secure in
+their new line of defense, "prepared for such an emergency--the south
+bank of the Rappahannock strengthened by field-works, and provided with
+a depot of food," writes General Johnston. No further comment is needed
+to show McClellan's utter incapacity or neglect, than that for full two
+months he had commanded an army of one hundred and ninety thousand,
+present for duty, within two days' march of the forty-seven thousand
+Confederates, present for duty, whom he thus permitted to march away to
+their new strongholds without a gun fired or even a meditated attack.
+
+General McClellan had not only lost the chance of an easy and brilliant
+victory near Washington, but also the possibility of his favorite plan
+to move by water to Urbana on the lower Rappahannock, and from there by
+a land march _via_ West Point toward Richmond. On that route the enemy
+was now in his way. He therefore, on March 13, hastily called a council
+of his corps commanders, who decided that under the new conditions it
+would be best to proceed by water to Fortress Monroe, and from there
+move up the Peninsula toward Richmond. To this new plan, adopted in the
+stress of excitement and haste, the President answered through the
+Secretary of War on the same day:
+
+"_First_. Leave such force at Manassas Junction as shall make it
+entirely certain that the enemy shall not repossess himself of that
+position and line of communication."
+
+"_Second_. Leave Washington entirely secure."
+
+"_Third_. Move the remainder of the force down the Potomac, choosing a
+new base at Fort Monroe, or anywhere between here and there; or, at all
+events, move such remainder of the army at once in pursuit of the enemy
+by some route."
+
+Two days before, the President had also announced a step which he had
+doubtless had in contemplation for many days, if not many weeks, namely,
+that--
+
+"Major-General McClellan having personally taken the field at the head
+of the Army of the Potomac, until otherwise ordered, he is relieved from
+the command of the other military departments, he retaining command of
+the Department of the Potomac."
+
+This order of March 11 included also the already mentioned consolidation
+of the western departments under Halleck; and out of the region lying
+between Halleck's command and McClellan's command it created the
+Mountain Department, the command of which he gave to General Fremont,
+whose reinstatement had been loudly clamored for by many prominent and
+enthusiastic followers.
+
+As the preparations for a movement by water had been in progress since
+February 27, there was little delay in starting the Army of the Potomac
+on its new campaign. The troops began their embarkation on March 17, and
+by April 5 over one hundred thousand men, with all their material of
+war, had been transported to Fortress Monroe, where General McClellan
+himself arrived on the second of the month, and issued orders to begin
+his march on the fourth.
+
+Unfortunately, right at the outset of this new campaign, General
+McClellan's incapacity and want of candor once more became sharply
+evident. In the plan formulated by the four corps commanders, and
+approved by himself, as well as emphatically repeated by the President's
+instructions, was the essential requirement that Washington should be
+left entirely secure. Learning that the general had neglected this
+positive injunction, the President ordered McDowell's corps to remain
+for the protection of the capital; and when the general complained of
+this, Mr. Lincoln wrote him on April 9:
+
+"After you left I ascertained that less than twenty thousand unorganized
+men, without a single field-battery, were all you designed to be left
+for the defense of Washington and Manassas Junction; and part of this,
+even, was to go to General Hooker's old position. General Banks's corps,
+once designed for Manassas Junction, was divided and tied up on the line
+of Winchester and Strasburg, and could not leave it without again
+exposing the upper Potomac and the Baltimore and Ohio railroad. This
+presented (or would present when McDowell and Sumner should be gone) a
+great temptation to the enemy to turn back from the Rappahannock and
+sack Washington. My explicit order that Washington should, by the
+judgment of all the commanders of corps, be left entirely secure, had
+been neglected. It was precisely this that drove me to detain McDowell.
+
+"I do not forget that I was satisfied with your arrangement to leave
+Banks at Manassas Junction; but when that arrangement was broken up and
+nothing was substituted for it, of course I was not satisfied. I was
+constrained to substitute something for it myself."
+
+"And now allow me to ask, do you really think I should permit the line
+from Richmond _via_ Manassas Junction to this city to be entirely open,
+except what resistance could be presented by less than twenty thousand
+unorganized troops? This is a question which the country will not allow
+me to evade...."
+
+"By delay, the enemy will relatively gain upon you--that is, he will
+gain faster by fortifications and reinforcements than you can by
+reinforcements alone. And once more let me tell you it is indispensable
+to you that you strike a blow. I am powerless to help this. You will do
+me the justice to remember I always insisted that going down the bay in
+search of a field, instead of fighting at or near Manassas, was only
+shifting and not surmounting a difficulty; that we would find the same
+enemy and the same or equal intrenchments at either place. The country
+will not fail to note--is noting now--that the present hesitation to
+move upon an intrenched enemy is but the story of Manassas repeated."
+
+General McClellan's expectations in coming to the Peninsula, first, that
+he would find few or no rebel intrenchments, and, second, that he would
+be able to make rapid movements, at once signally failed. On the
+afternoon of the second day's march he came to the first line of the
+enemy's defenses, heavy fortifications at Yorktown on the York River,
+and a strong line of intrenchments and dams flooding the Warwick River,
+extending to an impassable inlet from James River. But the situation was
+not yet desperate. Magruder, the Confederate commander, had only eleven
+thousand men to defend Yorktown and the thirteen-mile line of the
+Warwick. McClellan, on the contrary, had fifty thousand at hand, and as
+many more within call, with which to break the Confederate line and
+continue his proposed "rapid movements." But now, without any adequate
+reconnaissance or other vigorous effort, he at once gave up his thoughts
+of rapid movement, one of the main advantages he had always claimed for
+the water route, and adopted the slow expedient of a siege of Yorktown.
+Not alone was his original plan of campaign demonstrated to be faulty,
+but by this change in the method of its execution it became fatal.
+
+It would be weary and exasperating to recount in detail the remaining
+principal episodes of McClellan's operations to gain possession of the
+Confederate capital. The whole campaign is a record of hesitation,
+delay, and mistakes in the chief command, brilliantly relieved by the
+heroic fighting and endurance of the troops and subordinate officers,
+gathering honor out of defeat, and shedding the luster of renown over a
+result of barren failure. McClellan wasted a month raising siege-works
+to bombard Yorktown, when he might have turned the place by two or three
+days' operations with his superior numbers of four to one. By his
+failure to give instructions after Yorktown was evacuated, he allowed a
+single division of his advance-guard to be beaten back at Williamsburg,
+when thirty thousand of their comrades were within reach, but without
+orders. He wrote to the President that he would have to fight double
+numbers intrenched, when his own army was actually twice as strong as
+that of his antagonist. Placing his army astride the Chickahominy, he
+afforded that antagonist, General Johnston, the opportunity, at a sudden
+rise of the river, to fall on one portion of his divided forces at Fair
+Oaks with overwhelming numbers. Finally, when he was within four miles
+of Richmond and was attacked by General Lee, he began a retreat to the
+James River, and after his corps commanders held the attacking enemy at
+bay by a successful battle on each of six successive days, he day after
+day gave up each field won or held by the valor and blood of his heroic
+soldiers. On July 1, the collected Union army made a stand at the battle
+of Malvern Hill, inflicting a defeat on the enemy which practically
+shattered the Confederate army, and in the course of a week caused it to
+retire within the fortifications of Richmond. During all this
+magnificent fighting, however, McClellan was oppressed by the
+apprehension of impending defeat; and even after the brilliant victory
+of Malvern Hill, continued his retreat to Harrison's Landing, where the
+Union gunboats on the James River assured him of safety and supplies.
+
+It must be borne in mind that this Peninsula campaign, from the landing
+at Fortress Monroe to the battle at Malvern Hill, occupied three full
+months, and that during the first half of that period the government,
+yielding to McClellan's constant faultfinding and clamor for
+reinforcements, sent him forty thousand additional men; also that in the
+opinion of competent critics, both Union and Confederate, he had, after
+the battle of Fair Oaks, and twice during the seven days' battles, a
+brilliant opportunity to take advantage of Confederate mistakes, and by
+a vigorous offensive to capture Richmond. But constitutional indecision
+unfitted him to seize the fleeting chances of war. His hope of victory
+was always overawed by his fear of defeat. While he commanded during a
+large part of the campaign double, and always superior, numbers to the
+enemy, his imagination led him continually to double their strength in
+his reports. This delusion so wrought upon him that on the night of June
+27 he sent the Secretary of War an almost despairing and insubordinate
+despatch, containing these inexcusable phrases:
+
+"Had I twenty thousand or even ten thousand fresh troops to use
+to-morrow, I could take Richmond; but I have not a man in reserve, and
+shall be glad to cover my retreat and save the material and personnel of
+the army.... If I save this army now, I tell you plainly that I owe no
+thanks to you or to any other persons in Washington. You have done your
+best to sacrifice this army."
+
+Under almost any other ruler such language would have been quickly
+followed by trial and dismissal, if not by much severer punishment. But
+while Mr. Lincoln was shocked by McClellan's disrespect, he was yet more
+startled by the implied portent of the despatch. It indicated a loss of
+confidence and a perturbation of mind which rendered possible even a
+surrender of the whole army. The President, therefore, with his habitual
+freedom from passion, merely sent an unmoved and kind reply:
+
+"Save your army at all events. Will send reinforcements as fast as we
+can. Of course they cannot reach you to-day, to-morrow, or next day. I
+have not said you were ungenerous for saying you needed reinforcements.
+I thought you were ungenerous in assuming that I did not send them as
+fast as I could. I feel any misfortune to you and your army quite as
+keenly as you feel it yourself. If you have had a drawn battle or a
+repulse, it is the price we pay for the enemy not being in Washington."
+
+
+
+
+XXII
+
+Jackson's Valley Campaign--Lincoln's Visit to Scott--Pope Assigned to
+Command--Lee's Attack on McClellan--Retreat to Harrison's
+Landing--Seward Sent to New York--Lincoln's Letter to Seward--Lincoln's
+Letter to McClellan--Lincoln's Visit to McClellan--Halleck made
+General-in-Chief--Halleck's Visit to McClellan--Withdrawal from
+Harrison's Landing--Pope Assumes Command--Second Battle of Bull Run--The
+Cabinet Protest--McClellan Ordered to Defend Washington--The Maryland
+Campaign--Battle of Antietam--Lincoln Visits Antietam--Lincoln's Letter
+to McClellan--McClellan Removed from Command
+
+
+During the month of May, while General McClellan was slowly working his
+way across the Chickahominy by bridge-building and intrenching, there
+occurred the episode of Stonewall Jackson's valley campaign, in which
+that eccentric and daring Confederate commander made a rapid and
+victorious march up the Shenandoah valley nearly to Harper's Ferry. Its
+principal effect upon the Richmond campaign was to turn back McDowell,
+who had been started on a land march to unite with the right wing of
+McClellan's army, under instructions, however, always to be in readiness
+to interpose his force against any attempt of the enemy to march upon
+Washington. This campaign of Stonewall Jackson's has been much lauded by
+military writers; but its temporary success resulted from good luck
+rather than military ability. Rationally considered, it was an
+imprudent and even reckless adventure that courted and would have
+resulted in destruction or capture had the junction of forces under
+McDowell, Shields, and Fremont, ordered by President Lincoln, not been
+thwarted by the mistake and delay of Fremont. It was an episode that
+signally demonstrated the wisdom of the President in having retained
+McDowell's corps for the protection of the national capital.
+
+That, however, was not the only precaution to which the President had
+devoted his serious attention. During the whole of McClellan's Richmond
+campaign he had continually borne in mind the possibility of his defeat,
+and the eventualities it might create. Little by little, that general's
+hesitation, constant complaints, and exaggerated reports of the enemy's
+strength changed the President's apprehensions from possibility to
+probability; and he took prompt measures to be prepared as far as
+possible, should a new disaster arise. On June 24 he made a hurried
+visit to the veteran General Scott at West Point, for consultation on
+the existing military conditions, and on his return to Washington called
+General Pope from the West, and, by an order dated June 26, specially
+assigned him to the command of the combined forces under Fremont, Banks,
+and McDowell, to be called the Army of Virginia, whose duty it should be
+to guard the Shenandoah valley and Washington city, and, as far as might
+be, render aid to McClellan's campaign against Richmond.
+
+The very day on which the President made this order proved to be the
+crisis of McClellan's campaign. That was the day he had fixed upon for a
+general advance; but so far from realizing this hope, it turned out,
+also, to be the day on which General Lee began his attack on the Army of
+the Potomac, which formed the beginning of the seven days' battles, and
+changed McClellan's intended advance against Richmond to a retreat to
+the James River. It was after midnight of the next day that McClellan
+sent Stanton his despairing and insubordinate despatch indicating the
+possibility of losing his entire army.
+
+Upon the receipt of this alarming piece of news, President Lincoln
+instantly took additional measures of safety. He sent a telegram to
+General Burnside in North Carolina to come with all the reinforcements
+he could spare to McClellan's help. Through the Secretary of War he
+instructed General Halleck at Corinth to send twenty-five thousand
+infantry to McClellan by way of Baltimore and Washington. His most
+important action was to begin the formation of a new army. On the same
+day he sent Secretary of State Seward to New York with a letter to be
+confidentially shown to such of the governors of States as could be
+hurriedly called together, setting forth his view of the present
+condition of the war, and his own determination in regard to its
+prosecution. After outlining the reverse at Richmond and the new
+problems it created, the letter continued:
+
+"What should be done is to hold what we have in the West, open the
+Mississippi, and take Chattanooga and East Tennessee without more. A
+reasonable force should in every event be kept about Washington for its
+protection. Then let the country give us a hundred thousand new troops
+in the shortest possible time, which, added to McClellan directly or
+indirectly, will take Richmond without endangering any other place which
+we now hold, and will substantially end the war. I expect to maintain
+this contest until successful, or till I die, or am conquered, or my
+term expires, or Congress or the country forsake me; and I would
+publicly appeal to the country for this new force were it not that I
+fear a general panic and stampede would follow, so hard it is to have a
+thing understood as it really is."
+
+Meanwhile, by the news of the victory of Malvern Hill and the secure
+position to which McClellan had retired at Harrison's Landing, the
+President learned that the condition of the Army of the Potomac was not
+as desperate as at first had seemed. The result of Seward's visit to New
+York is shown in the President's letter of July 2, answering McClellan's
+urgent call for heavy reinforcements:
+
+"The idea of sending you fifty thousand, or any other considerable
+force, promptly, is simply absurd. If, in your frequent mention of
+responsibility, you have the impression that I blame you for not doing
+more than you can, please be relieved of such impression. I only beg
+that in like manner you will not ask impossibilities of me. If you think
+you are not strong enough to take Richmond just now, I do not ask you to
+try just now. Save the army, material and personnel, and I will
+strengthen it for the offensive again as fast as I can. The governors of
+eighteen States offer me a new levy of three hundred thousand, which I
+accept."
+
+And in another letter, two days later:
+
+"To reinforce you so as to enable you to resume the offensive within a
+month, or even six weeks, is impossible.... Under these circumstances,
+the defensive for the present must be your only care. Save the
+army--first, where you are, if you can; secondly, by removal, if you
+must."
+
+To satisfy himself more fully about the actual situation, the President
+made a visit to Harrison's Landing on July 8 and 9, and held personal
+interviews with McClellan and his leading generals. While the question
+of removing the army underwent considerable discussion, the President
+left it undecided for the present; but on July 11, soon after his return
+to Washington, he issued an order:
+
+"That Major-General Henry W. Halleck be assigned to command the whole
+land forces of the United States, as general-in-chief, and that he
+repair to this capital so soon as he can with safety to the positions
+and operations within the department now under his charge."
+
+Though General Halleck was loath to leave his command in the West, he
+made the necessary dispositions there, and in obedience to the
+President's order reached Washington on July 23, and assumed command of
+all the armies as general-in-chief. On the day following he proceeded to
+General McClellan's headquarters at Harrison's Landing, and after two
+days' consultation reached the same conclusion at which the President
+had already arrived, that the Army of the Potomac must be withdrawn.
+McClellan strongly objected to this course. He wished to be reinforced
+so that he might resume his operations against Richmond. To do this he
+wanted fifty thousand more men, which number it was impossible to give
+him, as he had already been pointedly informed by the President. On
+Halleck's return to Washington, it was, on further consultation,
+resolved to bring the Army of the Potomac back to Acquia Creek and unite
+it with the army of Pope.
+
+On July 30, McClellan received a preliminary order to send away his
+sick, and the withdrawal of his entire force was ordered by telegraph on
+August 3. With the obstinacy and persistence that characterized his
+course from first to last, McClellan still protested against the change,
+and when Halleck in a calm letter answered his objections with both the
+advantages and the necessity of the order, McClellan's movement of
+withdrawal was so delayed that fully eleven days of inestimable time
+were unnecessarily lost, and the army of Pope was thereby put in serious
+peril.
+
+Meanwhile, under President Lincoln's order of June 26, General Pope had
+left the West, and about the first of July reached Washington, where for
+two weeks, in consultation with the President and the Secretary of War,
+he studied the military situation, and on July 14 assumed command of the
+Army of Virginia, consisting of the corps of General Fremont, eleven
+thousand five hundred strong, and that of General Banks, eight thousand
+strong, in the Shenandoah valley, and the corps of General McDowell,
+eighteen thousand five hundred strong, with one division at Manassas and
+the other at Fredericksburg. It is unnecessary to relate in detail the
+campaign which followed. Pope intelligently and faithfully performed the
+task imposed on him to concentrate his forces and hold in check the
+advance of the enemy, which began as soon as the Confederates learned of
+the evacuation of Harrison's Landing.
+
+When the Army of the Potomac was ordered to be withdrawn it was clearly
+enough seen that the movement might put the Army of Virginia in
+jeopardy; but it was hoped that if the transfer to Acquia Creek and
+Alexandria were made as promptly as the order contemplated, the two
+armies would be united before the enemy could reach them. McClellan,
+however, continued day after day to protest against the change, and made
+his preparations and embarkation with such exasperating slowness as
+showed that he still hoped to induce the government to change its plans.
+
+Pope, despite the fact that he had managed his retreat with skill and
+bravery, was attacked by Lee's army, and fought the second battle of
+Bull Run on August 30, under the disadvantage of having one of
+McClellan's divisions entirely absent and the other failing to respond
+to his order to advance to the attack on the first day. McClellan had
+reached Alexandria on August 24; and notwithstanding telegram after
+telegram from Halleck, ordering him to push Franklin's division out to
+Pope's support, excuse and delay seemed to be his only response, ending
+at last in his direct suggestion that Franklin's division be kept to
+defend Washington, and Pope be left to "get out of his scrape" as best
+he might.
+
+McClellan's conduct and language had awakened the indignation of the
+whole cabinet, roused Stanton to fury, and greatly outraged the feelings
+of President Lincoln. But even under such irritation the President was,
+as ever, the very incarnation of cool, dispassionate judgment, allowing
+nothing but the daily and hourly logic of facts to influence his
+suggestions or decision. In these moments of crisis and danger he felt
+more keenly than ever the awful responsibilities of rulership, and that
+the fate of the nation hung upon his words and acts from hour to hour.
+
+His official counselors, equally patriotic and sincere, were not his
+equals in calmness of temper. On Friday, August 29, Stanton went to
+Chase, and after an excited conference drew up a memorandum of protest,
+to be signed by the members of the cabinet, which drew a gloomy picture
+of present and apprehended dangers, and recommended the immediate
+removal of McClellan from command. Chase and Stanton signed the paper,
+as also did Bates, whom they immediately consulted, and somewhat later
+Smith added his signature. But when they presented it to Welles, he
+firmly refused, stating that though he concurred with them in judgment,
+it would be discourteous and unfriendly to the President to adopt such a
+course. They did not go to Seward and Blair, apparently believing them
+to be friendly to McClellan, and therefore probably unwilling to give
+their assent. The refusal of Mr. Welles to sign had evidently caused a
+more serious discussion among them about the form and language of the
+protest; for on Monday, September 1, it was entirely rewritten by Bates,
+cut down to less than half its original length as drafted by Stanton,
+and once more signed by the same four members of the cabinet.
+
+Presented for the second time to Mr. Welles, he reiterated his
+objection, and again refused his signature. Though in the new form it
+bore the signatures of a majority of the cabinet, the paper was never
+presented to Mr. Lincoln. The signers may have adopted the feeling of
+Mr. Welles that it was discourteous; or they may have thought that with
+only four members of the cabinet for it and three against it, it would
+be ineffectual; or, more likely than either, the mere progress of events
+may have brought them to consider it inexpedient.
+
+The defeat of Pope became final and conclusive on the afternoon of
+August 30, and his telegram announcing it conveyed an intimation that he
+had lost control of his army. President Lincoln had, therefore, to
+confront a most serious crisis and danger. Even without having seen the
+written and signed protest, he was well aware of the feelings of the
+cabinet against McClellan. With what began to look like a serious
+conspiracy among McClellan's officers against Pope, with Pope's army in
+a disorganized retreat upon Washington, with the capital in possible
+danger of capture by Lee, and with a distracted and half-mutinous
+cabinet, the President had need of all his caution and all his wisdom.
+Both his patience and his judgment proved equal to the demand.
+
+On Monday, September 1, repressing every feeling of indignation, and
+solicitous only to make every expedient contribute to the public safety,
+he called McClellan from Alexandria to Washington and asked him to use
+his personal influence with the officers who had been under his command
+to give a hearty and loyal support to Pope as a personal favor to their
+former general, and McClellan at once sent a telegram in this spirit.
+
+That afternoon, also, Mr. Lincoln despatched a member of General
+Halleck's staff to the Virginia side of the Potomac, who reported the
+disorganization and discouragement among the retreating troops as even
+more than had been expected. Worse than all, Halleck, the
+general-in-chief, who was much worn out by the labors of the past few
+days, seemed either unable or unwilling to act with prompt direction and
+command equal to the emergency, though still willing to give his advice
+and suggestion.
+
+Under such conditions, Mr. Lincoln saw that it was necessary for him
+personally to exercise at the moment his military functions and
+authority as commander-in-chief of the army and navy. On the morning of
+September 2, therefore, he gave a verbal order, which during the day was
+issued in regular form as coming from the general-in-chief, that
+Major-General McClellan be placed in command of the fortifications
+around Washington and the troops for the defense of the capital. Mr.
+Lincoln made no concealment of his belief that McClellan had acted badly
+toward Pope and really wanted him to fail; "but there is no one in the
+army who can man these fortifications and lick these troops of ours into
+shape half as well as he can," he said. "We must use the tools we have;
+if he cannot fight himself, he excels in making others ready to fight."
+
+It turned out that the second battle of Bull Run had by no means so
+seriously disorganized the Union army as was reported, and that
+Washington had been exposed to no real danger. The Confederate army
+hovered on its front for a day or two, but made neither attack nor
+demonstration. Instead of this, Lee entered upon a campaign into
+Maryland, hoping that his presence might stimulate a secession revolt in
+that State, and possibly create the opportunity successfully to attack
+Baltimore or Philadelphia.
+
+Pope having been relieved and sent to another department, McClellan soon
+restored order among the troops, and displayed unwonted energy and
+vigilance in watching the movements of the enemy, as Lee gradually moved
+his forces northwestward toward Leesburg, thirty miles from Washington,
+where he crossed the Potomac and took position at Frederick, ten miles
+farther away. McClellan gradually followed the movement of the enemy,
+keeping the Army of the Potomac constantly in a position to protect both
+Washington and Baltimore against an attack. In this way it happened that
+without any order or express intention on the part of either the general
+or the President, McClellan's duty became imperceptibly changed from
+that of merely defending Washington city to that of an active campaign
+into Maryland to follow the Confederate army.
+
+This movement into Maryland was begun by both armies about September 4.
+On the thirteenth of that month McClellan had reached Frederick, while
+Lee was by that time across the Catoctin range at Boonsboro', but his
+army was divided. He had sent a large part of it back across the
+Potomac to capture Harper's Ferry and Martinsburg. On that day there
+fell into McClellan's hands the copy of an order issued by General Lee
+three days before, which, as McClellan himself states in his report,
+fully disclosed Lee's plans. The situation was therefore, as follows: It
+was splendid September weather, with the roads in fine condition.
+McClellan commanded a total moving force of more than eighty thousand;
+Lee, a total moving force of forty thousand. The Confederate army was
+divided. Each of the separate portions was within twenty miles of the
+Union columns; and before half-past six on the evening of September 13,
+McClellan had full knowledge of the enemy's plans.
+
+General Palfrey, an intelligent critic friendly to McClellan, distinctly
+admits that the Union army, properly commanded, could have absolutely
+annihilated the Confederate forces. But the result proved quite
+different. Even such advantages in McClellan's hands failed to rouse him
+to vigorous and decisive action. As usual, hesitation and tardiness
+characterized the orders and movements of the Union forces, and during
+the four days succeeding, Lee had captured Harper's Ferry with eleven
+thousand prisoners and seventy-three pieces of artillery, reunited his
+army, and fought the defensive battle of Antietam on September 17, with
+almost every Confederate soldier engaged, while one third of McClellan's
+army was not engaged at all and the remainder went into action piecemeal
+and successively, under such orders that cooeperative movement and mutual
+support were practically impossible. Substantially, it was a drawn
+battle, with appalling slaughter on both sides.
+
+Even after such a loss of opportunity, there still remained a precious
+balance of advantage in McClellan's hands. Because of its smaller total
+numbers, the Confederate army was disproportionately weakened by the
+losses in battle. The Potomac River was almost immediately behind it,
+and had McClellan renewed his attack on the morning of the eighteenth,
+as several of his best officers advised, a decisive victory was yet
+within his grasp. But with his usual hesitation, notwithstanding the
+arrival of two divisions of reinforcements, he waited all day to make up
+his mind. He indeed gave orders to renew the attack at daylight on the
+nineteenth, but before that time the enemy had retreated across the
+Potomac, and McClellan telegraphed, apparently with great satisfaction,
+that Maryland was free and Pennsylvania safe.
+
+The President watched the progress of this campaign with an eagerness
+born of the lively hope that it might end the war. He sent several
+telegrams to the startled Pennsylvania authorities to assure them that
+Philadelphia and Harrisburg were in no danger. He ordered a
+reinforcement of twenty-one thousand to join McClellan. He sent a
+prompting telegram to that general: "Please do not let him [the enemy]
+get off without being hurt." He recognized the battle of Antietam as a
+substantial, if not a complete victory, and seized the opportunity it
+afforded him to issue his preliminary proclamation of emancipation on
+September 22.
+
+For two weeks after the battle of Antietam, General McClellan kept his
+army camped on various parts of the field, and so far from exhibiting
+any disposition of advancing against the enemy in the Shenandoah valley,
+showed constant apprehension lest the enemy might come and attack him.
+On October 1, the President and several friends made a visit to
+Antietam, and during the three succeeding days reviewed the troops and
+went over the various battle-grounds in company with the general. The
+better insight which the President thus received of the nature and
+results of the late battle served only to deepen in his mind the
+conviction he had long entertained--how greatly McClellan's defects
+overbalanced his merits as a military leader; and his impatience found
+vent in a phrase of biting irony. In a morning walk with a friend,
+waving his arm toward the white tents of the great army, he asked: "Do
+you know what that is?" The friend, not catching the drift of his
+thought, said, "It is the Army of the Potomac, I suppose." "So it is
+called," responded the President, in a tone of suppressed indignation,
+"But that is a mistake. It is only McClellan's body-guard."
+
+At that time General McClellan commanded a total force of one hundred
+thousand men present for duty under his immediate eye, and seventy-three
+thousand present for duty under General Banks about Washington. It is,
+therefore, not to be wondered at that on October 6, the second day after
+Mr. Lincoln's return to Washington, the following telegram went to the
+general from Halleck:
+
+"I am instructed to telegraph you as follows: The President directs that
+you cross the Potomac and give battle to the enemy, or drive him south.
+Your army must move now while the roads are good. If you cross the river
+between the enemy and Washington, and cover the latter by your
+operation, you can be reinforced with thirty thousand men. If you move
+up the valley of the Shenandoah, not more than twelve thousand or
+fifteen thousand can be sent to you. The President advises the interior
+line, between Washington and the enemy, but does not order it. He is
+very desirous that your army move as soon as possible. You will
+immediately report what line you adopt, and when you intend to cross
+the river; also to what point the reinforcements are to be sent. It is
+necessary that the plan of your operations be positively determined on
+before orders are given for building bridges and repairing railroads. I
+am directed to add that the Secretary of War and the general-in-chief
+fully concur with the President in these instructions."
+
+This express order was reinforced by a long letter from the President,
+dated October 13, specifically pointing out the decided advantages
+McClellan possessed over the enemy, and suggesting a plan of campaign
+even to details, the importance and value of which was self-evident.
+
+"You remember my speaking to you of what I called your
+over-cautiousness. Are you not over-cautious when you assume that you
+cannot do what the enemy is constantly doing? Should you not claim to be
+at least his equal in prowess, and act upon the claim?... Change
+positions with the enemy, and think you not he would break your
+communication with Richmond within the next twenty-four hours? You dread
+his going into Pennsylvania, but if he does so in full force, he gives
+up his communications to you absolutely, and you have nothing to do but
+to follow and ruin him. If he does so with less than full force, fall
+upon and beat what is left behind all the easier. Exclusive of the
+water-line, you are now nearer Richmond than the enemy is by the route
+that you can and he must take. Why can you not reach there before him,
+unless you admit that he is more than your equal on a march? His route
+is the arc of a circle, while yours is the chord. The roads are as good
+on yours as on his. You know I desired, but did not order, you to cross
+the Potomac below instead of above the Shenandoah and Blue Ridge. My
+idea was that this would at once menace the enemy's communications,
+which I would seize, if he would permit. If he should move northward I
+would follow him closely, holding his communications. If he should
+prevent our seizing his communications and move toward Richmond, I would
+press closely to him, fight him, if a favorable opportunity should
+present, and at least try to beat him to Richmond on the inside track. I
+say 'try'; if we never try we shall never succeed. If he makes a stand
+at Winchester, moving neither north nor south, I would fight him there,
+on the idea that if we cannot beat him when he bears the wastage of
+coming to us, we never can when we bear the wastage of going to him."
+
+But advice, expostulation, argument, orders, were all wasted, now as
+before, on the unwilling, hesitating general. When he had frittered away
+another full month in preparation, in slowly crossing the Potomac, and
+in moving east of the Blue Ridge and massing his army about Warrenton, a
+short distance south of the battle-field of Bull Run, without a vigorous
+offensive, or any discernible intention to make one, the President's
+patience was finally exhausted, and on November 5 he sent him an order
+removing him from command. And so ended General McClellan's military
+career.
+
+
+
+
+XXIII
+
+Cameron's Report--Lincoln's Letter to Bancroft--Annual Message on
+Slavery--The Delaware Experiment--Joint Resolution on Compensated
+Abolishment--First Border State Interview--Stevens's Comment--District
+of Columbia Abolishment--Committee on Abolishment--Hunter's Order
+Revoked--Antislavery Measures of Congress--Second Border State
+Interview--Emancipation Proposed and Postponed
+
+
+The relation of the war to the institution of slavery has been touched
+upon in describing several incidents which occurred during 1861, namely,
+the designation of fugitive slaves as "contraband," the Crittenden
+resolution and the confiscation act of the special session of Congress,
+the issuing and revocation of Fremont's proclamation, and various orders
+relating to contrabands in Union camps. The already mentioned
+resignation of Secretary Cameron had also grown out of a similar
+question. In the form in which it was first printed, his report as
+Secretary of War to the annual session of Congress which met on December
+3, 1861, announced:
+
+"If it shall be found that the men who have been held by the rebels as
+slaves are capable of bearing arms and performing efficient military
+service, it is the right, and may become the duty, of the government to
+arm and equip them, and employ their services against the rebels, under
+proper military regulation, discipline, and command."
+
+The President was not prepared to permit a member of his cabinet,
+without his consent, to commit the administration to so radical a policy
+at that early date. He caused the advance copies of the document to be
+recalled and modified to the simple declaration that fugitive and
+abandoned slaves, being clearly an important military resource, should
+not be returned to rebel masters, but withheld from the enemy to be
+disposed of in future as Congress might deem best. Mr. Lincoln saw
+clearly enough what a serious political role the slavery question was
+likely to play during the continuance of the war. Replying to a letter
+from the Hon. George Bancroft, in which that accomplished historian
+predicted that posterity would not be satisfied with the results of the
+war unless it should effect an increase of the free States, the
+President wrote:
+
+"The main thought in the closing paragraph of your letter is one which
+does not escape my attention, and with which I must deal in all due
+caution, and with the best judgment I can bring to it."
+
+This caution was abundantly manifested in his annual message to Congress
+of December 3, 1861:
+
+"In considering the policy to be adopted for suppressing the
+insurrection," he wrote, "I have been anxious and careful that the
+inevitable conflict for this purpose shall not degenerate into a violent
+and remorseless revolutionary struggle. I have, therefore, in every
+case, thought it proper to keep the integrity of the Union prominent as
+the primary object of the contest on our part, leaving all questions
+which are not of vital military importance to the more deliberate action
+of the legislature.... The Union must be preserved; and hence all
+indispensable means must be employed. We should not be in haste to
+determine that radical and extreme measures, which may reach the loyal
+as well as the disloyal, are indispensable."
+
+The most conservative opinion could not take alarm at phraseology so
+guarded and at the same time so decided; and yet it proved broad enough
+to include every great exigency which the conflict still had in store.
+
+Mr. Lincoln had indeed already maturely considered and in his own mind
+adopted a plan of dealing with the slavery question: the simple plan
+which, while a member of Congress, he had proposed for adoption in the
+District of Columbia--the plan of voluntary compensated abolishment. At
+that time local and national prejudice stood in the way of its
+practicability; but to his logical and reasonable mind it seemed now
+that the new conditions opened for it a prospect at least of initial
+success.
+
+In the late presidential election the little State of Delaware had, by a
+fusion between the Bell and the Lincoln vote, chosen a Union member of
+Congress, who identified himself in thought and action with the new
+administration. While Delaware was a slave State, only the merest
+remnant of the institution existed there--seventeen hundred and
+ninety-eight slaves all told. Without any public announcement of his
+purpose, the President now proposed to the political leaders of
+Delaware, through their representative, a scheme for the gradual
+emancipation of these seventeen hundred and ninety-eight slaves, on the
+payment therefore by the United States at the rate of four hundred
+dollars per slave, in annual instalments during thirty-one years to that
+State, the sum to be distributed by it to the individual owners. The
+President believed that if Delaware could be induced to take this step,
+Maryland might follow, and that these examples would create a sentiment
+that would lead other States into the same easy and beneficent path. But
+the ancient prejudice still had its relentless grip upon some of the
+Delaware law-makers. A majority of the Delaware House indeed voted to
+entertain the scheme. But five of the nine members of the Delaware
+Senate, with hot partizan anathemas, scornfully repelled the "abolition
+bribe," as they called it, and the project withered in the bud.
+
+Mr. Lincoln did not stop at the failure of his Delaware experiment, but
+at once took an appeal to a broader section of public opinion. On March
+6, 1862, he sent a special message to the two houses of Congress
+recommending the adoption of the following joint resolution:
+
+"_Resolved_, that the United States ought to cooeperate with any State
+which may adopt gradual abolishment of slavery, giving to such State
+pecuniary aid, to be used by such State, in its discretion, to
+compensate for the inconveniences, public and private, produced by such
+change of system."
+
+"The point is not," said his explanatory message, "that all the States
+tolerating slavery would very soon, if at all, initiate emancipation;
+but that while the offer is equally made to all, the more northern
+shall, by such initiation, make it certain to the more southern that in
+no event will the former ever join the latter in their proposed
+Confederacy. I say 'initiation' because, in my judgment, gradual, and
+not sudden, emancipation is better for all.... Such a proposition on the
+part of the general government sets up no claim of a right by Federal
+authority to interfere with slavery within State limits, referring, as
+it does, the absolute control of the subject in each case to the State
+and its people immediately interested. It is proposed as a matter of
+perfectly free choice with them. In the annual message last December I
+thought fit to say, 'The Union must be preserved; and hence, all
+indispensable means must be employed.' I said this, not hastily, but
+deliberately. War has been made, and continues to be, an indispensable
+means to this end. A practical reacknowledgment of the national
+authority would render the war unnecessary, and it would at once cease.
+If, however, resistance continues, the war must also continue; and it is
+impossible to foresee all the incidents which may attend and all the
+ruin which may follow it. Such as may seem indispensable, or may
+obviously promise great efficiency toward ending the struggle, must and
+will come."
+
+The Republican journals of the North devoted considerable discussion to
+the President's message and plan, which, in the main, were very
+favorably received. Objection was made, however, in some quarters that
+the proposition would be likely to fail on the score of expense, and
+this objection the President conclusively answered in a private letter
+to a senator.
+
+"As to the expensiveness of the plan of gradual emancipation, with
+compensation, proposed in the late message, please allow me one or two
+brief suggestions. Less than one half-day's cost of this war would pay
+for all the slaves in Delaware at four hundred dollars per head....
+Again, less than eighty-seven days' cost of this war would, at the same
+price, pay for all in Delaware, Maryland, District of Columbia, Kentucky
+and Missouri.... Do you doubt that taking the initiatory steps on the
+part of those States and this District would shorten the war more than
+eighty-seven days, and thus be an actual saving of expense?"
+
+Four days after transmitting the message the President called together
+the delegations in Congress from the border slave States, and in a long
+and earnest personal interview, in which he repeated and enforced the
+arguments of his message, urged upon them the expediency of adopting his
+plan, which he assured them he had proposed in the most friendly spirit,
+and with no intent to injure the interests or wound the sensibilities of
+the slave States. On the day following this interview the House of
+Representatives adopted the joint resolution by more than a two-thirds
+vote; ayes eighty-nine, nays thirty-one. Only a very few of the border
+State members had the courage to vote in the affirmative. The Senate
+also passed the joint resolution, by about a similar party division, not
+quite a month later; the delay occurring through press of business
+rather than unwillingness.
+
+As yet, however, the scheme was tolerated rather than heartily indorsed
+by the more radical elements in Congress. Stevens, the cynical
+Republican leader of the House of Representatives, said:
+
+"I confess I have not been able to see what makes one side so anxious to
+pass it, or the other side so anxious to defeat it. I think it is about
+the most diluted milk-and-water-gruel proposition that was ever given to
+the American nation."
+
+But the bulk of the Republicans, though it proposed no immediate
+practical legislation, nevertheless voted for it, as a declaration of
+purpose in harmony with a pending measure, and as being, on the one
+hand, a tribute to antislavery opinion in the North, and, on the other,
+an expression of liberality toward the border States. The concurrent
+measure of practical legislation was a bill for the immediate
+emancipation of the slaves in the District of Columbia, on the payment
+to their loyal owners of an average sum of three hundred dollars for
+each slave, and for the appointment of a commission to assess and award
+the amount. The bill was introduced early in the session, and its
+discussion was much stimulated by the President's special message and
+joint resolution. Like other antislavery measures, it was opposed by the
+Democrats and supported by the Republicans, with but trifling
+exceptions; and by the same majority of two thirds was passed by the
+Senate on April 3, and the House on April 11, and became a law by the
+President's signature on April 16.
+
+The Republican majority in Congress as well as the President was thus
+pledged to the policy of compensated abolishment, both by the promise of
+the joint resolution and the fulfilment carried out in the District
+bill. If the representatives and senators of the border slave States had
+shown a willingness to accept the generosity of the government, they
+could have avoided the pecuniary sacrifice which overtook the slave
+owners in those States not quite three years later. On April 14, in the
+House of Representatives, the subject was taken up by Mr. White of
+Indiana, at whose instance a select committee on emancipation,
+consisting of nine members, a majority of whom were from border slave
+States, was appointed; and this committee on July 16 reported a
+comprehensive bill authorizing the President to give compensation at the
+rate of three hundred dollars for each slave to any one of the States of
+Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and Missouri, that
+might adopt immediate or gradual emancipation. Some subsequent
+proceedings on this subject occurred in Congress in the case of
+Missouri; but as to the other States named in the bill, either the
+neglect or open opposition of their people and representatives and
+senators prevented any further action from the committee.
+
+Meanwhile a new incident once more brought the question of military
+emancipation into sharp public discussion. On May 9, General David
+Hunter, commanding the Department of the South, which consisted mainly
+of some sixty or seventy miles of the South Carolina coast between North
+Edisto River and Warsaw Sound, embracing the famous Sea Island cotton
+region which fell into Union hands by the capture of Port Royal in 1861,
+issued a military order which declared:
+
+"Slavery and martial law in a free country are altogether incompatible;
+the persons in these three States--Georgia, Florida, and South
+Carolina--heretofore held as slaves are therefore declared forever
+free."
+
+The news of this order, coming by the slow course of ocean mails,
+greatly surprised Mr. Lincoln, and his first comment upon it was
+positive and emphatic. "No commanding general shall do such a thing,
+upon my responsibility, without consulting me," he wrote to Secretary
+Chase. Three days later, May 19, 1862, he published a proclamation
+declaring Hunter's order entirely unauthorized and void, and adding:
+
+"I further make known that whether it be competent for me, as
+commander-in-chief of the army and navy, to declare the slaves of any
+State or States free, and whether, at any time, in any case, it shall
+have become a necessity indispensable to the maintenance of the
+government to exercise such supposed power, are questions which, under
+my responsibility, I reserve to myself, and which I cannot feel
+justified in leaving to the decision of commanders in the field. These
+are totally different questions from those of police regulations in
+armies and camps."
+
+This distinct reservation of executive power, and equally plain
+announcement of the contingency which would justify its exercise, was
+coupled with a renewed recital of his plan and offer of compensated
+abolishment and reinforced by a powerful appeal to the public opinion of
+the border slave States.
+
+"I do not argue," continued the proclamation, "I beseech you to make the
+arguments for yourselves. You cannot, if you would, be blind to the
+signs of the times. I beg of you a calm and enlarged consideration of
+them, ranging, if it may be, far above personal and partizan politics.
+This proposal makes common cause for a common object, casting no
+reproaches upon any. It acts not the Pharisee. The change it
+contemplates would come gently as the dews of heaven, not rending or
+wrecking anything. Will you not embrace it? So much good has not been
+done, by one effort, in all past time, as in the providence of God it is
+now your high privilege to do. May the vast future not have to lament
+that you have neglected it."
+
+This proclamation of President Lincoln's naturally created considerable
+and very diverse comment, but much less than would have occurred had not
+military events intervened which served in a great degree to absorb
+public attention. At the date of the proclamation McClellan, with the
+Army of the Potomac, was just reaching the Chickahominy in his campaign
+toward Richmond; Stonewall Jackson was about beginning his startling
+raid into the Shenandoah valley; and Halleck was pursuing his somewhat
+leisurely campaign against Corinth. On the day following the
+proclamation the victorious fleet of Farragut reached Vicksburg in its
+first ascent of the Mississippi. Congress was busy with the multifarious
+work that crowded the closing weeks of the long session; and among this
+congressional work the debates and proceedings upon several measures of
+positive and immediate antislavery legislation were significant "signs
+of the times." During the session, and before it ended, acts or
+amendments were passed prohibiting the army from returning fugitive
+slaves; recognizing the independence and sovereignty of Haiti and
+Liberia; providing for carrying into effect the treaty with England to
+suppress the African slave trade; restoring the Missouri Compromise and
+extending its provisions to all United States Territories; greatly
+increasing the scope of the confiscation act in freeing slaves actually
+employed in hostile military service; and giving the President
+authority, if not in express terms, at least by easy implication, to
+organize and arm negro regiments for the war.
+
+But between the President's proclamation and the adjournment of Congress
+military affairs underwent a most discouraging change. McClellan's
+advance upon Richmond became a retreat to Harrison's Landing Halleck
+captured nothing but empty forts at Corinth. Farragut found no
+cooeperation at Vicksburg, and returned to New Orleans, leaving its
+hostile guns still barring the commerce of the great river. Still worse,
+the country was plunged into gloomy forebodings by the President's call
+for three hundred thousand new troops.
+
+About a week before the adjournment of Congress the President again
+called together the delegations from the border slave States, and read
+to them, in a carefully prepared paper, a second and most urgent appeal
+to adopt his plan of compensated abolishment.
+
+"Let the States which are in rebellion see definitely and certainly that
+in no event will the States you represent ever join their proposed
+confederacy, and they cannot much longer maintain the contest. But you
+cannot divest them of their hope to ultimately have you with them so
+long as you show a determination to perpetuate the institution within
+your own States. Beat them at elections, as you have overwhelmingly
+done, and, nothing daunted, they still claim you as their own. You and I
+know what the lever of their power is. Break that lever before their
+faces, and they can shake you no more forever.... If the war continues
+long, as it must if the object be not sooner attained, the institution
+in your States will be extinguished by mere friction and abrasion--by
+the mere incidents of the war. It will be gone, and you will have
+nothing valuable in lieu of it. Much of its value is gone already. How
+much better for you and for your people to take the step which at once
+shortens the war and secures substantial compensation for that which is
+sure to be wholly lost in any other event. How much better to thus save
+the money which else we sink forever in the war.... Our common country
+is in great peril, demanding the loftiest views and boldest action to
+bring it speedy relief. Once relieved, its form of government is saved
+to the world, its beloved history and cherished memories are vindicated,
+and its happy future fully assured and rendered inconceivably grand. To
+you, more than to any others, the privilege is given to assure that
+happiness and swell that grandeur, and to link your own names therewith
+forever."
+
+Even while the delegations listened, Mr. Lincoln could see that events
+had not yet ripened their minds to the acceptance of his proposition. In
+their written replies, submitted a few days afterward, two thirds of
+them united in a qualified refusal, which, while recognizing the
+President's patriotism and reiterating their own loyalty, urged a number
+of rather unsubstantial excuses. The minority replies promised to submit
+the proposal fairly to the people of their States, but could of course
+give no assurance that it would be welcomed by their constituents. The
+interview itself only served to confirm the President in an alternative
+course of action upon which his mind had doubtless dwelt for a
+considerable time with intense solicitude, and which is best presented
+in the words of his own recital.
+
+"It had got to be," said he, in a conversation with the artist F.B.
+Carpenter, "midsummer, 1862. Things had gone on from bad to worse, until
+I felt that we had reached the end of our rope on the plan of operations
+we had been pursuing; that we had about played our last card, and must
+change our tactics, or lose the game. I now determined upon the adoption
+of the emancipation policy; and, without consultation with, or the
+knowledge of, the cabinet, I prepared the original draft of the
+proclamation, and after much anxious thought called a cabinet meeting
+upon the subject.... All were present excepting Mr. Blair, the
+Postmaster-General, who was absent at the opening of the discussion, but
+came in subsequently. I said to the cabinet that I had resolved upon
+this step, and had not called them together to ask their advice, but to
+lay the subject-matter of a proclamation before them, suggestions as to
+which would be in order after they had heard it read."
+
+It was on July 22 that the President read to his cabinet the draft of
+this first emancipation proclamation, which, after a formal warning
+against continuing the rebellion, was in the following words:
+
+"And I hereby make known that it is my purpose, upon the next meeting of
+Congress, to again recommend the adoption of a practical measure for
+tendering pecuniary aid to the free choice or rejection of any and all
+States which may then be recognizing and practically sustaining the
+authority of the United States, and which may then have voluntarily
+adopted, or thereafter may voluntarily adopt, gradual abolishment of
+slavery within such State or States; that the object is to practically
+restore, thenceforward to be maintained, the constitutional relation
+between the general government and each and all the States wherein that
+relation is now suspended or disturbed; and that for this object the
+war, as it has been, will be prosecuted. And as a fit and necessary
+military measure for effecting this object, I, as commander-in-chief of
+the army and navy of the United States, do order and declare that on the
+first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred
+and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or States
+wherein the constitutional authority of the United States shall not then
+be practically recognized, submitted to, and maintained, shall then,
+thenceforward, and forever be free."
+
+Mr. Lincoln had given a confidential intimation of this step to Mr.
+Seward and Mr. Welles on the day following the border State interview,
+but to all the other members of the cabinet it came as a complete
+surprise. Blair thought it would cost the administration the fall
+elections. Chase preferred that emancipation should be proclaimed by
+commanders in the several military districts. Seward, approving the
+measure, suggested that it be postponed until it could be given to the
+country supported by military success, instead of issuing it, as would
+be the case then, upon the greatest disasters of the war. Mr. Lincoln's
+recital continues:
+
+"The wisdom of the view of the Secretary of State struck me with very
+great force. It was an aspect of the case that, in all my thought upon
+the subject, I had entirely overlooked. The result was that I put the
+draft of the proclamation aside, as you do your sketch for a picture,
+waiting for a victory."
+
+
+
+
+XXIV
+
+Criticism of the President for his Action on Slavery--Lincoln's Letters
+to Louisiana Friends--Greeley's Open Letter--Mr. Lincoln's
+Reply--Chicago Clergymen Urge Emancipation--Lincoln's Answer--Lincoln
+Issues Preliminary Proclamation--President Proposes Constitutional
+Amendment--Cabinet Considers Final Proclamation--Cabinet Discusses
+Admission of West Virginia--Lincoln Signs Edict of Freedom--Lincoln's
+Letter to Hodges
+
+
+The secrets of the government were so well kept that no hint whatever
+came to the public that the President had submitted to the cabinet the
+draft of an emancipation proclamation. Between that date and the battle
+of the second Bull Run intervened the period of a full month, during
+which, in the absence of military movements or congressional proceedings
+to furnish exciting news, both private individuals and public journals
+turned a new and somewhat vindictive fire of criticism upon the
+administration. For this they seized upon the ever-ready text of the
+ubiquitous slavery question. Upon this issue the conservatives protested
+indignantly that the President had been too fast, while, contrarywise,
+the radicals clamored loudly that he had been altogether too slow. We
+have seen how his decision was unalterably taken and his course
+distinctly marked out, but that he was not yet ready publicly to
+announce it. Therefore, during this period of waiting for victory, he
+underwent the difficult task of restraining the impatience of both
+sides, which he did in very positive language. Thus, under date of July
+26, 1862, he wrote to a friend in Louisiana:
+
+"Yours of the sixteenth, by the hand of Governor Shepley, is received.
+It seems the Union feeling in Louisiana is being crushed out by the
+course of General Phelps. Please pardon me for believing that is a false
+pretense. The people of Louisiana--all intelligent people
+everywhere--know full well that I never had a wish to touch the
+foundations of their society, or any right of theirs. With perfect
+knowledge of this, they forced a necessity upon me to send armies among
+them, and it is their own fault, not mine, that they are annoyed by the
+presence of General Phelps. They also know the remedy--know how to be
+cured of General Phelps. Remove the necessity of his presence.... I am a
+patient man--always willing to forgive on the Christian terms of
+repentance, and also to give ample time for repentance. Still, I must
+save this government if possible. What I cannot do, of course I will not
+do; but it may as well be understood, once for all, that I shall not
+surrender this game leaving any available card unplayed."
+
+Two days later he answered another Louisiana critic:
+
+"Mr. Durant complains that, in various ways, the relation of master and
+slave is disturbed by the presence of our army, and he considers it
+particularly vexatious that this, in part, is done under cover of an act
+of Congress, while constitutional guarantees are suspended on the plea
+of military necessity. The truth is that what is done and omitted about
+slaves is done and omitted on the same military necessity. It is a
+military necessity to have men and money; and we can get neither in
+sufficient numbers or amounts if we keep from or drive from our lines
+slaves coming to them. Mr. Durant cannot be ignorant of the pressure in
+this direction, nor of my efforts to hold it within bounds till he and
+such as he shall have time to help themselves.... What would you do in
+my position? Would you drop the war where it is? Or would you prosecute
+it in future with elder-stalk squirts charged with rose-water? Would you
+deal lighter blows rather than heavier ones? Would you give up the
+contest, leaving any available means unapplied? I am in no boastful
+mood. I shall not do more than I can, and I shall do all I can, to save
+the government, which is my sworn duty as well as my personal
+inclination. I shall do nothing in malice. What I deal with is too vast
+for malicious dealing."
+
+The President could afford to overlook the misrepresentations and
+invective of the professedly opposition newspapers, but he had also to
+meet the over-zeal of influential Republican editors of strong
+antislavery bias. Horace Greeley printed, in the New York "Tribune" of
+August 20, a long "open letter" ostentatiously addressed to Mr. Lincoln,
+full of unjust censure all based on the general accusation that the
+President and many army officers as well, were neglecting their duty
+under pro-slavery influences and sentiments. The open letter which Mr.
+Lincoln wrote in reply is remarkable not alone for the skill with which
+it separated the true from the false issue of the moment, but also for
+the equipoise and dignity with which it maintained his authority as
+moral arbiter between the contending factions.
+
+     "EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON,
+     August 22, 1862.
+
+     "HON. HORACE GREELEY.
+
+"DEAR SIR: I have just read yours of the nineteenth, addressed to myself
+through the New York 'Tribune.' If there be in it any statements or
+assumptions of fact which I may know to be erroneous, I do not, now and
+here, controvert them. If there be in it any inferences which I may
+believe to be falsely drawn, I do not, now and here, argue against them.
+If there be perceptible in it an impatient and dictatorial tone, I waive
+it in deference to an old friend whose heart I have always supposed to
+be right.
+
+"As to the policy I 'seem to be pursuing,' as you say, I have not meant
+to leave any one in doubt.
+
+"I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the
+Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored, the
+nearer the Union will be 'the Union as it was.' If there be those who
+would not save the Union unless they could at the same time save
+slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save
+the Union unless they could, at the same time, destroy slavery, I do not
+agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the
+Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save
+the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save
+it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by
+freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that. What I do
+about slavery and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to
+save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe
+it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall
+believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I
+shall believe doing more will help the cause. I shall try to correct
+errors when shown to be errors, and I shall adopt new views so fast as
+they shall appear to be true views.
+
+"I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official duty;
+and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all
+men everywhere could be free.
+
+     "Yours,
+
+     "A. LINCOLN."
+
+It can hardly be doubted that President Lincoln, when he wrote this
+letter, intended that it should have a twofold effect upon public
+opinion: first, that it should curb extreme antislavery sentiment to
+greater patience; secondly, that it should rouse dogged pro-slavery
+conservatism, and prepare it for the announcement which he had resolved
+to make at the first fitting opportunity. At the date of the letter, he
+very well knew that a serious conflict of arms was soon likely to occur
+in Virginia; and he had strong reason to hope that the junction of the
+armies of McClellan and Pope which had been ordered, and was then in
+progress, could be successfully effected, and would result in a decisive
+Union victory. This hope, however, was sadly disappointed. The second
+battle of Bull Run, which occurred one week after the Greeley letter,
+proved a serious defeat, and necessitated a further postponement of his
+contemplated action.
+
+As a secondary effect of the new disaster, there came upon him once more
+an increased pressure to make reprisal upon what was assumed to be the
+really vulnerable side of the rebellion. On September 13, he was visited
+by an influential deputation from the religious denominations of
+Chicago, urging him to issue at once a proclamation of universal
+emancipation. His reply to them, made in the language of the most
+perfect courtesy nevertheless has in it a tone of rebuke that indicates
+the state of irritation and high sensitiveness under which he was living
+from day to day. In the actual condition of things, he could neither
+safely satisfy them nor deny them. As any answer he could make would be
+liable to misconstruction, he devoted the larger part of it to pointing
+out the unreasonableness of their dogmatic insistence:
+
+"I am approached with the most opposite opinions and advice, and that by
+religious men, who are equally certain that they represent the divine
+will. I am sure that either the one or the other class is mistaken in
+that belief, and perhaps, in some respects, both. I hope it will not be
+irreverent for me to say that if it is probable that God would reveal
+his will to others, on a point so connected with my duty, it might be
+supposed he would reveal it directly to me.... What good would a
+proclamation of emancipation from me do, especially as we are now
+situated? I do not want to issue a document that the whole world will
+see must necessarily be inoperative, like the Pope's bull against the
+comet.... Understand, I raise no objections against it on legal or
+constitutional grounds, for, as commander-in-chief of the army and navy
+in time of war, I suppose I have a right to take any measure which may
+best subdue the enemy; nor do I urge objections of a moral nature, in
+view of possible consequences of insurrection and massacre at the South.
+I view this matter as a practical war measure, to be decided on
+according to the advantages or disadvantages it may offer to the
+suppression of the rebellion.... Do not misunderstand me because I have
+mentioned these objections. They indicate the difficulties that have
+thus far prevented my action in some such way as you desire. I have not
+decided against a proclamation of liberty to the slaves, but hold the
+matter under advisement. And I can assure you that the subject is on my
+mind, by day and night, more than any other. Whatever shall appear to be
+God's will, I will do."
+
+Four days after this interview the battle of Antietam was fought, and
+when, after a few days of uncertainty it was ascertained that it could
+be reasonably claimed as a Union victory, the President resolved to
+carry out his long-matured purpose. The diary of Secretary Chase has
+recorded a very full report of the interesting transaction. On this ever
+memorable September 22, 1862, after some playful preliminary talk, Mr.
+Lincoln said to his cabinet:
+
+"GENTLEMEN: I have, as you are aware, thought a great deal about the
+relation of this war to slavery; and you all remember that, several
+weeks ago, I read to you an order I had prepared on this subject, which,
+on account of objections made by some of you, was not issued. Ever since
+then my mind has been much occupied with this subject, and I have
+thought, all along, that the time for acting on it might probably come.
+I think the time has come now. I wish it was a better time. I wish that
+we were in a better condition. The action of the army against the rebels
+has not been quite what I should have best liked. But they have been
+driven out of Maryland, and Pennsylvania is no longer in danger of
+invasion. When the rebel army was at Frederick, I determined, as soon as
+it should be driven out of Maryland, to issue a proclamation of
+emancipation, such as I thought most likely to be useful. I said nothing
+to any one, but I made the promise to myself and [hesitating a little]
+to my Maker. The rebel army is now driven out, and I am going to fulfil
+that promise. I have got you together to hear what I have written down.
+I do not wish your advice about the main matter, for that I have
+determined for myself. This I say without intending anything but respect
+for any one of you. But I already know the views of each on this
+question. They have been heretofore expressed, and I have considered
+them as thoroughly and carefully as I can. What I have written is that
+which my reflections have determined me to say. If there is anything in
+the expressions I use, or in any minor matter which any one of you
+thinks had best be changed, I shall be glad to receive the suggestions.
+One other observation I will make. I know very well that many others
+might, in this matter as in others, do better than I can; and if I was
+satisfied that the public confidence was more fully possessed by any one
+of them than by me, and knew of any constitutional way in which he could
+be put in my place, he should have it. I would gladly yield it to him.
+But, though I believe that I have not so much of the confidence of the
+people as I had some time since, I do not know that, all things
+considered any other person has more; and, however this may be, there is
+no way in which I can have any other man put where I am. I am here; I
+must do the best I can, and bear the responsibility of taking the course
+which I feel I ought to take."
+
+The members of the cabinet all approved the policy of the measure; Mr.
+Blair only objecting that he thought the time inopportune, while others
+suggested some slight amendments. In the new form in which it was
+printed on the following morning, the document announced a renewal of
+the plan of compensated abolishment, a continuance of the effort at
+voluntary colonization, a promise to recommend ultimate compensation to
+loyal owners, and--
+
+"That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand
+eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any
+State, or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be
+in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward,
+and forever free; and the executive government of the United States,
+including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and
+maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to
+repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for
+their actual freedom."
+
+Pursuant to these announcements, the President's annual message of
+December 1, 1862, recommended to Congress the passage of a joint
+resolution proposing to the legislatures of the several States a
+constitutional amendment consisting of three articles, namely: One
+providing compensation in bonds for every State which should abolish
+slavery before the year 1900; another securing freedom to all slaves
+who, during the rebellion, had enjoyed actual freedom by the chances of
+war--also providing compensation to legal owners; the third authorizing
+Congress to provide for colonization. The long and practical argument in
+which he renewed this plan, "not in exclusion of, but additional to, all
+others for restoring and preserving the national authority throughout
+the Union," concluded with the following eloquent sentences:
+
+"We can succeed only by concert. It is not, 'Can any of us imagine
+better?' but, 'Can we all do better?' Object whatsoever is possible,
+still the question recurs, 'Can we do better?' The dogmas of the quiet
+past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high
+with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new,
+so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and
+then we shall save our country.
+
+"Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We, of this Congress and
+this administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No
+personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of
+us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down, in honor
+or dishonor, to the latest generation. We say we are for the Union. The
+world will not forget that we say this. We know how to save the Union.
+The world knows we do know how to save it. We--even we here--hold the
+power and bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to the slave, we
+assure freedom to the free--honorable alike in what we give and what we
+preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last, best hope of
+earth. Other means may succeed, this could not fail. The way is plain,
+peaceful generous, just--a way which, if followed, the world will
+forever applaud, and God must forever bless."
+
+But Mr. Lincoln was not encouraged by any response to this earnest
+appeal, either from Congress or by manifestations of public opinion.
+Indeed, it may be fairly presumed that he expected none. Perhaps he
+considered it already a sufficient gain that it was silently accepted as
+another admonition of the consequences which not he nor his
+administration, but the Civil War, with its relentless agencies, was
+rapidly bringing about. He was becoming more and more conscious of the
+silent influence of his official utterances on public sentiment, if not
+to convert obstinate opposition, at least to reconcile it to patient
+submission.
+
+In that faith he steadfastly went on carrying out his well-matured plan,
+the next important step of which was the fulfilment of the announcements
+made in the preliminary emancipation proclamation of September 22. On
+December 30, he presented to each member of his cabinet a copy of the
+draft he had carefully made of the new and final proclamation to be
+issued on New Year's day. It will be remembered that as early as July
+22, he informed the cabinet that the main question involved he had
+decided for himself. Now, as twice before it was only upon minor points
+that he asked their advice and suggestion, for which object he placed
+these drafts in their hands for verbal and collateral criticism.
+
+In addition to the central point of military emancipation in all the
+States yet in rebellion, the President's draft for the first time
+announced his intention to incorporate a portion of the newly liberated
+slaves into the armies of the Union. This policy had also been under
+discussion at the first consideration of the subject in July. Mr.
+Lincoln had then already seriously considered it, but thought it
+inexpedient and productive of more evil than good at that date. In his
+judgment, the time had now arrived for energetically adopting it.
+
+On the following day, December 31, the members brought back to the
+cabinet meeting their several criticisms and suggestions on the draft he
+had given them. Perhaps the most important one was that earnestly
+pressed by Secretary Chase, that the new proclamation should make no
+exceptions of fractional parts of States controlled by the Union armies,
+as in Louisiana and Virginia, save the forty-eight counties of the
+latter designated as West Virginia, then in process of formation and
+admission as a new State; the constitutionality of which, on this same
+December 31, was elaborately discussed in writing by the members of the
+cabinet, and affirmatively decided by the President.
+
+On the afternoon of December 31, the cabinet meeting being over, Mr.
+Lincoln once more carefully rewrote the proclamation, embodying in it
+the suggestions which had been made as to mere verbal improvements; but
+he rigidly adhered to his own draft in retaining the exceptions as to
+fractional parts of States and the forty-eight counties of West
+Virginia; and also his announcement of intention to enlist the freedmen
+in military service. Secretary Chase had submitted the form of a closing
+paragraph. This the President also adopted, but added to it, after the
+words "warranted by the Constitution," his own important qualifying
+correction, "upon military necessity."
+
+The full text of the weighty document will be found in a foot-note.[5]
+
+  [Footnote 5:
+
+     BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE
+     UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
+        A PROCLAMATION.
+
+ Whereas on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our
+ Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was
+ issued by the President of the United States, containing, among
+ other things, the following, to wit:
+
+ "That on the first day of January in the year of our Lord one
+ thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves
+ within any State, or designated part of a State, the people whereof
+ shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be
+ then, thenceforward and forever free; and the executive government
+ of the United States, including the military and naval authority
+ thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons,
+ and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them,
+ in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.
+
+ "That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by
+ proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in
+ which the people thereof respectively shall then be in rebellion
+ against the United States; and the fact that any State, or the
+ people thereof, shall on that day be in good faith represented in
+ the Congress of the United States by members chosen thereto at
+ elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such State
+ shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong
+ counter-vailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such
+ State and the people thereof are not then in rebellion against the
+ United States."
+
+ Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States,
+ by virtue of the power in me vested as commander-in-chief of the
+ army and navy of the United States, in time of actual armed
+ rebellion against the authority and government of the United
+ States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said
+ rebellion, do, on this first day of January, in the year of our
+ Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance
+ with my purpose so to do, publicly proclaimed for the full period
+ of one hundred days from the day first above mentioned, order and
+ designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people
+ thereof, respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United
+ States, the following, to wit:
+
+ Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana (except the parishes of St. Bernard,
+ Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James,
+ Ascension, Assumption, Terre Bonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St.
+ Martin, and Orleans, including the city of New Orleans),
+ Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North
+ Carolina, and Virginia (except the forty-eight counties designated
+ as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkeley, Accomac,
+ Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Anne, and Norfolk,
+ including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth), and which excepted
+ parts are for the present left precisely as if this proclamation
+ were not issued.
+
+ And by virtue of the power and for the purpose aforesaid, I do
+ order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said
+ designated States and parts of States are, and henceforward shall
+ be, free; and that the executive government of the United States,
+ including the military and naval authorities thereof will recognize
+ and maintain the freedom of said persons.
+
+ And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to
+ abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defense; and I
+ recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor
+ faithfully for reasonable wages.
+
+ And I further declare and make known that such persons of suitable
+ condition will be received into the armed service of the United
+ States to garrison forts, positions, stations and other places, and
+ to man vessels of all sorts in said service.
+
+ And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice,
+ warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity, I invoke the
+ considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty
+ God.
+
+ In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the
+ seal of the United States to be affixed.
+
+ Done at the city of Washington, this first day of January, in the
+ year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of
+ the independence of the United States of America the
+ eighty-seventh.
+
+ ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
+
+ BY THE PRESIDENT: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, _Secretary of State_.]
+
+It recited the announcement of the September proclamation; defined its
+character and authority as a military decree; designated the States and
+parts of States that day in rebellion against the government; ordered
+and declared that all persons held as slaves therein "are and
+henceforward shall be free"; and that such persons of suitable condition
+would be received into the military service. "And upon this act,
+sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the
+Constitution upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment
+of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God."
+
+The conclusion of the momentous transaction was as deliberate and
+simple as had been its various stages of preparation. The morning and
+midday of January 1, 1863, were occupied by the half-social,
+half-official ceremonial of the usual New Year's day reception at the
+Executive Mansion, established by long custom. At about three o'clock in
+the afternoon, after full three hours of greetings and handshakings, Mr.
+Lincoln and perhaps a dozen persons assembled in the executive office,
+and, without any prearranged ceremony the President affixed his
+signature to the great Edict of Freedom. No better commentary will ever
+be written upon this far-reaching act than that which he himself
+embodied in a letter written to a friend a little more than a year
+later:
+
+"I am naturally antislavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.
+I cannot remember when I did not so think and feel, and yet I have never
+understood that the Presidency conferred upon me an unrestricted right
+to act officially upon this judgment and feeling. It was in the oath I
+took that I would, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and
+defend the Constitution of the United States. I could not take the
+office without taking the oath. Nor was it my view that I might take an
+oath to get power, and break the oath in using the power. I understood,
+too, that in ordinary civil administration this oath even forbade me to
+practically indulge my primary abstract judgment on the moral question
+of slavery. I had publicly declared this many times, and in many ways.
+And I aver that, to this day, I have done no official act in mere
+deference to my abstract judgment and feeling on slavery. I did
+understand, however, that my oath to preserve the Constitution to the
+best of my ability imposed upon me the duty of preserving, by every
+indispensable means, that government, that nation, of which that
+Constitution was the organic law. Was it possible to lose the nation and
+yet preserve the Constitution? By general law, life and limb must be
+protected, yet often a limb must be amputated to save a life; but a life
+is never wisely given to save a limb. I felt that measures otherwise
+unconstitutional might become lawful by becoming indispensable to the
+preservation of the Constitution, through the preservation of the
+nation. Right or wrong, I assumed this ground, and now avow it. I could
+not feel that, to the best of my ability, I had even tried to preserve
+the Constitution if, to save slavery or any minor matter, I should
+permit the wreck of government, country, and Constitution all together.
+When, early in the war, General Fremont attempted military emancipation,
+I forbade it, because I did not then think it an indispensable
+necessity. When, a little later, General Cameron, then Secretary of War,
+suggested the arming of the blacks, I objected because I did not yet
+think it an indispensable necessity. When, still later, General Hunter
+attempted military emancipation, I again forbade it, because I did not
+yet think the indispensable necessity had come. When in March and May
+and July, 1862, I made earnest and successive appeals to the border
+States to favor compensated emancipation, I believed the indispensable
+necessity for military emancipation and arming the blacks would come
+unless averted by that measure. They declined the proposition, and I
+was, in my best judgment, driven to the alternative of either
+surrendering the Union, and with it the Constitution, or of laying
+strong hand upon the colored element. I chose the latter."
+
+
+
+
+XXV
+
+Negro Soldiers--Fort Pillow--Retaliation--Draft--Northern
+Democrats--Governor Seymour's Attitude--Draft Riots in New
+York--Vallandigham--Lincoln on his Authority to Suspend Writ of Habeas
+Corpus--Knights of the Golden Circle--Jacob Thompson in Canada
+
+
+On the subject of negro soldiers, as on many other topics, the period of
+active rebellion and civil war had wrought a profound change in public
+opinion. From the foundation of the government to the Rebellion, the
+horrible nightmare of a possible slave insurrection had brooded over the
+entire South. This feeling naturally had a sympathetic reflection in the
+North, and at first produced an instinctive shrinking from any thought
+of placing arms in the hands of the blacks whom the chances of war had
+given practical or legal freedom. During the year 1862, a few sporadic
+efforts were made by zealous individuals, under apparently favoring
+conditions, to begin the formation of colored regiments. The eccentric
+Senator Lane tried it in Kansas, or, rather, along the Missouri border
+without success. General Hunter made an experiment in South Carolina,
+but found the freedmen too unwilling to enlist, and the white officers
+too prejudiced to instruct them. General Butler, at New Orleans, infused
+his wonted energy into a similar attempt, with somewhat better results.
+He found that before the capture of the city, Governor Moore of
+Louisiana had begun the organization of a regiment of free colored men
+for local defense. Butler resuscitated this organization for which he
+thus had the advantage of Confederate example and precedent, and against
+which the accusation of arming slaves could not be urged. Early in
+September, Butler reported, with his usual biting sarcasm:
+
+"I shall also have within ten days a regiment, one thousand strong, of
+native guards (colored), the darkest of whom will be about the
+complexion of the late Mr. Webster."
+
+All these efforts were made under implied, rather than expressed
+provisions of law, and encountered more or less embarrassment in
+obtaining pay and supplies, because they were not distinctly recognized
+in the army regulations. This could not well be done so long as the
+President considered the policy premature. His spirit of caution in this
+regard was set forth by the Secretary of War in a letter of instruction
+dated July 3, 1862:
+
+"He is of opinion," wrote Mr. Stanton, "that under the laws of Congress,
+they [the former slaves] cannot be sent back to their masters; that in
+common humanity they must not be permitted to suffer for want of food,
+shelter, or other necessaries of life; that to this end they should be
+provided for by the quartermaster's and commissary's departments, and
+that those who are capable of labor should be set to work and paid
+reasonable wages. In directing this to be done, the President does not
+mean, at present, to settle any general rule in respect to slaves or
+slavery, but simply to provide for the particular case under the
+circumstances in which it is now presented."
+
+All this was changed by the final proclamation of emancipation, which
+authoritatively announced that persons of suitable condition, whom it
+declared free, would be received into the armed service of the United
+States. During the next few months, the President wrote several personal
+letters to General Dix, commanding at Fortress Monroe; to Andrew
+Johnson, military governor of Tennessee; to General Banks, commanding at
+New Orleans; and to General Hunter, in the Department of the South,
+urging their attention to promoting the new policy; and, what was yet
+more to the purpose, a bureau was created in the War Department having
+special charge of the duty, and the adjutant-general of the army was
+personally sent to the Union camps on the Mississippi River to
+superintend the recruitment and enlistment of the negroes, where, with
+the hearty cooeperation of General Grant and other Union commanders, he
+met most encouraging and gratifying success.
+
+The Confederate authorities made a great outcry over the new departure.
+They could not fail to see the immense effect it was destined to have in
+the severe military struggle, and their prejudice of generations greatly
+intensified the gloomy apprehensions they no doubt honestly felt. Yet
+even allowing for this, the exaggerated language in which they described
+it became absolutely ludicrous. The Confederate War Department early
+declared Generals Hunter and Phelps to be outlaws, because they were
+drilling and organizing slaves; and the sensational proclamation issued
+by Jefferson Davis on December 23, 1862, ordered that Butler and his
+commissioned officers, "robbers and criminals deserving death, ... be,
+whenever captured, reserved for execution."
+
+Mr. Lincoln's final emancipation proclamation excited them to a still
+higher frenzy. The Confederate Senate talked of raising the black flag;
+Jefferson Davis's message stigmatized it as "the most execrable measure
+recorded in the history of guilty man"; and a joint resolution of the
+Confederate Congress prescribed that white officers of negro Union
+soldiers "shall, if captured, be put to death, or be otherwise punished
+at the discretion of the court." The general orders of some subordinate
+Confederate commanders repeated or rivaled such denunciations and
+threats.
+
+Fortunately, the records of the war are not stained with either excesses
+by the colored troops or even a single instance of such proclaimed
+barbarity upon white Union officers; and the visitation of vengeance
+upon negro soldiers is confined, so far as known, to the single instance
+of the massacre at Fort Pillow. In that deplorable affair, the
+Confederate commander reported, by telegraph, that in thirty minutes he
+stormed a fort manned by seven hundred, and captured the entire garrison
+killing five hundred and taking one hundred prisoners while he sustained
+a loss of only twenty killed and sixty wounded. It is unnecessary to
+explain that the bulk of the slain were colored soldiers. Making due
+allowance for the heat of battle, history can considerately veil closer
+scrutiny into the realities wrapped in the exaggerated boast of such a
+victory.
+
+The Fort Pillow incident, which occurred in the spring of 1864, brought
+upon President Lincoln the very serious question of enforcing an order
+of retaliation which had been issued on July 30, 1863, as an answer to
+the Confederate joint resolution of May 1. Mr. Lincoln's freedom from
+every trace of passion was as conspicuous in this as in all his official
+acts. In a little address at Baltimore, while referring to the rumor of
+the massacre which had just been received, Mr. Lincoln said:
+
+"We do not to-day know that a colored soldier, or white officer
+commanding colored soldiers, has been massacred by the rebels when made
+a prisoner. We fear it, believe it, I may say, but we do not know it. To
+take the life of one of their prisoners on the assumption that they
+murder ours, when it is short of certainty that they do murder ours,
+might be too serious, too cruel, a mistake."
+
+When more authentic information arrived, the matter was very earnestly
+debated by the assembled cabinet; but the discussion only served to
+bring out in stronger light the inherent dangers of either course. In
+this nice balancing of weighty reasons, two influences decided the
+course of the government against retaliation. One was that General Grant
+was about to begin his memorable campaign against Richmond, and that it
+would be most impolitic to preface a great battle by the tragic
+spectacle of a military punishment, however justifiable. The second was
+the tender-hearted humanity of the ever merciful President. Frederick
+Douglass has related the answer Mr. Lincoln made to him in a
+conversation nearly a year earlier:
+
+"I shall never forget the benignant expression of his face, the tearful
+look of his eye, and the quiver in his voice when he deprecated a resort
+to retaliatory measures. 'Once begun,' said he, 'I do not know where
+such a measure would stop.' He said he could not take men out and kill
+them in cold blood for what was done by others. If he could get hold of
+the persons who were guilty of killing the colored prisoners in cold
+blood, the case would be different, but he could not kill the innocent
+for the guilty."
+
+Amid the sanguinary reports and crowding events that held public
+attention for a year, from the Wilderness to Appomattox, the Fort Pillow
+affair was forgotten, not only by the cabinet, but by the country.
+
+The related subjects of emancipation and negro soldiers would doubtless
+have been discussed with much more passion and friction, had not public
+thought been largely occupied during the year 1863 by the enactment of
+the conscription law and the enforcement of the draft. In the hard
+stress of politics and war during the years 1861 and 1862, the popular
+enthusiasm with which the free States responded to the President's call
+to put down the rebellion by force of arms had become measurably
+exhausted. The heavy military reverses which attended the failure of
+McClellan's campaign against Richmond, Pope's defeat at the second Bull
+Run, McClellan's neglect to follow up the drawn battle of Antietam with
+energetic operations, the gradual change of early Western victories to a
+cessation of all effort to open the Mississippi, and the scattering of
+the Western forces to the spiritless routine of repairing and guarding
+long railroad lines, all operated together practically to stop
+volunteering and enlistment by the end of 1862.
+
+Thus far, the patriotic record was a glorious one. Almost one hundred
+thousand three months' militia had shouldered muskets to redress the
+fall of Fort Sumter; over half a million three years' volunteers
+promptly enlisted to form the first national army under the laws of
+Congress passed in August, 1861; nearly half a million more volunteers
+came forward under the tender of the governors of free States and the
+President's call of July, 1862, to repair the failure of McClellan's
+Peninsula campaign. Several minor calls for shorter terms of enlistment,
+aggregating more than forty thousand, are here omitted for brevity's
+sake. Had the Western victories continued, had the Mississippi been
+opened, had the Army of the Potomac been more fortunate, volunteering
+would doubtless have continued at quite or nearly the same rate. But
+with success delayed, with campaigns thwarted, with public sentiment
+despondent, armies ceased to fill. An emergency call for three hundred
+thousand nine months' men, issued on August 4, 1862, produced a total of
+only eighty-six thousand eight hundred and sixty; and an attempt to
+supply these in some of the States by a draft under State laws
+demonstrated that mere local statutes and machinery for that form of
+military recruitment were defective and totally inadequate.
+
+With the beginning of the third year of the war, more energetic measures
+to fill the armies were seen to be necessary; and after very hot and
+acrimonious debate for about a month, Congress, on March 3, 1863, passed
+a national conscription law, under which all male citizens between the
+ages of twenty and forty-five were enrolled to constitute the national
+forces, and the President was authorized to call them into service by
+draft as occasion might require. The law authorized the appointment of a
+provost-marshal-general, and under him a provost-marshal, a
+commissioner, and a surgeon, to constitute a board of enrollment in each
+congressional district; who, with necessary deputies, were required to
+carry out the law by national authority, under the supervision of the
+provost-marshal-general.
+
+For more than a year past, the Democratic leaders in the Northern States
+had assumed an attitude of violent partizanship against the
+administration, their hostility taking mainly the form of stubborn
+opposition to the antislavery enactments of Congress and the
+emancipation measures of the President. They charged with loud
+denunciation that he was converting the maintenance of the Union into a
+war for abolition, and with this and other clamors had gained
+considerable successes in the autumn congressional elections of 1862,
+though not enough to break the Republican majority in the House of
+Representatives. General McClellan was a Democrat, and, since his
+removal from command, they proclaimed him a martyr to this policy, and
+were grooming him to be their coming presidential candidate.
+
+The passage of the conscription law afforded them a new pretext to
+assail the administration; and Democratic members of both Houses of
+Congress denounced it with extravagant partizan bitterness as a
+violation of the Constitution, and subversive of popular liberty. In the
+mouths of vindictive cross-roads demagogues, and in the columns of
+irresponsible newspapers that supply the political reading among the
+more reckless elements of city populations, the extravagant language of
+Democratic leaders degenerated in many instances into unrestrained abuse
+and accusation. Yet, considering that this was the first conscription
+law ever enacted in the United States, considering the multitude of
+questions and difficulties attending its application, considering that
+the necessity of its enforcement was, in the nature of things, unwelcome
+to the friends of the government, and, as naturally, excited all the
+enmity and cunning of its foes to impede, thwart, and evade it, the law
+was carried out with a remarkably small proportion of delay,
+obstruction, or resulting violence.
+
+Among a considerable number of individual violations of the act, in
+which prompt punishment prevented a repetition, only two prominent
+incidents arose which had what may be called a national significance. In
+the State of New York the partial political reaction of 1862 had caused
+the election of Horatio Seymour, a Democrat, as governor. A man of high
+character and great ability, he, nevertheless, permitted his partizan
+feeling to warp and color his executive functions to a dangerous
+extent. The spirit of his antagonism is shown in a phrase of his
+fourth-of-July oration:
+
+"The Democratic organization look upon this administration as hostile to
+their rights and liberties; they look upon their opponents as men who
+would do them wrong in regard to their most sacred franchises."
+
+Believing--perhaps honestly--the conscription law to be
+unconstitutional, he endeavored, by protest, argument and administrative
+non-compliance, to impede its execution on the plea of first demanding a
+Supreme Court decision as to its legality. To this President Lincoln
+replied:
+
+"I cannot consent to suspend the draft in New York, as you request,
+because, among other reasons, time is too important.... I do not object
+to abide a decision of the United States Supreme Court, or of the judges
+thereof, on the constitutionality of the draft law. In fact, I should be
+willing to facilitate the obtaining of it; but I cannot consent to lose
+the time while it is being obtained. We are contending with an enemy
+who, as I understand, drives every able-bodied man he can reach into his
+ranks, very much as a butcher drives bullocks into a slaughter-pen. No
+time is wasted, no argument is used. This produces an army which will
+soon turn upon our now victorious soldiers already in the field, if they
+shall not be sustained by recruits as they should be."
+
+Notwithstanding Governor Seymour's neglect to give the enrolling
+officers any cooeperation, preparations for the draft went on in New York
+city without prospect of serious disturbance, except the incendiary
+language of low newspapers and handbills. But scarcely had the wheel
+begun to turn, and the drawing commenced on July 13, when a sudden riot
+broke out. First demolishing the enrolling-office, the crowd next
+attacked an adjoining block of stores, which they plundered and set on
+fire, refusing to let the firemen put out the flames. From this point
+the excitement and disorder spread over the city, which for three days
+was at many points subjected to the uncontrolled fury of the mob. Loud
+threats to destroy the New York "Tribune" office, which the inmates as
+vigorously prepared to defend, were made. The most savage brutality was
+wreaked upon colored people. The fine building of the colored Orphan
+Asylum, where several hundred children barely found means of escape, was
+plundered and set on fire. It was notable that foreigners of recent
+importation were the principal leaders and actors in this lawlessness in
+which two million dollars worth of property was destroyed, and several
+hundred persons lost their lives.
+
+The disturbance came to an end on the night of the fourth day, when a
+small detachment of soldiers met a body of rioters, and firing into
+them, killed thirteen, and wounded eighteen more. Governor Seymour gave
+but little help in the disorder, and left a stain on the record of his
+courage by addressing a portion of the mob as "my friends." The
+opportune arrival of national troops restored, and thereafter
+maintained, quiet and safety.
+
+Some temporary disturbance occurred in Boston, but was promptly put
+down, and loud appeals came from Philadelphia and Chicago to stop the
+draft. The final effect of the conscription law was not so much to
+obtain recruits for the service, as to stimulate local effort throughout
+the country to promote volunteering, whereby the number drafted was
+either greatly lessened or, in many localities, entirely avoided by
+filling the State quotas.
+
+The military arrest of Clement L. Vallandigham, a Democratic member of
+Congress from Ohio, for incendiary language denouncing the draft, also
+grew to an important incident. Arrested and tried under the orders of
+General Burnside, a military commission found him guilty of having
+violated General Order No. 38, by "declaring disloyal sentiments and
+opinions with the object and purpose of weakening the power of the
+government in its efforts to suppress an unlawful rebellion"; and
+sentenced him to military confinement during the war. Judge Leavitt of
+the United States Circuit Court denied a writ of _habeas corpus_ in the
+case. President Lincoln regretted the arrest, but felt it imprudent to
+annul the action of the general and the military tribunal. Conforming to
+a clause of Burnside's order, he modified the sentence by sending
+Vallandigham south beyond the Union military lines. The affair created a
+great sensation, and, in a spirit of party protest, the Ohio Democrats
+unanimously nominated Vallandigham for governor. Vallandigham went to
+Richmond, held a conference with the Confederate authorities, and, by
+way of Bermuda, went to Canada, from whence he issued a political
+address. The Democrats of both Ohio and New York took up the political
+and legal discussion with great heat, and sent imposing committees to
+present long addresses to the President on the affair.
+
+Mr. Lincoln made long written replies to both addresses of which only so
+much needs quoting here as concisely states his interpretation of his
+authority to suspend the privilege of the writ of _habeas corpus_:
+
+"You ask, in substance, whether I really claim that I may override all
+the guaranteed rights of individuals, on the plea of conserving the
+public safety--when I may choose to say the public safety requires it.
+This question, divested of the phraseology calculated to represent me
+as struggling for an arbitrary personal prerogative, is either simply a
+question who shall decide or an affirmation that nobody shall decide,
+what the public safety does require in cases of rebellion or invasion.
+The Constitution contemplates the question as likely to occur for
+decision, but it does not expressly declare who is to decide it. By
+necessary implication, when rebellion or invasion comes, the decision is
+to be made from time to time; and I think the man whom, for the time,
+the people have, under the Constitution, made the commander-in-chief of
+their army and navy, is the man who holds the power and bears the
+responsibility of making it. If he uses the power justly, the same
+people will probably justify him; if he abuses it, he is in their hands,
+to be dealt with by all the modes they have reserved to themselves in
+the Constitution."
+
+Forcible and convincing as was this legal analysis, a single sympathetic
+phrase of the President's reply had a much greater popular effect:
+
+"Must I shoot a simple-minded soldier boy who deserts while I must not
+touch a hair of a wily agitator who induces him to desert?"
+
+The term so accurately described the character of Vallandigham, and the
+pointed query so touched the hearts of the Union people throughout the
+land whose favorite "soldier boys" had volunteered to fill the Union
+armies, that it rendered powerless the crafty criticism of party
+diatribes. The response of the people of Ohio was emphatic. At the
+October election Vallandigham was defeated by more than one hundred
+thousand majority.
+
+In sustaining the arrest of Vallandigham, President Lincoln had acted
+not only within his constitutional, but also strictly within his legal,
+authority. In the preceding March, Congress had passed an act
+legalizing all orders of this character made by the President at any
+time during the rebellion, and accorded him full indemnity for all
+searches, seizures, and arrests or imprisonments made under his orders.
+The act also provided:
+
+"That, during the present rebellion, the President of the United States,
+whenever in his judgment the public safety may require it, is authorized
+to suspend the privilege of the writ of _habeas corpus_ in any case,
+throughout the United States or any part thereof."
+
+About the middle of September, Mr. Lincoln's proclamation formally put
+the law in force, to obviate any hindering or delaying the prompt
+execution of the draft law.
+
+Though Vallandigham and the Democrats of his type were unable to prevent
+or even delay the draft, they yet managed to enlist the sympathies and
+secure the adhesion of many uneducated and unthinking men by means of
+secret societies, known as "Knights of the Golden Circle," "The Order of
+American Knights," "Order of the Star," "Sons of Liberty," and by other
+equally high-sounding names, which they adopted and discarded in turn,
+as one after the other was discovered and brought into undesired
+prominence. The titles and grips and passwords of these secret military
+organizations, the turgid eloquence of their meetings, and the
+clandestine drill of their oath-bound members, doubtless exercised quite
+as much fascination on such followers as their unlawful object of aiding
+and abetting the Southern cause. The number of men thus enlisted in the
+work of inducing desertion among Union soldiers, fomenting resistance to
+the draft, furnishing the Confederates with arms, and conspiring to
+establish a Northwestern Confederacy in full accord with the South,
+which formed the ultimate dream of their leaders, is hard to determine.
+Vallandigham, the real head of the movement, claimed five hundred
+thousand, and Judge Holt, in an official report, adopted that as being
+somewhere near the truth, though others counted them at a full million.
+
+The government, cognizant of their existence, and able to produce
+abundant evidence against the ring-leaders whenever it chose to do so,
+wisely paid little heed to these dark-lantern proceedings, though, as
+was perhaps natural, military officers commanding the departments in
+which they were most numerous were inclined to look upon them more
+seriously; and Governor Morton of Indiana was much disquieted by their
+work in his State.
+
+Mr. Lincoln's attitude toward them was one of good-humored contempt.
+"Nothing can make me believe that one hundred thousand Indiana Democrats
+are disloyal," he said; and maintained that there was more folly than
+crime in their acts. Indeed, though prolific enough of oaths and
+treasonable utterances, these organizations were singularly lacking in
+energy and initiative. Most of the attempts made against the public
+peace in the free States and along the northern border came, not from
+resident conspirators, but from Southern emissaries and their Canadian
+sympathizers; and even these rarely rose above the level of ordinary
+arson and highway robbery.
+
+Jacob Thompson, who had been Secretary of the Interior under President
+Buchanan, was the principal agent of the Confederate government in
+Canada, where he carried on operations as remarkable for their
+impracticability as for their malignity. One plan during the summer of
+1864 contemplated nothing less than seizing and holding the three great
+States of Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, with the aid of disloyal
+Democrats, whereupon it was supposed Missouri and Kentucky would
+quickly join them and make an end of the war.
+
+Becoming convinced, when this project fell through, that nothing could
+be expected from Northern Democrats he placed his reliance on Canadian
+sympathizers, and turned his attention to liberating the Confederate
+prisoners confined on Johnson's Island in Sandusky Bay and at Camp
+Douglas near Chicago. But both these elaborate schemes, which embraced
+such magnificent details as capturing the war steamer _Michigan_ on Lake
+Erie, came to naught. Nor did the plans to burn St. Louis and New York,
+and to destroy steamboats on the Mississippi River, to which he also
+gave his sanction, succeed much better. A very few men were tried and
+punished for these and similar crimes, despite the voluble protest of
+the Confederate government but the injuries he and his agents were able
+to inflict, like the acts of the Knights of the Golden Circle on the
+American side of the border, amounted merely to a petty annoyance, and
+never reached the dignity of real menace to the government.
+
+
+
+
+XXVI
+
+Burnside--Fredericksburg--A Tangle of Cross-Purposes--Hooker Succeeds
+Burnside--Lincoln to Hooker--Chancellorsville--Lee's Second
+Invasion--Lincoln's Criticisms of Hooker's Plans--Hooker
+Relieved--Meade--Gettysburg--Lee's Retreat--Lincoln's Letter to
+Meade--Lincoln's Gettysburg Address--Autumn Strategy--The Armies go into
+Winter Quarters
+
+
+It was not without well-meditated reasons that Mr. Lincoln had so long
+kept McClellan in command of the Army of the Potomac. He perfectly
+understood that general's defects, his want of initiative, his
+hesitations, his delays, his never-ending complaints. But he had long
+foreseen the difficulty which would and did immediately arise when, on
+November 5, 1862, he removed him from command. Whom should he appoint as
+McClellan's successor? What officer would be willing and competent to
+play a better part? That important question had also long been
+considered; several promising generals had been consulted, who, as
+gracefully as they could, shrank from the responsibility even before it
+was formally offered them.
+
+The President finally appointed General Ambrose E. Burnside to the
+command. He was a West Point graduate, thirty-eight years old, of
+handsome presence, brave and generous to a fault, and McClellan's
+intimate friend. He had won a favorable reputation in leading the
+expedition against Roanoke Island and the North Carolina coast; and,
+called to reinforce McClellan after the Peninsula disaster, commanded
+the left wing of the Army of the Potomac at Antietam. He was not
+covetous of the honor now given him. He had already twice declined it,
+and only now accepted the command as a duty under the urgent advice of
+members of his staff. His instincts were better than the judgment of his
+friends. A few brief weeks sufficed to demonstrate what he had told
+them--that he "was not competent to command such a large army."
+
+The very beginning of his work proved the truth of his self-criticism.
+Rejecting all the plans of campaign which were suggested to him, he
+found himself incapable of forming any very plausible or consistent one
+of his own. As a first move he concentrated his army opposite the town
+of Fredericksburg on the lower Rappahannock, but with such delays that
+General Lee had time to seize and strongly fortify the town and the
+important adjacent heights on the south bank; and when Burnside's army
+crossed on December 11, and made its main and direct attack on the
+formidable and practically impregnable Confederate intrenchments on the
+thirteenth, a crushing repulse and defeat of the Union forces, with a
+loss of over ten thousand killed and wounded, was the quick and direful
+result.
+
+It was in a spirit of stubborn determination rather than clear,
+calculating courage that he renewed his orders for an attack on the
+fourteenth; but, dissuaded by his division and corps commanders from the
+rash experiment, succeeded without further damage in withdrawing his
+forces on the night of the fifteenth to their old camps north of the
+river. In manly words his report of the unfortunate battle gave generous
+praise to his officers and men, and assumed for himself all the
+responsibility for the attack and its failure. But its secondary
+consequences soon became irremediable. By that gloomy disaster Burnside
+almost completely lost the confidence of his officers and men, and
+rumors soon came to the President that a spirit akin to mutiny pervaded
+the army. When information came that, on the day after Christmas,
+Burnside was preparing for a new campaign, the President telegraphed
+him:
+
+"I have good reason for saying you must not make a general movement of
+the army without letting me know."
+
+This, naturally, brought Burnside to the President for explanation, and,
+after a frank and full discussion between them, Mr. Lincoln, on New
+Year's day, wrote the following letter to General Halleck:
+
+"General Burnside wishes to cross the Rappahannock with his army, but
+his grand division commanders all oppose the movement. If in such a
+difficulty as this you do not help, you fail me precisely in the point
+for which I sought your assistance. You know what General Burnside's
+plan is, and it is my wish that you go with him to the ground, examine
+it as far as practicable, confer with the officers, getting their
+judgment and ascertaining their temper; in a word, gather all the
+elements for forming a judgment of your own, and then tell General
+Burnside that you do approve, or that you do not approve, his plan. Your
+military skill is useless to me if you will not do this."
+
+Halleck's moral and official courage, however, failed the President in
+this emergency. He declined to give his military opinion, and asked to
+be relieved from further duties as general-in-chief. This left Mr.
+Lincoln no option, and still having need of the advice of his
+general-in-chief on other questions, he indorsed on his own letter,
+"withdrawn because considered harsh by General Halleck." The
+complication, however, continued to grow worse, and the correspondence
+more strained. Burnside declared that the country had lost confidence in
+both the Secretary of War and the general-in-chief; also, that his own
+generals were unanimously opposed to again crossing the Rappahannock.
+Halleck, on the contrary, urged another crossing, but that it must be
+made on Burnside's own decision, plan, and responsibility. Upon this the
+President, on January 8, 1863, again wrote Burnside:
+
+"I understand General Halleck has sent you a letter of which this is a
+copy. I approve this letter. I deplore the want of concurrence with you
+in opinion by your general officers, but I do not see the remedy. Be
+cautious, and do not understand that the government or country is
+driving you. I do not yet see how I could profit by changing the command
+of the Army of the Potomac; and if I did, I should not wish to do it by
+accepting the resignation of your commission."
+
+Once more Burnside issued orders against which his generals protested,
+and which a storm turned into the fruitless and impossible "mud march"
+before he reached the intended crossings of the Rappahannock. Finally,
+on January 23, Burnside presented to the President the alternative of
+either approving an order dismissing about a dozen generals, or
+accepting his own resignation, and Mr. Lincoln once more had before him
+the difficult task of finding a new commander for the Army of the
+Potomac. On January 25, 1863, the President relieved Burnside and
+assigned Major-General Joseph Hooker to duty as his successor; and in
+explanation of his action wrote him the following characteristic letter:
+
+"I have placed you at the head of the Army of the Potomac. Of course I
+have done this upon what appear to me to be sufficient reasons, and yet
+I think it best for you to know that there are some things in regard to
+which I am not quite satisfied with you. I believe you to be a brave and
+skilful soldier, which, of course, I like. I also believe you do not mix
+politics with your profession, in which you are right. You have
+confidence in yourself, which is a valuable, if not an indispensable
+quality. You are ambitious, which, within reasonable bounds, does good
+rather than harm; but I think that during General Burnside's command of
+the army you have taken counsel of your ambition and thwarted him as
+much as you could, in which you did a great wrong to the country, and to
+a most meritorious and honorable brother officer. I have heard, in such
+a way as to believe it, of your recently saying that both the army and
+the government needed a dictator. Of course it was not for this, but in
+spite of it, that I have given you the command. Only those generals who
+gain successes can set up dictators. What I now ask of you is military
+success, and I will risk the dictatorship. The government will support
+you to the utmost of its ability, which is neither more nor less than it
+has done and will do for all commanders. I much fear that the spirit
+which you have aided to infuse into the army, of criticizing their
+commander and withholding confidence from him, will now turn upon you. I
+shall assist you as far as I can to put it down. Neither you nor
+Napoleon, if he were alive again, could get any good out of an army
+while such a spirit prevails in it; and now beware of rashness. Beware
+of rashness, but with energy and sleepless vigilance go forward and give
+us victories."
+
+Perhaps the most remarkable thing in this letter is the evidence it
+gives how completely the genius of President Lincoln had by this, the
+middle of his presidential term, risen to the full height of his great
+national duties and responsibilities. From beginning to end it speaks
+the language and breathes the spirit of the great ruler, secure in
+popular confidence and official authority, equal to the great
+emergencies that successively rose before him. Upon General Hooker its
+courteous praise and frank rebuke, its generous trust and distinct note
+of fatherly warning, made a profound impression. He strove worthily to
+redeem his past indiscretions by devoting himself with great zeal and
+energy to improving the discipline and morale of his army, recalling its
+absentees, and restoring its spirit by increased drill and renewed
+activity. He kept the President well informed of what he was doing, and
+early in April submitted a plan of campaign on which Mr. Lincoln
+indorsed, on the eleventh of that month:
+
+"My opinion is that just now, with the enemy directly ahead of us, there
+is no eligible route for us into Richmond; and consequently a question
+of preference between the Rappahannock route and the James River route
+is a contest about nothing. Hence, our prime object is the enemy's army
+in front of us, and is not with or about Richmond at all, unless it be
+incidental to the main object."
+
+Having raised his effective force to about one hundred and thirty
+thousand men, and learning that Lee's army was weakened by detachments
+to perhaps half that number, Hooker, near the end of the month, prepared
+and executed a bold movement which for a while was attended with
+encouraging progress. Sending General Sedgwick with three army corps to
+make a strong demonstration and crossing below Fredericksburg, Hooker
+with his remaining four corps made a somewhat long and circuitous march
+by which he crossed both the Rappahannock and the Rapidan above the
+town without serious opposition, and on the evening of April 30 had his
+four corps at Chancellorsville, south of the Rappahannock, from whence
+he could advance against the rear of the enemy. But his advantage of
+position was neutralized by the difficulties of the ground. He was in
+the dense and tangled forest known as the Wilderness, and the decision
+and energy of his brilliant and successful advance were suddenly
+succeeded by a spirit of hesitation and delay in which the evident and
+acknowledged chances of victory were gradually lost. The enemy found
+time to rally from his surprise and astonishment, to gather a strong
+line of defense, and finally, to organize a counter flank movement under
+Stonewall Jackson, which fell upon the rear of the Union right and
+created a panic in the Eleventh Corps. Sedgwick's force had crossed
+below and taken Fredericksburg; but the divided Union army could not
+effect a junction; and the fighting from May 1 to May 4 finally ended by
+the withdrawal of both sections of the Union army north of the
+Rappahannock. The losses suffered by the Union and the Confederate
+forces were about equal, but the prestige of another brilliant victory
+fell to General Lee, seriously balanced, however, by the death of
+Stonewall Jackson, who was accidentally killed by the fire of his own
+men.
+
+In addition to his evident very unusual diminution of vigor and will,
+Hooker had received a personal injury on the third, which for some hours
+rendered him incapable of command; and he said in his testimony before
+the Committee on the Conduct of the War:
+
+"When I returned from Chancellorsville I felt that I had fought no
+battle; in fact, I had more men than I could use, and I fought no
+general battle for the reason that I could not get my men in position to
+do so probably not more than three or three and a half corps on the
+right were engaged in the fight."
+
+Hooker's defeat at Chancellorsville had not been so great a disaster as
+that of Burnside at Fredericksburg; and while his influence was greatly
+impaired, his usefulness did not immediately cease. The President and
+the Secretary of War still had faith in him. The average opinion of his
+qualities has been tersely expressed by one of his critics, who wrote:
+"As an inferior he planned badly and fought well; as a chief he planned
+well and fought badly." The course of war soon changed, so that he was
+obliged to follow rather than permitted to lead the developments of a
+new campaign.
+
+The brilliant victories gained by Lee inspired the Confederate
+authorities and leaders with a greatly exaggerated hope of the ultimate
+success of the rebellion. It was during the summer of 1863 that the
+Confederate armies reached, perhaps, their highest numerical strength
+and greatest degree of efficiency. Both the long dreamed of possibility
+of achieving Southern independence and the newly flushed military ardor
+of officers and men, elated by what seemed to them an unbroken record of
+successes on the Virginia battle-fields moved General Lee to the bold
+hazard of a second invasion of the North. Early in June, Hooker gave it
+as his opinion that Lee intended to move against Washington, and asked
+whether in that case he should attack the Confederate rear. To this
+Lincoln answered on the fifth of that month:
+
+"In case you find Lee coming to the north of the Rappahannock, I would
+by no means cross to the south of it. If he should leave a rear force at
+Fredericksburg tempting you to fall upon it, it would fight in
+intrenchments and have you at disadvantage, and so, man for man, worst
+you at that point, while his main force would in some way be getting an
+advantage of you northward. In one word, I would not take any risk of
+being entangled upon the river, like an ox jumped half over a fence and
+liable to be torn by dogs front and rear, without a fair chance to gore
+one way or kick the other."
+
+Five days later, Hooker, having become convinced that a large part of
+Lee's army was in motion toward the Shenandoah valley, proposed the
+daring plan of a quick and direct march to capture Richmond. But the
+President immediately telegraphed him a convincing objection:
+
+"If left to me, I would not go south of the Rappahannock upon Lee's
+moving north of it. If you had Richmond invested to-day, you would not
+be able to take it in twenty days; meanwhile, your communications, and
+with them your army, would be ruined. I think Lee's army, and not
+Richmond, is your true objective point. If he comes toward the upper
+Potomac, follow on his flank and on his inside track, shortening your
+lines while he lengthens his. Fight him, too, when opportunity offers.
+If he stays where he is, fret him and fret him."
+
+The movement northward of Lee's army, effectually masked for some days
+by frequent cavalry skirmishes, now became evident to the Washington
+authorities. On June 14, Lincoln telegraphed Hooker:
+
+"So far as we can make out here, the enemy have Milroy surrounded at
+Winchester, and Tyler at Martinsburg If they could hold out a few days,
+could you help them? If the head of Lee's army is at Martinsburg, and
+the tail of it on the plank road between Fredericksburg and
+Chancellorsville, the animal must be very slim somewhere. Could you not
+break him?"
+
+While Lee, without halting, crossed the Potomac above Harper's Ferry,
+and continued his northward march into Maryland and Pennsylvania, Hooker
+prudently followed on the "inside track" as Mr. Lincoln had suggested,
+interposing the Union army effectually to guard Washington and
+Baltimore. But at this point a long-standing irritation and jealousy
+between Hooker and Halleck became so acute that on the
+general-in-chief's refusing a comparatively minor request, Hooker asked
+to be relieved from command. The President, deeming divided counsel at
+so critical a juncture more hazardous than a change of command, took
+Hooker at his word, and appointed General George G. Meade as his
+successor.
+
+Meade had, since Chancellorsville, been as caustic a critic of Hooker as
+Hooker was of Burnside at and after Fredericksburg. But all spirit of
+insubordination vanished in the exciting stress of a pursuing campaign
+and the new and retiring leaders of the Army of the Potomac exchanged
+compliments in General Orders with high chivalric courtesy, while the
+army continued its northward march with undiminished ardor and unbroken
+step. When Meade crossed the Pennsylvania line, Lee was already far
+ahead, threatening Harrisburg. The Confederate invasion spread terror
+and loss among farms and villages, and created almost a panic in the
+great cities. Under the President's call for one hundred thousand six
+months' militia six of the adjoining States were sending hurried and
+improvised forces to the banks of the Susquehanna, under the command of
+General Couch. Lee, finding that stream too well guarded, turned his
+course directly east, which, with Meade marching to the north, brought
+the opposing armies into inevitable contact and collision at the town of
+Gettysburg.
+
+Meade had both expected and carefully prepared to receive the attack
+and fight a defensive battle on the line of Pipe Creek. But when, on the
+afternoon of July 1, 1863, the advance detachments of each army met and
+engaged in a fierce conflict for the possession of the town, Meade, on
+learning the nature of the fight, and the situation of the ground,
+instantly decided to accept it, and ordering forward his whole force,
+made it the principal and most decisive battle-field of the whole war.
+
+The Union troops made a violent and stubborn effort to hold the town of
+Gettysburg; but the early Confederate arrivals, taking position in a
+half-circle on the west, north, and east, drove them through and out of
+it. The seeming reverse proved an advantage. Half a mile to the south it
+enabled the Union detachments to seize and establish themselves on
+Cemetery Ridge and Hill. This, with several rocky elevations, and a
+crest of boulders making a curve to the east at the northern end, was in
+itself almost a natural fortress, and with the intrenchments thrown up
+by the expert veterans, soon became nearly impregnable. Beyond a wide
+valley to the west, and parallel with it, lay Seminary Ridge, on which
+the Confederate army established itself with equal rapidity. Lee had
+also hoped to fight a defensive battle; but thus suddenly arrested in
+his eastward march in a hostile country, could not afford to stand still
+and wait.
+
+On the morning of July 2, both commanding generals were in the field.
+After careful studies and consultations Lee ordered an attack on both
+the extreme right and extreme left of the Union position, meeting some
+success in the former, but a complete repulse in the latter. That night,
+Meade's council of war, coinciding with his own judgment, resolved to
+stand and fight it out; while Lee, against the advice of Longstreet,
+his ablest general, with equal decision determined to risk the chance of
+a final and determined attack.
+
+It was Meade who began the conflict at dawn on the morning of July 3,
+but only long enough to retake and hold the intrenchments on his extreme
+right, which he had lost the evening before; then for some hours an
+ominous lull and silence fell over the whole battle-field. But these
+were hours of stern preparation At midday a furious cannonade began from
+one hundred and thirty Confederate guns on Seminary Ridge, which was
+answered with promptness and spirit by about seventy Union guns from the
+crests and among the boulders of Cemetery Ridge; and the deafening roar
+of artillery lasted for about an hour, at the end of which time the
+Union guns ceased firing and were allowed to cool, and to be made ready
+to meet the assault that was sure to come. There followed a period of
+waiting almost painful to officers and men, in its intense expectancy;
+and then across the broad, undulating, and highly cultivated valley
+swept the long attacking line of seventeen thousand rebel infantry, the
+very flower of the Confederate army. But it was a hopeless charge.
+Thinned, almost mowed down by the grape-shot of the Union batteries and
+the deadly aim of the Union riflemen behind their rocks and
+intrenchments the Confederate assault wavered, hesitated, struggled on,
+and finally melted away before the destructive fire. A few rebel
+battle-flags reached the crest, only, however, to fall, and their
+bearers and supporters to be made prisoners. The Confederate dream of
+taking Philadelphia and dictating peace and separation in Independence
+Hall was over forever.
+
+It is doubtful whether Lee immediately realized the full measure of his
+defeat, or Meade the magnitude of his victory. The terrible losses of
+the battle of Gettysburg--over three thousand killed, fourteen thousand
+wounded, and five thousand captured or missing of the Union army; and
+twenty-six hundred killed, twelve thousand wounded, and five thousand
+missing of the Confederates--largely occupied the thoughts and labors of
+both sides during the national holiday which followed. It was a surprise
+to Meade that on the morning of July 5 the Confederate army had
+disappeared, retreating as rapidly as might be to the neighborhood of
+Harper's Ferry. Unable immediately to cross because the Potomac was
+swollen by heavy rains, and Meade having followed and arrived in Lee's
+front on July 10, President Lincoln had the liveliest hopes that Meade
+would again attack and capture or destroy the Confederate army. Generous
+praise for his victory, and repeated and urgent suggestions to renew his
+attack and end the rebellion, had gone to Meade from the President and
+General Halleck. But Meade hesitated, and his council of war objected;
+and on the night of July 13 Lee recrossed the Potomac in retreat. When
+he heard the news, Mr. Lincoln sat down and wrote a letter of criticism
+and disappointment which reflects the intensity of his feeling at the
+escape of Lee:
+
+"The case, summarily stated, is this: You fought and beat the enemy at
+Gettysburg, and, of course, to say the least, his loss was as great as
+yours. He retreated and you did not, as it seemed to me, pressingly
+pursue him; but a flood in the river detained him till, by slow degrees,
+you were again upon him. You had at least twenty thousand veteran troops
+directly with you, and as many more raw ones within supporting distance,
+all in addition to those who fought with you at Gettysburg, while it was
+not possible that he had received a single recruit, and yet you stood
+and let the flood run down, bridges be built, and the enemy move away
+at his leisure, without attacking him.... Again, my dear general, I do
+not believe you appreciate the magnitude of the misfortune involved in
+Lee's escape. He was within your easy grasp, and to have closed upon him
+would, in connection with our other late successes, have ended the war.
+As it is, the war will be prolonged indefinitely. If you could not
+safely attack Lee last Monday, how can you possibly do so south of the
+river, when you can take with you very few more than two thirds of the
+force you then had in hand? It would be unreasonable to expect, and I do
+not expect [that] you can now effect much. Your golden opportunity is
+gone, and I am distressed immeasurably because of it."
+
+Clearly as Mr. Lincoln had sketched and deeply as he felt Meade's fault
+of omission, so quick was the President's spirit of forgiveness, and so
+thankful was he for the measure of success which had been gained, that
+he never signed or sent the letter.
+
+Two memorable events are forever linked with the Gettysburg victory: the
+surrender of Vicksburg to Grant on the same fourth of July, described in
+the next chapter, and the dedication of the Gettysburg battle-field as a
+national cemetery for Union soldiers, on November 19, 1863, on which
+occasion President Lincoln crowned that imposing ceremonial with an
+address of such literary force, brevity, and beauty, that critics have
+assigned it a high rank among the world's historic orations. He said:
+
+"Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this
+continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the
+proposition that all men are created equal.
+
+"Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation,
+or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met
+on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion
+of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their
+lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper
+that we should do this.
+
+"But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate--we cannot consecrate--we
+cannot hallow--this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who
+struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or
+detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here,
+but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living,
+rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who
+fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be
+here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these
+honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they
+gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that
+these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God,
+shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by
+the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
+
+Having safely crossed the Potomac, the Confederate army continued its
+retreat without halting to the familiar camps in central Virginia it had
+so long and valiantly defended. Meade followed with alert but prudent
+vigilance, but did not again find such chances as he lost on the fourth
+of July, or while the swollen waters of the Potomac held his enemy as in
+a trap. During the ensuing autumn months there went on between the
+opposing generals an unceasing game of strategy, a succession of moves
+and counter-moves in which the opposing commanders handled their great
+armies with the same consumate skill with which the expert
+fencing-master uses his foil, but in which neither could break through
+the other's guard. Repeated minor encounters took place which, in other
+wars, would have rated as heavy battles; but the weeks lengthened into
+months without decisive results, and when the opposing armies finally
+went into winter quarters in December, 1863, they again confronted each
+other across the Rapidan in Virginia, not very far south of where they
+lay in the winter of 1861.
+
+
+
+
+XXVII
+
+Buell and Bragg--Perryville--Rosecrans and Murfreesboro--Grant's
+Vicksburg Experiments--Grant's May Battles--Siege and Surrender of
+Vicksburg--Lincoln to Grant--Rosecrans's March to Chattanooga--Battle of
+Chickamauga--Grant at Chattanooga--Battle of Chattanooga--Burnside at
+Knoxville--Burnside Repulses Longstreet
+
+
+From the Virginia campaigns of 1863 we must return to the Western
+campaigns of the same year, or, to be more precise, beginning with the
+middle of 1862. When, in July of that year, Halleck was called to
+Washington to become general-in-chief, the principal plan he left behind
+was that Buell, with the bulk of the forces which had captured Corinth,
+should move from that place eastward to occupy eastern Tennessee. Buell,
+however, progressed so leisurely that before he reached Chattanooga the
+Confederate General Bragg, by a swift northward movement, advanced into
+eastern Kentucky, enacted the farce of appointing a Confederate governor
+for that State, and so threatened Louisville that Buell was compelled
+abruptly to abandon his eastward march and, turning to the north, run a
+neck-and-neck race to save Louisville from rebel occupation. Successful
+in this, Buell immediately turned and, pursuing the now retreating
+forces of Bragg, brought them to bay at Perryville, where, on October 8,
+was fought a considerable battle from which Bragg immediately retreated
+out of Kentucky.
+
+While on one hand Bragg had suffered defeat, he had on the other caused
+Buell to give up all idea of moving into East Tennessee, an object on
+which the President had specially and repeatedly insisted. When Halleck
+specifically ordered Buell to resume and execute that plan, Buell urged
+such objections, and intimated such unwillingness, that on October 24,
+1862, he was relieved from command, and General Rosecrans was appointed
+to succeed him. Rosecrans neglected the East Tennessee orders as
+heedlessly as Buell had done; but, reorganizing the Army of the
+Cumberland and strengthening his communications, marched against Bragg,
+who had gone into winter quarters at Murfreesboro. The severe engagement
+of that name, fought on December 31, 1862, and the three succeeding days
+of the new year, between forces numbering about forty-three thousand on
+each side, was tactically a drawn battle, but its results rendered it an
+important Union victory, compelling Bragg to retreat; though, for
+reasons which he never satisfactorily explained, Rosecrans failed for
+six months to follow up his evident advantages.
+
+The transfer of Halleck from the West to Washington in the summer of
+1862, left Grant in command of the district of West Tennessee. But
+Buell's eastward expedition left him so few movable troops that during
+the summer and most of the autumn he was able to accomplish little
+except to defend his department by the repulse of the enemy at Iuka in
+September, and at Corinth early in October, Rosecrans being in local
+command at both places. It was for these successes that Rosecrans was
+chosen to succeed Buell.
+
+Grant had doubtless given much of his enforced leisure to studying the
+great problem of opening the Mississippi, a task which was thus left in
+his own hands, but for which, as yet, he found neither a theoretical
+solution, nor possessed an army sufficiently strong to begin practical
+work. Under the most favorable aspects, it was a formidable undertaking.
+Union gunboats had full control of the great river from Cairo as far
+south as Vicksburg; and Farragut's fleet commanded it from New Orleans
+as far north as Port Hudson. But the intervening link of two hundred
+miles between these places was in as complete possession of the
+Confederates, giving the rebellion uninterrupted access to the immense
+resources in men and supplies of the trans-Mississippi country, and
+effectually barring the free navigation of the river. Both the cities
+named were strongly fortified, but Vicksburg, on the east bank, by its
+natural situation on a bluff two hundred feet high, rising almost out of
+the stream, was unassailable from the river front. Farragut had, indeed,
+in midsummer passed up and down before it with little damage from its
+fire; but, in return, his own guns could no more do harm to its
+batteries than they could have bombarded a fortress in the clouds.
+
+When, by the middle of November, 1862, Grant was able to reunite
+sufficient reinforcements, he started on a campaign directly southward
+toward Jackson, the capital of Mississippi, and sent Sherman, with an
+expedition from Memphis, down the river to the mouth of the Yazoo,
+hoping to unite these forces against Vicksburg. But before Grant reached
+Grenada his railroad communications were cut by a Confederate raid, and
+his great depot of supplies at Holly Springs captured and burned,
+leaving him for two weeks without other provisions than such as he could
+gather by foraging. The costly lesson proved a valuable experience to
+him, which he soon put to use. Sherman's expedition also met disaster.
+Landing at Milliken's Bend, on the west bank of the Mississippi, he
+ventured a daring storming assault from the east bank of the Yazoo at
+Haines's Bluff, ten miles north of Vicksburg, but met a bloody repulse.
+
+Having abandoned his railroad advance, Grant next joined Sherman at
+Milliken's Bend in January, 1863, where also Admiral Porter, with a
+river squadron of seventy vessels, eleven of them ironclads, was added
+to his force. For the next three months Grant kept his large army and
+flotilla busy with four different experiments to gain a practicable
+advance toward Vicksburg, until his fifth highly novel and, to other
+minds, seemingly reckless and impossible plan secured him a brilliant
+success and results of immense military advantage. One experiment was to
+cut a canal across the tongue of land opposite Vicksburg, through which
+the flotilla might pass out of range of the Vicksburg guns. A second was
+to force the gunboats and transports up the tortuous and swampy Yazoo to
+find a landing far north of Haines's Bluff. A third was for the flotilla
+to enter through Yazoo Pass and Cold Water River, two hundred miles
+above, and descend the Yazoo to a hoped-for landing. Still a fourth
+project was to cut a canal into Lake Providence west of the Mississippi,
+seventy miles above, find a practicable waterway through two hundred
+miles of bayous and rivers, and establish communication with Banks and
+Farragut, who were engaged in an effort to capture Port Hudson.
+
+The time, the patience, the infinite labor, and enormous expense of
+these several projects were utterly wasted. Early in April, Grant began
+an entirely new plan, which was opposed by all his ablest generals, and,
+tested by the accepted rules of military science, looked like a headlong
+venture of rash desperation. During the month of April he caused Admiral
+Porter to prepare fifteen or twenty vessels--ironclads, steam
+transports, and provision barges--and run them boldly by night past the
+Vicksburg and, later, past the Grand Gulf batteries, which the admiral
+happily accomplished with very little loss. Meanwhile, the general, by a
+very circuitous route of seventy miles, marched an army of thirty-five
+thousand down the west bank of the Mississippi and, with Porter's
+vessels and transports, crossed them to the east side of the river at
+Bruinsburg. From this point, with an improvised train of country
+vehicles to carry his ammunition, and living meanwhile entirely upon the
+country, as he had learned to do in his baffled Grenada expedition, he
+made one of the most rapid and brilliant campaigns in military history.
+In the first twenty days of May he marched one hundred and eighty miles,
+and fought five winning battles--respectively Port Gibson, Raymond,
+Jackson, Champion's Hill, and Big Black River--in each of which he
+brought his practically united force against the enemy's separated
+detachments, capturing altogether eighty-eight guns and over six
+thousand prisoners, and shutting up the Confederate General Pemberton in
+Vicksburg. By a rigorous siege of six weeks he then compelled his
+antagonist to surrender the strongly fortified city with one hundred and
+seventy-two cannon, and his army of nearly thirty thousand men. On the
+fourth of July, 1863, the day after Meade's crushing defeat of Lee at
+Gettysburg, the surrender took place, citizens and Confederate soldiers
+doubtless rejoicing that the old national holiday gave them escape from
+their caves and bomb-proofs, and full Yankee rations to still their
+long-endured hunger.
+
+The splendid victory of Grant brought about a quick and important echo.
+About the time that the Union army closed around Vicksburg, General
+Banks, on the lower Mississippi, began a close investment and siege of
+Port Hudson, which he pushed with determined tenacity. When the rebel
+garrison heard the artillery salutes which were fired by order of Banks
+to celebrate the surrender of Vicksburg, and the rebel commander was
+informed of Pemberton's disaster, he also gave up the defense, and on
+July 9 surrendered Port Hudson with six thousand prisoners and fifty-one
+guns.
+
+Great national rejoicing followed this double success of the Union arms
+on the Mississippi, which, added to Gettysburg, formed the turning tide
+in the war of the rebellion; and no one was more elated over these
+Western victories, which fully restored the free navigation of the
+Mississippi, than President Lincoln. Like that of the whole country, his
+patience had been severely tried by the long and ineffectual experiments
+of Grant. But from first to last Mr. Lincoln had given him firm and
+undeviating confidence and support. He not only gave the general quick
+promotion, but crowned the official reward with the following generous
+letter:
+
+"My Dear General: I do not remember that you and I ever met personally.
+I write this now as a grateful acknowledgment for the almost inestimable
+service you have done the country. I wish to say a word further. When
+you first reached the vicinity of Vicksburg, I thought you should do
+what you finally did--march the troops across the neck, run the
+batteries with the transports, and thus go below; and I never had any
+faith, except a general hope that you knew better than I, that the Yazoo
+Pass expedition and the like could succeed. When you got below and took
+Port Gibson, Grand Gulf, and vicinity, I thought you should go down the
+river and join General Banks, and when you turned northward, east of the
+Big Black, I feared it was a mistake. I now wish to make the personal
+acknowledgment that you were right and I was wrong."
+
+It has already been mentioned that General Rosecrans after winning the
+battle of Murfreesboro at the beginning of 1863, remained inactive at
+that place nearly six months, though, of course, constantly busy
+recruiting his army, gathering supplies, and warding off several
+troublesome Confederate cavalry raids. The defeated General Bragg
+retreated only to Shelbyville, ten miles south of the battle-field he
+had been obliged to give up, and the military frontier thus divided
+Tennessee between the contestants. Against repeated prompting and urging
+from Washington, Rosecrans continued to find real or imaginary excuses
+for delay until midsummer, when, as if suddenly awaking from a long
+lethargy, he made a bold advance and, by a nine days' campaign of
+skilful strategy, forced Bragg into a retreat that stopped only at
+Chattanooga, south of the Tennessee River, which, with the surrounding
+mountains, made it the strategical center and military key to the heart
+of Georgia and the South. This march of Rosecrans, ending the day before
+the Vicksburg surrender, again gave the Union forces full possession of
+middle Tennessee down to its southern boundary.
+
+The march completed, and the enemy thus successfully manoeuvered out of
+the State, Rosecrans once more came to a halt, and made no further
+movement for six weeks. The President and General Halleck were already
+out of patience with Rosecrans for his long previous delay. Bragg's
+retreat to Chattanooga was such a gratifying and encouraging supplement
+to the victories of Vicksburg and Port Hudson, that they felt the
+Confederate army should not be allowed to rest, recruit, and fortify the
+important gateway to the heart of the Southern Confederacy, and early
+in August sent Rosecrans peremptory orders to advance. This direction
+seemed the more opportune and necessary, since Burnside had organized a
+special Union force in eastern Kentucky, and was about starting on a
+direct campaign into East Tennessee.
+
+Finally, obeying this explicit injunction, Rosecrans took the initiative
+in the middle of August by a vigorous southward movement. Threatening
+Chattanooga from the north, he marched instead around the left flank of
+Bragg's army, boldly crossing the Cumberland Mountains, the Tennessee
+River, and two mountain ranges beyond. Bragg, seriously alarmed lest
+Rosecrans should seize the railroad communications behind him, hastily
+evacuated Chattanooga, but not with the intention of flight, as
+Rosecrans erroneously believed and reported. When, on September 9, the
+left of Rosecrans's army marched into Chattanooga without firing a shot,
+the Union detachments were so widely scattered in separating mountain
+valleys, in pursuit of Bragg's imaginary retreat, that Bragg believed he
+saw his chance to crush them in detail before they could unite.
+
+With this resolve, Bragg turned upon his antagonist but his effort at
+quick concentration was delayed by the natural difficulties of the
+ground. By September 19, both armies were well gathered on opposite
+sides of Chickamauga Creek, eight miles southeast of Chattanooga; each
+commander being as yet, however, little informed of the other's position
+and strength. Bragg had over seventy-one thousand men; Rosecrans,
+fifty-seven thousand. The conflict was finally begun, rather by accident
+than design, and on that day and the twentieth was fought the battle of
+Chickamauga, one of the severest encounters of the whole war. Developing
+itself without clear knowledge on either side, it became a moving
+conflict, Bragg constantly extending his attack toward his right, and
+Rosecrans meeting the onset with prompt shifting toward his left.
+
+In this changing contest Rosecrans's army underwent an alarming crisis
+on the second day of the battle. A mistake or miscarriage of orders
+opened a gap of two brigades in his line, which the enemy quickly found,
+and through which the Confederate battalions rushed with an energy that
+swept away the whole Union right in a disorderly retreat. Rosecrans
+himself was caught in the panic, and, believing the day irretrievably
+lost, hastened back to Chattanooga to report the disaster and collect
+what he might of his flying army. The hopeless prospect, however, soon
+changed. General Thomas, second in command, and originally in charge of
+the center, had been sent by Rosecrans to the extreme left, and had,
+while the right was giving way, successfully repulsed the enemy in his
+front. He had been so fortunate as to secure a strong position on the
+head of a ridge, around which he gathered such remnants of the beaten
+detachments as he could collect, amounting to about half the Union army,
+and here, from two o'clock in the afternoon until dark, he held his
+semicircular line against repeated assaults of the enemy, with a heroic
+valor that earned him the sobriquet of "The Rock of Chickamauga." At
+night, Thomas retired, under orders, to Rossville, half way to
+Chattanooga.
+
+The President was of course greatly disappointed when Rosecrans
+telegraphed that he had met a serious disaster, but this disappointment
+was mitigated by the quickly following news of the magnificent defense
+and the successful stand made by General Thomas at the close of the
+battle. Mr. Lincoln immediately wrote in a note to Halleck:
+
+"I think it very important for General Rosecrans to hold his position at
+or about Chattanooga, because, if held, from that place to Cleveland,
+both inclusive, it keeps all Tennessee clear of the enemy, and also
+breaks one of his most important railroad lines.... If he can only
+maintain this position, without more, this rebellion can only eke out a
+short and feeble existence, as an animal sometimes may with a thorn in
+its vitals."
+
+And to Rosecrans he telegraphed directly, bidding him be of good cheer,
+and adding: "We shall do our utmost to assist you." To this end the
+administration took instant and energetic measures. On the night of
+September 23, the President, General Halleck, several members of the
+cabinet, and leading army and railroad officials met in an improvised
+council at the War Department, and issued emergency orders under which
+two army corps from the Army of the Potomac, numbering twenty thousand
+men in all, with their arms and equipments ready for the field, the
+whole under command of General Hooker, were transported from their camps
+on the Rapidan by railway to Nashville and the Tennessee River in the
+next eight days. Burnside, who had arrived at Knoxville early in
+September, was urged by repeated messages to join Rosecrans, and other
+reinforcements were already on the way from Memphis and Vicksburg.
+
+All this help, however, was not instantly available. Before it could
+arrive Rosecrans felt obliged to draw together within the fortifications
+of Chattanooga, while Bragg quickly closed about him, and, by
+practically blockading Rosecrans's river communication, placed him in a
+state of siege. In a few weeks the limited supplies brought the Union
+army face to face with famine. It having become evident that Rosecrans
+was incapable of extricating it from its peril, he was relieved and the
+command given to Thomas, while the three western departments were
+consolidated under General Grant, and he was ordered personally to
+proceed to Chattanooga, which place he reached on October 22.
+
+Before his arrival, General W.F. Smith had devised and prepared an
+ingenious plan to regain control of river communication. Under the
+orders of Grant, Smith successfully executed it, and full rations soon
+restored vigor and confidence to the Union troops. The considerable
+reinforcements under Hooker and Sherman coming up, put the besieging
+enemy on the defensive, and active preparations were begun, which
+resulted in the famous battle and overwhelming Union victory of
+Chattanooga on November 23, 24, and 25, 1863.
+
+The city of Chattanooga lies on the southeastern bank of the Tennessee
+River. Back of the city, Chattanooga valley forms a level plain about
+two miles in width to Missionary Ridge, a narrow mountain range five
+hundred feet high, generally parallel to the course of the Tennessee,
+extending far to the southwest. The Confederates had fortified the upper
+end of Missionary Ridge to a length of five to seven miles opposite the
+city, lining its long crest with about thirty guns, amply supported by
+infantry. This formidable barrier was still further strengthened by two
+lines of rifle-pits, one at the base of Missionary Ridge next to the
+city, and another with advanced pickets still nearer Chattanooga
+Northward, the enemy strongly held the end of Missionary Ridge where the
+railroad tunnel passes through it; southward, they held the yet stronger
+point of Lookout Mountain, whose rocky base turns the course of the
+Tennessee River in a short bend to the north.
+
+Grant's plan in rough outline was, that Sherman, with the Army of the
+Tennessee, should storm the northern end of Missionary Ridge at the
+railroad tunnel; Hooker, stationed at Wauhatchie, thirteen miles to the
+southwest with his two corps from the Army of the Potomac, should
+advance toward the city, storming the point of Lookout Mountain on his
+way; and Thomas, in the city, attack the direct front of Missionary
+Ridge. The actual beginning slightly varied this program, with a change
+of corps and divisions, but the detail is not worth noting.
+
+Beginning on the night of November 23, Sherman crossed his command over
+the Tennessee, and on the afternoon of the twenty-fourth gained the
+northern end of Missionary Ridge, driving the enemy before him as far as
+the railroad tunnel. Here, however, he found a deep gap in the ridge,
+previously unknown to him, which barred his further progress. That same
+afternoon Hooker's troops worked their way through mist and fog up the
+rugged sides of Lookout Mountain, winning the brilliant success which
+has become famous as the "battle above the clouds." That same afternoon,
+also, two divisions of the center, under the eyes of Grant and Thomas,
+pushed forward the Union line about a mile, seizing and fortifying a
+hill called Orchard Knob, capturing Bragg's first line of rifle-pits and
+several hundred prisoners.
+
+So far, everything had occurred to inspirit the Union troops and
+discourage the enemy. But the main incident was yet to come, on the
+afternoon of November 25. All the forenoon of that day Grant waited
+eagerly to see Sherman making progress along the north end of Missionary
+Ridge, not knowing that he had met an impassable valley. Grant's
+patience was equally tried at hearing no news from Hooker, though that
+general had successfully reached Missionary Ridge, and was ascending
+the gap near Rossville.
+
+At three o'clock in the afternoon Grant at length gave Thomas the order
+to advance. Eleven Union brigades rushed forward with orders to take the
+enemy's rifle-pits at the base of Missionary Ridge, and then halt to
+reform. But such was the ease of this first capture, such the eagerness
+of the men who had been waiting all day for the moment of action, that,
+after but a slight pause, without orders, and moved by a common impulse,
+they swept on and up the steep and rocky face of Missionary Ridge,
+heedless of the enemy's fire from rifle and cannon at the top, until in
+fifty-five minutes after leaving their positions they almost
+simultaneously broke over the crest of the ridge in six different
+places, capturing the batteries and making prisoners of the supporting
+infantry, who, surprised and bewildered by the daring escalade, made
+little or no further resistance. Bragg's official report soundly berates
+the conduct of his men, apparently forgetting the heavy loss they had
+inflicted on their assailants but regardless of which the Union veterans
+mounted to victory in an almost miraculous exaltation of patriotic
+heroism.
+
+Bragg's Confederate army was not only beaten, but hopelessly demoralized
+by the fiery Union assault, and fled in panic and retreat. Grant kept up
+a vigorous pursuit to a distance of twenty miles, which he ceased in
+order to send an immediate strong reinforcement under Sherman to relieve
+Burnside, besieged by the Confederate General Longstreet at Knoxville.
+But before this help arrived, Burnside had repulsed Longstreet who,
+promptly informed of the Chattanooga disaster, retreated in the
+direction of Virginia. Not being pursued, however, this general again
+wintered in East Tennessee; and for the same reason, the beaten army of
+Bragg halted in its retreat from Missionary Ridge at Dalton, where it
+also went into winter quarters. The battle of Chattanooga had opened the
+great central gateway to the south, but the rebel army, still determined
+and formidable, yet lay in its path, only twenty-eight miles away.
+
+
+
+
+XXVIII
+
+Grant Lieutenant-General--Interview with Lincoln--Grant Visits
+Sherman--Plan of Campaigns--Lincoln to Grant--From the Wilderness to Cold
+Harbor--The Move to City Point--Siege of Petersburg--Early Menaces
+Washington--Lincoln under Fire--Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley
+
+
+The army rank of lieutenant-general had, before the Civil War, been
+conferred only twice on American commanders; on Washington, for service
+in the War of Independence, and on Scott, for his conquest of Mexico. As
+a reward for the victories of Donelson, Vicksburg, and Chattanooga,
+Congress passed, and the President signed in February, 1864, an act to
+revive that grade. Calling Grant to Washington, the President met him
+for the first time at a public reception at the Executive Mansion on
+March 8, when the famous general was received with all the
+manifestations of interest and enthusiasm possible in a social state
+ceremonial. On the following day, at one o'clock, the general's formal
+investiture with his new rank and authority took place in the presence
+of Mr. Lincoln, the cabinet, and a few other officials.
+
+"General Grant," said the President, "the nation's appreciation of what
+you have done, and its reliance upon you for what remains to do in the
+existing great struggle, are now presented, with this commission
+constituting you Lieutenant-General in the Army of the United States.
+With this high honor devolves upon you, also, a corresponding
+responsibility. As the country herein trusts you, so, under God, it will
+sustain you. I scarcely need to add that with what I here speak for the
+nation, goes my own hearty personal concurrence."
+
+General Grant's reply was modest and also very brief:
+
+"Mr. President, I accept this commission with gratitude for the high
+honor conferred. With the aid of the noble armies that have fought on so
+many fields for our common country, it will be my earnest endeavor not
+to disappoint your expectations. I feel the full weight of the
+responsibilities now devolving on me; and I know that if they are met,
+it will be due to those armies, and above all to the favor of that
+Providence which leads both nations and men."
+
+In the informal conversation which followed, General Grant inquired what
+special service was expected of him; to which the President replied that
+the country wanted him to take Richmond; and being asked if he could do
+so, replied that he could if he had the troops, which he was assured
+would be furnished him. On the following day, Grant went to the Army of
+the Potomac, where Meade received him with frank courtesy, generously
+suggesting that he was ready to yield the command to any one Grant might
+prefer. Grant, however, informed Meade that he desired to make no
+change; and, returning to Washington, started west without a moment's
+loss of time. On March 12, 1864, formal orders of the War Department
+placed Grant in command of all the armies of the United States, while
+Halleck, relieved from that duty, was retained at Washington as the
+President's chief of staff.
+
+Grant frankly confesses in his "Memoirs" that when he started east it
+was with a firm determination to accept no appointment requiring him to
+leave the West; but "when I got to Washington and saw the situation, it
+was plain that here was the point for the commanding general to be." His
+short visit had removed several false impressions, and future experience
+was to cure him of many more.
+
+When Grant again met Sherman in the West, he outlined to that general,
+who had become his most intimate and trusted brother officer, the very
+simple and definite military policy which was to be followed during the
+year 1864. There were to be but two leading campaigns. Sherman, starting
+from Chattanooga, full master of his own movements, was to lead the
+combined western forces against the Confederate army under Johnston, the
+successor of Bragg. Grant would personally conduct the campaign in the
+East against Richmond, or rather against the rebel army under Lee. Meade
+would be left in immediate command of the Army of the Potomac, to
+execute the personal daily directions of Grant. The two Confederate
+armies were eight hundred miles apart, and should either give way, it
+was to be followed without halt or delay to battle or surrender, to
+prevent its junction with the other. Scattered as a large portion of the
+Union forces were in garrisons and detachments at widely separated
+points, there were, of course, many details to be arranged, and a few
+expeditions already in progress; but these were of minor importance, and
+for contributory, rather than main objects, and need not here be
+described.
+
+Returning promptly to Washington, Grant established his headquarters
+with the Army of the Potomac, at Culpepper, and for about a month
+actively pushed his military preparations. He seems at first to have
+been impressed with a dread that the President might wish to influence
+or control his plans. But the few interviews between them removed the
+suspicion which reckless newspaper accusation had raised; and all doubt
+on this point vanished, when, on the last day of April, Mr. Lincoln sent
+him the following explicit letter:
+
+"Not expecting to see you again before the spring campaign opens, I wish
+to express in this way my entire satisfaction with what you have done up
+to this time, so far as I understand it. The particulars of your plan I
+neither know nor seek to know. You are vigilant and self-reliant; and,
+pleased with this, I wish not to obtrude any constraints or restraints
+upon you. While I am very anxious that any great disaster or capture of
+our men in great numbers shall be avoided, I know these points are less
+likely to escape your attention than they would be mine. If there is
+anything wanting which is within my power to give, do not fail to let me
+know it. And now, with a brave army and a just cause, may God sustain
+you."
+
+Grant's immediate reply confessed the groundlessness of his
+apprehensions:
+
+"From my first entrance into the volunteer service of the country to the
+present day, I have never had cause of complaint--have never expressed
+or implied a complaint against the administration, or the Secretary of
+War, for throwing any embarrassment in the way of my vigorously
+prosecuting what appeared to me my duty. Indeed, since the promotion
+which placed me in command of all the armies, and in view of the great
+responsibility and importance of success, I have been astonished at the
+readiness with which everything asked for has been yielded, without even
+an explanation being asked. Should my success be less than I desire and
+expect, the least I can say is, the fault is not with you."
+
+The Union army under Grant, one hundred and twenty-two thousand strong,
+on April 30, was encamped north of the Rapidan River. The Confederate
+army under Lee, numbering sixty-two thousand, lay south of that stream.
+Nearly three years before, these opposing armies had fought their first
+battle of Bull Run, only a comparatively short distance north of where
+they now confronted each other. Campaign and battle between them had
+surged far to the north and to the south, but neither could as yet claim
+over the other any considerable gain of ground or of final advantage in
+the conflict. Broadly speaking, relative advance and retreat, as well as
+relative loss and gain of battle-fields substantially balanced each
+other. Severe as had been their struggles in the past, a more arduous
+trial of strength was before them. Grant had two to one in numbers; Lee
+the advantage of a defensive campaign. He could retire toward cumulative
+reserves, and into prepared fortifications; knew almost by heart every
+road, hill, and forest of Virginia; had for his friendly scout every
+white inhabitant. Perhaps his greatest element of strength lay in the
+conscious pride of the Confederate army that through all fluctuations of
+success and failure, it had for three years effectually barred the way
+of the Army of the Potomac to Richmond. But to offset this there now
+menaced it what was before absent in every encounter, the grim,
+unflinching will of the new Union commander.
+
+General Grant devised no plan of complicated strategy for the problem
+before him, but proposed to solve it by plain, hard, persistent
+fighting. He would endeavor to crush the army of Lee before it could
+reach Richmond or unite with the army of Johnston; or, failing in that,
+he would shut it up in that stronghold and reduce it by a siege. With
+this in view, he instructed Meade at the very outset: "Lee's army will
+be your objective point. Where Lee goes, there you will go, also."
+Everything being ready, on the night of May 4, Meade threw five bridges
+across the Rapidan, and before the following night the whole Union army,
+with its trains, was across the stream moving southward by the left
+flank, past the right flank of the Confederates.
+
+Sudden as was the advance, it did not escape the vigilant observation of
+Lee, who instantly threw his force against the flanks of the Union
+columns, and for two days there raged in that difficult, broken, and
+tangled region known as the Wilderness, a furious battle of detachments
+along a line five miles in length. Thickets, swamps, and ravines,
+rendered intelligent direction and concerted manoeuvering impossible,
+and furious and bloody as was the conflict, its results were indecisive.
+No enemy appearing on the seventh, Grant boldly started to Spottsylvania
+Court House, only, however, to find the Confederates ahead of him; and
+on the eighth and ninth these turned their position, already strong by
+nature, into an impregnable intrenched camp. Grant assaulted their works
+on the tenth, fiercely, but unsuccessfully. There followed one day of
+inactivity, during which Grant wrote his report, only claiming that
+after six days of hard fighting and heavy losses "the result up to this
+time is much in our favor"; but expressing, in the phrase which
+immediately became celebrated, his firm resolution to "fight it out on
+this line if it takes all summer."
+
+On May 12, 1864, Grant ordered a yet more determined attack, in which,
+with fearful carnage on both sides, the Union forces finally stormed the
+earthworks which have become known as the "bloody angle." But finding
+that other and more formidable intrenchments still resisted his entrance
+to the Confederate camp, Grant once more moved by the left flank past
+his enemy toward Richmond. Lee followed with equal swiftness along the
+interior lines. Days passed in an intermitting, and about equally
+matched contest of strategy and fighting. The difference was that Grant
+was always advancing and Lee always retiring. On May 26, Grant reported
+to Washington:
+
+"Lee's army is really whipped. The prisoners we now take show it, and
+the action of his army shows it unmistakably. A battle with them outside
+of intrenchments cannot be had. Our men feel that they have gained the
+_morale_ over the enemy, and attack him with confidence. I may be
+mistaken, but I feel that our success over Lee's army is already
+assured."
+
+That same night, Grant's advance crossed the Pamunkey River at Hanover
+Town, and during another week, with a succession of marching, flanking,
+and fighting. Grant pushed the Union army forward to Cold Harbor. Here
+Lee's intrenched army was again between him and Richmond, and on June 3,
+Grant ordered another determined attack in front, to break through that
+constantly resisting barrier. But a disastrous repulse was the
+consequence. Its effect upon the campaign is best given in Grant's own
+letter, written to Washington on June 5:
+
+"My idea from the start has been to beat Lee's army, if possible, north
+of Richmond; then, after destroying his lines of communication on the
+north side of the James River, to transfer the army to the south side
+and besiege Lee in Richmond, or follow him south if he should retreat. I
+now find, after over thirty days of trial, the enemy deems it of the
+first importance to run no risks with the armies they now have. They act
+purely on the defensive behind breastworks, or feebly on the offensive
+immediately in front of them, and where, in case of repulse, they can
+instantly retire behind them. Without a greater sacrifice of human life
+than I am willing to make, all cannot be accomplished that I had
+designed outside of the city."
+
+During the week succeeding the severe repulse at Cold Harbor, which
+closed what may be summed up as Grant's campaign against Richmond, he
+made his preparations to enter upon the second element of his general
+plan, which may be most distinctively denominated the siege of
+Petersburg, though, in fuller phraseology, it might be called the siege
+of Petersburg and Richmond combined. But the amplification is not
+essential; for though the operation and the siege-works embraced both
+cities, Petersburg was the vital and vulnerable point. When Petersburg
+fell, Richmond fell of necessity. The reason was, that Lee's army,
+inclosed within the combined fortifications, could only be fed by the
+use of three railroads centering at Petersburg; one from the southeast,
+one from the south, and one with general access from the southwest.
+Between these, two plank roads added a partial means of supply. Thus
+far, Grant's active campaign, though failing to destroy Lee's army, had
+nevertheless driven it into Richmond, and obviously his next step was
+either to dislodge it, or compel it to surrender.
+
+Cold Harbor was about ten miles from Richmond, and that city was
+inclosed on the Washington side by two circles of fortifications devised
+with the best engineering skill. On June 13, Grant threw forward an army
+corps across the Chickahominy, deceiving Lee into the belief that he was
+making a real direct advance upon the city; and so skilfully concealed
+his intention that by midnight of the sixteenth he had moved the whole
+Union army with its artillery and trains about twenty miles directly
+south and across the James River, on a pontoon bridge over two thousand
+feet long, to City Point. General Butler, with an expedition from
+Fortress Monroe, moving early in May, had been ordered to capture
+Petersburg; and though he failed in this, he had nevertheless seized and
+held City Point, and Grant thus effected an immediate junction with
+Butler's force of thirty-two thousand. Butler's second attempt to seize
+Petersburg while Grant was marching to join him also failed, and Grant,
+unwilling to make any needless sacrifice, now limited his operations to
+the processes of a regular siege.
+
+This involved a complete change of method. The campaign against
+Richmond, from the crossing of the Rapidan and battle of the Wilderness,
+to Cold Harbor, and the change of base to City Point, occupied a period
+of about six weeks of almost constant swift marching and hard fighting.
+The siege of Petersburg was destined to involve more than nine months of
+mingled engineering and fighting. The Confederate army forming the
+combined garrisons of Richmond and Petersburg numbered about seventy
+thousand. The army under Grant, though in its six weeks' campaign it had
+lost over sixty thousand in killed, wounded, and missing, was again
+raised by the reinforcements sent to it, and by its junction with
+Butler, to a total of about one hundred and fifty thousand. With this
+superiority of numbers, Grant pursued the policy of alternately
+threatening the defenses of Lee, sometimes south, sometimes north of the
+James River, and at every favorable opportunity pushing his siege-works
+westward in order to gradually gain and command the three railroads and
+two plank roads that brought the bulk of absolutely necessary food and
+supplies to the Confederate armies and the inhabitants of Petersburg and
+Richmond. It is estimated that this gradual westward extension of
+Grant's lines, redoubts, and trenches, when added to those threatening
+Richmond and Petersburg on the east, finally reached a total development
+of about forty miles. The catastrophe came when Lee's army grew
+insufficient to man his defensive line along this entire length, and
+Grant, finding the weakened places, eventually broke through it,
+compelling the Confederate general and army to evacuate and abandon both
+cities and seek safety in flight.
+
+The central military drama, the first two distinctive acts of which are
+outlined above, had during this long period a running accompaniment of
+constant under-plot and shifting and exciting episodes. The Shenandoah
+River, rising northwest of Richmond, but flowing in a general northeast
+course to join the Potomac at Harper's Ferry, gives its name to a valley
+twenty to thirty miles wide, highly fertile and cultivated, and having
+throughout its length a fine turnpike, which in ante-railroad days was
+an active commercial highway between North and South. Bordered on the
+west by the rugged Alleghany Mountains, and on the east by the single
+outlying range called the Blue Ridge, it formed a protected military
+lane or avenue, having vital relation to the strategy of campaigns on
+the open Atlantic slopes of central Virginia. The Shenandoah valley had
+thus played a not unimportant part in almost every military operation of
+the war, from the first battle of Bull Run to the final defense of
+Richmond.
+
+The plans of General Grant did not neglect so essential a feature of his
+task. While he was fighting his way toward the Confederate capital, his
+instructions contemplated the possession and occupation of the
+Shenandoah valley as part of the system which should isolate and
+eventually besiege Richmond. But this part of his plan underwent many
+fluctuations. He had scarcely reached City Point when he became aware
+that General Lee, equally alive to the advantages of the Shenandoah
+valley, had dispatched General Early with seventeen thousand men on a
+flying expedition up that convenient natural sally-port, which was for
+the moment undefended.
+
+Early made such speed that he crossed the Potomac during the first week
+of July, made a devastating raid through Maryland and southern
+Pennsylvania, threatened Baltimore, and turning sharply to the south,
+was, on the eleventh of the month, actually at the outskirts of
+Washington city, meditating its assault and capture. Only the opportune
+arrival of the Sixth Army Corps under General Wright, on the afternoon
+of that day, sent hurriedly by Grant from City Point, saved the Federal
+capital from occupation and perhaps destruction by the enemy.
+
+Certain writers have represented the government as panic-stricken during
+the two days that this menace lasted; but neither Mr. Lincoln, nor
+Secretary Stanton, nor General Halleck, whom it has been even more the
+fashion to abuse, lacked coolness or energy in the emergency. Indeed,
+the President's personal unconcern was such as to give his associates
+much uneasiness. On the tenth, he rode out as was his usual custom
+during the summer months, to spend the night at the Soldiers' Home, in
+the suburbs; but Secretary Stanton, learning that Early was advancing in
+heavy force, sent after him to compel his return to the city; and twice
+afterward, intent on watching the fighting which took place near Fort
+Stevens, he exposed his tall form to the gaze and bullets of the enemy
+in a manner to call forth earnest remonstrance from those near him.
+
+The succeeding military events in the Shenandoah valley must here be
+summed up in the brief statement that General Sheridan, being placed in
+command of the Middle Military Division and given an army of thirty or
+forty thousand men, finally drove back the Confederate detachments upon
+Richmond, in a series of brilliant victories, and so devastated the
+southern end of the valley as to render it untenable for either army;
+and by the destruction of the James River Canal and the Virginia Central
+Railroad, succeeded in practically carrying out Grant's intention of
+effectually closing the avenue of supplies to Richmond from the
+northwest.
+
+
+
+
+XXIX
+
+Sherman's Meridian Expedition--Capture of Atlanta--Hood Supersedes
+Johnston--Hood's Invasion of Tennessee--Franklin and
+Nashville--Sherman's March to the Sea--Capture of Savannah--Sherman to
+Lincoln--Lincoln to Sherman--Sherman's March through the Carolinas--The
+Burning of Charleston and Columbia--Arrival at Goldsboro--Junction with
+Schofield--Visit to Grant
+
+
+While Grant was making his marches, fighting his battles, and carrying
+on his siege operations in Virginia, Sherman in the West was performing
+the task assigned to him by his chief, to pursue, destroy, or capture
+the principal western Confederate army, now commanded by General
+Johnston. The forces which under Bragg had been defeated in the previous
+autumn at Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, had halted as soon as
+pursuit ceased, and remained in winter quarters at and about Dalton,
+only twenty-eight or thirty miles on the railroad southeast of
+Chattanooga where their new commander, Johnston, had, in the spring of
+1864, about sixty-eight thousand men with which to oppose the Union
+advance.
+
+A few preliminary campaigns and expeditions in the West need not here be
+detailed, as they were not decisive. One, however, led by Sherman
+himself from Vicksburg to Meridian, must be mentioned, since, during the
+month of February, it destroyed about one hundred miles of the several
+railroads centering at the latter place, and rendered the whole railroad
+system of Mississippi practically useless to the Confederates, thus
+contributing essentially to the success of his future operations.
+
+Sherman prepared himself by uniting at Chattanooga the best material of
+the three Union armies, that of the Cumberland, that of the Tennessee,
+and that of the Ohio, forming a force of nearly one hundred thousand men
+with two hundred and fifty-four guns. They were seasoned veterans, whom
+three years of campaigning had taught how to endure every privation, and
+avail themselves of every resource. They were provided with every
+essential supply, but carried with them not a pound of useless baggage
+or impedimenta that could retard the rapidity of their movements.
+
+Sherman had received no specific instructions from Grant, except to
+fight the enemy and damage the war resources of the South; but the
+situation before him clearly indicated the city of Atlanta, Georgia, as
+his first objective, and as his necessary route, the railroad leading
+thither from Chattanooga. It was obviously a difficult line of approach,
+for it traversed a belt of the Alleghanies forty miles in width, and in
+addition to the natural obstacles they presented, the Confederate
+commander, anticipating his movement, had prepared elaborate defensive
+works at the several most available points.
+
+As agreed upon with Grant, Sherman began his march on May 5, 1864, the
+day following that on which Grant entered upon his Wilderness campaign
+in Virginia. These pages do not afford space to describe his progress.
+It is enough to say that with his double numbers he pursued the policy
+of making strong demonstrations in front, with effective flank movements
+to threaten the railroad in the Confederate rear, by which means he
+forced back the enemy successively from point to point, until by the
+middle of July he was in the vicinity of Atlanta, having during his
+advance made only one serious front attack, in which he met a costly
+repulse. His progress was by no means one of mere strategical manoeuver.
+Sherman says that during the month of May, across nearly one hundred
+miles of as difficult country as was ever fought over by civilized
+armies, the fighting was continuous, almost daily, among trees and
+bushes, on ground where one could rarely see one hundred yards ahead.
+
+However skilful and meritorious may have been the retreat into which
+Johnston had been forced, it was so unwelcome to the Richmond
+authorities, and damaging to the Confederate cause, that about the
+middle of July, Jefferson Davis relieved him, and appointed one of his
+corps commanders, General J.B. Hood, in his place; whose personal
+qualities and free criticism of his superior led them to expect a change
+from a defensive to an aggressive campaign. Responding to this
+expectation, Hood almost immediately took the offensive, and made
+vigorous attacks on the Union positions, but met disastrous repulse, and
+found himself fully occupied in guarding the defenses of Atlanta. For
+some weeks each army tried ineffectual methods to seize the other's
+railroad communications. But toward the end of August, Sherman's flank
+movements gained such a hold of the Macon railroad at Jonesboro,
+twenty-five miles south of Atlanta, as to endanger Hood's security; and
+when, in addition, a detachment sent to dislodge Sherman was defeated,
+Hood had no alternative but to order an evacuation. On September 3,
+Sherman telegraphed to Washington:
+
+"Atlanta is ours, and fairly won.... Since May 5 we have been in one
+constant battle or skirmish, and need rest."
+
+The fall of Atlanta was a heavy blow to the Confederates. They had,
+during the war, transformed it into a city of mills, foundries, and
+workshops, from which they drew supplies, ammunition, and equipments,
+and upon which they depended largely for the manufacture and repair of
+arms. But perhaps even more important than the military damage to the
+South resulting from its capture, was its effect upon Northern politics.
+Until then the presidential campaign in progress throughout the free
+States was thought by many to involve fluctuating chances under the
+heavy losses and apparently slow progress of both eastern and western
+armies. But the capture of Atlanta instantly infused new zeal and
+confidence among the Union voters, and from that time onward, the
+reelection of Mr. Lincoln was placed beyond reasonable doubt.
+
+Sherman personally entered the city on September 8, and took prompt
+measures to turn it into a purely military post. He occupied only the
+inner line of its formidable defenses, but so strengthened them as to
+make the place practically impregnable. He proceeded at once to remove
+all its non-combatant inhabitants with their effects, arranging a truce
+with Hood under which he furnished transportation to the south for all
+those whose sympathies were with the Confederate cause, and sent to the
+north those who preferred that destination. Hood raised a great outcry
+against what he called such barbarity and cruelty, but Sherman replied
+that war is war, and if the rebel families wanted peace they and their
+relatives must stop fighting.
+
+"God will judge us in due time, and he will pronounce whether it be more
+humane to fight with a town full of women, and the families of a brave
+people at our back, or to remove them in time to places of safety among
+their own friends and people."
+
+Up to his occupation of Atlanta, Sherman's further plans had neither
+been arranged by Grant nor determined by himself, and for a while
+remained somewhat undecided. For the time being, he was perfectly secure
+in the new stronghold he had captured and completed. But his supplies
+depended upon a line of about one hundred and twenty miles of railroad
+from Atlanta to Chattanooga, and very near one hundred and fifty miles
+more from Chattanooga to Nashville. Hood, held at bay at Lovejoy's
+Station, was not strong enough to venture a direct attack or undertake a
+siege, but chose the more feasible policy of operating systematically
+against Sherman's long line of communications. In the course of some
+weeks both sides grew weary of the mere waste of time and military
+strength consumed in attacking and defending railroad stations, and
+interrupting and reestablishing the regularities of provision trains.
+Toward the end of September, Jefferson Davis visited Hood, and in
+rearranging some army assignments, united Hood's and an adjoining
+Confederate department under the command of Beauregard; partly with a
+view to adding the counsels of the latter to the always energetic and
+bold, but sometimes rash, military judgment of Hood.
+
+Between these two Hood's eccentric and futile operations against
+Sherman's communications were gradually shaded off into a plan for a
+Confederate invasion of Tennessee. Sherman, on his part, finally matured
+his judgment that instead of losing a thousand men a month merely
+defending the railroad, without other advantage, he would divide his
+army, send back a portion of it under the command of General Thomas to
+defend the State of Tennessee against the impending invasion; and,
+abandoning the whole line of railroad from Chattanooga to Atlanta, and
+cutting entirely loose from his base of supplies, march with the
+remainder to the sea; living upon the country, and "making the interior
+of Georgia feel the weight of war." Grant did not immediately fall in
+with Sherman's suggestion; and Sherman prudently waited until the
+Confederate plan of invading Tennessee became further developed. It
+turned out as he hoped and expected. Having gradually ceased his raids
+upon the railroad, Hood, by the end of October, moved westward to
+Tuscumbia on the Tennessee River, where he gathered an army of about
+thirty-five thousand, to which a cavalry force under Forrest of ten
+thousand more was soon added.
+
+Under Beauregard's orders to assume the offensive, he began a rapid
+march northward, and for a time with a promise of cutting off some
+advanced Union detachments. We need not follow the fortunes of this
+campaign further than to state that the Confederate invasion of
+Tennessee ended in disastrous failure. It was severely checked at the
+battle of Franklin on November 30; and when, in spite of this reverse,
+Hood pushed forward and set his army down before Nashville as if for
+attack or siege, the Union army, concentrated and reinforced to about
+fifty-five thousand, was ready. A severe storm of rain and sleet held
+the confronting armies in forced immobility for a week; but on the
+morning of December 15, 1864, General Thomas moved forward to an attack
+in which on that and the following day he inflicted so terrible a defeat
+upon his adversary, that the Confederate army not only retreated in rout
+and panic, but soon literally went to pieces in disorganization, and
+disappeared as a military entity from the western conflict.
+
+Long before this, Sherman had started on his famous march to the sea.
+His explanations to Grant were so convincing, that the general-in-chief,
+on November 2, telegraphed him: "Go on as you propose." In anticipation
+of this permission, he had been preparing himself ever since Hood left
+him a clear path by starting westward on his campaign of invasion. From
+Atlanta, he sent back his sick and wounded and surplus stores to
+Chattanooga, withdrew the garrisons, burned the bridges, broke up the
+railroad, and destroyed the mills, foundries, shops and public buildings
+in Atlanta. With sixty thousand of his best soldiers, and sixty-five
+guns, he started on November 15 on his march of three hundred miles to
+the Atlantic. They carried with them twenty days' supplies of
+provisions, five days' supply of forage, and two hundred rounds of
+ammunition, of which each man carried forty rounds.
+
+With perfect confidence in their leader, with perfect trust in each
+others' valor, endurance and good comradeship, in the fine weather of
+the Southern autumn, and singing the inspiring melody of "John Brown's
+Body," Sherman's army began its "marching through Georgia" as gaily as
+if it were starting on a holiday. And, indeed, it may almost be said
+such was their experience in comparison with the hardships of war which
+many of these veterans had seen in their varied campaigning. They
+marched as nearly as might be in four parallel columns abreast, making
+an average of about fifteen miles a day. Kilpatrick's admirable cavalry
+kept their front and flanks free from the improvised militia and
+irregular troopers of the enemy. Carefully organized foraging parties
+brought in their daily supply of miscellaneous provisions--corn, meat,
+poultry, and sweet potatoes, of which the season had yielded an abundant
+harvest along their route.
+
+The Confederate authorities issued excited proclamations and orders,
+calling on the people to "fly to arms," and to "assail the invader in
+front, flank, and rear, by night and by day." But no rising occurred
+that in any way checked the constant progress of the march. The Southern
+whites were, of course, silent and sullen, but the negroes received the
+Yankees with demonstrations of welcome and good will, and in spite of
+Sherman's efforts, followed in such numbers as to embarrass his
+progress. As he proceeded, he destroyed the railroads by filling up
+cuts, burning ties, heating the rails red hot and twisting them around
+trees and into irreparable spirals. Threatening the principal cities to
+the right and left, he marched skilfully between and past them.
+
+He reached the outer defenses of Savannah on December 10, easily driving
+before him about ten thousand of the enemy. On December 13, he stormed
+Fort McAllister, and communicated with the Union fleet through Ossabaw
+Sound, reporting to Washington that his march had been most agreeable,
+that he had not lost a wagon on the trip, that he had utterly destroyed
+over two hundred miles of rails, and consumed stores and provisions that
+were essential to Lee's and Hood's armies. With pardonable exultation
+General Sherman telegraphed to President Lincoln on December 22:
+
+"I beg to present to you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah, with
+one hundred and fifty heavy guns and plenty of ammunition. Also about
+twenty-five thousand bales of cotton."
+
+He had reason to be gratified with the warm acknowledgment which
+President Lincoln wrote him in the following letter:
+
+"MY DEAR GENERAL SHERMAN: Many, many thanks for your Christmas gift, the
+capture of Savannah. When you were about leaving Atlanta for the
+Atlantic coast I was anxious, if not fearful; but feeling that you were
+the better judge, and remembering that 'nothing risked, nothing gained,'
+I did not interfere. Now, the undertaking being a success, the honor is
+all yours, for I believe none of us went farther than to acquiesce. And
+taking the work of General Thomas into the count, as it should be taken,
+it is, indeed, a great success. Not only does it afford the obvious and
+immediate military advantages, but in showing to the world that your
+army could be divided, putting the stronger part to an important new
+service, and yet leaving enough to vanquish the old opposing force of
+the whole--Hood's army--it brings those who sat in darkness to see a
+great light. But what next? I suppose it will be safe if I leave General
+Grant and yourself to decide. Please make my grateful acknowledgments to
+your whole army, officers and men."
+
+It was again General Sherman who planned and decided the next step of
+the campaign. Grant sent him orders to fortify a strong post, leave his
+artillery and cavalry, and bring his infantry by sea to unite with the
+Army of the Potomac before Petersburg. Greatly to Sherman's
+satisfaction, this order was soon revoked, and he was informed that
+Grant wished "the whole matter of your future actions should be left
+entirely to your own discretion." In Sherman's mind, the next steps to
+be taken were "as clear as daylight." The progress of the war in the
+West could now be described step by step, and its condition and probable
+course be estimated with sound judgment. The opening of the Mississippi
+River in the previous year had cut off from the rebellion the vast
+resources west of the great river. Sherman's Meridian campaign in
+February had rendered useless the railroads of the State of Mississippi.
+The capture of Atlanta and the march to the sea had ruined the railroads
+of Georgia, cutting off another huge slice of Confederate resources.
+The battles of Franklin and Nashville had practically annihilated the
+principal Confederate army in the West. Sherman now proposed to Grant
+that he would subject the two Carolinas to the same process, by marching
+his army through the heart of them from Savannah to Raleigh.
+
+"The game is then up with Lee," he confidently added, "unless he comes
+out of Richmond, avoids you, and fights me, in which case I should
+reckon on your being on his heels.... If you feel confident that you can
+whip Lee outside of his intrenchments, I feel equally confident that I
+can handle him in the open country."
+
+Grant promptly adopted the plan, and by formal orders directed Sherman
+to execute it. Several minor western expeditions were organized to
+contribute to its success. The Union fleet on the coast was held in
+readiness to cooeperate as far as possible with Sherman's advance, and to
+afford him a new base of supply, if, at some suitable point he should
+desire to establish communications with it. When, in the middle of
+January, 1865, a naval expedition captured Fort Fisher at the mouth of
+Cape Fear River, an army corps under General Schofield was brought east
+from Thomas's Army of the Tennessee, and sent by sea to the North
+Carolina coast to penetrate into the interior and form a junction with
+Sherman when he should arrive.
+
+Having had five weeks for rest and preparation, Sherman began the third
+stage of his campaign on February 1, with a total of sixty thousand men,
+provisions for twenty days, forage for seven, and a full supply of
+ammunition for a great battle. This new undertaking proved a task of
+much greater difficulty and severer hardship than his march to the sea.
+Instead of the genial autumn weather, the army had now to face the
+wintry storms that blew in from the neighboring coast. Instead of the
+dry Georgia uplands, his route lay across a low sandy country cut by
+rivers with branches at right angles to his line of march, and bordered
+by broad and miry swamps. But this was an extraordinary army, which
+faced exposure, labor and peril with a determination akin to contempt.
+Here were swamps and water-courses to be waded waist deep; endless miles
+of corduroy road to be laid and relaid as course after course sank into
+the mud under the heavy army wagons; frequent head-water channels of
+rivers to be bridged; the lines of railroad along their route to be torn
+up and rendered incapable of repair; food to be gathered by foraging;
+keeping up, meanwhile a daily average of ten or twelve miles of
+marching. Under such conditions, Sherman's army made a mid-winter march
+of four hundred and twenty-five miles in fifty days, crossing five
+navigable rivers, occupying three important cities, and rendering the
+whole railroad system of South Carolina useless to the enemy.
+
+The ten to fifteen thousand Confederates with which General Hardee had
+evacuated Savannah and retreated to Charleston could, of course, oppose
+no serious opposition to Sherman's march. On the contrary, when Sherman
+reached Columbia, the capital of South Carolina, on February 16, Hardee
+evacuated Charleston, which had been defended for four long years
+against every attack of a most powerful Union fleet, and where the most
+ingenious siege-works and desperate storming assault had failed to wrest
+Fort Wagner from the enemy. But though Charleston fell without a battle,
+and was occupied by the Union troops on the eighteenth, the destructive
+hand of war was at last heavily laid upon her. The Confederate
+government pertinaciously adhered to the policy of burning accumulations
+of cotton to prevent it falling into Union hands; and the supply
+gathered in Charleston to be sent abroad by blockade runners, having
+been set on fire by the evacuating Confederate officials, the flames not
+only spread to the adjoining buildings, but grew into a great
+conflagration that left the heart of the city a waste of blackened walls
+to illustrate the folly of the first secession ordinance. Columbia, the
+capital, underwent the same fate, to even a broader extent. Here the
+cotton had been piled in a narrow street, and when the torch was applied
+by similar Confederate orders, the rising wind easily floated the
+blazing flakes to the near roofs of buildings. On the night following
+Sherman's entrance the wind rose to a gale, and neither the efforts of
+the citizens, nor the ready help of Sherman's soldiers were able to
+check the destruction. Confederate writers long nursed the accusation
+that it was the Union army which burned the city as a deliberate act of
+vengeance. Contrary proof is furnished by the orders of Sherman, leaving
+for the sufferers a generous supply of food, as well as by the careful
+investigation by the mixed commission on American and British claims,
+under the treaty of Washington.
+
+Still pursuing his march, Sherman arrived at Cheraw March 3, and opened
+communication with General Terry, who had advanced from Fort Fisher to
+Wilmington. Hitherto, his advance had been practically unopposed. But
+now he learned that General Johnston had once more been placed in
+command of the Confederate forces, and was collecting an army near
+Raleigh, North Carolina. Well knowing the ability of this general,
+Sherman became more prudent in his movements. But Johnston was able to
+gather a force of only twenty-five or thirty thousand men, of which the
+troops Hardee brought from Charleston formed the nucleus; and the two
+minor engagements on March 16 and 19 did little to impede Sherman's
+advance to Goldsboro, where he arrived on March 23, forming a junction
+with the Union army sent by sea under Schofield, that had reached the
+same point the previous day.
+
+The third giant stride of Sherman's great campaign was thus happily
+accomplished. His capture of Atlanta, his march to the sea and capture
+of Savannah, his progress through the Carolinas, and the fall of
+Charleston, formed an aggregate expedition covering nearly a thousand
+miles, with military results that rendered rebellion powerless in the
+central States of the Southern Confederacy. Several Union cavalry raids
+had accomplished similar destruction of Confederate resources in Alabama
+and the country bordering on East Tennessee. Military affairs were
+plainly in a condition which justified Sherman in temporarily devolving
+his command on General Schofield and hurrying by sea to make a brief
+visit for urgent consultation with General Grant at his headquarters
+before Richmond and Petersburg.
+
+
+
+
+XXX
+
+Military Governors--Lincoln's Theory of Reconstruction--Congressional
+Election in Louisiana--Letter to Military Governors--Letter to
+Shepley--Amnesty Proclamation, December 8, 1863--Instructions to
+Banks--Banks's Action in Louisiana--Louisiana Abolishes
+Slavery--Arkansas Abolishes Slavery--Reconstruction in
+Tennessee--Missouri Emancipation--Lincoln's Letter to Drake--Missouri
+Abolishes Slavery--Emancipation in Maryland--Maryland Abolishes Slavery
+
+
+To subdue the Confederate armies and establish order under martial law
+was not the only task before President Lincoln. As rapidly as rebel
+States or portions of States were occupied by Federal troops, it became
+necessary to displace usurping Confederate officials and appoint in
+their stead loyal State, county, and subordinate officers to restore the
+administration of local civil law under the authority of the United
+States. In western Virginia the people had spontaneously effected this
+reform, first by repudiating the Richmond secession ordinance and
+organizing a provisional State government, and, second, by adopting a
+new constitution and obtaining admission to the Union as the new State
+of West Virginia. In Missouri the State convention which refused to pass
+a secession ordinance effected the same object by establishing a
+provisional State government. In both these States the whole process of
+what in subsequent years was comprehensively designated "reconstruction"
+was carried on by popular local action, without any Federal initiative
+or interference other than prompt Federal recognition and substantial
+military support and protection.
+
+But in other seceded States there was no such groundwork of loyal
+popular authority upon which to rebuild the structure of civil
+government. Therefore, when portions of Tennessee, Louisiana, Arkansas,
+and North Carolina came under Federal control, President Lincoln, during
+the first half of 1862, appointed military governors to begin the work
+of temporary civil administration. He had a clear and consistent
+constitutional theory under which this could be done. In his first
+inaugural he announced the doctrine that "the union of these States is
+perpetual" and "unbroken." His special message to Congress on July 4,
+1861, added the supplementary declaration that "the States have their
+status in the Union, and they have no other legal status." The same
+message contained the further definition:
+
+"The people of Virginia have thus allowed this giant insurrection to
+make its nest within her borders; and this government has no choice left
+but to deal with it where it finds it. And it has the less regret, as
+the loyal citizens have, in due form, claimed its protection. Those
+loyal citizens this government is bound to recognize and protect, as
+being Virginia."
+
+The action of Congress entirely conformed to this theory. That body
+admitted to seats senators and representatives from the provisional
+State governments of West Virginia and Missouri; and also allowed
+Senator Andrew Johnson of Tennessee to retain his seat, and admitted
+Horace Maynard and Andrew J. Clements as representatives from the same
+State, though since their election Tennessee had undergone the usual
+secession usurpation, and had as yet organized no loyal provisional
+government.
+
+The progress of the Union armies was so far checked during the second
+half of 1862, that Military Governor Phelps, appointed for Arkansas, did
+not assume his functions; and Military Governor Stanley wielded but
+slight authority in North Carolina. Senator Andrew Johnson, appointed
+military governor of Tennessee, established himself at Nashville, the
+capital, and, though Union control of Tennessee fluctuated greatly, he
+was able, by appointing loyal State and county officers, to control the
+administration of civil government in considerable districts, under
+substantial Federal jurisdiction.
+
+In the State of Louisiana the process of restoring Federal authority was
+carried on a step farther, owing largely to the fact that the territory
+occupied by the Union army, though quite limited, comprising only the
+city of New Orleans and a few adjacent parishes, was more securely held,
+and its hostile frontier less disturbed. It soon became evident that
+considerable Union sentiment yet existed in the captured city and
+surrounding districts, and when some of the loyal citizens began to
+manifest impatience at the restraints of martial law, President Lincoln
+in a frank letter pointed the way to a remedy:
+
+"The people of Louisiana," he wrote under date of July 28, 1862, "who
+wish protection to person and property, have but to reach forth their
+hands and take it. Let them in good faith reinaugurate the national
+authority and set up a State government conforming thereto under the
+Constitution. They know how to do it, and can have the protection of the
+army while doing it. The army will be withdrawn so soon as such State
+government can dispense with its presence, and the people of the State
+can then, upon the old constitutional terms, govern themselves to their
+own liking."
+
+At about this date there occurred the serious military crisis in
+Virginia; and the battles of the Peninsula, of the second Bull Run, and
+of Antietam necessarily compelled the postponement of minor questions.
+But during this period the President's policy on the slavery question
+reached its development and solution, and when, on September 22, he
+issued his preliminary proclamation of emancipation, it also paved the
+way for a further defining of his policy of reconstruction.
+
+That proclamation announced the penalty of military emancipation against
+all States in rebellion on the succeeding first day of January; but also
+provided that if the people thereof were represented in Congress by
+properly elected members, they should be deemed not in rebellion, and
+thereby escape the penalty. Wishing now to prove the sincerity of what
+he said in the Greeley letter, that his paramount object was to save the
+Union, and not either to save or destroy slavery, he wrote a circular
+letter to the military governors and commanders in Louisiana, Tennessee,
+and Arkansas, instructing them to permit and aid the people within the
+districts held by them to hold elections for members of Congress, and
+perhaps a legislature, State officers, and United States senators.
+
+"In all available ways," he wrote, "give the people a chance to express
+their wishes at these elections. Follow forms of law as far as
+convenient, but at all events get the expression of the largest number
+of the people possible. All see how such action will connect with and
+affect the proclamation of September 22. Of course the men elected
+should be gentlemen of character, willing to swear support to the
+Constitution as of old, and known to be above reasonable suspicion of
+duplicity."
+
+But the President wished this to be a real and not a sham proceeding, as
+he explained a month later in a letter to Governor Shepley:
+
+"We do not particularly need members of Congress from there to enable us
+to get along with legislation here. What we do want is the conclusive
+evidence that respectable citizens of Louisiana are willing to be
+members of Congress and to swear support to the Constitution, and that
+other respectable citizens there are willing to vote for them and send
+them. To send a parcel of Northern men here as representatives, elected,
+as would be understood (and perhaps really so), at the point of the
+bayonet, would be disgraceful and outrageous; and were I a member of
+Congress here, I would vote against admitting any such man to a seat."
+
+Thus instructed, Governor Shepley caused an election to be held in the
+first and second congressional districts of Louisiana on December 3,
+1862, at which members of Congress were chosen. No Federal office-holder
+was a candidate, and about one half the usual vote was polled. The House
+of Representatives admitted them to seats after full scrutiny, the
+chairman of the committee declaring this "had every essential of a
+regular election in a time of most profound peace, with the exception of
+the fact that the proclamation was issued by the military instead of the
+civil governor of Louisiana."
+
+Military affairs were of such importance and absorbed so much attention
+during the year 1863, both at Washington and at the headquarters of the
+various armies, that the subject of reconstruction was of necessity
+somewhat neglected. The military governor of Louisiana indeed ordered a
+registration of loyal voters, about the middle of June, for the purpose
+of organizing a loyal State government; but its only result was to
+develop an inevitable antagonism and contest between conservatives who
+desired that the old constitution of Louisiana prior to the rebellion
+should be revived, by which the institution of slavery as then existing
+would be maintained, and the free-State party which demanded that an
+entirely new constitution be framed and adopted, in which slavery should
+be summarily abolished. The conservatives asked President Lincoln to
+adopt their plan. While the President refused this, he in a letter to
+General Banks dated August 5, 1863, suggested the middle course of
+gradual emancipation.
+
+"For my own part," he wrote, "I think I shall not, in any event, retract
+the emancipation proclamation; nor, as Executive, ever return to slavery
+any person who is freed by the terms of that proclamation, or by any of
+the acts of Congress. If Louisiana shall send members to Congress, their
+admission to seats will depend, as you know, upon the respective houses
+and not upon the President."
+
+"I would be glad for her to make a new constitution recognizing the
+emancipation proclamation and adopting emancipation in those parts of
+the State to which the proclamation does not apply. And while she is at
+it, I think it would not be objectionable for her to adopt some
+practical system by which the two races could gradually live themselves
+out of their old relation to each other, and both come out better
+prepared for the new. Education for young blacks should be included in
+the plan. After all, the power or element of 'contract' may be
+sufficient for this probationary period, and by its simplicity and
+flexibility may be the better."
+
+During the autumn months the President's mind dwelt more and more on
+the subject of reconstruction, and he matured a general plan which he
+laid before Congress in his annual message to that body on December 8,
+1863. He issued on the same day a proclamation of amnesty, on certain
+conditions, to all persons in rebellion except certain specified
+classes, who should take a prescribed oath of allegiance. The
+proclamation further provided that whenever a number of persons so
+amnestied in any rebel State, equal to one tenth the vote cast at the
+presidential election of 1860, should "reestablish a State government
+which shall be republican, and in no wise contravening said oath," such
+would be recognized as the true government of the State. The annual
+message discussed and advocated the plan at length, but also added:
+"Saying that reconstruction will be accepted if presented in a specified
+way, it is not said it will never be accepted in any other way."
+
+This plan of reconstructing what came to be called "ten percent States,"
+met much opposition in Congress, and that body, reversing its action in
+former instances, long refused admission to members and senators from
+States similarly organized; but the point needs no further mention here.
+
+A month before the amnesty proclamation the President had written to
+General Banks, expressing his great disappointment that the
+reconstruction in Louisiana had been permitted to fall in abeyance by
+the leading Union officials there, civil and military.
+
+"I do, however," he wrote, "urge both you and them to lose no more time.
+Governor Shepley has special instructions from the War Department. I
+wish him--these gentlemen and others cooeperating--without waiting for
+more territory, to go to work and give me a tangible nucleus which the
+remainder of the State may rally around as fast as it can, and which I
+can at once recognize and sustain as the true State government."
+
+He urged that such reconstruction should have in view a new free-State
+constitution, for, said he:
+
+"If a few professedly loyal men shall draw the disloyal about them, and
+colorably set up a State government repudiating the emancipation
+proclamation and reestablishing slavery, I cannot recognize or sustain
+their work.... I have said, and say again, that if a new State
+government, acting in harmony with this government and consistently with
+general freedom, shall think best to adopt a reasonable temporary
+arrangement in relation to the landless and houseless freed people, I do
+not object; but my word is out to be for and not against them on the
+question of their permanent freedom."
+
+General Banks in reply excused his inaction by explaining that the
+military governor and others had given him to understand that they were
+exclusively charged with the work of reconstruction in Louisiana. To
+this the President rejoined under date of December 24, 1863:
+
+"I have all the while intended you to be master, as well in regard to
+reorganizing a State government for Louisiana as in regard to the
+military matters of the department, and hence my letters on
+reconstruction have nearly, if not quite, all been addressed to you. My
+error has been that it did not occur to me that Governor Shepley or any
+one else would set up a claim to act independently of you.... I now
+distinctly tell you that you are master of all, and that I wish you to
+take the case as you find it, and give us a free-State reorganization of
+Louisiana in the shortest possible time."
+
+Under this explicit direction of the President, and basing his action
+on martial law as the fundamental law of the State, the general caused a
+governor and State officials to be elected on February 22, 1864. To
+override the jealousy and quarrels of both the conservative and
+free-State parties, he set out in his proclamation that the officials to
+be chosen should--
+
+"Until others are appointed by competent authority, constitute the civil
+government of the State, under the constitution and laws of Louisiana,
+except so much of the said constitution and laws as recognize, regulate,
+or relate to slavery; which, being inconsistent with the present
+condition of public affairs, and plainly inapplicable to any class of
+persons now existing within its limits, must be suspended, and they are
+therefore and hereby declared to be inoperative and void."
+
+The newly elected governor was inaugurated on March 4, with imposing
+public ceremonies, and the President also invested him "with the powers
+exercised hitherto by the military governor of Louisiana." General Banks
+further caused delegates to a State convention to be chosen, who, in a
+session extending from April 6 to July 25, perfected and adopted a new
+constitution, which was again adopted by popular vote on September 5
+following. General Banks reported the constitution to be "one of the
+best ever penned.... It abolishes slavery in the State, and forbids the
+legislature to enact any law recognizing property in man. The
+emancipation is instantaneous and absolute, without condition or
+compensation, and nearly unanimous."
+
+The State of Arkansas had been forced into rebellion by military
+terrorism, and remained under Confederate domination only because the
+Union armies could afford the latent loyal sentiment of the State no
+effective support until the fall of Vicksburg and the opening of the
+Mississippi. After that decisive victory, General Steele marched a
+Union column of about thirteen thousand from Helena to Little Rock, the
+capital, which surrendered to him on the evening of September 10, 1863.
+By December, eight regiments of Arkansas citizens had been formed for
+service in the Union army; and, following the amnesty proclamation of
+December 8, the reorganization of a loyal State government was speedily
+brought about, mainly by spontaneous popular action, of course under the
+direction and with the assistance of General Steele.
+
+In response to a petition, President Lincoln sent General Steele on
+January 20, 1864, a letter repeating substantially the instructions he
+had given General Banks for Louisiana. Before these could be carried
+out, popular action had assembled at Little Rock on January 8, 1864, a
+formal delegate convention, composed of forty-four delegates who claimed
+to represent twenty-two out of the fifty-four counties of the State. On
+January 22 this convention adopted an amended constitution which
+declared the act of secession null and void, abolished slavery
+immediately and unconditionally, and wholly repudiated the Confederate
+debt. The convention appointed a provisional State government, and under
+its schedule an election was held on March 14, 1864. During the three
+days on which the polls were kept open, under the orders of General
+Steele, who by the President's suggestion adopted the convention
+program, a total vote of 12,179 was cast for the constitution, and only
+226 against it; while the provisional governor was also elected for a
+new term, together with members of Congress and a legislature which in
+due time chose United States senators. By this time Congress had
+manifested its opposition to the President's plan, but Mr. Lincoln stood
+firm, and on June 29 wrote to General Steele:
+
+"I understand that Congress declines to admit to seats the persons sent
+as senators and representatives from Arkansas. These persons apprehend
+that in consequence you may not support the new State government there
+as you otherwise would. My wish is that you give that government and the
+people there the same support and protection that you would if the
+members had been admitted, because in no event, nor in any view of the
+case, can this do any harm, while it will be the best you can do toward
+suppressing the rebellion."
+
+While Military Governor Andrew Johnson had been the earliest to begin
+the restoration of loyal Federal authority in the State of Tennessee,
+the course of campaign and battle in that State delayed its completion
+to a later period than in the others. The invasion of Tennessee by the
+Confederate General Bragg in the summer of 1862, and the long delay of
+the Union General Rosecrans to begin an active campaign against him
+during the summer of 1863, kept civil reorganization in a very uncertain
+and chaotic condition. When at length Rosecrans advanced and occupied
+Chattanooga, President Lincoln deemed it a propitious time to vigorously
+begin reorganization, and under date of September 11, 1863, he wrote the
+military governor emphatic suggestions that:
+
+"The reinauguration must not be such as to give control of the State and
+its representation in Congress to the enemies of the Union, driving its
+friends there into political exile.... You must have it otherwise. Let
+the reconstruction be the work of such men only as can be trusted for
+the Union. Exclude all others; and trust that your government so
+organized will be recognized here as being the one of republican form to
+be guaranteed to the State, and to be protected against invasion and
+domestic violence. It is something on the question of time to remember
+that it cannot be known who is next to occupy the position I now hold,
+nor what he will do. I see that you have declared in favor of
+emancipation in Tennessee, for which, may God bless you. Get
+emancipation into your new State government--constitution--and there
+will be no such word as fail for your case."
+
+In another letter of September 19, the President sent the governor
+specific authority to execute the scheme outlined in his letter of
+advice; but no substantial success had yet been reached in the process
+of reconstruction in Tennessee during the year 1864, when the
+Confederate army under Hood turned northward from Atlanta to begin its
+third and final invasion of the State. This once more delayed all work
+of reconstruction until the Confederate army was routed and dispersed by
+the battle of Nashville on December 15, 1864. Previous popular action
+had called a State convention, which, taking immediate advantage of the
+expulsion of the enemy, met in Nashville on January 9, 1865, in which
+fifty-eight counties and some regiments were represented by about four
+hundred and sixty-seven delegates. After six days of deliberation the
+convention adopted a series of amendments to the constitution, the main
+ordinance of which provided:
+
+"That slavery and involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for
+crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, are hereby
+forever abolished and prohibited throughout the State."
+
+These amendments were duly adopted at a popular election held on
+February 22, and the complete organization of a loyal State government
+under them followed in due course.
+
+The State of Missouri needed no reconstruction. It has already been said
+that her local affairs were administered by a provisional State
+government instituted by the State convention chosen by popular election
+before rebellion broke out. In this State, therefore, the institution of
+slavery was suppressed by the direct action of the people, but not
+without a long and bitter conflict of party factions and military
+strife. There existed here two hostile currents of public opinion, one,
+the intolerant pro-slavery prejudices of its rural population; the
+other, the progressive and liberal spirit dominant in the city of St.
+Louis, with its heavy German population, which, as far back as 1856, had
+elected to Congress a candidate who boldly advocated gradual
+emancipation: St. Louis, with outlying cities and towns, supplying
+during the whole rebellion the dominating influence that held the State
+in the Union, and at length transformed her from a slave to a free
+State.
+
+Missouri suffered severely in the war, but not through important
+campaigns or great battles. Persistent secession conspiracy, the Kansas
+episodes of border strife, and secret orders of Confederate agents from
+Arkansas instigating unlawful warfare, made Missouri a hotbed of
+guerrilla uprisings and of relentless neighborhood feuds, in which armed
+partizan conflict often degenerated into shocking barbarity, and the
+pretense of war into the malicious execution of private vengeance.
+President Lincoln drew a vivid picture of the chronic disorders in
+Missouri in reply to complaints demanding the removal of General
+Schofield from local military command:
+
+"We are in civil war. In such cases there always is a main question; but
+in this case that question is a perplexing compound--Union and slavery.
+It thus becomes a question not of two sides merely, but of at least four
+sides, even among those who are for the Union, saying nothing of those
+who are against it. Thus, those who are for the Union _with_, but not
+_without_, slavery--those for it _without_, but not _with_--those for it
+_with_ or _without_, but prefer it _with_--and those for it _with or
+without_, but prefer it _without_. Among these again is a subdivision of
+those who are for _gradual_ but not for _immediate_, and those who are
+for _immediate_, but not for _gradual_ extinction of slavery. It is easy
+to conceive that all these shades of opinion, and even more, may be
+sincerely entertained by honest and truthful men. Yet, all being for the
+Union, by reason of these differences each will prefer a different way
+of sustaining the Union. At once sincerity is questioned, and motives
+are assailed. Actual war coming, blood grows hot, and blood is spilled.
+Thought is forced from old channels into confusion. Deception breeds and
+thrives. Confidence dies and universal suspicion reigns. Each man feels
+an impulse to kill his neighbor, lest he be first killed by him. Revenge
+and retaliation follow. And all this, as before said, may be among
+honest men only. But this is not all. Every foul bird comes abroad and
+every dirty reptile rises up. These add crime to confusion. Strong
+measures deemed indispensable, but harsh at best, such men make worse by
+maladministration. Murders for old grudges, and murders for pelf,
+proceed under any cloak that will best cover for the occasion. These
+causes amply account for what has occurred in Missouri, without
+ascribing it to the weakness or wickedness of any general. The newspaper
+files, those chroniclers of current events, will show that the evils now
+complained of were quite as prevalent under Fremont, Hunter, Halleck,
+and Curtis, as under Schofield.... I do not feel justified to enter
+upon the broad field you present in regard to the political differences
+between radicals and conservatives. From time to time I have done and
+said what appeared to me proper to do and say. The public knows it all.
+It obliges nobody to follow me, and I trust it obliges me to follow
+nobody. The radicals and conservatives each agree with me in some things
+and disagree in others. I could wish both to agree with me in all
+things; for then they would agree with each other, and would be too
+strong for any foe from any quarter. They, however, choose to do
+otherwise, and I do not question their right. I, too, shall do what
+seems to be my duty. I hold whoever commands in Missouri, or elsewhere,
+responsible to me, and not to either radicals or conservatives. It is my
+duty to hear all; but at last I must, within my sphere, judge what to do
+and what to forbear."
+
+It is some consolation to history, that out of this blood and travail
+grew the political regeneration of the State. Slavery and emancipation
+never gave each other a moment's truce. The issue was raised to an acute
+stage by Fremont's proclamation in August, 1861. Though that ill-advised
+measure was revoked by President Lincoln, the friction and irritation of
+war kept it alive, and in the following year a member of the Missouri
+State convention offered a bill to accept and apply President Lincoln's
+plan of compensated abolishment. Further effort was made in this
+direction in Congress, where in January, 1863, the House passed a bill
+appropriating ten million dollars, and in February, the Senate another
+bill appropriating fifteen million dollars to aid compensated
+abolishment in Missouri. But the stubborn opposition of three
+pro-slavery Missouri members of the House prevented action on the latter
+bill or any compromise.
+
+The question, however, continually grew among the people of Missouri,
+and made such advance that parties, accepting the main point as already
+practically decided at length only divided upon the mode of procedure
+The conservatives wanted the work to be done by the old State
+convention, the radicals desired to submit it to a new convention fresh
+from the people. Legislative agreement having failed, the provisional
+governor called the old State convention together. The convention
+leaders who controlled that body inquired of the President whether he
+would sustain their action. To this he made answer in a letter to
+Schofield dated June 22, 1863:
+
+"Your despatch, asking in substance whether, in case Missouri shall
+adopt gradual emancipation, the general government will protect
+slave-owners in that species of property during the short time it shall
+be permitted by the State to exist within it, has been received.
+Desirous as I am that emancipation shall be adopted by Missouri, and
+believing as I do that gradual can be made better than immediate for
+both black and white, except when military necessity changes the case,
+my impulse is to say that such protection would be given. I cannot know
+exactly what shape an act of emancipation may take. If the period from
+the initiation to the final end should be comparatively short, and the
+act should prevent persons being sold during that period into more
+lasting slavery, the whole would be easier. I do not wish to pledge the
+general government to the affirmative support of even temporary slavery
+beyond what can be fairly claimed under the Constitution. I suppose,
+however, this is not desired, but that it is desired for the military
+force of the United States, while in Missouri, to not be used in
+subverting the temporarily reserved legal rights in slaves during the
+progress of emancipation. This I would desire also."
+
+Proceeding with its work, the old State convention, which had hitherto
+made a most honorable record, neglected a great opportunity. It indeed
+adopted an ordinance of gradual emancipation on July 1, 1863, but of
+such an uncertain and dilatory character, that public opinion in the
+State promptly rejected it. By the death of the provisional governor on
+January 31, 1864, the conservative party of Missouri lost its most
+trusted leader, and thereafter the radicals succeeded to the political
+power of the State. At the presidential election of 1864, that party
+chose a new State convention, which met in St. Louis on January 6, 1865,
+and on the sixth day of its session (January 11) formally adopted an
+ordinance of immediate emancipation.
+
+Maryland, like Missouri, had no need of reconstruction. Except for the
+Baltimore riot and the arrest of her secession legislature during the
+first year of the war, her State government continued its regular
+functions. But a strong popular undercurrent of virulent secession
+sympathy among a considerable minority of her inhabitants was only held
+in check by the military power of the Union, and for two years
+emancipation found no favor in the public opinion of the State. Her
+representatives, like those of most other border States, coldly refused
+President Lincoln's earnest plea to accept compensated abolishment; and
+a bill in Congress to give Maryland ten million dollars for that object
+was at once blighted by the declaration of one of her leading
+representatives that Maryland did not ask for it. Nevertheless, the
+subject could no more be ignored there than in other States; and after
+the President's emancipation proclamation an emancipation party
+developed itself in Maryland.
+
+There was no longer any evading the practical issue, when, by the
+President's direction, the Secretary of War issued a military order,
+early in October, 1863, regulating the raising of colored troops in
+certain border States, which decreed that slaves might be enlisted
+without consent of their owners, but provided compensation in such
+cases. At the November election of that year the emancipation party of
+Maryland elected its ticket by an overwhelming majority, and a
+legislature that enacted laws under which a State convention was chosen
+to amend the constitution. Of the delegates elected on April 6, 1864,
+sixty-one were emancipationists, and only thirty-five opposed.
+
+After two months' debate this convention by nearly two thirds adopted an
+article:
+
+"That hereafter in this State there shall be neither slavery nor
+involuntary servitude except in punishment of crime whereof the party
+shall have been duly convicted; and all persons held to service or labor
+as slaves are hereby declared free."
+
+The decisive test of a popular vote accepting the amended constitution
+as a whole, remained, however, yet to be undergone. President Lincoln
+willingly complied with a request to throw his official voice and
+influence in favor of the measure, and wrote, on October 10, 1864:
+
+"A convention of Maryland has framed a new constitution for the State; a
+public meeting is called for this evening at Baltimore to aid in
+securing its ratification by the people; and you ask a word from me for
+the occasion. I presume the only feature of the instrument about which
+there is serious controversy is that which provides for the extinction
+of slavery. It needs not to be a secret, and I presume it is no secret,
+that I wish success to this provision. I desire it on every
+consideration. I wish all men to be free. I wish the material prosperity
+of the already free, which I feel sure the extinction of slavery would
+bring. I wish to see in process of disappearing that only thing which
+ever could bring this nation to civil war. I attempt no argument.
+Argument upon the question is already exhausted by the abler, better
+informed, and more immediately interested sons of Maryland herself. I
+only add that I shall be gratified exceedingly if the good people of the
+State shall, by their votes, ratify the new constitution."
+
+At the election which was held on October 12 and 13, stubborn Maryland
+conservatism, whose roots reached far back to the colonial days, made
+its last desperate stand, and the constitution was ratified by a
+majority of only three hundred and seventy-five votes out of a total of
+nearly sixty thousand. But the result was accepted as decisive, and in
+due time the governor issued his proclamation, declaring the new
+constitution legally adopted.
+
+
+
+
+XXXI
+
+Shaping of the Presidential Campaign--Criticisms of Mr. Lincoln--Chase's
+Presidential Ambitions--The Pomeroy Circular--Cleveland
+Convention--Attempt to Nominate Grant--Meeting of Baltimore
+Convention--Lincoln's Letter to Schurz--Platform of Republican
+Convention--Lincoln Renominated--Refuses to Indicate Preference for
+Vice-President--Johnson Nominated for Vice-President--Lincoln's Speech
+to Committee of Notification--Reference to Mexico in his Letter of
+Acceptance--The French in Mexico
+
+
+The final shaping of the campaign, the definition of the issues, the
+wording of the platforms, and selection of the candidates, had grown
+much more out of national politics than out of mere party combination or
+personal intrigues. The success of the war, and fate of the Union, of
+course dominated every other consideration; and next to this the
+treatment of the slavery question became in a hundred forms almost a
+direct personal interest. Mere party feeling, which had utterly vanished
+for a few months in the first grand uprising of the North, had been once
+more awakened by the first Bull Run defeat, and from that time onward
+was heard in loud and constant criticism of Mr. Lincoln and the acts of
+his supporters wherever they touched the institution of slavery. The
+Democratic party, which had been allied with the Southern politicians in
+the interests of that institution through so many decades, quite
+naturally took up its habitual role of protest that slavery should
+receive no hurt or damage from the incidents of war, where, in the
+border States, it still had constitutional existence among loyal Union
+men.
+
+On the other hand, among Republicans who had elected Mr. Lincoln, and
+who, as a partizan duty, indorsed and sustained his measures, Fremont's
+proclamation of military emancipation in the first year of the war
+excited the over-hasty zeal of antislavery extremists, and developed a
+small but very active faction which harshly denounced the President when
+Mr. Lincoln revoked that premature and ill-considered measure. No matter
+what the President subsequently did about slavery, the Democratic press
+and partizans always assailed him for doing too much, while the Fremont
+press and partizans accused him of doing too little.
+
+Meanwhile, personal considerations were playing their minor, but not
+unimportant parts. When McClellan was called to Washington, and during
+all the hopeful promise of the great victories he was expected to win, a
+few shrewd New York Democratic politicians grouped themselves about him,
+and put him in training as the future Democratic candidate for
+President; and the general fell easily into their plans and ambitions.
+Even after he had demonstrated his military incapacity, when he had
+reaped defeat instead of victory, and earned humiliation instead of
+triumph, his partizan adherents clung to the desperate hope that though
+they could not win applause for him as a conqueror, they might yet
+create public sympathy in his behalf as a neglected and persecuted
+genius.
+
+The cabinets of Presidents frequently develop rival presidential
+aspirants, and that of Mr. Lincoln was no exception. Considering the
+strong men who composed it, the only wonder is that there was so little
+friction among them. They disagreed constantly and heartily on minor
+questions, both with Mr. Lincoln and with each other, but their great
+devotion to the Union, coupled with his kindly forbearance, and the
+clear vision which assured him mastery over himself and others, kept
+peace and even personal affection in his strangely assorted official
+family.
+
+The man who developed the most serious presidential aspirations was
+Salmon P. Chase, his Secretary of the Treasury, who listened to and
+actively encouraged the overtures of a small faction of the Republican
+party which rallied about him at the end of the year 1863. Pure and
+disinterested, and devoted with all his energies and powers to the cause
+of the Union, he was yet singularly ignorant of current public thought,
+and absolutely incapable of judging men in their true relations He
+regarded himself as the friend of Mr. Lincoln and made strong
+protestations to him and to others of this friendship, but he held so
+poor an opinion of the President's intellect and character, compared
+with his own, that he could not believe the people blind enough to
+prefer the President to himself. He imagined that he did not covet
+advancement, and was anxious only for the public good; yet, in the midst
+of his enormous labors found time to write letters to every part of the
+country, protesting his indifference to the presidency, but indicating
+his willingness to accept it, and painting pictures so dark of the
+chaotic state of affairs in the government, that the irresistible
+inference was that only he could save the country. From the beginning
+Mr. Lincoln had been aware of this quasi-candidacy, which continued all
+through the winter Indeed, it was impossible to remain unconscious of
+it, although he discouraged all conversation on the subject, and
+refused to read letters relating to it. He had his own opinion of the
+taste and judgment displayed by Mr. Chase in his criticisms of the
+President and his colleagues in the cabinet, but he took no note of
+them.
+
+"I have determined," he said, "to shut my eyes, so far as possible, to
+everything of the sort. Mr. Chase makes a good secretary, and I shall
+keep him where he is. If he becomes President, all right. I hope we may
+never have a worse man."
+
+And he went on appointing Mr. Chase's partizans and adherents to places
+in the government. Although his own renomination was a matter in regard
+to which he refused to talk much, even with intimate friends, he was
+perfectly aware of the true drift of things. In capacity of appreciating
+popular currents Chase was as a child beside him; and he allowed the
+opposition to himself in his own cabinet to continue, without question
+or remark, all the more patiently, because he knew how feeble it really
+was.
+
+The movement in favor of Mr. Chase culminated in the month of February,
+1864, in a secret circular signed by Senator Pomeroy of Kansas, and
+widely circulated through the Union; which criticised Mr. Lincoln's
+"tendency toward compromises and temporary expedients"; explained that
+even if his reelection were desirable, it was practically impossible in
+the face of the opposition that had developed; and lauded Chase as the
+statesman best fitted to rescue the country from present perils and
+guard it against future ills. Of course copies of this circular soon
+reached the White House, but Mr. Lincoln refused to look at them, and
+they accumulated unread in the desk of his secretary. Finally, it got
+into print, whereupon Mr. Chase wrote to the President to assure him he
+had no knowledge of the letter before seeing it in the papers. To this
+Mr. Lincoln replied:
+
+"I was not shocked or surprised by the appearance of the letter, because
+I had had knowledge of Mr. Pomeroy's committee, and of secret issues
+which I supposed came from it, ... for several weeks. I have known just
+as little of these things as my friends have allowed me to know.... I
+fully concur with you that neither of us can be justly held responsible
+for what our respective friends may do without our instigation or
+countenance.... Whether you shall remain at the head of the Treasury
+Department is a question which I will not allow myself to consider from
+any standpoint other than my judgment of the public service, and, in
+that view, I do not perceive occasion for a change."
+
+Even before the President wrote this letter, Mr. Chase's candidacy had
+passed out of sight. In fact, it never really existed save in the
+imagination of the Secretary of the Treasury and a narrow circle of his
+adherents. He was by no means the choice of the body of radicals who
+were discontented with Mr. Lincoln because of his deliberation in
+dealing with the slavery question, or of those others who thought he was
+going entirely too fast and too far.
+
+Both these factions, alarmed at the multiplying signs which foretold his
+triumphant renomination, issued calls for a mass convention of the
+people, to meet at Cleveland, Ohio, on May 31, a week before the
+assembling of the Republican national convention at Baltimore, to unite
+in a last attempt to stem the tide in his favor. Democratic newspapers
+naturally made much of this, heralding it as a hopeless split in the
+Republican ranks, and printing fictitious despatches from Cleveland
+reporting that city thronged with influential and earnest delegates.
+Far from this being the case, there was no crowd and still less
+enthusiasm. Up to the very day of its meeting no place was provided for
+the sessions of the convention, which finally came together in a small
+hall whose limited capacity proved more than ample for both delegates
+and spectators. Though organization was delayed nearly two hours in the
+vain hope that more delegates would arrive, the men who had been counted
+upon to give character to the gathering remained notably absent. The
+delegates prudently refrained from counting their meager number, and
+after preliminaries of a more or less farcical nature, voted for a
+platform differing little from that afterward adopted at Baltimore,
+listened to the reading of a vehement letter from Wendell Phillips
+denouncing Mr. Lincoln's administration and counseling the choice of
+Fremont for President, nominated that general by acclamation, with
+General John Cochrane of New York for his running-mate, christened
+themselves the "Radical Democracy," and adjourned.
+
+The press generally greeted the convention and its work with a chorus of
+ridicule, though certain Democratic newspapers, from motives harmlessly
+transparent, gave it solemn and unmeasured praise. General Fremont,
+taking his candidacy seriously, accepted the nomination, but three
+months later, finding no response from the public, withdrew from the
+contest.
+
+At this fore-doomed Cleveland meeting a feeble attempt had been made by
+the men who considered Mr. Lincoln too radical, to nominate General
+Grant for President, instead of Fremont; but he had been denounced as a
+Lincoln hireling, and his name unceremoniously swept aside. During the
+same week another effort in the same direction was made in New York,
+though the committee having the matter in charge made no public avowal
+of its intention beforehand, merely calling a meeting to express the
+gratitude of the country to the general for his signal services; and
+even inviting Mr. Lincoln to take part in the proceedings. This he
+declined to do, but wrote:
+
+"I approve, nevertheless, whatever may tend to strengthen and sustain
+General Grant and the noble armies now under his direction. My previous
+high estimate of General Grant has been maintained and heightened by
+what has occurred in the remarkable campaign he is now conducting, while
+the magnitude and difficulty of the task before him do not prove less
+than I expected. He and his brave soldiers are now in the midst of their
+great trial, and I trust that at your meeting you will so shape your
+good words that they may turn to men and guns, moving to his and their
+support."
+
+With such gracious approval of the movement the meeting naturally fell
+into the hands of the Lincoln men. General Grant neither at this time
+nor at any other, gave the least countenance to the efforts which were
+made to array him in political opposition to the President.
+
+These various attempts to discredit the name of Mr. Lincoln and nominate
+some one else in his place caused hardly a ripple on the great current
+of public opinion. Death alone could have prevented his choice by the
+Union convention. So absolute and universal was the tendency that most
+of the politicians made no effort to direct or guide it; they simply
+exerted themselves to keep in the van and not be overwhelmed. The
+convention met on June 7, but irregular nominations of Mr. Lincoln for
+President had begun as early as January 6, when the first State
+convention of the year was held in New Hampshire.
+
+From one end of the country to the other such spontaneous nominations
+had joyously echoed his name. Only in Missouri did it fail of
+overwhelming adhesion, and even in the Missouri Assembly the resolution
+in favor of his renomination was laid upon the table by a majority of
+only eight. The current swept on irresistibly throughout the spring. A
+few opponents of Mr. Lincoln endeavored to postpone the meeting of the
+national convention until September, knowing that their only hope lay in
+some possible accident of the summer. But though supported by so
+powerful an influence as the New York "Tribune," the National Committee
+paid no attention to this appeal. Indeed, they might as well have
+considered the request of a committee of prominent citizens to check an
+impending thunderstorm.
+
+Mr. Lincoln took no measures whatever to promote his own candidacy.
+While not assuming airs of reluctance or bashfulness, he discouraged on
+the part of strangers any suggestion as to his reelection. Among his
+friends he made no secret of his readiness to continue the work he was
+engaged in, if such should be the general wish. "A second term would be
+a great honor and a great labor, which together, perhaps, I would not
+decline if tendered," he wrote Elihu B. Washburne. He not only opposed
+no obstacle to the ambitions of Chase, but received warnings to beware
+of Grant in the same serene manner, answering tranquilly, "If he takes
+Richmond, let him have it." And he discouraged office-holders, civil or
+military, who showed any special zeal in his behalf. To General Schurz,
+who wrote asking permission to take an active part in the presidential
+campaign, he replied:
+
+"Allow me to suggest that if you wish to remain in the military service,
+it is very dangerous for you to get temporarily out of it; because,
+with a major-general once out, it is next to impossible for even the
+President to get him in again.... Of course I would be very glad to have
+your service for the country in the approaching political canvass; but I
+fear we cannot properly have it without separating you from the
+military." And in a later letter he added: "I perceive no objection to
+your making a political speech when you are where one is to be made; but
+quite surely, speaking in the North and fighting in the South at the
+same time are not possible; nor could I be justified to detail any
+officer to the political campaign during its continuance and then return
+him to the army."
+
+Not only did he firmly take this stand as to his own nomination, but
+enforced it even more rigidly in cases where he learned that Federal
+office-holders were working to defeat the return of certain Republican
+congressmen. In several such instances he wrote instructions of which
+the following is a type:
+
+"Complaint is made to me that you are using your official power to
+defeat Judge Kelley's renomination to Congress.... The correct
+principle, I think, is that all our friends should have absolute freedom
+of choice among our friends. My wish, therefore, is that you will do
+just as you think fit with your own suffrage in the case, and not
+constrain any of your subordinates to do other than as he thinks fit
+with his."
+
+He made, of course, no long speeches during the campaign, and in his
+short addresses, at Sanitary Fairs, in response to visiting delegations,
+or on similar occasions where custom and courtesy decreed that he must
+say something, preserved his mental balance undisturbed, speaking
+heartily and to the point, but skilfully avoiding the perils that beset
+the candidate who talks.
+
+When at last the Republican convention came together on June 7, 1864, it
+had less to do than any other convention in our political history; for
+its delegates were bound by a peremptory mandate. It was opened by brief
+remarks from Senator Morgan of New York, whose significant statement
+that the convention would fall far short of accomplishing its great
+mission unless it declared for a Constitutional amendment prohibiting
+African slavery, was loudly cheered. In their speeches on taking the
+chair, both the temporary chairman, Rev. Robert J. Breckinridge of
+Kentucky, and the permanent chairman, William Dennison of Ohio, treated
+Mr. Lincoln's nomination as a foregone conclusion, and the applause
+which greeted his name showed that the delegates did not resent this
+disregard of customary etiquette. There were, in fact, but three tasks
+before the convention--to settle the status of contesting delegations,
+to agree upon a platform, and to nominate a candidate for
+Vice-President.
+
+The platform declared in favor of crushing rebellion and maintaining the
+integrity of the Union, commending the government's determination to
+enter into no compromise with the rebels. It applauded President
+Lincoln's patriotism and fidelity in the discharge of his duties, and
+stated that only those in harmony with "these resolutions" ought to have
+a voice in the administration of the government. This, while intended to
+win support of radicals throughout the Union, was aimed particularly at
+Postmaster General Blair, who had made many enemies. It approved all
+acts directed against slavery; declared in favor of a constitutional
+amendment forever abolishing it; claimed full protection of the laws of
+war for colored troops; expressed gratitude to the soldiers and sailors
+of the Union; pronounced in favor of encouraging foreign immigration;
+of building a Pacific railway; of keeping inviolate the faith of the
+nation, pledged to redeem the national debt; and vigorously reaffirmed
+the Monroe Doctrine.
+
+Then came the nominations. The only delay in registering the will of the
+convention occurred as a consequence of the attempt of members to do it
+by irregular and summary methods. When Mr. Delano of Ohio made the
+customary motion to proceed to the nomination, Simon Cameron moved as a
+substitute the renomination of Lincoln and Hamlin by acclamation. A long
+wrangle ensued on the motion to lay this substitute on the table, which
+was finally brought to an end by the cooler heads, who desired that
+whatever opposition to Mr. Lincoln there might be in the convention
+should have fullest opportunity of expression. The nominations,
+therefore, proceeded by call of States in the usual way. The
+interminable nominating speeches of recent years had not yet come into
+fashion. B.C. Cook, the chairman of the Illinois delegation, merely
+said:
+
+"The State of Illinois again presents to the loyal people of this nation
+for President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln--God bless him!"
+
+Others, who seconded the nomination, were equally brief. Every State
+gave its undivided vote for Lincoln, with the exception of Missouri,
+which cast its vote, under positive instructions, as the chairman
+stated, for Grant. But before the result was announced, John F. Hume of
+Missouri moved that Mr. Lincoln's nomination be declared unanimous. This
+could not be done until the result of the balloting was made known--four
+hundred and eighty-four for Lincoln, twenty-two for Grant. Missouri then
+changed its vote, and the secretary read the grand total of five hundred
+and six for Lincoln; the announcement being greeted with a storm of
+cheering which lasted many minutes.
+
+The principal names mentioned for the vice-presidency were Hannibal
+Hamlin, the actual incumbent; Andrew Johnson of Tennessee; and Daniel S.
+Dickinson of New York. Besides these, General L.H. Rousseau had the vote
+of his own State--Kentucky. The radicals of Missouri favored General
+B.F. Butler, who had a few scattered votes also from New England. Among
+the principal candidates, however, the voters were equally enough
+divided to make the contest exceedingly spirited and interesting.
+
+For several days before the convention met Mr. Lincoln had been besieged
+by inquiries as to his personal wishes in regard to his associate on the
+ticket. He had persistently refused to give the slightest intimation of
+such wish. His private secretary, Mr. Nicolay, who was at Baltimore in
+attendance at the convention, was well acquainted with this attitude;
+but at last, over-borne by the solicitations of the chairman of the
+Illinois delegation, who had been perplexed at the advocacy of Joseph
+Holt by Leonard Swett, one of the President's most intimate friends, Mr.
+Nicolay wrote to Mr. Hay, who had been left in charge of the executive
+office in his absence:
+
+"Cook wants to know, confidentially, whether Swett is all right; whether
+in urging Holt for Vice-President he reflects the President's wishes;
+whether the President has any preference, either personal or on the
+score of policy; or whether he wishes not even to interfere by a
+confidential intimation.... Please get this information for me, if
+possible."
+
+The letter was shown to the President, who indorsed upon it:
+
+"Swett is unquestionably all right. Mr. Holt is a good man, but I had
+not heard or thought of him for V.P. Wish not to interfere about V.P.
+Cannot interfere about platform. Convention must judge for itself."
+
+This positive and final instruction was sent at once to Mr. Nicolay, and
+by him communicated to the President's most intimate friends in the
+convention. It was therefore with minds absolutely untrammeled by even
+any knowledge of the President's wishes that the convention went about
+its work of selecting his associate on the ticket. It is altogether
+probable that the ticket of 1860 would have been nominated without a
+contest had it not been for the general impression, in and out of the
+convention, that it would be advisable to select as a candidate for the
+vice-presidency a war Democrat. Mr. Dickinson, while not putting himself
+forward as a candidate, had sanctioned the use of his name on the
+special ground that his candidacy might attract to the support of the
+Union party many Democrats who would have been unwilling to support a
+ticket avowedly Republican; but these considerations weighed with still
+greater force in favor of Mr. Johnson, who was not only a Democrat, but
+also a citizen of a slave State. The first ballot showed that Mr.
+Johnson had received two hundred votes, Mr. Hamlin one hundred and
+fifty, and Mr. Dickinson one hundred and eight; and before the result
+was announced almost the whole convention turned their votes to Johnson;
+whereupon his nomination was declared unanimous. The work was so quickly
+done that Mr. Lincoln received notice of the action of the convention
+only a few minutes after the telegram announcing his own renomination
+had reached him.
+
+Replying next day to a committee of notification, he said in part:
+
+"I will neither conceal my gratification nor restrain the expression of
+my gratitude that the Union people, through their convention, in the
+continued effort to save and advance the nation, have deemed me not
+unworthy to remain in my present position. I know no reason to doubt
+that I shall accept the nomination tendered and yet, perhaps I should
+not declare definitely before reading and considering what is called the
+platform. I will say now, however, I approve the declaration in favor of
+so amending the Constitution as to prohibit slavery throughout the
+nation. When the people in revolt, with a hundred days of explicit
+notice that they could within those days resume their allegiance without
+the overthrow of their institutions, and that they could not resume it
+afterward, elected to stand out, such amendment to the Constitution as
+is now proposed became a fitting and necessary conclusion to the final
+success of the Union cause.... In the joint names of Liberty and Union,
+let us labor to give it legal form and practical effect."
+
+In his letter of June 29, formally accepting the nomination, the
+President observed the same wise rule of brevity which he had followed
+four years before. He made but one specific reference to any subject of
+discussion. While he accepted the convention's resolution reaffirming
+the Monroe Doctrine, he gave the convention and the country distinctly
+to understand that he stood by the action already adopted by himself and
+the Secretary of State. He said:
+
+"There might be misunderstanding were I not to say that the position of
+the government in relation to the action of France in Mexico, as assumed
+through the State Department and approved and indorsed by the convention
+among the measures and acts of the Executive will be faithfully
+maintained so long as the state of facts shall leave that position
+pertinent and applicable."
+
+This resolution, which was, in truth, a more vigorous assertion of the
+Monroe Doctrine than the author of that famous tenet ever dreamed of
+making, had been introduced in the convention by the radicals as a
+covert censure of Mr. Lincoln's attitude toward the French invasion of
+our sister republic; but through skilful wording of the platform had
+been turned by his friends into an indorsement of the administration.
+
+And, indeed, this was most just, since from the beginning President
+Lincoln and Mr. Seward had done all in their power to discourage the
+presence of foreign troops on Mexican territory. When a joint expedition
+by England, France, and Spain had been agreed upon to seize certain
+Mexican ports in default of a money indemnity demanded by those
+countries for outrages against their subjects, England had invited the
+United States to be a party to the convention. Instead, Mr. Lincoln and
+Mr. Seward attempted to aid Mexico with a sufficient sum to meet these
+demands, and notified Great Britain of their intention to do so, and the
+motives which prompted them. The friendly assistance came to naught; but
+as the three powers vigorously disclaimed any designs against Mexico's
+territory or her form of government, the United States saw no necessity
+for further action, beyond a clear definition of its own attitude for
+the benefit of all the parties.
+
+This it continued to repeat after England withdrew from the expedition,
+and Spain, soon recalling her troops, left Napoleon III to set the
+Archduke Maximilian on his shadowy throne, and to develop in the heart
+of America his scheme of an empire friendly to the South. At the moment
+the government was unable to do more, though recognizing the veiled
+hostility of Europe which thus manifested itself in a movement on what
+may be called the right flank of the republic. While giving utterance to
+no expressions of indignation at the aggressions, or of gratification at
+disaster which met the aggressor, the President and Mr. Seward continued
+to assert, at every proper opportunity the adherence of the American
+government to its traditional policy of discouraging European
+intervention in the affairs of the New World.
+
+
+
+
+XXXII
+
+The Bogus Proclamation--The Wade-Davis Manifesto--Resignation
+of Mr. Chase--Fessenden Succeeds Him--The Greeley Peace
+Conference--Jaquess-Gilmore Mission--Letter of Raymond--Bad Outlook for
+the Election--Mr. Lincoln on the Issues of the Campaign--President's
+Secret Memorandum--Meeting of Democratic National Convention--McClellan
+Nominated--His Letter of Acceptance--Lincoln Reelected--His Speech on
+Night of Election--The Electoral Vote--Annual Message of December 6,
+1864--Resignation of McClellan from the Army
+
+
+The seizure of the New York "Journal of Commerce" and New York "World,"
+in May, 1864, for publishing a forged proclamation calling for four
+hundred thousand more troops, had caused great excitement among the
+critics of Mr. Lincoln's administration. The terrible slaughter of
+Grant's opening campaign against Richmond rendered the country painfully
+sensitive to such news at the moment; and the forgery, which proved to
+be the work of two young Bohemians of the press, accomplished its
+purpose of raising the price of gold, and throwing the Stock Exchange
+into a temporary fever. Telegraphic announcement of the imposture soon
+quieted the flurry, and the quick detection of the guilty parties
+reduced the incident to its true rank; but the fact that the fiery
+Secretary of War had meanwhile issued orders for the suppression of both
+newspapers and the arrest of their editors was neither forgiven nor
+forgotten. The editors were never incarcerated, and the journals resumed
+publication after an interval of only two days, but the incident was
+vigorously employed during the entire summer as a means of attack upon
+the administration.
+
+Violent opposition to Mr. Lincoln came also from those members of both
+Houses of Congress who disapproved his attitude on reconstruction.
+Though that part of his message of December 8, 1863, relating to the
+formation of loyal State governments in districts which had been in
+rebellion at first received enthusiastic commendation from both
+conservatives and radicals, it was soon evident that the millennium had
+not yet arrived, and that in a Congress composed of men of such positive
+convictions and vehement character, there were many who would not submit
+permanently to the leadership of any man, least of all to that of one so
+reasonable, so devoid of malice, as the President.
+
+Henry Winter Davis at once moved that that part of the message be
+referred to a special committee of which he was chairman, and on
+February 15 reported a bill whose preamble declared the Confederate
+States completely out of the Union; prescribing a totally different
+method of reestablishing loyal State governments, one of the essentials
+being the prohibition of slavery. Congress rejected the preamble, but
+after extensive debate accepted the bill, which breathed the same spirit
+throughout. The measure was also finally acceded to in the Senate, and
+came to Mr. Lincoln for signature in the closing hours of the session.
+He laid it aside and went on with other business, despite the evident
+anxiety of several friends, who feared his failure to indorse it would
+lose the Republicans many votes in the Northwest. In stating his
+attitude to his cabinet he said:
+
+"This bill and the position of these gentlemen seem to me, in asserting
+that the insurrectionary States are no longer in the Union, to make the
+fatal admission that States, whenever they please, may of their own
+motion dissolve their connection with the Union. Now we cannot survive
+that admission, I am convinced. If that be true, I am not President;
+these gentlemen are not Congress. I have laboriously endeavored to avoid
+that question ever since it first began to be mooted, and thus to avoid
+confusion and disturbance in our own councils. It was to obviate this
+question that I earnestly favored the movement for an amendment to the
+Constitution abolishing slavery, which passed the Senate and failed in
+the House. I thought it much better, if it were possible, to restore the
+Union without the necessity of a violent quarrel among its friends as to
+whether certain States have been in or out of the Union during the
+war--a merely metaphysical question and one unnecessary to be forced
+into discussion."
+
+But though every member of the cabinet agreed with him, he foresaw the
+importance of the step he had resolved to take, and its possible
+disastrous consequences to himself. When some one said that the threats
+of the radicals were without foundation, and that the people would not
+bolt their ticket on a question of metaphysics, he answered:
+
+"If they choose to make a point upon this, I do not doubt that they can
+do harm. They have never been friendly to me. At all events, I must keep
+some consciousness of being somewhere near right. I must keep some
+standard or principle fixed within myself."
+
+Convinced, after fullest deliberation, that the bill was too restrictive
+in its provisions, and yet unwilling to reject whatever of practical
+good might be accomplished by it, he disregarded precedents, and acting
+on his lifelong rule of taking the people into his confidence, issued a
+proclamation on July 8, giving a copy of the bill of Congress, reciting
+the circumstances under which it was passed, and announcing that while
+he was unprepared by formal approval of the bill to be inflexibly
+committed to any single plan of restoration, or to set aside the
+free-State governments already adopted in Arkansas and Louisiana, or to
+declare that Congress was competent to decree the abolishment of
+slavery; yet he was fully satisfied with the plan as one very proper
+method of reconstruction, and promised executive aid to any State that
+might see fit to adopt it.
+
+The great mass of Republican voters, who cared little for the
+"metaphysics" of the case, accepted this proclamation, as they had
+accepted that issued six months before, as the wisest and most
+practicable method of handling the question; but among those already
+hostile to the President, and those whose devotion to the cause of
+freedom was so ardent as to make them look upon him as lukewarm, the
+exasperation which was already excited increased. The indignation of Mr.
+Davis and of Mr. Wade, who had called the bill up in the Senate, at
+seeing their work thus brought to nothing, could not be restrained; and
+together they signed and published in the New York "Tribune" of August 5
+the most vigorous attack ever directed against the President from his
+own party; insinuating that only the lowest motives dictated his action,
+since by refusing to sign the bill he held the electoral votes of the
+rebel States at his personal dictation; calling his approval of the bill
+of Congress as a very proper plan for any State choosing to adopt it, a
+"studied outrage"; and admonishing the people to "consider the remedy of
+these usurpations, and, having found it," to "fearlessly execute it."
+
+Congress had already repealed the fugitive-slave law, and to the voters
+at large, who joyfully accepted the emancipation proclamation, it
+mattered very little whether the "institution" came to its inevitable
+end, in the fragments of territory where it yet remained, by virtue of
+congressional act or executive decree. This tempest over the method of
+reconstruction had, therefore, little bearing on the presidential
+campaign, and appealed more to individual critics of the President than
+to the mass of the people.
+
+Mr. Chase entered in his diary: "The President pocketed the great
+bill.... He did not venture to veto, and so put it in his pocket. It was
+a condemnation of his amnesty proclamation and of his general policy of
+reconstruction, rejecting the idea of possible reconstruction with
+slavery, which neither the President nor his chief advisers have, in my
+opinion, abandoned." Mr. Chase was no longer one of the chief advisers.
+After his withdrawal from his hopeless contest for the presidency, his
+sentiments toward Mr. Lincoln took on a tinge of bitterness which
+increased until their friendly association in the public service became
+no longer possible; and on June 30 he sent the President his
+resignation, which was accepted. There is reason to believe that he did
+not expect such a prompt severing of their official relations, since
+more than once, in the months of friction which preceded this
+culmination, he had used a threat to resign as means to carry some point
+in controversy.
+
+Mr. Lincoln, on accepting his resignation, sent the name of David Tod of
+Ohio to the Senate as his successor; but, receiving a telegram from Mr.
+Tod declining on the plea of ill health, substituted that of William
+Pitt Fessenden, chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, whose
+nomination was instantly confirmed and commanded general approval.
+
+Horace Greeley, editor of the powerful New York "Tribune," had become
+one of those patriots whose discouragement and discontent led them,
+during the summer of 1864, to give ready hospitality to any suggestions
+to end the war. In July he wrote to the President, forwarding the letter
+of one "Wm. Cornell Jewett of Colorado," which announced the arrival in
+Canada of two ambassadors from Jefferson Davis with full powers to
+negotiate a peace. Mr. Greeley urged, in his over-fervid letter of
+transmittal, that the President make overtures on the following plan of
+adjustment: First. The Union to be restored and declared perpetual.
+Second. Slavery to be utterly and forever abolished. Third. A complete
+amnesty for all political offenses. Fourth. Payment of four hundred
+million dollars to the slave States, pro rata, for their slaves. Fifth.
+Slave States to be represented in proportion to their total population.
+Sixth. A national convention to be called at once.
+
+Though Mr. Lincoln had no faith in Jewett's story, and doubted whether
+the embassy had any existence, he determined to take immediate action on
+this proposition. He felt the unreasonableness and injustice of Mr.
+Greeley's letter, which in effect charged his administration with a
+cruel disinclination to treat with the rebels, and resolved to convince
+him at least, and perhaps others, that there was no foundation for these
+reproaches. So he arranged that the witness of his willingness to listen
+to any overtures that might come from the South should be Mr. Greeley
+himself, and answering his letter at once on July 9, said:
+
+"If you can find any person, anywhere, professing to have any
+proposition of Jefferson Davis in writing, for peace, embracing the
+restoration of the Union and abandonment of slavery, whatever else it
+embraces, say to him he may come to me with you, and that if he really
+brings such proposition he shall at the least have safe conduct with the
+paper (and without publicity, if he chooses) to the point where you
+shall have met him. The same if there be two or more persons."
+
+This ready acquiescence evidently surprised and somewhat embarrassed Mr.
+Greeley, who replied by several letters of different dates, but made no
+motion to produce his commissioners. At last, on the fifteenth, to end a
+correspondence which promised to be indefinitely prolonged, the
+President telegraphed him: "I was not expecting you to send me a letter,
+but to bring me a man or men." Mr. Greeley then went to Niagara, and
+wrote from there to the alleged commissioners, Clement C. Clay and James
+P. Holcombe, offering to conduct them to Washington, but neglecting to
+mention the two conditions--restoration of the Union and abandonment of
+slavery--laid down in Mr. Lincoln's note of the ninth and repeated by
+him on the fifteenth. Even with this great advantage, Clay and Holcombe
+felt themselves too devoid of credentials to accept Mr. Greeley's offer,
+but replied that they could easily get credentials, or that other agents
+could be accredited, if they could be sent to Richmond armed with "the
+circumstances disclosed in this correspondence."
+
+This, of course, meant that Mr. Lincoln should take the initiative in
+suing the Richmond authorities for peace on terms proposed by them. The
+essential impossibility of these terms was not, however, apparent to Mr.
+Greeley, who sent them on to Washington, soliciting fresh instructions.
+With unwearied patience, Mr. Lincoln drew up a final paper, "To Whom it
+may Concern," formally restating his position, and despatched Major Hay
+with it to Niagara. This ended the conference; the Confederates charging
+the President through the newspapers with a "sudden and entire change of
+views"; while Mr. Greeley, being attacked by his colleagues of the press
+for his action, could defend himself only by implied censure of the
+President, utterly overlooking the fact that his own original letter had
+contained the identical propositions Mr. Lincoln insisted upon.
+
+The discussion grew so warm that both he and his assailants at last
+joined in a request to Mr. Lincoln to permit the publication of the
+correspondence. This was, of course, an excellent opportunity for the
+President to vindicate his own proceeding. But he rarely looked at such
+matters from the point of view of personal advantage, and he feared that
+the passionate, almost despairing appeals of the most prominent
+Republican editor of the North for peace at any cost, disclosed in the
+correspondence, would deepen the gloom in the public mind and have an
+injurious effect upon the Union cause. The spectacle of the veteran
+journalist, who was justly regarded as the leading controversial writer
+on the antislavery side, ready to sacrifice everything for peace, and
+frantically denouncing the government for refusing to surrender the
+contest, would have been, in its effect upon public opinion, a disaster
+equal to the loss of a great battle. He therefore proposed to Mr.
+Greeley, in case the letters were published, to omit some of the most
+vehement passages; and took Mr. Greeley's refusal to assent to this as a
+veto on their publication.
+
+It was characteristic of him that, seeing the temper in which Mr.
+Greeley regarded the transaction, he dropped the matter and submitted
+in silence to the misrepresentations to which he was subjected by reason
+of it. Some thought he erred in giving any hearing to the rebels; some
+criticized his choice of a commissioner; and the opposition naturally
+made the most of his conditions of negotiation, and accused him of
+embarking in a war of extermination in the interests of the negro.
+Though making no public effort to set himself right, he was keenly alive
+to their attitude. To a friend he wrote:
+
+"Saying reunion and abandonment of slavery would be considered, if
+offered, is not saying that nothing else or less would be considered, if
+offered.... Allow me to remind you that no one, having control of the
+rebel armies, or, in fact, having any influence whatever in the
+rebellion, has offered, or intimated, a willingness to a restoration of
+the Union, in any event, or on any condition whatever.... If Jefferson
+Davis wishes for himself, or for the benefit of his friends at the
+North, to know what I would do if he were to offer peace and reunion,
+saying nothing about slavery, let him try me."
+
+If the result of Mr. Greeley's Niagara efforts left any doubt that peace
+was at present unattainable, the fact was demonstrated beyond question
+by the published report of another unofficial and volunteer negotiation
+which was proceeding at the same time. In May, 1863, James F. Jaquess,
+D.D., a Methodist clergyman of piety and religious enthusiasm, who had
+been appointed by Governor Yates colonel of an Illinois regiment,
+applied for permission to go South, urging that by virtue of his church
+relations he could, within ninety days, obtain acceptable terms of peace
+from the Confederates. The military superiors to whom he submitted the
+request forwarded it to Mr. Lincoln with a favorable indorsement; and
+the President replied, consenting that they grant him a furlough, if
+they saw fit, but saying:
+
+"He cannot go with any government authority whatever. This is absolute
+and imperative."
+
+Eleven days later he was back again within Union lines, claiming to have
+valuable "unofficial" proposals for peace. President Lincoln paid no
+attention to his request for an interview, and in course of time he
+returned to his regiment. Nothing daunted, however, a year later he
+applied for and received permission to repeat his visit, this time in
+company with J.R. Gilmore, a lecturer and writer, but, as before,
+expressly without instruction or authority from Mr. Lincoln. They went
+to Richmond, and had an extended interview with Mr. Davis, during which
+they proposed to him a plan of adjustment as visionary as it was
+unauthorized, its central feature being a general election to be held
+over the whole country, North and South, within sixty days, on the two
+propositions,--peace with disunion and Southern independence, or peace
+with Union, emancipation, no confiscation, and universal amnesty,--the
+majority vote to decide, and the governments at Washington and Richmond
+to be finally bound by the decision.
+
+The interview resulted in nothing but a renewed declaration from Mr.
+Davis that he would fight for separation to the bitter end--a
+declaration which, on the whole, was of service to the Union cause,
+since, to a great extent, it stopped the clamor of the peace factionists
+during the presidential campaign. Not entirely, however. There was still
+criticism enough to induce Henry J. Raymond, chairman of the executive
+committee of the Republican party, to write a letter on August 22,
+suggesting to Mr. Lincoln that he ought to appoint a commission in due
+form to make proffers of peace to Davis on the sole condition of
+acknowledging the supremacy of the Constitution; all other questions to
+be settled in a convention of the people of all the States.
+
+Mr. Lincoln answered this patiently and courteously, framing, to give
+point to his argument, an experimental draft of instructions with which
+he proposed, in case such proffers were made, to send Mr. Raymond
+himself to the rebel authorities. On seeing these in black and white,
+Raymond, who had come to Washington to urge his project, readily agreed
+with the President and Secretaries Seward, Stanton, and Fessenden, that
+to carry it out would be worse than losing the presidential contest: it
+would be ignominiously surrendering it in advance.
+
+"Nevertheless," wrote an inmate of the White House, "the visit of
+himself and committee here did great good. They found the President and
+cabinet much better informed than themselves, and went home encouraged
+and cheered."
+
+The Democratic managers had called the national convention of their
+party to meet on the fourth of July, 1864; but after the nomination of
+Fremont at Cleveland, and of Lincoln at Baltimore, it was thought
+prudent to postpone it to a later date, in the hope that something in
+the chapter of accidents might arise to the advantage of the opposition.
+It appeared for a while as if this manoeuver were to be successful. The
+military situation was far from satisfactory. The terrible fighting of
+Grant's army in Virginia had profoundly shocked and depressed the
+country; and its movement upon Petersburg, so far without decisive
+results, had contributed little hope or encouragement. The campaign of
+Sherman in Georgia gave as yet no positive assurance of the brilliant
+results it afterward attained. The Confederate raid into Maryland and
+Pennsylvania in July was the cause of great annoyance and exasperation.
+
+This untoward state of things in the field of military operations found
+its exact counterpart in the political campaign. Several circumstances
+contributed to divide and discourage the administration party. The
+resignation of Mr. Chase had seemed to not a few leading Republicans a
+presage of disintegration in the government. Mr. Greeley's mission at
+Niagara Falls had unsettled and troubled the minds of many. The
+Democrats, not having as yet appointed a candidate or formulated a
+platform, were free to devote all their leisure to attacks upon the
+administration. The rebel emissaries in Canada, being in thorough
+concert with the leading peace men of the North, redoubled their efforts
+to disturb the public tranquility, and not without success. In the
+midst of these discouraging circumstances the manifesto of Wade and
+Davis had appeared to add its depressing influence to the general gloom.
+
+Mr. Lincoln realized to the full the tremendous issues of the campaign.
+Asked in August by a friend who noted his worn looks, if he could not go
+away for a fortnight's rest, he replied:
+
+"I cannot fly from my thoughts--my solicitude for this great country
+follows me wherever I go. I do not think it is personal vanity or
+ambition, though I am not free from these infirmities, but I cannot but
+feel that the weal or woe of this great nation will be decided in
+November. There is no program offered by any wing of the Democratic
+party, but that must result in the permanent destruction of the Union."
+
+"But, Mr. President," his friend objected, "General McClellan is in
+favor of crushing out this rebellion by force. He will be the Chicago
+candidate."
+
+"Sir, the slightest knowledge of arithmetic will prove to any man that
+the rebel armies cannot be destroyed by Democratic strategy. It would
+sacrifice all the white men of the North to do it. There are now in the
+service of the United States nearly one hundred and fifty thousand
+able-bodied colored men, most of them under arms, defending and
+acquiring Union territory. The Democratic strategy demands that these
+forces be disbanded, and that the masters be conciliated by restoring
+them to slavery.... You cannot conciliate the South if you guarantee to
+them ultimate success; and the experience of the present war proves
+their successes inevitable if you fling the compulsory labor of millions
+of black men into their side of the scale.... Abandon all the posts now
+garrisoned by black men, take one hundred and fifty thousand men from
+our side and put them in the battle-field or corn-field against us, and
+we would be compelled to abandon the war in three weeks.... My enemies
+pretend I am now carrying on this war for the sole purpose of abolition.
+So long as I am President it shall be carried on for the sole purpose of
+restoring the Union. But no human power can subdue this rebellion
+without the use of the emancipation policy and every other policy
+calculated to weaken the moral and physical forces of the rebellion....
+Let my enemies prove to the country that the destruction of slavery is
+not necessary to a restoration of the Union. I will abide the issue."
+
+The political situation grew still darker. When at last, toward the end
+of August, the general gloom had enveloped even the President himself,
+his action was most original and characteristic. Feeling that the
+campaign was going against him, he made up his mind deliberately as to
+the course he should pursue, and laid down for himself the action
+demanded by his conviction of duty. He wrote on August 23 the following
+memorandum:
+
+"This morning, as for some days past, it seems exceedingly probable that
+this administration will not be reelected. Then it will be my duty to so
+cooeperate with the President-elect as to save the Union between the
+election and the inauguration, as he will have secured his election on
+such ground that he cannot possibly save it afterwards."
+
+He then folded and pasted the sheet in such manner that its contents
+could not be read, and as the cabinet came together he handed this paper
+to each member successively, requesting them to write their names across
+the back of it. In this peculiar fashion he pledged himself and the
+administration to accept loyally the anticipated verdict of the people
+against him, and to do their utmost to save the Union in the brief
+remainder of his term of office. He gave no intimation to any member of
+his cabinet of the nature of the paper they had signed until after his
+reelection.
+
+The Democratic convention was finally called to meet in Chicago on
+August 29. Much had been expected by the peace party from the strength
+and audacity of its adherents in the Northwest; and, indeed, the day of
+the meeting of the convention was actually the date appointed by rebel
+emissaries in Canada for an outbreak which should effect that revolution
+in the northwestern States which had long been their chimerical dream.
+This scheme of the American Knights, however, was discovered and guarded
+against through the usual treachery of some of their members; and it is
+doubtful if the Democrats reaped any real, permanent advantage from the
+delay of their convention.
+
+On coming together, the only manner in which the peace men and war
+Democrats could arrive at an agreement was by mutual deception. The war
+Democrats, led by the delegation from New York, were working for a
+military candidate; while the peace Democrats, under the leadership of
+Vallandigham, who had returned from Canada and was allowed to remain at
+large through the half-contemptuous and half-calculated leniency of the
+government he defied, bent all their energies to a clear statement of
+their principles in the platform.
+
+Both got what they desired. General McClellan was nominated on the first
+ballot, and Vallandigham wrote the only plank worth quoting in the
+platform. It asserted: "That after four years of failure to restore the
+Union by the experiment of war, during which ... the Constitution itself
+has been disregarded in every part," public welfare demands "that
+immediate efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities." It is
+altogether probable that this distinct proposition of surrender to the
+Confederates might have been modified or defeated in full convention if
+the war Democrats had had the courage of their convictions; but they
+were so intent upon the nomination of McClellan, that they considered
+the platform of secondary importance, and the fatal resolutions were
+adopted without debate.
+
+Mr. Vallandigham, having thus taken possession of the convention, next
+adopted the candidate, and put the seal of his sinister approval on
+General McClellan by moving that his nomination be made unanimous, which
+was done amid great cheering. George H. Pendleton was nominated for
+Vice-President, and the convention adjourned--not _sine die_, as is
+customary, but "subject to be called at any time and place the executive
+national committee shall designate." The motives of this action were not
+avowed, but it was taken as a significant warning that the leaders of
+the Democratic party held themselves ready for any extraordinary
+measures which the exigencies of the time might provoke or invite.
+
+The New-Yorkers, however, had the last word, for Governor Seymour, in
+his letter as chairman of the committee to inform McClellan of his
+nomination, assured him that "those for whom we speak were animated with
+the most earnest, devoted, and prayerful desire for the salvation of the
+American Union"; and the general, knowing that the poison of death was
+in the platform, took occasion in his letter of acceptance to renew his
+assurances of devotion to the Union, the Constitution, the laws, and the
+flag of his country. After having thus absolutely repudiated the
+platform upon which he was nominated, he coolly concluded:
+
+"Believing that the views here expressed are those of the convention and
+the people you represent, I accept the nomination."
+
+His only possible chance of success lay, of course, in his war record.
+His position as a candidate on a platform of dishonorable peace would
+have been no less desperate than ridiculous. But the stars in their
+courses fought against the Democratic candidates. Even before the
+convention that nominated them, Farragut had won the splendid victory of
+Mobile Bay; during the very hours when the streets of Chicago were
+blazing with Democratic torches, Hood was preparing to evacuate Atlanta;
+and the same newspaper that printed Vallandigham's peace platform
+announced Sherman's entrance into the manufacturing metropolis of
+Georgia. The darkest hour had passed; dawn was at hand, and amid the
+thanksgivings of a grateful people, and the joyful salutes of great
+guns, the presidential campaign began.
+
+When the country awoke to the true significance of the Chicago platform,
+the successes of Sherman excited the enthusiasm of the people, and the
+Unionists, arousing from their midsummer languor, began to show their
+confidence in the Republican candidate, the hopelessness of all efforts
+to undermine him became evident.
+
+The electoral contest began with the picket firing in Vermont and Maine
+in September, was continued in what might be called the grand guard
+fighting in October in the great States of Pennsylvania, Ohio, and
+Indiana, and the final battle took place all along the line on November
+8. To Mr. Lincoln this was one of the most solemn days of his life.
+Assured of his personal success, and made devoutly confident by the
+military successes of the last few weeks that the day of peace and the
+reestablishment of the Union was at hand, he felt no elation, and no
+sense of triumph over his opponents. The thoughts that filled his mind
+were expressed in the closing sentences of the little speech he made in
+response to a group of serenaders that greeted him when, in the early
+morning hours, he left the War Department, where he had gone on the
+evening of election to receive the returns:
+
+"I am thankful to God for this approval of the people; but, while deeply
+grateful for this mark of their confidence in me, if I know my heart, my
+gratitude is free from any taint of personal triumph. I do not impugn
+the motives of any one opposed to me. It is no pleasure to me to triumph
+over any one, but I give thanks to the Almighty for this evidence of the
+people's resolution to stand by free government and the rights of
+humanity."
+
+Lincoln and Johnson received a popular majority of 411,281, and two
+hundred and twelve out of two hundred and thirty-three electoral votes,
+only those of New Jersey, Delaware, and Kentucky, twenty-one in all,
+being cast for McClellan. In his annual message to Congress, which met
+on December 5, President Lincoln gave the best summing up of the results
+of the election that has ever been written:
+
+"The purpose of the people within the loyal States to maintain the
+integrity of the Union was never more firm nor more nearly unanimous
+than now.... No candidate for any office whatever, high or low, has
+ventured to seek votes on the avowal that he was for giving up the
+Union. There have been much impugning of motives and much heated
+controversy as to the proper means and best mode of advancing the Union
+cause; but on the distinct issue of Union or no Union the politicians
+have shown their instinctive knowledge that there is no diversity among
+the people. In affording the people the fair opportunity of showing one
+to another and to the world this firmness and unanimity of purpose, the
+election has been of vast value to the national cause."
+
+On the day of election General McClellan resigned his commission in the
+army, and the place thus made vacant was filled by the appointment of
+General Philip H. Sheridan, a fit type and illustration of the turn in
+the tide of affairs, which was to sweep from that time rapidly onward to
+the great decisive national triumph.
+
+
+
+
+XXXIII
+
+The Thirteenth Amendment--The President's Speech on its Adoption--The
+Two Constitutional Amendments of Lincoln's Term--Lincoln on Peace and
+Slavery in his Annual Message of December 6, 1864--Blair's Mexican
+Project--The Hampton Roads Conference
+
+
+A joint resolution proposing an amendment to the Constitution
+prohibiting slavery throughout the United States had passed the Senate
+on April 8, 1864, but had failed of the necessary two-thirds vote in the
+House. The two most vital thoughts which animated the Baltimore
+convention when it met in June had been the renomination of Mr. Lincoln
+and the success of this constitutional amendment. The first was
+recognized as a popular decision needing only the formality of an
+announcement by the convention; and the full emphasis of speech and
+resolution had therefore been centered on the latter as the dominant and
+aggressive reform upon which the party would stake its political
+fortunes in the presidential campaign. Mr. Lincoln had himself suggested
+to Mr. Morgan the wisdom of sounding that key-note in his opening speech
+before the convention; and the great victory gained at the polls in
+November not only demonstrated his sagacity, but enabled him to take up
+the question with confidence among his recommendations to Congress in
+the annual message of December 6, 1864. Relating the fate of the measure
+at the preceding session, he said:
+
+"Without questioning the wisdom or patriotism of those who stood in
+opposition, I venture to recommend the reconsideration and passage of
+the measure at the present session. Of course the abstract question is
+not changed, but an intervening election shows, almost certainly, that
+the next Congress will pass the measure if this does not. Hence there is
+only a question of time as to when the proposed amendment will go to the
+States for their action. And as it is to so go at all events, may we not
+agree that the sooner the better? It is not claimed that the election
+has imposed a duty on members to change their views or their votes any
+further than, as an additional element to be considered, their judgment
+may be affected by it. It is the voice of the people, now for the first
+time heard upon the question. In a great national crisis like ours,
+unanimity of action among those seeking a common end is very
+desirable--almost indispensable. And yet no approach to such unanimity
+is attainable unless some deference shall be paid to the will of the
+majority, simply because it is the will of the majority. In this case
+the common end is the maintenance of the Union; and among the means to
+secure that end, such will, through the election, is most clearly
+declared in favor of such constitutional amendment."
+
+The joint resolution was called up in the House on January 6, 1865, and
+general discussion followed from time to time, occupying perhaps half
+the days of that month. As at the previous session, the Republicans all
+favored, while the Democrats mainly opposed it; but important exceptions
+among the latter showed what immense gains the proposition had made in
+popular opinion and in congressional willingness to recognize and embody
+it. The logic of events had become more powerful than party creed or
+strategy. For fifteen years the Democratic party had stood as sentinel
+and bulwark to slavery, and yet, despite its alliance and championship,
+the "peculiar institution" was being consumed in the fire of war. It had
+withered in popular elections, been paralyzed by confiscation laws,
+crushed by executive decrees, trampled upon by marching Union armies.
+More notable than all, the agony of dissolution had come upon it in its
+final stronghold--the constitutions of the slave States. Local public
+opinion had throttled it in West Virginia, in Missouri, in Arkansas, in
+Louisiana, in Maryland, and the same spirit of change was upon
+Tennessee, and even showing itself in Kentucky. The Democratic party did
+not, and could not, shut its eyes to the accomplished facts.
+
+The issue was decided on the afternoon of January 31, 1865. The scene
+was one of unusual interest. The galleries were filled to overflowing,
+and members watched the proceedings with unconcealed solicitude. "Up to
+noon," said a contemporaneous report, "the pro-slavery party are said to
+have been confident of defeating the amendment; and after that time had
+passed, one of the most earnest advocates of the measure said: "'Tis the
+toss of a copper." At four o'clock the House came to a final vote, and
+the roll-call showed: yeas, one hundred and nineteen; nays, fifty-six;
+not voting, eight. Scattering murmurs of applause followed affirmative
+votes from several Democratic members; but when the Speaker finally
+announced the result, members on the Republican side of the House sprang
+to their feet, and, regardless of parliamentary rules, applauded with
+cheers and hand-clappings--an exhibition of enthusiasm quickly echoed by
+the spectators in the crowded galleries, where waving of hats and
+handkerchiefs and similar demonstrations of joy lasted for several
+minutes.
+
+A salute of one hundred guns soon made the occasion the subject of
+comment and congratulation throughout the city. On the following night a
+considerable procession marched with music to the Executive Mansion to
+carry popular greetings to the President. In response to their calls he
+appeared at a window and made a brief speech, of which only an abstract
+report was preserved, but which is nevertheless important as showing the
+searching analysis of cause and effect this question had undergone in
+his mind, the deep interest he felt in it, and the far-reaching
+consequences he attached to the measure and its success:
+
+"The occasion was one of congratulation to the country and to the whole
+world. But there is a task yet before us--to go forward and have
+consummated by the votes of the States that which Congress had so nobly
+begun yesterday. He had the honor to inform those present that Illinois
+had already to-day done the work. Maryland was about half through, but
+he felt proud that Illinois was a little ahead. He thought this measure
+was a very fitting, if not an indispensable, adjunct to the winding up
+of the great difficulty. He wished the reunion of all the States
+perfected, and so effected as to remove all causes of disturbance in the
+future; and to attain this end it was necessary that the original
+disturbing cause should, if possible, be rooted out. He thought all
+would bear him witness that he had never shrunk from doing all that he
+could to eradicate slavery, by issuing an emancipation proclamation. But
+that proclamation falls far short of what the amendment will be when
+fully consummated. A question might be raised whether the proclamation
+was legally valid. It might be urged that it only aided those that came
+into our lines, and that it was inoperative as to those who did not give
+themselves up; or that it would have no effect upon the children of
+slaves born hereafter; in fact, it would be urged that it did not meet
+the evil. But this amendment is a king's cure-all for all the evils. It
+winds the whole thing up. He would repeat that it was the fitting, if
+not the indispensable, adjunct to the consummation of the great game we
+are playing."
+
+Widely divergent views were expressed by able constitutional lawyers as
+to what would constitute a valid ratification of the Thirteenth
+Amendment; some contending that ratification by three fourths of the
+loyal States would be sufficient, others that three fourths of all the
+States, whether loyal or insurrectionary, was necessary. Mr. Lincoln, in
+a speech on Louisiana reconstruction, while expressing no opinion
+against the first proposition, nevertheless declared with great
+argumentative force that the latter "would be unquestioned and
+unquestionable"; and this view appears to have governed the action of
+his successor.
+
+As Mr. Lincoln mentioned with just pride, Illinois was the first State
+to ratify the amendment. On December 18, 1865, Mr. Seward, who remained
+as Secretary of State in the cabinet of President Johnson, made official
+proclamation that the legislatures of twenty-seven States, constituting
+three fourths of the thirty-six States of the Union, had ratified the
+amendment, and that it had become valid as a part of the Constitution.
+Four of the States constituting this number--Virginia, Louisiana,
+Tennessee, and Arkansas--were those whose reconstruction had been
+effected under the direction of President Lincoln. Six more States
+subsequently ratified the amendment, Texas ending the list in February,
+1870.
+
+The profound political transformation which the American Republic had
+undergone can perhaps best be measured by contrasting the two
+constitutional amendments which Congress made it the duty of the Lincoln
+administration to submit officially to the States. The first, signed by
+President Buchanan as one of his last official acts, and accepted and
+indorsed by Lincoln in his inaugural address, was in these words:
+
+"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."
+
+Between Lincoln's inauguration and the outbreak of war, the Department
+of State transmitted this amendment to the several States for their
+action; and had the South shown a willingness to desist from secession
+and accept it as a peace offering, there is little doubt that it would
+have become a part of the Constitution. But the thunder of Beauregard's
+guns drove away all possibility of such a ratification, and within four
+years the Lincoln administration sent forth the amendment of 1865,
+sweeping out of existence by one sentence the institution to which it
+had in its first proposal offered a virtual claim to perpetual
+recognition and tolerance. The "new birth of freedom" which Lincoln
+invoked for the nation in his Gettysburg address, was accomplished.
+
+The closing paragraphs of President Lincoln's message to Congress of
+December 6, 1864, were devoted to a summing up of the existing
+situation. The verdict of the ballot-box had not only decided the
+continuance of a war administration and war policy, but renewed the
+assurance of a public sentiment to sustain its prosecution. Inspired by
+this majestic manifestation of the popular will, he was able to speak of
+the future with hope and confidence. But with characteristic prudence
+and good taste, he uttered no word of boasting, and indulged in no
+syllable of acrimony; on the contrary, in terms of fatherly kindness he
+again offered the rebellious States the generous conditions he had
+previously tendered them.
+
+"The national resources, then, are unexhausted, and, as we believe,
+inexhaustible. The public purpose to reestablish and maintain the
+national authority is unchanged and, as we believe, unchangeable. The
+manner of continuing the effort remains to choose. On careful
+consideration of all the evidence accessible, it seems to me that no
+attempt at negotiation with the insurgent leader could result in any
+good. He would accept nothing short of severance of the Union--precisely
+what we will not and cannot give. His declarations to this effect are
+explicit and oft-repeated.... What is true, however, of him who heads
+the insurgent cause is not necessarily true of those who follow.
+Although he cannot reaccept the Union, they can. Some of them, we know,
+already desire peace and reunion. The number of such may increase. They
+can, at any moment, have peace simply by laying down their arms and
+submitting to the national authority under the Constitution. After so
+much, the government could not, if it would, maintain war against them.
+The loyal people would not sustain or allow it. If questions should
+remain, we would adjust them by the peaceful means of legislation,
+conference, courts, and votes, operating only in constitutional and
+lawful channels.... In presenting the abandonment of armed resistance to
+the national authority, on the part of the insurgents, as the only
+indispensable condition to ending the war on the part of the government,
+I retract nothing heretofore said as to slavery. I repeat the
+declaration made a year ago, that 'While I remain in my present
+position I shall not attempt to retract or modify the emancipation
+proclamation, nor shall I return to slavery any person who is free by
+the terms of that proclamation, or by any of the acts of Congress.' If
+the people should, by whatever mode or means, make it an executive duty
+to reenslave such persons, another, and not I, must be their instrument
+to perform it. In stating a single condition of peace, I mean simply to
+say that the war will cease on the part of the government whenever it
+shall have ceased on the part of those who began it." The country was
+about to enter upon the fifth year of actual war; but all indications
+were pointing to a speedy collapse of the rebellion. This foreshadowed
+disaster to the Confederate armies gave rise to another volunteer peace
+negotiation, which, from the boldness of its animating thought and the
+prominence of its actors, assumes a special importance. The veteran
+politician Francis P. Blair, Sr., who, from his long political and
+personal experience in Washington, knew, perhaps better than almost any
+one else, the individual characters and tempers of Southern leaders,
+conceived that the time had come when he might take up the role of
+successful mediator between the North and the South. He gave various
+hints of his desire to President Lincoln, but received neither
+encouragement nor opportunity to unfold his plans. "Come to me after
+Savannah falls," was Lincoln's evasive reply. On the surrender of that
+city, Mr. Blair hastened to put his design into execution, and with a
+simple card from Mr. Lincoln, dated December 28, saying, "Allow the
+bearer, F.P. Blair, Sr., to pass our lines, go south and return," as his
+only credential, set out for Richmond. From General Grant's camp he
+forwarded two letters to Jefferson Davis: one, a brief request to be
+allowed to go to Richmond in search of missing title papers presumably
+taken from his Maryland home during Early's raid; the other, a longer
+letter, explaining the real object of his visit, but stating with the
+utmost candor that he came wholly unaccredited, save for permission to
+pass the lines, and that he had not offered the suggestions he wished to
+submit in person to Mr. Davis to any one in authority at Washington.
+
+After some delay, he found himself in Richmond, and was accorded a
+confidential interview by the rebel President on January 12, 1865, when
+he unfolded his project, which proved to be nothing less than a
+proposition that the Union and Confederate armies cease fighting each
+other and unite to drive the French from Mexico. He supported this
+daring idea in a paper of some length, pointing out that as slavery, the
+real cause of the war, was hopelessly doomed, nothing now remained to
+keep the two sections of the country apart except the possible
+intervention of foreign soldiery. Hence, all considerations pointed to
+the wisdom of dislodging the French invaders from American soil, and
+thus baffling "the designs of Napoleon to subject our Southern people to
+the 'Latin race.'"
+
+"He who expels the Bonaparte-Hapsburg dynasty from our southern flank,"
+the paper said further, "will ally his name with those of Washington and
+Jackson as a defender of the liberty of the country. If in delivering
+Mexico he should model its States in form and principle to adapt them to
+our Union, and add a new southern constellation to its benignant sky
+while rounding off our possessions on the continent at the Isthmus, ...
+he would complete the work of Jefferson, who first set one foot of our
+colossal government on the Pacific by a stride from the Gulf of
+Mexico...."
+
+"I then said to him, 'There is my problem, Mr. Davis; do you think it
+possible to be solved?' After consideration, he said: 'I think so.' I
+then said, 'You see that I make the great point of this matter that the
+war is no longer made for slavery, but monarchy. You know that if the
+war is kept up and the Union kept divided, armies must be kept afoot on
+both sides, and this state of things has never continued long without
+resulting in monarchy on one side or the other, and on both generally.'
+He assented to this."
+
+The substantial accuracy of Mr. Blair's report is confirmed by the
+memorandum of the same interview which Jefferson Davis wrote at the
+time. In this conversation, the rebel leader took little pains to
+disguise his entire willingness to enter upon the wild scheme of
+military conquest and annexation which could easily be read between the
+lines of a political crusade to rescue the Monroe Doctrine from its
+present peril. If Mr. Blair felt elated at having so quickly made a
+convert of the Confederate President, he was further gratified at
+discovering yet more favorable symptoms in his official surroundings at
+Richmond. In the three or four days he spent at the rebel capital he
+found nearly every prominent personage convinced of the hopeless
+condition of the rebellion, and even eager to seize upon any contrivance
+to help them out of their direful prospects.
+
+But the government councils at Washington were not ruled by the spirit
+of political adventure. Abraham Lincoln had a loftier conception of
+patriotic duty, and a higher ideal of national ethics. His whole
+interest in Mr. Blair's mission lay in the rebel despondency it
+disclosed, and the possibility it showed of bringing the Confederates to
+an abandonment of their resistance. Mr. Davis had, indeed, given Mr.
+Blair a letter, to be shown to President Lincoln, stating his
+willingness, "notwithstanding the rejection of our former offers," to
+appoint a commissioner to enter into negotiations "with a view to secure
+peace to the two countries." This was, of course, the old impossible
+attitude. In reply the President wrote Mr. Blair on January 18 the
+following note:
+
+"SIR: You having shown me Mr. Davis's letter to you of the twelfth
+instant, you may say to him that I have constantly been, am now, and
+shall continue ready to receive any agent whom he, or any other
+influential person now resisting the national authority, may informally
+send to me, with the view of securing peace to the people of our one
+common country."
+
+With this, Mr. Blair returned to Richmond, giving Mr. Davis such excuses
+as he could hastily frame why the President had rejected his plan for a
+joint invasion of Mexico. Jefferson Davis therefore had only two
+alternatives before him--either to repeat his stubborn ultimatum of
+separation and independence, or frankly to accept Lincoln's ultimatum of
+reunion. The principal Richmond authorities knew, and some of them
+admitted, that their Confederacy was nearly in collapse. Lee sent a
+despatch saying he had not two days' rations for his army. Richmond was
+already in a panic at rumors of evacuation. Flour was selling at a
+thousand dollars a barrel in Confederate currency. The recent fall of
+Fort Fisher had closed the last avenue through which blockade-runners
+could bring in foreign supplies. Governor Brown of Georgia was refusing
+to obey orders from Richmond, and characterizing them as "despotic."
+Under such circumstances a defiant cry of independence would not
+reassure anybody; nor, on the other hand, was it longer possible to
+remain silent. Mr. Blair's first visit had created general interest;
+when he came a second time, wonder and rumor rose to fever heat.
+
+Impelled to take action, Mr. Davis had not the courage to be frank.
+After consultation with his cabinet, a peace commission of three was
+appointed, consisting of Alexander H. Stephens, Vice-President; R.M.T.
+Hunter, senator and ex-Secretary of State; and John A. Campbell,
+Assistant Secretary of War--all of them convinced that the rebellion was
+hopeless, but unwilling to admit the logical consequences and
+necessities. The drafting of instructions for their guidance was a
+difficult problem, since the explicit condition prescribed by Mr.
+Lincoln's note was that he would receive only an agent sent him "with
+the view of securing peace to the people of our one common country." The
+rebel Secretary of State proposed, in order to make the instructions "as
+vague and general as possible," the simple direction to confer "upon the
+subject to which it relates"; but his chief refused the suggestion, and
+wrote the following instruction, which carried a palpable contradiction
+on its face:
+
+"In conformity with the letter of Mr. Lincoln, of which the foregoing is
+a copy, you are requested to proceed to Washington City for informal
+conference with him upon the issues involved in the existing war, and
+for the purpose of securing peace to the two countries."
+
+With this the commissioners presented themselves at the Union lines on
+the evening of January 29, but instead of showing their double-meaning
+credential, asked admission, "in accordance with an understanding
+claimed to exist with Lieutenant-General Grant." Mr. Lincoln, being
+apprised of the application, promptly despatched Major Thomas T. Eckert,
+of the War Department, with written directions to admit them under
+safe-conduct, if they would say in writing that they came for the
+purpose of an informal conference on the basis of his note of January 18
+to Mr. Blair. The commissioners having meantime reconsidered the form of
+their application and addressed a new one to General Grant which met the
+requirements, were provisionally conveyed to Grant's headquarters; and
+on January 31 the President commissioned Secretary Seward to meet them,
+saying in his written instructions:
+
+"You will make known to them that three things are indispensable, to
+wit: First. The restoration of the national authority throughout all the
+States. Second. No receding by the Executive of the United States on the
+slavery question from the position assumed thereon in the late annual
+message to Congress, and in preceding documents. Third. No cessation of
+hostilities short of an end of the war, and the disbanding of all forces
+hostile to the government. You will inform them that all propositions of
+theirs, not inconsistent with the above, will be considered and passed
+upon in a spirit of sincere liberality. You will hear all they may
+choose to say, and report it to me. You will not assume to definitely
+consummate anything."
+
+Mr. Seward started on the morning of February 1, and simultaneously with
+his departure the President repeated to General Grant the monition
+already sent him two days before: "Let nothing which is transpiring
+change, hinder, or delay your military movements or plans." Major Eckert
+had arrived while Mr. Seward was yet on the way, and on seeing Jefferson
+Davis's instructions, promptly notified the commissioners that they
+could not proceed further without complying strictly with President
+Lincoln's terms. Thus, at half-past nine on the night of February 1,
+their mission was practically at an end, though next day they again
+recanted and accepted the President's conditions in writing. Mr.
+Lincoln, on reading Major Eckert's report on the morning of February 2,
+was about to recall Secretary Seward by telegraph, when he was shown a
+confidential despatch from General Grant to the Secretary of War,
+stating his belief that the intention of the commissioners was good, and
+their desire for peace sincere, and regretting that Mr. Lincoln could
+not have an interview with them. This communication served to change his
+purpose. Resolving not to neglect the indications of sincerity here
+described, he telegraphed at once, "Say to the gentlemen I will meet
+them personally at Fortress Monroe as soon as I can get there," and
+joined Secretary Seward that same night.
+
+On the morning of February 3, 1865, the rebel commissioners were
+conducted on board the _River Queen_, lying at anchor near Fort Monroe,
+where President Lincoln and Secretary Seward awaited them. It was agreed
+beforehand that no writing or memorandum should be made at the time, so
+the record of the interview remains only in the separate accounts which
+the rebel commissioners wrote out afterward from memory, neither Mr.
+Seward nor President Lincoln ever having made any report in detail. In a
+careful analysis of these reports, the first striking feature is the
+difference of intention between the parties. It is apparent that Mr.
+Lincoln went honestly and frankly to offer them the best terms he could
+to, secure peace and reunion, but to abate no jot of official duty or
+personal dignity; while the main thought of the commissioners was to
+evade the express condition on which they had been admitted to
+conference, to seek to postpone the vital issue, and to propose an
+armistice by debating a mere juggling expedient against which they had
+in a private agreement with one another already committed themselves.
+
+At the first hint of Blair's Mexican project, however, Mr. Lincoln
+firmly disclaimed any responsibility for the suggestion, or any
+intention of adopting it, and during the four hours' talk led the
+conversation continually back to the original object of the conference.
+But though he patiently answered the many questions addressed him by the
+commissioners, as to what would probably be done on various important
+subjects that must arise at once if the Confederate States consented,
+carefully discriminating in his answers between what he was authorized
+under the Constitution to do as Executive, and what would devolve upon
+cooerdinate branches of the government, the interview came to nothing.
+The commissioners returned to Richmond in great disappointment, and
+communicated the failure of their efforts to Jefferson Davis, whose
+chagrin was equal to their own. They had all caught eagerly at the hope
+that this negotiation would somehow extricate them from the dilemmas and
+dangers of their situation. Davis took the only course open to him after
+refusing the honorable peace Mr. Lincoln had tendered. He transmitted
+the commissioners' report to the rebel Congress, with a brief and dry
+message stating that the enemy refused any terms except those the
+conqueror might grant; and then arranged as vigorous an effort as
+circumstances permitted once more to "fire the Southern heart." A public
+meeting was called, where the speeches, judging from the meager reports
+printed, were as denunciatory and bellicose as the bitterest Confederate
+could desire. Davis particularly is represented to have excelled himself
+in defiant heroics. "Sooner than we should ever be united again," he
+said, "he would be willing to yield up everything he had on earth--if it
+were possible, he would sacrifice a thousand lives"; and he further
+announced his confidence that they would yet "compel the Yankees, in
+less than twelve months, to petition us for peace on our own terms."
+
+This extravagant rhetoric would seem merely grotesque, were it not
+embittered by the reflection that it was the signal which carried many
+additional thousands of brave soldiers to death, in continuing a
+palpably hopeless military struggle.
+
+
+
+
+XXXIV
+
+Blair--Chase Chief Justice--Speed Succeeds Bates--McCulloch Succeeds
+Fessenden--Resignation of Mr. Usher--Lincoln's Offer of
+$400,000,000--The Second Inaugural--Lincoln's Literary Rank--His Last
+Speech
+
+
+The principal concession in the Baltimore platform made by the friends
+of the administration to their opponents, the radicals, was the
+resolution which called for harmony in the cabinet. The President at
+first took no notice, either publicly or privately, of this resolution,
+which was in effect a recommendation that he dismiss those members of
+his council who were stigmatized as conservatives; and the first cabinet
+change which actually took place after the adjournment of the convention
+filled the radical body of his supporters with dismay, since they had
+looked upon Mr. Chase as their special representative in the government.
+The publication of the Wade-Davis manifesto still further increased
+their restlessness, and brought upon Mr. Lincoln a powerful pressure
+from every quarter to satisfy radical demands by dismissing Montgomery
+Blair, his Postmaster-General. Mr. Blair had been one of the founders of
+the Republican party, and in the very forefront of opposition to slavery
+extension, but had gradually attracted to himself the hostility of all
+the radical Republicans in the country. The immediate cause of this
+estrangement was the bitter quarrel that developed between his family
+and General Fremont in Missouri: a quarrel in which the Blairs were
+undoubtedly right in the beginning, but which broadened and extended
+until it landed them finally in the Democratic party.
+
+The President considered the dispute one of form rather than substance,
+and having a deep regard, not only for the Postmaster-General, but for
+his brother, General Frank Blair, and for his distinguished father, was
+most reluctant to take action against him. Even in the bosom of the
+government, however, a strong hostility to Mr. Blair manifested itself.
+As long as Chase remained in the cabinet there was smoldering hostility
+between them, and his attitude toward Seward and Stanton was one of
+increasing enmity. General Halleck, incensed at some caustic remarks
+Blair was reported to have made about the defenders of the capital after
+Early's raid, during which the family estate near Washington had
+suffered, sent an angry note to the War Department, wishing to know if
+such "wholesale denouncement" had the President's sanction; adding that
+either the names of the officers accused should be stricken from the
+rolls, or the "slanderer dismissed from the cabinet." Mr. Stanton sent
+the letter to the President without comment. This was too much; and the
+Secretary received an answer on the very same day, written in Mr.
+Lincoln's most masterful manner:
+
+"Whether the remarks were really made I do not know, nor do I suppose
+such knowledge is necessary to a correct response. If they were made, I
+do not approve them; and yet, under the circumstances, I would not
+dismiss a member of the cabinet therefore. I do not consider what may
+have been hastily said in a moment of vexation at so severe a loss is
+sufficient ground for so grave a step.... I propose continuing to be
+myself the judge as to when a member of the cabinet shall be
+dismissed."
+
+Not content with this, the President, when the cabinet came together,
+read them this impressive little lecture:
+
+"I must myself be the judge how long to retain in and when to remove any
+of you from his position. It would greatly pain me to discover any of
+you endeavoring to procure another's removal, or in any way to prejudice
+him before the public. Such endeavor would be a wrong to me, and, much
+worse, a wrong to the country. My wish is that on this subject no remark
+be made nor question asked by any of you, here or elsewhere, now or
+hereafter."
+
+This is one of the most remarkable speeches ever made by a President.
+The tone of authority is unmistakable. Washington was never more
+dignified; Jackson was never more peremptory.
+
+The feeling against Mr. Blair and the pressure upon the President for
+his removal increased throughout the summer. All through the period of
+gloom and discouragement he refused to act, even when he believed the
+verdict of the country likely to go against him, and was assured on
+every side that such a concession to the radical spirit might be greatly
+to his advantage. But after the turn had come, and the prospective
+triumph of the Union cause became evident, he felt that he ought no
+longer to retain in his cabinet a member who, whatever his personal
+merits, had lost the confidence of the great body of Republicans; and on
+September 9 wrote him a kindly note, requesting his resignation.
+
+Mr. Blair accepted his dismissal in a manner to be expected from his
+manly and generous character, not pretending to be pleased, but assuming
+that the President had good reason for his action; and, on turning over
+his office to his successor, ex-Governor William Dennison of Ohio, went
+at once to Maryland and entered into the campaign, working heartily for
+Mr. Lincoln's reelection.
+
+After the death of Judge Taney in October, Mr. Blair for a while
+indulged the hope that he might be appointed chief justice, a position
+for which his natural abilities and legal acquirements eminently fitted
+him. But Mr. Chase was chosen, to the bitter disappointment of Mr.
+Blair's family, though even this did not shake their steadfast loyalty
+to the Union cause or their personal friendship for the President.
+Immediately after his second inauguration, Mr. Lincoln offered
+Montgomery Blair his choice of the Spanish or the Austrian mission, an
+offer which he peremptorily though respectfully declined.
+
+The appointment of Mr. Chase as chief justice had probably been decided
+on in Mr. Lincoln's own mind from the first, though he gave no public
+intimation of his decision before sending the nomination to the Senate
+on December 6. Mr. Chase's partizans claimed that the President had
+already virtually promised him the place; his opponents counted upon the
+ex-secretary's attitude of criticism to work against his appointment.
+But Mr. Lincoln sternly checked all presentations of this personal
+argument; nor were the prayers of those who urged him to overlook the
+harsh and indecorous things Mr. Chase had said of him at all necessary.
+To one who spoke in this latter strain the President replied:
+
+"Oh, as to that I care nothing. Of Mr. Chase's ability, and of his
+soundness on the general issues of the war, there is, of course, no
+question. I have only one doubt about his appointment. He is a man of
+unbounded ambition, and has been working all his life to become
+President. That he can never be; and I fear that if I make him chief
+justice he will simply become more restless and uneasy and neglect the
+place in his strife and intrigue to make himself President. If I were
+sure that he would go on the bench and give up his aspirations, and do
+nothing but make himself a great judge, I would not hesitate a moment."
+
+He wrote out Mr. Chase's nomination with his own hand, and sent it to
+the Senate the day after Congress came together. It was confirmed at
+once, without reference to a committee, and Mr. Chase, on learning of
+his new dignity, sent the President a cordial note, thanking him for the
+manner of his appointment, and adding: "I prize your confidence and good
+will more than any nomination to office." But Mr. Lincoln's fears were
+better founded than his hopes. Though Mr. Chase took his place on the
+bench with a conscientious desire to do his whole duty in his great
+office, he could not dismiss the political affairs of the country from
+his mind, and still considered himself called upon to counteract the
+mischievous tendencies of the President toward conciliation and hasty
+reconstruction.
+
+The reorganization of the cabinet went on by gradual disintegration
+rather than by any brusque or even voluntary action on the part of Mr.
+Lincoln. Mr. Bates, the attorney-general, growing weary of the labors of
+his official position, resigned toward the end of November. Mr. Lincoln,
+on whom the claim of localities always had great weight, unable to
+decide upon another Missourian fitted for the place, offered it to
+Joseph Holt of Kentucky, who declined, and then to James Speed, also a
+Kentuckian of high professional and social standing, the brother of his
+early friend Joshua F. Speed. Soon after the opening of the new year,
+Mr. Fessenden, having been again elected to the Senate from Maine,
+resigned his office as Secretary of the Treasury. The place thus
+vacated instantly excited a wide and spirited competition of
+recommendations. The President wished to appoint Governor Morgan of New
+York, who declined, and the choice finally fell upon Hugh McCulloch of
+Indiana, who had made a favorable record as comptroller of the currency.
+Thus only two of Mr. Lincoln's original cabinet, Mr. Seward and Mr.
+Welles, were in office at the date of his second inauguration; and still
+another change was in contemplation. Mr. Usher of Indiana, who had for
+some time discharged the duties of Secretary of the Interior, desiring,
+as he said, to relieve the President from any possible embarrassment
+which might arise from the fact that two of his cabinet were from the
+same State, sent in his resignation, which Mr. Lincoln indorsed "To take
+effect May 15, 1865."
+
+The tragic events of the future were mercifully hidden. Mr. Lincoln,
+looking forward to four years more of personal leadership, was planning
+yet another generous offer to shorten the period of conflict. His talk
+with the commissioners at Hampton Roads had probably revealed to him the
+undercurrent of their hopelessness and anxiety; and he had told them
+that personally he would be in favor of the government paying a liberal
+indemnity for the loss of slave property, on absolute cessation of the
+war and the voluntary abolition of slavery by the Southern States.
+
+This was indeed going to the extreme of magnanimity; but Mr. Lincoln
+remembered that the rebels, notwithstanding all their offenses and
+errors, were yet American citizens, members of the same nation, brothers
+of the same blood. He remembered, too, that the object of the war,
+equally with peace and freedom, was the maintenance of one government
+and the perpetuation of one Union. Not only must hostilities cease, but
+dissension, suspicion, and estrangement be eradicated. Filled with such
+thoughts and purposes, he spent the day after his return from Hampton
+Roads in considering and perfecting a new proposal, designed as a peace
+offering to the States in rebellion. On the evening of February 5, 1865,
+he called his cabinet together, and read to them the draft of a joint
+resolution and proclamation embodying this idea, offering the Southern
+States four hundred million dollars, or a sum equal to the cost of the
+war for two hundred days, on condition that hostilities cease by the
+first of April, 1865; to be paid in six per cent. government bonds, pro
+rata on their slave populations as shown by the census of 1860--one half
+on April 1, the other half only upon condition that the Thirteenth
+Amendment be ratified by a requisite number of States before July 1,
+1865.
+
+It turned out that he was more humane and liberal than his
+constitutional advisers. The indorsement in his own handwriting on the
+manuscript draft records the result of his appeal and suggestion:
+
+     "February 5, 1865. To-day, these papers, which explain themselves,
+     were drawn up and submitted to the cabinet, and unanimously
+     disapproved by them.
+
+     "A. LINCOLN."
+
+With the words, "You are all opposed to me," sadly uttered, the
+President folded up the paper and ceased the discussion.
+
+The formal inauguration of Mr. Lincoln for his second presidential term
+took place at the appointed time, March 4, 1865. There is little
+variation in the simple but impressive pageantry with which the official
+ceremony is celebrated. The principal novelty commented upon by the
+newspapers was the share which the hitherto enslaved race had for the
+first time in this public and political drama. Civic associations of
+negro citizens joined in the procession, and a battalion of negro
+soldiers formed part of the military escort. The weather was
+sufficiently favorable to allow the ceremonies to take place on the
+eastern portico of the Capitol, in view of a vast throng of spectators.
+The central act of the occasion was President Lincoln's second inaugural
+address, which enriched the political literature of the Union with
+another masterpiece, and deserves to be quoted in full. He said:
+
+     "FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN: At this second appearing to take the oath of
+     the presidential office, there is less occasion for an extended
+     address than there was at the first. Then, a statement, somewhat in
+     detail, of a course to be pursued, seemed fitting and proper. Now,
+     at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations
+     have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the
+     great contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the
+     energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The
+     progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as
+     well known to the public as to myself; and it is, I trust,
+     reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for
+     the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured.
+
+     "On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts
+     were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded
+     it--all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being
+     delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union
+     without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy
+     it without war--seeking to dissolve the Union, and divide effects,
+     by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would
+     make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would
+     accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came.
+
+     "One eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not
+     distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the Southern
+     part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful
+     interest. All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of
+     the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was
+     the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union, even by
+     war; while the government claimed no right to do more than to
+     restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected
+     for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already
+     attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might
+     cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should cease. Each
+     looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and
+     astounding. Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and
+     each invokes his aid against the other. It may seem strange that
+     any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing
+     their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge
+     not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be
+     answered--that of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has
+     his own purposes. 'Woe unto the world because of offenses! for it
+     must needs be that offenses come; but woe to that man by whom the
+     offense cometh.' If we shall suppose that American slavery is one
+     of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come,
+     but which, having continued through his appointed time, he now
+     wills to remove, and that he gives to both North and South this
+     terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offense came,
+     shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes
+     which the believers in a living God always ascribe to him? Fondly
+     do we hope--fervently do we pray--that this mighty scourge of war
+     may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until
+     all the wealth piled by the bondman's two hundred and fifty years
+     of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood
+     drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword,
+     as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said,
+     'The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.'
+
+     "With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in
+     the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to
+     finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds, to care
+     for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his
+     orphan--to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting
+     peace among ourselves, and with all nations."
+
+The address being concluded, Chief Justice Chase administered the oath
+of office; and listeners who heard Abraham Lincoln for the second time
+repeat, "I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office
+of President of the United States, and will, to the best of my ability,
+preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States,"
+went from the impressive scene to their several homes with thankfulness
+and with confidence that the destiny of the country and the liberty of
+the citizen were in safe keeping. "The fiery trial" through which he had
+hitherto walked showed him possessed of the capacity, the courage, and
+the will to keep the promise of his oath.
+
+Among the many criticisms passed by writers and thinkers upon the second
+inaugural, none will so interest the reader as that of Mr. Lincoln
+himself, written about ten days after its delivery, in the following
+letter to a friend:
+
+     "DEAR MR. WEED: Every one likes a compliment. Thank you for yours
+     on my little notification speech, and on the recent inaugural
+     address. I expect the latter to wear as well as, perhaps better
+     than, anything I have produced; but I believe it is not immediately
+     popular. Men are not flattered by being shown that there has been a
+     difference of purpose between the Almighty and them. To deny it,
+     however, in this case, is to deny that there is a God governing the
+     world. It is a truth which I thought needed to be told, and, as
+     whatever of humiliation there is in it falls most directly on
+     myself, I thought others might afford for me to tell it."
+
+Nothing would have more amazed Mr. Lincoln than to hear himself called a
+man of letters; but this age has produced few greater writers. Emerson
+ranks him with Aesop; Montalembert commends his style as a model for the
+imitation of princes. It is true that in his writings the range of
+subjects is not great. He was chiefly concerned with the political
+problems of the time, and the moral considerations involved in them. But
+the range of treatment is remarkably wide, running from the wit, the gay
+humor, the florid eloquence of his stump speeches, to the marvelous
+sententiousness and brevity of the address at Gettysburg, and the
+sustained and lofty grandeur of his second inaugural; while many of his
+phrases have already passed into the daily speech of mankind.
+
+A careful student of Mr. Lincoln's character will find this inaugural
+address instinct with another meaning, which, very naturally, the
+President's own comment did not touch. The eternal law of compensation,
+which it declares and applies to the sin and fall of American slavery,
+in a diction rivaling the fire and dignity of the old Hebrew prophecies,
+may, without violent inference, be interpreted to foreshadow an
+intention to renew at a fitting moment the brotherly goodwill gift to
+the South which has already been treated of. Such an inference finds
+strong corroboration in the sentences which closed the last public
+address he ever made. On Tuesday evening, April 11, a considerable
+assemblage of citizens of Washington gathered at the Executive Mansion
+to celebrate the victory of Grant over Lee. The rather long and careful
+speech which Mr. Lincoln made on that occasion was, however, less about
+the past than the future. It discussed the subject of reconstruction as
+illustrated in the case of Louisiana, showing also how that issue was
+related to the questions of emancipation, the condition of the freedmen,
+the welfare of the South, and the ratification of the constitutional
+amendment.
+
+"So new and unprecedented is the whole case," he concluded, "that no
+exclusive and inflexible plan can safely be prescribed as to details and
+collaterals. Such exclusive and inflexible plan would surely become a
+new entanglement. Important principles may and must be inflexible. In
+the present situation, as the phrase goes, it may be my duty to make
+some new announcement to the people of the South. I am considering, and
+shall not fail to act when satisfied that action will be proper."
+
+Can any one doubt that this "new announcement" which was taking shape in
+his mind would again have embraced and combined justice to the blacks
+and generosity to the whites of the South, with Union and liberty for
+the whole country?
+
+
+
+
+XXXV
+
+Depreciation of Confederate Currency--Rigor of
+Conscription--Dissatisfaction with the Confederate Government--Lee
+General-in-Chief--J.E. Johnston Reappointed to Oppose Sherman's
+March--Value of Slave Property Gone in Richmond--Davis's Recommendation
+of Emancipation--Benjamin's Last Despatch to Slidell--Condition of the
+Army when Lee took Command--Lee Attempts Negotiations with
+Grant--Lincoln's Directions--Lee and Davis Agree upon Line of
+Retreat--Assault on Fort Stedman--Five Forks--Evacuation of
+Petersburg--Surrender of Richmond--Pursuit of Lee--Surrender of
+Lee--Burning of Richmond--Lincoln in Richmond
+
+
+From the hour of Mr. Lincoln's reelection the Confederate cause was
+doomed. The cheering of the troops which greeted the news from the North
+was heard within the lines at Richmond and at Petersburg; and although
+the leaders maintained their attitude of defiance, the impression
+rapidly gained ground among the people that the end was not far off. The
+stimulus of hope being gone, they began to feel the pinch of increasing
+want. Their currency had become almost worthless. In October, a dollar
+in gold was worth thirty-five dollars in Confederate money. With the
+opening of the new year the price rose to sixty dollars, and, despite
+the efforts of the Confederate treasury, which would occasionally rush
+into the market and beat down the price of gold ten or twenty per cent.
+a day, the currency gradually depreciated until a hundred for one was
+offered and not taken. It was natural for the citizens of Richmond to
+think that monstrous prices were being extorted for food, clothing, and
+supplies, when in fact they were paying no more than was reasonable. To
+pay a thousand dollars for a barrel of flour was enough to strike a
+householder with terror but ten dollars is not a famine price. High
+prices, however, even if paid in dry leaves, are a hardship when dry
+leaves are not plentiful; and there was scarcity even of Confederate
+money in the South.
+
+At every advance of Grant's lines a new alarm was manifested in
+Richmond, the first proof of which was always a fresh rigor in enforcing
+the conscription laws and the arbitrary orders of the frightened
+authorities. After the capture of Fort Harrison, north of the James,
+squads of guards were sent into the streets with directions to arrest
+every able-bodied man they met. It is said that the medical boards were
+ordered to exempt no one capable of bearing arms for ten days. Human
+nature will not endure such a strain as this, and desertion grew too
+common to punish.
+
+As disaster increased, the Confederate government steadily lost ground
+in the confidence and respect of the Southern people. Mr. Davis and his
+councilors were doing their best, but they no longer got any credit for
+it. From every part of the Confederacy came complaints of what was done,
+demands for what was impossible to do. Some of the States were in a
+condition near to counter-revolution. A slow paralysis was benumbing the
+limbs of the insurrection, and even at the heart its vitality was
+plainly declining. The Confederate Congress, which had hitherto been the
+mere register of the President's will, now turned upon him. On January
+19 it passed a resolution making Lee general-in-chief of the army. This
+Mr. Davis might have borne with patience, although it was intended as a
+notification that his meddling with military affairs must come to an
+end. But far worse was the bitter necessity put upon him as a sequel to
+this act, of reappointing General Joseph E. Johnston to the command of
+the army which was to resist Sherman's victorious march to the north.
+Mr. Seddon, rebel Secretary of War, thinking his honor impugned by a
+vote of the Virginia delegation in Congress, resigned. Warnings of
+serious demoralization came daily from the army, and disaffection was so
+rife in official circles in Richmond that it was not thought politic to
+call public attention to it by measures of repression.
+
+It is curious and instructive to note how the act of emancipation had by
+this time virtually enforced itself in Richmond. The value of slave
+property was gone. It is true that a slave was still occasionally sold,
+at a price less than one tenth of what he would have brought before the
+war, but servants could be hired of their nominal owners for almost
+nothing--merely enough to keep up a show of vassalage. In effect, any
+one could hire a negro for his keeping--which was all that anybody in
+Richmond, black or white, got for his work. Even Mr. Davis had at last
+become docile to the stern teaching of events. In his message of
+November he had recommended the employment of forty thousand slaves in
+the army--not as soldiers, it is true, save in the last extremity--with
+emancipation to come.
+
+On December 27, Mr. Benjamin wrote his last important instruction to
+John Slidell, the Confederate commissioner in Europe. It is nothing less
+than a cry of despair. Complaining bitterly of the attitude of foreign
+nations while the South is fighting the battles of England and France
+against the North, he asks: "Are they determined never to recognize the
+Southern Confederacy until the United States assent to such action on
+their part?" And with a frantic offer to submit to any terms which
+Europe might impose as the price of recognition, and a scarcely veiled
+threat of making peace with the North unless Europe should act speedily,
+the Confederate Department of State closed its four years of fruitless
+activity.
+
+Lee assumed command of all the Confederate armies on February 9. His
+situation was one of unprecedented gloom. The day before he had reported
+that his troops, who had been in line of battle for two days at
+Hatcher's Run, exposed to the bad winter weather, had been without meat
+for three days. A prodigious effort was made, and the danger of
+starvation for the moment averted, but no permanent improvement
+resulted. The armies of the Union were closing in from every point of
+the compass. Grant was every day pushing his formidable left wing nearer
+the only roads by which Lee could escape; Thomas was threatening the
+Confederate communications from Tennessee; Sheridan was riding for the
+last time up the Shenandoah valley to abolish Early; while from the
+south the redoubtable columns of Sherman were moving northward with the
+steady pace and irresistible progress of a tragic fate.
+
+A singular and significant attempt at negotiation was made at this time
+by General Lee. He was so strong in the confidence of the people of the
+South, and the government at Richmond was so rapidly becoming
+discredited, that he could doubtless have obtained the popular support
+and compelled the assent of the Executive to any measures he thought
+proper for the attainment of peace. From this it was easy for him and
+for others to come to the wholly erroneous conclusion that General Grant
+held a similar relation to the government and people of the United
+States. General Lee seized upon the pretext of a conversation reported
+to him by General Longstreet as having been held with General E.O.C. Ord
+under an ordinary flag of truce for the exchange of prisoners, to
+address a letter to Grant, sanctioned by Mr. Davis, saying he had been
+informed that General Ord had said General Grant would not decline an
+interview with a view "to a satisfactory adjustment of the present
+unhappy difficulties by means of a military convention," provided Lee
+had authority to act. He therefore proposed to meet General Grant "with
+the hope that ... it may be found practicable to submit the subjects of
+controversy ... to a convention of the kind mentioned"; professing
+himself "authorized to do whatever the result of the proposed interview
+may render necessary."
+
+Grant at once telegraphed these overtures to Washington. Stanton
+received the despatch at the Capitol, where the President was, according
+to his custom, passing the last night of the session of Congress, for
+the convenience of signing bills. The Secretary handed the telegram to
+Mr. Lincoln, who read it in silence. He asked no advice or suggestion
+from any one about him, but, taking up a pen, wrote with his usual
+slowness and precision a despatch in Stanton's name, which he showed to
+Seward, and then handed to Stanton to be signed and sent. The language
+is that of an experienced ruler, perfectly sure of himself and of his
+duty:
+
+"The President directs me to say that he wishes you to have no
+conference with General Lee, unless it be for capitulation of General
+Lee's army, or on some minor or purely military matter. He instructs me
+to say that you are not to decide, discuss, or confer upon any political
+questions. Such questions the President holds in his own hands, and
+will submit them to no military conferences or conventions. Meanwhile,
+you are to press to the utmost your military advantages."
+
+Grant answered Lee that he had no authority to accede to his
+proposition, and explained that General Ord's language must have been
+misunderstood. This closed to the Confederate authorities the last
+avenue of hope of any compromise by which the alternative of utter
+defeat or unconditional surrender might be avoided.
+
+Early in March, General Lee visited Richmond for conference with Mr.
+Davis on the measures to be adopted in the crisis which he saw was
+imminent. He had never sympathized with the slight Congress had intended
+to put upon Mr. Davis when it gave him supreme military authority, and
+continued to the end to treat his President as commander-in-chief of the
+forces. There is direct contradiction between Mr. Davis and General Lee
+as to how Davis received this statement of the necessities of the
+situation. Mr. Davis says he suggested immediate withdrawal from
+Richmond, but that Lee said his horses were too weak for the roads in
+their present condition, and that he must wait. General Lee, on the
+other hand, is quoted as saying that he wished to retire behind the
+Staunton River, from which point he might have indefinitely protracted
+the war, but that the President overruled him. Both agreed, however,
+that sooner or later Richmond must be abandoned, and that the next move
+should be to Danville.
+
+But before he turned his back forever upon the lines he had so stoutly
+defended, Lee resolved to dash once more at the toils by which he was
+surrounded. He placed half his army under the command of General John B.
+Gordon, with orders to break through the Union lines at Fort Stedman
+and take possession of the high ground behind them. A month earlier
+Grant had foreseen some such move on Lee's part, and had ordered General
+Parke to be prepared to meet an assault on his center, and to have his
+commanders ready to bring all their resources to bear on the point in
+danger, adding: "With proper alacrity in this respect I would have no
+objection to seeing the enemy get through." This characteristic phrase
+throws the strongest light both on Grant's temperament, and on the
+mastery of his business at which he had arrived. Under such generalship,
+an army's lines are a trap into which entrance is suicide.
+
+The assault was made with great spirit at half-past four on the morning
+of March 25. Its initial success was due to a singular cause. The spot
+chosen was a favorite point for deserters to pass into the Union lines,
+which they had of late been doing in large numbers. When Gordon's
+skirmishers, therefore, came stealing through the darkness, they were
+mistaken for an unusually large party of deserters, and they
+over-powered several picket-posts without firing a shot. The storming
+party, following at once, took the trenches with a rush, and in a few
+minutes had possession of the main line on the right of the fort, and,
+next, of the fort itself. It was hard in the semi-darkness to
+distinguish friends from foes, and for a time General Parke was unable
+to make headway; but with the growing light his troops advanced from
+every direction to mend the breach, and, making short work of the
+Confederate detachments, recaptured the fort, opening a cross-fire of
+artillery so withering that few of the Confederates could get back to
+their own lines. This was, moreover, not the only damage the
+Confederates suffered. Humphreys and Wright, on the Union left, rightly
+assuming that Parke could take care of himself, instantly searched the
+lines in their front to see if they had been essentially weakened to
+support Gordon's attack. They found they had not, but in gaining this
+knowledge captured the enemy's intrenched picket-lines in front of them,
+which, being held, gave inestimable advantage to the Union army in the
+struggle of the next week.
+
+Grant's chief anxiety for some time had been lest Lee should abandon his
+lines; but though burning to attack, he was delayed by the same bad
+roads which kept Lee in Richmond, and by another cause. He did not wish
+to move until Sheridan had completed the work assigned him in the
+Shenandoah valley and joined either Sherman or the army at Petersburg.
+On March 24, however, at the very moment Gordon was making his plans for
+next day's sortie, Grant issued his order for the great movement to the
+left which was to finish the war. He intended to begin on the
+twenty-ninth, but Lee's desperate dash of the twenty-fifth convinced him
+that not a moment was to be lost. Sheridan reached City Point on the
+twenty-sixth. Sherman came up from North Carolina for a brief visit next
+day. The President was also there, and an interesting meeting took place
+between these famous brothers in arms and Mr. Lincoln; after which
+Sherman went back to Goldsboro, and Grant began pushing his army to the
+left with even more than his usual iron energy.
+
+It was a great army--the result of all the power and wisdom of the
+government, all the devotion of the people, all the intelligence and
+teachableness of the soldiers themselves, and all the ability which a
+mighty war had developed in the officers. In command of all was Grant,
+the most extraordinary military temperament this country has ever seen.
+The numbers of the respective armies in this last grapple have been the
+occasion of endless controversy. As nearly as can be ascertained, the
+grand total of all arms on the Union side was 124,700; on the
+Confederate side, 57,000.
+
+Grant's plan, as announced in his instructions of March 24, was at first
+to despatch Sheridan to destroy the South Side and Danville railroads,
+at the same time moving a heavy force to the left to insure the success
+of this raid, and then to turn Lee's position. But his purpose developed
+from hour to hour, and before he had been away from his winter
+headquarters one day, he gave up this comparatively narrow scheme, and
+adopted the far bolder plan which he carried out to his immortal honor.
+He ordered Sheridan not to go after the railroads, but to push for the
+enemy's right rear, writing him: "I now feel like ending the matter....
+We will act all together as one army here, until it is seen what can be
+done with the enemy."
+
+On the thirtieth, Sheridan advanced to Five Forks, where he found a
+heavy force of the enemy. Lee, justly alarmed by Grant's movements, had
+despatched a sufficient detachment to hold that important cross-roads,
+and taken personal command of the remainder on White Oak Ridge. A heavy
+rain-storm, beginning on the night of the twenty-ninth and continuing
+more than twenty-four hours, greatly impeded the march of the troops. On
+the thirty-first, Warren, working his way toward the White Oak road, was
+attacked by Lee and driven back on the main line, but rallied, and in
+the afternoon drove the enemy again into his works. Sheridan, opposed by
+Pickett with a large force of infantry and cavalry, was also forced
+back, fighting obstinately, as far as Dinwiddie Court House, from which
+point he hopefully reported his situation to Grant at dark. Grant, more
+disturbed than Sheridan himself, rained orders and suggestions all
+night to effect a concentration at daylight on that portion of the enemy
+in front of Sheridan; but Pickett, finding himself out of position,
+silently withdrew during the night, and resumed his strongly intrenched
+post at Five Forks. Here Sheridan followed him on April 1, and repeated
+the successful tactics of his Shenandoah valley exploits so brilliantly
+that Lee's right was entirely shattered.
+
+This battle of Five Forks should have ended the war. Lee's right was
+routed; his line had been stretched westward until it broke; there was
+no longer any hope of saving Richmond, or even of materially delaying
+its fall. But Lee apparently thought that even the gain of a day was of
+value to the Richmond government, and what was left of his Army of
+Northern Virginia was still so perfect in discipline that it answered
+with unabated spirit every demand made upon it. Grant, who feared Lee
+might get away from Petersburg and overwhelm Sheridan on the White Oak
+road, directed that an assault be made all along the line at four
+o'clock on the morning of the second. His officers responded with
+enthusiasm; and Lee, far from dreaming of attacking any one after the
+stunning blow he had received the day before, made what hasty
+preparations he could to resist them.
+
+It is painful to record the hard fighting which followed. Wright, in his
+assault in front of Forts Fisher and Walsh, lost eleven hundred men in
+fifteen minutes of murderous conflict that made them his own; and other
+commands fared scarcely better, Union and Confederate troops alike
+displaying a gallantry distressing to contemplate when one reflects
+that, the war being already decided, all this heroic blood was shed in
+vain. The Confederates, from the Appomattox to the Weldon road, fell
+slowly back to their inner line of works; and Lee, watching the
+formidable advance before which his weakened troops gave way, sent a
+message to Richmond announcing his purpose of concentrating on the
+Danville road, and made preparations for the evacuation which was now
+the only resort left him.
+
+Some Confederate writers express surprise that General Grant did not
+attack and destroy Lee's army on April 2; but this is a view, after the
+fact, easy to express. The troops on the Union left had been on foot for
+eighteen hours, had fought an important battle, marched and
+countermarched many miles, and were now confronted by Longstreet's fresh
+corps behind formidable works, while the attitude of the force under
+Gordon on the south side of the town was such as to require the close
+attention of Parke. Grant, anticipating an early retirement of Lee from
+his citadel, wisely resolved to avoid the waste and bloodshed of an
+immediate assault on the inner lines of Petersburg. He ordered Sheridan
+to get upon Lee's line of retreat; sent Humphreys to strengthen him;
+then, directing a general bombardment for five o'clock next morning, and
+an assault at six, gave himself and his soldiers a little of the rest
+they had so richly earned and so seriously needed.
+
+He had telegraphed during the day to President Lincoln, who was still at
+City Point, the news as it developed from hour to hour. Prisoners he
+regarded as so much net gain: he was weary of slaughter, and wanted the
+war ended with as little bloodshed as possible; and it was with delight
+that he summed up on Sunday afternoon: "The whole captures since the
+army started out gunning will not amount to less than twelve thousand
+men, and probably fifty pieces of artillery."
+
+Lee bent all his energies to saving his army and leading it out of its
+untenable position on the James to a point from which he could effect a
+junction with Johnston in North Carolina. The place selected for this
+purpose was Burkeville, at the crossing of the South Side and Danville
+roads, fifty miles southwest from Richmond, whence a short distance
+would bring him to Danville, where the desired junction could be made.
+Even yet he was able to cradle himself in the illusion that it was only
+a campaign that had failed, and that he might continue the war
+indefinitely in another field. At nightfall all his preparations were
+completed, and dismounting at the mouth of the road leading to Amelia
+Court House, the first point of rendezvous, where he had directed
+supplies to be sent, he watched his troops file noiselessly by in the
+darkness. By three o'clock the town was abandoned; at half-past four it
+was formally surrendered. Meade, reporting the news to Grant, received
+orders to march his army immediately up the Appomattox; and divining
+Lee's intentions, Grant also sent word to Sheridan to push with all
+speed to the Danville road.
+
+Thus flight and pursuit began almost at the same moment. The
+swift-footed Army of Northern Virginia was racing for its life, and
+Grant, inspired with more than his habitual tenacity and energy, not
+only pressed his enemy in the rear, but hung upon his flank, and
+strained every nerve to get in his front. He did not even allow himself
+the pleasure of entering Richmond, which surrendered to Weitzel early on
+the morning of the third.
+
+All that day Lee pushed forward toward Amelia Court House. There was
+little fighting except among the cavalry. A terrible disappointment
+awaited Lee on his arrival at Amelia Court House on the fourth. He had
+ordered supplies to be forwarded there, but his half-starved troops
+found no food awaiting them, and nearly twenty-four hours were lost in
+collecting subsistence for men and horses. When he started again on the
+night of the fifth, the whole pursuing force was south and stretching
+out to the west of him. Burkeville was in Grant's possession; the way to
+Danville was barred; the supply of provisions to the south cut off. He
+was compelled to change his route to the west, and started for
+Lynchburg, which he was destined never to reach.
+
+It had been the intention to attack Lee at Amelia Court House on the
+morning of April 6, but learning of his turn to the west, Meade, who was
+immediately in pursuit, quickly faced his army about and followed. A
+running fight ensued for fourteen miles, the enemy, with remarkable
+quickness and dexterity, halting and partly intrenching themselves from
+time to time, and the national forces driving them out of every
+position; the Union cavalry, meanwhile, harassing the moving left flank
+of the Confederates, and working havoc on the trains. They also caused a
+grievous loss to history by burning Lee's headquarters baggage, with all
+its wealth of returns and reports. At Sailor's Creek, a rivulet running
+north into the Appomattox, Ewell's corps was brought to bay, and
+important fighting occurred; the day's loss to Lee, there and elsewhere,
+amounting to eight thousand in all, with several of his generals among
+the prisoners. This day's work was of incalculable value to the national
+arms. Sheridan's unerring eye appreciated the full importance of it, his
+hasty report ending with the words: "If the thing is pressed, I think
+that Lee will surrender." Grant sent the despatch to President Lincoln,
+who instantly replied:
+
+"Let the thing be pressed."
+
+In fact, after nightfall of the sixth, Lee's army could only flutter
+like a wounded bird with one wing shattered. There was no longer any
+possibility of escape; but Lee found it hard to relinquish the illusion
+of years, and as soon as night came down he again began his weary march
+westward. A slight success on the next day once more raised his hopes;
+but his optimism was not shared by his subordinates, and a number of his
+principal officers, selecting General Pendleton as their spokesman, made
+known to him on the seventh their belief that further resistance was
+useless, and advised surrender. Lee told them that they had yet too many
+men to think of laying down their arms, but in answer to a courteous
+summons from Grant sent that same day, inquired what terms he would be
+willing to offer. Without waiting for a reply, he again put his men in
+motion, and during all of the eighth the chase and pursuit continued
+through a part of Virginia green with spring, and until then unvisited
+by hostile armies.
+
+Sheridan, by unheard-of exertions, at last accomplished the important
+task of placing himself squarely on Lee's line of retreat. About sunset
+of the eighth, his advance captured Appomattox Station and four trains
+of provisions. Shortly after, a reconnaissance revealed the fact that
+Lee's entire army was coming up the road. Though he had nothing but
+cavalry, Sheridan resolved to hold the inestimable advantage he had
+gained, and sent a request to Grant to hurry up the required infantry
+support; saying that if it reached him that night, they "might perhaps
+finish the job in the morning." He added, with singular prescience,
+referring to the negotiations which had been opened: "I do not think Lee
+means to surrender until compelled to do so."
+
+This was strictly true. When Grant replied to Lee's question about
+terms, saying that the only condition he insisted upon was that the
+officers and men surrendered should be disqualified from taking up arms
+again until properly exchanged, Lee disclaimed any intention to
+surrender his army, but proposed to meet Grant to discuss the
+restoration of peace. It appears from his own report that even on the
+night of the eighth he had no intention of giving up the fight. He
+expected to find only cavalry before him next morning, and thought his
+remnant of infantry could break through while he himself was amusing
+Grant with platonic discussions in the rear. But on arriving at the
+rendezvous he had suggested, he received Grant's courteous but decided
+refusal to enter into a political negotiation, and also the news that a
+formidable force of infantry barred the way and covered the adjacent
+hills and valley. The marching of the Confederate army was over forever,
+and Lee, suddenly brought to a sense of his real situation, sent orders
+to cease hostilities, and wrote another note to Grant, asking an
+interview for the purpose of surrendering his army.
+
+The meeting took place at the house of Wilmer McLean, in the edge of the
+village of Appomattox, on April 9, 1865. Lee met Grant at the threshold,
+and ushered him into a small and barely furnished parlor, where were
+soon assembled the leading officers of the national army. General Lee
+was accompanied only by his secretary, Colonel Charles Marshall. A short
+conversation led up to a request from Lee for the terms on which the
+surrender of his army would be received. Grant briefly stated them, and
+then wrote them out. Men and officers were to be paroled, and the arms,
+artillery, and public property turned over to the officer appointed to
+receive them.
+
+"This," he added, "will not embrace the side-arms of the officers, nor
+their private horses or baggage. This done, each officer and man will
+be allowed to return to their homes, not to be disturbed by United
+States authority so long as they observe their parole and the laws in
+force where they may reside."
+
+General Grant says in his "Memoirs" that up to the moment when he put
+pen to paper he had not thought of a word that he should write. The
+terms he had verbally proposed were soon put in writing, and there he
+might have stopped. But as he wrote a feeling of sympathy for his
+gallant antagonist came over him, and he added the extremely liberal
+terms with which his letter closed. The sight of Lee's fine sword
+suggested the paragraph allowing officers to retain their side-arms; and
+he ended with a phrase he evidently had not thought of, and for which he
+had no authority, which practically pardoned and amnestied every man in
+Lee's army--a thing he had refused to consider the day before, and which
+had been expressly forbidden him in the President's order of March 3.
+Yet so great was the joy over the crowning victory, and so deep the
+gratitude of the government and people to Grant and his heroic army,
+that his terms were accepted as he wrote them, and his exercise of the
+Executive prerogative of pardon entirely overlooked. It must be noticed
+here, however, that a few days later it led the greatest of Grant's
+generals into a serious error.
+
+Lee must have read the memorandum with as much surprise as
+gratification. He suggested and gained another important
+concession--that those of the cavalry and artillery who owned their own
+horses should be allowed to take them home to put in their crops; and
+wrote a brief reply accepting the terms. He then remarked that his army
+was in a starving condition, and asked Grant to provide them with
+subsistence and forage; to which he at once assented, inquiring for how
+many men the rations would be wanted. Lee answered, "About twenty-five
+thousand"; and orders were given to issue them. The number turned out to
+be even greater, the paroles signed amounting to twenty-eight thousand
+two hundred and thirty-one. If we add to this the captures made during
+the preceding week, and the thousands who deserted the failing cause at
+every by-road leading to their homes, we see how considerable an army
+Lee commanded when Grant "started out gunning."
+
+With these brief and simple formalities, one of the most momentous
+transactions of modern times was concluded. The Union gunners prepared
+to fire a national salute, but Grant forbade any rejoicing over a fallen
+enemy, who, he hoped, would be an enemy no longer. The next day he rode
+to the Confederate lines to make a visit of farewell to General Lee.
+They parted with courteous good wishes, and Grant, without pausing to
+look at the city he had taken, or the enormous system of works which had
+so long held him at bay, hurried away to Washington, intent only upon
+putting an end to the waste and burden of war.
+
+A very carnival of fire and destruction had attended the flight of the
+Confederate authorities from Richmond. On Sunday night, April 2,
+Jefferson Davis, with his cabinet and their more important papers,
+hurriedly left the doomed city on one of the crowded and overloaded
+railroad trains. The legislature of Virginia and the governor of the
+State departed in a canal-boat toward Lynchburg; and every available
+vehicle was pressed into service by the frantic inhabitants, all anxious
+to get away before their capital was desecrated by the presence of
+"Yankee invaders." By the time the military left, early next morning, a
+conflagration was already under way. The rebel Congress had passed a
+law ordering government tobacco and other public property to be burned.
+General Ewell, the military commander, asserts that he took the
+responsibility of disobeying the law, and that they were not fired by
+his orders. However that may be, flames broke out in various parts of
+the city, while a miscellaneous mob, inflamed by excitement and by the
+alcohol which had run freely in the gutters the night before, rushed
+from store to store, smashing in the doors and indulging all the
+wantonness of pillage and greed. Public spirit was paralyzed, and the
+whole fabric of society seemed crumbling to pieces, when the convicts
+from the penitentiary, a shouting, leaping crowd of party-colored
+demons, overcoming their guard, and drunk with liberty, appeared upon
+the streets, adding their final dramatic horror to the pandemonium.
+
+It is quite probable that the very magnitude and rapidity of the
+disaster served in a measure to mitigate its evil results. The burning
+of seven hundred buildings, comprising the entire business portion of
+Richmond warehouses, manufactories, mills, depots, and stores, all
+within the brief space of a day, was a visitation so sudden, so
+unexpected, so stupefying, as to overawe and terrorize even wrong-doers,
+and made the harvest of plunder so abundant as to serve to scatter the
+mob and satisfy its rapacity to quick repletion.
+
+Before a new hunger could arise, assistance was at hand. General
+Weitzel, to whom the city was surrendered, taking up his headquarters in
+the house lately occupied by Jefferson Davis, promptly set about the
+work of relief; organizing efficient resistance to the fire, which, up
+to this time, seems scarcely to have been attempted; issuing rations to
+the poor, who had been relentlessly exposed to starvation by the action
+of the rebel Congress; and restoring order and personal authority. That
+a regiment of black soldiers assisted in this noble work must have
+seemed to the white inhabitants of Richmond the final drop in their cup
+of misery.
+
+Into the capital, thus stricken and laid waste, came President Lincoln
+on the morning of April 4. Never in the history of the world did the
+head of a mighty nation and the conqueror of a great rebellion enter the
+captured chief city of the insurgents in such humbleness and simplicity.
+He had gone two weeks before to City Point for a visit to General Grant,
+and to his son, Captain Robert Lincoln, who was serving on Grant's
+staff. Making his home on the steamer which brought him, and enjoying
+what was probably the most satisfactory relaxation in which he had been
+able to indulge during his whole presidential service, he had visited
+the various camps of the great army in company with the general, cheered
+everywhere by the loving greetings of the soldiers. He had met Sherman
+when that commander hurried up fresh from his victorious march, and
+after Grant started on his final pursuit of Lee the President still
+lingered; and it was at City Point that he received the news of the fall
+of Richmond.
+
+Between the receipt of this news and the following forenoon, but before
+any information of the great fire had reached them, a visit was arranged
+for the President and Rear-Admiral Porter. Ample precautions were taken
+at the start. The President went in his own steamer, the _River Queen_,
+with her escort, the _Bat_, and a tug used at City Point in landing from
+the steamer. Admiral Porter went in his flag-ship, the _Malvern_, and a
+transport carried a small cavalry escort and ambulances for the party.
+But the obstructions in the river soon made it impossible to proceed in
+this fashion. One unforeseen accident after another rendered it
+necessary to leave behind even the smaller boats, until finally the
+party went on in Admiral Porter's barge, rowed by twelve sailors, and
+without escort of any kind. In this manner the President made his advent
+into Richmond, landing near Libby Prison. As the party stepped ashore
+they found a guide among the contrabands who quickly crowded the
+streets, for the possible coming of the President had been circulated
+through the city. Ten of the sailors, armed with carbines, were formed
+as a guard, six in front and four in rear, and between them the
+President, Admiral Porter, and the three officers who accompanied them
+walked the long distance, perhaps a mile and a half, to the center of
+the town.
+
+The imagination can easily fill up the picture of a gradually increasing
+crowd, principally of negroes, following the little group of marines and
+officers, with the tall form of the President in its center; and, having
+learned that it was indeed Mr. Lincoln, giving expression to joy and
+gratitude in the picturesque emotional ejaculations of the colored race.
+It is easy also to imagine the sharp anxiety of those who had the
+President's safety in charge during this tiresome and even foolhardy
+march through a city still in flames, whose white inhabitants were
+sullenly resentful at best, and whose grief and anger might at any
+moment culminate against the man they looked upon as the incarnation of
+their misfortunes. But no accident befell him. Reaching General
+Weitzel's headquarters, Mr. Lincoln rested in the mansion Jefferson
+Davis had occupied as President of the Confederacy, and after a day of
+sight-seeing returned to his steamer and to Washington, to be stricken
+down by an assassin's bullet, literally "in the house of his friends."
+
+
+
+
+XXXVI
+
+Lincoln's Interviews with Campbell--Withdraws Authority for Meeting of
+Virginia Legislature--Conference of Davis and Johnston at
+Greensboro--Johnston Asks for an Armistice--Meeting of Sherman and
+Johnston--Their Agreement--Rejected at Washington--Surrender of
+Johnston--Surrender of other Confederate Forces--End of the Rebel
+Navy--Capture of Jefferson Davis--Surrender of E. Kirby Smith--Number of
+Confederates Surrendered and Exchanged--Reduction of Federal Army to a
+Peace Footing--Grand Review of the Army
+
+
+While in Richmond, Mr. Lincoln had two interviews with John A. Campbell,
+rebel Secretary of War, who had not accompanied the other fleeing
+officials, preferring instead to submit to Federal authority. Mr.
+Campbell had been one of the commissioners at the Hampton Roads
+conference, and Mr. Lincoln now gave him a written memorandum repeating
+in substance the terms he had then offered the Confederates. On
+Campbell's suggestion that the Virginia legislature, if allowed to come
+together, would at once repeal its ordinance of secession and withdraw
+all Virginia troops from the field, he also gave permission for its
+members to assemble for that purpose. But this, being distorted into
+authority to sit in judgment on the political consequences of the war,
+was soon withdrawn.
+
+Jefferson Davis and his cabinet proceeded to Danville, where, two days
+after his arrival, the rebel President made still another effort to fire
+the Southern heart, announcing, "We have now entered upon a new phase
+of the struggle. Relieved from the necessity of guarding particular
+points, our army will be free to move from point to point to strike the
+enemy in detail far from his base. Let us but will it and we are free";
+and declaring in sonorous periods his purpose never to abandon one foot
+of ground to the invader.
+
+The ink was hardly dry on the document when news came of the surrender
+of Lee's army, and that the Federal cavalry was pushing southward west
+of Danville. So the Confederate government again hastily packed its
+archives and moved to Greensboro, North Carolina, where its headquarters
+were prudently kept on the train at the depot. Here Mr. Davis sent for
+Generals Johnston and Beauregard, and a conference took place between
+them and the members of the fleeing government--a conference not unmixed
+with embarrassment, since Mr. Davis still "willed" the success of the
+Confederacy too strongly to see the true hopelessness of the situation,
+while the generals and most of his cabinet were agreed that their cause
+was lost. The council of war over, General Johnston returned to his army
+to begin negotiations with Sherman; and on the following day, April 14,
+Davis and his party left Greensboro to continue their journey southward.
+
+Sherman had returned to Goldsboro from his visit to City Point, and set
+himself at once to the reorganization of his army and the replenishment
+of his stores. He still thought there was a hard campaign with desperate
+fighting ahead of him. Even on April 6, when he received news of the
+fall of Richmond and the flight of Lee and the Confederate government,
+he was unable to understand the full extent of the national triumph. He
+admired Grant so far as a man might, short of idolatry, yet the long
+habit of respect for Lee led him to think he would somehow get away and
+join Johnston in his front with at least a portion of the Army of
+Northern Virginia. He had already begun his march upon Johnston when he
+learned of Lee's surrender at Appomattox.
+
+Definitely relieved from apprehension of a junction of the two
+Confederate armies, he now had no fear except of a flight and dispersal
+of Johnston's forces into guerrilla bands. If they ran away, he felt he
+could not catch them; the country was too open. They could scatter and
+meet again, and so continue a partizan warfare indefinitely. He could
+not be expected to know that this resolute enemy was sick to the heart
+of war, and that the desire for more fighting survived only in a group
+of fugitive politicians flying through the pine forests of the Carolinas
+from a danger which did not exist.
+
+Entering Raleigh on the morning of the thirteenth, he turned his heads
+of column southwest, hoping to cut off Johnston's southward march, but
+made no great haste, thinking Johnston's cavalry superior to his own,
+and desiring Sheridan to join him before he pushed the Confederates to
+extremities. While here, however, he received a communication from
+General Johnston, dated the thirteenth, proposing an armistice to enable
+the National and Confederate governments to negotiate on equal terms. It
+had been dictated by Jefferson Davis during the conference at
+Greensboro, written down by S.R. Mallory, and merely signed by Johnston,
+and was inadmissible and even offensive in its terms; but Sherman,
+anxious for peace, and himself incapable of discourtesy to a brave
+enemy, took no notice of its language, and answered so cordially that
+the Confederates were probably encouraged to ask for better conditions
+of surrender than they had expected to receive.
+
+The two great antagonists met on April 17, when Sherman offered
+Johnston the same terms that had been accorded Lee, and also
+communicated the news he had that morning received of the murder of Mr.
+Lincoln. The Confederate general expressed his unfeigned sorrow at this
+calamity, which smote the South, he said, as deeply as the North; and in
+this mood of sympathy the discussion began. Johnston asserted that he
+would not be justified in such a capitulation as Sherman proposed, but
+suggested that together they might arrange the terms of a permanent
+peace. This idea pleased Sherman, to whom the prospect of ending the war
+without shedding another drop of blood was so tempting that he did not
+sufficiently consider the limits of his authority in the matter. It can
+be said, moreover, in extenuation of his course, that President
+Lincoln's despatch to Grant of March 3, which expressly forbade Grant to
+"decide, discuss, or to confer upon any political question," had never
+been communicated to Sherman; while the very liberality of Grant's terms
+led him to believe that he was acting in accordance with the views of
+the administration.
+
+But the wisdom of Lincoln's peremptory order was completely vindicated.
+With the best intentions in the world, Sherman, beginning very properly
+by offering his antagonist the same terms accorded Lee, ended, after two
+days' negotiation, by making a treaty of peace with the Confederate
+States, including a preliminary armistice, the disbandment of the
+Confederate armies, recognition by the United States Executive of the
+several State governments, reestablishment of the Federal courts, and a
+general amnesty. "Not being fully empowered by our respective principals
+to fulfil these terms," the agreement truthfully concluded, "we
+individually and officially pledge ourselves to promptly obtain the
+necessary authority."
+
+The rebel President, with unnecessary formality, required a report from
+General Breckinridge, his Secretary of War, on the desirability of
+ratifying this most favorable convention. Scarcely had he given it his
+indorsement when news came that it had been disapproved at Washington,
+and that Sherman had been directed to continue his military operations;
+and the peripatetic government once more took up its southward flight.
+
+The moment General Grant read the agreement he saw it was entirely
+inadmissible. The new President called his cabinet together, and Mr.
+Lincoln's instructions of March 3 to Grant were repeated to
+Sherman--somewhat tardily, it must be confessed--as his rule of action.
+All this was a matter of course, and General Sherman could not properly,
+and perhaps would not, have objected to it. But the calm spirit of
+Lincoln was now absent from the councils of the government; and it was
+not in Andrew Johnson and Mr. Stanton to pass over a mistake like this,
+even in the case of one of the most illustrious captains of the age.
+They ordered Grant to proceed at once to Sherman's headquarters, and to
+direct operations against the enemy; and, what was worse, Mr. Stanton
+printed in the newspapers the reasons of the government for disapproving
+the agreement in terms of sharpest censure of General Sherman. This,
+when it came to his notice some weeks later, filled him with hot
+indignation, and, coupled with some orders Halleck, who had been made
+commander of the armies of the Potomac and the James, issued to Meade,
+to disregard Sherman's truce and push forward against Johnston, roused
+him to open defiance of the authorities he thought were persecuting him,
+and made him declare in a report to Grant, that he would have maintained
+his truce at any cost of life. Halleck's order, however, had been
+nullified by Johnston's surrender, and Grant, suggesting that this
+outburst was uncalled for, offered Sherman the opportunity to correct
+the statement. This he refused, insisting that his record stand as
+written, although avowing his readiness to obey all future orders of
+Grant and the President.
+
+So far as Johnston was concerned, the war was indeed over. He was unable
+longer to hold his men together. Eight thousand of them left their camps
+and went home in the week of the truce, many riding away on the
+artillery horses and train mules. On notice of Federal disapproval of
+his negotiations with Sherman, he disregarded Jefferson Davis's
+instructions to disband the infantry and try to escape with the cavalry
+and light guns, and answered Sherman's summons by inviting another
+conference, at which, on April 26, he surrendered all the forces in his
+command on the same terms granted Lee at Appomattox; Sherman supplying,
+as did Grant, rations for the beaten army. Thirty-seven thousand men and
+officers were paroled in North Carolina--exclusive, of course, of the
+thousands who had slipped away to their homes during the suspension of
+hostilities.
+
+After Appomattox the rebellion fell to pieces all at once. Lee
+surrendered less than one sixth of the Confederates in arms on April 9.
+The armies that still remained, though inconsiderable when compared with
+the mighty host under the national colors, were yet infinitely larger
+than any Washington ever commanded, and capable of strenuous resistance
+and of incalculable mischief. But the march of Sherman from Atlanta to
+the sea, and his northward progress through the Carolinas, had
+predisposed the great interior region to make an end of strife: a
+tendency which was greatly promoted by the masterly raid of General J.H.
+Wilson's cavalry through Alabama, and his defeat of Forrest at Selma.
+An officer of Taylor's staff came to Canby's headquarters on April 19 to
+make arrangements for the surrender of all the Confederate forces east
+of the Mississippi not already paroled by Sherman and Wilson, embracing
+some forty-two thousand men. The terms were agreed upon and signed on
+May 4, at the village of Citronelle in Alabama. At the same time and
+place the Confederate Commodore Farrand surrendered to Rear-Admiral
+Thatcher all the naval forces Of the Confederacy in the neighborhood of
+Mobile--a dozen vessels and some hundreds of officers.
+
+The rebel navy had practically ceased to exist some months before. The
+splendid fight in Mobile Bay on August 5, 1864, between Farragut's fleet
+and the rebel ram _Tennessee_, with her three attendant gunboats, and
+Cushing's daring destruction of the powerful _Albemarle_ in Albemarle
+Sound on October 27, marked its end in Confederate waters. The duel
+between the _Kearsarge_ and the _Alabama_ off Cherbourg had already
+taken place; a few more encounters, at or near foreign ports, furnished
+occasion for personal bravery and subsequent lively diplomatic
+correspondence; and rebel vessels, fitted out under the unduly lenient
+"neutrality" of France and England, continued for a time to work havoc
+with American shipping in various parts of the world. But these two
+Union successes, and the final capture of Fort Fisher and of Wilmington
+early in 1865, which closed the last haven for daring blockade-runners,
+practically silenced the Confederate navy.
+
+General E. Kirby Smith commanded all the insurgent forces west of the
+Mississippi. On him the desperate hopes of Mr. Davis and his flying
+cabinet were fixed, after the successive surrenders of Lee and Johnston
+had left them no prospect in the east. They imagined they could move
+westward, gathering up stragglers as they fled, and, crossing the river,
+join Smith's forces, and there continue the war. But after a time even
+this hope failed them. Their escort melted away; members of the cabinet
+dropped off on various pretexts, and Mr. Davis, abandoning the attempt
+to reach the Mississippi River, turned again toward the east in an
+effort to gain the Florida coast and escape by means of a sailing vessel
+to Texas.
+
+The two expeditions sent in pursuit of him by General Wilson did not
+allow this consummation, which the government at Washington might
+possibly have viewed with equanimity. His camp near Irwinville, Georgia,
+was surrounded by Lieutenant-Colonel Pritchard's command at dawn on May
+10, and he was captured as he was about to mount horse with a few
+companions and ride for the coast, leaving his family to follow more
+slowly. The tradition that he was captured in disguise, having donned
+female dress in a last desperate attempt to escape, has only this
+foundation, that Mrs. Davis threw a cloak over her husband's shoulders,
+and a shawl over his head, on the approach of the Federal soldiers. He
+was taken to Fortress Monroe, and there kept in confinement for about
+two years; was arraigned before the United States Circuit Court for the
+District of Virginia for the crime of treason, and released on bail; and
+was finally restored to all the duties and privileges of citizenship,
+except the right to hold office, by President Johnson's proclamation of
+amnesty of December 25, 1868.
+
+General E. Kirby Smith, on whom Davis's last hopes of success had
+centered, kept up so threatening an attitude that Sherman was sent from
+Washington to bring him to reason. But he did not long hold his position
+of solitary defiance. One more needless skirmish took place near
+Brazos, Texas, and then Smith followed the example of Taylor and
+surrendered his entire force, some eighteen thousand, to General Canby,
+on May 26. One hundred and seventy-five thousand men in all were
+surrendered by the different Confederate commanders, and there were, in
+addition to these, about ninety-nine thousand prisoners in national
+custody during the year. One third of these were exchanged, and two
+thirds released. This was done as rapidly as possible by successive
+orders of the War Department, beginning on May 9 and continuing through
+the summer.
+
+The first object of the government was to stop the waste of war.
+Recruiting ceased immediately after Lee's surrender, and measures were
+taken to reduce as promptly as possible the vast military establishment.
+Every chief of bureau was ordered, on April 28, to proceed at once to
+the reduction of expenses in his department to a peace footing; and this
+before Taylor or Smith had surrendered, and while Jefferson Davis was
+still at large. The army of a million men was brought down, with
+incredible ease and celerity, to one of twenty-five thousand.
+
+Before the great army melted away into the greater body of citizens, the
+soldiers enjoyed one final triumph, a march through the capital,
+undisturbed by death or danger, under the eyes of their highest
+commanders, military and civilian, and the representatives of the people
+whose nationality they had saved. Those who witnessed this solemn yet
+joyous pageant will never forget it, and will pray that their children
+may never witness anything like it. For two days this formidable host
+marched the long stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue, starting from the
+shadow of the dome of the Capitol, and filling that wide thoroughfare to
+Georgetown with a serried mass, moving with the easy yet rapid pace of
+veterans in cadence step. As a mere spectacle this march of the
+mightiest host the continent has ever seen gathered together was grand
+and imposing; but it was not as a spectacle alone that it affected the
+beholder most deeply. It was not a mere holiday parade; it was an army
+of citizens on their way home after a long and terrible war. Their
+clothes were worn and pierced with bullets; their banners had been torn
+with shot and shell, and lashed in the winds of a thousand battles; the
+very drums and fifes had called out the troops to numberless night
+alarms, and sounded the onset on historic fields. The whole country
+claimed these heroes as a part of themselves. And now, done with
+fighting, they were going joyously and peaceably to their homes, to take
+up again the tasks they had willingly laid down in the hour of their
+country's peril.
+
+The world had many lessons to learn from this great conflict, which
+liberated a subject people and changed the tactics of modern warfare;
+but the greatest lesson it taught the nations of waiting Europe was the
+conservative power of democracy--that a million men, flushed with
+victory, and with arms in their hands, could be trusted to disband the
+moment the need for their services was over, and take up again the
+soberer labors of peace.
+
+Friends loaded these veterans with flowers as they swung down the
+Avenue, both men and officers, until some were fairly hidden under their
+fragrant burden. There was laughter and applause; grotesque figures were
+not absent as Sherman's legions passed, with their "bummers" and their
+regimental pets; but with all the shouting and the laughter and the joy
+of this unprecedented ceremony, there was one sad and dominant thought
+which could not be driven from the minds of those who saw it--that of
+the men who were absent, and who had, nevertheless, richly earned the
+right to be there. The soldiers in their shrunken companies were
+conscious of the ever-present memories of the brave comrades who had
+fallen by the way; and in the whole army there was the passionate and
+unavailing regret for their wise, gentle, and powerful friend, Abraham
+Lincoln, gone forever from the house by the Avenue, who had called the
+great host into being, directed the course of the nation during the four
+years they had been fighting for its preservation, and for whom, more
+than for any other, this crowning peaceful pageant would have been
+fraught with deep and happy meaning.
+
+
+
+
+XXXVII
+
+The 14th of April--Celebration at Fort Sumter--Last Cabinet
+Meeting--Lincoln's Attitude toward Threats of Assassination--Booth's
+Plot--Ford's Theater--Fate of the Assassins--The Mourning Pageant
+
+
+Mr. Lincoln had returned to Washington, refreshed by his visit to City
+Point, and cheered by the unmistakable signs that the war was almost
+over. With that ever-present sense of responsibility which distinguished
+him, he gave his thoughts to the momentous question of the restoration
+of the Union and of harmony between the lately warring sections. His
+whole heart was now enlisted in the work of "binding up the nation's
+wounds," and of doing all which might "achieve and cherish a just and
+lasting peace."
+
+April 14 was a day of deep and tranquil happiness throughout the United
+States. It was Good Friday, observed by a portion of the people as an
+occasion of fasting and religious meditation; though even among the most
+devout the great tidings of the preceding week exerted their joyous
+influence, and changed this period of traditional mourning into an
+occasion of general thanksgiving. But though the Misereres turned of
+themselves to Te Deums, the date was not to lose its awful significance
+in the calendar: at night it was claimed once more by a world-wide
+sorrow.
+
+The thanksgiving of the nation found its principal expression at
+Charleston Harbor, where the flag of the Union received that day a
+conspicuous reparation on the spot where it had first been outraged. At
+noon General Robert Anderson raised over Fort Sumter the identical flag
+lowered and saluted by him four years before; the surrender of Lee
+giving a more transcendent importance to this ceremony, made stately
+with orations, music, and military display.
+
+In Washington it was a day of deep peace and thankfulness. Grant had
+arrived that morning, and, going to the Executive Mansion, had met the
+cabinet, Friday being their regular day for assembling. He expressed
+some anxiety as to the news from Sherman which he was expecting hourly.
+The President answered him in that singular vein of poetic mysticism
+which, though constantly held in check by his strong common sense,
+formed such a remarkable element in his character. He assured Grant that
+the news would come soon and come favorably, for he had last night had
+his usual dream which preceded great events. He seemed to be, he said,
+in a singular and indescribable vessel, but always the same, moving with
+great rapidity toward a dark and indefinite shore; he had had this dream
+before Antietam, Murfreesboro, Gettysburg, and Vicksburg. The cabinet
+were greatly impressed by this story; but Grant, most matter-of-fact of
+created beings, made the characteristic response that "Murfreesboro was
+no victory, and had no important results." The President did not argue
+this point with him, but repeated that Sherman would beat or had beaten
+Johnston; that his dream must relate to that, since he knew of no other
+important event likely at present to occur.
+
+Questions of trade between the States, and of various phases of
+reconstruction, occupied the cabinet on this last day of Lincoln's firm
+and tolerant rule. The President spoke at some length, disclosing his
+hope that much could be done to reanimate the States and get their
+governments in successful operation before Congress came together. He
+was anxious to close the period of strife without over-much discussion.
+Particularly did he desire to avoid the shedding of blood, or any
+vindictiveness of punishment. "No one need expect that he would take any
+part in hanging or killing these men, even the worst of them." "Enough
+lives have been sacrificed," he exclaimed; "we must extinguish our
+resentments if we expect harmony and union." He did not wish the
+autonomy nor the individuality of the States disturbed; and he closed
+the session by commending the whole subject to the most careful
+consideration of his advisers. It was, he said, the great question
+pending--they must now begin to act in the interest of peace. Such were
+the last words that Lincoln spoke to his cabinet. They dispersed with
+these sentences of clemency and good will in their ears, never again to
+meet under his wise and benignant chairmanship. He had told them that
+morning a strange story, which made some demand upon their faith, but
+the circumstances under which they were next to come together were
+beyond the scope of the wildest fancy.
+
+The day was one of unusual enjoyment to Mr. Lincoln. His son Robert had
+returned from the field with General Grant, and the President spent an
+hour with the young captain in delighted conversation over the campaign.
+He denied himself generally to the throng of visitors, admitting only a
+few friends. In the afternoon he went for a long drive with Mrs.
+Lincoln. His mood, as it had been all day, was singularly happy and
+tender. He talked much of the past and future; after four years of
+trouble and tumult he looked forward to four years of comparative quiet
+and normal work; after that he expected to go back to Illinois and
+practise law again. He was never simpler or gentler than on this day of
+unprecedented triumph; his heart overflowed with sentiments of gratitude
+to Heaven, which took the shape, usual to generous natures, of love and
+kindness to all men.
+
+From the very beginning of his presidency, Mr. Lincoln had been
+constantly subject to the threats of his enemies. His mail was infested
+with brutal and vulgar menace, and warnings of all sorts came to him
+from zealous or nervous friends. Most of these communications received
+no notice. In cases where there seemed a ground for inquiry, it was
+made, as carefully as possible, by the President's private secretary, or
+by the War Department; but always without substantial result. Warnings
+that appeared most definite, when examined, proved too vague and
+confused for further attention. The President was too intelligent not to
+know that he was in some danger. Madmen frequently made their way to the
+very door of the executive office, and sometimes into Mr. Lincoln's
+presence. But he had himself so sane a mind, and a heart so kindly, even
+to his enemies, that it was hard for him to believe in political hatred
+so deadly as to lead to murder.
+
+He knew, indeed, that incitements to murder him were not uncommon in the
+South, but as is the habit of men constitutionally brave, he considered
+the possibilities of danger remote, and positively refused to torment
+himself with precautions for his own safety; summing the matter up by
+saying that both friends and strangers must have daily access to him;
+that his life was therefore in reach of any one, sane or mad, who was
+ready to murder and be hanged for it; and that he could not possibly
+guard against all danger unless he shut himself up in an iron box, in
+which condition he could scarcely perform the duties of a President. He
+therefore went in and out before the people, always unarmed, generally
+unattended. He received hundreds of visitors in a day, his breast bare
+to pistol or knife. He walked at midnight, with a single secretary, or
+alone, from the Executive Mansion to the War Department and back. He
+rode through the lonely roads of an uninhabited suburb from the White
+House to the Soldiers' Home in the dusk of the evening, and returned to
+his work in the morning before the town was astir. He was greatly
+annoyed when it was decided that there must be a guard at the Executive
+Mansion, and that a squad of cavalry must accompany him on his daily
+drive; but he was always reasonable, and yielded to the best judgment of
+others.
+
+Four years of threats and boastings that were unfounded, and of plots
+that came to nothing, thus passed away; but precisely at the time when
+the triumph of the nation seemed assured, and a feeling of peace and
+security was diffused over the country, one of the conspiracies,
+apparently no more important than the others, ripened in the sudden heat
+of hatred and despair. A little band of malignant secessionists,
+consisting of John Wilkes Booth, an actor of a family of famous players;
+Lewis Powell, alias Payne, a disbanded rebel soldier from Florida;
+George Atzerodt, formerly a coachmaker, but more recently a spy and
+blockade-runner of the Potomac; David E. Herold, a young druggist's
+clerk; Samuel Arnold and Michael O'Laughlin, Maryland secessionists and
+Confederate soldiers; and John H. Surratt, had their ordinary rendezvous
+at the house of Mrs. Mary E. Surratt, the widowed mother of the last
+named, formerly a woman of some property in Maryland, but reduced by
+reverses to keeping a small boarding-house in Washington.
+
+Booth was the leader of the little coterie. He was a young man of
+twenty-six, strikingly handsome, with that ease and grace of manner
+which came to him of right from his theatrical ancestors. He had played
+for several seasons with only indifferent success, his value as an actor
+lying rather in his romantic beauty of person than in any talent or
+industry he possessed. He was a fanatical secessionist, and had imbibed
+at Richmond and other Southern cities where he played a furious spirit
+of partizanship against Lincoln and the Union party. After the
+reelection of Mr. Lincoln, he visited Canada, consorted with the rebel
+emissaries there, and--whether or not at their instigation cannot
+certainly be said--conceived a scheme to capture the President and take
+him to Richmond. He passed a great part of the autumn and winter
+pursuing this fantastic enterprise, seeming to be always well supplied
+with money; but the winter wore away, and nothing was accomplished. On
+March 4 he was at the Capitol, and created a disturbance by trying to
+force his way through the line of policemen who guarded the passage
+through which the President walked to the east front of the building.
+His intentions at this time are not known; he afterward said he lost an
+excellent chance of killing the President that day.
+
+His ascendancy over his fellow-conspirators seems to have been complete.
+After the surrender of Lee, in an access of malice and rage akin to
+madness he called them together and assigned each his part in the new
+crime which had risen in his mind out of the abandoned abduction scheme.
+This plan was as brief and simple as it was horrible. Powell, alias
+Payne, the stalwart, brutal, simple-minded boy from Florida, was to
+murder Seward; Atzerodt, the comic villain of the drama, was assigned to
+remove Andrew Johnson; Booth reserved for himself the most conspicuous
+role of the tragedy. It was Herold's duty to attend him as page and aid
+him in his escape. Minor parts were given to stage-carpenters and other
+hangers-on, who probably did not understand what it all meant. Herold,
+Atzerodt, and Surratt had previously deposited at a tavern at
+Surrattsville, Maryland, owned by Mrs. Surratt, but kept by a man named
+Lloyd, a quantity of arms and materials to be used in the abduction
+scheme. Mrs. Surratt, being at the tavern on the eleventh, warned Lloyd
+to have the "shooting-irons" in readiness, and, visiting the place again
+on the fourteenth, told him they would probably be called for that
+night.
+
+The preparations for the final blow were made with feverish haste. It
+was only about noon of the fourteenth that Booth learned that the
+President was to go to Ford's Theater that night to see the play "Our
+American Cousin." It has always been a matter of surprise in Europe that
+he should have been at a place of amusement on Good Friday; but the day
+was not kept sacred in America, except by the members of certain
+churches. The President was fond of the theater. It was one of his few
+means of recreation. Besides, the town was thronged with soldiers and
+officers, all eager to see him; by appearing in public he would gratify
+many people whom he could not otherwise meet. Mrs. Lincoln had asked
+General and Mrs. Grant to accompany her; they had accepted, and the
+announcement that they would be present had been made in the evening
+papers; but they changed their plans, and went north by an afternoon
+train. Mrs. Lincoln then invited in their stead Miss Harris and Major
+Rathbone, the daughter and the stepson of Senator Ira Harris. Being
+detained by visitors, the play had made some progress when the President
+appeared. The band struck up "Hail to the Chief," the actors ceased
+playing, the audience rose, cheering tumultuously, the President bowed
+in acknowledgment, and the play went on.
+
+From the moment he learned of the President's intention, Booth's every
+action was alert and energetic. He and his confederates were seen on
+horseback in every part of the city. He had a hurried conference with
+Mrs. Surratt before she started for Lloyd's tavern. He intrusted to an
+actor named Matthews a carefully prepared statement of his reasons for
+committing the murder, which he charged him to give to the publisher of
+the "National Intelligencer," but which Matthews, in the terror and
+dismay of the night, burned without showing to any one. Booth was
+perfectly at home in Ford's Theater. Either by himself, or with the aid
+of friends, he arranged his whole plan of attack and escape during the
+afternoon. He counted upon address and audacity to gain access to the
+small passage behind the President's box. Once there, he guarded against
+interference by an arrangement of a wooden bar to be fastened by a
+simple mortise in the angle of the wall and the door by which he had
+entered, so that the door could not be opened from without. He even
+provided for the contingency of not gaining entrance to the box by
+boring a hole in its door, through which he might either observe the
+occupants, or take aim and shoot. He hired at a livery-stable a small,
+fleet horse.
+
+A few minutes before ten o'clock, leaving his horse at the rear of the
+theater in charge of a call-boy, he went into a neighboring saloon, took
+a drink of brandy, and, entering the theater, passed rapidly to the
+little hallway leading to the President's box. Showing a card to the
+servant in attendance, he was allowed to enter, closed the door
+noiselessly, and secured it with the wooden bar he had previously made
+ready, without disturbing any of the occupants of the box, between whom
+and himself yet remained the partition and the door through which he had
+made the hole.
+
+No one, not even the comedian who uttered them, could ever remember the
+last words of the piece that were spoken that night--the last Abraham
+Lincoln heard upon earth. The tragedy in the box turned play and players
+to the most unsubstantial of phantoms. Here were five human beings in a
+narrow space--the greatest man of his time, in the glory of the most
+stupendous success of our history; his wife, proud and happy; a pair of
+betrothed lovers, with all the promise of felicity that youth, social
+position, and wealth could give them; and this handsome young actor, the
+pet of his little world. The glitter of fame, happiness, and ease was
+upon the entire group; yet in an instant everything was to be changed.
+Quick death was to come to the central figure--the central figure of the
+century's great and famous men. Over the rest hovered fates from which a
+mother might pray kindly death to save her children in their infancy.
+One was to wander with the stain of murder upon his soul, in frightful
+physical pain, with a price upon his head and the curse of a world upon
+his name, until he died a dog's death in a burning barn; the wife was to
+pass the rest of her days in melancholy and madness; and one of the
+lovers was to slay the other, and end his life a raving maniac.
+
+The murderer seemed to himself to be taking part in a play. Hate and
+brandy had for weeks kept his brain in a morbid state. Holding a pistol
+in one hand and a knife in the other, he opened the box door, put the
+pistol to the President's head, and fired. Major Rathbone sprang to
+grapple with him, and received a savage knife wound in the arm. Then,
+rushing forward, Booth placed his hand on the railing of the box and
+vaulted to the stage. It was a high leap, but nothing to such an
+athlete. He would have got safely away but for his spur catching in the
+flag that draped the front of the box. He fell, the torn flag trailing
+on his spur; but, though the fall had broken his leg, he rose instantly
+and brandishing his knife and shouting, "Sic Semper Tyrannis!" fled
+rapidly across the stage and out of sight. Major Rathbone called, "Stop
+him!" The cry rang out, "He has shot the President!" and from the
+audience, stupid at first with surprise, and wild afterward with
+excitement and horror, two or three men jumped upon the stage in pursuit
+of the assassin. But he ran through the familiar passages, leaped upon
+his horse, rewarding with a kick and a curse the boy who held him, and
+escaped into the night.
+
+The President scarcely moved; his head drooped forward slightly, his
+eyes closed. Major Rathbone, not regarding his own grievous hurt, rushed
+to the door of the box to summon aid. He found it barred, and some one
+on the outside beating and clamoring for admittance. It was at once seen
+that the President's wound was mortal. A large derringer bullet had
+entered the back of the head, on the left side, and, passing through the
+brain, lodged just behind the left eye. He was carried to a house across
+the street, and laid upon a bed in a small room at the rear of the hall
+on the ground floor. Mrs. Lincoln followed, tenderly cared for by Miss
+Harris. Rathbone, exhausted by loss of blood, fainted, and was taken
+home. Messengers were sent for the cabinet, for the surgeon-general, for
+Dr. Stone, Mr. Lincoln's family physician, and for others whose official
+or private relations to the President gave them the right to be there. A
+crowd of people rushed instinctively to the White House, and, bursting
+through the doors, shouted the dreadful news to Robert Lincoln and Major
+Hay, who sat together in an upper room. They ran down-stairs, and as
+they were entering a carriage to drive to Tenth Street, a friend came up
+and told them that Mr. Seward and most of the cabinet had been murdered.
+The news seemed so improbable that they hoped it was all untrue; but, on
+reaching Tenth Street, the excitement and the gathering crowds prepared
+them for the worst. In a few moments those who had been sent for and
+many others were assembled in the little chamber where the chief of the
+state lay in his agony. His son was met at the door by Dr. Stone, who
+with grave tenderness informed him that there was no hope.
+
+The President had been shot a few minutes after ten. The wound would
+have brought instant death to most men, but his vital tenacity was
+remarkable. He was, of course, unconscious from the first moment; but he
+breathed with slow and regular respiration throughout the night. As the
+dawn came and the lamplight grew pale, his pulse began to fail; but his
+face, even then, was scarcely more haggard than those of the sorrowing
+men around him. His automatic moaning ceased, a look of unspeakable
+peace came upon his worn features, and at twenty-two minutes after seven
+he died. Stanton broke the silence by saying:
+
+"Now he belongs to the ages."
+
+Booth had done his work efficiently. His principal subordinate, Payne,
+had acted with equal audacity and cruelty, but not with equally fatal
+result. Going to the home of the Secretary of State, who lay ill in bed,
+he had forced his way to Mr. Seward's room, on the pretext of being a
+messenger from the physician with a packet of medicine to deliver. The
+servant at the door tried to prevent him from going up-stairs; the
+Secretary's son, Frederick W. Seward, hearing the noise, stepped out
+into the hall to check the intruders. Payne rushed upon him with a
+pistol which missed fire, then rained blows with it upon his head, and,
+grappling and struggling, the two came to the Secretary's room and fell
+together through the door. Frederick Seward soon became unconscious, and
+remained so for several weeks, being, perhaps, the last man in the
+civilized world to learn the strange story of the night. The Secretary's
+daughter and a soldier nurse were in the room. Payne struck them right
+and left, wounding the nurse with his knife, and then, rushing to the
+bed, began striking at the throat of the crippled statesman, inflicting
+three terrible wounds on his neck and cheek. The nurse recovered himself
+and seized the assassin from behind, while another son, roused by his
+sister's screams, came into the room and managed at last to force him
+outside the door--not, however, until he and the nurse had been stabbed
+repeatedly. Payne broke away at last, and ran down-stairs, seriously
+wounding an attendant on the way, reached the door unhurt, sprang upon
+his horse, and rode leisurely away. When surgical aid arrived, the
+Secretary's house looked like a field hospital. Five of its inmates were
+bleeding from ghastly wounds, and two of them, among the highest
+officials of the nation, it was thought might never see the light of
+another day; though all providentially recovered.
+
+The assassin left behind him his hat, which apparently trivial loss cost
+him and one of his fellow conspirators their lives. Fearing that the
+lack of it would arouse suspicion, he abandoned his horse, instead of
+making good his escape, and hid himself in the woods east of Washington
+for two days. Driven at last by hunger, he returned to the city and
+presented himself at Mrs. Surratt's house at the very moment when all
+its inmates had been arrested and were about to be taken to the office
+of the provost-marshal. Payne thus fell into the hands of justice, and
+the utterance of half a dozen words by him and the unhappy woman whose
+shelter he sought proved the death-warrant of them both.
+
+Booth had been recognized by dozens of people as he stood before the
+footlights and brandished his dagger; but his swift horse quickly
+carried him beyond any haphazard pursuit. He crossed the Navy-Yard
+bridge and rode into Maryland, being joined very soon by Herold. The
+assassin and his wretched acolyte came at midnight to Mrs. Surratt's
+tavern, and afterward pushed on through the moonlight to the house of an
+acquaintance of Booth, a surgeon named Mudd, who set Booth's leg and
+gave him a room, where he rested until evening, when Mudd sent them on
+their desolate way south. After parting with him they went to the
+residence of Samuel Cox near Port Tobacco, and were by him given into
+the charge of Thomas Jones, a contraband trader between Maryland and
+Richmond, a man so devoted to the interests of the Confederacy that
+treason and murder seemed every-day incidents to be accepted as natural
+and necessary. He kept Booth and Herold in hiding at the peril of his
+life for a week, feeding and caring for them in the woods near his
+house, watching for an opportunity to ferry them across the Potomac;
+doing this while every wood-path was haunted by government detectives,
+well knowing that death would promptly follow his detection, and that a
+reward was offered for the capture of his helpless charge that would
+make a rich man of any one who gave him up.
+
+With such devoted aid Booth might have wandered a long way; but there
+is no final escape but suicide for an assassin with a broken leg. At
+each painful move the chances of discovery increased. Jones was able,
+after repeated failures, to row his fated guests across the Potomac.
+Arriving on the Virginia side, they lived the lives of hunted animals
+for two or three days longer, finding to their horror that they were
+received by the strongest Confederates with more of annoyance than
+enthusiasm, though none, indeed, offered to betray them. Booth had by
+this time seen the comments of the newspapers on his work, and bitterer
+than death or bodily suffering was the blow to his vanity. He confided
+his feelings of wrong to his diary, comparing himself favorably with
+Brutus and Tell, and complaining: "I am abandoned, with the curse of
+Cain upon me, when, if the world knew my heart, that one blow would have
+made me great."
+
+On the night of April 25, he and Herold were surrounded by a party under
+Lieutenant E.P. Doherty, as they lay sleeping in a barn belonging to one
+Garrett, in Caroline County, Virginia, on the road to Bowling Green.
+When called upon to surrender, Booth refused. A parley took place, after
+which Doherty told him he would fire the barn. At this Herold came out
+and surrendered. The barn was fired, and while it was burning, Booth,
+clearly visible through the cracks in the building, was shot by Boston
+Corbett, a sergeant of cavalry. He was hit in the back of the neck, not
+far from the place where he had shot the President, lingered about three
+hours in great pain, and died at seven in the morning.
+
+The surviving conspirators, with the exception of John H. Surratt, were
+tried by military commission sitting in Washington in the months of May
+and June. The charges against them specified that they were "incited
+and encouraged" to treason and murder by Jefferson Davis and the
+Confederate emissaries in Canada. This was not proved on the trial;
+though the evidence bearing on the case showed frequent communications
+between Canada and Richmond and the Booth coterie in Washington, and
+some transactions in drafts at the Montreal Bank, where Jacob Thompson
+and Booth both kept accounts. Mrs. Surratt, Payne, Herold, and Atzerodt
+were hanged on July 7; Mudd, Arnold, and O'Laughlin were imprisoned for
+life at the Tortugas, the term being afterward shortened; and Spangler,
+the scene-shifter at the theater, was sentenced to six years in jail.
+John H. Surratt escaped to Canada, and from there to England. He
+wandered over Europe, and finally was detected in Egypt and brought back
+to Washington in 1867, where his trial lasted two months, and ended in a
+disagreement of the jury.
+
+Upon the hearts of a people glowing with the joy of victory, the news of
+the President's assassination fell as a great shock. It was the first
+time the telegraph had been called upon to spread over the world tidings
+of such deep and mournful significance. In the stunning effect of the
+unspeakable calamity the country lost sight of the national success of
+the past week, and it thus came to pass that there was never any
+organized expression of the general exultation or rejoicing in the North
+over the downfall of the rebellion. It was unquestionably best that it
+should be so; and Lincoln himself would not have had it otherwise. He
+hated the arrogance of triumph; and even in his cruel death he would
+have been glad to know that his passage to eternity would prevent too
+loud an exultation over the vanquished. As it was, the South could take
+no umbrage at a grief so genuine and so legitimate; the people of that
+section even shared, to a certain degree, in the lamentations over the
+bier of one whom in their inmost hearts they knew to have wished them
+well.
+
+There was one exception to the general grief too remarkable to be passed
+over in silence. Among the extreme radicals in Congress, Mr. Lincoln's
+determined clemency and liberality toward the Southern people had made
+an impression so unfavorable that, though they were naturally shocked at
+his murder, they did not, among themselves, conceal their gratification
+that he was no longer in the way. In a political caucus, held a few
+hours after the President's death, "the feeling was nearly universal,"
+to quote the language of one of their most prominent representatives,
+"that the accession of Johnson to the presidency would prove a godsend
+to the country."
+
+In Washington, with this singular exception, the manifestation of public
+grief was immediate and demonstrative. Within an hour after the body was
+taken to the White House, the town was shrouded in black. Not only the
+public buildings, the shops, and the better residences were draped in
+funeral decorations, but still more touching proof of affection was seen
+in the poorest class of houses, where laboring men of both colors found
+means in their penury to afford some scanty show of mourning. The
+interest and veneration of the people still centered in the White House,
+where, under a tall catafalque in the East Room, the late chief lay in
+the majesty of death, and not at the modest tavern on Pennsylvania
+Avenue, where the new President had his lodging, and where Chief-Justice
+Chase administered the oath of office to him at eleven o'clock on the
+morning of April 15.
+
+It was determined that the funeral ceremonies in Washington should be
+celebrated on Wednesday, April 19, and all the churches throughout the
+country were invited to join at the same time in appropriate
+observances. The ceremonies in the East Room were brief and simple--the
+burial service, a prayer, and a short address; while all the pomp and
+circumstance which the government could command was employed to give a
+fitting escort from the White House to the Capitol, where the body of
+the President was to lie in state. The vast procession moved amid the
+booming of minute-guns, and the tolling of all the bells in Washington
+Georgetown, and Alexandria; and to associate the pomp of the day with
+the greatest work of Lincoln's life, a detachment of colored troops
+marched at the head of the line.
+
+As soon as it was announced that Mr. Lincoln was to be buried at
+Springfield, Illinois, every town and city on the route begged that the
+train might halt within its limits and give its people the opportunity
+of testifying their grief and reverence. It was finally arranged that
+the funeral cortege should follow substantially the same route over
+which he had come in 1861 to take possession of the office to which he
+had given a new dignity and value for all time. On April 21, accompanied
+by a guard of honor, and in a train decked with somber trappings, the
+journey was begun. At Baltimore through which, four years before, it was
+a question whether the President-elect could pass with safety to his
+life, the coffin was taken with reverent care to the great dome of the
+Exchange, where, surrounded with evergreens and lilies, it lay for
+several hours, the people passing by in mournful throngs. The same
+demonstration was repeated, gaining continually in intensity of feeling
+and solemn splendor of display, in every city through which the
+procession passed. The reception in New York was worthy alike of the
+great city and of the memory of the man they honored. The body lay in
+state in the City Hall, and a half-million people passed in deep silence
+before it. Here General Scott came, pale and feeble, but resolute, to
+pay his tribute of respect to his departed friend and commander.
+
+The train went up the Hudson River by night, and at every town and
+village on the way vast waiting crowds were revealed by the fitful glare
+of torches, and dirges and hymns were sung. As the train passed into
+Ohio, the crowds increased in density, and the public grief seemed
+intensified at every step westward. The people of the great central
+basin were claiming their own. The day spent at Cleveland was unexampled
+in the depth of emotion it brought to life. Some of the guard of honor
+have said that it was at this point they began to appreciate the place
+which Lincoln was to hold in history.
+
+The last stage of this extraordinary progress was completed, and
+Springfield reached at nine o'clock on the morning of May 3. Nothing had
+been done or thought of for two weeks in Springfield but the
+preparations for this day, and they had been made with a thoroughness
+which surprised the visitors from the East. The body lay in state in the
+Capitol, which was richly draped from roof to basement in black velvet
+and silver fringe. Within it was a bower of bloom and fragrance. For
+twenty-four hours an unbroken stream of people passed through, bidding
+their friend and neighbor welcome home and farewell; and at ten o'clock
+on May 4, the coffin lid was closed, and a vast procession moved out to
+Oak Ridge, where the town had set apart a lovely spot for his grave, and
+where the dead President was committed to the soil of the State which
+had so loved and honored him. The ceremonies at the grave were simple
+and touching. Bishop Simpson delivered a pathetic oration; prayers were
+offered and hymns were sung; but the weightiest and most eloquent words
+uttered anywhere that day were those of the second inaugural, which the
+committee had wisely ordained to be read over his grave, as the friends
+of Raphael chose the incomparable canvas of the Transfiguration to be
+the chief ornament of his funeral.
+
+
+
+
+XXXVIII
+
+Lincoln's Early Environment--Its Effect on his Character--His Attitude
+toward Slavery and the Slaveholder--His Schooling in Disappointment--His
+Seeming Failures--His Real Successes--The Final Trial--His
+Achievements--His Place in History
+
+
+A child born to an inheritance of want; a boy growing into a narrow
+world of ignorance; a youth taking up the burden of coarse manual labor;
+a man entering on the doubtful struggle of a local backwoods
+career--these were the beginnings of Abraham Lincoln, if we analyze them
+under the hard practical cynical philosophy which takes for its motto
+that "nothing succeeds but success." If, however, we adopt a broader
+philosophy, and apply the more generous and more universal principle
+that "everything succeeds which attacks favorable opportunity with
+fitting endeavor," then we see that it was the strong vitality, the
+active intelligence, and the indefinable psychological law of moral
+growth that assimilates the good and rejects the bad, which Nature gave
+this obscure child, that carried him to the service of mankind and to
+the admiration of the centuries with the same certainty with which the
+acorn grows to be the oak.
+
+We see how even the limitations of his environment helped the end.
+Self-reliance, that most vital characteristic of the pioneer, was his by
+blood and birth and training; and developed through the privations of
+his lot and the genius that was in him to the mighty strength needed to
+guide our great country through the titanic struggle of the Civil War.
+
+The sense of equality was his, also by virtue of his pioneer training--a
+consciousness fostered by life from childhood to manhood in a state of
+society where there were neither rich to envy nor poor to despise, where
+the gifts and hardships of the forest were distributed impartially to
+each, and where men stood indeed equal before the forces of unsubdued
+nature.
+
+The same great forces taught liberality, modesty, charity, sympathy--in
+a word, neighborliness. In that hard life, far removed from the
+artificial aids and comforts of civilization, where all the wealth of
+Croesus, had a man possessed it, would not have sufficed to purchase
+relief from danger, or help in time of need, neighborliness became of
+prime importance. A good neighbor doubled his safety and his resources,
+a group of good neighbors increased his comfort and his prospects in a
+ratio that grew like the cube root. Here was opportunity to practise
+that virtue that Christ declared to be next to the love of God--the
+fruitful injunction to "love thy neighbor as thyself."
+
+Here, too, in communities far from the customary restraints of organized
+law, the common native intelligence of the pioneer was brought face to
+face with primary and practical questions of natural right. These men
+not only understood but appreciated the American doctrine of
+self-government. It was this understanding, this feeling, which taught
+Lincoln to write: "When the white man governs himself, that is
+self-government; but when he governs himself and also governs another
+man, that is more than self-government--that is despotism"; and its
+philosophic corollary: "He who would be no slave must consent to have no
+slave."
+
+Abraham Lincoln sprang from exceptional conditions--was in truth, in
+the language of Lowell, a "new birth of our new soil." But this
+distinction was not due alone to mere environment. The ordinary man,
+with ordinary natural gifts, found in Western pioneer communities a
+development essentially the same as he would have found under colonial
+Virginia or Puritan New England: a commonplace life, varying only with
+the changing ideas and customs of time and locality. But for the man
+with extraordinary powers of body and mind; for the individual gifted by
+nature with the genius which Abraham Lincoln possessed; the pioneer
+condition, with its severe training in self-denial, patience, and
+industry, was favorable to a development of character that helped in a
+preeminent degree to qualify him for the duties and responsibilities of
+leadership and government. He escaped the formal conventionalities which
+beget insincerity and dissimulation. He grew up without being warped by
+erroneous ideas or false principles; without being dwarfed by vanity, or
+tempted by self-interest.
+
+Some pioneer communities carried with them the institution of slavery;
+and in the slave State of Kentucky Lincoln was born. He remained there
+only a short time, and we have every reason to suppose that wherever he
+might have grown to maturity his very mental and moral fiber would have
+spurned the doctrine and practice of human slavery. And yet so subtle is
+the influence of birth and custom, that we can trace one lasting effect
+of this early and brief environment. Though he ever hated slavery, he
+never hated the slaveholder. This ineradicable feeling of pardon and
+sympathy for Kentucky and the South played no insignificant part in his
+dealings with grave problems of statesmanship. He struck slavery its
+death-blow with the hand of war, but he tendered the slaveholder a
+golden equivalent with the hand of friendship and peace.
+
+His advancement in the astonishing career which carried him from
+obscurity to world-wide fame; from postmaster of New Salem village to
+President of the United States; from captain of a backwoods volunteer
+company to commander-in-chief of the army and navy, was neither sudden,
+nor accidental, nor easy. He was both ambitious and successful, but his
+ambition was moderate and his success was slow. And because his success
+was slow, his ambition never outgrew either his judgment or his powers.
+From the day when he left the paternal roof and launched his canoe on
+the head waters of the Sangamon River to begin life on his own account,
+to the day of his first inauguration, there intervened full thirty years
+of toil, of study, self-denial, patience; often of effort baffled, of
+hope deferred; sometimes of bitter disappointment. Given the natural
+gift of great genius, given the condition of favorable environment, it
+yet required an average lifetime and faithful unrelaxing effort to
+transform the raw country stripling into a competent ruler for this
+great nation.
+
+Almost every success was balanced--sometimes overbalanced by a seeming
+failure. Reversing the usual promotion, he went into the Black Hawk War
+a captain and, through no fault of his own, came out a private. He rode
+to the hostile frontier on horseback, and trudged home on foot. His
+store "winked out." His surveyor's compass and chain, with which he was
+earning a scanty living, were sold for debt. He was defeated in his
+first campaign for the legislature; defeated in his first attempt to be
+nominated for Congress; defeated in his application to be appointed
+commissioner of the General Land Office; defeated for the Senate in the
+Illinois legislature of 1854, when he had forty-five votes to begin
+with, by Trumbull, who had only five votes to begin with; defeated in
+the legislature of 1858, by an antiquated apportionment, when his joint
+debates with Douglas had won him a popular plurality of nearly four
+thousand in a Democratic State; defeated in the nomination for
+Vice-President on the Fremont ticket in 1856, when a favorable nod from
+half a dozen wire-workers would have brought him success.
+
+Failures? Not so. Every seeming defeat was a slow success. His was the
+growth of the oak, and not of Jonah's gourd. Every scaffolding of
+temporary elevation he pulled down, every ladder of transient
+expectation which broke under his feet accumulated his strength, and
+piled up a solid mound which raised him to wider usefulness and clearer
+vision. He could not become a master workman until he had served a
+tedious apprenticeship. It was the quarter of a century of reading
+thinking, speech-making and legislating which qualified him for
+selection as the chosen champion of the Illinois Republicans in the
+great Lincoln-Douglas joint debates of 1858. It was the great
+intellectual victory won in these debates, plus the title "Honest old
+Abe," won by truth and manhood among his neighbors during a whole
+generation, that led the people of the United States to confide to his
+hands the duties and powers of President.
+
+And when, after thirty years of endeavor, success had beaten down
+defeat; when Lincoln had been nominated elected, and inaugurated, came
+the crowning trial of his faith and constancy. When the people, by free
+and lawful choice, had placed honor and power in his hands; when his
+signature could convene Congress, approve laws, make ministers, cause
+ships to sail and armies to move; when he could speak with potential
+voice to other rulers of other lands, there suddenly came upon the
+government and the nation the symptoms of a fatal paralysis; honor
+seemed to dwindle and power to vanish. Was he then, after all, not to be
+President? Was patriotism dead? Was the Constitution waste paper? Was
+the Union gone?
+
+The indications were, indeed, ominous. Seven States were in rebellion.
+There was treason in Congress, treason in the Supreme Court, treason in
+the army and navy. Confusion and discord rent public opinion. To use
+Lincoln's own forcible simile, sinners were calling the righteous to
+repentance. Finally, the flag, insulted on the _Star of the West_,
+trailed in capitulation at Sumter and then came the humiliation of the
+Baltimore riot, and the President practically for a few days a prisoner
+in the capital of the nation.
+
+But his apprenticeship had been served, and there was no more failure.
+With faith and justice and generosity he conducted for four long years a
+civil war whose frontiers stretched from the Potomac to the Rio Grande;
+whose soldiers numbered a million men on each side; in which, counting
+skirmishes and battles small and great, was fought an average of two
+engagements every day; and during which every twenty-four hours saw an
+expenditure of two millions of money. The labor, the thought, the
+responsibility, the strain of intellect and anguish of soul that he gave
+to this great task, who can measure?
+
+The sincerity of the fathers of the Republic was impugned he justified
+them. The Declaration of Independence was called a "string of glittering
+generalities" and a "self-evident lie"; he refuted the aspersion. The
+Constitution was perverted; he corrected the error. The flag was
+insulted; he redressed the offense. The government was assailed? he
+restored its authority. Slavery thrust the sword of civil war at the
+heart of the nation? he crushed slavery, and cemented the purified Union
+in new and stronger bonds.
+
+And all the while conciliation was as active as vindication was stern.
+He reasoned and pleaded with the anger of the South; he gave
+insurrection time to repent; he forbore to execute retaliation; he
+offered recompense to slaveholders; he pardoned treason.
+
+What but lifetime schooling in disappointment; what but the pioneer's
+self-reliance and freedom from prejudice; what but the patient faith,
+the clear perceptions of natural right, the unwarped sympathy and
+unbounding charity of this man with spirit so humble and soul so great,
+could have carried him through the labors he wrought to the victory he
+attained?
+
+As the territory may be said to be its body, and its material activities
+its blood, so patriotism may be said to be the vital breath of a nation.
+When patriotism dies, the nation dies, and its resources as well as its
+territory go to other peoples with stronger vitality.
+
+Patriotism can in no way be more effectively cultivated than by studying
+and commemorating the achievements and virtues of our great men--the men
+who have lived and died for the nation, who have advanced its prosperity,
+increased its power, added to its glory. In our brief history the United
+States can boast of many great men, and the achievement by its sons of
+many great deeds; and if we accord the first rank to Washington as
+founder, so we must unhesitatingly give to Lincoln the second place as
+preserver and regenerator of American liberty. So far, however from being
+opposed or subordinated either to the other, the popular heart has
+already canonized these two as twin heroes in our national pantheon, as
+twin stars in the firmament of our national fame.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+=Able, Mrs.=, sister of Mary Owens, 55, 60
+
+=Adams, Charles Francis=, member of Congress, United States minister
+  to England, sent to England, 211
+
+=Alabama=, State of, admitted as State, 1819, 19
+
+=Alabama=, the, Confederate cruiser, sunk by the _Kearsarge_, 525
+
+=Albemarle=, the, Confederate ironclad, destruction of,
+  October 27, 1864, 525
+
+=Albert=, Prince Consort, drafts note to Lord Russell about _Trent_
+  affair, 247
+
+=Alexander II=, Czar of Russia, emancipates Russian serfs, 101
+
+=Alexandria=, Virginia, occupation of, 214
+
+=American Party=, principles of, 101, 102;
+  nominates Millard Fillmore for President, 1856, 102
+
+=Anderson, Robert=, brevet major-general United States army,
+  transfers his command to Fort Sumter, 177, 178;
+  reports condition of Fort Sumter, 182;
+  notified of coming relief, 188;
+  defense and surrender of Fort Sumter, 189, 190;
+  telegram about Fremont's proclamation, 240;
+  sends Sherman to Nashville, 254;
+  turns over command to Sherman, 254;
+  raises flag over Fort Sumter, 531
+
+=Antietam=, Maryland, battle of, September 17, 1862, 31
+
+=Arkansas=, State of, joins Confederacy, 200, 204;
+  military governor appointed for, 419;
+  reconstruction in, 426, 427;
+  slavery abolished in, 427;
+  slavery in, throttled by public opinion, 473;
+  ratifies Thirteenth Amendment, 475
+
+=Armies of the United States=,
+  enlistment in, since beginning of the war, 353, 354;
+  numbers under Grant's command, March, 1865, 507;
+  reduction of, to peace footing, 527;
+  grand review of, 527-529
+
+=Armstrong, Jack=, wrestles with Lincoln, 25
+
+=Arnold, Samuel=, in conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln, 534;
+  imprisoned, 544
+
+=Atlanta=, Georgia, siege of, July 22 to September 1, 1864, 407
+
+=Atzerodt, George=, in conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln, 534;
+  assigned to murder Andrew Johnson, 535;
+  deposits arms in tavern at Surrattsville, 536;
+  execution of, 544
+
+
+=Bailey, Theodorus=, rear-admiral United States navy,
+  in expedition against New Orleans, 284
+
+=Bailhache, William H.=, prints Lincoln's first inaugural, 168
+
+=Baker, Edward D.=, member of Congress, United States senator,
+  brevet major-general United States Volunteers, at Springfield,
+  Illinois, 52;
+  nominated for Congress, 73;
+  in Mexican War, 75
+
+=Ball's Bluff=, Virginia, battle of, October, 21, 1861, 262
+
+=Baltimore=, Maryland, Massachusetts Sixth mobbed in, 193;
+  occupied by General Butler, 199;
+  threatened by Early, 403;
+  funeral honors to Lincoln in, 546
+
+=Bancroft, George=, Secretary of the Navy, historian,
+  minister to Prussia, letter to Lincoln, 321
+
+=Banks, Nathaniel P.=, Speaker of the House of Representatives,
+  major-general United States Volunteers, in Army of Virginia, 310;
+  forces under, for defense of Washington, 317;
+  operations against Port Hudson, 382;
+  captures Port Hudson, 383, 384;
+  reply to Lincoln, 425;
+  causes election of State officers in Louisiana, 425, 426;
+  opinion of new Louisiana constitution, 426
+
+=Barton, William=, governor of Delaware,
+  reply to Lincoln's call for volunteers, 193
+
+=Bates, Edward=, member of Congress, Attorney-General,
+  candidate for presidential nomination, 1860, 144;
+  vote for, in Chicago convention, 149;
+  tendered cabinet appointment, 163;
+  appointed Attorney-General, 182;
+  signs cabinet protest, 311;
+  rewrites cabinet protest, 312;
+  resigns from cabinet, 491
+
+=Beauregard, G.T.=, Confederate general, reduces Fort Sumter, 188-190;
+  in command at Manassas Junction, 215;
+  understanding with Johnston, 216;
+  battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861, 226-229;
+  council with Johnston and Hardee, 267;
+  succeeds to command at Pittsburg Landing, 273;
+  losses at Pittsburg Landing, 274;
+  evacuates Corinth, 275;
+  united with Hood, 409;
+  orders Hood to assume offensive, 410;
+  interview with Davis and Johnston, 520
+
+=Bell, John=, member of Congress, Secretary of War,
+  United States senator, nominated for President, 1860, 143;
+  vote for, 160
+
+=Benjamin, Judah P.=, United States senator,
+  Confederate Secretary of State, suggestions about instructions
+  to peace commissioners, 482;
+  last instructions to Slidell, 501, 502
+
+=Berry, William F.=, partner of Lincoln in a store, 35;
+  death of, 36
+
+=Big Bethel=, Virginia, disaster at, 214
+
+=Blackburn's Ford=, Virginia, engagement at, July 18, 1861, 226
+
+=Black Hawk=, chief of the Sac Indians,
+  crosses Mississippi into Illinois, 32
+
+=Black, Jeremiah S.=, Attorney-General, Secretary of State,
+  war of pamphlets with Douglas, 134
+
+=Blair, Francis P.=, Sr., quarrel with Fremont, 236, 487;
+  asks permission to go South, 478;
+  interviews with Jefferson Davis, 479-482;
+  his Mexican project, 479
+
+=Blair, Francis P.=, Jr., member of Congress major-general
+  United States Volunteers quarrel with Fremont, 236, 487, 488
+
+=Blair, Montgomery=, Postmaster-General,
+  appointed Postmaster-General, 182;
+  quarrel with Fremont, 236, 487, 488;
+  at cabinet meeting, July 22, 1862, 331, 332;
+  objects to time for issuing emancipation proclamation, 340;
+  resolution in Republican platform aimed at, 446, 487;
+  relations with members of the cabinet, 488;
+  remarks after Early's raid, 488;
+  retires from cabinet, 489;
+  works for Lincoln's reelection, 489, 490;
+  wishes to be chief justice, 490;
+  declines foreign mission, 490
+
+=Bogue, Captain Vincent=, navigates Sangamon River in
+  steamer _Talisman_, 27, 28
+
+=Boonville=, Missouri, battle of, June 17, 1861, 214
+
+=Booth, John Wilkes=, personal description of, 534, 535;
+  scheme to abduct Lincoln, 535;
+  creates disturbance at Lincoln's second inauguration, 535;
+  assigns parts in conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln, 535, 536;
+  final preparations, 536, 537;
+  shoots the President, 538;
+  wounds Major Rathbone 538;
+  escape of, 539;
+  flight and capture of, 542, 543;
+  death of, 543;
+  account at Montreal Bank, 544
+
+=Bragg, Braxton=, Confederate general,
+  forces Buell back to Louisville, 275, 276;
+  threatens Louisville, 379;
+  battle of Perryville, 379;
+  battle of Murfreesboro, 380;
+  retreat to Chattanooga, 385;
+  Chattanooga and Chickamauga, 386-392;
+  retreats to Dalton, 392;
+  superseded by Johnston, 395;
+  his invasion delays reconstruction in Tennessee, 428
+
+=Breckinridge, John C.=, Vice-President, Confederate major-general,
+  and Secretary of War, nominated for Vice-President, 1856, 104;
+  desires Douglas's reelection to United States Senate, 126;
+  nominated for President, 1860, 143;
+  vote for, 160;
+  joins the rebellion, 217;
+  required by Davis to report on Johnston-Sherman agreement, 523
+
+=Breckinridge, Robert J.=, D.D., LL.D.,
+  temporary chairman Republican national convention, 1864, 446
+
+=Brown, Albert G.=, member of Congress, United States senator,
+  questions Douglas, 129;
+  demands congressional slave code, 141
+
+=Brown, John=, raid at Harper's Ferry, trial and execution of, 134
+
+=Brown, Joseph E.=, governor of Georgia, United States senator,
+  refuses to obey orders from Richmond, 481
+
+=Browning, Orville H.=, United States senator, Secretary of the Interior
+  under President Johnson, at Springfield, Illinois, 52;
+  speech in Chicago convention, 151
+
+=Browning, Mrs. O.H.=, Lincoln's letter to, 58, 59
+
+=Bryant, William Cullen=, presides over Cooper Institute meeting, 138
+
+=Buchanan, Franklin=, captain United States navy, admiral Confederate
+  navy, resigns from Washington navy-yard and joins the Confederacy, 196
+
+=Buchanan, James=, fifteenth President of the United States,
+  nominated for President, 1856, 104;
+  elected President, 105, 108;
+  announces pro-slavery policy, 114;
+  appoints Walker governor of Kansas, 114;
+  reply to Walker's letter, 115;
+  special message recommending Lecompton Constitution, 115;
+  permits Scott to be called to Washington, 172;
+  non-action regarding secession, 176, 177;
+  reconstruction of his cabinet, 178;
+  rides with Lincoln in inauguration procession, 180;
+  non-coercion doctrine of, 210;
+  signs resolution for constitutional amendment, 476
+
+=Buckner, Simon B.=, Confederate lieutenant-general,
+  stationed at Bowling Green, 254;
+  force of, 263;
+  surrenders Fort Donelson, 267, 268
+
+=Buell, Don Carlos=, major-general United States Volunteers,
+  succeeds Sherman in Kentucky, 255;
+  driven back to Louisville, 1862, 258;
+  instructions about East Tennessee, 258, 259;
+  reluctance to move into East Tennessee, 260;
+  reluctance to cooeperate with Halleck, 263, 264, 269;
+  ordered forward to Savannah, 271;
+  arrives at Pittsburg Landing, 273;
+  retreats to Louisville, 275, 276;
+  battle of Perryville, 379;
+  relieved from command, 380
+
+=Bull Run=, Virginia, battle of, July 21, 1861, 226-229;
+  second battle of, August 30, 1862, 310, 311
+
+=Burnside, Ambrose E.=, major-general United States Volunteers,
+  holds Knoxville 1863, 258;
+  commands force in Roanoke Island expedition, 277, 278;
+  ordered to reinforce McClellan, 307;
+  orders arrest of Vallandigham, 358;
+  appointed to command Army of the Potomac, 363;
+  previous services, 363, 364;
+  battle of Fredericksburg, 364, 365;
+  relieved from command, 366;
+  ordered to reinforce Rosecrans, 388;
+  besieged at Knoxville, 391;
+  repulses Longstreet, 391
+
+=Butler, Benjamin F.=, major-general United States Volunteers,
+  member of Congress, occupies Baltimore, 199;
+  orders concerning slaves, 220-222;
+  instructions to, about slaves, 223;
+  commands land
+  force in Farragut's expedition against New Orleans, 283;
+  in command at New Orleans, 285;
+  report about negro soldiers, 348, 349;
+  proclaimed an outlaw by Jefferson Davis, 350;
+  seizes City Point, 401;
+  receives votes for Vice-President at Baltimore convention, 448
+
+=Butler, William=, relates incident about Lincoln, 53
+
+=Butterfield, Justin=, appointed Commissioner of General Land Office, 92;
+  defended by Lincoln from political attack, 92
+
+
+=Cadwalader, George=, major-general United States Volunteers,
+  action in Merryman case, 199, 200
+
+=Cairo=, Illinois, military importance of, 209, 210
+
+=Calhoun, John=, appoints Lincoln deputy surveyor, 39, 40;
+  at Springfield, Illinois, 52
+
+=Cameron, Simon=, United States senator, Secretary of War,
+  candidate for presidential nomination, 1860, 144;
+  vote for, in Chicago convention, 149;
+  tendered cabinet appointment, 163, 164;
+  appointed Secretary of War, 182;
+  brings letters of Anderson to Lincoln, 182;
+  visits Fremont, 242;
+  interview with Sherman, 255;
+  appointed minister to Russia, 289;
+  reference to slavery in report to Congress, 320;
+  moves renomination of Lincoln and Hamlin by acclamation, 447
+
+=Campbell, John A.=, justice United States Supreme Court; Confederate
+  commissioner; intermediary of Confederate commissioners, 183;
+  at Hampton Roads conference, 482-485;
+  interviews with Lincoln, 519
+
+=Canby, E.R.S.=, brevet major-general United States army,
+  receives surrender of Taylor, 525;
+  receives surrender of E. Kirby Smith, 526, 527
+
+=Carpenter, Frank B.=, conversation with Lincoln about
+  emancipation proclamation, 331, 332
+
+=Carpenter, W.=, defeated for Illinois legislature 1832, 34;
+  elected in 1834, 43
+
+=Carrick's Ford=, Virginia, battle of, July 13, 1861, 225
+
+=Cartter, David K.=, announces change of vote to Lincoln
+  in Chicago convention, 151
+
+=Cartwright, Peter=, elected to Illinois legislature in 1832, 34
+
+=Chancellorsville=, Virginia, battle of, May 1-4, 1863, 369
+
+=Charleston=, South Carolina, capture of, February 18, 1865, 415;
+  burning of, 416
+
+=Chase, Salmon P.=, United States senator, Secretary of the Treasury,
+  chief justice United States Supreme Court,
+  candidate for presidential nomination, 1860, 144;
+  vote for, in Chicago convention, 149;
+  summoned to Springfield, 163;
+  appointed Secretary of the Treasury, 182;
+  questions McClellan at council of war, 289;
+  signs cabinet protest, 311;
+  favors emancipation by military commanders, 332;
+  urges that parts of States be not exempted
+  in final emancipation proclamation, 343;
+  submits form of closing paragraph, 344;
+  presidential aspirations of, 439-441;
+  letter to Lincoln, 440, 441;
+  resigns from cabinet, 457;
+  effect of his resignation on the political situation, 464;
+  looked upon by radicals as their representative in the cabinet, 487;
+  hostility to Montgomery Blair, 488;
+  made chief justice, 490, 491;
+  note of thanks to Lincoln, 491;
+  opinion of Lincoln, 491;
+  administers oath of office to Lincoln at second inauguration, 496;
+  administers oath of office to President Johnson, 545
+
+=Chattanooga=, Tennessee, battle of, November 23-25, 1863, 389-392
+
+=Chickamauga=, Tennessee, battle of, September 18-20, 1863, 386, 387
+
+=Clary's Grove=, Illinois, settlement of, 24
+
+=Clay, Clement C., Jr.=, United States senator,
+  Confederate agent in Canada, correspondence with Horace Greeley, 459
+
+=Clay, Henry=, nominated for President, 28
+
+=Clements, Andrew J.=, member of Congress, elected to Congress, 419
+
+=Cleveland=, Ohio, funeral honors to Lincoln in, 547
+
+=Cochrane, John=, member of Congress, brigadier-general United States
+  Volunteers, nominated for Vice-President, 1864, 442
+
+=Cold Harbor=, Virginia, battle of, June 1-12, 1864, 399
+
+=Colfax, Schuyler=, member of Congress, Vice-President,
+  letter to, from Lincoln, 132, 133
+
+=Collamer, Jacob=, member of Congress, Postmaster-General,
+  United States senator, vote for, in Chicago convention, 149
+
+=Columbia=, South Carolina, capture and burning of, 415, 416
+
+=Columbus=, Kentucky, evacuation of, 269
+
+=Confederate States of America=, formed by seceding States, 178, 179;
+  "corner-stone" theory, 179;
+  government of, fires on Fort Sumter, 189;
+  joined by North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas, 200;
+  strength of, 204;
+  war measures of, 207;
+  capital removed to Richmond, 207;
+  strength of, in the West, 263;
+  outcry of, against emancipation proclamation and arming of
+  negroes, 350, 351;
+  efficiency of armies of, in 1863, 370;
+  proclamation calling on people to resist Sherman's march, 411, 412;
+  nearly in state of collapse, 481;
+  doomed from the hour of Lincoln's reelection, 499;
+  depreciation of its currency, 499, 500;
+  conscription laws of, 500;
+  Confederate Congress makes Lee general-in-chief, 500;
+  number of soldiers in final struggle, 507;
+  flight of, from Richmond, 515;
+  collapse of the rebellion, 524-527;
+  number of troops surrendered, 527
+
+=Congress of the United States=, passes act organizing
+  territory of Illinois, 19;
+  fixes number of stars and stripes in the flag, 19;
+  admits as States Illinois, Alabama, Maine, and Missouri, 19;
+  nullification debate in, 38;
+  Lincoln's service in, 75-90;
+  Missouri Compromise, 94-96;
+  Democratic majorities chosen in, in 1856, 108;
+  agitation over Kansas in, 113;
+  Senator Brown's resolutions, 141;
+  official count of electoral votes, 160;
+  appoints compromise committees, 167;
+  Buchanan's annual message to, December, 1860, 176, 177;
+  convened in special session by President Lincoln, 192;
+  Lincoln's message to, May 26, 1862, 195;
+  legalizes Lincoln's war measures, 206;
+  meeting and measures of special session of
+  Thirty-seventh Congress, 217-220;
+  Southern unionists in, 217;
+  Lincoln's message to, July 4, 1861, 218-220;
+  action on slavery, 223;
+  special session adjourns, 223;
+  House passes resolution of thanks to Captain Wilkes, 246;
+  friendly to McClellan, 250;
+  Lincoln's message of December 3, 1861, 257, 321, 322;
+  interview of border State delegations with Lincoln, 257, 258, 324, 325;
+  Lincoln's special message, March 6, 1862, 323, 324;
+  passes joint resolution favoring compensated emancipation, 325;
+  passes bill for compensated emancipation in District of
+  Columbia, 325, 336;
+  House bill to aid emancipation in Delaware, Maryland, Virginia,
+  Kentucky, Tennessee and Missouri, 326;
+  slavery measures of 1862, 329;
+  President's second interview with border slave State
+  delegations, 329-331;
+  President's annual message, December 1, 1862, 341, 342;
+  passes national conscription law, 354, 355;
+  act authorizing the President to suspend writ of habeas corpus, 359, 360;
+  confers rank of lieutenant-general on Grant, 393;
+  admits representatives and senators from States with
+  provisional governments, 419;
+  President's annual message, December 8, 1863, 424;
+  reverses former action about seating members from "ten-per-cent
+  States," 424;
+  bills to aid compensated abolishment in Missouri, 432;
+  opposition to Lincoln in, 454;
+  action on bill of Henry Winter Davis, 454;
+  repeals fugitive-slave law, 457;
+  confirms Fessenden's nomination, 458;
+  Lincoln's message of December 5, 1864, 470-472;
+  joint resolution proposing constitutional amendment to prohibit
+  slavery throughout United States, 471-476;
+  the two constitutional amendments submitted to the States during
+  Lincoln's term, 475, 476;
+  Senate confirms Chase's nomination as chief justice, 491
+
+=Congress=, the, Union sailing frigate, burned by _Merrimac_, 280
+
+=Constitutional Union Party=, candidates in 1860, 153
+
+=Conventions=: first national convention of Whig party, 28;
+  President Jackson gives impetus to system of, 52;
+  Illinois State convention nominates Lincoln for Congress 74, 75;
+  convention of "Know-Nothing" party, 1856, 102;
+  Bloomington convention, May, 1856, 103;
+  first national convention of Republican party, June 17, 1856, 103;
+  Democratic national convention, June 2, 1856, 104;
+  Democratic national convention, Charleston, April 23, 1860, 142;
+  it adjourns to reassemble at Baltimore, June 18, 1860, 143;
+  Constitutional Union Convention, Baltimore, May 9, 1860, 143;
+  Republican national convention, Chicago, May 16, 1860, 144, 147-151;
+  Decatur, Illinois, State convention, 154;
+  Cleveland convention, May 31, 1864, 441, 442;
+  meeting in New York to nominate Grant, 442, 443;
+  New Hampshire State convention, January 6, 1864, 443;
+  Republican national convention, June 7, 1864, 446-449;
+  Democratic national convention, 1864, postponed, 463;
+  Democratic national convention meets, 466-468;
+  resolution of Baltimore convention hostile to Montgomery Blair, 487
+
+=Cook, B.C.=, member of Congress, nominates Lincoln
+  in Baltimore convention, 447;
+  seeks to learn Lincoln's wishes about Vice-Presidency, 448
+
+=Cooper, Samuel=, Confederate adjutant-general,
+ joins the Confederacy, 208
+
+=Corbett, Boston=, sergeant United States army, shoots Booth, 543
+
+=Corinth=, Mississippi, captured by Halleck, 275
+
+=Couch, Darius N.=, major-general United States Volunteers,
+  militia force under, in Pennsylvania, 372
+
+=Cox, Samuel=, assists Booth and Herold, 542
+
+=Crawford, Andrew=, teacher of President Lincoln, 12
+
+=Crittenden, John J.=, Attorney-General, United States senator,
+  advocates reelection of Douglas to United States Senate, 126;
+  in Thirty-seventh Congress, 217;
+  presents resolution, 223
+
+=Cumberland=, the, Union frigate, sunk by _Merrimac_, 280
+
+=Curtis, Samuel R.=, member of Congress, major-general
+  United States Volunteers, sends order of removal to Fremont, 242, 243;
+  campaign in Missouri, 269;
+  victory at Pea Ridge, 271
+
+=Cushing, William B.=, commander United States navy,
+  destruction of the _Albemarle_, 525
+
+
+=Dahlgren, John A.=, rear-admiral United States navy,
+  at gathering of officials to discuss fight between _Monitor_
+  and _Merrimac_, 296
+
+=Davis, Henry Winter=, member of Congress, bill prescribing
+  method of reconstruction, 454;
+  signs Wade-Davis manifesto, 456
+
+=Davis, Jefferson=, Secretary of War, United States senator,
+  Confederate President, orders that
+  "rebellion must be crushed" in Kansas, 113;
+  Senate resolutions of, 141;
+  signs address commending Charleston disruption, 143;
+  statement in Senate, 143;
+  elected President of Confederate States of America, 179;
+  telegram to Governor Letcher, 197;
+  proclamation offering letters of marque to privateers, 205;
+  camp of instruction at Harper's Ferry, 209;
+  proclamation of outlawry, 350;
+  message on emancipation proclamation, 350, 351;
+  appoints Hood to succeed Johnston, 407;
+  visits Hood, and unites commands of Beauregard and Hood, 409;
+  interview with Jaquess and Gilmore, 462;
+  interviews with F.P. Blair, Sr., 479-481;
+  gives Blair a letter to show Lincoln, 481;
+  appoints peace commission, 482;
+  instructions to peace commissioners, 482;
+  reports Hampton Roads conference to rebel Congress, 485;
+  speech at public meeting, 485, 486;
+  Confederate Congress shows hostility to, 500, 501;
+  reappoints J.E. Johnston to resist Sherman, 501;
+  recommendations concerning slaves in rebel army, 501;
+  sanctions Lee's letter to Grant, 503;
+  conference with Lee, 504;
+  flight from Richmond, 515;
+  proclamation from Danville, 519, 520;
+  retreat to Greensboro, North Carolina, 520;
+  interview with Johnston and Beauregard, 520;
+  continues southward, 520;
+  dictates proposition of armistice presented by Johnston to Sherman, 521;
+  requires report from Breckinridge about Johnston-Sherman agreement, 523;
+  instructions to Johnston, 524;
+  attempt to reach E. Kirby Smith, 525, 526;
+  effort to gain Florida coast, 526;
+  capture, imprisonment, and release of, 526
+
+=Davis, Mrs. Jefferson=, captured with her husband, 526
+
+=Dawson, John=, defeated for Illinois legislature, 1832, 34;
+  elected in 1834, 43
+
+=Dayton, William L.=, United States senator minister to France,
+  nominated for Vice-President, 104;
+  vote for, in Chicago convention, 149
+
+=Delano, Columbus=, member of Congress, Secretary of the Interior,
+  in Baltimore convention, 447
+
+=Delaware=, State of, secession feeling in, 201;
+  rejects compensated abolishment, 322, 323
+
+=Democratic Party=, party of slavery extension, 102;
+  nominates Buchanan and Breckinridge in 1856, 104;
+  disturbed by Buchanan's attitude on slavery, 116;
+  pro-slavery demands of, 140, 141;
+  national conventions of, 1860, 142-144;
+  candidates in 1860, 152, 153;
+  opposition to emancipation measures and conscription law, 354, 355;
+  adopts McClellan for presidential candidate, 355;
+  interest in Vallandigham, 358;
+  attitude on slavery, 437, 438, 472, 473;
+  convention postponed, 463;
+  national convention, 1864, 466-468
+
+=Dennison, William=, governor of Ohio, Postmaster-General,
+  permanent chairman of Republican national convention, 1864, 446;
+  succeeds Blair as Postmaster-General, 489, 490
+
+=Dickinson, Daniel S.=, United States senator, candidate
+  for vice-presidential nomination, 1864, 448, 449
+
+=Doherty, E.P.=, lieutenant United States army,
+  captures Booth and Herold, 543
+
+=Donelson, Andrew J.=, nominated for Vice-President, 102
+
+=Dorsey, Azel W.=, teacher of President Lincoln, 12
+
+=Douglas, Stephen A.=, member of Congress, United States senator,
+  at Springfield, Illinois, 52;
+  challenges young Whigs of Springfield to debate, 62;
+  elected to United States Senate, 75;
+  champions repeal of Missouri Compromise, 95;
+  speech at Illinois State fair, 96;
+  at Peoria, 96;
+  agreement with Lincoln, 99;
+  on Dred Scott case, 109, 110;
+  denounces Lecompton Constitution, 116, 117;
+  hostility of Buchanan administration toward, 117;
+  Lincoln-Douglas joint debate, 121-125;
+  speeches in the South, 128, 129;
+  answer to Senator Brown, 129;
+  references to Lincoln, 130;
+  Ohio speeches, 133;
+  "Harper's Magazine" essay, 134;
+  fight over nomination of, for President, 1860, 142-144;
+  nominated for President, 143;
+  speeches during campaign of 1860, 156;
+  vote for, 160
+
+=Douglass, Frederick=, conversation with Lincoln, 352
+
+=Draft=, Congress passes national conscription law, 354;
+  opposition of Governor Seymour to, 355-357;
+  riots in New York, 356, 357;
+  dissatisfaction in other places, 357;
+  opposition of Vallandigham to, 358
+
+=Dred Scott= case, decision of Supreme Court in, 108, 109;
+  protest of North against, 109;
+  Senator Douglas on, 109, 110
+
+=Dresser, Rev. Charles=, marries Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd, 68, 69
+
+=Du-Pont, Samuel F.=, rear-admiral United States navy,
+  commands fleet in Port Royal expedition, 245
+
+=Durant, Thomas J.=, mentioned in letter of Lincoln's, 334, 335
+
+
+=Early, Jubal A.=, Confederate lieutenant-general,
+  threatens Washington, 403;
+  inflicts damage on Blair's estate, 488
+
+=Eckert, Thomas T.=, brevet brigadier-general United States Volunteers,
+  sent to meet peace commissioners at Hampton Roads, 482;
+  refuses to allow peace commissioners to proceed, 483
+
+=Edwards, Cyrus=, desires commissionership of General Land Office, 92
+
+=Edwards, Ninian W.=, one of "Long Nine," 63
+
+=Edwards, Mrs. Ninian W.=, sister of Mrs. Lincoln, 63
+
+=Ellsworth, E.E.=, colonel United States Volunteers, assassination of, 214
+
+=Emancipation=, Lincoln-Stone protest, 47;
+  Lincoln's bill for, in District of Columbia, 86, 87;
+  Missouri Compromise, 94, 95;
+  Fremont's proclamation of, 236-238;
+  discussed in President's message of December 3, 1861, 321, 322;
+  Lincoln offers Delaware compensated abolishment, 322, 323;
+  special message of March 6, 1862, 323, 324;
+  Congress passes bill for, in District of Columbia, 325, 326;
+  bill to aid it in border slave States, 326;
+  Hunter's order of, 327;
+  measures in Congress relating to, 328, 329;
+  Lincoln's second interview with delegations from border slave
+  States, 329-331;
+  Lincoln's conversation with Carpenter about, 331, 332;
+  first draft of emancipation proclamation read to cabinet, 331, 332;
+  President's interview with Chicago clergymen, 337-339;
+  Lincoln issues preliminary emancipation proclamation, 339-341;
+  annual message of December 1, 1862, 341, 342;
+  President issues final emancipation proclamation, 342-346;
+  President's views on, 346, 347;
+  arming of negro soldiers, 348, 350;
+  Lincoln's letters to Banks about emancipation in Louisiana, 423-425;
+  slavery abolished in Louisiana, 426;
+  slavery abolished in Arkansas, 427;
+  slavery abolished in Tennessee, 429;
+  slavery abolished in Missouri, 432-434;
+  Maryland refuses offer of compensated abolishment, 434;
+  slavery abolished in Maryland, 435, 436;
+  Republican national platform favors Constitutional
+  amendment abolishing slavery, 446;
+  Constitutional amendment prohibiting slavery in United States, 471-476;
+  two Constitutional amendments affecting slavery offered during
+  Lincoln's term, 475,476;
+  Lincoln's draft of joint resolution offering the South $400,000,000, 493;
+  Jefferson Davis recommends employment of negroes in army,
+  with emancipation to follow, 501.
+  See _Slavery_
+
+=England=, public opinion in, favorable to the South, 211;
+  excitement in, over _Trent_ affair, 246;
+  joint expedition to Mexico, 451;
+  "neutrality" of, 525
+
+=Ericsson=, John, inventor of the _Monitor_, 279
+
+=Evarts=, William M., Secretary of State, United States senator,
+  nominates Seward for President, 149;
+  moves to make Lincoln's nomination unanimous, 151
+
+=Everett=, Edward, member of Congress, minister to England,
+  Secretary of State, United States senator,
+  candidate for Vice-President, 1860, 153
+
+=Ewell=, Richard S., Confederate lieutenant-general,
+  in retreat to Appomattox, 511;
+  statement about burning of Richmond, 516
+
+=Ewing=, Thomas, Secretary of the Interior defended by Lincoln
+  against political attack, 92
+
+
+=Fair Oaks=, Virginia, battle of, 302
+
+=Farragut=, David G., admiral United States navy,
+  captures New Orleans and ascends the Mississippi, 282-287;
+  ascends Mississippi a second time, 287;
+  mentioned 328, 329, 381;
+  operations against Port Hudson, 382;
+  Mobile Bay, 468, 525
+
+=Farrand=, Ebenezer, captain Confederate navy, surrender of, 525
+
+=Fessenden=, William P., United States senator,
+  Secretary of the Treasury, becomes Secretary of the Treasury, 458;
+  agrees with President against making proffers of peace to Davis, 463;
+  resigns from cabinet, 491, 492
+
+=Field=, David Dudley, escorts Lincoln to platform at Cooper Institute, 138
+
+=Fillmore=, Millard, thirteenth President of the United States,
+  nominated by Know-Nothing party for President, 1856, 102
+
+=Five Forks=, Virginia, battle of, April 1, 1865, 507-509
+
+=Floyd=, John B., Secretary of War, Confederate brigadier-general,
+  escapes from Fort Donelson, 268
+
+=Foote=, Andrew H., rear-admiral United States navy,
+  capture of Island No. 10, 274;
+  proceeds to Fort Pillow, 274
+
+=Forrest=, Nathan B., Confederate lieutenant-general,
+  with Hood's army, 410;
+  defeat of, 525
+
+=Fort Donelson=, Tennessee, capture of, 266-268
+
+=Fort Fisher=, North Carolina, capture of, 414, 481, 525
+
+=Fort Harrison=, Virginia, capture of, 560
+
+=Fort Henry=, Tennessee, capture of, 266
+
+=Fort Jackson=, Louisiana, capture of, 282-285
+
+=Fort McAllister=, Georgia, stormed by Sherman, 412
+
+=Fort Pillow=, Tennessee, evacuation of, 286;
+  massacre of negro troops at, 351
+
+=Fort Pulaski=, Georgia, capture of, 278
+
+=Fort Randolph=, Tennessee, evacuation of, 286
+
+=Fort Stedman=, Virginia, assault of, 505, 506
+
+=Fort St. Philip=, Louisiana, capture of, 282-285
+
+=Fort Sumter=, South Carolina, occupied by Anderson, 177, 178;
+  attempt to reinforce 178;
+  cabinet consultations about, 182-184;
+  defense and capture of, 189, 190
+
+=Fortress Monroe=, Virginia, importance of, 209
+
+=Fox=, Gustavus V., Assistant Secretary of the Navy,
+  ordered to aid Sumter, 184;
+  sends the President additional news about fight between _Monitor_
+  and _Merrimac_, 296, 297
+
+=France=, public opinion in, favorable to the South, 211;
+  joint expedition to Mexico, 451;
+  "neutrality" of, 525
+
+=Franklin=, Benjamin, on American forests and the spirit
+  of independence they fostered, 17
+
+=Franklin=, Tennessee, battle of, November 30, 1864, 410
+
+=Franklin=, W.B., brevet major-general United States army,
+  advises movement on Manassas, 289
+
+=Fredericksburg=, Virginia, battle of, December 13, 1862, 364
+
+=Fremont=, John C., United States senator,
+  major-general United States army, nominated for President, 1856, 103;
+  made major-general, 233;
+  opportunities and limitations of, 233-235;
+  criticism of, 235;
+  quarrel with Blair family, 236, 487;
+  proclamation freeing slaves, 236, 237, 432;
+  refuses to revoke proclamation, 238;
+  removed from command of Western Department, 241-243;
+  commands Mountain Department, 299;
+  ordered to form junction with McDowell and Shields, 306;
+  in Army of Virginia, 310;
+  nominated for President, 1864, 442;
+  withdraws from the contest, 442
+
+=Fusion=, attempts at, in campaign of 1860, 157, 158
+
+
+=Gamble, Hamilton R.=, provisional governor of Missouri,
+  calls State convention together, 433;
+  death of, 434
+
+=Garnett, Robert S.=, Confederate brigadier-general,
+  killed at Carrick's Ford, 225
+
+=Gentry, Allen=, makes flatboat trip with Lincoln, 16
+
+=Gentry, James=, enters land at Gentryville, 9;
+  sends Lincoln to New Orleans, 16
+
+=Gettysburg=, Pennsylvania, battle of, July 1-3, 1863, 372-375;
+  address of Mr. Lincoln at, 376, 377
+
+=Giddings, Joshua R.=, member of Congress approves
+  Lincoln's bill abolishing slavery in District of Columbia, 87;
+  amendment to Chicago platform, 148, 149
+
+=Gillmore, Quincy A.=, brevet major-general United States army,
+  siege of Fort Pulaski, 278
+
+=Gilmer, John A.=, member of Congress, tendered cabinet appointment, 164
+
+=Gilmore, J.R.=, visits Jefferson Davis with Jaquess, 462
+
+=Gist, William H.=, governor of South Carolina, inaugurates secession, 175
+
+=Goldsborough, L.M.=, rear-admiral United States navy,
+  commands fleet in Roanoke Island expedition, 277, 278
+
+=Gordon, John B.=, Confederate lieutenant-general,
+  United States senator, in assault of Fort Stedman, 504, 505;
+  in defense of Petersburg, 509
+
+=Graham, Mentor=, makes Lincoln election clerk, 23, 24;
+  advises Lincoln to study grammar, 25;
+  aids Lincoln to study surveying, 40
+
+=Grant, Ulysses S.=, eighteenth President of the United States,
+  general, and general-in-chief United States army, early life, 264;
+  letter offering services to War Department, 264, 265;
+  commissioned by Governor Yates, 265;
+  reconnaissance toward Columbus, 265;
+  urges movement on Fort Henry, 265, 266;
+  capture of Forts Henry and Donelson, 266-268;
+  ordered forward to Savannah, 271;
+  Pittsburg Landing, 272-274;
+  asks to be relieved, 275;
+  co-operates with adjutant-general of the army in arming negroes, 350;
+  repulses rebels at Iuka and Corinth, 380;
+  Vicksburg campaign, 380-383;
+  ordered to Chattanooga, 389;
+  battle of Chattanooga, 390, 391;
+  pursuit of Bragg, 391, 392;
+  speech on accepting commission of lieutenant-general, 394;
+  visits Army of the Potomac and starts west, 394;
+  placed in command of all the armies, 394;
+  conference with Sherman, 395;
+  plan of campaign, 395, 397;
+  returns to Culpepper, 395;
+  fear of presidential interference, 395, 396;
+  letter to Lincoln, 396;
+  strength and position of his army, 396, 397;
+  instructions to Meade, 397;
+  battle of the Wilderness, 398;
+  Spottsylvania Court House, 398, 399;
+  report to Washington, 399;
+  Cold Harbor, 399;
+  letter to Washington, 399, 400;
+  siege of Petersburg, 400-402;
+  sends Wright to Washington, 403;
+  withholds consent to Sherman's plan, 410;
+  gives his consent, 411;
+  orders to Sherman, 413;
+  adopts Sherman's plan, 414;
+  attempt to nominate him for President, 1864, 442, 443;
+  depressing influence on political situation of his heavy fighting, 463;
+  admits peace commissioners to his headquarters, 483;
+  despatch to Stanton, 484;
+  pushing forward, 502;
+  telegraphs Lee's letter to Washington, 503;
+  reply to Lee, 504;
+  orders to General Parke, 505;
+  issues orders for the final movement of the war, 506;
+  number of men under his command in final struggle, 507;
+  his plan, 507;
+  battle of Five Forks, 507-509;
+  orders Sheridan to get on Lee's line of retreat, 509, 510;
+  sends Humphreys to Sheridan's assistance, 509;
+  telegram to Lincoln, 509;
+  pursuit of Lee, 510-513;
+  sends Sheridan's despatch to Lincoln, 511;
+  correspondence with Lee, 512, 513;
+  receives Lee's surrender, 513-515;
+  forbids salute in honor of Lee's surrender, 515;
+  visit to Lee, 515;
+  goes to Washington, 515;
+  learns terms of agreement between Sherman and Johnson, 523;
+  ordered to Sherman's headquarters, 523;
+  gives Sherman opportunity to modify his report, 523, 524;
+  at Lincoln's last cabinet meeting, 531;
+  invited by Mrs. Lincoln to Ford's Theater, 536
+
+=Grant, Mrs. U.S.=, invited by Mrs. Lincoln to Ford's Theater, 536
+
+=Greeley, Horace=, hears Lincoln's Cooper Institute speech, 138;
+  "open letter" to Lincoln, 335;
+  Niagara Falls conference, 458-461;
+  effect of his mission on political situation, 464
+
+
+=Halleck, Henry Wager=, major-general and general-in-chief
+  United States army, succeeds Fremont, 260;
+  reluctance to cooeperate with Buell, 263, 264;
+  answers to Lincoln, 263, 264;
+  instructions to Grant, 264;
+  orders Grant to take Fort Henry, 266;
+  sends reinforcements to Grant, 267;
+  asks for command in the West, 269;
+  plans expedition under Pope, 270;
+  message to Buell, 270;
+  telegrams to McClellan, 270;
+  appeal to McClellan, 271;
+  commands Department of the Mississippi, 271;
+  orders Pope to join him, 274;
+  march on Corinth, 275;
+  capture of Corinth, 275;
+  sends Buell to East Tennessee, 275;
+  ordered to reinforce McClellan, 307;
+  general-in-chief, 309;
+  visit to McClellan, 309;
+  orders Army of Potomac back to Acquia Creek, 309;
+  letter to McClellan, 309, 310;
+  orders McClellan to support Pope, 311;
+  telegram to McClellan, 317;
+  mentioned, 328, 329;
+  asks to be relieved, 365;
+  quarrel with Hooker, 372;
+  urges Meade to active pursuit of Lee, 375;
+  plans for Western campaign, 379;
+  urges Buell to move into East Tennessee, 380;
+  orders Rosecrans to advance, 385, 386;
+  at council to consider news of Chattanooga, 388;
+  President's chief of staff, 394;
+  conduct during Early's raid, 403;
+  note to War Department about Blair, 488;
+  orders to Meade, 523
+
+=Hamlin, Hannibal=, United States senator, Vice-President,
+  nominated for Vice-President, 151;
+  Cameron moves his renomination, 447;
+  candidate for vice-presidential nomination in 1864, 448, 449
+
+=Hanks, John=, tells of Lincoln's frontier labors, 15;
+  flatboat voyage with Lincoln, 22, 23;
+  at Decatur convention, 154
+
+=Hanks, Joseph=, teaches Thomas Lincoln carpenter's trade, 5
+
+=Hanks, Nancy=. See _Lincoln, Nancy Hanks_
+
+=Hardee, William J.=, lieutenant-colonel United States army, Confederate
+  lieutenant-general, council with Johnston and Beauregard, 267;
+  evacuates Savannah and Charleston, 415;
+  joins Johnston, 416
+
+=Hardin, John J.=, member of Congress, colonel United States Volunteers,
+  at Springfield, Illinois, 52;
+  elected to Congress, 73;
+  killed in Mexican War, 75
+
+=Harper's Ferry=, Virginia, John Brown raid at, 134;
+  burning of armory, 209;
+  captured by Lee, September 15, 1862, 315
+
+=Harris, Miss Clara W.=, attends Ford's Theater with Mrs. Lincoln, 536;
+  assists Mrs. Lincoln, 539
+
+=Harrison, George M.=, Lincoln's messmate in Black Hawk War, 33
+
+=Hartford=, the, Union cruiser, Farragut's flag-ship, 284, 285
+
+=Hatteras Inlet=, North Carolina, capture of forts at, August 29, 1861, 245
+
+=Hay, John=, assistant private secretary to Lincoln,
+  brevet colonel and assistant adjutant-general United States Volunteers,
+  ambassador to England, Secretary of State, accompanies
+  Mr. Lincoln to Washington, 168;
+  shows Lincoln letter of inquiry about Vice-Presidency, 448;
+  mission to Canada, 460;
+  at Lincoln's death-bed, 540
+
+=Hazel, Caleb=, teacher of President Lincoln, 6
+
+=Herndon, A.G.=, defeated for Illinois legislature, 1832, 34
+
+=Herndon, "Jim" and "Row,"= sell Lincoln and Berry their store, 35
+
+=Herndon, William H.=, Lincoln's law partner, 158;
+  assumes Lincoln's law business during campaign, 158
+
+=Herold, David E.=, in conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln, 534;
+  chosen to assist Booth, 536;
+  deposits arms in tavern at Surrattsville, 536;
+  accompanies Booth in his flight, 542, 543;
+  capture of, 543;
+  execution of, 544
+
+=Hicks, Thomas H.=, governor of Maryland, United States senator,
+  reply to Lincoln's call for volunteers, 193;
+  speech at mass-meeting, 193;
+  protest against landing of troops at Annapolis, 198;
+  calls meeting of Maryland legislature, 198
+
+=Holcomb, James P.=, Confederate agent in Canada,
+  correspondence with Horace Greeley, 459
+
+=Holt, Joseph=, Postmaster-General, Secretary of War,
+  judge-advocate general United States army, calls Scott to
+  Washington, 172;
+  report on Knights of the Golden Circle, 361;
+  favored by Swett for Vice-President, 448;
+  declines attorney-generalship, 491
+
+=Hood, John B.=, Confederate general, succeeds Johnston, 407;
+  evacuates Atlanta, 407, 468;
+  truce with Sherman, 408;
+  placed under command of Beauregard, 409;
+  moves to Tuscumbia, 410;
+  Franklin and Nashville, 410;
+  his movements delay reconstruction in Tennessee, 429
+
+=Hooker, Joseph=, brevet major-general United States army,
+  succeeds Burnside in command of Army of the Potomac, 366;
+  submits plan of campaign to Lincoln, 368;
+  battle of Chancellorsville, 369, 370;
+  criticism of, 370;
+  foresees Lee's northward campaign, 370;
+  proposes quick march to capture Richmond, 371;
+  follows Lee, 372;
+  asks to be relieved, 372;
+  ordered to reinforce Rosecrans, 388;
+  reaches Chattanooga, 389;
+  in battle of Chattanooga, 390-391
+
+=Hume, John F.=, moves that Lincoln's nomination be made unanimous, 447
+
+=Humphreys, Andrew A.=, brevet major-general United States army,
+  in recapture of Fort Stedman, 505, 506;
+  ordered to assist Sheridan, 509
+
+=Hunt, Randall=, tendered cabinet appointment, 164
+
+=Hunter, David=, brevet major-general, United States army,
+  asked to assist Fremont, 235, 236;
+  ordered to relieve Fremont, 243;
+  order of emancipation, 327;
+  experiment with negro soldiers, 348;
+  declared an outlaw by Confederate War Department, 350
+
+=Hunter, R.M.T.=, United States senator, Confederate Secretary of State,
+  appointed peace commissioner, 482;
+  at Hampton Roads conference, 482-485
+
+
+=Iles, Elijah=, captain Illinois Volunteers, commands company in
+  Black Hawk War, 33
+
+=Illinois=, State of, organized as Territory, 1809, 19;
+  admitted as State, 1818, 19;
+legislative schemes of internal improvement, 44, 45;
+  capital removed to Springfield, 45;
+  political struggles over slavery, 45, 46;
+  Lincoln-Douglas senatorial campaign in, 118-125;
+  ratifies Thirteenth Amendment, 474, 475
+
+=Island No. 10=, Tennessee, fortifications at, 269, 270;
+  surrender of, 274
+
+
+=Jackson, Andrew=, seventh President of the United States,
+  gives impetus to system of party caucuses and conventions, 52
+
+=Jackson, Claiborne F.=, governor of Missouri,
+  attempts to force Missouri secession, 202-204;
+  flight to Springfield, Missouri, 234
+
+=Jackson, Thomas Jonathan ("Stonewall")=, Confederate lieutenant-general,
+  Shenandoah valley campaign, 305, 306;
+  mentioned, 328;
+  killed at Chancellorsville, 369
+
+=Jaquess, James F.=, D.D., colonel United States Volunteers,
+  visits to the South, 461, 462;
+  interview with Jefferson Davis, 462
+
+=Jewett, William Cornell=, letter to Greeley, 458
+
+=Johnson, Andrew=, seventeenth President of the United States,
+  in thirty-seventh Congress, 217;
+  telegram about East Tennessee, 259;
+  retains seat in Senate, 419;
+  appointed military governor of Tennessee, 420;
+  begins work of reconstruction, 428;
+  nominated for Vice-President, 448, 449;
+  popular and electoral votes for, 470;
+  disapproves Sherman's agreement with Johnston, 523;
+  proclamation of amnesty, 526;
+  plot to murder, 535;
+  rejoicing of radicals on his accession to the Presidency, 545;
+  takes oath of office, 545
+
+=Johnson, Herschel V.=, candidate for Vice-President, 1860, 152
+
+=Johnston, Albert Sidney=, Confederate general,
+  council with Hardee and Beauregard, 267;
+  killed at Pittsburg Landing, 273
+
+=Johnston, Joseph E.=, quartermaster-general United States army,
+  Confederate general, member of Congress, joins Confederacy, 196, 208;
+  understanding with Beauregard, 215, 216;
+  joins Beauregard at Bull Run, 228;
+  opinion of battle of Bull Run, 228;
+  retrograde movement, 297;
+  defeats McClellan at Fair Oaks, 302;
+  succeeds Bragg, 395;
+  strength of, in spring of 1864, 405;
+  superseded by Hood, 407;
+  again placed in command, 416, 501;
+  interview with Davis, 520;
+  begins negotiations with Sherman, 520;
+  meetings with Sherman, 521, 522;
+  agreement between them, 522;
+  agreement disapproved at Washington, 523;
+  surrender of, 524
+
+=Johnston, Sarah Bush=, marries Thomas Lincoln, 10;
+  improves the condition of his household, 10;
+  tells of Lincoln's studious habits, 13
+
+=Jones, Thomas=, assists Booth and Herold, 542, 543
+
+=Judd, Norman B.=, minister to Prussia, member of Congress,
+  nominates Lincoln for President, 1860, 149;
+  member of Lincoln's suite, 173
+
+
+=Kansas=, State of, slavery struggle in, 113-115;
+  Lecompton Bill defeated in Congress, 117
+
+=Kearsarge=, the, Union cruiser, battle with the _Alabama_, 525
+
+=Kelly, Benjamin F.=, brevet major-general United States Volunteers,
+  dash upon Philippi, 225
+
+=Kentucky=, State of, action concerning secession, 201, 204;
+  legislature asks Anderson for help, 254;
+  public opinion in, regarding slavery, 473
+
+=Kilpatrick, Judson=, brevet major-general United States army,
+  minister to Chili, with Sherman on march to the sea, 411
+
+=Kirkpatrick=, defeated for Illinois legislature 1832, 34
+
+=Knights of Golden Circle=, extensive organization of, 360, 361;
+  plans and failures of, 360-362;
+  projected revolution in Northwestern States, 466
+
+=Know-Nothing Party=, principles of, 101, 102;
+  nominates Millard Fillmore for President, 1856, 102
+
+
+=Lamon, Ward H.=, accompanies Lincoln on night journey to Washington, 174
+
+=Lane, Joseph=, brevet major-general United States army, governor,
+  United States senator candidate for Vice-President in 1860, 153;
+  attempt to arm negroes, 348
+
+=Leavitt, Humphrey H.=, member of Congress,
+  judge United States Circuit Court,
+  denies motion for habeas corpus for Vallandigham, 358
+
+=Lecompton Constitution=, adopted in Kansas, 115;
+  defeated in Congress, 117
+
+=Lee, Robert E.=, colonel United States army,
+  Confederate general, captures John Brown, 134;
+  enters service of Confederacy, 196, 197, 208;
+  concentrates troops at Manassas Junction, 215;
+  sends troops into West Virginia, 224;
+  attacks McClellan near Richmond, 302;
+  campaign into Maryland, 314;
+  captures Harper's Ferry, 315;
+  battle of Antietam, 315;
+  retreats across the Potomac, 316;
+  battle of Chancellorsville, 369;
+  resolves on invasion of the North, 370;
+  crosses the Potomac, 371, 372;
+  battle of Gettysburg, 372-374;
+  retreats across the Potomac, 375, 377;
+  strength and position of his army, 397;
+  battle of the Wilderness, 398;
+  Spottsylvania Court House, 398, 399;
+  Cold Harbor, 399;
+  defense of Petersburg, 400-402;
+  sends Early up the Shenandoah valley, 403;
+  despatch about rations for his army, 481;
+  made general-in-chief, 500;
+  assumes command of all the Confederate armies, 502;
+  attempt to negotiate with Grant, 502, 503;
+  conference with Davis, 504;
+  attempt to break through Grant's lines, 504-506;
+  number of men under his command in final struggle, 507;
+  takes command in person, 507;
+  attacks Warren, 507;
+  battle of Five Forks, 507-509;
+  makes preparations to evacuate Petersburg and Richmond, 509;
+  begins retreat, 510;
+  surrender of Richmond, 510;
+  reaches Amelia Court House, 510;
+  starts toward Lynchburg, 511;
+  reply to generals advising him to surrender, 512;
+  correspondence with Grant, 512, 513;
+  surrender of, 513-515;
+  size of army surrendered by, 524
+
+=Letcher, John=, member of Congress, governor of Virginia,
+  orders seizure of government property, 194
+
+=Lincoln, Abraham=, sixteenth President of the United States,
+  born February 12, 1800, 3, 6;
+  goes to A B C schools, 6;
+  early schooling in Indiana, 10-13;
+  home studies and youthful habits, 13-19;
+  manages ferry-boat, 15;
+  flatboat trip to New Orleans, 15, 16;
+  employed in Gentryville store, 16;
+  no hunter, 17;
+  kills wild turkey, 17, 18;
+  emigrates to Illinois, March 1, 1830, 20;
+  leaves his father's cabin, 21;
+  engaged by Denton Offutt, 21;
+  builds flatboat and takes it to New Orleans, 22, 23;
+  incident at Rutledge's Mill, 22;
+  returns to New Salem, 23;
+  election clerk, 23, 24;
+  clerk in Offutt's store, 24;
+  wrestles with Jack Armstrong, 25;
+  candidate for legislature, 1832, 29;
+  address "To the Voters of Sangamon County," 29, 30;
+  volunteers for Black Hawk War, 32;
+  elected captain of volunteer company, 32;
+  mustered out and reenlists as private, 32, 33;
+  finally mustered out, 33;
+  returns to New Salem, 33;
+  defeated for legislature, 33;
+  enters into partnership with Berry, 35;
+  sells out to the Trent brothers, 36;
+  fails, but promises to pay his debts, 36;
+  surveying instruments sold for debt, 36;
+  "Honest old Abe," 37;
+  appointed postmaster of New Salem, 37;
+  made deputy surveyor, 39, 40;
+  candidate for legislature, 1834, 41, 42;
+  elected to legislature, 43;
+  begins study of law, 44;
+  admitted to practice, 44;
+  removes to Springfield and forms law partnership with J.T. Stuart, 44;
+  reelected to legislature, 44;
+  services in legislature, 44-48;
+  manages removal of State capital to Springfield, 45;
+  Lincoln-Stone protest, 47;
+  vote for, for Speaker of Illinois House, 48;
+  his methods in law practice, 49;
+  notes for law lecture, 49-51;
+  his growing influence, 52;
+  guest of William Butler, 53;
+  intimacy with Joshua F. Speed, 53;
+  engaged to Anne Rutledge, 54;
+  her death, 54;
+  his grief, 55;
+  courtship of Mary Owens, 55-60;
+  member of "Long Nine," 61, 62;
+  debate with Douglas and others, 1839, 62, 63;
+  meets and becomes engaged to Mary Todd, 63;
+  engagement broken, 64;
+  his deep melancholy, 64;
+  letter to Stuart, 64;
+  visit to Kentucky, 64;
+  letters to Speed, 64, 65;
+  "Lost Townships" letters, 66;
+  challenged by Shields, 66;
+  prescribes terms of the duel, 67;
+  duel prevented, 68;
+  letter to Speed, 68;
+  marriage to Mary Todd, November 4, 1842, 68, 69;
+  children of, 69;
+  partnership with Stuart dissolved, 69, 70;
+  law partnership with S.T. Logan, 70;
+  declines reelection to legislature, 70;
+  letter to Speed, 71;
+  letter to Martin Morris, 71-73;
+  letter to Speed, 73;
+  presidential elector, 1844, 73;
+  letters to B.F. James, 74;
+  elected to Congress, 1846, 75;
+  service and speeches in Congress, 76-90;
+  votes for Wilmot Proviso, 79;
+  presidential elector in 1840 and 1844, 80;
+  favors General Taylor for President, 80-83;
+  letters about Taylor's nomination, 80-82;
+  letters to Herndon, 81-83;
+  speeches for Taylor, 83;
+  bill to prohibit slavery in District of Columbia, 86;
+  letters recommending office-seekers, 87-89;
+  letter to W.H. Herndon, 90, 91;
+  letter to Speed, 91, 92;
+  letter to Duff Green, 92;
+  applies for commissionership of General Land Office, 92;
+  defends Butterfield against political attack, 92;
+  refuses governorship of Oregon, 93;
+  indignation at repeal of Missouri Compromise, 94, 95;
+  advocates reelection of Richard Yates to Congress, 96;
+  speech at Illinois State Fair, 96;
+  debate with Douglas at Peoria, 96-99;
+  agreement with Douglas, 99;
+  candidate for United States Senate before Illinois legislature, 1855, 99;
+  withdraws in favor of Trumbull, 100;
+  letter to Robertson, 100, 101;
+  speech at Bloomington convention, 1856, 103;
+  vote for, for Vice-President, 1856, 104;
+  presidential elector, 1856, 105;
+  speeches in campaign of 1856, 105;
+  speech at Republican banquet in Chicago, 106, 107;
+  speech on Dred Scott case, 110-112;
+  nominated for senator, 118, 119;
+  "House divided against itself" speech, 119, 120, 127, 128;
+  Lincoln-Douglas joint debate, 121-125;
+  defeated for United States Senate, 125;
+  analysis of causes which led to his defeat, 126, 127;
+  letters to H. Asbury and A.G. Henry, 127;
+  letter to A.L. Pierce and others, 130, 131;
+  speech in Chicago, 131, 132;
+  letter to M.W. Delahay, 132;
+  letter to Colfax, 132, 133;
+  letter to S. Galloway, 133;
+  Ohio speeches, 133, 134;
+  criticism of John Brown raid, 134, 135;
+  speeches in Kansas, 136, 137;
+  Cooper Institute speech, 137-140;
+  speeches in New England, 140;
+  letter to T.J. Pickett, 145;
+  candidate for presidential nomination, 1860, 145;
+  letters to N.B. Judd, 145, 146;
+  nominated for President, 1860, 149-151;
+  speech at Decatur convention, 153, 154;
+  daily routine during campaign, 158, 159;
+  letters during campaign, 159;
+  elected President, 160;
+  his cabinet program, 161-163;
+  letter to Seward offering cabinet appointment, 163;
+  offers Bates and Cameron cabinet appointments, 163;
+  summons Chase to Springfield, 163;
+  withdraws offer to Cameron, 163;
+  editorial in Springfield "Journal," 164;
+  offers cabinet appointments to Gilmer, Hunt, and Scott, 164;
+  letters to W.S. Speer and G.D. Prentiss, 164, 165;
+  correspondence with Alexander H. Stephens, 165, 166;
+  letter to Gilmer, 166;
+  letter to Washburne, 166, 167;
+  writes his inaugural, 167, 168;
+  journey to Washington, 168-174;
+  farewell address at Springfield, 169;
+  speeches on journey to Washington, 169-171;
+  consultation with Judd, 173;
+  night journey to Washington, 173, 174;
+  visits of ceremony, 179, 180;
+  first inauguration of, 180-182;
+  inaugural address, 180-182;
+  calls council to consider question of Sumter, 182, 183;
+  signs order for relief of Sumter, 184;
+  answer to Seward's memorandum of April 1, 1861, 187;
+  instructions to Seward, 1865, 187;
+  notice to Governor Pickens, 188;
+  issues call for 75,000 volunteers, 192;
+  assumes responsibility for war measures, 195;
+  opinion against dispersing Maryland legislature, 198, 199;
+  authorizes Scott to suspend writ of habeas corpus, 199;
+  action in Merryman case, 200;
+  institutes blockade, 205;
+  calls for three years' volunteers, 206;
+  appoints Charles Francis Adams minister to England, 211;
+  modifies Seward's despatch of May 21, 212;
+  his immense duties, 212, 213;
+  calls council of war, 215;
+  message to Congress, July 4, 1861, 218-220;
+  postpones decision about slaves, 222, 223;
+  receives news of defeat at Bull Run, 229;
+  letter to Hunter, 235;
+  letter to Fremont, 237, 238;
+  letter to Browning, 238-240;
+  sends Cameron to visit Fremont, 242;
+  letter to General Curtis about Fremont, 242, 243;
+  draft of despatch about Trent affair, 247, 248;
+  welcomes McClellan to Washington, 250;
+  orders retirement of General Scott, 253;
+  memorandum to McClellan, 253;
+  his grasp of military problems, 255, 256;
+  memorandum after battle of Bull Run, 256;
+  interest in East Tennessee, 256, 257;
+  personally urges on Congress the construction of railroad
+  in East Tennessee, 257, 258;
+  letter to Buell, 258, 259;
+  telegrams and letters to Buell and Halleck, 262-264, 268, 269;
+  places Halleck in command of Department of the Mississippi, 271;
+  calls councils of war, 288, 289;
+  General War Order No. 1, 290;
+  Special War Order No. 1, 291;
+  letter to McClellan about plan of campaign, 291;
+  interview with Stanton, 293, 294;
+  interview with McClellan, 295;
+  President's General War Orders No. 2 and No. 3, 295;
+  receives news of fight between _Monitor_ and _Merrimac_, 296;
+  relieves McClellan from command of all troops except
+  Army of the Potomac, 298;
+  orders McDowell to protect Washington, 299;
+  letter to McClellan, 299, 300;
+  letter to McClellan, 303, 304;
+  visit to General Scott, 306;
+  assigns General Pope to command of Army of Virginia, 306;
+  orders Burnside and Halleck to reinforce McClellan, 307;
+  letter to governors of free States, 307, 308;
+  accepts 300,000 new troops, 308;
+  letters to McClellan, 308;
+  visit to Harrison's Landing, 308;
+  appoints Halleck general-in-chief, 309;
+  his dispassionate calmness in considering McClellan's conduct, 311;
+  asks McClellan to use his influence with Pope's officers, 313;
+  places McClellan in command of defenses of Washington, 313;
+  orders reinforcements to McClellan, 316;
+  telegram to McClellan, 316;
+  visit to Antietam, 316, 317;
+  directions and letter to McClellan, 317-319;
+  removes him from command, 319;
+  letter to Bancroft, 321;
+  reference to slavery in message to Congress, December 3, 1861, 321, 322;
+  offers Delaware compensated abolishment, 322, 323;
+  special message of March 6, 1862, proposing joint
+  resolution favoring gradual abolishment, 323, 324;
+  letter to McDougall, 324;
+  interview with delegations from border slave States, 324, 325;
+  signs bill for compensated emancipation in District of Columbia, 326;
+  letter to Chase about Hunter's order of emancipation, 327;
+  proclamation revoking Hunter's order, 327, 328;
+  second interview with border State delegations in Congress, 329-331;
+  conversation with Carpenter about emancipation, 331, 332;
+  reads draft of first emancipation proclamation to cabinet, 331, 332;
+  tells Seward and Welles of his purpose to issue emancipation
+  proclamation, 332;
+  letter to Reverdy Johnson, 334;
+  letter to Cuthbert Bullitt, 334, 335;
+  letter to Horace Greeley, 335-337;
+  interview with Chicago clergymen, 337-339;
+  issues preliminary emancipation proclamation, 339-341;
+  annual message of December 1, 1862, 341, 342;
+  issues final emancipation proclamation, January 1, 1863, 342-346;
+  letter to A.G. Hodges, 346, 347;
+  letters about arming negroes, 350;
+  speech about Fort Pillow massacre, 351, 352;
+  interview with Frederick Douglass, 352;
+  letter to Governor Seymour, 356;
+  action in case of Vallandigham, 358, 359;
+  suspends privilege of writ of habeas corpus, 360;
+  attitude toward Knights of the Golden Circle, 361;
+  appoints Burnside to command Army of the Potomac, 363;
+  telegram to Burnside, and letter to Halleck about Burnside, 365;
+  letter to Burnside, 366;
+  relieves Burnside and appoints Hooker to succeed him, 366;
+  letter to Hooker, 366-368;
+  criticism on Hooker's plan of campaign, 368;
+  continued belief in Hooker, 370;
+  instructions to Hooker, 370, 371;
+  telegrams to Hooker, 371;
+  appoints Meade to command Army of the Potomac, 372;
+  urges Meade to active pursuit of Lee, 375;
+  letter to Meade, 375, 376;
+  Gettysburg address, 376, 377;
+  letter to Grant, 384, 385;
+  orders Rosecrans to advance, 385, 386;
+  note to Halleck, 388;
+  telegram to Rosecrans, 388;
+  orders reinforcements to Rosecrans, 388;
+  signs bill making Grant lieutenant-general, 393;
+  address on presenting his commission, 393, 394;
+  letter to Grant, 396;
+  under fire, 403;
+  letter to Sherman, 412, 413;
+  appoints military governors for Tennessee, Louisiana,
+  Arkansas, and North Carolina, 419;
+  his theory of "reconstruction," 419;
+  message to Congress, July 4, 1861, 419;
+  letter to Cuthbert Bullitt, 420, 421;
+  circular letter to military governors, 421, 422;
+  letter to Governor Shepley, 422;
+  letter to General Banks, 423;
+  references to reconstruction in message to Congress,
+  December 8, 1863, 424;
+  amnesty proclamation, December 8, 1863, 424;
+  letter to General Banks, 424, 425;
+  letters to General Steele, 427, 428;
+  letters to Johnson, 428, 429;
+  letter to Drake and others, 430-432;
+  revokes Fremont's proclamation freeing slaves, 432;
+  letter to General Schofield, 433;
+  directs Stanton to issue order regulating raising
+  of colored troops, 434, 435;
+  letter to H.W. Hoffman, 435, 436;
+  Democrats and Fremont Republicans criticize
+  his action on slavery, 437, 438;
+  relations with his cabinet, 438, 439;
+  attitude toward Chase, 439-441, 444;
+  letter to Chase, 441;
+  letter to F.A. Conkling and others, 443;
+  sentiment in favor of his reelection, 443, 444;
+  letter to Washburne about second term, 444;
+  letters to General Schurz, 444, 445;
+  instructions to office-holders, 445;
+  speeches during campaign, 445;
+  renominated for President, 447, 448;
+  refuses to intimate his preference for Vice-President, 448, 449;
+  indorsement on Nicolay's letter, 448, 449;
+  reply to committee of notification, 450;
+  letter accepting nomination, 450, 451;
+  his attitude toward the French in Mexico, 451, 452;
+  opposition to, in Congress, 454;
+  on Davis's reconstruction bill, 454-456;
+  proclamation of July 8, 1864, 456;
+  accepts Chase's resignation, 457;
+  nominates David Tod to succeed him, 457;
+  substitutes name of W.P. Fessenden, 457, 458;
+  correspondence with Greeley, 458-460;
+  criticized because of Niagara conference, 460, 461;
+  draft of letter to C.D. Robinson, 461;
+  indorsement on Jaquess's application to go South, 462;
+  answer to Raymond's proposition, 463;
+  interview with John T. Mills, 464, 465;
+  memorandum, August 23, 1864, 466;
+  speech on morning after election, 469, 470;
+  popular and electoral votes for, 470;
+  summing up of results of the election, 470;
+  suggests key-note of Morgan's opening speech before Baltimore
+  convention, 471;
+  message to Congress, December 6, 1864, 471, 472, 476-478;
+  answer to serenade, 474, 475;
+  opinion on ratification of Thirteenth Amendment, 475;
+  two constitutional amendments offered to the
+  people during his administration, 476;
+  gives Blair permission to go South, 478;
+  letter to Blair in reply to Jefferson Davis, 481;
+  sends Major Eckert to meet peace commissioners, 482;
+  instructions to Seward, 483;
+  instructions to Grant, 483;
+  goes to Fortress Monroe, 484;
+  conference with peace commissioners, 484, 485;
+  pressure upon him to dismiss Montgomery Blair, 487, 489;
+  personal regard for the Blairs, 488;
+  letter to Stanton, 488;
+  lecture to cabinet, 489;
+  requests resignation of Blair, 489;
+  nominates Chase for chief justice, 490, 491;
+  opinion of Chase, 490, 491;
+  offers attorney-generalship to Holt and Speed, 491;
+  offers cabinet appointment to Governor Morgan, 492;
+  appoints Hugh McCulloch Secretary of the Treasury, 492;
+  indorsements on Usher's resignation, 492;
+  his plans for the future, 492, 493;
+  submits to cabinet draft of joint resolution offering
+  the South $400,000,000, 493;
+  his second inauguration, 493-496;
+  the second inaugural, 494-496;
+  letter to Weed, 497;
+  his literary rank, 497;
+  last public address, 498;
+  despatch to Grant, March 3, 1865, 503, 504;
+  at City Point, 506;
+  telegraphs Grant, "Let the thing be pressed," 511;
+  visit to Richmond, 517, 518;
+  interviews with John A. Campbell, 519;
+  gives permission for meeting of Virginia legislature, 519;
+  regret of army for, 529;
+  return to Washington, 530;
+  last cabinet meeting, 531, 532;
+  14th of April, 532, 533, 536-540;
+  danger from assassination, 533, 534;
+  interest in the theater, 536;
+  attends Ford's Theater, 536, 537;
+  death of, 538-540;
+  his death prevents organized rejoicing at downfall of rebellion, 544;
+  mourning for, 544-548;
+  feeling of radicals at death of, 545;
+  funeral ceremonies of, in Washington, 545, 546;
+  funeral journey to Springfield, Illinois, 546, 547;
+  burial at Springfield, 547, 548;
+  his character and career, 549-555;
+  his place in history, 555
+
+=Lincoln, Abraham=, grandfather of the President,
+  emigrates from Virginia to Kentucky, 3, 4;
+  killed by Indians, 4
+
+=Lincoln, Edward Baker=, son of President Lincoln, birth of, 69;
+  death of, 69
+
+=Lincoln, Isaac=, settles on Holston River, 5
+
+=Lincoln, Josiah=, uncle of the President,
+ goes to fort for assistance against Indians, 4
+
+=Lincoln, Mary=, aunt of the President, 4
+
+=Lincoln, Mary Todd=, wife of the President, engagement to Lincoln, 63, 64;
+  writes "Lost Townships" letters, 66;
+  marriage to Lincoln, November 4, 1842, 68, 69;
+  children of, 69;
+  death of, 69;
+  accompanies Mr. Lincoln to Washington, 168;
+  drive with her husband, April 14, 1865, 532;
+  invites friends to attend Ford's Theater, 536;
+  attends theater with her husband, 538;
+  at Lincoln's death-bed, 539
+
+=Lincoln, Mordecai=, uncle of the President
+  defends homestead against Indians, 4;
+  inherits his father's lands, 4
+
+=Lincoln, Nancy=, aunt of the President, 4
+
+=Lincoln, Nancy Hanks=, mother of the President,
+  marries Thomas Lincoln, June 12, 1806, 5;
+teaches her husband to sign his name, 5;
+  birth of daughter, 5;
+  birth of Abraham, son of, 6;
+  death of, 9
+
+=Lincoln, Robert Todd=, son of the President,
+  Secretary of War, minister to England, birth of, 69;
+  public services, 69;
+  accompanies Mr. Lincoln to Washington, 168;
+  on Grant's staff, 517;
+  with his father April 14, 1865, 532;
+  at Lincoln's death-bed, 540
+
+=Lincoln, Samuel=, ancestor of the President, emigrates to America, 3
+
+=Lincoln, Sarah=, sister of the President, born, 5;
+  goes to school, 6
+
+=Lincoln, Sarah Bush Johnston=. See _Johnston, Sarah Bush_
+
+=Lincoln, Thomas=, father of the President, 3;
+  narrowly escapes capture by Indians, 4;
+  learns carpenter's trade, 5;
+  marries Nancy Hanks, June 12, 1806, 5;
+  daughter of, born, 5;
+  removes to Rock Spring Farm, 5, 6;
+  Abraham, son of, born, 6;
+  buys farm on Knob Creek, 6;
+  emigrates to Indiana, 7, 8;
+  death of his wife, 9;
+  marries Sally Bush Johnston, 10;
+  emigrates to Illinois, 20
+
+=Lincoln, Thomas=, son of President Lincoln, birth of, 69;
+  death of, 69;
+  accompanies Mr. Lincoln to Washington, 168
+
+=Lincoln, William Wallace=, son of President Lincoln, birth of, 69;
+  death of, 69, 293;
+  accompanies Mr. Lincoln to Washington, 168
+
+=Lloyd, John M.=, keeps tavern at Surrattsville, Maryland, 536
+
+=Logan, Stephen T.=, at Springfield, Illinois, 52;
+  law partnership with Lincoln, 70;
+  defeated for Congress, 91
+
+="Long Nine,"= a power in Illinois legislature, 61
+
+=Longstreet, James=, Confederate lieutenant-general,
+  besieges Burnside at Knoxville, 391;
+  retreats toward Virginia, 391;
+  reports conversation with Ord, 503;
+  in final defense of Richmond, 509
+
+=Louisiana=, State of, military governor appointed for, 419;
+  election for members of Congress, 422;
+  contest over slavery clause in new constitution, 422, 423;
+  election of State officers in, 425, 426;
+  adopts new constitution abolishing slavery, 426;
+  slavery in, throttled by public opinion, 473;
+  ratifies Thirteenth Amendment, 475
+
+=Lovejoy, Elijah P.=, murder of, 46
+
+=Lovell, Mansfield=, Confederate major-general,
+  evacuates New Orleans, 285;
+  sends men and guns to Vicksburg, 286
+
+=Lyon, Nathaniel=, brigadier-general United States Volunteers,
+  service in Missouri, 202-204;
+  killed at Wilson's Creek, 234, 235
+
+=Lyons, Richard Bickerton Pemell=, baron, afterward earl,
+  British minister at Washington,
+  instructed to demand apology for _Trent_ affair, 246
+
+
+=McClellan, George B.=, major-general, general-in-chief,
+  United States army, orders concerning slaves, 221;
+  commissioned by Governor Dennison, 224;
+  his previous career, 224;
+  quick promotion of, 224;
+  successes in western Virginia, 224, 225;
+  ordered to Washington, 229;
+  his ambition, 249-251;
+  organizes Army of the Potomac, 250, 251;
+  his hallucinations, 251, 252;
+  quarrel with General Scott, 251, 252;
+  expresses contempt for the President, 252;
+  answer to President's inquiry, 253;
+  illness of, 253;
+  instructions to Buell, 258-260;
+  unwilling to promote Halleck, 270;
+  attends council of war, 289;
+  explains plan of campaign to Stanton, 290;
+  letter to Stanton, 292;
+  revokes Hooker's authority to cross lower Potomac, 294;
+  council of his officers votes in favor of water route, 295;
+  at gathering of officials to discuss news of fight
+  between _Monitor_ and _Merrimac_, 296;
+  occupies abandoned rebel position, 297;
+  calls council of corps commanders, 298;
+  relieved from command of all troops save Army of the Potomac, 298;
+  arrives at Fortress Monroe, 299;
+  siege of Yorktown, 301;
+  his incapacity and hallucination, 302-304;
+  retreat to James River, 302;
+  letter to Stanton, 303;
+  protests against withdrawal of Army of the Potomac, 309;
+  reaches Alexandria, 311;
+  suggests leaving Pope to his fate, 311;
+  telegram to Pope's officers, 313;
+  in command of defenses of Washington, 313;
+  follows Lee into Maryland, 314;
+  learns Lee's plans, 315;
+  battle of Antietam, 315;
+  forces under his command, 317, 318;
+  removed from command, 319;
+  mentioned, 328, 329;
+  adopted by Democrats for presidential candidate, 355, 438;
+  nominated for President, 467;
+  letter of acceptance, 468;
+  electoral votes for, 470;
+  resigns from the army, 470
+
+=McClernand, John A.=, member of Congress,
+  major-general United States Volunteers at Springfield, Illinois, 52
+
+=McCulloch, Ben=, Confederate brigadier-general, defeat at Pea Ridge, 271
+
+=McCulloch, Hugh=, Secretary of the Treasury,
+  enters Lincoln's cabinet, 492
+
+=McDougall, James A.=, member of Congress,
+  United States senator, at Springfield, Illinois, 52
+
+=McDowell, Irvin=, brevet major-general United States army,
+  fears junction of Johnston and Beauregard, 216;
+  advances against Beauregard, 226;
+  battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861, 226-229;
+  advises movement on Manassas, 289;
+  ordered by Lincoln to protect Washington, 299, 305;
+  ordered to form junction with Shields and Fremont, 306;
+  in Army of Virginia, 310
+
+=McLean, John=, justice United States Supreme Court,
+  vote for, in Chicago convention, 149
+
+=McNamar, John=, engaged to Anne Rutledge, 54
+
+=Magoffin, Beriah=, governor of Kentucky,
+  efforts in behalf of secession, 201
+
+=Magruder, John B.=, brevet lieutenant-colonel United States army,
+  Confederate major-general, joins the Confederacy, 196;
+  opposes McClellan with inferior numbers, 301
+
+=Maine=, State of, admitted as State, 1820, 19
+
+=Mallory, S.R.=, United States senator,
+  Confederate Secretary of the Navy,
+  writes proposition of armistice dictated
+  by Davis and signed by Johnston, 521
+
+=Malvern Hill=, Virginia, battle of, July 1, 1862, 302
+
+=Marcy, R.B.=, brevet major-general United States army,
+  McClellan's chief of staff, 294
+
+=Marshall, Charles=, Confederate colonel,
+  present at Lee's surrender, 513
+
+=Maryland=, State of, secession feeling in, 193;
+  arrest and dispersion of its legislature, 199;
+  refuses offer of compensated abolishment, 434;
+  emancipation party in, 434;
+  abolishes slavery, 435, 436;
+  slavery in, throttled by public opinion, 473;
+  ratifies Thirteenth Amendment, 474
+
+=Mason, James M.=, United States senator,
+  Confederate commissioner to Europe, interview with John Brown, 134;
+  goes to Baltimore, 197;
+  capture of, 246-249
+
+=Matthews, J.=, burns Booth's letter, 537
+
+=Maximilian (Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph)=,
+  Archduke of Austria and Emperor of Mexico,
+  established by Napoleon III in Mexico, 451
+
+=Maynard, Horace=, member of Congress,
+  minister to Turkey, telegram about East Tennessee, 259;
+  elected to Congress, 419
+
+=Meade, George G.=, major-general United States army,
+  succeeds Hooker in command of Army of the Potomac, 372;
+  battle of Gettysburg, 372-374;
+  pursuit of Lee, 375, 377;
+  offers to give up command of Army of the Potomac, 394;
+  continued in command, 395;
+  reports surrender of Richmond, 510;
+  ordered to pursue Lee, 510;
+  pursuit of Lee, 511;
+  ordered to disregard Sherman's truce, 523
+
+=Meigs, Montgomery C.=, brevet major-general
+  and quartermaster-general United States army,
+  at gathering of officials to discuss news of
+  battle between _Monitor_ and _Merrimac_, 296
+
+=Memphis=, Tennessee, river battle at, 286
+
+=Merrimac=, the, Confederate ironclad,
+  battle with _Monitor_, 278-282
+
+=Merryman, John=, arrest of, 199
+
+=Minnesota=, the, Union steam frigate,
+  in fight between _Monitor_ and _Merrimac_, 280
+
+=Missouri=, State of, admitted as State, 1821, 19;
+  action concerning secession, 201-204;
+  provisional State government established, 418;
+  struggle over slavery, 430-434;
+  adopts ordinance of emancipation, 434;
+  resolution in Assembly favoring Lincoln's renomination, 444;
+  votes for Grant in Baltimore convention, 447;
+  slavery in, throttled by public opinion, 473
+
+=Missouri Compromise=, repeal of, 94, 95
+
+=Mobile Bay=, Alabama, battle of, August 5, 1864, 468, 525
+
+=Monitor=, the, Union ironclad, battle with _Merrimac_, 279-282
+
+=Montgomery=, Alabama, capital of Confederacy removed from,
+  to Richmond, 207
+
+=Moore, Thomas O.=, governor of Louisiana,
+  arms free colored men, 348, 349
+
+=Morgan, Edwin D.=, governor of New York,
+  United States senator, opens Republican national convention, 1864, 446;
+  declines cabinet appointment, 492
+
+=Morris, Achilles=, elected to Illinois legislature in 1832, 34
+
+=Morrison, James L.D.=, desires commissionership
+  of General Land Office, 92
+
+=Mudd, Samuel=, assists Booth and Herold, 542;
+  imprisoned, 544
+
+=Mulligan, James A.=, brevet brigadier-general
+  United States Volunteers, captured by Price, 241
+
+=Murfreesboro=, Tennessee, battle of,
+  December 31, 1862, to January 3, 1863, 380
+
+
+=Napoleon III=, colonial ambitions of, 211;
+  establishes Maximilian in Mexico, 451
+
+=Nashville=, Tennessee, battle of, December 15, 16, 1864, 410
+
+=Neale, T.M.=, commands troops in Black Hawk War, 31, 32;
+  defeated for Illinois legislature, 1832, 34
+
+=Negro soldiers=, experiments with, early in the war, 348;
+  governor of Louisiana arms free blacks, 348, 349;
+  reference to, in emancipation proclamation, 349, 350;
+  Lincoln's interest in, 350;
+  attitude of Confederates toward, 350, 351;
+  massacre of, at Fort Pillow, 351;
+  President's conversation with Frederick Douglass
+  about retaliation, 352;
+  Stanton's order regulating raising of, 435;
+  Republican national platform claims protection of laws of war for, 446;
+  take part in second inauguration of Lincoln, 493, 494;
+  Jefferson Davis's recommendation concerning slaves in rebel army, 501;
+  assist in restoring order in Richmond, 517;
+  in Lincoln's funeral procession, 546.
+  See _Slavery_ and _Emancipation_
+
+=Nelson, William=, lieutenant-commander United States navy,
+  major-general United States Volunteers, occupies Nashville, 270
+
+=New Orleans=, Louisiana, capture of, 283-285;
+  Confederate negro regiment in, 348, 349;
+  Union sentiment in, 420
+
+=New Salem=, Illinois, town of, 22-26
+
+=New York City=, draft riots in, 356, 357;
+  funeral honors to Lincoln in, 546, 547
+
+=Nicolay, John G.=, Lincoln's private secretary, 158;
+  accompanies Mr. Lincoln to Washington, 168;
+  in attendance at Baltimore convention, 448, 449;
+  letter to Hay, 448
+
+=North Carolina=, State of, joins Confederacy, 200, 204;
+  military governor appointed for, 419
+
+=Offutt, Denton=, engages Lincoln to take flatboat to New Orleans, 21;
+  disappears from New Salem, 35
+
+=O'Laughlin, Michael=, in conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln, 534;
+  imprisoned, 544
+
+=Ord, Edward O.C.=, brevet major-general United States army,
+  conversation with Longstreet, 503
+
+=Owens, Mary S.=, Lincoln's attentions to, correspondence with
+  and proposal of marriage to, 55-60
+
+
+=Palfrey, F.W.=, Confederate brigadier-general,
+  statement about strength of Army of the Potomac, 315
+
+=Parke, John G.=, brevet major-general United States army,
+  in recapture of Fort Stedman, 505, 506;
+  in assault at Petersburg 509
+
+=Patterson, Robert=, major-general Pennsylvania militia,
+  turns troops toward Harper's Ferry, 209;
+  part in campaign against Manassas, 216;
+  orders concerning slaves, 220, 221;
+  failure at Harper's Ferry, 228
+
+=Paulding, Hiram=, rear-admiral United States navy,
+  burns Norfolk navy-yard, 278
+
+=Pea Ridge=, Arkansas, battle of, 271
+
+=Pemberton, John C.=, Confederate lieutenant-general,
+  surrenders Vicksburg, 383
+
+=Pendleton, George H.=, member of Congress minister to Prussia,
+  nominated for Vice-President, 467
+
+=Pendleton, William N.=, Confederate brigadier-general,
+  advises Lee to surrender 512
+
+=Perryville=, Kentucky, battle of, October 8, 1862, 379
+
+=Peter, Z.=, defeated for Illinois legislature, 1832, 34
+
+=Petersburg=, Virginia, operations against, 400-402, 507-510;
+  evacuation of, April 2, 1865, 510
+
+=Phelps, John S.=, member of Congress, appointed military
+  governor of Arkansas, 420
+
+=Phelps, J.W.=, brigadier-general United States Volunteers,
+  mentioned in letter of Lincoln, 334;
+  declared an outlaw by Confederate War Department, 350
+
+=Philippi=, West Virginia, battle of, June 3, 1861, 214, 225
+
+=Phillips, Wendell=, letter to Cleveland convention, 442
+
+=Pickens, Francis W.=, member of Congress, minister to Russia,
+  governor of South Carolina, fires on _Star of the West_, 178
+
+=Pickett, George E.=, Confederate major-general, in battle of Five
+  Forks, 507, 508
+
+=Pierce, Franklin=, fourteenth President of the United States,
+  recognizes bogus laws in Kansas, 113;
+  appoints governors for Kansas, 113, 114
+
+=Pillow, Gideon J.=, Confederate major-general,
+  stationed at Columbus, 254;
+  escapes from Fort Donelson, 268
+
+=Pinkerton, Allen=, detective work of, 173
+
+=Pittsburg Landing=, Tennessee, battle of,
+  April 6, 7, 1862, 272-274
+
+=Polk, James K.=, eleventh President of the United States,
+  sends treaty of peace with Mexico to Senate, 79
+
+=Pomeroy, Samuel C.=, United States senator, secret circular of, 440
+
+=Pope, John=, brevet major-general United States army,
+  sent to New Madrid, 270;
+  capture of Island No. 10, 274;
+  proceeds to Fort Pillow, 274;
+  joins Halleck, 274;
+  assigned to command Army of Virginia, 306;
+  assumes command of Army of Virginia 310;
+  second battle of Bull Run, 310, 311;
+  despatch announcing his defeat, 312;
+  relieved from command of Army of the Potomac, 314
+
+=Porter, David D.=, admiral United States navy,
+  commands mortar flotilla in expedition with Farragut, 282-287;
+  in second expedition to Vicksburg, 287;
+  in operations about Vicksburg, 382, 383;
+  visits Richmond with Lincoln, 517, 518
+
+=Porterfield, G.A.=, Confederate colonel, routed at Philippi, 225
+
+=Port Hudson=, Louisiana, siege and surrender of, 383, 384
+
+=Port Royal=, South Carolina, expedition against, 245, 246
+
+=Powell, Lewis=, _alias_ Lewis Payne, in conspiracy
+  to assassinate Lincoln, 534;
+  assigned to murder Seward, 535;
+  attack upon Seward, 540, 541;
+  escape and capture of, 541, 542;
+  execution of, 544
+
+=Price, Sterling=, Confederate major-general retreat
+  to Springfield, Missouri, 234;
+  captures Mulligan, 241;
+  retreats toward Arkansas, 269;
+  defeat at Pea Ridge, 271
+
+=Pritchard, Benjamin D.=, brevet brigadier-general
+  United States Volunteers, captures Jefferson Davis, 526
+
+
+=Quinton, R.=, defeated for Illinois legislature 1832, 34
+
+
+=Rathbone, Henry R.=, brevet colonel United States army,
+  attends Ford's Theater with Mrs. Lincoln and Miss Harris, 536;
+  wounded by Booth, 538, 539
+
+=Raymond, Henry J.=, member of Congress letter to Lincoln, 462, 463;
+  visits Washington, 463
+
+=Reconstruction=, in West Virginia and Missouri, 418, 419;
+  Lincoln's theory of, 419;
+  in Louisiana, 420-426;
+  in Arkansas, 426, 427;
+  in Tennessee, 428, 429;
+  opposition in Congress to Lincoln's action concerning, 454;
+  Henry Winter Davis's bill prescribing method of, 454;
+  Lincoln's proclamation of, July 8, 1864, 456;
+  Wade-Davis manifesto, 456, 457
+
+=Republican Party=, formation of, 102, 103;
+  nominates Fremont and Dayton, 1856, 103, 104;
+  national convention of, 1860, 144-151;
+  candidates in 1860, 152;
+  campaign of, 1860, 153-160;
+  Fremont faction denounces Lincoln's attitude on slavery, 438;
+  the Chase faction, 439-441;
+  national convention of, 1864, 446-449;
+  gloomy prospects of, 462-466: success in elections of, 1864, 469, 470
+
+=Retaliation,= rebel threats of, 350, 351;
+  cabinet action on Fort Pillow massacre, 352;
+  conversation between Lincoln and Frederick Douglass about, 352
+
+=Reynolds,= John, governor of Illinois, issues call
+  for volunteers for Black Hawk War, 31, 32
+
+=Richmond,= Virginia, becomes capital of Confederate States, 207;
+  panic in, at rumors of evacuation, 481;
+  high prices in, 481;
+  excitement created by Blair's visits, 481, 482;
+  alarm at Grant's advance, 500;
+  surrender of, April 3, 1865, 510;
+  burning of, 515, 516
+
+=Rich Mountain,= Virginia, battle of, July 11, 1861, 225
+
+=Riney, Zachariah,= teacher of President Lincoln, 6
+
+=Roanoke,= the, Union steam frigate, in fight
+  between _Monitor_ and _Merrimac_, 280
+
+=Robinson, E.,= defeated for Illinois legislature, 1832, 34
+
+=Rodgers, John,= rear-admiral United States navy,
+  takes part in Port Royal expedition, 245, 246
+
+=Romine, Gideon,= merchant at Gentryville, 9
+
+=Rosecrans, William S.,= brevet major-general United States army,
+  success at Rich Mountain, 225;
+  succeeds Buell in Kentucky, 380;
+  battle of Murfreesboro, 380;
+  Iuka and Corinth, 380;
+  drives Bragg to Chattanooga, 385;
+  Chattanooga and Chickamauga, 386-388;
+  relieved from command, 388, 389;
+  dilatory movements delay reconstruction in Tennessee, 428
+
+=Russell, Lord John,= British minister for foreign affairs,
+  interview with Charles Francis Adams, 211
+
+=Rutledge, Anne,= engagement to Lincoln, 54;
+  death of, 54
+
+
+=Savannah,= Georgia, occupied by Sherman, December 21, 1864, 412
+
+=Schofield, J.M.,= brevet major-general, general-in-chief,
+  United States army, ordered to join Sherman, 414;
+  joins Sherman 417
+
+=Schurz, Carl,= major-general United States Volunteers,
+  United States senator,
+  Secretary of the Interior, asks permission to take part
+  in presidential campaign, 444
+
+=Scott Dred,= case of, 108, 109
+
+=Scott, Robert E.,= tendered cabinet appointment 164
+
+=Scott, Winfield,= lieutenant-general United States army,
+  warning to Lincoln about plot in Baltimore, 172;
+  charged with safety of Washington, 172;
+  attempt to reinforce Anderson, 178;
+  advises evacuation of Sumter, 183;
+  orders Washington prepared for a siege, 194;
+  report to President Lincoln, 194, 195;
+  offers Lee command of seventy-five regiments, 196;
+  orders Lyon to St. Louis, 202;
+  loyalty of, 208;
+  occupies Cairo, Illinois, 210;
+  military problem before, 210;
+  plan of campaign 215, 216, 231, 232;
+  refuses to credit news of defeat at Bull Run, 228, 229;
+  welcomes McClellan to Washington, 250;
+  quarrel with McClellan, 251, 252;
+  retirement of, 251-253;
+  rank as lieutenant-general, 393;
+  attends Lincoln's funeral in New York, 547
+
+=Seaton, William W.,= mayor of Washington approves
+  Lincoln's bill abolishing slavery in District of Columbia, 87
+
+=Secession,= South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi Alabama,
+  Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas join the movement, 175, 176;
+  action of central cabal, 177;
+  sentiment in Maryland, 193, 194;
+  Virginia passes ordinance of, 194;
+  Tennessee, North Carolina, and Arkansas join the movement, 200;
+  sentiment in Delaware, 201;
+  in Kentucky, 201;
+  in Missouri, 201-204;
+  numerical strength of, 204. See _Confederate States of America_
+
+=Seddon, James A.,= member of Congress, Confederate
+  Secretary of War, resignation of, 501
+
+=Sedgwick, John,= major-general United States Volunteers,
+  crosses Rappahannock and takes Fredericksburg, 368, 369
+
+=Seven Days' Battles,= 302, 306, 307
+
+=Seward, Augustus H.,= brevet colonel United States army,
+  stabbed by Powell, _alias_ Payne, 541
+
+=Seward, Frederick W.,= Assistant Secretary of State,
+  visits Lincoln in Philadelphia, 172;
+  wounded by Powell, _alias_, Payne, 540, 541
+
+=Seward, William H.,= United States senator, Secretary of State,
+  desires reelection of Douglas to United States Senate, 125;
+  candidate for presidential nomination, 1860, 144;
+  votes for, in Chicago convention, 149-151;
+  accepts cabinet appointment, 163;
+  transmits offers of cabinet appointments, 164;
+  suggestions to Lincoln about journey to Washington, 168;
+  warning to Lincoln about plot in Baltimore, 172, 173;
+  meets Lincoln at railway station in Washington, 174;
+  appointed Secretary of State, 182;
+  reply to Confederate commissioners, 183;
+  reply to Judge Campbell, 183;
+  memorandum of April 1, 1861, 184-187;
+  opinion of Lincoln, 187;
+  despatch of May 21, 211;
+  friendship for Lord Lyons, 247;
+  despatch in _Trent_ affair, 249;
+  at gathering of officials to discuss news of _Monitor_
+  and _Merrimac_, 296;
+  goes to New York with President's letter, 307;
+  Lincoln tells him of coming emancipation proclamation, 332;
+  suggests postponement of emancipation proclamation, 332;
+  attitude toward the French in Mexico, 451, 452;
+  agrees with President against making proffers of peace to Davis, 463;
+  proclaims ratification of Thirteenth Amendment, 475;
+  goes to Hampton Roads, 483;
+  relations with Montgomery Blair, 488;
+  plot to murder, 535;
+  attacked by Powell, _alias_ Payne, 540, 541
+
+=Seymour, Horatio=, governor of New York, opposition to the draft, 355-357;
+  correspondence with Lincoln, 356;
+  notifies McClellan of his nomination, 468
+
+=Shepley, G.F.=, brigadier-general United States Volunteers,
+  military governor of Louisiana, orders election
+  for members of Congress, 422;
+  orders registration of loyal voters, 422, 423
+
+=Sheridan, Philip H.=, lieutenant-general, general-in-chief,
+  United States army, operations in Shenandoah valley, 403, 404;
+  succeeds McClellan, 470;
+  in Shenandoah valley, 502;
+  reaches City Point, 506;
+  advance to Five Forks, 507;
+  reports situation to Grant, 507;
+  battle of Five Forks, 508;
+  ordered to get on Lee's line of retreat, 509, 510;
+  despatch to Grant, 511;
+  captures Appomattox Station, 512;
+  despatch to Grant, 512
+
+=Sherman, John=, member of Congress, Secretary of the Treasury,
+  United States senator,
+  candidate for Speaker of the House of Representatives, 141
+
+=Sherman, William Tecumseh=, lieutenant-general,
+  general-in-chief United States army, sent to Nashville, 254;
+  succeeds Anderson, 254;
+  interview with Cameron, 255;
+  asks to be relieved, 255;
+  in operations about Vicksburg, 381, 382;
+  reaches Chattanooga, 389;
+  in battle of Chattanooga, 390, 391;
+  conference with Grant, 395;
+  master in the West, 395;
+  Meridian campaign, 405, 406;
+  concentrates troops at Chattanooga, 406;
+  march on Atlanta, 408, 468;
+  truce with Hood, 408;
+  divides his army, 409;
+  march to the sea, 410-412;
+  telegram to President Lincoln, 412;
+  proposes to march through the Carolinas, 414;
+  from Savannah to Goldsboro, 414-417;
+  visit to Grant, 417;
+  march northward, 502;
+  visit to Lincoln and Grant, 506;
+  admiration for Grant and respect for Lee, 520;
+  enters Raleigh, 521;
+  receives communication from Johnston, 521;
+  meetings with Johnston, 521, 522;
+  agreement between them, 522;
+  agreement disapproved at Washington, 523;
+  report to Grant, 523, 524;
+  receives Johnston's surrender, 524;
+  effect of his march through the South, 524;
+  sent against E. Kirby Smith, 526;
+  soldiers of, in grand review, 528
+
+=Shields, James=, United States senator, brigadier-general
+  United States Volunteers, at Springfield, Illinois, 52;
+  auditor of Illinois, 65;
+  challenges Lincoln to a duel, 66-68;
+  ordered to form junction with McDowell and Fremont, 306
+
+=Short, James=, buys Lincoln's surveying instruments
+  and restores them to him, 36
+
+=Simpson, M.=, Bishop of the Methodist Church,
+  oration at Lincoln's funeral, 548
+
+=Slavery=, agitation in Illinois, 45, 46;
+  Lincoln-Stone protest, 47;
+  Lincoln's bill to abolish, in District of Columbia, 85-87;
+  repeal of Missouri Compromise, 94, 95;
+  Peoria debate of Lincoln and Douglas, 96-98;
+  Lincoln's Chicago banquet speech, 106, 107;
+  Dred Scott case, 108-112;
+  pro-slavery reaction, 113;
+  slavery agitation in Kansas, 113-117;
+  Lincoln's "House divided against itself" speech, 119, 120, 127, 128;
+  Lincoln-Douglas joint debate, 121-125;
+  John Brown raid, 134, 135;
+  Lincoln's speeches in Kansas and the East, 136-140;
+  pro-slavery demands of Democratic leaders, 141, 142;
+  attitude of political parties upon, in 1860, 152, 153;
+  "corner-stone" theory of the Confederate States, 179;
+  dream of the conspirators, 197, 204;
+  dread of slave insurrections in the South, 220, 221;
+  action of Union commanders about, 220-223;
+  Fremont's proclamation, 236-238;
+  Lincoln to Browning about Fremont's proclamation, 238-240;
+  President's interview with border State delegations, 257, 258, 324, 325;
+  references to, in Cameron's report, 320;
+  in Lincoln's message of December 3, 1861, 321, 322;
+  Delaware offered compensated abolishment, 322, 323;
+  Lincoln's special message to Congress, March 6, 1862, 323, 324;
+  President's letter to McDougall, 324;
+  Congress passes bill for compensated emancipation
+  in District of Columbia, 325, 326;
+  bill in Congress to aid emancipation in Delaware, Maryland,
+  Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri, 326;
+  Lincoln revokes Hunter's order, 327, 328;
+  measures relating to, in Congress, 1862, 329;
+  President's second interview with border State delegations, 329-331;
+  Lincoln reads first draft of emancipation proclamation to
+  cabinet, 331, 332;
+  President's interview with Chicago clergymen, 337-339;
+  President issues preliminary emancipation proclamation, 339-341;
+  annual message of December 1, 1862, on, 341, 342;
+  President issues final emancipation proclamation, 342-346;
+  President's views on, 346, 347;
+  arming of negro soldiers, 348-350;
+  instructions from War Department about slaves, 349;
+  contest over slavery clause in new Louisiana constitution, 423;
+  slavery abolished in Louisiana, 426;
+  abolished in Arkansas, 427;
+  abolished in Tennessee, 429;
+  abolished in Missouri, 434;
+  abolished in Maryland, 435, 436;
+  attitude of Democratic party on, 437, 438;
+  Republican national platform favors constitutional
+  amendment abolishing, 446;
+  fugitive-slave law repealed, 457;
+  constitutional amendment prohibiting, in United States, 471-476;
+  public opinion on, in certain States, 473;
+  two constitutional amendments offered during Lincoln's term, 475, 476;
+  Lincoln's draft of joint resolution offering South $400,000,000, 493;
+  decline in value of slave property in the South, 501;
+  effect on Lincoln's character, 551.
+  See _Emancipation_ and _Negro soldiers_
+
+=Slidell, John=, minister to Mexico, United States senator,
+  Confederate commissioner to Europe, capture of, 246-249;
+  last instructions from Confederate Secretary of State to, 501, 502
+
+=Smith, Caleb B.=, member of Congress, Secretary of the Interior,
+  judge United States District Court,
+  appointed Secretary of the Interior, 182;
+  signs cabinet protest, 311, 312
+
+=Smith, E. Kirby=, Confederate general,
+  commands forces west of the Mississippi, 525;
+  surrender of, 526, 527
+
+=Smith, Melancton=, rear-admiral United States navy,
+  at gathering of officials to discuss fight between _Monitor_
+  and _Merrimac_, 296
+
+=Smith, William F.=, brevet major-general United States army,
+  service at Chattanooga 389
+
+=Spain=, joint expedition to Mexico, 451
+
+=Spangler, Edward=, imprisoned for complicity in Booth's plot, 544
+
+=Speed, James=, Attorney-General, appointed Attorney-General, 491
+
+=Speed, Joshua F.=, intimacy with Lincoln, 53;
+  Lincoln's letters to, 64, 65, 68;
+  marriage, 65
+
+=Spottsylvania=, Virginia, battle of, May 8-19, 1864, 398, 399
+
+=Springfield=, Illinois, its ambition, 26;
+  first newspaper, 26;
+  becomes capital of Illinois, 45, 52;
+  in 1837-39, 53;
+  revival of business in, 61;
+  society in, 62;
+  Lincoln's speech of farewell at, 169;
+  funeral honors to Lincoln in, 547, 548
+
+=Stanley, Edward=, member of Congress, appointed military
+  governor of North Carolina, 420
+
+=Stanton, Edwin M.=, Attorney-General, Secretary of War,
+  succeeds Cameron as Secretary of War, 289;
+  his efficiency, 289, 290;
+  interview with the President, 293, 294;
+  at gathering of officials to discuss news of _Monitor_
+  and _Merrimac_, 296;
+  conveys President's reply to McClellan's plan of campaign, 298;
+  indignation at McClellan, 311;
+  draws up and signs memorandum of protest against continuing
+  McClellan in command, 311;
+  instruction about slaves, 349;
+  faith in Hooker, 370;
+  anxiety for Lincoln during Early's raid, 403;
+  order regulating raising of colored troops, 435;
+  orders suppression of two New York newspapers and arrest
+  of their editors, 453, 454;
+  agrees with President against making proffers of peace to Davis, 463;
+  sends Halleck's letter to President, 488;
+  shows Lincoln Grant's despatch transmitting Lee's overtures, 503;
+  disapproves Sherman's agreement with Johnston, 523;
+  at Lincoln's death-bed, 540
+
+=Star of the West=, merchant vessel, unsuccessful attempt
+  to reinforce Fort Sumter, 178
+
+=Steele, Frederick=, brevet major-general United States army,
+  marches from Helena to Little Rock, Arkansas, 427;
+  assists reconstruction in Arkansas, 427
+
+=Stephens, Alexander H.=; member of Congress,
+  Confederate Vice-President, correspondence with Lincoln, 165, 166;
+  elected Vice-President Confederate States of America, 179;
+  "corner-stone" theory, 179;
+  signs military league, 197;
+  appointed peace commissioner, 482;
+  at Hampton Roads conference, 482-485
+
+=Stevens, Thaddeus=, member of Congress, criticism of joint
+  resolution offering compensated emancipation, 325
+
+=St. Lawrence=, the, in fight between _Monitor_
+  and _Merrimac_, 280
+
+=Stone, Charles P.=, brigadier-general United States Volunteers,
+  report about danger to Lincoln in Baltimore, 172, 173
+
+=Stone, Dan=, member of Illinois legislature,
+  protest with Lincoln against resolutions on slavery, 47
+
+=Stone, Dr. Robert K.=, at Lincoln's death-bed, 539, 540
+
+=Stringham, Silas H.=, rear-admiral United States navy,
+  commands Hatteras expedition, 245
+
+=Stuart, John T.=, major Illinois Volunteers, member of Congress,
+  reenlists as private in Black Hawk War, 33;
+  elected to Illinois legislature in 1832, 34;
+  reelected in 1834, 43;
+  encourages Lincoln to study law, 44;
+  at Springfield, Illinois, 52;
+  elected to Congress, 69, 70
+
+=Surratt, John H.=, in conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln, 534;
+  deposits arms in tavern at Surrattsville, 536;
+  escape to Canada, subsequent capture and trial, 544
+
+=Surratt, Mrs. Mary E.=, in conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln, 534;
+  visits tavern at Surrattsville, 536;
+  fate of, 541, 542, 544
+
+=Swaney=, teacher of President Lincoln, 12
+
+=Swett, Leonard=, favors Holt for Vice-President, 448
+
+
+=Taney, Roger B.=, chief justice of the Supreme Court
+  of the United States, opinion in Dred Scott case, 109;
+  action in Merryman case, 199, 200;
+  death of, 490
+
+=Taylor, E.D.=, elected to Illinois legislature in 1832, 34
+
+=Taylor, Richard=, Confederate lieutenant-general,
+  surrenders to Canby, 525, 527
+
+=Taylor, Zachary=, twelfth President of the United States,
+  nominated for President, 80, 81;
+  elected President, 87
+
+=Tennessee=, the, Confederate ram, in battle of Mobile Bay, 525
+
+=Tennessee=, State of, joins Confederacy, 200, 204;
+  military governor appointed for, 419;
+  secession usurpation in, 420;
+  delay of reconstruction in, 428;
+  organization of State government and abolishment of slavery, 429;
+  public opinion in, regarding slavery, 473;
+  ratifies Thirteenth Amendment, 475
+
+=Terry, Alfred H.=, brevet major-general United States army,
+  communicates with Sherman, 416
+
+=Texas=, State of, ratifies Thirteenth Amendment, 475
+
+=Thatcher, Henry K.=, rear-admiral United States navy,
+  receives surrender of Farrand, 525
+
+=Thirteenth Amendment=, joint resolution proposing, 471-475;
+  ratification of, 475
+
+=Thomas, George H.=, major-general United States army,
+  ordered to oppose Zollicoffer, 254;
+  victory over Zollicoffer, 265;
+  at battle of Chickamauga, 387;
+  succeeds Rosecrans at Chattanooga, 389;
+  in battle of Chattanooga, 390, 391;
+  sent by Sherman to defend Tennessee, 409;
+  Franklin and Nashville, 410;
+  threatens Confederate communications from Tennessee, 502
+
+=Thompson, Jacob=, member of Congress, Secretary of the Interior,
+  agent of Confederate government in Canada, 361;
+  his visionary plans, 361, 362;
+  account at Montreal Bank, 544
+
+=Thompson, Samuel=, colonel Illinois Volunteers,
+  commands regiment in Black Hawk War, 32
+
+=Tod, David=, minister to Brazil, governor of Ohio,
+  declines nomination for Secretary of the Treasury, 457
+
+=Todd, Mary=, see _Lincoln, Mary Todd_
+
+=Totten, Joseph G.=, brevet major-general United States army,
+  at gathering of officials to discuss news of fight of _Monitor_
+  and _Merrimac_, 296
+
+=Treat, Samuel H.=, United States district judge,
+  at Springfield, Illinois, 52
+
+=Trent Brothers=, buy store of Lincoln and Berry, 36
+
+=Trent=, the, British mail-steamer, overhauled
+  by the _San Jacinto_, 246
+
+=Trumbull, Lyman=, member of Congress, United States senator,
+  at Springfield, Illinois, 52;
+  elected to United States Senate, 1855, 100
+
+=Turnham, David=, lends Lincoln "Revised Statutes of Indiana," 14
+
+
+=Usher, John P.=, Secretary of the Treasury, resigns from cabinet, 492
+
+
+=Vallandigham, Clement L.=, member of Congress,
+  interview with John Brown, 134;
+  arrest and banishment of, 358;
+  head of Knights of Golden Circle, etc., 360, 361;
+  at Democratic national convention, 467, 468
+
+=Van Bergen=, sues Lincoln for debt, 36, 41
+
+=Vandalia=, Illinois, removal of State capital from,
+  to Springfield, 45, 52
+
+=Van Dorn, Earl=, Confederate major-general, defeat at Pea Ridge, 271
+
+=Varuna=, the, sunk in expedition against New Orleans, 285
+
+=Vicksburg=, Mississippi, fortifications of, 287;
+  surrender of, July 4, 1863, 376, 383;
+  situation of 381;
+  operations against, 381-383
+
+=Victoria=, Queen of Great Britain and Ireland,
+  proclamation of neutrality, 211;
+  kindly feelings toward United States, 247
+
+=Vienna Station=, ambush at, 214
+
+=Virginia=, State of, passes ordinance of secession, 194;
+  in the Confederacy, 204;
+  ratifies Thirteenth Amendment, 475
+
+
+=Wade, Benjamin F.=, United States senator,
+  signs Wade-Davis manifesto, 456
+
+=Walker, Leroy Pope=, Confederate Secretary of War
+  and brigadier-general, speech at Montgomery, 197
+
+=Walker, Robert J.=, United States senator Secretary
+  of the Treasury, appointed governor of Kansas, 114;
+  letter to Buchanan 114, 115;
+  resigns, 117
+
+=Warren, Gouverneur K.=, brevet major-general United
+  States army, attacked by Lee, 507
+
+=Washburne, Elihu B.=, member of Congress,
+  minister to France, meets Lincoln at railway station in Washington, 174
+
+=Washington City=, cutoff from the North, 194-197;
+  communication restored, 197;
+  fortifications of, 208, 209;
+  threatened by Early, 403;
+  grand review of Union army in, 527-529
+
+=Washington, George=, first President of the United States,
+  rank of lieutenant-general, 393;
+  size of his armies compared with Lee's, 524;
+  his place in United States history, 555
+
+=Weitzel, Godfrey=, brevet major-general United States army,
+  receives surrender of Richmond, 510;
+  sets about work of relief, 516
+
+=Welles, Gideon=, Secretary of the Navy,
+  appointed Secretary of the Navy, 182;
+  approves course of Captain Wilkes, 246;
+  at gathering of officials to discuss news of fight
+  between _Monitor_ and _Merrimac_, 296;
+  refuses to sign cabinet protest, 311, 312;
+  Lincoln tells him of coming emancipation proclamation, 332
+
+=West Virginia=, State of, formation of, 200, 201;
+  true to the Union, 204;
+  effect on, of McClellan's campaign, 225;
+  admission to the Union, 418;
+  slavery in throttled by public opinion, 473
+
+=Whig Party=, first national convention of, 28;
+  nominates Henry Clay, 28;
+  convention of 1860, 143, 144
+
+=White, Albert S.=, member of Congress, United States senator,
+  judge of District Court of Indiana,
+  reports bill to aid emancipation in Delaware,
+  Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri, 326
+
+=Whitesides, Samuel=, general Illinois Volunteers,
+  reenlists as private in Black Hawk War, 33
+
+=Wide Awakes=, origin and campaign work of, 155, 156
+
+=Wilderness=, Virginia, battle of, May 5, 6, 1864, 398
+
+=Wilkes, Charles=, rear-admiral United States navy,
+  capture of the _Trent_, 246-249
+
+=Wilmington=, North Carolina, occupation of, February 22, 1865, 525
+
+=Wilson, James H.=, brevet major-general United States army,
+  cavalry raid, and defeat of Forrest, 524, 525
+
+=Wilson's Creek=, Missouri, battle of, August 10, 1861, 235
+
+=Wise, Henry A.=, minister to Brazil;
+  governor of Virginia, Confederate brigadier-general desires
+  Douglas's reelection to United States Senate, 126;
+  interview with John Brown, 134
+
+=Worden, John L.=, rear-admiral United States navy,
+  commands the _Monitor_, 282
+
+=Wright, Horatio G.=, brevet major-general United States army,
+  sent to Washington 403;
+  in recapture of Fort Stedman, 505, 506;
+  in assault at Petersburg, 508, 509
+
+
+=Yates, Richard=, member of Congress, governor of Illinois,
+  United States senator Lincoln advocates his reelection, 96;
+  commissions Grant, 265;
+  appoints J.F. Jaquess colonel of volunteer regiment, 461
+
+=Yorktown=, Virginia, siege of, April 5 to May 3, 1862, 301
+
+
+=Zollicoffer, Felix K.=, member of Congress,
+  Confederate brigadier-general, in eastern Kentucky, 254;
+  defeated by Thomas, 265
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's A Short Life of Abraham Lincoln, by John G. Nicolay
+
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