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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/16332-8.txt b/16332-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..07abd85 --- /dev/null +++ b/16332-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,19286 @@ +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. 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Nicolay.</title> +<style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + table {margin-left: 15%; margin-right: auto;} + + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 90%;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ +</style> +</head> +<body> + + +<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 & 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 "TAD."" title="PRESIDENT LINCOLN AND HIS SON "TAD."" /> +</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—Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks—Rock Spring +Farm—Lincoln's<br /> +Birth—Kentucky Schools—The Journey to +Indiana—Pigeon Creek<br /> +Settlement—Indiana Schools—Sally Bush +Lincoln—Gentryville—Work and<br /> +Books—Satires and Sermons—Flatboat Voyage to New +Orleans—The Journey<br /> +to Illinois<br /> +<br /> +<a href="#II"><b>CHAPTER II</b></a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Flatboat—New Salem—Election Clerk—Store and +Mill—Kirkham's<br /> +"Grammar"—"Sangamo Journal"—The +Talisman—Lincoln's Address, March 9,<br /> +1832—Black Hawk War—Lincoln Elected +Captain—Mustered out May 27,<br /> +1832—Re-enlisted in Independent Spy Battalion—Finally +Mustered out,<br /> +June 16, 1832—Defeated for the Legislature—Blacksmith +or Lawyer?—The<br /> +Lincoln-Berry Store—Appointed Postmaster, May 7, +1833—National Politics<br /> +<br /> +<a href="#III"><b>CHAPTER III</b></a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Appointed Deputy Surveyor—Elected to Legislature in +1834—Campaign<br /> +Issues—Begins Study of Law—Internal ImprovementS +ystem—The<br /> +Lincoln-Stone Protest—Candidate for Speaker in 1838 and +1840<br /> +<br /> +<a href="#IV"><b>CHAPTER IV</b></a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Law Practice—Rules for a Lawyer—Law and Politics: +Twin<br /> +Occupations—The Springfield Coterie—Friendly +Help—Anne Rutledge—Mary Owens<br /> +<br /> +<a href="#V"><b>CHAPTER V</b></a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Springfield Society—Miss Mary Todd—Lincoln's +Engagement—His Deep<br /> +Despondency—Visit to Kentucky—Letters to +Speed—The Shields<br /> +Duel—Marriage—Law Partnership with Logan—Hardin +Nominated for<br /> +Congress, 1843—Baker Nominated for Congress, +1844—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—Mexican +War—"Wilmot<br /> +Proviso"—Campaign of 1848—Letters to Herndon about +Young Men in<br /> +Politics—Speech in Congress on the Mexican War—Second +Session of the<br /> +Thirtieth Congress—Bill to Prohibit Slavery in the District +of<br /> +Columbia—Lincoln's Recommendations of +Office-Seekers—Letters to<br /> +Speed—Commissioner of the General Land Office—Declines +Governorship of<br /> +Oregon<br /> +<br /> +<a href="#VII"><b>CHAPTER VII</b></a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Repeal of the Missouri Compromise—State Fair +Debate—Peoria<br /> +Debate—Trumbull Elected—Letter to Robinson—The +Know-Nothings—Decatur<br /> +Meeting—Bloomington Convention—Philadelphia +Convention—Lincoln's Vote<br /> +for Vice-President—Frémont and Dayton—Lincoln's +Campaign<br /> +Speeches—Chicago Banquet Speech<br /> +<br /> +<a href="#VIII"><b>CHAPTER VIII</b></a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Buchanan Elected President—The Dred Scott +Decision—Douglas's<br /> +Springfield Speech, 1857—Lincoln's Answering +Speech—Criticism of Dred<br /> +Scott Decision—Kansas Civil War—Buchanan Appoints +Walker—Walker's<br /> +Letter on Kansas—The Lecompton Constitution—Revolt of +Douglas<br /> +<br /> +<a href="#IX"><b>CHAPTER IX</b></a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +The Senatorial Contest in Illinois—"House Divided against +Itself"<br /> +Speech—The Lincoln-Douglas Debates—The Freeport +Doctrine—Douglas<br /> +Deposed from Chairmanship of Committee on +Territories—Benjamin on<br /> +Douglas—Lincoln's Popular Majority—Douglas Gains +Legislature—Greeley,<br /> +Crittenden <i>et al.</i>—"The Fight Must Go +On"—Douglas's Southern<br /> +Speeches—Senator Brown's Questions—Lincoln's Warning +against Popular<br /> +Sovereignty—The War of Pamphlets—Lincoln's Ohio +Speeches—The John<br /> +Brown Raid—Lincoln's Comment<br /> +<br /> +<a href="#X"><b>CHAPTER X</b></a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Lincoln's Kansas Speeches—The Cooper Institute +Speech—New England<br /> +Speeches—The Democratic Schism—Senator Brown's +Resolutions—Jefferson<br /> +Davis's Resolutions—The Charleston Convention—Majority +and Minority<br /> +Reports—Cotton State Delegations Secede—Charleston +Convention<br /> +Adjourns—Democratic Baltimore Convention +Splits—Breckinridge<br /> +Nominated—Douglas Nominated—Bell Nominated by Union +Constitutional<br /> +Convention—Chicago Convention—Lincoln's Letters to +Pickett and<br /> +Judd—The Pivotal States—Lincoln Nominated<br /> +<br /> +<a href="#XI"><b>CHAPTER XI</b></a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Candidates and Platforms—The Political Chances—Decatur +Lincoln<br /> +Resolution—John Hanks and the Lincoln Rails—The +Rail-Splitter<br /> +Candidate—The Wide-Awakes—Douglas's Southern +Tour—Jefferson Davis's<br /> +Address—Fusion—Lincoln at the State House—The +Election Result<br /> +<br /> +<a href="#XII"><b>CHAPTER XII</b></a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Lincoln's Cabinet Program—Members from the +South—Questions and<br /> +Answers—Correspondence with Stephens—Action of +Congress—Peace<br /> +Convention—Preparation of the Inaugural—Lincoln's +Farewell<br /> +Address—The Journey to Washington—Lincoln's Midnight +Journey<br /> +<br /> +<a href="#XIII"><b>CHAPTER XIII</b></a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +The Secession Movement—South Carolina +Secession—Buchanan's<br /> +Neglect—Disloyal Cabinet Members—Washington Central +Cabal—Anderson's<br /> +Transfer to Sumter—Star of the West—Montgomery +Rebellion—Davis and<br /> +Stephens—Corner-stone Theory—Lincoln +Inaugurated—His Inaugural<br /> +Address—Lincoln's Cabinet—The Question of +Sumter—Seward's<br /> +Memorandum—Lincoln's Answer—Bombardment of +Sumter—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—Responses<br /> +of the Governors—Maryland and Virginia—The Baltimore +Riot—Washington<br /> +Isolated—Lincoln Takes the Responsibility—Robert E. +Lee—Arrival of<br /> +the New York Seventh—Suspension of Habeas Corpus—The +Annapolis<br /> +Route—Butler in Baltimore—Taney on the Merryman<br /> +Case—Kentucky—Missouri—Lyon Captures Camp +Jackson—Boonville<br /> +Skirmish—The Missouri Convention—Gamble made +Governor—The Border<br /> +States<br /> +<br /> +<a href="#XV"><b>CHAPTER XV</b></a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Davis's Proclamation for Privateers—Lincoln's Proclamation +of<br /> +Blockade—The Call for Three Years' Volunteers—Southern +Military<br /> +Preparations—Rebel Capital Moved to Richmond—Virginia, +North Carolina,<br /> +Tennessee, and Arkansas Admitted to Confederate +States—Desertion of<br /> +Army and Navy Officers—Union Troops Fortify Virginia Shore of +the<br /> +Potomac—Concentration at Harper's Ferry—Concentration +at Fortress<br /> +Monroe and Cairo—English Neutrality—Seward's +21st-of-May<br /> +Despatch—Lincoln's Corrections—Preliminary +Skirmishes—Forward to<br /> +Richmond—Plan of McDowell's Campaign<br /> +<br /> +<a href="#XVI"><b>CHAPTER XVI</b></a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Congress—The President's Message—Men and Money +Voted—The<br /> +Contraband—Dennison Appoints McClellan—Rich +Mountain—McDowell—Bull<br /> +Run—Patterson's Failure—McClellan at Washington<br /> +<br /> +<a href="#XVII"><b>CHAPTER XVII</b></a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +General Scott's Plans—Criticized as the "Anaconda"—The +Three Fields of<br /> +Conflict—Frémont Appointed Major-General—His +Military Failures—Battle<br /> +of Wilson's Creek—Hunter Ordered to +Frémont—Frémont's<br /> +Proclamation—President Revokes Frémont's +Proclamation—Lincoln's Letter<br /> +to Browning—Surrender of Lexington—Frémont Takes +the Field—Cameron's<br /> +Visit to Frémont—Frémont's Removal<br /> +<br /> +<a href="#XVIII"><b>CHAPTER XVIII</b></a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Blockade—Hatteras Inlet—Port Royal Captured—The +Trent Affair—Lincoln<br /> +Suggests Arbitration—Seward's Despatch—McClellan at +Washington—Army<br /> +of the Potomac—McClellan's Quarrel with +Scott—Retirement of<br /> +Scott—Lincoln's Memorandum—"All Quiet on the +Potomac"—Conditions in<br /> +Kentucky—Cameron's Visit to Sherman—East +Tennessee—Instructions to<br /> +Buell—Buell's Neglect—Halleck in Missouri<br /> +<br /> +<a href="#XIX"><b>CHAPTER XIX</b></a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Lincoln Directs Coöperation—Halleck and +Buell—Ulysses S.<br /> +Grant—Grant's Demonstration—Victory at Mill +River—Fort Henry—Fort<br /> +Donelson—Buell's Tardiness—Halleck's +Activity—Victory of Pea<br /> +Ridge—Halleck Receives General Command—Pittsburg +Landing—Island No.<br /> +10—Halleck's Corinth Campaign—Halleck's Mistakes<br /> +<br /> +<a href="#XX"><b>CHAPTER XX</b></a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +The Blockade—Hatteras Inlet—Roanoke Island—Fort +Pulaski—<i>Merrimac</i><br /> +and <i>Monitor</i>—The <i>Cumberland</i> Sunk—The +<i>Congress</i> Burned—Battle of<br /> +the Ironclads—Flag-Officer Farragut—Forts Jackson and +St. Philip—New<br /> +Orleans Captured—Farragut at Vicksburg—Farragut's +Second Expedition to<br /> +Vicksburg—Return to New Orleans<br /> +<br /> +<a href="#XXI"><b>CHAPTER XXI</b></a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +McClellan's Illness—Lincoln Consults McDowell and +Franklin—President's<br /> +Plan against Manassas—McClellan's Plan against +Richmond—Cameron and<br /> +Stanton—President's War Order No. 1—Lincoln's Questions +to<br /> +McClellan—News from the West—Death of Willie +Lincoln—The Harper's<br /> +Ferry Fiasco—President's War Order No. 3—The News from +Hampton<br /> +Roads—Manassas Evacuated—Movement to the +Peninsula—Yorktown—The<br /> +Peninsula Campaign—Seven Days' Battles—Retreat to +Harrison's Landing<br /> +<br /> +<a href="#XXII"><b>CHAPTER XXII</b></a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Jackson's Valley Campaign—Lincoln's Visit to Scott—Pope +Assigned to<br /> +Command—Lee's Attack on McClellan—Retreat to +Harrison's<br /> +Landing—Seward Sent to New York—Lincoln's Letter to +Seward—Lincoln's<br /> +Letter to McClellan—Lincoln's Visit to +McClellan—Halleck Made<br /> +General-in-Chief—Halleck's Visit to +McClellan—Withdrawal from<br /> +Harrison's Landing—Pope Assumes Command—Second Battle +of Bull Run—The<br /> +Cabinet Protest—McClellan Ordered to Defend +Washington—The Maryland<br /> +Campaign—Battle of Antietam—Lincoln visits +Antietam—Lincoln's Letter<br /> +to McClellan—McClellan Removed from Command<br /> +<br /> +<a href="#XXIII"><b>CHAPTER XXIII</b></a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Cameron's Report—Lincoln's Letter to Bancroft—Annual +Message on<br /> +Slavery—The Delaware Experiment—Joint Resolution on +Compensated<br /> +Abolishment—First Border State Interview—Stevens's +Comment—District<br /> +of Columbia Abolishment—Committee on +Abolishment—Hunter's Order<br /> +Revoked—Antislavery Measures of Congress—Second Border +State<br /> +Interview—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—Lincoln's Letters<br /> +to Louisiana Friends—Greeley's Open Letter—Mr. +Lincoln's<br /> +Reply—Chicago Clergymen Urge Emancipation—Lincoln's +Answer—Lincoln<br /> +Issues Preliminary Proclamation—President Proposes +Constitutional<br /> +Amendment—Cabinet Considers Final Proclamation—Cabinet +Discusses<br /> +Admission of West Virginia—Lincoln Signs Edict of +Freedom—Lincoln's<br /> +Letter to Hodges<br /> +<br /> +<a href="#XXV"><b>CHAPTER XXV</b></a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Negro Soldiers—Fort +Pillow—Retaliation—Draft—Northern<br /> +Democrats—Governor Seymour's Attitude—Draft Riots in +New<br /> +York—Vallandigham—Lincoln on his Authority to Suspend +Writ of Habeas<br /> +Corpus—Knights of the Golden Circle—Jacob Thompson in +Canada<br /> +<br /> +<a href="#XXVI"><b>CHAPTER XXVI</b></a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Burnside—Fredericksburg—A Tangle of +Cross-Purposes—Hooker Succeeds<br /> +Burnside—Lincoln to Hooker—Chancellorsville—Lee's +Second<br /> +Invasion—Lincoln's Criticisms of Hooker's +Plans—Hooker<br /> +Relieved—Meade—Gettysburg—Lee's +Retreat—Lincoln's Letter to<br /> +Meade—Lincoln's Gettysburg Address—Autumn +Strategy—The Armies go into<br /> +Winter Quarters<br /> +<br /> +<a href="#XXVII"><b>CHAPTER XXVII</b></a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Buell and Bragg—Perryville—Rosecrans and +Murfreesboro—Grant's<br /> +Vicksburg Experiments—Grant's May Battles—Siege and +Surrender of<br /> +Vicksburg—Lincoln to Grant—Rosecrans's March to +Chattanooga—Battle of<br /> +Chickamauga—Grant at Chattanooga—Battle of +Chattanooga—Burnside at<br /> +Knoxville—Burnside Repulses Longstreet<br /> +<br /> +<a href="#XXVIII"><b>CHAPTER XXVIII</b></a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Grant Lieutenant-General—Interview with Lincoln—Grant +Visits<br /> +Sherman—Plan of Campaigns—Lincoln to Grant—From +the Wilderness to<br /> +Cold Harbor—The Move to City Point—Siege of +Petersburg—Early Menaces<br /> +Washington—Lincoln under Fire—Sheridan in the +Shenandoah Valley<br /> +<br /> +<a href="#XXIX"><b>CHAPTER XXIX</b></a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Sherman's Meridian Expedition—Capture of Atlanta—Hood +Supersedes<br /> +Johnston—Hood's Invasion of Tennessee—Franklin +and<br /> +Nashville—Sherman's March to the Sea—Capture of +Savannah—Sherman to<br /> +Lincoln—Lincoln to Sherman—Sherman's March through the +Carolinas—The<br /> +Burning of Charleston and Columbia—Arrival at +Goldsboro—Junction with<br /> +Schofield—Visit to Grant<br /> +<br /> +<a href="#XXX"><b>CHAPTER XXX</b></a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Military Governors—Lincoln's Theory of +Reconstruction—Congressional<br /> +Election in Louisiana—Letter to Military +Governors—Letter to<br /> +Shepley—Amnesty Proclamation, December 8, +1863—Instructions to<br /> +Banks—Banks's Action in Louisiana—Louisiana +Abolishes<br /> +Slavery—Arkansas Abolishes Slavery—Reconstruction +in<br /> +Tennessee—Missouri Emancipation—Lincoln's Letter to +Drake—Missouri<br /> +Abolishes Slavery—Emancipation in Maryland—Maryland +Abolishes Slavery<br /> +<br /> +<a href="#XXXI"><b>CHAPTER XXXI</b></a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Shaping of the Presidential Campaign—Criticisms of Mr. +Lincoln—Chase's<br /> +Presidential Ambitions—The Pomeroy +Circular—Cleveland<br /> +Convention—Attempt to Nominate Grant—Meeting of +Baltimore<br /> +Convention—Lincoln's Letter to Schurz—Platform of +Republican<br /> +Convention—Lincoln Renominated—Refuses to Indicate +Preference for<br /> +Vice-President—Johnson Nominated for +Vice-President—Lincoln's Speech<br /> +to Committee of Notification—Reference to Mexico in his +Letter of<br /> +Acceptance—The French in Mexico<br /> +<br /> +<a href="#XXXII"><b>CHAPTER XXXII</b></a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +The Bogus Proclamation—The Wade-Davis +Manifesto—Resignation of Mr.<br /> +Chase—Fessenden Succeeds Him—The Greeley Peace<br /> +Conference—Jaquess-Gilmore Mission—Letter of +Raymond—Bad Outlook for<br /> +the Election—Mr. Lincoln on the Issues of the +Campaign—President's<br /> +Secret Memorandum—Meeting of Democratic National +Convention—McClellan<br /> +Nominated—His Letter of Acceptance—Lincoln +Reëlected—His Speech on<br /> +Night of Election—The Electoral Vote—Annual Message of +December 6,<br /> +1864—Resignation of McClellan from the Army<br /> +<br /> +<a href="#XXXIII"><b>CHAPTER XXXIII</b></a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +The Thirteenth Amendment—The President's Speech on its +Adoption—The<br /> +Two Constitutional Amendments of Lincoln's Term—Lincoln on +Peace and<br /> +Slavery in his Annual Message of December 6, 1864—Blair's +Mexican<br /> +Project—The Hampton Roads Conference<br /> +<br /> +<a href="#XXXIV"><b>CHAPTER XXXIV</b></a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Blair—Chase Chief Justice—Speed Succeeds +Bates—McCulloch Succeeds<br /> +Fessenden—Resignation of Mr. Usher—Lincoln's Offer +of<br /> +$400,000,000—The Second Inaugural—Lincoln's Literary +Rank—His Last<br /> +Speech<br /> +<br /> +<a href="#XXXV"><b>CHAPTER XXXV</b></a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Depreciation of Confederate Currency—Rigor of<br /> +Conscription—Dissatisfaction with the Confederate +Government—Lee<br /> +General-in-Chief —J.E. Johnston Reappointed to Oppose +Sherman's<br /> +March—Value of Slave Property Gone in Richmond—Davis's +Recommendation<br /> +of Emancipation—Benjamin's Last Despatch to +Slidell—Condition of the<br /> +Army when Lee took Command—Lee Attempts Negotiations +with<br /> +Grant—Lincoln's Directions—Lee and Davis Agree upon +Line of<br /> +Retreat—Assault on Fort Stedman—Five +Forks—Evacuation of<br /> +Petersburg—Surrender of Richmond—Pursuit of +Lee—Surrender of<br /> +Lee—Burning of Richmond—Lincoln in Richmond<br /> +<br /> +<a href="#XXXVI"><b>CHAPTER XXXVI</b></a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Lincoln's Interviews with Campbell—Withdraws Authority for +Meeting of<br /> +Virginia Legislature—Conference of Davis and Johnston +at<br /> +Greensboro—Johnston Asks for an Armistice— Meeting of +Sherman and<br /> +Johnston—Their Agreement—Rejected at +Washington—Surrender of<br /> +Johnston—Surrender of other Confederate Forces—End of +the Rebel<br /> +Navy—Capture of Jefferson Davis—Surrender of E. Kirby +Smith—Number of<br /> +Confederates Surrendered and Exchanged—Reduction of Federal +Army to a<br /> +Peace Footing—Grand Review of the Army<br /> +<br /> +<a href="#XXXVII"><b>CHAPTER XXXVII</b></a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +The 14th of April—Celebration at Fort Sumter—Last +Cabinet<br /> +Meeting—Lincoln's Attitude toward Threats of Assassination +—Booth's<br /> +Plot—Ford's Theater—Fate of the Assassins—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—Its Effect on his +Character—His Attitude<br /> +toward Slavery and the Slaveholder—His Schooling in +Disappointment—His<br /> +Seeming Failures—His Real Successes—The Final +Trial—His<br /> +Achievements—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—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</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—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.</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"—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—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.</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—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—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—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, —— +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.<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—"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—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 mêlée, 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—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—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:</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—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—New Salem—Election +Clerk—Store and Mill—Kirkham's +"Grammar"</i>—"<i>Sangamo Journal</i>"—<i>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</i>?—<i>The +Lincoln-Berry Store—Appointed Postmaster, May 7, +1833—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—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."</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—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—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,<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 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<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—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—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—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 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:</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'>—— 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—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—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</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 +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 <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 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:</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 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 <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—Rules for a Lawyer—Law +and Politics: Twin Occupations—The Springfield +Coterie—Friendly Help—Anne +Rutledge—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—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—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; <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—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.</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—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—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 <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—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.</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—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</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—perhaps impossible—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 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.</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—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—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</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—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,—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.</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—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,—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—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—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."</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—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 —— 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 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 <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—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</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—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 +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."</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—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—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."<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—forever—half slave and half free?' The +problem is too mighty for me—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. +Frémont 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 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:</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 +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:</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 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.'"</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—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</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 coördinate 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 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:</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—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, <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—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 <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—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—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.</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—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."</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—"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</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 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 <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—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."</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?—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."</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—though he will be compelled to say it possesses no such +power—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 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:</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 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<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—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."</p> +<p>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 <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—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—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 <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—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."</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—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—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</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—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 <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—in other words, the Douglas<a name="page143" id="page143"></a> 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.</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 +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.</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 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.<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—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—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</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—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.</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—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</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—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—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—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."</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—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—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—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—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</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 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.</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—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."</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—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—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</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—namely, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, +Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and +Delaware—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—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—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 reëstablished.</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—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 <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—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.</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—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</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—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.</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—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—The President's Message—Men and Money +Voted—The Contraband—Dennison Appoints +McClellan—Rich Mountain—McDowell—Bull +Run—Patterson's Failure—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—a +government of the people by the same people—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—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 <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—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</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—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<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. 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 <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 preëminently 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 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.</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 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.</p> +<p>"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?"<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, 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.</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, 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:</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—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 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.</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 Frémont'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 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.</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—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<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 +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."</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <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, 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 <a name="page242" id="page242"></a>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.</p> +<p>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:</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 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 <a name="page243" id="page243"></a>further orders. After, and not till +after, the delivery to General Frémont, let the inclosure +addressed to General Hunter be delivered to him."</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</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—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</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 naïve 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,—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—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.</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 +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.</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—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 +reëstablishment 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 +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, <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. +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.</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 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</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 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 <a name="page264" id="page264"></a>coöperation 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 +coöperation, 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 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 <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 coöperation 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 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.</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 +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.</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—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</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—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—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 +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.<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 +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.</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—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</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 coöperated 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—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—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.</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—<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—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—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.</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—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—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—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—</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 Frémont, 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—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."</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—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</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 +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.</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 +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.</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—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 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.</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 coöperative 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—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—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</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 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:</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 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:</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—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—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 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."</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—Georgia, +Florida, and South Carolina—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 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.</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—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—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</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—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."</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—</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—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—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."</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 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."</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—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</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 coöperation 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—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:</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 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.<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—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—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</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—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—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:</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—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."</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—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</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—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.</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—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—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</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—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—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</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 +reëlection 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 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.</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—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—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."</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 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.</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—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</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 "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."</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—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 <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 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."</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—</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—constitution—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—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—those for it <i>without</i>, but not +<i>with</i>—those for it <i>with</i> or <i>without</i>, but +prefer it <i>with</i>—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 +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 +<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 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.</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—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</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> +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.</p> +<p>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.</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 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 <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 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.</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 Frémont, 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 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 <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 +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:</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—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—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—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—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—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</i> —<i>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</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 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:<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—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—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."</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,—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.</p> +<p>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 <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 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 <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—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 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."</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 +reëlection.</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—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 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:</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—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</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—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—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—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—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—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.</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 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 <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 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 <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—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—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 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 <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—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</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 +Frémont 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 reëlection.</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—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—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<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—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—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.'</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—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—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</i></p> + +<br /> +<br /> + +<p>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 <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—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.</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—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—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—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—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</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—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, 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."</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—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, +<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—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—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—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—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—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</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—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 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.</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 rôle 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—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.</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—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—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—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</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—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—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—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."</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—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—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.</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—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 +Frémont 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—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 Frémont'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 Frémont, +<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 Frémont, <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 Frémont, +<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 +reëlection, <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 reëlection +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 coöperate 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 Frémont, <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 +reëlection, <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, 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 reëlection 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 Frémont, <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;">Frémont'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>Frémont</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 +Frémont, <a href='#page260'>260</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reluctance to coöperate 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 Frémont, +<a href='#page235'>235</a>, <a href='#page236'>236</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ordered to relieve Frémont, +<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 reënlists 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;">reëlected 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 reëlection 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 reëlection 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 Frémont, <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 +Frémont, <a href='#page242'>242</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to General Curtis about +Frémont, <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 Frémont'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 Frémont +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 +reëlection, <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 Frémont, <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 Frémont 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;">Frémont 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 reëlection 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 Frémont, <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;">Frémont's proclamation, +<a href='#page236'>236-238</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lincoln to Browning about +Frémont'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;">reënlists 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;">reëlected 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;">reënlists 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 reëlection 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 reëlection, <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 + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A SHORT LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN *** + +***** This file should be named 16332-h.htm or 16332-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/3/3/16332/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Chuck Greif and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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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. 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