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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/1713-h.zip b/1713-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..26aa2b7 --- /dev/null +++ b/1713-h.zip diff --git a/1713-h/1713-h.htm b/1713-h/1713-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0bcf243 --- /dev/null +++ b/1713-h/1713-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,14878 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="us-ascii"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta content="pg2html (binary v0.17)" name="linkgenerator" /> + <title> + Abraham Lincoln, by Nathaniel Wright Stephenson + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; + margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; + text-align: right;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lincoln, by Nathaniel Wright Stephenson + +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: Lincoln + Lincoln; An Account of His Personal Life, Especially of + Its Springs of Action as Revealed and Deepened by the + Ordeal of War + +Author: Nathaniel Wright Stephenson + +Release Date: February 21, 2006 [EBook #1713] +Last Updated: January 26, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LINCOLN *** + + + + +Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer and David Widger + + + + + +</pre> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h1> + LINCOLN + </h1> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h3> + Abraham Lincoln, <br /> An Account of His Personal Life, <br /> Especially + of Its Springs of Action as<br /> Revealed and Deepened by the Ordeal of + War + </h3> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h2> + By Nathaniel Wright Stephenson + </h2> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <br /> + </p> + <p> + Authority for all important statements of facts in the following pages may + be found in the notes; the condensed references are expanded in the + bibliography. A few controversial matters are discussed in the notes. + </p> + <p> + I am very grateful to Mr. William Roscoe Thayer for enabling me to use the + manuscript diary of John Hay. Miss Helen Nicolay has graciously confirmed + some of the implications of the official biography. Lincoln's only + surviving secretary, Colonel W. O. Stoddard, has given considerate aid. + The curious incident of Lincoln as counsel in an action to recover slaves + was mentioned to me by Professor Henry Johnson, through whose good offices + it was confirmed and amplified by Judge John H. Marshall. Mr. Henry W. + Raymond has been very tolerant of a stranger's inquiries with regard to + his distinguished father. A futile attempt to discover documentary remains + of the Republican National Committee of 1864 has made it possible, through + the courtesy of Mr. Clarence B. Miller, at least to assert that there is + nothing of importance in possession of the present Committee. A search for + new light on Chandler drew forth generous assistance from Professor Ulrich + B. Phillips, Mr. Floyd B. Streeter and Mr. G. B. Krum. The latter caused + to be examined, for this particular purpose, the Blair manuscripts in the + Burton Historical Collection. Much illumination arose out of a systematic + resurvey of the Congressional Globe, for the war period, in which I had + the stimulating companionship of Professor John L. Hill, reinforced by + many conversations with Professor Dixon Ryan Fox and Professor David + Saville Muzzey. At the heart of the matter is the resolute criticism of + Mrs. Stephenson and of a long enduring friend, President Harrison + Randolph. The temper of the historical fraternity is such that any worker + in any field is always under a host of incidental obligations. There is + especial propriety in my acknowledging the kindness of Professor Albert + Bushnell Hart, Professor James A. Woodburn, Professor Herman V. Ames, + Professor St. George L. Sioussat and Professor Allen Johnson. + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <blockquote> + <p class="toc"> + <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big> + </p> + <p> + <br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> I. </a> THE CHILD OF THE + FOREST <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> II. </a> THE + MYSTERIOUS YOUTH <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0003"> III. </a> A + VILLAGE LEADER <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0004"> IV. </a> REVELATIONS + <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0005"> V. </a> PROSPERITY <br /><br /> + <a href="#link2H_4_0006"> VI. </a> UNSATISFYING RECOGNITION + <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0007"> VII. </a> THE SECOND + START <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0008"> VIII. </a> A + RETURN TO POLITICS <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0009"> IX. </a> THE + LITERARY STATESMAN <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0010"> X. </a> THE + DARK HORSE <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0011"> XI. </a> SECESSION + <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0012"> XII. </a> THE CRISIS + <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0013"> XIII. </a> ECLIPSE <br /><br /> + <a href="#link2H_4_0014"> XIV. </a> THE STRANGE NEW MAN <br /><br /> + <a href="#link2H_4_0015"> XV. </a> PRESIDENT AND PREMIER + <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0016"> XVI. </a> "ON TO + RICHMOND!" <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0017"> XVII. </a> DEFINING + THE ISSUE <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0018"> XVIII. </a> THE + JACOBIN CLUB <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0019"> XIX. </a> THE + JACOBINS BECOME INQUISITORS <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0020"> XX. + </a> IS CONGRESS THE PRESIDENT'S MASTER? <br /><br /> <a + href="#link2H_4_0021"> XXI. </a> THE STRUGGLE TO CONTROL THE + ARMY <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0022"> XXII. </a> LINCOLN + EMERGES <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0023"> XXIII. </a> THE + MYSTICAL STATESMAN <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0024"> XXIV. </a> GAMBLING + IN GENERALS <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0025"> XXV. </a> A + WAR BEHIND THE SCENES <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0026"> XXVI. </a> THE + DICTATOR, THE MARPLOT AND THE LITTLE MEN <br /><br /> <a + href="#link2H_4_0027"> XXVII. </a> THE TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE + <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0028"> XXVIII. </a> APPARENT + ASCENDENCY <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0029"> XXIX. </a> CATASTROPHE + <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0030"> XXX. </a> THE PRESIDENT + VERSUS THE VINDICTIVES <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0031"> XXXI. </a> A + MENACING PAUSE <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0032"> XXXII. </a> THE + AUGUST CONSPIRACY <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0033"> XXXIII. </a> THE + RALLY TO THE PRESIDENT <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0034"> XXXIV. </a> "FATHER + ABRAHAM" <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0035"> XXXV. </a> THE + MASTER OF THE MOMENT <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0036"> XXXVI. </a> PREPARING + A DIFFERENT WAR <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0037"> XXXVII. </a> FATE + INTERPOSES + </p> + </blockquote> + <p> + <a href="#link2H_BIBL"> BIBLIOGRAPHY </a><br /> <br /> <a href="#link2H_NOTE"> + NOTES </a> <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h4> + ACKNOWLEDGMENT + </h4> + <blockquote> + <p> + The author and publisher make grateful acknowledgement to Ginn and <br /> + Company, Boston, for the photograph of St. Gaudens' Statue; to The <br /> + Century Company of New York for the Earliest Portrait of Lincoln, which + <br /> is from an engraving by Johnson after a daguerreotype in the + possession <br /> of the Honorable Robert T. Lincoln; and for Lincoln and + Tad, which is <br /> from the famous photograph by Brady; to The + Macmillan Company of New <br /> York for the portrait of Mrs. Lincoln and + also for The Review of the <br /> Army of the Potomac, both of which were + originally reproduced in Ida M. <br /> Tarbell's Life of Abraham Lincoln. + For the rare and interesting portrait <br /> entitled The Last Phase of + Lincoln acknowledgment is made to Robert <br /> Bruce, Esquire, Clinton, + Oneida County, New York. This photograph was <br /> taken by Alexander + Gardner, April 9, 1865, the glass plate of which is <br /> now in Mr. + Bruce's collection. <br /> + </p> + </blockquote> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h2> + I. THE CHILD OF THE FOREST + </h2> + <p> + Of first importance in the making of the American people is that great + forest which once extended its mysterious labyrinth from tide-water to the + prairies when the earliest colonists entered warily its sea-worn edges a + portion of the European race came again under a spell it had forgotten + centuries before, the spell of that untamed nature which created primitive + man. All the dim memories that lay deep in subconsciousness; all the vague + shadows hovering at the back of the civilized mind; the sense of + encompassing natural power, the need to struggle single-handed against it; + the danger lurking in the darkness of the forest; the brilliant treachery + of the forest sunshine glinted through leafy secrecies; the Strange voices + in its illimitable murmur; the ghostly shimmer of its glades at night; the + lovely beauty of the great gold moon; all the thousand wondering dreams + that evolved the elder gods, Pan, Cybele, Thor; all this waked again in + the soul of the Anglo-Saxon penetrating the great forest. And it was + intensified by the way he came,—singly, or with but wife and child, + or at best in very small company, a mere handful. And the surrounding + presences were not only of the spiritual world. Human enemies who were + soon as well armed as he, quicker of foot and eye, more perfectly + noiseless in their tread even than the wild beasts of the shadowy coverts, + the ruthless Indians whom he came to expel, these invisible presences were + watching him, in a fierce silence he knew not whence. Like as not the + first signs of that menace which was everywhere would be the hiss of the + Indian arrow, or the crack of the Indian rifle, and sharp and sudden + death. + </p> + <p> + Under these conditions he learned much and forgot much. His deadly need + made him both more and less individual than he had been, released him from + the dictation of his fellows in daily life while it enforced relentlessly + a uniform method of self-preservation. Though the unseen world became more + and more real, the understanding of it faded. It became chiefly a matter + of emotional perception, scarcely at all a matter of philosophy. The + morals of the forest Americans were those of audacious, visionary beings + loosely hound together by a comradeship in peril. Courage, cautiousness, + swiftness, endurance, faithfulness, secrecy,—these were the forest + virtues. Dreaming, companionship, humor,—these were the forest + luxuries. + </p> + <p> + From the first, all sorts and conditions were ensnared by that silent + land, where the trails they followed, their rifles in their hands, had + been trodden hard generation after generation by the feet of the Indian + warriors. The best and the worst of England went into that illimitable + resolvent, lost themselves, found themselves, and issued from its shadows, + or their children did, changed both for good and ill, Americans. Meanwhile + the great forest, during two hundred years, was slowly vanishing. This + parent of a new people gave its life to its offspring and passed away. In + the early nineteenth century it had withered backward far from the coast; + had lost its identity all along the north end of the eastern mountains; + had frayed out toward the sunset into lingering tentacles, into broken + minor forests, into shreds and patches. + </p> + <p> + Curiously, by a queer sort of natural selection, its people had + congregated into life communities not all of one pattern. There were + places as early as the beginning of the century where distinction had + appeared. At other places life was as rude and rough as could be imagined. + There were innumerable farms that were still mere "clearings," walled by + the forest. But there were other regions where for many a mile the timber + had been hewn away, had given place to a ragged continuity of farmland. In + such regions especially if the poorer elements of the forest, spiritually + speaking, had drifted thither—the straggling villages which had + appeared were but groups of log cabins huddled along a few neglected + lanes. In central Kentucky, a poor new village was Elizabethtown, unkempt, + chokingly dusty in the dry weather, with muddy streams instead of streets + during the rains, a stench of pig-sties at the back of its cabins, but + everywhere looking outward glimpses of a lovely meadow land. + </p> + <p> + At Elizabethtown in 1806 lived Joseph Hanks, a carpenter, also his niece + Nancy Hanks. Poor people they were, of the sort that had been sucked into + the forest in their weakness, or had been pushed into it by a social + pressure they could not resist; not the sort that had grimly adventured + its perils or gaily courted its lure. Their source was Virginia. They were + of a thriftless, unstable class; that vagrant peasantry which had drifted + westward to avoid competition with slave labor. The niece, Nancy, has been + reputed illegitimate. And though tradition derives her from the predatory + amour of an aristocrat, there is nothing to sustain the tale except her + own appearance. She had a bearing, a cast of feature, a tone, that seemed + to hint at higher social origins than those of her Hanks relatives. She + had a little schooling; was of a pious and emotional turn of mind; enjoyed + those amazing "revivals" which now and then gave an outlet to the pent-up + religiosity of the village; and she was almost handsome.(1) + </p> + <p> + History has preserved no clue why this girl who was rather the best of her + sort chose to marry an illiterate apprentice of her uncle's, Thomas + Lincoln, whose name in the forest was spelled "Linkhorn." He was a + shiftless fellow, never succeeding at anything, who could neither read nor + write. At the time of his birth, twenty-eight years before, his parents—drifting, + roaming people, struggling with poverty—were dwellers in the + Virginia mountains. As a mere lad, he had shot an Indian—one of the + few positive acts attributed to him—and his father had been killed + by Indians. There was a "vague tradition" that his grandfather had been a + Pennsylvania Quaker who had wandered southward through the forest + mountains. The tradition angered him. Though he appears to have had little + enough—at least in later years—of the fierce independence of + the forest, he resented a Quaker ancestry as an insult. He had no + suspicion that in after years the zeal of genealogists would track his + descent until they had linked him with a lost member of a distinguished + Puritan family, a certain Mordecai Lincoln who removed to New Jersey, + whose descendants became wanderers of the forest and sank speedily to the + bottom of the social scale, retaining not the slightest memory of their + New England origin.(2) Even in the worst of the forest villages, few + couples started married life in less auspicious circumstances than did + Nancy and Thomas. Their home in one of the alleys of Elizabethtown was a + shanty fourteen feet square.(3) Very soon after marriage, shiftless Thomas + gave up carpentering and took to farming. Land could be had almost + anywhere for almost nothing those days, and Thomas got a farm on credit + near where now stands Hodgenville. Today, it is a famous place, for there, + February 12, 1809, Abraham Lincoln, second child, but first son of Nancy + and Thomas, was born.(4) + </p> + <p> + During most of eight years, Abraham lived in Kentucky. His father, always + adrift in heart, tried two farms before abandoning Kentucky altogether. A + shadowy figure, this Thomas; the few memories of him suggest a + superstitious nature in a superstitious community. He used to see visions + in the forest. Once, it is said, he came home, all excitement, to tell his + wife he had seen a giant riding on a lion, tearing up trees by the roots; + and thereupon, he took to his bed and kept it for several days. + </p> + <p> + His son Abraham told this story of the giant on the lion to a playmate of + his, and the two boys gravely discussed the existence of ghosts. Abraham + thought his father "didn't exactly believe in them," and seems to have + been in about the same state of mind himself. He was quite sure he was + "not much" afraid of the dark. This was due chiefly to the simple wisdom + of a good woman, a neighbor, who had taught him to think of the night as a + great room that God had darkened even as his friend darkened a room in her + house by hanging something over the window.(5) + </p> + <p> + The eight years of his childhood in Kentucky had few incidents. A hard, + patient, uncomplaining life both for old and young. The men found their + one deep joy in the hunt. In lesser degree, they enjoyed the revivals + which gave to the women their one escape out of themselves. A strange, + almost terrible recovery of the primitive, were those religious furies of + the days before the great forest had disappeared. What other figures in + our history are quite so remarkable as the itinerant frontier priests, the + circuit-riders as they are now called, who lived as Elijah did, whose + temper was very much the temper of Elijah, in whose exalted narrowness of + devotion, all that was stern, dark, foreboding—the very brood of the + forest's innermost heart—had found a voice. Their religion was + ecstasy in homespun, a glory of violent singing, the release of a frantic + emotion, formless but immeasurable, which at all other times, in the + severity of the forest routine, gave no sign of its existence. + </p> + <p> + A visitor remembered long afterward a handsome young woman who he thought + was Nancy Hanks, singing wildly, whirling about as may once have done the + ecstatic women of the woods of Thrace, making her way among equally + passionate worshipers, to the foot of the rude altar, and there casting + herself into the arms of the man she was to marry.(6) So did thousands of + forest women in those seasons when their communion with a mystic + loneliness was confessed, when they gave tongue as simply as wild + creatures to the nameless stirrings and promptings of that secret woodland + where Pan was still the lord. And the day following the revival, they were + again the silent, expressionless, much enduring, long-suffering forest + wives, mothers of many children, toilers of the cabins, who cooked and + swept and carried fuel by sunlight, and by firelight sewed and spun. + </p> + <p> + It can easily be understood how these women, as a rule, exerted little + influence on their sons. Their imaginative side was too deeply hidden, the + nature of their pleasures too secret, too mysterious. Male youth, + following its obvious pleasure, went with the men to the hunt. The women + remained outsiders. The boy who chose to do likewise, was the incredible + exception. In him had come to a head the deepest things in the forest + life: the darkly feminine things, its silence, its mysticism, its + secretiveness, its tragic patience. Abraham was such a boy. It is said + that he astounded his father by refusing to own a gun. He earned terrible + whippings by releasing animals caught in traps. Though he had in fullest + measure the forest passion for listening to stories, the ever-popular + tales of Indian warfare disgusted him. But let the tale take on any glint + of the mystery of the human soul—as of Robinson Crusoe alone on his + island, or of the lordliness of action, as in Columbus or Washington—and + he was quick with interest. The stories of talking animals out of Aesop + fascinated him. + </p> + <p> + In this thrilled curiosity about the animals was the side of him least + intelligible to men like his father. It lives in many anecdotes: of his + friendship with a poor dog he had which he called "Honey"; of pursuing a + snake through difficult thickets to prevent its swallowing a frog; of + loitering on errands at the risk of whippings to watch the squirrels in + the tree-tops; of the crowning offense of his childhood, which earned him + a mighty beating, the saving of a fawn's life by scaring it off just as a + hunter's gun was leveled. And by way of comment on all this, there is the + remark preserved in the memory of another boy to whom at the time it + appeared most singular, "God might think as much of that little fawn as of + some people." Of him as of another gentle soul it might have been said + that all the animals were his brothers and sisters.(7) + </p> + <p> + One might easily imagine this peculiar boy who chose to remain at home + while the men went out to slay, as the mere translation into masculinity + of his mother, and of her mothers, of all the converging processions of + forest women, who had passed from one to another the secret of their + mysticism, coloring it many ways in the dark vessels of their suppressed + lives, till it reached at last their concluding child. But this would only + in part explain him. Their mysticism, as after-time was to show, he had + undoubtedly inherited. So, too, from them, it may be, came another + characteristic—that instinct to endure, to wait, to abide the issue + of circumstance, which in the days of his power made him to the + politicians as unintelligible as once he had been to the forest huntsmen. + Nevertheless, the most distinctive part of those primitive women, the + sealed passionateness of their spirits, he never from childhood to the end + revealed. In the grown man appeared a quietude, a sort of tranced calm, + that was appalling. From what part of his heredity did this derive? Was it + the male gift of the forest? Did progenitors worthier than Thomas somehow + cast through him to his alien son that peace they had found in the utter + heart of danger, that apparent selflessness which is born of being ever + unfailingly on guard? + </p> + <p> + It is plain that from the first he was a natural stoic, taking his + whippings, of which there appear to have been plenty, in silence, without + anger. It was all in the day's round. Whippings, like other things, came + and went. What did it matter? And the daily round, though monotonous, had + even for the child a complement of labor. Especially there was much + patient journeying back and forth with meal bags between his father's + cabin and the local mill. There was a little schooling, very little, + partly from Nancy Lincoln, partly from another good woman, the miller's + kind old mother, partly at the crudest of wayside schools maintained very + briefly by a wandering teacher who soon wandered on; but out of this + schooling very little result beyond the mastery of the A B C.(8) And even + at this age, a pathetic eagerness to learn, to invade the wonder of the + printed book! Also a marked keenness of observation. He observed things + which his elders overlooked. He had a better sense of direction, as when + he corrected his father and others who were taking the wrong short-cut to + a burning house. Cool, unexcitable, he was capable of presence of mind. + Once at night when the door of the cabin was suddenly thrown open and a + monster appeared on the threshold, a spectral thing in the darkness, + furry, with the head of an ox, Thomas Lincoln shrank back aghast; little + Abraham, quicker-sighted and quicker-witted, slipped behind the creature, + pulled at its furry mantle, and revealed a forest Diana, a bold girl who + amused herself playing demon among the shadows of the moon. + </p> + <p> + Seven years passed and his eighth birthday approached. All this while + Thomas Lincoln had somehow kept his family in food, but never had he money + in his pocket. His successive farms, bought on credit, were never paid + for. An incurable vagrant, he came at last to the psychological moment + when he could no longer impose himself on his community. He must take to + the road in a hazard of new fortune. Indiana appeared to him the land of + promise. Most of his property—such as it was—except his + carpenter's tools, he traded for whisky, four hundred gallons. Somehow he + obtained a rattletrap wagon and two horses. + </p> + <p> + The family appear to have been loath to go. Nancy Lincoln had long been + ailing and in low spirits, thinking much of what might happen to her + children after her death. Abraham loved the country-side, and he had good + friends in the miller and his kind old mother. But the vagrant Thomas + would have his way. In the brilliancy of the Western autumn, with the + ruined woods flaming scarlet and gold, these poor people took their last + look at the cabin that had been their wretched shelter, and set forth into + the world.(9) + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + II THE MYSTERIOUS YOUTH + </h2> + <p> + Vagrants, or little better than vagrants, were Thomas Lincoln and his + family making their way to Indiana. For a year after they arrived they + were squatters, their home an "open-faced camp," that is, a shanty with + one wall missing, and instead of chimney, a fire built on the open side. + In that mere pretense of a house, Nancy Lincoln and her children spent the + winter of 1816-1817. Then Thomas resorted to his familiar practice of + taking land on credit. The Lincolns were now part of a "settlement" of + seven or eight families strung along a little stream known as Pigeon + Creek. Here Thomas entered a quarter-section of fair land, and in the + course of the next eleven years succeeded—wonderful to relate—in + paying down sufficient money to give him title to about half. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile, poor fading Nancy went to her place. Pigeon Creek was an + out-of-the-way nook in the still unsettled West, and Nancy during the two + years she lived there could not have enjoyed much of the consolation of + her religion. Perhaps now and then she had ghostly council of some stray + circuit-rider. But for her the days of the ecstasies had gone by; no great + revival broke the seals of the spirit, stirred its deep waters, along + Pigeon Creek. There was no religious service when she was laid to rest in + a coffin made of green lumber and fashioned by her husband. Months passed, + the snow lay deep, before a passing circuit-rider held a burial service + over her grave. Tradition has it that the boy Abraham brought this about + very likely, at ten years old, he felt that her troubled spirit could not + have peace till this was done. Shadowy as she is, ghostlike across the + page of history, it is plain that she was a reality to her son. He not + only loved her but revered her. He believed that from her he had inherited + the better part of his genius. Many years after her death he said, "God + bless my mother; all that I am or ever hope to be I owe to her." + </p> + <p> + Nancy was not long without a successor. Thomas Lincoln, the next year, + journeyed back to Kentucky and returned in triumph to Indiana, bringing as + his wife, an old flame of his who had married, had been widowed, and was + of a mind for further adventures. This Sarah Bush Lincoln, of less + distinction than Nancy, appears to have been steadier-minded and + stronger-willed. Even before this, Thomas had left the half-faced camp and + moved into a cabin. But such a cabin! It had neither door, nor window, nor + floor. Sally Lincoln required her husband to make of it a proper house—by + the standards of Pigeon Creek. She had brought with her as her dowry a + wagonload of furniture. These comforts together with her strong will began + a new era of relative comfort in the Lincoln cabin.(1) + </p> + <p> + Sally Lincoln was a kind stepmother to Abraham who became strongly + attached to her. In the rough and nondescript community of Pigeon Creek, a + world of weedy farms, of miserable mud roads, of log farm-houses, the + family life that was at least tolerable. The sordid misery described + during her regime emerged from wretchedness to a state of by all the + recorders of Lincoln's early days seems to have ended about his twelfth + year. At least, the vagrant suggestion disappeared. Though the life that + succeeded was void of luxury, though it was rough, even brutal, dominated + by a coarse, peasant-like view of things, it was scarcely by peasant + standards a life of hardship. There was food sufficient, if not very good; + protection from wind and weather; fire in the winter time; steady labor; + and social acceptance by the community of the creekside. That the labor + was hard and long, went without saying. But as to that—as of the + whippings in Kentucky—what else, from the peasant point of view, + would you expect? Abraham took it all with the same stoicism with which he + had once taken the whippings. By the unwritten law of the creekside he was + his father's property, and so was his labor, until he came of age. Thomas + used him as a servant or hired him out to other farmers. Stray + recollections show us young Abraham working as a farm-hand for twenty-five + cents the day, probably with "keep" in addition; we glimpse him + slaughtering hogs skilfully at thirty-one cents a day, for this was "rough + work." He became noted as an axman. + </p> + <p> + In the crevices, so to speak, of his career as a farm-hand, Abraham got a + few months of schooling, less than a year in all. A story that has been + repeated a thousand times shows the raw youth by the cabin fire at night + doing sums on the back of a wooden shovel, and shaving off its surface + repeatedly to get a fresh page. He devoured every book that came his way, + only a few to be sure, but generally great ones—the Bible, of + course, and Aesop, Crusoe, Pilgrim's Progress, and a few histories, these + last unfortunately of the poorer sort. He early displayed a bent for + composition, scribbling verses that were very poor, and writing burlesque + tales about his acquaintances in what passed for a Biblical style.(2) + </p> + <p> + One great experience broke the monotony of the life on Pigeon Creek. He + made a trip to New Orleans as a "hand" on a flatboat. Of this trip little + is known though much may be surmised. To his deeply poetic nature what an + experience it must have been: the majesty of the vast river; the pageant + of its immense travel; the steamers heavily laden; the fleets of barges; + the many towns; the nights of stars over wide sweeps of water; the stately + plantation houses along the banks; the old French city with its crowds, + its bells, the shipping, the strange faces and the foreign speech; all the + bewildering evidence that there were other worlds besides Pigeon Creek! + </p> + <p> + What seed of new thinking was sown in his imagination by this Odyssey we + shall never know. The obvious effect in the ten years of his life in + Indiana was produced at Pigeon Creek. The "settlement" was within fifteen + miles of the Ohio. It lay in that southerly fringe of Indiana which + received early in the century many families of much the same estate, + character and origin as the Lincolns,—poor whites of the edges of + the great forest working outward toward the prairies. Located on good land + not far from a great highway, the Ohio, it illustrated in its rude + prosperity a transformation that went on unobserved in many such + settlements, the transformation of the wandering forester of the lower + class into a peasant farmer. Its life was of the earth, earthy; though it + retained the religious traditions of the forest, their significance was + evaporating; mysticism was fading into emotionalism; the camp-meeting was + degenerating into a picnic. The supreme social event, the wedding, was + attended by festivities that filled twenty-four hours: a race of male + guests in the forenoon with a bottle of whisky for a prize; an Homeric + dinner at midday; "an afternoon of rough games and outrageous practical + jokes; a supper and dance at night interrupted by the successive + withdrawals of the bride and groom, attended by ceremonies and jests of + more than Rabelaisian crudeness; and a noisy dispersal next day."(3) The + intensities of the forest survived in hard drinking, in the fury of the + fun-making, and in the hunt. The forest passion for storytelling had in no + way decreased. + </p> + <p> + In this atmosphere, about eighteen and nineteen, Abraham shot up suddenly + from a slender boy to a huge, raw-honed, ungainly man, six feet four + inches tall, of unusual muscular strength. His strength was one of the + fixed conditions of his development. It delivered him from all fear of his + fellows. He had plenty of peculiarities. He was ugly, awkward; he lacked + the wanton appetites of the average sensual man. And these peculiarities + without his great strength as his warrant might have brought him into + ridicule. As it was, whatever his peculiarities, in a society like that of + Pigeon Creek, the man who could beat all competitors, wrestling or boxing, + was free from molestation. But Lincoln instinctively had another aim in + life than mere freedom to be himself. Two characteristics that were so + significant in his childhood continued with growing vitality in his young + manhood: his placidity and his intense sense of comradeship. The latter, + however, had undergone a change. It was no longer the comradeship of the + wild creatures. That spurt of physical expansion, the swift rank growth to + his tremendous stature, swept him apparently across a dim dividing line, + out of the world of birds and beasts and into the world of men. He took + the new world with the same unfailing but also unexcitable curiosity with + which he had taken the other, the world of squirrels, flowers, fawns. + </p> + <p> + Here as there, the difference from his mother, deep though their + similarities may have been, was sharply evident. Had he been wholly at one + with her religiously, the gift of telling speech which he now began to + display might have led him into a course that would have rejoiced her + heart, might have made him a boy preacher, and later, a great revivalist. + His father and elder sister while on Pigeon Creek joined the local Baptist + Church. But Abraham did not follow them. Nor is there a single anecdote + linking him in any way with the fervors of camp meeting. On the contrary, + what little is remembered, is of a cool aloofness.(4) The inscrutability + of the forest was his—what it gave to the stealthy, cautious men who + were too intent on observing, too suspiciously watchful, to give vent to + their feelings. Therefore, in Lincoln there was always a double life, + outer and inner, the outer quietly companionable, the inner, solitary, + mysterious. + </p> + <p> + It was the outer life that assumed its first definite phase in the years + on Pigeon Creek. During those years, Lincoln discovered his gift of + story-telling. He also discovered humor. In the employment of both + talents, he accepted as a matter of course the tone of the young ruffians + among whom he dwelt. Very soon this powerful fellow, who could throw any + of them in a wrestle, won the central position among them by a surer + title, by the power to delight. And any one who knows how peasant schools + of art arise—for that matter, all schools of art that are vital—knows + how he did it. In this connection, his famous biographers, Nicolay and + Hay, reveal a certain externality by objecting that a story attributed to + him is ancient. All stories are ancient. Not the tale, but the telling, as + the proverb says, is the thing. In later years, Lincoln wrote down every + good story that he heard, and filed it.(5) When it reappeared it had + become his own. Who can doubt that this deliberate assimilation, the + typical artistic process, began on Pigeon Creek? Lincoln never would have + captured as he did his plowboy audience, set them roaring with laughter in + the intervals of labor, had he not given them back their own tales done + over into new forms brilliantly beyond their powers of conception. That + these tales were gross, even ribald, might have been taken for granted, + even had we not positive evidence of the fact. Otherwise none of that + uproarious laughter which we may be sure sounded often across shimmering + harvest fields while stalwart young pagans, ever ready to pause, leaned, + bellowing, on the handles of their scythes, Abe Lincoln having just then + finished a story. + </p> + <p> + Though the humor of these stories was Falstaffian, to say the least, + though Lincoln was cock of the walk among the plowboys of Pigeon Creek, a + significant fact with regard to him here comes into view. Not an anecdote + survives that in any way suggests personal licentiousness. Scrupulous men + who in after-time were offended by his coarseness of speech—for more + or less of the artist of Pigeon Creek stuck to him almost to the end; he + talked in fables, often in gross fables—these men, despite their + annoyance, felt no impulse to attribute to him personal habits in harmony + with his tales. On the other hand, they were puzzled by their own + impression, never wavering, that he was "pureminded." The clue which they + did not have lay in the nature of his double life. That part of him which, + in our modern jargon, we call his "reactions" obeyed a curious law. They + dwelt in his outer life without penetrating to the inner; but all his + impulses of personal action were securely seated deep within. Even at + nineteen, for any one attuned to spiritual meaning, he would have struck + the note of mystery, faintly, perhaps, but certainly. To be sure, no hint + of this reached the minds of his rollicking comrades of the harvest field. + It was not for such as they to perceive the problem of his character, to + suspect that he was a genius, or to guess that a time would come when + sincere men would form impressions of him as dissimilar as black and + white. And so far as it went the observation of the plowboys was correct. + The man they saw was indeed a reflection of themselves. But it was a + reflection only. Their influence entered into the real man no more than + the image in a mirror has entered into the glass. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + III. A VILLAGE LEADER + </h2> + <p> + Though placid, this early Lincoln was not resigned. He differed from the + boors of Pigeon Creek in wanting some other sort of life. What it was he + wanted, he did not know. His reading had not as yet given him definite + ambitions. It may well be that New Orleans was the clue to such stirring + in him as there was of that discontent which fanciful people have called + divine. Remembering New Orleans, could any imaginative youth be content + with Pigeon Creek? + </p> + <p> + In the spring of 1830, shortly after he came of age, he agreed for once + with his father whose chronic vagrancy had reasserted itself. The whole + family set out again on their wanderings and made their way in an oxcart + to a new halting place on the Sangamon River in Illinois. There Abraham + helped his father clear another piece of land for another illusive "start" + in life. The following spring he parted with his family and struck out for + himself.(1) His next adventure was a second trip as a boatman to New + Orleans. Can one help suspecting there was vague hope in his heart that he + might be adventuring to the land of hearts' desire? If there was, the + yokels who were his fellow boatmen never suspected it. One of them long + afterward asserted that Lincoln returned from New Orleans fiercely + rebellious against its central institution, slavery, and determined to + "hit that thing" whenever he could. + </p> + <p> + The legend centers in his witnessing a slave auction and giving voice to + his horror in a style quite unlike any of his authentic utterances. The + authority for all this is doubtful.(2) Furthermore, the Lincoln of 1831 + was not yet awakened. That inner life in which such a reaction might take + place was still largely dormant. The outer life, the life of the harvest + clown, was still a thick insulation. Apparently, the waking of the inner + life, the termination of its dormant stage, was reserved for an incident + far more personal that fell upon him in desolating force a few years + later. + </p> + <p> + Following the New Orleans venture, came a period as storekeeper for a man + named Denton Offut, in perhaps the least desirable town in Illinois—a + dreary little huddle of houses gathered around Rutledge's Mill on the + Sangamon River and called New Salem.(3) Though a few of its people were of + a better sort than any Lincoln had yet known except, perhaps, the miller's + family in the old days in Kentucky—and still a smaller few were of + fine quality, the community for the most part was hopeless. A fatality for + unpromising neighborhoods overhangs like a doom the early part of this + strange life. All accounts of New Salem represent it as predominantly a + congregation of the worthless, flung together by unaccountable accident at + a spot where there was no genuine reason for a town's existence. A casual + town, created by drifters, and void of settled purpose. Small wonder that + ere long it vanished from the map; that after a few years its drifting + congregation dispersed to every corner of the horizon, and was no more. + But during its brief existence it staged an episode in the development of + Lincoln's character. However, this did not take place at once. And before + it happened, came another turn of his soul's highway scarcely less + important. He discovered, or thought he discovered, what he wanted. His + vague ambition took shape. He decided to try to be a politician. At + twenty-three, after living in New Salem less than a year, this audacious, + not to say impertinent, young man offered himself to the voters of + Sangamon County as a candidate for the Legislature. At this time that + humility which was eventually his characteristic had not appeared. It may + be dated as subsequent to New Salem—a further evidence that the deep + spiritual experience which closed this chapter formed a crisis. Before + then, at New Salem as at Pigeon Creek, he was but a variant, singularly + decent, of the boisterous, frolicking, impertinent type that instinctively + sought the laxer neighborhoods of the frontier. An echo of Pigeon Creek + informed the young storekeeper's first state paper, the announcement of + his candidacy, in the year 1832. His first political speech was in a + curious vein, glib, intimate and fantastic: "Fellow citizens, I presume + you all know who I am. I am humble Abraham Lincoln. I have been solicited + by many friends to become a candidate for the Legislature. My politics are + short and sweet like the old woman's dance. I am in favor of a national + bank. I am in favor of the internal improvement system and a high + protective tariff. These are my sentiments and political principles. If + elected, I shall be thankful; if not it will be all the same."(4) + </p> + <p> + However, this bold throw of the dice of fortune was not quite so + impertinent as it seems. During the months when he was in charge of + Offut's grocery store he had made a conquest of New Salem. The village + grocery in those days was the village club. It had its constant gathering + of loafers all of whom were endowed with votes. It was the one place + through which passed the whole population, in and out, one time or + another. To a clever storekeeper it gave a chance to establish a + following. Had he, as Lincoln had, the gift of story-telling, the gift of + humor, he was a made man. Pigeon Creek over again! Lincoln's wealth of + funny stories gave Offut's grocery somewhat the role of a vaudeville + theater and made the storekeeper as popular a man as there was in New + Salem. + </p> + <p> + In another way he repeated his conquest of Pigeon Creek. New Salem had its + local Alsatia known as Clary's Grove whose insolent young toughs led by + their chief, Jack Armstrong, were the terror of the neighborhood. The + groceries paid them tribute in free drinks. Any luckless storekeeper who + incurred their displeasure found his store some fine morning a total + wreck. Lincoln challenged Jack Armstrong to a duel with fists. It was + formally arranged. A ring was formed; the whole village was audience; and + Lincoln thrashed him to a finish. But this was only a small part of his + triumph. His physical prowess, joined with his humor and his + companionableness; entirely captivated Clary's Grove. Thereafter, it was + storekeeper Lincoln's pocket borough; its ruffians were his body-guard. + Woe to any one who made trouble for their hero. + </p> + <p> + There were still other causes for his quick rise to the position of + village leader. His unfailing kindness was one; his honesty was another. + Tales were related of his scrupulous dealings, such as walking a distance + of miles in order to correct a trifling error he had made, in selling a + poor woman less than the proper weight of tea. Then, too, by New Salem + standards, he was educated. Long practice on the shovel at Pigeon Creek + had given him a good handwriting, and one of the first things he did at + New Salem was to volunteer to be clerk of elections. And there was a + distinct moral superiority. Little as this would have signified unbacked + by his giant strength since it had that authority behind it his morality + set him apart from his followers, different, imposing. He seldom, if ever, + drank whisky. Sobriety was already the rule of his life, both outward and + inward. At the same time he was not censorious. He accepted the devotion + of Clary's Grove without the slightest attempt to make over its bravoes in + his own image. He sympathized with its ideas of sport. For all his + kindliness to humans of every sort much of his sensitiveness for animals + had passed away. He was not averse to cock fighting; he enjoyed a horse + race.(5) Altogether, in his outer life, before the catastrophe that + revealed him to himself, he was quite as much in the tone of New Salem as + ever in that of Pigeon Creek. When the election came he got every vote in + New Salem except three.(6) + </p> + <p> + But the village was a small part of Sangamon County. Though Lincoln + received a respectable number of votes elsewhere, his total was well down + in the running. He remained an inconspicuous minority candidate. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile Offut's grocery had failed. In the midst of the legislative + campaign, Offut's farmer storekeeper volunteered for the Indian War with + Black Hawk, but returned to New Salem shortly before the election without + having once smelled powder. Since his peers were not of a mind to give him + immediate occupation in governing, he turned again to business. He formed + a partnership with a man named Berry. They bought on credit the wreck of a + grocery that had been sacked by Lincoln's friends of Clary's Grove, and + started business as "General Merchants," under the style of Berry & + Lincoln. There followed a year of complete unsuccess. Lincoln demonstrated + that he was far more inclined to read any chance book that came his way + than to attend to business, and that he had "no money sense." The new firm + went the way of Offut's grocery, leaving nothing behind it but debt. The + debts did not trouble Berry; Lincoln assumed them all. They formed a + dreadful load which he bore with his usual patience and little by little + discharged. Fifteen years passed before again he was a free man + financially. + </p> + <p> + A new and powerful influence came into his life during the half idleness + of his unsuccessful storekeeping. It is worth repeating in his own words, + or what seems to be the fairly accurate recollection of his words: "One + day a man who was migrating to the West, drove up in front of my store + with a wagon which contained his family and household plunder. He asked me + if I would buy an old barrel for which he had no room in his wagon, and + which he said contained nothing of special value. I did not want it but to + oblige him I bought it and paid him, I think, a half a dollar for it. + Without further examination I put it away in the store and forgot all + about it Sometime after, in overhauling things, I came upon the barrel and + emptying it upon the floor to see what it contained, I found at the bottom + of the rubbish a complete edition of Blackstone's Commentaries. I began to + read those famous works, and I had plenty of time; for during the long + summer days when the farmers were busy with their crops, my customers were + few and far between. The more I read, the more intensely interested I + became. Never in my whole life was my mind so thoroughly absorbed. I read + until I devoured them."(7) + </p> + <p> + The majesty of the law at the bottom of a barrel of trash discovered at a + venture and taking instant possession of the discoverer's mind! Like the + genius issuing grandly in the smoke cloud from the vase drawn up out of + the sea by the fisher in the Arabian tale! But this great book was not the + only magic casket discovered by the idle store-keeper, the broken seals of + which released mighty presences. Both Shakespeare and Burns were revealed + to him in this period. Never after did either for a moment cease to be his + companion. These literary treasures were found at Springfield twenty miles + from New Salem, whither Lincoln went on foot many a time to borrow books. + </p> + <p> + His subsistence, after the failure of Berry & Lincoln, was derived + from the friendliness of the County Surveyor Calhoun, who was a Democrat, + while Lincoln called himself a Whig. Calhoun offered him the post of + assistant. In accepting, Lincoln again displayed the honesty that was + beginning to be known as his characteristic. He stipulated that he should + be perfectly free to express his opinions, that the office should not be + in any respect, a bribe. This being conceded, he went to work furiously on + a treatise upon surveying, and astonishingly soon, with the generous help + of the schoolmaster of New Salem, was able to take up his duties. His + first fee was "two buckskins which Hannah Armstrong 'fixed' on his pants + so the briers would not wear them out."(8) + </p> + <p> + Thus time passed until 1834 when he staked his only wealth, his + popularity, in the gamble of an election. This time he was successful. + During the following winter he sat in the Legislature of Illinois; a huge, + uncouth, mainly silent member, making apparently no impression whatever, + very probably striking the educated members as a nonentity in homespun.(9) + </p> + <p> + In the spring of 1835, he was back in New Salem, busy again with his + surveying. Kind friends had secured him the office of local postmaster. + The delivery of letters was now combined with going to and fro as a + surveyor. As the mail came but once a week, and as whatever he had to + deliver could generally be carried in his hat, and as payment was in + proportion to business done, his revenues continued small. Nevertheless, + in the view of New Salem, he was getting on. + </p> + <p> + And then suddenly misfortune overtook him. His great adventure, the first + of those spiritual agonies of which he was destined to endure so many, + approached. Hitherto, since childhood, women had played no part in his + story. All the recollections of his youth are vague in their references to + the feminine. As a boy at Pigeon Creek when old Thomas was hiring him out, + the women of the settlement liked to have him around, apparently because + he was kindly and ever ready to do odd jobs in addition to his regular + work. However, until 1835, his story is that of a man's man, possibly + because there was so much of the feminine in his own make-up. In 1835 came + a change. A girl of New Salem, a pretty village maiden, the best the poor + place could produce, revealed him to himself. Sweet Ann Rutledge, the + daughter of the tavern-keeper, was his first love. But destiny was against + them. A brief engagement was terminated by her sudden death late in the + summer of 1835. Of this shadowy love-affair very little is known,—though + much romantic fancy has been woven about it. Its significance for + after-time is in Lincoln's "reaction." There had been much sickness in New + Salem the summer in which Ann died. Lincoln had given himself freely as + nurse—the depth of his companionableness thus being proved—and + was in an overwrought condition when his sorrow struck him. A last + interview with the dying girl, at which no one was present, left him quite + unmanned. A period of violent agitation followed. For a time he seemed + completely transformed. The sunny Lincoln, the delight of Clary's Grove, + had vanished. In his place was a desolated soul—a brother to + dragons, in the terrible imagery of Job—a dweller in the dark places + of affliction. It was his mother reborn in him. It was all the shadowiness + of his mother's world; all that frantic reveling in the mysteries of woe + to which, hitherto, her son had been an alien. To the simple minds of the + villagers with their hard-headed, practical way of keeping all things, + especially love and grief, in the outer layer of consciousness, this + revelation of an emotional terror was past understanding. Some of them, + true to their type, pronounced him insane. He was watched with especial + vigilance during storms, fogs, damp gloomy weather, "for fear of an + accident." Surely, it was only a crazy man, in New Salem psychology, who + was heard to say, "I can never be reconciled to have the snow, rains and + storms beat upon her grave."(10) + </p> + <p> + In this crucial moment when the real base of his character had been + suddenly revealed—all the passionateness of the forest shadow, the + unfathomable gloom laid so deep at the bottom of his soul—he was + carried through his spiritual eclipse by the loving comprehension of two + fine friends. New Salem was not all of the sort of Clary's Grove. Near by + on a farm, in a lovely, restful landscape, lived two people who deserve to + be remembered, Bowlin Green and his wife. They drew Lincoln into the + seclusion of their home, and there in the gleaming days of autumn, when + everywhere in the near woods flickered downward, slowly, idly, the falling + leaves golden and scarlet, Lincoln recovered his equanimity.(11) But the + hero of Pigeon Creek, of Clary's Grove, did not quite come hack. In the + outward life, to be sure, a day came when the sunny story-teller, the + victor of Jack Armstrong, was once more what Jack would have called his + real self. In the inner life where alone was his reality, the temper which + affliction had revealed to him was established. Ever after, at heart, he + was to dwell alone, facing, silent, those inscrutable things which to the + primitive mind are things of every day. Always, he was to have for his + portion in his real self, the dimness of twilight, or at best, the night + with its stars, "never glad, confident morning again." + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0004" id="link2H_4_0004"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + IV. REVELATIONS + </h2> + <p> + From this time during many years almost all the men who saw beyond the + surface in Lincoln have indicated, in one way or another, their vision of + a constant quality. The observers of the surface did not see it. That is + to say, Lincoln did not at once cast off any of his previous + characteristics. It is doubtful if he ever did. His experience was + tenaciously cumulative. Everything he once acquired, he retained, both in + the outer life and the inner; and therefore, to those who did not have the + clue to him, he appeared increasingly contradictory, one thing on the + surface, another within. Clary's Grove and the evolutions from Clary's + Grove, continued to think of him as their leader. On the other hand, men + who had parted with the mere humanism of Clary's Grove, who were a bit + analytical, who thought themselves still more analytical, seeing somewhat + beneath the surface, reached conclusions similar to those of a shrewd + Congressman who long afterward said that Lincoln was not a leader of men + but a manager of men.(1) This astute distinction was not true of the + Lincoln the Congressman confronted; nevertheless, it betrays much both of + the observer and of the man he tried to observe. In the Congressman's day, + what he thought he saw was in reality the shadow of a Lincoln that had + passed away, passed so slowly, so imperceptibly that few people knew it + had passed. During many years following 1835, the distinction in the main + applied. So thought the men who, like Lincoln's latest law partner, + William H. Herndon, were not derivatives of Clary's Grove. The Lincoln of + these days was the only one Herndon knew. How deeply he understood Lincoln + is justly a matter of debate; but this, at least, he understood—that + Clary's Grove, in attributing to Lincoln its own idea of leadership, was + definitely wrong. He saw in Lincoln, in all the larger matters, a tendency + to wait on events, to take the lead indicated by events, to do what + shallow people would have called mere drifting. To explain this, he + labeled him a fatalist.(2) The label was only approximate, as most labels + are. But Herndon's effort to find one is significant. In these years, + Lincoln took the initiative—when he took it at all—in a way + that most people did not recognize. His spirit was ever aloof. It was only + the every-day, the external Lincoln that came into practical contact with + his fellows. + </p> + <p> + This is especially true of the growing politician. He served four + consecutive terms in the Legislature without doing anything that had the + stamp of true leadership. He was not like either of the two types of + politicians that generally made up the legislatures of those days—the + men who dealt in ideas as political counters, and the men who were + grafters without in their naive way knowing that they were grafters. As a + member of the Legislature, Lincoln did not deal in ideas. He was + instinctively incapable of graft A curiously routine politician, one who + had none of the earmarks familiar in such a person. Aloof, and yet, more + than ever companionable, the power he had in the Legislature—for he + had acquired a measure of power—was wholly personal. Though called a + Whig, it was not as a party man but as a personal friend that he was able + to carry through his legislative triumphs. His most signal achievement was + wholly a matter of personal politics. There was a general demand for the + removal of the capital from its early seat at Vandalia, and rivalry among + other towns was keen. Sangamon County was bent on winning the prize for + its own Springfield. Lincoln was put in charge of the Springfield + strategy. How he played his cards may be judged from the recollections of + another member who seems to have anticipated that noble political maxim, + "What's the Constitution between friends?" "Lincoln," he says, "made Webb + and me vote for the removal, though we belonged to the southern end of the + state. We defended our vote before our constituents by saying that + necessity would ultimately force the seat of government to a central + position; but in reality, we gave the vote to Lincoln because we liked + him, because we wanted to oblige our friend, and because we recognized him + as our leader."(3) + </p> + <p> + And yet on the great issues of the day he could not lead them. In 1837, + the movement of the militant abolitionists, still but a few years old, was + beginning to set the Union by the ears. The illegitimate child of + Calvinism and the rights of man, it damned with one anathema every holder + of slaves and also every opponent of slavery except its own uncompromising + adherents. Its animosity was trained particularly on every suggestion that + designed to uproot slavery without creating an economic crisis, that would + follow England's example, and terminate the "peculiar institution" by + purchase. The religious side of abolition came out in its fury against + such ideas. Slave-holders were Canaanites. The new cult were God's own + people who were appointed to feel anew the joy of Israel hewing Agag + asunder. Fanatics, terrible, heroic, unashamed, they made two sorts of + enemies—not only the partisans of slavery, but all those sane + reformers who, while hating slavery, hated also the blood-lust that would + make the hewing of Agag a respectable device of political science. Among + the partisans of slavery were the majority of the Illinois Legislature. + Early in 1837, they passed resolutions condemning abolitionism. Whereupon + it was revealed—not that anybody at the time cared to know the fact, + or took it to heart—that among the other sort of the enemies of + abolition was our good young friend, everybody's good friend, Abe Lincoln. + He drew up a protest against the Legislature's action; but for all his + personal influence in other affairs, he could persuade only one member to + sign with him. Not his to command at will those who "recognized him as + their leader" in the orthodox political game—so discreet, in that it + left principles for some one else to be troubled about! Lincoln's protest + was quite too far out of the ordinary for personal politics to endure it. + The signers were asked to proclaim their belief "that the institution of + slavery is founded on both injustice and bad policy; but that the + promulgation of abolition doctrines tends rather to promote than to abate + its evils."(4) + </p> + <p> + The singular originality of this position, sweeping aside as vain both + participants in the new political duel, was quite lost on the little world + in which Lincoln lived. For after-time it has the interest of a bombshell + that failed to explode. It is the dawn of Lincoln's intellect. In his + lonely inner life, this crude youth, this lover of books in a village + where books were curiosities, had begun to think. The stages of his + transition from mere story-telling yokel—intellectual only as the + artist is intellectual, in his methods of handling—to the man of + ideas, are wholly lost. And in this fact we have a prophecy of all the + years to come. Always we shall seek in vain for the early stages of + Lincoln's ideas. His mind will never reveal itself until the moment at + which it engages the world. No wonder, in later times, his close + associates pronounced him the most secretive of men; that one of the + keenest of his observers said that the more you knew of Lincoln, the less + you knew of him.(5) + </p> + <p> + Except for the handicap of his surroundings, his intellectual start would + seem belated; even allowing for his handicap, it was certainly slow. He + was now twenty-eight. Pretty well on to reveal for the first time + intellectual power! Another characteristic here. His mind worked slowly. + But it is worth observing that the ideas of the protest were never + abandoned. Still a third characteristic, mental tenacity. To the end of + his days, he looked askance at the temper of abolitionism, regarded it + ever as one of the chief evils of political science. And quite as + significant was another idea of the protest which also had developed from + within, which also he never abandoned. + </p> + <p> + On the question of the power of the national government with regard to + slavery, he took a position not in accord with either of the political + creeds of his day. The Democrats had already formulated their doctrine + that the national government was a thing of extremely limited powers, the + "glorified policeman" of a certain school of publicists reduced almost to + a minus quantity. The Whigs, though amiably vague on most things except + money-making by state aid, were supposed to stand for a "strong central + government". Abolitionism had forced on both parties a troublesome + question, "What about slavery in the District of Columbia, where the + national government was supreme?" The Democrats were prompt in their + reply: Let the glorified policeman keep the peace and leave private + interests, such as slave-holding, alone. The Whigs evaded, tried not to + apply their theory of "strong" government; they were fearful lest they + offend one part of their membership if they asserted that the nation had + no right to abolish slavery in the District, fearful of offending others + if they did not. Lincoln's protest asserted that "the Congress of the + United States has the power, under the Constitution, to abolish slavery in + the District of Columbia but the power ought not to be exercised, unless + at the request of the District." In other words, Lincoln, when suddenly + out of the storm and stress that followed Ann's death his mentality + flashes forth, has an attitude toward political power that was not a + consequence of his environment, that sets him apart as a type of man rare + in the history of statesmanship. What other American politician of his day—indeed, + very few politicians of any day—would have dared to assert at once + the existence of a power and the moral obligation not to use it? The + instinctive American mode of limiting power is to deny its existence. Our + politicians so deeply distrust our temperament that whatever they may say + for rhetorical effect, they will not, whenever there is any danger of + their being taken at their word, trust anything to moral law. Their minds + are normally mechanical. The specific, statutory limitation is the only + one that for them has reality. The truth that temper in politics is as + great a factor as law was no more comprehensible to the politicians of + 1837 than, say Hamlet or The Last Judgment. But just this is what the + crude young Lincoln understood. Somehow he had found it in the depths of + his own nature. The explanation, if any, is to be found in his heredity. + Out of the shadowy parts of him, beyond the limits of his or any man's + conscious vision, dim, unexplored, but real and insistent as those forest + recesses from which his people came, arise the two ideas: the faith in a + mighty governing power; the equal faith that it should use its might with + infinite tenderness, that it should be slow to compel results, even the + result of righteousness, that it should be tolerant of human errors, that + it should transform them slowly, gradually, as do the gradual forces of + nature, as do the sun and the rain. + </p> + <p> + And such was to be the real Lincoln whenever he spoke out, to the end. His + tonic was struck by his first significant utterance at the age of + twenty-eight. How inevitable that it should have no significance to the + congregation of good fellows who thought of him merely as one of their own + sort, who put up with their friend's vagary, and speedily forgot it. + </p> + <p> + The moment was a dreary one in Lincoln's fortunes. By dint of much reading + of borrowed books, he had succeeded in obtaining from the easy-going + powers that were in those days, a license to practise law. In the spring + of 1837 he removed to Springfield. He had scarcely a dollar in his pocket. + Riding into Springfield on a borrowed horse, with all the property he + owned, including his law books, in two saddlebags, he went to the only + cabinet-maker in the town and ordered a single bedstead. He then went to + the store of Joshua F. Speed. The meeting, an immensely eventful one for + Lincoln, as well as a classic in the history of genius in poverty, is best + told in Speed's words: "He came into my store, set his saddle-bags on the + counter and inquired what the furnishings for a single bedstead would + cost. I took slate and pencil, made a calculation and found the sum for + furnishings complete, would amount to seventeen dollars in all. Said he: + 'It is probably cheap enough, but I want to say that, cheap as it is, I + have not the money to pay; but if you will credit me until Christmas, and + my experiment here as a lawyer is a success, I will pay you then. If I + fail in that I will probably never pay you at all.' The tone of his voice + was so melancholy that I felt for him. I looked up at him and I thought + then as I think now that I never saw so gloomy and melancholy a face in my + life. I said to him: 'So small a debt seems to affect you so deeply, I + think I can suggest a plan by which you will be able to attain your end + without incurring any debt. I have a very large room and a very large + double bed in it, which you are perfectly welcome to share with me if you + choose.' 'Where is your room?' he asked. 'Up-stairs,' said I, pointing to + the stairs leading from the store to my room. Without saying a word, he + took his saddle-bags on his arm, went upstairs, set them down on the + floor, came down again, and with a face beaming with pleasure and smiles + exclaimed, 'Well, Speed, I'm moved.'"(6) + </p> + <p> + This was the beginning of a friendship which appears to have been the only + one of its kind Lincoln ever had. Late in life, with his gifted private + secretaries, with one or two brilliant men whom he did not meet until + middle age, he had something like intimate comradeship. But even they did + not break the prevailing solitude of his inner life. His aloofness of soul + became a fixed condition. The one intruder in that lonely inner world was + Speed. In the great collection of Lincoln's letters none have the intimate + note except the letters to Speed. And even these are not truly intimate + with the exception of a single group inspired all by the same train of + events. The deep, instinctive reserve of Lincoln's nature was incurable. + The exceptional group of letters involve his final love-affair. Four years + after his removal to Springfield, Lincoln became engaged to Miss Mary + Todd. By that time he had got a start at the law and was no longer in + grinding poverty. If not yet prosperous, he had acquired "prospects"—the + strong likelihood of better things to come so dear to the buoyant heart of + the early West. + </p> + <p> + Hospitable Springfield, some of whose best men had known him in the + Legislature, opened its doors to him. His humble origin, his poor + condition, were forgiven. In true Western fashion, he was frankly put on + trial to show what was in him. If he could "make good" no further + questions would be asked. And in every-day matters, his companionableness + rose to the occasion. Male Springfield was captivated almost as easily as + New Salem. + </p> + <p> + But all this was of the outer life. If the ferment within was constant + between 1835 and 1840, the fact is lost in his taciturnity. But there is + some evidence of a restless emotional life. + </p> + <p> + In the rebound after the woe following Ann's death, he had gone questing + after happiness—such a real thing to him, now that he had discovered + the terror of unhappiness—in a foolish half-hearted courtship of a + bouncing, sensible girl named Mary Owens, who saw that he was not really + in earnest, decided that he was deficient in those "little links that make + up a woman's happiness," and sent him about his business—rather, on + the whole, to his relief.(7) The affair with Miss Todd had a different + tone from the other. The lady was of another world socially. The West in + those days swarmed with younger sons, or the equivalents of younger sons, + seeking their fortunes, whom sisters and cousins were frequently visiting. + Mary Todd was sister-in-law to a leading citizen of Springfield. Her + origin was of Kentucky and Virginia, with definite claims to distinction. + Though a family genealogy mounts as high as the sixth century, sober + history is content with a grandfather and great grandfather who were + military men of some repute, two great uncles who were governors, and + another who was a cabinet minister. Rather imposing contrasted with the + family tree of the child of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks! Even more + significant was the lady's education. She had been to a school where young + ladies of similar social pretensions were allowed to speak only the French + language. She was keenly aware of the role marked out for her by destiny, + and quite convinced that she would always in every way live up to it. + </p> + <p> + The course of her affair with Lincoln did not run smooth. There were wide + differences of temperament; quarrels of some sort—just what, gossip + to this day has busied itself trying to discover—and on January 1, + 1841, the engagement was broken. Before the end of the month he wrote to + his law partner apologizing for his inability to be coherent on business + matters. "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 distributed to the whole human family, there + would not be one cheerful face on earth. Whether I shall ever be better, I + can not tell. I awfully forebode I shall not. To remain as I am is + impossible. I must die or be better, it appears to me . . . a change of + scene might help me." + </p> + <p> + His friend Speed became his salvation. Speed closed out his business and + carried Lincoln off to visit his own relations in Kentucky. It was the + devotion of Bowlin Green and his wife over again. But the psychology of + the event was much more singular. Lincoln, in the inner life, had + progressed a long way since the death of Ann, and the progress was mainly + in the way of introspection, of self-analysis. He had begun to brood. As + always, the change did not reveal itself until an event in the outward + life called it forth like a rising ghost from the abyss of his silences. + His friends had no suspicion that in his real self, beneath the thick + disguise of his external sunniness, he was forever brooding, questioning, + analyzing, searching after the hearts of things both within and without.. + </p> + <p> + "In the winter of 1840 and 1841," writes Speed, "he was unhappy about the + engagement to his wife—not being entirely satisfied that his heart + was going with his hand. How much he suffered then on that account, none + knew so well as myself; he disclosed his whole heart to me. In the summer + of 1841 I became engaged to my wife. He was here on a visit when I courted + her; and strange to say, something of the same feeling which I regarded as + so foolish in him took possession of me, and kept me very unhappy from the + time of my engagement until I was married. This will explain the deep + interest he manifested in his letters on my account.... One thing is + plainly discernible; if I had not been married and happy, far more happy + than I ever expected to be, he would not have married." + </p> + <p> + Whether or not Speed was entirely right in his final conclusion, it is + plain that he and Lincoln were remarkably alike in temperament; that + whatever had caused the break in Lincoln's engagement was repeated in his + friend's experience when the latter reached a certain degree of emotional + tension; that this paralleling of Lincoln's own experience in the + experience of the friend so like himself, broke tip for once the solitude + of his inner life and delivered him from some dire inward terror. Both men + were deeply introspective. Each had that overpowering sense of the + emotional responsibilities of marriage, which is bred in the bone of + certain hyper-sensitive types—at least in the Anglo-Saxon race. But + neither realized this trait in himself until, having blithely pursued his + impulse to the point of committal, his spiritual conscience suddenly + awakened and he asked of his heart, "Do I truly love her? Am I perfectly + sure the emotion is permanent?" + </p> + <p> + It is on this speculation that the unique group of the intimate letters to + Speed are developed. They were written after Lincoln's return to + Springfield, while Speed was wrestling with the demon of self-analysis. In + the period which they cover, Lincoln delivered himself from that same + demon and recovered Serenity. Before long he was writing: "I know what the + painful point with you is at all times when you are unhappy; it is an + apprehension that you do not love her as you should. What nonsense! How + came you to court her? Was it because you thought she deserved it and that + you had given her reason to expect it? If it was for that, why did not the + same reason make you court Ann Todd, and at least twenty others of whom + you can think, to whom it would apply with greater force than to her? Did + you court her for her wealth? Why, you said she had none. But you say you + reasoned yourself into it. What do you mean by that? Was it not that you + found yourself unable to reason yourself out of it?" And much more of the + same shrewd sensible sort,—a picture unintentionally of his own + state of mind no less than of his friend's. + </p> + <p> + This strange episode reveals also that amid Lincoln's silences, while the + outward man appeared engrossed in everyday matters, the inward man had + been seeking religion. His failure to accept the forms of his mother's + creed did not rest on any lack of the spiritual need. Though undefined, + his religion glimmers at intervals through the Speed letters. When Speed's + fiancee fell ill and her tortured lover was in a paroxysm of remorse and + grief, Lincoln wrote: "I hope and believe that your present anxiety and + distress about her health and her life must and will forever banish those + horrid doubts which I know you sometimes felt as to the truth of your + affection for her. If they can once and forever be removed (and I feel a + presentment that the Almighty has sent your present affliction expressly + for that object) surely nothing can come in their stead to fill their + immeasurable measure of misery. . . Should she, as you fear, be destined + to an early grave, it is indeed a great consolation to know she is so well + prepared to meet it." + </p> + <p> + Again he wrote: "I was always superstitious. I believe God made me one of + the instruments of bringing you and your Fanny together, which union I + have no doubt lie had foreordained. Whatever He designs He will do for me + yet. 'Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord' is my text now." + </p> + <p> + The duality in self-torture of these spiritual brethren endured in all + about a year and a half, and closed with Speed's marriage. Lincoln was now + entirely delivered from his demon. He wrote Speed a charming letter, + serene, affectionate, touched with gentle banter, valiant though with a + hint of disillusion as to their common type. "I tell you, Speed, our + forebodings (for which you and I are peculiar) are all the worst sort of + nonsense. . You say you much fear that that elysium of which you have + dreamed so much is never to be realized. Well, if it shall not, I dare + swear it will not be the fault of her who is now your wife. I have no + doubt that it is the peculiar misfortune of both you and me to dream + dreams of elysium far exceeding all that anything earthly can realize."(8) + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0005" id="link2H_4_0005"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + V. PROSPERITY + </h2> + <p> + How Lincoln's engagement was patched up is as delicious an uncertainty, + from gossip's point of view, as how it had been broken off. Possibly, as + many people have asserted, it was brought about by an event of which, in + the irony of fate, Lincoln ever after felt ashamed.(1) An impulsive, not + overwise politician, James Shields, a man of many peculiarities, was + saucily lampooned in a Springfield paper by some jaunty girls, one of whom + was Miss Todd. + </p> + <p> + Somehow,—the whole affair is very dim,—Lincoln acted as their + literary adviser. Shields demanded the name of his detractor; Lincoln + assumed the responsibility; a challenge followed. Lincoln was in a + ridiculous position. He extricated himself by a device which he used more + than once thereafter; he gravely proposed the impossible. He demanded + conditions which would have made the duel a burlesque—a butcher's + match with cavalry broadswords. But Shields, who was flawlessly literal, + insisted. The two met and only on the dueling ground was the quarrel at + last talked into oblivion by the seconds. Whether this was the cause of + the reconciliation with Miss Todd, or a consequence, or had nothing to do + with it, remains for the lovers of the unimportant to decide. The only + sure fact in this connection is the marriage which took place November 4, + 1842.(2) + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Lincoln's character has been much discussed. Gossip, though with very + little to go on, has built up a tradition that the marriage was unhappy. + If one were to believe the half of what has been put in print, one would + have to conclude that the whole business was a wretched mistake; that + Lincoln found married life intolerable because of the fussily dictatorial + self-importance of his wife. But the authority for all these tales is + meager. Not one is traceable to the parties themselves. Probably it will + never be known till the end of time what is false in them, what true. + About all that can be disengaged from this cloud of illusive witnesses is + that Springfield wondered why Mary Todd married Lincoln. He was still + poor; so poor that after marriage they lived at the Globe Tavern on four + dollars a week. And the lady had been sought by prosperous men! The + lowliness of Lincoln's origin went ill with her high notions of her + family's importance. She was downright, high-tempered, dogmatic, but + social; he was devious, slow to wrath, tentative, solitary; his very + appearance, then as afterward, was against him. Though not the hideous man + he was later made out to be—the "gorilla" of enemy caricaturists—he + was rugged of feature, with a lower lip that tended to protrude. His + immense frame was thin and angular; his arms were inordinately long; + hands, feet and eyebrows were large; skin swarthy; hair coarse, black and + generally unkempt. Only the amazing, dreamful eyes, and a fineness in the + texture of the skin, redeemed the face and gave it distinction.(3) Why did + precise, complacent Miss Todd pick out so strange a man for her mate? The + story that she married him for ambition, divining what he was to be—like + Jane Welsh in the conventional story of Carlyle—argues too much of + the gift of prophecy. Whatever her motive, it is more than likely that she + was what the commercialism of to-day would call an "asset." She had + certain qualities that her husband lacked. For one, she had that intuition + for the main chance which shallow people confound with practical judgment. + Her soul inhabited the obvious; but within the horizon of the obvious she + was shrewd, courageous and stubborn. Not any danger that Mary Lincoln + would go wandering after dreams, visions, presences, such as were drifting + ever in a ghostly procession at the back of her husband's mind. There was + a danger in him that was to grow with the years, a danger that the outer + life might be swamped by the inner, that the ghosts within might carry him + away with them, away from fact—seeking-seeking. That this never + occurred may be fairly credited, or at least very plausibly credited, to + the firm-willed, the utterly matter-of-fact little person he had married. + How far he enjoyed the mode of his safe-guarding is a fruitless + speculation. + </p> + <p> + Another result that may, perhaps, be due to Mary Lincoln was the + improvement in his fortunes. However, this may have had no other source + than a distinguished lawyer whose keen eyes had been observing him since + his first appearance in politics. Stephen T. Logan "had that + old-fashioned, lawyer-like morality which was keenly intolerant of any + laxity or slovenliness of mind or character." He had, "as he deserved, the + reputation of being the best nisi prius lawyer in the state."(4) After + watching the gifted but ill-prepared young attorney during several years, + observing the power he had of simplification and convincingness in + statement, taking the measure of his scrupulous honesty—these were + ever Lincoln's strong cards as a lawyer—Logan made him the + surprising offer of a junior partnership, which was instantly accepted. + That was when his inner horizon was brightening, shortly before his + marriage. A period of great mental energy followed, about the years 1842 + and 1843. Lincoln threw himself into the task of becoming a real lawyer + under Logan's direction. However, his zeal flagged after a time, and when + the partnership ended four years later he had to some extent fallen back + into earlier, less strenuous habits. "He permitted his partner to do all + the studying in the preparation of cases, while he himself trusted to his + general knowledge of the law and the inspiration of the surroundings to + overcome the judge or the jury."(5) Though Lincoln was to undergo still + another stimulation of the scholarly conscience before finding himself as + a lawyer, the four years with Logan were his true student period. If the + enthusiasm of the first year did not hold out, none the less he issued + from that severe course of study a changed man, one who knew the + difference between the learned lawyer and the unlearned. His own methods, + to be sure, remained what they always continued to be, unsystematic, not + to say slipshod. Even after he became president his lack of system was at + times the despair of his secretaries.(6) Herndon, who succeeded Logan as + his partner, and who admired both men, has a broad hint that Logan and + Lincoln were not always an harmonious firm. A clash of political ambitions + is part explanation; business methods another. "Logan was scrupulously + exact and used extraordinary care in the preparation of papers. His words + were well chosen, and his style of composition was stately and formal."(7) + He was industrious and very thrifty, while Lincoln had "no money sense." + It must have annoyed, if it did not exasperate his learned and formal + partner, when Lincoln signed the firm name to such letters as this: "As to + real estate, we can not attend to it. We are not real estate agents, we + are lawyers. We recommend that you give the charge of it to Mr. Isaac S. + Britton, a trust-worthy man and one whom the Lord made on purpose for such + business."(8) + </p> + <p> + Superficial observers, then and afterward, drew the conclusion that + Lincoln was an idler. Long before, as a farm-hand, he had been called + "bone idle."(9) And of the outer Lincoln, except under stress of need, or + in spurts of enthusiasm, as in the earlier years with Logan, this reckless + comment had its base of fact. The mighty energy that was in Lincoln, a + tireless, inexhaustible energy, was inward, of the spirit; it did not + always ramify into the sensibilities and inform his outer life. The + connecting link of the two, his mere intelligence, though constantly + obedient to demands of the outer life, was not susceptible of great strain + except on demand of the spiritual vision. Hence his attitude toward the + study of the law. It thrilled and entranced him, called into play all his + powers—observation, reflection, intelligence—just so long as + it appeared in his imagination a vast creative effort of the spiritual + powers, of humanity struggling perilously to see justice done upon earth, + to let reason and the will of God prevail. It lost its hold upon him the + instant it became a thing of technicalities, of mere learning, of + statutory dialectics. + </p> + <p> + The restless, inward Lincoln, dwelling deep among spiritual shadows, found + other outlets for his energy during these years when he was establishing + himself at the bar. He continued to be a voracious reader. And his reading + had taken a skeptical turn. Volney and Paine were now his intimates. The + wave of ultra-rationalism that went over America in the 'forties did not + spare many corners of the land. In Springfield, as in so many small towns, + it had two effects: those who were not touched by it hardened into jealous + watchfulness, and their religion naturally enough became fiercely + combative; those who responded to the new influence became a little + affected philosophically, a bit effervescent. The young men, when of + serious mind, and all those who were reformers by temperament, tended to + exalt the new, to patronize, if not to ridicule the old. At Springfield, + as at many another frontier town wracked by its growing pains, a Young + Men's Lyceum confessed the world to be out of joint, and went to work + glibly to set it right. Lincoln had contributed to its achievements. An + oration of his on "Perpetuation of Our Free Institutions,"(10) a mere + rhetorical "stunt" in his worst vein now deservedly forgotten, so + delighted the young men that they asked to have it printed—quite as + the same sort of young men to-day print essays on cubism, or examples of + free verse read to poetry societies. Just what views he expressed on + things in general among the young men and others; how far he aired his + acquaintance with the skeptics, is imperfectly known.(11) However, a rumor + got abroad that he was an "unbeliever," which was the easy label for any + one who disagreed in religion with the person who applied it. The rumor + was based in part on a passage in an address on temperance. In 1842, + Lincoln, who had always been abstemious, joined that Washington Society + which aimed at a reformation in the use of alcohol. His address was + delivered at the request of the society. It contained this passage, very + illuminating in its light upon the generosity, the real humility of the + speaker, but scarcely tactful, considering the religious susceptibility of + the hour: "If they (the Christians) believe as they profess, that + Omnipotence condescended to take on himself the form of sinful man, and as + such die an ignominious death, surely they will not refuse submission to + the infinitely lesser condescension for the temporal and perhaps eternal + salvation of a large, erring and unfortunate class of their fellow + creatures! Nor is the condescension very great. In my judgment such of us + as have never fallen victims have been spared more from the absence of + appetite than from any mental or moral superiority over those who have. + Indeed, I believe, if we take habitual drunkards as a class, their heads + and their hearts will bear an advantageous comparison with those of any + other class."(12) How like that remark attributed to another great genius, + one whom Lincoln in some respects resembled, the founder of Methodism, + when he said of a passing drunkard: "There goes John Wesley, except for + the Grace of God." But the frontier zealots of the 'forties were not of + the Wesley type. The stories of Lincoln's skeptical interests, the + insinuations which were promptly read into this temperance address, the + fact that he was not a church-member, all these were seized upon by a good + but very narrow man, a devoted, illiterate evangelist, Peter Cartwright. + </p> + <p> + In 1846, this religious issue became a political issue. The Whigs + nominated Lincoln for Congress. It was another instance of personal + politics. The local Whig leaders had made some sort of private agreement, + the details of which appear to be lost, but according to which Lincoln now + became the inevitable candidate.(13) He was nominated without opposition. + The Democrats nominated Cartwright. + </p> + <p> + Two charges were brought against Lincoln: that he was an infidel, and that + he was—of all things in the world!—an aristocrat. On these + charges the campaign was fought. The small matter of what he would do at + Washington, or would not do, was brushed aside. Personal politics with a + vengeance! The second charge Lincoln humorously and abundantly disproved; + the first, he met with silence. + </p> + <p> + Remembering Lincoln's unfailing truthfulness, remembering also his + restless ambition, only one conclusion can be drawn from this silence. He + could not categorically deny Cartwright's accusation and at the same time + satisfy his own unsparing conception of honesty. That there was no real + truth in the charge of irreligion, the allusions in the Speed letters + abundantly prove. The tone is too sincere to be doubted; nevertheless, + they give no clue to his theology. And for men like Cartwright, religion + was tied up hand and foot in theology. Here was where Lincoln had parted + company from his mother's world, and from its derivatives. Though he held + tenaciously to all that was mystical in her bequest to him, he rejected + early its formulations. The evidence of later years reaffirms this double + fact. The sense of a spiritual world behind, beyond the world of + phenomena, grew on him with the years; the power to explain, to formulate + that world was denied him. He had no bent for dogma. Ethically, + mystically, he was always a Christian; dogmatically he knew not what he + was. Therefore, to the challenge to prove himself a Christian on purely + dogmatic grounds, he had no reply. To attempt to explain what separated + him from his accusers, to show how from his point of view they were all + Christian—although, remembering their point of view, he hesitated to + say so—to draw the line between mysticism and emotionalism, would + have resulted only in a worse confusion. Lincoln, the tentative mystic, + the child of the starlit forest, was as inexplicable to Cartwright with + his perfectly downright religion, his creed of heaven or hell—take + your choice and be quick about it!—as was Lincoln the spiritual + sufferer to New Salem, or Lincoln the political scientist to his friends + in the Legislature. + </p> + <p> + But he was not injured by his silence. The faith in him held by too many + people was too well established. Then, as always thereafter, whatever he + said or left unsaid, most thoughtful persons who came close to him sensed + him as a religious man. That was enough for healthy, generous young + Springfield. He and Cartwright might fight out their religious issues when + they pleased, Abe should have his term in Congress. He was elected by a + good majority.(14) + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0006" id="link2H_4_0006"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + VI. UNSATISFYING RECOGNITION + </h2> + <p> + Lincoln's career as a Congressman, 1847-1849, was just what might have + been expected—his career in the Illinois Legislature on a larger + scale. It was a pleasant, companionable, unfruitful episode, with no + political significance. The leaders of the party did not take him + seriously as a possible initiate to their ranks. His course was that of a + loyal member of the Whig mass. In the party strategy, during the debates + over the Mexican War and the Wilmot Proviso, he did his full party duty, + voting just as the others did. Only once did he attempt anything original—a + bill to emancipate the slaves of the District, which was little more than + a restatement of his protest of ten years before—and on this point + Congress was as indifferent as the Legislature had been. The bill was + denied a hearing and never came to a vote before the House.(1) + </p> + <p> + And yet Lincoln did not fail entirely to make an impression at Washington. + And again it was the Springfield experience repeated. His + companionableness was recognized, his modesty, his good nature; above all, + his story-telling. Men liked him. Plainly it was his humor, his droll + ways, that won them; together with instant recognition of his sterling + integrity. + </p> + <p> + "During the Christmas holidays," says Ben Perley Poore, "Mr. Lincoln found + his way into the small room used as the Post Office of the House, where a + few genial reconteurs used to meet almost every morning after the mail had + been distributed into the members' boxes, to exchange such new stories as + any of them might have acquired since they had last met. After modestly + standing at the door for several days, Mr. Lincoln was reminded of a + story, and by New Year's he was recognized as the champion story-teller of + the Capital. His favorite seat was at the left of the open fireplace, + tilted back in his chair with his long legs reaching over to the chimney + jamb."(2) + </p> + <p> + In the words of another contemporary, "Congressman Lincoln was very fond + of howling and would frequently. . . meet other members in a match game at + the alley of James Casparus. . . . He was an awkward bowler, but played + the game with great zest and spirit solely for exercise and amusement, and + greatly to the enjoyment and entertainment of the other players, and by + reason of his criticisms and funny illustrations. . . . When it was known + that he was in the alley, there would assemble numbers of people to + witness the fun which was anticipated by those who knew of his fund of + anecdotes and jokes. When in the alley, surrounded by a crowd of eager + listeners, he indulged with great freedom in the sport of narrative, some + of which were very broad."(3) + </p> + <p> + Once, at least, he entertained Congress with an exhibition of his humor, + and this, oddly enough, is almost the only display of it that has come + down to us, first hand. Lincoln's humor has become a tradition. Like + everything else in his outward life, it changed gradually with his slow + devious evolution from the story-teller of Pigeon Creek to the author of + the Gettysburg Oration. It is known chiefly through translation. The + "Lincoln Stories" are stories someone else has told who may or may not + have heard them told by Lincoln. They are like all translations, they + express the translator not the original—final evidence that + Lincoln's appeal as a humorist was in his manner, his method, not in his + substance. "His laugh was striking. Such awkward gestures belonged to no + other man. They attracted universal attention from the old sedate down to + the schoolboy."(4) He was a famous mimic. + </p> + <p> + Lincoln is himself the authority that he did not invent his stories. He + picked them up wherever he found them, and clothed them with the peculiar + drollery of his telling. He was a wag rather than a wit. All that lives in + the second-hand repetitions of his stories is the mere core, the original + appropriated thing from which the inimitable decoration has fallen off. + That is why the collections of his stories are such dreary reading,—like + Carey's Dante, or Bryant's Homer. And strange to say, there is no humor in + his letters. This man who was famous as a wag writes to his friends almost + always in perfect seriousness, often sadly. The bit of humor that has been + preserved in his one comic speech in Congress,—a burlesque of the + Democratic candidate of 1848, Lewis Cass,—shorn as it is of his + manner, his tricks of speech and gesture, is hardly worth repeating.(5) + </p> + <p> + Lincoln was deeply humiliated by his failure to make a serious impression + at Washington.(6) His eyes opened in a startled realization that there + were worlds he could not conquer. The Washington of the 'forties was far + indeed from a great capital; it was as friendly to conventional types of + politician as was Springfield or Vandalia. The man who could deal in ideas + as political counters, the other man who knew the subtleties of the art of + graft, both these were national as well as local figures. Personal + politics were also as vicious at Washington as anywhere; nevertheless, + there was a difference, and in that difference lay the secret of Lincoln's + failure. He was keen enough to grasp the difference, to perceive the clue + to his failure. In a thousand ways, large and small, the difference came + home to him. It may all be symbolized by a closing detail of his stay. An + odd bit of incongruity was the inclusion of his name in the list of + managers of the Inaugural Ball of 1849. Nothing of the sort had hitherto + entered into his experience. As Mrs. Lincoln was not with him he joined "a + small party of mutual friends" who attended the ball together. As one of + them relates, "he was greatly interested in all that was to be seen and we + did not take our departure until three or four o'clock in the morning."(7) + What an ironic picture—this worthy provincial, the last word for + awkwardness, socially as strange to such a scene as a little child, + spending the whole night gazing intently at everything he could see, at + the barbaric display of wealth, the sumptuous gowns, the brilliant + uniforms, the distinguished foreigners, and the leaders of America, men + like Webster and Clay, with their air of assured power, the men he had + failed to impress. This was his valedictory at Washington. He went home + and told Herndon that he had committed political suicide.(8) He had met + the world and the world was too strong for him. + </p> + <p> + And yet, what was wrong? He had been popular at Washington, in the same + way in which he had been popular at Springfield. Why had the same sort of + success inspired him at Springfield and humiliated him at Washington? The + answer was in the difference between the two worlds. Companionableness, + story-telling, at Springfield, led to influence; at Washington it led only + to applause. At Springfield it was a means; at Washington it was an end. + The narrow circle gave the good fellow an opportunity to reveal at his + leisure everything else that was in him; the larger circle ruthlessly put + him in his place as a good fellow and nothing more. The truth was that in + the Washington of the 'forties, neither the inner nor the outer Lincoln + could by itself find lodgment. Neither the lonely mystical thinker nor the + captivating buffoon could do more than ripple its surface. As superficial + as Springfield, it lacked Springfield's impulsive generosity. To the long + record of its obtuseness it had added another item. The gods had sent it a + great man and it had no eyes to see. It was destined to repeat the + performance. + </p> + <p> + And so Lincoln came home, disappointed, disillusioned. He had not + succeeded in establishing the slightest claim, either upon the country or + his party. Without such claim he had no ground for attempting reelection. + The frivolity of the Whig machine in the Sangamon region was evinced by + their rotation agreement. Out of such grossly personal politics Lincoln + had gone to Washington; into this essentially corrupt system he relapsed. + He faced, politically, a blank wall. And he had within him as yet, no + consciousness of any power that might cleave the wall asunder. What was he + to do next? + </p> + <p> + At this dangerous moment—so plainly the end of a chapter—he + was offered the governorship of the new Territory of Oregon. For the first + time he found himself at a definite parting of the ways, where a sheer act + of will was to decide things; where the pressure of circumstance was of + secondary importance. + </p> + <p> + In response to this crisis, an overlooked part of him appeared. The + inheritance from his mother, from the forest, had always been obvious. + But, after all, he was the son not only of Nancy and of the lonely stars, + but also of shifty, drifty Thomas the unstable. If it was not his paternal + inheritance that revived in him at this moment of confessed failure, it + was something of the same sort. Just as Thomas had always by way of + extricating himself from a failure taken to the road, now Abraham, at a + psychological crisis, felt the same wanderlust, and he threatened to go + adrift. Some of his friends urged him to accept. "You will capture the new + community," said they, "and when Oregon becomes a State, you will go to + Washington as its first Senator." What a glorified application of the true + Thomasian line of thought. Lincoln hesitated—hesitated— + </p> + <p> + And then the forcible little lady who had married him put her foot down. + Go out to that far-away backwoods, just when they were beginning to get on + in the world; when real prosperity at Springfield was surely within their + grasp; when they were at last becoming people of importance, who should be + able to keep their own carriage? Not much! + </p> + <p> + Her husband declined the appointment and resumed the practice of law in + Springfield.(9) + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0007" id="link2H_4_0007"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + VII. THE SECOND START + </h2> + <p> + Stung by his failure at Washington, Lincoln for a time put his whole soul + into the study of the law. He explained his failure to himself as a lack + of mental training.(1) There followed a repetition of his early years with + Logan, but with very much more determination, and with more abiding + result. + </p> + <p> + In those days in Illinois, as once in England, the judges held court in a + succession of towns which formed a circuit. Judge and lawyers moved from + town to town, "rode the circuit" in company,—sometimes on horseback, + sometimes in their own vehicles, sometimes by stage. Among the + reminiscences of Lincoln on the circuit, are his "poky" old horse and his + "ramshackle" old buggy. Many and many a mile, round and round the Eighth + Judicial Circuit, he traveled in that humble style. What thoughts he + brooded on in his lonely drives, he seldom told. During this period the + cloud over his inner life is especially dense. The outer life, in a + multitude of reminiscences, is well known. One of its salient details was + the large proportion of time he devoted to study. + </p> + <p> + "Frequently, I would go out on the circuit with him," writes Herndon. "We, + usually, at the little country inn, occupied the same bed. In most cases, + the beds were too short for him and his feet would hang over the + footboard, thus exposing a limited expanse of shin bone. Placing his + candle at the head of his bed he would read and study for hours. I have + known him to stay in this position until two o'clock in the morning. + Meanwhile, I and others who chanced to occupy the same room would be + safely and soundly asleep. On the circuit, in this way, he studied Euclid + until he could with ease demonstrate all the propositions in the six + books. How he could maintain his equilibrium or concentrate his thoughts + on an abstract mathematical problem, while Davis, Logan, Swett, Edwards + and I, so industriously and volubly filled the air with our interminable + snoring, was a problem none of, us—could ever solve."(2) + </p> + <p> + A well-worn copy of Shakespeare was also his constant companion. + </p> + <p> + He rose rapidly in the profession; and this in spite of his incorrigible + lack of system. The mechanical side of the lawyer's task, now, as in the + days with Logan, annoyed him; he left the preparation of papers to his + junior partner, as formerly he left it to his senior partner. But the + situation had changed in a very important way. In Herndon, Lincoln had for + a partner a talented young man who looked up to him, almost adored him, + who was quite willing to be his man Friday. Fortunately, for all his + adoration, Herndon had no desire to idealize his hero. He was not + disturbed by his grotesque or absurd sides. + </p> + <p> + "He was proverbially careless as to his habits," Herndon writes. "In a + letter to a fellow lawyer in another town, apologizing for his failure to + answer sooner, he explains: 'First, I have been very busy in the United + States Court; second, when I received the letter, I put it in my old hat, + and buying a new one the next day, the old one was set aside, so the + letter was lost sight of for the time.' This hat of Lincoln's—a silk + plug—was an extraordinary receptacle. It was his desk and his + memorandum book. In it he carried his bank-book and the bulk of his + letters. Whenever in his reading or researches, he wished to preserve an + idea, he jotted it down on an envelope or stray piece of paper and placed + it inside the lining; afterwards, when the memorandum was needed, there + was only one place to look for it." Herndon makes no bones about + confessing that their office was very dirty. So neglected was it that a + young man of neat habits who entered the office as a law student under + Lincoln could not refrain from cleaning it up, and the next visitor + exclaimed in astonishment, "What's happened here!"(3) + </p> + <p> + "The office," says that same law student, "was on the second floor of a + brick building on the public square opposite the courthouse. You went up a + flight of stairs and then passed along a hallway to the rear office which + was a medium sized room. There was one long table in the center of the + room, and a shorter one running in the opposite direction forming a T and + both were covered with green baize. There were two windows which looked + into the back yard. In one corner was an old-fashioned secretary with + pigeonholes and a drawer; and here Mr. Lincoln and his partner kept their + law papers. There was also a bookcase containing about two hundred volumes + of law and miscellaneous books." The same authority adds, "There was no + order in the office at all." Lincoln left all the money matters to + Herndon. "He never entered an item on the account book. If a fee was paid + to him and Herndon was not there, he would divide the money, wrap up one + part in paper and place it in his partner's desk with the inscription, + 'Case of Roe versus Doe, Herndon's half.' He had an odd habit of reading + aloud much to his partner's annoyance. He talked incessantly; a whole + forenoon would sometimes go by while Lincoln occupied the whole time + telling stories."(4) + </p> + <p> + On the circuit, his story-telling was an institution. Two other men, long + since forgotten, vied with him as rival artists in humorous narrative. + These three used to hold veritable tournaments. Herndon has seen "the + little country tavern where these three were wont to meet after an + adjournment of court, crowded almost to suffocation, with an audience of + men who had gathered to witness the contest among the members of the + strange triumvirate. The physicians of the town, all the lawyers, and not + infrequently a preacher, could be found in the crowd that filled the doors + and windows. The yarns they spun and the stories they told would not bear + repetition here, but many of them had morals which, while exposing the + weakness of mankind, stung like a whiplash. Some were, no doubt, a + thousand years old, with just enough of verbal varnish and alterations of + names and date to make them new and crisp. By virtue of the last named + application, Lincoln was enabled to draw from Balzac a 'droll story' and + locating it 'in Egypt' (Southern Illinois) or in Indiana, pass it off for + a purely original conception. . . I have seen Judge Treat, who was the + very impersonation of gravity itself, sit up till the last and laugh + until, as he often expressed it, 'he almost shook his ribs loose.' The + next day he would ascend the bench and listen to Lincoln in a murder trial + with all the seeming severity of an English judge in wig and gown."(5) + </p> + <p> + Lincoln enjoyed the life on the circuit. It was not that he was always in + a gale of spirits; a great deal of the time he brooded. His Homeric + nonsense alternated with fits of gloom. In spite of his late hours, + whether of study or of story-telling, he was an early riser. "He would sit + by the fire having uncovered the coals, and muse and ponder and + soliloquize."(6) Besides his favorite Shakespeare, he had a fondness for + poetry of a very different sort—Byron, for example. And he never + tired of a set of stanzas in the minor key beginning: "Oh, why should the + spirit of mortal be proud?"(7) + </p> + <p> + The hilarity of the circuit was not by any means the whole of its charm + for him. Part of that charm must have been the contrast with his recent + failure at Washington. This world he could master. Here his humor + increased his influence; and his influence grew rapidly. He was a favorite + of judges, jury and the bar. Then, too, it was a man's world. Though + Lincoln had a profound respect for women, he seems generally to have been + ill at ease in their company. In what his friends would have called + "general society" he did not shine. He was too awkward, too downright, too + lacking in the niceties. At home, though he now owned a house and was + making what seemed to him plenty of money, he was undoubtedly a trial to + Mrs. Lincoln's sense of propriety. He could not rise with his wife, + socially. He was still what he had become so long before, the favorite of + all the men—good old Abe Lincoln that you could tie to though it + rained cats and dogs. But as to the ladies! Fashionable people calling on + Mrs. Lincoln, had been received by her husband in his shirt-sleeves, and + he totally unabashed, as oblivious of discrepancy as if he were a nobleman + and not a nobody.(8) The dreadful tradition persists that he had been + known at table to put his own knife into the butter. + </p> + <p> + How safe to assume that many things were said commiserating poor Mrs. + Lincoln who had a bear for a husband. And some people noticed that Lincoln + did not come home at week-ends during term-time as often as he might. + Perhaps it meant something; perhaps it did not. But there could be no + doubt that the jovial itinerant life of the circuit was the life for him—at + least in the early 'fifties. That it was, and also that he was becoming + known as a lawyer, is evinced by his refusal of a flattering invitation to + enter a prosperous firm in Chicago. + </p> + <p> + Out of all this came a deepening of his power to reach and impress men + through words. The tournament of the story-tellers was a lawyers' + tournament. The central figure was reading, studying, thinking, as never + in his life before. Though his fables remained as broad as ever, the + merely boisterous character ceased to predominate. The ethical bent of his + mind came to the surface. His friends were agreed that what they + remembered chiefly of his stories was not the broad part of them, but the + moral that was in them.(9) And they had no squeamishness as critics of the + art of fable-making. + </p> + <p> + His ethical sense of things, his companionableness, the utterly + non-censorious cast of his mind, his power to evolve yarns into parables—all + these made him irresistible with a jury. It was a saying of his: "If I can + divest this case of technicalities and swing it to the jury, I'll win + it."(10) + </p> + <p> + But there was not a trace in him of that unscrupulousness usually + attributed to the "jury lawyer." Few things show more plainly the central + unmovableness of his character than his immunity to the lures of jury + speaking. To use his power over an audience for his own enjoyment, for an + interested purpose, for any purpose except to afford pleasure, or to see + justice done, was for him constitutionally impossible. Such a performance + was beyond the reach of his will. In a way, his nature, mysterious as it + was, was also the last word for simplicity, a terrible simplicity. The + exercise of his singular powers was irrevocably conditioned on his own + faith in the moral justification of what he was doing. He had no patience + with any conception of the lawyer's function that did not make him the + devoted instrument of justice. For the law as a game, for legal strategy, + he felt contempt. Never under any conditions would he attempt to get for a + client more than he was convinced the client in justice ought to have. The + first step in securing his services was always to persuade him that one's + cause was just He sometimes threw up a case in open court because the + course of it had revealed deception on the part of the client. At times he + expressed his disdain of the law's mere commercialism in a stinging irony. + </p> + <p> + "In a closely contested civil suit," writes his associate, Ward Hill + Lamon, "Lincoln proved an account for his client, who was, though he did + not know it at the time, a very slippery fellow. The opposing attorney + then proved a receipt clearly covering the entire cause of action. By the + time he was through Lincoln was missing. The court sent for him to the + hotel. 'Tell the Judge,' said he, 'that I can't come; my hands are dirty + and I came over to clean them.'"(11) + </p> + <p> + "Discourage litigation," he wrote. "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."(12) + </p> + <p> + He held his moral and professional views with the same inflexibility with + which he held his political views. Once he had settled upon a conviction + or an opinion, nothing could move him. He was singularly stubborn, and + yet, in all the minor matters of life, in all his merely personal + concerns, in everything except his basal ideas, he was pliable to a + degree. He could be talked into almost any concession of interest. He once + told Herndon he thanked God that he had not been born a woman because he + found it so hard to refuse any request made of him. His outer easiness, + his lack of self-assertion,—as most people understand + self-assertion,—persist in an amusing group of anecdotes of the + circuit. Though he was a favorite with the company at every tavern, those + little demagogues, the tavern-keepers, quickly found out that he could be + safely put upon. In the minute but important favoritism of tavern life, in + the choice of rooms, in the assignment of seats at table, in the + distribution of delicacies, easy-going Lincoln was ever the first one to + be ignored. "He never complained of the food, bed, or lodgings," says a + judge of the circuit, David Davis. "If every other fellow grumbled at the + bill of fare which greeted us at many of the dingy taverns, Lincoln said + nothing."(13) + </p> + <p> + But his complacency was of the surface only. His ideas were his own. He + held to them with dogged tenacity. Herndon was merely the first of several + who discerned on close familiarity Lincoln's inward inflexibility. "I was + never conscious," he writes, "of having made much of an impression on Mr. + Lincoln, nor do I believe I ever changed his views. I will go further and + say that from the profound nature of his conclusions and the labored + method by which he arrived at them, no man is entitled to the credit of + having either changed or greatly modified them."(14) + </p> + <p> + In these years of the early 'fifties, Herndon had much occasion to test + his partner's indifference to other men's views, his tenacious adherence + to his own. Herndon had become an Abolitionist. He labored to convert + Lincoln; but it was a lost labor. The Sphinx in a glimmer of sunshine was + as unassailable as the cheery, fable-loving, inflexible Lincoln. The + younger man would work himself up, and, flushed with ardor, warn Lincoln + against his apparent conservatism when the needs of the hour were so + great; but his only answer would be, "Billy, you are too rampant and + spontaneous."(15) + </p> + <p> + Nothing could move him from his fixed conviction that the temper of + Abolitionism made it pernicious. He persisted in classifying it with + slavery,—both of equal danger to free institutions. He took occasion + to reassert this belief in the one important utterance of a political + nature that commemorates this period. An oration on the death of Henry + Clay, contains the sentence: "Cast into life when slavery was already + widely spread and deeply sealed, he did not perceive, as I think no wise + man has perceived, how it could be at once eradicated without producing a + greater evil even to the cause of human liberty itself."(16) + </p> + <p> + It will be remembered that the Abolitionists were never strongly national + in sentiment. In certain respects they remind one of the extreme + "internationals" of to-day. Their allegiance was not first of all to + Society, nor to governments, but to abstract ideas. For all such attitudes + in political science, Lincoln had an instinctive aversion. He was + permeated always, by his sense of the community, of the obligation to work + in terms of the community. Even the prejudices, the shortsightedness of + the community were things to be considered, to be dealt with tenderly. + Hence his unwillingness to force reforms upon a community not ripe to + receive them. In one of his greatest speeches occurs the dictum: "A + universal feeling whether well or ill-founded, can not be safely + disregarded."(17) Anticipating such ideas, he made in his Clay oration, a + startling denunciation of both the extreme factions of + </p> + <p> + "Those (Abolitionists) who would shiver into fragments the union of these + States, tear to tatters its now 'venerated Constitution, and even burn the + last copy of the Bible rather than slavery should continue a single hour; + together with all their more halting sympathizers, have received and are + receiving their just execration; and the name and opinion and influence of + Mr. Clay are fully and, as I trust, effectually and enduringly arrayed + against them. But I would also if I could, array his name, opinion and + influence against the opposite extreme, against a few, but increasing + number of men who, for the sake of perpetuating slavery, are beginning to + assail and ridicule the white man's charter of freedom, the declaration + that 'all men are created free and equal.'"(18) + </p> + <p> + In another passage he stated what he conceived to be the central + inspiration of Clay. Had he been thinking of himself, he could not have + foreshadowed more exactly the basal drift of all his future as a + statesman: + </p> + <p> + "He loved his country partly because it was his own country, and mostly + because it was a free country; and he burned with a zeal for its + advancement, prosperity, and glory, because he saw in such the + advancement, prosperity and glory of human liberty, human right and human + nature."(19) + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0008" id="link2H_4_0008"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + VIII. A RETURN TO POLITICS + </h2> + <p> + Meanwhile, great things were coming forward at Washington. They centered + about a remarkable man with whom Lincoln had hitherto formed a curious + parallel, by whom hitherto he had been completely overshadowed. Stephen + Arnold Douglas was prosecuting attorney at Springfield when Lincoln began + the practice of law. They were in the Legislature together. Both courted + Mary Todd. Soon afterward, Douglas had distanced his rival. When Lincoln + went to the House of Representatives as a Whig, Douglas went to the Senate + as a Democrat. While Lincoln was failing at Washington, Douglas was + building a national reputation. In the hubbub that followed the Compromise + of 1850, while Lincoln, abandoning politics, immersed himself in the law, + Douglas rendered a service to the country by defeating a movement in + Illinois to reject the Compromise. When the Democratic National Convention + assembled in 1852, he was sufficiently prominent to obtain a considerable + vote for the presidential nomination. + </p> + <p> + The dramatic contrast of these two began with their physical appearance. + Douglas was so small that he had been known to sit on a friend's knee + while arguing politics. But his energy of mind, his indomitable force of + character, made up for his tiny proportions. "The Little Giant" was a term + of endearment applied to him by his followers. The mental contrast was + equally marked. Scarcely a quality in Lincoln that was not reversed in + Douglas—deliberation, gradualness, introspection, tenacity, were the + characteristics of Lincoln's mind. The mind of Douglas was first of all + facile. He was extraordinarily quick. In political Strategy he could sense + a new situation, wheel to meet it, throw overboard well-established plans, + devise new ones, all in the twinkle of an eye. People who could not + understand such rapidity of judgment pronounced him insincere, or at + least, an opportunist. That he did not have the deep inflexibility of + Lincoln may be assumed; that his convictions, such as they were, did not + have an ethical cast may be safely asserted. Nevertheless, he was a great + force, an immense human power, that did not change its course without good + reason of its own sort. Far more than a mere opportunist. Politically, he + summed up a change that was coming over the Democratic party. Janus-like, + he had two faces, one for his constituents, one for his colleagues. To the + voter he was still a Jeffersonian, with whom the old phraseology of the + party, liberty, equality, and fraternity, were still the catch-words. To + his associates in the Senate he was essentially an aristocrat, laboring to + advance interests that were careless of the rights of man. A later age has + accused the Senate of the United States of being the citadel of Big + Business. Waiving the latter view, the historian may assert that something + suggestive of Big Business appeared in our politics in the 'fifties, and + was promptly made at home in the Senate. Perhaps its first definite + manifestation was a new activity on the part of the great slave-holders. + To invoke again the classifications of later points of view, certain of + our historians to-day think they can see in the 'fifties a virtual slavery + trust, a combine of slave interests controlled by the magnates of the + institution, and having as real, though informal, an existence as has the + Steel Trust or the Beef Trust in our own time. This powerful interest + allied itself with the capitalists of the Northeast. In modern + phraseology, they aimed to "finance" the slave interest from New York. And + for a time the alliance succeeded in doing this. The South went entirely + upon credit. It bought and borrowed heavily in the East New York furnished + the money. + </p> + <p> + Had there been nothing further to consider, the invasion of the Senate by + Big Business in the 'fifties might not have taken place. But there was + something else. Slavery's system of agriculture was excessively wasteful. + To be highly profitable it required virgin soil, and the financial + alliance demanded high profits. Early in the 'fifties, the problem of Big + Business was the acquisition of fresh soil for slavery. The problem + entered politics with the question how could this be brought about without + appearing to contradict democracy? The West also had its incipient Big + Business. It hinged upon railways. Now that California had been acquired, + with a steady stream of migration westward, with all America dazzled more + or less by gold-mines and Pacific trade, a transcontinental railway was a + Western dream. But what course should it take, what favored regions were + to become its immediate beneficiaries? Here was a chance for great + jockeying among business interests in Congress, for slave-holders, + money-lenders, railway promoters to manipulate deals to their hearts' + content. They had been doing so amid a high complication of squabbling, + while Douglas was traveling in Europe during 1853. When he returned late + in the year, the unity of the Democratic machine in Congress was + endangered by these disputes. Douglas at once attacked the problem of + party harmony. He threw himself into the task with all his characteristic + quickness, all his energy and resourcefulness. + </p> + <p> + By this time the problem contained five distinct factors: The upper + Northeast wanted a railroad starting at Chicago. The Central West wanted a + road from St. Louis. The Southwest wanted a road from New Orleans, or at + least, the frustration of the two Northern schemes. Big Business wanted + new soil for slavery. The Compromise of 1850 stood in the way of the + extension of slave territory. + </p> + <p> + If Douglas had had any serious convictions opposed to slavery the last of + the five factors would have brought him to a standstill. Fortunately for + him as a party strategist, he was indifferent. Then, too, he firmly + believed that slavery could never thrive in the West because of climatic + conditions. "Man might propose, but physical geography would dispose."(1) + On both counts it seemed to him immaterial what concessions be made to + slavery extension northwestward. Therefore, he dismissed this + consideration and applied himself to the harmonization of the four + business factors involved. The result was a famous compromise inside a + party. His Kansas-Nebraska Bill created two new territories, one lying + westward from Chicago; one lying westward from St. Louis. It also repealed + the Missouri Compromise and gave the inhabitants of each territory the + right to decide for themselves whether or not slavery should be permitted + in their midst. That is to say, both to the railway promoter and the + slavery financier, it extended equal governmental protection, but it + promised favors to none, and left each faction to rise or fall in the free + competition of private enterprise. Why—was not this, remembering + Douglas's assumptions, a master-stroke? + </p> + <p> + He had expected, of course, denunciation by the Abolitionists. He + considered it immaterial. But he was not in the least prepared for what + happened. A storm burst. It was fiercest in his own State. "Traitor," + "Arnold," "Judas," were the pleasant epithets fired at him in a + bewildering fusillade. He could not understand it. Something other than + mere Abolitionism had been aroused by his great stroke. But what was it? + Why did men who were not Abolitionists raise a hue and cry? Especially, + why did many Democrats do so? Amazed, puzzled, but as always furiously + valiant, Douglas hurried home to join battle with his assailants. He + entered on a campaign of speech-making. On October 3, 1854, he spoke at + Springfield. His enemies, looking about for the strongest popular speaker + they could find, chose Lincoln. The next day he replied to Douglas. + </p> + <p> + The Kansas-Nebraska Bill had not affected any change in Lincoln's + thinking. His steady, consistent development as a political thinker had + gone on chiefly in silence ever since his Protest seventeen years before. + He was still intolerant of Abolitionism, still resolved to leave slavery + to die a natural death in the States where it was established. He defended + the measure which most offended the Abolitionists, the Fugitive Slave Law. + He had appeared as counsel for a man who claimed a runaway slave as his + property.(2) None the less, the Kansas-Nebraska Bill had brought him to + his feet, wheeled him back from law into politics, begun a new chapter. + The springs of action in is case were the factor which Douglas had + overlooked, which in all his calculations he had failed to take into + account, which was destined to destroy him. + </p> + <p> + Lincoln, no less than Douglas, had sensed the fact that money was becoming + a power in American politics. He saw that money and slavery tended to + become allies with the inevitable result of a shift of gravity in the + American social system. "Humanity" had once been the American shibboleth; + it was giving place to a new shibboleth-"prosperity." And the people who + were to control and administer prosperity were the rich. The rights of man + were being superseded by the rights of wealth. Because of its place in + this new coalition of non-democratic influences, slavery, to Lincoln's + mind, was assuming a new role, "beginning," as he had said, in the Clay + oration, "to assail and ridicule the white man's charter of freedom, the + declaration that 'all men are created free and equal.'" + </p> + <p> + That phrase, "the white man's charter of freedom," had become Lincoln's + shibboleth. Various utterances and written fragments of the summer of + 1854, reveal the intensity of his preoccupation. + </p> + <p> + "Equality in society beats inequality, whether the latter be of the + British aristocratic sort or of the domestic slavery sort"(3) + </p> + <p> + "If A can prove, however conclusively, that he may of right enslave B, why + may not B snatch the same argument and prove equally that he may enslave + A? You say A is white and B is black. It is color then; the lighter having + the right to enslave the darker? Take care. By this rule you are to be + slave to the first man you meet with a fairer skin than your own. You do + not mean color exactly? You mean the whites are intellectually the + superiors of the blacks, and therefore have the right to enslave them? + Take care again. By this rule you are to be slave to the first man you + meet with an intellect superior to your own. But, you say, it is a + question of interest, and if you make it your interest, you have the right + to enslave another. Very well. And if he can make it his interest, he has + the right to enslave you."(4) + </p> + <p> + Speaking of slavery to a fellow lawyer, he said: "It is the most + glittering, ostentatious, and displaying property in the world; and now, + if a young man goes courting, the only inquiry is how many negroes he or + his lady love owns. The love of slave property is swallowing up every + other mercenary possession. Its ownership betokened not only the + possession of wealth, but indicated the gentleman of leisure who was above + and scorned labor."(5) + </p> + <p> + It was because of these views, because he saw slavery allying itself with + the spread of plutocratic ideals, that Lincoln entered the battle to + prevent its extension. He did so in his usual cool, determined way. + </p> + <p> + Though his first reply to Douglas was not recorded, his second, made at + Peoria twelve days later, still exists.(6) It is a landmark in his career. + It sums up all his long, slow development in political science, lays the + abiding foundation of everything he thought thereafter. In this great + speech, the end of his novitiate, he rings the changes on the white man's + charter of freedom. He argues that the extension of slavery tends to + discredit republican institutions, and to disappoint "the Liberal party + throughout the world." The heart of his argument is: + </p> + <p> + "Whether slavery shall go into Nebraska or other new Territories is not a + matter of exclusive concern to the people who may go there. The whole + nation is interested that the best use shall be made of these Territories. + We want them for homes for free white people. This they can not be to any + considerable extent, if slavery shall be planted within them. Slave States + are places for poor white people to remove from, not remove to. New Free + States are the places for poor people to go to and better their condition. + For this use the nation needs these Territories." + </p> + <p> + The speech was a masterpiece of simplicity, of lucidity. It showed the + great jury; lawyer at his best. Its temper was as admirable as its logic; + not a touch of anger nor of vituperation. + </p> + <p> + "I have no prejudice against the Southern people," said he. "They are just + what we would be in their situation. If slavery did not exist among them, + they would not introduce it. If it did now exist among us, we should not + instantly give it up. This I believe of the masses North and South. + </p> + <p> + "When Southern people tell us that they are no more responsible for the + origin of slavery than we are, I acknowledge the fact. When it is said + that the institution exists and that it is very difficult to get rid of in + any satisfactory way, I can understand and appreciate the saying. I surely + will not blame them for not doing what I should not know how to do myself. + If all earthly power were given me, I should not know what to do as to the + existing institution." + </p> + <p> + His instinctive aversion to fanaticism found expression in a plea for the + golden mean in politics. + </p> + <p> + "Some men, mostly Whigs, who condemn the repeal of the Missouri + Compromise, nevertheless hesitate to go for its restoration lest they be + thrown in company with the Abolitionists. Will they allow me as an old + Whig, to tell them good-humoredly that I think this is very silly. Stand + with anybody that stands right. Stand with him while he is right and part + with him when he goes wrong. Stand with the Abolitionist in restoring the + Missouri Compromise, and stand against him when he attempts to repeal the + Fugitive Slave Law. In the latter case you stand with the Southern + dis-unionist. What of that? You are still right. In both cases you are + right. In both cases you expose the dangerous extremes. In both you stand + on middle ground and hold the ship level and steady. In both you are + national, and nothing less than national. This is the good old Whig + ground. To desert such ground because of any company is to be less than a + Whig-less than a man-less than an American." + </p> + <p> + These two speeches against Douglas made an immense impression Byron-like, + Lincoln waked up and found himself famous. Thereupon, his ambition + revived. A Senator was to be chosen that autumn. Why might not this be the + opportunity to retrieve his failure in Congress? Shortly after the Peoria + speech, he was sending out notes like this to prominent politicians: + </p> + <p> + "Dear Sir: You used to express a good deal of partiality for me, and if + you are still so, now is the time. Some friends here are really for me for + the United States Senate, and I should be very grateful if you could make + a mark for me among your members (of the Legislature)."(7) + </p> + <p> + When the Legislature assembled, it was found to comprise four groups: the + out-and-out Democrats who would stand by Douglas through thick and thin, + and vote only for his nominee; the bolting Democrats who would not vote + for a Douglas man, but whose party rancor was so great that they would + throw their votes away rather than give them to a Whig; such enemies of + Douglas as were willing to vote for a Whig; the remainder. + </p> + <p> + The Democrats supported Governor Matteson; the candidate of the second + group was Lyman Trumbull; the Whigs supported Lincoln. After nine exciting + ballots, Matteson had forty-seven votes, Trumbull thirty-five, Lincoln + fifteen. As the bolting Democrats were beyond compromise, Lincoln + determined to sacrifice himself in order to defeat Matteson. Though the + fifteen protested against deserting him, he required them to do so. On the + tenth ballot, they transferred their votes to Trumbull and he was + elected.(8) + </p> + <p> + Douglas had met his first important defeat. His policy had been repudiated + in his own State. And it was Lincoln who had formulated the argument + against him, who had held the balance of power, and had turned the scale. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0009" id="link2H_4_0009"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + IX. THE LITERARY STATESMAN + </h2> + <p> + Lincoln had found at last a mode and an opportunity for concentrating all + his powers in a way that could have results. He had discovered himself as + a man of letters. The great speeches of 1854 were not different in a way + from the previous speeches that were without results. And yet they were + wholly different. Just as Lincoln's version of an old tale made of that + tale a new thing, so Lincoln's version of an argument made of it a + different thing from other men's versions. The oratory of 1854 was not + state-craft in any ordinary sense. It was art Lincoln the artist, who had + slowly developed a great literary faculty, had chanced after so many + rebuffs on good fortune. His cause stood in urgent need of just what he + could give. It was one of those moments when a new political force, having + not as yet any opening for action, finds salvation in the phrase-maker, in + the literary artist who can embody it in words. + </p> + <p> + During the next five years and more, Lincoln was the recognized offset to + Douglas. His fame spread from Illinois in both directions. He was called + to Iowa and to Ohio as the advocate of all advocates who could undo the + effect of Douglas. His fame traveled eastward. The culmination of the + period of literary leadership was his famous speech at Cooper Union in + February, 1860. + </p> + <p> + It was inevitable that he should go along with the antislavery coalition + which adopted the name of the Republican party. But his natural + deliberation kept him from being one of its founders. An attempt of its + founders to appropriate him after the triumph at Springfield, in October, + 1854, met with a rebuff.(1) Nearly a year and a half went by before he + affiliated himself with the new party. But once having made up his mind, + he went forward wholeheartedly. At the State Convention of Illinois + Republicans in 1856 he made a speech that has not been recorded but which + is a tradition for moving oratory. That same year a considerable number of + votes were cast for Lincoln for Vice-President in the Republican National + Convention. + </p> + <p> + But all these were mere details. The great event of the years between 1854 + and 1860 was his contest with Douglas. It was a battle of wits, a great + literary duel. Fortunately for Lincoln, his part was played altogether on + his own soil, under conditions in which he was entirely at his ease, where + nothing conspired with his enemy to embarrass him. + </p> + <p> + Douglas had a far more difficult task. Unforeseen complications rapidly + forced him to change his policy, to meet desertion and betrayal in his own + ranks. These were terrible years when fierce events followed one another + in quick succession—the rush of both slave-holders and abolitionists + into Kansas; the cruel war along the Wakarusa River; the sack of Lawrence + by the pro-slavery party; the massacre by John Brown at Pottawatomie; the + diatribes of Sumner in the Senate; the assault on Sumner by Brooks. In the + midst of this carnival of ferocity came the Dred Scott decision, cutting + under the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, denying to the people of a Territory the + right to legislate on slavery, and giving to all slave-holders the right + to settle with their slaves anywhere they pleased outside a Free State. + This famous decision repudiated Douglas's policy of leaving all such + questions to local autonomy and to private enterprise. For a time Douglas + made no move to save his policy. But when President Buchanan decided to + throw the influence of the Administration on the side of the pro-slavery + party in Kansas, Douglas was up in arms. When it was proposed to admit + Kansas with a constitution favoring slavery, but which had not received + the votes of a majority of the inhabitants, Douglas voted with the + Republicans to defeat admission. Whereupon the Democratic party machine + and the Administration turned upon him without mercy. He stood alone in a + circle of enemies. At no other time did he show so many of the qualities + of a great leader. Battling with Lincoln in the popular forum on the one + hand, he was meeting daily on the other assaults by a crowd of brilliant + opponents in Congress. At the same time he was playing a consummate game + of political strategy, struggling against immense odds to recover his hold + on Illinois. The crisis would come in 1858 when he would have to go before + the Legislature for reelection. He knew well enough who his opponent would + be. At every turn there fell across his path the shadow of a cool sinister + figure, his relentless enemy. It was Lincoln. On the struggle with Lincoln + his whole battle turned. + </p> + <p> + Abandoned by his former allies, his one hope was the retention of his + constituency. To discredit Lincoln, to twist and discredit all his + arguments, was for Douglas a matter of life and death. He struck + frequently with great force, but sometimes with more fury than wisdom. + Many a time the unruffled coolness of Lincoln brought to nothing what was + meant for a deadly thrust. Douglas took counsel of despair and tried to + show that Lincoln was preaching the amalgamation of the white and black + races. "I protest," Lincoln replied, "against the counterfeit logic which + says that because I do not want a black woman for a slave, I must + necessarily want her for a wife. I need not have her for either. I can + just leave her alone. In some respects she certainly is not my equal; but + in her natural right to eat the bread she earns with her own hands without + asking leave of any one else, she is my equal and the equal of all + others."(2) Any false move made by Douglas, any rash assertion, was sure + to be seized upon by that watchful enemy in Illinois. In attempting to + defend himself on two fronts at once, defying both the Republicans and the + Democratic machine, Douglas made his reckless declaration that all he + wanted was a fair vote by the people of Kansas; that for himself he did + not care how they settled the matter, whether slavery was voted up or + voted down. With relentless skill, Lincoln developed the implications of + this admission, drawing forth from its confessed indifference to the + existence of slavery, a chain of conclusions that extended link by link to + a belief in reopening the African slave trade. This was done in his speech + accepting the Republican nomination for the Senate. In the same speech he + restated his general position in half a dozen sentences that became at + once a classic statement for the whole Republican party: "A house divided + against itself can not stand. I believe this government can not endure + permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be + dissolved. I do not expect the house to fall, but I do expect it will + cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. Either + the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it and place it + where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of + ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward till it shall + become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new, North as well + as South."(3) + </p> + <p> + The great duel was rapidly approaching its climax. What was in reality no + more than the last round has appropriated a label that ought to have a + wider meaning and is known as the Lincoln-Douglas Debates. The two + candidates made a joint tour of the State, debating their policies in + public at various places during the summer and autumn of 1858. + </p> + <p> + Properly considered, these famous speeches closed Lincoln's life as an + orator. The Cooper Union speech was an isolated aftermath in alien + conditions, a set performance not quite in his true vein. His brief + addresses of the later years were incidental; they had no combative + element. Never again was he to attempt to sway an audience for an + immediate stake through the use of the spoken word. "A brief description + of Mr. Lincoln's appearance on the stump and of his manner when speaking," + as Herndon aptly remarks, "may not be without interest. When standing + erect, he was six feet four inches high. He was lean in flesh and ungainly + in figure. Aside from his sad, pained look, due to habitual melancholy, + his face had no characteristic or fixed expression. He was thin through + the chest and hence slightly stoop-shouldered. . . . At first he was very + awkward and it seemed a real labor to adjust himself to his surroundings. + He struggled for a time under a feeling of apparent diffidence and + sensitiveness, and these only added to his awkwardness.... When he began + speaking his voice was shrill, piping and unpleasant. His manner, his + attitude, his dark yellow face, wrinkled and dry, his oddity of pose, his + diffident movements; everything seemed to be against him, but only for a + short time. . . . As he proceeded, he became somewhat more animated. . . . + He did not gesticulate as much with his hands as with his head. He used + the latter frequently, throwing it with him, this way and that. . . . He + never sawed the air nor rent space into tatters and rags, as some orators + do. He never acted for stage effect. He was cool, considerate, reflective—in + time, self-possessed and self-reliant. . . . As he moved along in his + speech he became freer and less uneasy in his movements; to that extent he + was graceful. He had a perfect naturalness, a strong individuality, and to + that extent he was dignified. . . . He spoke with effectiveness—and + to move the judgment as well as the emotion of men. There was a world of + meaning and emphasis in the long, bony finger of the right hand as he + dotted the ideas on the minds of his hearers. . . . He always stood + squarely on his feet. . . . He neither touched nor leaned on anything for + support. He never ranted, never walked backward and forward on the + platform. . . . As he proceeded with his speech, the exercise of his vocal + organs altered somewhat the pitch of his voice. It lost in a measure its + former acute and shrilling pitch and mellowed into a more harmonious and + pleasant sound. His form expanded, and notwithstanding the sunken breast, + he rose up a splendid and imposing figure. . . . His little gray eyes + flashed in a face aglow with the fire of his profound thoughts; and his + uneasy movements and diffident manner sunk themselves beneath the wave of + righteous indignation that came sweeping over him."(4) + </p> + <p> + A wonderful dramatic contrast were these two men, each in his way so + masterful, as they appeared in the famous debates. By good fortune we have + a portrait of Douglas the orator, from the pen of Mrs. Stowe, who had + observed him with reluctant admiration from the gallery of the Senate. + "This Douglas is the very ideal of vitality. Short, broad, thick-set, + every inch of him has its own alertness and motion. He has a good head, + thick black hair, heavy black brows, and a keen face. His figure would be + an unfortunate one were it not for the animation that constantly pervades + it. As it is it rather gives poignancy to his peculiar appearance; he has + a small handsome hand, moreover, and a graceful as well as forcible mode + of using it. . . . He has two requisites of a debater, a melodious voice + and clear, sharply defined enunciation. His forte in debating is his power + of mystifying the point. With the most offhand assured airs in the world, + and a certain appearance of honest superiority, like one who has a regard + for you and wishes to set you right on one or two little matters, he + proceeds to set up some point which is not that in question, but only a + family connection of it, and this point he attacks with the very best of + logic and language; he charges upon it, horse and foot, runs it down, + tramples it in the dust, and then turns upon you with 'See, there is your + argument. Did I not tell you so? You see it is all stuff.' And if you have + allowed yourself to be so dazzled by his quickness as to forget that the + routed point is not, after all, the one in question, you suppose all is + over with it. Moreover, he contrives to mingle up so many stinging + allusions, so many piquant personalities, that by the time he has done his + mystification, a dozen others are ready and burning to spring on their + feet to repel some direct or indirect attack all equally wide of the + point." + </p> + <p> + The mode of travel of the two contestants heightened the contrast. George + B. McClellan, a young engineer officer who had recently resigned from the + army and was now general superintendent of the Illinois Central Railroad, + gave Douglas his private car and a special train. Lincoln traveled any way + he could-in ordinary passenger trains, or even in the caboose of a freight + train. A curious symbolization of Lincoln's belief that the real conflict + was between the plain people and organized money! + </p> + <p> + The debates did not develop new ideas. It was a literary duel, each leader + aiming to restate himself in the most telling, popular way. For once that + superficial definition of art applied: "What oft was thought but ne'er so + well expressed." Nevertheless the debates contained an incident that + helped to make history. Though Douglas was at war with the Administration, + it was not certain that the quarrel might not be made up. There was no + other leader who would be so formidable at the head of a reunited + Democratic party. Lincoln pondered the question, how could the rift + between Douglas and the Democratic machine be made irrevocable? And now a + new phase of Lincoln appeared. It was the political strategist He saw that + if he would disregard his own chance of election-as he had done from a + simpler motive four years before—he could drive Douglas into a + dilemma from which there was no real escape. He confided his purpose to + his friends; they urged him not to do it. But he had made up his mind as + he generally did, without consultation, in the silence of his own + thoughts, and once having made it up, he was inflexible. + </p> + <p> + At Freeport, Lincoln made the move which probably lost him the + Senatorship. He asked a question which if Douglas answered it one way + would enable him to recover the favor of Illinois but would lose him + forever the favor of the slave-holders; but which, if he answered it + another way might enable him to make his peace at Washington but would + certainly lose him Illinois. The question 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?"(5) In other words, is the Dred Scott decision good + law? Is it true that a slave-holder can take his slaves into Kansas if the + people of Kansas want to keep him out? + </p> + <p> + Douglas saw the trap. With his instantaneous facility he tried to cloud + the issue and extricate himself through evasion in the very manner Mrs. + Stowe has described. While dodging a denial of the court's authority, he + insisted that his doctrine of local autonomy was still secure because + through police regulation the local legislature could foster or strangle + slavery, just as they pleased, no matter "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." + </p> + <p> + As Lincoln's friends had foreseen, this matchless performance of carrying + water on both shoulders caught the popular fancy; Douglas was reelected to + the Senate. As Lincoln had foreseen, it killed him as a Democratic leader; + it prevented the reunion of the Democratic party. The result appeared in + 1860 when the Republicans, though still a minority party, carried the day + because of the bitter divisions among the Democrats. That was what Lincoln + foresaw when he said to his fearful friends while they argued in vain to + prevent his asking the question at Free-port. "I am killing larger game; + the great battle of 1860 is worth a thousand of this senatorial race."(6) + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0010" id="link2H_4_0010"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + X. THE DARK HORSE + </h2> + <p> + One of the most curious things in Lincoln is the way his confidence in + himself came and went. He had none of Douglas's unwavering self-reliance. + Before the end, to be sure, he attained a type of self-reliance, higher + and more imperturbable. But this was not the fruit of a steadfast + unfolding. Rather, he was like a tree with its alternating periods of + growth and pause, now richly in leaf, now dormant. Equally applicable is + the other familiar image of the successive waves. + </p> + <p> + The clue seems to have been, in part at least, a matter of vitality. Just + as Douglas emanated vitality—so much so that his aura filled the + whole Senate chamber and forced an unwilling response in the gifted but + hostile woman who watched him from the gallery—Lincoln, conversely, + made no such overpowering impression. His observers, however much they + have to say about his humor, his seasons of Shakespearian mirth, never + forget their impression that at heart he is sad. His fondness for poetry + in the minor key has become a byword, especially the line "Oh, why should + the spirit of mortal be proud." + </p> + <p> + It is impossible to discover any law governing the succession of his + lapses in self-reliance. But they may be related very plausibly to his + sense of failure or at least to his sense of futility. He was one of those + intensely sensitive natures to whom the futilities of this world are its + most discouraging feature. Whenever such ideas were brought home to him + his energy flagged; his vitality, never high, sank. He was prone to turn + away from the outward life to lose himself in the inner. All this is part + of the phenomena which Herndon perceived more clearly than he comprehended + it, which led him to call Lincoln a fatalist. + </p> + <p> + A humbler but perhaps more accurate explanation is the reminder that he + was son to Thomas the unstable. What happened in Lincoln's mind when he + returned defeated from Washington, that ghost-like rising of the impulses + of old Thomas, recurred more than once thereafter. In fact there is a + period well-defined, a span of thirteen years terminating suddenly on a + day in 1862, during which the ghost of old Thomas is a thing to be + reckoned with in his son's life. It came and went, most of the time + fortunately far on the horizon. But now and then it drew near. Always it + was lurking somewhere, waiting to seize upon him in those moments when his + vitality sank, when his energies were in the ebb, when his thoughts were + possessed by a sense of futility. + </p> + <p> + The year 1859 was one of his ebb tides. In the previous year the rising + tide, which had mounted high during his success on the circuit, reached + its crest The memory of his failure at Washington was effaced. At Freeport + he was a more powerful genius, a more dominant personality, than he had + ever been. Gradually, in the months following, the high wave subsided. + During 1859 he gave most of his attention to his practice. Though + political speech-making continued, and though he did not impair his + reputation, he did nothing of a remarkable sort. The one literary fragment + of any value is a letter to a Boston committee that had invited him to + attend a "festival" in Boston on Jefferson's birthday. He avowed himself a + thoroughgoing disciple of Jefferson and pronounced the principles of + Jefferson "the definitions and axioms of free society." Without conditions + he identified his own cause with the cause of Jefferson, "the man who in + the concrete pressure of a struggle for national independence by a single + people, had the coolness, forecast and capacity to introduce into a merely + revolutionary document, an abstract truth, applicable to all men and all + times, and so to embalm it there that today and in all coming days, it + shall be a rebuke and a stumbling-block to the very harbingers of + reappearing tyranny and oppression."(1) + </p> + <p> + While the Boston committee were turning their eyes toward this great new + phrase-maker of the West, several politicians in Illinois had formed a + bold resolve. They would try to make him President. The movement had two + sources—the personal loyalty of his devoted friends of the circuit, + the shrewdness of the political managers who saw that his duel with + Douglas had made him a national figure. As one of them said to him, + "Douglas being so widely known, you are getting a national reputation + through him." Lincoln replied that he did not lack the ambition but lacked + altogether the confidence in the possibility of success.(2) + </p> + <p> + This was his attitude during most of 1859. The glow, the enthusiasm, of + the previous year was gone. "I must in candor say that I do not think + myself fit for the Presidency," he wrote to a newspaper editor in April. + He used the same words to another correspondent in July. As late as + November first, he wrote, "For my single self, I have enlisted for the + permanent success of the Republican cause, and for this object I shall + labor faithfully in the ranks, unless, as I think not probable, the + judgment of the party shall assign me a different position."(3) + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile, both groups of supporters had labored unceasingly, regardless + of his approval. In his personal following, the companionableness of + twenty years had deepened into an almost romantic loyalty. The leaders of + this enthusiastic attachment, most of them lawyers, had no superiors for + influence in Illinois. The man who had such a following was a power in + politics whether he would or no. This the mere politicians saw. They also + saw that the next Republican nomination would rest on a delicate + calculation of probabilities. There were other Republicans more + conspicuous than Lincoln—Seward in New York, Sumner in + Massachusetts, Chase in Ohio—but all these had inveterate enemies. + Despite their importance would it be safe to nominate them? Would not the + party be compelled to take some relatively minor figure, some essentially + new man? In a word, what we know as a "dark horse." Believing that this + would happen, they built hopefully on their faith in Lincoln. + </p> + <p> + Toward the end of the year he was at last persuaded to take his candidacy + seriously. The local campaign for his nomination had gone so far that a + failure to go further would have the look of being discarded as the local + Republican leader. This argument decided him. Before the year's end he had + agreed to become a candidate before the convention. In his own words, "I + am not in a position where it would hurt much for me to not be nominated + on the national ticket; but I am where it would hurt some for me to not + get the Illinois delegates."(4) + </p> + <p> + It was shortly after this momentous decision that he went to New York by + invitation and made his most celebrated, though not in any respect his + greatest, oration.(5) A large audience filled Cooper Union, February 27, + 1860. William Cullen Bryant presided. David Dudley Field escorted Lincoln + to the platform. Horace Greeley was in the audience. Again, the + performance was purely literary. No formulation of new policies, no appeal + for any new departure. It was a masterly restatement of his position; of + the essence of the debates with Douglas. It cleansed the Republican + platform of all accidental accretions, as if a ship's hull were being + scraped of barnacles preparatory to a voyage; it gave the underlying + issues such inflexible definition that they could not be juggled with. + Again he showed a power of lucid statement not possessed by any of his + rivals. An incident of the speech was his unsparing condemnation of John + Brown whose raid and death were on every tongue. "You charge that we stir + up insurrections among your slaves," said he, apostrophizing the + slave-holders. "We deny it, and what is your proof? 'Harper's Ferry; John + Brown!' John Brown was no Republican; and you have failed to implicate a + single Republican in this Harper's Ferry enterprise. . . + </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 that 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 the people until 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> + <p> + The Cooper Union speech received extravagant praise from all the + Republican newspapers. Lincoln's ardent partisans assert that it took New + York "by storm." Rather too violent a way of putting it! But there can be + no doubt that the speech made a deep impression. Thereafter, many of the + Eastern managers were willing to consider Lincoln as a candidate, should + factional jealousies prove uncompromising. Any port in a storm, you know. + Obviously, there could be ports far more dangerous than this "favorite + son" of Illinois. + </p> + <p> + Many national conventions in the United States have decided upon a + compromise candidate, "a dark horse," through just such reasoning. The + most noted instance is the Republican Convention of 1860. When it + assembled at Chicago in June, the most imposing candidate was the + brilliant leader of the New York Republicans, Seward. But no man in the + country had more bitter enemies. Horace Greeley whose paper The Tribune + was by far the most influential Republican organ, went to Chicago obsessed + by one purpose: because of irreconcilable personal quarrels he would have + revenge upon Seward. Others who did not hate Seward were afraid of what + Greeley symbolized. And all of them knew that whatever else happened, the + West must be secured. + </p> + <p> + The Lincoln managers played upon the Eastern jealousies and the Eastern + fears with great skill. There was little sleep among the delegates the + night previous to the balloting. At just the right moment, the Lincoln + managers, though their chief had forbidden them to do so, offered promises + with regard to Cabinet appointments.(6) And they succeeded in packing the + galleries of the Convention Hall with a perfectly organized + claque-"rooters," the modern American would say. + </p> + <p> + The result on the third ballot was a rush to Lincoln of all the enemies of + Seward, and Lincoln's nomination amid a roaring frenzy of applause. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0011" id="link2H_4_0011"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XI. SECESSION + </h2> + <p> + After twenty-three years of successive defeats, Lincoln, almost + fortuitously, was at the center of the political maelstrom. The clue to + what follows is in the way he had developed during that long discouraging + apprenticeship to greatness. Mentally, he had always been in isolation. + Socially, he had lived in a near horizon. The real tragedy of his failure + at Washington was in the closing against him of the opportunity to know + his country as a whole. Had it been Lincoln instead of Douglas to whom + destiny had given a residence at Washington during the 'fifties, it is + conceivable that things might have been different in the 'sixties. On the + other hand, America would have lost its greatest example of the artist in + politics. + </p> + <p> + And without that artist, without his extraordinary literary gift, his + party might not have consolidated in 1860. A very curious party it was. It + had sprung to life as a denial, as a device for halting Douglas. Lincoln's + doctrine of the golden mean, became for once a political power. Men of the + most diverse views on other issues accepted in their need the axiom: + "Stand with anybody so long as he stands right." And standing right, for + that moment in the minds of them all, meant keeping slavery and the money + power from devouring the territories. + </p> + <p> + The artist of the movement expressed them all in his declaration that the + nation needed the Territories to give home and opportunity to free white + people. Even the Abolitionists, who hitherto had refused to make common + cause with any other faction, entered the negative coalition of the new + party. So did Whigs, and anti-slavery Democrats, as well as other factions + then obscure which we should now label Socialists and Labormen. + </p> + <p> + However, this coalition, which in origin was purely negative, revealed, + the moment it coalesced, two positive features. To the man of the near + horizon in 1860 neither of these features seemed of first importance. To + the man outside that horizon, seeing them in perspective as related to the + sum total of American life, they had a significance he did not entirely + appreciate. + </p> + <p> + The first of these was the temper of the Abolitionists. Lincoln ignored + it. He was content with his ringing assertion of the golden mean. But + there spoke the man of letters rather than the statesman. Of temper in + politics as an abstract idea, he had been keenly conscious from the first; + but his lack of familiarity with political organizations kept him from + assigning full value to the temper of any one factor as affecting the + joint temper of the whole group. It was appointed for him to learn this in + a supremely hard way and to apply the lesson with wonderful audacity. But + in 1860 that stern experience still slept in the future. He had no + suspicion as yet that he might find it difficult to carry out his own + promise to stand with the Abolitionists in excluding slavery from the + Territories, and to stand against them in enforcing the Fugitive Slave + Law. He did not yet see why any one should doubt the validity of this + promise; why any one should be afraid to go along with him, afraid that + the temper of one element would infect the whole coalition. + </p> + <p> + But this fear that Lincoln did not allow for, possessed already a great + many minds. Thousands of Southerners, of the sort whom Lincoln credited + with good intentions about slavery, feared the Abolitionists Not because + the Abolitionists wanted to destroy slavery, but because they wanted to do + so fiercely, cruelly. Like Lincoln, these Southerners who were liberals in + thought and moderates in action, did not know what to do about slavery. + Like Lincoln, they had but one fixed idea with regard to it,—slavery + must not be terminated violently. Lincoln, despite his near horizon, + sensed them correctly as not being at one with the great plutocrats who + wished to exploit slavery. But when the Abolitionist poured out the same + fury of vituperation on every sort of slave-holder; when he promised his + soul that it should yet have the joy of exulting in the ruin of all such, + the moderate Southerners became as flint. When the Abolitionists + proclaimed their affiliation with the new party, the first step was taken + toward a general Southern coalition to stop the Republican advance. + </p> + <p> + There was another positive element blended into the negative coalition. In + 1857, the Republicans overruling the traditions of those members who had + once been Democrats, set their faces toward protection. To most of the + Northerners the fatefulness of the step was not obvious. Twenty years had + passed since a serious tariff controversy had shaken the North. Financial + difficulties in the 'fifties were more prevalent in the North than in the + South. Business was in a quandary. Labor was demanding better + opportunities. Protection as a solution, or at least as a palliative, + seemed to the mass of the Republican coalition, even to the former + Democrats for all their free trade traditions, not outrageous. To the + Southerners it was an alarm bell. The Southern world was agricultural; its + staple was cotton; the bulk of its market was in England. Ever since 1828, + the Southern mind had been constantly on guard with regard to tariff, + unceasingly fearful that protection would be imposed on it by Northern and + Western votes. To have to sell its cotton in England at free trade values, + but at the same time to have to buy its commodities at protected values + fixed by Northern manufacturers—what did that mean but the despotism + of one section over another? When the Republicans took up protection as + part of their creed, a general Southern coalition was rendered almost + inevitable. + </p> + <p> + This, Lincoln {Missing text}. Again it is to be accounted for in part by + his near horizon. Had he lived at Washington, had he met, frequently, + Southern men; had he passed those crucial years of the 'fifties in debates + with political leaders rather than in story-telling tournaments on the + circuit; perhaps all this would have been otherwise. But one can not be + quite sure. Finance never appealed to him. A wide application may be given + to Herndon's remark that "he had no money sense." All the rest of the + Republican doctrine finds its best statement in Lincoln. On the one + subject of its economic policy he is silent. Apparently it is to be + classified with the routine side of the law. To neither was he ever able + to give more than a perfunctory attention. As an artist in politics he had + the defect of his qualities. + </p> + <p> + What his qualities showed him were two things: the alliance of the + plutocratic slave power with the plutocratic money power, and the + essential rightness in impulse of the bulk of the Southern people. Hence + his conclusion which became his party's conclusion: that, in the South, a + political-financial ring was dominating a leaderless people, This was not + the truth. Lincoln's defects in 1860 limited his vision. Nevertheless, to + the solitary distant thinker, shut in by the near horizon of political + Springfield, there was every excuse for the error. The palpable evidence + all confirmed it. What might have contradicted it was a cloud of + witnesses, floating, incidental, casual, tacit. Just what a nature like + Lincoln's, if only he could have met them, would have perceived and + comprehended; what a nature like Douglas's, no matter how plainly they + were presented to him, could neither perceive nor comprehend. It was the + irony of fate that an opportunity to fathom his time was squandered upon + the unseeing Douglas, while to the seeing Lincoln it was denied. In a + word, the Southern reaction against the Republicans, like the Republican + movement itself, had both a positive and a negative side. It was the + positive side that could be seen and judged at long range. And this was + what Lincoln saw, which appeared to him to have created the dominant issue + in 1860. + </p> + <p> + The negative side of the Southern movement he did not see. He was too far + away to make out the details of the picture. Though he may have known from + the census of 1850 that only one-third of the Southern whites were members + of slave-holding families, he could scarcely have known that only a small + minority of the Southern families owned as many as five slaves; that those + who had fortunes in slaves were a mere handful—just as today those + who have fortunes in steel or beef are mere handfuls. But still less did + he know how entirely this vast majority which had so little, if any, + interest in slavery, had grown to fear and distrust the North. They, like + him, were suffering from a near horizon. They, too, were applying the + principle "Stand with anybody so long as he stands right" But for them, + standing right meant preventing a violent revolution in Southern life. + Indifferent as they were to slavery, they were willing to go along with + the "slave-barons" in the attempt to consolidate the South in a movement + of denial—a denial of the right of the North, either through + Abolitionism or through tariff, to dominate the South. + </p> + <p> + If only Lincoln with his subtle mind could have come into touch with the + negative side of the Southern agitation! It was the other side, the + positive side, that was vocal. With immense shrewdness the profiteers of + slavery saw and developed their opportunity. They organized the South. + They preached on all occasions, in all connections, the need of all + Southerners to stand together, no matter how great their disagreements, in + order to prevent the impoverishment of the South by hostile economic + legislation. During the late 'fifties their propaganda for an all-Southern + policy, made slow but constant headway. But even in 1859 these ideas were + still far from controlling the South. + </p> + <p> + And then came John Brown. The dread of slave insurrection was laid deep in + Southern recollection. Thirty years before, the Nat Turner Rebellion had + filled a portion of Virginia with burned plantation houses amid whose + ruins lay the dead bodies of white women. A little earlier, a negro + conspiracy at Charleston planned the murder of white men and the parceling + out of white women among the conspirators. And John Brown had come into + Virginia at the head of a band of strangers calling upon the slaves to + rise and arm. + </p> + <p> + Here was a supreme opportunity. The positive Southern force, the slave + profiteers, seized at once the attitude of champions of the South. It was + easy enough to enlist the negative force in a shocked and outraged + denunciation of everything Northern. And the Northern extremists did all + that was in their power to add fuel to the flame. Emerson called Brown + "this new saint who had made the gallows glorious as the cross." The + Southerners, hearing that, thought of the conspiracy to parcel out the + white women of Charleston. Early in 1860 it seemed as if the whole South + had but one idea-to part company with the North. + </p> + <p> + No wonder Lincoln threw all his influence into the scale to discredit the + memory of Brown. No wonder the Republicans in their platform carefully + repudiated him. They could not undo the impression made on the Southern + mind by two facts: the men who lauded Brown as a new saint were voting the + Republican ticket; the Republicans had committed themselves to the + anti-Southern policy of protection. + </p> + <p> + And yet, in spite of all the labors of pro-slavery extremists, the + movement for a breach with the North lost ground during 1860. When the + election came, the vote for President revealed a singular and unforeseen + situation. Four candidates were in the field. The Democrats, split into + two by the issue of slavery expansion, formed two parties. The slave + profiteers secured the nomination by one faction of John C. Breckinridge. + The moderate Democrats who would neither fight nor favor slavery, + nominated Douglas. The most peculiar group was the fourth. They included + all those who would not join the Republicans for fear of the temper of the + Abolition-members, but who were not promoters of slavery, and who + distrusted Douglas. They had no program but to restore the condition of + things that existed before the Nebraska Bill. About four million five + hundred thousand votes were cast. Lincoln had less than two million, and + all but about twenty-four thousand of these were in the Free States. + However, the disposition of Lincoln's vote gave him the electoral college. + He was chosen President by the votes of a minority of the nation. But + there was another minority vote which as events turned out, proved equally + significant. Breckinridge, the symbol of the slave profiteers, and of all + those whom they had persuaded to follow them, had not been able to carry + the popular vote of the South. They were definitely in the minority in + their own section. The majority of the Southerners had so far reacted from + the wild alarms of the beginning of the year that they refused to go along + with the candidates of the extremists. They were for giving the Union + another trial. The South itself had repudiated the slave profiteers. + </p> + <p> + This was the immensely significant fact of November, 1860. It made a great + impression on the whole country. For the moment it made the fierce talk of + the Southern extremists inconsequential. Buoyant Northerners, such as + Seward, felt that the crisis was over; that the South had voted for a + reconciliation; that only tact was needed to make everybody happy. When, a + few weeks after the election, Seward said that all would be merry again + inside of ninety days, his illusion had for its foundation the Southern + rejection of the slave profiteers. + </p> + <p> + Unfortunately, Seward did not understand the precise significance of the + thought of the moderate South. He did not understand that while the South + had voted to send Breckinridge and his sort about their business, it was + still deeply alarmed, deeply fearful that after all it might at any minute + be forced to call them back, to make common cause with them against what + it regarded as an alien and destructive political power, the Republicans. + This was the Southern reservation, the unspoken condition of the vote + which Seward—and for that matter, Lincoln, also,—failed to + comprehend. Because of these cross-purposes, because the Southern alarm + was based on another thing than the standing or falling of slavery, the + situation called for much more than tact, for profound psychological + statesmanship. + </p> + <p> + And now emerges out of the complexities of the Southern situation a + powerful personality whose ideas and point of view Lincoln did not + understand. Robert Barnwell Rhett had once been a man of might in + politics. Twice he had very nearly rent the Union asunder. In 1844, again + in 1851, he had come to the very edge of persuading South Carolina to + secede. In each case he sought to organize the general discontent of the + South,—its dread of a tariff, and of Northern domination. After his + second failure, his haughty nature took offense at fortune. He resigned + his seat in the Senate and withdrew to private life. But he was too large + and too bold a character to attain obscurity. Nor would his restless + genius permit him to rust in ease. During the troubled 'fifties, he + watched from a distance, but with ever increasing interest, that negative + Southern force which he, in the midst of it, comprehended, while it + drifted under the wing of the extremists. As he did so, the old arguments, + the old ambitions, the old hopes revived. In 1851 his cry to the South was + to assert itself as a Separate nation—not for any one reason, but + for many reasons—and to lead its own life apart from the North. It + was an age of brilliant though ill-fated revolutionary movements in + Europe. Kossuth and the gallant Hungarian attempt at independence had + captivated the American imagination. Rhett dreamed of seeing the South do + what Hungary had failed to do. He thought of the problem as a medieval + knight would have thought, in terms of individual prowess, with the modern + factors, economics and all their sort, left on one side. "Smaller nations + (than South Carolina)," he said in 1851, "have striven for freedom against + greater odds." + </p> + <p> + In 1860 he had concluded that his third chance had come. He would try once + more to bring about secession. To split the Union, he would play into the + hands of the slave-barons. He would aim to combine with their movement the + negative Southern movement and use the resulting coalition to crown with + success his third attempt. Issuing from his seclusion, he became at once + the overshadowing figure in South Carolina. Around him all the elements of + revolution crystallized. He was sixty years old; seasoned and + uncompromising in the pursuit of his one ideal, the independence of the + South. His arguments were the same which he had used in 1844, in 1851: the + North would impoverish the South; it threatens to impose a crushing + tribute in the shape of protection; it seeks to destroy slavery; it aims + to bring about economic collapse; in the wreck thus produced, everything + that is beautiful, charming, distinctive in Southern life will be lost; + let us fight! With such a leader, the forces of discontent were quickly, + effectively, organized. Even before the election of Lincoln, the + revolutionary leaders in South Carolina were corresponding with men of + like mind in other Southern States, especially Alabama, where was another + leader, Yancey, only second in intensity to Rhett. + </p> + <p> + The word from these Alabama revolutionists to South Carolina was to dare + all, to risk seceding alone, confident that the other States of the South + would follow. Rhett and his new associates took this perilous advice. The + election was followed by the call of a convention of delegates of the + people of South Carolina. This convention, on the twentieth of December, + 1860, repealed the laws which united South Carolina with the other States + and proclaimed their own independent. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0012" id="link2H_4_0012"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XII. THE CRISIS + </h2> + <p> + Though Seward and other buoyant natures felt that the crisis had passed + with the election, less volatile people held the opposite view. Men who + had never before taken seriously the Southern threats of disunion had + waked suddenly to a terrified consciousness that they were in for it. In + their blindness to realities earlier in the year, they were like that + brilliant host of camp followers which, as Thackeray puts it, led the army + of Wellington dancing and feasting to the very brink of Waterloo. And now + the day of reckoning had come. An emotional reaction carried them from one + extreme to the other; from self-sufficient disregard of their adversaries + to an almost self-abasing regard. + </p> + <p> + The very type of these people and of their reaction was Horace Greeley. He + was destined many times to make plain that he lived mainly in his + sensibilities; that, in his kaleidoscopic vision, the pattern of the world + could be red and yellow and green today, and orange and purple and blue + tomorrow. To descend from a pinnacle of self-complacency into a desolating + abyss of panic, was as easy for Greeley as it is—in the vulgar but + pointed American phrase—to roll off a log. A few days after the + election, Greeley had rolled off his log. He was wallowing in panic. He + began to scream editorially. The Southern extremists were terribly in + earnest; if they wanted to go, go they would, and go they should. But + foolish Northerners would be sure to talk war and the retaining of the + South in the Union by force: it must not be; what was the Union compared + with bloodshed? There must be no war—no war. Such was Greeley's + terrified—appeal to the North. A few weeks after the election he + printed his famous editorial denouncing the idea of a Union pinned + together by bayonets. He followed up with another startling concession to + his fears: the South had as good cause for leaving the Union as the + colonies had for leaving the British Empire. A little later, he formulated + his ultimate conclusion,—which like many of his ultimates proved to + be transitory,—and declared that if any group of Southern States + "choose to form an independent nation, they have a clear moral right to do + so," and pledging himself and his followers to do "our best to forward + their views." + </p> + <p> + Greeley wielded through The Tribune more influence, perhaps, than was + possessed by any other Republican with the single exception of Lincoln. + His newspaper constituency was enormous, and the relation between the + leader and the led was unusually close. He was both oracle and barometer. + As a symptom of the Republican panic, as a cause increasing that panic, he + was of first importance. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile Congress had met. And at once, the most characteristic + peculiarity of the moment was again made emphatic. The popular majorities + and the political machines did not coincide. Both in the North and in the + South a minority held the situation in the hollow of its hand. The + Breckinridge Democrats, despite their repudiation in the presidential + vote, included so many of the Southern politicians, they were so well + organized, they had scored such a menacing victory with the aid of Rhett + in South Carolina, they had played so skilfully on the fears of the South + at large, their leaders were such skilled managers, that they were able to + continue for the moment the recognized spokesmen of the South at + Washington. They lost no time defining their position. If the Union were + not to be sundered, the Republicans must pledge themselves to a new and + extensive compromise; it must be far different from those historic + compromises that had preceded it. Three features must characterize any new + agreement: The South must be dealt with as a unit; it must be given a + "sphere of influence"—to use our modern term—which would fully + satisfy all its impulses of expansion; and in that sphere, every question + of slavery must be left entirely, forever, to local action. In a word, + they demanded for the South what today would be described as a "dominion" + status. Therefore, they insisted that the party which had captured the + Northern political machine should formulate its reply to these demands. + They gave notice that they would not discuss individual schemes, but only + such as the victorious Republicans might officially present. Thus the + national crisis became a party crisis. What could the Republicans among + themselves agree to propose? + </p> + <p> + The central figure of the crisis seemed at first to be the brilliant + Republican Senator from New York. Seward thought he understood the South, + and what was still more important, human nature. Though he echoed + Greeley's cry for peace—translating his passionate hysteria into the + polished cynicism of a diplomat who had been known to deny that he was + ever entirely serious—he scoffed at Greeley's fears. If the South + had not voted lack of confidence in the Breckinridge crowd, what had it + voted? If the Breckinridge leaders weren't maneuvering to save their + faces, what could they be accused of doing? If Seward, the Republican man + of genius, couldn't see through all that, couldn't devise a way to help + them save their faces, what was the use in being a brilliant politician? + </p> + <p> + Jauntily self-complacent, as confident of himself as if Rome were burning + and he the garlanded fiddler, Seward braced himself for the task of + recreating the Union. + </p> + <p> + But there was an obstacle in his path. It was Lincoln. Of course, it was + folly to propose a scheme which the incoming President would not sustain. + Lincoln and Seward must come to an understanding. To bring that about + Seward despatched a personal legate to Springfield. Thurlow Weed, editor, + man of the world, political wire-puller beyond compare, Seward's devoted + henchman, was the legate. One of the great events of American history was + the conversation between Weed and Lincoln in December, 1860. By a rare + propriety of dramatic effect, it occurred probably, on the very day South + Carolina brought to an end its campaign of menace and adopted its + Ordinance of Secession, December twentieth.(1) + </p> + <p> + Weed had brought to Springfield a definite proposal. The Crittenden + compromise was being hotly discussed in Congress and throughout the + country. All the Northern advocates of conciliation were eager to put it + through. There was some ground to believe that the Southern machine at + Washington would accept it. If Lincoln would agree, Seward would make it + the basis of his policy. + </p> + <p> + This Compromise would have restored the old line of the Missouri + Compromise and would have placed it under the protection of a + constitutional amendment. This, together with a guarantee against + congressional interference with slavery in the States where it existed, a + guarantee the Republicans had already offered, seemed to Seward, to Weed, + to Greeley, to the bulk of the party, a satisfactory means of preserving + the Union. What was it but a falling back on the original policy of the + party, the undoing of those measures of 1854 which had called the party + into being? Was it conceivable that Lincoln would balk the wishes of the + party by obstructing such a natural mode of extrication? But that was what + Lincoln did. His views had advanced since 1854. Then, he was merely for + restoring the old duality of the country, the two "dominions," Northern + and Southern, each with its own social order. He had advanced to the + belief that this duality could not permanently continue. Just how far + Lincoln realized what he was doing in refusing to compromise will never be + known. Three months afterward, he took a course which seems to imply that + his vision during the interim had expanded, had opened before him a new + revelation of the nature of his problem. At the earlier date Lincoln and + the Southern people—not the Southern machine—were looking at + the one problem from opposite points of view, and were locating the + significance of the problem in different features. To Lincoln, the heart + of the matter was slavery. To the Southerners, including the men who had + voted lack of confidence in Breckinridge, the heart of the matter was the + sphere of influence. What the Southern majority wanted was not the policy + of the slave profiteers but a secure future for expansion, a guarantee + that Southern life, social, economic, cultural, would not be merged with + the life of the opposite section: in a word, preservation of "dominion" + status. In Lincoln's mind, slavery being the main issue, this "dominion" + issue was incidental—a mere outgrowth of slavery that should begin + to pass away with slavery's restriction. In the Southern mind, a community + consciousness, the determination to be a people by themselves, nation + within the nation, was the issue, and slavery was the incident. To repeat, + it is impossible to say what Lincoln would have done had he comprehended + the Southern attitude. His near horizon which had kept him all along from + grasping the negative side of the Southern movement prevented his + perception of this tragic instance of cross-purposes. + </p> + <p> + Lacking this perception, his thoughts had centered themselves on a recent + activity of the slave profiteers. They had clamored for the annexation of + new territory to the south of us. Various attempts had been made to create + an international crisis looking toward the seizure of Cuba. Then, too, + bold adventurers had staked their heads, seeking to found slave-holding + communities in Central America. Why might not such attempts succeed? Why + might not new Slave States be created outside the Union, eventually to be + drawn in? Why not? said the slave profiteer, and gave money and assistance + to the filibusters in Nicaragua. Why not? said Lincoln, also. What + protection against such an extension of boundaries? Was the limitation of + slave area to be on one side only, the Northern side? And here at last, + for Lincoln, was what appeared to be the true issue of the moment. To + dualize the Union, assuming its boundaries to be fixed, was one thing. To + dualize the Union in the face of a movement for extension of boundaries + was another. Hence it was now vital, as Lincoln reasoned, to give slavery + a fixed boundary on all sides. Silently, while others fulminated, or + rhapsodized, or wailed, he had moved inexorably to a new position which + was nothing but a logical development of the old. The old position was—no + extension of slave territory; the new position was—no more Slave + States.(2) Because Crittenden's Compromise left it possible to have a new + Slave State in Cuba, a new Slave State in Nicaragua, perhaps a dozen such + new States, Lincoln refused to compromise.(3) + </p> + <p> + It was a terrible decision, carrying within it the possibility of civil + war. But Lincoln could not be moved. This was the first acquaintance of + the established political leaders with his inflexible side. In the + recesses of his own thoughts the decision had been reached. It was useless + to argue with him. Weed carried back his ultimatum. Seward abandoned + Crittenden's scheme. The only chance for compromise passed away. The + Southern leaders set about their plans for organizing a Southern + Confederacy. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0013" id="link2H_4_0013"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XIII. ECLIPSE + </h2> + <p> + Lincoln's ultimatum of December twentieth contained three proposals that + might be made to the Southern leaders: + </p> + <p> + That the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law which hitherto had been + left to State authorities should be taken over by Congress and supported + by the Republicans. + </p> + <p> + That the Republicans to the extent of their power should work for the + repeal of all those "Personal Liberty Laws" which had been established in + certain Northern States to defeat the operation of the Fugitive Slave Law. + </p> + <p> + That the Federal Union must be preserved.(1) + </p> + <p> + In presenting these proposals along with a refusal to consider the + Crittenden Compromise, Seward tampered with their clear-cut form. Fearful + of the effect on the extremists of the Republican group, he withheld + Lincoln's unconditional promise to maintain the Fugitive Slave Law and + instead of pledging his party to the repeal of Personal Liberty Laws he + promised only to have Congress request the States to repeal them. He + suppressed altogether the assertion that the Union must be preserved.(2) + About the same time, in a public speech, he said he was not going to be + "humbugged" by the bogy of secession, and gave his fatuous promise that + all the trouble would be ended inside ninety days. For all his brilliancy + of a sort, he was spiritually obtuse. On him, as on Douglas, Fate had + lavished opportunities to see life as it is, to understand the motives of + men; but it could not make him use them. He was incorrigibly cynical. He + could not divest himself of the idea that all this confusion was hubbub, + was but an ordinary political game, that his only cue was to assist his + adversaries in saving their faces. In spite of his rich experience,—in + spite of being an accomplished man of the world,—at least in his own + estimation—he was as blind to the real motives of that Southern + majority which had rejected Breckinridge as was the inexperienced Lincoln. + The coolness with which he modified Lincoln's proposals was evidence that + he considered himself the great Republican and Lincoln an accident. He was + to do the same again—to his own regret. + </p> + <p> + When Lincoln issued his ultimatum, he was approaching the summit, if not + at the very summit, of another of his successive waves of vitality, of + self-confidence. That depression which came upon him about the end of + 1858, which kept him undecided, in a mood of excessive caution during most + of 1859, had passed away. The presidential campaign with its thrilling + tension, its excitement, had charged him anew with confidence. Although + one more eclipse was in store for him—the darkest eclipse of all—he + was very nearly the definitive Lincoln of history. At least, he had the + courage which that Lincoln was to show. + </p> + <p> + He was now the target for a besieging army of politicians clamoring for + "spoils" in the shape of promises of preferment. It was a miserable and + disgraceful assault which profoundly offended him.(3) To his mind this was + not the same thing as the simple-hearted personal politics of his younger + days—friends standing together and helping one another along—but + a gross and monstrous rapacity. It was the first chill shadow that + followed the election day. + </p> + <p> + There were difficult intrigues over the Cabinet. Promises made by his + managers at Chicago were presented for redemption. Rival candidates + bidding for his favor, tried to cut each other's throats. For example, + there was the intrigue of the War Department. The Lincoln managers had + promised a Cabinet appointment to Pennsylvania; the followers of Simon + Cameron were a power; it had been necessary to win them over in order to + nominate Lincoln; they insisted that their leader was now entitled to the + Pennsylvania seat in the Cabinet; but there was an anti-Cameron faction + almost as potent in Pennsylvania as the Cameron faction. Both sent their + agents to Springfield to lay siege to Lincoln. In this duel, the Cameron + forces won the first round. Lincoln offered him the Secretaryship. + Subsequently, his enemies made so good a case that Lincoln was convinced + of the unwisdom of his decision and withdrew the offer. But Cameron had + not kept the offer confidential. The withdrawal would discredit him + politically and put a trump card into the hands of his enemies. A long + dispute followed. Not until Lincoln had reached Washington, immediately + before the inauguration, was the dispute ended, the withdrawal withdrawn, + and Cameron appointed.(4) + </p> + <p> + It was a dreary winter for the President-elect. It was also a brand-new + experience. For the first time he was a dispenser of favor on a grand + scale. Innumerable men showed their meanest side, either to advance + themselves or to injure others. As the weeks passed and the spectacle grew + in shamelessness, his friends became more and more conscious of his + peculiar melancholy. The elation of the campaign subsided into a deep + unhappiness over the vanity of this world. Other phases of the shadowy + side of his character also asserted themselves. Conspicuous was a certain + trend in his thinking that was part of Herndon's warrant for calling him a + fatalist. Lincoln's mysticism very early had taken a turn toward + predestination, coupled with a belief in dreams.(5) He did not in any way + believe in magic; he never had any faith in divinations, in the occult, in + any secret mode of alluring the unseen powers to take one's side. + Nevertheless, he made no bones about being superstitious. And he thought + that coming events cast their shadows before, that something, at least, of + the future was sometimes revealed through dreams. "Nature," he would say, + "is the workshop of the Almighty, and we form but links in the chain of + intellectual and material life."(6) Byron's Dream was one of his favorite + poems. He pondered those ancient, historical tales which make free use of + portents. There was a fascination for him in the story of Caracalla—how + his murder of Geta was foretold, how he was upbraided by the ghosts of his + father and brother. This dream-faith of his was as real as was a similar + faith held by the authors of the Old Testament. He had his theory of the + interpretation of dreams. Because they were a universal experience—as + he believed, the universal mode of communication between the unseen and + the seen—his beloved "plain people," the "children of Nature," the + most universal types of humanity, were their best interpreters. He also + believed in presentiment. As faithfully as the simplest of the brood of + the forest—those recreated primitives who regulated their farming by + the brightness or the darkness of the moon, who planted corn or + slaughtered hogs as Artemis directed—he trusted a presentiment if + once it really took possession of him. A presentiment which had been + formed before this time, we know not when, was clothed with authority by a + dream, or rather a vision, that came to him in the days of melancholy + disillusion during the last winter at Springfield. Looking into a mirror, + he saw two Lincolns,—one alive, the other dead. It was this vision + which clenched his pre-sentiment that he was born to a great career and to + a tragic end. He interpreted the vision that his administration would be + successful, but that it would close with his death.(7) + </p> + <p> + The record of his inner life during the last winter at Springfield is very + dim. But there can be no doubt that a desolating change attacked his + spirit. As late as the day of his ultimatum he was still in comparative + sunshine, or, at least his clouds were not close about him. His will was + steel, that day. Nevertheless, a friend who visited him in January, to + talk over their days together, found not only that "the old-time zest" was + lacking, but that it was replaced by "gloom and despondency."(8) The + ghosts that hovered so frequently at the back of his mind, the brooding + tendencies which fed upon his melancholy and made him at times irresolute, + were issuing from the shadows, trooping forward, to encompass him + roundabout. + </p> + <p> + In the midst of this spiritual reaction, he was further depressed by the + stern news from the South and from Washington. His refusal to compromise + was beginning to bear fruit. The Gulf States seceded. A Southern + Confederacy was formed. There is no evidence that he lost faith in his + course, but abundant evidence that he was terribly unhappy. He was preyed + upon by his sense of helplessness, while Buchanan through his weakness and + vacillation was "giving away the case." "Secession is being fostered," + said he, "rather than repressed, and if the doctrine meets with general + acceptance in the Border States, it will be a great blow to the + government."(9) He did not deceive himself upon the possible effect of his + ultimatum, and sent word to General Scott to be prepared to hold or to + "retake" the forts garrisoned by Federal troops in the Southern + States.(10) + </p> + <p> + All the while his premonition of the approach of doom grew more darkly + oppressive. The trail of the artist is discernible across his thoughts. In + his troubled imagination he identified his own situation with that of the + protagonist in tragedies on the theme of fate. He did not withhold his + thoughts from the supreme instance. That same friend who found him + possessed of gloom preserved these words of his: "I have read on my knees + the story of Gethsemane, when the Son of God prayed in vain that the cup + of bitterness might pass from him. I am in the Garden of Gethsemane now + and my cup of bitterness is full and overflowing now."(11) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Like some strong seer in a trance, + Seeing all his own mischance, + With a glassy countenance," +</pre> + <p> + he faced toward Washington, toward the glorious terror promised him by his + superstitions. + </p> + <p> + The last days before the departure were days of mingled gloom, + desperation, and the attempt to recover hope. He visited his old + stepmother and made a pilgrimage to his father's grave. His thoughts + fondly renewed the details of his past life, lingered upon this and that, + as if fearful that it was all slipping away from him forever. And then he + roused himself as if in sudden revolt against the Fates. The day before he + left Springfield forever Lincoln met his partner for the last time at + their law office to wind up the last of their unsettled business. "After + those things were all disposed of," says Herndon, "he crossed to the + opposite side of the room and threw himself down on the old office sofa. . + . . He lay there for some moments his face to the ceiling without either + of us speaking. Presently, he inquired: 'Billy'—he always called me + by that name—'how long have we been together?' 'Over sixteen years,' + I answered. 'We've never had a cross word during all that time, have we?' + . . . He gathered a bundle of papers and books he wished to take with him + and started to go, but before leaving, he made the strange request that + the sign board which swung on its rusty hinges at the foot of the stairway + would remain. 'Let it hang there undisturbed,' he said, with a significant + lowering of the voice. 'Give our clients to understand that the election + of a President makes no change in the firm of Lincoln & Herndon. If I + live, I am coming back some time, and then we'll go right on practising + law as if nothing had happened.' He lingered for a moment as if to take a + last look at the old quarters, and then passed through the door into the + narrow hallway."(12) + </p> + <p> + On a dreary day with a cold rain falling, he set forth. The railway + station was packed with friends. He made his way through the crowd slowly, + shaking hands. "Having finally reached the train, he ascended the rear + platform, and, facing about to the throng which had closed about him, drew + himself up to his full height, removed his hat and stood for several + seconds in profound silence. His eyes roved sadly over that sea of + upturned faces. . . There was an unusual quiver on his lips and a still + more unusual tear on his shriveled cheek. His solemn manner, his long + silence, were as full of melancholy eloquence as any words he could have + uttered."(13) At length, he spoke: "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 can not succeed. With that assistance, I can not + 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."(14) + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0014" id="link2H_4_0014"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XIV. THE STRANGE NEW MAN + </h2> + <p> + There is a period of sixteen months—from February, 1861, to a day in + June, 1862,—when Lincoln is the most singular, the most problematic + of statesmen. Out of this period he issues with apparent abruptness, the + final Lincoln, with a place among the few consummate masters of + state-craft. During the sixteen months, his genius comes and goes. His + confidence, whether in himself or in others, is an uncertain quantity. At + times he is bold, even rash; at others, irresolute. The constant factor in + his mood all this while is his amazing humility. He seems to have + forgotten his own existence. As a person with likes and dislikes, with + personal hopes and fears, he has vanished. He is but an afflicted and + perplexed mind, struggling desperately to save his country. A selfless + man, he may be truly called through months of torment which made him over + from a theoretical to a practical statesman. He entered this period a + literary man who had been elevated almost by accident to the position of a + leader in politics. After many blunders, after doubt, hesitation and pain, + he came forth from this stern ordeal a powerful man of action. + </p> + <p> + The impression which he made on the country at the opening of this period + was unfortunate. The very power that had hitherto been the making of him—the + literary power, revealing to men in wonderfully convincing form the ideas + which they felt within them but could not utter—this had deserted + him. Explain the psychology of it any way you will, there is the fact! The + speeches Lincoln made on the way to Washington during the latter part of + February were appallingly unlike himself. His mind had suddenly fallen + dumb. He had nothing to say. The gloom, the desolation that had penetrated + his soul, somehow, for the moment, made him commonplace. When he talked—as + convention required him to do at all his stopping places—his words + were but faint echoes of the great political exponent he once had been. + His utterances were fatuous; mere exhortations to the country not to + worry. "There is no crisis but an artificial one," he said.(1) And the + country stood aghast! Amazement, bewilderment, indignation, was the course + of the reaction in many minds of his own party. Their verdict was + expressed in the angry language of Samuel Bowles, "Lincoln is a Simple + Susan."(2) + </p> + <p> + In private talk, Lincoln admitted that he was "more troubled about the + outlook than he thought it discreet to show." This remark was made to a + "Public Man," whose diary has been published but whose identity is still + secret. Though keenly alert for any touch of weakness or absurdity in the + new President, calling him "the most ill-favored son of Adam I ever saw," + the Public Man found him "crafty and sensible." In conversation, the old + Lincoln, the matchless phrase-maker, could still express himself. At New + York he was told of a wild scheme that was on foot to separate the city + from the North, form a city state such as Hamburg then was, and set up a + commercial alliance with the Confederacy. "As to the free city business," + said Lincoln, "well, I reckon it will be some time before the front door + sets up bookkeeping on its own account."(3) The formal round of + entertainment on his way to Washington wearied Lincoln intensely. Harassed + and preoccupied, he was generally ill at ease. And he was totally unused + to sumptuous living. Failures in social usage were inevitable. New York + was convulsed with amusement because at the opera he wore a pair of huge + black kid gloves which attracted the attention of the whole house, + "hanging as they did over the red velvet box front." At an informal + reception, between acts in the director's room, he looked terribly bored + and sat on the sofa at the end of the room with his hat pushed back on his + head. Caricatures filled the opposition papers. He was spoken of as the + "Illinois ape" and the "gorilla." Every rash remark, every "break" in + social form, every gaucherie was seized upon and ridiculed with-out mercy. + </p> + <p> + There is no denying that the oddities of Lincoln's manner though quickly + dismissed from thought by men of genius, seriously troubled even generous + men who lacked the intuitions of genius. And he never overcame these + oddities. During the period of his novitiate as a ruler, the critical + sixteen months, they were carried awkwardly, with embarrassment. Later + when he had found himself as a ruler, when his self-confidence had reached + its ultimate form and he knew what he really was, he forgot their + existence. None the less, they were always a part of him, his indelible + envelope. At the height of his power, he received visitors with his feet + in leather slippers.(4) He discussed great affairs of state with one of + those slippered feet flung up on to a corner of his desk. A favorite + attitude, even when debating vital matters with the great ones of the + nation, is described by his secretaries as "sitting on his shoulders"—he + would slide far down into his chair and stick up both slippers so high + above his head that they could rest with ease upon his mantelpiece.(5) No + wonder that his enemies made unlimited fun. And they professed to believe + that there was an issue here. When the elegant McClellan was moving heaven + and earth, as he fancied, to get the army out of its shirt-sleeves, the + President's manner was a cause of endless irritation. Still more serious + was the effect of his manner on many men who agreed with him otherwise. + Such a high-minded leader as Governor Andrew of Massachusetts never got + over the feeling that Lincoln was a rowdy. How could a rowdy be the + salvation of the country? In the dark days of 1864, when a rebellion + against his leadership was attempted, this merely accidental side of him + was an element of danger. The barrier it had created between himself and + the more formal types, made it hard for the men who finally saved him to + overcome their prejudice and nail his colors to the mast. Andrew's + biographer shows himself a shrewd observer when he insists on the + unexpressed but inexorable scale by which Andrew and his following + measured Lincoln. They had grown up in the faith that you could tell a + statesman by certain external signs, chiefly by a grandiose and commanding + aspect such as made overpowering the presence of Webster. And this idea + was not confined to any one locality. Everywhere, more or less, the + conservative portion in every party held this view. It was the view of + Washington in 1848 when Washington had failed to see the real Lincoln + through his surface peculiarities. It was again the view of Washington + when Lincoln returned to it. + </p> + <p> + Furthermore, his free way of talking, the broad stories he continued to + tell, were made counts in his indictment. One of the bequests of + Puritanism in America is the ideal, at least, of extreme scrupulousness in + talk. To many sincere men Lincoln's choice of fables was often a deadly + offense. Charles Francis Adams never got over the shock of their first + interview. Lincoln clenched a point with a broad story. Many professional + politicians who had no objection to such talk in itself, glared and + sneered when the President used it—because forsooth, it might + estrange a vote. + </p> + <p> + Then, too, Lincoln had none of the social finesse that might have adapted + his manner to various classes. He was always incorrigibly the democrat + pure and simple. He would have laughed uproariously over that + undergraduate humor, the joy of a famous American University, supposedly + strong on Democracy: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Where God speaks to Jones, in the very same tones, + That he uses to Hadley and Dwight." +</pre> + <p> + Though Lincoln's queer aplomb, his good-humored familiarity on first + acquaintance, delighted most of his visitors, it offended many. It was + lacking in tact. Often it was a clumsy attempt to be jovial too soon, as + when he addressed Greeley by the name of "Horace" almost on first sight. + His devices for putting men on the familiar footing lacked originality. + The frequency with which he called upon a tall visitor to measure up + against him reveals the poverty of his social invention. He applied this + device with equal thoughtlessness to the stately Sumner, who protested, + and to a nobody who grinned and was delighted. + </p> + <p> + It was this mere envelope of the genius that was deplorably evident on the + journey from Springfield to Washington. There was one detail of the + journey that gave his enemies a more definite ground for sneering. By the + irony of fate, the first clear instance of Lincoln's humility, his + reluctance to set up his own judgment against his advisers, was also his + first serious mistake. There is a distinction here that is vital. Lincoln + was entering on a new role, the role of the man of action. Hitherto all + the great decisions of his life had been speculative; they had developed + from within; they dealt with ideas. The inflexible side of him was + intellectual. Now, without any adequate apprenticeship, he was called upon + to make practical decisions, to decide on courses of action, at one step + to pass from the dream of statecraft to its application. Inevitably, for a + considerable time, he was two people; he passed back and forth from one to + the other; only by degrees did he bring the two together. Meanwhile, he + appeared contradictory. Inwardly, as a thinker, his development was + unbroken; he was still cool, inflexible, drawing all his conclusions out + of the depths of himself. Outwardly, in action, he was learning the new + task, hesitatingly, with vacillation, with excessive regard to the + advisers whom he treated as experts in action. It was no slight matter for + an extraordinarily sensitive man to take up a new role at fifty-two. + </p> + <p> + This first official mistake of Lincoln's was in giving way to the fears of + his retinue for his safety. The time had become hysterical. The wildest + sort of stories filled the air. Even before he left Springfield there were + rumors of plots to assassinate him.(6) On his arrival at Philadelphia + information was submitted to his companions which convinced them that his + life was in danger—an attempt would be made to kill him as he passed + through Baltimore. Seward at Washington had heard the same story and had + sent his son to Philadelphia to advise caution. Lincoln's friends insisted + that he leave his special train and proceed to Washington with only one + companion, on an ordinary night train. Railway officials were called in. + Elaborate precautions were arranged. The telegraph lines were all to be + disconnected for a number of hours so that even if the conspirators—assuming + there were any—should discover his change of plan, they would be + unable to communicate with Baltimore. The one soldier in the party, + Colonel Sumner, vehemently protested that these changes were all "a damned + piece of cowardice." But Lincoln acquiesced in the views of the majority + of his advisers. He passed through Baltimore virtually in disguise; + nothing happened; no certain evidence of a conspiracy was discovered. And + all his enemies took up the cry of cowardice and rang the changes upon + it.(7) + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile, despite all this semblance of indecision, of feebleness, there + were signs that the real inner Lincoln, however clouded, was still alive. + By way of offset to his fatuous utterances, there might have been set, had + the Country been in a mood to weigh with care, several strong and clear + pronouncements. And these were not merely telling phrases like that + characteristic one about the bookkeeping of the front door. His mind was + struggling out of its shadow. And the mode of its reappearance was + significant. His reasoning upon the true meaning of the struggle he was + about to enter, reached a significant stage in the speech he made at + Harrisburg.(8) + </p> + <p> + "I have often inquired of myself," he said, "what great principle or idea + it was that kept this Confederacy (the United States) so long together. It + was not the mere matter of the separation of the colonies from the + motherland, but that sentiment in the Declaration of Independence which + gave liberty not alone to the people of the country but hope to all the + world for all future time. It was that which gave promise that in due time + the weights would be lifted from the shoulders of all men and that all + should have an equal chance. This is the sentiment embodied in the + Declaration of Independence. Now, my friends, can this country be saved on + that basis? If it can, I will consider myself one of the happiest men in + the world, if I can help to save it. If it can not be saved upon that + principle, it will be truly awful. But if this country can not be saved + without giving up that principle, I was about to say I would rather be + assassinated on this spot than surrender it. Now, in my view of the + present aspect of affairs, there is no need of bloodshed and war. There is + no necessity for it I am not in favor of such a course, and I may say in + advance that there will be no bloodshed unless it is forced upon the + government. The government will not use force unless force is used against + it." + </p> + <p> + The two ideas underlying this utterance had grown in his thought steadily, + consistently, ever since their first appearance in the Protest twenty-four + years previous. The great issue to which all else—slavery, "dominion + status," everything—was subservient, was the preservation of + democratic institutions; the means to that end was the preservation of the + Federal government. Now, as in 1852, his paramount object was not to + "disappoint the Liberal party throughout the world," to prove that + Democracy, when applied on a great scale, had yet sufficient coherence to + remain intact, no matter how powerful, nor how plausible, were the forces + of disintegration. + </p> + <p> + Dominated by this purpose he came to Washington. There he met Seward. It + was the stroke of fate for both men. Seward, indeed, did not know that it + was. He was still firmly based in the delusion that he, not Lincoln, was + the genius of the hour. And he had this excuse, that it was also the + country's delusion. There was pretty general belief both among friends and + foes that Lincoln would be ruled by his Cabinet. In a council that was + certain to include leaders of accepted influence—Seward, Chase, + Cameron—what chance for this untried newcomer, whose prestige had + been reared not on managing men, but on uttering words? In Seward's + thoughts the answer was as inevitable as the table of addition. Equally + mathematical was the conclusion that only one unit gave value to the + combination. And, of course, the leader of the Republicans in the Senate + was the unit. A severe experience had to be lived through before Seward + made his peace with destiny. Lincoln was the quicker to perceive when they + came together that something had happened. Almost from the minute of their + meeting, he began to lean upon Seward; but only in a certain way. This was + not the same thing as that yielding to the practical advisers which began + at Philadelphia, which was subsequently to be the cause of so much + confusion. His response to Seward was intellectual. It was of the inner + man and revealed itself in his style of writing. + </p> + <p> + Hitherto, Lincoln's progress in literature had been marked by the + development of two characteristics and by the lack of a third. The two + that he possessed were taste and rhythm. At the start he was free from the + prevalent vice of his time, rhetoricality. His "Address to the Voters of + Sangamon County" which was his first state paper, was as direct, as free + from bombast, as the greatest of his later achievements. Almost any other + youth who had as much of the sense of language as was there exhibited, + would have been led astray by the standards of the hour, would have + mounted the spread-eagle and flapped its wings in rhetorical clamor. But + Lincoln was not precocious. In art, as in everything else, he progressed + slowly; the literary part of him worked its way into the matter-of-fact + part of him with the gradualness of the daylight through a shadowy wood. + It was not constant in its development. For many years it was little more + than an irregular deepening of his two original characteristics, taste and + rhythm. His taste, fed on Blackstone, Shakespeare, and the Bible, led him + more and more exactingly to say just what he meant, to eschew the wiles of + decoration, to be utterly non-rhetorical. His sense of rhythm, beginning + simply, no more at first than a good ear for the sound of words, deepened + into keen perception of the character of the word-march, of that extra + significance which is added to an idea by the way it conducts itself, + moving grandly or feebly as the case may be, from the unknown into the + known, and thence across a perilous horizon, into memory. On the basis of + these two characteristics he had acquired a style that was a rich blend of + simplicity, directness, candor, joined with a clearness beyond praise, + with a delightful cadence, having always a splendidly ordered march of + ideas. + </p> + <p> + But there was the third thing in which the earlier style of Lincoln's was + wanting. Marvelously apt for the purpose of the moment, his writings + previous to 1861 are vanishing from the world's memory. The more notable + writings of his later years have become classics. And the difference does + not turn on subject-matter. All the ideas of his late writings had been + formulated in the earlier. The difference is purely literary. The earlier + writings were keen, powerful, full of character, melodious, impressive. + The later writings have all these qualities, and in addition, that + constant power to awaken the imagination, to carry an idea beyond its own + horizon into a boundless world of imperishable literary significance, + which power in argumentative prose is beauty. And how did Lincoln attain + this? That he had been maturing from within the power to do this, one is + compelled by the analogy of his other mental experiences to believe. At + the same time, there can be no doubt who taught him the trick, who touched + the secret spring and opened the new door to his mind. It was Seward. Long + since it had been agreed between them that Seward was to be Secretary of + State.(9) Lincoln asked him to criticize his inaugural. Seward did so, and + Lincoln, in the main, accepted his criticism. But Seward went further. He + proposed a new paragraph. He was not a great writer and yet he had + something of that third thing which Lincoln hitherto had not exhibited. + However, in pursuing beauty of statement, he often came dangerously near + to mere rhetoric; his taste was never sure; his sense of rhythm was + inferior; the defects of his qualities were evident. None the less, + Lincoln saw at a glance that if he could infuse into Seward's words his + own more robust qualities, the result—'would be a richer product + than had ever issued from his own qualities as hitherto he had known them. + He effected this transmutation and in doing so raised his style to a new + range of effectiveness. The great Lincoln of literature appeared in the + first inaugural and particularly in that noble passage which was the work + of Lincoln and Seward together. In a way it said only what Lincoln had + already said—especially in the speech at Harrisburg—but with + what a difference! + </p> + <p> + "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. You have no oath + registered in Heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the + most solemn one to preserve, protect and defend it. + </p> + <p> + "I am loath to close. We are not enemies but friends. 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."* + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + *Lincoln VI, 184; N. & H., III, 343. Seward advised the + omission of part of the original draft of the first of these + two paragraphs. After "defend it," Lincoln had written, "You + can forbear the assault upon it. I can not shrink from the + defense of it. With you and not with me is the solemn + question 'Shall it be peace or a sword?'" Having struck this + out, he accepted Seward's advice to add "some words of + affection—some of calm and cheerful confidence." +</pre> + <p> + The original version of the concluding paragraph was prepared by Seward + and read as follows: "I close. We are not, we must not he aliens or + enemies, but fellow-countrymen and brethren. Although passion has strained + our bonds of affection too hardly, they must not, I am sure, they will + not, be broken. The mystic chords which, proceeding from so many + battlefields and so many patriot graves, pass through all the hearts and + all hearths in this broad continent of ours, will yet again harmonize in + their ancient music when breathed upon by the guardian angel of the + nation." + </p> + <p> + These words, now so famous, were spoken in the east portico of the Capitol + on "one of our disagreeable, clear, windy, Washington spring days."(10) + Most of the participants were agitated; many were alarmed. Chief Justice + Taney who administered the oath could hardly speak, so near to + uncontrollable was his emotion. General Scott anxiously kept his eye upon + the crowd which was commanded by cannon. Cavalry were in readiness to + clear the streets in case of riot. Lincoln's carriage on the way to the + Capitol had been closely guarded. He made his way to the portico between + files of soldiers. So intent—overintent—were his guardians + upon his safety that they had been careless of the smaller matter of his + comfort. There was insufficient room for the large company that had been + invited to attend. The new President stood beside a rickety little table + and saw no place on which to put his hat. Senator Douglas stepped forward + and relieved him of the burden. Lincoln was "pale and very nervous," and + toward the close of his speech, visibly affected. Observers differ + point-blank as to the way the inaugural was received. The "Public Man" + says that there was little enthusiasm. The opposite version makes the + event an oratorical triumph, with the crowd, at the close, completely + under his spell.(11) + </p> + <p> + On the whole, the inauguration and the festivities that followed appear to + have formed a dismal event. While Lincoln spoke, the topmost peak of the + Capitol, far above his head, was an idle derrick; the present dome was in + process of construction; work on it had been arrested, and who could say + when, if ever, the work would be resumed? The day closed with an inaugural + ball that was anything but brilliant. "The great tawdry ballroom . . . not + half full—and such an assemblage of strange costumes, male and + female. Very few people of any consideration were there. The President + looked exhausted and uncomfortable, and most ungainly in his dress; and + Mrs. Lincoln all in blue, with a feather in her hair and a highly flushed + face."(12) + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0015" id="link2H_4_0015"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XV. PRESIDENT AND PREMIER + </h2> + <p> + The brilliant Secretary, who so promptly began to influence the President + had very sure foundations for that influence. He was inured to the role of + great man; he had a rich experience of public life; while Lincoln, + painfully conscious of his inexperience, was perhaps the humblest-minded + ruler that ever took the helm of a ship of state in perilous times. + Furthermore, Seward had some priceless qualities which, for Lincoln, were + still to seek. First of all, he had audacity—personally, + artistically, politically. Seward's instantaneous gift to Lincoln was by + way of throwing wide the door of his gathering literary audacity. There is + every reason to think that Seward's personal audacity went to Lincoln's + heart at once. To be sure, he was not yet capable of going along with it. + The basal contrast of the first month of his administration lies between + the President's caution and the boldness of the Secretary. Nevertheless, + to a sensitive mind, seeking guidance, surrounded by less original types + of politicians, the splendid fearlessness of Seward, whether wise or + foolish, must have rung like a trumpet peal soaring over the heads of a + crowd whose teeth were chattering. While the rest of the Cabinet pressed + their ears to the ground, Seward thought out a policy, made a forecast of + the future, and offered to stake his head on the correctness of his + reasoning. This may have been rashness; it may have been folly; but, + intellectually at least, it was valor. Among Lincoln's other advisers, + valor at that moment was lacking. Contrast, however, was not the sole, nor + the surest basis of Seward's appeal to Lincoln. Their characters had a + common factor. For all their immeasurable difference in externals, both at + bottom were void of malice. It was this characteristic above all others + that gave them spiritually common ground. In Seward, this quality had been + under fire for a long while. The political furies of "that iron time" had + failed to rouse echoes in his serene and smiling soul. Therefore, many men + who accepted him as leader because, indeed, they could not do without him—because + none other in their camp had his genius for management, for the + glorification of political intrigue—these same men followed him + doubtfully, with bad grace, willing to shift to some other leader whenever + he might arise. The clue to their distrust was Seward's amusement at the + furious. Could a man who laughed when you preached on the beauty of the + hewing of Agag, could such a man be sincere? And that Seward in some + respects was not sincere, history generally admits. He loved to poke fun + at his opponents by appearing to sneer at himself, by ridiculing the idea + that he was ever serious. His scale of political values was different from + that of most of his followers. Nineteen times out of twenty, he would + treat what they termed "principles" as mere political counters, as + legitimate subjects of bargain. If by any deal he could trade off any or + all of these nineteen in order to secure the twentieth, which for him was + the only vital one, he never scrupled to do so. Against a lurid background + of political ferocity, this amused, ironic figure came to be rated by the + extremists, both in his own and in the enemy camp as Mephistopheles. + </p> + <p> + No quality could have endeared him more certainly to Lincoln than the very + one which the bigots misunderstood. From his earliest youth Lincoln had + been governed by this same quality. With his non-censorious mind, which + accepted so much of life as he found it, which was forever stripping + principles of their accretions, what could be more inevitable than his + warming to the one great man at Washington who like him held that such a + point of view was the only rational one. Seward's ironic peacefulness in + the midst of the storm gained in luster because all about him raged a + tempest of ferocity, mitigated, at least so far as the distracted + President could see, only by self-interest or pacifism. + </p> + <p> + As Lincoln came into office, he could see and hear many signs of a rising + fierceness of sectional hatred. His secretary records with disgust a + proposal to conquer the Gulf States, expel their white population, and + reduce the region to a gigantic state preserve, where negroes should grow + cotton under national supervision.(1) "We of the North," said Senator + Baker of Oregon, "are a majority of the Union, and we will govern our + Union in our own way."(2) At the other extreme was the hysterical pacifism + of the Abolitionists. Part of Lincoln's abiding quarrel with the + Abolitionists was their lack of national feeling. Their peculiar form of + introspection had injected into politics the idea of personal sin. Their + personal responsibility for slavery—they being part of a country + that tolerated it—was their basal inspiration. Consequently, the + most distinctive Abolitionists welcomed this opportunity to cast off their + responsibility. If war had been proposed as a crusade to abolish slavery, + their attitude might have been different But in March, 1860, no one but + the few ultra-extremists, whom scarcely anybody heeded, dreamed of such a + war. A war to restore the Union was the only sort that was considered + seriously. Such a war, the Abolitionists bitterly condemned. They seized + upon pacifism as their defense. Said Whittier of the Seceding States: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + They break the links of Union: shall we light + The fires of hell to weld anew the chain, + On that red anvil where each blow is pain? +</pre> + <p> + The fury and the fear offended Lincoln in equal measure. After long years + opposing the political temper of the extremists, he was not the man now to + change front. To one who believed himself marked out for a tragic end, the + cowardice at the heart of the pacifism of his time was revolting. It was + fortunate for his own peace of mind that he could here count on the + Secretary of State. No argument based on fear of pain would meet in Seward + with anything but derision. "They tell us," he had once said, and the + words expressed his constant attitude, "that we are to encounter + opposition. Why, bless my soul, did anybody ever expect to reach a + fortune, or fame, or happiness on earth or a crown in heaven, without + encountering resistance and opposition? What are we made men for but to + encounter and overcome opposition arrayed against us in the line of our + duty?"(3) + </p> + <p> + But if the ferocity and the cowardice were offensive and disheartening, + there was something else that was beneath contempt. Never was + self-interest more shockingly displayed. It was revealed in many ways, but + impinged upon the new President in only one. A horde of office-seekers + besieged him in the White House. The parallel to this amazing picture can + hardly be found in history. It was taken for granted that the new party + would make a clean sweep of the whole civil list, that every government + employee down to the humblest messenger boy too young to have political + ideas was to bear the label of the victorious party. Every Congressman who + had made promises to his constituents, every politician of every grade who + thought he had the party in his debt, every adventurer who on any pretext + could make a showing of party service rendered, poured into Washington. It + was a motley horde. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Hark, hark, the dogs do bark, + The beggars are coming to town." +</pre> + <p> + They converted the White House into a leaguer. They swarmed into the + corridors and even the private passages. So dense was the swarm that it + was difficult to make one's way either in or out. Lincoln described + himself by the image of a man renting rooms at one end of his house while + the other end was on fire.(4) And all this while the existence of the + Republic was at stake! It did not occur to him that it was safe to defy + the horde, to send it about its business. Here again, the figure of Seward + stood out in brilliant light against the somber background. One of + Seward's faculties was his power to form devoted lieutenants. He had that + sure and nimble judgment which enables some men to inspire their + lieutenants rather than categorically to instruct them. All the sordid + side of his political games he managed in this way. He did not appear + himself as the bargainer. In the shameful eagerness of most of the + politicians to find offices for their retainers, Seward was conspicuous by + contrast. Even the Cabinet was not free from this vice of catering to the + thirsty horde.(5) Alone, at this juncture, Seward detached himself from + the petty affairs of the hour and gave his whole attention to statecraft. + </p> + <p> + He had a definite policy. Another point of contact with Lincoln was the + attitude of both toward the Union, supplemented as it was by their views + of the place of slavery in the problem they confronted. Both were + nationalists ready to make any sacrifices for the national idea. Both + regarded slavery as an issue of second importance. Both were prepared for + great concessions if convinced that, ultimately, their concessions would + strengthen the trend of American life toward a general exaltation of + nationality. + </p> + <p> + On the other hand, their differences— + </p> + <p> + Seward approached the problem in the same temper, with the same + assumptions, that were his in the previous December. He still believed + that his main purpose was to enable a group of politicians to save their + faces by effecting a strategic retreat. Imputing to the Southern leaders + an attitude of pure self-interest, he believed that if allowed to play the + game as they desired, they would mark time until circumstances revealed to + them whether there was more profit for them in the Union or out; he also + believed that if sufficient time could be given, and if no armed clash + took place, it would be demonstrated first, that they did not have so + strong a hold on the South as they had thought they had; and second, that + on the whole, it was to their interests to patch up the quarrel and come + back into the Union. But he also saw that they had a serious problem of + leadership, which, if rudely handled, might make it impossible for them to + stand still. They had inflamed the sentiment of state-patriotism. In South + Carolina, particularly, the popular demand was for independence. With this + went the demand that Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, garrisoned by + Federal troops, should be surrendered, or if not surrendered, taken + forcibly from the United States. A few cannon shots at Sumter would mean + war. An article in Seward's creed of statecraft asserted that the populace + will always go wild over a war. To prevent a war fever in the North was + the first condition of his policy at home. Therefore, in order to prevent + it, the first step in saving his enemies' faces was to safeguard them + against the same danger in their own calm. He must help them to prevent a + war fever in the South. He saw but one way to do this. The conclusion + which became the bed rock of his policy was inevitable. Sumter must be + evacuated. + </p> + <p> + Even before the inauguration, he had broached this idea to Lincoln. He had + tried to keep Lincoln from inserting in the inaugural the words, "The + power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy and possess the property + and places belonging to the government." He had proposed instead, "The + power confided in me shall be used indeed with efficacy, but also with + discretion, in every case and exigency, according to the circumstances + actually existing, and with a view and a hope of a peaceful solution of + the national troubles, and the restoration of fraternal sympathies and + affections."(6) With the rejection of Seward's proffered revision, a + difference between them in policy began to develop. Lincoln, says one of + his secretaries, accepted Seward's main purpose but did not share his + "optimism."(7) It would be truer to say that in this stage of his + development, he was lacking in audacity. In his eager search for advice, + he had to strike a balance between the daring Seward who at this moment + built entirely on his own power of political devination, and the cautious + remainder of the Cabinet who had their ears to the ground trying their + best to catch the note of authority in the rumblings of vox populi. For + his own part, Lincoln began with two resolves: to go very cautiously,—and + not give something for nothing. Far from him, as yet, was that plunging + mood which in Seward pushed audacity to the verge of a gamble. However, + just previous to the inauguration, he took a cautious step in Seward's + direction. Virginia, like all the other States of the upper South, was + torn by the question which side to take. There was a "Union" party in + Virginia, and a "Secession" party. A committee of leading Unionists + conferred with Lincoln. They saw the immediate problem very much as Seward + did. They believed that if time were allowed, the crisis could be tided + over and the Union restored; but the first breath of war would wreck their + hopes. The condition of bringing about an adjustment was the evacuation of + Sumter. Lincoln told them that if Virginia could be kept in the Union by + the evacuation of Sumter, he would not hesitate to recall the garrison.(8) + A few days later, despite what he had said in the inaugural, he repeated + this offer. A convention was then sitting at Richmond in debate upon the + relations of Virginia to the Union. If it would drop the matter and + dissolve—so Lincoln told another committee—he would evacuate + Sumter and trust the recovery of the lower South to negotiation.(9) No + results, so far as is known, came of either of those offers. + </p> + <p> + During the first half of March, the Washington government marked time. The + office-seekers continued to besiege the President. South Carolina + continued to clamor for possession of Sumter. The Confederacy sent + commissioners to Washington whom Lincoln refused to recognize. The + Virginia Convention swayed this way and that. + </p> + <p> + Seward went serenely about his business, confident that everything was + certain to come his way soon or late. He went so far as to advise an + intermediary to tell the Confederate Commissioners that all they had to do + to get possession of Sumter was to wait. The rest of the Cabinet pressed + their ears more tightly than ever to the ground. The rumblings of vox + populi were hard to interpret. The North appeared to be in two minds. This + was revealed the day following the inauguration, when a Republican Club in + New York held a high debate upon the condition of the country. One faction + wanted Lincoln to declare for a war-policy; another wished the Club to + content itself with a vote of confidence in the Administration. Each + faction put its views into a resolution and as a happy device for + maintaining harmony, both resolutions were passed.(10) The fragmentary, + miscellaneous evidence of newspapers, political meetings, the talk of + leaders, local elections, formed a confused clamor which each listener + interpreted according to his predisposition. The members of the Cabinet in + their relative isolation at Washington found it exceedingly difficult to + make up their minds what the people were really saying. Of but one thing + they were certain, and that was that they represented a minority party. + Before committing themselves any way, it was life and death to know what + portion of the North would stand by them.(11) + </p> + <p> + At this point began a perplexity that was to torment the President almost + to the verge of distraction. How far could he trust his military advisers? + Old General Scott was at the head of the army. He had once been a + striking, if not a great figure. Should his military advice be accepted as + final? Scott informed Lincoln that Sumter was short of food and that any + attempt to relieve it would call for a much larger force than the + government could muster. Scott urged him to withdraw the garrison. Lincoln + submitted the matter to the Cabinet. He asked for their opinions in + writing.(12) Five advised taking Scott at his word and giving up all + thought of relieving Sumter. There were two dissenters. The Secretary of + the Treasury, Salmon Portland Chase, struck the key-note of his later + political career by an elaborate argument on expediency. If relieving + Sumter would lead to civil war, Chase was not in favor of relief; but on + the whole he did not think that civil war would result, and therefore, on + the whole, he favored a relief expedition. One member of the Cabinet, + Montgomery Blair, the Postmaster General, an impetuous, fierce man, was + vehement for relief at all costs. Lincoln wanted to agree with Chase and + Blair. He reasoned that if the fort was given up, the necessity under + which it was done would not be fully understood; that by many it would be + construed as part of a voluntary policy, that at home it would discourage + the friends of the Union, embolden its adversaries, and go far to insure + to the matter a recognition abroad. + </p> + <p> + Nevertheless, with the Cabinet five to two against him, with his military + adviser against him, Lincoln put aside his own views. The government went + on marking time and considering the credentials of applicants for country + post-offices. + </p> + <p> + By this time, Lincoln had thrown off the overpowering gloom which + possessed him in the latter days at Springfield. It is possible he had + reacted to a mood in which there was something of levity. His oscillation + of mood from a gloom that nothing penetrated to a sort of desperate mirth, + has been noted by various observers. And in 1861 he had not reached his + final poise, that firm holding of the middle way,—-which afterward + fused his moods and made of him, at least in action, a sustained + personality. + </p> + <p> + About the middle of the month he had a famous interview with Colonel W. T. + Sherman who had been President of the University of Louisiana and had + recently resigned. Senator John Sherman called at the White House with + regard to "some minor appointments in Ohio." The Colonel went with him. + When Colonel Sherman spoke of the seriousness of the Secession movement, + Lincoln replied, "Oh, we'll manage to keep house." The Colonel was so + offended by what seemed to him the flippancy of the President that he + abandoned his intention to resume the military life and withdrew from + Washington in disgust.(13) + </p> + <p> + Not yet had Lincoln attained a true appreciation of the real difficulty + before him. He had not got rid of the idea that a dispute over slavery had + widened accidentally into a needless sectional quarrel, and that as soon + as the South had time to think things over, it would see that it did not + really want the quarrel. He had a queer idea that meanwhile he could hold + a few points on the margin of the Seceded States, open custom houses on + ships at the mouths of harbors, but leave vacant all Federal appointments + within the Seceded States and ignore the absence of their representatives + from Washington.(14) This marginal policy did not seem to him a policy of + coercion; and though he was beginning to see that the situation from the + Southern point of view turned on the right of a State to resist coercion, + he was yet to learn that idealistic elements of emotion and of political + dogma were the larger part of his difficulty. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile, the upper South had been proclaiming its idealism. Its attitude + was creating a problem for the lower South as well as for the North. The + pro-slavery leaders had been startled out of a dream. The belief in a + Southern economic solidarity so complete that the secession of any one + Slave State would compel the secession of all the others, that belief had + been proved fallacious. It had been made plain that on the economic issue, + even as on the issue of sectional distrust, the upper South would not + follow the lower South into secession. When delegates from the Georgia + Secessionists visited the legislature of North Carolina, every courtesy + was shown to them; the Speaker of the House assured them of North + Carolina's sympathy and of her enduring friendliness; but he was careful + not to suggest an intention to secede, unless (the condition that was + destiny!) an attempt should be made to violate the sovereignty of the + State by marching troops across her soil to attack the Confederates. Then, + on the one issue of State sovereignty, North Carolina would leave the + Union.(15) The Unionists in Virginia took similar ground. They wished to + stay in the Union, and they were determined not to go out on the issue of + slavery. Therefore they laid their heads together to get that issue out of + the way. Their problem was to devise a compromise that would do three + things: lay the Southern dread of an inundation of sectional Northern + influence; silence the slave profiteers; meet the objections that had + induced Lincoln to wreck the Crittenden Compromise. They felt that the + first and second objectives would be reached easily enough by reviving the + line of the Missouri Compromise. But something more was needed, or again, + Lincoln would refuse to negotiate. They met their crucial difficulty by + boldly appealing to the South to be satisfied with the conservation of its + present life and renounce the dream of unlimited Southern expansion. Their + Compromise proposed a death blow to the filibuster and all he stood for. + It provided that no new territory other than naval stations should be + acquired by the United States on either side the Missouri Line without + consent of a majority of the Senators from the States on the opposite side + of that line.(16) + </p> + <p> + As a solution of the sectional quarrel, to the extent that it had been + definitely put into words, what could have been more astute? Lincoln + himself had said in the inaugural, "One section of our country believes + slavery is right and ought to be extended; while the other believes it is + wrong and ought not to be extended. That is the only substantial dispute." + In the same inaugural, he had pledged himself not to "interfere with the + institution of slavery in the States where it now exists;" and also had + urged a vigorous enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law. He never had + approved of any sort of emancipation other than purchase or the gradual + operation of economic conditions. It was well known that slavery could + flourish only on fresh land amid prodigal agricultural methods suited to + the most ignorant labor. The Virginia Compromise, by giving to slavery a + fixed area and abolishing its hopes of continual extensions into fresh + land, was the virtual fulfillment of Lincoln's demand. + </p> + <p> + The failure of the Virginia Compromise is one more proof that a great deal + of vital history never gets into words until after it is over. During the + second half of March, Unionists and Secessionists in the Virginia + Convention debated with deep emotion this searching new proposal. The + Unionists had a fatal weakness in their position. This was the feature of + the situation that had not hitherto been put into words. Lincoln had not + been accurate when he said that the slavery question was "the only + substantial dispute." He had taken for granted that the Southern + opposition to nationalism was not a real thing,—a mere device of the + politicians to work up excitement. All the compromises he was ready to + offer were addressed to that part of the South which was seeking to make + an issue on slavery. They had little meaning for that other and more + numerous part in whose thinking slavery was an incident. For this other + South, the ideas which Lincoln as late as the middle of March did not + bring into play were the whole story. Lincoln, willing to give all sorts + of guarantees for the noninterference with slavery, would not give a + single guarantee supporting the idea of State sovereignty against the idea + of the sovereign power of the national Union. The Virginians, willing to + go great lengths in making concessions with regard to slavery, would not + go one inch in the way of admitting that their State was not a sovereign + power included in the American Union of its own free will, and not the + legitimate subject of any sort of coercion. + </p> + <p> + The Virginia Compromise was really a profound new complication. The very + care with which it divided the issue of nationality from the issue of + slavery was a storm signal. For a thoroughgoing nationalist like Lincoln, + deep perplexities lay hidden in this full disclosure of the issue that was + vital to the moderate South. Lincoln's shifting of his mental ground, his + perception that hitherto he had been oblivious of his most formidable + opponent, the one with whom compromise was impossible, occurred in the + second half of the month. + </p> + <p> + As always, Lincoln kept his own counsel upon the maturing of a purpose in + his own mind. He listened to every adviser—opening his office doors + without reserve to all sorts and conditions—and silently, anxiously, + struggled with himself for a decision. He watched Virginia; he watched the + North; he listened—and waited. General Scott continued hopeless, + though minor military men gave encouragement. And whom should the + President trust-the tired old General who disagreed with him, or the eager + young men who held views he would like to hold? Many a time he was to ask + himself that question during the years to come. + </p> + <p> + On March twenty-ninth, he again consulted the Cabinet.(17) A great deal of + water had run under the mill since they gave their opinions on March + sixteenth. The voice of the people was still a bewildering roar, but out + of that roar most of the Cabinet seemed to hear definite words. They were + convinced that the North was veering toward a warlike mood. The phrase + "masterly inactivity," which had been applied to the government's course + admiringly a few weeks before, was now being applied satirically. + Republican extremists were demanding action. A subtle barometer was the + Secretary of the Treasury. Now, as on the sixteenth, he craftily said + something without saying it. After juggling the word "if," he assumed his + "if" to be a fact and concluded, "If war is to be the result, I perceive + no reason why it may not best be begun in consequence of military + resistance to the efforts of the Administration to sustain troops of the + Union, stationed under authority of the government in a fort of the Union, + in the ordinary course of service." + </p> + <p> + This elaborate equivocation, which had all the force of an assertion, was + Chase all over! Three other ministers agreed with him except that they did + not equivocate. One evaded. Of all those who had stood with Seward on the + sixteenth, only one was still in favor of evacuation. Seward stood fast. + This reversal of the Cabinet's position, jumping as it did with Lincoln's + desires, encouraged him to prepare for action. But just as he was about to + act his diffidence asserted itself. He authorized the preparation of a + relief expedition but withheld sailing orders until further notice.(18) + Oh, for Seward's audacity; for the ability to do one thing or another and + take the consequences! + </p> + <p> + Seward had not foreseen this turn of events. He had little respect for the + rest of the Cabinet, and had still to discover that the President, for all + his semblance of vacillation, was a great man. Seward was undeniably vain. + That the President with such a Secretary of State should judge the + strength of a Cabinet vote by counting noses—preposterous! But that + was just what this curiously simple-minded President had done. If he went + on in his weak, amiable way listening to the time-servers who were + listening to the bigots, what would become of the country? And of the + Secretary of State and his deep policies? The President must be pulled up + short—brought to his senses—taught a lesson or two. + </p> + <p> + Seward saw that new difficulties had arisen in the course of that fateful + March which those colleagues of his in the Cabinet—well-meaning, + inferior men, to be sure—had not the subtlety to comprehend. Of + course the matter of evacuation remained what it always had been, the + plain open road to an ultimate diplomatic triumph. Who but a president out + of the West, or a minor member of the Cabinet, would fail to see that! But + there were two other considerations which, also, his well-meaning + colleagues were failing to allow for. While all this talk about the + Virginia Unionists had been going on, while Washington and Richmond had + been trying to negotiate, neither really had any control of its own game. + They were card players with all the trumps out of their hands. Montgomery, + the Confederate Congress, held the trumps. At any minute it could + terminate all this make-believe of diplomatic independence, both at + Washington and at Richmond. A few cannon shots aimed at Sumter, the cry + for revenge in the North, the inevitable protest against coercion in + Virginia, the convention blown into the air, and there you are—War! + </p> + <p> + And after all that, who knows what next? And yet, Blair and Chase and the + rest would not consent to slip Montgomery's trumps out of her hands—the + easiest thing in the world to do!—by throwing Sumter into her lap + and thus destroying the pretext for the cannon shots. More than ever + before, Seward would insist firmly on the evacuation of Sumter. + </p> + <p> + But there was the other consideration, the really new turn of events. + Suppose Sumter is evacuated; suppose Montgomery has lost her chance to + force Virginia into war by precipitating the issue of coercion, what + follows? All along Seward had advocated a national convention to readjust + all the matters "in dispute between the sections." But what would such a + convention discuss? In his inaugural, Lincoln had advised an amendment to + the Constitution "to the effect that the Federal government shall never + interfere with the domestic institutions of the State, including that of + persons held to service." Very good! The convention might be expected to + accept this, and after this, of course, there would come up the Virginia + Compromise. Was it a practical scheme? Did it form a basis for drawing + back into the Union the lower South? + </p> + <p> + Seward's whole thought upon this subject has never been disclosed. It must + be inferred from the conclusion which he reached, which he put into a + paper entitled, Thoughts for the President's Consideration, and submitted + to Lincoln, April first. + </p> + <p> + The Thoughts outlined a scheme of policy, the most startling feature of + which was an instant, predatory, foreign war. There are two clues to this + astounding proposal. One was a political maxim in which Seward had + unwavering faith. "A fundamental principle of politics," he said, "is + always to be on the side of your country in a war. It kills any party to + oppose a war. When Mr. Buchanan got up his Mormon War, our people, Wade + and Fremont, and The Tribune, led off furiously against it. I supported it + to the immense disgust of enemies and friends. If you want to sicken your + opponents with their own war, go in for it till they give it up."(19) He + was not alone among the politicians of his time, and some other times, in + these cynical views. Lincoln has a story of a politician who was asked to + oppose the Mexican War, and who replied, "I opposed one war; that was + enough for me. I am now perpetually in favor of war, pestilence and + famine." + </p> + <p> + The second clue to Seward's new policy of international brigandage was the + need, as he conceived it, to propitiate those Southern expansionists who + in the lower South at least formed so large a part of the political + machine, who must somehow be lured back into the Union; to whom the + Virginia Compromise, as well as every other scheme of readjustment yet + suggested, offered no allurement. Like Lincoln defeating the Crittenden + Compromise, like the Virginians planning the last compromise, Seward + remembered the filibusters and the dreams of the expansionists, annexation + of Cuba, annexation of Nicaragua and all the rest, and he looked about for + a way to reach them along that line. Chance had played into his hands. + Already Napoleon III had begun his ill-fated interference with the affairs + of Mexico. A rebellion had just taken place in San Domingo and Spain was + supposed to have designs on the island. Here, for any one who believed in + predatory war as an infallible last recourse to rouse the patriotism of a + country, were pretexts enough. Along with these would go a raging + assertion of the Monroe Doctrine and a bellicose attitude toward other + European powers on less substantial grounds. And amid it all, between the + lines of it all, could not any one glimpse a scheme for the expansion of + the United States southward? War with Spain over San Domingo! And who, + pray, held the Island of Cuba! And what might not a defeated Spain be + willing to do with Cuba? And if France were driven out of Mexico by our + conquering arms, did not the shadows of the future veil but dimly a + grateful Mexico where American capital should find great opportunities? + And would not Southern capital in the nature of things, have a large share + in all that was to come? Surely, granting Seward's political creed, + remembering the problem he wished to solve, there is nothing to be + wondered at in his proposal to Lincoln: "I would demand explanations from + Spain and France, categorically, at once." . . . And if satisfactory + explanations were not received from Spain and France, "would convene + Congress and declare war against them." + </p> + <p> + His purpose, he said, was to change the question before the public, from + one upon slavery, or about slavery, for a question upon Union or Disunion. + Sumter was to be evacuated "as a safe means for changing the issue," but + at the same time, preparations were to be made for a blockade of the + Southern coast.(20) This extraordinary document administered mild but firm + correction to the President. He was told that he had no policy, although + under the circumstances, this was "not culpable"; that there must be a + single head to the government; that the President, if not equal to the + task, should devolve it upon some member of the Cabinet. The Thoughts + closed with these words, "I neither seek to evade nor assume + responsibility." + </p> + <p> + Like Seward's previous move, when he sent Weed to Springfield, this other + brought Lincoln to a point of crisis. For the second time he must render a + decision that would turn the scale, that would have for his country the + force of destiny. In one respect he did not hesitate. The most essential + part of the Thoughts was the predatory spirit. This clashed with Lincoln's + character. Serene unscrupulousness met unwavering integrity. Here was one + of those subjects on which Lincoln was not asking advice. As to ways and + means, he was pliable to a degree in the hands of richer and wider + experience; as to principles, he was a rock. Seward's whole scheme of + aggrandizement, his magnificent piracy, was calmly waved aside as a thing + of no concern. The most striking characteristic of Lincoln's reply was its + dignity. He did not, indeed, lay bare his purposes. He was content to + point out certain inconsistencies in Seward's argument; to protest that + whatever action might be taken with regard to the single fortress, Sumter, + the question before the public could not be changed by that one event; and + to say that while he expected advice from all his Cabinet, he was none the + less President, and in last resort he would himself direct the policy of + the government.(21) + </p> + <p> + Only a strong man could have put up with the patronizing condescension of + the Thoughts and betrayed no irritation. Not a word in Lincoln's reply + gives the least hint that condescension had been displayed. He is wholly + unruffled, distant, objective. There is also a quiet tone of finality, + almost the tone one might use in gently but firmly correcting a child. The + Olympian impertinence of the Thoughts had struck out of Lincoln the first + flash of that approaching masterfulness by means of which he was to ride + out successfully such furious storms. Seward was too much the man of the + world not to see what had happened. He never touched upon the Thoughts + again. Nor did Lincoln. The incident was secret until Lincoln's + secretaries twenty-five years afterward published it to the world. + </p> + <p> + But Lincoln's lofty dignity on the first of April was of a moment only. + When the Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Welles, that same day called on him + in his offices, he was the easy-going, jovial Lincoln who was always ready + half-humorously to take reproof from subordinates—as was evinced by + his greeting to the Secretary. Looking up from his writing, he said + cheerfully, "What have I done wrong?"(22) Gideon Welles was a pugnacious + man, and at that moment an angry man. There can be little doubt that his + lips were tightly shut, that a stern frown darkened his brows. Grimly + conscientious was Gideon Welles, likewise prosaic; a masterpiece of + literalness, the very opposite in almost every respect of the Secretary of + State whom he cordially detested. That he had already found occasion to + protest against the President's careless mode of conducting business may + be guessed—correctly—from the way he was received. Doubtless + the very cordiality, the whimsical admission of loose methods, irritated + the austere Secretary. Welles had in his hand a communication dated that + same day and signed by the President, making radical changes in the + program of the Navy Department. He had come to protest. + </p> + <p> + "The President," said Welles, "expressed as much surprise as I felt, that + he had sent me such a document. He said that Mr. Seward with two or three + young men had been there during the day on a subject which he (Seward) had + in hand and which he had been some time maturing; that it was Seward's + specialty, to which he, the President, had yielded, but as it involved + considerable details, he had left Mr. Seward to prepare the necessary + papers. These papers he had signed, many of them without reading, for he + had not time, and if he could not trust the Secretary of State, he knew + not whom he could trust. I asked who were associated with Mr. Seward. 'No + one,' said the President, 'but these young men who were here as clerks to + write down his plans and orders.' Most of the work was done, he said, in + the other room. + </p> + <p> + "The President reiterated that they (the changes in the Navy) were not his + instructions, though signed by him; that the paper was an improper one; + that he wished me to give it no more consideration than I thought proper; + to treat it as cancelled, or as if it had never been written. I could get + no satisfactory explanation from the President of the origin of this + strange interference which mystified him and which he censured and + condemned more severely than myself. . . . Although very much disturbed by + the disclosure, he was anxious to avoid difficulty, and to shield Mr. + Seward, took to himself the whole blame." + </p> + <p> + Thus Lincoln began a role that he never afterward abandoned. It was the + role of scapegoat Whatever went wrong anywhere could always be loaded upon + the President. He appeared to consider it a part of his duty to be the + scapegoat for the whole Administration. It was his way of maintaining + trust, courage, efficiency, among his subordinates. + </p> + <p> + Of those papers which he had signed without reading on April first, + Lincoln was to hear again in still more surprising fashion six days + thereafter. + </p> + <p> + He was now at the very edge of his second crucial decision. Though the + naval expedition was in preparation, he still hesitated over issuing + orders to sail. The reply to the Thoughts had not committed him to any + specific line of conduct. What was it that kept him wavering at this + eleventh hour? Again, that impenetrable taciturnity which always shrouded + his progress toward a conclusion, forbids dogmatic assertion. But two + things are obvious: his position as a minority president, of which he was + perhaps unduly conscious, caused him to delay, and to delay again and + again, seeking definite evidence how much support he could command in the + North; the change in his comprehension of the problem before him-his + perception that it was not an "artificial crisis" involving slavery alone, + but an irreconcilable clash of social-political idealism—this + disturbed his spirit, distressed, even appalled him. Having a truer + insight into human nature than Seward had, he saw that here was an issue + immeasurably less susceptible of compromise than was slavery. Whether, the + moment he perceived this, he at once lost hope of any peaceable solution, + we do not know. Just what he thought about the Virginia Compromise is + still to seek. However, the nature of his mind, the way it went straight + to the human element in a problem once his eyes were opened to the + problem's reality, forbid us to conclude that he took hope from Virginia. + He now saw what, had it not been for his near horizon, he would have seen + so long before, that, in vulgar parlance, he had been "barking up the + wrong tree." Now that he had located the right tree, had the knowledge + come too late? + </p> + <p> + It is known that Seward, possibly at Lincoln's request, made an attempt to + bring together the Virginia Unionists and the Administration. He sent a + special representative to Richmond urging the despatch of a committee to + confer with the President. + </p> + <p> + The strength of the party in the Convention was shown on April fourth when + a proposed Ordinance of Secession was voted down, eighty-nine to + forty-five. On the same day, the Convention by a still larger majority + formally denied the right of the Federal government to coerce a State. Two + days later, John B. Baldwin, representing the Virginia Unionists, had a + confidential talk with Lincoln. Only fragments of their talk, drawn forth + out of memory long afterward—some of the reporting being at second + hand, the recollections of the recollections of the participants—are + known to exist. The one fact clearly discernible is that Baldwin stated + fully the Virginia position: that her Unionists were not nationalists; + that the coercion of any State, by impugning the sovereignty of all, would + automatically drive Virginia out of the Union.(23) + </p> + <p> + Lincoln had now reached his decision. The fear that had dogged him all + along—the fear that in evacuating Sumter he would be giving + something for nothing, that "it would discourage the friends of the Union, + embolden its adversaries"—was in possession of his will. One may + hazard the guess that this fear would have determined Lincoln sooner than + it did, except for the fact that the Secretary of State, despite his + faults, was so incomparably the strongest personality in the Cabinet. We + have Lincoln's own word for the moment and the detail that formed the very + end of his period of vacillation. All along he had intended to relieve and + hold Fort Pickens, off the coast of Florida. To this, Seward saw no + objection. In fact, he urged the relief of Pickens, hoping, as + compensation, to get his way about Sumter. Assuming as he did that the + Southern leaders were opportunists, he believed that they would not make + an issue over Pickens, merely because it had not in the public eye become + a political symbol. Orders had been sent to a squadron in Southern waters + to relieve Pickens. Early in April news was received at Washington that + the attempt had failed due to misunderstandings among the Federal + commanders. Fearful that Pickens was about to fall, reasoning that + whatever happened he dared not lose both forts, Lincoln became peremptory + on the subject of the Sumter expedition. This was on April sixth. On the + night of April sixth, Lincoln's signatures to the unread despatches of the + first of April, came home to roost. And at last, Welles found out what + Seward was doing on the day of All Fools.(24) + </p> + <p> + While the Sumter expedition was being got ready, still without sailing + orders, a supplemental expedition was also preparing for the relief of + Pickens. This was the business that Seward was contriving, that Lincoln + would not explain, on April first. The order interfering with the Navy + Department was designed to checkmate the titular head of the department. + Furthermore, Seward had had the amazing coolness to assume that Lincoln + would certainly accept his Thoughts and that the simple President need not + hereinafter be consulted about details. He aimed to circumvent Welles and + to make sure that the Sumter expedition, whether sailing orders were + issued or not, should be rendered innocuous. The warship Powhatan, which + was being got ready for sea at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, was intended by + Welles for the Sumter expedition. One of those unread despatches signed by + Lincoln, assigned it to the Pickens expedition. When the sailing orders + from Welles were received, the commander of the Sumter fleet claimed the + Powhatan. The Pickens commander refused to give it up. The latter + telegraphed Seward that his expedition was "being retarded and + embarrassed" by "conflicting" orders from Welles. The result was a stormy + conference between Seward and Welles which was adjourned to the White + House and became a conference with Lincoln. And then the whole story came + out. Lincoln played the scapegoat, "took the whole blame upon himself, + said it was carelessness, heedlessness on his part; he ought to have been + more careful and attentive." But he insisted on immediate correction of + his error, on the restoration of the Powhatan to the Sumter fleet. Seward + struggled hard for his plan. Lincoln was inflexible. As Seward had + directed the preparation of the Pickens expedition, Lincoln required him + to telegraph to Brooklyn the change in orders. Seward, beaten by his enemy + Welles, was deeply chagrined. In his agitation he forgot to be formal, + forgot that the previous order had gone out in the President's name, and + wired curtly, "Give up the Powhatan. Seward." + </p> + <p> + This despatch was received just as the Pickens expedition was sailing. The + commander of the Powhatan had now before him, three orders. Naturally, he + held that the one signed by the President took precedence over the others. + He went on his way, with his great warship, to Florida. The Sumter + expedition sailed without any powerful ship of war. In this strange + fashion, chance executed Seward's design. + </p> + <p> + Lincoln had previously informed the Governor of South Carolina that due + notice would be given, should he decide to relieve Sumter. Word was now + sent that "an attempt will be made to supply Fort Sumter with provisions + only; and that if such attempt be not resisted, no effort to throw in men, + arms or ammunition will be made without further notice, or in case of an + attack upon the fort."(25) Though the fleet was not intended to offer + battle, it was supposed to be strong enough to force its way into the + harbor, should the relief of Sumter be opposed. But the power to do so was + wholly conditioned on the presence in its midst of the Powhatan. And the + Powhatan was far out to sea on its way to Florida. + </p> + <p> + And now it was the turn of the Confederate government to confront a + crisis. It, no less than Washington, had passed through a period of + disillusion. The assumption upon which its chief politicians had built so + confidently had collapsed. The South was not really a unit. It was not + true that the secession of any one State, on any sort of issue, would + compel automatically the secession of all the Southern States. North + Carolina had exploded this illusion. Virginia had exploded it. The South + could not be united on the issue of slavery; it could not be united on the + issue of sectional dread. It could be united on but one issue-State + sovereignty, the denial of the right of the Federal Government to coerce a + State. The time had come to decide whether the cannon at Charleston should + fire. As Seward had foreseen, Montgomery held the trumps; but had + Montgomery the courage to play them? There was a momentous debate in the + Confederate Cabinet. Robert Toombs, the Secretary of State, whose rapid + growth in comprehension since December formed a parallel to Lincoln's + growth, threw his influence on the side of further delay. He would not + invoke that "final argument of kings," the shotted cannon. "Mr. + President," he exclaimed, "at this time, it is suicide, murder, and will + lose us every friend at the North. You will instantly strike a hornet's + nest which extends from mountain to ocean, and legions now quiet will + swarm out and sting us to death. It is unnecessary; it puts us in the + wrong; it is fatal." But Toombs stood alone in the Cabinet. Orders were + sent to Charleston to reduce Fort Sumter. Before dawn, April twelfth, the + first shot was fired. The flag of the United States was hauled down on the + afternoon of the thirteenth. Meanwhile the relieving fleet had arrived—without + the Powhatan. Bereft of its great ship, it could not pass the harbor + batteries and assist the fort. Its only service was to take off the + garrison which by the terms of surrender was allowed to withdraw. On the + fourteenth, Sumter was evacuated and the inglorious fleet sailed back to + the northward. + </p> + <p> + Lincoln at once accepted the gage of battle. On the fifteenth appeared his + proclamation calling for an army of seventy-five thousand volunteers. + Automatically, the upper South fulfilled its unhappy destiny. Challenged + at last, on the irreconcilable issue, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, + Arkansas, seceded. The final argument of kings was the only one remaining. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0016" id="link2H_4_0016"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XVI "ON TO RICHMOND!" + </h2> + <p> + It has been truly said that the Americans are an unmilitary but an + intensely warlike nation. Seward's belief that a war fury would sweep the + country at the first cannon shot was amply justified. Both North and South + appeared to rise as one man, crying fiercely to be led to battle. + </p> + <p> + The immediate effect on Washington had not been foreseen. That historic + clash at Baltimore between the city's mob and the Sixth Massachusetts en + route to the capital, was followed by an outburst of secession feeling in + Maryland; by an attempt to isolate Washington from the North. Railway + tracks were torn up; telegraph wires were cut. During several days Lincoln + was entirely ignorant of what the North was doing. Was there an efficient + general response to his call for troops? Or was precious time being + squandered in preparation? Was it conceivable that the war fury was only + talk? Looking forth from the White House, he was a prisoner of the + horizon; an impenetrable mystery, it shut the capital in a ring of silence + all but intolerable. Washington assumed the air of a beleaguered city. + General Scott hastily drew in the small forces which the government had + maintained in Maryland and Virginia. Government employees and loyal + Washingtonians were armed and began to drill. The White House became a + barracks. "Jim Lane," writes delightful John Hay in his diary, which is + always cool, rippling, sunny, no matter how acute the crisis, "Jim Lane + marshalled his Kansas warriors today at Williard's; tonight (they are in) + the East Room."(1) Hay's humor brightens the tragic hour. He felt it his + duty to report to Lincoln a "yarn" that had been told to him by some + charming women who had insisted on an interview; they had heard from "a + dashing Virginian" that inside forty-eight hours something would happen + which would ring through the world. The ladies thought this meant the + capture or assassination of the President. "Lincoln quietly grinned." But + Hay who plainly enjoyed the episode, charming women and all, had got + himself into trouble. He had to do "some very dexterous lying to calm the + awakened fears of Mrs. Lincoln in regard to the assassination suspicion." + Militia were quartered in the Capitol, and Pennsylvania Avenue was a drill + ground. At the President's reception, the distinguished politician C. C. + Clay, "wore with a sublimely unconscious air three pistols and an + 'Arkansas toothpick,' and looked like an admirable vignette to twenty-five + cents' worth of yellow covered romance." + </p> + <p> + But Hay's levity was all of the surface. Beneath it was intense anxiety. + General Scott reported that the Virginia militia, concentrating about + Washington, were a formidable menace, though he thought he was strong + enough to hold out until relief should come. As the days passed and + nothing appeared upon that inscrutable horizon while the telegraph + remained silent, Lincoln became moodily distressed. One afternoon, "the + business of the day being over, the executive office deserted, after + walking the floor alone in silent thought for nearly a half-hour, he + stopped and gazed long and wistfully out of the window down the Potomac in + the direction of the expected ships (bringing soldiers from New York); and + unconscious of other presence in the room, at length broke out with + irrepressible anguish in the repeated exclamation, 'Why don't they come! + Why don't they come!'"(2) + </p> + <p> + His unhappiness flashed into words while he was visiting those + Massachusetts soldiers who had been wounded on their way to Washington. "I + don't believe there is any North. . . " he exclaimed. "You are the only + Northern realities."(3) But even then relief was at hand. The Seventh New + York, which had marched down Broadway amid such an ovation as never before + was given any regiment in America, had come by sea to Annapolis. At noon + on April twenty-fifth, it reached Washington bringing, along with the + welcome sight of its own bayonets, the news that the North had risen, that + thousands more were on the march. + </p> + <p> + Hay who met them at the depot went at once to report to Lincoln. Already + the President had reacted to a "pleasant, hopeful mood." He began + outlining a tentative plan of action: blockade, maintenance of the safety + of Washington, holding Fortress Monroe, and then to "go down to Charleston + and pay her the little debt we are owing there."(4) But this was an + undigested plan. It had little resemblance to any of his later plans. And + immediately the chief difficulties that were to embarrass all his plans + appeared. He was a minority President; and he was the Executive of a + democracy. Many things were to happen; many mistakes were to be made; many + times the piper was to be paid, ere Lincoln felt sufficiently sure of his + support to enforce a policy of his own, defiant of opposition. Throughout + the spring of 1861 his imperative need was to secure the favor of the + Northern mass, to shape his policy with that end in view. At least, in his + own mind, this seemed to be his paramount obligation. And so it was in the + minds of his advisers. Lincoln was still in the pliable mood which was his + when he entered office, which continued to be in evidence, except for + sudden momentary disappearances when a different Lincoln flashed an + instant into view, until another year and more had gone by. Still he felt + himself the apprentice hand painfully learning the trade of man of action. + Still he was deeply sensitive to advice. + </p> + <p> + And what advice did the country give him? There was one roaring shout + dinning into his ears all round the Northern horizon-"On to Richmond!" + Following Virginia's secession, Richmond had become the Confederate + capital. It was expected that a session of the Confederate Congress would + open at Richmond in July. "On to Richmond! Forward to Richmond!" screamed + The Tribune. "The Rebel Congress must not be allowed to meet there on the + 20th of July. By that date the place must be held by the national army." + The Times advised the resignation of the Cabinet; it warned the President + that if he did not give prompt satisfaction he would be superseded. Though + Lincoln laughed at the threat of The Times to "depose" him, he took very + seriously all the swiftly accumulating evidence that the North was + becoming rashly impatient Newspaper correspondents at Washington talked to + his secretaries "impertinently."(5) Members of Congress, either carried + away by the excitement of the hour or with slavish regard to the hysteria + of their constituents, thronged to Washington clamoring for action. On + purely political grounds, if on no other, they demanded an immediate + advance into Virginia. Military men looked with irritation, if not with + contempt, on all this intemperate popular fury. That grim Sherman, who had + been offended by Lincoln's tone the month previous, put their feeling into + words. Declining the offer of a position in the War Department, he wrote + that he wished "the Administration all success in its almost impossible + task of governing this distracted and anarchial people."(6) + </p> + <p> + In the President's councils, General Scott urged delay, and the gathering + of the volunteers into camps of instruction, their deliberate + transformation into a genuine army. So inadequate were the resources of + the government; so loose and uncertain were the militia organizations + which were attempting to combine into an army; such discrepancies appeared + between the nominal and actual strength of commands, between the places + where men were supposed to be and the places where they actually were; + that Lincoln in his droll way compared the process of mobilization to + shoveling a bushel of fleas across a barn floor.(7) From the military + point of view it was no time to attempt an advance. Against the military + argument, three political arguments loomed dark in the minds of the + Cabinet; there was the clamor of the Northern majority; there were the + threats of the politicians who were to assemble in Congress, July fourth; + there was the term of service of the volunteers which had been limited by + the proclamation to three months. Late in June, the Cabinet decided upon + the political course, overruled the military advisers, and gave its voice + for an immediate advance into Virginia. Lincoln accepted this rash advice. + Scott yielded. General Irwin McDowell was ordered to strike a Confederate + force that had assembled at Manassas.(8) On the fourth of July, the day + Congress met, the government made use of a coup de theatre. It held a + review of what was then considered a "grand army" of twenty-five thousand + men. A few days later, the sensibilities of the Congressmen were further + exploited. Impressionable members were "deeply moved," when the same host + in marching order passed again through the city and wheeled southward + toward Virginia. Confident of victory, the Congressmen spent these days in + high debate upon anything that took their fancy. When, a fortnight later, + it was known that a battle was imminent, many of them treated the Occasion + as a picnic. They took horses, or hired vehicles, and away they went + southward for a jolly outing on the day the Confederacy was to collapse. + In the mind of the unfortunate General who commanded the expedition a + different mood prevailed. In depression, he said to a friend, "This is not + an army. It will take a long time to make an army. But his duty as a + soldier forbade him to oppose his superiors; the poor fellow could not + proclaim his distrust of his army in public."(9) Thoughtful observers at + Washington felt danger in the air, both military and political. + </p> + <p> + Sunday, July twenty-first, dawned clear. It was the day of the expected + battle. A noted Englishman, setting out for the front as war correspondent + of the London Times, observed "the calmness and silence of the streets of + Washington, this early morning." After crossing the Potomac, he felt that + "the promise of a lovely day given by the early dawn was likely to be + realized to the fullest"; and "the placid beauty of the scenery as we + drove through the woods below Arlington" delighted him. And then about + nine o'clock his thoughts abandoned the scenery. Through those beautiful + Virginia woods came the distant roar of cannon. + </p> + <p> + At the White House that day there was little if any alarm. Reports + received at various times were construed by military men as favorable. + These, with the rooted preconception that the army had to be successful, + established confidence in a victory before nightfall. Late in the + afternoon, the President relieved his tension by taking a drive. He had + not returned when, about six o'clock, Seward appeared and asked hoarsely + where he was. The secretaries told him. He begged them to find the + President as quickly as possible. "Tell no one," said he, "but the battle + is lost. The army is in full retreat." + </p> + <p> + The news of the rout at Bull Run did not spread through Washington until + close to midnight. It caused an instantaneous panic. In the small hours, + the space before the Treasury was "a moving mass of humanity. Every man + seemed to be asking every man he met for the latest news, while all sorts + of rumors filled the air. A feeling of mingled horror and despair appeared + to possess everybody. . . . Our soldiers came straggling into the city + covered with dust and many of them wounded, while the panic that led to + the disaster spread like a contagion through all classes." The President + did not share the panic. He "received the news quietly and without any + visible sign of perturbation or excitement"'(10) Now appeared in him the + quality which led Herndon to call him a fatalist. All night long he sat + unruffled in his office, while refugees from the stricken field—especially + those overconfident Senators and Representatives who had gone out to watch + the overthrow of the Confederates—poured into his ears their various + and conflicting accounts of the catastrophe. During that long night + Lincoln said almost nothing. Meanwhile, fragments of the routed army + continued to stream into the city. At dawn the next day Washington was + possessed by a swarm of demoralized soldiers while a dreary rain settled + over it. + </p> + <p> + The silent man in the White House had forgotten for the moment his + dependence upon his advisers. While the runaway Senators were talking + themselves out, while the rain was sheeting up the city, he had reached + two conclusions. Early in the morning, he formulated both. One conclusion + was a general outline for the conduct of a long war in which the first + move should be a call for volunteers to serve three years.(11) The other + conclusion was the choice of a conducting general. Scott was too old. + McDowell had failed. But there was a young officer, a West Pointer, who + had been put in command of the Ohio militia, who had entered the Virginia + mountains from the West, had engaged a small force there, and had won + several small but rather showy victories. Young as he was, he had served + in the Mexican War and was supposed to be highly accomplished. On the day + following Bull Run, Lincoln ordered McClellan to Washington to take + command.(12) + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0017" id="link2H_4_0017"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XVII. DEFINING THE ISSUE + </h2> + <p> + While these startling events were taking place in the months between + Sumter and Bull Run, Lincoln passed through a searching intellectual + experience. The reconception of his problem, which took place in March, + necessitated a readjustment of his political attitude. He had prepared his + arsenal for the use of a strategy now obviously beside the mark. The vital + part of the first inaugural was its attempt to cut the ground from under + the slave profiteers. Its assertion that nothing else was important, the + idea that the crisis was "artificial," was sincere. Two discoveries had + revolutionized Lincoln's thought. The discovery that what the South was in + earnest about was not slavery but State sovereignty; the discovery that + the North was far from a unit upon nationalism. To meet the one, to + organize the other, was the double task precipitated by the fall of + Sumter. Not only as a line of attack, but also as a means of defense, + Lincoln had to raise to its highest power the argument for the sovereign + reality of the national government. The effort to do this formed the + silent inner experience behind the surging external events in the stormy + months between April and July. It was governed by a firmness not + paralleled in his outward course. As always, Lincoln the thinker asked no + advice. It was Lincoln the administrator, painfully learning a new trade, + who was timid, wavering, pliable in council. Behind the apprentice in + statecraft, the lonely thinker stood apart, inflexible as ever, impervious + to fear. The thinking which he formulated in the late spring and early + summer of 1861 obeyed his invariable law of mental gradualness. It arose + out of the deep places of his own past. He built up his new conclusion by + drawing together conclusions he had long held, by charging them with his + later experience, by giving to them a new turn, a new significance. + </p> + <p> + Lincoln's was one of those natures in which ideas have to become latent + before they can be precipitated by outward circumstance into definite + form. Always with him the idea that was to become powerful at a crisis was + one that he had long held in solution, that had permeated him without his + formulating it, that had entwined itself with his heartstrings; never was + it merely a conscious act of the logical faculty. His characteristics as a + lawyer—preoccupation with basal ideas, with ethical significance, + with those emotions which form the ultimates of life—these always + determined his thought. His idea of nationalism was a typical case. He had + always believed in the reality of the national government as a sovereign + fact. But he had thought little about it; rather he had taken it for + granted. It was so close to his desire that he could not without an effort + acknowledge the sincerity of disbelief in it. That was why he was so slow + in forming a true comprehension of the real force opposing him. Disunion + had appeared to him a mere device of party strategy. That it was grounded + upon a genuine, a passionate conception of government, one irreconcilable + with his own, struck him, when at last he grasped it, as a deep offense. + The literary statesman sprang again to life. He threw all the strength of + his mind, the peculiar strength that had made him president, into a + statement of the case for nationalism. + </p> + <p> + His vehicle for publishing his case was the first message to Congress.(1) + It forms an amazing contrast with the first inaugural. The argument over + slavery that underlies the whole of the inaugural has vanished. The + message does not mention slavery. From the first word to the last, it is + an argument for the right of the central government to exercise sovereign + power, and for the duty of the American people—to give their lives + for the Union. No hint of compromise; nought of the cautious and + conciliatory tone of the inaugural. It is the blast of a trumpet—a + war trumpet. It is the voice of a stern mind confronting an adversary that + arouses in him no sympathy, no tolerance even, much less any thought of + concession. Needless to insist that this adversary is an idea. Toward + every human adversary, Lincoln was always unbelievably tender. Though + little of a theologian, he appreciated intuitively some metaphysical + ideas; he projected into politics the philosopher's distinction between + sin and the sinner. For all his hatred of the ideas which he held to be + treason, he never had a vindictive impulse directed toward the men who + accepted those ideas. Destruction for the idea, infinite clemency for the + person—such was his attitude. + </p> + <p> + It was the idea of disunion, involving as he believed, a misconception of + the American government, and by implication, a misconception of the true + function of all governments everywhere, against which he declared a war + without recourse. + </p> + <p> + The basis of his argument reaches back to his oration on Clay, to his + assertion that Clay loved his country, partly because it was his country, + even more because it was a free country. This idea ran through Lincoln's + thinking to the end. There was in him a suggestion of internationalism. At + the full height of his power, in his complete maturity as a political + thinker, he said that the most sacred bond in life should be the + brotherhood of the workers of all nations. No words of his are more + significant than his remarks to passing soldiers in 1863, such as, "There + is more involved in this contest than is realized by every one. There is + involved in this struggle the question whether your children and my + children shall enjoy the privileges we have enjoyed." And again, "I happen + temporarily to occupy this White House. I am a living witness that any one + of your children may look to come here as my father's child has."(2) + </p> + <p> + This idea, the idea that the "plain people" are the chief concern of + government was the bed rock of all his political thinking. The mature, + historic Lincoln is first of all a leader of the plain people—of the + mass—as truly as was Cleon, or Robespierre, or Andrew Jackson. His + gentleness does not remove him from that stern category. The latent + fanaticism that is in every man, or almost every man, was grounded in + Lincoln, on his faith—so whimsically expressed—that God must + have loved the plain people because he had made so many of them.(3) The + basal appeal of the first message was in the words: + </p> + <p> + "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."(4) Not a war over slavery, not a war to preserve a + constitutional system, but a war to assert and maintain the sovereignty of—"We, + the People." + </p> + <p> + But how was it to be proved that this was, in fact, the true issue of the + moment? Here, between the lines of the first message, Lincoln's deepest + feelings are to be glimpsed. Out of the discovery that Virginia honestly + believed herself a sovereign power, he had developed in himself a deep, + slow-burning fervor that probably did much toward fusing him into the + great Lincoln of history. But why? What was there in that idea which + should strike so deep? Why was it not merely one view in a permissible + disagreement over the interpretation of the Constitution? Why did the + cause of the people inspire its champion to regard the doctrine of State + sovereignty as anti-christ? Lincoln has not revealed himself on these + points in so many words. But he has revealed himself plainly enough by + implication. + </p> + <p> + The clue is in that element of internationalism which lay at the back of + his mind. There must be no misunderstanding of this element. It was not + pointing along the way of the modern "international." Lincoln would have + fought Bolshevism to the death. Side by side with his assertion of the + sanctity of the international bond of labor, stands his assertion of a + sacred right in property and that capital is a necessity.(5) His + internationalism was ethical, not opportunistic. It grew, as all his ideas + grew, not out of a theorem, not from a constitutional interpretation, but + from his overpowering commiseration for the mass of mankind. It was a + practical matter. Here were poor people to be assisted, to be enriched in + their estate, to be enlarged in spirit. The mode of reaching the result + was not the thing. Any mode, all sorts of modes, might be used. What + counted was the purpose to work relief, and the willingness to throw + overboard whatever it might be that tended to defeat the purpose. His + internationalism was but a denial of "my country right or wrong." There + can be little doubt that, in last resort, he would have repudiated his + country rather than go along with it in opposition to what he regarded as + the true purpose of government. And that was, to advance the welfare of + the mass of mankind. + </p> + <p> + He thought upon this subject in the same manner in which he thought as a + lawyer, sweeping aside everything but what seemed to him the ethical + reality at the heart of the case. For him the "right" of a State to do + this or that was a constitutional question only so long as it did not + cross that other more universal "right," the paramount "charter of + liberty," by which, in his view, all other rights were conditioned. He + would impose on all mankind, as their basic moral obligation, the duty to + sacrifice all personal likes, personal ambitions, when these in their + permanent tendencies ran contrary to the tendency which he rated as + paramount. Such had always been, and was always to continue, his own + attitude toward slavery. No one ever loathed it more. But he never + permitted it to take the first place in his thoughts. If it could be + eradicated without in the process creating dangers for popular government + he would rejoice. But all the schemes of the Abolitionists, hitherto, he + had condemned as dangerous devices because they would strain too severely + the fabric of the popular state, would violate agreements which alone made + it possible. Therefore, being always relentless toward himself, he + required of himself the renunciation of this personal hope whenever, in + whatever way, it threatened to make less effective the great democratic + state which appeared to him the central fact of the world. + </p> + <p> + The enlargement of his reasoning led him inevitably to an unsparing + condemnation of the Virginian theory. One of his rare flashes of + irritation was an exclamation that Virginia loyalty always had an "if."(6) + At this point, to make him entirely plain, there is needed another basic + assumption which he has never quite formulated. However, it is so + obviously latent in his thinking that the main lines are to be made out + clearly enough. Building ever on that paramount obligation of all mankind + to consider first the welfare of God's plain people, he assumed that + whenever by any course of action any congregation of men were thrown + together and led to form any political unit, they were never thereafter + free to disregard in their attitude toward that unit its value in + supporting and advancing the general cause of the welfare of the plain + people. A sweeping, and in some contingencies, a terrible doctrine! + Certainly, as to individuals, classes, communities even, a doctrine that + might easily become destructive. But it formed the basis of all Lincoln's + thought about the "majority" in America. Upon it would have rested his + reply, had he ever made a reply, to the Virginia contention that while his + theory might apply to each individual State, it could not apply to the + group of States. He would have treated such a reply, whether fairly or + unfairly, as a legal technicality. He would have said in substance: here + is a congregation to be benefited, this great mass of all the inhabitants + of all the States of the Union; accident, or destiny, or what you will, + has brought them together, but here they are; they are moving forward, + haltingly, irregularly, but steadily, toward fuller and fuller democracy; + they are part of the universal democratic movement; their vast experiment + has an international significance; it is the hope of the "Liberal party + throughout the world"; to check that experiment, to break it into Separate + minor experiments; to reduce the imposing promise of its example by making + it seem unsuccessful, would be treason to mankind. Therefore, both on + South and North, both on the Seceders he meant to fight and on those + Northerners of whom he was not entirely sure, he aimed to impose the + supreme immediate duty of proving to the world that democracy on a great + scale could have sufficient vitality to maintain itself against any sort + of attack. Anticipating faintly the Gettysburg oration, the first message + contained these words: "And 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 can not maintain its integrity + against its own domestic foes. . . . Must a government of necessity be too + strong for the liberties of its people or too weak to maintain its own + existence?"(7) He told Hay that "the crucial idea pervading this struggle + is the necessity that is upon us to prove that popular government is not + an absurdity"; "that the basal issue was whether or no the people could + govern themselves."(8) + </p> + <p> + But all this elaborate reasoning, if it went no further, lacked authority. + It was political speculation. To clothe itself with authority it had to + discover a foundation in historic fact. The real difficulty was not what + ought to have been established in America in the past, but what actually + had been. Where was the warrant for those bold proposition—who "we, + the people," really were; in what their sovereign power really consisted; + what was history's voice in the matter? To state an historic foundation + was the final aim of the message. To hit its mark it had to silence those + Northerners who denied the obligation to fight for the Union; it had to + oppose their "free love" ideas of political unity with the conception of + an established historic government, one which could not be overthrown + except through the nihilistic process of revolution. So much has been + written upon the exact location of sovereignty in the American federal + State that it is difficult to escape the legalistic attitude, and to treat + the matter purely as history. So various, so conflicting, and at times so + tenuous, are the theories, that a flippant person might be forgiven did he + turn from the whole discussion saying impatiently it was blind man's buff. + But on one thing, at least, we must all agree. Once there was a king over + this country, and now there is no king. Once the British Crown was the + sovereign, and now the Crown has receded into the distance beyond the deep + blue sea. When the Crown renounced its sovereignty in America, what became + of it? Did it break into fragments and pass peacemeal to the various + revolted colonies? Was it transferred somehow to the group collectively? + These are the obvious theories; but there are others. And the others give + rise to subtler speculations. Who was it that did the actual revolting + against the Crown—colonies, parties, individuals, the whole American + people, who? + </p> + <p> + Troublesome questions these, with which Lincoln and the men of his time + did not deal in the spirit of historical science. Their wishes fathered + their thoughts. Southerners, practically without exception, held the + theory of the disintegration of the Crown's prerogative, its distribution + among the States. The great leaders of Northern thought repudiated the + idea. Webster and Clay would have none of it. But their own theories were + not always consistent; and they differed among themselves. Lincoln did the + natural thing. He fastened upon the tendencies in Northern thought that + supported his own faith. Chief among these was the idea that sovereignty + passed to the general congregation of the inhabitants of the colonies—"we, + the people"—because we, the people, were the real power that + supported the revolt. He had accepted the idea that the American + Revolution was an uprising of the people, that its victory was in a + transfer of sovereign rights from an English Crown to an American nation; + that a new collective state, the Union, was created by this nation as the + first act of the struggle, and that it was to the Union that the Crown + succumbed, to the Union that its prerogative passed. To put this idea in + its boldest and its simplest terms was the crowning effort of the message. + </p> + <p> + "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 and 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 this old dependence for them and made them States, such as they + are."(9) + </p> + <p> + This first message completes the evolution of Lincoln as a political + thinker. It is his third, his last great landmark. The Peoria speech, + which drew to a focus all the implications of his early life, laid the + basis of his political significance; the Cooper Union speech, summing up + his conflict with Douglas, applied his thinking to the new issue + precipitated by John Brown; but in both these he was still predominantly a + negative thinker, still the voice of an opposition. With the first + message, he became creative; he drew together what was latent in his + earlier thought; he discarded the negative; he laid the foundation of all + his subsequent policy. The breadth and depth of his thinking is revealed + by the fulness with which the message develops the implications of his + theory. In so doing, he anticipated the main issues that were to follow: + his determination to keep nationalism from being narrowed into mere + "Northernism"; his effort to create an all-parties government; his + stubborn insistence that he was suppressing an insurrection, not waging + external war; his doctrine that the Executive, having been chosen by the + entire people, was the one expression of the sovereignty of the people, + and therefore, the repository of all these exceptional "war powers" that + are dormant in time of peace. Upon each of those issues he was destined to + wage fierce battles with the politicians who controlled Congress, who + sought to make Congress his master, who thwarted, tormented and almost + defeated him. In the light of subsequent history the first message has + another aspect besides its significance as political science. In its clear + understanding of the implications of his attitude, it attains political + second sight. As Lincoln, immovable, gazes far into the future, his power + of vision makes him, yet again though in a widely different sense, the + "seer in a trance, Seeing all his own mischance." + </p> + <p> + His troubles with Congress began at once. The message was received on July + fourth, politely, but with scant response to its ideas. During two weeks, + while Congress in its fatuousness thought that the battle impending in + Virginia would settle things, the majority in Congress would not give + assent to Lincoln's view of what the war was about. And then came Bull + Run. In a flash the situation changed. Fatuousness was puffed out like a + candle in a wind. The rankest extremist saw that Congress must cease from + its debates and show its hand; must say what the war was about; must + inform the nation whether it did or did not agree with the President. + </p> + <p> + On the day following Bull Run, Crittenden introduced this resolution: + "That the present, deplorable civil war has been forced upon the country + by the Disunionists of the Southern States, now in arms against the + constitutional government, and in arms around the capital; that in this + national emergency, Congress, banishing all feelings of mere passion and + resentment, will recollect only its duty to the whole country; that this + war is not waged on their part in any spirit of oppression or for any + purpose of conquest or subjugation, or purpose of overthrowing or + interfering with the rights or established institutions of these 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; and that as soon as these objects are + accomplished, the war ought to cease." This Crittenden Resolution was + passed instantly by both Houses, without debate and almost without + opposition. (10) + </p> + <p> + Paradoxically, Bull Run had saved the day for Lincoln, had enabled him to + win his first victory as a statesman. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0018" id="link2H_4_0018"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XVIII. THE JACOBIN CLUB + </h2> + <p> + The keen Englishman who had observed the beauty of the Virginian woods on + "Bull Run Sunday," said, after the battle was lost, "I hope Senator Wilson + is satisfied." He was sneering at the whole group of intemperate Senators + none of whom had ever smelled powder, but who knew it all when it came to + war; who had done their great share in driving the President and the + generals into a premature advance. Senator Wilson was one of those who + went out to Manassas to see the Confederacy overthrown, that fateful + Sunday. He was one of the most precipitate among those who fled back to + Washington. On the way, driving furiously, amid a press of men and + vehicles, he passed a carriage containing four Congressmen who were taking + their time. Perhaps irritated by their coolness, he shouted to them to + make haste. "If we were in as big a hurry as you are," replied Congressman + Riddle, scornfully, "we would." + </p> + <p> + These four Congressmen played a curiously dramatic part before they got + back to Washington. So did a party of Senators with whom they joined + forces. This other party, at the start, also numbered four. They had + planned a jolly picnic—this day that was to prove them right in + hurrying the government into battle!—and being wise men who knew how + to take time by the forelock, they had taken their luncheon with them. + From what is known of Washington and Senators, then as now, one may risk a + good deal that the luncheon was worth while. Part of the tragedy of that + day was the accidental break-up of this party with the result amid the + confusion of a road crowded by pleasure-seekers, that two Senators went + one way carrying off the luncheon, while the other two, making the best of + the disaster, continued southward through those beautiful early hours when + Russell was admiring the scenery, their luncheon all to seek. The lucky + men with the luncheon were the Senators Benjamin Wade and Zachary + Chandler. Senator Trumbull and Senator Grimes, both on horseback, were + left to their own devices. However, fortune was with them. Several hours + later they had succeeded in getting food by the wayside and were resting + in a grove of trees some distance beyond the village of Centerville. + Suddenly, they suffered an appalling surprise; happening to look up, they + beheld emerging out of the distance, a stampede of men and horses which + came thundering down the country road, not a hundred yards from where they + sat. "We immediately mounted our horses," as Trumbull wrote to his wife + the next day, "and galloped to the road, by which time it was crowded, + hundreds being in advance on the way to Centerville and two guns of + Sherman's battery having already passed in full retreat. We kept on with + the crowd, not knowing what else to do. We fed our horses at Centerville + and left there at six o'clock.... Came on to Fairfax Court House where we + got supper and, leaving there at ten o'clock reached home at half past two + this morning. . . . I am dreadfully disappointed and mortified."(1) + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile, what of those other gay picnickers, Senator Wade and Senator + Chandler? They drove in a carriage. Viewing the obligations of the hour + much as did C. C. Clay at the President's reception, they were armed. Wade + had "his famous rifle" which he had brought with him to Congress, which at + times in the fury of debate he had threatened to use, which had become a + byword. These Senators seem to have ventured nearer to the front than did + Trumbull and Grimes, and were a little later in the retreat At a + "choke-up," still on the far side of Centerville, their carriage passed + the carriage of the four Congressmen—who, by the way, were also + armed, having among them "four of the largest navy revolvers." + </p> + <p> + All these men, whatever their faults or absurdities, were intrepid. The + Congressmen, at least, were in no good humor, for they had driven through + a regiment of three months men whose time expired that day and who despite + the cannon in the distance were hurrying home. + </p> + <p> + The race of the fugitives continued. At Centerville, the Congressmen + passed Wade. Soon afterward Wade passed them for the second time. About a + mile out of Fairfax Court House, "at the foot of a long down grade, the + pike on the northerly side was fenced and ran along a farm. On the other + side for a considerable distance was a wood, utterly impenetrable for men + or animals, larger than cats or squirrels." Here the Wade carriage + stopped. The congressional carriage drove up beside it. The two blocked a + narrow way where as in the case of Horatius at the bridge, "a thousand + might well be stopped by three." And then "bluff Ben Wade" showed the + mettle that was in him. The "old Senator, his hat well back on his head," + sprang out of his carriage, his rifle in his hand, and called to the + others, "Boys, we'll stop this damned runaway." And they did it. Only six + of them, but they lined up across that narrow road; presented their + weapons and threatened to shoot; seized the bridles of horses and flung + the horses back on their haunches; checked a panic-stricken army; held it + at bay, until just when it seemed they were about to be overwhelmed, + military reserves hurrying out from Fairfax Court House, took command of + the road. Cool, unpretentious Riddle calls the episode "Wade's exploit," + and adds "it was much talked of." The newspapers dealt with it + extravagantly.(2) + </p> + <p> + Gallant as the incident was, it was all the military service that "Ben" + Wade and "Zach" Chandler—for thus they are known in history-over + saw. But one may believe that it had a lasting effect upon their point of + view and on that of their friend Lyman Trumbull. Certain it is that none + of the three thereafter had any doubts about putting the military men in + their place. All the error of their own view previous to Bull Run was + forgotten. Wade and Chandler, especially, when military questions were in + dispute, felt that no one possibly could know more of the subject than did + the men who stopped the rout in the narrow road beyond Fairfax. + </p> + <p> + Three of those picnickers who missed their guess on Bull Run Sunday, Wade, + Chandler and Trumbull, were destined to important parts in the stern years + that were to come. Before the close of the year 1861 the three made a + second visit to the army; and this time they kept together. To that second + visit momentous happenings may be traced. How it came about must be fully + understood. + </p> + <p> + Two of the three, Wade and Chandler, were temperamentally incapable of + understanding Lincoln. Both were men of fierce souls; each had but a very + limited experience. Wade had been a country lawyer in Ohio; Chandler, a + prosperous manufacturer in Michigan. They were party men by instinct, + blind to the faults of their own side, blind to the virtues of their + enemies. They were rabid for the control of the government by their own + organized machine. + </p> + <p> + Of Chandler, in Michigan, it was said that he "carried the Republican + organization in his breeches pocket"; partly through control of the + Federal patronage, which Lincoln frankly conceded to him, partly through a + "judicious use of money."(3) Chandler's first clash with Lincoln was upon + the place that the Republican machine was to hold in the conduct of the + war. + </p> + <p> + From the beginning Lincoln was resolved that the war should not be merely + a party struggle. Even before he was inaugurated, he said that he meant to + hold the Democrats "close to the Administration on the naked Union + issue."(4) He had added, "We must make it easy for them" to support the + government "because we can't live through the case without them." This was + the foundation of his attempt—so obvious between the lines of the + first message—to create an all-parties government. This, Chandler + violently opposed. Violence was always Chandler's note, so much so that a + scornful opponent once called him "Xantippe in pants." + </p> + <p> + Lincoln had given Chandler a cause of offense in McClellan's elevation to + the head of the army.* McClellan was a Democrat. There can be little doubt + that Lincoln took the fact into account in selecting him. Shortly before, + Lincoln had aimed to placate the Republicans by showing high honor to + their popular hero, Fremont. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + * Strictly speaking he did not become head of the army until + the retirement of Scott in November. Practically, he was + supreme almost from the moment of his arrival in Washington. +</pre> + <p> + When the catastrophe occurred at Bull Run, Fremont was a major-general + commanding the Western Department with headquarters at St. Louis. He was + one of the same violent root-and-branch wing of the Republicans—the + Radicals of a latter day—of which Chandler was a leader. The temper + of that wing had already been revealed by Senator Baker in his startling + pronouncement: "We of the North control the Union, and we are going to + govern our own Union in our own way." Chandler was soon to express it + still more exactly, saying, "A rebel has sacrificed all his rights. He has + no right to life, liberty or the pursuit of happiness."(5) Here was that + purpose to narrowing nationalism into Northernism, even to radicalism, and + to make the war an outlet for a sectional ferocity, which Lincoln was so + firmly determined to prevent. All things considered, the fact that on the + day following Bull Run he did not summon the Republican hero to + Washington, that he did summon a Democrat, was significant. It opened his + long duel with the extremists. + </p> + <p> + The vindictive Spirit of the extremists had been rebuffed by Lincoln in + another way. Shortly after Bull Run, Wade and Chandler appealed to Lincoln + to call out negro soldiers. Chandler said that he did not care whether or + no this would produce a servile insurrection in the South. Lincoln's + refusal made another count in the score of the extremists against him.(6) + </p> + <p> + During the late summer of 1861, Chandler, Wade, Trumbull, were all busily + organizing their forces for an attack on the Administration. Trumbull, + indeed, seemed out of place in that terrible company. In time, he found + that he was out of place. At a crucial moment he came over to Lincoln. But + not until he had done yeoman service with Lincoln's bitterest enemies. The + clue to his earlier course was an honest conviction that Lincoln, though + well-intentioned, was weak.(7) Was this the nemesis of Lincoln's + pliability in action during the first stage of his Presidency? It may be. + The firm inner Lincoln, the unyielding thinker of the first message, was + not appreciated even by well-meaning men like Trumbull. The inner and the + outer Lincoln were still disconnected. And the outer, in his caution, in + his willingness to be instructed, in his opposition to extreme measures, + made the inevitable impression that temperance makes upon fury, caution + upon rashness. + </p> + <p> + Throughout the late summer, Lincoln was the target of many attacks, + chiefly from the Abolitionists. Somehow, in the previous spring, they had + got it into their heads that at heart he was one of them, that he waited + only for a victory to declare the war a crusade of abolition.(8) When the + crisis passed and a Democrat was put at the head of the army, while + Fremont was left in the relative obscurity of St. Louis, Abolition + bitterness became voluble. The Crittenden Resolution was scoffed at as an + "ill-timed revival of the policy of conciliation." Threats against the + Administration revived, taking the old form of demands for a wholly new + Cabinet The keener-sighted Abolitionists had been alarmed by the first + message, by what seemed to them its ominous silence as to slavery. Late in + July, Emerson said in conversation, "If the Union is incapable of securing + universal freedom, its disruption were as the breaking up of a + frog-pond."(9) An outcry was raised because Federal generals did not + declare free all the slaves who in any way came into their hands. The + Abolitionists found no solace in the First Confiscation Act which provided + that an owner should lose his claim to a slave, had the slave been used to + assist the Confederate government. They were enraged by an order, early in + August, informing generals that it was the President's desire "that all + existing rights in all the States be fully respected and maintained; in + cases of fugitives from the loyal Slave States, the enforcement of the + Fugitive Slave Law by the ordinary forms of judicial proceedings must be + respected by the military authorities; in the disloyal States the + Confiscation Act of Congress must be your guide."(10) Especially, the + Abolitionists were angered because of Lincoln's care for the forms of law + in those Slave States that had not seceded. They vented their bitterness + in a famous sneer—"The President would like to have God on his side, + but he must have Kentucky." + </p> + <p> + A new temper was forming throughout the land. It was not merely the old + Abolitionism. It was a blend of all those elements of violent feeling + which war inevitably releases; it was the concentration of all these + elements on the issue of Abolition as upon a terrible weapon; it was the + resurrection of that primitive blood-lust which lies dormant in every + peaceful nation like a sleeping beast. This dreadful power rose out of its + sleep and confronted, menacing, the statesman who of all our statesmen was + most keenly aware of its evil, most determined to put it under or to + perish in the attempt With its appearance, the deepest of all the issues + involved, according to Lincoln's way of thinking, was brought to a head. + Was the Republic to issue from the war a worthy or an unworthy nation? + That was pretty definitely a question of whether Abraham Lincoln or, say, + Zachary Chandler, was to control its policy. + </p> + <p> + A vain, weak man precipitated the inevitable struggle between these two. + Fremont had been flattered to the skies. He conceived himself a genius. He + was persuaded that the party of the new temper, the men who may fairly be + called the Vindictives, were lords of the ascendent. He mistook their + volubility for the voice of the nation. He determined to defy Lincoln. He + issued a proclamation freeing the slaves of all who had "taken an active + part" with the enemies of the United States in the field. He set up a + "bureau of abolition." + </p> + <p> + Lincoln first heard of Fremont's proclamation through the newspapers. His + instant action was taken in his own extraordinarily gentle way. "I think + there is great danger," he wrote, "that the closing paragraph (of + Fremont's proclamation) in relation to the confiscation of property and + the liberating of slaves of traitorous owners, will alarm our Southern + Union friends and turn them against us; perhaps ruin our rather fair + prospect for Kentucky. Allow me, therefore, to ask that you will, as of + your own motion, modify that paragraph so as to conform" to the + Confiscation Act. He added, "This letter is written in the Spirit of + caution, not of censure."(11) + </p> + <p> + Fremont was not the man to understand instruction of this sort. He would + make no compromise with the President. If Lincoln wished to go over his + head and rescind his order let him do so-and take the consequences. + Lincoln quietly did so. His battle with the Vindictives was on. For a + moment it seemed as if he had destroyed his cause. So loud was the outcry + of the voluble people, that any one might have been excused momentarily + for thinking that all the North had risen against him. Great meetings of + protest were held. Eminent men—even such fine natures as Bryant—condemned + his course. In the wake of the incident, when it was impossible to say how + significant the outcry really was, Chandler, who was staunch for Fremont, + began his active interference with the management of the army. McClellan + had insisted on plenty of time in which to drill the new three-year + recruits who were pouring into Washington. He did not propose to repeat + the experience of General McDowell. On the other hand, Chandler was bent + on forcing him into action. He, Wade and Trumbull combined, attempting to + bring things to pass in a way to suit themselves and their faction. To + these men and their followers, clever young Hay gave the apt name of "The + Jacobin Club." + </p> + <p> + They began their campaign by their second visit to the army. Wade was + their chief spokesman. He urged McClellan to advance at once; to risk an + unsuccessful battle rather than continue to stand still; the country + wanted something done; a defeat could easily be repaired by the swarming + recruits.(12) + </p> + <p> + This callous attitude got no response from the Commanding General. The + three Senators turned upon Lincoln. "This evening," writes Hay in his + diary on October twenty-sixth, "the Jacobin Club represented by Trumbull, + Chandler and Wade, came out to worry the Administration into a battle. The + agitation of the summer is to be renewed. The President defended + McClellan's deliberateness. The next night we went over to Seward's and + found Chandler and Wade there." They repeated their reckless talk; a + battle must be fought; defeat would be no worse than delay; "and a great + deal more trash." + </p> + <p> + But Lincoln was not to be moved. He and Hay called upon McClellan. The + President deprecated this new manifestation of popular impatience, but + said it was a reality and should be taken into account. "At the same time, + General," said he, "you must not fight until you are ready."(13) + </p> + <p> + At this moment of extreme tension occurred the famous incident of the + seizure of the Confederate envoys, Mason and Slidell, who were passengers + on the British merchant ship, the Trent. These men had run the blockade + which had now drawn its strangling line along the whole coast of the + Confederacy; they had boarded the Trent at Havana, and under the law of + nations were safe from capture. But Captain Wilkes of the United States + Navy, more zealous than discreet, overhauled the Trent and took off the + two Confederates. Every thoughtless Northerner went wild with joy. At last + the government had done something. Even the Secretary of the Navy so far + forgot himself as to telegraph to Wilkes "Congratulate you on the great + public service you have rendered in the capture of the rebel + emissaries."(14) Chandler promptly applauded the seizure and when it was + suggested that perhaps the envoys should be released he at once arrayed + himself in opposition.(15) With the truculent Jacobins ready to close + battle should the government do its duty, with the country still echoing + to cheers for Fremont and hisses for the President, with nothing to his + credit in the way of military success, Lincoln faced a crisis. He was + carried through the crisis by two strong men. Sumner, head and front of + Abolitionism but also a great lawyer, came at once to his assistance. And + what could a thinking Abolitionist say after that! Seward skilfully saved + the face of the government by his management of the negotiation. The + envoys were released and sent to England. + </p> + <p> + It was the only thing to do, but Chandler and all his sort had opposed it. + The Abolition fury against the government was at fever heat. Wendell + Phillips in a speech at New York denounced the Administration as having no + definite purpose in the war, and was interrupted by frantic cheers for + Fremont. McClellan, patiently drilling his army, was, in the eyes of the + Jacobins, doing nothing. Congress had assembled. There was every sign that + troubled waters lay just ahead. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0019" id="link2H_4_0019"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XIX. THE JACOBINS BECOME INQUISITORS + </h2> + <p> + The temper animating Hay's "Jacobins" formed a new and really formidable + danger which menaced Lincoln at the close of 1861. But had he been + anything of an opportunist, it would have offered him an unrivaled + opportunity. For a leader who sought personal power, this raging savagery, + with its triple alliance of an organized political machine, a devoted + fanaticism, and the war fury, was a chance in ten thousand. It led to his + door the steed of militarism, shod and bridled, champing upon the bit, and + invited him to leap into the saddle. Ten words of acquiescence in the + program of the Jacobins, and the dreaded role of the man on horseback was + his to command. + </p> + <p> + The fallacy that politics are primarily intellectual decisions upon stated + issues, the going forth of the popular mind to decide between programs + presented to it by circumstances, receives a brilliant refutation in the + course of the powerful minority that was concentrating around the three + great "Jacobins." The subjective side of politics, also the temperamental + side, here found expression. Statecraft is an art; creative statesmen are + like other artists. Just as the painter or the poet, seizing upon old + subjects, uses them as outlets for his particular temper, his particular + emotion, and as the temper, the emotion are what counts in his work, so + with statesmen, with Lincoln on the one hand, with Chandler at the + opposite extreme. + </p> + <p> + The Jacobins stood first of all for the sudden reaction of bold fierce + natures from a long political repression. They had fought their way to + leadership as captains of an opposition. They were artists who had been + denied an opportunity of expression. By a sudden turn of fortune, it had + seemed to come within their grasp. Temperamentally they were fighters. + Battle for them was an end in itself. The thought of Conquest sang to them + like the morning stars. Had they been literary men, their favorite poetry + would have been the sacking of Troy town. Furthermore, they were intensely + provincial. Undoubted as was their courage, they had also the valor of + ignorance. They had the provincial's disdain for the other side of the + horizon, his unbounded confidence in his ability to whip all creation. + Chandler, scornfully brushing aside a possible foreign war, typified their + mood. + </p> + <p> + And in quiet veto of all their hopes rose against them the apparently + easy-going, the smiling, story-telling, unrevengeful, new man at the White + House. It is not to be wondered that they spent the summer laboring to + build up a party against him, that they turned eagerly to the new session + of Congress, hoping to consolidate a faction opposed to Lincoln. + </p> + <p> + His second message (1), though without a word of obvious defiance, set him + squarely against them on all their vital contentions. The winter of + 1861-1862 is the strangest period of Lincoln's career. Although the two + phases of him, the outer and the inner, were, in point of fact, moving + rapidly toward their point of fusion, apparently they were further away + than ever before. Outwardly, his most conspicuous vacillations were in + this winter and in the following spring. Never before or after did he + allow himself to be overshadowed so darkly by his advisers in all the + concerns of action. In amazing contrast, in all the concerns of thought, + he was never more entirely himself. The second message, prepared when the + country rang with what seemed to be a general frenzy against him, did not + give ground one inch. This was all the more notable because his Secretary + of War had tried to force his hand. Cameron had the reputation of being + about the most astute politician in America. Few people attributed to him + the embarrassment of principles. And Cameron, in the late autumn, after + closely observing the drift of things, determined that Fremont had hit it + off correctly, that the crafty thing to do was to come out for Abolition + as a war policy. In a word, he decided to go over to the Jacobins. He put + into his annual report a recommendation of Chandler's plan for organizing + an army of freed slaves and sending it against the Confederacy. Advanced + copies of this report had been sent to the press before Lincoln knew of + it. He peremptorily ordered their recall, and the exclusion of this + suggestion from the text of the report.(2) + </p> + <p> + On the heels of this refusal to concede to Chandler one of his cherished + schemes, the second message was sent to Congress. The watchful and + exasperated Jacobins found abundant offense in its omissions. On the whole + great subject of possible emancipation it was blankly silent. The nearest + it came to this subject was one suggestion which applied only to those + captured slaves who had been forfeited by the disloyal owners through + being employed to assist the Confederate government Lincoln advised that + after receiving their freedom they be sent out of the country and + colonized "at some place, or places, in a climate congenial to them." + Beyond this there was nothing bearing on the slavery question except the + admonition—so unsatisfactory to Chandler and all his sort—that + while "the Union must be preserved, and hence all indispensable means must + be employed," Congress should "not be in haste to determine that radical + and extreme measures, which may reach the loyal as well as the disloyal, + are indispensable." + </p> + <p> + Lincoln was entirely clear in his own mind that there was but one way to + head off the passion of destruction that was rioting in the Jacobin + temper. "In considering the policy to be adopted in suppressing the + insurrection, 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." He + persisted in regarding the war as an insurrection of the "disloyal portion + of the American people," not as an external struggle between the North and + the South. + </p> + <p> + Finally, the culmination of the message was a long elaborate argument upon + the significance of the war to the working classes. His aim was to show + that the whole trend of the Confederate movement was toward a conclusion + which would "place capital on an equal footing with, if not above, labor, + in the structure of government." Thus, as so often before, he insisted on + his own view of the significance in American politics of all issues + involving slavery—their bearing on the condition of the free + laborer. In a very striking passage, often overlooked, he ranked himself + once more, as first of all, a statesman of "the people," in the limited + class sense of the term. "Labor is prior to and independent of capital. + Capital is only the fruit of labor and could never have existed if labor + had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much + the higher consideration." But so far is he from any revolutionary + purpose, that he adds immediately, "Capital has its rights which are as + worthy of protection as any other rights." His crowning vision is not + communism. His ideal world is one of universal opportunity, with labor + freed of every hindrance, with all its deserving members acquiring more + and more of the benefits of property. + </p> + <p> + Such a message had no consolation for Chandler, Wade, or, as he then was, + for Trumbull. They looked about for a way to retaliate. And now two things + became plain. That "agitation of the summer" to which Hay refers, had + borne fruit, but not enough fruit. Many members of Congress who had been + swept along by the President's policy in July had been won over in the + reaction against him and were ripe for manipulation; but it was not yet + certain that they held the balance of power in Congress. To lock horns + with the Administration, in December, would have been so rash a move that + even such bold men as Chandler and Wade avoided it. Instead, they devised + an astute plan of campaign. Trumbull was Chairman of the Senate Judiciary + Committee, and in that important position would bide his time to bring + pressure to bear on the President through his influence upon legislation. + Wade and Chandler would go in for propaganda. But they would do so in + disguise. What more natural than that Congress should take an active + interest in the army, should wish to do all in its power to "assist" the + President in rendering the army-efficient. For that purpose it was + proposed to establish a joint committee of the two Houses having no + function but to look into military needs and report to Congress. The + proposal was at once accepted and its crafty backers secured a committee + dominated entirely by themselves. Chandler was a member; Wade became + Chairman.(3) This Committee on the Conduct of the War became at once an + inquisition. Though armed with no weapon but publicity, its close + connection with congressional intrigue, its hostility to the President, + the dramatic effect of any revelations it chose to make or any charges it + chose to bring, clothed it indirectly with immense power. Its inner + purpose may be stated in the words of one of its members, "A more vigorous + prosecution of the war and less tenderness toward slavery."(4) Its mode of + procedure was in constant interrogation of generals, in frequent advice to + the President, and on occasion in threatening to rouse Congress against + him.(5) A session of the Committee was likely to be followed by a call on + the President of either Chandler or Wade. + </p> + <p> + The Committee began immediately summoning generals before it to explain + what the army was doing. And every general was made to understand that + what the Committee wanted, what Congress wanted, what the country wanted, + was an advance—"something doing" as soon as possible. + </p> + <p> + And now appeared another characteristic of the mood of these furious men. + They had become suspicious, honestly suspicious. This suspiciousness grew + with their power and was rendered frantic by being crossed. Whoever + disagreed with them was instantly an object of distrust; any plan that + contradicted their views was at once an evidence of treason. + </p> + <p> + The earliest display of this eagerness to see traitors in every bush + concerned a skirmish that took place at Ball's Bluff in Virginia. It was + badly managed and the Federal loss, proportionately, was large. The + officer held responsible was General Stone. Unfortunately for him, he was + particularly obnoxious to the Abolitionists; he had returned fugitive + slaves; and when objection was made by such powerful Abolitionists as + Governor Andrew of Massachusetts, Stone gave reign to a sharp tongue. In + the early days of the session, Roscoe Conkling told the story of Ball's + Bluff for the benefit of Congress in a brilliant, harrowing speech. In a + flash the rumor spread that the dead at Ball's Bluff were killed by + design, that Stone was a traitor, that—perhaps!—who could say?—there + were bigger traitors higher up. Stone was summoned before the + Inquisition.(6) + </p> + <p> + While Stone was on the rack, metaphorically, while the Committee was + showing him every brutality in its power, refusing to acquaint him with + the evidence against him, intimating that they were able to convict him of + treason, between the fifth and the eleventh of January a crisis arose in + the War Office. Cameron had failed to ingratiate himself with the rising + powers. Old political enemies in Congress were implacable. Scandals in his + Department gave rise to sweeping charges of peculation. + </p> + <p> + There is scarcely another moment when Lincoln's power was so precarious. + In one respect, in their impatience, the Committee reflected faithfully + the country at large. And by the irony of fate McClellan at this crucial + hour, had fallen ill. After waiting for his recovery during several weeks, + Lincoln ventured with much hesitation to call a conference of generals.(7) + They were sitting during the Stone investigation, producing no result + except a distraction in councils, devising plans that were thrown over the + moment the Commanding General arose from his bed. A vote in Congress a few + days previous had amounted to a censure of the Administration. It was + taken upon the Crittenden Resolution which had been introduced a second + time. Of those who had voted for it in July, so many now abandoned the + Administration that this resolution, the clear embodiment of Lincoln's + policy, was laid on the table, seventy-one to sixty-five.(8) Lincoln's + hope for an all-parties government was receiving little encouragement The + Democrats were breaking into factions, while the control of their party + organization was falling into the hands of a group of inferior politicians + who were content to "play politics" in the most unscrupulous fashion. Both + the Secretary of War and the Secretary of State had authorized arbitrary + arrests. Men in New York and New England had been thrown into prison. The + privilege of the writ of habeas corpus had been denied them on the mere + belief of the government that they were conspiring with its enemies. + Because of these arrests, sharp criticism was being aimed at the + Administration both within and without Congress. + </p> + <p> + For all these reasons, the government at Washington appeared to be + tottering. Desperate remedies seemed imperative. Lincoln decided to make + every concession he could make without letting go his central purpose. + First, he threw over Cameron; he compelled him to resign though he saved + his face by appointing him minister to Russia. But who was to take his + place? At this critical moment, the choice of a new Secretary of War was a + political problem of exacting difficulty. Just why Lincoln chose a sullen, + dictatorial lawyer whose experience in no way prepared him for the office, + has never been disclosed. Two facts appear to explain it. Edwin M. Stanton + was temperamentally just the man to become a good brother to Chandler and + Wade. Both of them urged him upon Lincoln as successor to Cameron.(9) + Furthermore, Stanton hitherto had been a Democrat. His services in + Buchanan's Cabinet as Attorney-General had made him a national figure. Who + else linked the Democrats and the Jacobins? + </p> + <p> + However, for almost any one but Lincoln, there was an objection that it + would have been hard to overcome. No one has ever charged Stanton with + politeness. A gloomy excitable man, of uncertain health, temperamentally + an over-worker, chronically apprehensive, utterly without the saving grace + of humor, he was capable of insufferable rudeness—one reason, + perhaps, why Chandler liked him. He and Lincoln had met but once. As + associate council in a case at Cincinnati, three years before, Lincoln had + been treated so contemptuously by Stanton that he had returned home in + pained humiliation. Since his inauguration, Stanton had been one of his + most vituperative critics. Was this insolent scold to be invited into the + Cabinet? Had not Lincoln at this juncture been in the full tide of + selflessness, surely some compromise would have been made with the + Committee, a secretary found less offensive personally to the President. + Lincoln disregarded the personal consideration. The candidate of Chandler + and Wade became secretary. It was the beginning of an intimate alliance + between the Committee and the War Office. Lincoln had laid up for himself + much trouble that he did not foresee. + </p> + <p> + The day the new Secretary took office, he received from the Committee a + report upon General Stone:(10) Subsequently, in the Senate, Wade denied + that the Committee had advised the arrest of Stone.(11) Doubtless the + statement was technically correct. Nevertheless, there can be no doubt + that the inquisitors were wholly in sympathy with the Secretary when, + shortly afterward, Stone was seized upon Stanton's order, conveyed to a + fortress and imprisoned without trial. + </p> + <p> + This was the Dreyfus case of the Civil War. Stone was never tried and + never vindicated. He was eventually released upon parole and after many + tantalizing disappointments permitted to rejoin the army. What gives the + event significance is its evidence of the power, at that moment, of the + Committee, and of the relative weakness of the President. Lincoln's + eagerness to protect condemned soldiers survives in many anecdotes. Hay + confides to his diary that he was sometimes "amused at the eagerness with + which the President caught at any fact which would justify" clemency. And + yet, when Stanton informed him of the arrest of Stone, he gloomily + acquiesced. "I hope you have good reasons for it," he said. Later he + admitted that he knew very little about the case. But he did not order + Stone's release. + </p> + <p> + Lincoln had his own form of ruthlessness. The selfless man, by dealing + with others in the same extraordinary way in which he deals with himself, + may easily under the pressure of extreme conditions become impersonal in + his thinking upon duty. The morality of such a state of mind is a question + for the philosopher. The historian must content himself with pointing out + the only condition that redeems it—if anything redeems it The leader + who thinks impersonally about others and personally about himself-what + need among civilized people to characterize him? Borgia, Louis XIV, + Napoleon. If we are ever to pardon impersonal thinking it is only in the + cases of men who begin by effacing themselves. The Lincoln who accepted + Stanton as a Cabinet officer, who was always more or less overshadowed by + the belief that in saving the government he was himself to perish, is + explicable, at least, when individual men became for him, as at times they + did, impersonal factors in a terrible dream. + </p> + <p> + There are other considerations in the attempt to give a moral value to his + failure to interfere in behalf of Stone. The first four months of 1862 are + not only his feeblest period as a ruler, the period when he was barely + able to hold his own, but also the period when he was least definite as a + personality, when his courage and his vitality seemed ebbing tides. Again, + his spirit was in eclipse. Singularly enough, this was the darkness before + the dawn. June of 1862 saw the emergence, with a suddenness difficult to + explain, of the historic Lincoln. But in January of that year he was + facing downward into the mystery of his last eclipse. All the dark places + of his heredity must be searched for clues to this strange experience. + There are moments, especially under strain of a personal bereavement that + fell upon him in February, when his will seemed scarcely a reality; when, + as a directing force he may be said momentarily to have vanished; when he + is hardly more than a ghost among his advisers. The far-off existence of + weak old Thomas cast its parting shadow across his son's career. + </p> + <p> + However, even our Dreyfus case drew from Lincoln another display of that + settled conviction of his that part of his function was to be scapegoat. + "I serve," which in a way might be taken as his motto always, was + peculiarly his motto, and likewise his redemption, in this period of his + weakness. The enemies of the Committee in Congress took the matter up and + denounced Stanton. Thereupon, Wade flamed forth, criticizing Lincoln for + his leniency, venting his fury on all those who were tender of their + enemies, storming that "mercy to traitors is cruelty to loyal men."(12) + Lincoln replied neither to Wade nor to his antagonists; but, without + explaining the case, without a word upon the relation to it of the + Secretary and the Committee, he informed the Senate that the President was + alone responsible for the arrest and imprisonment of General Stone.(13) + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0020" id="link2H_4_0020"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XX. IS CONGRESS THE PRESIDENT'S MASTER? + </h2> + <p> + The period of Lincoln's last eclipse is a period of relative silence. But + his mind was not inactive. He did not cease thinking upon the deep + theoretical distinctions that were separating him by a steadily widening + chasm from the most powerful faction in Congress. In fact, his mental + powers were, if anything, more keen than ever before. Probably, it was the + very clearness of the mental vision that enfeebled him when it came to + action. He saw his difficulties with such crushing certainty. During this + trying period there is in him something of Hamlet. + </p> + <p> + The reaction to his ideas, to what is either expressed or implied, in the + first and second messages, was prompt to appear. The Jacobins did not + confine their activities within the scope of the terrible Committee. Wade + and Chandler worked assiduously undermining his strength in Congress. + Trumbull, though always less extreme than they, was still the victim of + his delusion that Lincoln was a poor creature, that the only way to save + the country was to go along with those grim men of strength who dominated + the Committee. In January, a formidable addition appeared in the ranks of + Lincoln's opponents. Thaddeus Stevens made a speech in the House that + marks a chapter. It brought to a head a cloud of floating opposition and + dearly defined an issue involving the central proposition in Lincoln's + theory of the government. The Constitution of the United States, in its + detailed provisions, is designed chiefly to meet the exigencies of peace. + With regard to the abnormal conditions of war, it is relatively silent. + Certain "war powers" are recognized but not clearly defined; nor is it + made perfectly plain what branch of the government possesses them. The + machinery for their execution is assumed but not described—as when + the Constitution provides that the privileges of the writ of habeas corpus + are to be suspended only in time of war, but does not specify by whom, or + in what way, the suspension is to be effected. Are those undefined "war + powers," which are the most sovereign functions of our government, vested + in Congress or in the President? Lincoln, from the moment he defined his + policy, held tenaciously to the theory that all these extraordinary powers + are vested in the President. By implication, at least, this idea is in the + first message. Throughout the latter part of 1861, he put the theory into + practice. Whatever seemed to him necessary in a state of war, he did, even + to the arresting of suspected persons, refusing them the privilege-of the + habeas corpus, and retaining them in prison without trial. During 1861, he + left the exercise of this sovereign authority to the discretion of the two + Secretaries of War and of State. + </p> + <p> + Naturally, the Abolitionists, the Jacobins, the Democratic machine, + conscientious believers in the congressional theory of the government, + every one who for any reason, wanted to hit the Administration, united in + a chorus of wrath over arbitrary arrests. The greatest orator of the time, + Wendell Phillips, the final voice of Abolition, flayed the government in + public speeches for reducing America to an absolute despotism. Trumbull + introduced into the Senate a resolution calling upon the President for a + statement of the facts as to what he had actually done.(1) + </p> + <p> + But the subject of arrests was but the prelude to the play. The real issue + was the theory of the government. Where in last analysis does the + Constitution place the ultimate powers of sovereignty, the war powers? In + Congress or in the President? Therefore, in concrete terms, is Congress + the President's master, or is it only one branch of the government with a + definite but united activity of its own, without that sweeping sovereign + authority which in course of time has been acquired by its parent body, + the Parliament of Great Britain? + </p> + <p> + On this point Lincoln never wavered. From first to last, he was determined + not to admit that Congress had the powers of Parliament. No sooner had the + politicians made out this attitude than their attack on it began. It did + not cease until Lincoln's death. It added a second constitutional question + to the issues of the war. Not only the issue whether a State had a right + to secede, but also the issue of the President's possession of the war + powers of the Constitution. Time and again the leaders of disaffection in + his own party, to say nothing of the violent Democrats, exhausted their + rhetoric denouncing Lincoln's position. They did not deny themselves the + delights of the sneer. Senator Grimes spoke of a call on the President as + an attempt "to approach the footstool of power enthroned at the other end + of the Avenue."(2) Wade expanded the idea: "We ought to have a committee + to wait on him whenever we send him a bill, to know what his royal + pleasure is with regard to it. . . . We are told that some gentlemen . . . + have been to see the President. Some gentlemen are very fortunate in that + respect. Nobody can see him, it seems, except some privileged gentlemen + who are charged with his constitutional conscience."(3) As Lincoln kept + his doors open to all the world, as no one came and went with greater + freedom than the Chairman of the Committee, the sneer was-what one might + expect of the Committee. Sumner said: "I claim for Congress all that + belongs to any government in the exercise of the rights of war." + Disagreement with him, he treated with unspeakable disdain: "Born in + ignorance and pernicious in consequence, it ought to be received with + hissings of contempt, and just in proportion as it obtains acceptance, + with execration."(4) Henry Wilson declared that, come what might, the + policy of the Administration would be shaped by the two Houses. "I had + rather give a policy to the President of the United States than take a + policy from the President of the United States."(5) Trumbull thundered + against the President's theory as the last word in despotism.(6) + </p> + <p> + Such is the mental perspective in which to regard the speech of Stevens of + January 22, 1862. With masterly clearness, he put his finger on the heart + of the matter: the exceptional problems of a time of war, problems that + can not be foreseen and prepared for by anticipatory legislation, may be + solved in but one way, by the temporary creation of the dictator; this is + as true of modern America as of ancient Rome; so far, most people are + agreed; but this extraordinary function must not be vested in the + Executive; on the contrary, it must be, it is, vested in the Legislature. + Stevens did not hesitate to push his theory to its limit. He was not + afraid of making the Legislature in time of war the irresponsible judge of + its own acts. Congress, said he, has all possible powers of government, + even the dictator's power; it could declare itself a dictator; under + certain circumstances he was willing that it should do so.(7) + </p> + <p> + The intellectual boldness of Lincoln was matched by an equal boldness. + Between them, he and Stevens had perfectly defined their issue. Granted + that a dictator was needed, which should it be—the President or + Congress? + </p> + <p> + In the hesitancy at the White House during the last eclipse, in the public + distress and the personal grief, Lincoln withheld himself from this + debate. No great utterances break the gloom of this period. Nevertheless, + what may be considered his reply to Stevens is to be found. Buried in the + forgotten portions of the Congressional Globe is a speech that surely was + inspired-or, if not directly inspired, so close a reflection of the + President's thinking that it comes to the same thing at the end. + </p> + <p> + Its author, or apparent author, was one of the few serene figures in that + Thirty-Seventh Congress which was swept so pitilessly by epidemics of + passion. When Douglas, after coming out valiantly for the Union and + holding up Lincoln's hands at the hour of crisis, suddenly died, the + Illinois Legislature named as his successor in the Senate, Orville Henry + Browning. The new Senator was Lincoln's intimate friend. Their points of + view, their temperaments were similar. Browning shared Lincoln's + magnanimity, his hatred of extremes, his eagerness not to allow the war to + degenerate into revolution. In the early part of 1862 he was Lincoln's + spokesman in the Senate. Now that the temper of Wade and Chandler, the + ruthlessness that dominated the Committee, had drawn unto itself such a + cohort of allies; now that all their thinking had been organized by a + fearless mind; there was urgent need for a masterly reply. Did Lincoln + feel unequal, at the moment, to this great task? Very probably he did. + Anyhow, it was Browning who made the reply,(8) a reply so exactly in his + friend's vein, that—there you are! + </p> + <p> + His aim was to explain the nature of those war powers of the government + "which lie dormant during time of peace," and therefore he frankly put the + question, "Is Congress the government?" Senator Fessenden, echoing Stevens + had said, "There is no limit on the powers of Congress; everything must + yield to the force of martial law as resolved by Congress." "There, sir," + said Browning, "is as broad and deep a foundation for absolute despotism + as was ever laid." He rang the changes on the need to "protect minorities + from the oppression and tyranny of excited majorities." + </p> + <p> + He went on to lay the basis of all Lincoln's subsequent defense of the + presidential theory as opposed to the congressional theory, by formulating + two propositions which reappear in some of Lincoln's most famous papers. + Congress is not a safe vessel for extraordinary powers, because in our + system we have difficulty in bringing it definitely to an account under + any sort of plebiscite. On the other hand the President, if he abuses the + war powers "when peace returns, is answerable to the civil power for that + abuse." + </p> + <p> + But Browning was not content to reason on generalities. Asserting that + Congress could no more command the army than it could adjudicate a case, + he further asserted that the Supreme Court had settled the matter and had + lodged the war powers in the President. He cited a decision called forth + by the legal question, "Can a Circuit Court of the United States inquire + whether a President had acted rightly in calling out the militia of a + State to suppress an insurrection?" "The elevated office of the + President," said the Court, "chosen as he is by the People of the United + States, and the high responsibility he could not fail to feel when acting + in a case of such moment, appear to furnish as strong safeguards against + the wilful abuse of power as human prudence and foresight could well + devise. At all events, it is conferred upon him by the Constitution and + the laws of the United States, and therefore, must be respected and + enforced in its judicial tribunals."(9) + </p> + <p> + Whether or not constitutional lawyers would agree with Browning in the + conclusion he drew from this decision, it was plainly the bed rock of his + thought. He believed that the President—whatever your mere historian + might have to say—was in point of fact the exponent of the people as + a whole, and therefore the proper vessel for the ultimate rights of a + sovereign, rights that only the people possess, that only the people can + delegate. And this was Lincoln's theory. Roughly speaking, he-conceived of + the presidential office about as if it were the office of Tribune of the + People. + </p> + <p> + There was still another reason why both Lincoln and Browning feared to + yield anything to the theory of congressional supremacy. It was, in their + minds, not only the general question of all Congresses but immediately of + this particular Congress. An assembly in which the temper of Wade and + Chandler, of Stevens and Sumner, was entering the ascendent, was an + assembly to be feared; its supremacy was to be denied, its power was to be + fought. + </p> + <p> + Browning did not close without a startling passage flung square in the + teeth of the apostles of fury. He summed up the opposite temper, Lincoln's + temper, in his description of "Our brethren of the South—for I am + willing to call them brethren; my heart yet yearns toward them with a + fervency of love which even their treason has not all extinguished, which + tempts me constantly to say in their behalf, 'Father, forgive them, for + they know not what they do.'" He pleaded with the Senate not to consider + them "as public enemies but as insurgent citizens only," and advocated an + Act of Amnesty restoring all political and property rights "instantly upon + their return to allegiance and submission to the authority of the + government." + </p> + <p> + Had this narrowly constitutional issue arisen in quiet times, who can say + how slight might have been its significance? But Fate had decreed that it + should arise in the stormiest moment of our history. Millions of men and + women who cared nothing for constitutional theories, who were governed by + that passion to see immediate results which the thoughtless ever confuse + with achievement, these were becoming hysterical over delay. Why did not + the government do something? Everywhere voices were raised accusing the + President of cowardice. The mania of suspicion was not confined to the + Committee. The thoughts of a multitude were expressed by Congressman + Hickman in his foolish words, "These are days of irresponsibility and + imbecility, and we are required to perform two offices—the office of + legislator and the office of President." The better part of a year had + passed since the day of Sumter, and still the government had no military + success to its credit. An impetuous people that lacked experience of war, + that had been accustomed in unusual measure to have its wishes speedily + gratified, must somehow be marshalled behind the government, unless the + alternative was the capture of power by the Congressional Cabal that was + forming against the President. + </p> + <p> + Entering upon the dark days of the first half of 1862, Lincoln had no + delusions about the task immediately before him. He must win battles; + otherwise, he saw no way of building up that popular support which alone + would enable him to keep the direction of policy in the hands of the + Executive, to keep it out of the hands of Congress. In a word, the + standing or falling of his power appeared to have been committed to the + keeping of the army. What the army would do with it, save his policy or + wreck his policy, was to no small degree a question of the character and + the abilities of the Commanding General. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0021" id="link2H_4_0021"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XXI. THE STRUGGLE TO CONTROL THE ARMY + </h2> + <p> + George Brinton McClellan, when at the age of thirty-four he was raised + suddenly to a dizzying height of fame and power, was generally looked upon + as a prodigy. Though he was not that, he had a real claim to distinction. + Had destiny been considerate, permitting him to rise gradually and to + mature as he rose, he might have earned a stable reputation high among + those who are not quite great. He had done well at West Point, and as a + very young officer in the Mexican War; he had represented his country as a + military observer with the allies in the Crimea; he was a good engineer, + and a capable man of business. His winning personality, until he went + wrong in the terrible days of 1862, inspired "a remarkable affection and + regard in every one from the President to the humblest orderly that waited + at his door."(1) He was at home among books; he could write to his wife + that Prince Napoleon "speaks English very much as the Frenchmen do in the + old English comedies";(2) he was able to converse in "French, Spanish, + Italian, German, in two Indian dialects and he knew a little Russian and + Turkish." Men like Wade and Chandler probably thought of him as a + "highbrow," and doubtless he irritated them by invariably addressing the + President as "Your Excellency." He had the impulses as well as the + traditions of an elder day. But he had three insidious defects. At the + back of his mind there was a vein of theatricality, hitherto unrevealed, + that might, under sufficient stimulus, transform him into a poseur. Though + physically brave, he had in his heart, unsuspected by himself or others, + the dread of responsibility. He was void of humor. These damaging + qualities, brought out and exaggerated by too swift a rise to apparent + greatness, eventually worked his ruin. As an organizer he was + unquestionably efficient. His great achievement which secures him a + creditable place in American history was the conversion in the autumn of + 1861 of a defeated rabble and a multitude of raw militia into a splendid + fighting machine. The very excellence of this achievement was part of his + undoing. It was so near to magical that it imposed on himself, gave him a + false estimate of himself, hid from him his own limitation. It imposed + also on his enemies. Crude, fierce men like the Vindictive leaders of + Congress, seeing this miracle take place so astoundingly soon, leaped at + once to the conclusion that he could, if he would, follow it by another + miracle. Having forged the thunderbolt, why could he not, if he chose, + instantly smite and destroy? All these hasty inexperienced zealots labored + that winter under the delusion that one great battle might end the war. + When McClellan, instead of rushing to the front, entered his second phase—the + one which he did not understand himself, which his enemies never + understood—when he entered upon his long course of procrastination, + the Jacobins, startled, dumfounded, casting about for reasons, could find + in their unanalytical vision, but one. When Jove did not strike, it must + be because Jove did not wish to strike. McClellan was delaying for a + purpose. Almost instantaneous was the whisper, followed quickly by the + outcry among the Jacobins, "Treachery! We are betrayed. He is in league + with the enemy." + </p> + <p> + Their distrust was not allayed by the manner in which he conducted + himself. His views of life and of the office of commanding general were + not those of frontier America. He believed in pomp, in display, in an + ordered routine. The fine weather of the autumn of 1861 was utilized at + Washington for frequent reviews. The flutter of flags, the glint of + marching bayonets, the perfectly ordered rhythm of marching feet, the + blare of trumpets, the silvery notes of the bugles, the stormily rolling + drums, all these filled with martial splendor the golden autumn air when + the woods were falling brown. And everywhere, it seemed, look where one + might, a sumptuously uniformed Commanding General, and a numerous and + sumptuous staff, were galloping past, mounted on beautiful horses. Plain, + blunt men like the Jacobins, caring nothing for this ritual of command, + sneered. They exchanged stories of the elaborate dinners he was said to + give daily, the several courses, the abundance of wine, the numerous + guests; and after these dinners, he and his gorgeous staff, "clattering up + and down the public streets" merely to show themselves off. All this + sneering was wildly exaggerated. The mania of exaggeration, the mania of + suspicion, saturated the mental air breathed by every politician at + Washington, that desperate winter, except the great and lonely President + and the cynical Secretary of State. + </p> + <p> + McClellan made no concessions to the temper of the hour. With Lincoln, his + relations at first were cordial. Always he was punctiliously respectful to + "His Excellency." It is plain that at first Lincoln liked him and that his + liking was worn away slowly. It is equally plain that Lincoln did not know + how to deal with him. The tendency to pose was so far from anything in + Lincoln's make-up that it remained for him, whether in McClellan or + another, unintelligible. That humility which was so conspicuous in this + first period of his rule, led him to assume with his General a modest, + even an appealing tone. The younger man began to ring false by failing to + appreciate it. He even complained of it in a letter to his wife. The + military ritualist would have liked a more Olympian superior. And there is + no denying that his head was getting turned. Perhaps he had excuse. The + newspapers printed nonsensical editorials praising "the young Napoleon." + His mail was filled with letters urging him to carry things with a high + hand; disregard, if necessary, the pusillanimous civil government, and + boldly "save the country." He had so little humor that he could take this + stuff seriously. Among all the foolish letters which the executors of + famous men have permitted to see the light of publicity, few outdo a + letter of McClellan's in which he confided to his wife that he was willing + to become dictator, should that be the only way out, and then, after + saving his country, to perish.(3) + </p> + <p> + In this lordly mood of the melodramatic, he gradually—probably + without knowing it—became inattentive to the President. Lincoln used + to go to his house to consult him, generally on foot, clad in very + ordinary clothes. He was known to sit in McClellan's library "rather + unnoticed" awaiting the General's pleasure.(4) + </p> + <p> + At last the growing coolness of McClellan went so far that an event + occurred which Hay indignantly set down in his diary: "I wish here to + record what I consider a portent of evil to come. The President, Governor + Seward and I went over to McClellan's house tonight. The servant at the + door said the General was at the wedding of Colonel Wheaton at General + Buell's and would soon return. We went in and after we had waited about an + hour, McClellan came in, and without paying particular attention to the + porter who told him the President was waiting to see him, went up-stairs, + passing the door of the room where the President and the Secretary of + State were seated. They waited about half an hour, and sent once more a + servant to tell the General they were there; and the answer came that the + General had gone to bed. + </p> + <p> + "I merely record this unparalleled insolence of epaulettes without comment + It is the first indication I have yet seen of the threatened supremacy of + the military authorities. Coming home, I spoke to the President about the + matter, but he seemed not to have noticed it specially, saying it were + better at this time not to be making points of etiquette and personal + dignity."(5) + </p> + <p> + Did ever a subordinate, even a general, administer to a superior a more + astounding snub? To Lincoln in his selfless temper, it was Only a detail + in his problem of getting the army into action. What room for personal + affronts however gross in a mood like his? To be sure he ceased going to + McClellan's house, and thereafter summoned McClellan to come to him, but + no change appeared in the tone of his intercourse with the General. "I + will hold McClellan's horse," said he, "if he will win me victories."(6) + </p> + <p> + All this while, the two were debating plans of campaign and McClellan was + revealing-as we now see, though no one saw it at the time-the deep dread + of responsibility that was destined to paralyze him as an active general. + He was never ready. Always, there must be more preparation, more men, more + this, more that. + </p> + <p> + In January, 1862, Lincoln, grown desperate because of hope deferred, made + the first move of a sort that was to be lamentably frequent the next six + months. He went over the head of the Commanding General, and, in order to + force a result, evoked a power not recognized in the military scheme of + things. By this time the popular adulation of McClellan was giving place + to a general imitation of the growling of the Jacobins, now well organized + in the terrible Committee and growing each day more and more hostile to + the Administration. Lincoln had besought McClellan to take into account + the seriousness of this rising tide of opposition.(7) His arguments made + no impression. McClellan would not recognize the political side of war. At + last, partly to allay the popular clamor, partly to force McClellan into a + corner, Lincoln published to the country a military program. He publicly + instructed the Commanding General to put all his forces in movement on all + fronts, on Washington's birthday.(8) + </p> + <p> + From this moment the debate between the President and the General with + regard to plans of campaign approached the nature of a dispute. McClellan + repeated his demand for more time in which to prepare. He objected to the + course of advance which the President wished him to pursue. Lincoln, + seeing the situation first of all as a political problem, grounded his + thought upon two ideas neither of which was shared by McClellan: the idea + that the supreme consideration was the safety of Washington; the resultant + idea that McClellan should move directly south, keeping his whole army + constantly between Washington and the enemy. McClellan wished to treat + Washington as but one important detail in his strategy; he had a grandiose + scheme for a wide flanking movement, for taking the bulk of his army by + sea to the coast of Virginia, and thus to draw the Confederate army + homeward for a duel to the death under the walls of Richmond. Lincoln, + neither then nor afterward more than an amateur in strategy, was deeply + alarmed by this bold mode of procedure. His political instinct told him + that if there was any slip and Washington was taken, even briefly, by the + Confederates, the game was up. He was still further alarmed when he found + that some of the eider generals held views resembling his own.(9) To his + modest, still groping mind, this was a trying situation. In the President + lay the ultimate responsibility for every move the army should make. And + whose advice should he accept as authoritative? The first time he asked + himself that question, such peace of mind as had survived the harassing + year 1861 left him, not to return for many a day. + </p> + <p> + At this moment of crises, occurred one of his keenest personal + afflictions. His little son Willie sickened and died. Lincoln's relation + to his children was very close, very tender. Many anecdotes show this boy + frolicking about the White House, a licensed intruder everywhere. Another + flood of anecdotes preserve the stupefying grief of his father after the + child's death. Of these latter, the most extreme which portray Lincoln + toward the close of February so unnerved as to be incapable of public + duty, may be dismissed as apocryphal. But there can be no doubt that his + unhappiness was too great for the vain measurement of descriptive words; + that it intensified the nervous mood which had already possessed him; that + anxiety, deepening at times into terrible alarm, became his constant + companion. + </p> + <p> + In his dread and sorrow, his dilemma grew daily more intolerable. + McClellan had opposed so stoutly the Washington birthday order that + Lincoln had permitted him to ignore it. He was still wavering which advice + to take, McClellan's or the elder generals'. To remove McClellan, to try + at this critical moment some other general, did not occur to him as a + rational possibility. But somehow he felt he must justify himself to + himself for yielding to McClellan' s views. In his zeal to secure some + judgment more authoritative than his own, he took a further step along the + dangerous road of going over the Commander's head, of bringing to bear + upon him influences not strictly included in the military system. He + required McClellan to submit his plan to a council of his general + officers. Lincoln attended this council and told the generals "he was not + a military man and therefore would be governed by the opinion of a + majority."(10) The council decided in McClellan's favor by a vote of eight + to four. This was a disappointment to Lincoln. So firm was his addiction + to the overland route that he could not rest content with the council's + decision. Stanton urged him to disregard it, sneering that the eight who + voted against him were McClellan's creatures, his "pets." But Lincoln + would not risk going against the majority of the council. "We are + civilians," said he, "we should justly be held responsible for any + disaster if we set up our opinions against those of experienced military + men in the practical management of a campaign."(11) + </p> + <p> + Nevertheless, from this quandary, in which his reason forced him to do one + thing while all his sensibilities protested, he extricated himself in a + curious way. Throughout the late winter he had been the object of a + concerted attack from Stanton and the Committee. The Committee had tacitly + annexed Stanton. He conferred with them confidentially. At each important + turn of events, he and they always got together in a secret powwow. As + early as February twentieth, when Lincoln seemed to be breaking down with + grief and anxiety, one of those secret conferences of the high + conspirators ended in a determination to employ all their forces, direct + and indirect, to bring about McClellan's retirement. They were all victims + of that mania of suspicion which was the order of the day. "A majority of + the Committee," wrote its best member, long afterward when he had come to + see things in a different light, "strongly suspected that General + McClellan was a traitor." Wade vented his spleen in furious words about + "King McClellan." Unrestrained by Lincoln's anguish, the Committee + demanded a conference a few days after his son's death and threatened an + appeal from President to Congress if he did not quickly force McClellan to + advance.(12) + </p> + <p> + All this while the Committee was airing another grievance. They clamored + to have the twelve divisions of the army of the Potomac grouped into + corps. They gave as their motive, military efficiency. And perhaps they + thought they meant it. But there was a cat in the bag which they carefully + tried to conceal. The generals of divisions formed two distinct groups, + the elder ones who did not owe their elevation to McClellan and the + younger ones who did. The elder generals, it happened, sympathized + generally with the Committee in politics, or at least did not sympathize + with McClellan. The younger generals reflected the politics of their + patron. And McClellan was a Democrat, a hater of the Vindictives, + unsympathetic with Abolition. Therefore, the mania of suspicion being in + full flood, the Committee would believe no good of McClellan when he + opposed advancing the elder generals to the rank of corps commanders. His + explanation that he "wished to test them in the field," was poohpoohed. + Could not any good Jacobin see through that! Of course, it was but an + excuse to hold back the plums until he could drop them into the itching + palms of those wicked Democrats, his "pets." Why should not the good men + and true, elder and therefore better soldiers, whose righteousness was so + well attested by their political leanings, why should not they have the + places of power to which their rank entitled them? + </p> + <p> + Hitherto, however, Lincoln had held out against the Committee's demand and + bad refused to compel McClellan to reorganize his army against his will. + He now observed that in the council which cast the die against the + overland route, the division between the two groups of generals, what we + may call the Lincoln generals and the McClellan generals, was sharply + evident. The next day he issued a general order which organized the army + of the Potomac into corps, and promoted to the rank of corps commanders, + those elder generals whose point of view was similar to his own.(13) + Thereafter, any reference of crucial matters to a council of general + officers, would mean submitting it, not to a dozen commanders of divisions + with McClellan men in the majority, but to four or five commanders of + corps none of whom was definitely of the McClellan faction. Thus McClellan + was virtually put under surveillance of an informal war council + scrutinizing his course from the President's point of view. It was this + reduced council of the subordinates, as will presently appear, that made + the crucial decision of the campaign. + </p> + <p> + On the same day Lincoln issued another general order accepting McClellan's + plan for a flanking movement to the Virginia coast.(14) The Confederate + lines at this time ran through Manassas—the point Lincoln wished + McClellan to strike. It was to be known later that the Confederate General + gave to Lincoln's views the high endorsement of assuming that they were + the inevitable views that the Northern Commander, if he knew his business, + would act upon. Therefore, he had been quietly preparing to withdraw his + army to more defensible positions farther South. By a curious coincidence, + his "strategic retreat" occurred immediately after McClellan had been + given authority to do what he liked. On the ninth of March it was known at + Washington that Manassas had been evacuated. Whereupon, McClellan's fatal + lack of humor permitted him to make a great blunder. The man who had + refused to go to Manassas while the Confederates were there, marched an + army to Manassas the moment he heard that they were gone—and then + marched back again. This performance was instantly fixed upon for ridicule + as McClellan's "promenade to Manassas." + </p> + <p> + To Lincoln the news of the promenade seemed both a vindication of his own + plan and crushing evidence that if he had insisted on his plan, the + Confederate army would have been annihilated, the war in one cataclysm + brought to an end. He was ridden, as most men were, by the delusion of one + terrific battle that was to end all. In a bitterness of disappointment, + his slowly tortured spirit burst into rage. The Committee was delighted. + For once, they approved of him. The next act of this man, ordinarily so + gentle, seems hardly credible. By a stroke of his pen, he stripped + McClellan of the office of Commanding General, reduced him to the rank of + mere head of a local army, the army of the Potomac; furthermore, he + permitted him to hear of his degradation through the heartless medium of + the daily papers.(15) The functions of Commanding General were added to + the duties of the Secretary of War. Stanton, now utterly merciless toward + McClellan, instantly took possession of his office and seized his papers, + for all the world as if he were pouncing upon the effects of a malefactor. + That McClellan was not yet wholly spoiled was shown by the way he received + this blow. It was the McClellan of the old days, the gallant gentleman of + the year 1860, not the poseur of 1861, who wrote at once to Lincoln making + no complaint, saying that his services belonged to his country in whatever + capacity they might be required. + </p> + <p> + Again a council of subordinates was invoked to determine the next move. + McClellan called together the newly made corps commanders and obtained + their approval of a variation of his former plan. He now proposed to use + Fortress Monroe as a base, and thence conduct an attack upon Richmond. + Again, though with a touch of sullenness very rare in Lincoln, the + President acquiesced. But he added a condition to McClellan's plan by + issuing positive orders, March thirteenth, that it should not be carried + out unless sufficient force was left at Washington to render the city + impregnable. + </p> + <p> + During the next few days the Committee must have been quite satisfied with + the President. For him, he was savage. The normal Lincoln, the man of + immeasurable mercy, had temporarily vanished. McClellan's blunder had + touched the one spring that roused the tiger in Lincoln. By letting slip a + chance to terminate the war—as it seemed to that deluded Washington + of March, 1862—McClellan had converted Lincoln from a brooding + gentleness to an incarnation of the last judgment. He told Hay he thought + that in permitting McClellan to retain any command, he had shown him "very + great kindness."(16) Apparently, he had no consciousness that he had been + harsh in the mode of McClellan's abatement, no thought of the fine + manliness of McClellan's reply. + </p> + <p> + During this period of Lincoln's brief vengefulness, Stanton thought that + his time for clearing scores with McClellan had come. He even picked out + the man who was to be rushed over other men's heads to the command of the + army of the Potomac. General Hitchcock, an accomplished soldier of the + regular army, a grandson of Ethan Allen, who had grown old in honorable + service, was summoned to Washington, and was "amazed" by having plumped at + him the question, would he consent to succeed McClellan? Though General + Hitchcock was not without faults—and there is an episode in his + later relations with McClellan which his biographer discreetly omits—he + was a modest man. He refused to consider Stanton's offer. But he consented + to become the confidential adviser of the War Office. This was done after + an interview with Lincoln who impressed on Hitchcock his sense of a great + responsibility and of the fact that he "had no military knowledge" and + that he must have advice.(17) Out of this congested sense of helplessness + in Lincoln, joined with the new labors of the Secretary of War as + executive head of all the armies, grew quickly another of those + ill-omened, extra-constitutional war councils, one more wheel within the + wheels, that were all doing their part to make the whole machine + unworkable; distributing instead of concentrating power. This new council + which came to be known as the Army Board, was made up of the heads of the + Bureaus of the War Department with the addition of Hitchcock as "Advising + General." Of the temper of the Army Board, composed as it was entirely of + the satellites of Stanton, a confession in Hitchcock's diary speaks + volumes. On the evening of the first day of their new relation, Stanton + poured out to him such a quantity of oral evidence of McClellan's + "incompetency" as to make this new recruit for anti-McClellanism "feel + positively sick."(18) + </p> + <p> + By permitting this added source of confusion among his advisers, Lincoln + treated himself much as he had already treated McClellan. By going over + McClellan's head to take advice from his subordinates he had put the + General on a leash; now, by setting Hitchcock and the experts in the seat + of judgment, he virtually, for a short while, put himself on a leash. Thus + had come into tacit but real power three military councils none of which + was recognized as such by law—the Council of the Subordinates behind + McClellan; the Council of the Experts behind Lincoln; the Council of the + Jacobins, called The Committee, behind them all. + </p> + <p> + The political pressure on Lincoln now changed its tack. Its unfailing zeal + to discredit McClellan assumed the form of insisting that he had a secret + purpose in waiting to get his army away from Washington, that he was + scheming to leave the city open to the Confederates, to "uncover" it, as + the soldiers said. By way of focussing the matter on a definite issue, his + enemies demanded that he detach from his army and assign to the defense of + Washington, a division which was supposed to be peculiarly efficient + General Blenker had recruited a sort of "foreign legion," in which were + many daring adventurers who had seen service in European armies. Blenker's + was the division demanded. So determined was the pressure that Lincoln + yielded. However, his brief anger had blown itself out. To continue + vengeful any length of time was for Lincoln impossible. He was again the + normal Lincoln, passionless, tender, fearful of doing an injustice, + weighed down by the sense of responsibility. He broke the news about + Blenker in a personal note to McClellan that was almost apologetic. "I + write this to assure you that I did so with great pain, understanding that + you would wish it otherwise. If you could know the full pressure of the + case, I am confident you would justify it."(19) In conversation, he + assured McClellan that no other portion of his army should be taken from + him.(20) + </p> + <p> + The change in Lincoln's mood exasperated Stanton. He called on his pals in + the Committee for another of those secret confabulations in which both he + and they delighted. Speaking with scorn of Lincoln's return to + magnanimity, he told them that the President had "gone back to his first + love," the traitor McClellan. Probably all those men who wagged their + chins in that conference really believed that McClellan was aiming to + betray them. One indeed, Julian, long afterward had the largeness of mind + to confess his fault and recant. The rest died in their absurd delusion, + maniacs of suspicion to the very end. At the time all of them laid their + heads together—for what purpose? Was it to catch McClellan in a + trap? + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile, in obedience to Lincoln's orders of March thirteenth, McClellan + drew up a plan for the defense of Washington. As Hitchcock was now in such + high feather, McClellan sent his plan to the new favorite of the War + Office, for criticism. Hitchcock refused to criticize, and when + McClellan's chief of staff pressed for "his opinion, as an old and + experienced officer," Hitchcock replied that McClellan had had ample + opportunity to know what was needed, and persisted in his refusal.(21) + McClellan asked no further advice and made his arrangements to suit + himself. On April first he took boat at Alexandria for the front. Part of + his army had preceded him. The remainder-except the force he had assigned + to the defense of Washington-was speedily to follow. + </p> + <p> + With McClellan's departure still another devotee of suspicion moves to the + front of the stage. This was General Wadsworth. Early in March, Stanton + had told McClellan that he wanted Wadsworth as commander of the defenses + of Washington. McClellan had protested. Wadsworth was not a military man. + He was a politician turned soldier who had tried to be senator from New + York and failed; tried to be governor and failed; and was destined to try + again to be governor, and again to fail. Why should such a person be + singled out to become responsible for the safety of the capital? Stanton's + only argument was that the appointment of Wadsworth was desirable for + political reasons. He added that it would be made whether McClellan liked + it or not. And made it was.(22) Furthermore, Wadsworth, who had previously + professed friendship for McClellan, promptly joined the ranks of his + enemies. Can any one doubt, Stanton being Stanton, mad with distrust of + McClellan, that Wadsworth was fully informed of McClellan's opposition to + his advancement? + </p> + <p> + On the second of April Wadsworth threw a bomb after the vanishing + McClellan, then aboard his steamer somewhere between Washington and + Fortress Monroe. Wadsworth informed Stanton that McClellan had not carried + out the orders of March thirteenth, that the force he had left at + Washington was inadequate to its safety, that the capital was "uncovered." + Here was a chance for Stanton to bring to bear on Lincoln both those + unofficial councils that were meddling so deeply in the control of the + army. He threw this firebrand of a report among his satellites of the Army + Board and into the midst of the Committee.2(3) + </p> + <p> + It is needless here to go into the furious disputes that ensued-the + accusations, the recriminations, the innuendoes! McClellan stoutly + insisted that he had obeyed both the spirit and the letter of March + thirteenth; that Washington was amply protected. His enemies shrieked that + his statements were based on juggled figures; that even if the number of + soldiers was adequate, the quality and equipment were wretched; in a word + that he lied. It is a shame-less controversy inconceivable were there not + many men in whom politics and prejudice far outweighed patriotism. In all + this, Hitchcock was Stanton's trump card. He who had refused to advise + McClellan, did not hesitate to denounce him. In response to a request from + Stanton, he made a report sustaining Wadsworth. The Committee summoned + Wadsworth before it; he read them his report to Stanton; reiterated its + charges, and treated them to some innuendoes after their own hearts, + plainly hinting that McClellan could have crushed the Confederates at + Manassas if he had wished to.(24) + </p> + <p> + A wave of hysteria swept the Committee and the War Office and beat + fiercely upon Lincoln. The Board charged him to save the day by mulcting + the army of the Potomac of an entire corps, retaining it at Washington. + Lincoln met the Board in a long and troubled conference. His anxious + desire to do all he could for McClellan was palpable.(25) But what, under + the circumstances, could he do? Here was this new device for the steadying + of his judgment, this Council of Experts, singing the same old tune, + assuring him that McClellan was not to be trusted. Although in the + reaction from his momentary vengefulness he had undoubtedly swung far back + toward recovering confidence in McClellan, did he dare—painfully + conscious as he was that he "had no military knowledge"—did he dare + go against the Board, disregard its warning that McClellan's arrangements + made of Washington a dangling plum for Confederate raiders to snatch + whenever they pleased. His bewilderment as to what McClellan was really + driving at came back upon him in full force. He reached at last the dreary + conclusion that there was nothing for it but to let the new wheel within + the wheels take its turn at running the machine. Accepting the view that + McClellan had not kept faith on the basis of the orders of March + thirteenth, Lincoln "after much consideration" set aside his own promise + to McClellan and authorized the Secretary of War to detain a full + corps.(26) + </p> + <p> + McClellan never forgave this mutilation of his army and in time fixed upon + it as the prime cause of his eventual failure on the Peninsula. It is + doubtful whether relations between him and Lincoln were ever again really + cordial. + </p> + <p> + In their rather full correspondence during the tense days of April, May + and June, the steady deterioration of McClellan's judgment bore him down + into amazing depths of fatuousness. In his own way he was as much appalled + by the growth of his responsibility as ever Lincoln had been. He moved + with incredible caution.* + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + *Commenting on one of his moments of hesitation, J.S. + Johnston wrote to Lee: "No one but McClellan could have + hesitated to attack." 14 O. R., 416. +</pre> + <p> + His despatches were a continual wailing for more men. Whatever went wrong + was at once blamed on Washington. His ill-usage had made him bitter. And + he could not escape the fact that his actual performance did not come up + to expectation; that he was constantly out-generaled. His prevailing + temper during these days is shown in a letter to his wife. "I have raised + an awful row about McDowell's corps. The President very coolly telegraphed + me yesterday that he thought I ought to break the enemy's lines at once. I + was much tempted to reply that he had better come and do it himself." A + despatch to Stanton, in a moment of disaster, has become notorious: "If I + save this army now, I tell you plainly I owe no thanks to you or to any + other persons in Washington. You have done your best to sacrifice this + army."(27) + </p> + <p> + Throughout this preposterous correspondence, Lincoln maintained the even + tenor of his usual patient stoicism, "his sad lucidity of soul." He + explained; he reasoned; he promised, over and over, assistance to the + limit of his power; he never scolded; when complaint became too absurd to + be reasoned with, he passed it over in silence. Again, he was the selfless + man, his sensibilities lost in the purpose he sought to establish. + </p> + <p> + Once during this period, he acted suddenly, on the spur of the moment, in + a swift upflaring of his unconquerable fear for the safety of Washington. + Previously, he had consented to push the detained corps, McDowell's, + southward by land to cooperate with McClellan, who adapted his plans to + this arrangement. Scarcely had he done so, than Lincoln threw his plans + into confusion by ordering McDowell back to Washington.(28) Jackson, who + had begun his famous campaign of menace, was sweeping like a whirlwind + down the Shenandoah Valley, and in the eyes of panic-struck Washington + appeared to be a reincarnation of Southey's Napoleon,— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "And the great Few-Faw-Fum, would presently come, + With a hop, skip and jump" +</pre> + <p> + into Pennsylvania Avenue. As Jackson's object was to bring McDowell back + to Washington and enable Johnston to deal with McClellan unreinforced, + Lincoln had fallen into a trap. But he had much company. Stanton was + well-nigh out of his head. Though Jackson's army was less than fifteen + thousand and the Union forces in front of him upward of sixty thousand, + Stanton telegraphed to Northern governors imploring them to hasten forward + militia because "the enemy in great force are marching on Washington."(29) + </p> + <p> + The moment Jackson had accomplished his purpose, having drawn a great army + northwestward away from McClellan, most of which should have been marching + southeastward to join McClellan, he slipped away, rushed his own army + across the whole width of Virginia, and joined Lee in the terrible + fighting of the Seven Days before Richmond. + </p> + <p> + In the midst of this furious confusion, the men surrounding Lincoln may be + excused for not observing a change in him. They have recorded his + appearance of indecision, his solicitude over McClellan, his worn and + haggard look. The changing light in those smoldering fires of his deeply + sunken eyes escaped their notice. Gradually, through profound unhappiness, + and as always in silence, Lincoln was working out of his last eclipse. No + certain record of his inner life during this transition, the most + important of his life, has survived. We can judge of it only by the + results. The outstanding fact with regard to it is a certain change of + attitude, an access of determination, late in June. What desperate + wrestling with the angel had taken place in the months of agony since his + son's death, even his private secretaries have not felt able to say. + Neither, apparently, did they perceive, until it flashed upon them + full-blown, the change that was coming over his resolution. Nor did the + Cabinet have any warning that the President was turning a corner, + developing a new phase of himself, something sterner, more powerful than + anything they had suspected. This was ever his way. His instinctive + reticence stood firm until the moment of the new birth. Not only the + Cabinet but the country was amazed and startled, when, late in June, the + President suddenly left Washington. He made a flying trip to West Point + where Scott was living in virtual retirement.(30) What passed between the + two, those few hours they spent together, that twenty-fourth of June, + 1862, has never been divulged. Did they have any eyes, that day, for the + wonderful prospect from the high terrace of the parade ground; for the + river so far below, flooring the valley with silver; for the mountains + pearl and blue? Did they talk of Stanton, of his waywardness, his furies? + Of the terrible Committee? Of the way Lincoln had tied his own hands, + brought his will to stalemate, through his recognition of the unofficial + councils? Who knows? + </p> + <p> + Lincoln was back in Washington the next day. Another day, and by a + sweeping order he created a new army for the protection of Washington, and + placed in command of it, a western general who was credited with a + brilliant stroke on the Mississippi.(31) No one will now defend the + military genius of John Pope. But when Lincoln sent for him, all the + evidence to date appeared to be in his favor. His follies were yet to + appear. And it is more than likely that in the development of Lincoln's + character, his appointment has a deep significance. It appears to mark the + moment when Lincoln broke out of the cocoon of advisement he had spun + unintentionally around his will. In the sorrows of the grim year, new + forces had been generated. New spiritual powers were coming to his + assistance. At last, relatively, he had found peace. Worn and torn as he + was, after his long inward struggle, few bore so calmly as he did the + distracting news from the front in the closing days of June and the + opening days of July, when Lee was driving his whole strength like a + superhuman battering-ram, straight at the heart of the wavering McClellan. + A visitor at the White House, in the midst of the terrible strain of the + Seven Days, found Lincoln "thin and haggard, but cheerful . . . quite as + placid as usual . . . his manner was so kindly and so free from the + ordinary cocksureness of the politician, and the vanity and + self-importance of official position that nothing but good will was + inspired by his presence."(32) + </p> + <p> + His serenity was all the more remarkable as his relations with Congress + and the Committee were fast approaching a crisis. If McClellan failed-and + by the showing of his own despatches, there was every reason to expect him + to fail, so besotted was he upon the idea that no one could prevail with + the force allowed him—the Committee who were leaders of the + congressional party against the presidential party might be expected + promptly to measure strength with the Administration. And McClellan + failed. At that moment Chandler, with the consent of the Committee, was + making use of its records preparing a Philippic against the government. + Lincoln, acting on his own initiative, without asking the Secretary of War + to accompany him, went immediately to the front. He passed two days + questioning McClellan and his generals.(33) But there was no council of + war. It was a different Lincoln from that other who, just four months + previous, had called together the general officers and promised them to + abide by their decisions. He returned to Washington without telling them + what he meant to do. + </p> + <p> + The next day closed a chapter and opened a chapter in the history of the + Federal army. Stanton's brief and inglorious career as head of the + national forces came to an end. He fell back into his rightful position, + the President's executive officer in military affairs. Lincoln telegraphed + another Western general, Halleck, ordering him to Washington as + General-in-Chief.(34) He then, for a season, turned his whole attention + from the army to politics. Five days after the telegram to Halleck, + Chandler in the Senate, loosed his insatiable temper in what ostensibly + was a denunciation of McClellan, what in point of fact was a sweeping + arraignment of the military efficiency of the government.(35) + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0022" id="link2H_4_0022"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XXII. LINCOLN EMERGES + </h2> + <p> + While Lincoln was slowly struggling out of his last eclipse, giving most + of his attention to the army, the Congressional Cabal was laboring + assiduously to force the issue upon slavery. The keen politicians who + composed it saw with unerring vision where, for the moment, lay their + opportunity. They could not beat the President on any one issue then + before the country. No one faction was strong enough to be their stand-by. + Only by a combination of issues and a coalition of factions could they + build up an anti-Lincoln party, check-mate the Administration, and get + control of the government. They were greatly assisted by the fatuousness + of the Democrats. That party was in a peculiar situation. Its most + positive characters, naturally, had taken sides for or against the + government. The powerful Southerners who had been its chief leaders were + mainly in the Confederacy. Such Northerners as Douglas and Stanton, and + many more, had gone over to the Republicans. Suddenly the control of the + party organization had fallen into the hands of second-rate men. As by the + stroke of an enchanter's wand, men of small caliber who, had the old + conditions remained, would have lived and died of little consequence saw + opening before them the role of leadership. It was too much for their + mental poise. Again the subjective element in politics! The Democratic + party for the duration of the war became the organization of Little Men. + Had they possessed any great leaders, could they have refused to play + politics and responded to Lincoln's all-parties policy, history might have + been different. But they were not that sort. Neither did they have the + courage to go to the other extreme and become a resolute opposition party, + wholeheartedly and intelligently against the war. They equivocated, they + obstructed, they professed loyalty and they practised-it would be hard to + say what! So short-sighted was their political game that its effect + continually was to play into the hands of their most relentless enemies, + the grim Jacobins. + </p> + <p> + Though, for a brief time while the enthusiasm after Sumter was still at + its height they appeared to go along with the all-parties program, they + soon revealed their true course. In the autumn of 1861, Lincoln still had + sufficient hold upon all factions to make it seem likely that his + all-parties program would be given a chance. The Republicans generally + made overtures to the Democratic managers, offering to combine in a + coalition party with no platform but the support of the war and the + restoration of the Union. Here was the test of the organization of the + Little Men. The insignificant new managers, intoxicated by the suddenness + of their opportunity, rang false. They rejected the all-parties program + and insisted on maintaining their separate party formation.(1) This was a + turning point in Lincoln's career. Though nearly two years were to pass + before he admitted his defeat, the all-parties program was doomed from + that hour. Throughout the winter, the Democrats in Congress, though + steadily ambiguous in their statements of principle, were as steadily + hostile to Lincoln. If they had any settled policy, it was no more than an + attempt to hold the balance of power among the warring factions of the + Republicans. By springtime the game they were playing was obvious; also + its results. They had prevented the President from building up a strong + Administration group wherewith he might have counterbalanced the Jacobins. + Thus they had released the Jacobins from the one possible restraint that + might have kept them from pursuing their own devices. + </p> + <p> + The spring of 1862 saw a general realignment of factions. It was then that + the Congressional Cabal won its first significant triumph. Hitherto, all + the Republican platforms had been programs of denial. A brilliant new + member of the Senate, john Sherman, bluntly told his colleagues that the + Republican party had always stood on the defensive. That was its weakness. + "I do not know any measure on which it has taken an aggressive + position."(2) The clue to the psychology of the moment was in the raging + demand of the masses for a program of assertion, for aggressive measures. + The President was trying to meet this demand with his all-parties program, + with his policy of nationalism, exclusive of everything else. And recently + he had added that other assertion, his insistence that the executive in + certain respects was independent of the legislative. Of his three + assertions, one, the all-parties program, was already on the way to defeat + Another, nationalism, as the President interpreted it, had alienated the + Abolitionists. The third, his argument for himself as tribune, was just + what your crafty politician might twist, pervert, load with false meanings + to his heart's content. Men less astute than Chandler and Wade could not + have failed to see where fortune pointed. Their opportunity lay in a + combination of the two issues. Abolition and the resistance to executive + "usurpation." Their problem was to create an anti-Lincoln party that + should also be a war party. Their coalition of aggressive forces must + accept the Abolitionists as its backbone, but it must also include all + violent elements of whatever persuasion, and especially all those that + could be wrought into fury on the theme of the President as a despot. + Above all, their coalition must absorb and then express the furious temper + so dear to their own hearts which they fondly believed-mistakenly, they + were destined to discover-was the temper of the country. + </p> + <p> + It can not be said that this was the Republican program. The President's + program, fully as positive as that of the Cabal, had as good a right to + appropriate the party label—as events were to show, a better right. + But the power of the Cabal was very great, and the following it was able + to command in the country reached almost the proportions of the terrible. + A factional name is needed. For the Jacobins, their allies in Congress, + their followers in the country, from the time they acquired a positive + program, an accurate label is the Vindictives. + </p> + <p> + During the remainder of the session, Congress may be thought of as having—what + Congress seldom has—three definite groups, Right, Left and Center. + The Right was the Vindictives; the Left, the irreconcilable Democrats; the + Center was composed chiefly of liberal Republicans but included a few + Democrats, those who rebelled against the political chicanery of the + Little Men. + </p> + <p> + The policy of the Vindictives was to force upon the Administration the + double issue of emancipation and the supremacy of Congress. Therefore, + their aim was to pass a bill freeing the slaves on the sole authority of a + congressional act. Many resolutions, many bills, all having this end in + view, were introduced. Some were buried in committees; some were remade in + committees and subjected to long debate by the Houses; now and then one + was passed upon. But the spring wore through and the summer came, and + still the Vindictives were not certainly in control of Congress. No bill + to free slaves by congressional action secured a majority vote. At the + same time it was plain that the strength of the Vindictives was slowly, + steadily, growing. + </p> + <p> + Outside Congress, the Abolitionists took new hope. They had organized a + systematic propaganda. At Washington, weekly meetings were held in the + Smithsonian Institute, where all their most conspicuous leaders, Phillips, + Emerson, Brownson, Garret Smith, made addresses. Every Sunday a service + was held in the chamber of the House of Representatives and the sermon was + almost always a "terrific arrangement of slavery." Their watch-word was "A + Free Union or Disintegration." The treatment of fugitive slaves by + commanders in the field produced a clamor. Lincoln insisted on strict + obedience to the two laws, the Fugitive Slave Act and the First + Confiscation Act. Abolitionists sneered at "all this gabble about the + sacredness of the Constitution."(3) But Lincoln was not to be moved. When + General Hunter, taking a leaf from the book of Fremont, tried to force his + hand, he did not hesitate. Hunter had issued a proclamation by which the + slaves in the region where he commanded were "declared forever free." + </p> + <p> + This was in May when Lincoln's difficulties with McClellan were at their + height; when the Committee was zealously watching to catch him in any sort + of mistake; when the House was within four votes of a majority for + emancipation by act of Congress;(4) when there was no certainty whether + the country was with him or with the Vindictives. Perhaps that new courage + which definitely revealed itself the next month, may be first glimpsed in + the proclamation overruling Hunter: + </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 can not feel justified in + leaving to the decision of commanders in the field."(5) + </p> + <p> + The revocation of Hunter's order infuriated the Abolitionists. It deeply + disappointed the growing number who, careless about slavery, wanted + emancipation as a war measure, as a blow at the South. Few of either of + these groups noticed the implied hint that emancipation might come by + executive action. Here was the matter of the war powers in a surprising + form. However, it was not unknown to Congress. Attempts had been made to + induce Congress to concede the war powers to the President and to ask, not + command, him to use them for the liberation of slaves in the Seceded + States. Long before, in a strangely different connection, such vehement + Abolitionists as Giddings and J. Q. Adams had pictured the freeing of + slaves as a natural incident of military occupation. + </p> + <p> + What induced Lincoln to throw out this hint of a possible surrender on the + subject of emancipation? Again, as so often, the silence as to his motives + is unbroken. However, there can be no doubt that his thinking on the + subject passed through several successive stages. But all his thinking was + ruled by one idea. Any policy he might accept, or any refusal of policy, + would be judged in his own mind by the degree to which it helped, or + hindered, the national cause. Nothing was more absurd than the sneer of + the Abolitionists that he was "tender" of slavery. Browning spoke for him + faithfully, "If slavery can survive the shock of war and secession, be it + so. If in the conflict for liberty, the Constitution and the Union, it + must necessarily perish, then let it perish." Browning refused to predict + which alternative would develop. His point was that slaves must be treated + like other property. But, if need be, he would sacrifice slavery as he + would sacrifice anything else, to save the Union. He had no intention to + "protect" slavery.(6) + </p> + <p> + In the first stage of Lincoln's thinking on this thorny subject, his chief + anxiety was to avoid scaring off from the national cause those Southern + Unionists who were not prepared to abandon slavery. This was the motive + behind his prompt suppression of Fremont. It was this that inspired the + Abolitionist sneer about his relative attitude toward God and Kentucky. As + a compromise, to cut the ground from under the Vindictives, he had urged + the loyal Slave States to endorse a program of compensated emancipation. + But these States were as unable to see the handwriting on the wall as were + the Little Men. In the same proclamation that overruled Hunter, while + hinting at what the Administration might feel driven to do, Lincoln + appealed again to the loyal Slave States to accept compensated + emancipation. "I do not argue," said he, "I beseech you to make the + argument for yourselves. You can not, if you would, be blind to the signs + of the times. . . . 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."(7) + </p> + <p> + Though Lincoln, at this moment, was anxiously watching the movement in + Congress to force his hand, he was not apparently cast down. He was + emerging from his eclipse. June was approaching and with it the final + dawn. Furthermore, when he issued this proclamation on May nineteenth, he + had not lost faith in McClellan. He was still hoping for news of a + crushing victory; of McClellan's triumphal entry into Richmond. The next + two months embraced both those transformations which together + revolutionized his position. He emerged from his last eclipse; and + McClellan failed him. + </p> + <p> + When Lincoln returned to Washington after his two days at the front, he + knew that the fortunes of his Administration were at a low ebb. Never had + he been derided in Congress with more brazen injustice. The Committee, + waiting only for McClellan's failure, would now unmask their guns-as + Chandler did, seven days later. The line of Vindictive criticism could + easily be foreshadowed: the government had failed; it was responsible for + a colossal military catastrophe; but what could you expect of an + Administration that would not strike its enemies through emancipation; + what a shattering demonstration that the Executive was not a safe + repository of the war powers. + </p> + <p> + Was there any way to forestall or disarm the Vindictives? His silence + gives us no clue when or how the answer occurred to him—by + separating the two issues; by carrying out the hint in the May + proclamation; by yielding on emancipation while, in the very act, pushing + the war powers of the President to their limit, declaring slaves free by + an executive order. + </p> + <p> + The importance of preserving the war power of the President had become a + fixed condition of Lincoln's thought. Already, he was looking forward not + only to victory but to the great task that should come after victory. He + was determined, if it were humanly possible, to keep that task in the + hands of the President, and out of the hands of Congress. A first step had + already been taken. In portions of occupied territory, military governors + had been appointed. Simple as this seemed to the careless observer, it + focussed the whole issue. The powerful, legal mind of Sumner at once + perceived its significance. He denied in the Senate the right of the + President to make such appointments; he besought the Senate to demand the + cancellation of such appointment. He reasserted the absolute sovereignty + of Congress.(8) It would be a far-reaching stroke if Lincoln, in any way, + could extort from Congress acquiescence in his use of the war powers on a + vast scale. Freeing the slaves by executive order would be such a use. + </p> + <p> + Another train of thought also pointed to the same result. Lincoln's desire + to further the cause of "the Liberal party throughout the world," that + desire which dated back to his early life as a politician, had suffered a + disappointment. European Liberals, whose political vision was less + analytical than his, had failed to understand his policy. The Confederate + authorities had been quick to publish in Europe his official + pronouncements that the war had been undertaken not to abolish slavery but + to preserve the Union. As far back as September, 1861, Carl Schurz wrote + from Spain to Seward that the Liberals abroad were disappointed, that "the + impression gained ground that the war as waged by the Federal government, + far from being a war of principle, was merely a war of policy," and "that + from this point of view much might be said for the South."(9) In fact, + these hasty Europeans had found a definite ground for complaining that the + American war was a reactionary influence. The concentration of American + cruisers in the Southern blockade gave the African slave trade its last + lease of life. With no American war-ship among the West Indies, the + American flag became the safeguard of the slaver. Englishmen complained + that "the swift ships crammed with their human cargoes" had only to "hoist + the Stars and Stripes and pass under the bows of our cruisers."(10) Though + Seward scored a point by his treaty giving British cruisers the right to + search any ships carrying the American flag, the distrust of the foreign + Liberals was not removed. They inclined to stand aside and to allow the + commercial classes of France and England to dictate policy toward the + United States. The blockade, by shutting off the European supply of raw + cotton, on both sides the channel, was the cause of measureless + unemployment, of intolerable misery. There was talk in both countries of + intervention. Napoleon, especially, loomed large on the horizon as a + possible ally of the Confederacy. And yet, all this while, Lincoln had it + in his power at any minute to lay the specter of foreign intervention. A + pledge to the "Liberal party throughout the world" that the war would + bring about the destruction of slavery, and great political powers both in + England and in France would at once cross the paths of their governments + should they move toward intervention. Weighty as were all these reasons + for a change of policy—turning the flank of the Vindictives on the + war powers, committing the Abolitionists to the Administration, winning + over the European Liberals—there was a fourth reason which, very + probably, weighed upon Lincoln most powerfully of them all. Profound gloom + had settled upon the country. There was no enthusiasm for military + service. And Stanton, who lacked entirely the psychologic vision of the + statesman, had recently committed an astounding blunder. After a few + months in power he had concluded that the government had enough soldiers + and had closed the recruiting offices.(11) Why Lincoln permitted this + singular proceeding has never been satisfactorily explained.* Now he was + reaping the fruits. A defeated army, a hopeless country, and no prospect + of swift reinforcement! If a shift of ground on the question of + emancipation would arouse new enthusiasm, bring in a new stream of + recruits, Lincoln was prepared to shift. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + *Stanton's motive was probably economy. Congress was + terrified by the expense of the war. The Committee was + deeply alarmed over the political effect of war taxation. + They and Stanton were all convinced that McClellan was amply + strong enough to crush the Confederacy. +</pre> + <p> + But even in this dire extremity, he would not give way without a last + attempt to save his earlier policy. On July twelfth, he called together + the Senators and Representatives of the Border States. He read to them a + written argument in favor of compensated emancipation, the Federal + government to assist the States in providing funds for the purpose. + </p> + <p> + "Let the States that are in rebellion," said he, "see definitely and + certainly that in no event will the States you represent ever join their + proposed Confederacy, and they can not much longer maintain the contest. + But you can not 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. . . . 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 + 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."(12) + </p> + <p> + He made no impression. They would commit themselves to nothing. Lincoln + abandoned his earlier policy. + </p> + <p> + Of what happened next, he said later, "It had got to be. . . . 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. . . "(13) + </p> + <p> + The next day he confided his decision and his reasons to Seward and + Welles. Though "this was a new departure for the President," both these + Ministers agreed with him that the change of policy had become + inevitable.(14) + </p> + <p> + Lincoln was now entirely himself, astute in action as well as bold in + thought. He would not disclose his change of policy while Congress was in + session. Should he do so, there was no telling what attempt the Cabal + would make to pervert his intention, to twist his course into the + semblance of an acceptance of the congressional theory. He laid the matter + aside until Congress should be temporarily out of the way, until the long + recess between July and December should have begun. In this closing moment + of the second session of the Thirty-Seventh Congress, which is also the + opening moment of the great period of Lincoln, the feeling against him in + Congress was extravagantly bitter. It caught at anything with which to + make a point. A disregard of technicalities of procedure was magnified + into a serious breach of constitutional privilege. Reviving the question + of compensated emancipation, Lincoln had sent a special message to both + Houses, submitting the text of a compensation bill which he urged them to + consider. His enemies raised an uproar. The President had no right to + introduce a bill into Congress! Dictator Lincoln was trying in a new way + to put Congress under his thumb.(15) + </p> + <p> + In the last week of the session, Lincoln's new boldness brought the old + relation between himself and Congress to a dramatic close. The Second + Confiscation Bill had long been under discussion. Lincoln believed that + some of its provisions were inconsistent with the spirit at least of our + fundamental law. Though its passage was certain, he prepared a veto + message. He then permitted the congressional leaders to know what he + intended to do when the bill should reach him. Gall and wormwood are weak + terms for the bitterness that may be tasted in the speeches of the + Vindictives. When, in order to save the bill, a resolution was appended + purging it of the interpretation which Lincoln condemned, Trumbull + passionately declared that Congress was being "coerced" by the President. + "No one at a distance," is the deliberate conclusion of Julian who was + present, "could have formed any adequate conception of the hostility of + the Republican members toward Lincoln at the final adjournment, while it + was the belief of many that our last session of Congress had been held in + Washington. Mr. Wade said the country was going to hell, and that the + scenes witnessed in the French Revolution were nothing in comparison with + what we should see here."(16) + </p> + <p> + Lincoln endured the rage of Congress in unwavering serenity. On the last + day of the session, Congress surrendered and sent to him both the + Confiscation Act and the explanatory resolution. Thereupon, he indulged in + what must have seemed to those fierce hysterical enemies of his a wanton + stroke of irony. He sent them along with his approval of the bill the text + of the veto message he would have sent had they refused to do what he + wanted.(17) There could be no concealing the fact that the President had + matched his will against the will of Congress, and that the President had + had his way. + </p> + <p> + Out of this strange period of intolerable confusion, a gigantic figure had + at last emerged. The outer and the inner Lincoln had fused. He was now a + coherent personality, masterful in spite of his gentleness, with his own + peculiar fashion of self-reliance, having a policy of his own devising, + his colors nailed upon the masthead. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0023" id="link2H_4_0023"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XXIII. THE MYSTICAL STATESMAN + </h2> + <p> + Lincoln's final emergence was a deeper thing than merely the consolidation + of a character, the transformation of a dreamer into a man of action. The + fusion of the outer and the inner person was the result of a profound + interior change. Those elements of mysticism which were in him from the + first, which had gleamed darkly through such deep overshadowing, were at + last established in their permanent form. The political tension had been + matched by a spiritual tension with personal sorrow as the connecting + link. In a word, he had found his religion. + </p> + <p> + Lincoln's instinctive reticence was especially guarded, as any one might + expect, in the matter of his belief. Consequently, the precise nature of + it has been much discussed. As we have seen, the earliest current report + charged him with deism. The devoted Herndon, himself an agnostic, eagerly + claims his hero as a member of the noble army of doubters. Elaborate + arguments have been devised in rebuttal. The fault on both sides is in the + attempt to base an impression on detached remarks and in the further error + of treating all these fragments as of one time, or more truly, as of no + time, as if his soul were a philosopher of the absolute, speaking + oracularly out of a void. It is like the vicious reasoning that tortures + systems of theology out of disconnected texts. + </p> + <p> + Lincoln's religious life reveals the same general divisions that are to be + found in his active life: from the beginning to about the time of his + election; from the close of 1860 to the middle of 1862; the remainder. + </p> + <p> + Of his religious experience in the first period, very little is definitely + known. What glimpses we have of it both fulfill and contradict the forest + religion that was about him in his youth. The superstition, the faith in + dreams, the dim sense of another world surrounding this, the belief in + communion between the two, these are the parts of him that are based + unchangeably in the forest shadows. But those other things, the spiritual + passions, the ecstacies, the vague sensing of the terribleness of the + creative powers,—to them always he made no response. And the crude + philosophizing of the forest theologians, their fiercely simple dualism—God + and Satan, thunder and lightning, the eternal war in the heavens, the + eternal lake of fire—it meant nothing to him. Like all the furious + things of life, evil appeared to him as mere negation, a mysterious + foolishness he could not explain. His aim was to forget it. Goodness and + pity were the active elements that roused him to think of the other world; + especially pity. The burden of men's tears, falling ever in the shadows at + the backs of things—this was the spiritual horizon from which he + could not escape. Out of the circle of that horizon he had to rise by + spiritual apprehension in order to be consoled. And there is no reason to + doubt that at times, if not invariably, in his early days, he did rise; he + found consolation. But it was all without form. It was a sentiment, a + mood,—philosophically bodiless. This indefinite mysticism was the + real heart of the forest world, closer than hands or feet, but elusive, + incapable of formulation, a presence, not an idea. Before the task of + expressing it, the forest mystic stood helpless. Just what it was that he + felt impinging upon him from every side he did not know. He was like a + sensitive man, neither scientist nor poet, in the midst of a night of + stars. The reality of his experience gave him no power either to explain + or to state it. + </p> + <p> + There is little reason to suppose that Lincoln's religious experience + previous to 1860 was more than a recurrent visitor in his daily life. He + has said as much himself. He told his friend Noah Brooks "he did not + remember any precise time when he passed through any special change of + purpose, or of heart, but he would say that his own election to office and + the crisis immediately following, influentially determined him in what he + called 'a process of crystallization' then going on in his mind."(1) + </p> + <p> + It was the terrible sense of need—the humility, the fear that he + might not be equal to the occasion—that searched his soul, that bred + in him the craving for a spiritual up-holding which should be constant. + And at this crucial moment came the death of his favorite son. "In the + lonely grave of the little one lay buried Mr. Lincoln's fondest hopes, and + strong as he was in the matter of self-control, he gave way to an + overmastering grief which became at length a serious menace to his + health."(2) Though firsthand accounts differ as to just how he struggled + forth out of this darkness, all agree that the ordeal was very severe. + Tradition makes the crisis a visit from the Reverend Francis Vinton, + rector of Trinity Church, New York, and his eloquent assertion of the + faith in immortality, his appeal to Lincoln to remember the sorrow of + Jacob over the loss of Joseph, and to rise by faith out of his own sorrow + even as the patriarch rose.(3) + </p> + <p> + Although Lincoln succeeded in putting his grief behind him, he never + forgot it. Long afterward, he called the attention of Colonel Cannon to + the lines in King John: + </p> + <p> + "And Father Cardinal, I have heard you say That we shall see and know our + friends in heaven; If that be true, I shall see my boy again." + </p> + <p> + "Colonel," said he, "did you ever dream of a lost friend, and feel that + you were holding sweet communion with that friend, and yet have a sad + consciousness that it was not a reality? Just so, I dream of my boy, + Willie." And he bent his head and burst into tears.(4) + </p> + <p> + As he rose in the sphere of statecraft with such apparent suddenness out + of the doubt, hesitation, self-distrust of the spring of 1862 and in the + summer found himself politically, so at the same time he found himself + religiously. During his later life though the evidences are slight, they + are convincing. And again, as always, it is not a violent change that + takes place, but merely a better harmonization of the outer and less + significant part of him with the inner and more significant. His religion + continues to resist intellectual formulation. He never accepted any + definite creed. To the problems of theology, he applied the same sort of + reasoning that he applied to the problems of the law. He made a + distinction, satisfactory to himself at least, between the essential and + the incidental, and rejected everything that did not seem to him + altogether essential. + </p> + <p> + In another negative way his basal part asserted itself. Just as in all his + official relations he was careless of ritual, so in religion he was not + drawn to its ritualistic forms. Again, the forest temper surviving, + changed, into such different conditions! Real and subtle as is the + ritualistic element, not only in religion but in life generally, one may + doubt whether it counts for much among those who have been formed mainly + by the influences of nature. It implies more distance between the emotion + and its source, more need of stimulus to arouse and organize emotion, than + the children of the forest are apt to be aware of. To invoke a + philosophical distinction, illumination rather than ritualism, the tense + but variable concentration on a result, not the ordered mode of an + approach, is what distinguishes such characters as Lincoln. It was this + that made him careless &f form in all the departments of life. It was + one reason why McClellan, born ritualist of the pomp of war, could never + overcome a certain dislike, or at least a doubt, of him. + </p> + <p> + Putting together his habit of thinking only in essentials and his + predisposition to neglect form, it is not strange that he said: "I have + never united myself to any church because I have found difficulty in + giving my assent, without mental reservation, to the long, complicated + statements of Christian doctrine which characterize their Articles of + Belief and Confessions of Faith. When any church will inscribe over its + altar, as its sole qualification for membership, the Savior's condensed + statement of the substance of both Law and Gospel, 'Thou shalt love the + Lord thy God, with all thy heart and with all thy soul, and with all thy + mind, and thy neighbor as thyself,' that church will I join with all my + heart and with all my soul."(5) + </p> + <p> + But it must not be supposed that his religion was mere ethics. It had + three cardinal possessions. The sense of God is through all his later + life. It appears incidentally in his state papers, clothed with language + which, in so deeply sincere a man, must be taken literally. He believed in + prayer, in the reality of communion with the Divine. His third article was + immortality. + </p> + <p> + At Washington, Lincoln was a regular attendant, though not a communicant, + of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church. With the Pastor, the Reverend + P. D. Gurley, he formed a close friendship. Many hours they passed in + intimate talk upon religious subjects, especially upon the question of + immortality.(6) To another pious visitor he said earnestly, "I hope I am a + Christian."(7) Could anything but the most secure faith have written this + "Meditation on the Divine Will" which he set down in the autumn of 1862 + for no eye but his own: "The will of God prevails. In great contests each + party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and + one must be, wrong. God can not be for and against the same thing at the + same time. In the present civil war it is quite possible that God's + purpose is something different from the purpose of either party; and yet + the human instrumentalities, working just as they do, are of the best + adaptation to effect His purpose. I am almost ready to say that this is + probably true; that God wills this contest, and wills that it shall not + end yet. By His mere great power on the minds of the now contestants, He + could have either saved or destroyed the Union without a human contest. + Yet the contest began. And, having begun, He could give the final victory + to either side any day. Yet the contest proceeds."(8) + </p> + <p> + His religion flowered in his later temper. It did not, to be sure, + overcome his melancholy. That was too deeply laid. Furthermore, we fail to + discover in the surviving evidences any certainty that it was a glad phase + of religion. Neither the ecstatic joy of the wild women, which his mother + had; nor the placid joy of the ritualist, which he did not understand; nor + those other variants of the joy of faith, were included in his portion. It + was a lofty but grave religion that matured in his final stage. Was it due + to far-away Puritan ancestors? Had austere, reticent Iron-sides, sure of + the Lord, but taking no liberties with their souls, at last found out + their descendant? It may be. Cromwell, in some ways, was undeniably his + spiritual kinsman. In both, the same aloofness of soul, the same + indifference to the judgments of the world, the same courage, the same + fatalism, the same encompassment by the shadow of the Most High. Cromwell, + in his best mood, had he been gifted with Lincoln's literary power, could + have written the Fast Day Proclamation of 1863 which is Lincoln's most + distinctive religious fragment. + </p> + <p> + However, Lincoln's gloom had in it a correcting element which the old + Puritan gloom appears to have lacked. It placed no veto upon mirth. + Rather, it valued mirth as its only redeemer. And Lincoln's growth in the + religious sense was not the cause of any diminution of his surface + hilarity. He saved himself from what otherwise would have been intolerable + melancholy by seizing, regardless of the connection, anything whatsoever + that savored of the comic. + </p> + <p> + His religious security did not destroy his superstition. He continued to + believe that he would die violently at the end of his career as President. + But he carried that belief almost with gaiety. He refused to take + precautions for his safety. Long lonely rides in the dead of night; night + walks with a single companion, were constant anxieties to his intimates. + To the President, their fears were childish. Although in the sensibilities + he could suffer all he had ever suffered, and more; in the mind he had + attained that high serenity in which there can be no flagging of effort + because of the conviction that God has decreed one's work; no failure of + confidence because of the twin conviction that somehow, somewhere, all + things work together for good. "I am glad of this interview," he said in + reply to a deputation of visitors, in September, 1862, "and glad to know + that I have your sympathy and your prayers. . I happened to be placed, + being a humble instrument in the hands of our Heavenly Father, as I am, + and as we all are, to work out His great purpose. . . . I have sought His + aid; but if after endeavoring to do my best in the light He affords me, I + find my efforts fail, I must believe that for some purpose unknown to me + He wills it otherwise. If I had my way, this war would never have + commenced. If I had been allowed my way, this war would have been ended + before this; but it still continues and we must believe that He permits it + for some wise purpose of His own, mysterious and unknown to us; and though + with our limited understandings we may not be able to comprehend it, yet + we can not but believe that He who made the world still governs it."(9) + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0024" id="link2H_4_0024"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XXIV. GAMBLING IN GENERALS + </h2> + <p> + On July 22, 1862, there was a meeting of the Cabinet. The sessions of + Lincoln's Council were the last word for informality. The President and + the Ministers interspersed their great affairs with mere talk, + story-telling, gossip. With one exception they were all lovers of their + own voices, especially in the telling of tales. Stanton was the exception. + Gloomy, often in ill-health, innocent of humor, he glowered when the + others laughed. When the President, instead of proceeding at once to + business, would pull out of his pocket the latest volume of Artemus Ward, + the irate War Minister felt that the overthrow of the nation was + impending. But in this respect, the President was incorrigible. He had + been known to stop the line of his guests at a public levee, while he + talked for some five minutes in a whisper to an important personage; and + though all the room thought that jupiter was imparting state secrets, in + point of fact, he was making sure of a good story the great man had told + him a few days previous.(1) His Cabinet meetings were equally careless of + social form. The Reverend Robert Collyer was witness to this fact in a + curious way. Strolling through the White House grounds, "his attention was + suddenly arrested by the apparition of three pairs of feet resting on the + ledge of an open window in one of the apartments of the second story and + plainly visible from below." He asked a gardener for an explanation. The + brusk reply was: "Why, you old fool, that's the Cabinet that is a-settin', + and them thar big feet are ole Abe's."(2) + </p> + <p> + When the Ministers assembled on July twenty-second they had no intimation + that this was to be a record session. Imagine the astonishment when, in + his usual casual way, though with none of that hesitancy to which they had + grown accustomed, Lincoln announced his new policy, adding that he "wished + it understood that the question was settled in his own mind; that he had + decreed emancipation in a certain contingency and the responsibility of + the measure was his."(3) President and Cabinet talked it over in their + customary offhand way, and Seward made a suggestion that instantly riveted + Lincoln's attention. Seward thought the moment was ill-chosen. "If the + Proclamation were issued now, it would be received and considered as a + despairing cry—a shriek from and for the Administration, rather than + for freedom."(4) He added the picturesque phrase, "The government + stretching forth its hands to Ethiopia, instead of Ethiopia stretching + forth her hands to the government." This idea struck Lincoln with very + great force. It was an aspect of the case "which he had entirely + overlooked."(5) He accepted Seward's advice, laid aside the proclamation + he had drafted and turned again with all his energies to the organization + of victory. + </p> + <p> + The next day Halleck arrived at Washington. He was one of Lincoln's + mistakes. However, in his new mood, Lincoln was resolved to act on his own + opinion of the evidence before him, especially in estimating men. It is + just possible that this epoch of his audacities began in a reaction; that + after too much self-distrust, he went briefly to the other extreme, + indulging in too much self-confidence. Be that as it may, he had formed + exaggerated opinions of both these Western generals, Halleck and Pope. + Somehow, in the brilliant actions along the Mississippi they had absorbed + far more than their fair share of credit. Particularly, Lincoln went + astray with regard to Pope. Doubtless a main reason why he accepted the + plan of campaign suggested by Halleck was the opportunity which it offered + to Pope. Perhaps, too, the fatality in McClellan's character turned the + scale. He begged to be left where he was with his base on James River, and + to be allowed to renew the attack on Richmond.1 But he did not take the + initiative. The government must swiftly hurry up reinforcements, and then—the + old, old story! Obviously, it was a question at Washington either of + superseding McClellan and leaving the army where it was, or of shifting + the army to some other commander without in so many words disgracing + McClellan. Halleck's approval of the latter course jumped with two of + Lincoln's impulses—his trust in Pope, his reluctance to disgrace + McClellan. Orders were issued transferring the bulk of the army of the + Potomac to the new army of Virginia lying south of Washington under the + command of Pope. McClellan was instructed to withdraw his remaining forces + from the Peninsula and retrace his course up the Potomac.(6) + </p> + <p> + Lincoln had committed one of his worst blunders. Herndon has a curious, + rather subtle theory that while Lincoln's judgments of men in the + aggregate were uncannily sure, his judgments of men individually were + unreliable. It suggests the famous remark of Goethe that his views of + women did not derive from experience; that they antedated experience; and + that he corrected experience by them. Of the confessed artist this may be + true. The literary concept which the artist works with is often, + apparently, a more constant, more fundamental, more significant thing, + than is the broken, mixed, inconsequential impression out of which it has + been wrought. Which seems to explain why some of the writers who + understand human nature so well in their books, do not always understand + people similarly well in life. And always it is to be remembered that + Lincoln was made an artist by nature, and made over into a man of action + by circumstance. If Herndon's theory has any value it is in asserting his + occasional danger—by no means a constant danger—of forming in + his mind images of men that were more significant than it was possible for + the men themselves to be. John Pope was perhaps his worst instance. An + incompetent general, he was capable of things still less excusable. Just + after McClellan had so tragically failed in the Seven Days, when Lincoln + was at the front, Pope was busy with the Committee, assuring them + virtually that the war had been won in the West, and that only McClellan's + bungling had saved the Confederacy from speedy death.(7) But somehow + Lincoln trusted him, and continued to trust him even after he had proved + his incompetency in the catastrophe at Manassas. + </p> + <p> + During August, Pope marched gaily southward issuing orders that were shot + through with bad rhetoric, mixing up army routine and such irrelevant + matters as "the first blush of dawn." + </p> + <p> + Lincoln was confident of victory. And after victory would come the new + policy, the dissipation of the European storm-cloud, the break-up of the + vindictive coalition of Jacobins and Abolitionists, the new enthusiasm for + the war. But of all this, the incensed Abolitionists received no hint. The + country rang with their denunciations of the President. At length, Greeley + printed in The Tribune an open letter called "The Prayer of Twenty + Millions." It was an arraignment of what Greeley chose to regard as the + pro-slavery policy of the Administration. This was on August twentieth. + Lincoln, in high hope that a victory was at hand, seized the opportunity + both to hint to the country that he was about to change his policy, and to + state unconditionally his reason for changing. He replied to Greeley + through the newspapers: + </p> + <p> + "As to the policy I 'seem to be pursuing,' as you say, I have meant to + leave no 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 it is + not either to save or 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 of the + slaves and leaving others alone, I would also do that. What I do about + slavery and the colored race, I do because I believe it will help 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 that what + I am doing hurts the cause; and I shall do more whenever I believe that + doing more will help the cause."(8) The effect of this on the + Abolitionists was only to increase their rage. The President was compared + to Douglas with his indifference whether slavery was voted "up or + down."(9) Lincoln, now so firmly hopeful, turned a deaf ear to these + railing accusations. He was intent upon watching the army. It was probably + at this time that he reached an unfortunate conclusion with regard to + McClellan. The transfer of forces from the James River to northern + Virginia had proceeded slowly. It gave rise to a new controversy, a new + crop of charges. McClellan was accused of being dilatory on purpose, of + aiming to cause the failure of Pope. Lincoln accepted, at last, the worst + view of him. He told Hay that "it really seemed that McClellan wanted Pope + defeated. . . . The President seemed to think him a little crazy."(10) + </p> + <p> + But still the confidence in Pope, marching so blithely through "the blush + of dawn," stood fast. If ever an Administration was in a fool's paradise, + it was Lincoln's, in the last few days of August, while Jackson was + stealthily carrying out his great flanking movement getting between Pope + and Washington. However, the Suspicious Stanton kept his eyes on + McClellan. He decided that troops were being held back from Pope; and he + appealed to other members of the Cabinet to join with him in a formal + demand upon the President for McClellan's dismissal from the army. While + the plan was being discussed, came the appalling news of Pope's downfall. + </p> + <p> + The meeting of the Cabinet, September second, was another revelation of + the new independence of the President. Three full days had passed since + Pope had telegraphed that the battle was lost and that he no longer had + control of his army. The Ministers, awaiting the arrival of the President, + talked excitedly, speculating what would happen next. "It was stated," + says Welles in his diary, "that Pope was falling back, intending to + retreat within the Washington entrenchments, Blair, who has known him + intimately, says he is a braggart and a liar, with some courage, perhaps, + but not much capacity. The general conviction is that he is a failure + here, and there is a belief . . . that he has not been seconded and + sustained as he should have been by McClellan . . ." Stanton entered; + terribly agitated. He had news that fell upon the Cabinet like a + bombshell. He said "in a suppressed voice, trembling with excitement, he + was informed that McClellan had been ordered to take command of the forces + in Washington." + </p> + <p> + Never was there a more tense moment in the Cabinet room than when Lincoln + entered that day. And all could see that he was in deep distress. But he + confirmed Stanton's information. That very morning he had gone himself to + McClellan's house and had asked him to resume command. Lincoln discussed + McClellan with the Cabinet quite simply, admitting all his bad qualities, + but finding two points in his favor—his power of organization, and + his popularity with the men.(11) + </p> + <p> + He was still more frank with his Secretaries. "'He has acted badly in this + matter,' Lincoln said to Hay, 'but we must use what tools we have. There + is no man in the army who can man these fortifications and lick these + troops of ours into shape half as well as he.' I spoke of the general + feeling against McClellan as evinced by the President's mail. He rejoined: + 'Unquestionably, he has acted badly toward Pope; he wanted him to fail. + That is unpardonable, but he is too useful now to sacrifice.'"(12) At + another time, he said: "'If he can't fight himself, he excels in making + others ready to fight.'"(13) + </p> + <p> + McClellan justified Lincoln's confidence. In this case, Herndon's theory + of Lincoln's powers of judgment does not apply. Though probably unfair on + the one point of McClellan's attitude to Pope, he knew his man otherwise. + Lincoln had also discovered that Halleck, the veriest martinet of a + general, was of little value at a crisis. During the next two months, + McClellan, under the direct oversight of the President, was the organizer + of victory. + </p> + <p> + Toward the middle of September, when Lee and McClellan were gradually + converging upon the fated line of Antietam Creek, Lincoln's new firmness + was put to the test. The immediate effect of Manassas was another, a still + more vehement outcry for an anti-slavery policy. A deputation of Chicago + clergymen went to Washington for the purpose of urging him to make an + anti-slavery pronouncement. The journey was a continuous ovation. If at + any time Lincoln was tempted to forget Seward's worldly wisdom, it was + when these influential zealots demanded of him to do the very thing he + intended to do. But it was one of the characteristics of this final + Lincoln that when once he had fully determined on a course of action, + nothing could deflect him. With consummate coolness he gave them no new + light on his purpose. Instead, he seized the opportunity to "feel" the + country. He played the role of advocate arguing the case against an + emancipation policy.(14) They met his argument with great Spirit and + resolution. Taking them as an index, there could be little question that + the country was ripe for the new policy. At the close of the interview + Lincoln allowed himself to jest. One of the clergymen dramatically charged + him to give heed to their message as to a direct commission from the + Almighty. "Is it not odd," said Lincoln, "that the only channel he could + send it was that roundabout route by the awfully wicked city of Chicago?"* + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + * Reminiscences, 335. This retort is given by Schuyler + Colfax. There are various reports of what Lincoln said. In + another version, "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." Tarbell, II, + 12. +</pre> + <p> + Lincoln's pertinacity, holding fast the program he had accepted, came to + its reward. On the seventeenth occurred that furious carnage along the + Antietam known as the bloodiest single day of the whole war. Military men + have disagreed, calling it sometimes a victory, sometimes a drawn battle. + In Lincoln's political strategy the dispute is immaterial. + Psychologically, it was a Northern victory. The retreat of Lee was + regarded by the North as the turn of the tide. Lincoln's opportunity had + arrived. + </p> + <p> + Again, a unique event occurred in a Cabinet meeting. On the twenty-second + of September, with the cannon of Antietam still ringing in their + imagination, the Ministers were asked by the President whether they had + seen the new volume just published by Artemus Ward. As they had not, he + produced it and read aloud with evident relish one of those bits of + nonsense which, in the age of Dickens, seemed funny enough. Most of the + Cabinet joined in the merriment—Stanton, of course, as always, + excepted. Lincoln closed the book, pulled himself together, and became + serious. + </p> + <p> + "Gentlemen," said he, according to the diary of Secretary Chase, "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 you an order I + had prepared on this subject, which, on account of objections made by some + of you, was not issued. Ever since, 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 fulfill 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 as + carefully as I can. What I have written is that which my reflections have + determined me to say. . . . I must do the best I can, and bear the + responsibility of taking the course which I feel I ought to take."(15) The + next day the Proclamation was published. + </p> + <p> + This famous document (16) is as remarkable for the parts of it that are + now forgotten as for the rest. The remembered portion is a warning that on + the first of January, one hundred days subsequent to the date of the + Proclamation—"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." The forgotten portions include four other declarations of executive + policy. Lincoln promised that "the Executive will in due time recommend + that all citizens of the United States who have remained loyal thereto + shall be compensated for all losses by acts of the United States, + including the loss of slaves." He announced that he would again urge upon + Congress "the adoption of a practical measure tendering pecuniary aid" to + all the loyal Slave States that would "voluntarily adopt immediate or + gradual abolishment of slavery within their limits." He would continue to + advise the colonization of free Africans abroad. There is still to be + mentioned a detail of the Proclamation which, except for its historical + setting in the general perspective of Lincoln's political strategy, would + appear inexplicable. One might expect in the opening statement, where the + author of the Proclamation boldly assumes dictatorial power, an immediate + linking of that assumption with the matter in hand. But this does not + happen. The Proclamation begins with the following paragraph: + </p> + <p> + "I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of America, and + Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy thereof, do hereby proclaim and + declare that hereafter, as heretofore, the war will be prosecuted for the + object of practically restoring the constitutional relation between the + United States and each of the States and the people thereof in which + States that relation is or may be suspended or disturbed." + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0025" id="link2H_4_0025"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XXV. A WAR BEHIND THE SCENES + </h2> + <p> + By the autumn of 1862, Lincoln had acquired the same political method that + Seward had displayed in the spring of 1861. What a chasm separates the two + Lincolns! The cautious, contradictory, almost timid statesman of the + Sumter episode; the confident, unified, quietly masterful statesman of the + Emancipation Proclamation. Now, in action, he was capable of staking his + whole future on the soundness of his own thinking, on his own ability to + forecast the inevitable. Without waiting for the results of the + Proclamation to appear, but in full confidence that he had driven a wedge + between the Jacobins proper and the mere Abolitionists, he threw down the + gage of battle on the issue of a constitutional dictatorship. Two days + after issuing the Proclamation he virtually proclaimed himself dictator. + He did so by means of a proclamation which divested the whole American + people of the privileges of the writ of habeas corpus. The occasion was + the effort of State governments to establish conscription of their + militia. The Proclamation delivered any one impeding that attempt into the + hands of the military authorities without trial. + </p> + <p> + Here was Lincoln's final answer to Stevens; here, his audacious challenge + to the Jacobins. And now appeared the wisdom of his political strategy, + holding back emancipation until Congress was out of the way. Had Congress + been in session what a hubbub would have ensued! Chandler, Wade, Trumbull, + Sumner, Stevens, all hurrying to join issue on the dictatorship; to get it + before the country ahead of emancipation. Rather, one can not imagine + Lincoln daring to play this second card, so soon after the first, except + with abundant time for the two issues to disentangle themselves in the + public mind ere Congress met. And that was what happened. When the Houses + met in December, the Jacobins found their position revolutionized. The men + who, in July at the head of the Vindictive coalition, dominated Congress, + were now a minority faction biting their nails at the President amid the + ruins of their coalition. + </p> + <p> + There were three reasons for this collapse. First of all, the + Abolitionists, for the moment, were a faction by themselves. Six weeks had + sufficed to intoxicate them with their opportunity. The significance of + the Proclamation had had time to arise towering on their spiritual vision, + one of the gates of the New Jerusalem. + </p> + <p> + Limited as it was in application who could doubt that, with one condition, + it doomed slavery everywhere. The condition was a successful prosecution + of the war, the restoration of the Union. Consequently, at that moment, + nothing that made issue with the President, that threatened any limitation + of his efficiency, had the slightest chance of Abolitionist support. The + one dread that alarmed the whole Abolitionist group was a possible change + in the President's mood, a possible recantation on January first. In order + to hold him to his word, they were ready to humor him as one might cajole, + or try to cajole, a monster that one was afraid of. No time, this, to talk + to Abolitionists about strictly constitutional issues, or about questions + of party leadership. Away with all your "gabble" about such small things! + The Jacobins saw the moving hand—at least for this moment—in + the crumbling wall of the palace of their delusion. + </p> + <p> + Many men who were not Abolitionists perceived, before Congress met, that + Lincoln had made a great stroke internationally. The "Liberal party + throughout the world" gave a cry of delight, and rose instantly to his + support. John Bright declared that the Emancipation Proclamation "made it + impossible for England to intervene for the South" and derided "the silly + proposition of the French Emperor looking toward intervention."(1) + Bright's closest friend in America was Sumner and Sumner was chairman of + the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. He understood the value of + international sentiment, its working importance, as good provincials like + Chandler did not. Furthermore, he was always an Abolitionist first and a + Jacobin second—if at all. From this time forward, the Jacobins were + never able to count on him, not even when they rebuilt the Vindictive + Coalition a year and a half later. In December, 1862, how did they dare—true + blue politicians that they were—how did they dare raise a + constitutional issue involving the right of the President to capture, in + the way he had, international security? + </p> + <p> + The crowning irony in the new situation of the Jacobins was the revelation + that they had played unwittingly into the hands of the Democrats. Their + short-sighted astuteness in tying up emancipation with the war powers was + matched by an equal astuteness equally short-sighted. The organization of + the Little Men, when it refused to endorse Lincoln's all-parties program, + had found itself in the absurd position of a party without an issue. It + contained, to be sure, a large proportion of the Northerners who were + opposed to emancipation. But how could it make an issue upon emancipation, + as long as the President, the object of its antagonism, also refused to + support emancipation? The sole argument in the Cabinet against Lincoln's + new policy was that it would give the Democrats an issue. Shrewd + Montgomery Blair prophesied that on this issue they could carry the autumn + elections for Congress. Lincoln had replied that he would take the risk. + He presented them with the issue. They promptly accepted it But they did + not stop there. They aimed to take over the whole of the position that had + been vacated by the collapse of the Vindictive Coalition. By an adroit bit + of political legerdemain they would steal their enemies' thunder, reunite + the emancipation issue with the issue of the war powers, reverse the + significance of the conjunction, and, armed with this double club, they + would advance from a new and unexpected angle and win the leadership of + the country by overthrowing the dictator. And this, they came very near + doing. On their double issue they rallied enough support to increase their + number in Congress by thirty-three. Had not the moment been so tragic, + nothing could have been more amusing than the helpless wrath of the + Jacobins caught in their own trap, compelled to gnaw their tongues in + silence, while the Democrats, paraphrasing their own arguments, hurled + defiant at Lincoln. + </p> + <p> + Men of intellectual courage might have broken their party ranks, daringly + applied Lincoln's own maxim "stand with any one who stands right," and + momentarily joined the Democrats in their battle against the two + proclamations. But in American politics, with a few glorious exceptions, + courage of this sort has never been the order of the day. The Jacobins + kept their party line; bowed their heads to the storm; and bided their + time. In the Senate, an indiscreet resolution commending the Emancipation + Proclamation was ordered to be printed, and laid on the table.(2) In the + House, party exigencies were more exacting. Despite the Democratic + successes, the Republicans still had a majority. When the Democrats made + the repudiation of the President a party issue, arguing on those very + grounds that had aroused the eloquence of Stevens and the rest—why, + what's the Constitution between friends! Or between political enemies? The + Democrats forced all the Republicans into one boat by introducing a + resolution "That the policy of emancipation as indicated in that + Proclamation is an assumption of powers dangerous to the rights of + citizens and to the perpetuity of a free people." The resolution was + rejected. Among those who voted NO was Stevens.(3) Indeed, the star of the + Jacobins was far down on the horizon. + </p> + <p> + But the Jacobins were not the men to give up the game until they were + certainly in the last ditch. Though their issues had been slipped out of + their hands; though for the moment at least, it was not good policy to + fight the President on a principle; it might still be possible to recover + their prestige on some other contention. The first of January was + approaching. The final proclamation of emancipation would bring to an end + the temporary alliance of the Administration and the Abolitionists. Who + could say what new pattern of affairs the political kaleidoscope might not + soon reveal? Surely the Jacobin cue was to busy themselves, straightway, + making trouble for the President. Principles being unavailable, practices + might do. And who was satisfied with the way the war was going? To rouse + the party against the Administration on the ground of inefficient + practices, of unsatisfactory military progress, might be the first step + toward regaining their former dominance. + </p> + <p> + There was a feather in the wind that gave them hope. The ominous first + paragraph of the Emancipation Proclamation was evidence that the President + was still stubbornly for his own policy; that he had not surrendered to + the opposite view. But this was not their only strategic hope. Lincoln's + dealings with the army between September and December might, especially if + anything in his course proved to be mistaken, deliver him into their + hands. + </p> + <p> + Following Antietam, Lincoln had urged upon McClellan swift pursuit of Lee. + His despatches were strikingly different from those of the preceding + spring. That half apologetic tone had disappeared. Though they did not + command, they gave advice freely. The tone was at least that of an equal + who, while not an authority in this particular matter, is entitled to + express his views and to have them taken seriously. + </p> + <p> + "You remember my speaking to you of what I called your overcautiousness? + Are you not over-cautious when you assume that you can not do what the + enemy is constantly doing? Should you not claim to be at least his equal + in prowess and act upon that claim . . . one of the standard maxims of + war, as you know, is to operate upon the enemy's communications as much as + possible without exposing your own. You seem to act as if this applies + against you, but can not apply in your favor. Change positions with the + enemy and think you not he would break your communications with Richmond + within the next twenty-four hours. . . . + </p> + <p> + "If he should move northward, I would follow him closely, holding his + communications. If he should prevent your 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. . . . We should not operate so as to merely drive him away. . . . + This letter is in no sense an order."(4) + </p> + <p> + But once more the destiny that is in character intervened, and McClellan's + tragedy reached its climax. His dread of failure hypnotized his will. So + cautious were his movements that Lee regained Virginia with his army + intact. Lincoln was angry. Military amateur though he was, he had filled + his spare time reading books on strategy, Von Clausewitz and the rest, and + he had grasped the idea that war's aim is not to win technical victories, + nor to take cities, but to destroy armies. He felt that McClellan had + thrown away an opportunity of first magnitude. He removed him from + command.(5) + </p> + <p> + This was six weeks after the two proclamations. The country was ringing + with Abolition plaudits. The election had given the Democrats a new lease + of life. The anti-Lincoln Republicans were silent while their party + enemies with their stolen thunder rang the changes on the presidential + abuse of the war powers. It was a moment of crisis in party politics. + Where did the President stand? What was the outlook for those men who in + the words of Senator Wilson "would rather give a policy to the President + of the United States than take a policy from the President of the United + States." + </p> + <p> + Lincoln's situation was a close parallel to the situation of July, 1861, + when McDowell failed. Just as in choosing a successor to McDowell, he + revealed a political attitude, now, he would again make a revelation + choosing a successor to McClellan. By passing over Fremont and by + elevating a Democrat, he had spoken to the furious politicians in the + language they understood. Whatever appointment he now made would be + interpreted by those same politicians in the same way. In the atmosphere + of that time, there was but one way for Lincoln to rank himself as a + strict party man, to recant his earlier heresy of presidential + independence, and say to the Jacobins, "I am with you." He must appoint a + Republican to succeed McClellan. Let him do that and the Congressional + Cabal would forgive him. But he did not do it. He swept political + considerations aside and made a purely military appointment Burnside, on + whom he fixed, was the friend and admirer of McClellan and might fairly be + considered next to him in prestige. He was loved by his troops. In the + eyes of the army, his elevation represented "a legitimate succession + rather than the usurpation of a successful rival."(6) He was modest. He + did not want promotion. Nevertheless, Lincoln forced him to take + McClellan's place against his will, in spite of his protest that he had + not the ability to command so large an army.(7) + </p> + <p> + When Congress assembled and the Committee resumed its inquisition, + Burnside was moving South on his fated march to Fredericksburg. The + Committee watched him like hungry wolves. Woe to Burnside, woe to Lincoln, + if the General failed! Had the Little Men possessed any sort of vision + they would have seized their opportunity to become the President's + supporters. But they, like the Jacobins, were partisans first and patriots + second. In the division among the Republicans they saw, not a chance to + turn the scale in the President's favor, but a chance to play politics on + their own account. A picturesque Ohio politician known as "Sunset" Cox + opened the ball of their fatuousness with an elaborate argument in + Congress to the effect that the President was in honor bound to regard the + recent elections as strictly analogous to an appeal to the country in + England; that it was his duty to remodel his policy to suit the Democrats. + Between the Democrats and the Jacobins Lincoln was indeed between the + devil and the deep blue sea with no one certainly on his side except the + volatile Abolitionists whom he did not trust and who did not trust him. A + great victory might carry him over. But a great defeat—what might + not be the consequence! + </p> + <p> + On the thirteenth of December, through Burnside's stubborn incompetence, + thousands of American soldiers flung away their lives in a holocaust of + useless valor at Fredericksburg. Promptly the Jacobins acted. They set up + a shriek: the incompetent President, the all-parties dreamer, the man who + persists in coquetting with the Democrats, is blundering into destruction! + Burnside received the dreaded summons from the Committee. So staggering + was the shock of horror that even moderate Republicans were swept away in + a new whirlpool of doubt. + </p> + <p> + But even thus it was scarcely wise, the Abolitionists being still fearful + over the emancipation policy, to attack the President direct. + Nevertheless, the resourceful Jacobins found a way to begin their new + campaign. Seward, the symbol of moderation, the unforgivable enemy of the + Jacobins, had recently earned anew the hatred of the Abolitionists. + Letters of his to Charles Francis Adams had appeared in print. Some of + their expressions had roused a storm. For example: "extreme advocates of + African slavery and its most vehement exponents are acting in concert + together to precipitate a servile war."(8) To be sure, the date of this + letter was long since, before he and Lincoln had changed ground on + emancipation, but that did not matter. He had spoken evil of the cause; he + should suffer. All along, the large number that were incapable of + appreciating his lack of malice had wished him out of the Cabinet. As + Lincoln put it: "While they seemed to believe in my honesty, they also + appeared to think that when I had in me any good purpose or intention, + Seward contrived to suck it out of me unperceived."(9) + </p> + <p> + The Jacobins were skilful politicians. A caucus of Republican Senators was + stampeded by the cry that Seward was the master of the Administration, the + chief explanation of failure. It was Seward who had brought them to the + verge of despair. A committee was named to demand the reorganization of + the Cabinet Thereupon, Seward, informed of this action, resigned. The + Committee of the Senators called upon Lincoln. He listened; did not commit + himself; asked them to call again; and turned into his own thoughts for a + mode of saving the day. + </p> + <p> + During twenty months, since their clash in April, 1861, Seward and Lincoln + had become friends; not merely official associates, but genuine comrades. + Seward's earlier condescension had wholly disappeared. Perhaps his new + respect for Lincoln grew out of the President's silence after Sumter. A + few words revealing the strange meddling of the Secretary of State would + have turned upon Seward the full fury of suspicion that destroyed + McClellan. But Lincoln never spoke those words. Whatever blame there was + for the failure of the Sumter expedition, he quietly accepted as his own. + Seward, whatever his faults, was too large a nature, too genuinely a lover + of courage, of the nonvindictive temper, not to be struck with admiration. + Watching with keen eyes the unfolding of Lincoln, Seward advanced from + admiration to regard. After a while he could write, "The President is the + best of us." He warmed to him; he gave out the best of himself. Lincoln + responded. While the other secretaries were useful, Seward became + necessary. Lincoln, in these dark days, found comfort in his society.(10) + Lincoln was not going to allow Seward to be driven out of the Cabinet. But + how could he prevent it? He could not say. He was in a quandary. For the + moment, the Republican leaders were so nearly of one mind in their + antagonism to Seward, that it demanded the greatest courage to oppose + them. But Lincoln does not appear to have given a thought to surrender. + What puzzled him was the mode of resistance. + </p> + <p> + Now that he was wholly himself, having confidence in whatever mode of + procedure his own thought approved, he had begun using methods that the + politicians found disconcerting. The second conference with the Senators + was an instance. Returning in the same mood in which they had left him, + with no suspicion of a surprise in store, the Senators to their amazement + were confronted by the Cabinet—or most of it, Seward being + absent.(11) The Senators were put out. This simple maneuver by the + President was the beginning of their discomfiture. It changed their role + from the ambassadors of an ultimatum to the participants in a conference. + But even thus, they might have succeeded in dominating the event, though + it is hardly conceivable that they could have carried their point; they + might have driven Lincoln into a corner; had it not been for the make-up + of one man. Again, the destiny that is in character! Lincoln was delivered + from a quandary by the course which the Secretary of the Treasury could + not keep himself from pursuing. + </p> + <p> + Chase, previous to this hour, may truly be called an imposing figure. As a + leader of the extreme Republicans, he had earned much fame. Lincoln had + given him a free hand in the Treasury and all the financial measures of + the government were his. Hitherto, Vindictives of all sorts had loved him. + He was a critic of the President's mildness, and a severe critic of + Seward. But Chase was not candid. Though on the surface he scrupulously + avoided any hint of cynicism, any point of resemblance to Seward, he was + in fact far more devious, much more capable of self-deception. He had + little of Seward's courage, and none of his aplomb. His condemnation of + Seward had been confided privately to Vindictive brethren. + </p> + <p> + When the Cabinet and the Senators met, Chase was placed in a situation of + which he had an instinctive horror. His caution, his secretiveness, his + adroit confidences, his skilful silences, had created in these two groups + of men, two impressions of his character. The Cabinet knew him as the + faithful, plausible Minister who found the money for the President. The + Senators, or some of them, knew him as the discontented Minister who was + their secret ally. For the two groups to compare notes, to check up their + impressions, meant that Chase was going to be found out. And it was the + central characteristic of Chase that he had a horror of being found out. + </p> + <p> + The only definite result of the conference was Chase's realization when + the Senators departed that mischance was his portion. In the presence of + the Cabinet he had not the face to stick to his guns. He feebly defended + Seward. The Senators opened their eyes and stared. The ally they had + counted on had failed them. Chase bit his lips and was miserable. + </p> + <p> + The night that followed was one of deep anxiety for Lincoln. He was still + unable to see his way out. But all the while the predestination in Chase's + character was preparing the way of escape. Chase was desperately trying to + discover how to save his face. An element in him that approached the + melodramatic at last pointed the way. He would resign. What an admirable + mode of recapturing the confidence of his disappointed friends, carrying + out their aim to disrupt the Cabinet! But he could not do a bold thing + like this in Seward's way—at a stroke, without hesitation. When he + called on Lincoln the next day with the resignation in his hand, he + wavered. It happened that Welles was in the room. + </p> + <p> + "Chase said he had been painfully affected," is Welles' account, "by the + meeting last evening, which was a surprise, and after some not very + explicit remarks as to how he was affected, informed the President he had + prepared his resignation of the office of Secretary of the Treasury. + 'Where is it,' said the President, quickly, his eye lighting up in a + moment. 'I brought it with me,' said Chase, taking the paper from his + pocket. 'I wrote it this morning.' 'Let me have it,' said the President, + reaching his long arm and fingers toward Chase, who held on seemingly + reluctant to part with the letter which was sealed and which he apparently + hesitated to surrender. Something further he wished to say, but the + President was eager and did not perceive it, but took and hastily opened + the letter. + </p> + <p> + "'This,' said he, looking towards me with a triumphal laugh, 'cuts the + Gordian knot.' An air of satisfaction spread over his countenance such as + I had not seen for some time. 'I can dispose of this subject now without + difficulty,' he added, as he turned in his chair; 'I see my way + clear.'"(12) In Lincoln's distress during this episode, there was much + besides his anxiety for the fate of a trusted minister. He felt he must + not permit himself to be driven into the arms of the Vindictives by + disgracing Seward. Seward had a following which Lincoln needed. But to + proclaim to the world his confidence in Seward without at the same time + offsetting it by some display of confidence, equally significant in the + enemies of Seward, this would have amounted to committing himself to + Seward's following alone. And that would not do. Should either faction + appear to dominate him, Lincoln felt that "the whole government must cave + in. It could not stand, could not hold water; the bottom would be + out."(13) + </p> + <p> + The incredible stroke of luck, the sheer good fortune that Chase was Chase + and nobody else,—vain, devious, stagey and hypersensitive,—was + salvation. Lincoln promptly rejected both resignations and called upon + both Ministers to resume their portfolios. They did so. The incident was + closed. Neither faction could say that Lincoln had favored the other. He + had saved himself, or rather, Chase's character had saved him, by the + margin of a hair. + </p> + <p> + For the moment, a rebuilding of the Vindictive Coalition was impossible. + Nevertheless, the Jacobins, again balked of their prey, had it in their + power, through the terrible Committee, to do immense mischief. The history + of the war contains no other instance of party malice quite so fruitless + and therefore so inexcusable as their next move. After severely + interrogating Burnside, they published an exoneration of his motives and + revealed the fact that Lincoln had forced him into command against his + will. The implication was plain. + </p> + <p> + January came in. The Emancipation Proclamation was confirmed. The + jubilation of the Abolitionists became, almost at once, a propaganda for + another issue upon slavery. New troubles were gathering close about the + President The overwhelming benefit which had been anticipated from the new + policy had not clearly arrived. Even army enlistments were not + satisfactory. Conscription loomed on the horizon as an eventual necessity. + A bank of returning cloud was covering the political horizon, enshrouding + the White House in another depth of gloom. + </p> + <p> + However, out of all this gathering darkness, one clear light solaced + Lincoln's gaze. One of his chief purposes had been attained. In contrast + to the doubtful and factional response to his policy at home, the response + abroad was sweeping and unconditional. He had made himself the hero of the + "Liberal party throughout the world." Among the few cheery words that + reached him in January, 1863, were New Year greetings of trust and + sympathy sent by English working men, who, because of the blockade, were + on the verge of starvation. It was in response to one of these letters + from the working men of Manchester that Lincoln wrote: + </p> + <p> + "I have understood well that the duty of self-preservation rests solely + with the American people; but I have at the same time been aware that the + favor or disfavor of foreign nations might have a material influence in + enlarging or prolonging the struggle with disloyal men in which the + country is engaged. A fair examination of history has served to authorize + a belief that the past actions and influences of the United States were + generally regarded as having been beneficial toward mankind. I have + therefore reckoned upon the forbearance of nations. Circumstances—to + some of which you kindly allude—induce me especially to expect that + if justice and good faith should be practised by the United States they + would encounter no hostile influence on the part of Great Britain. It is + now a pleasant duty to acknowledge the demonstration you have given of + your desire that a spirit of amity and peace toward this country may + prevail in the councils of your Queen, who is respected and esteemed in + your own country only more than she is, by the kindred nation which has + its home on this side of the Atlantic. + </p> + <p> + "I know and deeply deplore the sufferings which the working men at + Manchester, and in all Europe, are called on to endure in this crisis. It + has been often and studiously represented that the attempt to overthrow + this government which was built upon the foundation of human rights, and + to substitute for it one which should rest exclusively on the basis of + human slavery, was likely to obtain the favor of Europe. Through the + action of our disloyal citizens, the working men of Europe have been + subjected to severe trials for the purpose of forcing their sanction to + that attempt. Under the circumstances, I can not but regard your decisive + utterances upon the question as an instance of sublime Christian heroism + which has not been surpassed in any age or in any country. It is indeed an + energetic and reinspiring assurance of the inherent power of the truth, + and of the ultimate and universal triumph of justice, humanity and + freedom. I do not doubt that the sentiments you have expressed will be + sustained by your great nation; and on the other hand, I have no + hesitation in assuring you that they will excite admiration, esteem, and + the most reciprocal feelings of friendship among the American people. I + hail this interchange of sentiment, therefore, as an augury that whatever + else may happen, whatever misfortune may befall your country or my own, + the peace and friendship which now exist between the two nations, will be, + as it shall be my desire to make them, perpetual."(14) + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0026" id="link2H_4_0026"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XXVI. THE DICTATOR, THE MARPLOT AND THE LITTLE MEN + </h2> + <p> + While the Jacobins were endeavoring to reorganize the Republican + antagonism to the President, Lincoln was taking thought how he could + offset still more effectually their influence. In taking up the + emancipation policy he had not abandoned his other policy of an + all-parties Administration, or of something similar to that. By this time + it was plain that a complete union of parties was impossible. In the + autumn of 1862, a movement of liberal Democrats in Michigan for the + purpose of a working agreement with the Republicans was frustrated by the + flinty opposition of Chandler.(1) However, it still seemed possible to + combine portions of parties in an Administration group that should + forswear the savagery of the extreme factions and maintain the war in a + merciful temper. The creation of such a group was Lincoln's aim at the + close of the year. + </p> + <p> + The Republicans were not in doubt what he was driving at. Smarting over + their losses in the election, there was angry talk that Lincoln and Seward + had "slaughtered the Republican party."(2) Even as sane a man as John + Sherman, writing to his brother on the causes of the apparent turn of the + tide could say "the first is that the Republican organization was + voluntarily abandoned by the President and his leading followers, and a + no-party union was formed to run against an old, well-drilled party + organization."(3) When Julian returned to Washington in December, he found + that the menace to the Republican machine was "generally admitted and + (his) earnest opposition to it fully justified in the opinion of the + Republican members of Congress."(4) How fully they perceived their danger + had been shown in their attempt to drive Lincoln into a corner on the + issue of a new Cabinet. + </p> + <p> + Even before that, Lincoln had decided on his next move. As in the + emancipation policy he had driven a wedge between the factions of the + Republicans, so now he would drive a wedge into the organization of the + Democrats. It had two parts which had little to hold them together except + their rooted partisan habit.(5) One branch, soon to receive the label + "Copperhead," accepted the secession principle and sympathized with the + Confederacy. The other, while rejecting secession and supporting the war, + denounced the emancipation policy as usurped authority, and felt personal + hostility to Lincoln. It was the latter faction that Lincoln still hoped + to win over. Its most important member was Horatio Seymour, who in the + autumn of 1862 was elected governor of New York. Lincoln decided to + operate on him by one of those astounding moves which to the selfless man + seemed natural enough, by which the ordinary politician was always + hopelessly mystified. He called in Thurlow Weed and authorized him to make + this proposal: if Seymour would bring his following into a composite Union + party with no platform but the vigorous prosecution of the war, Lincoln + would pledge all his influence to securing for Seymour the presidential + nomination in 1864. Weed delivered his message. Seymour was noncommittal + and Lincoln had to wait for his answer until the new Governor should show + his hand by his official acts. Meanwhile a new crisis had developed in the + army. Burnside's character appears to have been shattered by his defeat. + Previous to Fredericksburg, he had seemed to be a generous, high-minded + man. From Fredericksburg onward, he became more and more an impossible. A + reflection of McClellan in his earlier stage, he was somehow transformed + eventually into a reflection of vindictivism. His later character began to + appear in his first conference with the Committee subsequent to his + disaster. They visited him on the field and "his conversation disarmed all + criticism." This was because he struck their own note to perfection. "Our + soldiers," he said, "were not sufficiently fired by resentment, and he + exhorted me (Julian) if I could, to breathe into our people at home the + same spirit toward our enemies which inspired them toward us."(6) What a + transformation in McClellan's disciple! + </p> + <p> + But the country was not won over so easily as the Committee. There was + loud and general disapproval and of course, the habitual question, "Who + next?" The publication by the Committee of its insinuation that once more + the stubborn President was the real culprit did not stem the tide. + Burnside himself made his case steadily worse. His judgment, such as it + was, had collapsed. He seemed to be stubbornly bent on a virtual + repetition of his previous folly. Lincoln felt it necessary to command him + to make no forward move without consulting the President.(7) + </p> + <p> + Burnside's subordinates freely criticized their commander. General Hooker + was the most outspoken. It was known that a movement was afoot—an + intrigue, if you will-to disgrace Burnside and elevate Hooker. Chafing + under criticism and restraint, Burnside completely lost his sense of + propriety. On the twenty-fourth of January, 1863, when Henry W. Raymond, + the powerful editor of the New York Times, was on a visit to the camp, + Burnside took him into his tent and read him an order removing Hooker + because of his unfitness "to hold a command in a cause where so much + moderation, forbearance, and unselfish patriotism were required." Raymond, + aghast, inquired what he would do if Hooker resisted, if he raised his + troops in mutiny? "He said he would Swing him before sundown if he + attempted such a thing." + </p> + <p> + Raymond, though more than half in sympathy with Burnside, felt that the + situation was startling. He hurried off to Washington. "I immediately," he + writes, "called upon Secretary Chase and told him the whole story. He was + greatly surprised to hear such reports of Hooker, and said he had looked + upon him as the man best fitted to command the army of the Potomac. But no + man capable of so much and such unprincipled ambition was fit for so great + a trust, and he gave up all thought of him henceforth. He wished me to go + with him to his house and accompany him and his daughter to the + President's levee. I did so and found a great crowd surrounding President + Lincoln. I managed, however, to tell him in brief terms that I had been + with the army and that many things were occurring there which he ought to + know. I told him of the obstacles thrown in Burnside's way by his + subordinates and especially General Hooker's habitual conversation. He put + his hand on my shoulder and said in my ear as if desirous of not being + overheard, 'That is all true; Hooker talks badly; but the trouble is, he + is stronger with the country today than any other man.' I ventured to ask + how long he would retain that strength if his real conduct and character + should be understood. 'The country,' said he, 'would not believe it; they + would say it was all a lie.'"(8) + </p> + <p> + Whether Chase did what he said he would do and ceased to be Hooker's + advocate, may be questioned. Tradition preserves a deal between the + Secretary and the General—the Secretary to urge his advancement, the + General, if he reached his goal, to content himself with military honors + and to assist the Secretary in succeeding to the Presidency. Hooker was a + public favorite. The dashing, handsome figure of "Fighting Joe" captivated + the popular imagination. The terrible Committee were his friends. Military + men thought him full of promise. On the whole, Lincoln, who saw the wisdom + of following up his clash over the Cabinet by a concession to the + Jacobins, was willing to take his chances with Hooker. + </p> + <p> + His intimate advisers were not of the same mind. They knew that there was + much talk on the theme of a possible dictator-not the constitutional + dictator of Lincoln and Stevens, but the old-fashioned dictator of + historical melodrama. Hooker was reported to have encouraged such talk. + All this greatly alarmed one of Lincoln's most devoted henchmen—Lamon, + Marshal of the District of Columbia, who regarded himself as personally + responsible for Lincoln's safety. "In conversation with Mr. Lincoln," says + Lamon, "one night about the time General Burnside was relieved, I was + urging upon him the necessity of looking well to the fact that there was a + scheme on foot to depose him, and to appoint a military dictator in his + stead. He laughed and said, 'I think, for a man of accredited courage, you + are the most panicky person I ever knew; you can see more dangers to me + than all the other friends I have. You are all the time exercised about + somebody taking my life; murdering me; and now you have discovered a new + danger; now you think the people of this great government are likely to + turn me out of office. I do not fear this from the people any more than I + fear assassination from an individual. Now to show my appreciation of what + my French friends would call a coup d'etat, let me read you a letter I + have written to General Hooker whom I have just appointed to the command + of the army of the Potomac."(9) + </p> + <p> + Few letters of Lincoln's are better known, few reveal more exactly the + tone of his final period, than the remarkable communication he addressed + to Hooker two days after that whispered talk with Raymond at the White + House levee: + </p> + <p> + "General, I have placed you at the head of the army of the Potomac. Of + course I have done this upon what appear to me to be sufficient reasons, + and yet I think it best for you to know that there are some things in + regard to which I am not 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 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."(10) + </p> + <p> + The appointment of Hooker had the effect of quieting the Committee for the + time. Lincoln turned again to his political scheme, but not until he had + made another military appointment from which at the moment no one could + have guessed that trouble would ever come. He gave to Burnside what might + be called the sinecure position of Commander of the Department of the Ohio + with headquarters at Cincinnati.(11) + </p> + <p> + During the early part of 1863 Lincoln's political scheme received a + serious blow. Seymour ranked himself as an irreconcilable enemy of the + Administration. The anti-Lincoln Republicans struck at the President in + roundabout ways. Heralding a new attack, the best man on the Committee, + Julian, ironically urged his associates in Congress to "rescue" the + President from his false friends—those mere Unionists who were + luring him away from the party that had elected him, enticing him into a + vague new party that should include "Democrats." It was said that there + were only two Lincoln men in the House.(12) Greeley was coquetting with + Rosecrans, trying to induce him to come forward as Republican presidential + "timber." The Committee in April published an elaborate report which + portrayed the army of the Potomac as an army of heroes tragically + afflicted in the past by the incompetence of their commanders. The + Democrats continued their abuse of the dictator. + </p> + <p> + It was a moment of strained pause, everybody waiting upon circumstance. + And in Washington, every eye was turned Southward. How soon would they + glimpse the first messenger from that glorious victory which "Fighting + Joe" had promised them. "The enemy is in my power," said he, "and God + Almighty can not deprive me of them."(13) + </p> + <p> + Something of the difference between Hooker and Lincoln, between all the + Vindictives and Lincoln, may be felt by turning from these ribald words to + that Fast Day Proclamation which this strange statesman issued to his + people, that anxious spring,—that moment of trance as it were—when + all things seemed to tremble toward the last judgment: + </p> + <p> + "And whereas, it is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their + dependence upon the overruling power of God; to confess their sins and + transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine + repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime + truth announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that + those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord: + </p> + <p> + "And insomuch as we know that by His divine law nations, like individuals, + are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not + justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the + land may be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, + to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people. We have + been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been + preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in + numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown; but we have + forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in + peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly + imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings + were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated + with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the + necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to God that + made us: + </p> + <p> + "It behooves us then to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to + confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness. + </p> + <p> + "All this being done in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in + the hope authorized by the divine teachings, that the united cry of the + nation will be heard on high, and answered with blessings no less than the + pardon of our national sins and the restoration of our now divided and + suffering country to its former happy condition of unity and peace."(14) + </p> + <p> + Alas, for such men as Hooker! What seemed to him in his vainglory beyond + the reach of Omnipotence, was accomplished by Lee and Jackson and a + Confederate army at Chancellorsville. Profound gloom fell upon Washington. + Welles heard the terrible news from Sumner who came into his room "and + raising both hands exclaimed, 'Lost, lost, all is lost!'"(15) + </p> + <p> + The aftermath of Manassas was repeated. In the case of Pope, no effort had + been spared to save the friend of the Committee, to find some one else on + whom to load his incompetence. The course was now repeated. Again, the + Jacobins raised the cry, "We are betrayed!" Again, the stir to injure the + President. Very strange are the ironies of history! At this critical + moment, Lincoln's amiable mistake in sending Burnside to Cincinnati + demanded expiation. Along with the definite news of Hooker's overthrow, + came the news that Burnside had seized the Copperhead leader, + Vallandigham, and had cast him into prison; that a hubbub had ensued; + that, as the saying goes, the woods were burning in Ohio. + </p> + <p> + Vallandigham's offense was a public speech of which no accurate report + survives. However, the fragments recorded by "plain clothes" men in + Burnside's employ, when set in the perspective of Vallandigham's thinking + as displayed in Congress, make its tenor plain enough. It was an + out-and-out Copperhead harangue. If he was to be treated as hundreds of + others had been, the case against him was plain. But the Administration's + policy toward agitators had gradually changed. There was not the same fear + of them that had existed two years before. Now the tendency of the + Administration was to ignore them. + </p> + <p> + The Cabinet regretted what Burnside had done. Nevertheless, the Ministers + felt that it would not do to repudiate him. Lincoln took that view. He + wrote to Burnside deploring his action and sustaining his authority.(16) + And then, as a sort of grim practical joke, he commuted Vallandigham's + sentence from imprisonment to banishment. The agitator was sent across the + lines into the Confederacy. + </p> + <p> + Burnside had effectually played the marplot. Very little chance now of an + understanding between Lincoln and either wing of the Democrats. The + opportunity to make capital out of the war powers was quite too good to be + lost! Vallandigham was nominated for governor by the Ohio Democrats. In + all parts of the country Democratic committees resolved in furious protest + against the dictator. And yet, on the whole, perhaps, the incident played + into Lincoln's hands. At least, it silenced the Jacobins. With the + Democrats ringing the changes on the former doctrine of the supple + politicians, how certain that their only course for the moment was to lie + low. A time came, to be sure, when they thought it safe to resume their + own creed; but that was not yet. + </p> + <p> + The hubbub over Vallandigham called forth two letters addressed to + protesting committees, that have their place among Lincoln's most + important statements of political science. His argument is based on the + proposition which Browning developed a year before. The core of it is: + </p> + <p> + "You ask in substance whether I really claim that I may override all + guaranteed rights of individuals on the plea of conserving the public + safety, whenever 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 no one shall decide, + what the public safety does require in cases of rebellion or invasion. + </p> + <p> + "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."(17) + </p> + <p> + Browning's argument over again-the President can be brought to book by a + plebiscite, while Congress can not. But Lincoln did not rest, as Browning + did, on mere argument. The old-time jury lawyer revived. He was doing more + than arguing a theorem of political science. He was on trial before the + people, the great mass, which he understood so well. He must reach their + imaginations and touch their hearts. + </p> + <p> + "Mr. Vallandigham avows his hostility to the war on the part of the Union, + and his arrest was made because he was laboring with some effect, to + prevent the raising of troops, to encourage desertions from the army, and + to leave the rebellion without an adequate military force to sup-press it. + He was not arrested because he was damaging the political prospects of the + Administration or the personal interests of the Commanding General, but + because he was damaging the army, upon the existence and vigor of which + the life of the nation depends. He was warring upon the military, and this + gave the military constitutional jurisdiction to lay hands upon him. + </p> + <p> + "I understand the meeting whose resolutions I am considering, to be in + favor of suppressing the rebellion by military force-by armies. Long + experience has shown that armies can not be maintained unless desertion + shall be punished by the severe penalty of death. The case requires, and + the Law and the Constitution sanction this punishment. 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?"(18) + </p> + <p> + Again, the ironical situation of the previous December; the wrathful + Jacobins, the most dangerous because the most sincere enemies of the + presidential dictatorship, silent, trapped, biding their time. But the + situation had for them a distinct consolation. A hundred to one it had + killed the hope of a Lincoln-Democratic alliance. + </p> + <p> + However, the President would not give up the Democrats without one last + attempt to get round the Little Men. Again, he could think of no mode of + negotiation except the one he had vainly attempted with Seymour. As + earnest of his own good faith, he would once more renounce his own + prospect of a second term. But since Seymour had failed him, who was there + that could serve his purpose? The popularity of McClellan among those + Democrats who were not Copperheads had grown with his misfortunes. There + had been a wide demand for his restoration after Fredericksburg, and again + after Chancellorsville. Lincoln justified his reputation for political + insight by concluding that McClellan, among the Democrats, was the coming + man. Again Weed was called in. Again he became an ambassador of + renunciation. Apparently he carried a message to the effect that if + McClellan would join forces with the Administration, Lincoln would support + him for president a year later. But McClellan was too inveterate a + partisan. Perhaps he thought that the future was his anyway.(19) + </p> + <p> + And so Lincoln's persistent attempt to win over the Democrats came to an + end. The final sealing of their antagonism was effected at a great + Democratic rally in New York on the Fourth of July. The day previous, a + manifesto had been circulated through the city beginning, "Freemen, awake! + In everything, and in most stupendous proportion, is this Administration + abominable!"(20) Seymour reaffirmed his position of out-and-out partisan + hostility to the Administration. Vallandigham's colleague, Pendleton of + Ohio, formulated the Democratic doctrine: that the Constitution was being + violated by the President's assumption of war powers. His cry was, "The + Constitution as it is and the Union as it was." He thundered that + "Congress can not, and no one else shall, interfere with free speech." The + question was not whether we were to have peace or war, but whether or not + we were to have free government; "if it be necessary to violate the + Constitution in order to carry on the war, the war ought instantly to be + stopped."(21) + </p> + <p> + Lincoln's political program had ended apparently in a wreck. But Fortune + had not entirely deserted him. Hooker in a fit of irritation had offered + his resignation. Lincoln had accepted it. Under a new commander, the army + of the Potomac had moved against Lee. The orators at the Fourth of July + meeting had read in the papers that same day Lincoln's announcement of the + victory at Gettysburg.(22) Almost coincident with that announcement was + the surrender of Vicksburg. Difficult as was the political problem ahead + of him, the problem of finding some other plan for unifying his support + without participating in a Vindictive Coalition, Lincoln's mood was + cheerful. On the seventh of July he was serenaded. Serenades for the + President were a feature of war-time in Washington, and Lincoln utilized + the occasions to talk informally to the country. His remarks on the + seventh were not distinctive, except for their tone, quietly, joyfully + confident. His serene mood displayed itself a week later in a note to + Grant which is oddly characteristic. Who else would have had the impulse + to make this quaint little confession? But what, for a general who could + read between the lines, could have been more delightful?(23) + </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 the 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. + </p> + <p> + "Very truly, + </p> + <p> + "A. LINCOLN." <a name="link2H_4_0027" id="link2H_4_0027"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XXVII. THE TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE + </h2> + <p> + Between March and December, 1863, Congress was not in session. Its members + were busy "taking the sense of the country" as they would have said: + "putting their ears to the ground," as other people would say. A startling + tale the ground told them. It was nothing less than that Lincoln was the + popular hero; that the people believed in him; that the politicians would + do well to shape their ways accordingly. When they reassembled, they were + in a sullen, disappointed frame of mind. They would have liked to ignore + the ground's mandate; but being politicians, they dared not. + </p> + <p> + What an ironical turn of events! Lincoln's well-laid plan for a coalition + of Moderates and Democrats had come to nothing. Logically, he ought now to + be at the mercy of the Republican leaders. But instead, those leaders were + beginning to be afraid of him, were perceiving that he had power whereof + they had not dreamed. Like Saul the son of Kish, who had set out to find + his father's asses, he had found instead a kingdom. How had he done it? + </p> + <p> + On a grand scale, it was the same sort of victory that had made him a + power, so long before, on the little stage at Springfield. It was personal + politics. His character had saved him. A multitude who saw nothing in the + fine drawn constitutional issue of the war powers, who sensed the war in + the most simple and elementary way, had formed, somehow, a compelling and + stimulating idea of the President. They were satisfied that "Old Abe," or + "Father Abraham," was the man for them. When, after one of his numerous + calls for fresh troops, their hearts went out to him, a new song sprang to + life, a ringing, vigorous, and yet a touching song with the refrain, + "We're coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand more." + </p> + <p> + But how has he done it, asked the bewildered politicians, one of another. + How had he created this personal confidence? They, Wade, Chandler, + Stevens, Davis, could not do it; why could he? + </p> + <p> + Well, for one thing, he was a grand reality. They, relatively, were + shadows. The wind of destiny for him was the convictions arising out of + his own soul; for them it was vox populi. The genuineness of Lincoln, his + spiritual reality, had been perceived early by a class of men whom your + true politician seldom understands. The Intellectuals—"them literary + fellers," in the famous words of an American Senator—were quick to + see that the President was an extraordinary man; they were not long in + concluding that he was a genius. The subtlest intellect of the time, + Hawthorne, all of whose prejudices were enlisted against him, said in the + Atlantic of July, 1863: "He is evidently a man of keen faculties, and what + is still more to the purpose, of powerful character. As to his integrity, + the people have that intuition of it which is never deceived he has a + flexible mind capable of much expansion." And this when Trumbull chafed in + spirit because the President was too "weak" for his part and Wade railed + at him as a despot. As far back as 1860, Lowell, destined to become one of + his ablest defenders, had said that Lincoln had "proved both his ability + and his integrity; he . . . had experience enough in public affairs to + make him a statesman, and not enough to make him a politician." To be + sure, there were some Intellectuals who could not see straight nor think + clear. The world would have more confidence in the caliber of Bryant had + he been able to rank himself in the Lincoln following. But the greater + part of the best intelligence of the North could have subscribed to + Motley's words, "My respect for the character of the President increases + every day."(1) The impression he made on men of original mind is shadowed + in the words of Walt Whitman, who saw him often in the streets of + Washington: "None of the artists or pictures have caught the subtle and + indirect expression of this man's face. One of the great portrait painters + of two or three centuries ago is needed."(2) + </p> + <p> + Lincoln's popular strength lay in a combination of the Intellectuals and + the plain people against the politicians. He reached the masses in three + ways: through his general receptions which any one might attend; through + the open-door policy of his office, to which all the world was permitted + access; through his visits to the army. Many thousand men and women, in + one or another of these ways, met the President face to face, often in the + high susceptibility of intense woe, and carried away an impression which + was immediately circulated among all their acquaintances. + </p> + <p> + It would be impossible to exaggerate the grotesque miscellany of the + stream of people flowing ever in and out of the President's open doors. + Patriots eager to serve their country but who could find no place in the + conventional requirements of the War Office; sharpers who wanted to + inveigle him into the traps of profiteers; widows with all their sons in + service, pleading for one to be exempted; other parents struggling with + the red tape that kept them from sons in hospitals; luxurious frauds + prating of their loyalty for the sake of property exemptions; inventors + with every imaginable strange device; politicians seeking to cajole him; + politicians bluntly threatening him; cashiered officers demanding justice; + men with grievances of a myriad sorts; nameless statesmen who sought to + teach him his duty; clergymen in large numbers, generally with the same + purpose; deputations from churches, societies, political organizations, + commissions, trades unions, with every sort of message from flattery to + denunciation; and best of all, simple, confiding people who wanted only to + say, "We trust you—God bless you!" + </p> + <p> + There was a method in this madness of accessibility. Its deepest + inspiration, to be sure, was kindness. In reply to a protest that he would + wear himself out listening to thousands of requests most of which could + not be granted, he replied with one of those smiles in which there was so + much sadness, "They don't want much; they get but little, and I must see + them."(3) + </p> + <p> + But there was another inspiration. His open doors enabled him to study the + American people, every phase of it, good and bad. "Men moving only in an + official circle," said he, "are apt to become merely official—not to + say arbitrary—in their ideas, and are apter and apter with each + passing day to forget that they only hold power in a representative + capacity. . . . Many of the matters brought to my notice are utterly + frivolous, but others are of more or less importance, and all serve to + renew in me a clearer and more vivid image of that great popular + assemblage out of which I sprung, and to which at the end of two years I + must return. . . . I call these receptions my public opinion baths; for I + have but little time to read the papers, and gather public opinion that + way; and though they may not be pleasant in all their particulars, the + effect as a whole, is renovating and invigorating to my perceptions of + responsibility and duty."(4) + </p> + <p> + He did not allow his patience to be abused with evil intent. He read his + suppliants swiftly. The profiteer, the shirk, the fraud of any sort, was + instantly unmasked. "I'll have nothing to do with this business," he burst + out after listening to a gentlemanly profiteer; "nor with any man who + comes to me with such degrading propositions. What! Do you take the + President of the United States to be a commission broker? You have come to + the wrong place, and for you and for every one who comes for the same + purpose, there is the door."(5) + </p> + <p> + Lincoln enjoyed this indiscriminate mixing with people. It was his chief + escape from care. He saw no reason why his friends should Commiserate him + because of the endless handshaking. That was a small matter compared with + the interest he took in the ever various stream of human types. Sometimes, + indeed, he would lapse into a brown study in the midst of a reception. + Then he "would shake hands with thousands of people, seemingly unconscious + of what he was doing, murmuring monotonous salutations as they went by, + his eye dim, his thoughts far withdrawn. . . . Suddenly, he would see some + familiar face—his memory for faces was very good-and his eye would + brighten and his whole form grow attentive; he would greet the visitor + with a hearty grasp and a ringing word and dismiss him with a cheery laugh + that filled the Blue Room with infectious good nature."(6) Carpenter, the + portrait painter, who for a time saw him daily, says that "his laugh stood + by itself. The neigh of a wild horse on his native prairie is not more + undisguised and hearty." An intimate friend called it his "life + preserver."(7) + </p> + <p> + Lincoln's sense of humor delighted in any detail of an event which + suggested comedy. His genial awkwardness amused himself quite as much as + it amused the world. At his third public reception he wore a pair of white + kid gloves that were too small. An old friend approached. The President + shook hands so heartily that his glove burst with a popping sound. Holding + up his hand, Lincoln gazed at the ruined glove with a droll air while the + arrested procession came to a standstill. "Well, my old friend," said he, + "this is a general bustification; you and I were never intended to wear + these things. If they were stronger they might do to keep out the cold, + but they are a failure to shake hands with between old friends like us. + Stand aside, Captain, and I'll see you shortly."(8) + </p> + <p> + His complete freedom from pose, and from the sense of place, was glimpsed + by innumerable visitors. He would never allow a friend to address him by a + title. "Call me Lincoln," he would say; "Mr. President is entirely too + formal for us."(9) + </p> + <p> + In a mere politician, all this might have been questioned. But Hawthorne + was right as to the people's intuition of Lincoln's honesty. He hated the + parade of eminence. Jefferson was his patron saint, and "simplicity" was + part of his creed. Nothing could induce him to surround himself with pomp, + or even—as his friends thought—with mere security. Rumors of + plots against his life were heard almost from the beginning. His friends + begged long and hard before he consented to permit a cavalry guard at the + gates of the White House. Very soon he countermanded his consent. "It + would never do," said he, "for a president to have guards with drawn + sabers at his door, as if he fancied he were, or were trying to be, or + were assuming to be, an emperor."(10) + </p> + <p> + A military officer, alarmed for his safety, begged him to consider "the + fact that any assassin or maniac seeking his life, could enter his + presence without the interference of a single armed man to hold him back. + The entrance doors, and all doors on the official side of the building, + were open at all hours of the day and very late into the evening; and I + have many times entered the mansion and walked up to the rooms of the two + private secretaries as late as nine or ten o'clock at night, without + Seeing, or being challenged by a single soul." But the officer pleaded in + vain. Lincoln laughingly paraphrased Charles II, "Now as to political + assassination, do you think the Richmond people would like to have + Hannibal Hamlin here any more than myself? . . . As to the crazy folks, + Major, why I must only take my chances-the most crazy people at present, I + fear, being some of my own too zealous adherents."(11) With Carpenter, to + whom he seems to have taken a liking, he would ramble the streets of + Washington, late at night, "without escort or even the company of a + servant."(12) Though Halleck talked him into accepting an escort when + driving to and fro between Washington and his summer residence at the + Soldiers' Home, he would frequently give it the slip and make the journey + on horseback alone. In August of 1862 on one of these solitary rides, his + life was attempted. It was about eleven at night; he was "jogging along at + a slow gait immersed in deep thought" when some one fired at him with a + rifle from near at hand. The ball missed its aim and the President's + horse, as Lincoln confided to his familiars, "gave proof of decided + dissatisfaction at the racket, and with one reckless bound, he + unceremoniously separated me from my eight-dollar plug hat . . . At + break-neck speed we reached a haven of safety. Meanwhile, I was left in + doubt whether death was more desirable from being thrown from a runaway + Federal horse, or as the tragic result of a rifle ball fired by a disloyal + bushwhacker in the middle of the night"(13) + </p> + <p> + While carrying his life in his hands in this oddly reckless way, he belied + himself, as events were to show, by telling his friends that he fancied + himself "a great coward physically," that he felt sure he would make a + poor soldier. But he was sufficiently just to himself to add, "Moral + cowardice is something which I think I never had."(14) + </p> + <p> + Lincoln's humor found expression in other ways besides telling stories and + laughing at himself. He seized every opportunity to convert a petition + into a joke, when this could be done without causing pain. One day, there + entered a great man with a long list of favors which he hoped to have + granted. Among these was "the case of Betsy Ann Dougherty, a good woman," + said the great man. "She lived in my county and did my washing for a long + time. Her husband went off and joined the Rebel army and I wish you would + give her a protection paper." The pompous gravity of the way the case was + presented struck Lincoln as very funny. His visitor had no humor. He + failed to see jokes while Lincoln quizzed him as to who and what was Betsy + Ann. At length the President wrote a line on a card and handed it to the + great man. "Tell Betsy Ann to put a string in this card and hang it round + her neck," said he. "When the officers (who may have doubted her + affiliations) see this they will keep their hands off your Betsy Ann." On + the card was written, "Let Betsy Ann Dougherty alone as long as she + behaves herself. A. Lincoln."(15) + </p> + <p> + This eagerness for a joke now and then gave offense. On one occasion, a + noted Congressman called on the President shortly after a disaster. + Lincoln began to tell a story. The Congressman jumped up. "Mr. President, + I did not come here this morning to hear stories. It is too serious a + time." Lincoln's face changed. "Ashley," said he, "sit down! I respect you + as an earnest, sincere man. You can not be more anxious than I have been + constantly since the beginning of the war; and I say to you now, that were + it not for this occasional vent, I should die."(16) Again he said, "When + the Peninsula Campaign terminated suddenly at Harrison's Landing, I was as + near inconsolable as I could be and live."(17) + </p> + <p> + Lincoln's imaginative power, the ineradicable artist in him, made of + things unseen true realities to his sensibility. Reports of army suffering + bowed his spirit. "This was especially' the case when the noble victims + were of his own acquaintance, or of the narrower circle of his familiar + friends; and then he seemed for the moment possessed of a sense of + personal responsibility for their individual fate which was at once most + unreasonable and most pitiful." On hearing that two sons of an old friend + were desperately wounded and would probably die, he broke out with: "Here, + now, are these dear brave boys killed in this cursed war. My God! My God! + It is too bad! They worked hard to earn money to educate themselves and + this is the end! I loved them as if they were my own."(18) He was one of + the few who have ever written a beautiful letter of condolence. Several of + his letters attempting this all but impossible task, come as near their + mark as such things can. One has become a classic: + </p> + <p> + "I have been shown," he wrote to Mrs. Bixby, "in the files of the War + Department a statement of the Adjutant-General of Massachusetts that you + are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of + battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which + should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. + But I can not refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be + found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our + heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you + only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that + must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of + freedom."(19) + </p> + <p> + All these innumerable instances of his sympathy passed from mouth to + mouth; became part of a floating propaganda that was organizing the people + in his support. To these were added many anecdotes of his mercy. The + American people had not learned that war is a rigorous thing. Discipline + in the army was often hard to maintain. Impulsive young men who tired of + army life, or who quarreled with their officers, sometimes walked away. + There were many condemnations either for mutiny or desertion. In the + stream of suppliants pouring daily through the President's office, many + were parents imploring mercy for rash sons. As every death-warrant had to + be signed by the President, his generals were frequently enraged by his + refusal to carry out their decisions. "General," said he to an angry + commander who charged him with destroying discipline, "there are too many + weeping widows in the United States now.-For God's sake don't ask me to + add to the number; for I tell you plainly I won't do it."(20) + </p> + <p> + Here again, kindness was blended with statecraft, mercy with shrewdness. + The generals could not grasp the political side of war. Lincoln tried to + make them see it. When they could not, he quietly in the last resort + counteracted their influence. When some of them talked of European + experience, he shook his head; it would not do; they must work with the + tools they had; first of all with an untrained people, intensely sensitive + to the value of human life, impulsive, quick to forget offenses, + ultra-considerate of youth and its rashness. Whatever else the President + did, he must not allow the country to think of the army as an ogre + devouring its sons because of technicalities. The General saw only the + discipline, the morale, of the soldiers; the President saw the far more + difficult, the more roundabout matter, the discipline and the morale of + the citizens. The one believed that he could compel; the other with his + finger on the nation's pulse, knew that he had to persuade. + </p> + <p> + However, this flowing army of the propaganda did not always engage him on + the tragic note. One day a large fleshy man, of a stern but homely + countenance and a solemn and dignified carriage, immaculate dress—"swallow-tailed + coat, ruffled shirt of faultless fabric, white cravat and orange-colored + gloves"—entered with the throng. Looking at him Lincoln was somewhat + appalled. He expected some formidable demand. To his relief, the imposing + stranger delivered a brief harangue on the President's policy, closing + with, "I have watched you narrowly ever since your inauguration. . . . As + one of your constituents, I now say to you, do in future as you damn + please, and I will support you." "Sit down, my friend," said Lincoln, "sit + down. I am delighted to see you. Lunch with us today. Yes, you must stay + and lunch with us, my friend, for I have not seen enough of you yet."(21) + There were many of these informal ambassadors of the people assuring the + President of popular support. And this florid gentleman was not the only + one who lunched with the President on first acquaintance. + </p> + <p> + This casual way of inviting strangers to lunch with him was typical of his + mode of life, which was exceedingly simple. He slept lightly and rose + early. In summer when he used the Soldiers' Home as a residence, he was at + his desk in the White House at eight o'clock in the morning. His breakfast + was an egg and a cup of coffee; luncheon was rarely more than a glass of + milk and a biscuit with a plate of fruit in season; his dinner at six + o'clock, was always a light meal. Though he had not continued a total + abstainer, as in the early days at Springfield, he very seldom drank wine. + He never used tobacco. So careless was he with regard to food that when + Mrs. Lincoln was away from home, there was little regularity in his meals. + He described his habits on such occasions as "browsing around."(22) + </p> + <p> + Even when Mrs. Lincoln was in command at the White House, he was not + invariably dutiful. An amusing instance was observed by some high + officials. The luncheon hour arrived in the midst of an important + conference. Presently, a servant appeared reminding Mr. Lincoln of the + hour, but he took no notice. Another summons, and again no notice. After a + short interval, the door of the office flew open and the titular "First + Lady" flounced into the room, a ruffled, angry little figure, her eyes + flashing. With deliberate quiet, as if in a dream, Lincoln rose slowly, + took her calmly, firmly by the shoulders, lifted her, carried her through + the doorway, set her down, closed the door, and went on with the + conference as if unconscious of an interruption.(23) Mrs. Lincoln did not + return. The remainder of the incident is unknown. + </p> + <p> + The burden of many anecdotes that were included in the propaganda was his + kindness to children. It began with his own. His little rascal "Tad," + after Willie's death, was the apple of his eye. The boy romped in and out + of his office. Many a time he was perched on his father's knee while great + affairs of state were under discussion.(24) Lincoln could persuade any + child from the arms of its mother, nurse, or play fellow, there being a + "peculiar fascination in his voice and manner which the little one could + not resist."(25) + </p> + <p> + All impressionable, imaginative young people, brought into close + association with him, appear to have felt his spell. His private + secretaries were his sworn henchmen. Hay's diary rings with admiration—the + keen, discriminating, significant admiration of your real observer. Hay + refers to him by pet name-"The Ancient," "The Old Man," "The Tycoon." + Lincoln's entire relation with these gifted youngsters may be typified by + one of Hay's quaintest anecdotes. Lincoln had gone to bed, as so often he + did, with a book. "A little after midnight as I was writing, the President + came into the office laughing, with a volume of Hood's Works in his hand, + to show Nicolay and me the little caricature, 'An Unfortunate Being'; + seemingly utterly unconscious that he, with his short shirt hanging about + his long legs, and setting out behind like the tail feathers of an + enormous ostrich, was infinitely funnier than anything in the book he was + laughing at. What a man it is! occupied all day with matters of vast + moment, deeply anxious about the fate of the greatest army of the world, + with his own plans and future hanging on the events of the passing hour, + he yet has such a wealth of simple bonhomie and good fellowship that he + gets out of bed and perambulates the house in his shirt to find us that we + may share with him the fun of poor Hood's queer little conceits."(26) + </p> + <p> + In midsummer, 1863, "The Tycoon is in fine whack. I have rarely seen him + more serene and busy. He is managing this war, the draft, foreign + relations, and planning a reconstruction of the Union, all at once. I + never knew with what a tyrannous authority he rules the Cabinet, until + now. The most important things he decides and there is no cavil. I am + growing more convinced that the good of the country demands that he should + be kept where he is till this thing is over. There is no man in the + country so wise, so gentle, and so firm."(27) + </p> + <p> + And again, "You may talk as you please of the Abolition Cabal directing + affairs from Washington; some well-meaning newspapers advise the President + to keep his fingers out of the military pie, and all that sort of thing. + The truth is, if he did, the pie would be a sorry mess. The old man sits + here and wields, like a backwoods Jupiter, the bolts of war and the + machinery of government with a hand especially steady and equally firm. . + I do not know whether the nation is worthy of him for another term. I know + the people want him. There is no mistaking that fact. But the politicians + are strong yet, and he is not their 'kind of a cat.' I hope God won't see + fit to scourge us for our sins by any of the two or three most prominent + candidates on the ground."(28) This was the conclusion growing everywhere + among the bulk of the people. There is one more cause of it to be reckoned + with. Lincoln had not ceased to be the literary statesman. In fact, he was + that more effectively than ever. His genius for fable-making took a new + turn. Many a visitor who came to find fault, went home to disseminate the + apt fable with which the President had silenced his objections and + captured his agreement. His skill in narration also served him well. + Carpenter repeats a story about Andrew Johnson and his crude but stern + religion which in mere print is not remarkable. "I have elsewhere + insinuated," comments Carpenter, "that Mr. Lincoln was capable of much + dramatic power. . . . It was shown in his keen appreciation of + Shakespeare, and unrivaled faculty of Storytelling. The incident just + related, for example, was given with a thrilling effect which mentally + placed Johnson, for the time being, alongside Luther and Cromwell. + Profanity or irreverence was lost sight of in a fervid utterance of a + highly wrought and great-souled determination, united with a rare + exhibition of pathos and self-abnegation."(29) + </p> + <p> + In formal literature, he had done great things upon a far higher level + than any of his writings previous to that sudden change in his style in + 1860. For one, there was the Fast Day Proclamation. There was also a + description of his country, of the heritage of the nation, in the third + message. Its aim was to give imaginative reality to the national idea; + just as the second message had aimed to give argumentative reality. + </p> + <p> + "There is no line, straight or crooked, suitable for a national boundary + upon which to divide. Trace through from east to west, upon the line + between the free and the slave Country and we shall find a little more + than one-third of its length are rivers, easy to be crossed, and + populated, or soon to be populated, thickly upon both sides; while nearly + all its remaining length are merely surveyors' lines, over which people + may walk back and forth without any consciousness of their presence. No + part of this line can be made any more difficult to pass by writing it + down on paper or parchment as a national boundary. + </p> + <p> + "But there is another difficulty. The great interior region, bounded east + by the Alleghanies, north by the British dominions, west by the Rocky + Mountains, and south by the line along which the culture of corn and + cotton meets, and which includes part of Virginia, part of Tennessee, all + of Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri, + Kansas, Iowa, Minnesota, and the Territories of Dakota, Nebraska, and part + of Colorado, already has above ten millions of people, and will have fifty + millions within fifty years, if not prevented by any political folly or + mistake. It contains more than one-third of the Country owned by the + United States—certainly more than one million square miles. Once + half as populous as Massachusetts already is, it would have more than + seventy-five millions of people. A glance at the map shows that, + territorially speaking, it is the great body of the republic. The other + parts are but marginal borders to it, the magnificent region sloping west + from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific being the deepest and also the + richest in undeveloped resources. In the production of provisions, grains, + grasses, and all which proceed from them, this great interior region is + naturally one of the most important in the world. Ascertain from the + statistics the small proportion of the region which has, as yet, been + brought into cultivation, and also the large and rapidly increasing amount + of its products and we shall be overwhelmed with the magnitude of the + prospect presented; and yet, this region has no seacoast, touches no ocean + anywhere. As part of one nation, its people now find, and may forever + find, their way to Europe by New York, to South America and Africa by New + Orleans, and to Asia by San Francisco. But separate our common country + into two nations as designed by the present rebellion, and every man of + this great interior region is thereby cut off from some one or more of + these outlets-not, perhaps, by a physical barrier, but by embarrassing and + onerous trade regulations. + </p> + <p> + "And this is true wherever a dividing or boundary line may be fixed. Place + it between the now free and slave country, or place it south of Kentucky + or north of Ohio, and still the truth remains that none south of it can + trade to any port or place north of it, and none north of it can trade to + any port or place south of it, except upon terms dictated by a government + foreign to them. These outlets east, west, and south, are indispensable to + the well-being of the people inhabiting and to inhabit, this vast interior + region. Which of the three may be the best is no proper question. All are + better than either; and all of right belong to that people and to their + Successors forever. True to themselves, they will not ask where a line of + separation shall be, but will vow rather that there shall be no such line. + Nor are the marginal regions less interested in these communications to + and through them to the great outside world. They, too, and each of them, + must have access to this Egypt of the West without paying toll at the + crossing of any national boundary. + </p> + <p> + "Our national strife springs not from our permanent part, not from the + land we inhabit, not from our national homestead. There is no possible + severing of this but would multiply, and not mitigate, evils among us. In + all its adaptations and aptitudes it demands union and abhors separation. + In fact, it would ere long, force reunion, however much of blood and + treasure the separation might have cost."(30) + </p> + <p> + A third time he made a great literary stroke, gave utterance, in yet + another form, to his faith that the national idea was the one constant + issue for which he had asked his countrymen, and would continue to ask + them, to die. It was at Gettysburg, November 19, 1863, in consecration of + a military burying-ground, that he delivered, perhaps, his greatest + utterance: + </p> + <p> + "But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we + can not 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, for the people, + by the people, shall not perish from the earth."(31) + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0028" id="link2H_4_0028"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XXVIII. APPARENT ASCENDENCY + </h2> + <p> + Toward the end of 1863, Lowell prepared an essay on "The President's + Policy." It might almost be regarded as a manifesto of the Intellectuals. + That there was now a prospect of winning the war "was mainly due to the + good sense, the good humor, the sagacity, the large-mindedness, and the + unselfish honesty of the unknown man whom a blind fortune, as it seemed, + had lifted from the crowd to the most dangerous and difficult eminence of + modern times." When the essay appeared in print, Lincoln was greatly + pleased. He wrote to the editors of the North American Review, "I am not + the most impartial judge; yet with due allowance for this, I venture to + hope that the article entitled 'The President's Policy' will be of value + to the country. I fear I am not quite worthy of all which is therein so + kindly said of me personally."(1) + </p> + <p> + This very able defense of his previous course appeared as he was + announcing to the country his final course. He was now satisfied that + winning the war was but a question of time. What would come after war was + now in his mind the overshadowing matter. He knew that the vindictive + temper had lost nothing of its violence. Chandler's savagery—his + belief that the Southerners had forfeited the right to life, liberty and + the pursuit of happiness—was still the Vindictive creed. 'Vae + victi'! When war ended, they meant to set their feet on the neck of the + vanquished foe. Furthermore, Lincoln was not deceived as to why they were + lying low at this particular minute. Ears had been flattened to the ground + and they were heeding what the ground had said. The President was too + popular for them to risk attacking him without an obvious issue. Their + former issue had been securely appropriated by the Democrats. Where could + they find another? With consummate boldness Lincoln presented them an + issue. It was reconstruction. When Congress met, he communicated the text + of a "Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction."(2) This great document + on which all his concluding policy was based, offered "a full pardon" with + "restoration of all rights of property, except as to slaves, or in + property cases, where rights of third persons shall have intervened" upon + subscribing to an oath of allegiance which required only a full acceptance + of the authority of the United States. This amnesty was to be extended to + all persons except a few groups, such as officers above the rank of + colonel and former officials of the United States. The Proclamation also + provided that whenever, in any Seceded State, the new oath should be taken + by ten per cent. of all those who were qualified to vote under the laws of + 1860, these ten per cent. should be empowered to set up a new State + government. + </p> + <p> + From the Vindictive point of view, here was a startling announcement. + Lincoln had declared for a degree of magnanimity that was as a red rag to + a bull. He had also carried to its ultimate his assumption of war powers. + No request was made for congressional cooperation. The message which the + Proclamation accompanied was informative only. + </p> + <p> + By this time, the Vindictive Coalition of 1861 was gradually coming + together again. Or, more truly, perhaps, various of its elements were + fusing into a sort of descendant of the old coalition. The leaders of the + new Vindictive group were much the same as the leaders of the earlier + group. There was one conspicuous addition. During the next six months, + Henry Winter Davis held for a time the questionable distinction of being + Lincoln's most inveterate enemy. He was a member of the House. In the + House many young and headstrong politicians rallied about him. The + Democrats at times craftily followed his lead. Despite the older and more + astute Vindictives of the Senate, Chandler, Wade and the rest who knew + that their time had not come, Davis, with his ardent followers, took up + the President's challenge. Davis brought in a bill designed to complete + the reorganization of the old Vindictive Coalition. It appealed to the + enemies of presidential prerogative, to all those who wanted the road to + reconstruction made as hard as possible, and to the Abolitionists. This + bill, in so many words, transferred the whole matter of reconstruction + from the President to Congress; it required a majority (instead of + one-tenth) of all the male citizens of a Seceded State as the basis of a + new government; it exacted of this majority a pledge never to pay any + State debt contracted during the Confederacy, and also the perpetual + prohibition of slavery in their State constitution. + </p> + <p> + Davis got his bill through the House, but his allies in the Senate laid it + aside. They understood the country too well not to see that they must wait + for something to happen. If the President made any mistake, if anything + went wrong with the army—they remembered the spring of 1862, + McClellan's failure, and how Chandler followed it up. And at this moment + no man was chafing more angrily because of what the ground was saying, no + man was watching the President more keenly, than Chandler. History is said + to repeat itself, and all things are supposed to come to him who waits. + While Davis's bill was before the House, Lincoln accepted battle with the + Vindictives in a way that was entirely unostentatious, but that burned his + bridges. He pressed forward the organization of a new State government in + Louisiana under Federal auspices. He wrote to Michael Hahn, the newly + chosen governor of this somewhat fictitious State: "I congratulate you on + having fixed your name in history as the first Free State governor of + Louisiana."(3) + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile, the hotheads of the House again followed Davis's lead and flung + defiance in Lincoln's face. Napoleon, who had all along coquetted + alarmingly with the Confederates, had also pushed ahead with his insolent + conquest of Mexico. Lincoln and Seward, determined to have but one war on + their hands at a time, had skilfully evaded committing themselves. The + United States had neither protested against the action of Napoleon, nor in + any way admitted its propriety. Other men besides the Vindictives were + biding their time. But here the hotheads thought they saw an opportunity. + Davis brought in a resolution which amounted to a censure of the + Administration for not demanding the retirement of the French from Mexico. + This was one of those times when the Democrats played politics and + followed Davis. The motion was carried unanimously.(4) It was so much of a + sensation that the 'American Minister at Paris, calling on the Imperial + Minister of Foreign Affairs, was met by the curt question, "Do you bring + peace or war?" + </p> + <p> + But it was not in the power of the House to draw Lincoln's fire until he + chose to be drawn. He ignored its action. The Imperial Government was + informed that the acts of the House of Representatives were not the acts + of the President, and that in relation to France, if the President should + change his policy, the imperial Government would be duly in formed.(5) + </p> + <p> + It was Lincoln's fate to see his policy once again at the mercy of his + Commanding General. That was his situation in the spring of 1862 when + everything hung on McClellan who failed him; again in the autumn of the + year when McClellan so narrowly saved him. The spring of 1864 paralleled, + in this respect, that other spring two years earlier. To be sure, + Lincoln's position was now much stronger; he had a great personal + following on which he relied. But just how strong it was he did not know. + He was taking a great risk forcing a policy high-handed in defiance of + Congress, where all his bitterest enemies were entrenched, glowering. If + his General failed him now— + </p> + <p> + The man on whom this huge responsibility rested was Grant. Lincoln had + summoned him from the West and placed him at the head of all the armies of + the Republic. As to Halleck who had long since proved himself perfectly + useless, he was allowed to lapse into obscurity. + </p> + <p> + Grant has preserved in his Memoirs his first confidential talk with + Lincoln: "He told me he did not want to know what I proposed to do. But he + submitted a plan of campaign of his own that he wanted me to hear and then + do as I pleased about. He brought out a map of Virginia on which he had + evidently marked every position occupied by the Federal and Confederate + armies up to that time. He pointed out on the map two streams which empty + into the Potomac, and suggested that an army might be moved on boats and + landed between the mouths of those streams. We would then have the Potomac + to bring our supplies, and the tributaries would protect our flanks while + we moved out. I listened respectfully, but did not suggest that the same + streams would protect Lee's flanks while he was shutting us up."(6) + </p> + <p> + Grant set out for the front in Virginia. Lincoln's parting words were this + note: "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 plans + 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."(7) + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0029" id="link2H_4_0029"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XXIX. CATASTROPHE + </h2> + <p> + If the politicians needed a definite warning, in addition to what the + ground was saying, it was given by an incident that centered upon Chase. A + few bold men whose sense of the crowd was not so acute as it might have + been, attempted to work up a Chase boom. At the instance of Senator + Pomeroy, a secret paper known to-day as the Pomeroy Circular, was started + on its travels. The Circular aimed to make Chase the Vindictive candidate. + Like all the other anti-Lincoln moves of the early part of 1864, it was + premature. The shrewd old Senators who were silently marshaling the + Vindictive forces, let it alone. + </p> + <p> + Chase's ambition was fully understood at the White House. During the + previous year, his irritable self-consciousness had led to quarrels with + the President, generally over patronage, and more than once he had offered + his resignation. On one occasion, Lincoln went to his house and begged him + to reconsider. Alone among the Cabinet, Chase had failed to take the + measure of Lincoln and still considered him a second-rate person, much his + inferior. He rated very high the services to his country of the Secretary + of the Treasury whom he considered the logical successor to the + Presidency. + </p> + <p> + Lincoln refused to see what Chase was after. "I have determined," he told + Hay, "to shut my eyes as far as possible to everything of the sort. Mr. + Chase makes a good secretary and I shall keep him where he is."(1) In + lighter vein, he said that Chase's presidential ambition was like a "chin + fly" pestering a horse; it led to his putting all the energy he had into + his work.(2) + </p> + <p> + When a copy of the Circular found its way to the White House, Lincoln + refused to read it.(3) Soon afterward it fell into the hands of an + unsympathetic or indiscreet editor and was printed. There was a hubbub. + Chase offered to resign. Lincoln wrote to him in reply: + </p> + <p> + "My knowledge of Mr. Pomeroy's letter having been made public came to me + only the day you wrote but I had, in Spite of myself, known of its + existence several days before. I have not yet read it, and I think I shall + not. 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, and of secret agents who I supposed + were sent out by it, for several weeks. I have known just as little of + these things as my friends have allowed me to know. They bring the + documents to me, but I do not read them; they tell me what they think fit + to tell me, but I do not inquire for more. 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; and I assure you, + as you have assured me, that no assault has been made upon you by my + instigation or with my 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."(4) But this + was not the end of the incident. The country promptly repudiated Chase. + His own state led the way. A caucus of Union members of the Ohio + Legislature resolved that the people and the soldiers of Ohio demanded the + reelection of Lincoln. In a host of similar resolutions, Legislative + caucuses, political conventions, dubs, societies, prominent individuals + not in the political machine, all ringingly declared for Lincoln, the one + proper candidate of the "Union party"-as the movement was labeled in a + last and relatively successful attempt to break party lines. + </p> + <p> + As the date of the "Union Convention" approached, Lincoln put aside an + opportunity to gratify the Vindictives. Following the Emancipation + Proclamation, the recruiting offices had been opened to negroes. Thereupon + the Confederate government threatened to treat black soldiers as brigands, + and to refuse to their white officers the protection of the laws of war. A + cry went up in the North for reprisal. It was not the first time the cry + had been raised. In 1862 Lincoln's spokesman in Congress, Browning, had + withstood a proposal for the trial of General Buckner by the civil + authorities of Kentucky. Browning opposed such a course on the ground that + it would lead to a policy of retaliation, and make of the war a + gratification of revenge.(5) The Confederate threat gave a new turn to the + discussion. Frederick Douglas, the most influential negro of the time, + obtained an audience with Lincoln and begged for reprisals. Lincoln would + not consent. So effective was his argument that even the ardent negro, + convinced that his race was about to suffer persecution, was satisfied. + </p> + <p> + "I shall never forget," Douglas wrote, "the benignant expression of his + face, the tearful look of his eye, 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."(6) + </p> + <p> + In April, 1864, the North was swept by a wild rumor of deliberate massacre + of prisoners at Fort Pillow. Here was an opportunity for Lincoln to + ingratiate himself with the Vindictives. The President was to make a + speech at a fair held in Baltimore, for the benefit of the Sanitary + Commission. The audience was keen to hear him denounce the reputed + massacre, and eager to applaud a promise of reprisal. Instead, he + deprecated hasty judgment; insisting that the rumor had not been verified; + that nothing should be done on the strength of mere report. + </p> + <p> + "It is a mistake to suppose the government is indifferent in this matter, + or is not doing the best it can in regard to it. 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."(7) + </p> + <p> + What a tame, spiritless position in the eyes of the Vindictives! A + different opportunity to lay hold of public opinion he made the most of. + And yet, here also, he spoke in that carefully guarded way, making sure he + was not understood to say more than he meant, which most politicians would + have pronounced over-scrupulous. A deputation of working men from New York + were received at the White House. "The honorary membership in your + association," said he, "as generously tendered, is gratefully accepted. . + . . You comprehend, as your address shows, that the existing rebellion + means more, and tends to more, than the perpetuation of African + slavery-that it is, in fact, a war upon the rights of all working people." + </p> + <p> + After reviewing his own argument on this subject in the second message, he + concluded: + </p> + <p> + "The views then expressed now remain unchanged, nor have I much to add. + None are so deeply interested to resist the present rebellion as the + working people. Let them beware of prejudices, working division and + hostility among themselves. The most notable feature of a disturbance in + your city last summer was the hanging of some working people by other + working people. It should never be so. The strongest bond of human + sympathy outside of the family relation, should be one uniting all working + people, of all nations, and tongues, and kindreds. Nor should this lead to + a war upon property, or the owners of property. Property is the fruit of + labor; property is desirable; is a positive good in the world. That some + should be rich shows that others may become rich, and hence is just + encouragement to industry and enterprise. Let not him who is houseless + pull down the house of another, but let him work diligently and build one + for himself, thus by example assuming that his own shall be safe from + violence when built."(8) + </p> + <p> + Lincoln was never more anxious than in this fateful spring when so many + issues were hanging in the balance. Nevertheless, in all his relations + with the world, his firm serenity was not broken. Though subject to + depression so deep that his associates could not penetrate it, he kept it + sternly to himself.(9) He showed the world a lighter, more graceful aspect + than ever before. 'A precious record of his later mood is the account of + him set down by Frank B. Carpenter, the portrait painter, a man of note in + his day, who was an inmate of the White House during the first half of + 1864. Carpenter was painting a picture of the "Signing of the Emancipation + Proclamation." He saw Lincoln informally at all sorts of odd times, under + all sorts of conditions. "All familiar with him," says Carpenter, "will + remember the weary air which became habitual during his last years. This + was more of the mind than of the body, and no rest and recreation which he + allowed himself could relieve it. As he sometimes expressed it, 'no remedy + seemed ever to reach the tired spot."(10) + </p> + <p> + A great shadow was darkening over him. He was more than ever convinced + that he had not long to live. None the less, his poise became more + conspicuous, his command over himself and others more distinguished, as + the months raced past. In truth he had worked through a slow but profound + transformation. The Lincoln of 1864 was so far removed from the Lincoln of + Pigeon Creek-but logically, naturally removed, through the absorption of + the outer man by the inner—that inevitably one thinks of + Shakespeare's change "into something rich and strange." + </p> + <p> + Along with the weakness, the contradictions of his earlier self, there had + also fallen away from him the mere grossness that had belonged to him as a + peasant. Carpenter is unconditional that in six months of close intimacy, + seeing him in company with all sorts of people, he never heard from + Lincoln an offensive story. He quotes Seward and Lincoln's family + physician to the same effect.(11) + </p> + <p> + The painter, like many others, was impressed by the tragic cast of his + expression, despite the surface mirth. + </p> + <p> + "His complexion, at this time, was inclined to sallowness his eyes were + bluish gray in color—always in deep shadow, however, from the upper + lids which were unusually heavy (reminding me in this respect of Stuart's + portrait of Washington) and the expression was remarkably pensive and + tender, often inexpressibly sad, as if the reservoir of tears lay very + near the surface—a fact proved not only by the response which + accounts of suffering and sorrow invariably drew forth, but by + circumstances which would ordinarily affect few men in his position."(12) + As a result of the great strain to which he was subjected "his demeanor + and disposition changed-so gradually that it would be impossible to say + when the change began. . . . He continued always the same kindly, genial, + and cordial spirit he had been at first; but the boisterous laughter + became less frequent, year by year; the eye grew veiled by constant + meditation on momentous subjects; the air of reserve and detachment from + his surroundings increased. He aged with great rapidity."(13) + </p> + <p> + Every Saturday afternoon the Marine Band gave an open-air concert in the + grounds of the White House. One afternoon Lincoln appeared upon the + portico. There was instant applause and cries for a speech. "Bowing his + thanks and excusing himself, he stepped back into the retirement of the + circular parlor, remarking (to Carpenter) with a disappointed air, as he + reclined on a sofa, 'I wish they would let me sit there quietly and enjoy + the music.' His kindness to others was unfailing. It was this harassed + statesman who came into the studio one day and found (Carpenter's) little + boy of two summers playing on the floor. A member of the Cabinet was with + him; but laying aside all restraint, he took the little fellow in his arms + and they were soon on the best of terms." While his younger son "Tad" was + with his mother on a journey, Lincoln telegraphed: "Tell Tad, father and + the goats are well, especially the goats."(14) He found time one bright + morning in May to review the Sunday-school children of Washington who + filed past "cheering as if their very lives depended upon it," while + Lincoln stood at a window "enjoying the scene... making pleasant remarks + about a face that now and then struck him."(15) Carpenter told him that no + other president except Washington had placed himself so securely in the + hearts of the people. "Homely, honest, ungainly Lincoln," said Asa Gray, + in a letter to Darwin, "is the representative man of the country." + </p> + <p> + However, two groups of men in his own party were sullenly opposed to him—the + relentless Vindictives and certain irresponsible free lances who named + themselves the "Radical Democracy." In the latter group, Fremont was the + hero; Wendell Phillips, the greatest advocate. They were extremists in all + things; many of them Agnostics. Furious against Lincoln, but unwilling to + go along with the waiting policy of the Vindictives, these visionaries + held a convention at Cleveland; voted down a resolution that recognized + God as an ally; and nominated Fremont for the Presidency. A witty comment + on the movement—one that greatly amused Lincoln—was the + citation of a verse in first Samuel: "And every one that was in distress, + and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, + gathered themselves unto him; and he became a captain over them; and there + were with him about four hundred men." + </p> + <p> + If anything was needed to keep the dissatisfied Senators in the party + ranks, it was this rash "bolt." Though Fremont had been their man in the + past, he had thrown the fat in the fire by setting up an independent + ticket. Silently, the wise opportunists of the Senate and all their + henchmen, stood aside at the "Union convention"—which they called + the Republican Convention—June seventh, and took their medicine. + </p> + <p> + There was no doubt of the tempest of enthusiasm among the majority of the + delegates. It was a Lincoln ovation. + </p> + <p> + In responding the next day to a committee of congratulation, Lincoln said: + "I am not insensible at all to the personal compliment there is in this, + and yet I do not allow myself to believe that any but a small portion of + it is to be appropriated as a personal compliment. . . . I do not allow + myself to suppose that either the Convention or the (National Union) + League have concluded to decide that I am the greatest or best man in + America, but rather they have concluded that it is best not to swap horses + while crossing the river, and have further concluded that I am not so poor + a horse that they might not make a botch of it trying to swap."(16) + </p> + <p> + Carpenter records another sort of congratulation a few days later that + brought out the graceful side of this man whom most people still supposed + to be hopelessly awkward. It happened on a Saturday. Carpenter had invited + friends to sit in his painting room and oversee the crowd while listening + to the music. "Towards the close of the concert, the door suddenly opened, + and the President came in, as he was in the habit of doing, alone. Mr. and + Mrs. Cropsey had been presented to him in the course of the morning; and + as he came forward, half hesitatingly, Mrs. C., who held a bunch of + beautiful flowers in her hand, tripped forward playfully, and said: 'Allow + me, Mr. President, to present you with a bouquet!' The situation was + momentarily embarrassing; and I was puzzled to know how 'His Excellency' + would get out of it. With no appearance of discomposure, he stooped down, + took the flowers, and, looking from them into the sparkling eyes and + radiant face of the lady, said, with a gallantry I was unprepared for + 'Really, madam, if you give them to me, and they are mine, I think I can + not possibly make so good use of them as to present them to you, in + return!'"(17) + </p> + <p> + In gaining the nomination, Lincoln had not, as yet, attained security for + his plans. Grant was still to be reckoned with. By a curious irony, the + significance of his struggle with Lee during May, his steady advance by + the left flank, had been misapprehended in the North. Looking at the map, + the country saw that he was pushing southward, and again southward, on + Virginia soil. McClellan, Pope, Burnside, Hooker, with them it had been: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "He who fights and runs away + May live to fight another day." +</pre> + <p> + But Grant kept on. He struck Lee in the furious battle of the Wilderness, + and moved to the left, farther south. "Victory!" cried the Northern + newspapers, "Lee isn't able to stop him." The same delusion was repeated + after Spottsylvania where the soldiers, knowing more of war than did the + newspapers, pinned to their coats slips of paper bearing their names; + identification of the bodies might be difficult. The popular mistake + continued throughout that dreadful campaign. The Convention was still + under the delusion of victory. + </p> + <p> + Lincoln also appears to have stood firm until the last minute in the + common error. But the report of Grant's losses, more than the whole of + Lee's army, filled him with horror. During these days, Carpenter had + complete freedom of the President's office and "intently studied every + line and shade of expression in that furrowed face. In repose, it was the + saddest face I ever knew. There were days when I could scarcely look into + it without crying. During the first week of the battles of the Wilderness + he scarcely slept at all. Passing through the main hall of the domestic + apartment on one of these days, I met him, clad in a long, morning + wrapper, pacing back and forth a narrow passage leading to one of the + windows, his hands behind him, great black rings under his eyes, his head + bent forward upon his breast-altogether such a picture of the effects of + sorrow, care, and anxiety as would have melted the hearts of the worst of + his adversaries, who so mistakenly applied to him the epithets of tyrant + and usurper."(18) + </p> + <p> + Despite these sufferings, Lincoln had not the slightest thought of giving + way. Not in him any likeness to the sentimentalists, Greeley and all his + crew, who were exultant martyrs when things were going right, and + shrieking pacifists the moment anything went wrong. In one of the darkest + moments of the year, he made a brief address at a Sanitary Fair in + Philadelphia. + </p> + <p> + "Speaking of the present campaign," said he, "General Grant is reported to + have said, 'I am going to fight it out on this line if it takes all + summer.' This war has taken three years; it was begun or accepted upon the + line of restoring the national authority over the whole national domain, + and for the American people, as far as my knowledge enables me to speak, I + say we are going through on this line if it takes three years more."(19) + He made no attempt to affect Grant's course. He had put him in supreme + command and would leave everything to his judgment. And then came the + colossal blunder at Cold Harbor. Grant stood again where McClellan had + stood two years before. He stood there defeated. He could think of nothing + to do but just what McClellan had wanted to do—abandon the immediate + enterprise, make a great detour to the Southwest, and start a new campaign + on a different plan. Two years with all their terrible disasters, and this + was all that had come of it! Practically no gain, and a death-roll that + staggered the nation. A wail went over the North. After all, was the war + hopeless? Was Lee invincible? Was the best of the Northern manhood + perishing to no result? + </p> + <p> + Greeley, perhaps the most hysterical man of genius America has produced, + made his paper the organ of the wail. He wrote frantic appeals to the + government to cease fighting, do what could be done by negotiation, and if + nothing could be done—at least, stop "these rivers of human blood." + </p> + <p> + The Vindictives saw their opportunity. They would capitalize the wail. The + President should be dealt with yet. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0030" id="link2H_4_0030"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XXX. THE PRESIDENT VERSUS THE VINDICTIVES + </h2> + <p> + Now that the Vindictives had made up their minds to fight, an occasion was + at their hands. Virtually, they declared war on the President by refusing + to recognize a State government which he had set up in Arkansas. Congress + would not admit Senators or Representatives from the Reconstructed State. + But on this issue, Lincoln was as resolute to fight to a finish as were + any of his detractors. He wrote to General Steele, commanding in Arkansas: + </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 harm, while it will be the best you can do toward suppressing the + rebellion."(1) + </p> + <p> + The same day Chase resigned. The reason he assigned was, again, the + squabble over patronage. He had insisted on an appointment of which the + President disapproved. Exactly what moved him may be questioned. Chase + never gave his complete confidence, not even to his diary. Whether he + thought that the Vindictives would now take him up as a rival of Lincoln, + continues doubtful. Many men were staggered by his action. Crittenden, the + Registrar of the Treasury, was thrown into a panic. "Mr. President," said + he, "this is worse than another Bull Run. Pray let me go to Secretary + Chase and see if I can not induce him to withdraw his resignation. Its + acceptance now might cause a financial panic." But Lincoln was in a + fighting mood. "Chase thinks he has become indispensable to the country," + he told Chittenden. "He also thinks he ought to be President; he has no + doubt whatever about that. He is an able financier, a great statesman, and + at the bottom a patriot . . he is never perfectly happy unless he is + thoroughly miserable and able to make everybody else just as uncomfortable + as he is himself. . He is either determined to annoy me or that I shall + pat him on the shoulder and coax him to stay. I don't think I ought to do + it. I will take him at his word."(2) + </p> + <p> + He accepted the resignation in a note that was almost curt: "Of all I have + said in commendation of your ability and fidelity, I have nothing to + unsay; and yet you and I have reached a point of mutual embarrassment in + our official relations which it seems can not be overcome or longer + sustained consistently with the public service."(3) + </p> + <p> + The selection of a successor to Chase was no easy matter. The Vindictives + were the leaders of the moment. What if they persuaded the Senate not to + confirm Lincoln's choice of Secretary. "I never saw the President," says + Carpenter, "under so much excitement as on the day following this event" + On the night of July first, Lincoln lay awake debating with himself the + merits of various candidates. At length, he selected his man and + immediately went to sleep. + </p> + <p> + "The next morning he went to his office and wrote the nomination. John + Hay, the assistant private secretary, had taken it from the President on + his way to the Capitol, when he encountered Senator Fessenden upon the + threshold of the room. As chairman of the Finance Committee, he also had + passed an anxious night, and called this early to consult with the + President, and offer some suggestions. After a few moments' conversation, + Mr. Lincoln turned to him with a smile and said: 'I am obliged to you, + Fessenden, but the fact is, I have just sent your own name to the Senate + for Secretary of the Treasury. Hay had just received the nomination from + my hand as you entered.' Mr. Fessenden was taken completely by surprise, + and, very much agitated, protested his inability to accept the position. + The state of his health, he said, if no other consideration, made it + impossible. Mr. Lincoln would not accept the refusal as final. He very + justly felt that with Mr. Fessenden's experience and known ability at the + head of the Finance Committee, his acceptance would go far toward + reestablishing a feeling of security. He said to him, very earnestly, + 'Fessenden, the Lord has not deserted me thus far, and He is not going to + now—you must accept!' + </p> + <p> + "They separated, the Senator in great anxiety of mind. Throughout the day, + Mr. Lincoln urged almost all who called to go and see Mr. Fessenden, and + press upon him the duty of accepting. Among these, was a delegation of New + York bankers, who, in the name of the banking community, expressed their + satisfaction at the nomination. This was especially gratifying to the + President; and in the strongest manner, he entreated them to 'see Mr. + Fessenden and assure him of their support.'"(4) + </p> + <p> + In justification of his choice, Lincoln said to Hay:—"Thinking over + the matter, two or three points occurred to me: first his thorough + acquaintance with the business; as chairman of the Senate Committee of + Finance, he knows as much of this special subject as Mr. Chase; he + possesses a national reputation and the confidence of the country; he is a + Radical without the petulance and fretfulness of many radicals."(5) In + other words, though he was not at heart one of them, he stood for the + moment so close to the Vindictives that they would not make an issue on + his confirmation. + </p> + <p> + Lincoln had scored a point in his game with the Vindictives. But the point + was of little value. The game's real concern was that Reconstruction Bill + which was now before the Senate with Wade as its particular sponsor. The + great twin brethren of the Vindictives were Wade and Chandler. Both were + furious for the passage of the bill. "The Executive," said Wade angrily, + "ought not to be allowed to handle this great question of his own liking." + </p> + <p> + On the last day of the session, Lincoln was in the President's room at the + Capitol Signing bills. The Reconstruction Bill, duly passed by both + Houses, was brought to him. Several Senators, friends of the bill and + deeply anxious, had come into the President's room hoping to see him affix + his signature. To their horror, he merely glanced at the bill and laid it + aside. Chandler, who was watching him, bluntly demanded what he meant to + do. "This bill," said Lincoln, "has been placed before me a few minutes + before Congress adjourns. It is a matter of too much importance to be + swallowed in that way." + </p> + <p> + "If it is vetoed," said Chandler, whose anger was mounting, "it will + damage us fearfully in the Northwest. The important point is that one + prohibiting slavery in the Reconstructed States." + </p> + <p> + "That is the point," replied the President, "on which I doubt the + authority of Congress to act." + </p> + <p> + "It is no more than you have done yourself," retorted Chandler. + </p> + <p> + Lincoln turned to him and said quietly but with finality: "I conceive that + I may in an emergency do things on military grounds which can not + constitutionally be done by Congress." + </p> + <p> + Chandler angrily left the room. To those who remained, Lincoln added: "I + do not see how any of us now can deny and contradict what we have always + said, that Congress has no constitutional power over slavery in the + States."(6) + </p> + <p> + In a way, he was begging the question. The real issue was not how a State + should be constitutionally reconstructed, but which, President or + Congress, had a right to assume dictatorial power. At last the true + Vindictive issue, lured out of their arms by the Democrats, had escaped + like a bird from a snare and was fluttering home. Here was the old issue + of the war powers in a new form that it was safe for them to press. And + the President had squarely defied them. It was civil war inside the Union + party. And for both sides, President and Vindictives, there could now be + nothing but rule or ruin. + </p> + <p> + In this crisis of factional politics, Lincoln was unmoved, self-contained, + lofty, deliberate. "If they (the Vindictives) choose to make a point on + 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 of principle fixed within myself." + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0031" id="link2H_4_0031"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XXXI A MENACING PAUSE + </h2> + <p> + Lincoln had now reached his final stature. In contact with the world his + note was an inscrutable serenity. The jokes which he continued to tell + were but transitory glimmerings. They crossed the surface of his mood like + quick flickers of golden light on a stormy March day,—witnesses that + the sun would yet prevail,—in a forest-among mountain shadows. Or, + they were lightning glimmers in a night sky; they revealed, they did not + dispel, the dark beyond. Over all his close associates his personal + ascendency was complete. Now that Chase was gone, the last callous spot in + the Cabinet had been amputated. Even Stanton, once so domineering, so + difficult to manage, had become as clay in his hands. + </p> + <p> + But Lincoln never used power for its own sake, never abused his + ascendency. Always he got his end if he could without evoking the note of + command. He would go to surprising lengths to avoid appearing peremptory. + A typical remark was his smiling reply to a Congressman whom he had armed + with a note to the Secretary, who had returned aghast, the Secretary + having refused to comply with the President's request and having decorated + his refusal with extraordinary language. + </p> + <p> + "Did Stanton say I was a damned fool?" asked Lincoln. "Then I dare say I + must be one, for Stanton is generally right and he always says what he + means." + </p> + <p> + Nevertheless, the time had come when Lincoln had only to say the word and + Stanton, no matter how fierce his temper might' be, would acknowledge his + master. General Fry, the Provost Marshal, witnessed a scene between them + which is a curious commentary on the transformation of the Stanton of + 1862. Lincoln had issued an order relative to the disposition of certain + recruits. Stanton protested that it was unwarranted, that he would not put + it into effect. The Provost Marshal was called in and asked to state at + length all the facts involved. When he had finished Stanton broke out + excitedly— + </p> + <p> + "'Now, Mr. President, those are the facts and you must see that your order + can not be executed.' + </p> + <p> + "Lincoln sat upon a sofa with his legs crossed and did not say a word + until the Secretary's last remark. Then he said in a somewhat positive + tone, 'Mr. Secretary, I reckon you'll have to execute the order.' + </p> + <p> + "Stanton replied with asperity, 'Mr. President, I can not do it. The order + is an improper one, and I can not execute it'." + </p> + <p> + Lincoln fixed his eye upon Stanton, and in a firm voice with an accent + that clearly showed his determination, he said, "Mr. Secretary, it will + have to be done."(1) + </p> + <p> + At this point, General Fry discreetly left the room. A few moments later, + he received instructions from Stanton to execute the President's order. + </p> + <p> + In a public matter in the June of 1864 Lincoln gave a demonstration of his + original way of doing things. It displayed his final serenity in such + unexpected fashion that no routine politician, no dealer in the catchwords + of statecraft, could understand it. Since that grim joke, the deportation + of Vallandigham, the Copperhead leader had not had happy time. The + Confederacy did not want him. He had made his way to Canada. Thence, in + the spring of 1864 he served notice on his country that he would perform a + dramatic Part, play the role of a willing martyr—in a word, come + home and defy the government to do its worst. He came. But Lincoln did + nothing. The American sense of humor did the rest. If Vallandigham had not + advertised a theatrical exploit, ignoring him might have been dangerous. + But Lincoln knew his people. When the show did not come off, Vallandigham + was transformed in an instant from a martyr to an anticlimax. Though he + went busily to work, though he lived to attend the Democratic National + Convention and to write the resolution that was the heart of its platform, + his tale was told. + </p> + <p> + Turning from Vallandigham, partly in amusement, partly in contempt, + Lincoln grappled with the problem of reinforcing the army. Since the + Spring of 1863 the wastage of the army had been replaced by conscription. + But the system had not worked well. It contained a fatal provision. A + drafted man might escape service by paying three hundred dollars. Both the + Secretary of War and the Provost Marshal had urged the abolition of this + detail. Lincoln had communicated their arguments to Congress with his + approval and a new law had been drawn up accordingly. Nevertheless, late + in June, the House amended it by restoring the privilege of commuting + service for money.(2) Lincoln bestirred himself. The next day he called + together the Republican members of the House. "With a sad, mysterious + light in his melancholy eyes, as if they were familiar with things hidden + from mortals" he urged the Congressmen to reconsider their action. The + time of three hundred eighty thousand soldiers would expire in October. He + must have half a million to take their places. A Congressman objected that + elections were approaching; that the rigorous law he proposed would be + intensely unpopular; that it might mean the defeat, at the polls, of many + Republican Representatives; it might even mean the President's defeat. He + replied that he had thought of all that. + </p> + <p> + "My election is not necessary; I must put down the rebellion; I must have + five hundred thousand more men."(3) + </p> + <p> + He raised the timid politicians to his own level, inspired them with new + courage. Two days later a struggle began in the House for carrying out + Lincoln's purpose. On the last day of the session along with the offensive + Reconstruction Bill, he received the new Enrollment Act which provided + that "no payment of money shall be accepted or received by the Government + as commutation to release any enrolled or drafted man from personal + obligation to per-form military service." + </p> + <p> + Against this inflexible determination to fight to a finish, this + indifference to the political consequences of his determination, Lincoln + beheld arising like a portentous specter, a fury of pacifism. It found + expression in Greeley. Always the swift victim of his own affrighted hope, + Greeley had persuaded himself that both North and South had lost heart for + the war; that there was needed only a moving appeal, and they would throw + down their arms and the millennium would come. Furthermore, on the + flimsiest sort of evidence, he had fallen into a trap designed to place + the Northern government in the attitude of suing for peace. He wrote to + Lincoln demanding that he send an agent to confer with certain Confederate + officials who were reported to be then in Canada; he also suggested terms + of peace.(4) Greeley's terms were entirely acceptable to Lincoln; but he + had no faith in the Canadian mare's nest. However, he decided to give + Greeley the utmost benefit of the doubt, and also to teach him a lesson. + He commissioned Greeley himself to proceed to Canada, there to discover + "if there is or is not anything in the affair." He wrote to him, "I not + only intend a sincere effort for peace, but I intend that you shall be a + personal witness that it is made."(5) + </p> + <p> + Greeley, who did not want to have any responsibility for anything that + might ensue, whose joy was to storm and to find fault, accepted the duty + he could not well refuse, and set out in a bad humor. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile two other men had conceived an undertaking somewhat analogous + but in a temper widely different. These were Colonel Jaquess, a clergyman + turned soldier, a man of high simplicity of character, and J. R. Gilmore, + a writer, known by the pen name of Edmund Kirke. Jaquess had told Gilmore + of information he had received from friends in the Confederacy; he was + convinced that nothing would induce the Confederate government to consider + any terms of peace that embraced reunion, whether with or without + emancipation. "It at once occurred to me," says Gilmore, "that if this + declaration could be got in such a manner that it could be given to the + public, it would, if scattered broadcast over the North, destroy the + peace-party and reelect Mr. Lincoln." Gilmore went to Washington and + obtained an interview with the President. He assured him—and he was + a newspaper correspondent whose experience was worth considering—that + the new pacifism, the incipient "peace party," was schooling the country + in the belief that an offer of liberal terms would be followed by a + Southern surrender. The masses wanted peace on any terms that would + preserve the Union; and the Democrats were going to tell them in the next + election that Lincoln could save the Union by negotiation, if he would. + Unless the popular mind were disabused of this fictitious hope, the + Democrats would prevail and the Union would collapse. But if an offer to + negotiate should be made, and if "Davis should refuse to negotiate—as + he probably would, except on the basis of Southern independence—that + fact alone would reunite the North, reelect Lincoln, and thus save the + Union."(6) + </p> + <p> + "Then," said Lincoln, "you would fight the devil with fire. You would get + that declaration from Davis and use it against him." + </p> + <p> + Gilmore defended himself by proposing to offer extremely liberal terms. + There was a pause in the conversation. Lincoln who was seated at his desk + "leaned slightly forward looking directly into (Gilmore's) eyes, but with + an absent, far-away gaze as if unconscious of (his) presence." Suddenly, + relapsing into his usual badinage, he said, "God selects His own + instruments and some times they are queer ones: for instance, He chose me + to see the ship of state through a great crisis."(7) He went on to say + that Gilmore and Jaquess might be the very men to serve a great purpose at + this moment. Gilmore knew the world; and anybody could see at a glance + that Jaquess never told anything that wasn't true. If they would go to + Richmond on their own responsibility, make it plain to President Davis + that they were not official agents, even taking the chance of arrest and + imprisonment, they might go. This condition was accepted. Lincoln went on + to say that no advantage should be taken of Mr. Davis; that nothing should + be proposed which if accepted would not be made good. After considerable + further discussion he drew up a memorandum of the terms upon which he + would consent to peace. There were seven items: + </p> + <p> + 1. The immediate dissolution of the armies. + </p> + <p> + 2. The abolition of slavery. + </p> + <p> + 3. A general amnesty. + </p> + <p> + 4. The Seceded States to resume their functions as states in the Union as + if no secession had taken place. + </p> + <p> + 5. Four hundred million dollars to be appropriated by Congress as + compensation for loss of slave property; no slaveholder, however, to + receive more than one-half the former value of his slaves. + </p> + <p> + 6. A national convention to be called for readjustment of all other + difficulties. + </p> + <p> + 7. It to be understood that the purpose of negotiation was a full + restoration of the Union as of old.(8) + </p> + <p> + Gilmore and Jaquess might say to Davis that they had private but sure + knowledge that the President of the United States would agree to peace on + these terms. Thus provided, they set forth. + </p> + <p> + Lincoln's thoughts were speedily claimed by an event which had no + Suggestion of peace. At no time since Jackson threw the government into a + panic in the spring of 1862, had Washington been in danger of capture. + Now, briefly, it appeared to be at the mercy of General Early. In the last + act of a daring raid above the Potomac, he came sweeping down on + Washington from the North. As Grant was now the active commander-in-chief, + responsible for all the Northern armies, Lincoln with a fatalistic calm + made no move to take the capital out of his hands. When Early was known to + be headed toward Washington, Lincoln drove out as usual to spend the night + at the Soldiers' Home beyond the fortifications. Stanton, in whom there + was a reminiscence at least of the hysterical Secretary of 1862, sent + after him post haste and insisted on his returning. The next day, the + eleventh of July, 1864, Washington was invested by the Confederate forces. + There was sharp firing in front of several forts. Lincoln—and for + that matter, Mrs. Lincoln also—made a tour of the defenses. While + Fort Stevens was under fire, he stood on the parapet, "apparently + unconscious of danger, watching with that grave and passive countenance + the progress of the fight, amid the whizzing bullets of the sharp + shooters, until an officer fell mortally wounded within three feet of him, + and General Wright peremptorily represented to him the needless risk he + was running." Hay recorded in his diary "the President in good feather + this evening . . . not concerned about Washington's safety . . . only + thought, can we bag or destroy the force in our front." He was much + disappointed when Early eluded the forces which Grant hurried to the + Capitol. Mrs. Lincoln was outspoken to the same effect. The doughty little + lady had also been under fire, her temper being every whit as bold as her + husband's. When Stanton with a monumental playfulness proposed to have her + portrait painted in a commanding attitude on the parapet of Fort Stevens, + she gave him the freedom of her tongue, because of the inadequacy of his + department.(9) + </p> + <p> + This incident had its aftermath. A country-place belonging to the + Postmaster General had been laid waste. Its owner thought that the + responsibility for permitting Early to come so near to Washington fell + chiefly on General Halleck. He made some sharp criticisms which became + public the General flew into a rage and wrote to the Secretary of War: + "The Postmaster General ought to be dismissed by the President from the + Cabinet." Stanton handed his letter to the President, from whom the next + day the General received this note: "Whether the remarks were 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 therefor. 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. Besides this, + truth is generally the best vindication against slander. I propose + continuing to be myself the judge as to when a member of the Cabinet shall + be dismissed." Lincoln spoke of the affair at his next conference with his + Ministers. "I must, myself, be the judge," said he, "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 an 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."(10) + </p> + <p> + Not yet had anything resulted either from the Canadian mission of Greeley, + or from the Richmond adventure of Gilmore and Jaquess. There was a + singular ominous pause in events. Lincoln could not be blind to the storm + signals that had attended the close of Congress. What were the Vindictives + about? As yet they had made no Sign. But it was incredible that they could + pass over his defiance without a return blow. When would it come? What + would it be? + </p> + <p> + He spent his nights at the Soldiers' Home. As a rule, his family were with + him. Sometimes, however, Mrs. Lincoln and his sons would be absent and his + only companion was one of the ardent young secretaries. Then he would + indulge in reading Shakespeare aloud, it might be with such forgetfulness + of time that only the nodding of the tired young head recalled him to + himself and brought the reading to an end. A visitor has left this + charming picture of Lincoln at the Soldiers' Home in the sad sweetness of + a summer night: + </p> + <p> + "The Soldiers' Home is a few miles out of Washington on the Maryland side. + It is situated on a beautiful wooded hill, which you ascend by a winding + path, shaded on both sides by wide-spread branches, forming a green arcade + above you. When you reach the top you stand between two mansions, large, + handsome and substantial, but with nothing about them to indicate the + character of either. That on the left is the Presidential country house; + that directly before you, is the 'Rest,' for soldiers who are too old for + further service . . . In the graveyard near at hand there are numberless + graves—some without a spear of grass to hide their newness—that + hold the bodies of volunteers. + </p> + <p> + "While we stood in the soft evening air, watching the faint trembling of + the long tendrils of waving willow, and feeling the dewy coolness that was + flung out by the old oaks above us, Mr. Lincoln joined us, and stood + silent, too, taking in the scene. + </p> + <p> + "'How sleep the brave who sink to rest, By all their country's wishes + blest," he said, softly. . . + </p> + <p> + "Around the 'Home' grows every variety of tree, particularly of the + evergreen class. Their branches brushed into the carriage as we passed + along, and left us with that pleasant woody smell belonging to leaves. One + of the ladies, catching a bit of green from one of these intruding + branches, said it was cedar, and another thought it spruce. + </p> + <p> + "'Let me discourse on a theme I understand,' said the President. 'I know + all about trees in right of being a backwoodsman. I'll show you the + difference between spruce, pine and cedar, and this shred of green, which + is neither one nor the other, but a kind of illegitimate cypress. He then + proceeded to gather specimens of each, and explain the distinctive + formation of foliage belonging to each."(11) + </p> + <p> + Those summer nights of July, 1864, had many secrets which the tired + President musing in the shadows of the giant trees or finding solace with + the greatest of earthly minds would have given much to know. How were + Gilmore and Jaquess faring? What was really afoot in Canada? And that + unnatural silence of the Vindictives, what did that mean? And the two + great armies, Grant's in Virginia, Sherman's in Georgia, was there never + to be stirring news of either of these? The hush of the moment, the + atmosphere of suspense that seemed to envelop him, it was just what had + always for his imagination had such strange charm in the stories of fated + men. He turned again to Macbeth, or to Richard II, or to Hamlet. + Shakespeare, too, understood these mysterious pauses—who better! + </p> + <p> + The sense of the impending was strengthened by the alarms of some of his + best friends. They besought him to abandon his avowed purpose to call for + a draft of half a million under the new Enrollment Act. Many voices joined + the one chorus: the country is on the verge of despair; you will wreck the + cause by demanding another colossal sacrifice. But he would not listen. + When, in desperation, they struck precisely the wrong note, and hinted at + the ruin of his political prospects, he had his calm reply: "it matters + not what becomes of me. We must have men. If I go down, I intend to go + like the Cumberland, with my colors flying."(12) + </p> + <p> + Thus the days passed until the eighteenth of July. Meanwhile the + irresponsible Greeley had made a sad mess of his Canadian adventure. + Though Lincoln had given him definite instructions, requiring him to + negotiate only with agents who could produce written authority from Davis, + and who would treat on the basis of restoration of the Union and + abandonment of slavery, Greeley ignored both these unconditional + requirements.(13) He had found the Confederate agents at Niagara. They had + no credentials. Nevertheless, he invited them to come to Washington and + open negotiations. Of the President's two conditions, he said not a word. + This was just what the agents wanted. It could easily be twisted into the + semblance of an attempt by Lincoln to sue for peace. They accepted the + invitation. Greeley telegraphed to Lincoln reporting what he had done. Of + course, it was plain that he had misrepresented Lincoln; that he had far + exceeded his authority; and that his perverse unfaithfulness must be + repudiated. On July eighteenth, Hay set out for Niagara with this paper in + Lincoln's handwriting.(14) + </p> + <p> + "To whom it may concern: Any proposition which embraces the restoration of + peace, the integrity of the whole Union, and the abandonment of slavery, + and which comes by and with an authority that can control the armies now + at war against the United States, will be received and considered by the + executive government of the United States, and will be met by liberal + terms on other substantial and collateral points and the bearer or bearers + thereof shall have, safe conduct both ways. ABRAHAM LINCOLN." + </p> + <p> + This was the end of the negotiation. The agents could not accept these + terms. Immediately, they published a version of what had happened: they + had been invited to come to Washington; subsequently, conditions had been + imposed which made it impossible for them to accept Was not the conclusion + plain? The Washington government was trying to open negotiations but it + was also in the fear of its own supporters playing craftily a double game. + These astute diplomats saw that there was a psychological crisis in the + North. By adding to the confusion of the hour they had well served their + cause. Greeley's fiasco was susceptible of a double interpretation. To the + pacifists it meant that the government, whatever may have been intended at + the start, had ended by setting impossible conditions of peace. To the + supporters of the war, it meant that whatever were the last thoughts of + the government, it had for a time contemplated peace without any + conditions at all. Lincoln was severely condemned, Greeley was ridiculed, + by both groups of interpreters. Why did not Greeley come out bravely and + tell the truth? Why did he not confess that he had suppressed Lincoln's + first set of instructions; that it was he, on his own responsibility, who + had led the Confederate agents astray; that he, not Lincoln was solely to + blame for the false impression that was now being used so adroitly to + injure the President? Lincoln proposed to publish their correspondence, + but made a condition that was characteristic. Greeley's letters rang with + cries of despair. He was by far the most influential Northern editor. + Lincoln asked him to strike out these hopeless passages. Greeley refused. + The correspondence must be published entire or not at all. Lincoln + suppressed it. He let the blame of himself go on; and he said nothing in + extenuation.(15) + </p> + <p> + He took some consolation in a "card" that appeared in the Boston + Transcript, July 22. It gave a brief account of the adventure of Gilmore + and Jaquess, and stated the answer given to them by the President of the + Confederacy. That answer, as restated by the Confederate Secretary of + State, was: "he had no authority to receive proposals for negotiations + except by virtue of his office as President of an independent Confederacy + and on this basis alone must proposals be made to him."(16) + </p> + <p> + There was another circumstance that may well have been Lincoln's + consolation in this tangle of cross-purposes. Only boldness could + extricate him from the mesh of his difficulties. The mesh was destined to + grow more and more of a snare; his boldness was to grow with his danger. + He struck the note that was to rule his conduct thereafter, when, on the + day he sent the final instructions to Greeley, in defiance of his timid + advisers, he issued a proclamation calling for a new draft of half a + million men.(17) + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0032" id="link2H_4_0032"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XXXII. THE AUGUST CONSPIRACY + </h2> + <p> + Though the Vindictives kept a stealthy silence during July, they were + sharpening their claws and preparing for a tiger spring whenever the + psychological moment should arrive. Those two who had had charge of the + Reconstruction Bill prepared a paper, in some ways the most singular paper + of the war period, which has established itself in our history as the + Wade-Davis Manifesto. This was to be the deadly shot that should unmask + the Vindictive batteries, bring their war upon the President out of the + shadows into the open. + </p> + <p> + Greeley's fiasco and Greeley's mortification both played into their hands. + The fiasco contributed to depress still more the despairing North. By this + time, there was general appreciation of the immensity of Grant's failure, + not only at Cold Harbor, but in the subsequent slaughter of the futile + assault upon Petersburg. We have the word of a member of the Committee + that the despair over Grant translated itself into blame of the + Administration.(1) The Draft Proclamation; the swiftly traveling report + that the government had wilfully brought the peace negotiations to a + stand-still; the continued cry that the war was hopeless; all these + produced, about the first of August, an emotional crisis—just the + sort of occasion for which Lincoln's enemies were waiting. + </p> + <p> + Then, too, there was Greeley's mortification. The Administration papers + made him a target for sarcasm. The Times set the pace with scornful + demands for "No more back door diplomacy."(2) Greeley answered in a rage. + He permitted himself to imply that the President originated the Niagara + negotiation and that Greeley "reluctantly" became a party to it. That + "reluctantly" was the truth, in a sense, but how falsely true! Wade and + Davis had him where they wanted him. On the fifth of August, The Tribune + printed their manifesto. It was an appeal to "the supporters of the + Administration . . . to check the encroachment of the Executive on the + authority of Congress, and to require it to confine itself to its proper + sphere." It insinuated the basest motives for the President's interest in + reconstruction, and for rejecting their own bill. "The President by + preventing this bill from becoming a law, holds the electoral votes of the + Rebel States at the dictation of his personal ambition. . . . If electors + for President be allowed to be chosen in either of those States, a + sinister light will be cast on the motives which induced the President to + 'hold for naught' the will of Congress rather than his government in + Louisiana and Arkansas." + </p> + <p> + After a long discussion of his whole course with regard to reconstruction, + having heaped abuse upon him with shocking liberality, the Manifesto + concluded: + </p> + <p> + "Such are the fruits of this rash and fatal act of the President—a + blow at the friends of the Administration, at the rights of humanity, and + at the principles of Republican government The President has greatly + presumed on the forbearance which the supporters of his Administration + have so long practised in view of the arduous conflict in which we are + engaged, and the reckless ferocity of our political opponents. But he must + understand that our support is of a 'cause' and not of a man; that the + authority of Congress is paramount and must be respected; that the whole + body of the Union men in Congress will not submit to be impeached by him + of rash and unconstitutional legislation; and if he wishes our support he + must confine him-self to his executive duties—to obey and execute, + not make the laws—to suppress by arms, armed rebellion, and leave + political reorganization to Congress. If the supporters of the government + fail to insist on this they become responsible for the usurpations they + fail to rebuke and are justly liable to the indignation of the people + whose rights and security, committed to their keeping, they sacrifice. Let + them consider the remedy of these usurpations, and, having found it, + fearlessly execute it." + </p> + <p> + To these incredible charges, Lincoln made no reply. He knew, what some + statesmen never appear to know, the times when one should risk all upon + that French proverb, "who excuses, accuses." However, he made his futile + attempt to bring Greeley to reason, to induce him to tell the truth about + Niagara without confessing to the country the full measure of the despair + that had inspired his course. When Greeley refused to do so, Lincoln + turned to other matters, to preparation for the draft, and grimly left the + politicians to do their worst. They went about it with zest. Their + reliance was chiefly their power to infect the type of party man who is + easily swept from his moorings by the cry that the party is in danger, + that sacrifices must be made to preserve the party unity, that otherwise + the party will go to pieces. By the middle of August, six weeks after + Lincoln's defiance of them on the fourth of July, they were in high + feather, convinced that most things were coming their way. American + politicians have not always shown an ability to read clearly the American + people. Whether the politicians were in error on August 14, 1864, and + again on August twenty-third, two dates that were turning points, is a + matter of debate to this day. As to August fourteenth, they have this, at + least, in their defense. The country had no political observer more keen + than the Scotch free lance who edited The New York Herald. It was + Bennett's editorial view that Lincoln would do well to make a virtue of + necessity and withdraw his candidacy because "the dissatisfaction which + had long been felt by the great body of American citizens has spread even + to his own supporters."(3) Confident that a great reaction against Lincoln + was sweeping the country, that the Manifesto had been launched in the very + nick of time, a meeting of conspirators was held in New York, at the house + of David Dudley Field, August fourteenth. Though Wade was now at his home + in Ohio, Davis was present. So was Greeley. It was decided to ask Lincoln + to withdraw. Four days afterward, a "call" was drawn up and sent out + confidentially near and far to be signed by prominent politicians. The + "call" was craftily worded. It summoned a new Union Convention to meet in + Cincinnati, September twenty-eighth, for the purpose either of rousing the + party to whole-hearted support of Lincoln, or of uniting all factions on + some new candidate. Greeley who could not attend the committee which drew + up the "call" wrote that "Lincoln is already beaten."(4) + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile, the infection of dismay had spread fast among the Lincoln + managers. Even before the meeting of the conspirators on the fourteenth, + Weed told the President that he could not be reelected.(5) + </p> + <p> + One of his bravest supporters, Washburne, came to the dismal conclusion + that "were an election to be held now in Illinois, we should be beaten." + Cameron, who had returned from Russia and was working hard for Lincoln in + Pennsylvania, was equally discouraging. So was Governor Morton in Indiana. + From all his "stanchest friends," wrote his chief manager to Lincoln, + "there was but one report. The tide is setting strongly against us."(6) + </p> + <p> + Lincoln's managers believed that the great host of free voters who are the + balance of power in American politics, were going in a drove toward the + camp of the Democrats. It was the business of the managers to determine + which one, or which ones, among the voices of discontent, represented + truly this controlling body of voters. They thought they knew. Two cries, + at least, that rang loud out of the Babel of the hour, should be heeded. + One of these harked back to Niagara. In the anxious ears of the managers + it dinned this charge: "the Administration prevented negotiations for + peace by tying together two demands, the Union must be restored and + slavery must be abolished; if Lincoln had left out slavery, he could have + had peace in a restored Union." It was ridiculous, as every one who had + not gone off his head knew. But so many had gone off their heads. And some + of Lincoln's friends were meeting this cry in a way that was raising up + other enemies of a different sort. Even so faithful a friend as Raymond, + editor of The Times and Chairman of the Republican National Executive + Committee, labored hard in print to prove that because Lincoln said he + "would consider terms that embraced the integrity of the Union and the + abandonment of slavery, he did not say that he would not receive them + unless they embraced both these conditions."(7) What would Sumner and all + the Abolitionists say to that? As party strategy, in the moment when the + old Vindictive Coalition seemed on the highroad to complete revival, was + that exactly the tune to sing? Then too there was the other cry that also + made a fearful ringing in the ears of the much alarmed Executive + Committee. There was wild talk in the air of an armistice. The hysteric + Greeley had put it into a personal letter to Lincoln. "I know that + nine-tenths of the whole American people, North and South, are anxious for + peace—peace on any terms—and are utterly sick of human + slaughter and devastation. I know that, to the general eye, it now seems + that the Rebels are anxious to negotiate and that we repulse their + advances. . . . I beg you, I implore you to inaugurate or invite proposals + for peace forthwith. And in case peace can not now be made, consent to an + armistice for one year, each party to retain all it now holds, but the + Rebel ports to be opened. Meantime, let a national convention be held and + there will surely be no war at all events."(8) + </p> + <p> + This armistice movement was industriously advertised in the Democratic + papers. It was helped along by the Washington correspondent of The Herald + who sowed broadcast the most improbable stories with regard to it. Today, + Secretary Fessenden was a convert to the idea; another day, Senator Wilson + had taken it up; again, the President, himself, was for an armistice.(9) + </p> + <p> + A great many things came swiftly to a head within a few days before or + after the twentieth of August. Every day or two, rumor took a new turn; or + some startling new alignment was glimpsed; and every one reacted to the + news after his kind. And always the feverish question, what is the + strength of the faction that approves this? Or, how far will this go + toward creating a new element in the political kaleidoscope? About the + twentieth of August, Jaquess and Gilmore threw a splashing stone into + these troubled waters. They published in The Atlantic a full account of + their interview with Davis, who, in the clearest, most unfaltering way had + told them that the Southerners were fighting for independence and for + nothing else; that no compromise over slavery; nothing but the recognition + of the Confederacy as a separate nation would induce them to put up their + bright swords. As Lincoln subsequently, in his perfect clarity of speech, + represented Davis: "He would accept nothing short of severance of the + Union—precisely what we will not and can not give.... He does not + attempt to deceive us. He affords us no excuse to deceive ourselves. He + can not voluntarily reaccept the Union; we can not voluntarily yield + it"(10) + </p> + <p> + Whether without the intrusion of Jaquess and Gilmore, the Executive + Committee would have come to the conclusion they now reached, is a mere + speculation. They thought they were at the point of desperation. They + thought they saw a way out, a way that reminds one of Jaquess and Gilmore. + On the twenty-second, Raymond sent that letter to Lincoln about "the tide + setting strongly against us." He also proposed the Committee's way of + escape: nothing but to offer 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."(11) He + assumed the offer would be rejected. Thus the clamor for negotiation would + be met and brought to naught. Having sent off his letter, Raymond got his + committee together and started for Washington for a council of + desperation. + </p> + <p> + And this brings us to the twenty-third of August. On that day, pondering + Raymond's letter, Lincoln took thought with himself what he should say to + the Executive Committee. A mere opportunist would have met the situation + with some insincere proposal, by the formulation of terms that would have + certainly been rejected. We have seen how Lincoln reasoned in such a + connection when he drew up the memorandum for Jaquess and Gilmore. His + present problem involved nothing of this sort. What he was thinking out + was how best to induce the committee to accept his own attitude; to become + for the moment believers in destiny; to nail their colors; turn their + backs as he was doing on these devices of diplomacy; and as to the + rest-permit to heaven. + </p> + <p> + Whatever his managers might think, the serious matter in Lincoln's mind, + that twenty-third of August, was the draft. And back of the draft, a + tremendous matter which probably none of them at the time appreciated. + Assuming that they were right in their political forecast, assuming that + he was not to be reelected, what did it signify? For him, there was but + one answer: that he had only five months in which to end the war. And with + the tide running strong against him, what could he do? But one thing: use + the war powers while they remained in his hands in every conceivable way + that might force a conclusion on the field of battle. He recorded his + determination. A Cabinet meeting was held on the twenty-third. Lincoln + handed his Ministers a folded paper and asked them to write their initials + on the back. At the time he gave them no intimation what the paper + contained. It was 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 cooperate 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 can not possibly + save it afterward."(12) + </p> + <p> + He took into his confidence "the stronger half of the Cabinet, Seward, + Stanton and Fessenden," and together they assaulted the Committee.(13) It + was a reception amazingly different from what had been expected. Instead + of terrified party diplomats shaking in their shoes, trying to face all + points at once, morbid over possible political defeats in every quarter, + they found what may have seemed to them a man in a dream; one who was + intensely sad, but who gave no suggestion of panic, no solicitude about + his own fate, no doubt of his ultimate victory. Their practical astuteness + was disarmed by that higher astuteness attained only by peculiar minds + which can discern through some sure interior test the rare moment when it + is the part of wisdom not to be astute at all. + </p> + <p> + Backed by those strong Ministers, all entirely under his influence, + Lincoln fully persuaded the Committee that at this moment, any overture + for peace would be the worst of strategic blunders, "would be worse than + losing the presidential contest—it would be ignominiously + surrendering it in advance."(14) + </p> + <p> + Lincoln won a complete spiritual victory over the Committee. These + dispirited men, who had come to Washington to beg for a policy of + negotiation, went away in such a different temper that Bennett's + Washington correspondent jeered in print at the "silly report" of their + having assembled to discuss peace.(15) Obviously, they had merely held a + meeting of the Executive Committee. The Tribune correspondent telegraphed + that they were confident of Lincoln's reelection.(16) + </p> + <p> + On the day following the conference with Lincoln, The Times announced: + "You may rest assured that all reports attributing to the government any + movements looking toward negotiations for peace at present are utterly + without foundation. . . . The government has not entertained or discussed + the project of proposing an armistice with the Rebels nor has it any + intention of sending commissioners to Richmond . . . its sole and + undivided purpose is to prosecute the war until the rebellion is quelled. + . . ." Of equal significance was the announcement by The Times, fairly to + be considered the Administration organ: "The President stands firm against + every solicitation to postpone the draft."(17) + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0033" id="link2H_4_0033"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XXXIII. THE RALLY TO THE PRESIDENT + </h2> + <p> + The question insists upon rising again: were the anti-Lincoln politicians + justified in their exultation, the Lincoln politicians justified in their + panic? Nobody will ever know; but it is worth considering that the shrewd + opportunist who expressed himself through The Herald changed his mind + during a fortnight in August. By one of those odd coincidences of which + history is full, it was on the twenty-third of the month that he warned + the Democrats and jeered at the Republicans in this insolent fashion: + </p> + <p> + "Many of our leading Republicans are now furious against Lincoln. . . . + Bryant of The Evening Post is very angry with Lincoln because Henderson, + The Post's publisher, has been arrested for defrauding the government. + </p> + <p> + "Raymond is a little shaky and has to make frequent journeys to Washington + for instructions. . . . + </p> + <p> + "Now, to what does all this amount? Our experience of politics convinces + us that it amounts to nothing. The sorehead Republicans complain that + Lincoln gives them either too little shoddy or too little nigger. What + candidate can they find who will give them more of either? + </p> + <p> + "The Chicago (Democratic) delegates must very emphatically comprehend that + they must beat the whole Re-publican party if they elect their candidate. + It is a strong party even yet and has a heavy army vote to draw upon. The + error of relying too greatly upon the weakness of the Republicans as + developed in the quarrels of the Republican leaders, may prove fatal . . . + the Republican leaders may have their personal quarrels, or their shoddy + quarrels, or their nigger quarrels with Old Abe; but he has the whip hand + of them and they will soon be bobbing back into the Republican fold, like + sheep who have gone astray. The most of the fuss some of them kick up now, + is simply to force Lincoln to give them their terms. . + </p> + <p> + "We have studied all classes of politicians in our day and we warn the + Chicago Convention to put no trust in the Republican soreheads. Furiously + as some of them denounce Lincoln now, and lukewarm as the rest of them are + in his cause, they will all be shouting for him as the only true Union + candidate as soon as the nominations have all been made and the chances + for bargains have passed. + </p> + <p> + "Whatever they say now, we venture to predict that Wade and his tail; and + Bryant and his tail; and Wendell Phillips and his tail; and Weed, Barney, + Chase and their tails; and Winter Davis, Raymond, Opdyke and Forney who + have no tails; will all make tracks for Old Abe's plantation, and will + soon be found crowing and blowing, and vowing and writing, and swearing + and stumping the state on his side, declaring that he and he alone, is the + hope of the nation, the bugaboo of Jeff Davis, the first of Conservatives, + the best of Abolitionists, the purest of patriots, the most gullible of + mankind, the easiest President to manage, and the person especially + predestined and foreordained by Providence to carry on the war, free the + niggers, and give all the faithful a fair share of the spoils. The + spectacle will be ridiculous; but it is inevitable."(1) + </p> + <p> + The cynic of The Herald had something to go upon besides his general + knowledge of politicians and elections. The Manifesto had not met with + universal acclaim. In the course of this month of surprises, there were + several things that an apprehensive observer might interpret as the shadow + of that hand of fate which was soon to appear upon the wall. In the + Republican Convention of the Nineteenth Ohio District, which included + Ashtabula County, Wade's county, there were fierce words and then with few + dissenting votes, a resolution, "That the recent attack upon the President + by Wade and Davis is, in our opinion, ill-timed, ill-tempered, and + ill-advised . . . and inasmuch as one of the authors of said protest is a + citizen of this Congressional District and indebted in no small degree to + our friendship for the position, we deem it a duty no less imperative than + disagreeable, to pronounce upon that disorganizing Manifesto our + unqualified disapproval and condemnation."(2) + </p> + <p> + To be sure there were plenty of other voices from Ohio and elsewhere + applauding "The War on the President." Nevertheless, there were signs of a + reluctance to join the movement, and some of these in quarters where they + had been least expected. Notably, the Abolitionist leaders were slow to + come forward. Sumner was particularly slow. He was ready, indeed, to admit + that a better candidate than Lincoln could be found, and there was a + whisper that the better candidate was himself. However, he was + unconditional that he would not participate in a fight against Lincoln. If + the President could be persuaded to withdraw, that was one thing. But + otherwise—no Sumner in the conspiracy.(3) + </p> + <p> + Was it possible that Chandler, Wade, Davis and the rest had jumped too + soon? To rebuild the Vindictive Coalition, the group in which Sumner had a + place was essential. This group was composed of Abolitionists, chiefly New + Englanders, and for present purpose their central figure was Andrew, the + Governor of Massachusetts. During the latter half of August, the fate of + the Conspiracy hung on the question, Can Andrew and his group be drawn in? + </p> + <p> + Andrew did not like the President. He was one of those who never got over + their first impression of the strange new man of 1861. He insisted that + Lincoln lacked the essential qualities of a leader. "To comprehend this + objection," says his frank biographer, "which to us seems so astoundingly + wide of the mark, we must realize that whenever the New Englander of that + generation uttered the word 'leader' his mind's eye was filled with the + image of Daniel Webster . . . his commanding presence, his lofty tone + about affairs of state, his sonorous profession of an ideal, his whole ex + cathedra attitude. All those characteristics supplied the aristocratic + connotation of the word 'leader' as required by a community in which a + considerable measure of aristocratic sympathy still lingered. Andrew and + his friends were like the men of old who having known Saul before time, + and beholding him prophesying, asked 'Is Saul also among the + prophets?'"(4) + </p> + <p> + But Andrew stood well outside the party cabals that were hatched at + Washington. He and his gave the conspirators a hearing from a reason + widely different from any of theirs. They distrusted the Executive + Committee. The argument that had swept the Committee for the moment off + its feet filled the stern New Englanders with scorn. They were prompt to + deny any sympathy with the armistice movement.(5) As Andrew put it, the + chief danger of the hour was the influence of the Executive Committee on + the President, whom he persisted in considering a weak man; the chief duty + of the hour was to "rescue" Lincoln, or in some other way to "check the + peace movement of the Republican managers."(6) if it were fairly certain + that this could be effected only by putting the conspiracy through, Andrew + would come in. But could he be clear in his own mind that this was the + thing to do? While he hesitated, Jaquess and Gilmore did their last small + part in American history and left the stage. They made a tour of the + Northern States explaining to the various governors the purposes of their + mission to Richmond, and reporting in full their audience with Davis and + the impressions they had formed.(7) This was a point in favor of Lincoln—as + Andrew thought. On the other hand, there were the editorials of The Times. + As late as the twenty-fourth of August, the day before the Washington + conference, The Times asserted that the President would waive all the + objects for which the war had been fought, including Abolition, if any + proposition of peace should come that embraced the integrity of the Union. + To be sure, this was not consistent with the report of Jaquess and Gilmore + and their statement of terms actually set down by Lincoln. And yet—it + came from the Administration organ edited by the chairman of the Executive + Committee. Was "rescue" of the President anything more than a dream? + </p> + <p> + It was just here that Lincoln intervened and revolutionized the whole + situation. With what tense interest Andrew must have waited for reports of + that conference held at Washington on the twenty-fifth. And with what + delight he must have received them! The publication on the twenty-sixth of + the sweeping repudiation of the negotiation policy; the reassertion that + the Administration's "sole and undivided purpose was to prosecute the + war." Simultaneous was another announcement, also in the minds of the New + Englanders, of first importance: "So far as there being any probability of + President Lincoln withdrawing from the canvass, as some have suggested, + the gentlemen comprising the Committee express themselves as confident of + his reelection."(8) + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile the letters asking for signatures to the pro-posed "call" had + been circulated and the time had come to take stock of the result From + Ohio, Wade had written in a sanguine mood. He was for issuing the call the + moment the Democratic Convention had taken action.(9) On the twenty-ninth + that convention met. On the thirtieth, the conspirators reassembled—again + at the house of David Dudley Field—and Andrew attended. He had not + committed himself either way. + </p> + <p> + And now Lincoln's firmness with the Executive Committee had its reward. + The New Englanders had made up their minds. Personally, he was still + obnoxious to them; but in light of his recent pronouncement, they would + take their chances on "rescuing" him from the Committee; and since he + would not withdraw, they would not cooperate in splitting the Union party. + But they could not convince the conspirators. A long debate ended in an + agreement to disagree. The New Englanders withdrew, confessed partisans of + Lincoln.(10) It was the beginning of the end. + </p> + <p> + Andrew went back to Boston to organize New England for Lincoln. J. M. + Forbes remained to organize New York.(11) All this, ignoring the Executive + Committee. It was a new Lincoln propaganda, not in opposition to the + Committee but in frank rivalry: "Since, or if, we must have Lincoln," said + Andrew, "men of motive and ideas must get into the lead, must elect him, + get hold of 'the machine' and 'run it' themselves."(12) + </p> + <p> + The bottom was out of the conspiracy; but the leaders at New York were + slow to yield. Despite the New England secession, they thought the + Democratic platform, on which McClellan had been invited to stand as + candidate for the Presidency, gave them another chance, especially the + famous resolution: + </p> + <p> + "That this Convention does explicitly declare, as the sense of the + American people, after four years of failure to restore the Union by the + experiment of war, during which, under the pretense of a military + necessity, or war power higher than the Constitution, the Constitution + itself has been disregarded in every part, and the public liberty and the + private right alike trodden down and the material prosperity of the + country essentially impaired, justice, humanity, liberty and the public + welfare demand that immediate efforts be made for a cessation of + hostilities, with a view to an ultimate convention of the States, or other + peaceable means to the end that at the earliest practicable moment peace + may be restored on the basis of the Federal Union of the States." + </p> + <p> + Some of the outlying conspirators also suffered a revival of hope. The + Cincinnati Gazette came out flat foot for the withdrawal of Lincoln.(13) + So did The Cincinnati Times, pressing hard for the new convention.(14) On + the second of September, three New York editors, Greeley for The Tribune, + Parke Godwin for The Post, and Tilton for The Independent, were busily + concocting a circular letter to Governors of the States with a view to + saving the conspiracy.(15) + </p> + <p> + But other men were at work in a different fashion, that same day. + Lincoln's cause had been wrecked so frequently by his generals that + whenever a general advanced, the event seems boldly dramatic. While the + politicians at New York and Chicago thought they were loading the scales + of fate, long lines of men in blue were moving through broken woodland and + over neglected fields against the gray legions defending Atlanta. Said + General Hood, it was "evident that General Sherman was moving with his + main body to destroy the Macon road, and that the fate of Atlanta depended + on our ability to defeat this movement." During the fateful pow-pow at the + house of Dudley Field, Sherman's army like a colossal scythe was swinging + round Atlanta, from the west and south, across Flint River, through the + vital railway, on toward the city. On the second of September, the news + that Atlanta was taken "electrified the people of the North."(16) + </p> + <p> + The first thought of every political faction, when, on the third, the + newspapers were ringing with this great news, was either how to capitalize + it for themselves, or how to forestall its capitalization by some one + else. Forbes "dashed off" a letter to Andrew urging an immediate + demonstration for Lincoln.(17) He was sure the Raymond group would somehow + try to use the victory as a basis for recovering their leadership. Davis + was eager to issue the "call" at once.(18) But his fellows hesitated. And + while they hesitated, Andrew and the people acted. On the sixth, a huge + Lincoln rally was held at Faneul Hall. Andrew presided. Sumner spoke.(19) + That same day, Vermont held State elections and went Republican by a + rousing majority. On the day following occurred the Convention of the + Union party of New York. Enthusiastic applause was elicited by a telegram + from Vermont. "The first shell that was thrown by Sherman into Atlanta has + exploded in the Copperhead Camp in this State, and the Unionists have + poured in a salute with shotted guns."(20) The mixed metaphors did not + reduce the telegram's effect. The New York Convention formally endorsed + Lincoln as the candidate of the Union party for President. + </p> + <p> + So much for the serious side of the swiftly changing political + kaleidoscope. There was also a comic side. Only three days sufficed—from + Davis's eagerness to proceed on the fourth to letters and articles written + or printed on the seventh—only three days, and the leaders of the + conspiracy began turning their coats. A typical letter of the seventh at + Syracuse describes "an interview with Mr. Opdyke this morning, who told me + the result of his efforts to obtain signatures to our call which was by no + means encouraging. I have found the same sentiment prevailing here. A + belief that it is too late to make any effectual demonstration, and + therefore that it is not wise to attempt any. I presume that the new-born + enthusiasm created by the Atlanta news will so encourage Lincoln that he + can not be persuaded to withdraw."(21) Two days more and the anti-Lincoln + newspapers began to draw in their horns. That Independent, whose editor + had been one of the three in the last ditch but a week before, handsomely + recanted, scuttling across to what now seemed the winning side. "The + prospect of victory is brilliant. If a fortnight ago the prospect of Mr. + Lincoln's reelection seemed doubtful, the case is now changed. The odious + character of the Chicago platform, the sunshiny effect of the late + victories, have rekindled the old enthusiasm in loyal hearts."(22) One day + more, and Greeley sullenly took his medicine. The Tribune began printing + "The Union Ticket—for President, Abraham Lincoln." + </p> + <p> + There remains the most diverting instance of the haste with which coats + were turned. On the sixth of September, only three days after Atlanta!—the + very day of the great Lincoln rally, the crown of Andrew's generalship, at + Fanuel Hall—a report was sent out from Washington that "Senator Wade + is to take the stump for Mr. Lincoln."(23) Less than a week later The + Washington Chronicle had learned "with satisfaction, though not with + surprise, that Senator Wade, notwithstanding his signature to a celebrated + Manifesto, had enrolled himself among the Lincoln forces."(24) Exactly two + weeks after Atlanta, Wade made his first speech for Lincoln as President. + It was a "terrific assault upon the Copperhead policy."(25) + </p> + <p> + The ship of the conspiracy was sinking fast, and on every hand was heard a + scurrying patter of escaping politicians. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0034" id="link2H_4_0034"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XXXIV. "FATHER ABRAHAM" + </h2> + <p> + The key-notes of Lincoln's course with the Executive Committee, his + refusal to do anything that appeared to him to be futile, his firmness not + to cast about and experiment after a policy, his basing of all his plans + on the vision in his own mind of their sure fruitage—these continued + to be his key-notes throughout the campaign. They ruled his action in a + difficult matter with which he was quickly forced to deal. + </p> + <p> + Montgomery Blair, the Postmaster General, was widely and bitterly + disliked. Originally a radical Republican, he had quarreled with that wing + of the party. In 1863 the Union League of Philadelphia, which elected all + the rest of the Cabinet honorary members of its organization, omitted + Blair. A reference to the Cabinet in the Union platform of 1864 was + supposed to be a hint that the Postmaster General would serve his country, + if he resigned. During the dark days of the summer of 1864, the + President's mail was filled with supplications for the dismissal of + Blair.(1) He was described as an incubus that might cause the defeat of + the Administration. + </p> + <p> + If the President's secretaries were not prejudiced witnesses, Blair had + worn out his welcome in the Cabinet. He had grown suspicious. He tried to + make Lincoln believe that Seward was plotting with the Copperheads. + Nevertheless, Lincoln turned a deaf ear to the clamor against him. Merely + personal considerations were not compelling. If it was true, as for a + while he believed it was, that his election was already lost, he did not + propose to throw Blair over as a mere experiment. True to his principles + he would not become a juggler with futility. + </p> + <p> + The turn of the tide in his favor put the matter in a new light. All the + enemies of Blair renewed their attack on a slightly different line. One of + those powerful New Englanders who had come to Lincoln's aid at such an + opportune moment led off. On the second day following the news of Atlanta, + Henry Wilson wrote to him, "Blair, every one hates. Tens of thousands of + men will be lost to you, or will give you a reluctant vote because of the + Blairs."(2) + </p> + <p> + If this was really true, the selfless man would not hesitate to' require + of Blair the same sort of sacrifice he would, in other conditions, require + of himself. Lincoln debated this in his own mind nearly three weeks. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile, various other politicians joined the hue and cry. An old friend + of Lincoln's, Ebenezer Peck, came east from Illinois to work upon him + against Blair.(3) Chandler, who like Wade was eager to get out of the + wrong ship, appeared at Washington as a friend of the Administration and + an enemy of Blair.(4) But still Lincoln did not respond. After all, was it + certain that one of these votes would change if Blair did not resign? + Would anything be accomplished, should Lincoln require his resignation, + except the humiliation of a friend, the gratification of a pack of + malcontents? And then some one thought of a mode for giving definite + political value to Blair's removal. Who did it? The anonymous author of + the only biography of Chandler claims this doubtful honor for the great + Jacobin. Lincoln's secretaries, including Colonel Stoddard who had charge + of his correspondence, are ignorant on the subject.(5) It may well have + been Chandler who negotiated a bargain with Fremont, if the story is to be + trusted, which concerned Blair. A long-standing, relentless quarrel + separated these two. That Fremont as a candidate was nobody had long been + apparent; and yet it was worth while to get rid of him. Chandler, or + another, extracted a promise from Fremont that if Blair were removed, he + would resign. On the strength of this promise, a last appeal was made to + Lincoln. Such is the legend. The known fact is that on September + twenty-second Fremont withdrew his candidacy. The next day Lincoln sent + this note to Blair: + </p> + <p> + "You have generously said to me more than once that whenever your + resignation could be a relief to me, it was at my disposal. The time has + come. You very well know that this proceeds from no dissatisfaction of + mine, with you personally or officially. Your uniform kindness has been + unsurpassed by that of any friend."(6) + </p> + <p> + No incident displays more clearly the hold which Lincoln had acquired on + the confidence and the affection of his immediate associates. Blair at + once tendered his resignation: "I can not take leave of you," said he, + "without renewing the expression of my gratitude for the uniform kindness + which has marked your course with regard to myself."(7) That he was not + perfunctory, that his great chief had acquired over him an ascendency + which was superior to any strain, was demonstrated a few days later in New + York. On the twenty-seventh, Cooper Institute was filled with an + enthusiastic Lincoln meeting. Blair was a speaker. He was received with + loud cheers and took occasion to touch upon his relations with the + President. "I retired," said he, "on the recommendation of my own father. + My father has passed that period of life when its honors or its rewards, + or its glories have any charm for him. He looks backward only, and forward + only, to the grandeur of this nation and the happiness of this great + people who have grown up under the prosperous condition of the Union; and + he would not permit a son of his to stand in the way of the glorious and + patriotic President who leads us on to success and to the final triumph + that is in store for us."(8) + </p> + <p> + It was characteristic of this ultimate Lincoln that he offered no + explanations, even in terminating the career of a minister; that he gave + no confidences. Gently inexorable, he imposed his will in apparent + unconsciousness that it might be questioned. Along with his overmastering + kindness, he had something of the objectivity of a natural force. It was + the mood attained by a few extraordinary men who have reached a point + where, without becoming egoists, they no longer distinguish between + themselves and circumstance; the mood of those creative artists who have + lost themselves, in the strange way which the dreamers have, who have also + found themselves. + </p> + <p> + Even in the new fascination of the probable turn of the tide, Lincoln did + not waver in his fixed purpose to give all his best energies, and the + country's best energies, to the war. In October, there was a new panic + over the draft. Cameron implored him to suspend it in Pennsylvania until + after the presidential election. An Ohio committee went to Washington with + the same request. Why should not the arguments that had prevailed with + him, or were supposed to have prevailed with him, for the removal of a + minister, prevail also in the way of a brief flagging of military + preparation? But Lincoln would not look upon the two cases in the same + spirit. "What is the Presidency worth to me," he asked the Ohio committee, + "if I have no country ?"(9) + </p> + <p> + From the active campaign he held himself aloof. He made no political + speeches. He wrote no political letters. The army received his constant + detailed attention. In his letters to Grant, he besought him to be + unwavering in a relentless persistency. + </p> + <p> + As Hay records, he was aging rapidly. The immense strain of his labor was + beginning to tell both in his features and his expression. He was moving + in a shadow. But his old habit of merriment had not left him; though it + was now, more often, a surface merriment. On the night of the October + elections, Lincoln sat in the telegraph room of the War Office while the + reports were coming in. "The President in a lull of despatches, took from + his pocket the Naseby Papers and read several chapters of the Saint and + Martyr, Petroleum V. They were immensely amusing. Stanton and Dana enjoyed + them scarcely less than the President, who read on, con amore, until nine + o'clock."(10) + </p> + <p> + The presidential election was held on the eighth of November. That night, + Lincoln with his Secretary was again in the War Office. The early returns + showed that the whole North was turning to him in enormous majorities. He + showed no exultation. When the Assistant Secretary of the Navy spoke + sharply of the complete effacement politically of Henry Winter Davis + against whom he had a grudge, Lincoln said, "You have more of that feeling + of personal resentment than I. Perhaps I have too little of it; but I + never thought it paid. A man has no time to spend half his life in + quarrels. If any man ceases to attack me I never remember the past against + him."(11) + </p> + <p> + "Towards midnight," says Hay in his diary, "we had supper. The President + went awkwardly and hospitably to work shovelling out the fried oysters. He + was most agreeable and genial all the evening. . . . Captain Thomas came + up with a band about half-past two and made some music. The President + answered from a window with rather unusual dignity and effect, and we came + home."(12) + </p> + <p> + "I am thankful to God," Lincoln said, in response to the serenade, "for + this approval of the people; but while 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."(13) + </p> + <p> + During the next few days a torrent of congratulations came pouring in. + What most impressed the secretaries was his complete freedom from elation. + "He seemed to deprecate his own triumph and sympathize rather with the + beaten than the victorious party." His formal recognition of the event was + a prepared reply to a serenade on the night of November tenth. A great + crowd filled the space in front of the north portico of the White House. + Lincoln appeared at a window. A secretary stood at his side holding a + lighted candle while he read from a manuscript. The brief address is + justly ranked among his ablest occasional utterances. As to the mode of + the deliverance, he said to Hay, "Not very graceful, but I am growing old + enough not to care much for the manner of doing things."(14) + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0035" id="link2H_4_0035"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XXXV. THE MASTER OF THE MOMENT + </h2> + <h3> + In Lincoln's life there are two great achievements. + </h3> + <p> + One he brought to pass in time for him to behold his own victory. The + other he saw only with the eyes of faith. The first was the drawing + together of all the elements of nationalism in the American people and + consolidating them into a driving force. The second was laying the + foundation of a political temper that made impossible a permanent victory + for the Vindictives. It was the sad fate of this nation, because Lincoln's + hand was struck from the tiller at the very instant of the crisis, to + suffer the temporary success of that faction he strove so hard to destroy. + The transitoriness of their evil triumph, the eventual rally of the nation + against them, was the final victory of the spirit of Lincoln. + </p> + <p> + The immediate victory he appreciated more fully and measured more exactly, + than did any one else. He put it into words in the fifth message. While + others were crowing with exaltation over a party triumph, he looked deeper + to the psychological triumph. Scarcely another saw that the most + significant detail of the hour was in the Democratic attitude. Even the + bitterest enemies of nationalism, even those who were believed by all + others to desire the breaking of the Union, had not thought it safe to say + so. They had veiled their intent in specious words. McClellan in accepting + the Democratic nomination had repudiated the idea of disunion. Whether the + Democratic politicians had agreed with him or not, they had not dared to + contradict him. This was what Lincoln put the emphasis on in his message: + "The purpose of the people within the loyal States to maintain the Union + was never more firm nor more nearly unanimous than now. . . . No candidate + for any office, 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 motive + 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."(1) + </p> + <p> + This temper of the final Lincoln, his supreme detachment, the kind + impersonality of his intellectual approach, has no better illustration in + his state papers. He further revealed it in a more intimate way. The day + he sent the message to Congress, he also submitted to the Senate a + nomination to the great office of Chief Justice. When Taney died in the + previous September, there was an eager stir among the friends of Chase. + They had hopes but they felt embarrassed. Could they ask this great honor, + the highest it is in the power of the American President to be-stow, for a + man who had been so lacking in candor as Chase had been? Chase's course + during the summer had made things worse. He had played the time-server. No + one was more severe upon Lincoln in July; in August, he hesitated, would + not quite commit himself to the conspiracy but would not discourage it; + almost gave it his blessing; in September, but not until it was quite + plain that the conspiracy was failing, he came out for Lincoln. However, + his friends in the Senate overcame their embarrassment—how else + could it be with Senators?—and pressed his case. And when Senator + Wilson, alarmed at the President's silence, tried to apologize for Chase's + harsh remarks about the President, Lincoln cut him short. "Oh, as to that, + I care nothing," said he. The embarrassment of the Chase propaganda amused + him. When Chase himself took a hand and wrote him a letter, Lincoln said + to his secretary, "What is it about?" "Simply a kind and friendly letter," + replied the secretary. Lincoln smiled. "File it with the other + recommendations," said he.(2) + </p> + <p> + He regarded Chase as a great lawyer, Taney's logical successor. All the + slights the Secretary had put upon the President, the intrigues to + supplant him, the malicious sayings, were as if they had never occurred. + When Congress assembled, it was Chase's name that he sent to the Senate. + It was Chase who, as Chief Justice, administered the oath at Lincoln's + second inauguration. + </p> + <p> + Long since, Lincoln had seen that there had ceased to any half-way house + in the matter of emancipation. His thoughts were chiefly upon the future. + And as mere strategy, he saw that slavery had to be got out of the way. It + was no longer a question, who liked this, who did not. To him, the + ultimate issue was the restoration of harmony among the States. Those + States which had been defeated in the dread arbitrament of battle, would + in any event encounter difficulties, even deadly perils, in the narrow way + which must come after defeat and which might or might not lead to + rehabilitation. + </p> + <p> + Remembering the Vindictive temper, remembering the force and courage of + the Vindictive leaders, it was imperative to clear the field of the + slavery issue before the reconstruction issue was fairly launched. It was + highly desirable to commit to the support of the governments the whole + range of influences that were in earnest about emancipation. Furthermore, + the South itself was drifting in the same direction. In his interview with + Gilmore and Jaquess, Davis had said: "You have already emancipated nearly + two millions of our slaves; and if you will take care of them, you may + emancipate the rest. I had a few when the war began. I was of some use to + them; they never were of any to me."(3) + </p> + <p> + The Southern President had "felt" his constituency on the subject of + enrolling slaves as soldiers with a promise of emancipation as the reward + of military service. + </p> + <p> + The fifth message urged Congress to submit to the States an amendment to + the Constitution abolishing slavery. Such action had been considered in + the previous session, but nothing had been done. At Lincoln's suggestion, + it had been recommended in the platform of the Union party. Now, with the + President's powerful influence behind it, with his prestige at full + circle, the amendment was rapidly pushed forward. Before January ended, it + had been approved by both Houses. Lincoln had used all his personal + influence to strengthen its chances in Congress where, until the last + minute, the vote was still in doubt.(4) + </p> + <p> + While the amendment was taking its way through Congress, a shrewd old + politician who thought he knew the world better than most men, that + Montgomery Blair, Senior, who was father of the Postmaster General, had + been trying on his own responsibility to open negotiations between + Washington and Richmond. His visionary ideas, which were wholly without + the results he intended, have no place here. And yet this fanciful episode + had a significance of its own. Had it not occurred, the Confederate + government probably would not have appointed commissioners charged with + the hopeless task of approaching the Federal government for the purpose of + negotiating peace between "the two countries." + </p> + <p> + Now that Lincoln was entirely in the ascendent at home, and since the + Confederate arms had recently suffered terrible reverses, he was no longer + afraid that negotiation might appear to be the symptom of weakness. He + went so far as to consent to meet the Commissioners himself. On a steamer + in Hampton Roads, Lincoln and Seward had a long conference with three + members of the Confederate government, particularly the Vice-President, + Alexander H. Stephens. + </p> + <p> + It has become a tradition that Lincoln wrote at the top of a sheet of + paper the one word "Union"; that he pushed it across the table and said, + "Stephens, write under that anything you want" There appears to be no + foundation for the tale in this form. The amendment had committed the + North too definitely to emancipation. Lincoln could not have proposed + Union without requiring emancipation, also. And yet, with this limitation, + the spirit of the tradition is historic. There can be no doubt that he + presented to the commissioners about the terms which the year before he + had drawn up as a memorandum for Gilmore and Jaquess: Union, the + acceptance of emancipation, but also instantaneous restoration of + political autonomy to the Southern States, and all the influence of the + Administration in behalf of liberal compensation for the loss of slave + property. But the commissioners had no authority to consider terms that + did not recognize the existence of "two countries." However, this Hampton + Roads Conference gave Lincoln a new hope. He divined, if he did not + perceive, that the Confederates were on the verge of despair. If he had + been a Vindictive, this would have borne fruit in ferocious telegrams to + his generals to strike and spare not. What Lincoln did was to lay before + the Cabinet this proposal:—that they advise Congress to offer the + Confederate government the sum of four hundred million dollars, provided + the war end and the States in secession acknowledge the authority of the + Federal government previous to April 1, 1865. But the Cabinet, complete as + was his domination in some respects, were not ripe for such a move as + this. "'You are all against me,' said Lincoln sadly and in evident + surprise at the want of statesmanlike liberality on the part of the + executive council," to quote his Secretary, "folded and laid away the + draft of his message."(5) Nicolay believes that the idea continued vividly + in his mind and that it may be linked with his last public utterance—"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 is + proper." + </p> + <p> + It was now obvious to every one outside the Confederacy that the war would + end speedily in a Northern victory. To Lincoln, therefore, the duty of the + moment, overshadowing all else, was the preparation for what should come + after. Reconstruction. More than ever it was of first importance to decide + whether the President or Congress should deal with this great matter. And + now occurred an event which bore witness at once to the beginning of + Lincoln's final struggle with the Vindictives and to that personal + ascendency which was steadily widening. One of those three original + Jacobins agreed to become his spokesman in the Senate. As the third person + of the Jacobin brotherhood, Lyman Trumbull had always been out of place. + He had gone wrong not from perversity of the soul but from a mental + failing, from the lack of inherent light, from intellectual + conventionality. But he was a good man. One might apply to him Mrs. + Browning's line: "Just a good man made a great man." And in his case, as + in so many others, sheer goodness had not been sufficient in the midst of + a revolution to save his soul. To quote one of the greatest of the + observers of human life: "More brains, O Lord, more brains." Though + Trumbull had the making of an Intellectual, politics had very nearly + ruined him. For all his good intentions it took him a long time to see + what Hawthorne saw at first sight-that Lincoln was both a powerful + character and an original mind. Still, because Trumbull was really a good + man, he found a way to recover his soul. What his insight was not equal to + perceiving in 1861, experience slowly made plain to him in the course of + the next three years. Before 1865 he had broken with the Vindictives; he + had come over to Lincoln. Trumbull still held the powerful office of + Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He now undertook to be the + President's captain in a battle on the floor of the Senate for the + recognition of Louisiana. + </p> + <p> + The new government in Louisiana had been in actual operation for nearly a + year. Though Congress had denounced it; though the Manifesto had held it + up to scorn as a monarchial outrage; Lincoln had quietly, steadily, + protected and supported it. It was discharging the function of a regular + State government. A governor had been elected and inaugurated-that + Governor Hahn whom Lincoln had congratulated as Louisiana's first Free + State Governor. He could say this because the new electorate which his + mandate had created had assembled a constitutional convention and had + abolished slavery. And it had also carried out the President's views with + regard to the political status of freedmen. Lincoln was not a believer in + general negro suffrage. He was as far as ever from the theorizing of the + Abolitionists. The most he would approve was the bestowal of suffrage on a + few Superior negroes, leaving the rest to be gradually educated into + citizenship. The Louisiana Convention had authorized the State Legislature + to make, when it felt prepared to do so, such a limited extension of + suffrage.(6) + </p> + <p> + In setting up this new government, Lincoln had created a political vessel + in which practically all the old electorate of Louisiana could find their + places the moment they gave up the war and accepted the two requisites, + union and emancipation. That electorate could proceed at once to rebuild + the social-political order of the State without any interval of + "expiation." All the power of the Administration would be with them in + their labors. That this was the wise as well as the generous way to + proceed, the best minds of the North had come to see. Witness the + conversion of Trumbull. But there were four groups of fanatics who were + dangerous: extreme Abolitionists who clamored for negro equality; men like + Wade and Chandler, still mad with the lust of conquest, raging at the + President who had stood so resolutely between them and their desire; the + machine politicians who could never understand the President's methods, + who regarded him as an officious amateur; and the Little Men who would + have tried to make political capital of the blowing of the last trump. All + these, each for a separate motive, attacked the President because of + Louisiana. + </p> + <p> + The new government had chosen Senators. Here was a specific issue over + which the Administration and its multiform opposition might engage in a + trial of strength. The Senate had it in its power to refuse to seat the + Louisiana Senators. Could the Vindictive leaders induce it to go to that + length? The question took its natural course of reference to the Judiciary + Committee. On the eighteenth of February, Trumbull opened what was + destined to be a terrible chapter in American history, the struggle + between light and darkness over reconstruction. Trumbull had ranged behind + Lincoln the majority of his committee. With its authority he moved a joint + resolution recognizing the new government of Louisiana. + </p> + <p> + And then began a battle royal. Trumbull's old associates were promptly + joined by Sumner. These three rallied against the resolution all the + malignancy, all the time-serving, all the stupidity, which the Senate + possessed. Bitter language was exchanged by men who had formerly been as + thick as thieves. + </p> + <p> + "You and I," thundered Wade, "did not differ formerly on this subject We + considered it a mockery, a miserable mockery, to recognize this Louisiana + organization as a State in the Union." He sneered fiercely, "Whence comes + this new-born zeal of the Senator from Illinois? . . . Sir, it is the most + miraculous conversion that has taken place since Saint Paul's time."(7) + </p> + <p> + Wade did not spare the President. Metaphorically speaking, he shook a fist + in his face, the fist of a merciless old giant "When the foundation of + this government is sought to be swept away by executive usurpation, it + will not do to turn around to me and say this comes from a President I + helped to elect. . . . If the President of the United States operating + through his major generals can initiate a State government, and can bring + it here and force us, compel us, to receive on this floor these mere + mockeries, these men of straw who represent nobody, your Republic is at an + end . . . talk not to me of your ten per cent. principle. A more absurd, + monarchial and anti-American principle was never announced on God's + earth."(8) + </p> + <p> + Amidst a rain of furious personalities, Lincoln's spokesman kept his + poise. It was sorely tried by two things: by Sumner's frank use of every + device of parliamentary obstruction with a view to wearing out the + patience of the Senate, and by the cynical alliance, in order to balk + Lincoln, of the Vindictives with the Democrats. What they would not risk + in 1862 when their principles had to wait upon party needs, they now + considered safe strategy. And if ever the Little Men deserved their label + it was when they played into the hands of the terrible Vindictives, thus + becoming responsible for the rejection of Lincoln's plan of + reconstruction. Trumbull upbraided Sumner for "associating himself with + those whom he so often denounced, for the purpose of calling the yeas and + nays and making dilatory motions" to postpone action until the press of + other business should compel the Senate to set the resolution aside. + Sumner's answer was that he would employ against the measure every + instrument he could find "in the arsenal of parliamentary warfare." + </p> + <p> + With the aid of the Democrats, the Vindictives carried the day. The + resolution was "dispensed with."(9) + </p> + <p> + As events turned out it was a catastrophe. But this was not apparent at + the time. Though Lincoln had been beaten for the moment, the opposition + was made up of so many and such irreconcilable elements that as long as he + could hold together his own following, there was no reason to suppose he + would not in the long run prevail. He was never in a firmer, more + self-contained mood than on the last night of the session.(10) Again, as + on that memorable fourth of July, eight months before, he was in his room + at the Capitol signing the last-minute bills. Stanton was with him. On + receiving a telegram from Grant, the Secretary handed it to the President + Grant reported that Lee had proposed a conference for the purpose of "a + satisfactory adjustment of the present unhappy difficulties by means of a + military convention." Without asking for the Secretary's opinion, Lincoln + wrote out a reply which he directed him to sign and despatch immediately. + "The President directs me to say that he wishes you to have no conference + with General Lee, unless it be for the 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."(11) + </p> + <p> + In the second inaugural (12) delivered the next day, there is not the + faintest shadow of anxiety. It breathes a lofty confidence as if his soul + was gazing meditatively downward upon life, and upon his own work, from a + secure height. The world has shown a sound instinct in fixing upon one + expression, "with malice toward none, with charity for all," as the + key-note of the final Lincoln. These words form the opening line of that + paragraph of unsurpassable prose in which the second inaugural culminates: + </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> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0036" id="link2H_4_0036"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XXXVI. PREPARING A DIFFERENT WAR + </h2> + <p> + During the five weeks which remained to Lincoln on earth, the army was his + most obvious concern. He watched eagerly the closing of the enormous trap + that had been slowly built up surrounding Lee. Toward the end of March he + went to the front, and for two weeks had his quarters on a steamer at City + Point. It was during Lincoln's visit that Sherman came up from North + Carolina for his flying conference with Grant, in which the President took + part. Lincoln was at City Point when Petersburg fell. Early on the morning + of April third, he joined Grant who gives a strange glimpse in his Memoirs + of their meeting in the deserted city which so recently had been the last + bulwark of the Confederacy.(1) The same day, Richmond fell. Lincoln had + returned to City Point, and on the following day when confusion reigned in + the burning city, he walked through its streets attended only by a few + sailors and by four friends. He visited Libby Prison; and when a member of + his party said that Davis ought to be hanged, Lincoln replied, "Judge not + that ye be not judged."(2) His deepest thoughts, however, were not with + the army. The time was at hand when his statesmanship was to be put to its + most severe test. He had not forgotten the anxious lesson of that success + of the Vindictives in balking momentarily the recognition of Louisiana. It + was war to the knife between him and them. Could he reconstruct the Union + in a wise and merciful fashion despite their desperate opposition? + </p> + <p> + He had some strong cards in his hand. First of all, he had time. Congress + was not in session. He had eight months in which to press forward his own + plans. If, when Congress assembled the following December, it should be + confronted by a group of reconciled Southern States, would it venture to + refuse them recognition? No one could have any illusions as to what the + Vindictives would try to do. They would continue the struggle they had + begun over Louisiana; and if their power permitted, they would rouse the + nation to join battle with the President on that old issue of the war + powers, of the dictatorship. + </p> + <p> + But in Lincoln's hand there were four other cards, all of which Wade and + Chandler would find it hard to match. He had the army. In the last + election the army had voted for him enthusiastically. And the army was + free from the spirit of revenge, the Spirit which Chandler built upon. + They had the plain people, the great mass whom the machine politicians had + failed to judge correctly in the August Conspiracy. Pretty generally, he + had the Intellectuals. Lastly, he had—or with skilful generalship he + could have—the Abolitionists. + </p> + <p> + The Thirteenth Amendment was not yet adopted. The question had been + raised, did it require three-fourths of all the States for its adoption, + or only three-fourths of those that were ranked as not in rebellion. Here + was the issue by means of which the Abolitionists might all be brought + into line. It was by no means certain that every Northern State would vote + for the amendment. In the smaller group of States, there was a chance that + the amendment might fail. But if it were submitted to the larger group; + and if every Reconstructed State, before Congress met, should adopt the + amendment; and if it was apparent that with these Southern adoptions the + amendment must prevail, all the great power of the anti-slavery sentiment + would be thrown on the side of the President in favor of recognizing the + new State governments and against the Vindictives. Lincoln held a hand of + trumps. Confidently, but not rashly, he looked forward to his peaceful war + with the Vindictives. + </p> + <p> + They were enemies not to be despised. To begin with, they were experienced + machine politicians; they had control of well-organized political rings. + They were past masters of the art of working up popular animosities. And + they were going to use this art in that dangerous moment of reaction which + invariably follows the heroic tension of a great war. The alignment in the + Senate revealed by the Louisiana battle had also a significance. The fact + that Sumner, who was not quite one of them, became their general on that + occasion, was something to remember. They had made or thought they had + made other powerful allies. The Vice President, Andrew Johnson-the new + president of the Senate-appeared at this time to be cheek by jowl with the + fiercest Vindictives of them all. It would be interesting to know when the + thought first occurred to them: "If anything should happen to Lincoln, his + successor would be one of us!" + </p> + <p> + The ninth of April arrived and the news of Lee's surrender. + </p> + <p> + "The popular excitement over the victory was such that on Monday, the + tenth, crowds gathered before the Executive Mansion several times during + the day and called out the President for speeches. Twice he responded by + coming to the window and saying a few words which, however, indicated that + his mind was more occupied with work than with exuberant rejoicing. As + briefly as he could he excused himself, but promised that on the following + evening for which a formal demonstration was being arranged, he would be + prepared to say something."(3) + </p> + <p> + The paper which he read to the crowd that thronged the grounds of the + White House on the night of April eleventh, was his last public utterance. + It was also one of his most remarkable ones. In a way, it was his + declaration of war against the Vindictives.(4) It is the final statement + of a policy toward helpless opponents—he refused to call them + enemies—which among the conquerors of history is hardly, if at all, + to be paralleled.(5) + </p> + <p> + "By these recent successes the reinauguration of the national authority—reconstruction—which + has had a large share of thought from the first, is pressed more closely + upon our attention. It is fraught with great difficulty. Unlike a case of + war between independent nations, there is no authorized organ for us to + treat with-no one man has authority to give up the rebellion for any other + man. We simply must begin with, and mould from, disorganized and + discordant elements. Nor is it a small additional embarrassment that we, + the loyal people, differ among ourselves as to the mode, manner and + measure of reconstruction. As a general rule, I abstain from reading the + reports of attacks upon myself, wishing not to be provoked by that to + which I can not properly offer an answer. In spite of this precaution, + however, it comes to my knowledge that I am much censured for some + supposed agency in setting up and seeking to sustain the new State + government of Louisiana." + </p> + <p> + He reviewed in full the history of the Louisiana experiment From that he + passed to the theories put forth by some of his enemies with regard to the + constitutional status of the Seceded States. His own theory that the + States never had been out of the Union because constitutionally they could + not go out, that their governmental functions had merely been temporarily + interrupted; this theory had always been roundly derided by the + Vindictives and even by a few who were not Vindictives. Sumner had + preached the idea that the Southern States by attempting to secede had + committed "State suicide" and should now be treated as Territories. + Stevens and the Vindictives generally, while avoiding Sumner's subtlety, + called them "conquered provinces." And all these wanted to take them from + under the protection of the President and place them helpless at the feet + of Congress. To prevent this is the purpose that shines between the lines + in the latter part of Lincoln's valedictory: + </p> + <p> + "We all agree that the Seceded States, so called, are out of their proper + practical relation with the Union, and that the sole object of the + government, civil and military, in regard to those States, is to again get + them into that proper practical relation. I believe that it is not only + possible, but in fact easier, to do this without deciding or even + considering whether these States have ever been out of the Union, than + with it Finding themselves safely at home, it would be utterly immaterial + whether they had ever been abroad. Let us all join in doing the acts + necessary to restoring the proper practical relations between these States + and the Union, and each forever after innocently indulge his own opinion + whether in doing the acts he brought the States from without into the + Union, or only gave them proper assistance, they never having been out of + it. The amount of constituency, so to speak, on which the new Louisiana + government rests would be more satisfactory to all if it contained 50,000 + or 30,000, or even 20,000 instead of only about 12,000, as it does. It is + also unsatisfactory to some that the elective franchise is not given to + the colored man. I would myself prefer that it were now conferred on the + very intelligent, and on those who served our cause as soldiers. + </p> + <p> + "Still, the question is not whether the Louisiana government, as it + stands, is quite all that is desirable. The question is, will it be wiser + to take it as it is and help to improve it, or to reject and disperse it? + Can Louisiana be brought into proper practical relation with the Union + sooner by sustaining or by discarding her new State government? Some + twelve thousand voters in the heretofore slave State of Louisiana have + sworn allegiance to the Union, assumed to be the rightful political power + of the State, held elections, organized a State government, adopted a free + State constitution, giving the benefit of public schools equally to black + and white and empowering the Legislature to confer the elective franchise + upon the colored man. Their Legislature has already voted to ratify the + constitutional amendment recently passed by Congress abolishing slavery + throughout the nation. These 12,000 persons are thus fully committed to + the Union and to perpetual freedom in the State—committed to the + very things, and nearly all the things, the nation wants—and they + ask the nation's recognition and its assistance to make good their + committal. + </p> + <p> + "Now, if we reject and spurn them, we do our utmost to disorganize and + disperse them. We, in effect, say to the white man: You are worthless or + worse; we will neither help you nor be helped by you. To the blacks we + say: This cup of liberty which these, your old masters, hold to your lips + we will dash from you and leave you to the chances of gathering the + spilled and scattered contents in some vague and undefined when, where and + how. If this course, discouraging and paralyzing both white and black, has + any tendency to bring Louisiana into proper practical relations with the + Union, I have so far been unable to perceive it. If, on the contrary, we + recognize and sustain the new government of Louisiana, the converse of all + this is made true. We encourage the hearts and nerve the arms of 12,000 to + adhere to their work, and argue for it, and proselyte for it, and fight + for it, and feed it, and grow it, and ripen it to a complete success. The + colored man, too, in seeing all united for him, is inspired with vigilance + and energy, and daring, to the same end. Grant that he desires the + elective franchise, will he not attain it sooner by saving the already + advanced steps toward it than by running backward over them? Concede that + the new government of Louisiana is only to what it should be as the egg is + to the fowl, we shall sooner have the fowl by hatching the egg than by + smashing it. + </p> + <p> + "Again, if we reject Louisiana, we also reject one vote in favor of the + proposed amendment to the national Constitution. To meet this proposition + it has been argued that no more than three-fourths of those States which + have not attempted secession are necessary to validly ratify the amendment + I do not commit myself against this further than to say that such a + ratification would be questionable, and sure to be persistently + questioned, while a ratification by three-fourths of all the States would + be unquestioned and unquestionable. I repeat the question: Can Louisiana + be brought into proper practical relation with the Union sooner by + sustaining or by discarding her new State government? What has been said + of Louisiana will apply generally to other States. And yet so great + peculiarities pertain to each State, and such important and sudden changes + occur in the same State, and with also new and unprecedented is the whole + case 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> + <a name="link2H_4_0037" id="link2H_4_0037"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XXXVII. FATE INTERPOSES + </h2> + <p> + There was an early spring on the Potomac in 1865. While April was still + young, the Judas trees became spheres of purply, pinkish bloom. The + Washington parks grew softly bright as the lilacs opened. Pendulous + willows veiled with green laces afloat in air the changing brown that was + winter's final shadow; in the Virginia woods the white blossoms of the + dogwood seemed to float and flicker among the windy trees like enormous + flocks of alighting butterflies. And over head such a glitter of turquoise + blue! As lovely in a different way as on that fateful Sun-day morning when + Russell drove through the same woods toward Bull Run so long, long ago. + Such was the background of the last few days of Lincoln's life. + </p> + <p> + Though tranquil, his thoughts dwelt much on death. While at City Point, he + drove one day with Mrs. Lincoln along the banks of the James. They passed + a country graveyard. "It was a retired place," said Mrs. Lincoln long + afterward, "shaded by trees, and early spring flowers were opening on + nearly every grave. It was so quiet and attractive that we stopped the + carriage and walked through it. Mr. Lincoln seemed thoughtful and + impressed. He said: 'Mary, you are younger than I; you will survive me. + When I am gone, lay my remains in some quiet place like this.'"(1) + </p> + <p> + His mood underwent a mysterious change. It was serene and yet charged with + a peculiar grave loftiness not quite like any phase of him his friends had + known hitherto. As always, his thoughts turned for their reflection to + Shakespeare. Sumner who was one of the party at City Point, was deeply + impressed by his reading aloud, a few days before his death, that passage + in Macbeth which describes the ultimate security of Duncan where nothing + evil "can touch him farther."(2) + </p> + <p> + There was something a little startling, as if it were not quite of this + world, in the tender lightness that seemed to come into his heart. "His + whole appearance, poise and bearing," says one of his observers, "had + marvelously changed. He was, in fact, transfigured. That indescribable + sadness which had previously seemed to be an adamantine element of his + very being, had been suddenly changed for an equally indescribable + expression of serene joy, as if conscious that the great purpose of his + life had been achieved."(3) + </p> + <p> + It was as if the seer in the trance had finally passed beyond his trance; + and had faced smiling toward his earthly comrades, imagining he was to + return to them; unaware that somehow his emergence was not in the ordinary + course of nature; that in it was an accent of the inexplicable, something + which the others caught and at which they trembled; though they knew not + why. And he, so beautifully at peace, and yet thrilled as never before by + the vision of the murdered Duncan at the end of life's fitful fever—what + was his real feeling, his real vision of himself? Was it something of what + the great modern poet strove so bravely to express— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "And yet Dauntless the slughorn to my lips I set, + And blew: Childe Roland to the dark tower came." +</pre> + <p> + Shortly before the end, he had a strange dream. Though he spoke of it + almost with levity, it would not leave his thoughts. He dreamed he was + wandering through the White House at night; all the rooms were brilliantly + lighted; but they were empty. However, through that unreal solitude + floated a sound of weeping. When he came to the East Room, it was + explained; there was a catafalque, the pomp of a military funeral, crowds + of people in tears; and a voice said to him, "The President has been + assassinated." + </p> + <p> + He told this dream to Lamon and to Mrs. Lincoln. He added that after it + had occurred, "the first time I opened the Bible, strange as it may + appear, it was at the twenty-eighth chapter of Genesis which relates the + wonderful dream Jacob had. I turned to other passages and seemed to + encounter a dream or a vision wherever I looked. I kept on turning the + leaves of the Old Book, and everywhere my eye fell upon passages recording + matters strangely in keeping with my own thoughts—supernatural + visitations, dreams, visions, etc." + </p> + <p> + But when Lamon seized upon this as text for his recurrent sermon on + precautions against assassination, Lincoln turned the matter into a joke. + He did not appear to interpret the dream as foreshadowing his own death. + He called Lamon's alarm "downright foolishness."(4) + </p> + <p> + Another dream in the last night of his life was a consolation. He narrated + it to the Cabinet when they met on April fourteenth, which happened to be + Good Friday. There was some anxiety with regard to Sherman's movements in + North Carolina. Lincoln bade the Cabinet set their minds at rest. His + dream of the night before was one that he had often had. It was a presage + of great events. In this dream he saw himself "in a singular and + indescribable vessel, but always the same... moving with great rapidity + toward a dark and indefinite shore." This dream had preceded all the great + events of the war. He believed it was a good omen.(5) + </p> + <p> + At this last Cabinet meeting, he talked freely of the one matter which in + his mind overshadowed all others. He urged his Ministers to put aside all + thoughts of hatred and revenge. "He hoped there would be no persecution, + no bloody work, after the war was over. None need expect him to take any + part in hanging or killing these men, even the worst of them. 'Frighten + them out of the country, let down the bars, scare them off,' said he, + throwing up his hands as if scaring sheep. Enough lives have been + sacrificed. We must extinguish our resentment if we expect harmony and + union. There was too much desire on the part of our very good friends to + be masters, to interfere and dictate to those States, to treat the people + not as fellow citizens; there was too little respect for their rights. He + didn't sympathize in these feelings."(6) + </p> + <p> + There was a touch of irony in his phase "our very good friends." Before + the end of the next day, the men he had in mind, the inner group of the + relentless Vindictives, were to meet in council, scarcely able to conceal + their inspiring conviction that Providence had intervened, had judged + between him and them.(7) And that allusion to the "rights" of the + vanquished! How abominable it was in the ears of the grim Chandler, the + inexorable Wade. Desperate these men and their followers were on the + fourteenth of April, but defiant. To the full measure of their power they + would fight the President to the last ditch. And always in their minds, + the tormenting thought-if only positions could be reversed, if only + Johnson, whom they believed to be one of them at heart, were in the first + instead of the second place! + </p> + <p> + While these unsparing sons of thunder were growling among themselves, the + lions that were being cheated of their prey, Lincoln was putting his + merciful temper into a playful form. General Creswell applied to him for + pardon for an old friend of his who had joined the Confederate Army. + </p> + <p> + "Creswell," said Lincoln, "you make me think of a lot of young folks who + once started out Maying. To reach their destination, they had to cross a + shallow stream and did so by means of an old flat boat when the time came + to return, they found to their dismay that the old scow had disappeared. + They were in sore trouble and thought over all manner of devices for + getting over the water, but without avail. After a time, one of the boys + proposed that each fellow should pick up the girl he liked best and wade + over with her. The masterly proposition was carried out until all that + were left upon the island was a little short chap and a great, long, + gothic-built, elderly lady. Now, Creswell, you are trying to leave me in + the same predicament. You fellows are all getting your own friends out of + this scrape, and you will succeed in carrying off one after another until + nobody but Jeff Davis and myself will be left on the island, and then I + won't know what to do—How should I feel? How should I look lugging + him over? I guess the way to avoid such an embarrassing situation is to + let all out at once."(8) + </p> + <p> + The President refused, this day, to open his doors to the throng of + visitors that sought admission. His eldest son, Robert, an officer in + Grant's army, had returned from the front unharmed. Lincoln wished to + reserve the day for his family and intimate friends. In the afternoon, + Mrs. Lincoln asked him if he cared to have company on their usual drive. + "No, Mary," said he, "I prefer that we ride by ourselves to-day."(9) They + took a long drive. His mood, as it had been all day, was singularly happy + and tender.(10) He talked much of the past and the future. It seemed to + Mrs. Lincoln that he never had appeared happier than during the drive. He + referred to past sorrows, to the anxieties of the war, to Willie's death, + and spoke of the necessity to be cheerful and happy in the days to come. + As Mrs. Lincoln remembered his words: "We have had a hard time since we + came to Washington; but the war is over, and with God's blessings, we may + hope for four years of peace and happiness, and then we will go back to + Illinois and pass the rest of our lives in quiet. We have laid by some + money, and during this time, we will save up more, but shall not have + enough to support us. We will go back to Illinois; I will open a law + office at Springfield or Chicago and practise law, and at least do enough + to help give us a livelihood."(11) + </p> + <p> + They returned from their drive and prepared for a theatre party which had + been fixed for that night. The management of the Ford's Theatre, where + Laura Keene was to close her season with a benefit performance of Our + American Cousin, had announced in the afternoon paper that "the President + and his lady" would attend. The President's box had been draped with + flags. The rest is a twice told tale—a thousandth told tale. + </p> + <p> + An actor, very handsome, a Byronic sort, both in beauty and temperament, + with a dash perhaps of insanity, John Wilkes Booth, had long meditated + killing the President. A violent secessionist, his morbid imagination had + made of Lincoln another Caesar. The occasion called for a Brutus. While + Lincoln was planning his peaceful war with the Vindictives, scheming how + to keep them from grinding the prostrate South beneath their heels, + devising modes of restoring happiness to the conquered region, Booth, at + an obscure boarding-house in Washington, was gathering about him a band of + adventurers, some of whom at least, like himself, were unbalanced. They + meditated a general assassination of the Cabinet. The unexpected theatre + party on the fourteenth gave Booth a sudden opportunity. He knew every + passage of Ford's Theatre. He knew, also, that Lincoln seldom surrounded + himself with guards. During the afternoon, he made his way unobserved into + the theatre and bored a hole in the door of the presidential box, so that + he might fire through it should there be any difficulty in getting the + door open. + </p> + <p> + About ten o'clock that night, the audience was laughing at the absurd + play; the President's party were as much amused as any. Suddenly, there + was a pistol shot. A moment more and a woman's voice rang out in a sharp + cry. An instant sense of disaster brought the audience startled to their + feet. Two men were glimpsed struggling toward the front of the President's + box. One broke away, leaped down on to the stage, flourished a knife and + shouted, "Sic semper tyrannis!" Then he vanished through the flies. It was + Booth, whose plans had been completely successful. He had made his way + without interruption to within a few feet of Lincoln. At point-blank + distance, he had shot him from behind, through the head. In the confusion + which ensued, he escaped from the theatre; fled from the city; was + pursued; and was himself shot and killed a few days later. + </p> + <p> + The bullet of the assassin had entered the brain, causing instant + unconsciousness. The dying President was removed to a house on Tenth + Street, No. 453, where he was laid on a bed in a small room at the rear of + the hall on the ground floor.(12) + </p> + <p> + Swift panic took possession of the city. "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 gossiping in an + upper room. . . . They ran down-stairs. Finding a carriage at the door, + they entered it and drove to Tenth Street."(13) + </p> + <p> + To right and left eddied whirls of excited figures, men and women + questioning, threatening, crying out for vengeance. Overhead amid driving + clouds, the moon, through successive mantlings of darkness, broke + periodically into sudden blazes of light; among the startled people below, + raced a witches' dance of the rapidly changing shadows.(14) + </p> + <p> + Lincoln did not regain consciousness. About dawn his pulse began to fail. + A little later, "a look of unspeakable peace came over his worn + features"(15), and at twenty-two minutes after seven on the morning of the + fifteenth of April, he died. + </p> + <p> + THE END <a name="link2H_BIBL" id="link2H_BIBL"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + BIBLIOGRAPHY + </h2> + <p> + It is said that a complete bibliography of Lincoln would include at least + five thousand titles. Therefore, any limited bibliography must appear more + or less arbitrary. The following is but a minimum list in which, with a + few exceptions such as the inescapable interpretative works of Mr. Rhodes + and of Professor Dunning, practically everything has to some extent the + character of a source. + </p> + <p> + Alexander. A Political History of the State of New York. By De Alva + Stanwood Alexander. 3 vols. 1909. + </p> + <p> + Arnold. History of Abraham Lincoln and the Overthrow of Slavery. By Isaac + N. Arnold. 1866. + </p> + <p> + Baldwin. Interview between President Lincoln and Colonel John B. Baldwin. + 1866. + </p> + <p> + Bancroft. Life of William H. Seward. By Frederick Bancroft. 2 vols. 1900. + </p> + <p> + Barnes. Memoir of Thurlow Weed. By Thurlow Weed Barnes. 1884. + </p> + <p> + Barton. The Soul of Abraham Lincoln. By William Eleazar Barton. 1920. + </p> + <p> + Bigelow. Retrospections of an Active Life. By John Bigelow. 2 vols. 1909. + </p> + <p> + Blaine. Twenty Years of Congress. By James G. Blaine. 2 vols. 1884. + </p> + <p> + Botts. The Great Rebellion. By John Minor Botts. 1866. + </p> + <p> + Boutwell. Reminiscences of Sixty Years in Public Affairs. By George S. + Boutwell 2 vols. 1902. + </p> + <p> + Bradford. Union Portraits. By Gamaliel Bradford. 1916. + </p> + <p> + Brooks. Washington in Lincoln's Time. By Noah Brooks, 1895. + </p> + <p> + Carpenter. Six Months at the White House with Abraham Lincoln. By F. B. + Carpenter. 1866. + </p> + <p> + Chandler. Life of Zachary Chandler. By the Detroit Post and Tribune. 1880. + </p> + <p> + Chapman. Latest Light on Abraham Lincoln. By Ervin Chapman. 1917. The + Charleston Mercury. + </p> + <p> + Chase. Diary and Correspondence of Salmon Chase. Report, American + Historical Association, 1902, Vol. II. + </p> + <p> + Chittenden. Recollections of President Lincoln and His Administration. By + L. Chittenden. 1891. + </p> + <p> + Coleman. Life of John J. Crittenden, with Selections from his + Correspondence and Speeches. By Ann Mary Coleman. 2 vols. 1871. + </p> + <p> + Conway. Autobiography, Memories and Experiences of Moncure Daniel Conway. + 2 vols. 1904. + </p> + <p> + Correspondence. The Correspondence of Robert Toombs, Alexander H. + Stephens, and Howell Cobb. Edited by U. B. Phillips. Report American + Historical Association, 1913, Vol. II. + </p> + <p> + Crawford. The Genesis of the Civil War. By Samuel Wylie Crawford. 1887. + </p> + <p> + C. W. Report of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War. 1863. + </p> + <p> + Dabney. Memoir of a Narrative Received from Colonel John B. Baldwin, of + Staunton, touching the Origin of the War. By Reverend R. L. Dabney, D. D., + Southern Historical Society Papers, Vol. 1. 1876. + </p> + <p> + Davis. Rise and Fail of the Confederate Government. By Jefferson Davis. 2 + vols. 1881. + </p> + <p> + Dunning. Essays on the Civil War and Reconstruction and Related Topics. By + William A. Dunning. 1898. + </p> + <p> + Field. Life of David Dudley Field. By Henry M. Field. 1898. + </p> + <p> + Flower. Edwin McMasters Stanton. By Frank Abial Flower. 1902. + </p> + <p> + Fry. Military Miscellanies. By James B. Fry. 1889. + </p> + <p> + Galaxy. The History of Emancipation. By Gideon Welles. The Galaxy, XIV, + 838-851. + </p> + <p> + Gilmore. Personal Recollections of Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War. By + James R. Gilmore. 1899. + </p> + <p> + Gilmore, Atlantic. A Suppressed Chapter of History. By James R. Gilmore, + Atlantic Monthly, April, 1887. + </p> + <p> + Globe. Congressional Globe, Containing the Debates and Proceedings. + 1834-1873. + </p> + <p> + Godwin. Biography of William Cullen Bryant. By Parke Godwin. + </p> + <p> + 1883. Gore. The Boyhood of Abraham Lincoln. By J. Rogers Gore. 1921. + </p> + <p> + Gorham. Life and Public Services of Edwin M. Stanton. By George C. Gorham. + 2 vols. 1899. + </p> + <p> + Grant. Personal Memoirs. By Ulysses S. Grant. 2 vols. 1886. + </p> + <p> + Greeley. The American Conflict. By Horace Greeley. 2 vols. 1864-1867. + </p> + <p> + Gurowski. Diary from March 4, 1861, to November 12, 1862. By Adam + Gurowski. 1862. + </p> + <p> + Hanks. Nancy Hanks. By Caroline Hanks Hitchcock. 1900. + </p> + <p> + Harris. Public Life of Zachary Chandler. By W. C. Harris, Michigan + Historical Commission. 1917. + </p> + <p> + Hart. Salmon Portland Chase. By Albert Bushnell Hart. 1899. + </p> + <p> + Hay MS. Diary of John Hay. The war period is covered by three volumes of + manuscript. Photostat copies in the library of the Massachusetts + Historical Society, accessible only by special permission. + </p> + <p> + Hay, Century. Life in the White House in the Time of Lincoln. By John Hay, + Century Magazine, November, 1890. + </p> + <p> + The New York Herald. + </p> + <p> + Herndon. Herndon's Lincoln. The True Story of a Great Life: The History + and Personal Recollections of Abraham Lincoln. By W. H. Herndon and J. W. + Weik. 3 vols. (paged continuously). 1890. + </p> + <p> + Hill. Lincoln the Lawyer. By Frederick Trevers Hill 1906. + </p> + <p> + Hitchcock. Fifty Years in Camp and Field. Diary of Major-General Ethan + Allen Hitchcock, U. S. A. Edited by W. Croffut. 1909. + </p> + <p> + Johnson. Stephen A. Douglas. By Allen Johnson. 1908. + </p> + <p> + The Journal of the Virginia Convention. 1861. + </p> + <p> + Julian. Political Recollections 1840-1872. By George W. Julian. 1884. + </p> + <p> + Kelley. Lincoln and Stanton. By W. D. Kelley. 1885. + </p> + <p> + Lamon. The Life of Abraham Lincoln. By Ward H. Lamon. 1872. + </p> + <p> + Letters. Uncollected Letters of Abraham Lincoln. Now first brought + together by Gilbert A. Tracy. 1917. + </p> + <p> + Lieber. Life and Letters of Francis Lieber. Edited by Thomas S. Perry, + 1882. + </p> + <p> + Lincoln. Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln. Edited by John G. Nicolay and + John Hay. 2 vols. New and enlarged edition. 12 volumes. 1905. (All + references here are to the Colter edition.) + </p> + <p> + McCarthy. Lincoln's Plan of Reconstruction. By Charles M. McCarthy, 1901. + </p> + <p> + McClure. Abraham Lincoln and Men of War Times. By A. K. McClure. 1892. + </p> + <p> + Merriam. Life and Times of Samuel Bowles. By G. S. Merriam. 2 vols. 1885. + </p> + <p> + Munford. Virginia's Attitude toward Slavery and Secession. By Beverley B. + Munford. 1910. + </p> + <p> + Moore. A Digest of International Law. By John Bassett Moore. 8 vols. 1906. + </p> + <p> + Newton. Lincoln and Herndon. By Joseph Fort Newton. 1910. + </p> + <p> + Nicolay. A Short Life of Abraham Lincoln. By John G. Nicolay. 1902. + </p> + <p> + Nicolay, Cambridge. The Cambridge Modern History: Volume VII. + </p> + <p> + The United States. By various authors. 1903. + </p> + <p> + Miss Nicolay. Personal Traits of Abraham Lincoln. By Helen Nicolay. 1912. + </p> + <p> + N. and H. Abraham Lincoln: A History. By John G. Nicolay and John Hay. 10 + vols. 1890. + </p> + <p> + N. P. Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies. First series. + 27 vols. 1895-1917. + </p> + <p> + O. P. Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. 128 vols. + 1880-1901. + </p> + <p> + Outbreak. The Outbreak of the Rebellion. By John G. Nicolay. 1881. + </p> + <p> + Own Story. McClellan's Own Story. By George B. McClellan. 1887. + </p> + <p> + Paternity. The Paternity of Abraham Lincoln. By William Eleazer Barton. + 1920. + </p> + <p> + Pearson. Life of John A. Andrew. By Henry G. Pearson. 2 vols. 1904. + </p> + <p> + Pierce. Memoirs and Letters of Charles Sumner. By Edward Lillie Pierce. 4 + vols. 1877-1893. + </p> + <p> + Porter. In Memory of General Charles P. Stone. By Fitz John Porter. 1887. + </p> + <p> + Public Man. Diary of a Public Man. Anonymous. North American Review. 1879. + </p> + <p> + Rankin. Personal Recollections of Abraham Lincoln. By Henry B. Rankin. + 1916. + </p> + <p> + Raymond. Journal of Henry J. Raymond. Edited by Henry W. Raymond. + Scribner's Magazine. 1879-1880. + </p> + <p> + Recollections. Recollections of Abraham Lincoln. By Ward Hill Lamon. 1911. + </p> + <p> + Reminiscences. Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln, by Distinguished + </p> + <p> + Men of his Time. Edited by Allen Thorndyke Rice. 1886. + </p> + <p> + Report of the Joint Committee on Reconstruction, first session, + Thirty-Ninth Congress. + </p> + <p> + Rhodes. History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850. By James + Ford Rhodes. 8 vols. 1893-1920. + </p> + <p> + Riddle. Recollections of War Times. By A. G. Riddle. 1895. + </p> + <p> + Schrugham. The Peaceful Americans of 1860. By Mary Schrugham. 1922. + </p> + <p> + Schure. Speeches, Correspondence and Political Papers of Carl Schure. + Selected and edited by Frederick Bancroft. 1913. + </p> + <p> + Scott. Memoirs of Lieutenant General Scott, LL.D. Written by himself. 2 + vols. 1864. + </p> + <p> + Seward. Works of William H. Seward. 5 vols. 1884. + </p> + <p> + Sherman. Memoirs of William T. Sherman. By himself. 2 vols. 1886. Sherman + Letters. + </p> + <p> + Letters of John Sherman and W. T. Sherman. Edited by Rachel Sherman + Thorndike. 1894. + </p> + <p> + Southern Historical Society Papers. + </p> + <p> + Stephens. Constitutional View of the Late War between the States. By + Alexander H. Stephens. 2 vols. 1869-1870. + </p> + <p> + Stoddard. Inside the White House in War Times. By William O. Stoddard. + 1890. + </p> + <p> + Stories. "Abe" Lincoln's Yarns and Stories. With introduction and + anecdotes by Colonel Alexander McClure. 1901. + </p> + <p> + The New York Sun. + </p> + <p> + Swinton. Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac. By William Swinton. 1866. + </p> + <p> + Tarbell. The Life of Abraham Lincoln. By Ida M. Tarbell. New edition. 2 + vols. 1917. + </p> + <p> + Thayer. The Life and Letters of John Hay. By William Roscoe Thayer. 2 + vols. 1915. + </p> + <p> + The New York Times. + </p> + <p> + The New York Tribune. + </p> + <p> + Tyler. Letters and Times of the Tylers. By Lyon G. Tyler. 3 vols. + 1884-1896. + </p> + <p> + Van Santvoord. A Reception by President Lincoln. By C. J. Van Santvoord. + Century Magazine, Feb., 1883. + </p> + <p> + Villard. Memoirs of Henry Villard. 2 vols. 1902. + </p> + <p> + Wade. Life of Benjamin F. Wade. By A. G. Riddle. 1886. + </p> + <p> + Warden. Account of the Private Life and Public Services of Salmon Portland + Chase. By R. B. Warden. 1874. + </p> + <p> + Welles. Diary of Gideon Welles. Edited by J. T. Morse, Jr. 3 vols. 1911. + </p> + <p> + White. Life of Lyman Trumbull. By Horace White. 1913. + </p> + <p> + Woodburn. The Life of Thaddeus Stevens. By James Albert Woodburn. 1913. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_NOTE" id="link2H_NOTE"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + NOTES + </h2> + <h3> + I. THE CHILD OF THE FOREST. + </h3> + <p> + 1. Herndon, 1-7, 11-14; 1, anon, 13; N. and H., 1, 23-27. This is the + version of his origin accepted by Lincoln. He believed that his mother was + the illegitimate daughter of a Virginia planter and traced to that + doubtful source "all the qualities that distinguished him from other + members" of his immediate family. Herndon, 3. His secretaries are silent + upon the subject. Recently the story has been challenged. Mrs. Caroline + Hanks Hitchcock, who identifies the Hanks family of Kentucky with a lost + branch of a New England family, has collected evidence which tends to show + that Nancy was the legitimate daughter of a certain Joseph H. Hanks, who + was father of Joseph the carpenter, and that Nancy was not the niece but + the younger sister of the "uncle" who figures in the older version, the + man with whom Thomas Lincoln worked. Nancy and Thomas appear to have been + cousins through their mothers. Mrs. Hitchcock argues the case with care + and ability in a little book entitled Nancy Hanks. However, she is not + altogether sustained by W. E. Barton, The Paternity of Abraham Lincoln. + </p> + <p> + Scandal has busied itself with the parents of Lincoln in another way. It + has been widely asserted that he was himself illegitimate. A variety of + shameful paternities have been assigned to him, some palpably absurd. The + chief argument of the lovers of this scandal was once the lack of a known + record of the marriage of his parents. Around this fact grew up the story + of a marriage of concealment with Thomas Lincoln as the easy-going + accomplice. The discovery of the marriage record fixing the date and + demonstrating that Abraham must have been the second child gave this + scandal its quietus. N. and H., 1, 23-24; Hanks, 59-67; Herndon, 5-6; + Lincoln and Herndon, 321. The last important book on the subject is + Barton, The Paternity of Abraham Lincoln. + </p> + <p> + 2. N. and H., 1-13. + </p> + <p> + 3. Lamon, 13; N. and H., 1, 25. + </p> + <p> + 4. N. and H., 1, 25. + </p> + <p> + 5. Gore, 221-225. + </p> + <p> + 6. Herndon, 15. + </p> + <p> + 7. Gore, 66, 70-74, 79, 83-84, 116, 151-154, 204, 226-230, for all this + group of anecdotes. + </p> + <p> + The evidence with regard to all the early part of Lincoln's life is + peculiar in this, that it is reminiscence not written down until the + subject had become famous. Dogmatic certainty with regard to the details + is scarcely possible. The best one can do in weighing any of the versions + of his early days is to inquire closely as to whether all its parts bang + naturally together, whether they really cohere. There is a body of + anecdotes told by an old mountaineer, Austin Gollaher, who knew Lincoln as + a boy, and these have been collected and recently put into print. Of + course, they are not "documented" evidence. Some students are for brushing + them aside. But there is one important argument in their favor. They are + coherent; the boy they describe is a real person and his personality is + sustained. If he is a fiction and not a memory, the old mountaineer was a + literary artist—far more the artist than one finds it easy to + believe. + </p> + <p> + 8. Gore, 84-95; Lamon, 16; Herndon, 16. + </p> + <p> + 9. Gore, 181-182, 296, 303-316; Lamon, 19-20; N. and H., I, 28-29. + </p> + <p> + II. THE MYSTERIOUS YOUTH. + </p> + <p> + 1. N. and H., I, 32-34. + </p> + <p> + 2. Lamon, 33-38, 51-52, 61-63; N. and H., 1, 34-36. + </p> + <p> + 3. N. and H., 1, 40. + </p> + <p> + 4. Lamon, 38, 40, 55. + </p> + <p> + 5. Reminiscences, 54, 428. + </p> + <p> + III. A VILLAGE LEADER. + </p> + <p> + 1. N. and H., 1, 45-46, 70-72; Herndon, 67, 69, 72. + </p> + <p> + 2. Lamon, 81-82; Herndon, 75-76. + </p> + <p> + 3. Lincoln, 1, 1-9. + </p> + <p> + 4. Lamon, 125-126; Herndon, 104. + </p> + <p> + 5. Herndon, 117-118. + </p> + <p> + 6. N. and H., 1, 109. + </p> + <p> + 7. Stories, 94. + </p> + <p> + 8. Herndon, 118-123. + </p> + <p> + 9. Lamon, 159-164; Herndon, 128-138; Rankin, 61-95. + </p> + <p> + 10. Lamon, 164. + </p> + <p> + 11. Lamon, 164-165; Rankin, 95. + </p> + <p> + IV. REVELATIONS. + </p> + <p> + 1. Riddle, 337. + </p> + <p> + 2. Herndon, 436. + </p> + <p> + 3. N. and H., I, 138. + </p> + <p> + 4. Lincoln, I, 51-52. + </p> + <p> + 5. McClure, 65. + </p> + <p> + 6. Herndon, 184.185. + </p> + <p> + 7. Anon, 172-183; Herndon, 143-150, 161; Lincoln, 1, 87-92. + </p> + <p> + 8. Gossip has preserved a melodramatic tale with regard to Lincoln's + marriage. It describes the bride to be, waiting, arrayed, in tense + expectation deepening into alarm; the guests assembled, wondering, while + the hour appointed passes by and the ceremony does not begin; the failure + of the prospective bridegroom to appear; the scattering of the company, + amazed, their tongues wagging. The explanation offered is an attack of + insanity. Herndon, 215; I,anon, 239-242. As might be expected Lincoln's + secretaries who see him always in a halo give no hint of such an event. It + has become a controversial scandal. Is it a fact or a myth? Miss Tarbell + made herself the champion of the mythical explanation and collected a + great deal of evidence that makes it hard to accept the story as a fact + Tarbell, I, Chap. XI. Still later a very sane memoirist, Henry B. Rankin, + who knew Lincoln, and is not at all an apologist, takes the same view. His + most effective argument is that such an event could not have occurred in + the little country town of Springfield without becoming at the time the + common property of all the gossips. The evidence is bewildering. I find + myself unable to accept the disappointed wedding guests as established + facts, even though the latest student of Herndon has no doubts. Lincoln + and Herndon, 321-322. But whether the broken marriage story is true or + false there is no doubt that Lincoln passed through a desolating inward + experience about "the fatal first of January"; that it was related to the + breaking of his engagement; and that for a time his sufferings were + intense. The letters to Speed are the sufficient evidence. Lincoln, I, + 175; 182-189; 210-219; 240; 261; 267-269. The prompt explanation of + insanity may be cast aside, one of those foolish delusions of shallow + people to whom all abnormal conditions are of the same nature as all + others. Lincoln wrote to a noted Western physician, Doctor Drake of + Cincinnati, with regard to his "case"—that is, his nervous breakdown—and + Doctor Drake replied but refused to prescribe without an interview. Lamon, + 244. + </p> + <p> + V. PROSPERITY. + </p> + <p> + 1. Carpenter, 304-305. + </p> + <p> + 2. Lamon, 243, 252-269; Herndon, 226-243, 248-251; N. and H., 201, 203-12. + </p> + <p> + 3. A great many recollections of Lincoln attempt to describe him. Except + in a large and general way most of them show that lack of definite + visualization which characterizes the memories of the careless observer. + His height, his bony figure, his awkwardness, the rudely chiseled + features, the mystery in his eyes, the kindliness of his expression, these + are the elements of the popular portrait. Now and then a closer observer + has added a detail. Witness the masterly comment of Walt Whitman. + Herndon's account of Lincoln speaking has the earmarks of accuracy. The + attempt by the portrait painter, Carpenter, to render him in words is + quoted later in this volume. Carpenter, 217-218. Unfortunately he was + never painted by an artist of great originality, by one who was equal to + his opportunity. My authority for the texture of his skin is a lady of + unusual closeness of observation, the late Mrs. M. T. W. Curwen of + Cincinnati, who saw him in 1861 in the private car of the president of the + Indianapolis and Cincinnati railroad. An exhaustive study of the portraits + of Lincoln is in preparation by Mr. Winfred Porter Truesdell, who has a + valuable paper on the subject in The Print Connoisseur, for March, 1921. + </p> + <p> + 4. Herndon, 264. + </p> + <p> + 5. Ibid. + </p> + <p> + 6. Ibid., 515. + </p> + <p> + 7. A vital question to the biographer of Lincoln is the credibility of + Herndon. He has been accused of capitalizing his relation with Lincoln and + producing a sensational image for commercial purposes. Though his Life did + not appear until 1890 when the official work of Nicolay and Hay was in + print, he had been lecturing and corresponding upon Lincoln for nearly + twenty-five years. The "sensational" first edition of his Life produced a + storm of protest. The book was promptly recalled, worked over, toned down, + and reissued "expurgated" in 1892. + </p> + <p> + Such biographers as Miss Tarbell appear to regard Herndon as a mere + romancer. The well poised Lincoln and Herndon recently published by Joseph + Fort Newton holds what I feel compelled to regard as a sounder view; + namely, that while Herndon was at times reckless and at times biased, + nevertheless he is in the main to be relied upon. + </p> + <p> + Three things are to be borne in mind: Herndon was a literary man by + nature; but he was not by training a developed artist; he was a romantic + of the full flood of American romanticism and there are traceable in him + the methods of romantic portraiture. Had he been an Elizabethan one can + imagine him laboring hard with great pride over an inferior "Tamburlane + the Great"—and perhaps not knowing that it was inferior. + Furthermore, he had not, before the storm broke on him, any realization of + the existence in America of another school of portraiture, the heroic—conventual, + that could not understand the romantic. If Herndon strengthened as much as + possible the contrasts of his subject—such as the contrast between + the sordidness of Lincoln's origin and the loftiness of his thought—he + felt that by so doing he was merely rendering his subject in its most + brilliant aspect, giving to it the largest degree of significance. A third + consideration is Herndon's enthusiasm for the agnostic deism that was + rampant in America in his day. Perhaps this causes his romanticism to slip + a cog, to run at times on a side-track, to become the servant of his + religious partisanship. In three words the faults of Herndon are + exaggeration, literalness and exploitiveness. + </p> + <p> + But all these are faults of degree which the careful student can allow + for. By "checking up" all the parts of Herndon that it is possible to + check up one can arrive at a pretty confident belief that one knows how to + divest the image he creates of its occasional unrealities. When one does + so, the strongest argument for relying cautiously, watchfully, upon + Herndon appears. The Lincoln thus revealed, though only a character + sketch, is coherent. And it stands the test of comparison in detail with + the Lincolns of other, less romantic, observers. That is to say, with all + his faults, Herndon has the inner something that will enable the diverse + impressions of Lincoln, always threatening to become irreconcilable, to + hang together and out of their very incongruity to invoke a person that is + not incongruous. And herein, in this touchstone so to speak is Herndon's + value. + </p> + <p> + 8. Herndon, 265. + </p> + <p> + 9. Lamon, 51. + </p> + <p> + 10. Lincoln, I, 35-SO. + </p> + <p> + 11. The reader who would know the argument against Herndon (436-446) and + Lamon (486-502) on the subject of Lincoln's early religion is referred to + The Soul of Abraham Lincoln, by William Eleazer Barton. It is to be + observed that the present study is never dogmatic about Lincoln's religion + in its early phases. And when Herndon and Lamon generalize about his + religious life, it must be remembered that they are thinking of him as + they knew him in Illinois. Herndon had no familiarity with him after he + went to Washington. Lamon could not have seen very much of him—no + one but his secretaries and his wife did. And his taciturnity must be + borne in mind. Nicolay has recorded that he did not know what Lincoln + believed. Lamon, 492. That Lincoln was vaguely a deist in the 'forties—so + far as he had any theology at all—may be true. But it is a rash leap + to a conclusion to assume that his state of mind even then was the same + thing as the impression it made on so practical, bard-headed, unpoetical a + character as Lamon; or on so combatively imaginative but wholly unmystical + a mind as Herndon's. Neither of them seems to have any understanding of + those agonies of spirit through which Lincoln subsequently passed which + will appear in the account of the year 1862. See also Miss Nicolay, + 384-386. There is a multitude of pronouncements on Lincoln's religion, + most of them superficial. + </p> + <p> + 12. Lincoln, I, 206. + </p> + <p> + 13. Nicolay, 73-74; N. and H., 1, 242; Lamon, 275-277. + </p> + <p> + 14. Lamon, 277-278; Herndon, 272-273; N. and H., 1, 245-249. + </p> + <p> + VI. UNSATISFYING RECOGNITION. + </p> + <p> + 1. N. and H., I, 28, 28& + </p> + <p> + 2. Tarbell, 1, 211. + </p> + <p> + 3. Ibid., 210-211. + </p> + <p> + 4. Herndon, 114. + </p> + <p> + 5. Lincoln, II, 28-48. + </p> + <p> + 6. Herndon, 306-308, 319; Newton, 4(141). + </p> + <p> + 7. Tarbell, I, 209-210. + </p> + <p> + 8. Herndon, 306. + </p> + <p> + 9. Lamon, 334; Herndon, 306; N. and H., I, 297. + </p> + <p> + VII. THE SECOND START. + </p> + <p> + 1. Herndon, 307, 319. + </p> + <p> + 2. Herndon, 319-321. + </p> + <p> + 3. Herndon, 314-317. + </p> + <p> + 4. Herndon, 332-333. + </p> + <p> + 5. Herndon, 311-312. + </p> + <p> + 6. Herndon, 319. + </p> + <p> + 7. Lamon, 165. + </p> + <p> + 8. Herndon, 309. + </p> + <p> + 9. Herndon, 113-114; Stories, 18~ + </p> + <p> + 10. Herndon, 338. + </p> + <p> + 11. Lamon, 324. + </p> + <p> + 12. Lincoln, 11, 142. + </p> + <p> + 13. Herndon, 347. + </p> + <p> + 14. Herndon, 363. + </p> + <p> + 15. Herndon, 362. + </p> + <p> + 16. Lincoln, II, 172. + </p> + <p> + 17. Lincoln, II, 207. + </p> + <p> + 18. Lincoln, II, 173. + </p> + <p> + 19. Lincoln, II, 165. + </p> + <p> + VIII. A RETURN TO POLITICS. + </p> + <p> + 1. Johnson, 234. + </p> + <p> + 2. I have permission to print the following letter from the Honorable John + H. Marshall, Judge Fifth Judicial Circuit, Charleston, Illinois: + </p> + <p> + "Your letter of the 24th inst. at hand referring to slave trial in which + Lincoln was interested, referred to by Professor Henry Johnson. + Twenty-five years ago, while I was secretary of the Coles County Bar + Association, a paper was read to the Association by the oldest member + concerning the trial referred to, and his paper was filed with rue. Some + years ago I spoke of the matter to Professor Johnson, and at the time was + unable to find the old manuscript, and decided that the same had been + inadvertently destroyed. However, quite recently I found this paper + crumpled up under some old book records. The author of this article is a + reputable member of the bar of this country of very advanced age, and at + that time quoted as his authority well-known and very substantial men of + the county, who had taken an active interest in the litigation. His paper + referred to incidents occurring in 1847, and there is now no living person + with any knowledge of it. The story in brief is as follows: + </p> + <p> + "In 1845, General Robert Matson, of Kentucky, being hard pressed + financially, in order to keep them from being sold in payment of his + debts, brought Jane Bryant, with her four small children to this county. + Her husband, Anthony Bryant, was a free negro, and a licensed exhorter in + the Methodist Church of Kentucky. But his wife and children were slaves of + Matson. In 1847, Matson, determined to take the Bryants back to Kentucky + as his slaves, caused to be issued by a justice of the peace of the county + a writ directed to Jane Bryant and her children to appear before him + forthwith and answer the claim of Robert Matson that their service was due + to him, etc. This action produced great excitement in this county. + Practically the entire community divided, largely on the lines of + pro-slavery and anti-slavery. Usher F. Linder, the most eloquent lawyer in + this vicinity, appeared for Matson, and Orlando B. Ficklin, twice a member + of Congress, appeared for the negroes. Under the practice the defendant + obtained a hearing from three justices instead of one, and a trial ensued + lasting several days, and attended by great excitement. Armed men made + demonstrations and bloodshed was narrowly averted. Two of the justices + were pro-slavery, and one anti-slavery. The trial was held in Charleston. + The decision of the justice was discreet. It was held that the court had + no jurisdiction to determine the right of property, but that Jane and her + children were of African descent and found in the state of Illinois + without a certificate of freedom, and that they be committed to the county + jail to be advertised and sold to pay the jail fees. + </p> + <p> + "At the next term of the circuit court, Ficklin obtained an order staying + proceedings until the further order of the court. Finally when the case + was heard in the circuit court Linder and Abraham Lincoln appeared for + Matson, who was insisting upon the execution of the judgment of the three + justices of the peace so that he could buy them at the proposed sale, and + Ficklin and Charles Constable, afterward a circuit judge of this circuit, + appeared for the negroes. The judgment was in favor of the negroes and + they were discharged. + </p> + <p> + "The above is a much abbreviated account of this occurrence, stripped of + its local coloring, giving however its salient points, and I have no doubt + of its substantial accuracy." + </p> + <p> + 3. Lincoln, II, 185. + </p> + <p> + 4. Lincoln, II, 186. + </p> + <p> + 5. Lamon, 347. + </p> + <p> + 6. Lincoln, II, 232-233. + </p> + <p> + 7. Lincoln, II, 190-262. + </p> + <p> + 8. Lincoln, 274-277. + </p> + <p> + IX. THE LITERARY STATESMAN. + </p> + <p> + 1. Herndon, 371-372. + </p> + <p> + 2. Lincoln, II, 329-330. + </p> + <p> + 3. Lincoln, III, 1-2. + </p> + <p> + 4. Herndon, 405-408. + </p> + <p> + 5. Lincoln. II, 279. + </p> + <p> + 6. Lamon, 416. + </p> + <p> + X. THE DARK HORSE. + </p> + <p> + 1. Lincoln, V, 127. + </p> + <p> + 2. Tarbell, I, 335. + </p> + <p> + 3. Lincoln, V, 127,138, 257-258. + </p> + <p> + 4. Lincoln, V, 290-291. He never entirely shook off his erratic use of + negatives. See, also, Lamon, 424; Tarbell, I, 338. + </p> + <p> + 5. Lincoln, V, 293-32&6. McClure, 23-29; Field, 126,137-138; Tarbell, + I, 342-357. + </p> + <p> + XII. THE CRISIS + </p> + <p> + 1. Letters, 172. + </p> + <p> + 2. Lincoln, VI, 77, 78, 79, 93. + </p> + <p> + 3. Bancroft, 11,10; Letters, 111. + </p> + <p> + XIII. ECLIPSE. + </p> + <p> + 1. Bancroft, II, 10; Letters, 172. + </p> + <p> + 2. Bancroft, II, 9-10. + </p> + <p> + 3. Herndon, 484. + </p> + <p> + 4. McClure, 140-145; Lincoln, VI, 91, 97. + </p> + <p> + 5. Recollections, 111. + </p> + <p> + 6. Recollections, 121. + </p> + <p> + 7. Recollections, 112-113; Tarbell, I, 404-415. + </p> + <p> + 8. Tarbell, 1, 406. + </p> + <p> + 9. Tarbell, I, 406. + </p> + <p> + 10. Lincoln, VI, 91. + </p> + <p> + 11. Tarbell, 1, 406. + </p> + <p> + 12. Herndon, 483-484 + </p> + <p> + 13. Lamon, 505; see also, Herndon, 485. + </p> + <p> + 14. Lincoln, VI, 110. + </p> + <p> + XIV. THE STRANGE NEW MAN. + </p> + <p> + 1. Lincoln, VI, 130. + </p> + <p> + 2. Merriam, I, 318. + </p> + <p> + 3. Public Man, 140. + </p> + <p> + 4. Van Santvoord. + </p> + <p> + 5. N. and H., I, 36; McClure, 179. + </p> + <p> + 6. Herndon, 492. + </p> + <p> + 7. Recollections, 39-41. + </p> + <p> + 8. Lincoln, VI, 162-164. + </p> + <p> + 9. Bancroft, II, 38-45. + </p> + <p> + 10. Public Man, 383. + </p> + <p> + 11. Chittenden, 89-90. + </p> + <p> + 12. Public Man, 387. + </p> + <p> + XV. PRESIDENT AND PREMIER. + </p> + <p> + 1. Hay MS, I, 64. + </p> + <p> + 2. Tyler, II, 565-566. + </p> + <p> + 3. Bradford, 208; Seward, IV, 416. + </p> + <p> + 4. Nicolay, 213. + </p> + <p> + 5. Chase offered to procure a commission for Henry Villard, "by way of + compliment to the Cincinnati Commercial" Villard, 1,177. + </p> + <p> + 6. N. and H., III, 333, note 12. + </p> + <p> + 7. Outbreak, 52. + </p> + <p> + 8. Hay MS, I, 91; Tyler, II, 633; Coleman, 1, 338. + </p> + <p> + 9. Hay MS, I, 91; Riddle, 5; Public Man, 487. + </p> + <p> + 10. Correspondence, 548-549. + </p> + <p> + 11. See Miss Schrugham's monograph for much important data with regard to + this moment. Valuable as her contribution is, I can not feel that the + conclusions invalidate the assumption of the text. + </p> + <p> + 12. Lincoln, VI, 192-220. + </p> + <p> + 13. Sherman, I, 195-1%. + </p> + <p> + 14. Lincoln, VI, 175-176. + </p> + <p> + 15. 127 0. R., 161. + </p> + <p> + 16. Munford, 274; Journal of the Virginia Convention, 1861. + </p> + <p> + 17. Lincoln, VI, 227-230. + </p> + <p> + 18. N. R., first series, IV, 227. + </p> + <p> + 19. Hay MS, I, 143. + </p> + <p> + 20. The great authority of Mr. Frederick Bancroft is still on the side of + the older interpretation of Seward's Thoughts, Bancroft, II, Chap. XXIX. + It must be remembered that following the war there was a reaction against + Seward. When Nicolay and Hay published the Thoughts they appeared to give + him the coup de grace. Of late years it has almost been the fashion to + treat him contemptuously. Even Mr. Bancroft has been very cautious in his + defense. This is not the place to discuss his genius or his political + morals. But on one thing I insist, Whatever else he was-unscrupulous or + what you will-he was not a fool. However reckless, at times, his + spread-eagleism there was shrewdness behind it. The idea that he proposed + a ridiculous foreign policy at a moment when all his other actions reveal + coolness and calculation; the idea that he proposed it merely as a + spectacular stroke in party management; this is too much to believe. A + motive must be found better than mere chicanery. + </p> + <p> + Furthermore, if there was one fixed purpose in Seward, during March and + early April, it was to avoid a domestic conflict; and the only way he + could see to accomplish that was to side-track Montgomery's expansive + all-Southern policy. Is it not fair, with so astute a politician as + Seward, to demand in explanation of any of his moves 'he uncovering of + some definite political force he was playing up to? The old interpretation + of the Thoughts offers no force to which they form a response. Especially + it is impossible to find in them any scheme to get around Montgomery. But + the old view looked upon the Virginia compromise with blind eyes. That was + no part of the mental prospect. In accounting for Seward's purposes it did + not exist. But the moment one's eyes are opened to its significance, + especially to the menace it had for the Montgomery program, is not the + entire scene transformed? Is not, under these new conditions, the purpose + intimated in the text, the purpose to open a new field of exploitation to + the Southern expansionists in order to reconcile them to the Virginia + scheme, is not this at least plausible? And it escapes making Seward a + fool. + </p> + <p> + 21. Lincoln, VI, 23~237. + </p> + <p> + 22. Welles, 1,17. + </p> + <p> + 23. There is still lacking a complete unriddling of the three-cornered + game of diplomacy played in America in March and April, 1861. Of the three + participants Richmond is the most fully revealed. It was playing + desperately for a compromise, any sort of compromise, that would save the + one principle of state sovereignty. For that, slavery would be sacrificed, + or at least allowed to be put in jeopardy. Munford, Virginia's Attitude + toward Slavery and Secession; Tyler, Letters and Times of the Tylers; + Journal of the Virginia Convention of 1861. However, practically no + Virginian would put himself in the position of forcing any Southern State + to abandon slavery against its will. Hence the Virginia compromise dealt + only with the expansion of slavery, would go no further than to give the + North a veto on that expansion. And its compensating requirement plainly + would be a virtual demand for the acknowledgment of state sovereignty. + </p> + <p> + Precisely what passed between Richmond and Washington is still something + of a mystery. John Hay quotes Lincoln as saying that he twice offered to + evacuate Sumter, once before and once after his inauguration, if the + Virginians "would break up their convention without any row or nonsense." + Hay MS, I, 91; Thayer, I, 118-119. From other sources we have knowledge of + at least two conferences subsequent to the inauguration and probably + three. One of the conferences mentioned by Lincoln seems pretty well + identified. Coleman II, 337-338. It was informal and may be set aside as + having little if any historic significance. When and to whom Lincoln's + second offer was made is not fully established. Riddle in his + Recollections says that he was present at an informal interview "with + loyal delegates of the Virginia State Convention," who were wholly + satisfied with Lincoln's position. Riddle, 25. Possibly, this was the + second conference mentioned by Lincoln. It has scarcely a feature in + common with the conference of April 4, which has become the subject of + acrimonious debate. N. and H., III, 422-428; Boutwell, II, 62-67; + Bancroft, II, 102-104; Munford, 270; Southern Historical Papers, 1, 449; + Botts, 195- 201; Crawford, 311; Report of the Joint Committee on + Reconstruction, first session, Thirty-Ninth Congress; Atlantic, April, + 1875. The date of this conference is variously given as the fourth, fifth + and sixth of April. Curiously enough Nicolay and Hay seem to have only an + external knowledge of It; their account is made up from documents and + lacks entirely the authoritative note. They do not refer to the passage in + the Hay MS, already quoted. + </p> + <p> + There are three versions of the interview between Lincoln and Baldwin. One + was given by Baldwin himself before the Committee on Reconstruction some + five years after; one comprises the recollections of Colonel Dabney, to + whom Baldwin narrated the incident in the latter part of the war; a third + is in the recollections of John Minor Botts of a conversation with Lincoln + April 7, 1862. No two of the versions entirely agree. Baldwin insists that + Lincoln made no offer of any sort; while' Botts in his testimony before + the Committee on Reconstruction says that Lincoln told him that he had + told Baldwin that he was so anxious "for the preservation of the peace of + this country and to save Virginia and the other Border States from going + out that (he would) take the responsibility of evacuating Fort Sumter, and + take the chances of negotiating with the Cotton States." Baldwin's + language before the committee is a little curious and has been thought + disingenuous. Boutwell, I, 66. However, practically no one in this + connection has considered the passage in the Hay MS or the statement in + Riddle. Putting these together and remembering the general situation of + the first week of April there arises a very plausible argument for + accepting the main fact in Baldwin's version of his conference and + concluding that Botts either misunderstood Lincoln (as Baldwin says he + did) or got the matter twisted in memory. A further bit of plausibility is + the guess that Lincoln talked with Botts not only of the interview with + Baldwin but also of the earlier interview mentioned by Riddle and that the + two became confused in recollection. + </p> + <p> + To venture on an assumption harmonizing these confusions. When Lincoln + came to Washington, being still in his delusion that slavery was the issue + and therefore that the crisis was "artificial," he was willing to make + almost any concession, and freely offered to evacuate Sumter if thereby he + could induce Virginia to drop the subject of secession. Even later, when + he was beginning to appreciate the real significance of the moment, he was + still willing to evacuate Sumter if the issue would not be pushed further + in the Border States, that is, if Virginia would not demand a definite + concession of the right of secession. Up to this point I can not think + that he had taken seriously Seward's proposed convention of the States and + the general discussion of permanent Federal relations that would be bound + to ensue. But now he makes his fateful discovery that the issue is not + slavery but sovereignty. He sees that Virginia is in dead earnest on this + issue and that a general convention will necessarily involve a final + discussion of sovereignty in the United States and that the price of the + Virginia Amendment will be the concession of the right of secession. On + this assumption it is hardly conceivable that he offered to evacuate + Sumter as late as the fourth of April. The significance therefore of the + Baldwin interview would consist in finally convincing Lincoln that he + could not effect any compromise without conceding the principle of state + sovereignty. As this was the one thing he was resolved never to concede + there was nothing left him but to consider what course would most + strategically renounce compromise. Therefore, when it was known at + Washington a day or two later that Port Pickens was in imminent danger of + being taken by the Confederates (see note 24), Lincoln instantly + concentrated all his energies on the relief of Sumter. All along he had + believed that one of the forts must be held for the purpose of "a clear + indication of policy," even if the other should be given up "as a military + necessity." Lincoln, VI, 301. His purpose, therefore, in deciding on the + ostentatious demonstration toward Sumter was to give notice to the whole + country that he made no concessions on the matter of sovereignty. In a way + it was his answer to the Virginia compromise. + </p> + <p> + At last the Union party in Virginia sent a delegation to confer with + Lincoln. It did not arrive until Sumter had been fired upon. Lincoln read + to them a prepared statement of policy which announced his resolution to + make war, if necessary, to assert the national sovereignty. Lincoln, VI, + 243-245. + </p> + <p> + The part of Montgomery in this tangled episode is least understood of the + three. With Washington Montgomery had no official communication. Both + Lincoln and Seward refused to recognize commissioners of the Confederate + government Whether Seward as an individual went behind the back of himself + as an official and personally deceived the commissioners is a problem of + his personal biography and his private morals that has no place in this + discussion. Between Montgomery and Richmond there was intimate and cordial + communication from the start. At first Montgomery appears to have taken + for granted that the Secessionist party at Richmond was so powerful that + there was little need for the new government to do anything but wait But a + surprise was in store for it During February and March its agents reported + a wide-spread desire in the South to compromise on pretty nearly any terms + that would not surrender the central Southern idea of state sovereignty. + Thus an illusion of that day—as of this—was exploded, namely + the irresistibility of economic solidarity. Sentimental and constitutional + forces were proving more powerful than economics. Thereupon Montgomery's + problem was transformed. Its purpose was to build a Southern nation and it + had believed hitherto that economic forces had put into its hands the + necessary tools. Now it must throw them aside and get possession of + others. It must evoke those sentimental and constitutional forces that so + many rash statesmen have always considered negligible. Consequently, for + the South no less than for the North, the issue was speedily shifted from + slavery to sovereignty. Just how this was brought about we do not yet + know. Whether altogether through foresight and statesmanlike deliberation, + or in part at least through what might almost be called accidental + influences, is still a little uncertain. The question narrows itself to + this: why was Sumter fired upon precisely when it was? There are at least + three possible answers. + </p> + <p> + (1) That the firing was dictated purely by military necessity. A belief + that Lincoln intended to reinforce as well as to supply Sumter, that if + not taken now it could never be taken, may have been the over-mastering + idea in the Confederate Cabinet. The reports of the Commissioners at + Washington were tinged throughout by the belief that Seward and Lincoln + were both double-dealers. Beauregard, in command at Charleston, reported + that pilots had come in from the sea and told him of Federal war-ships + sighted off the Carolina coast. O. R. 297, 300, 301, 304, 305. + </p> + <p> + (2) A political motive which to-day is not so generally intelligible as + once it was, had great weight in 1861. This was the sense of honor in + politics. Those historians who brush it aside as a figment lack historical + psychology. It is possible that both Governor Pickens and the Confederate + Cabinet were animated first of all by the belief that the honor of South + Carolina required them to withstand the attempt of what they held to be an + alien power. + </p> + <p> + (3) And yet, neither of these explanations, however much either or both + may have counted for in many minds, gives a convincing explanation of the + agitation of Toornbs in the Cabinet council which decided to fire upon + Sumter. Neither of these could well be matters of debate. Everybody had to + be either for or against, and that would be an end. The Toombs of that day + was a different man from the Toombs of three months earlier. Some radical + change had taken place in his thought What could it have been if it was + not the perception that the Virginia program had put the whole matter in a + new light, that the issue had indeed been changed from slavery to + sovereignty, and that to join battle on the latter issue was a far more + serious matter than to join battle on the former. And if Toombs reasoned + in this fearful way, it is easy to believe that the more buoyant natures + in that council may well have reasoned in precisely the opposite way. + Virginia had lifted the Southern cause to its highest plane. But there was + danger that the Virginia compromise might prevail. If that should happen + these enthusiasts for a separate Southern nationality might find all their + work undone at the eleventh hour. Virginians who shared Montgomery's + enthusiasms had seen this before then. That was why Roger Pryor, for + example, had gone to Charleston as a volunteer missionary. In a speech to + a Charleston crowd he besought them, as a way of precipitating Virginia + into the lists, to strike blow. Charleston Mercury, April 11, 1861. + </p> + <p> + The only way to get any clue to these diplomatic tangles is by discarding + the old notion that there were but two political ideals clashing together + in America in 1861. There were three. The Virginians with their devotion + to the idea of a league of nations in this country were scarcely further + away from Lincoln and his conception of a Federal unit than they were from + those Southerners who from one cause or another were possessed with the + desire to create a separate Southern nation. The Virginia program was as + deadly to one as to the other of these two forces which with the upper + South made up the triangle of the day. The real event of March, 1861, was + the perception both by Washington and Montgomery that the Virginia program + spelled ruin for its own. By the middle of April it would be difficult to + say which had the better reason to desire the defeat of that program, + Washington or Montgomery. + </p> + <p> + 24. Lincoln, VI, 240, 301, 302; N. R., first series, IV, 109, 235, 239; + Welles, I, 16, 22-23, 25; Bancroft, II, 127, 129-130,138,139, 144; N. and + H., III, Chap. XI, IV, Chap. I. Enemies of Lincoln have accused him of bad + faith with regard to the relief of Fort Pickens. The facts appear to be as + follows: In January, 1861, when Fort Pickens was in danger of being seized + by the forces of the State of Florida, Buchanan ordered a naval expedition + to proceed to its relief. Shortly afterward—January 2—Senator + Mallory on behalf of Florida persuaded him to order the relief expedition + not to land any troops so long as the Florida forces refrained from + attacking the fort. This understanding between Buchanan and Mallory is + some-times called "the Pickens truce," sometimes "the Pickens Armistice." + N. and H., III, Chap. XI; N. R., first series, 1, 74; Scott, II, 624-625. + The new Administration had no definite knowledge of it. Lincoln, VI, 302. + Lincoln despatched a messenger to the relief expedition, which was still + hovering off the Florida coast, and ordered its troops to be landed. The + commander replied that he felt bound by the previous orders which had been + issued in the name of the Secretary of the Navy while the new orders + issued from the Department of War; he added that relieving Pickens would + produce war and wished to be sure that such was the President's intention; + he also informed Lincoln's messenger of the terms of Buchanan's agreement + with Mallory. The messenger returned to Washington for ampler + instructions. N. and H., IV, Chap. I; N. R., first series, I, 109-110, + 110-111. + </p> + <p> + Two days before his arrival at Washington alarming news from Charleston + brought Lincoln very nearly, if not quite, to the point of issuing sailing + orders to the Sumter expedition. Lincoln, VI, 240. A day later, Welles + issued such orders. N. IL, first series, I, 235; Bancroft, II, 138-139. On + April sixth, the Pickens messenger returned to Washington. N. and H., IV, + 7. Lincoln was now in full possession of all the facts. In his own words, + "To now reinforce Fort Pickens before a crisis would be reached at Fort + Sumter was impossible, rendered so by the exhaustion of provisions at the + latter named fort. . . . The strongest anticipated case for using it (the + Sumter expedition) was now presented, and it was resolved to send it + forward." Lincoln, VI, 302. He also issued peremptory orders for the + Pickens expedition to land its force, which was done April twelfth. N. R., + first series, I, 110-111, 115. How he reasoned upon the question of a + moral obligation devolving, or not devolving, upon himself as a + consequence of the Buchanan-Mallory agreement, he did not make public. The + fact of the agreement was published in the first message. But when + Congress demanded information on the subject, Lincoln transmitted to it a + report from Welles declining to submit the information on account of the + state of the country. 10. IL, 440-441. + </p> + <p> + 25. Lincoln, VI, 241. + </p> + <p> + XVI. ON TO RICHMOND. + </p> + <p> + 1. May MS, I, 23. + </p> + <p> + 2. N. and H., IV, 152. + </p> + <p> + 3. Hay MS, I, 45. + </p> + <p> + 4. Hay MS, I, 46. + </p> + <p> + 5. Hay MS, I, 5~56. + </p> + <p> + 6. Sherman, I, 199. + </p> + <p> + 7. Nicolay, 213. + </p> + <p> + 8. N. and H., IV, 322-323, 360. + </p> + <p> + 9. Bigelow, I, 360. + </p> + <p> + 10. Nicolay, 229. + </p> + <p> + 11. Lincoln, VI, 331-333. + </p> + <p> + 12. Own Story, 55, 82. + </p> + <p> + XVII. DEFINING THE ISSUE. + </p> + <p> + 1. Lincoln, VI, 297-325. + </p> + <p> + 2. Lincoln, X, 199. + </p> + <p> + 3. Lincoln, X, 202-203. + </p> + <p> + 4. Lincoln, VI, 321. + </p> + <p> + 5. Lincoln, VII, 56-57. + </p> + <p> + 6. Bancroft, II, 121; Southern Historical Papers, I, 446. + </p> + <p> + 7. Lincoln, VI, 304. + </p> + <p> + 8. Hay MS, I, 65. + </p> + <p> + 9. Lincoln, VI, 315. + </p> + <p> + 10. 39 Globe, I, 222; N. and H., IV, 379. + </p> + <p> + XVIII. THE JACOBIN CLUB. + </p> + <p> + 1. White, 171. + </p> + <p> + 2. Riddle, 40-52. + </p> + <p> + 3. Harris, 62. + </p> + <p> + 4. Public Man, 139. + </p> + <p> + 5. 37 Globe, III, 1334. + </p> + <p> + 6. Chandler, 253. + </p> + <p> + 7. White, 171. + </p> + <p> + 8. Conway, II, 336. + </p> + <p> + 9. Conway, II, 329. + </p> + <p> + 10. Rhodes, III, 350. + </p> + <p> + 11. Lincoln, VI, 351. + </p> + <p> + 12. Hay MS, I, 93. + </p> + <p> + 13. Hay MS, 1, 93. + </p> + <p> + 14. Bigelow, I, 400. + </p> + <p> + 15. Chandler, 256. + </p> + <p> + XIX. THE JACOBINS BECOME INQUISITORS. + </p> + <p> + 1. Lincoln, VII, 28-60. + </p> + <p> + 2. Nicolay, 321. + </p> + <p> + 3. C. W. I 3 66 + </p> + <p> + 4. Julian, 201. + </p> + <p> + 5. Chandler, 228. + </p> + <p> + 6. 37 Globe, II, 189-191; Lincoln, VII, 151-152; O. R., 341-346; 114 0. + R., 786, 797; C. W., I, 5, 74, 79; Battles and Leaders, II, 132-134; + Blaine, I, 383-384, 392-393; Pearson, 1, 312-313; Chandler, 222; Porter. + </p> + <p> + 7. Swinton, 79-85, quoting General McDowell's memoranda of their + proceedings. + </p> + <p> + 8 37 Globe, II, 15. + </p> + <p> + 9 Riddle, 296; Wade, 316; Chandler, 187. + </p> + <p> + 10. C. W., 1, 74. + </p> + <p> + 11. 37 Globe, II, 1667. + </p> + <p> + 12. 37 Globe, II, 1662-1668, 1732-1742. + </p> + <p> + 13. Lincoln, VII, 151-152. + </p> + <p> + XX. IS CONGRESS THE PRESIDENT'S MASTER. + </p> + <p> + 1. 37 Globe, II, 67. + </p> + <p> + 2. Rhodes, III, 350. + </p> + <p> + 3. 37 Globe, II, 3328. + </p> + <p> + 4. 37 Globe, II, 2764. + </p> + <p> + 5. 37 Globe, II, 2734. + </p> + <p> + 6. 37 Globe II, 2972-2973. + </p> + <p> + 7. 37 Globe, II, 440. + </p> + <p> + 8. 37 Globe, II, 1136-1139. + </p> + <p> + 9. Quoting 7 Howard, 43-46. + </p> + <p> + XXI. THE STRUGGLE TO CONTROL THE ARMY. + </p> + <p> + 1. N. and H., IV, 444. + </p> + <p> + 2. Own Story, 84. + </p> + <p> + 3. Own Story, 85. + </p> + <p> + 4. Gurowski, 123. + </p> + <p> + 5. Hay MS, 1, 99; Thayer, 1,125. + </p> + <p> + 6. N. and H., IV, 469. + </p> + <p> + 7. Hay MS, I, 93. + </p> + <p> + 8. 5 0. R., 41. + </p> + <p> + 9. Swinton, 79-84; C. W., 1, 270. + </p> + <p> + 10. C. W., I, 270, 360, 387; Hay MS, II, 101. + </p> + <p> + 11. Gorham, I, 347-348; Kelly, 34. + </p> + <p> + 12. Chandler, 228; Julian, 205. + </p> + <p> + 13. Hay MS, I, 101; 5 0. R., 1~ + </p> + <p> + 14. 5 0. R., 50. + </p> + <p> + 15. 5 0. R., 54-55; Julian, 205. + </p> + <p> + 16. Hay MS, I, 103. + </p> + <p> + 17. Hitchcock, 439. + </p> + <p> + 18. Hitchcock, 440. The italics are his. + </p> + <p> + 19. 5 0. R., 58. 20. 5 0. R., 59. 21. 5 0. R, 63. + </p> + <p> + 22. Own Story, 226; 5 0. R., 18. + </p> + <p> + 23. C. W., I, 251-252. 24. C. W., 1, 251-253, 317-318. + </p> + <p> + 25. 15 0. R., 220; Hitchcock, 439, note. + </p> + <p> + 26. 14 0. R., 66. 27. 12 0. R., 61. 28. 17 0. R., 219. + </p> + <p> + 29. Rhodes, IV, 19. + </p> + <p> + 30. Nicolay, 306; McClure, 168. + </p> + <p> + 31. 17 0. R., 435. + </p> + <p> + 32. Julian, 218. + </p> + <p> + 33. N. and H., V, 453. + </p> + <p> + 34. Lincoln, VII, 266-267. + </p> + <p> + 35. 37 Globe, II, 3386-3392. + </p> + <p> + XXII. LINCOLN EMERGES. + </p> + <p> + 1. Alexander, III, 15-17. + </p> + <p> + 2. 37 Globe, II, 1493. + </p> + <p> + 3. Julian, 215; Conway, I, 344. + </p> + <p> + 4. 37 Globe II, 2363. + </p> + <p> + 5. Lincoln, VII, 171-172. + </p> + <p> + 6. 37 Globe, II, 1138. + </p> + <p> + 7. Lincoln, VII, 172-173. + </p> + <p> + 8. Pierce, IV, 78; 37 Globe, II, 25%. + </p> + <p> + 9. Schurz, I, 187. + </p> + <p> + 10. London Times, May 9, 1862, quoted in American papers. + </p> + <p> + 11. 128 0. R., 2-3. + </p> + <p> + 12. Lincoln, VII, 270-274. + </p> + <p> + 13. Carpenter, 2021. + </p> + <p> + 14. Galaxy, XIV, 842-843. + </p> + <p> + 15. Lincoln, VII, 270-277; 37 Globe, II, 3322-3324, 3333. + </p> + <p> + 16. Julian, 220; 37 Globe, II, 3286-3287. + </p> + <p> + 17. Lincoln, VII, 280-286. + </p> + <p> + XXIII. THE MYSTICAL STATESMAN. + </p> + <p> + 1. Carpenter, 189. + </p> + <p> + 2. Recollections, 161. + </p> + <p> + 3. Recollections, 161-164; Carpenter, 119. + </p> + <p> + 4. Carpenter, 116. + </p> + <p> + 5. Carpenter, 90. + </p> + <p> + 6. Chapman, 449-450. + </p> + <p> + 7. Carpenter, 187. + </p> + <p> + 8. Lincoln, VIII, 52-53. + </p> + <p> + 9. Lincoln, VIII, 50-51. + </p> + <p> + XXIV. GAMBLING IN GENERALS. + </p> + <p> + 1. Reminiscences, 434. + </p> + <p> + 2. Recollections, 261. + </p> + <p> + 3. Galaxy, 842. + </p> + <p> + 4. Galaxy, 845. + </p> + <p> + 5 Carpenter, 22. + </p> + <p> + 6. O. R., 80-81. 7. C. W., I, 282. + </p> + <p> + 8. Lincoln, VIII, 15. + </p> + <p> + 9. Julian, 221. + </p> + <p> + 10. Thayer, 1, 127. + </p> + <p> + 11. Welles, 1,104; Nicolay, 313. + </p> + <p> + 12. Thayer, 1,129. + </p> + <p> + 13. Thayer, 1, 161. + </p> + <p> + 14. Reminiscences, 334-335, 528; Tarbell, II, 118-120; Lincoln, VIII, + 28-33. + </p> + <p> + 15. Chase, 87-88. + </p> + <p> + 16. Lincoln, VII, 40. + </p> + <p> + XXV. A WAR BEHIND THE SCENES. + </p> + <p> + 1. Bigelow, I, 572. + </p> + <p> + 2. 37 Globe, III, 6. + </p> + <p> + 3. 37 Globe, III, 76. + </p> + <p> + 4. Lincoln, VII, 57-60. + </p> + <p> + 5. Lincoln, VII, 73. + </p> + <p> + 6. Swinton, 231. + </p> + <p> + 7. C. W., 1, 650. + </p> + <p> + 8. Bancroft, II, 365; Welles, 1, ~198. + </p> + <p> + 9. N. and H., VI, 265. + </p> + <p> + 10. Welles, I, 205; Alexander, III, 185. + </p> + <p> + 11. Welles, 1, 196-198. + </p> + <p> + 12. Welles, 1, 201-202. + </p> + <p> + 13. Welles, I, 200. + </p> + <p> + 14. Lincoln, VII, 195-197. + </p> + <p> + XXVI. THE DICTATOR, THE MARPLOT, AND THE LITTLE MEN. + </p> + <p> + 1. Harris, 64. + </p> + <p> + 2. Gurowski, 312. + </p> + <p> + 3. Sherman Letters, 167. + </p> + <p> + 4. Julian, 223. + </p> + <p> + 5. Recollections, 215; Barnes, 428; Reminiscences, XXXI, XXXI I, XXXVI II. + Nicolay and Hay allude to this story, but apparently doubt its + authenticity. They think that Weed "as is customary with elderly men + exaggerated the definiteness of the proposition." + </p> + <p> + 6. Jullan, 225. + </p> + <p> + 7. Lincoln, VIII, 154. + </p> + <p> + 8. Raymond, 704. + </p> + <p> + 9. Recollections, 193-194. + </p> + <p> + 10. Lincoln, VII I, 206207. + </p> + <p> + 11. 37 Globe, III, 1068. + </p> + <p> + 12. Riddle, 278. + </p> + <p> + 13. Welles, I, 336. + </p> + <p> + 14. Lincoln, VIII, 235-237. + </p> + <p> + 15. Welles, I, 293. + </p> + <p> + 16. Lincoln, VIII, 527. + </p> + <p> + 17. Lincoln, IX, 3A. + </p> + <p> + 18. Lincoln, VIII, 307-308. + </p> + <p> + 19. Barnes, 428; Reminiscences, XXX, XXXIII-XXXVIII. + </p> + <p> + This story is told on the authority of Weed with much circumstantial + detail including the full text of a letter written by McClellan. The + letter was produced because McClellan had said that no negotiations took + place. Though the letter plainly alludes to negotiations of some sort, it + does not mention the specific offer attributed to Lincoln. Nicolay and Hay + are silent on the subject. See also note five, above. + </p> + <p> + 20. Tribune, July 7, 1863. + </p> + <p> + 21. Tribune, July 6, 1863. + </p> + <p> + 22. Lincoln, IX, 17. + </p> + <p> + 23. Lincoln, IX, 20-21. + </p> + <p> + XXVII. THE TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE. + </p> + <p> + 1. Rhodes, III, 461; Motley's Letters, II, 146. + </p> + <p> + 2. Reminiscences, 470. + </p> + <p> + 3. Hay, Century.? + </p> + <p> + 4. Carpenter, 281-282. + </p> + <p> + 5. Van Santvoord. + </p> + <p> + 6. Hay, Century, 35. + </p> + <p> + 7. Carpenter, 150. + </p> + <p> + 8. Recollections, 97. + </p> + <p> + 9. Recollections, 80. + </p> + <p> + 10. Carpenter, 65. + </p> + <p> + 11. Carpenter, 65-67. + </p> + <p> + 12. Carpenter, 64. + </p> + <p> + 13. Recollections, 267. + </p> + <p> + 14. Carpenter, 64. + </p> + <p> + 15. Recollections, 83-84. + </p> + <p> + 16. Carpenter, 152. + </p> + <p> + 17. Carpenter, 219. + </p> + <p> + 18. Recollections, 103-105. + </p> + <p> + 19. Lincoln, X, 274-275. + </p> + <p> + 20. Recollections, 103. + </p> + <p> + 21. Recollections, 95-96. + </p> + <p> + 22. Hay, Century. + </p> + <p> + 23. Rankin, 177-179. + </p> + <p> + 24. Hay, Century, 35. + </p> + <p> + 25. Carpenter. + </p> + <p> + 26. Thayer, I, 198-190. + </p> + <p> + 27. Thayer, I, 196-197. + </p> + <p> + 28. Thayer, I, 199-200. + </p> + <p> + 29. Carpenter, 104. + </p> + <p> + 30. Lincoln, VIII, 112-115. + </p> + <p> + 31. Lincoln, IX, 210. + </p> + <p> + XXVIII. APPARENT ASCENDENCY. + </p> + <p> + 1. Lincoln, IX, 284. + </p> + <p> + 2. Lincoln, IX, 219-221. + </p> + <p> + 3. Lincoln, X, 38-39. + </p> + <p> + 4. 38 Globe, I, 1408. + </p> + <p> + 5. Bancroft, II, 429-430; Moore, VI, 497-498 + </p> + <p> + 6. Grant, II, 123. + </p> + <p> + 7. Lincoln, X, 90-91. + </p> + <p> + XXIX. CATASTROPHE. + </p> + <p> + 1. Nicolay, 440. + </p> + <p> + 2. Carpenter, 130; Hay MS. + </p> + <p> + 3. Nicolay, 440. + </p> + <p> + 4. Lincoln, X, 25-26. + </p> + <p> + 5. 37 Globe, II, 2674. + </p> + <p> + 6. Nicolay, 352. + </p> + <p> + 7. Lincoln, X, 49. + </p> + <p> + 8. Lincoln, X, 5~54. + </p> + <p> + 9. Rankin, 381-387; Hay, Century. + </p> + <p> + 10. Carpenter, 217. + </p> + <p> + 11. Carpenter, 81. + </p> + <p> + 12. Carpenter, 218. + </p> + <p> + 13. Hay, Century, 37. + </p> + <p> + 14. Lincoln, X, 89. + </p> + <p> + 15. Carpenter, 131. + </p> + <p> + 16. Lincoln, X, 122-123. + </p> + <p> + 17. Carpenter. 168-169. + </p> + <p> + 18. Carpenter, 30-31. + </p> + <p> + 19. Lincoln, X, 129. + </p> + <p> + XXX. THE PRESIDENT VERSUS THE VINDICTIVES. + </p> + <p> + 1. Lincoln, X, 139-140. + </p> + <p> + 2. Chittenden, 379. + </p> + <p> + 3. Lincoln, X, 140-141. + </p> + <p> + 4. Carpenter, 181-183.S. N. and H., X, 95-100. + </p> + <p> + 5. Hay MS, I, 1617; N. and H., IX, 120121. + </p> + <p> + XXXI. A MENACING PAUSE. + </p> + <p> + 1. Reminiscences, 398. + </p> + <p> + 2. Globe, I, 3148. + </p> + <p> + 3. Riddle, 254. + </p> + <p> + 4. Greeley, II, 664-666. + </p> + <p> + 5. N. and H., 186190. + </p> + <p> + 6. Gilmore, 240. + </p> + <p> + 7. Gilmore, Atlantic. & Gilmore, 243-244. + </p> + <p> + 9. Hay MS, I, 7677; N. and H., 167-173; Carpenter, 301-302. + </p> + <p> + 10. N. and H., IX, 338-339. + </p> + <p> + 11. Carpenter, 223-225. + </p> + <p> + 12. Carpenter, 282; also, N. and H., IX, 364. + </p> + <p> + 13. N. and H., IX, 188. + </p> + <p> + 14. N. and H., IX, 192. + </p> + <p> + 15. N. and H., IX, 195. + </p> + <p> + 16. N. and H IX, 212, note. + </p> + <p> + 17. Lincoln, X, 164-166. + </p> + <p> + XXXII. THE AUGUST CONSPIRACY. + </p> + <p> + 1. Julian, 247. + </p> + <p> + 2. Times, August 1, 1864. + </p> + <p> + 3. Herald, August 6, 1864. + </p> + <p> + 4. Sun, June 30, 1889. + </p> + <p> + 5. N. and H., IX, 250. + </p> + <p> + 6. N. and H., IX, 218. + </p> + <p> + 7. Times, August 18, 1864. & N. and H., IX, 197. + </p> + <p> + 9. Herald, August 18, 1864. + </p> + <p> + 10. Lincoln, X, 308. + </p> + <p> + 11. N. and H., IX, 250. + </p> + <p> + 12. Lincoln, X, 203-204. + </p> + <p> + 13. N. and H., IX, 221. + </p> + <p> + 14. Ibid. + </p> + <p> + 15. Herald, August 26, 1864. + </p> + <p> + 16. Tribune, August 27, 1864. + </p> + <p> + 17. Times, August 26, 1864. + </p> + <p> + XXXIII. THE RALLY TO THE PRESIDENT. + </p> + <p> + 1. Herald, August 24, 1864. + </p> + <p> + 2. Times, August 26, 1864~ + </p> + <p> + 3. Pierce, IV, 197-198. + </p> + <p> + 4. Pearson, 11,150-151. + </p> + <p> + 5. Herald, August 23, 1864. + </p> + <p> + 6. Pearson, II, 168. + </p> + <p> + 7. Ibid. The terms offered Davis were not stated in the Atlantic article. + See Gilmore, 289-290. + </p> + <p> + 8. Tribune, August 27', 1864. + </p> + <p> + 9. Sun, June 30, 1889. + </p> + <p> + 10. Sun, June 30, 1889; Pearson, II, 160-161. + </p> + <p> + 11. Pearson,, II, 164. + </p> + <p> + 12. Pearson, II, 166. + </p> + <p> + 13. Sun, June 30, 1889. + </p> + <p> + 14. Tribune, August 30, 1864. + </p> + <p> + 15. Pearson, II, 162. + </p> + <p> + 16. Tribune, September 3, 1864. + </p> + <p> + 17. Pearson, 11,165. + </p> + <p> + 18. Sun, June 30, 1889. + </p> + <p> + 19. Pearson, II, 167; Tribune, September 7, 1864. + </p> + <p> + 20. Tribune, September 6, 1864. + </p> + <p> + 21. Sun, June 30, 1889. + </p> + <p> + 22. Tribune, September 9, 1864. + </p> + <p> + 23. Tribune, September 7, 1864. + </p> + <p> + 24. Tribune, September 12, 1864. + </p> + <p> + 25. Tribune, September 22, 1864. + </p> + <p> + XXXIV. "FATHER ABRAHAM." + </p> + <p> + 1. N. and H., IX, 339. + </p> + <p> + 2. Ibid. + </p> + <p> + 3. Arnold, 390. + </p> + <p> + 4. Chandler, 274-276. + </p> + <p> + 5. The familiar version of the retirement of affair is contained in the + Life of Chandler issued by the Detroit Post and Tribune without an + author's name. This book throughout is an apology for Chandler. In + substance its story of this episode is as follows: Chandler beheld with + aching heart the estrangement between Lincoln and Wade; he set to work to + bring them together; at a conference which he had with Wade, in Ohio, a + working understanding was effected; Chandler hurried to Washington; with + infinite pains he accomplished a party deal, the three elements of which + were Lincoln's removal of Blair, Fremont's resignation, and Wade's + appearance in the Administration ranks. Whatever may be said of the + physical facts of this narrative, its mental facts, its tone and + atmosphere, are historical fiction. And I have to protest that the + significance of the episode has been greatly exaggerated. The series of + dates given in the text can not be reconciled with any theory which makes + the turn of the tide toward Lincoln at all dependent on a Blair-Fremont + deal. Speaking of the tradition that Chandler called upon Lincoln and made + a definite agreement with him looking toward the removal of Blair, Colonel + W. O. Stoddard writes me that his "opinion, or half memory, would be that + the tradition is a myth." See also, Welles, II, 156-158. + </p> + <p> + 6. Lincoln, X, 228-229. + </p> + <p> + 7. Times, September 24, 1864. + </p> + <p> + 8. Times, September 28, 1864. + </p> + <p> + 9. N. and H., IX, 364. + </p> + <p> + 10. Thayer, II, 214; Hay MS. + </p> + <p> + 11. N. and H., IX, 377. + </p> + <p> + 12. Thayer, II, 216; Hay MS, III, 29. + </p> + <p> + 13. Lincoln, X, 261. + </p> + <p> + 14. N. and H., IX, 378-379. + </p> + <p> + XXXV. THE MASTER OF THE MOMENT. + </p> + <p> + 1. Lincoln, X, 283. + </p> + <p> + 2. N. and H., IX, 392-394. + </p> + <p> + 3. N. and H., IX, 210-211. + </p> + <p> + 4. One of the traditions that has grown up around Lincoln makes the + passage of the Thirteenth Amendment a matter of threats. Two votes were + needed. It was discovered according to this simpleminded bit of art that + two members of the opposition had been guilty of illegal practices, the + precise nature of which is conveniently left vague. Lincoln, even in some + highly reputable biographies, sent for these secret criminals, told them + that the power of the President of the United States was very great, and + that he expected them to vote for the amendment. The authority for the + story appears to be a member of Congress, John B. Aley. Reminiscences, + 585-586; Lord Charnwood, Abraham Lincoln, 335-336. To a great many minds + it has always seemed out of key. Fortunately, there is a rival version. + Shrewd, careful Riddle has a vastly different tale in which Lincoln does + not figure at all, in which three necessary votes were bought for the + amendment by Ashley. Riddle is so careful to make plain just what he can + vouch for and just what he has at second hand that his mere mode of + narration creates confidence. Riddle, 324-325. Parts of his version are to + be found in various places. + </p> + <p> + 5. Nicolay, Cambridge, 601. + </p> + <p> + 6. Lincoln, X, 38-39, and note; XI, 89. + </p> + <p> + 7. 38 Globe, II, 903. + </p> + <p> + 8. 38 Globe, II, 1127. + </p> + <p> + 9. 38 Globe, 11,1129; Pierce, IV, 221-227. + </p> + <p> + 10. Recollections, 249. + </p> + <p> + 11. Nicolay, 503-504; Lincoln, XI, 43. + </p> + <p> + 12. Lincoln, XI, 4446. + </p> + <p> + XXXVI. PREPARING A DIFFERENT WAR. + </p> + <p> + 1. Grant, II, 459. + </p> + <p> + 2. Tarbell, II, 229. + </p> + <p> + 3. N. and H., IX, 457. + </p> + <p> + 4. Pierce, IV, 236. + </p> + <p> + 5. Lincoln, XI, 84-91. + </p> + <p> + XXXVII. FATE INTERPOSES. + </p> + <p> + 1. Tarbell, II, 231-232. + </p> + <p> + 2. Pierce, IV, 235. + </p> + <p> + 3. Tarbell, II, 232. + </p> + <p> + 4. Recollections, 116. + </p> + <p> + 5. Nicolay, 531. + </p> + <p> + 6. N. and H., X, 283-284. + </p> + <p> + 7. Julian, 255. + </p> + <p> + 8. Recollections, 249. + </p> + <p> + 9. Recollections, 119. + </p> + <p> + 10. Nicolay, 532. + </p> + <p> + 11. Recollections, 119-120; Carpenter, 293; Nicolay, 532; Tarbell, II, + 235. + </p> + <p> + 12. Nicolay, 539. + </p> + <p> + 13. Thayer, II, 219; Hay MS, + </p> + <p> + 14. Riddle, 332. + </p> + <p> + 15. Nicolay, 530. + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Lincoln, by Nathaniel Wright Stephenson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LINCOLN *** + +***** This file should be named 1713-h.htm or 1713-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/7/1/1713/ + +Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer and David Widger + +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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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: Lincoln + Lincoln; An Account of His Personal Life, Especially of + Its Springs of Action as Revealed and Deepened by the + Ordeal of War + +Author: Nathaniel Wright Stephenson + +Release Date: February 21, 2006 [EBook #1713] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LINCOLN *** + + + + +Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer and David Widger + + + + + +LINCOLN + +An Account of His Personal Life, Especially of Its Springs of Action as +Revealed and Deepened by the Ordeal of War + + +By Nathaniel Wright Stephenson + + +Authority for all important statements of facts in the following pages +may be found in the notes; the condensed references are expanded in the +bibliography. A few controversial matters are discussed in the notes. + +I am very grateful to Mr. William Roscoe Thayer for enabling me to use +the manuscript diary of John Hay. Miss Helen Nicolay has graciously +confirmed some of the implications of the official biography. Lincoln's +only surviving secretary, Colonel W. O. Stoddard, has given considerate +aid. The curious incident of Lincoln as counsel in an action to recover +slaves was mentioned to me by Professor Henry Johnson, through whose +good offices it was confirmed and amplified by Judge John H. Marshall. +Mr. Henry W. Raymond has been very tolerant of a stranger's inquiries +with regard to his distinguished father. A futile attempt to discover +documentary remains of the Republican National Committee of 1864 has +made it possible, through the courtesy of Mr. Clarence B. Miller, at +least to assert that there is nothing of importance in possession of +the present Committee. A search for new light on Chandler drew forth +generous assistance from Professor Ulrich B. Phillips, Mr. Floyd B. +Streeter and Mr. G. B. Krum. The latter caused to be examined, for +this particular purpose, the Blair manuscripts in the Burton Historical +Collection. Much illumination arose out of a systematic resurvey of the +Congressional Globe, for the war period, in which I had the +stimulating companionship of Professor John L. Hill, reinforced by many +conversations with Professor Dixon Ryan Fox and Professor David Saville +Muzzey. At the heart of the matter is the resolute criticism of Mrs. +Stephenson and of a long enduring friend, President Harrison Randolph. +The temper of the historical fraternity is such that any worker in +any field is always under a host of incidental obligations. There is +especial propriety in my acknowledging the kindness of Professor Albert +Bushnell Hart, Professor James A. Woodburn, Professor Herman V. Ames, +Professor St. George L. Sioussat and Professor Allen Johnson. + + +CONTENTS + + FOUNDATIONS + I THE CHILD OF THE FOREST + II THE MYSTERIOUS YOUTH + III A VILLAGE LEADER IV REVELATIONS + V PROSPERITY + VI UNSATISFYING RECOGNITION + + PROMISES + VII THE SECOND START + VIII A RETURN TO POLITICS + IX THE LITERARY STATESMAN + X THE DARK HORSE + XI SECESSION + XII THE CRISIS + XIII ECLIPSE + + CONFUSIONS + XIV THE STRANGE NEW MAN + XV PRESIDENT AND PREMIER + XVI "ON TO RICHMOND!" + XVII DEFINING THE ISSUE + XVIII THE JACOBIN CLUB + XIX THE JACOBINS BECOME INQUISITORS + XX IS CONGRESS THE PRESIDENT'S MASTER? + XXI THE STRUGGLE TO CONTROL THE ARMY + XXII LINCOLN EMERGES + + AUDACITIES + XXIII THE MYSTICAL STATESMAN + XXIV GAMBLING IN GENERALS + XXV A WAR BEHIND THE SCENES + XXVI THE DICTATOR, THE MARPLOT, AND THE LITTLE MEN + XXVII THE TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE + XXVIII APPARENT ASCENDENCY + XXIX CATASTROPHE + XXX THE PRESIDENT VERSUS THE VINDICTIVES + + VICTORY + XXXI A MENACING PAUSE + XXXII THE AUGUST CONSPIRACY + XXXIII THE RALLY TO THE PRESIDENT + XXXIV "FATHER ABRAHAM" + XXXV THE MASTER OF THE MOMENT + XXXVI PREPARING A DIFFERENT WAR + XXXVII FATE INTERPOSES + + BIBLIOGRAPHY + + NOTES + + +ACKNOWLEDGMENT + +The author and publisher make grateful acknowledgement to Ginn and +Company, Boston, for the photograph of St. Gaudens' Statue; to The +Century Company of New York for the Earliest Portrait of Lincoln, which +is from an engraving by Johnson after a daguerreotype in the possession +of the Honorable Robert T. Lincoln; and for Lincoln and Tad, which is +from the famous photograph by Brady; to The Macmillan Company of New +York for the portrait of Mrs. Lincoln and also for The Review of the +Army of the Potomac, both of which were originally reproduced in Ida M. +Tarbell's Life of Abraham Lincoln. For the rare and interesting portrait +entitled The Last Phase of Lincoln acknowledgment is made to Robert +Bruce, Esquire, Clinton, Oneida County, New York. This photograph was +taken by Alexander Gardner, April 9, 1865, the glass plate of which is +now in Mr. Bruce's collection. + + + + + +I. THE CHILD OF THE FOREST + +Of first importance in the making of the American people is that great +forest which once extended its mysterious labyrinth from tide-water to +the prairies when the earliest colonists entered warily its sea-worn +edges a portion of the European race came again under a spell it had +forgotten centuries before, the spell of that untamed nature +which created primitive man. All the dim memories that lay deep in +subconsciousness; all the vague shadows hovering at the back of the +civilized mind; the sense of encompassing natural power, the need to +struggle single-handed against it; the danger lurking in the darkness +of the forest; the brilliant treachery of the forest sunshine glinted +through leafy secrecies; the Strange voices in its illimitable murmur; +the ghostly shimmer of its glades at night; the lovely beauty of the +great gold moon; all the thousand wondering dreams that evolved the +elder gods, Pan, Cybele, Thor; all this waked again in the soul of the +Anglo-Saxon penetrating the great forest. And it was intensified by the +way he came,--singly, or with but wife and child, or at best in very +small company, a mere handful. And the surrounding presences were not +only of the spiritual world. Human enemies who were soon as well armed +as he, quicker of foot and eye, more perfectly noiseless in their tread +even than the wild beasts of the shadowy coverts, the ruthless Indians +whom he came to expel, these invisible presences were watching him, in +a fierce silence he knew not whence. Like as not the first signs of that +menace which was everywhere would be the hiss of the Indian arrow, or +the crack of the Indian rifle, and sharp and sudden death. + +Under these conditions he learned much and forgot much. His deadly need +made him both more and less individual than he had been, released +him from the dictation of his fellows in daily life while it enforced +relentlessly a uniform method of self-preservation. Though the unseen +world became more and more real, the understanding of it faded. It +became chiefly a matter of emotional perception, scarcely at all a +matter of philosophy. The morals of the forest Americans were those of +audacious, visionary beings loosely hound together by a comradeship +in peril. Courage, cautiousness, swiftness, endurance, faithfulness, +secrecy,--these were the forest virtues. Dreaming, companionship, +humor,--these were the forest luxuries. + +From the first, all sorts and conditions were ensnared by that silent +land, where the trails they followed, their rifles in their hands, had +been trodden hard generation after generation by the feet of the Indian +warriors. The best and the worst of England went into that illimitable +resolvent, lost themselves, found themselves, and issued from its +shadows, or their children did, changed both for good and ill, +Americans. Meanwhile the great forest, during two hundred years, was +slowly vanishing. This parent of a new people gave its life to its +offspring and passed away. In the early nineteenth century it had +withered backward far from the coast; had lost its identity all along +the north end of the eastern mountains; had frayed out toward the sunset +into lingering tentacles, into broken minor forests, into shreds and +patches. + +Curiously, by a queer sort of natural selection, its people had +congregated into life communities not all of one pattern. There were +places as early as the beginning of the century where distinction +had appeared. At other places life was as rude and rough as could be +imagined. There were innumerable farms that were still mere "clearings," +walled by the forest. But there were other regions where for many a mile +the timber had been hewn away, had given place to a ragged continuity +of farmland. In such regions especially if the poorer elements of +the forest, spiritually speaking, had drifted thither--the straggling +villages which had appeared were but groups of log cabins huddled along +a few neglected lanes. In central Kentucky, a poor new village was +Elizabethtown, unkempt, chokingly dusty in the dry weather, with muddy +streams instead of streets during the rains, a stench of pig-sties at +the back of its cabins, but everywhere looking outward glimpses of a +lovely meadow land. + +At Elizabethtown in 1806 lived Joseph Hanks, a carpenter, also his niece +Nancy Hanks. Poor people they were, of the sort that had been sucked +into the forest in their weakness, or had been pushed into it by a +social pressure they could not resist; not the sort that had grimly +adventured its perils or gaily courted its lure. Their source was +Virginia. They were of a thriftless, unstable class; that vagrant +peasantry which had drifted westward to avoid competition with slave +labor. The niece, Nancy, has been reputed illegitimate. And though +tradition derives her from the predatory amour of an aristocrat, there +is nothing to sustain the tale except her own appearance. She had a +bearing, a cast of feature, a tone, that seemed to hint at higher social +origins than those of her Hanks relatives. She had a little schooling; +was of a pious and emotional turn of mind; enjoyed those amazing +"revivals" which now and then gave an outlet to the pent-up religiosity +of the village; and she was almost handsome.(1) + +History has preserved no clue why this girl who was rather the best of +her sort chose to marry an illiterate apprentice of her uncle's, Thomas +Lincoln, whose name in the forest was spelled "Linkhorn." He was a +shiftless fellow, never succeeding at anything, who could neither read +nor write. At the time of his birth, twenty-eight years before, his +parents--drifting, roaming people, struggling with poverty--were +dwellers in the Virginia mountains. As a mere lad, he had shot an +Indian--one of the few positive acts attributed to him--and his father +had been killed by Indians. There was a "vague tradition" that his +grandfather had been a Pennsylvania Quaker who had wandered southward +through the forest mountains. The tradition angered him. Though he +appears to have had little enough--at least in later years--of the +fierce independence of the forest, he resented a Quaker ancestry as an +insult. He had no suspicion that in after years the zeal of genealogists +would track his descent until they had linked him with a lost member of +a distinguished Puritan family, a certain Mordecai Lincoln who removed +to New Jersey, whose descendants became wanderers of the forest and sank +speedily to the bottom of the social scale, retaining not the slightest +memory of their New England origin.(2) Even in the worst of the +forest villages, few couples started married life in less auspicious +circumstances than did Nancy and Thomas. Their home in one of the alleys +of Elizabethtown was a shanty fourteen feet square.(3) Very soon after +marriage, shiftless Thomas gave up carpentering and took to farming. +Land could be had almost anywhere for almost nothing those days, and +Thomas got a farm on credit near where now stands Hodgenville. Today, it +is a famous place, for there, February 12, 1809, Abraham Lincoln, second +child, but first son of Nancy and Thomas, was born.(4) + +During most of eight years, Abraham lived in Kentucky. His father, +always adrift in heart, tried two farms before abandoning Kentucky +altogether. A shadowy figure, this Thomas; the few memories of him +suggest a superstitious nature in a superstitious community. He used +to see visions in the forest. Once, it is said, he came home, all +excitement, to tell his wife he had seen a giant riding on a lion, +tearing up trees by the roots; and thereupon, he took to his bed and +kept it for several days. + +His son Abraham told this story of the giant on the lion to a playmate +of his, and the two boys gravely discussed the existence of ghosts. +Abraham thought his father "didn't exactly believe in them," and seems +to have been in about the same state of mind himself. He was quite sure +he was "not much" afraid of the dark. This was due chiefly to the simple +wisdom of a good woman, a neighbor, who had taught him to think of the +night as a great room that God had darkened even as his friend darkened +a room in her house by hanging something over the window.(5) + +The eight years of his childhood in Kentucky had few incidents. A hard, +patient, uncomplaining life both for old and young. The men found their +one deep joy in the hunt. In lesser degree, they enjoyed the revivals +which gave to the women their one escape out of themselves. A strange, +almost terrible recovery of the primitive, were those religious furies +of the days before the great forest had disappeared. What other figures +in our history are quite so remarkable as the itinerant frontier +priests, the circuit-riders as they are now called, who lived as Elijah +did, whose temper was very much the temper of Elijah, in whose exalted +narrowness of devotion, all that was stern, dark, foreboding--the very +brood of the forest's innermost heart--had found a voice. Their religion +was ecstasy in homespun, a glory of violent singing, the release of a +frantic emotion, formless but immeasurable, which at all other times, in +the severity of the forest routine, gave no sign of its existence. + +A visitor remembered long afterward a handsome young woman who he +thought was Nancy Hanks, singing wildly, whirling about as may once have +done the ecstatic women of the woods of Thrace, making her way among +equally passionate worshipers, to the foot of the rude altar, and there +casting herself into the arms of the man she was to marry.(6) So did +thousands of forest women in those seasons when their communion with a +mystic loneliness was confessed, when they gave tongue as simply as +wild creatures to the nameless stirrings and promptings of that secret +woodland where Pan was still the lord. And the day following the +revival, they were again the silent, expressionless, much enduring, +long-suffering forest wives, mothers of many children, toilers of +the cabins, who cooked and swept and carried fuel by sunlight, and by +firelight sewed and spun. + +It can easily be understood how these women, as a rule, exerted little +influence on their sons. Their imaginative side was too deeply hidden, +the nature of their pleasures too secret, too mysterious. Male youth, +following its obvious pleasure, went with the men to the hunt. The women +remained outsiders. The boy who chose to do likewise, was the incredible +exception. In him had come to a head the deepest things in the forest +life: the darkly feminine things, its silence, its mysticism, its +secretiveness, its tragic patience. Abraham was such a boy. It is +said that he astounded his father by refusing to own a gun. He earned +terrible whippings by releasing animals caught in traps. Though he had +in fullest measure the forest passion for listening to stories, the +ever-popular tales of Indian warfare disgusted him. But let the tale +take on any glint of the mystery of the human soul--as of Robinson +Crusoe alone on his island, or of the lordliness of action, as in +Columbus or Washington--and he was quick with interest. The stories of +talking animals out of Aesop fascinated him. + +In this thrilled curiosity about the animals was the side of him least +intelligible to men like his father. It lives in many anecdotes: of his +friendship with a poor dog he had which he called "Honey"; of pursuing +a snake through difficult thickets to prevent its swallowing a frog; of +loitering on errands at the risk of whippings to watch the squirrels in +the tree-tops; of the crowning offense of his childhood, which earned +him a mighty beating, the saving of a fawn's life by scaring it off just +as a hunter's gun was leveled. And by way of comment on all this, there +is the remark preserved in the memory of another boy to whom at the time +it appeared most singular, "God might think as much of that little fawn +as of some people." Of him as of another gentle soul it might have been +said that all the animals were his brothers and sisters.(7) + +One might easily imagine this peculiar boy who chose to remain at home +while the men went out to slay, as the mere translation into masculinity +of his mother, and of her mothers, of all the converging processions +of forest women, who had passed from one to another the secret of their +mysticism, coloring it many ways in the dark vessels of their suppressed +lives, till it reached at last their concluding child. But this would +only in part explain him. Their mysticism, as after-time was to show, he +had undoubtedly inherited. So, too, from them, it may be, came another +characteristic--that instinct to endure, to wait, to abide the issue of +circumstance, which in the days of his power made him to the politicians +as unintelligible as once he had been to the forest huntsmen. +Nevertheless, the most distinctive part of those primitive women, the +sealed passionateness of their spirits, he never from childhood to the +end revealed. In the grown man appeared a quietude, a sort of tranced +calm, that was appalling. From what part of his heredity did this +derive? Was it the male gift of the forest? Did progenitors worthier +than Thomas somehow cast through him to his alien son that peace they +had found in the utter heart of danger, that apparent selflessness which +is born of being ever unfailingly on guard? + +It is plain that from the first he was a natural stoic, taking his +whippings, of which there appear to have been plenty, in silence, +without anger. It was all in the day's round. Whippings, like other +things, came and went. What did it matter? And the daily round, though +monotonous, had even for the child a complement of labor. Especially +there was much patient journeying back and forth with meal bags between +his father's cabin and the local mill. There was a little schooling, +very little, partly from Nancy Lincoln, partly from another good woman, +the miller's kind old mother, partly at the crudest of wayside schools +maintained very briefly by a wandering teacher who soon wandered on; but +out of this schooling very little result beyond the mastery of the A B +C.(8) And even at this age, a pathetic eagerness to learn, to invade the +wonder of the printed book! Also a marked keenness of observation. He +observed things which his elders overlooked. He had a better sense of +direction, as when he corrected his father and others who were taking +the wrong short-cut to a burning house. Cool, unexcitable, he was +capable of presence of mind. Once at night when the door of the cabin +was suddenly thrown open and a monster appeared on the threshold, a +spectral thing in the darkness, furry, with the head of an ox, Thomas +Lincoln shrank back aghast; little Abraham, quicker-sighted and +quicker-witted, slipped behind the creature, pulled at its furry mantle, +and revealed a forest Diana, a bold girl who amused herself playing +demon among the shadows of the moon. + +Seven years passed and his eighth birthday approached. All this while +Thomas Lincoln had somehow kept his family in food, but never had he +money in his pocket. His successive farms, bought on credit, were never +paid for. An incurable vagrant, he came at last to the psychological +moment when he could no longer impose himself on his community. He must +take to the road in a hazard of new fortune. Indiana appeared to him +the land of promise. Most of his property--such as it was--except his +carpenter's tools, he traded for whisky, four hundred gallons. Somehow +he obtained a rattletrap wagon and two horses. + +The family appear to have been loath to go. Nancy Lincoln had long been +ailing and in low spirits, thinking much of what might happen to her +children after her death. Abraham loved the country-side, and he had +good friends in the miller and his kind old mother. But the vagrant +Thomas would have his way. In the brilliancy of the Western autumn, with +the ruined woods flaming scarlet and gold, these poor people took their +last look at the cabin that had been their wretched shelter, and set +forth into the world.(9) + + + + +II THE MYSTERIOUS YOUTH + +Vagrants, or little better than vagrants, were Thomas Lincoln and his +family making their way to Indiana. For a year after they arrived they +were squatters, their home an "open-faced camp," that is, a shanty with +one wall missing, and instead of chimney, a fire built on the open side. +In that mere pretense of a house, Nancy Lincoln and her children spent +the winter of 1816-1817. Then Thomas resorted to his familiar practice +of taking land on credit. The Lincolns were now part of a "settlement" +of seven or eight families strung along a little stream known as Pigeon +Creek. Here Thomas entered a quarter-section of fair land, and in the +course of the next eleven years succeeded--wonderful to relate--in +paying down sufficient money to give him title to about half. + +Meanwhile, poor fading Nancy went to her place. Pigeon Creek was an +out-of-the-way nook in the still unsettled West, and Nancy during the +two years she lived there could not have enjoyed much of the consolation +of her religion. Perhaps now and then she had ghostly council of some +stray circuit-rider. But for her the days of the ecstasies had gone by; +no great revival broke the seals of the spirit, stirred its deep waters, +along Pigeon Creek. There was no religious service when she was laid +to rest in a coffin made of green lumber and fashioned by her husband. +Months passed, the snow lay deep, before a passing circuit-rider held +a burial service over her grave. Tradition has it that the boy Abraham +brought this about very likely, at ten years old, he felt that her +troubled spirit could not have peace till this was done. Shadowy as she +is, ghostlike across the page of history, it is plain that she was a +reality to her son. He not only loved her but revered her. He believed +that from her he had inherited the better part of his genius. Many years +after her death he said, "God bless my mother; all that I am or ever +hope to be I owe to her." + +Nancy was not long without a successor. Thomas Lincoln, the next year, +journeyed back to Kentucky and returned in triumph to Indiana, bringing +as his wife, an old flame of his who had married, had been widowed, and +was of a mind for further adventures. This Sarah Bush Lincoln, of +less distinction than Nancy, appears to have been steadier-minded and +stronger-willed. Even before this, Thomas had left the half-faced camp +and moved into a cabin. But such a cabin! It had neither door, nor +window, nor floor. Sally Lincoln required her husband to make of it a +proper house--by the standards of Pigeon Creek. She had brought with her +as her dowry a wagonload of furniture. These comforts together with her +strong will began a new era of relative comfort in the Lincoln cabin.(1) + +Sally Lincoln was a kind stepmother to Abraham who became strongly +attached to her. In the rough and nondescript community of Pigeon Creek, +a world of weedy farms, of miserable mud roads, of log farm-houses, the +family life that was at least tolerable. The sordid misery described +during her regime emerged from wretchedness to a state of by all the +recorders of Lincoln's early days seems to have ended about his twelfth +year. At least, the vagrant suggestion disappeared. Though the life +that succeeded was void of luxury, though it was rough, even brutal, +dominated by a coarse, peasant-like view of things, it was scarcely by +peasant standards a life of hardship. There was food sufficient, if not +very good; protection from wind and weather; fire in the winter time; +steady labor; and social acceptance by the community of the creekside. +That the labor was hard and long, went without saying. But as to +that--as of the whippings in Kentucky--what else, from the peasant point +of view, would you expect? Abraham took it all with the same stoicism +with which he had once taken the whippings. By the unwritten law of the +creekside he was his father's property, and so was his labor, until +he came of age. Thomas used him as a servant or hired him out to +other farmers. Stray recollections show us young Abraham working as +a farm-hand for twenty-five cents the day, probably with "keep" in +addition; we glimpse him slaughtering hogs skilfully at thirty-one cents +a day, for this was "rough work." He became noted as an axman. + +In the crevices, so to speak, of his career as a farm-hand, Abraham got +a few months of schooling, less than a year in all. A story that has +been repeated a thousand times shows the raw youth by the cabin fire +at night doing sums on the back of a wooden shovel, and shaving off its +surface repeatedly to get a fresh page. He devoured every book that came +his way, only a few to be sure, but generally great ones--the Bible, +of course, and Aesop, Crusoe, Pilgrim's Progress, and a few histories, +these last unfortunately of the poorer sort. He early displayed a bent +for composition, scribbling verses that were very poor, and writing +burlesque tales about his acquaintances in what passed for a Biblical +style.(2) + +One great experience broke the monotony of the life on Pigeon Creek. +He made a trip to New Orleans as a "hand" on a flatboat. Of this trip +little is known though much may be surmised. To his deeply poetic nature +what an experience it must have been: the majesty of the vast river; the +pageant of its immense travel; the steamers heavily laden; the fleets of +barges; the many towns; the nights of stars over wide sweeps of water; +the stately plantation houses along the banks; the old French city with +its crowds, its bells, the shipping, the strange faces and the foreign +speech; all the bewildering evidence that there were other worlds +besides Pigeon Creek! + +What seed of new thinking was sown in his imagination by this Odyssey +we shall never know. The obvious effect in the ten years of his life +in Indiana was produced at Pigeon Creek. The "settlement" was within +fifteen miles of the Ohio. It lay in that southerly fringe of Indiana +which received early in the century many families of much the same +estate, character and origin as the Lincolns,--poor whites of the edges +of the great forest working outward toward the prairies. Located on good +land not far from a great highway, the Ohio, it illustrated in its +rude prosperity a transformation that went on unobserved in many such +settlements, the transformation of the wandering forester of the lower +class into a peasant farmer. Its life was of the earth, earthy; though +it retained the religious traditions of the forest, their significance +was evaporating; mysticism was fading into emotionalism; the +camp-meeting was degenerating into a picnic. The supreme social event, +the wedding, was attended by festivities that filled twenty-four hours: +a race of male guests in the forenoon with a bottle of whisky for a +prize; an Homeric dinner at midday; "an afternoon of rough games and +outrageous practical jokes; a supper and dance at night interrupted +by the successive withdrawals of the bride and groom, attended by +ceremonies and jests of more than Rabelaisian crudeness; and a noisy +dispersal next day."(3) The intensities of the forest survived in hard +drinking, in the fury of the fun-making, and in the hunt. The forest +passion for storytelling had in no way decreased. + +In this atmosphere, about eighteen and nineteen, Abraham shot up +suddenly from a slender boy to a huge, raw-honed, ungainly man, six feet +four inches tall, of unusual muscular strength. His strength was one of +the fixed conditions of his development. It delivered him from all fear +of his fellows. He had plenty of peculiarities. He was ugly, awkward; +he lacked the wanton appetites of the average sensual man. And these +peculiarities without his great strength as his warrant might have +brought him into ridicule. As it was, whatever his peculiarities, in +a society like that of Pigeon Creek, the man who could beat all +competitors, wrestling or boxing, was free from molestation. But Lincoln +instinctively had another aim in life than mere freedom to be himself. +Two characteristics that were so significant in his childhood continued +with growing vitality in his young manhood: his placidity and his +intense sense of comradeship. The latter, however, had undergone a +change. It was no longer the comradeship of the wild creatures. That +spurt of physical expansion, the swift rank growth to his tremendous +stature, swept him apparently across a dim dividing line, out of the +world of birds and beasts and into the world of men. He took the new +world with the same unfailing but also unexcitable curiosity with which +he had taken the other, the world of squirrels, flowers, fawns. + +Here as there, the difference from his mother, deep though their +similarities may have been, was sharply evident. Had he been wholly at +one with her religiously, the gift of telling speech which he now began +to display might have led him into a course that would have rejoiced +her heart, might have made him a boy preacher, and later, a great +revivalist. His father and elder sister while on Pigeon Creek joined the +local Baptist Church. But Abraham did not follow them. Nor is there a +single anecdote linking him in any way with the fervors of camp meeting. +On the contrary, what little is remembered, is of a cool aloofness.(4) +The inscrutability of the forest was his--what it gave to the stealthy, +cautious men who were too intent on observing, too suspiciously +watchful, to give vent to their feelings. Therefore, in Lincoln +there was always a double life, outer and inner, the outer quietly +companionable, the inner, solitary, mysterious. + +It was the outer life that assumed its first definite phase in the years +on Pigeon Creek. During those years, Lincoln discovered his gift of +story-telling. He also discovered humor. In the employment of both +talents, he accepted as a matter of course the tone of the young +ruffians among whom he dwelt. Very soon this powerful fellow, who could +throw any of them in a wrestle, won the central position among them by a +surer title, by the power to delight. And any one who knows how peasant +schools of art arise--for that matter, all schools of art that are +vital--knows how he did it. In this connection, his famous biographers, +Nicolay and Hay, reveal a certain externality by objecting that a story +attributed to him is ancient. All stories are ancient. Not the tale, but +the telling, as the proverb says, is the thing. In later years, Lincoln +wrote down every good story that he heard, and filed it.(5) When it +reappeared it had become his own. Who can doubt that this deliberate +assimilation, the typical artistic process, began on Pigeon Creek? +Lincoln never would have captured as he did his plowboy audience, set +them roaring with laughter in the intervals of labor, had he not given +them back their own tales done over into new forms brilliantly beyond +their powers of conception. That these tales were gross, even ribald, +might have been taken for granted, even had we not positive evidence +of the fact. Otherwise none of that uproarious laughter which we may be +sure sounded often across shimmering harvest fields while stalwart young +pagans, ever ready to pause, leaned, bellowing, on the handles of their +scythes, Abe Lincoln having just then finished a story. + +Though the humor of these stories was Falstaffian, to say the least, +though Lincoln was cock of the walk among the plowboys of Pigeon Creek, +a significant fact with regard to him here comes into view. Not an +anecdote survives that in any way suggests personal licentiousness. +Scrupulous men who in after-time were offended by his coarseness of +speech--for more or less of the artist of Pigeon Creek stuck to him +almost to the end; he talked in fables, often in gross fables--these +men, despite their annoyance, felt no impulse to attribute to him +personal habits in harmony with his tales. On the other hand, they +were puzzled by their own impression, never wavering, that he was +"pureminded." The clue which they did not have lay in the nature of his +double life. That part of him which, in our modern jargon, we call his +"reactions" obeyed a curious law. They dwelt in his outer life without +penetrating to the inner; but all his impulses of personal action were +securely seated deep within. Even at nineteen, for any one attuned to +spiritual meaning, he would have struck the note of mystery, faintly, +perhaps, but certainly. To be sure, no hint of this reached the minds +of his rollicking comrades of the harvest field. It was not for such as +they to perceive the problem of his character, to suspect that he was a +genius, or to guess that a time would come when sincere men would form +impressions of him as dissimilar as black and white. And so far as it +went the observation of the plowboys was correct. The man they saw was +indeed a reflection of themselves. But it was a reflection only. Their +influence entered into the real man no more than the image in a mirror +has entered into the glass. + + + + +III. A VILLAGE LEADER + +Though placid, this early Lincoln was not resigned. He differed from the +boors of Pigeon Creek in wanting some other sort of life. What it was he +wanted, he did not know. His reading had not as yet given him definite +ambitions. It may well be that New Orleans was the clue to such stirring +in him as there was of that discontent which fanciful people have called +divine. Remembering New Orleans, could any imaginative youth be content +with Pigeon Creek? + +In the spring of 1830, shortly after he came of age, he agreed for once +with his father whose chronic vagrancy had reasserted itself. The whole +family set out again on their wanderings and made their way in an oxcart +to a new halting place on the Sangamon River in Illinois. There Abraham +helped his father clear another piece of land for another illusive +"start" in life. The following spring he parted with his family and +struck out for himself.(1) His next adventure was a second trip as a +boatman to New Orleans. Can one help suspecting there was vague hope in +his heart that he might be adventuring to the land of hearts' desire? +If there was, the yokels who were his fellow boatmen never suspected +it. One of them long afterward asserted that Lincoln returned from New +Orleans fiercely rebellious against its central institution, slavery, +and determined to "hit that thing" whenever he could. + +The legend centers in his witnessing a slave auction and giving voice to +his horror in a style quite unlike any of his authentic utterances. The +authority for all this is doubtful.(2) Furthermore, the Lincoln of 1831 +was not yet awakened. That inner life in which such a reaction might +take place was still largely dormant. The outer life, the life of the +harvest clown, was still a thick insulation. Apparently, the waking of +the inner life, the termination of its dormant stage, was reserved for +an incident far more personal that fell upon him in desolating force a +few years later. + +Following the New Orleans venture, came a period as storekeeper for +a man named Denton Offut, in perhaps the least desirable town in +Illinois--a dreary little huddle of houses gathered around Rutledge's +Mill on the Sangamon River and called New Salem.(3) Though a few of +its people were of a better sort than any Lincoln had yet known except, +perhaps, the miller's family in the old days in Kentucky--and still a +smaller few were of fine quality, the community for the most part was +hopeless. A fatality for unpromising neighborhoods overhangs like a doom +the early part of this strange life. All accounts of New Salem represent +it as predominantly a congregation of the worthless, flung together by +unaccountable accident at a spot where there was no genuine reason for +a town's existence. A casual town, created by drifters, and void of +settled purpose. Small wonder that ere long it vanished from the map; +that after a few years its drifting congregation dispersed to every +corner of the horizon, and was no more. But during its brief existence +it staged an episode in the development of Lincoln's character. However, +this did not take place at once. And before it happened, came another +turn of his soul's highway scarcely less important. He discovered, or +thought he discovered, what he wanted. His vague ambition took shape. He +decided to try to be a politician. At twenty-three, after living in New +Salem less than a year, this audacious, not to say impertinent, young +man offered himself to the voters of Sangamon County as a candidate for +the Legislature. At this time that humility which was eventually his +characteristic had not appeared. It may be dated as subsequent to New +Salem--a further evidence that the deep spiritual experience which +closed this chapter formed a crisis. Before then, at New Salem as +at Pigeon Creek, he was but a variant, singularly decent, of the +boisterous, frolicking, impertinent type that instinctively sought the +laxer neighborhoods of the frontier. An echo of Pigeon Creek informed +the young storekeeper's first state paper, the announcement of his +candidacy, in the year 1832. His first political speech was in a curious +vein, glib, intimate and fantastic: "Fellow citizens, I presume you all +know who I am. I am humble Abraham Lincoln. I have been solicited by +many friends to become a candidate for the Legislature. My politics are +short and sweet like the old woman's dance. I am in favor of a national +bank. I am in favor of the internal improvement system and a high +protective tariff. These are my sentiments and political principles. If +elected, I shall be thankful; if not it will be all the same."(4) + +However, this bold throw of the dice of fortune was not quite so +impertinent as it seems. During the months when he was in charge of +Offut's grocery store he had made a conquest of New Salem. The village +grocery in those days was the village club. It had its constant +gathering of loafers all of whom were endowed with votes. It was the one +place through which passed the whole population, in and out, one time +or another. To a clever storekeeper it gave a chance to establish a +following. Had he, as Lincoln had, the gift of story-telling, the gift +of humor, he was a made man. Pigeon Creek over again! Lincoln's wealth +of funny stories gave Offut's grocery somewhat the role of a vaudeville +theater and made the storekeeper as popular a man as there was in New +Salem. + +In another way he repeated his conquest of Pigeon Creek. New Salem had +its local Alsatia known as Clary's Grove whose insolent young toughs led +by their chief, Jack Armstrong, were the terror of the neighborhood. The +groceries paid them tribute in free drinks. Any luckless storekeeper +who incurred their displeasure found his store some fine morning a total +wreck. Lincoln challenged Jack Armstrong to a duel with fists. It was +formally arranged. A ring was formed; the whole village was audience; +and Lincoln thrashed him to a finish. But this was only a small part +of his triumph. His physical prowess, joined with his humor and his +companionableness; entirely captivated Clary's Grove. Thereafter, it was +storekeeper Lincoln's pocket borough; its ruffians were his body-guard. +Woe to any one who made trouble for their hero. + +There were still other causes for his quick rise to the position of +village leader. His unfailing kindness was one; his honesty was another. +Tales were related of his scrupulous dealings, such as walking a +distance of miles in order to correct a trifling error he had made, in +selling a poor woman less than the proper weight of tea. Then, too, by +New Salem standards, he was educated. Long practice on the shovel at +Pigeon Creek had given him a good handwriting, and one of the first +things he did at New Salem was to volunteer to be clerk of elections. +And there was a distinct moral superiority. Little as this would have +signified unbacked by his giant strength since it had that authority +behind it his morality set him apart from his followers, different, +imposing. He seldom, if ever, drank whisky. Sobriety was already the +rule of his life, both outward and inward. At the same time he was +not censorious. He accepted the devotion of Clary's Grove without +the slightest attempt to make over its bravoes in his own image. He +sympathized with its ideas of sport. For all his kindliness to humans of +every sort much of his sensitiveness for animals had passed away. He was +not averse to cock fighting; he enjoyed a horse race.(5) Altogether, in +his outer life, before the catastrophe that revealed him to himself, +he was quite as much in the tone of New Salem as ever in that of Pigeon +Creek. When the election came he got every vote in New Salem except +three.(6) + +But the village was a small part of Sangamon County. Though Lincoln +received a respectable number of votes elsewhere, his total was well +down in the running. He remained an inconspicuous minority candidate. + +Meanwhile Offut's grocery had failed. In the midst of the legislative +campaign, Offut's farmer storekeeper volunteered for the Indian War +with Black Hawk, but returned to New Salem shortly before the election +without having once smelled powder. Since his peers were not of a +mind to give him immediate occupation in governing, he turned again to +business. He formed a partnership with a man named Berry. They bought on +credit the wreck of a grocery that had been sacked by Lincoln's friends +of Clary's Grove, and started business as "General Merchants," under the +style of Berry & Lincoln. There followed a year of complete unsuccess. +Lincoln demonstrated that he was far more inclined to read any chance +book that came his way than to attend to business, and that he had "no +money sense." The new firm went the way of Offut's grocery, leaving +nothing behind it but debt. The debts did not trouble Berry; Lincoln +assumed them all. They formed a dreadful load which he bore with his +usual patience and little by little discharged. Fifteen years passed +before again he was a free man financially. + +A new and powerful influence came into his life during the half idleness +of his unsuccessful storekeeping. It is worth repeating in his own +words, or what seems to be the fairly accurate recollection of his +words: "One day a man who was migrating to the West, drove up in front +of my store with a wagon which contained his family and household +plunder. He asked me if I would buy an old barrel for which he had no +room in his wagon, and which he said contained nothing of special value. +I did not want it but to oblige him I bought it and paid him, I think, +a half a dollar for it. Without further examination I put it away in the +store and forgot all about it Sometime after, in overhauling things, +I came upon the barrel and emptying it upon the floor to see what it +contained, I found at the bottom of the rubbish a complete edition of +Blackstone's Commentaries. I began to read those famous works, and I had +plenty of time; for during the long summer days when the farmers were +busy with their crops, my customers were few and far between. The more I +read, the more intensely interested I became. Never in my whole life was +my mind so thoroughly absorbed. I read until I devoured them."(7) + +The majesty of the law at the bottom of a barrel of trash discovered at +a venture and taking instant possession of the discoverer's mind! Like +the genius issuing grandly in the smoke cloud from the vase drawn up out +of the sea by the fisher in the Arabian tale! But this great book was +not the only magic casket discovered by the idle store-keeper, the +broken seals of which released mighty presences. Both Shakespeare and +Burns were revealed to him in this period. Never after did either for a +moment cease to be his companion. These literary treasures were found +at Springfield twenty miles from New Salem, whither Lincoln went on foot +many a time to borrow books. + +His subsistence, after the failure of Berry & Lincoln, was derived from +the friendliness of the County Surveyor Calhoun, who was a Democrat, +while Lincoln called himself a Whig. Calhoun offered him the post of +assistant. In accepting, Lincoln again displayed the honesty that was +beginning to be known as his characteristic. He stipulated that he +should be perfectly free to express his opinions, that the office should +not be in any respect, a bribe. This being conceded, he went to work +furiously on a treatise upon surveying, and astonishingly soon, with the +generous help of the schoolmaster of New Salem, was able to take up his +duties. His first fee was "two buckskins which Hannah Armstrong 'fixed' +on his pants so the briers would not wear them out."(8) + +Thus time passed until 1834 when he staked his only wealth, his +popularity, in the gamble of an election. This time he was successful. +During the following winter he sat in the Legislature of Illinois; a +huge, uncouth, mainly silent member, making apparently no impression +whatever, very probably striking the educated members as a nonentity in +homespun.(9) + +In the spring of 1835, he was back in New Salem, busy again with his +surveying. Kind friends had secured him the office of local postmaster. +The delivery of letters was now combined with going to and fro as a +surveyor. As the mail came but once a week, and as whatever he had to +deliver could generally be carried in his hat, and as payment was in +proportion to business done, his revenues continued small. Nevertheless, +in the view of New Salem, he was getting on. + +And then suddenly misfortune overtook him. His great adventure, the +first of those spiritual agonies of which he was destined to endure so +many, approached. Hitherto, since childhood, women had played no part +in his story. All the recollections of his youth are vague in their +references to the feminine. As a boy at Pigeon Creek when old Thomas was +hiring him out, the women of the settlement liked to have him around, +apparently because he was kindly and ever ready to do odd jobs in +addition to his regular work. However, until 1835, his story is that of +a man's man, possibly because there was so much of the feminine in +his own make-up. In 1835 came a change. A girl of New Salem, a pretty +village maiden, the best the poor place could produce, revealed him to +himself. Sweet Ann Rutledge, the daughter of the tavern-keeper, was +his first love. But destiny was against them. A brief engagement was +terminated by her sudden death late in the summer of 1835. Of this +shadowy love-affair very little is known,--though much romantic fancy +has been woven about it. Its significance for after-time is in Lincoln's +"reaction." There had been much sickness in New Salem the summer in +which Ann died. Lincoln had given himself freely as nurse--the depth +of his companionableness thus being proved--and was in an overwrought +condition when his sorrow struck him. A last interview with the dying +girl, at which no one was present, left him quite unmanned. A period of +violent agitation followed. For a time he seemed completely transformed. +The sunny Lincoln, the delight of Clary's Grove, had vanished. In +his place was a desolated soul--a brother to dragons, in the terrible +imagery of Job--a dweller in the dark places of affliction. It was his +mother reborn in him. It was all the shadowiness of his mother's world; +all that frantic reveling in the mysteries of woe to which, hitherto, +her son had been an alien. To the simple minds of the villagers with +their hard-headed, practical way of keeping all things, especially love +and grief, in the outer layer of consciousness, this revelation of an +emotional terror was past understanding. Some of them, true to their +type, pronounced him insane. He was watched with especial vigilance +during storms, fogs, damp gloomy weather, "for fear of an accident." +Surely, it was only a crazy man, in New Salem psychology, who was heard +to say, "I can never be reconciled to have the snow, rains and storms +beat upon her grave."(10) + +In this crucial moment when the real base of his character had been +suddenly revealed--all the passionateness of the forest shadow, the +unfathomable gloom laid so deep at the bottom of his soul--he was +carried through his spiritual eclipse by the loving comprehension of two +fine friends. New Salem was not all of the sort of Clary's Grove. Near +by on a farm, in a lovely, restful landscape, lived two people who +deserve to be remembered, Bowlin Green and his wife. They drew Lincoln +into the seclusion of their home, and there in the gleaming days of +autumn, when everywhere in the near woods flickered downward, slowly, +idly, the falling leaves golden and scarlet, Lincoln recovered his +equanimity.(11) But the hero of Pigeon Creek, of Clary's Grove, did not +quite come hack. In the outward life, to be sure, a day came when the +sunny story-teller, the victor of Jack Armstrong, was once more what +Jack would have called his real self. In the inner life where alone +was his reality, the temper which affliction had revealed to him was +established. Ever after, at heart, he was to dwell alone, facing, +silent, those inscrutable things which to the primitive mind are things +of every day. Always, he was to have for his portion in his real self, +the dimness of twilight, or at best, the night with its stars, "never +glad, confident morning again." + + + + +IV. REVELATIONS + +From this time during many years almost all the men who saw beyond the +surface in Lincoln have indicated, in one way or another, their vision +of a constant quality. The observers of the surface did not see it. +That is to say, Lincoln did not at once cast off any of his previous +characteristics. It is doubtful if he ever did. His experience was +tenaciously cumulative. Everything he once acquired, he retained, both +in the outer life and the inner; and therefore, to those who did not +have the clue to him, he appeared increasingly contradictory, one thing +on the surface, another within. Clary's Grove and the evolutions from +Clary's Grove, continued to think of him as their leader. On the other +hand, men who had parted with the mere humanism of Clary's Grove, who +were a bit analytical, who thought themselves still more analytical, +seeing somewhat beneath the surface, reached conclusions similar to +those of a shrewd Congressman who long afterward said that Lincoln was +not a leader of men but a manager of men.(1) This astute distinction +was not true of the Lincoln the Congressman confronted; nevertheless, it +betrays much both of the observer and of the man he tried to observe. In +the Congressman's day, what he thought he saw was in reality the shadow +of a Lincoln that had passed away, passed so slowly, so imperceptibly +that few people knew it had passed. During many years following 1835, +the distinction in the main applied. So thought the men who, like +Lincoln's latest law partner, William H. Herndon, were not derivatives +of Clary's Grove. The Lincoln of these days was the only one Herndon +knew. How deeply he understood Lincoln is justly a matter of debate; +but this, at least, he understood--that Clary's Grove, in attributing +to Lincoln its own idea of leadership, was definitely wrong. He saw in +Lincoln, in all the larger matters, a tendency to wait on events, to +take the lead indicated by events, to do what shallow people would have +called mere drifting. To explain this, he labeled him a fatalist.(2) The +label was only approximate, as most labels are. But Herndon's effort +to find one is significant. In these years, Lincoln took the +initiative--when he took it at all--in a way that most people did not +recognize. His spirit was ever aloof. It was only the every-day, the +external Lincoln that came into practical contact with his fellows. + +This is especially true of the growing politician. He served four +consecutive terms in the Legislature without doing anything that had +the stamp of true leadership. He was not like either of the two types of +politicians that generally made up the legislatures of those days--the +men who dealt in ideas as political counters, and the men who were +grafters without in their naive way knowing that they were grafters. +As a member of the Legislature, Lincoln did not deal in ideas. He was +instinctively incapable of graft A curiously routine politician, one who +had none of the earmarks familiar in such a person. Aloof, and yet, more +than ever companionable, the power he had in the Legislature--for he had +acquired a measure of power--was wholly personal. Though called a Whig, +it was not as a party man but as a personal friend that he was able to +carry through his legislative triumphs. His most signal achievement was +wholly a matter of personal politics. There was a general demand for +the removal of the capital from its early seat at Vandalia, and rivalry +among other towns was keen. Sangamon County was bent on winning +the prize for its own Springfield. Lincoln was put in charge of the +Springfield strategy. How he played his cards may be judged from the +recollections of another member who seems to have anticipated that noble +political maxim, "What's the Constitution between friends?" "Lincoln," +he says, "made Webb and me vote for the removal, though we belonged +to the southern end of the state. We defended our vote before our +constituents by saying that necessity would ultimately force the seat +of government to a central position; but in reality, we gave the vote +to Lincoln because we liked him, because we wanted to oblige our friend, +and because we recognized him as our leader."(3) + +And yet on the great issues of the day he could not lead them. In 1837, +the movement of the militant abolitionists, still but a few years old, +was beginning to set the Union by the ears. The illegitimate child +of Calvinism and the rights of man, it damned with one anathema every +holder of slaves and also every opponent of slavery except its own +uncompromising adherents. Its animosity was trained particularly on +every suggestion that designed to uproot slavery without creating an +economic crisis, that would follow England's example, and terminate the +"peculiar institution" by purchase. The religious side of abolition came +out in its fury against such ideas. Slave-holders were Canaanites. The +new cult were God's own people who were appointed to feel anew the joy +of Israel hewing Agag asunder. Fanatics, terrible, heroic, unashamed, +they made two sorts of enemies--not only the partisans of slavery, +but all those sane reformers who, while hating slavery, hated also the +blood-lust that would make the hewing of Agag a respectable device of +political science. Among the partisans of slavery were the majority +of the Illinois Legislature. Early in 1837, they passed resolutions +condemning abolitionism. Whereupon it was revealed--not that anybody +at the time cared to know the fact, or took it to heart--that among +the other sort of the enemies of abolition was our good young friend, +everybody's good friend, Abe Lincoln. He drew up a protest against +the Legislature's action; but for all his personal influence in other +affairs, he could persuade only one member to sign with him. Not his +to command at will those who "recognized him as their leader" in the +orthodox political game--so discreet, in that it left principles for +some one else to be troubled about! Lincoln's protest was quite too far +out of the ordinary for personal politics to endure it. The signers +were asked to proclaim their belief "that the institution of slavery is +founded on both injustice and bad policy; but that the promulgation of +abolition doctrines tends rather to promote than to abate its evils."(4) + +The singular originality of this position, sweeping aside as vain both +participants in the new political duel, was quite lost on the little +world in which Lincoln lived. For after-time it has the interest of a +bombshell that failed to explode. It is the dawn of Lincoln's intellect. +In his lonely inner life, this crude youth, this lover of books in a +village where books were curiosities, had begun to think. The stages of +his transition from mere story-telling yokel--intellectual only as the +artist is intellectual, in his methods of handling--to the man of ideas, +are wholly lost. And in this fact we have a prophecy of all the years +to come. Always we shall seek in vain for the early stages of Lincoln's +ideas. His mind will never reveal itself until the moment at which +it engages the world. No wonder, in later times, his close associates +pronounced him the most secretive of men; that one of the keenest of his +observers said that the more you knew of Lincoln, the less you knew of +him.(5) + +Except for the handicap of his surroundings, his intellectual start +would seem belated; even allowing for his handicap, it was certainly +slow. He was now twenty-eight. Pretty well on to reveal for the first +time intellectual power! Another characteristic here. His mind worked +slowly. But it is worth observing that the ideas of the protest were +never abandoned. Still a third characteristic, mental tenacity. To +the end of his days, he looked askance at the temper of abolitionism, +regarded it ever as one of the chief evils of political science. And +quite as significant was another idea of the protest which also had +developed from within, which also he never abandoned. + +On the question of the power of the national government with regard to +slavery, he took a position not in accord with either of the political +creeds of his day. The Democrats had already formulated their doctrine +that the national government was a thing of extremely limited powers, +the "glorified policeman" of a certain school of publicists reduced +almost to a minus quantity. The Whigs, though amiably vague on most +things except money-making by state aid, were supposed to stand for a +"strong central government". Abolitionism had forced on both parties a +troublesome question, "What about slavery in the District of Columbia, +where the national government was supreme?" The Democrats were prompt +in their reply: Let the glorified policeman keep the peace and leave +private interests, such as slave-holding, alone. The Whigs evaded, tried +not to apply their theory of "strong" government; they were fearful +lest they offend one part of their membership if they asserted that +the nation had no right to abolish slavery in the District, fearful of +offending others if they did not. Lincoln's protest asserted that "the +Congress of the United States has the power, under the Constitution, to +abolish slavery in the District of Columbia but the power ought not to +be exercised, unless at the request of the District." In other words, +Lincoln, when suddenly out of the storm and stress that followed Ann's +death his mentality flashes forth, has an attitude toward political +power that was not a consequence of his environment, that sets him +apart as a type of man rare in the history of statesmanship. What other +American politician of his day--indeed, very few politicians of any +day--would have dared to assert at once the existence of a power and +the moral obligation not to use it? The instinctive American mode of +limiting power is to deny its existence. Our politicians so deeply +distrust our temperament that whatever they may say for rhetorical +effect, they will not, whenever there is any danger of their being taken +at their word, trust anything to moral law. Their minds are normally +mechanical. The specific, statutory limitation is the only one that for +them has reality. The truth that temper in politics is as great a factor +as law was no more comprehensible to the politicians of 1837 than, +say Hamlet or The Last Judgment. But just this is what the crude young +Lincoln understood. Somehow he had found it in the depths of his own +nature. The explanation, if any, is to be found in his heredity. Out +of the shadowy parts of him, beyond the limits of his or any man's +conscious vision, dim, unexplored, but real and insistent as those +forest recesses from which his people came, arise the two ideas: the +faith in a mighty governing power; the equal faith that it should use +its might with infinite tenderness, that it should be slow to compel +results, even the result of righteousness, that it should be tolerant of +human errors, that it should transform them slowly, gradually, as do the +gradual forces of nature, as do the sun and the rain. + +And such was to be the real Lincoln whenever he spoke out, to the end. +His tonic was struck by his first significant utterance at the age of +twenty-eight. How inevitable that it should have no significance to the +congregation of good fellows who thought of him merely as one of their +own sort, who put up with their friend's vagary, and speedily forgot it. + +The moment was a dreary one in Lincoln's fortunes. By dint of much +reading of borrowed books, he had succeeded in obtaining from the +easy-going powers that were in those days, a license to practise law. In +the spring of 1837 he removed to Springfield. He had scarcely a dollar +in his pocket. Riding into Springfield on a borrowed horse, with all the +property he owned, including his law books, in two saddlebags, he went +to the only cabinet-maker in the town and ordered a single bedstead. +He then went to the store of Joshua F. Speed. The meeting, an immensely +eventful one for Lincoln, as well as a classic in the history of genius +in poverty, is best told in Speed's words: "He came into my store, set +his saddle-bags on the counter and inquired what the furnishings for a +single bedstead would cost. I took slate and pencil, made a calculation +and found the sum for furnishings complete, would amount to seventeen +dollars in all. Said he: 'It is probably cheap enough, but I want to +say that, cheap as it is, I have not the money to pay; but if you will +credit me until Christmas, and my experiment here as a lawyer is a +success, I will pay you then. If I fail in that I will probably never +pay you at all.' The tone of his voice was so melancholy that I felt for +him. I looked up at him and I thought then as I think now that I never +saw so gloomy and melancholy a face in my life. I said to him: 'So small +a debt seems to affect you so deeply, I think I can suggest a plan by +which you will be able to attain your end without incurring any debt. I +have a very large room and a very large double bed in it, which you are +perfectly welcome to share with me if you choose.' 'Where is your room?' +he asked. 'Up-stairs,' said I, pointing to the stairs leading from the +store to my room. Without saying a word, he took his saddle-bags on his +arm, went upstairs, set them down on the floor, came down again, and +with a face beaming with pleasure and smiles exclaimed, 'Well, Speed, +I'm moved.'"(6) + +This was the beginning of a friendship which appears to have been the +only one of its kind Lincoln ever had. Late in life, with his gifted +private secretaries, with one or two brilliant men whom he did not meet +until middle age, he had something like intimate comradeship. But +even they did not break the prevailing solitude of his inner life. His +aloofness of soul became a fixed condition. The one intruder in that +lonely inner world was Speed. In the great collection of Lincoln's +letters none have the intimate note except the letters to Speed. And +even these are not truly intimate with the exception of a single group +inspired all by the same train of events. The deep, instinctive reserve +of Lincoln's nature was incurable. The exceptional group of letters +involve his final love-affair. Four years after his removal to +Springfield, Lincoln became engaged to Miss Mary Todd. By that time he +had got a start at the law and was no longer in grinding poverty. If not +yet prosperous, he had acquired "prospects"--the strong likelihood of +better things to come so dear to the buoyant heart of the early West. + +Hospitable Springfield, some of whose best men had known him in the +Legislature, opened its doors to him. His humble origin, his poor +condition, were forgiven. In true Western fashion, he was frankly put +on trial to show what was in him. If he could "make good" no +further questions would be asked. And in every-day matters, his +companionableness rose to the occasion. Male Springfield was captivated +almost as easily as New Salem. + +But all this was of the outer life. If the ferment within was constant +between 1835 and 1840, the fact is lost in his taciturnity. But there is +some evidence of a restless emotional life. + +In the rebound after the woe following Ann's death, he had gone questing +after happiness--such a real thing to him, now that he had discovered +the terror of unhappiness--in a foolish half-hearted courtship of a +bouncing, sensible girl named Mary Owens, who saw that he was not really +in earnest, decided that he was deficient in those "little links that +make up a woman's happiness," and sent him about his business--rather, +on the whole, to his relief.(7) The affair with Miss Todd had a +different tone from the other. The lady was of another world socially. +The West in those days swarmed with younger sons, or the equivalents +of younger sons, seeking their fortunes, whom sisters and cousins were +frequently visiting. Mary Todd was sister-in-law to a leading citizen +of Springfield. Her origin was of Kentucky and Virginia, with definite +claims to distinction. Though a family genealogy mounts as high as the +sixth century, sober history is content with a grandfather and great +grandfather who were military men of some repute, two great uncles who +were governors, and another who was a cabinet minister. Rather imposing +contrasted with the family tree of the child of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy +Hanks! Even more significant was the lady's education. She had been to a +school where young ladies of similar social pretensions were allowed to +speak only the French language. She was keenly aware of the role marked +out for her by destiny, and quite convinced that she would always in +every way live up to it. + +The course of her affair with Lincoln did not run smooth. There were +wide differences of temperament; quarrels of some sort--just what, +gossip to this day has busied itself trying to discover--and on January +1, 1841, the engagement was broken. Before the end of the month he +wrote to his law partner apologizing for his inability to be coherent +on business matters. "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 distributed to the whole human +family, there would not be one cheerful face on earth. Whether I shall +ever be better, I can not tell. I awfully forebode I shall not. To +remain as I am is impossible. I must die or be better, it appears to me +. . . a change of scene might help me." + +His friend Speed became his salvation. Speed closed out his business and +carried Lincoln off to visit his own relations in Kentucky. It was the +devotion of Bowlin Green and his wife over again. But the psychology +of the event was much more singular. Lincoln, in the inner life, had +progressed a long way since the death of Ann, and the progress was +mainly in the way of introspection, of self-analysis. He had begun to +brood. As always, the change did not reveal itself until an event in the +outward life called it forth like a rising ghost from the abyss of his +silences. His friends had no suspicion that in his real self, beneath +the thick disguise of his external sunniness, he was forever brooding, +questioning, analyzing, searching after the hearts of things both within +and without.. + +"In the winter of 1840 and 1841," writes Speed, "he was unhappy about +the engagement to his wife--not being entirely satisfied that his heart +was going with his hand. How much he suffered then on that account, +none knew so well as myself; he disclosed his whole heart to me. In the +summer of 1841 I became engaged to my wife. He was here on a visit when +I courted her; and strange to say, something of the same feeling which +I regarded as so foolish in him took possession of me, and kept me very +unhappy from the time of my engagement until I was married. This will +explain the deep interest he manifested in his letters on my account.... +One thing is plainly discernible; if I had not been married and happy, +far more happy than I ever expected to be, he would not have married." + +Whether or not Speed was entirely right in his final conclusion, it is +plain that he and Lincoln were remarkably alike in temperament; that +whatever had caused the break in Lincoln's engagement was repeated in +his friend's experience when the latter reached a certain degree of +emotional tension; that this paralleling of Lincoln's own experience +in the experience of the friend so like himself, broke tip for once +the solitude of his inner life and delivered him from some dire inward +terror. Both men were deeply introspective. Each had that overpowering +sense of the emotional responsibilities of marriage, which is bred in +the bone of certain hyper-sensitive types--at least in the Anglo-Saxon +race. But neither realized this trait in himself until, having blithely +pursued his impulse to the point of committal, his spiritual conscience +suddenly awakened and he asked of his heart, "Do I truly love her? Am I +perfectly sure the emotion is permanent?" + +It is on this speculation that the unique group of the intimate letters +to Speed are developed. They were written after Lincoln's return to +Springfield, while Speed was wrestling with the demon of self-analysis. +In the period which they cover, Lincoln delivered himself from that same +demon and recovered Serenity. Before long he was writing: "I know what +the painful point with you is at all times when you are unhappy; it is +an apprehension that you do not love her as you should. What nonsense! +How came you to court her? Was it because you thought she deserved it +and that you had given her reason to expect it? If it was for that, why +did not the same reason make you court Ann Todd, and at least twenty +others of whom you can think, to whom it would apply with greater force +than to her? Did you court her for her wealth? Why, you said she had +none. But you say you reasoned yourself into it. What do you mean by +that? Was it not that you found yourself unable to reason yourself +out of it?" And much more of the same shrewd sensible sort,--a picture +unintentionally of his own state of mind no less than of his friend's. + +This strange episode reveals also that amid Lincoln's silences, while +the outward man appeared engrossed in everyday matters, the inward +man had been seeking religion. His failure to accept the forms of his +mother's creed did not rest on any lack of the spiritual need. Though +undefined, his religion glimmers at intervals through the Speed letters. +When Speed's fiancee fell ill and her tortured lover was in a paroxysm +of remorse and grief, Lincoln wrote: "I hope and believe that your +present anxiety and distress about her health and her life must and will +forever banish those horrid doubts which I know you sometimes felt as +to the truth of your affection for her. If they can once and forever +be removed (and I feel a presentment that the Almighty has sent your +present affliction expressly for that object) surely nothing can come +in their stead to fill their immeasurable measure of misery. . . Should +she, as you fear, be destined to an early grave, it is indeed a great +consolation to know she is so well prepared to meet it." + +Again he wrote: "I was always superstitious. I believe God made me one +of the instruments of bringing you and your Fanny together, which union +I have no doubt lie had foreordained. Whatever He designs He will do for +me yet. 'Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord' is my text now." + +The duality in self-torture of these spiritual brethren endured in all +about a year and a half, and closed with Speed's marriage. Lincoln was +now entirely delivered from his demon. He wrote Speed a charming letter, +serene, affectionate, touched with gentle banter, valiant though with +a hint of disillusion as to their common type. "I tell you, Speed, our +forebodings (for which you and I are peculiar) are all the worst sort +of nonsense. . You say you much fear that that elysium of which you have +dreamed so much is never to be realized. Well, if it shall not, I dare +swear it will not be the fault of her who is now your wife. I have no +doubt that it is the peculiar misfortune of both you and me to +dream dreams of elysium far exceeding all that anything earthly can +realize."(8) + + + + +V. PROSPERITY + +How Lincoln's engagement was patched up is as delicious an uncertainty, +from gossip's point of view, as how it had been broken off. Possibly, as +many people have asserted, it was brought about by an event of which, in +the irony of fate, Lincoln ever after felt ashamed.(1) An impulsive, +not overwise politician, James Shields, a man of many peculiarities, was +saucily lampooned in a Springfield paper by some jaunty girls, one of +whom was Miss Todd. + +Somehow,--the whole affair is very dim,--Lincoln acted as their literary +adviser. Shields demanded the name of his detractor; Lincoln assumed +the responsibility; a challenge followed. Lincoln was in a ridiculous +position. He extricated himself by a device which he used more than once +thereafter; he gravely proposed the impossible. He demanded conditions +which would have made the duel a burlesque--a butcher's match with +cavalry broadswords. But Shields, who was flawlessly literal, insisted. +The two met and only on the dueling ground was the quarrel at last +talked into oblivion by the seconds. Whether this was the cause of the +reconciliation with Miss Todd, or a consequence, or had nothing to do +with it, remains for the lovers of the unimportant to decide. The only +sure fact in this connection is the marriage which took place November +4, 1842.(2) + +Mrs. Lincoln's character has been much discussed. Gossip, though with +very little to go on, has built up a tradition that the marriage was +unhappy. If one were to believe the half of what has been put in print, +one would have to conclude that the whole business was a wretched +mistake; that Lincoln found married life intolerable because of the +fussily dictatorial self-importance of his wife. But the authority +for all these tales is meager. Not one is traceable to the parties +themselves. Probably it will never be known till the end of time what +is false in them, what true. About all that can be disengaged from this +cloud of illusive witnesses is that Springfield wondered why Mary Todd +married Lincoln. He was still poor; so poor that after marriage they +lived at the Globe Tavern on four dollars a week. And the lady had been +sought by prosperous men! The lowliness of Lincoln's origin went ill +with her high notions of her family's importance. She was downright, +high-tempered, dogmatic, but social; he was devious, slow to wrath, +tentative, solitary; his very appearance, then as afterward, was +against him. Though not the hideous man he was later made out to be--the +"gorilla" of enemy caricaturists--he was rugged of feature, with a lower +lip that tended to protrude. His immense frame was thin and angular; his +arms were inordinately long; hands, feet and eyebrows were large; skin +swarthy; hair coarse, black and generally unkempt. Only the amazing, +dreamful eyes, and a fineness in the texture of the skin, redeemed the +face and gave it distinction.(3) Why did precise, complacent Miss Todd +pick out so strange a man for her mate? The story that she married +him for ambition, divining what he was to be--like Jane Welsh in the +conventional story of Carlyle--argues too much of the gift of prophecy. +Whatever her motive, it is more than likely that she was what the +commercialism of to-day would call an "asset." She had certain qualities +that her husband lacked. For one, she had that intuition for the main +chance which shallow people confound with practical judgment. Her soul +inhabited the obvious; but within the horizon of the obvious she was +shrewd, courageous and stubborn. Not any danger that Mary Lincoln would +go wandering after dreams, visions, presences, such as were drifting +ever in a ghostly procession at the back of her husband's mind. There +was a danger in him that was to grow with the years, a danger that the +outer life might be swamped by the inner, that the ghosts within might +carry him away with them, away from fact--seeking-seeking. That this +never occurred may be fairly credited, or at least very plausibly +credited, to the firm-willed, the utterly matter-of-fact little person +he had married. How far he enjoyed the mode of his safe-guarding is a +fruitless speculation. + +Another result that may, perhaps, be due to Mary Lincoln was the +improvement in his fortunes. However, this may have had no other source +than a distinguished lawyer whose keen eyes had been observing him +since his first appearance in politics. Stephen T. Logan "had that +old-fashioned, lawyer-like morality which was keenly intolerant of any +laxity or slovenliness of mind or character." He had, "as he deserved, +the reputation of being the best nisi prius lawyer in the state."(4) +After watching the gifted but ill-prepared young attorney during several +years, observing the power he had of simplification and convincingness +in statement, taking the measure of his scrupulous honesty--these were +ever Lincoln's strong cards as a lawyer--Logan made him the surprising +offer of a junior partnership, which was instantly accepted. That was +when his inner horizon was brightening, shortly before his marriage. A +period of great mental energy followed, about the years 1842 and 1843. +Lincoln threw himself into the task of becoming a real lawyer under +Logan's direction. However, his zeal flagged after a time, and when the +partnership ended four years later he had to some extent fallen back +into earlier, less strenuous habits. "He permitted his partner to do all +the studying in the preparation of cases, while he himself trusted to +his general knowledge of the law and the inspiration of the surroundings +to overcome the judge or the jury."(5) Though Lincoln was to undergo +still another stimulation of the scholarly conscience before finding +himself as a lawyer, the four years with Logan were his true student +period. If the enthusiasm of the first year did not hold out, none the +less he issued from that severe course of study a changed man, one who +knew the difference between the learned lawyer and the unlearned. His +own methods, to be sure, remained what they always continued to be, +unsystematic, not to say slipshod. Even after he became president his +lack of system was at times the despair of his secretaries.(6) Herndon, +who succeeded Logan as his partner, and who admired both men, has a +broad hint that Logan and Lincoln were not always an harmonious firm. +A clash of political ambitions is part explanation; business methods +another. "Logan was scrupulously exact and used extraordinary care in +the preparation of papers. His words were well chosen, and his style +of composition was stately and formal."(7) He was industrious and very +thrifty, while Lincoln had "no money sense." It must have annoyed, if it +did not exasperate his learned and formal partner, when Lincoln signed +the firm name to such letters as this: "As to real estate, we can +not attend to it. We are not real estate agents, we are lawyers. We +recommend that you give the charge of it to Mr. Isaac S. Britton, +a trust-worthy man and one whom the Lord made on purpose for such +business."(8) + +Superficial observers, then and afterward, drew the conclusion that +Lincoln was an idler. Long before, as a farm-hand, he had been called +"bone idle."(9) And of the outer Lincoln, except under stress of need, +or in spurts of enthusiasm, as in the earlier years with Logan, this +reckless comment had its base of fact. The mighty energy that was in +Lincoln, a tireless, inexhaustible energy, was inward, of the spirit; it +did not always ramify into the sensibilities and inform his outer life. +The connecting link of the two, his mere intelligence, though constantly +obedient to demands of the outer life, was not susceptible of great +strain except on demand of the spiritual vision. Hence his attitude +toward the study of the law. It thrilled and entranced him, called into +play all his powers--observation, reflection, intelligence--just so +long as it appeared in his imagination a vast creative effort of the +spiritual powers, of humanity struggling perilously to see justice done +upon earth, to let reason and the will of God prevail. It lost its +hold upon him the instant it became a thing of technicalities, of mere +learning, of statutory dialectics. + +The restless, inward Lincoln, dwelling deep among spiritual shadows, +found other outlets for his energy during these years when he was +establishing himself at the bar. He continued to be a voracious reader. +And his reading had taken a skeptical turn. Volney and Paine were now +his intimates. The wave of ultra-rationalism that went over America in +the 'forties did not spare many corners of the land. In Springfield, as +in so many small towns, it had two effects: those who were not touched +by it hardened into jealous watchfulness, and their religion naturally +enough became fiercely combative; those who responded to the new +influence became a little affected philosophically, a bit effervescent. +The young men, when of serious mind, and all those who were reformers by +temperament, tended to exalt the new, to patronize, if not to ridicule +the old. At Springfield, as at many another frontier town wracked by +its growing pains, a Young Men's Lyceum confessed the world to be out of +joint, and went to work glibly to set it right. Lincoln had contributed +to its achievements. An oration of his on "Perpetuation of Our Free +Institutions,"(10) a mere rhetorical "stunt" in his worst vein now +deservedly forgotten, so delighted the young men that they asked to have +it printed--quite as the same sort of young men to-day print essays on +cubism, or examples of free verse read to poetry societies. Just what +views he expressed on things in general among the young men and others; +how far he aired his acquaintance with the skeptics, is imperfectly +known.(11) However, a rumor got abroad that he was an "unbeliever," +which was the easy label for any one who disagreed in religion with the +person who applied it. The rumor was based in part on a passage in an +address on temperance. In 1842, Lincoln, who had always been abstemious, +joined that Washington Society which aimed at a reformation in the use +of alcohol. His address was delivered at the request of the society. +It contained this passage, very illuminating in its light upon the +generosity, the real humility of the speaker, but scarcely tactful, +considering the religious susceptibility of the hour: "If they (the +Christians) believe as they profess, that Omnipotence condescended to +take on himself the form of sinful man, and as such die an ignominious +death, surely they will not refuse submission to the infinitely lesser +condescension for the temporal and perhaps eternal salvation of a large, +erring and unfortunate class of their fellow creatures! Nor is the +condescension very great. In my judgment such of us as have never fallen +victims have been spared more from the absence of appetite than from any +mental or moral superiority over those who have. Indeed, I believe, if +we take habitual drunkards as a class, their heads and their hearts will +bear an advantageous comparison with those of any other class."(12) How +like that remark attributed to another great genius, one whom Lincoln +in some respects resembled, the founder of Methodism, when he said of a +passing drunkard: "There goes John Wesley, except for the Grace of God." +But the frontier zealots of the 'forties were not of the Wesley type. +The stories of Lincoln's skeptical interests, the insinuations which +were promptly read into this temperance address, the fact that he was +not a church-member, all these were seized upon by a good but very +narrow man, a devoted, illiterate evangelist, Peter Cartwright. + +In 1846, this religious issue became a political issue. The Whigs +nominated Lincoln for Congress. It was another instance of personal +politics. The local Whig leaders had made some sort of private +agreement, the details of which appear to be lost, but according to +which Lincoln now became the inevitable candidate.(13) He was nominated +without opposition. The Democrats nominated Cartwright. + +Two charges were brought against Lincoln: that he was an infidel, +and that he was--of all things in the world!--an aristocrat. On these +charges the campaign was fought. The small matter of what he would do at +Washington, or would not do, was brushed aside. Personal politics with +a vengeance! The second charge Lincoln humorously and abundantly +disproved; the first, he met with silence. + +Remembering Lincoln's unfailing truthfulness, remembering also his +restless ambition, only one conclusion can be drawn from this silence. +He could not categorically deny Cartwright's accusation and at the same +time satisfy his own unsparing conception of honesty. That there was +no real truth in the charge of irreligion, the allusions in the Speed +letters abundantly prove. The tone is too sincere to be doubted; +nevertheless, they give no clue to his theology. And for men like +Cartwright, religion was tied up hand and foot in theology. Here was +where Lincoln had parted company from his mother's world, and from its +derivatives. Though he held tenaciously to all that was mystical in +her bequest to him, he rejected early its formulations. The evidence of +later years reaffirms this double fact. The sense of a spiritual world +behind, beyond the world of phenomena, grew on him with the years; the +power to explain, to formulate that world was denied him. He had no +bent for dogma. Ethically, mystically, he was always a Christian; +dogmatically he knew not what he was. Therefore, to the challenge to +prove himself a Christian on purely dogmatic grounds, he had no reply. +To attempt to explain what separated him from his accusers, to show how +from his point of view they were all Christian--although, remembering +their point of view, he hesitated to say so--to draw the line between +mysticism and emotionalism, would have resulted only in a worse +confusion. Lincoln, the tentative mystic, the child of the starlit +forest, was as inexplicable to Cartwright with his perfectly downright +religion, his creed of heaven or hell--take your choice and be quick +about it!--as was Lincoln the spiritual sufferer to New Salem, or +Lincoln the political scientist to his friends in the Legislature. + +But he was not injured by his silence. The faith in him held by too many +people was too well established. Then, as always thereafter, whatever +he said or left unsaid, most thoughtful persons who came close to him +sensed him as a religious man. That was enough for healthy, generous +young Springfield. He and Cartwright might fight out their religious +issues when they pleased, Abe should have his term in Congress. He was +elected by a good majority.(14) + + + + +VI. UNSATISFYING RECOGNITION + +Lincoln's career as a Congressman, 1847-1849, was just what might have +been expected--his career in the Illinois Legislature on a larger scale. +It was a pleasant, companionable, unfruitful episode, with no political +significance. The leaders of the party did not take him seriously as a +possible initiate to their ranks. His course was that of a loyal member +of the Whig mass. In the party strategy, during the debates over the +Mexican War and the Wilmot Proviso, he did his full party duty, voting +just as the others did. Only once did he attempt anything original--a +bill to emancipate the slaves of the District, which was little more +than a restatement of his protest of ten years before--and on this point +Congress was as indifferent as the Legislature had been. The bill was +denied a hearing and never came to a vote before the House.(1) + +And yet Lincoln did not fail entirely to make an impression at +Washington. And again it was the Springfield experience repeated. His +companionableness was recognized, his modesty, his good nature; above +all, his story-telling. Men liked him. Plainly it was his humor, his +droll ways, that won them; together with instant recognition of his +sterling integrity. + +"During the Christmas holidays," says Ben Perley Poore, "Mr. Lincoln +found his way into the small room used as the Post Office of the House, +where a few genial reconteurs used to meet almost every morning after +the mail had been distributed into the members' boxes, to exchange such +new stories as any of them might have acquired since they had last met. +After modestly standing at the door for several days, Mr. Lincoln was +reminded of a story, and by New Year's he was recognized as the champion +story-teller of the Capital. His favorite seat was at the left of the +open fireplace, tilted back in his chair with his long legs reaching +over to the chimney jamb."(2) + +In the words of another contemporary, "Congressman Lincoln was very fond +of howling and would frequently. . . meet other members in a match game +at the alley of James Casparus. . . . He was an awkward bowler, but +played the game with great zest and spirit solely for exercise and +amusement, and greatly to the enjoyment and entertainment of the other +players, and by reason of his criticisms and funny illustrations. . . . +When it was known that he was in the alley, there would assemble numbers +of people to witness the fun which was anticipated by those who knew +of his fund of anecdotes and jokes. When in the alley, surrounded by a +crowd of eager listeners, he indulged with great freedom in the sport of +narrative, some of which were very broad."(3) + +Once, at least, he entertained Congress with an exhibition of his humor, +and this, oddly enough, is almost the only display of it that has come +down to us, first hand. Lincoln's humor has become a tradition. Like +everything else in his outward life, it changed gradually with his slow +devious evolution from the story-teller of Pigeon Creek to the author +of the Gettysburg Oration. It is known chiefly through translation. The +"Lincoln Stories" are stories someone else has told who may or may not +have heard them told by Lincoln. They are like all translations, they +express the translator not the original--final evidence that Lincoln's +appeal as a humorist was in his manner, his method, not in his +substance. "His laugh was striking. Such awkward gestures belonged to no +other man. They attracted universal attention from the old sedate down +to the schoolboy."(4) He was a famous mimic. + +Lincoln is himself the authority that he did not invent his stories. +He picked them up wherever he found them, and clothed them with the +peculiar drollery of his telling. He was a wag rather than a wit. All +that lives in the second-hand repetitions of his stories is the +mere core, the original appropriated thing from which the inimitable +decoration has fallen off. That is why the collections of his stories +are such dreary reading,--like Carey's Dante, or Bryant's Homer. And +strange to say, there is no humor in his letters. This man who +was famous as a wag writes to his friends almost always in perfect +seriousness, often sadly. The bit of humor that has been preserved +in his one comic speech in Congress,--a burlesque of the Democratic +candidate of 1848, Lewis Cass,--shorn as it is of his manner, his tricks +of speech and gesture, is hardly worth repeating.(5) + +Lincoln was deeply humiliated by his failure to make a serious +impression at Washington.(6) His eyes opened in a startled realization +that there were worlds he could not conquer. The Washington of the +'forties was far indeed from a great capital; it was as friendly to +conventional types of politician as was Springfield or Vandalia. The man +who could deal in ideas as political counters, the other man who knew +the subtleties of the art of graft, both these were national as well as +local figures. Personal politics were also as vicious at Washington as +anywhere; nevertheless, there was a difference, and in that difference +lay the secret of Lincoln's failure. He was keen enough to grasp the +difference, to perceive the clue to his failure. In a thousand ways, +large and small, the difference came home to him. It may all be +symbolized by a closing detail of his stay. An odd bit of incongruity +was the inclusion of his name in the list of managers of the Inaugural +Ball of 1849. Nothing of the sort had hitherto entered into his +experience. As Mrs. Lincoln was not with him he joined "a small party of +mutual friends" who attended the ball together. As one of them relates, +"he was greatly interested in all that was to be seen and we did not +take our departure until three or four o'clock in the morning."(7) +What an ironic picture--this worthy provincial, the last word for +awkwardness, socially as strange to such a scene as a little child, +spending the whole night gazing intently at everything he could see, +at the barbaric display of wealth, the sumptuous gowns, the brilliant +uniforms, the distinguished foreigners, and the leaders of America, men +like Webster and Clay, with their air of assured power, the men he had +failed to impress. This was his valedictory at Washington. He went home +and told Herndon that he had committed political suicide.(8) He had met +the world and the world was too strong for him. + +And yet, what was wrong? He had been popular at Washington, in the same +way in which he had been popular at Springfield. Why had the same sort +of success inspired him at Springfield and humiliated him at +Washington? The answer was in the difference between the two worlds. +Companionableness, story-telling, at Springfield, led to influence; at +Washington it led only to applause. At Springfield it was a means; at +Washington it was an end. The narrow circle gave the good fellow an +opportunity to reveal at his leisure everything else that was in him; +the larger circle ruthlessly put him in his place as a good fellow and +nothing more. The truth was that in the Washington of the 'forties, +neither the inner nor the outer Lincoln could by itself find lodgment. +Neither the lonely mystical thinker nor the captivating buffoon could do +more than ripple its surface. As superficial as Springfield, it lacked +Springfield's impulsive generosity. To the long record of its obtuseness +it had added another item. The gods had sent it a great man and it had +no eyes to see. It was destined to repeat the performance. + +And so Lincoln came home, disappointed, disillusioned. He had not +succeeded in establishing the slightest claim, either upon the country +or his party. Without such claim he had no ground for attempting +reelection. The frivolity of the Whig machine in the Sangamon region +was evinced by their rotation agreement. Out of such grossly personal +politics Lincoln had gone to Washington; into this essentially corrupt +system he relapsed. He faced, politically, a blank wall. And he had +within him as yet, no consciousness of any power that might cleave the +wall asunder. What was he to do next? + +At this dangerous moment--so plainly the end of a chapter--he was +offered the governorship of the new Territory of Oregon. For the first +time he found himself at a definite parting of the ways, where a sheer +act of will was to decide things; where the pressure of circumstance was +of secondary importance. + +In response to this crisis, an overlooked part of him appeared. The +inheritance from his mother, from the forest, had always been obvious. +But, after all, he was the son not only of Nancy and of the lonely +stars, but also of shifty, drifty Thomas the unstable. If it was not +his paternal inheritance that revived in him at this moment of confessed +failure, it was something of the same sort. Just as Thomas had always +by way of extricating himself from a failure taken to the road, now +Abraham, at a psychological crisis, felt the same wanderlust, and he +threatened to go adrift. Some of his friends urged him to accept. "You +will capture the new community," said they, "and when Oregon becomes a +State, you will go to Washington as its first Senator." What a +glorified application of the true Thomasian line of thought. Lincoln +hesitated--hesitated-- + +And then the forcible little lady who had married him put her foot down. +Go out to that far-away backwoods, just when they were beginning to get +on in the world; when real prosperity at Springfield was surely within +their grasp; when they were at last becoming people of importance, who +should be able to keep their own carriage? Not much! + +Her husband declined the appointment and resumed the practice of law in +Springfield.(9) + + + + +VII. THE SECOND START + +Stung by his failure at Washington, Lincoln for a time put his whole +soul into the study of the law. He explained his failure to himself as +a lack of mental training.(1) There followed a repetition of his early +years with Logan, but with very much more determination, and with more +abiding result. + +In those days in Illinois, as once in England, the judges held court in +a succession of towns which formed a circuit. Judge and lawyers +moved from town to town, "rode the circuit" in company,--sometimes on +horseback, sometimes in their own vehicles, sometimes by stage. Among +the reminiscences of Lincoln on the circuit, are his "poky" old horse +and his "ramshackle" old buggy. Many and many a mile, round and round +the Eighth Judicial Circuit, he traveled in that humble style. What +thoughts he brooded on in his lonely drives, he seldom told. During +this period the cloud over his inner life is especially dense. The outer +life, in a multitude of reminiscences, is well known. One of its salient +details was the large proportion of time he devoted to study. + +"Frequently, I would go out on the circuit with him," writes Herndon. +"We, usually, at the little country inn, occupied the same bed. In most +cases, the beds were too short for him and his feet would hang over the +footboard, thus exposing a limited expanse of shin bone. Placing his +candle at the head of his bed he would read and study for hours. I have +known him to stay in this position until two o'clock in the morning. +Meanwhile, I and others who chanced to occupy the same room would be +safely and soundly asleep. On the circuit, in this way, he studied +Euclid until he could with ease demonstrate all the propositions in +the six books. How he could maintain his equilibrium or concentrate his +thoughts on an abstract mathematical problem, while Davis, Logan, Swett, +Edwards and I, so industriously and volubly filled the air with our +interminable snoring, was a problem none of, us--could ever solve."(2) + +A well-worn copy of Shakespeare was also his constant companion. + +He rose rapidly in the profession; and this in spite of his incorrigible +lack of system. The mechanical side of the lawyer's task, now, as in the +days with Logan, annoyed him; he left the preparation of papers to his +junior partner, as formerly he left it to his senior partner. But the +situation had changed in a very important way. In Herndon, Lincoln had +for a partner a talented young man who looked up to him, almost adored +him, who was quite willing to be his man Friday. Fortunately, for all +his adoration, Herndon had no desire to idealize his hero. He was not +disturbed by his grotesque or absurd sides. + +"He was proverbially careless as to his habits," Herndon writes. "In a +letter to a fellow lawyer in another town, apologizing for his failure +to answer sooner, he explains: 'First, I have been very busy in the +United States Court; second, when I received the letter, I put it in my +old hat, and buying a new one the next day, the old one was set aside, +so the letter was lost sight of for the time.' This hat of Lincoln's--a +silk plug--was an extraordinary receptacle. It was his desk and his +memorandum book. In it he carried his bank-book and the bulk of his +letters. Whenever in his reading or researches, he wished to preserve +an idea, he jotted it down on an envelope or stray piece of paper and +placed it inside the lining; afterwards, when the memorandum was needed, +there was only one place to look for it." Herndon makes no bones about +confessing that their office was very dirty. So neglected was it that a +young man of neat habits who entered the office as a law student under +Lincoln could not refrain from cleaning it up, and the next visitor +exclaimed in astonishment, "What's happened here!"(3) + +"The office," says that same law student, "was on the second floor of a +brick building on the public square opposite the courthouse. You went +up a flight of stairs and then passed along a hallway to the rear office +which was a medium sized room. There was one long table in the center of +the room, and a shorter one running in the opposite direction forming a +T and both were covered with green baize. There were two windows which +looked into the back yard. In one corner was an old-fashioned secretary +with pigeonholes and a drawer; and here Mr. Lincoln and his partner kept +their law papers. There was also a bookcase containing about two hundred +volumes of law and miscellaneous books." The same authority adds, "There +was no order in the office at all." Lincoln left all the money matters +to Herndon. "He never entered an item on the account book. If a fee was +paid to him and Herndon was not there, he would divide the money, +wrap up one part in paper and place it in his partner's desk with the +inscription, 'Case of Roe versus Doe, Herndon's half.' He had an odd +habit of reading aloud much to his partner's annoyance. He talked +incessantly; a whole forenoon would sometimes go by while Lincoln +occupied the whole time telling stories."(4) + +On the circuit, his story-telling was an institution. Two other men, +long since forgotten, vied with him as rival artists in humorous +narrative. These three used to hold veritable tournaments. Herndon has +seen "the little country tavern where these three were wont to meet +after an adjournment of court, crowded almost to suffocation, with +an audience of men who had gathered to witness the contest among the +members of the strange triumvirate. The physicians of the town, all the +lawyers, and not infrequently a preacher, could be found in the crowd +that filled the doors and windows. The yarns they spun and the stories +they told would not bear repetition here, but many of them had morals +which, while exposing the weakness of mankind, stung like a whiplash. +Some were, no doubt, a thousand years old, with just enough of verbal +varnish and alterations of names and date to make them new and crisp. By +virtue of the last named application, Lincoln was enabled to draw from +Balzac a 'droll story' and locating it 'in Egypt' (Southern Illinois) +or in Indiana, pass it off for a purely original conception. . . I have +seen Judge Treat, who was the very impersonation of gravity itself, sit +up till the last and laugh until, as he often expressed it, 'he almost +shook his ribs loose.' The next day he would ascend the bench and listen +to Lincoln in a murder trial with all the seeming severity of an English +judge in wig and gown."(5) + +Lincoln enjoyed the life on the circuit. It was not that he was always +in a gale of spirits; a great deal of the time he brooded. His Homeric +nonsense alternated with fits of gloom. In spite of his late hours, +whether of study or of story-telling, he was an early riser. "He would +sit by the fire having uncovered the coals, and muse and ponder and +soliloquize."(6) Besides his favorite Shakespeare, he had a fondness for +poetry of a very different sort--Byron, for example. And he never tired +of a set of stanzas in the minor key beginning: "Oh, why should the +spirit of mortal be proud?"(7) + +The hilarity of the circuit was not by any means the whole of its charm +for him. Part of that charm must have been the contrast with his recent +failure at Washington. This world he could master. Here his humor +increased his influence; and his influence grew rapidly. He was a +favorite of judges, jury and the bar. Then, too, it was a man's world. +Though Lincoln had a profound respect for women, he seems generally to +have been ill at ease in their company. In what his friends would have +called "general society" he did not shine. He was too awkward, too +downright, too lacking in the niceties. At home, though he now owned +a house and was making what seemed to him plenty of money, he was +undoubtedly a trial to Mrs. Lincoln's sense of propriety. He could not +rise with his wife, socially. He was still what he had become so long +before, the favorite of all the men--good old Abe Lincoln that you could +tie to though it rained cats and dogs. But as to the ladies! Fashionable +people calling on Mrs. Lincoln, had been received by her husband in his +shirt-sleeves, and he totally unabashed, as oblivious of discrepancy +as if he were a nobleman and not a nobody.(8) The dreadful tradition +persists that he had been known at table to put his own knife into the +butter. + +How safe to assume that many things were said commiserating poor Mrs. +Lincoln who had a bear for a husband. And some people noticed that +Lincoln did not come home at week-ends during term-time as often as he +might. Perhaps it meant something; perhaps it did not. But there could +be no doubt that the jovial itinerant life of the circuit was the life +for him--at least in the early 'fifties. That it was, and also that +he was becoming known as a lawyer, is evinced by his refusal of a +flattering invitation to enter a prosperous firm in Chicago. + +Out of all this came a deepening of his power to reach and impress +men through words. The tournament of the story-tellers was a lawyers' +tournament. The central figure was reading, studying, thinking, as never +in his life before. Though his fables remained as broad as ever, the +merely boisterous character ceased to predominate. The ethical bent of +his mind came to the surface. His friends were agreed that what they +remembered chiefly of his stories was not the broad part of them, but +the moral that was in them.(9) And they had no squeamishness as critics +of the art of fable-making. + +His ethical sense of things, his companionableness, the utterly +non-censorious cast of his mind, his power to evolve yarns into +parables--all these made him irresistible with a jury. It was a saying +of his: "If I can divest this case of technicalities and swing it to the +jury, I'll win it."(10) + +But there was not a trace in him of that unscrupulousness usually +attributed to the "jury lawyer." Few things show more plainly the +central unmovableness of his character than his immunity to the lures of +jury speaking. To use his power over an audience for his own enjoyment, +for an interested purpose, for any purpose except to afford pleasure, +or to see justice done, was for him constitutionally impossible. Such +a performance was beyond the reach of his will. In a way, his nature, +mysterious as it was, was also the last word for simplicity, a terrible +simplicity. The exercise of his singular powers was irrevocably +conditioned on his own faith in the moral justification of what he was +doing. He had no patience with any conception of the lawyer's function +that did not make him the devoted instrument of justice. For the law as +a game, for legal strategy, he felt contempt. Never under any conditions +would he attempt to get for a client more than he was convinced the +client in justice ought to have. The first step in securing his services +was always to persuade him that one's cause was just He sometimes threw +up a case in open court because the course of it had revealed deception +on the part of the client. At times he expressed his disdain of the +law's mere commercialism in a stinging irony. + +"In a closely contested civil suit," writes his associate, Ward Hill +Lamon, "Lincoln proved an account for his client, who was, though he did +not know it at the time, a very slippery fellow. The opposing attorney +then proved a receipt clearly covering the entire cause of action. By +the time he was through Lincoln was missing. The court sent for him to +the hotel. 'Tell the Judge,' said he, 'that I can't come; my hands are +dirty and I came over to clean them.'"(11) + +"Discourage litigation," he wrote. "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."(12) + +He held his moral and professional views with the same inflexibility +with which he held his political views. Once he had settled upon a +conviction or an opinion, nothing could move him. He was singularly +stubborn, and yet, in all the minor matters of life, in all his merely +personal concerns, in everything except his basal ideas, he was pliable +to a degree. He could be talked into almost any concession of interest. +He once told Herndon he thanked God that he had not been born a woman +because he found it so hard to refuse any request made of him. His +outer easiness, his lack of self-assertion,--as most people understand +self-assertion,--persist in an amusing group of anecdotes of the +circuit. Though he was a favorite with the company at every tavern, +those little demagogues, the tavern-keepers, quickly found out that +he could be safely put upon. In the minute but important favoritism +of tavern life, in the choice of rooms, in the assignment of seats at +table, in the distribution of delicacies, easy-going Lincoln was ever +the first one to be ignored. "He never complained of the food, bed, or +lodgings," says a judge of the circuit, David Davis. "If every other +fellow grumbled at the bill of fare which greeted us at many of the +dingy taverns, Lincoln said nothing."(13) + +But his complacency was of the surface only. His ideas were his own. +He held to them with dogged tenacity. Herndon was merely the first +of several who discerned on close familiarity Lincoln's inward +inflexibility. "I was never conscious," he writes, "of having made much +of an impression on Mr. Lincoln, nor do I believe I ever changed his +views. I will go further and say that from the profound nature of his +conclusions and the labored method by which he arrived at them, no man +is entitled to the credit of having either changed or greatly modified +them."(14) + +In these years of the early 'fifties, Herndon had much occasion to test +his partner's indifference to other men's views, his tenacious adherence +to his own. Herndon had become an Abolitionist. He labored to convert +Lincoln; but it was a lost labor. The Sphinx in a glimmer of sunshine +was as unassailable as the cheery, fable-loving, inflexible Lincoln. The +younger man would work himself up, and, flushed with ardor, warn Lincoln +against his apparent conservatism when the needs of the hour were so +great; but his only answer would be, "Billy, you are too rampant and +spontaneous."(15) + +Nothing could move him from his fixed conviction that the temper of +Abolitionism made it pernicious. He persisted in classifying it with +slavery,--both of equal danger to free institutions. He took occasion +to reassert this belief in the one important utterance of a political +nature that commemorates this period. An oration on the death of Henry +Clay, contains the sentence: "Cast into life when slavery was already +widely spread and deeply sealed, he did not perceive, as I think no wise +man has perceived, how it could be at once eradicated without producing +a greater evil even to the cause of human liberty itself."(16) + +It will be remembered that the Abolitionists were never strongly +national in sentiment. In certain respects they remind one of the +extreme "internationals" of to-day. Their allegiance was not first of +all to Society, nor to governments, but to abstract ideas. For all such +attitudes in political science, Lincoln had an instinctive aversion. He +was permeated always, by his sense of the community, of the +obligation to work in terms of the community. Even the prejudices, the +shortsightedness of the community were things to be considered, to be +dealt with tenderly. Hence his unwillingness to force reforms upon a +community not ripe to receive them. In one of his greatest speeches +occurs the dictum: "A universal feeling whether well or ill-founded, can +not be safely disregarded."(17) Anticipating such ideas, he made in his +Clay oration, a startling denunciation of both the extreme factions of + +"Those (Abolitionists) who would shiver into fragments the union of +these States, tear to tatters its now 'venerated Constitution, and even +burn the last copy of the Bible rather than slavery should continue a +single hour; together with all their more halting sympathizers, have +received and are receiving their just execration; and the name and +opinion and influence of Mr. Clay are fully and, as I trust, effectually +and enduringly arrayed against them. But I would also if I could, array +his name, opinion and influence against the opposite extreme, against +a few, but increasing number of men who, for the sake of perpetuating +slavery, are beginning to assail and ridicule the white man's charter of +freedom, the declaration that 'all men are created free and equal.'"(18) + +In another passage he stated what he conceived to be the central +inspiration of Clay. Had he been thinking of himself, he could not +have foreshadowed more exactly the basal drift of all his future as a +statesman: + +"He loved his country partly because it was his own country, and +mostly because it was a free country; and he burned with a zeal for +its advancement, prosperity, and glory, because he saw in such the +advancement, prosperity and glory of human liberty, human right and +human nature."(19) + + + + +VIII. A RETURN TO POLITICS + +Meanwhile, great things were coming forward at Washington. They centered +about a remarkable man with whom Lincoln had hitherto formed a curious +parallel, by whom hitherto he had been completely overshadowed. Stephen +Arnold Douglas was prosecuting attorney at Springfield when Lincoln +began the practice of law. They were in the Legislature together. Both +courted Mary Todd. Soon afterward, Douglas had distanced his rival. When +Lincoln went to the House of Representatives as a Whig, Douglas went +to the Senate as a Democrat. While Lincoln was failing at Washington, +Douglas was building a national reputation. In the hubbub that followed +the Compromise of 1850, while Lincoln, abandoning politics, immersed +himself in the law, Douglas rendered a service to the country by +defeating a movement in Illinois to reject the Compromise. When the +Democratic National Convention assembled in 1852, he was sufficiently +prominent to obtain a considerable vote for the presidential nomination. + +The dramatic contrast of these two began with their physical appearance. +Douglas was so small that he had been known to sit on a friend's knee +while arguing politics. But his energy of mind, his indomitable force +of character, made up for his tiny proportions. "The Little Giant" was a +term of endearment applied to him by his followers. The mental contrast +was equally marked. Scarcely a quality in Lincoln that was not reversed +in Douglas--deliberation, gradualness, introspection, tenacity, were the +characteristics of Lincoln's mind. The mind of Douglas was first of all +facile. He was extraordinarily quick. In political Strategy he +could sense a new situation, wheel to meet it, throw overboard +well-established plans, devise new ones, all in the twinkle of an eye. +People who could not understand such rapidity of judgment pronounced him +insincere, or at least, an opportunist. That he did not have the deep +inflexibility of Lincoln may be assumed; that his convictions, such +as they were, did not have an ethical cast may be safely asserted. +Nevertheless, he was a great force, an immense human power, that did not +change its course without good reason of its own sort. Far more than +a mere opportunist. Politically, he summed up a change that was coming +over the Democratic party. Janus-like, he had two faces, one for his +constituents, one for his colleagues. To the voter he was still a +Jeffersonian, with whom the old phraseology of the party, liberty, +equality, and fraternity, were still the catch-words. To his associates +in the Senate he was essentially an aristocrat, laboring to advance +interests that were careless of the rights of man. A later age has +accused the Senate of the United States of being the citadel of Big +Business. Waiving the latter view, the historian may assert that +something suggestive of Big Business appeared in our politics in the +'fifties, and was promptly made at home in the Senate. Perhaps its +first definite manifestation was a new activity on the part of the great +slave-holders. To invoke again the classifications of later points +of view, certain of our historians to-day think they can see in +the 'fifties a virtual slavery trust, a combine of slave interests +controlled by the magnates of the institution, and having as real, +though informal, an existence as has the Steel Trust or the Beef +Trust in our own time. This powerful interest allied itself with the +capitalists of the Northeast. In modern phraseology, they aimed to +"finance" the slave interest from New York. And for a time the alliance +succeeded in doing this. The South went entirely upon credit. It bought +and borrowed heavily in the East New York furnished the money. + +Had there been nothing further to consider, the invasion of the Senate +by Big Business in the 'fifties might not have taken place. But there +was something else. Slavery's system of agriculture was excessively +wasteful. To be highly profitable it required virgin soil, and the +financial alliance demanded high profits. Early in the 'fifties, the +problem of Big Business was the acquisition of fresh soil for slavery. +The problem entered politics with the question how could this be brought +about without appearing to contradict democracy? The West also had its +incipient Big Business. It hinged upon railways. Now that California +had been acquired, with a steady stream of migration westward, with +all America dazzled more or less by gold-mines and Pacific trade, a +transcontinental railway was a Western dream. But what course should it +take, what favored regions were to become its immediate beneficiaries? +Here was a chance for great jockeying among business interests in +Congress, for slave-holders, money-lenders, railway promoters to +manipulate deals to their hearts' content. They had been doing so amid +a high complication of squabbling, while Douglas was traveling in +Europe during 1853. When he returned late in the year, the unity of the +Democratic machine in Congress was endangered by these disputes. Douglas +at once attacked the problem of party harmony. He threw himself into +the task with all his characteristic quickness, all his energy and +resourcefulness. + +By this time the problem contained five distinct factors: The upper +Northeast wanted a railroad starting at Chicago. The Central West wanted +a road from St. Louis. The Southwest wanted a road from New Orleans, +or at least, the frustration of the two Northern schemes. Big Business +wanted new soil for slavery. The Compromise of 1850 stood in the way of +the extension of slave territory. + +If Douglas had had any serious convictions opposed to slavery the last +of the five factors would have brought him to a standstill. Fortunately +for him as a party strategist, he was indifferent. Then, too, he firmly +believed that slavery could never thrive in the West because of +climatic conditions. "Man might propose, but physical geography would +dispose."(1) On both counts it seemed to him immaterial what concessions +be made to slavery extension northwestward. Therefore, he dismissed +this consideration and applied himself to the harmonization of the four +business factors involved. The result was a famous compromise inside a +party. His Kansas-Nebraska Bill created two new territories, one lying +westward from Chicago; one lying westward from St. Louis. It also +repealed the Missouri Compromise and gave the inhabitants of each +territory the right to decide for themselves whether or not slavery +should be permitted in their midst. That is to say, both to the railway +promoter and the slavery financier, it extended equal governmental +protection, but it promised favors to none, and left each faction to +rise or fall in the free competition of private enterprise. Why--was not +this, remembering Douglas's assumptions, a master-stroke? + +He had expected, of course, denunciation by the Abolitionists. He +considered it immaterial. But he was not in the least prepared for what +happened. A storm burst. It was fiercest in his own State. "Traitor," +"Arnold," "Judas," were the pleasant epithets fired at him in a +bewildering fusillade. He could not understand it. Something other than +mere Abolitionism had been aroused by his great stroke. But what was it? +Why did men who were not Abolitionists raise a hue and cry? Especially, +why did many Democrats do so? Amazed, puzzled, but as always furiously +valiant, Douglas hurried home to join battle with his assailants. He +entered on a campaign of speech-making. On October 3, 1854, he spoke +at Springfield. His enemies, looking about for the strongest popular +speaker they could find, chose Lincoln. The next day he replied to +Douglas. + +The Kansas-Nebraska Bill had not affected any change in Lincoln's +thinking. His steady, consistent development as a political thinker +had gone on chiefly in silence ever since his Protest seventeen years +before. He was still intolerant of Abolitionism, still resolved to leave +slavery to die a natural death in the States where it was established. +He defended the measure which most offended the Abolitionists, the +Fugitive Slave Law. He had appeared as counsel for a man who claimed +a runaway slave as his property.(2) None the less, the Kansas-Nebraska +Bill had brought him to his feet, wheeled him back from law into +politics, begun a new chapter. The springs of action in is case were the +factor which Douglas had overlooked, which in all his calculations he +had failed to take into account, which was destined to destroy him. + +Lincoln, no less than Douglas, had sensed the fact that money was +becoming a power in American politics. He saw that money and slavery +tended to become allies with the inevitable result of a shift of gravity +in the American social system. "Humanity" had once been the American +shibboleth; it was giving place to a new shibboleth-"prosperity." And +the people who were to control and administer prosperity were the rich. +The rights of man were being superseded by the rights of wealth. +Because of its place in this new coalition of non-democratic influences, +slavery, to Lincoln's mind, was assuming a new role, "beginning," as he +had said, in the Clay oration, "to assail and ridicule the white man's +charter of freedom, the declaration that 'all men are created free and +equal.'" + +That phrase, "the white man's charter of freedom," had become Lincoln's +shibboleth. Various utterances and written fragments of the summer of +1854, reveal the intensity of his preoccupation. + +"Equality in society beats inequality, whether the latter be of the +British aristocratic sort or of the domestic slavery sort"(3) + +"If A can prove, however conclusively, that he may of right enslave B, +why may not B snatch the same argument and prove equally that he may +enslave A? You say A is white and B is black. It is color then; the +lighter having the right to enslave the darker? Take care. By this rule +you are to be slave to the first man you meet with a fairer skin +than your own. You do not mean color exactly? You mean the whites are +intellectually the superiors of the blacks, and therefore have the right +to enslave them? Take care again. By this rule you are to be slave to +the first man you meet with an intellect superior to your own. But, you +say, it is a question of interest, and if you make it your interest, you +have the right to enslave another. Very well. And if he can make it his +interest, he has the right to enslave you."(4) + +Speaking of slavery to a fellow lawyer, he said: "It is the most +glittering, ostentatious, and displaying property in the world; and now, +if a young man goes courting, the only inquiry is how many negroes he +or his lady love owns. The love of slave property is swallowing up +every other mercenary possession. Its ownership betokened not only the +possession of wealth, but indicated the gentleman of leisure who was +above and scorned labor."(5) + +It was because of these views, because he saw slavery allying itself +with the spread of plutocratic ideals, that Lincoln entered the battle +to prevent its extension. He did so in his usual cool, determined way. + +Though his first reply to Douglas was not recorded, his second, made +at Peoria twelve days later, still exists.(6) It is a landmark in his +career. It sums up all his long, slow development in political science, +lays the abiding foundation of everything he thought thereafter. In +this great speech, the end of his novitiate, he rings the changes on the +white man's charter of freedom. He argues that the extension of slavery +tends to discredit republican institutions, and to disappoint "the +Liberal party throughout the world." The heart of his argument is: + +"Whether slavery shall go into Nebraska or other new Territories is not +a matter of exclusive concern to the people who may go there. The +whole nation is interested that the best use shall be made of these +Territories. We want them for homes for free white people. This they can +not be to any considerable extent, if slavery shall be planted within +them. Slave States are places for poor white people to remove from, not +remove to. New Free States are the places for poor people to go to +and better their condition. For this use the nation needs these +Territories." + +The speech was a masterpiece of simplicity, of lucidity. It showed +the great jury; lawyer at his best. Its temper was as admirable as its +logic; not a touch of anger nor of vituperation. + +"I have no prejudice against the Southern people," said he. "They are +just what we would be in their situation. If slavery did not exist among +them, they would not introduce it. If it did now exist among us, we +should not instantly give it up. This I believe of the masses North and +South. + +"When Southern people tell us that they are no more responsible for the +origin of slavery than we are, I acknowledge the fact. When it is said +that the institution exists and that it is very difficult to get rid of +in any satisfactory way, I can understand and appreciate the saying. I +surely will not blame them for not doing what I should not know how to +do myself. If all earthly power were given me, I should not know what to +do as to the existing institution." + +His instinctive aversion to fanaticism found expression in a plea for +the golden mean in politics. + +"Some men, mostly Whigs, who condemn the repeal of the Missouri +Compromise, nevertheless hesitate to go for its restoration lest they be +thrown in company with the Abolitionists. Will they allow me as an old +Whig, to tell them good-humoredly that I think this is very silly. Stand +with anybody that stands right. Stand with him while he is right +and part with him when he goes wrong. Stand with the Abolitionist +in restoring the Missouri Compromise, and stand against him when he +attempts to repeal the Fugitive Slave Law. In the latter case you stand +with the Southern dis-unionist. What of that? You are still right. +In both cases you are right. In both cases you expose the dangerous +extremes. In both you stand on middle ground and hold the ship level and +steady. In both you are national, and nothing less than national. +This is the good old Whig ground. To desert such ground because of +any company is to be less than a Whig-less than a man-less than an +American." + +These two speeches against Douglas made an immense impression +Byron-like, Lincoln waked up and found himself famous. Thereupon, his +ambition revived. A Senator was to be chosen that autumn. Why might not +this be the opportunity to retrieve his failure in Congress? Shortly +after the Peoria speech, he was sending out notes like this to prominent +politicians: + +"Dear Sir: You used to express a good deal of partiality for me, and if +you are still so, now is the time. Some friends here are really for me +for the United States Senate, and I should be very grateful if you could +make a mark for me among your members (of the Legislature)."(7) + +When the Legislature assembled, it was found to comprise four groups: +the out-and-out Democrats who would stand by Douglas through thick and +thin, and vote only for his nominee; the bolting Democrats who would not +vote for a Douglas man, but whose party rancor was so great that they +would throw their votes away rather than give them to a Whig; such +enemies of Douglas as were willing to vote for a Whig; the remainder. + +The Democrats supported Governor Matteson; the candidate of the second +group was Lyman Trumbull; the Whigs supported Lincoln. After nine +exciting ballots, Matteson had forty-seven votes, Trumbull thirty-five, +Lincoln fifteen. As the bolting Democrats were beyond compromise, +Lincoln determined to sacrifice himself in order to defeat Matteson. +Though the fifteen protested against deserting him, he required them to +do so. On the tenth ballot, they transferred their votes to Trumbull and +he was elected.(8) + +Douglas had met his first important defeat. His policy had been +repudiated in his own State. And it was Lincoln who had formulated the +argument against him, who had held the balance of power, and had turned +the scale. + + + + +IX. THE LITERARY STATESMAN + +Lincoln had found at last a mode and an opportunity for concentrating +all his powers in a way that could have results. He had discovered +himself as a man of letters. The great speeches of 1854 were not +different in a way from the previous speeches that were without results. +And yet they were wholly different. Just as Lincoln's version of an old +tale made of that tale a new thing, so Lincoln's version of an argument +made of it a different thing from other men's versions. The oratory of +1854 was not state-craft in any ordinary sense. It was art Lincoln the +artist, who had slowly developed a great literary faculty, had chanced +after so many rebuffs on good fortune. His cause stood in urgent need +of just what he could give. It was one of those moments when a new +political force, having not as yet any opening for action, finds +salvation in the phrase-maker, in the literary artist who can embody it +in words. + +During the next five years and more, Lincoln was the recognized offset +to Douglas. His fame spread from Illinois in both directions. He was +called to Iowa and to Ohio as the advocate of all advocates who could +undo the effect of Douglas. His fame traveled eastward. The culmination +of the period of literary leadership was his famous speech at Cooper +Union in February, 1860. + +It was inevitable that he should go along with the antislavery coalition +which adopted the name of the Republican party. But his natural +deliberation kept him from being one of its founders. An attempt of +its founders to appropriate him after the triumph at Springfield, in +October, 1854, met with a rebuff.(1) Nearly a year and a half went by +before he affiliated himself with the new party. But once having made +up his mind, he went forward wholeheartedly. At the State Convention of +Illinois Republicans in 1856 he made a speech that has not been +recorded but which is a tradition for moving oratory. That same year a +considerable number of votes were cast for Lincoln for Vice-President in +the Republican National Convention. + +But all these were mere details. The great event of the years between +1854 and 1860 was his contest with Douglas. It was a battle of wits, +a great literary duel. Fortunately for Lincoln, his part was played +altogether on his own soil, under conditions in which he was entirely at +his ease, where nothing conspired with his enemy to embarrass him. + +Douglas had a far more difficult task. Unforeseen complications rapidly +forced him to change his policy, to meet desertion and betrayal in his +own ranks. These were terrible years when fierce events followed +one another in quick succession--the rush of both slave-holders and +abolitionists into Kansas; the cruel war along the Wakarusa River; the +sack of Lawrence by the pro-slavery party; the massacre by John Brown +at Pottawatomie; the diatribes of Sumner in the Senate; the assault on +Sumner by Brooks. In the midst of this carnival of ferocity came the +Dred Scott decision, cutting under the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, denying to +the people of a Territory the right to legislate on slavery, and giving +to all slave-holders the right to settle with their slaves anywhere they +pleased outside a Free State. This famous decision repudiated Douglas's +policy of leaving all such questions to local autonomy and to private +enterprise. For a time Douglas made no move to save his policy. But when +President Buchanan decided to throw the influence of the Administration +on the side of the pro-slavery party in Kansas, Douglas was up in +arms. When it was proposed to admit Kansas with a constitution favoring +slavery, but which had not received the votes of a majority of the +inhabitants, Douglas voted with the Republicans to defeat admission. +Whereupon the Democratic party machine and the Administration turned +upon him without mercy. He stood alone in a circle of enemies. At no +other time did he show so many of the qualities of a great leader. +Battling with Lincoln in the popular forum on the one hand, he was +meeting daily on the other assaults by a crowd of brilliant opponents in +Congress. At the same time he was playing a consummate game of political +strategy, struggling against immense odds to recover his hold on +Illinois. The crisis would come in 1858 when he would have to go before +the Legislature for reelection. He knew well enough who his opponent +would be. At every turn there fell across his path the shadow of a cool +sinister figure, his relentless enemy. It was Lincoln. On the struggle +with Lincoln his whole battle turned. + +Abandoned by his former allies, his one hope was the retention of his +constituency. To discredit Lincoln, to twist and discredit all his +arguments, was for Douglas a matter of life and death. He struck +frequently with great force, but sometimes with more fury than wisdom. +Many a time the unruffled coolness of Lincoln brought to nothing what +was meant for a deadly thrust. Douglas took counsel of despair and tried +to show that Lincoln was preaching the amalgamation of the white and +black races. "I protest," Lincoln replied, "against the counterfeit +logic which says that because I do not want a black woman for a slave, I +must necessarily want her for a wife. I need not have her for either. +I can just leave her alone. In some respects she certainly is not my +equal; but in her natural right to eat the bread she earns with her +own hands without asking leave of any one else, she is my equal and +the equal of all others."(2) Any false move made by Douglas, any +rash assertion, was sure to be seized upon by that watchful enemy in +Illinois. In attempting to defend himself on two fronts at once, defying +both the Republicans and the Democratic machine, Douglas made his +reckless declaration that all he wanted was a fair vote by the people +of Kansas; that for himself he did not care how they settled the matter, +whether slavery was voted up or voted down. With relentless skill, +Lincoln developed the implications of this admission, drawing forth +from its confessed indifference to the existence of slavery, a chain +of conclusions that extended link by link to a belief in reopening +the African slave trade. This was done in his speech accepting the +Republican nomination for the Senate. In the same speech he restated his +general position in half a dozen sentences that became at once a classic +statement for the whole Republican party: "A house divided against +itself can not stand. I believe this government can not endure +permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be +dissolved. I do not expect the house to fall, but I do expect it will +cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. +Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it and +place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in +the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward +till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new, +North as well as South."(3) + +The great duel was rapidly approaching its climax. What was in reality +no more than the last round has appropriated a label that ought to have +a wider meaning and is known as the Lincoln-Douglas Debates. The two +candidates made a joint tour of the State, debating their policies in +public at various places during the summer and autumn of 1858. + +Properly considered, these famous speeches closed Lincoln's life as +an orator. The Cooper Union speech was an isolated aftermath in alien +conditions, a set performance not quite in his true vein. His brief +addresses of the later years were incidental; they had no combative +element. Never again was he to attempt to sway an audience for an +immediate stake through the use of the spoken word. "A brief description +of Mr. Lincoln's appearance on the stump and of his manner when +speaking," as Herndon aptly remarks, "may not be without interest. When +standing erect, he was six feet four inches high. He was lean in flesh +and ungainly in figure. Aside from his sad, pained look, due to habitual +melancholy, his face had no characteristic or fixed expression. He was +thin through the chest and hence slightly stoop-shouldered. . . . At +first he was very awkward and it seemed a real labor to adjust himself +to his surroundings. He struggled for a time under a feeling of apparent +diffidence and sensitiveness, and these only added to his awkwardness.... +When he began speaking his voice was shrill, piping and unpleasant. +His manner, his attitude, his dark yellow face, wrinkled and dry, his +oddity of pose, his diffident movements; everything seemed to be +against him, but only for a short time. . . . As he proceeded, he became +somewhat more animated. . . . He did not gesticulate as much with his +hands as with his head. He used the latter frequently, throwing it with +him, this way and that. . . . He never sawed the air nor rent space into +tatters and rags, as some orators do. He never acted for stage effect. +He was cool, considerate, reflective--in time, self-possessed and +self-reliant. . . . As he moved along in his speech he became freer and +less uneasy in his movements; to that extent he was graceful. He had a +perfect naturalness, a strong individuality, and to that extent he was +dignified. . . . He spoke with effectiveness--and to move the judgment +as well as the emotion of men. There was a world of meaning and emphasis +in the long, bony finger of the right hand as he dotted the ideas on the +minds of his hearers. . . . He always stood squarely on his feet. . . . +He neither touched nor leaned on anything for support. He never ranted, +never walked backward and forward on the platform. . . . As he proceeded +with his speech, the exercise of his vocal organs altered somewhat the +pitch of his voice. It lost in a measure its former acute and shrilling +pitch and mellowed into a more harmonious and pleasant sound. His form +expanded, and notwithstanding the sunken breast, he rose up a splendid +and imposing figure. . . . His little gray eyes flashed in a face aglow +with the fire of his profound thoughts; and his uneasy movements +and diffident manner sunk themselves beneath the wave of righteous +indignation that came sweeping over him."(4) + +A wonderful dramatic contrast were these two men, each in his way so +masterful, as they appeared in the famous debates. By good fortune we +have a portrait of Douglas the orator, from the pen of Mrs. Stowe, +who had observed him with reluctant admiration from the gallery of +the Senate. "This Douglas is the very ideal of vitality. Short, broad, +thick-set, every inch of him has its own alertness and motion. He has +a good head, thick black hair, heavy black brows, and a keen face. His +figure would be an unfortunate one were it not for the animation that +constantly pervades it. As it is it rather gives poignancy to his +peculiar appearance; he has a small handsome hand, moreover, and +a graceful as well as forcible mode of using it. . . . He has two +requisites of a debater, a melodious voice and clear, sharply defined +enunciation. His forte in debating is his power of mystifying the +point. With the most offhand assured airs in the world, and a certain +appearance of honest superiority, like one who has a regard for you and +wishes to set you right on one or two little matters, he proceeds to +set up some point which is not that in question, but only a family +connection of it, and this point he attacks with the very best of logic +and language; he charges upon it, horse and foot, runs it down, tramples +it in the dust, and then turns upon you with 'See, there is your +argument. Did I not tell you so? You see it is all stuff.' And if you +have allowed yourself to be so dazzled by his quickness as to forget +that the routed point is not, after all, the one in question, you +suppose all is over with it. Moreover, he contrives to mingle up so many +stinging allusions, so many piquant personalities, that by the time +he has done his mystification, a dozen others are ready and burning to +spring on their feet to repel some direct or indirect attack all equally +wide of the point." + +The mode of travel of the two contestants heightened the contrast. +George B. McClellan, a young engineer officer who had recently resigned +from the army and was now general superintendent of the Illinois Central +Railroad, gave Douglas his private car and a special train. Lincoln +traveled any way he could-in ordinary passenger trains, or even in the +caboose of a freight train. A curious symbolization of Lincoln's belief +that the real conflict was between the plain people and organized money! + +The debates did not develop new ideas. It was a literary duel, each +leader aiming to restate himself in the most telling, popular way. For +once that superficial definition of art applied: "What oft was thought +but ne'er so well expressed." Nevertheless the debates contained an +incident that helped to make history. Though Douglas was at war with the +Administration, it was not certain that the quarrel might not be made +up. There was no other leader who would be so formidable at the head of +a reunited Democratic party. Lincoln pondered the question, how could +the rift between Douglas and the Democratic machine be made irrevocable? +And now a new phase of Lincoln appeared. It was the political strategist +He saw that if he would disregard his own chance of election-as he had +done from a simpler motive four years before--he could drive Douglas +into a dilemma from which there was no real escape. He confided his +purpose to his friends; they urged him not to do it. But he had made up +his mind as he generally did, without consultation, in the silence of +his own thoughts, and once having made it up, he was inflexible. + +At Freeport, Lincoln made the move which probably lost him the +Senatorship. He asked a question which if Douglas answered it one way +would enable him to recover the favor of Illinois but would lose him +forever the favor of the slave-holders; but which, if he answered it +another way might enable him to make his peace at Washington but would +certainly lose him Illinois. The question 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?"(5) In other words, is the Dred +Scott decision good law? Is it true that a slave-holder can take his +slaves into Kansas if the people of Kansas want to keep him out? + +Douglas saw the trap. With his instantaneous facility he tried to cloud +the issue and extricate himself through evasion in the very manner Mrs. +Stowe has described. While dodging a denial of the court's authority, +he insisted that his doctrine of local autonomy was still secure because +through police regulation the local legislature could foster or strangle +slavery, just as they pleased, no matter "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." + +As Lincoln's friends had foreseen, this matchless performance of +carrying water on both shoulders caught the popular fancy; Douglas was +reelected to the Senate. As Lincoln had foreseen, it killed him as a +Democratic leader; it prevented the reunion of the Democratic party. The +result appeared in 1860 when the Republicans, though still a minority +party, carried the day because of the bitter divisions among the +Democrats. That was what Lincoln foresaw when he said to his fearful +friends while they argued in vain to prevent his asking the question at +Free-port. "I am killing larger game; the great battle of 1860 is worth +a thousand of this senatorial race."(6) + + + + +X. THE DARK HORSE + +One of the most curious things in Lincoln is the way his confidence +in himself came and went. He had none of Douglas's unwavering +self-reliance. Before the end, to be sure, he attained a type of +self-reliance, higher and more imperturbable. But this was not the +fruit of a steadfast unfolding. Rather, he was like a tree with its +alternating periods of growth and pause, now richly in leaf, now +dormant. Equally applicable is the other familiar image of the +successive waves. + +The clue seems to have been, in part at least, a matter of vitality. +Just as Douglas emanated vitality--so much so that his aura filled the +whole Senate chamber and forced an unwilling response in the gifted but +hostile woman who watched him from the gallery--Lincoln, conversely, +made no such overpowering impression. His observers, however much they +have to say about his humor, his seasons of Shakespearian mirth, never +forget their impression that at heart he is sad. His fondness for poetry +in the minor key has become a byword, especially the line "Oh, why +should the spirit of mortal be proud." + +It is impossible to discover any law governing the succession of his +lapses in self-reliance. But they may be related very plausibly to his +sense of failure or at least to his sense of futility. He was one of +those intensely sensitive natures to whom the futilities of this world +are its most discouraging feature. Whenever such ideas were brought home +to him his energy flagged; his vitality, never high, sank. He was prone +to turn away from the outward life to lose himself in the inner. All +this is part of the phenomena which Herndon perceived more clearly than +he comprehended it, which led him to call Lincoln a fatalist. + +A humbler but perhaps more accurate explanation is the reminder that he +was son to Thomas the unstable. What happened in Lincoln's mind when +he returned defeated from Washington, that ghost-like rising of the +impulses of old Thomas, recurred more than once thereafter. In fact +there is a period well-defined, a span of thirteen years terminating +suddenly on a day in 1862, during which the ghost of old Thomas is a +thing to be reckoned with in his son's life. It came and went, most of +the time fortunately far on the horizon. But now and then it drew near. +Always it was lurking somewhere, waiting to seize upon him in those +moments when his vitality sank, when his energies were in the ebb, when +his thoughts were possessed by a sense of futility. + +The year 1859 was one of his ebb tides. In the previous year the rising +tide, which had mounted high during his success on the circuit, reached +its crest The memory of his failure at Washington was effaced. At +Freeport he was a more powerful genius, a more dominant personality, +than he had ever been. Gradually, in the months following, the high wave +subsided. During 1859 he gave most of his attention to his practice. +Though political speech-making continued, and though he did not impair +his reputation, he did nothing of a remarkable sort. The one literary +fragment of any value is a letter to a Boston committee that had invited +him to attend a "festival" in Boston on Jefferson's birthday. He +avowed himself a thoroughgoing disciple of Jefferson and pronounced the +principles of Jefferson "the definitions and axioms of free society." +Without conditions he identified his own cause with the cause of +Jefferson, "the man who in the concrete pressure of a struggle for +national independence by a single people, had the coolness, forecast and +capacity to introduce into a merely revolutionary document, an abstract +truth, applicable to all men and all times, and so to embalm it +there that today and in all coming days, it shall be a rebuke and +a stumbling-block to the very harbingers of reappearing tyranny and +oppression."(1) + +While the Boston committee were turning their eyes toward this great new +phrase-maker of the West, several politicians in Illinois had formed a +bold resolve. They would try to make him President. The movement had two +sources--the personal loyalty of his devoted friends of the circuit, the +shrewdness of the political managers who saw that his duel with Douglas +had made him a national figure. As one of them said to him, "Douglas +being so widely known, you are getting a national reputation through +him." Lincoln replied that he did not lack the ambition but lacked +altogether the confidence in the possibility of success.(2) + +This was his attitude during most of 1859. The glow, the enthusiasm, of +the previous year was gone. "I must in candor say that I do not think +myself fit for the Presidency," he wrote to a newspaper editor in April. +He used the same words to another correspondent in July. As late as +November first, he wrote, "For my single self, I have enlisted for the +permanent success of the Republican cause, and for this object I shall +labor faithfully in the ranks, unless, as I think not probable, the +judgment of the party shall assign me a different position."(3) + +Meanwhile, both groups of supporters had labored unceasingly, regardless +of his approval. In his personal following, the companionableness of +twenty years had deepened into an almost romantic loyalty. The leaders +of this enthusiastic attachment, most of them lawyers, had no superiors +for influence in Illinois. The man who had such a following was a power +in politics whether he would or no. This the mere politicians saw. They +also saw that the next Republican nomination would rest on a delicate +calculation of probabilities. There were other Republicans more +conspicuous than Lincoln--Seward in New York, Sumner in Massachusetts, +Chase in Ohio--but all these had inveterate enemies. Despite their +importance would it be safe to nominate them? Would not the party be +compelled to take some relatively minor figure, some essentially new +man? In a word, what we know as a "dark horse." Believing that this +would happen, they built hopefully on their faith in Lincoln. + +Toward the end of the year he was at last persuaded to take his +candidacy seriously. The local campaign for his nomination had gone so +far that a failure to go further would have the look of being discarded +as the local Republican leader. This argument decided him. Before the +year's end he had agreed to become a candidate before the convention. In +his own words, "I am not in a position where it would hurt much for me +to not be nominated on the national ticket; but I am where it would hurt +some for me to not get the Illinois delegates."(4) + +It was shortly after this momentous decision that he went to New York by +invitation and made his most celebrated, though not in any respect his +greatest, oration.(5) A large audience filled Cooper Union, February +27, 1860. William Cullen Bryant presided. David Dudley Field escorted +Lincoln to the platform. Horace Greeley was in the audience. Again, +the performance was purely literary. No formulation of new policies, +no appeal for any new departure. It was a masterly restatement of his +position; of the essence of the debates with Douglas. It cleansed the +Republican platform of all accidental accretions, as if a ship's hull +were being scraped of barnacles preparatory to a voyage; it gave the +underlying issues such inflexible definition that they could not be +juggled with. Again he showed a power of lucid statement not possessed +by any of his rivals. An incident of the speech was his unsparing +condemnation of John Brown whose raid and death were on every tongue. +"You charge that we stir up insurrections among your slaves," said he, +apostrophizing the slave-holders. "We deny it, and what is your proof? +'Harper's Ferry; John Brown!' John Brown was no Republican; and you +have failed to implicate a single Republican in this Harper's Ferry +enterprise. . . + +"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 that 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 the people until 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." + +The Cooper Union speech received extravagant praise from all the +Republican newspapers. Lincoln's ardent partisans assert that it took +New York "by storm." Rather too violent a way of putting it! But there +can be no doubt that the speech made a deep impression. Thereafter, many +of the Eastern managers were willing to consider Lincoln as a candidate, +should factional jealousies prove uncompromising. Any port in a storm, +you know. Obviously, there could be ports far more dangerous than this +"favorite son" of Illinois. + +Many national conventions in the United States have decided upon a +compromise candidate, "a dark horse," through just such reasoning. +The most noted instance is the Republican Convention of 1860. When +it assembled at Chicago in June, the most imposing candidate was the +brilliant leader of the New York Republicans, Seward. But no man in the +country had more bitter enemies. Horace Greeley whose paper The Tribune +was by far the most influential Republican organ, went to Chicago +obsessed by one purpose: because of irreconcilable personal quarrels +he would have revenge upon Seward. Others who did not hate Seward were +afraid of what Greeley symbolized. And all of them knew that whatever +else happened, the West must be secured. + +The Lincoln managers played upon the Eastern jealousies and the Eastern +fears with great skill. There was little sleep among the delegates the +night previous to the balloting. At just the right moment, the Lincoln +managers, though their chief had forbidden them to do so, offered +promises with regard to Cabinet appointments.(6) And they succeeded in +packing the galleries of the Convention Hall with a perfectly organized +claque-"rooters," the modern American would say. + +The result on the third ballot was a rush to Lincoln of all the enemies +of Seward, and Lincoln's nomination amid a roaring frenzy of applause. + + + + +XI. SECESSION + +After twenty-three years of successive defeats, Lincoln, almost +fortuitously, was at the center of the political maelstrom. The clue +to what follows is in the way he had developed during that long +discouraging apprenticeship to greatness. Mentally, he had always been +in isolation. Socially, he had lived in a near horizon. The real tragedy +of his failure at Washington was in the closing against him of the +opportunity to know his country as a whole. Had it been Lincoln instead +of Douglas to whom destiny had given a residence at Washington during +the 'fifties, it is conceivable that things might have been different +in the 'sixties. On the other hand, America would have lost its greatest +example of the artist in politics. + +And without that artist, without his extraordinary literary gift, his +party might not have consolidated in 1860. A very curious party it was. +It had sprung to life as a denial, as a device for halting Douglas. +Lincoln's doctrine of the golden mean, became for once a political +power. Men of the most diverse views on other issues accepted in their +need the axiom: "Stand with anybody so long as he stands right." And +standing right, for that moment in the minds of them all, meant keeping +slavery and the money power from devouring the territories. + +The artist of the movement expressed them all in his declaration that +the nation needed the Territories to give home and opportunity to free +white people. Even the Abolitionists, who hitherto had refused to make +common cause with any other faction, entered the negative coalition +of the new party. So did Whigs, and anti-slavery Democrats, as well as +other factions then obscure which we should now label Socialists and +Labormen. + +However, this coalition, which in origin was purely negative, revealed, +the moment it coalesced, two positive features. To the man of the near +horizon in 1860 neither of these features seemed of first importance. To +the man outside that horizon, seeing them in perspective as related +to the sum total of American life, they had a significance he did not +entirely appreciate. + +The first of these was the temper of the Abolitionists. Lincoln ignored +it. He was content with his ringing assertion of the golden mean. But +there spoke the man of letters rather than the statesman. Of temper +in politics as an abstract idea, he had been keenly conscious from the +first; but his lack of familiarity with political organizations kept him +from assigning full value to the temper of any one factor as affecting +the joint temper of the whole group. It was appointed for him to learn +this in a supremely hard way and to apply the lesson with wonderful +audacity. But in 1860 that stern experience still slept in the future. +He had no suspicion as yet that he might find it difficult to carry out +his own promise to stand with the Abolitionists in excluding slavery +from the Territories, and to stand against them in enforcing the +Fugitive Slave Law. He did not yet see why any one should doubt the +validity of this promise; why any one should be afraid to go along +with him, afraid that the temper of one element would infect the whole +coalition. + +But this fear that Lincoln did not allow for, possessed already a great +many minds. Thousands of Southerners, of the sort whom Lincoln credited +with good intentions about slavery, feared the Abolitionists Not because +the Abolitionists wanted to destroy slavery, but because they wanted +to do so fiercely, cruelly. Like Lincoln, these Southerners who were +liberals in thought and moderates in action, did not know what to do +about slavery. Like Lincoln, they had but one fixed idea with regard to +it,--slavery must not be terminated violently. Lincoln, despite his +near horizon, sensed them correctly as not being at one with the great +plutocrats who wished to exploit slavery. But when the Abolitionist +poured out the same fury of vituperation on every sort of slave-holder; +when he promised his soul that it should yet have the joy of exulting in +the ruin of all such, the moderate Southerners became as flint. When the +Abolitionists proclaimed their affiliation with the new party, the +first step was taken toward a general Southern coalition to stop the +Republican advance. + +There was another positive element blended into the negative coalition. +In 1857, the Republicans overruling the traditions of those members who +had once been Democrats, set their faces toward protection. To most +of the Northerners the fatefulness of the step was not obvious. Twenty +years had passed since a serious tariff controversy had shaken the +North. Financial difficulties in the 'fifties were more prevalent in the +North than in the South. Business was in a quandary. Labor was demanding +better opportunities. Protection as a solution, or at least as a +palliative, seemed to the mass of the Republican coalition, even to the +former Democrats for all their free trade traditions, not outrageous. +To the Southerners it was an alarm bell. The Southern world was +agricultural; its staple was cotton; the bulk of its market was in +England. Ever since 1828, the Southern mind had been constantly on guard +with regard to tariff, unceasingly fearful that protection would be +imposed on it by Northern and Western votes. To have to sell its cotton +in England at free trade values, but at the same time to have to buy its +commodities at protected values fixed by Northern manufacturers--what +did that mean but the despotism of one section over another? When +the Republicans took up protection as part of their creed, a general +Southern coalition was rendered almost inevitable. + +This, Lincoln {Missing text}. Again it is to be accounted for in part +by his near horizon. Had he lived at Washington, had he met, frequently, +Southern men; had he passed those crucial years of the 'fifties in +debates with political leaders rather than in story-telling tournaments +on the circuit; perhaps all this would have been otherwise. But one can +not be quite sure. Finance never appealed to him. A wide application may +be given to Herndon's remark that "he had no money sense." All the rest +of the Republican doctrine finds its best statement in Lincoln. On the +one subject of its economic policy he is silent. Apparently it is to be +classified with the routine side of the law. To neither was he ever able +to give more than a perfunctory attention. As an artist in politics he +had the defect of his qualities. + +What his qualities showed him were two things: the alliance of the +plutocratic slave power with the plutocratic money power, and the +essential rightness in impulse of the bulk of the Southern people. Hence +his conclusion which became his party's conclusion: that, in the South, +a political-financial ring was dominating a leaderless people, This +was not the truth. Lincoln's defects in 1860 limited his vision. +Nevertheless, to the solitary distant thinker, shut in by the near +horizon of political Springfield, there was every excuse for the error. +The palpable evidence all confirmed it. What might have contradicted it +was a cloud of witnesses, floating, incidental, casual, tacit. Just +what a nature like Lincoln's, if only he could have met them, would have +perceived and comprehended; what a nature like Douglas's, no matter +how plainly they were presented to him, could neither perceive nor +comprehend. It was the irony of fate that an opportunity to fathom +his time was squandered upon the unseeing Douglas, while to the seeing +Lincoln it was denied. In a word, the Southern reaction against the +Republicans, like the Republican movement itself, had both a positive +and a negative side. It was the positive side that could be seen and +judged at long range. And this was what Lincoln saw, which appeared to +him to have created the dominant issue in 1860. + +The negative side of the Southern movement he did not see. He was too +far away to make out the details of the picture. Though he may have +known from the census of 1850 that only one-third of the Southern whites +were members of slave-holding families, he could scarcely have known +that only a small minority of the Southern families owned as many +as five slaves; that those who had fortunes in slaves were a mere +handful--just as today those who have fortunes in steel or beef are mere +handfuls. But still less did he know how entirely this vast majority +which had so little, if any, interest in slavery, had grown to fear and +distrust the North. They, like him, were suffering from a near horizon. +They, too, were applying the principle "Stand with anybody so long as +he stands right" But for them, standing right meant preventing a violent +revolution in Southern life. Indifferent as they were to slavery, they +were willing to go along with the "slave-barons" in the attempt to +consolidate the South in a movement of denial--a denial of the right of +the North, either through Abolitionism or through tariff, to dominate +the South. + +If only Lincoln with his subtle mind could have come into touch with +the negative side of the Southern agitation! It was the other side, the +positive side, that was vocal. With immense shrewdness the profiteers of +slavery saw and developed their opportunity. They organized the South. +They preached on all occasions, in all connections, the need of all +Southerners to stand together, no matter how great their disagreements, +in order to prevent the impoverishment of the South by hostile +economic legislation. During the late 'fifties their propaganda for an +all-Southern policy, made slow but constant headway. But even in 1859 +these ideas were still far from controlling the South. + +And then came John Brown. The dread of slave insurrection was laid deep +in Southern recollection. Thirty years before, the Nat Turner Rebellion +had filled a portion of Virginia with burned plantation houses amid +whose ruins lay the dead bodies of white women. A little earlier, a +negro conspiracy at Charleston planned the murder of white men and the +parceling out of white women among the conspirators. And John Brown had +come into Virginia at the head of a band of strangers calling upon the +slaves to rise and arm. + +Here was a supreme opportunity. The positive Southern force, the slave +profiteers, seized at once the attitude of champions of the South. It +was easy enough to enlist the negative force in a shocked and outraged +denunciation of everything Northern. And the Northern extremists did all +that was in their power to add fuel to the flame. Emerson called Brown +"this new saint who had made the gallows glorious as the cross." The +Southerners, hearing that, thought of the conspiracy to parcel out the +white women of Charleston. Early in 1860 it seemed as if the whole South +had but one idea-to part company with the North. + +No wonder Lincoln threw all his influence into the scale to discredit +the memory of Brown. No wonder the Republicans in their platform +carefully repudiated him. They could not undo the impression made on the +Southern mind by two facts: the men who lauded Brown as a new saint were +voting the Republican ticket; the Republicans had committed themselves +to the anti-Southern policy of protection. + +And yet, in spite of all the labors of pro-slavery extremists, the +movement for a breach with the North lost ground during 1860. When the +election came, the vote for President revealed a singular and unforeseen +situation. Four candidates were in the field. The Democrats, split into +two by the issue of slavery expansion, formed two parties. The +slave profiteers secured the nomination by one faction of John C. +Breckinridge. The moderate Democrats who would neither fight nor favor +slavery, nominated Douglas. The most peculiar group was the fourth. They +included all those who would not join the Republicans for fear of the +temper of the Abolition-members, but who were not promoters of slavery, +and who distrusted Douglas. They had no program but to restore the +condition of things that existed before the Nebraska Bill. About four +million five hundred thousand votes were cast. Lincoln had less than +two million, and all but about twenty-four thousand of these were in +the Free States. However, the disposition of Lincoln's vote gave him the +electoral college. He was chosen President by the votes of a minority of +the nation. But there was another minority vote which as events turned +out, proved equally significant. Breckinridge, the symbol of the slave +profiteers, and of all those whom they had persuaded to follow them, +had not been able to carry the popular vote of the South. They were +definitely in the minority in their own section. The majority of the +Southerners had so far reacted from the wild alarms of the beginning +of the year that they refused to go along with the candidates of the +extremists. They were for giving the Union another trial. The South +itself had repudiated the slave profiteers. + +This was the immensely significant fact of November, 1860. It made a +great impression on the whole country. For the moment it made the fierce +talk of the Southern extremists inconsequential. Buoyant Northerners, +such as Seward, felt that the crisis was over; that the South had voted +for a reconciliation; that only tact was needed to make everybody happy. +When, a few weeks after the election, Seward said that all would be +merry again inside of ninety days, his illusion had for its foundation +the Southern rejection of the slave profiteers. + +Unfortunately, Seward did not understand the precise significance of +the thought of the moderate South. He did not understand that while the +South had voted to send Breckinridge and his sort about their business, +it was still deeply alarmed, deeply fearful that after all it might at +any minute be forced to call them back, to make common cause with them +against what it regarded as an alien and destructive political power, +the Republicans. This was the Southern reservation, the unspoken +condition of the vote which Seward--and for that matter, Lincoln, +also,--failed to comprehend. Because of these cross-purposes, because +the Southern alarm was based on another thing than the standing or +falling of slavery, the situation called for much more than tact, for +profound psychological statesmanship. + +And now emerges out of the complexities of the Southern situation a +powerful personality whose ideas and point of view Lincoln did not +understand. Robert Barnwell Rhett had once been a man of might in +politics. Twice he had very nearly rent the Union asunder. In 1844, +again in 1851, he had come to the very edge of persuading South Carolina +to secede. In each case he sought to organize the general discontent of +the South,--its dread of a tariff, and of Northern domination. After his +second failure, his haughty nature took offense at fortune. He resigned +his seat in the Senate and withdrew to private life. But he was too +large and too bold a character to attain obscurity. Nor would his +restless genius permit him to rust in ease. During the troubled +'fifties, he watched from a distance, but with ever increasing interest, +that negative Southern force which he, in the midst of it, comprehended, +while it drifted under the wing of the extremists. As he did so, the old +arguments, the old ambitions, the old hopes revived. In 1851 his cry +to the South was to assert itself as a Separate nation--not for any one +reason, but for many reasons--and to lead its own life apart from +the North. It was an age of brilliant though ill-fated revolutionary +movements in Europe. Kossuth and the gallant Hungarian attempt at +independence had captivated the American imagination. Rhett dreamed of +seeing the South do what Hungary had failed to do. He thought of the +problem as a medieval knight would have thought, in terms of individual +prowess, with the modern factors, economics and all their sort, left +on one side. "Smaller nations (than South Carolina)," he said in 1851, +"have striven for freedom against greater odds." + +In 1860 he had concluded that his third chance had come. He would try +once more to bring about secession. To split the Union, he would play +into the hands of the slave-barons. He would aim to combine with their +movement the negative Southern movement and use the resulting coalition +to crown with success his third attempt. Issuing from his seclusion, he +became at once the overshadowing figure in South Carolina. Around him +all the elements of revolution crystallized. He was sixty years old; +seasoned and uncompromising in the pursuit of his one ideal, the +independence of the South. His arguments were the same which he had used +in 1844, in 1851: the North would impoverish the South; it threatens +to impose a crushing tribute in the shape of protection; it seeks to +destroy slavery; it aims to bring about economic collapse; in the wreck +thus produced, everything that is beautiful, charming, distinctive in +Southern life will be lost; let us fight! With such a leader, the forces +of discontent were quickly, effectively, organized. Even before the +election of Lincoln, the revolutionary leaders in South Carolina were +corresponding with men of like mind in other Southern States, especially +Alabama, where was another leader, Yancey, only second in intensity to +Rhett. + +The word from these Alabama revolutionists to South Carolina was to +dare all, to risk seceding alone, confident that the other States of +the South would follow. Rhett and his new associates took this perilous +advice. The election was followed by the call of a convention of +delegates of the people of South Carolina. This convention, on the +twentieth of December, 1860, repealed the laws which united South +Carolina with the other States and proclaimed their own independent. + + + + +XII. THE CRISIS + +Though Seward and other buoyant natures felt that the crisis had passed +with the election, less volatile people held the opposite view. Men who +had never before taken seriously the Southern threats of disunion had +waked suddenly to a terrified consciousness that they were in for it. +In their blindness to realities earlier in the year, they were like that +brilliant host of camp followers which, as Thackeray puts it, led the +army of Wellington dancing and feasting to the very brink of Waterloo. +And now the day of reckoning had come. An emotional reaction carried +them from one extreme to the other; from self-sufficient disregard of +their adversaries to an almost self-abasing regard. + +The very type of these people and of their reaction was Horace Greeley. +He was destined many times to make plain that he lived mainly in his +sensibilities; that, in his kaleidoscopic vision, the pattern of the +world could be red and yellow and green today, and orange and purple +and blue tomorrow. To descend from a pinnacle of self-complacency into +a desolating abyss of panic, was as easy for Greeley as it is--in the +vulgar but pointed American phrase--to roll off a log. A few days after +the election, Greeley had rolled off his log. He was wallowing in panic. +He began to scream editorially. The Southern extremists were terribly +in earnest; if they wanted to go, go they would, and go they should. But +foolish Northerners would be sure to talk war and the retaining of the +South in the Union by force: it must not be; what was the Union compared +with bloodshed? There must be no war--no war. Such was Greeley's +terrified--appeal to the North. A few weeks after the election he +printed his famous editorial denouncing the idea of a Union pinned +together by bayonets. He followed up with another startling concession +to his fears: the South had as good cause for leaving the Union as +the colonies had for leaving the British Empire. A little later, he +formulated his ultimate conclusion,--which like many of his ultimates +proved to be transitory,--and declared that if any group of Southern +States "choose to form an independent nation, they have a clear moral +right to do so," and pledging himself and his followers to do "our best +to forward their views." + +Greeley wielded through The Tribune more influence, perhaps, than was +possessed by any other Republican with the single exception of Lincoln. +His newspaper constituency was enormous, and the relation between +the leader and the led was unusually close. He was both oracle and +barometer. As a symptom of the Republican panic, as a cause increasing +that panic, he was of first importance. + +Meanwhile Congress had met. And at once, the most characteristic +peculiarity of the moment was again made emphatic. The popular +majorities and the political machines did not coincide. Both in the +North and in the South a minority held the situation in the hollow of +its hand. The Breckinridge Democrats, despite their repudiation in the +presidential vote, included so many of the Southern politicians, they +were so well organized, they had scored such a menacing victory with +the aid of Rhett in South Carolina, they had played so skilfully on the +fears of the South at large, their leaders were such skilled managers, +that they were able to continue for the moment the recognized spokesmen +of the South at Washington. They lost no time defining their position. +If the Union were not to be sundered, the Republicans must pledge +themselves to a new and extensive compromise; it must be far different +from those historic compromises that had preceded it. Three features +must characterize any new agreement: The South must be dealt with as +a unit; it must be given a "sphere of influence"--to use our modern +term--which would fully satisfy all its impulses of expansion; and in +that sphere, every question of slavery must be left entirely, forever, +to local action. In a word, they demanded for the South what today would +be described as a "dominion" status. Therefore, they insisted that the +party which had captured the Northern political machine should formulate +its reply to these demands. They gave notice that they would not discuss +individual schemes, but only such as the victorious Republicans might +officially present. Thus the national crisis became a party crisis. What +could the Republicans among themselves agree to propose? + +The central figure of the crisis seemed at first to be the brilliant +Republican Senator from New York. Seward thought he understood the +South, and what was still more important, human nature. Though he echoed +Greeley's cry for peace--translating his passionate hysteria into the +polished cynicism of a diplomat who had been known to deny that he was +ever entirely serious--he scoffed at Greeley's fears. If the South had +not voted lack of confidence in the Breckinridge crowd, what had it +voted? If the Breckinridge leaders weren't maneuvering to save their +faces, what could they be accused of doing? If Seward, the Republican +man of genius, couldn't see through all that, couldn't devise a way +to help them save their faces, what was the use in being a brilliant +politician? + +Jauntily self-complacent, as confident of himself as if Rome were +burning and he the garlanded fiddler, Seward braced himself for the task +of recreating the Union. + +But there was an obstacle in his path. It was Lincoln. Of course, it +was folly to propose a scheme which the incoming President would not +sustain. Lincoln and Seward must come to an understanding. To bring that +about Seward despatched a personal legate to Springfield. Thurlow Weed, +editor, man of the world, political wire-puller beyond compare, Seward's +devoted henchman, was the legate. One of the great events of American +history was the conversation between Weed and Lincoln in December, 1860. +By a rare propriety of dramatic effect, it occurred probably, on the +very day South Carolina brought to an end its campaign of menace and +adopted its Ordinance of Secession, December twentieth.(1) + +Weed had brought to Springfield a definite proposal. The Crittenden +compromise was being hotly discussed in Congress and throughout the +country. All the Northern advocates of conciliation were eager to put it +through. There was some ground to believe that the Southern machine at +Washington would accept it. If Lincoln would agree, Seward would make it +the basis of his policy. + +This Compromise would have restored the old line of the Missouri +Compromise and would have placed it under the protection of a +constitutional amendment. This, together with a guarantee against +congressional interference with slavery in the States where it existed, +a guarantee the Republicans had already offered, seemed to Seward, to +Weed, to Greeley, to the bulk of the party, a satisfactory means of +preserving the Union. What was it but a falling back on the original +policy of the party, the undoing of those measures of 1854 which had +called the party into being? Was it conceivable that Lincoln would +balk the wishes of the party by obstructing such a natural mode of +extrication? But that was what Lincoln did. His views had advanced since +1854. Then, he was merely for restoring the old duality of the country, +the two "dominions," Northern and Southern, each with its own social +order. He had advanced to the belief that this duality could not +permanently continue. Just how far Lincoln realized what he was doing in +refusing to compromise will never be known. Three months afterward, he +took a course which seems to imply that his vision during the interim +had expanded, had opened before him a new revelation of the nature of +his problem. At the earlier date Lincoln and the Southern people--not +the Southern machine--were looking at the one problem from opposite +points of view, and were locating the significance of the problem in +different features. To Lincoln, the heart of the matter was slavery. To +the Southerners, including the men who had voted lack of confidence in +Breckinridge, the heart of the matter was the sphere of influence. What +the Southern majority wanted was not the policy of the slave profiteers +but a secure future for expansion, a guarantee that Southern life, +social, economic, cultural, would not be merged with the life of the +opposite section: in a word, preservation of "dominion" status. In +Lincoln's mind, slavery being the main issue, this "dominion" issue was +incidental--a mere outgrowth of slavery that should begin to pass +away with slavery's restriction. In the Southern mind, a community +consciousness, the determination to be a people by themselves, nation +within the nation, was the issue, and slavery was the incident. To +repeat, it is impossible to say what Lincoln would have done had he +comprehended the Southern attitude. His near horizon which had kept +him all along from grasping the negative side of the Southern movement +prevented his perception of this tragic instance of cross-purposes. + +Lacking this perception, his thoughts had centered themselves on a +recent activity of the slave profiteers. They had clamored for the +annexation of new territory to the south of us. Various attempts had +been made to create an international crisis looking toward the seizure +of Cuba. Then, too, bold adventurers had staked their heads, seeking to +found slave-holding communities in Central America. Why might not such +attempts succeed? Why might not new Slave States be created outside the +Union, eventually to be drawn in? Why not? said the slave profiteer, and +gave money and assistance to the filibusters in Nicaragua. Why not? said +Lincoln, also. What protection against such an extension of boundaries? +Was the limitation of slave area to be on one side only, the Northern +side? And here at last, for Lincoln, was what appeared to be the true +issue of the moment. To dualize the Union, assuming its boundaries to be +fixed, was one thing. To dualize the Union in the face of a movement for +extension of boundaries was another. Hence it was now vital, as Lincoln +reasoned, to give slavery a fixed boundary on all sides. Silently, while +others fulminated, or rhapsodized, or wailed, he had moved inexorably to +a new position which was nothing but a logical development of the old. +The old position was--no extension of slave territory; the new position +was--no more Slave States.(2) Because Crittenden's Compromise left +it possible to have a new Slave State in Cuba, a new Slave State +in Nicaragua, perhaps a dozen such new States, Lincoln refused to +compromise.(3) + +It was a terrible decision, carrying within it the possibility of civil +war. But Lincoln could not be moved. This was the first acquaintance +of the established political leaders with his inflexible side. In the +recesses of his own thoughts the decision had been reached. It was +useless to argue with him. Weed carried back his ultimatum. Seward +abandoned Crittenden's scheme. The only chance for compromise passed +away. The Southern leaders set about their plans for organizing a +Southern Confederacy. + + + + +XIII. ECLIPSE + +Lincoln's ultimatum of December twentieth contained three proposals that +might be made to the Southern leaders: + +That the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law which hitherto had been +left to State authorities should be taken over by Congress and supported +by the Republicans. + +That the Republicans to the extent of their power should work for the +repeal of all those "Personal Liberty Laws" which had been established +in certain Northern States to defeat the operation of the Fugitive Slave +Law. + +That the Federal Union must be preserved.(1) + +In presenting these proposals along with a refusal to consider the +Crittenden Compromise, Seward tampered with their clear-cut form. +Fearful of the effect on the extremists of the Republican group, he +withheld Lincoln's unconditional promise to maintain the Fugitive Slave +Law and instead of pledging his party to the repeal of Personal Liberty +Laws he promised only to have Congress request the States to repeal +them. He suppressed altogether the assertion that the Union must be +preserved.(2) About the same time, in a public speech, he said he was +not going to be "humbugged" by the bogy of secession, and gave his +fatuous promise that all the trouble would be ended inside ninety days. +For all his brilliancy of a sort, he was spiritually obtuse. On him, +as on Douglas, Fate had lavished opportunities to see life as it is, to +understand the motives of men; but it could not make him use them. He +was incorrigibly cynical. He could not divest himself of the idea that +all this confusion was hubbub, was but an ordinary political game, that +his only cue was to assist his adversaries in saving their faces. In +spite of his rich experience,--in spite of being an accomplished man of +the world,--at least in his own estimation--he was as blind to the real +motives of that Southern majority which had rejected Breckinridge as was +the inexperienced Lincoln. The coolness with which he modified Lincoln's +proposals was evidence that he considered himself the great Republican +and Lincoln an accident. He was to do the same again--to his own regret. + +When Lincoln issued his ultimatum, he was approaching the summit, if not +at the very summit, of another of his successive waves of vitality, of +self-confidence. That depression which came upon him about the end of +1858, which kept him undecided, in a mood of excessive caution during +most of 1859, had passed away. The presidential campaign with its +thrilling tension, its excitement, had charged him anew with confidence. +Although one more eclipse was in store for him--the darkest eclipse of +all--he was very nearly the definitive Lincoln of history. At least, he +had the courage which that Lincoln was to show. + +He was now the target for a besieging army of politicians clamoring for +"spoils" in the shape of promises of preferment. It was a miserable and +disgraceful assault which profoundly offended him.(3) To his mind this +was not the same thing as the simple-hearted personal politics of +his younger days--friends standing together and helping one another +along--but a gross and monstrous rapacity. It was the first chill shadow +that followed the election day. + +There were difficult intrigues over the Cabinet. Promises made by his +managers at Chicago were presented for redemption. Rival candidates +bidding for his favor, tried to cut each other's throats. For example, +there was the intrigue of the War Department. The Lincoln managers had +promised a Cabinet appointment to Pennsylvania; the followers of Simon +Cameron were a power; it had been necessary to win them over in order +to nominate Lincoln; they insisted that their leader was now entitled +to the Pennsylvania seat in the Cabinet; but there was an anti-Cameron +faction almost as potent in Pennsylvania as the Cameron faction. Both +sent their agents to Springfield to lay siege to Lincoln. In this +duel, the Cameron forces won the first round. Lincoln offered him +the Secretaryship. Subsequently, his enemies made so good a case that +Lincoln was convinced of the unwisdom of his decision and withdrew the +offer. But Cameron had not kept the offer confidential. The withdrawal +would discredit him politically and put a trump card into the hands +of his enemies. A long dispute followed. Not until Lincoln had reached +Washington, immediately before the inauguration, was the dispute ended, +the withdrawal withdrawn, and Cameron appointed.(4) + +It was a dreary winter for the President-elect. It was also a brand-new +experience. For the first time he was a dispenser of favor on a grand +scale. Innumerable men showed their meanest side, either to advance +themselves or to injure others. As the weeks passed and the spectacle +grew in shamelessness, his friends became more and more conscious of his +peculiar melancholy. The elation of the campaign subsided into a deep +unhappiness over the vanity of this world. Other phases of the shadowy +side of his character also asserted themselves. Conspicuous was a +certain trend in his thinking that was part of Herndon's warrant for +calling him a fatalist. Lincoln's mysticism very early had taken a turn +toward predestination, coupled with a belief in dreams.(5) He did not in +any way believe in magic; he never had any faith in divinations, in the +occult, in any secret mode of alluring the unseen powers to take one's +side. Nevertheless, he made no bones about being superstitious. And he +thought that coming events cast their shadows before, that something, at +least, of the future was sometimes revealed through dreams. "Nature," +he would say, "is the workshop of the Almighty, and we form but links in +the chain of intellectual and material life."(6) Byron's Dream was one +of his favorite poems. He pondered those ancient, historical tales which +make free use of portents. There was a fascination for him in the story +of Caracalla--how his murder of Geta was foretold, how he was upbraided +by the ghosts of his father and brother. This dream-faith of his was as +real as was a similar faith held by the authors of the Old Testament. +He had his theory of the interpretation of dreams. Because they were +a universal experience--as he believed, the universal mode of +communication between the unseen and the seen--his beloved "plain +people," the "children of Nature," the most universal types of humanity, +were their best interpreters. He also believed in presentiment. As +faithfully as the simplest of the brood of the forest--those recreated +primitives who regulated their farming by the brightness or the +darkness of the moon, who planted corn or slaughtered hogs as Artemis +directed--he trusted a presentiment if once it really took possession of +him. A presentiment which had been formed before this time, we know not +when, was clothed with authority by a dream, or rather a vision, that +came to him in the days of melancholy disillusion during the last winter +at Springfield. Looking into a mirror, he saw two Lincolns,--one alive, +the other dead. It was this vision which clenched his pre-sentiment that +he was born to a great career and to a tragic end. He interpreted the +vision that his administration would be successful, but that it would +close with his death.(7) + +The record of his inner life during the last winter at Springfield is +very dim. But there can be no doubt that a desolating change attacked +his spirit. As late as the day of his ultimatum he was still in +comparative sunshine, or, at least his clouds were not close about him. +His will was steel, that day. Nevertheless, a friend who visited him +in January, to talk over their days together, found not only that "the +old-time zest" was lacking, but that it was replaced by "gloom and +despondency."(8) The ghosts that hovered so frequently at the back of +his mind, the brooding tendencies which fed upon his melancholy and +made him at times irresolute, were issuing from the shadows, trooping +forward, to encompass him roundabout. + +In the midst of this spiritual reaction, he was further depressed by the +stern news from the South and from Washington. His refusal to compromise +was beginning to bear fruit. The Gulf States seceded. A Southern +Confederacy was formed. There is no evidence that he lost faith in +his course, but abundant evidence that he was terribly unhappy. He was +preyed upon by his sense of helplessness, while Buchanan through his +weakness and vacillation was "giving away the case." "Secession is being +fostered," said he, "rather than repressed, and if the doctrine meets +with general acceptance in the Border States, it will be a great blow to +the government."(9) He did not deceive himself upon the possible effect +of his ultimatum, and sent word to General Scott to be prepared to hold +or to "retake" the forts garrisoned by Federal troops in the Southern +States.(10) + +All the while his premonition of the approach of doom grew more darkly +oppressive. The trail of the artist is discernible across his thoughts. +In his troubled imagination he identified his own situation with that of +the protagonist in tragedies on the theme of fate. He did not withhold +his thoughts from the supreme instance. That same friend who found him +possessed of gloom preserved these words of his: "I have read on my +knees the story of Gethsemane, when the Son of God prayed in vain +that the cup of bitterness might pass from him. I am in the Garden +of Gethsemane now and my cup of bitterness is full and overflowing +now."(11) + + "Like some strong seer in a trance, + Seeing all his own mischance, + With a glassy countenance," + +he faced toward Washington, toward the glorious terror promised him by +his superstitions. + +The last days before the departure were days of mingled gloom, +desperation, and the attempt to recover hope. He visited his old +stepmother and made a pilgrimage to his father's grave. His thoughts +fondly renewed the details of his past life, lingered upon this and +that, as if fearful that it was all slipping away from him forever. And +then he roused himself as if in sudden revolt against the Fates. The day +before he left Springfield forever Lincoln met his partner for the +last time at their law office to wind up the last of their unsettled +business. "After those things were all disposed of," says Herndon, "he +crossed to the opposite side of the room and threw himself down on the +old office sofa. . . . He lay there for some moments his face to +the ceiling without either of us speaking. Presently, he inquired: +'Billy'--he always called me by that name--'how long have we been +together?' 'Over sixteen years,' I answered. 'We've never had a cross +word during all that time, have we?' . . . He gathered a bundle of +papers and books he wished to take with him and started to go, but +before leaving, he made the strange request that the sign board which +swung on its rusty hinges at the foot of the stairway would remain. 'Let +it hang there undisturbed,' he said, with a significant lowering of the +voice. 'Give our clients to understand that the election of a President +makes no change in the firm of Lincoln & Herndon. If I live, I am coming +back some time, and then we'll go right on practising law as if nothing +had happened.' He lingered for a moment as if to take a last look at +the old quarters, and then passed through the door into the narrow +hallway."(12) + +On a dreary day with a cold rain falling, he set forth. The railway +station was packed with friends. He made his way through the crowd +slowly, shaking hands. "Having finally reached the train, he ascended +the rear platform, and, facing about to the throng which had closed +about him, drew himself up to his full height, removed his hat and stood +for several seconds in profound silence. His eyes roved sadly over that +sea of upturned faces. . . There was an unusual quiver on his lips and +a still more unusual tear on his shriveled cheek. His solemn manner, his +long silence, were as full of melancholy eloquence as any words he could +have uttered."(13) At length, he spoke: "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 can not succeed. With +that assistance, I can not 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."(14) + + + + +XIV. THE STRANGE NEW MAN + +There is a period of sixteen months--from February, 1861, to a day in +June, 1862,--when Lincoln is the most singular, the most problematic of +statesmen. Out of this period he issues with apparent abruptness, +the final Lincoln, with a place among the few consummate masters of +state-craft. During the sixteen months, his genius comes and goes. His +confidence, whether in himself or in others, is an uncertain quantity. +At times he is bold, even rash; at others, irresolute. The constant +factor in his mood all this while is his amazing humility. He seems to +have forgotten his own existence. As a person with likes and dislikes, +with personal hopes and fears, he has vanished. He is but an afflicted +and perplexed mind, struggling desperately to save his country. A +selfless man, he may be truly called through months of torment which +made him over from a theoretical to a practical statesman. He entered +this period a literary man who had been elevated almost by accident to +the position of a leader in politics. After many blunders, after doubt, +hesitation and pain, he came forth from this stern ordeal a powerful man +of action. + +The impression which he made on the country at the opening of this +period was unfortunate. The very power that had hitherto been the making +of him--the literary power, revealing to men in wonderfully convincing +form the ideas which they felt within them but could not utter--this had +deserted him. Explain the psychology of it any way you will, there is +the fact! The speeches Lincoln made on the way to Washington during the +latter part of February were appallingly unlike himself. His mind had +suddenly fallen dumb. He had nothing to say. The gloom, the desolation +that had penetrated his soul, somehow, for the moment, made him +commonplace. When he talked--as convention required him to do at all his +stopping places--his words were but faint echoes of the great +political exponent he once had been. His utterances were fatuous; mere +exhortations to the country not to worry. "There is no crisis but an +artificial one," he said.(1) And the country stood aghast! Amazement, +bewilderment, indignation, was the course of the reaction in many minds +of his own party. Their verdict was expressed in the angry language of +Samuel Bowles, "Lincoln is a Simple Susan."(2) + +In private talk, Lincoln admitted that he was "more troubled about the +outlook than he thought it discreet to show." This remark was made to a +"Public Man," whose diary has been published but whose identity is still +secret. Though keenly alert for any touch of weakness or absurdity in +the new President, calling him "the most ill-favored son of Adam I ever +saw," the Public Man found him "crafty and sensible." In conversation, +the old Lincoln, the matchless phrase-maker, could still express +himself. At New York he was told of a wild scheme that was on foot to +separate the city from the North, form a city state such as Hamburg then +was, and set up a commercial alliance with the Confederacy. "As to the +free city business," said Lincoln, "well, I reckon it will be some time +before the front door sets up bookkeeping on its own account."(3) The +formal round of entertainment on his way to Washington wearied Lincoln +intensely. Harassed and preoccupied, he was generally ill at ease. And +he was totally unused to sumptuous living. Failures in social usage were +inevitable. New York was convulsed with amusement because at the opera +he wore a pair of huge black kid gloves which attracted the attention of +the whole house, "hanging as they did over the red velvet box front." +At an informal reception, between acts in the director's room, he looked +terribly bored and sat on the sofa at the end of the room with his hat +pushed back on his head. Caricatures filled the opposition papers. +He was spoken of as the "Illinois ape" and the "gorilla." Every rash +remark, every "break" in social form, every gaucherie was seized upon +and ridiculed with-out mercy. + +There is no denying that the oddities of Lincoln's manner though +quickly dismissed from thought by men of genius, seriously troubled even +generous men who lacked the intuitions of genius. And he never overcame +these oddities. During the period of his novitiate as a ruler, +the critical sixteen months, they were carried awkwardly, with +embarrassment. Later when he had found himself as a ruler, when his +self-confidence had reached its ultimate form and he knew what he really +was, he forgot their existence. None the less, they were always a part +of him, his indelible envelope. At the height of his power, he received +visitors with his feet in leather slippers.(4) He discussed great +affairs of state with one of those slippered feet flung up on to a +corner of his desk. A favorite attitude, even when debating vital +matters with the great ones of the nation, is described by his +secretaries as "sitting on his shoulders"--he would slide far down into +his chair and stick up both slippers so high above his head that they +could rest with ease upon his mantelpiece.(5) No wonder that his enemies +made unlimited fun. And they professed to believe that there was an +issue here. When the elegant McClellan was moving heaven and earth, as +he fancied, to get the army out of its shirt-sleeves, the President's +manner was a cause of endless irritation. Still more serious was the +effect of his manner on many men who agreed with him otherwise. Such a +high-minded leader as Governor Andrew of Massachusetts never got over +the feeling that Lincoln was a rowdy. How could a rowdy be the salvation +of the country? In the dark days of 1864, when a rebellion against his +leadership was attempted, this merely accidental side of him was an +element of danger. The barrier it had created between himself and the +more formal types, made it hard for the men who finally saved him to +overcome their prejudice and nail his colors to the mast. Andrew's +biographer shows himself a shrewd observer when he insists on the +unexpressed but inexorable scale by which Andrew and his following +measured Lincoln. They had grown up in the faith that you could tell +a statesman by certain external signs, chiefly by a grandiose and +commanding aspect such as made overpowering the presence of Webster. +And this idea was not confined to any one locality. Everywhere, more or +less, the conservative portion in every party held this view. It was the +view of Washington in 1848 when Washington had failed to see the real +Lincoln through his surface peculiarities. It was again the view of +Washington when Lincoln returned to it. + +Furthermore, his free way of talking, the broad stories he continued +to tell, were made counts in his indictment. One of the bequests of +Puritanism in America is the ideal, at least, of extreme scrupulousness +in talk. To many sincere men Lincoln's choice of fables was often a +deadly offense. Charles Francis Adams never got over the shock of their +first interview. Lincoln clenched a point with a broad story. Many +professional politicians who had no objection to such talk in itself, +glared and sneered when the President used it--because forsooth, it +might estrange a vote. + +Then, too, Lincoln had none of the social finesse that might have +adapted his manner to various classes. He was always incorrigibly the +democrat pure and simple. He would have laughed uproariously over that +undergraduate humor, the joy of a famous American University, supposedly +strong on Democracy: + + "Where God speaks to Jones, in the very same tones, + That he uses to Hadley and Dwight." + +Though Lincoln's queer aplomb, his good-humored familiarity on first +acquaintance, delighted most of his visitors, it offended many. It was +lacking in tact. Often it was a clumsy attempt to be jovial too soon, as +when he addressed Greeley by the name of "Horace" almost on first sight. +His devices for putting men on the familiar footing lacked originality. +The frequency with which he called upon a tall visitor to measure up +against him reveals the poverty of his social invention. He applied this +device with equal thoughtlessness to the stately Sumner, who protested, +and to a nobody who grinned and was delighted. + +It was this mere envelope of the genius that was deplorably evident on +the journey from Springfield to Washington. There was one detail of the +journey that gave his enemies a more definite ground for sneering. By +the irony of fate, the first clear instance of Lincoln's humility, his +reluctance to set up his own judgment against his advisers, was also +his first serious mistake. There is a distinction here that is vital. +Lincoln was entering on a new role, the role of the man of action. +Hitherto all the great decisions of his life had been speculative; they +had developed from within; they dealt with ideas. The inflexible side of +him was intellectual. Now, without any adequate apprenticeship, he was +called upon to make practical decisions, to decide on courses of action, +at one step to pass from the dream of statecraft to its application. +Inevitably, for a considerable time, he was two people; he passed back +and forth from one to the other; only by degrees did he bring the two +together. Meanwhile, he appeared contradictory. Inwardly, as a thinker, +his development was unbroken; he was still cool, inflexible, drawing all +his conclusions out of the depths of himself. Outwardly, in action, +he was learning the new task, hesitatingly, with vacillation, with +excessive regard to the advisers whom he treated as experts in action. +It was no slight matter for an extraordinarily sensitive man to take up +a new role at fifty-two. + +This first official mistake of Lincoln's was in giving way to the fears +of his retinue for his safety. The time had become hysterical. The +wildest sort of stories filled the air. Even before he left Springfield +there were rumors of plots to assassinate him.(6) On his arrival at +Philadelphia information was submitted to his companions which convinced +them that his life was in danger--an attempt would be made to kill him +as he passed through Baltimore. Seward at Washington had heard the same +story and had sent his son to Philadelphia to advise caution. Lincoln's +friends insisted that he leave his special train and proceed to +Washington with only one companion, on an ordinary night train. Railway +officials were called in. Elaborate precautions were arranged. The +telegraph lines were all to be disconnected for a number of hours so +that even if the conspirators--assuming there were any--should discover +his change of plan, they would be unable to communicate with Baltimore. +The one soldier in the party, Colonel Sumner, vehemently protested +that these changes were all "a damned piece of cowardice." But Lincoln +acquiesced in the views of the majority of his advisers. He passed +through Baltimore virtually in disguise; nothing happened; no certain +evidence of a conspiracy was discovered. And all his enemies took up the +cry of cowardice and rang the changes upon it.(7) + +Meanwhile, despite all this semblance of indecision, of feebleness, +there were signs that the real inner Lincoln, however clouded, was still +alive. By way of offset to his fatuous utterances, there might have been +set, had the Country been in a mood to weigh with care, several strong +and clear pronouncements. And these were not merely telling phrases like +that characteristic one about the bookkeeping of the front door. His +mind was struggling out of its shadow. And the mode of its reappearance +was significant. His reasoning upon the true meaning of the struggle he +was about to enter, reached a significant stage in the speech he made at +Harrisburg.(8) + +"I have often inquired of myself," he said, "what great principle or +idea it was that kept this Confederacy (the United States) so long +together. It was not the mere matter of the separation of the +colonies from the motherland, but that sentiment in the Declaration of +Independence which gave liberty not alone to the people of the country +but hope to all the world for all future time. It was that which gave +promise that in due time the weights would be lifted from the shoulders +of all men and that all should have an equal chance. This is the +sentiment embodied in the Declaration of Independence. Now, my friends, +can this country be saved on that basis? If it can, I will consider +myself one of the happiest men in the world, if I can help to save it. +If it can not be saved upon that principle, it will be truly awful. But +if this country can not be saved without giving up that principle, I was +about to say I would rather be assassinated on this spot than surrender +it. Now, in my view of the present aspect of affairs, there is no need +of bloodshed and war. There is no necessity for it I am not in favor of +such a course, and I may say in advance that there will be no bloodshed +unless it is forced upon the government. The government will not use +force unless force is used against it." + +The two ideas underlying this utterance had grown in his thought +steadily, consistently, ever since their first appearance in the Protest +twenty-four years previous. The great issue to which all else--slavery, +"dominion status," everything--was subservient, was the preservation of +democratic institutions; the means to that end was the preservation of +the Federal government. Now, as in 1852, his paramount object was not +to "disappoint the Liberal party throughout the world," to prove that +Democracy, when applied on a great scale, had yet sufficient coherence +to remain intact, no matter how powerful, nor how plausible, were the +forces of disintegration. + +Dominated by this purpose he came to Washington. There he met Seward. It +was the stroke of fate for both men. Seward, indeed, did not know that +it was. He was still firmly based in the delusion that he, not Lincoln, +was the genius of the hour. And he had this excuse, that it was also the +country's delusion. There was pretty general belief both among friends +and foes that Lincoln would be ruled by his Cabinet. In a council that +was certain to include leaders of accepted influence--Seward, Chase, +Cameron--what chance for this untried newcomer, whose prestige had been +reared not on managing men, but on uttering words? In Seward's +thoughts the answer was as inevitable as the table of addition. Equally +mathematical was the conclusion that only one unit gave value to the +combination. And, of course, the leader of the Republicans in the Senate +was the unit. A severe experience had to be lived through before Seward +made his peace with destiny. Lincoln was the quicker to perceive when +they came together that something had happened. Almost from the minute +of their meeting, he began to lean upon Seward; but only in a certain +way. This was not the same thing as that yielding to the practical +advisers which began at Philadelphia, which was subsequently to be the +cause of so much confusion. His response to Seward was intellectual. It +was of the inner man and revealed itself in his style of writing. + +Hitherto, Lincoln's progress in literature had been marked by the +development of two characteristics and by the lack of a third. The two +that he possessed were taste and rhythm. At the start he was free from +the prevalent vice of his time, rhetoricality. His "Address to the +Voters of Sangamon County" which was his first state paper, was as +direct, as free from bombast, as the greatest of his later achievements. +Almost any other youth who had as much of the sense of language as was +there exhibited, would have been led astray by the standards of the +hour, would have mounted the spread-eagle and flapped its wings in +rhetorical clamor. But Lincoln was not precocious. In art, as in +everything else, he progressed slowly; the literary part of him worked +its way into the matter-of-fact part of him with the gradualness of the +daylight through a shadowy wood. It was not constant in its development. +For many years it was little more than an irregular deepening of his +two original characteristics, taste and rhythm. His taste, fed on +Blackstone, Shakespeare, and the Bible, led him more and more exactingly +to say just what he meant, to eschew the wiles of decoration, to be +utterly non-rhetorical. His sense of rhythm, beginning simply, no more +at first than a good ear for the sound of words, deepened into +keen perception of the character of the word-march, of that extra +significance which is added to an idea by the way it conducts itself, +moving grandly or feebly as the case may be, from the unknown into the +known, and thence across a perilous horizon, into memory. On the basis +of these two characteristics he had acquired a style that was a rich +blend of simplicity, directness, candor, joined with a clearness beyond +praise, with a delightful cadence, having always a splendidly ordered +march of ideas. + +But there was the third thing in which the earlier style of Lincoln's +was wanting. Marvelously apt for the purpose of the moment, his writings +previous to 1861 are vanishing from the world's memory. The more notable +writings of his later years have become classics. And the difference +does not turn on subject-matter. All the ideas of his late writings had +been formulated in the earlier. The difference is purely literary. The +earlier writings were keen, powerful, full of character, melodious, +impressive. The later writings have all these qualities, and in +addition, that constant power to awaken the imagination, to carry an +idea beyond its own horizon into a boundless world of imperishable +literary significance, which power in argumentative prose is beauty. And +how did Lincoln attain this? That he had been maturing from within the +power to do this, one is compelled by the analogy of his other mental +experiences to believe. At the same time, there can be no doubt who +taught him the trick, who touched the secret spring and opened the new +door to his mind. It was Seward. Long since it had been agreed between +them that Seward was to be Secretary of State.(9) Lincoln asked him +to criticize his inaugural. Seward did so, and Lincoln, in the main, +accepted his criticism. But Seward went further. He proposed a new +paragraph. He was not a great writer and yet he had something of that +third thing which Lincoln hitherto had not exhibited. However, in +pursuing beauty of statement, he often came dangerously near to mere +rhetoric; his taste was never sure; his sense of rhythm was inferior; +the defects of his qualities were evident. None the less, Lincoln saw at +a glance that if he could infuse into Seward's words his own more robust +qualities, the result--'would be a richer product than had ever issued +from his own qualities as hitherto he had known them. He effected +this transmutation and in doing so raised his style to a new range of +effectiveness. The great Lincoln of literature appeared in the first +inaugural and particularly in that noble passage which was the work +of Lincoln and Seward together. In a way it said only what Lincoln had +already said--especially in the speech at Harrisburg--but with what a +difference! + +"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. You +have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the government, while I +shall have the most solemn one to preserve, protect and defend it. + +"I am loath to close. We are not enemies but friends. 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."* + + *Lincoln VI, 184; N. & H., III, 343. Seward advised the + omission of part of the original draft of the first of these + two paragraphs. After "defend it," Lincoln had written, "You + can forbear the assault upon it. I can not shrink from the + defense of it. With you and not with me is the solemn + question 'Shall it be peace or a sword?'" Having struck this + out, he accepted Seward's advice to add "some words of + affection--some of calm and cheerful confidence." + +The original version of the concluding paragraph was prepared by Seward +and read as follows: "I close. We are not, we must not he aliens or +enemies, but fellow-countrymen and brethren. Although passion has +strained our bonds of affection too hardly, they must not, I am sure, +they will not, be broken. The mystic chords which, proceeding from +so many battlefields and so many patriot graves, pass through all the +hearts and all hearths in this broad continent of ours, will yet again +harmonize in their ancient music when breathed upon by the guardian +angel of the nation." + +These words, now so famous, were spoken in the east portico of the +Capitol on "one of our disagreeable, clear, windy, Washington spring +days."(10) Most of the participants were agitated; many were alarmed. +Chief Justice Taney who administered the oath could hardly speak, so +near to uncontrollable was his emotion. General Scott anxiously kept +his eye upon the crowd which was commanded by cannon. Cavalry were in +readiness to clear the streets in case of riot. Lincoln's carriage on +the way to the Capitol had been closely guarded. He made his way to +the portico between files of soldiers. So intent--overintent--were his +guardians upon his safety that they had been careless of the smaller +matter of his comfort. There was insufficient room for the large company +that had been invited to attend. The new President stood beside a +rickety little table and saw no place on which to put his hat. Senator +Douglas stepped forward and relieved him of the burden. Lincoln was +"pale and very nervous," and toward the close of his speech, visibly +affected. Observers differ point-blank as to the way the inaugural was +received. The "Public Man" says that there was little enthusiasm. The +opposite version makes the event an oratorical triumph, with the crowd, +at the close, completely under his spell.(11) + +On the whole, the inauguration and the festivities that followed appear +to have formed a dismal event. While Lincoln spoke, the topmost peak of +the Capitol, far above his head, was an idle derrick; the present dome +was in process of construction; work on it had been arrested, and who +could say when, if ever, the work would be resumed? The day closed with +an inaugural ball that was anything but brilliant. "The great tawdry +ballroom . . . not half full--and such an assemblage of strange costumes, +male and female. Very few people of any consideration were there. The +President looked exhausted and uncomfortable, and most ungainly in his +dress; and Mrs. Lincoln all in blue, with a feather in her hair and a +highly flushed face."(12) + + + + +XV. PRESIDENT AND PREMIER + +The brilliant Secretary, who so promptly began to influence the +President had very sure foundations for that influence. He was inured +to the role of great man; he had a rich experience of public life; +while Lincoln, painfully conscious of his inexperience, was perhaps +the humblest-minded ruler that ever took the helm of a ship of state in +perilous times. Furthermore, Seward had some priceless qualities +which, for Lincoln, were still to seek. First of all, he had +audacity--personally, artistically, politically. Seward's instantaneous +gift to Lincoln was by way of throwing wide the door of his gathering +literary audacity. There is every reason to think that Seward's personal +audacity went to Lincoln's heart at once. To be sure, he was not yet +capable of going along with it. The basal contrast of the first month of +his administration lies between the President's caution and the boldness +of the Secretary. Nevertheless, to a sensitive mind, seeking guidance, +surrounded by less original types of politicians, the splendid +fearlessness of Seward, whether wise or foolish, must have rung like +a trumpet peal soaring over the heads of a crowd whose teeth were +chattering. While the rest of the Cabinet pressed their ears to the +ground, Seward thought out a policy, made a forecast of the future, and +offered to stake his head on the correctness of his reasoning. This +may have been rashness; it may have been folly; but, intellectually +at least, it was valor. Among Lincoln's other advisers, valor at that +moment was lacking. Contrast, however, was not the sole, nor the surest +basis of Seward's appeal to Lincoln. Their characters had a common +factor. For all their immeasurable difference in externals, both at +bottom were void of malice. It was this characteristic above all others +that gave them spiritually common ground. In Seward, this quality had +been under fire for a long while. The political furies of "that iron +time" had failed to rouse echoes in his serene and smiling soul. +Therefore, many men who accepted him as leader because, indeed, they +could not do without him--because none other in their camp had +his genius for management, for the glorification of political +intrigue--these same men followed him doubtfully, with bad grace, +willing to shift to some other leader whenever he might arise. The clue +to their distrust was Seward's amusement at the furious. Could a man +who laughed when you preached on the beauty of the hewing of Agag, could +such a man be sincere? And that Seward in some respects was not sincere, +history generally admits. He loved to poke fun at his opponents by +appearing to sneer at himself, by ridiculing the idea that he was ever +serious. His scale of political values was different from that of most +of his followers. Nineteen times out of twenty, he would treat what they +termed "principles" as mere political counters, as legitimate subjects +of bargain. If by any deal he could trade off any or all of these +nineteen in order to secure the twentieth, which for him was the only +vital one, he never scrupled to do so. Against a lurid background of +political ferocity, this amused, ironic figure came to be rated by the +extremists, both in his own and in the enemy camp as Mephistopheles. + +No quality could have endeared him more certainly to Lincoln than the +very one which the bigots misunderstood. From his earliest youth Lincoln +had been governed by this same quality. With his non-censorious mind, +which accepted so much of life as he found it, which was forever +stripping principles of their accretions, what could be more inevitable +than his warming to the one great man at Washington who like him held +that such a point of view was the only rational one. Seward's ironic +peacefulness in the midst of the storm gained in luster because all +about him raged a tempest of ferocity, mitigated, at least so far as the +distracted President could see, only by self-interest or pacifism. + +As Lincoln came into office, he could see and hear many signs of a +rising fierceness of sectional hatred. His secretary records with +disgust a proposal to conquer the Gulf States, expel their white +population, and reduce the region to a gigantic state preserve, where +negroes should grow cotton under national supervision.(1) "We of the +North," said Senator Baker of Oregon, "are a majority of the Union, and +we will govern our Union in our own way."(2) At the other extreme was +the hysterical pacifism of the Abolitionists. Part of Lincoln's abiding +quarrel with the Abolitionists was their lack of national feeling. Their +peculiar form of introspection had injected into politics the idea of +personal sin. Their personal responsibility for slavery--they being +part of a country that tolerated it--was their basal inspiration. +Consequently, the most distinctive Abolitionists welcomed this +opportunity to cast off their responsibility. If war had been proposed +as a crusade to abolish slavery, their attitude might have been +different But in March, 1860, no one but the few ultra-extremists, whom +scarcely anybody heeded, dreamed of such a war. A war to restore the +Union was the only sort that was considered seriously. Such a war, the +Abolitionists bitterly condemned. They seized upon pacifism as their +defense. Said Whittier of the Seceding States: + + They break the links of Union: shall we light + The fires of hell to weld anew the chain, + On that red anvil where each blow is pain? + +The fury and the fear offended Lincoln in equal measure. After long +years opposing the political temper of the extremists, he was not the +man now to change front. To one who believed himself marked out for a +tragic end, the cowardice at the heart of the pacifism of his time was +revolting. It was fortunate for his own peace of mind that he could here +count on the Secretary of State. No argument based on fear of pain would +meet in Seward with anything but derision. "They tell us," he had once +said, and the words expressed his constant attitude, "that we are to +encounter opposition. Why, bless my soul, did anybody ever expect to +reach a fortune, or fame, or happiness on earth or a crown in heaven, +without encountering resistance and opposition? What are we made men for +but to encounter and overcome opposition arrayed against us in the line +of our duty?"(3) + +But if the ferocity and the cowardice were offensive and disheartening, +there was something else that was beneath contempt. Never was +self-interest more shockingly displayed. It was revealed in many +ways, but impinged upon the new President in only one. A horde of +office-seekers besieged him in the White House. The parallel to this +amazing picture can hardly be found in history. It was taken for granted +that the new party would make a clean sweep of the whole civil list, +that every government employee down to the humblest messenger boy too +young to have political ideas was to bear the label of the victorious +party. Every Congressman who had made promises to his constituents, +every politician of every grade who thought he had the party in his +debt, every adventurer who on any pretext could make a showing of party +service rendered, poured into Washington. It was a motley horde. + + "Hark, hark, the dogs do bark, + The beggars are coming to town." + +They converted the White House into a leaguer. They swarmed into the +corridors and even the private passages. So dense was the swarm that +it was difficult to make one's way either in or out. Lincoln described +himself by the image of a man renting rooms at one end of his house +while the other end was on fire.(4) And all this while the existence of +the Republic was at stake! It did not occur to him that it was safe to +defy the horde, to send it about its business. Here again, the figure of +Seward stood out in brilliant light against the somber background. One +of Seward's faculties was his power to form devoted lieutenants. He had +that sure and nimble judgment which enables some men to inspire their +lieutenants rather than categorically to instruct them. All the sordid +side of his political games he managed in this way. He did not appear +himself as the bargainer. In the shameful eagerness of most of the +politicians to find offices for their retainers, Seward was conspicuous +by contrast. Even the Cabinet was not free from this vice of catering to +the thirsty horde.(5) Alone, at this juncture, Seward detached himself +from the petty affairs of the hour and gave his whole attention to +statecraft. + +He had a definite policy. Another point of contact with Lincoln was the +attitude of both toward the Union, supplemented as it was by their +views of the place of slavery in the problem they confronted. Both were +nationalists ready to make any sacrifices for the national idea. Both +regarded slavery as an issue of second importance. Both were prepared +for great concessions if convinced that, ultimately, their concessions +would strengthen the trend of American life toward a general exaltation +of nationality. + +On the other hand, their differences-- + +Seward approached the problem in the same temper, with the same +assumptions, that were his in the previous December. He still believed +that his main purpose was to enable a group of politicians to save their +faces by effecting a strategic retreat. Imputing to the Southern leaders +an attitude of pure self-interest, he believed that if allowed to play +the game as they desired, they would mark time until circumstances +revealed to them whether there was more profit for them in the Union or +out; he also believed that if sufficient time could be given, and if no +armed clash took place, it would be demonstrated first, that they did +not have so strong a hold on the South as they had thought they had; +and second, that on the whole, it was to their interests to patch up the +quarrel and come back into the Union. But he also saw that they had a +serious problem of leadership, which, if rudely handled, might make it +impossible for them to stand still. They had inflamed the sentiment of +state-patriotism. In South Carolina, particularly, the popular demand +was for independence. With this went the demand that Fort Sumter in +Charleston Harbor, garrisoned by Federal troops, should be surrendered, +or if not surrendered, taken forcibly from the United States. A few +cannon shots at Sumter would mean war. An article in Seward's creed of +statecraft asserted that the populace will always go wild over a war. To +prevent a war fever in the North was the first condition of his policy +at home. Therefore, in order to prevent it, the first step in saving his +enemies' faces was to safeguard them against the same danger in their +own calm. He must help them to prevent a war fever in the South. He saw +but one way to do this. The conclusion which became the bed rock of his +policy was inevitable. Sumter must be evacuated. + +Even before the inauguration, he had broached this idea to Lincoln. He +had tried to keep Lincoln from inserting in the inaugural the words, +"The power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy and possess +the property and places belonging to the government." He had proposed +instead, "The power confided in me shall be used indeed with efficacy, +but also with discretion, in every case and exigency, according to +the circumstances actually existing, and with a view and a hope of +a peaceful solution of the national troubles, and the restoration of +fraternal sympathies and affections."(6) With the rejection of Seward's +proffered revision, a difference between them in policy began to +develop. Lincoln, says one of his secretaries, accepted Seward's main +purpose but did not share his "optimism."(7) It would be truer to say +that in this stage of his development, he was lacking in audacity. In +his eager search for advice, he had to strike a balance between the +daring Seward who at this moment built entirely on his own power of +political devination, and the cautious remainder of the Cabinet who +had their ears to the ground trying their best to catch the note of +authority in the rumblings of vox populi. For his own part, Lincoln +began with two resolves: to go very cautiously,--and not give something +for nothing. Far from him, as yet, was that plunging mood which in +Seward pushed audacity to the verge of a gamble. However, just previous +to the inauguration, he took a cautious step in Seward's direction. +Virginia, like all the other States of the upper South, was torn by the +question which side to take. There was a "Union" party in Virginia, and +a "Secession" party. A committee of leading Unionists conferred with +Lincoln. They saw the immediate problem very much as Seward did. They +believed that if time were allowed, the crisis could be tided over and +the Union restored; but the first breath of war would wreck their hopes. +The condition of bringing about an adjustment was the evacuation of +Sumter. Lincoln told them that if Virginia could be kept in the Union +by the evacuation of Sumter, he would not hesitate to recall the +garrison.(8) A few days later, despite what he had said in the +inaugural, he repeated this offer. A convention was then sitting at +Richmond in debate upon the relations of Virginia to the Union. If +it would drop the matter and dissolve--so Lincoln told another +committee--he would evacuate Sumter and trust the recovery of the lower +South to negotiation.(9) No results, so far as is known, came of either +of those offers. + +During the first half of March, the Washington government marked time. +The office-seekers continued to besiege the President. South Carolina +continued to clamor for possession of Sumter. The Confederacy sent +commissioners to Washington whom Lincoln refused to recognize. The +Virginia Convention swayed this way and that. + +Seward went serenely about his business, confident that everything was +certain to come his way soon or late. He went so far as to advise an +intermediary to tell the Confederate Commissioners that all they had +to do to get possession of Sumter was to wait. The rest of the Cabinet +pressed their ears more tightly than ever to the ground. The rumblings +of vox populi were hard to interpret. The North appeared to be in two +minds. This was revealed the day following the inauguration, when a +Republican Club in New York held a high debate upon the condition of the +country. One faction wanted Lincoln to declare for a war-policy; another +wished the Club to content itself with a vote of confidence in the +Administration. Each faction put its views into a resolution and as a +happy device for maintaining harmony, both resolutions were passed.(10) +The fragmentary, miscellaneous evidence of newspapers, political +meetings, the talk of leaders, local elections, formed a confused clamor +which each listener interpreted according to his predisposition. The +members of the Cabinet in their relative isolation at Washington found +it exceedingly difficult to make up their minds what the people were +really saying. Of but one thing they were certain, and that was that +they represented a minority party. Before committing themselves any way, +it was life and death to know what portion of the North would stand by +them.(11) + +At this point began a perplexity that was to torment the President +almost to the verge of distraction. How far could he trust his military +advisers? Old General Scott was at the head of the army. He had once +been a striking, if not a great figure. Should his military advice be +accepted as final? Scott informed Lincoln that Sumter was short of food +and that any attempt to relieve it would call for a much larger force +than the government could muster. Scott urged him to withdraw the +garrison. Lincoln submitted the matter to the Cabinet. He asked for +their opinions in writing.(12) Five advised taking Scott at his word and +giving up all thought of relieving Sumter. There were two dissenters. +The Secretary of the Treasury, Salmon Portland Chase, struck the +key-note of his later political career by an elaborate argument on +expediency. If relieving Sumter would lead to civil war, Chase was not +in favor of relief; but on the whole he did not think that civil +war would result, and therefore, on the whole, he favored a relief +expedition. One member of the Cabinet, Montgomery Blair, the Postmaster +General, an impetuous, fierce man, was vehement for relief at all costs. +Lincoln wanted to agree with Chase and Blair. He reasoned that if the +fort was given up, the necessity under which it was done would not +be fully understood; that by many it would be construed as part of a +voluntary policy, that at home it would discourage the friends of the +Union, embolden its adversaries, and go far to insure to the matter a +recognition abroad. + +Nevertheless, with the Cabinet five to two against him, with his +military adviser against him, Lincoln put aside his own views. The +government went on marking time and considering the credentials of +applicants for country post-offices. + +By this time, Lincoln had thrown off the overpowering gloom which +possessed him in the latter days at Springfield. It is possible he +had reacted to a mood in which there was something of levity. His +oscillation of mood from a gloom that nothing penetrated to a sort of +desperate mirth, has been noted by various observers. And in 1861 he +had not reached his final poise, that firm holding of the middle +way,---which afterward fused his moods and made of him, at least in +action, a sustained personality. + +About the middle of the month he had a famous interview with Colonel W. +T. Sherman who had been President of the University of Louisiana and had +recently resigned. Senator John Sherman called at the White House with +regard to "some minor appointments in Ohio." The Colonel went with him. +When Colonel Sherman spoke of the seriousness of the Secession movement, +Lincoln replied, "Oh, we'll manage to keep house." The Colonel was so +offended by what seemed to him the flippancy of the President that he +abandoned his intention to resume the military life and withdrew from +Washington in disgust.(13) + +Not yet had Lincoln attained a true appreciation of the real difficulty +before him. He had not got rid of the idea that a dispute over slavery +had widened accidentally into a needless sectional quarrel, and that as +soon as the South had time to think things over, it would see that it +did not really want the quarrel. He had a queer idea that meanwhile he +could hold a few points on the margin of the Seceded States, open custom +houses on ships at the mouths of harbors, but leave vacant all Federal +appointments within the Seceded States and ignore the absence of their +representatives from Washington.(14) This marginal policy did not seem +to him a policy of coercion; and though he was beginning to see that the +situation from the Southern point of view turned on the right of a State +to resist coercion, he was yet to learn that idealistic elements of +emotion and of political dogma were the larger part of his difficulty. + +Meanwhile, the upper South had been proclaiming its idealism. Its +attitude was creating a problem for the lower South as well as for the +North. The pro-slavery leaders had been startled out of a dream. The +belief in a Southern economic solidarity so complete that the secession +of any one Slave State would compel the secession of all the others, +that belief had been proved fallacious. It had been made plain that +on the economic issue, even as on the issue of sectional distrust, +the upper South would not follow the lower South into secession. When +delegates from the Georgia Secessionists visited the legislature of +North Carolina, every courtesy was shown to them; the Speaker of the +House assured them of North Carolina's sympathy and of her enduring +friendliness; but he was careful not to suggest an intention to secede, +unless (the condition that was destiny!) an attempt should be made to +violate the sovereignty of the State by marching troops across her soil +to attack the Confederates. Then, on the one issue of State sovereignty, +North Carolina would leave the Union.(15) The Unionists in Virginia +took similar ground. They wished to stay in the Union, and they were +determined not to go out on the issue of slavery. Therefore they laid +their heads together to get that issue out of the way. Their problem +was to devise a compromise that would do three things: lay the Southern +dread of an inundation of sectional Northern influence; silence the +slave profiteers; meet the objections that had induced Lincoln to +wreck the Crittenden Compromise. They felt that the first and second +objectives would be reached easily enough by reviving the line of the +Missouri Compromise. But something more was needed, or again, Lincoln +would refuse to negotiate. They met their crucial difficulty by boldly +appealing to the South to be satisfied with the conservation of its +present life and renounce the dream of unlimited Southern expansion. +Their Compromise proposed a death blow to the filibuster and all he +stood for. It provided that no new territory other than naval stations +should be acquired by the United States on either side the Missouri Line +without consent of a majority of the Senators from the States on the +opposite side of that line.(16) + +As a solution of the sectional quarrel, to the extent that it had been +definitely put into words, what could have been more astute? Lincoln +himself had said in the inaugural, "One section of our country believes +slavery is right and ought to be extended; while the other believes +it is wrong and ought not to be extended. That is the only substantial +dispute." In the same inaugural, he had pledged himself not to +"interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it now +exists;" and also had urged a vigorous enforcement of the Fugitive +Slave Law. He never had approved of any sort of emancipation other than +purchase or the gradual operation of economic conditions. It was well +known that slavery could flourish only on fresh land amid prodigal +agricultural methods suited to the most ignorant labor. The Virginia +Compromise, by giving to slavery a fixed area and abolishing its hopes +of continual extensions into fresh land, was the virtual fulfillment of +Lincoln's demand. + +The failure of the Virginia Compromise is one more proof that a great +deal of vital history never gets into words until after it is over. +During the second half of March, Unionists and Secessionists in the +Virginia Convention debated with deep emotion this searching new +proposal. The Unionists had a fatal weakness in their position. This was +the feature of the situation that had not hitherto been put into words. +Lincoln had not been accurate when he said that the slavery question +was "the only substantial dispute." He had taken for granted that the +Southern opposition to nationalism was not a real thing,--a mere device +of the politicians to work up excitement. All the compromises he was +ready to offer were addressed to that part of the South which was +seeking to make an issue on slavery. They had little meaning for that +other and more numerous part in whose thinking slavery was an incident. +For this other South, the ideas which Lincoln as late as the middle of +March did not bring into play were the whole story. Lincoln, willing to +give all sorts of guarantees for the noninterference with slavery, would +not give a single guarantee supporting the idea of State sovereignty +against the idea of the sovereign power of the national Union. The +Virginians, willing to go great lengths in making concessions with +regard to slavery, would not go one inch in the way of admitting that +their State was not a sovereign power included in the American Union +of its own free will, and not the legitimate subject of any sort of +coercion. + +The Virginia Compromise was really a profound new complication. The very +care with which it divided the issue of nationality from the issue +of slavery was a storm signal. For a thoroughgoing nationalist like +Lincoln, deep perplexities lay hidden in this full disclosure of the +issue that was vital to the moderate South. Lincoln's shifting of his +mental ground, his perception that hitherto he had been oblivious of his +most formidable opponent, the one with whom compromise was impossible, +occurred in the second half of the month. + +As always, Lincoln kept his own counsel upon the maturing of a purpose +in his own mind. He listened to every adviser--opening his office doors +without reserve to all sorts and conditions--and silently, anxiously, +struggled with himself for a decision. He watched Virginia; he watched +the North; he listened--and waited. General Scott continued hopeless, +though minor military men gave encouragement. And whom should the +President trust-the tired old General who disagreed with him, or the +eager young men who held views he would like to hold? Many a time he was +to ask himself that question during the years to come. + +On March twenty-ninth, he again consulted the Cabinet.(17) A great deal +of water had run under the mill since they gave their opinions on March +sixteenth. The voice of the people was still a bewildering roar, but +out of that roar most of the Cabinet seemed to hear definite words. They +were convinced that the North was veering toward a warlike mood. The +phrase "masterly inactivity," which had been applied to the government's +course admiringly a few weeks before, was now being applied +satirically. Republican extremists were demanding action. A subtle +barometer was the Secretary of the Treasury. Now, as on the sixteenth, +he craftily said something without saying it. After juggling the word +"if," he assumed his "if" to be a fact and concluded, "If war is to +be the result, I perceive no reason why it may not best be begun in +consequence of military resistance to the efforts of the Administration +to sustain troops of the Union, stationed under authority of the +government in a fort of the Union, in the ordinary course of service." + +This elaborate equivocation, which had all the force of an assertion, +was Chase all over! Three other ministers agreed with him except that +they did not equivocate. One evaded. Of all those who had stood with +Seward on the sixteenth, only one was still in favor of evacuation. +Seward stood fast. This reversal of the Cabinet's position, jumping as +it did with Lincoln's desires, encouraged him to prepare for action. +But just as he was about to act his diffidence asserted itself. He +authorized the preparation of a relief expedition but withheld sailing +orders until further notice.(18) Oh, for Seward's audacity; for the +ability to do one thing or another and take the consequences! + +Seward had not foreseen this turn of events. He had little respect for +the rest of the Cabinet, and had still to discover that the President, +for all his semblance of vacillation, was a great man. Seward was +undeniably vain. That the President with such a Secretary of +State should judge the strength of a Cabinet vote by counting +noses--preposterous! But that was just what this curiously simple-minded +President had done. If he went on in his weak, amiable way listening to +the time-servers who were listening to the bigots, what would become of +the country? And of the Secretary of State and his deep policies? The +President must be pulled up short--brought to his senses--taught a +lesson or two. + +Seward saw that new difficulties had arisen in the course of +that fateful March which those colleagues of his in the +Cabinet--well-meaning, inferior men, to be sure--had not the subtlety to +comprehend. Of course the matter of evacuation remained what it always +had been, the plain open road to an ultimate diplomatic triumph. Who +but a president out of the West, or a minor member of the Cabinet, would +fail to see that! But there were two other considerations which, also, +his well-meaning colleagues were failing to allow for. While all this +talk about the Virginia Unionists had been going on, while Washington +and Richmond had been trying to negotiate, neither really had any +control of its own game. They were card players with all the trumps out +of their hands. Montgomery, the Confederate Congress, held the trumps. +At any minute it could terminate all this make-believe of diplomatic +independence, both at Washington and at Richmond. A few cannon shots +aimed at Sumter, the cry for revenge in the North, the inevitable +protest against coercion in Virginia, the convention blown into the air, +and there you are--War! + +And after all that, who knows what next? And yet, Blair and Chase +and the rest would not consent to slip Montgomery's trumps out of her +hands--the easiest thing in the world to do!--by throwing Sumter into +her lap and thus destroying the pretext for the cannon shots. More than +ever before, Seward would insist firmly on the evacuation of Sumter. + +But there was the other consideration, the really new turn of events. +Suppose Sumter is evacuated; suppose Montgomery has lost her chance to +force Virginia into war by precipitating the issue of coercion, what +follows? All along Seward had advocated a national convention to +readjust all the matters "in dispute between the sections." But what +would such a convention discuss? In his inaugural, Lincoln had advised +an amendment to the Constitution "to the effect that the Federal +government shall never interfere with the domestic institutions of +the State, including that of persons held to service." Very good! The +convention might be expected to accept this, and after this, of course, +there would come up the Virginia Compromise. Was it a practical scheme? +Did it form a basis for drawing back into the Union the lower South? + +Seward's whole thought upon this subject has never been disclosed. It +must be inferred from the conclusion which he reached, which he put +into a paper entitled, Thoughts for the President's Consideration, and +submitted to Lincoln, April first. + +The Thoughts outlined a scheme of policy, the most startling feature +of which was an instant, predatory, foreign war. There are two clues to +this astounding proposal. One was a political maxim in which Seward had +unwavering faith. "A fundamental principle of politics," he said, "is +always to be on the side of your country in a war. It kills any party to +oppose a war. When Mr. Buchanan got up his Mormon War, our people, Wade +and Fremont, and The Tribune, led off furiously against it. I supported +it to the immense disgust of enemies and friends. If you want to sicken +your opponents with their own war, go in for it till they give it +up."(19) He was not alone among the politicians of his time, and some +other times, in these cynical views. Lincoln has a story of a politician +who was asked to oppose the Mexican War, and who replied, "I opposed +one war; that was enough for me. I am now perpetually in favor of war, +pestilence and famine." + +The second clue to Seward's new policy of international brigandage was +the need, as he conceived it, to propitiate those Southern expansionists +who in the lower South at least formed so large a part of the political +machine, who must somehow be lured back into the Union; to whom the +Virginia Compromise, as well as every other scheme of readjustment yet +suggested, offered no allurement. Like Lincoln defeating the Crittenden +Compromise, like the Virginians planning the last compromise, Seward +remembered the filibusters and the dreams of the expansionists, +annexation of Cuba, annexation of Nicaragua and all the rest, and he +looked about for a way to reach them along that line. Chance had +played into his hands. Already Napoleon III had begun his ill-fated +interference with the affairs of Mexico. A rebellion had just taken +place in San Domingo and Spain was supposed to have designs on the +island. Here, for any one who believed in predatory war as an infallible +last recourse to rouse the patriotism of a country, were pretexts +enough. Along with these would go a raging assertion of the Monroe +Doctrine and a bellicose attitude toward other European powers on less +substantial grounds. And amid it all, between the lines of it all, could +not any one glimpse a scheme for the expansion of the United States +southward? War with Spain over San Domingo! And who, pray, held the +Island of Cuba! And what might not a defeated Spain be willing to do +with Cuba? And if France were driven out of Mexico by our conquering +arms, did not the shadows of the future veil but dimly a grateful Mexico +where American capital should find great opportunities? And would not +Southern capital in the nature of things, have a large share in all that +was to come? Surely, granting Seward's political creed, remembering the +problem he wished to solve, there is nothing to be wondered at in his +proposal to Lincoln: "I would demand explanations from Spain and France, +categorically, at once." . . . And if satisfactory explanations were not +received from Spain and France, "would convene Congress and declare war +against them." + +His purpose, he said, was to change the question before the public, +from one upon slavery, or about slavery, for a question upon Union or +Disunion. Sumter was to be evacuated "as a safe means for changing +the issue," but at the same time, preparations were to be made for +a blockade of the Southern coast.(20) This extraordinary document +administered mild but firm correction to the President. He was told +that he had no policy, although under the circumstances, this was "not +culpable"; that there must be a single head to the government; that the +President, if not equal to the task, should devolve it upon some member +of the Cabinet. The Thoughts closed with these words, "I neither seek to +evade nor assume responsibility." + +Like Seward's previous move, when he sent Weed to Springfield, this +other brought Lincoln to a point of crisis. For the second time he must +render a decision that would turn the scale, that would have for his +country the force of destiny. In one respect he did not hesitate. The +most essential part of the Thoughts was the predatory spirit. This +clashed with Lincoln's character. Serene unscrupulousness met unwavering +integrity. Here was one of those subjects on which Lincoln was not +asking advice. As to ways and means, he was pliable to a degree in the +hands of richer and wider experience; as to principles, he was a rock. +Seward's whole scheme of aggrandizement, his magnificent piracy, +was calmly waved aside as a thing of no concern. The most striking +characteristic of Lincoln's reply was its dignity. He did not, +indeed, lay bare his purposes. He was content to point out certain +inconsistencies in Seward's argument; to protest that whatever action +might be taken with regard to the single fortress, Sumter, the question +before the public could not be changed by that one event; and to say +that while he expected advice from all his Cabinet, he was none the less +President, and in last resort he would himself direct the policy of the +government.(21) + +Only a strong man could have put up with the patronizing condescension +of the Thoughts and betrayed no irritation. Not a word in Lincoln's +reply gives the least hint that condescension had been displayed. He +is wholly unruffled, distant, objective. There is also a quiet tone of +finality, almost the tone one might use in gently but firmly correcting +a child. The Olympian impertinence of the Thoughts had struck out of +Lincoln the first flash of that approaching masterfulness by means of +which he was to ride out successfully such furious storms. Seward was +too much the man of the world not to see what had happened. He never +touched upon the Thoughts again. Nor did Lincoln. The incident was +secret until Lincoln's secretaries twenty-five years afterward published +it to the world. + +But Lincoln's lofty dignity on the first of April was of a moment only. +When the Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Welles, that same day called on +him in his offices, he was the easy-going, jovial Lincoln who was always +ready half-humorously to take reproof from subordinates--as was evinced +by his greeting to the Secretary. Looking up from his writing, he said +cheerfully, "What have I done wrong?"(22) Gideon Welles was a pugnacious +man, and at that moment an angry man. There can be little doubt that his +lips were tightly shut, that a stern frown darkened his brows. Grimly +conscientious was Gideon Welles, likewise prosaic; a masterpiece of +literalness, the very opposite in almost every respect of the Secretary +of State whom he cordially detested. That he had already found occasion +to protest against the President's careless mode of conducting business +may be guessed--correctly--from the way he was received. Doubtless the +very cordiality, the whimsical admission of loose methods, irritated +the austere Secretary. Welles had in his hand a communication dated +that same day and signed by the President, making radical changes in the +program of the Navy Department. He had come to protest. + +"The President," said Welles, "expressed as much surprise as I felt, +that he had sent me such a document. He said that Mr. Seward with two +or three young men had been there during the day on a subject which he +(Seward) had in hand and which he had been some time maturing; that it +was Seward's specialty, to which he, the President, had yielded, but as +it involved considerable details, he had left Mr. Seward to prepare +the necessary papers. These papers he had signed, many of them without +reading, for he had not time, and if he could not trust the Secretary of +State, he knew not whom he could trust. I asked who were associated with +Mr. Seward. 'No one,' said the President, 'but these young men who were +here as clerks to write down his plans and orders.' Most of the work was +done, he said, in the other room. + +"The President reiterated that they (the changes in the Navy) were not +his instructions, though signed by him; that the paper was an improper +one; that he wished me to give it no more consideration than I thought +proper; to treat it as cancelled, or as if it had never been written. I +could get no satisfactory explanation from the President of the origin +of this strange interference which mystified him and which he censured +and condemned more severely than myself. . . . Although very much +disturbed by the disclosure, he was anxious to avoid difficulty, and to +shield Mr. Seward, took to himself the whole blame." + +Thus Lincoln began a role that he never afterward abandoned. It was the +role of scapegoat Whatever went wrong anywhere could always be loaded +upon the President. He appeared to consider it a part of his duty to +be the scapegoat for the whole Administration. It was his way of +maintaining trust, courage, efficiency, among his subordinates. + +Of those papers which he had signed without reading on April first, +Lincoln was to hear again in still more surprising fashion six days +thereafter. + +He was now at the very edge of his second crucial decision. Though the +naval expedition was in preparation, he still hesitated over issuing +orders to sail. The reply to the Thoughts had not committed him to any +specific line of conduct. What was it that kept him wavering at this +eleventh hour? Again, that impenetrable taciturnity which always +shrouded his progress toward a conclusion, forbids dogmatic assertion. +But two things are obvious: his position as a minority president, of +which he was perhaps unduly conscious, caused him to delay, and to delay +again and again, seeking definite evidence how much support he could +command in the North; the change in his comprehension of the problem +before him-his perception that it was not an "artificial crisis" +involving slavery alone, but an irreconcilable clash of social-political +idealism--this disturbed his spirit, distressed, even appalled him. +Having a truer insight into human nature than Seward had, he saw that +here was an issue immeasurably less susceptible of compromise than was +slavery. Whether, the moment he perceived this, he at once lost hope of +any peaceable solution, we do not know. Just what he thought about the +Virginia Compromise is still to seek. However, the nature of his mind, +the way it went straight to the human element in a problem once his eyes +were opened to the problem's reality, forbid us to conclude that he +took hope from Virginia. He now saw what, had it not been for his near +horizon, he would have seen so long before, that, in vulgar parlance, he +had been "barking up the wrong tree." Now that he had located the right +tree, had the knowledge come too late? + +It is known that Seward, possibly at Lincoln's request, made an attempt +to bring together the Virginia Unionists and the Administration. He sent +a special representative to Richmond urging the despatch of a committee +to confer with the President. + +The strength of the party in the Convention was shown on April fourth +when a proposed Ordinance of Secession was voted down, eighty-nine to +forty-five. On the same day, the Convention by a still larger majority +formally denied the right of the Federal government to coerce a State. +Two days later, John B. Baldwin, representing the Virginia Unionists, +had a confidential talk with Lincoln. Only fragments of their talk, +drawn forth out of memory long afterward--some of the reporting being +at second hand, the recollections of the recollections of the +participants--are known to exist. The one fact clearly discernible is +that Baldwin stated fully the Virginia position: that her Unionists +were not nationalists; that the coercion of any State, by impugning +the sovereignty of all, would automatically drive Virginia out of the +Union.(23) + +Lincoln had now reached his decision. The fear that had dogged him all +along--the fear that in evacuating Sumter he would be giving something +for nothing, that "it would discourage the friends of the Union, +embolden its adversaries"--was in possession of his will. One may hazard +the guess that this fear would have determined Lincoln sooner than +it did, except for the fact that the Secretary of State, despite his +faults, was so incomparably the strongest personality in the Cabinet. +We have Lincoln's own word for the moment and the detail that formed +the very end of his period of vacillation. All along he had intended to +relieve and hold Fort Pickens, off the coast of Florida. To this, Seward +saw no objection. In fact, he urged the relief of Pickens, hoping, as +compensation, to get his way about Sumter. Assuming as he did that the +Southern leaders were opportunists, he believed that they would not +make an issue over Pickens, merely because it had not in the public +eye become a political symbol. Orders had been sent to a squadron in +Southern waters to relieve Pickens. Early in April news was received at +Washington that the attempt had failed due to misunderstandings +among the Federal commanders. Fearful that Pickens was about to fall, +reasoning that whatever happened he dared not lose both forts, Lincoln +became peremptory on the subject of the Sumter expedition. This was on +April sixth. On the night of April sixth, Lincoln's signatures to the +unread despatches of the first of April, came home to roost. And +at last, Welles found out what Seward was doing on the day of All +Fools.(24) + +While the Sumter expedition was being got ready, still without sailing +orders, a supplemental expedition was also preparing for the relief of +Pickens. This was the business that Seward was contriving, that Lincoln +would not explain, on April first. The order interfering with the Navy +Department was designed to checkmate the titular head of the department. +Furthermore, Seward had had the amazing coolness to assume that Lincoln +would certainly accept his Thoughts and that the simple President need +not hereinafter be consulted about details. He aimed to circumvent +Welles and to make sure that the Sumter expedition, whether sailing +orders were issued or not, should be rendered innocuous. The warship +Powhatan, which was being got ready for sea at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, +was intended by Welles for the Sumter expedition. One of those unread +despatches signed by Lincoln, assigned it to the Pickens expedition. +When the sailing orders from Welles were received, the commander of the +Sumter fleet claimed the Powhatan. The Pickens commander refused to +give it up. The latter telegraphed Seward that his expedition was "being +retarded and embarrassed" by "conflicting" orders from Welles. The +result was a stormy conference between Seward and Welles which was +adjourned to the White House and became a conference with Lincoln. And +then the whole story came out. Lincoln played the scapegoat, "took the +whole blame upon himself, said it was carelessness, heedlessness on his +part; he ought to have been more careful and attentive." But he insisted +on immediate correction of his error, on the restoration of the Powhatan +to the Sumter fleet. Seward struggled hard for his plan. Lincoln was +inflexible. As Seward had directed the preparation of the Pickens +expedition, Lincoln required him to telegraph to Brooklyn the change in +orders. Seward, beaten by his enemy Welles, was deeply chagrined. In +his agitation he forgot to be formal, forgot that the previous order +had gone out in the President's name, and wired curtly, "Give up the +Powhatan. Seward." + +This despatch was received just as the Pickens expedition was sailing. +The commander of the Powhatan had now before him, three orders. +Naturally, he held that the one signed by the President took precedence +over the others. He went on his way, with his great warship, to Florida. +The Sumter expedition sailed without any powerful ship of war. In this +strange fashion, chance executed Seward's design. + +Lincoln had previously informed the Governor of South Carolina that due +notice would be given, should he decide to relieve Sumter. Word was now +sent that "an attempt will be made to supply Fort Sumter with provisions +only; and that if such attempt be not resisted, no effort to throw in +men, arms or ammunition will be made without further notice, or in case +of an attack upon the fort."(25) Though the fleet was not intended to +offer battle, it was supposed to be strong enough to force its way into +the harbor, should the relief of Sumter be opposed. But the power to do +so was wholly conditioned on the presence in its midst of the Powhatan. +And the Powhatan was far out to sea on its way to Florida. + +And now it was the turn of the Confederate government to confront a +crisis. It, no less than Washington, had passed through a period of +disillusion. The assumption upon which its chief politicians had built +so confidently had collapsed. The South was not really a unit. It was +not true that the secession of any one State, on any sort of issue, +would compel automatically the secession of all the Southern States. +North Carolina had exploded this illusion. Virginia had exploded it. +The South could not be united on the issue of slavery; it could not be +united on the issue of sectional dread. It could be united on but +one issue-State sovereignty, the denial of the right of the Federal +Government to coerce a State. The time had come to decide whether the +cannon at Charleston should fire. As Seward had foreseen, Montgomery +held the trumps; but had Montgomery the courage to play them? There +was a momentous debate in the Confederate Cabinet. Robert Toombs, the +Secretary of State, whose rapid growth in comprehension since December +formed a parallel to Lincoln's growth, threw his influence on the side +of further delay. He would not invoke that "final argument of kings," +the shotted cannon. "Mr. President," he exclaimed, "at this time, it is +suicide, murder, and will lose us every friend at the North. You will +instantly strike a hornet's nest which extends from mountain to ocean, +and legions now quiet will swarm out and sting us to death. It is +unnecessary; it puts us in the wrong; it is fatal." But Toombs stood +alone in the Cabinet. Orders were sent to Charleston to reduce Fort +Sumter. Before dawn, April twelfth, the first shot was fired. The flag +of the United States was hauled down on the afternoon of the thirteenth. +Meanwhile the relieving fleet had arrived--without the Powhatan. Bereft +of its great ship, it could not pass the harbor batteries and assist the +fort. Its only service was to take off the garrison which by the terms +of surrender was allowed to withdraw. On the fourteenth, Sumter was +evacuated and the inglorious fleet sailed back to the northward. + +Lincoln at once accepted the gage of battle. On the fifteenth +appeared his proclamation calling for an army of seventy-five thousand +volunteers. Automatically, the upper South fulfilled its unhappy +destiny. Challenged at last, on the irreconcilable issue, Virginia, +North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, seceded. The final argument of +kings was the only one remaining. + + + + +XVI "ON TO RICHMOND!" + +It has been truly said that the Americans are an unmilitary but an +intensely warlike nation. Seward's belief that a war fury would sweep +the country at the first cannon shot was amply justified. Both North and +South appeared to rise as one man, crying fiercely to be led to battle. + +The immediate effect on Washington had not been foreseen. That historic +clash at Baltimore between the city's mob and the Sixth Massachusetts en +route to the capital, was followed by an outburst of secession feeling +in Maryland; by an attempt to isolate Washington from the North. Railway +tracks were torn up; telegraph wires were cut. During several days +Lincoln was entirely ignorant of what the North was doing. Was there an +efficient general response to his call for troops? Or was precious time +being squandered in preparation? Was it conceivable that the war fury +was only talk? Looking forth from the White House, he was a prisoner of +the horizon; an impenetrable mystery, it shut the capital in a ring of +silence all but intolerable. Washington assumed the air of a beleaguered +city. General Scott hastily drew in the small forces which the +government had maintained in Maryland and Virginia. Government employees +and loyal Washingtonians were armed and began to drill. The White House +became a barracks. "Jim Lane," writes delightful John Hay in his diary, +which is always cool, rippling, sunny, no matter how acute the crisis, +"Jim Lane marshalled his Kansas warriors today at Williard's; tonight +(they are in) the East Room."(1) Hay's humor brightens the tragic hour. +He felt it his duty to report to Lincoln a "yarn" that had been told to +him by some charming women who had insisted on an interview; they had +heard from "a dashing Virginian" that inside forty-eight hours something +would happen which would ring through the world. The ladies thought this +meant the capture or assassination of the President. "Lincoln quietly +grinned." But Hay who plainly enjoyed the episode, charming women and +all, had got himself into trouble. He had to do "some very dexterous +lying to calm the awakened fears of Mrs. Lincoln in regard to the +assassination suspicion." Militia were quartered in the Capitol, and +Pennsylvania Avenue was a drill ground. At the President's reception, +the distinguished politician C. C. Clay, "wore with a sublimely +unconscious air three pistols and an 'Arkansas toothpick,' and looked +like an admirable vignette to twenty-five cents' worth of yellow covered +romance." + +But Hay's levity was all of the surface. Beneath it was intense anxiety. +General Scott reported that the Virginia militia, concentrating about +Washington, were a formidable menace, though he thought he was strong +enough to hold out until relief should come. As the days passed and +nothing appeared upon that inscrutable horizon while the telegraph +remained silent, Lincoln became moodily distressed. One afternoon, "the +business of the day being over, the executive office deserted, after +walking the floor alone in silent thought for nearly a half-hour, he +stopped and gazed long and wistfully out of the window down the Potomac +in the direction of the expected ships (bringing soldiers from New +York); and unconscious of other presence in the room, at length broke +out with irrepressible anguish in the repeated exclamation, 'Why don't +they come! Why don't they come!'"(2) + +His unhappiness flashed into words while he was visiting those +Massachusetts soldiers who had been wounded on their way to Washington. +"I don't believe there is any North. . . " he exclaimed. "You are the +only Northern realities."(3) But even then relief was at hand. The +Seventh New York, which had marched down Broadway amid such an ovation +as never before was given any regiment in America, had come by sea +to Annapolis. At noon on April twenty-fifth, it reached Washington +bringing, along with the welcome sight of its own bayonets, the news +that the North had risen, that thousands more were on the march. + +Hay who met them at the depot went at once to report to Lincoln. Already +the President had reacted to a "pleasant, hopeful mood." He began +outlining a tentative plan of action: blockade, maintenance of the +safety of Washington, holding Fortress Monroe, and then to "go down to +Charleston and pay her the little debt we are owing there."(4) But this +was an undigested plan. It had little resemblance to any of his later +plans. And immediately the chief difficulties that were to embarrass +all his plans appeared. He was a minority President; and he was the +Executive of a democracy. Many things were to happen; many mistakes +were to be made; many times the piper was to be paid, ere Lincoln felt +sufficiently sure of his support to enforce a policy of his own, defiant +of opposition. Throughout the spring of 1861 his imperative need was to +secure the favor of the Northern mass, to shape his policy with that +end in view. At least, in his own mind, this seemed to be his paramount +obligation. And so it was in the minds of his advisers. Lincoln was +still in the pliable mood which was his when he entered office, which +continued to be in evidence, except for sudden momentary disappearances +when a different Lincoln flashed an instant into view, until another +year and more had gone by. Still he felt himself the apprentice hand +painfully learning the trade of man of action. Still he was deeply +sensitive to advice. + +And what advice did the country give him? There was one roaring shout +dinning into his ears all round the Northern horizon-"On to Richmond!" +Following Virginia's secession, Richmond had become the Confederate +capital. It was expected that a session of the Confederate Congress +would open at Richmond in July. "On to Richmond! Forward to Richmond!" +screamed The Tribune. "The Rebel Congress must not be allowed to meet +there on the 20th of July. By that date the place must be held by the +national army." The Times advised the resignation of the Cabinet; it +warned the President that if he did not give prompt satisfaction he +would be superseded. Though Lincoln laughed at the threat of The +Times to "depose" him, he took very seriously all the swiftly +accumulating evidence that the North was becoming rashly impatient +Newspaper correspondents at Washington talked to his secretaries +"impertinently."(5) Members of Congress, either carried away by the +excitement of the hour or with slavish regard to the hysteria of their +constituents, thronged to Washington clamoring for action. On purely +political grounds, if on no other, they demanded an immediate advance +into Virginia. Military men looked with irritation, if not with +contempt, on all this intemperate popular fury. That grim Sherman, +who had been offended by Lincoln's tone the month previous, put their +feeling into words. Declining the offer of a position in the War +Department, he wrote that he wished "the Administration all success in +its almost impossible task of governing this distracted and anarchial +people."(6) + +In the President's councils, General Scott urged delay, and the +gathering of the volunteers into camps of instruction, their deliberate +transformation into a genuine army. So inadequate were the resources of +the government; so loose and uncertain were the militia organizations +which were attempting to combine into an army; such discrepancies +appeared between the nominal and actual strength of commands, between +the places where men were supposed to be and the places where they +actually were; that Lincoln in his droll way compared the process of +mobilization to shoveling a bushel of fleas across a barn floor.(7) From +the military point of view it was no time to attempt an advance. Against +the military argument, three political arguments loomed dark in the +minds of the Cabinet; there was the clamor of the Northern majority; +there were the threats of the politicians who were to assemble in +Congress, July fourth; there was the term of service of the volunteers +which had been limited by the proclamation to three months. Late in +June, the Cabinet decided upon the political course, overruled the +military advisers, and gave its voice for an immediate advance into +Virginia. Lincoln accepted this rash advice. Scott yielded. General +Irwin McDowell was ordered to strike a Confederate force that had +assembled at Manassas.(8) On the fourth of July, the day Congress met, +the government made use of a coup de theatre. It held a review of what +was then considered a "grand army" of twenty-five thousand men. A few +days later, the sensibilities of the Congressmen were further exploited. +Impressionable members were "deeply moved," when the same host in +marching order passed again through the city and wheeled southward +toward Virginia. Confident of victory, the Congressmen spent these days +in high debate upon anything that took their fancy. When, a fortnight +later, it was known that a battle was imminent, many of them treated the +Occasion as a picnic. They took horses, or hired vehicles, and away +they went southward for a jolly outing on the day the Confederacy was +to collapse. In the mind of the unfortunate General who commanded the +expedition a different mood prevailed. In depression, he said to a +friend, "This is not an army. It will take a long time to make an army. +But his duty as a soldier forbade him to oppose his superiors; the +poor fellow could not proclaim his distrust of his army in public."(9) +Thoughtful observers at Washington felt danger in the air, both military +and political. + +Sunday, July twenty-first, dawned clear. It was the day of the +expected battle. A noted Englishman, setting out for the front as war +correspondent of the London Times, observed "the calmness and silence +of the streets of Washington, this early morning." After crossing the +Potomac, he felt that "the promise of a lovely day given by the early +dawn was likely to be realized to the fullest"; and "the placid beauty +of the scenery as we drove through the woods below Arlington" delighted +him. And then about nine o'clock his thoughts abandoned the scenery. +Through those beautiful Virginia woods came the distant roar of cannon. + +At the White House that day there was little if any alarm. Reports +received at various times were construed by military men as favorable. +These, with the rooted preconception that the army had to be successful, +established confidence in a victory before nightfall. Late in the +afternoon, the President relieved his tension by taking a drive. He had +not returned when, about six o'clock, Seward appeared and asked hoarsely +where he was. The secretaries told him. He begged them to find the +President as quickly as possible. "Tell no one," said he, "but the +battle is lost. The army is in full retreat." + +The news of the rout at Bull Run did not spread through Washington until +close to midnight. It caused an instantaneous panic. In the small hours, +the space before the Treasury was "a moving mass of humanity. Every +man seemed to be asking every man he met for the latest news, while all +sorts of rumors filled the air. A feeling of mingled horror and despair +appeared to possess everybody. . . . Our soldiers came straggling into +the city covered with dust and many of them wounded, while the panic +that led to the disaster spread like a contagion through all classes." +The President did not share the panic. He "received the news quietly +and without any visible sign of perturbation or excitement"'(10) Now +appeared in him the quality which led Herndon to call him a fatalist. +All night long he sat unruffled in his office, while refugees from +the stricken field--especially those overconfident Senators and +Representatives who had gone out to watch the overthrow of the +Confederates--poured into his ears their various and conflicting +accounts of the catastrophe. During that long night Lincoln said almost +nothing. Meanwhile, fragments of the routed army continued to stream +into the city. At dawn the next day Washington was possessed by a swarm +of demoralized soldiers while a dreary rain settled over it. + +The silent man in the White House had forgotten for the moment his +dependence upon his advisers. While the runaway Senators were talking +themselves out, while the rain was sheeting up the city, he had +reached two conclusions. Early in the morning, he formulated both. One +conclusion was a general outline for the conduct of a long war in which +the first move should be a call for volunteers to serve three years.(11) +The other conclusion was the choice of a conducting general. Scott was +too old. McDowell had failed. But there was a young officer, a West +Pointer, who had been put in command of the Ohio militia, who had +entered the Virginia mountains from the West, had engaged a small force +there, and had won several small but rather showy victories. Young as +he was, he had served in the Mexican War and was supposed to be highly +accomplished. On the day following Bull Run, Lincoln ordered McClellan +to Washington to take command.(12) + + + + +XVII. DEFINING THE ISSUE + +While these startling events were taking place in the months between +Sumter and Bull Run, Lincoln passed through a searching intellectual +experience. The reconception of his problem, which took place in March, +necessitated a readjustment of his political attitude. He had prepared +his arsenal for the use of a strategy now obviously beside the mark. The +vital part of the first inaugural was its attempt to cut the ground +from under the slave profiteers. Its assertion that nothing else was +important, the idea that the crisis was "artificial," was sincere. Two +discoveries had revolutionized Lincoln's thought. The discovery +that what the South was in earnest about was not slavery but State +sovereignty; the discovery that the North was far from a unit upon +nationalism. To meet the one, to organize the other, was the double task +precipitated by the fall of Sumter. Not only as a line of attack, but +also as a means of defense, Lincoln had to raise to its highest power +the argument for the sovereign reality of the national government. The +effort to do this formed the silent inner experience behind the surging +external events in the stormy months between April and July. It was +governed by a firmness not paralleled in his outward course. As always, +Lincoln the thinker asked no advice. It was Lincoln the administrator, +painfully learning a new trade, who was timid, wavering, pliable in +council. Behind the apprentice in statecraft, the lonely thinker stood +apart, inflexible as ever, impervious to fear. The thinking which +he formulated in the late spring and early summer of 1861 obeyed his +invariable law of mental gradualness. It arose out of the deep places +of his own past. He built up his new conclusion by drawing together +conclusions he had long held, by charging them with his later +experience, by giving to them a new turn, a new significance. + +Lincoln's was one of those natures in which ideas have to become latent +before they can be precipitated by outward circumstance into definite +form. Always with him the idea that was to become powerful at a crisis +was one that he had long held in solution, that had permeated +him without his formulating it, that had entwined itself with his +heartstrings; never was it merely a conscious act of the logical +faculty. His characteristics as a lawyer--preoccupation with basal +ideas, with ethical significance, with those emotions which form the +ultimates of life--these always determined his thought. His idea of +nationalism was a typical case. He had always believed in the reality of +the national government as a sovereign fact. But he had thought little +about it; rather he had taken it for granted. It was so close to his +desire that he could not without an effort acknowledge the sincerity +of disbelief in it. That was why he was so slow in forming a true +comprehension of the real force opposing him. Disunion had appeared +to him a mere device of party strategy. That it was grounded upon a +genuine, a passionate conception of government, one irreconcilable with +his own, struck him, when at last he grasped it, as a deep offense. The +literary statesman sprang again to life. He threw all the strength of +his mind, the peculiar strength that had made him president, into a +statement of the case for nationalism. + +His vehicle for publishing his case was the first message to +Congress.(1) It forms an amazing contrast with the first inaugural. +The argument over slavery that underlies the whole of the inaugural has +vanished. The message does not mention slavery. From the first word to +the last, it is an argument for the right of the central government to +exercise sovereign power, and for the duty of the American people--to +give their lives for the Union. No hint of compromise; nought of the +cautious and conciliatory tone of the inaugural. It is the blast of a +trumpet--a war trumpet. It is the voice of a stern mind confronting an +adversary that arouses in him no sympathy, no tolerance even, much less +any thought of concession. Needless to insist that this adversary is +an idea. Toward every human adversary, Lincoln was always unbelievably +tender. Though little of a theologian, he appreciated intuitively +some metaphysical ideas; he projected into politics the philosopher's +distinction between sin and the sinner. For all his hatred of the ideas +which he held to be treason, he never had a vindictive impulse directed +toward the men who accepted those ideas. Destruction for the idea, +infinite clemency for the person--such was his attitude. + +It was the idea of disunion, involving as he believed, a misconception +of the American government, and by implication, a misconception of the +true function of all governments everywhere, against which he declared a +war without recourse. + +The basis of his argument reaches back to his oration on Clay, to +his assertion that Clay loved his country, partly because it was his +country, even more because it was a free country. This idea ran +through Lincoln's thinking to the end. There was in him a suggestion +of internationalism. At the full height of his power, in his complete +maturity as a political thinker, he said that the most sacred bond in +life should be the brotherhood of the workers of all nations. No words +of his are more significant than his remarks to passing soldiers in +1863, such as, "There is more involved in this contest than is realized +by every one. There is involved in this struggle the question whether +your children and my children shall enjoy the privileges we have +enjoyed." And again, "I happen temporarily to occupy this White House. I +am a living witness that any one of your children may look to come here +as my father's child has."(2) + +This idea, the idea that the "plain people" are the chief concern of +government was the bed rock of all his political thinking. The mature, +historic Lincoln is first of all a leader of the plain people--of the +mass--as truly as was Cleon, or Robespierre, or Andrew Jackson. His +gentleness does not remove him from that stern category. The latent +fanaticism that is in every man, or almost every man, was grounded in +Lincoln, on his faith--so whimsically expressed--that God must have +loved the plain people because he had made so many of them.(3) The basal +appeal of the first message was in the words: + +"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."(4) Not a war over slavery, not a war to +preserve a constitutional system, but a war to assert and maintain the +sovereignty of--"We, the People." + +But how was it to be proved that this was, in fact, the true issue of +the moment? Here, between the lines of the first message, Lincoln's +deepest feelings are to be glimpsed. Out of the discovery that Virginia +honestly believed herself a sovereign power, he had developed in himself +a deep, slow-burning fervor that probably did much toward fusing him +into the great Lincoln of history. But why? What was there in that +idea which should strike so deep? Why was it not merely one view in a +permissible disagreement over the interpretation of the Constitution? +Why did the cause of the people inspire its champion to regard the +doctrine of State sovereignty as anti-christ? Lincoln has not revealed +himself on these points in so many words. But he has revealed himself +plainly enough by implication. + +The clue is in that element of internationalism which lay at the back of +his mind. There must be no misunderstanding of this element. It was not +pointing along the way of the modern "international." Lincoln would have +fought Bolshevism to the death. Side by side with his assertion of the +sanctity of the international bond of labor, stands his assertion of +a sacred right in property and that capital is a necessity.(5) His +internationalism was ethical, not opportunistic. It grew, as all +his ideas grew, not out of a theorem, not from a constitutional +interpretation, but from his overpowering commiseration for the mass +of mankind. It was a practical matter. Here were poor people to be +assisted, to be enriched in their estate, to be enlarged in spirit. The +mode of reaching the result was not the thing. Any mode, all sorts of +modes, might be used. What counted was the purpose to work relief, and +the willingness to throw overboard whatever it might be that tended to +defeat the purpose. His internationalism was but a denial of "my country +right or wrong." There can be little doubt that, in last resort, he +would have repudiated his country rather than go along with it in +opposition to what he regarded as the true purpose of government. And +that was, to advance the welfare of the mass of mankind. + +He thought upon this subject in the same manner in which he thought as +a lawyer, sweeping aside everything but what seemed to him the ethical +reality at the heart of the case. For him the "right" of a State to do +this or that was a constitutional question only so long as it did not +cross that other more universal "right," the paramount "charter of +liberty," by which, in his view, all other rights were conditioned. He +would impose on all mankind, as their basic moral obligation, the duty +to sacrifice all personal likes, personal ambitions, when these in their +permanent tendencies ran contrary to the tendency which he rated as +paramount. Such had always been, and was always to continue, his own +attitude toward slavery. No one ever loathed it more. But he never +permitted it to take the first place in his thoughts. If it could +be eradicated without in the process creating dangers for popular +government he would rejoice. But all the schemes of the Abolitionists, +hitherto, he had condemned as dangerous devices because they would +strain too severely the fabric of the popular state, would violate +agreements which alone made it possible. Therefore, being always +relentless toward himself, he required of himself the renunciation of +this personal hope whenever, in whatever way, it threatened to make less +effective the great democratic state which appeared to him the central +fact of the world. + +The enlargement of his reasoning led him inevitably to an unsparing +condemnation of the Virginian theory. One of his rare flashes of +irritation was an exclamation that Virginia loyalty always had an +"if."(6) At this point, to make him entirely plain, there is needed +another basic assumption which he has never quite formulated. However, +it is so obviously latent in his thinking that the main lines are to be +made out clearly enough. Building ever on that paramount obligation +of all mankind to consider first the welfare of God's plain people, he +assumed that whenever by any course of action any congregation of men +were thrown together and led to form any political unit, they were never +thereafter free to disregard in their attitude toward that unit its +value in supporting and advancing the general cause of the welfare of +the plain people. A sweeping, and in some contingencies, a terrible +doctrine! Certainly, as to individuals, classes, communities even, a +doctrine that might easily become destructive. But it formed the basis +of all Lincoln's thought about the "majority" in America. Upon it +would have rested his reply, had he ever made a reply, to the Virginia +contention that while his theory might apply to each individual State, +it could not apply to the group of States. He would have treated such +a reply, whether fairly or unfairly, as a legal technicality. He would +have said in substance: here is a congregation to be benefited, this +great mass of all the inhabitants of all the States of the Union; +accident, or destiny, or what you will, has brought them together, but +here they are; they are moving forward, haltingly, irregularly, but +steadily, toward fuller and fuller democracy; they are part of +the universal democratic movement; their vast experiment has an +international significance; it is the hope of the "Liberal party +throughout the world"; to check that experiment, to break it into +Separate minor experiments; to reduce the imposing promise of its +example by making it seem unsuccessful, would be treason to mankind. +Therefore, both on South and North, both on the Seceders he meant to +fight and on those Northerners of whom he was not entirely sure, he +aimed to impose the supreme immediate duty of proving to the world that +democracy on a great scale could have sufficient vitality to maintain +itself against any sort of attack. Anticipating faintly the Gettysburg +oration, the first message contained these words: "And 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 can +not maintain its integrity against its own domestic foes. . . . Must a +government of necessity be too strong for the liberties of its people +or too weak to maintain its own existence?"(7) He told Hay that "the +crucial idea pervading this struggle is the necessity that is upon us +to prove that popular government is not an absurdity"; "that the basal +issue was whether or no the people could govern themselves."(8) + +But all this elaborate reasoning, if it went no further, lacked +authority. It was political speculation. To clothe itself with authority +it had to discover a foundation in historic fact. The real difficulty +was not what ought to have been established in America in the past, +but what actually had been. Where was the warrant for those bold +proposition--who "we, the people," really were; in what their sovereign +power really consisted; what was history's voice in the matter? To state +an historic foundation was the final aim of the message. To hit its mark +it had to silence those Northerners who denied the obligation to fight +for the Union; it had to oppose their "free love" ideas of political +unity with the conception of an established historic government, one +which could not be overthrown except through the nihilistic process +of revolution. So much has been written upon the exact location of +sovereignty in the American federal State that it is difficult to escape +the legalistic attitude, and to treat the matter purely as history. So +various, so conflicting, and at times so tenuous, are the theories, +that a flippant person might be forgiven did he turn from the whole +discussion saying impatiently it was blind man's buff. But on one thing, +at least, we must all agree. Once there was a king over this country, +and now there is no king. Once the British Crown was the sovereign, and +now the Crown has receded into the distance beyond the deep blue sea. +When the Crown renounced its sovereignty in America, what became of it? +Did it break into fragments and pass peacemeal to the various revolted +colonies? Was it transferred somehow to the group collectively? These +are the obvious theories; but there are others. And the others give +rise to subtler speculations. Who was it that did the actual revolting +against the Crown--colonies, parties, individuals, the whole American +people, who? + +Troublesome questions these, with which Lincoln and the men of his time +did not deal in the spirit of historical science. Their wishes fathered +their thoughts. Southerners, practically without exception, held +the theory of the disintegration of the Crown's prerogative, its +distribution among the States. The great leaders of Northern thought +repudiated the idea. Webster and Clay would have none of it. But +their own theories were not always consistent; and they differed +among themselves. Lincoln did the natural thing. He fastened upon the +tendencies in Northern thought that supported his own faith. Chief among +these was the idea that sovereignty passed to the general congregation +of the inhabitants of the colonies--"we, the people"--because we, the +people, were the real power that supported the revolt. He had accepted +the idea that the American Revolution was an uprising of the people, +that its victory was in a transfer of sovereign rights from an English +Crown to an American nation; that a new collective state, the Union, was +created by this nation as the first act of the struggle, and that it was +to the Union that the Crown succumbed, to the Union that its prerogative +passed. To put this idea in its boldest and its simplest terms was the +crowning effort of the message. + +"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 and 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 this old dependence for them and made them States, such +as they are."(9) + +This first message completes the evolution of Lincoln as a political +thinker. It is his third, his last great landmark. The Peoria speech, +which drew to a focus all the implications of his early life, laid the +basis of his political significance; the Cooper Union speech, summing +up his conflict with Douglas, applied his thinking to the new issue +precipitated by John Brown; but in both these he was still predominantly +a negative thinker, still the voice of an opposition. With the first +message, he became creative; he drew together what was latent in his +earlier thought; he discarded the negative; he laid the foundation of +all his subsequent policy. The breadth and depth of his thinking is +revealed by the fulness with which the message develops the implications +of his theory. In so doing, he anticipated the main issues that were to +follow: his determination to keep nationalism from being narrowed into +mere "Northernism"; his effort to create an all-parties government; his +stubborn insistence that he was suppressing an insurrection, not waging +external war; his doctrine that the Executive, having been chosen by the +entire people, was the one expression of the sovereignty of the people, +and therefore, the repository of all these exceptional "war powers" that +are dormant in time of peace. Upon each of those issues he was destined +to wage fierce battles with the politicians who controlled Congress, who +sought to make Congress his master, who thwarted, tormented and almost +defeated him. In the light of subsequent history the first message has +another aspect besides its significance as political science. In its +clear understanding of the implications of his attitude, it attains +political second sight. As Lincoln, immovable, gazes far into the +future, his power of vision makes him, yet again though in a widely +different sense, the "seer in a trance, Seeing all his own mischance." + +His troubles with Congress began at once. The message was received on +July fourth, politely, but with scant response to its ideas. During +two weeks, while Congress in its fatuousness thought that the battle +impending in Virginia would settle things, the majority in Congress +would not give assent to Lincoln's view of what the war was about. And +then came Bull Run. In a flash the situation changed. Fatuousness was +puffed out like a candle in a wind. The rankest extremist saw that +Congress must cease from its debates and show its hand; must say what +the war was about; must inform the nation whether it did or did not +agree with the President. + +On the day following Bull Run, Crittenden introduced this resolution: +"That the present, deplorable civil war has been forced upon the country +by the Disunionists of the Southern States, now in arms against the +constitutional government, and in arms around the capital; that in this +national emergency, Congress, banishing all feelings of mere passion and +resentment, will recollect only its duty to the whole country; that this +war is not waged on their part in any spirit of oppression or for +any purpose of conquest or subjugation, or purpose of overthrowing or +interfering with the rights or established institutions of these 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; and that as soon as these objects are +accomplished, the war ought to cease." This Crittenden Resolution was +passed instantly by both Houses, without debate and almost without +opposition. (10) + +Paradoxically, Bull Run had saved the day for Lincoln, had enabled him +to win his first victory as a statesman. + + + + +XVIII. THE JACOBIN CLUB + +The keen Englishman who had observed the beauty of the Virginian woods +on "Bull Run Sunday," said, after the battle was lost, "I hope Senator +Wilson is satisfied." He was sneering at the whole group of intemperate +Senators none of whom had ever smelled powder, but who knew it all when +it came to war; who had done their great share in driving the President +and the generals into a premature advance. Senator Wilson was one of +those who went out to Manassas to see the Confederacy overthrown, that +fateful Sunday. He was one of the most precipitate among those who fled +back to Washington. On the way, driving furiously, amid a press of men +and vehicles, he passed a carriage containing four Congressmen who were +taking their time. Perhaps irritated by their coolness, he shouted to +them to make haste. "If we were in as big a hurry as you are," replied +Congressman Riddle, scornfully, "we would." + +These four Congressmen played a curiously dramatic part before they got +back to Washington. So did a party of Senators with whom they joined +forces. This other party, at the start, also numbered four. They had +planned a jolly picnic--this day that was to prove them right in +hurrying the government into battle!--and being wise men who knew how +to take time by the forelock, they had taken their luncheon with them. +From what is known of Washington and Senators, then as now, one may risk +a good deal that the luncheon was worth while. Part of the tragedy of +that day was the accidental break-up of this party with the result amid +the confusion of a road crowded by pleasure-seekers, that two Senators +went one way carrying off the luncheon, while the other two, making the +best of the disaster, continued southward through those beautiful early +hours when Russell was admiring the scenery, their luncheon all to seek. +The lucky men with the luncheon were the Senators Benjamin Wade +and Zachary Chandler. Senator Trumbull and Senator Grimes, both on +horseback, were left to their own devices. However, fortune was with +them. Several hours later they had succeeded in getting food by the +wayside and were resting in a grove of trees some distance beyond the +village of Centerville. Suddenly, they suffered an appalling surprise; +happening to look up, they beheld emerging out of the distance, a +stampede of men and horses which came thundering down the country road, +not a hundred yards from where they sat. "We immediately mounted our +horses," as Trumbull wrote to his wife the next day, "and galloped to +the road, by which time it was crowded, hundreds being in advance on +the way to Centerville and two guns of Sherman's battery having already +passed in full retreat. We kept on with the crowd, not knowing what else +to do. We fed our horses at Centerville and left there at six o'clock.... +Came on to Fairfax Court House where we got supper and, leaving there at +ten o'clock reached home at half past two this morning. . . . I am +dreadfully disappointed and mortified."(1) + +Meanwhile, what of those other gay picnickers, Senator Wade and Senator +Chandler? They drove in a carriage. Viewing the obligations of the hour +much as did C. C. Clay at the President's reception, they were armed. +Wade had "his famous rifle" which he had brought with him to Congress, +which at times in the fury of debate he had threatened to use, which +had become a byword. These Senators seem to have ventured nearer to +the front than did Trumbull and Grimes, and were a little later in the +retreat At a "choke-up," still on the far side of Centerville, their +carriage passed the carriage of the four Congressmen--who, by the way, +were also armed, having among them "four of the largest navy revolvers." + +All these men, whatever their faults or absurdities, were intrepid. +The Congressmen, at least, were in no good humor, for they had driven +through a regiment of three months men whose time expired that day and +who despite the cannon in the distance were hurrying home. + +The race of the fugitives continued. At Centerville, the Congressmen +passed Wade. Soon afterward Wade passed them for the second time. About +a mile out of Fairfax Court House, "at the foot of a long down grade, +the pike on the northerly side was fenced and ran along a farm. On the +other side for a considerable distance was a wood, utterly impenetrable +for men or animals, larger than cats or squirrels." Here the Wade +carriage stopped. The congressional carriage drove up beside it. The two +blocked a narrow way where as in the case of Horatius at the bridge, +"a thousand might well be stopped by three." And then "bluff Ben Wade" +showed the mettle that was in him. The "old Senator, his hat well back +on his head," sprang out of his carriage, his rifle in his hand, and +called to the others, "Boys, we'll stop this damned runaway." And they +did it. Only six of them, but they lined up across that narrow road; +presented their weapons and threatened to shoot; seized the bridles +of horses and flung the horses back on their haunches; checked a +panic-stricken army; held it at bay, until just when it seemed they were +about to be overwhelmed, military reserves hurrying out from Fairfax +Court House, took command of the road. Cool, unpretentious Riddle calls +the episode "Wade's exploit," and adds "it was much talked of." The +newspapers dealt with it extravagantly.(2) + +Gallant as the incident was, it was all the military service that "Ben" +Wade and "Zach" Chandler--for thus they are known in history-over saw. +But one may believe that it had a lasting effect upon their point of +view and on that of their friend Lyman Trumbull. Certain it is that none +of the three thereafter had any doubts about putting the military men +in their place. All the error of their own view previous to Bull Run was +forgotten. Wade and Chandler, especially, when military questions were +in dispute, felt that no one possibly could know more of the subject +than did the men who stopped the rout in the narrow road beyond Fairfax. + +Three of those picnickers who missed their guess on Bull Run Sunday, +Wade, Chandler and Trumbull, were destined to important parts in the +stern years that were to come. Before the close of the year 1861 the +three made a second visit to the army; and this time they kept together. +To that second visit momentous happenings may be traced. How it came +about must be fully understood. + +Two of the three, Wade and Chandler, were temperamentally incapable of +understanding Lincoln. Both were men of fierce souls; each had but +a very limited experience. Wade had been a country lawyer in Ohio; +Chandler, a prosperous manufacturer in Michigan. They were party men by +instinct, blind to the faults of their own side, blind to the virtues +of their enemies. They were rabid for the control of the government by +their own organized machine. + +Of Chandler, in Michigan, it was said that he "carried the Republican +organization in his breeches pocket"; partly through control of the +Federal patronage, which Lincoln frankly conceded to him, partly through +a "judicious use of money."(3) Chandler's first clash with Lincoln was +upon the place that the Republican machine was to hold in the conduct of +the war. + +From the beginning Lincoln was resolved that the war should not be +merely a party struggle. Even before he was inaugurated, he said that +he meant to hold the Democrats "close to the Administration on the +naked Union issue."(4) He had added, "We must make it easy for them" to +support the government "because we can't live through the case without +them." This was the foundation of his attempt--so obvious between the +lines of the first message--to create an all-parties government. This, +Chandler violently opposed. Violence was always Chandler's note, so much +so that a scornful opponent once called him "Xantippe in pants." + +Lincoln had given Chandler a cause of offense in McClellan's elevation +to the head of the army.* McClellan was a Democrat. There can be little +doubt that Lincoln took the fact into account in selecting him. Shortly +before, Lincoln had aimed to placate the Republicans by showing high +honor to their popular hero, Fremont. + + * Strictly speaking he did not become head of the army until + the retirement of Scott in November. Practically, he was + supreme almost from the moment of his arrival in Washington. + +When the catastrophe occurred at Bull Run, Fremont was a major-general +commanding the Western Department with headquarters at St. Louis. He +was one of the same violent root-and-branch wing of the Republicans--the +Radicals of a latter day--of which Chandler was a leader. The temper of +that wing had already been revealed by Senator Baker in his startling +pronouncement: "We of the North control the Union, and we are going to +govern our own Union in our own way." Chandler was soon to express it +still more exactly, saying, "A rebel has sacrificed all his rights. He +has no right to life, liberty or the pursuit of happiness."(5) Here +was that purpose to narrowing nationalism into Northernism, even to +radicalism, and to make the war an outlet for a sectional ferocity, +which Lincoln was so firmly determined to prevent. All things +considered, the fact that on the day following Bull Run he did not +summon the Republican hero to Washington, that he did summon a Democrat, +was significant. It opened his long duel with the extremists. + +The vindictive Spirit of the extremists had been rebuffed by Lincoln +in another way. Shortly after Bull Run, Wade and Chandler appealed to +Lincoln to call out negro soldiers. Chandler said that he did not care +whether or no this would produce a servile insurrection in the South. +Lincoln's refusal made another count in the score of the extremists +against him.(6) + +During the late summer of 1861, Chandler, Wade, Trumbull, were all +busily organizing their forces for an attack on the Administration. +Trumbull, indeed, seemed out of place in that terrible company. In time, +he found that he was out of place. At a crucial moment he came over +to Lincoln. But not until he had done yeoman service with Lincoln's +bitterest enemies. The clue to his earlier course was an honest +conviction that Lincoln, though well-intentioned, was weak.(7) Was this +the nemesis of Lincoln's pliability in action during the first stage +of his Presidency? It may be. The firm inner Lincoln, the unyielding +thinker of the first message, was not appreciated even by well-meaning +men like Trumbull. The inner and the outer Lincoln were still +disconnected. And the outer, in his caution, in his willingness to be +instructed, in his opposition to extreme measures, made the inevitable +impression that temperance makes upon fury, caution upon rashness. + +Throughout the late summer, Lincoln was the target of many attacks, +chiefly from the Abolitionists. Somehow, in the previous spring, they +had got it into their heads that at heart he was one of them, that he +waited only for a victory to declare the war a crusade of abolition.(8) +When the crisis passed and a Democrat was put at the head of the army, +while Fremont was left in the relative obscurity of St. Louis, Abolition +bitterness became voluble. The Crittenden Resolution was scoffed at as +an "ill-timed revival of the policy of conciliation." Threats against +the Administration revived, taking the old form of demands for a wholly +new Cabinet The keener-sighted Abolitionists had been alarmed by the +first message, by what seemed to them its ominous silence as to slavery. +Late in July, Emerson said in conversation, "If the Union is incapable +of securing universal freedom, its disruption were as the breaking up of +a frog-pond."(9) An outcry was raised because Federal generals did not +declare free all the slaves who in any way came into their hands. +The Abolitionists found no solace in the First Confiscation Act which +provided that an owner should lose his claim to a slave, had the slave +been used to assist the Confederate government. They were enraged by an +order, early in August, informing generals that it was the President's +desire "that all existing rights in all the States be fully respected +and maintained; in cases of fugitives from the loyal Slave States, the +enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law by the ordinary forms of judicial +proceedings must be respected by the military authorities; in +the disloyal States the Confiscation Act of Congress must be your +guide."(10) Especially, the Abolitionists were angered because of +Lincoln's care for the forms of law in those Slave States that had not +seceded. They vented their bitterness in a famous sneer--"The President +would like to have God on his side, but he must have Kentucky." + +A new temper was forming throughout the land. It was not merely the old +Abolitionism. It was a blend of all those elements of violent feeling +which war inevitably releases; it was the concentration of all these +elements on the issue of Abolition as upon a terrible weapon; it was the +resurrection of that primitive blood-lust which lies dormant in every +peaceful nation like a sleeping beast. This dreadful power rose out +of its sleep and confronted, menacing, the statesman who of all our +statesmen was most keenly aware of its evil, most determined to put it +under or to perish in the attempt With its appearance, the deepest of +all the issues involved, according to Lincoln's way of thinking, was +brought to a head. Was the Republic to issue from the war a worthy or +an unworthy nation? That was pretty definitely a question of whether +Abraham Lincoln or, say, Zachary Chandler, was to control its policy. + +A vain, weak man precipitated the inevitable struggle between these two. +Fremont had been flattered to the skies. He conceived himself a genius. +He was persuaded that the party of the new temper, the men who may +fairly be called the Vindictives, were lords of the ascendent. He +mistook their volubility for the voice of the nation. He determined to +defy Lincoln. He issued a proclamation freeing the slaves of all who +had "taken an active part" with the enemies of the United States in the +field. He set up a "bureau of abolition." + +Lincoln first heard of Fremont's proclamation through the newspapers. +His instant action was taken in his own extraordinarily gentle way. "I +think there is great danger," he wrote, "that the closing paragraph (of +Fremont's proclamation) in relation to the confiscation of property and +the liberating of slaves of traitorous owners, will alarm our Southern +Union friends and turn them against us; perhaps ruin our rather fair +prospect for Kentucky. Allow me, therefore, to ask that you will, as +of your own motion, modify that paragraph so as to conform" to the +Confiscation Act. He added, "This letter is written in the Spirit of +caution, not of censure."(11) + +Fremont was not the man to understand instruction of this sort. He would +make no compromise with the President. If Lincoln wished to go over +his head and rescind his order let him do so-and take the consequences. +Lincoln quietly did so. His battle with the Vindictives was on. For +a moment it seemed as if he had destroyed his cause. So loud was the +outcry of the voluble people, that any one might have been excused +momentarily for thinking that all the North had risen against him. Great +meetings of protest were held. Eminent men--even such fine natures as +Bryant--condemned his course. In the wake of the incident, when it was +impossible to say how significant the outcry really was, Chandler, +who was staunch for Fremont, began his active interference with the +management of the army. McClellan had insisted on plenty of time +in which to drill the new three-year recruits who were pouring into +Washington. He did not propose to repeat the experience of General +McDowell. On the other hand, Chandler was bent on forcing him into +action. He, Wade and Trumbull combined, attempting to bring things to +pass in a way to suit themselves and their faction. To these men and +their followers, clever young Hay gave the apt name of "The Jacobin +Club." + +They began their campaign by their second visit to the army. Wade was +their chief spokesman. He urged McClellan to advance at once; to risk +an unsuccessful battle rather than continue to stand still; the country +wanted something done; a defeat could easily be repaired by the swarming +recruits.(12) + +This callous attitude got no response from the Commanding General. The +three Senators turned upon Lincoln. "This evening," writes Hay in +his diary on October twenty-sixth, "the Jacobin Club represented by +Trumbull, Chandler and Wade, came out to worry the Administration into +a battle. The agitation of the summer is to be renewed. The President +defended McClellan's deliberateness. The next night we went over +to Seward's and found Chandler and Wade there." They repeated their +reckless talk; a battle must be fought; defeat would be no worse than +delay; "and a great deal more trash." + +But Lincoln was not to be moved. He and Hay called upon McClellan. The +President deprecated this new manifestation of popular impatience, but +said it was a reality and should be taken into account. "At the same +time, General," said he, "you must not fight until you are ready."(13) + +At this moment of extreme tension occurred the famous incident of +the seizure of the Confederate envoys, Mason and Slidell, who were +passengers on the British merchant ship, the Trent. These men had run +the blockade which had now drawn its strangling line along the whole +coast of the Confederacy; they had boarded the Trent at Havana, and +under the law of nations were safe from capture. But Captain Wilkes of +the United States Navy, more zealous than discreet, overhauled the Trent +and took off the two Confederates. Every thoughtless Northerner went +wild with joy. At last the government had done something. Even the +Secretary of the Navy so far forgot himself as to telegraph to Wilkes +"Congratulate you on the great public service you have rendered in the +capture of the rebel emissaries."(14) Chandler promptly applauded the +seizure and when it was suggested that perhaps the envoys should +be released he at once arrayed himself in opposition.(15) With the +truculent Jacobins ready to close battle should the government do its +duty, with the country still echoing to cheers for Fremont and hisses +for the President, with nothing to his credit in the way of military +success, Lincoln faced a crisis. He was carried through the crisis by +two strong men. Sumner, head and front of Abolitionism but also a +great lawyer, came at once to his assistance. And what could a thinking +Abolitionist say after that! Seward skilfully saved the face of the +government by his management of the negotiation. The envoys were +released and sent to England. + +It was the only thing to do, but Chandler and all his sort had opposed +it. The Abolition fury against the government was at fever heat. Wendell +Phillips in a speech at New York denounced the Administration as having +no definite purpose in the war, and was interrupted by frantic cheers +for Fremont. McClellan, patiently drilling his army, was, in the eyes +of the Jacobins, doing nothing. Congress had assembled. There was every +sign that troubled waters lay just ahead. + + + + +XIX. THE JACOBINS BECOME INQUISITORS + +The temper animating Hay's "Jacobins" formed a new and really formidable +danger which menaced Lincoln at the close of 1861. But had he been +anything of an opportunist, it would have offered him an unrivaled +opportunity. For a leader who sought personal power, this raging +savagery, with its triple alliance of an organized political machine, a +devoted fanaticism, and the war fury, was a chance in ten thousand. It +led to his door the steed of militarism, shod and bridled, champing +upon the bit, and invited him to leap into the saddle. Ten words of +acquiescence in the program of the Jacobins, and the dreaded role of the +man on horseback was his to command. + +The fallacy that politics are primarily intellectual decisions upon +stated issues, the going forth of the popular mind to decide between +programs presented to it by circumstances, receives a brilliant +refutation in the course of the powerful minority that was concentrating +around the three great "Jacobins." The subjective side of politics, also +the temperamental side, here found expression. Statecraft is an art; +creative statesmen are like other artists. Just as the painter or the +poet, seizing upon old subjects, uses them as outlets for his particular +temper, his particular emotion, and as the temper, the emotion are what +counts in his work, so with statesmen, with Lincoln on the one hand, +with Chandler at the opposite extreme. + +The Jacobins stood first of all for the sudden reaction of bold fierce +natures from a long political repression. They had fought their way to +leadership as captains of an opposition. They were artists who had been +denied an opportunity of expression. By a sudden turn of fortune, it had +seemed to come within their grasp. Temperamentally they were fighters. +Battle for them was an end in itself. The thought of Conquest sang to +them like the morning stars. Had they been literary men, their favorite +poetry would have been the sacking of Troy town. Furthermore, they were +intensely provincial. Undoubted as was their courage, they had also the +valor of ignorance. They had the provincial's disdain for the other +side of the horizon, his unbounded confidence in his ability to whip all +creation. Chandler, scornfully brushing aside a possible foreign war, +typified their mood. + +And in quiet veto of all their hopes rose against them the apparently +easy-going, the smiling, story-telling, unrevengeful, new man at +the White House. It is not to be wondered that they spent the summer +laboring to build up a party against him, that they turned eagerly to +the new session of Congress, hoping to consolidate a faction opposed to +Lincoln. + +His second message (1), though without a word of obvious defiance, set +him squarely against them on all their vital contentions. The winter of +1861-1862 is the strangest period of Lincoln's career. Although the two +phases of him, the outer and the inner, were, in point of fact, moving +rapidly toward their point of fusion, apparently they were further away +than ever before. Outwardly, his most conspicuous vacillations were in +this winter and in the following spring. Never before or after did he +allow himself to be overshadowed so darkly by his advisers in all the +concerns of action. In amazing contrast, in all the concerns of thought, +he was never more entirely himself. The second message, prepared when +the country rang with what seemed to be a general frenzy against him, +did not give ground one inch. This was all the more notable because his +Secretary of War had tried to force his hand. Cameron had the reputation +of being about the most astute politician in America. Few people +attributed to him the embarrassment of principles. And Cameron, in the +late autumn, after closely observing the drift of things, determined +that Fremont had hit it off correctly, that the crafty thing to do was +to come out for Abolition as a war policy. In a word, he decided to go +over to the Jacobins. He put into his annual report a recommendation of +Chandler's plan for organizing an army of freed slaves and sending it +against the Confederacy. Advanced copies of this report had been sent +to the press before Lincoln knew of it. He peremptorily ordered their +recall, and the exclusion of this suggestion from the text of the +report.(2) + +On the heels of this refusal to concede to Chandler one of his cherished +schemes, the second message was sent to Congress. The watchful and +exasperated Jacobins found abundant offense in its omissions. On the +whole great subject of possible emancipation it was blankly silent. The +nearest it came to this subject was one suggestion which applied only +to those captured slaves who had been forfeited by the disloyal owners +through being employed to assist the Confederate government Lincoln +advised that after receiving their freedom they be sent out of the +country and colonized "at some place, or places, in a climate congenial +to them." Beyond this there was nothing bearing on the slavery question +except the admonition--so unsatisfactory to Chandler and all +his sort--that while "the Union must be preserved, and hence all +indispensable means must be employed," Congress should "not be in haste +to determine that radical and extreme measures, which may reach the +loyal as well as the disloyal, are indispensable." + +Lincoln was entirely clear in his own mind that there was but one way +to head off the passion of destruction that was rioting in the Jacobin +temper. "In considering the policy to be adopted in suppressing the +insurrection, 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." He persisted in regarding the war as an insurrection +of the "disloyal portion of the American people," not as an external +struggle between the North and the South. + +Finally, the culmination of the message was a long elaborate argument +upon the significance of the war to the working classes. His aim was +to show that the whole trend of the Confederate movement was toward a +conclusion which would "place capital on an equal footing with, if not +above, labor, in the structure of government." Thus, as so often before, +he insisted on his own view of the significance in American politics of +all issues involving slavery--their bearing on the condition of the free +laborer. In a very striking passage, often overlooked, he ranked himself +once more, as first of all, a statesman of "the people," in the limited +class sense of the term. "Labor is prior to and independent of capital. +Capital is only the fruit of labor and could never have existed if labor +had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves +much the higher consideration." But so far is he from any revolutionary +purpose, that he adds immediately, "Capital has its rights which are as +worthy of protection as any other rights." His crowning vision is not +communism. His ideal world is one of universal opportunity, with labor +freed of every hindrance, with all its deserving members acquiring more +and more of the benefits of property. + +Such a message had no consolation for Chandler, Wade, or, as he then +was, for Trumbull. They looked about for a way to retaliate. And now two +things became plain. That "agitation of the summer" to which Hay refers, +had borne fruit, but not enough fruit. Many members of Congress who had +been swept along by the President's policy in July had been won over in +the reaction against him and were ripe for manipulation; but it was not +yet certain that they held the balance of power in Congress. To lock +horns with the Administration, in December, would have been so rash a +move that even such bold men as Chandler and Wade avoided it. Instead, +they devised an astute plan of campaign. Trumbull was Chairman of the +Senate Judiciary Committee, and in that important position would +bide his time to bring pressure to bear on the President through +his influence upon legislation. Wade and Chandler would go in for +propaganda. But they would do so in disguise. What more natural than +that Congress should take an active interest in the army, should wish +to do all in its power to "assist" the President in rendering the +army-efficient. For that purpose it was proposed to establish a joint +committee of the two Houses having no function but to look into military +needs and report to Congress. The proposal was at once accepted and its +crafty backers secured a committee dominated entirely by themselves. +Chandler was a member; Wade became Chairman.(3) This Committee on the +Conduct of the War became at once an inquisition. Though armed with no +weapon but publicity, its close connection with congressional intrigue, +its hostility to the President, the dramatic effect of any revelations +it chose to make or any charges it chose to bring, clothed it indirectly +with immense power. Its inner purpose may be stated in the words of +one of its members, "A more vigorous prosecution of the war and less +tenderness toward slavery."(4) Its mode of procedure was in constant +interrogation of generals, in frequent advice to the President, and on +occasion in threatening to rouse Congress against him.(5) A session of +the Committee was likely to be followed by a call on the President of +either Chandler or Wade. + +The Committee began immediately summoning generals before it to explain +what the army was doing. And every general was made to understand +that what the Committee wanted, what Congress wanted, what the country +wanted, was an advance--"something doing" as soon as possible. + +And now appeared another characteristic of the mood of these +furious men. They had become suspicious, honestly suspicious. This +suspiciousness grew with their power and was rendered frantic by +being crossed. Whoever disagreed with them was instantly an object of +distrust; any plan that contradicted their views was at once an evidence +of treason. + +The earliest display of this eagerness to see traitors in every bush +concerned a skirmish that took place at Ball's Bluff in Virginia. It +was badly managed and the Federal loss, proportionately, was large. The +officer held responsible was General Stone. Unfortunately for him, +he was particularly obnoxious to the Abolitionists; he had returned +fugitive slaves; and when objection was made by such powerful +Abolitionists as Governor Andrew of Massachusetts, Stone gave reign to a +sharp tongue. In the early days of the session, Roscoe Conkling told +the story of Ball's Bluff for the benefit of Congress in a brilliant, +harrowing speech. In a flash the rumor spread that the dead at +Ball's Bluff were killed by design, that Stone was a traitor, +that--perhaps!--who could say?--there were bigger traitors higher up. +Stone was summoned before the Inquisition.(6) + +While Stone was on the rack, metaphorically, while the Committee was +showing him every brutality in its power, refusing to acquaint him with +the evidence against him, intimating that they were able to convict him +of treason, between the fifth and the eleventh of January a crisis arose +in the War Office. Cameron had failed to ingratiate himself with the +rising powers. Old political enemies in Congress were implacable. +Scandals in his Department gave rise to sweeping charges of peculation. + +There is scarcely another moment when Lincoln's power was so precarious. +In one respect, in their impatience, the Committee reflected faithfully +the country at large. And by the irony of fate McClellan at this crucial +hour, had fallen ill. After waiting for his recovery during several +weeks, Lincoln ventured with much hesitation to call a conference of +generals.(7) They were sitting during the Stone investigation, producing +no result except a distraction in councils, devising plans that were +thrown over the moment the Commanding General arose from his bed. A +vote in Congress a few days previous had amounted to a censure of the +Administration. It was taken upon the Crittenden Resolution which had +been introduced a second time. Of those who had voted for it in July, +so many now abandoned the Administration that this resolution, the clear +embodiment of Lincoln's policy, was laid on the table, seventy-one +to sixty-five.(8) Lincoln's hope for an all-parties government was +receiving little encouragement The Democrats were breaking into +factions, while the control of their party organization was falling into +the hands of a group of inferior politicians who were content to "play +politics" in the most unscrupulous fashion. Both the Secretary of War +and the Secretary of State had authorized arbitrary arrests. Men in New +York and New England had been thrown into prison. The privilege of the +writ of habeas corpus had been denied them on the mere belief of the +government that they were conspiring with its enemies. Because of these +arrests, sharp criticism was being aimed at the Administration both +within and without Congress. + +For all these reasons, the government at Washington appeared to be +tottering. Desperate remedies seemed imperative. Lincoln decided to make +every concession he could make without letting go his central purpose. +First, he threw over Cameron; he compelled him to resign though he saved +his face by appointing him minister to Russia. But who was to take his +place? At this critical moment, the choice of a new Secretary of War +was a political problem of exacting difficulty. Just why Lincoln chose +a sullen, dictatorial lawyer whose experience in no way prepared him for +the office, has never been disclosed. Two facts appear to explain it. +Edwin M. Stanton was temperamentally just the man to become a good +brother to Chandler and Wade. Both of them urged him upon Lincoln +as successor to Cameron.(9) Furthermore, Stanton hitherto had been a +Democrat. His services in Buchanan's Cabinet as Attorney-General had +made him a national figure. Who else linked the Democrats and the +Jacobins? + +However, for almost any one but Lincoln, there was an objection that it +would have been hard to overcome. No one has ever charged Stanton with +politeness. A gloomy excitable man, of uncertain health, temperamentally +an over-worker, chronically apprehensive, utterly without the saving +grace of humor, he was capable of insufferable rudeness--one reason, +perhaps, why Chandler liked him. He and Lincoln had met but once. As +associate council in a case at Cincinnati, three years before, Lincoln +had been treated so contemptuously by Stanton that he had returned home +in pained humiliation. Since his inauguration, Stanton had been one of +his most vituperative critics. Was this insolent scold to be invited +into the Cabinet? Had not Lincoln at this juncture been in the full tide +of selflessness, surely some compromise would have been made with the +Committee, a secretary found less offensive personally to the President. +Lincoln disregarded the personal consideration. The candidate of +Chandler and Wade became secretary. It was the beginning of an intimate +alliance between the Committee and the War Office. Lincoln had laid up +for himself much trouble that he did not foresee. + +The day the new Secretary took office, he received from the Committee a +report upon General Stone:(10) Subsequently, in the Senate, Wade denied +that the Committee had advised the arrest of Stone.(11) Doubtless the +statement was technically correct. Nevertheless, there can be no doubt +that the inquisitors were wholly in sympathy with the Secretary when, +shortly afterward, Stone was seized upon Stanton's order, conveyed to a +fortress and imprisoned without trial. + +This was the Dreyfus case of the Civil War. Stone was never tried and +never vindicated. He was eventually released upon parole and after many +tantalizing disappointments permitted to rejoin the army. What gives the +event significance is its evidence of the power, at that moment, of +the Committee, and of the relative weakness of the President. Lincoln's +eagerness to protect condemned soldiers survives in many anecdotes. Hay +confides to his diary that he was sometimes "amused at the eagerness +with which the President caught at any fact which would justify" +clemency. And yet, when Stanton informed him of the arrest of Stone, +he gloomily acquiesced. "I hope you have good reasons for it," he said. +Later he admitted that he knew very little about the case. But he did +not order Stone's release. + +Lincoln had his own form of ruthlessness. The selfless man, by dealing +with others in the same extraordinary way in which he deals with +himself, may easily under the pressure of extreme conditions become +impersonal in his thinking upon duty. The morality of such a state +of mind is a question for the philosopher. The historian must content +himself with pointing out the only condition that redeems it--if +anything redeems it The leader who thinks impersonally about others +and personally about himself-what need among civilized people to +characterize him? Borgia, Louis XIV, Napoleon. If we are ever to pardon +impersonal thinking it is only in the cases of men who begin by effacing +themselves. The Lincoln who accepted Stanton as a Cabinet officer, who +was always more or less overshadowed by the belief that in saving the +government he was himself to perish, is explicable, at least, when +individual men became for him, as at times they did, impersonal factors +in a terrible dream. + +There are other considerations in the attempt to give a moral value to +his failure to interfere in behalf of Stone. The first four months of +1862 are not only his feeblest period as a ruler, the period when he +was barely able to hold his own, but also the period when he was least +definite as a personality, when his courage and his vitality seemed +ebbing tides. Again, his spirit was in eclipse. Singularly enough, this +was the darkness before the dawn. June of 1862 saw the emergence, with a +suddenness difficult to explain, of the historic Lincoln. But in +January of that year he was facing downward into the mystery of his last +eclipse. All the dark places of his heredity must be searched for clues +to this strange experience. There are moments, especially under strain +of a personal bereavement that fell upon him in February, when his will +seemed scarcely a reality; when, as a directing force he may be said +momentarily to have vanished; when he is hardly more than a ghost among +his advisers. The far-off existence of weak old Thomas cast its parting +shadow across his son's career. + +However, even our Dreyfus case drew from Lincoln another display of that +settled conviction of his that part of his function was to be scapegoat. +"I serve," which in a way might be taken as his motto always, was +peculiarly his motto, and likewise his redemption, in this period of his +weakness. The enemies of the Committee in Congress took the matter up +and denounced Stanton. Thereupon, Wade flamed forth, criticizing Lincoln +for his leniency, venting his fury on all those who were tender of their +enemies, storming that "mercy to traitors is cruelty to loyal men."(12) +Lincoln replied neither to Wade nor to his antagonists; but, without +explaining the case, without a word upon the relation to it of the +Secretary and the Committee, he informed the Senate that the President +was alone responsible for the arrest and imprisonment of General +Stone.(13) + + + + +XX. IS CONGRESS THE PRESIDENT'S MASTER? + +The period of Lincoln's last eclipse is a period of relative silence. +But his mind was not inactive. He did not cease thinking upon the deep +theoretical distinctions that were separating him by a steadily widening +chasm from the most powerful faction in Congress. In fact, his mental +powers were, if anything, more keen than ever before. Probably, it was +the very clearness of the mental vision that enfeebled him when it came +to action. He saw his difficulties with such crushing certainty. During +this trying period there is in him something of Hamlet. + +The reaction to his ideas, to what is either expressed or implied, in +the first and second messages, was prompt to appear. The Jacobins did +not confine their activities within the scope of the terrible Committee. +Wade and Chandler worked assiduously undermining his strength in +Congress. Trumbull, though always less extreme than they, was still the +victim of his delusion that Lincoln was a poor creature, that the only +way to save the country was to go along with those grim men of strength +who dominated the Committee. In January, a formidable addition appeared +in the ranks of Lincoln's opponents. Thaddeus Stevens made a speech in +the House that marks a chapter. It brought to a head a cloud of floating +opposition and dearly defined an issue involving the central proposition +in Lincoln's theory of the government. The Constitution of the United +States, in its detailed provisions, is designed chiefly to meet the +exigencies of peace. With regard to the abnormal conditions of war, +it is relatively silent. Certain "war powers" are recognized but not +clearly defined; nor is it made perfectly plain what branch of the +government possesses them. The machinery for their execution is assumed +but not described--as when the Constitution provides that the privileges +of the writ of habeas corpus are to be suspended only in time of war, +but does not specify by whom, or in what way, the suspension is to be +effected. Are those undefined "war powers," which are the most sovereign +functions of our government, vested in Congress or in the President? +Lincoln, from the moment he defined his policy, held tenaciously to the +theory that all these extraordinary powers are vested in the President. +By implication, at least, this idea is in the first message. Throughout +the latter part of 1861, he put the theory into practice. Whatever +seemed to him necessary in a state of war, he did, even to the arresting +of suspected persons, refusing them the privilege-of the habeas corpus, +and retaining them in prison without trial. During 1861, he left the +exercise of this sovereign authority to the discretion of the two +Secretaries of War and of State. + +Naturally, the Abolitionists, the Jacobins, the Democratic machine, +conscientious believers in the congressional theory of the government, +every one who for any reason, wanted to hit the Administration, united +in a chorus of wrath over arbitrary arrests. The greatest orator of +the time, Wendell Phillips, the final voice of Abolition, flayed the +government in public speeches for reducing America to an absolute +despotism. Trumbull introduced into the Senate a resolution calling upon +the President for a statement of the facts as to what he had actually +done.(1) + +But the subject of arrests was but the prelude to the play. The real +issue was the theory of the government. Where in last analysis does the +Constitution place the ultimate powers of sovereignty, the war powers? +In Congress or in the President? Therefore, in concrete terms, is +Congress the President's master, or is it only one branch of the +government with a definite but united activity of its own, without that +sweeping sovereign authority which in course of time has been acquired +by its parent body, the Parliament of Great Britain? + +On this point Lincoln never wavered. From first to last, he was +determined not to admit that Congress had the powers of Parliament. No +sooner had the politicians made out this attitude than their attack +on it began. It did not cease until Lincoln's death. It added a second +constitutional question to the issues of the war. Not only the issue +whether a State had a right to secede, but also the issue of the +President's possession of the war powers of the Constitution. Time and +again the leaders of disaffection in his own party, to say nothing of +the violent Democrats, exhausted their rhetoric denouncing Lincoln's +position. They did not deny themselves the delights of the sneer. +Senator Grimes spoke of a call on the President as an attempt "to +approach the footstool of power enthroned at the other end of the +Avenue."(2) Wade expanded the idea: "We ought to have a committee to +wait on him whenever we send him a bill, to know what his royal pleasure +is with regard to it. . . . We are told that some gentlemen . . . have +been to see the President. Some gentlemen are very fortunate in that +respect. Nobody can see him, it seems, except some privileged gentlemen +who are charged with his constitutional conscience."(3) As Lincoln kept +his doors open to all the world, as no one came and went with greater +freedom than the Chairman of the Committee, the sneer was-what one might +expect of the Committee. Sumner said: "I claim for Congress all that +belongs to any government in the exercise of the rights of war." +Disagreement with him, he treated with unspeakable disdain: "Born in +ignorance and pernicious in consequence, it ought to be received with +hissings of contempt, and just in proportion as it obtains acceptance, +with execration."(4) Henry Wilson declared that, come what might, the +policy of the Administration would be shaped by the two Houses. "I had +rather give a policy to the President of the United States than take a +policy from the President of the United States."(5) Trumbull thundered +against the President's theory as the last word in despotism.(6) + +Such is the mental perspective in which to regard the speech of Stevens +of January 22, 1862. With masterly clearness, he put his finger on the +heart of the matter: the exceptional problems of a time of war, problems +that can not be foreseen and prepared for by anticipatory legislation, +may be solved in but one way, by the temporary creation of the dictator; +this is as true of modern America as of ancient Rome; so far, most +people are agreed; but this extraordinary function must not be vested +in the Executive; on the contrary, it must be, it is, vested in the +Legislature. Stevens did not hesitate to push his theory to its +limit. He was not afraid of making the Legislature in time of war the +irresponsible judge of its own acts. Congress, said he, has all possible +powers of government, even the dictator's power; it could declare itself +a dictator; under certain circumstances he was willing that it should do +so.(7) + +The intellectual boldness of Lincoln was matched by an equal boldness. +Between them, he and Stevens had perfectly defined their issue. Granted +that a dictator was needed, which should it be--the President or +Congress? + +In the hesitancy at the White House during the last eclipse, in the +public distress and the personal grief, Lincoln withheld himself +from this debate. No great utterances break the gloom of this period. +Nevertheless, what may be considered his reply to Stevens is to be +found. Buried in the forgotten portions of the Congressional Globe is a +speech that surely was inspired-or, if not directly inspired, so close +a reflection of the President's thinking that it comes to the same thing +at the end. + +Its author, or apparent author, was one of the few serene figures in +that Thirty-Seventh Congress which was swept so pitilessly by epidemics +of passion. When Douglas, after coming out valiantly for the Union and +holding up Lincoln's hands at the hour of crisis, suddenly died, the +Illinois Legislature named as his successor in the Senate, Orville Henry +Browning. The new Senator was Lincoln's intimate friend. Their points +of view, their temperaments were similar. Browning shared Lincoln's +magnanimity, his hatred of extremes, his eagerness not to allow the +war to degenerate into revolution. In the early part of 1862 he was +Lincoln's spokesman in the Senate. Now that the temper of Wade and +Chandler, the ruthlessness that dominated the Committee, had drawn unto +itself such a cohort of allies; now that all their thinking had been +organized by a fearless mind; there was urgent need for a masterly +reply. Did Lincoln feel unequal, at the moment, to this great task? Very +probably he did. Anyhow, it was Browning who made the reply,(8) a reply +so exactly in his friend's vein, that--there you are! + +His aim was to explain the nature of those war powers of the government +"which lie dormant during time of peace," and therefore he frankly put +the question, "Is Congress the government?" Senator Fessenden, echoing +Stevens had said, "There is no limit on the powers of Congress; +everything must yield to the force of martial law as resolved by +Congress." "There, sir," said Browning, "is as broad and deep a +foundation for absolute despotism as was ever laid." He rang the changes +on the need to "protect minorities from the oppression and tyranny of +excited majorities." + +He went on to lay the basis of all Lincoln's subsequent defense of +the presidential theory as opposed to the congressional theory, by +formulating two propositions which reappear in some of Lincoln's most +famous papers. Congress is not a safe vessel for extraordinary powers, +because in our system we have difficulty in bringing it definitely to an +account under any sort of plebiscite. On the other hand the President, +if he abuses the war powers "when peace returns, is answerable to the +civil power for that abuse." + +But Browning was not content to reason on generalities. Asserting that +Congress could no more command the army than it could adjudicate a case, +he further asserted that the Supreme Court had settled the matter and +had lodged the war powers in the President. He cited a decision called +forth by the legal question, "Can a Circuit Court of the United States +inquire whether a President had acted rightly in calling out the militia +of a State to suppress an insurrection?" "The elevated office of the +President," said the Court, "chosen as he is by the People of the United +States, and the high responsibility he could not fail to feel when +acting in a case of such moment, appear to furnish as strong safeguards +against the wilful abuse of power as human prudence and foresight could +well devise. At all events, it is conferred upon him by the Constitution +and the laws of the United States, and therefore, must be respected and +enforced in its judicial tribunals."(9) + +Whether or not constitutional lawyers would agree with Browning in the +conclusion he drew from this decision, it was plainly the bed rock +of his thought. He believed that the President--whatever your mere +historian might have to say--was in point of fact the exponent of the +people as a whole, and therefore the proper vessel for the ultimate +rights of a sovereign, rights that only the people possess, that +only the people can delegate. And this was Lincoln's theory. Roughly +speaking, he-conceived of the presidential office about as if it were +the office of Tribune of the People. + +There was still another reason why both Lincoln and Browning feared +to yield anything to the theory of congressional supremacy. It was, +in their minds, not only the general question of all Congresses but +immediately of this particular Congress. An assembly in which the temper +of Wade and Chandler, of Stevens and Sumner, was entering the ascendent, +was an assembly to be feared; its supremacy was to be denied, its power +was to be fought. + +Browning did not close without a startling passage flung square in +the teeth of the apostles of fury. He summed up the opposite temper, +Lincoln's temper, in his description of "Our brethren of the South--for +I am willing to call them brethren; my heart yet yearns toward them with +a fervency of love which even their treason has not all extinguished, +which tempts me constantly to say in their behalf, 'Father, forgive +them, for they know not what they do.'" He pleaded with the Senate not +to consider them "as public enemies but as insurgent citizens only," and +advocated an Act of Amnesty restoring all political and property +rights "instantly upon their return to allegiance and submission to the +authority of the government." + +Had this narrowly constitutional issue arisen in quiet times, who can +say how slight might have been its significance? But Fate had decreed +that it should arise in the stormiest moment of our history. Millions +of men and women who cared nothing for constitutional theories, who were +governed by that passion to see immediate results which the thoughtless +ever confuse with achievement, these were becoming hysterical over +delay. Why did not the government do something? Everywhere voices were +raised accusing the President of cowardice. The mania of suspicion +was not confined to the Committee. The thoughts of a multitude were +expressed by Congressman Hickman in his foolish words, "These are days +of irresponsibility and imbecility, and we are required to perform two +offices--the office of legislator and the office of President." The +better part of a year had passed since the day of Sumter, and still the +government had no military success to its credit. An impetuous people +that lacked experience of war, that had been accustomed in unusual +measure to have its wishes speedily gratified, must somehow be +marshalled behind the government, unless the alternative was the +capture of power by the Congressional Cabal that was forming against the +President. + +Entering upon the dark days of the first half of 1862, Lincoln had no +delusions about the task immediately before him. He must win battles; +otherwise, he saw no way of building up that popular support which alone +would enable him to keep the direction of policy in the hands of the +Executive, to keep it out of the hands of Congress. In a word, the +standing or falling of his power appeared to have been committed to the +keeping of the army. What the army would do with it, save his policy or +wreck his policy, was to no small degree a question of the character and +the abilities of the Commanding General. + + + + +XXI. THE STRUGGLE TO CONTROL THE ARMY + +George Brinton McClellan, when at the age of thirty-four he was raised +suddenly to a dizzying height of fame and power, was generally looked +upon as a prodigy. Though he was not that, he had a real claim to +distinction. Had destiny been considerate, permitting him to rise +gradually and to mature as he rose, he might have earned a stable +reputation high among those who are not quite great. He had done well +at West Point, and as a very young officer in the Mexican War; he had +represented his country as a military observer with the allies in the +Crimea; he was a good engineer, and a capable man of business. His +winning personality, until he went wrong in the terrible days of 1862, +inspired "a remarkable affection and regard in every one from the +President to the humblest orderly that waited at his door."(1) He was +at home among books; he could write to his wife that Prince Napoleon +"speaks English very much as the Frenchmen do in the old English +comedies";(2) he was able to converse in "French, Spanish, Italian, +German, in two Indian dialects and he knew a little Russian and +Turkish." Men like Wade and Chandler probably thought of him as a +"highbrow," and doubtless he irritated them by invariably addressing +the President as "Your Excellency." He had the impulses as well as the +traditions of an elder day. But he had three insidious defects. At the +back of his mind there was a vein of theatricality, hitherto unrevealed, +that might, under sufficient stimulus, transform him into a poseur. +Though physically brave, he had in his heart, unsuspected by himself +or others, the dread of responsibility. He was void of humor. These +damaging qualities, brought out and exaggerated by too swift a rise to +apparent greatness, eventually worked his ruin. As an organizer he was +unquestionably efficient. His great achievement which secures him a +creditable place in American history was the conversion in the autumn of +1861 of a defeated rabble and a multitude of raw militia into a splendid +fighting machine. The very excellence of this achievement was part of +his undoing. It was so near to magical that it imposed on himself, gave +him a false estimate of himself, hid from him his own limitation. It +imposed also on his enemies. Crude, fierce men like the Vindictive +leaders of Congress, seeing this miracle take place so astoundingly +soon, leaped at once to the conclusion that he could, if he would, +follow it by another miracle. Having forged the thunderbolt, why could +he not, if he chose, instantly smite and destroy? All these hasty +inexperienced zealots labored that winter under the delusion that one +great battle might end the war. When McClellan, instead of rushing to +the front, entered his second phase--the one which he did not understand +himself, which his enemies never understood--when he entered upon his +long course of procrastination, the Jacobins, startled, dumfounded, +casting about for reasons, could find in their unanalytical vision, but +one. When Jove did not strike, it must be because Jove did not wish to +strike. McClellan was delaying for a purpose. Almost instantaneous +was the whisper, followed quickly by the outcry among the Jacobins, +"Treachery! We are betrayed. He is in league with the enemy." + +Their distrust was not allayed by the manner in which he conducted +himself. His views of life and of the office of commanding general were +not those of frontier America. He believed in pomp, in display, in an +ordered routine. The fine weather of the autumn of 1861 was utilized +at Washington for frequent reviews. The flutter of flags, the glint of +marching bayonets, the perfectly ordered rhythm of marching feet, the +blare of trumpets, the silvery notes of the bugles, the stormily rolling +drums, all these filled with martial splendor the golden autumn air when +the woods were falling brown. And everywhere, it seemed, look where one +might, a sumptuously uniformed Commanding General, and a numerous and +sumptuous staff, were galloping past, mounted on beautiful horses. +Plain, blunt men like the Jacobins, caring nothing for this ritual of +command, sneered. They exchanged stories of the elaborate dinners he +was said to give daily, the several courses, the abundance of wine, the +numerous guests; and after these dinners, he and his gorgeous staff, +"clattering up and down the public streets" merely to show themselves +off. All this sneering was wildly exaggerated. The mania of +exaggeration, the mania of suspicion, saturated the mental air breathed +by every politician at Washington, that desperate winter, except the +great and lonely President and the cynical Secretary of State. + +McClellan made no concessions to the temper of the hour. With Lincoln, +his relations at first were cordial. Always he was punctiliously +respectful to "His Excellency." It is plain that at first Lincoln liked +him and that his liking was worn away slowly. It is equally plain that +Lincoln did not know how to deal with him. The tendency to pose was so +far from anything in Lincoln's make-up that it remained for him, whether +in McClellan or another, unintelligible. That humility which was so +conspicuous in this first period of his rule, led him to assume with his +General a modest, even an appealing tone. The younger man began to ring +false by failing to appreciate it. He even complained of it in a letter +to his wife. The military ritualist would have liked a more Olympian +superior. And there is no denying that his head was getting turned. +Perhaps he had excuse. The newspapers printed nonsensical editorials +praising "the young Napoleon." His mail was filled with letters urging +him to carry things with a high hand; disregard, if necessary, the +pusillanimous civil government, and boldly "save the country." He had +so little humor that he could take this stuff seriously. Among all the +foolish letters which the executors of famous men have permitted to see +the light of publicity, few outdo a letter of McClellan's in which he +confided to his wife that he was willing to become dictator, should that +be the only way out, and then, after saving his country, to perish.(3) + +In this lordly mood of the melodramatic, he gradually--probably without +knowing it--became inattentive to the President. Lincoln used to go +to his house to consult him, generally on foot, clad in very ordinary +clothes. He was known to sit in McClellan's library "rather unnoticed" +awaiting the General's pleasure.(4) + +At last the growing coolness of McClellan went so far that an event +occurred which Hay indignantly set down in his diary: "I wish here +to record what I consider a portent of evil to come. The President, +Governor Seward and I went over to McClellan's house tonight. The +servant at the door said the General was at the wedding of Colonel +Wheaton at General Buell's and would soon return. We went in and after +we had waited about an hour, McClellan came in, and without paying +particular attention to the porter who told him the President was +waiting to see him, went up-stairs, passing the door of the room where +the President and the Secretary of State were seated. They waited about +half an hour, and sent once more a servant to tell the General they were +there; and the answer came that the General had gone to bed. + +"I merely record this unparalleled insolence of epaulettes without +comment It is the first indication I have yet seen of the threatened +supremacy of the military authorities. Coming home, I spoke to the +President about the matter, but he seemed not to have noticed it +specially, saying it were better at this time not to be making points of +etiquette and personal dignity."(5) + +Did ever a subordinate, even a general, administer to a superior a more +astounding snub? To Lincoln in his selfless temper, it was Only a detail +in his problem of getting the army into action. What room for personal +affronts however gross in a mood like his? To be sure he ceased going to +McClellan's house, and thereafter summoned McClellan to come to him, but +no change appeared in the tone of his intercourse with the General. "I +will hold McClellan's horse," said he, "if he will win me victories."(6) + +All this while, the two were debating plans of campaign and McClellan +was revealing-as we now see, though no one saw it at the time-the deep +dread of responsibility that was destined to paralyze him as an active +general. He was never ready. Always, there must be more preparation, +more men, more this, more that. + +In January, 1862, Lincoln, grown desperate because of hope deferred, +made the first move of a sort that was to be lamentably frequent the +next six months. He went over the head of the Commanding General, +and, in order to force a result, evoked a power not recognized in +the military scheme of things. By this time the popular adulation of +McClellan was giving place to a general imitation of the growling of the +Jacobins, now well organized in the terrible Committee and growing each +day more and more hostile to the Administration. Lincoln had besought +McClellan to take into account the seriousness of this rising tide of +opposition.(7) His arguments made no impression. McClellan would not +recognize the political side of war. At last, partly to allay the +popular clamor, partly to force McClellan into a corner, Lincoln +published to the country a military program. He publicly instructed the +Commanding General to put all his forces in movement on all fronts, on +Washington's birthday.(8) + +From this moment the debate between the President and the General +with regard to plans of campaign approached the nature of a dispute. +McClellan repeated his demand for more time in which to prepare. He +objected to the course of advance which the President wished him to +pursue. Lincoln, seeing the situation first of all as a political +problem, grounded his thought upon two ideas neither of which was shared +by McClellan: the idea that the supreme consideration was the safety +of Washington; the resultant idea that McClellan should move directly +south, keeping his whole army constantly between Washington and the +enemy. McClellan wished to treat Washington as but one important detail +in his strategy; he had a grandiose scheme for a wide flanking movement, +for taking the bulk of his army by sea to the coast of Virginia, and +thus to draw the Confederate army homeward for a duel to the death under +the walls of Richmond. Lincoln, neither then nor afterward more than an +amateur in strategy, was deeply alarmed by this bold mode of procedure. +His political instinct told him that if there was any slip and +Washington was taken, even briefly, by the Confederates, the game was +up. He was still further alarmed when he found that some of the eider +generals held views resembling his own.(9) To his modest, still groping +mind, this was a trying situation. In the President lay the ultimate +responsibility for every move the army should make. And whose advice +should he accept as authoritative? The first time he asked himself that +question, such peace of mind as had survived the harassing year 1861 +left him, not to return for many a day. + +At this moment of crises, occurred one of his keenest personal +afflictions. His little son Willie sickened and died. Lincoln's relation +to his children was very close, very tender. Many anecdotes show this +boy frolicking about the White House, a licensed intruder everywhere. +Another flood of anecdotes preserve the stupefying grief of his father +after the child's death. Of these latter, the most extreme which portray +Lincoln toward the close of February so unnerved as to be incapable of +public duty, may be dismissed as apocryphal. But there can be no +doubt that his unhappiness was too great for the vain measurement +of descriptive words; that it intensified the nervous mood which had +already possessed him; that anxiety, deepening at times into terrible +alarm, became his constant companion. + +In his dread and sorrow, his dilemma grew daily more intolerable. +McClellan had opposed so stoutly the Washington birthday order that +Lincoln had permitted him to ignore it. He was still wavering which +advice to take, McClellan's or the elder generals'. To remove McClellan, +to try at this critical moment some other general, did not occur to him +as a rational possibility. But somehow he felt he must justify himself +to himself for yielding to McClellan' s views. In his zeal to secure +some judgment more authoritative than his own, he took a further step +along the dangerous road of going over the Commander's head, of bringing +to bear upon him influences not strictly included in the military +system. He required McClellan to submit his plan to a council of his +general officers. Lincoln attended this council and told the generals +"he was not a military man and therefore would be governed by the +opinion of a majority."(10) The council decided in McClellan's favor by +a vote of eight to four. This was a disappointment to Lincoln. So firm +was his addiction to the overland route that he could not rest content +with the council's decision. Stanton urged him to disregard it, sneering +that the eight who voted against him were McClellan's creatures, his +"pets." But Lincoln would not risk going against the majority of +the council. "We are civilians," said he, "we should justly be held +responsible for any disaster if we set up our opinions against those of +experienced military men in the practical management of a campaign."(11) + +Nevertheless, from this quandary, in which his reason forced him to do +one thing while all his sensibilities protested, he extricated himself +in a curious way. Throughout the late winter he had been the object of +a concerted attack from Stanton and the Committee. The Committee had +tacitly annexed Stanton. He conferred with them confidentially. At each +important turn of events, he and they always got together in a secret +powwow. As early as February twentieth, when Lincoln seemed to be +breaking down with grief and anxiety, one of those secret conferences +of the high conspirators ended in a determination to employ all their +forces, direct and indirect, to bring about McClellan's retirement. They +were all victims of that mania of suspicion which was the order of +the day. "A majority of the Committee," wrote its best member, long +afterward when he had come to see things in a different light, "strongly +suspected that General McClellan was a traitor." Wade vented his spleen +in furious words about "King McClellan." Unrestrained by Lincoln's +anguish, the Committee demanded a conference a few days after his son's +death and threatened an appeal from President to Congress if he did not +quickly force McClellan to advance.(12) + +All this while the Committee was airing another grievance. They clamored +to have the twelve divisions of the army of the Potomac grouped into +corps. They gave as their motive, military efficiency. And perhaps +they thought they meant it. But there was a cat in the bag which +they carefully tried to conceal. The generals of divisions formed two +distinct groups, the elder ones who did not owe their elevation to +McClellan and the younger ones who did. The elder generals, it happened, +sympathized generally with the Committee in politics, or at least +did not sympathize with McClellan. The younger generals reflected the +politics of their patron. And McClellan was a Democrat, a hater of +the Vindictives, unsympathetic with Abolition. Therefore, the mania of +suspicion being in full flood, the Committee would believe no good of +McClellan when he opposed advancing the elder generals to the rank of +corps commanders. His explanation that he "wished to test them in the +field," was poohpoohed. Could not any good Jacobin see through that! Of +course, it was but an excuse to hold back the plums until he could drop +them into the itching palms of those wicked Democrats, his "pets." Why +should not the good men and true, elder and therefore better soldiers, +whose righteousness was so well attested by their political leanings, +why should not they have the places of power to which their rank +entitled them? + +Hitherto, however, Lincoln had held out against the Committee's demand +and bad refused to compel McClellan to reorganize his army against his +will. He now observed that in the council which cast the die against the +overland route, the division between the two groups of generals, what +we may call the Lincoln generals and the McClellan generals, was sharply +evident. The next day he issued a general order which organized the army +of the Potomac into corps, and promoted to the rank of corps commanders, +those elder generals whose point of view was similar to his own.(13) +Thereafter, any reference of crucial matters to a council of general +officers, would mean submitting it, not to a dozen commanders of +divisions with McClellan men in the majority, but to four or five +commanders of corps none of whom was definitely of the McClellan +faction. Thus McClellan was virtually put under surveillance of an +informal war council scrutinizing his course from the President's +point of view. It was this reduced council of the subordinates, as will +presently appear, that made the crucial decision of the campaign. + +On the same day Lincoln issued another general order accepting +McClellan's plan for a flanking movement to the Virginia coast.(14) The +Confederate lines at this time ran through Manassas--the point +Lincoln wished McClellan to strike. It was to be known later that the +Confederate General gave to Lincoln's views the high endorsement +of assuming that they were the inevitable views that the Northern +Commander, if he knew his business, would act upon. Therefore, he had +been quietly preparing to withdraw his army to more defensible positions +farther South. By a curious coincidence, his "strategic retreat" +occurred immediately after McClellan had been given authority to do what +he liked. On the ninth of March it was known at Washington that Manassas +had been evacuated. Whereupon, McClellan's fatal lack of humor permitted +him to make a great blunder. The man who had refused to go to Manassas +while the Confederates were there, marched an army to Manassas the +moment he heard that they were gone--and then marched back again. +This performance was instantly fixed upon for ridicule as McClellan's +"promenade to Manassas." + +To Lincoln the news of the promenade seemed both a vindication of his +own plan and crushing evidence that if he had insisted on his plan, the +Confederate army would have been annihilated, the war in one cataclysm +brought to an end. He was ridden, as most men were, by the delusion +of one terrific battle that was to end all. In a bitterness of +disappointment, his slowly tortured spirit burst into rage. The +Committee was delighted. For once, they approved of him. The next act +of this man, ordinarily so gentle, seems hardly credible. By a stroke +of his pen, he stripped McClellan of the office of Commanding General, +reduced him to the rank of mere head of a local army, the army of +the Potomac; furthermore, he permitted him to hear of his degradation +through the heartless medium of the daily papers.(15) The functions of +Commanding General were added to the duties of the Secretary of +War. Stanton, now utterly merciless toward McClellan, instantly took +possession of his office and seized his papers, for all the world as if +he were pouncing upon the effects of a malefactor. That McClellan was +not yet wholly spoiled was shown by the way he received this blow. It +was the McClellan of the old days, the gallant gentleman of the year +1860, not the poseur of 1861, who wrote at once to Lincoln making no +complaint, saying that his services belonged to his country in whatever +capacity they might be required. + +Again a council of subordinates was invoked to determine the next move. +McClellan called together the newly made corps commanders and obtained +their approval of a variation of his former plan. He now proposed to use +Fortress Monroe as a base, and thence conduct an attack upon Richmond. +Again, though with a touch of sullenness very rare in Lincoln, the +President acquiesced. But he added a condition to McClellan's plan by +issuing positive orders, March thirteenth, that it should not be carried +out unless sufficient force was left at Washington to render the city +impregnable. + +During the next few days the Committee must have been quite satisfied +with the President. For him, he was savage. The normal Lincoln, the man +of immeasurable mercy, had temporarily vanished. McClellan's blunder had +touched the one spring that roused the tiger in Lincoln. By letting slip +a chance to terminate the war--as it seemed to that deluded Washington +of March, 1862--McClellan had converted Lincoln from a brooding +gentleness to an incarnation of the last judgment. He told Hay he +thought that in permitting McClellan to retain any command, he had shown +him "very great kindness."(16) Apparently, he had no consciousness that +he had been harsh in the mode of McClellan's abatement, no thought of +the fine manliness of McClellan's reply. + +During this period of Lincoln's brief vengefulness, Stanton thought that +his time for clearing scores with McClellan had come. He even picked out +the man who was to be rushed over other men's heads to the command of +the army of the Potomac. General Hitchcock, an accomplished soldier +of the regular army, a grandson of Ethan Allen, who had grown old in +honorable service, was summoned to Washington, and was "amazed" +by having plumped at him the question, would he consent to succeed +McClellan? Though General Hitchcock was not without faults--and there +is an episode in his later relations with McClellan which his biographer +discreetly omits--he was a modest man. He refused to consider Stanton's +offer. But he consented to become the confidential adviser of the War +Office. This was done after an interview with Lincoln who impressed on +Hitchcock his sense of a great responsibility and of the fact that he +"had no military knowledge" and that he must have advice.(17) Out of +this congested sense of helplessness in Lincoln, joined with the new +labors of the Secretary of War as executive head of all the armies, grew +quickly another of those ill-omened, extra-constitutional war councils, +one more wheel within the wheels, that were all doing their part to +make the whole machine unworkable; distributing instead of concentrating +power. This new council which came to be known as the Army Board, was +made up of the heads of the Bureaus of the War Department with the +addition of Hitchcock as "Advising General." Of the temper of the Army +Board, composed as it was entirely of the satellites of Stanton, a +confession in Hitchcock's diary speaks volumes. On the evening of +the first day of their new relation, Stanton poured out to him such a +quantity of oral evidence of McClellan's "incompetency" as to make this +new recruit for anti-McClellanism "feel positively sick."(18) + +By permitting this added source of confusion among his advisers, Lincoln +treated himself much as he had already treated McClellan. By going over +McClellan's head to take advice from his subordinates he had put the +General on a leash; now, by setting Hitchcock and the experts in the +seat of judgment, he virtually, for a short while, put himself on a +leash. Thus had come into tacit but real power three military councils +none of which was recognized as such by law--the Council of the +Subordinates behind McClellan; the Council of the Experts behind +Lincoln; the Council of the Jacobins, called The Committee, behind them +all. + +The political pressure on Lincoln now changed its tack. Its unfailing +zeal to discredit McClellan assumed the form of insisting that he had a +secret purpose in waiting to get his army away from Washington, that he +was scheming to leave the city open to the Confederates, to "uncover" +it, as the soldiers said. By way of focussing the matter on a definite +issue, his enemies demanded that he detach from his army and assign +to the defense of Washington, a division which was supposed to be +peculiarly efficient General Blenker had recruited a sort of "foreign +legion," in which were many daring adventurers who had seen service in +European armies. Blenker's was the division demanded. So determined was +the pressure that Lincoln yielded. However, his brief anger had blown +itself out. To continue vengeful any length of time was for Lincoln +impossible. He was again the normal Lincoln, passionless, tender, +fearful of doing an injustice, weighed down by the sense of +responsibility. He broke the news about Blenker in a personal note to +McClellan that was almost apologetic. "I write this to assure you that I +did so with great pain, understanding that you would wish it otherwise. +If you could know the full pressure of the case, I am confident you +would justify it."(19) In conversation, he assured McClellan that no +other portion of his army should be taken from him.(20) + +The change in Lincoln's mood exasperated Stanton. He called on his pals +in the Committee for another of those secret confabulations in which +both he and they delighted. Speaking with scorn of Lincoln's return to +magnanimity, he told them that the President had "gone back to his first +love," the traitor McClellan. Probably all those men who wagged their +chins in that conference really believed that McClellan was aiming to +betray them. One indeed, Julian, long afterward had the largeness of +mind to confess his fault and recant. The rest died in their absurd +delusion, maniacs of suspicion to the very end. At the time all of them +laid their heads together--for what purpose? Was it to catch McClellan +in a trap? + +Meanwhile, in obedience to Lincoln's orders of March thirteenth, +McClellan drew up a plan for the defense of Washington. As Hitchcock was +now in such high feather, McClellan sent his plan to the new favorite of +the War Office, for criticism. Hitchcock refused to criticize, and +when McClellan's chief of staff pressed for "his opinion, as an old and +experienced officer," Hitchcock replied that McClellan had had ample +opportunity to know what was needed, and persisted in his refusal.(21) +McClellan asked no further advice and made his arrangements to suit +himself. On April first he took boat at Alexandria for the front. Part +of his army had preceded him. The remainder-except the force he had +assigned to the defense of Washington-was speedily to follow. + +With McClellan's departure still another devotee of suspicion moves +to the front of the stage. This was General Wadsworth. Early in March, +Stanton had told McClellan that he wanted Wadsworth as commander of the +defenses of Washington. McClellan had protested. Wadsworth was not a +military man. He was a politician turned soldier who had tried to be +senator from New York and failed; tried to be governor and failed; and +was destined to try again to be governor, and again to fail. Why should +such a person be singled out to become responsible for the safety of the +capital? Stanton's only argument was that the appointment of Wadsworth +was desirable for political reasons. He added that it would be made +whether McClellan liked it or not. And made it was.(22) Furthermore, +Wadsworth, who had previously professed friendship for McClellan, +promptly joined the ranks of his enemies. Can any one doubt, Stanton +being Stanton, mad with distrust of McClellan, that Wadsworth was fully +informed of McClellan's opposition to his advancement? + +On the second of April Wadsworth threw a bomb after the vanishing +McClellan, then aboard his steamer somewhere between Washington and +Fortress Monroe. Wadsworth informed Stanton that McClellan had not +carried out the orders of March thirteenth, that the force he had +left at Washington was inadequate to its safety, that the capital was +"uncovered." Here was a chance for Stanton to bring to bear on Lincoln +both those unofficial councils that were meddling so deeply in the +control of the army. He threw this firebrand of a report among his +satellites of the Army Board and into the midst of the Committee.2(3) + +It is needless here to go into the furious disputes that ensued-the +accusations, the recriminations, the innuendoes! McClellan stoutly +insisted that he had obeyed both the spirit and the letter of March +thirteenth; that Washington was amply protected. His enemies shrieked +that his statements were based on juggled figures; that even if +the number of soldiers was adequate, the quality and equipment were +wretched; in a word that he lied. It is a shame-less controversy +inconceivable were there not many men in whom politics and prejudice far +outweighed patriotism. In all this, Hitchcock was Stanton's trump card. +He who had refused to advise McClellan, did not hesitate to denounce +him. In response to a request from Stanton, he made a report sustaining +Wadsworth. The Committee summoned Wadsworth before it; he read them +his report to Stanton; reiterated its charges, and treated them to some +innuendoes after their own hearts, plainly hinting that McClellan could +have crushed the Confederates at Manassas if he had wished to.(24) + +A wave of hysteria swept the Committee and the War Office and beat +fiercely upon Lincoln. The Board charged him to save the day by mulcting +the army of the Potomac of an entire corps, retaining it at Washington. +Lincoln met the Board in a long and troubled conference. His anxious +desire to do all he could for McClellan was palpable.(25) But what, +under the circumstances, could he do? Here was this new device for the +steadying of his judgment, this Council of Experts, singing the same old +tune, assuring him that McClellan was not to be trusted. Although in the +reaction from his momentary vengefulness he had undoubtedly swung far +back toward recovering confidence in McClellan, did he dare--painfully +conscious as he was that he "had no military knowledge"--did he dare go +against the Board, disregard its warning that McClellan's arrangements +made of Washington a dangling plum for Confederate raiders to snatch +whenever they pleased. His bewilderment as to what McClellan was really +driving at came back upon him in full force. He reached at last the +dreary conclusion that there was nothing for it but to let the new wheel +within the wheels take its turn at running the machine. Accepting the +view that McClellan had not kept faith on the basis of the orders of +March thirteenth, Lincoln "after much consideration" set aside his own +promise to McClellan and authorized the Secretary of War to detain a +full corps.(26) + +McClellan never forgave this mutilation of his army and in time fixed +upon it as the prime cause of his eventual failure on the Peninsula. It +is doubtful whether relations between him and Lincoln were ever again +really cordial. + +In their rather full correspondence during the tense days of April, May +and June, the steady deterioration of McClellan's judgment bore him +down into amazing depths of fatuousness. In his own way he was as much +appalled by the growth of his responsibility as ever Lincoln had been. +He moved with incredible caution.* + + *Commenting on one of his moments of hesitation, J.S. + Johnston wrote to Lee: "No one but McClellan could have + hesitated to attack." 14 O. R., 416. + +His despatches were a continual wailing for more men. Whatever went +wrong was at once blamed on Washington. His ill-usage had made him +bitter. And he could not escape the fact that his actual performance did +not come up to expectation; that he was constantly out-generaled. His +prevailing temper during these days is shown in a letter to his wife. +"I have raised an awful row about McDowell's corps. The President very +coolly telegraphed me yesterday that he thought I ought to break the +enemy's lines at once. I was much tempted to reply that he had better +come and do it himself." A despatch to Stanton, in a moment of disaster, +has become notorious: "If I save this army now, I tell you plainly I owe +no thanks to you or to any other persons in Washington. You have done +your best to sacrifice this army."(27) + +Throughout this preposterous correspondence, Lincoln maintained the +even tenor of his usual patient stoicism, "his sad lucidity of soul." +He explained; he reasoned; he promised, over and over, assistance to the +limit of his power; he never scolded; when complaint became too absurd +to be reasoned with, he passed it over in silence. Again, he was +the selfless man, his sensibilities lost in the purpose he sought to +establish. + +Once during this period, he acted suddenly, on the spur of the moment, +in a swift upflaring of his unconquerable fear for the safety of +Washington. Previously, he had consented to push the detained corps, +McDowell's, southward by land to cooperate with McClellan, who adapted +his plans to this arrangement. Scarcely had he done so, than +Lincoln threw his plans into confusion by ordering McDowell back to +Washington.(28) Jackson, who had begun his famous campaign of menace, +was sweeping like a whirlwind down the Shenandoah Valley, and in the +eyes of panic-struck Washington appeared to be a reincarnation of +Southey's Napoleon,-- + + "And the great Few-Faw-Fum, would presently come, + With a hop, skip and jump" + +into Pennsylvania Avenue. As Jackson's object was to bring McDowell back +to Washington and enable Johnston to deal with McClellan unreinforced, +Lincoln had fallen into a trap. But he had much company. Stanton was +well-nigh out of his head. Though Jackson's army was less than fifteen +thousand and the Union forces in front of him upward of sixty thousand, +Stanton telegraphed to Northern governors imploring them to hasten +forward militia because "the enemy in great force are marching on +Washington."(29) + +The moment Jackson had accomplished his purpose, having drawn a great +army northwestward away from McClellan, most of which should have been +marching southeastward to join McClellan, he slipped away, rushed his +own army across the whole width of Virginia, and joined Lee in the +terrible fighting of the Seven Days before Richmond. + +In the midst of this furious confusion, the men surrounding Lincoln may +be excused for not observing a change in him. They have recorded his +appearance of indecision, his solicitude over McClellan, his worn and +haggard look. The changing light in those smoldering fires of his +deeply sunken eyes escaped their notice. Gradually, through profound +unhappiness, and as always in silence, Lincoln was working out of +his last eclipse. No certain record of his inner life during this +transition, the most important of his life, has survived. We can judge +of it only by the results. The outstanding fact with regard to it is a +certain change of attitude, an access of determination, late in June. +What desperate wrestling with the angel had taken place in the months of +agony since his son's death, even his private secretaries have not felt +able to say. Neither, apparently, did they perceive, until it flashed +upon them full-blown, the change that was coming over his resolution. +Nor did the Cabinet have any warning that the President was turning +a corner, developing a new phase of himself, something sterner, more +powerful than anything they had suspected. This was ever his way. His +instinctive reticence stood firm until the moment of the new birth. Not +only the Cabinet but the country was amazed and startled, when, late in +June, the President suddenly left Washington. He made a flying trip to +West Point where Scott was living in virtual retirement.(30) What passed +between the two, those few hours they spent together, that twenty-fourth +of June, 1862, has never been divulged. Did they have any eyes, that +day, for the wonderful prospect from the high terrace of the parade +ground; for the river so far below, flooring the valley with silver; +for the mountains pearl and blue? Did they talk of Stanton, of his +waywardness, his furies? Of the terrible Committee? Of the way Lincoln +had tied his own hands, brought his will to stalemate, through his +recognition of the unofficial councils? Who knows? + +Lincoln was back in Washington the next day. Another day, and by a +sweeping order he created a new army for the protection of Washington, +and placed in command of it, a western general who was credited with +a brilliant stroke on the Mississippi.(31) No one will now defend the +military genius of John Pope. But when Lincoln sent for him, all the +evidence to date appeared to be in his favor. His follies were yet to +appear. And it is more than likely that in the development of Lincoln's +character, his appointment has a deep significance. It appears to mark +the moment when Lincoln broke out of the cocoon of advisement he had +spun unintentionally around his will. In the sorrows of the grim year, +new forces had been generated. New spiritual powers were coming to his +assistance. At last, relatively, he had found peace. Worn and torn as +he was, after his long inward struggle, few bore so calmly as he did +the distracting news from the front in the closing days of June and the +opening days of July, when Lee was driving his whole strength like +a superhuman battering-ram, straight at the heart of the wavering +McClellan. A visitor at the White House, in the midst of the terrible +strain of the Seven Days, found Lincoln "thin and haggard, but cheerful +. . . quite as placid as usual . . . his manner was so kindly and so +free from the ordinary cocksureness of the politician, and the vanity +and self-importance of official position that nothing but good will was +inspired by his presence."(32) + +His serenity was all the more remarkable as his relations with +Congress and the Committee were fast approaching a crisis. If McClellan +failed-and by the showing of his own despatches, there was every reason +to expect him to fail, so besotted was he upon the idea that no one +could prevail with the force allowed him--the Committee who were leaders +of the congressional party against the presidential party might be +expected promptly to measure strength with the Administration. And +McClellan failed. At that moment Chandler, with the consent of the +Committee, was making use of its records preparing a Philippic against +the government. Lincoln, acting on his own initiative, without asking +the Secretary of War to accompany him, went immediately to the front. +He passed two days questioning McClellan and his generals.(33) But there +was no council of war. It was a different Lincoln from that other who, +just four months previous, had called together the general officers and +promised them to abide by their decisions. He returned to Washington +without telling them what he meant to do. + +The next day closed a chapter and opened a chapter in the history of +the Federal army. Stanton's brief and inglorious career as head of the +national forces came to an end. He fell back into his rightful +position, the President's executive officer in military affairs. Lincoln +telegraphed another Western general, Halleck, ordering him to Washington +as General-in-Chief.(34) He then, for a season, turned his whole +attention from the army to politics. Five days after the telegram to +Halleck, Chandler in the Senate, loosed his insatiable temper in what +ostensibly was a denunciation of McClellan, what in point of fact was a +sweeping arraignment of the military efficiency of the government.(35) + + + + +XXII. LINCOLN EMERGES + +While Lincoln was slowly struggling out of his last eclipse, giving +most of his attention to the army, the Congressional Cabal was laboring +assiduously to force the issue upon slavery. The keen politicians who +composed it saw with unerring vision where, for the moment, lay their +opportunity. They could not beat the President on any one issue then +before the country. No one faction was strong enough to be their +stand-by. Only by a combination of issues and a coalition of +factions could they build up an anti-Lincoln party, check-mate the +Administration, and get control of the government. They were greatly +assisted by the fatuousness of the Democrats. That party was in a +peculiar situation. Its most positive characters, naturally, had taken +sides for or against the government. The powerful Southerners who had +been its chief leaders were mainly in the Confederacy. Such Northerners +as Douglas and Stanton, and many more, had gone over to the Republicans. +Suddenly the control of the party organization had fallen into the hands +of second-rate men. As by the stroke of an enchanter's wand, men of +small caliber who, had the old conditions remained, would have lived +and died of little consequence saw opening before them the role of +leadership. It was too much for their mental poise. Again the subjective +element in politics! The Democratic party for the duration of the war +became the organization of Little Men. Had they possessed any great +leaders, could they have refused to play politics and responded to +Lincoln's all-parties policy, history might have been different. But +they were not that sort. Neither did they have the courage to go to the +other extreme and become a resolute opposition party, wholeheartedly and +intelligently against the war. They equivocated, they obstructed, they +professed loyalty and they practised-it would be hard to say what! So +short-sighted was their political game that its effect continually +was to play into the hands of their most relentless enemies, the grim +Jacobins. + +Though, for a brief time while the enthusiasm after Sumter was still at +its height they appeared to go along with the all-parties program, they +soon revealed their true course. In the autumn of 1861, Lincoln still +had sufficient hold upon all factions to make it seem likely that his +all-parties program would be given a chance. The Republicans generally +made overtures to the Democratic managers, offering to combine in a +coalition party with no platform but the support of the war and the +restoration of the Union. Here was the test of the organization of +the Little Men. The insignificant new managers, intoxicated by +the suddenness of their opportunity, rang false. They rejected the +all-parties program and insisted on maintaining their separate party +formation.(1) This was a turning point in Lincoln's career. Though +nearly two years were to pass before he admitted his defeat, the +all-parties program was doomed from that hour. Throughout the winter, +the Democrats in Congress, though steadily ambiguous in their statements +of principle, were as steadily hostile to Lincoln. If they had any +settled policy, it was no more than an attempt to hold the balance of +power among the warring factions of the Republicans. By springtime the +game they were playing was obvious; also its results. They had prevented +the President from building up a strong Administration group wherewith +he might have counterbalanced the Jacobins. Thus they had released the +Jacobins from the one possible restraint that might have kept them from +pursuing their own devices. + +The spring of 1862 saw a general realignment of factions. It was +then that the Congressional Cabal won its first significant triumph. +Hitherto, all the Republican platforms had been programs of denial. +A brilliant new member of the Senate, john Sherman, bluntly told his +colleagues that the Republican party had always stood on the defensive. +That was its weakness. "I do not know any measure on which it has taken +an aggressive position."(2) The clue to the psychology of the moment +was in the raging demand of the masses for a program of assertion, for +aggressive measures. The President was trying to meet this demand with +his all-parties program, with his policy of nationalism, exclusive of +everything else. And recently he had added that other assertion, his +insistence that the executive in certain respects was independent of the +legislative. Of his three assertions, one, the all-parties program, +was already on the way to defeat Another, nationalism, as the President +interpreted it, had alienated the Abolitionists. The third, his argument +for himself as tribune, was just what your crafty politician might +twist, pervert, load with false meanings to his heart's content. Men +less astute than Chandler and Wade could not have failed to see where +fortune pointed. Their opportunity lay in a combination of the two +issues. Abolition and the resistance to executive "usurpation." Their +problem was to create an anti-Lincoln party that should also be a +war party. Their coalition of aggressive forces must accept the +Abolitionists as its backbone, but it must also include all violent +elements of whatever persuasion, and especially all those that could be +wrought into fury on the theme of the President as a despot. Above all, +their coalition must absorb and then express the furious temper so dear +to their own hearts which they fondly believed-mistakenly, they were +destined to discover-was the temper of the country. + +It can not be said that this was the Republican program. The +President's program, fully as positive as that of the Cabal, had as good +a right to appropriate the party label--as events were to show, a better +right. But the power of the Cabal was very great, and the following it +was able to command in the country reached almost the proportions of the +terrible. A factional name is needed. For the Jacobins, their allies in +Congress, their followers in the country, from the time they acquired a +positive program, an accurate label is the Vindictives. + +During the remainder of the session, Congress may be thought of as +having--what Congress seldom has--three definite groups, Right, Left and +Center. The Right was the Vindictives; the Left, the irreconcilable +Democrats; the Center was composed chiefly of liberal Republicans but +included a few Democrats, those who rebelled against the political +chicanery of the Little Men. + +The policy of the Vindictives was to force upon the Administration the +double issue of emancipation and the supremacy of Congress. Therefore, +their aim was to pass a bill freeing the slaves on the sole authority of +a congressional act. Many resolutions, many bills, all having this end +in view, were introduced. Some were buried in committees; some were +remade in committees and subjected to long debate by the Houses; now +and then one was passed upon. But the spring wore through and the +summer came, and still the Vindictives were not certainly in control +of Congress. No bill to free slaves by congressional action secured a +majority vote. At the same time it was plain that the strength of the +Vindictives was slowly, steadily, growing. + +Outside Congress, the Abolitionists took new hope. They had organized a +systematic propaganda. At Washington, weekly meetings were held in +the Smithsonian Institute, where all their most conspicuous leaders, +Phillips, Emerson, Brownson, Garret Smith, made addresses. Every Sunday +a service was held in the chamber of the House of Representatives and +the sermon was almost always a "terrific arrangement of slavery." +Their watch-word was "A Free Union or Disintegration." The treatment of +fugitive slaves by commanders in the field produced a clamor. Lincoln +insisted on strict obedience to the two laws, the Fugitive Slave Act and +the First Confiscation Act. Abolitionists sneered at "all this gabble +about the sacredness of the Constitution."(3) But Lincoln was not to +be moved. When General Hunter, taking a leaf from the book of Fremont, +tried to force his hand, he did not hesitate. Hunter had issued a +proclamation by which the slaves in the region where he commanded were +"declared forever free." + +This was in May when Lincoln's difficulties with McClellan were at their +height; when the Committee was zealously watching to catch him in any +sort of mistake; when the House was within four votes of a majority for +emancipation by act of Congress;(4) when there was no certainty whether +the country was with him or with the Vindictives. Perhaps that new +courage which definitely revealed itself the next month, may be first +glimpsed in the proclamation overruling Hunter: + +"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 can not feel +justified in leaving to the decision of commanders in the field."(5) + +The revocation of Hunter's order infuriated the Abolitionists. It deeply +disappointed the growing number who, careless about slavery, wanted +emancipation as a war measure, as a blow at the South. Few of either of +these groups noticed the implied hint that emancipation might come by +executive action. Here was the matter of the war powers in a surprising +form. However, it was not unknown to Congress. Attempts had been made to +induce Congress to concede the war powers to the President and to ask, +not command, him to use them for the liberation of slaves in the Seceded +States. Long before, in a strangely different connection, such vehement +Abolitionists as Giddings and J. Q. Adams had pictured the freeing of +slaves as a natural incident of military occupation. + +What induced Lincoln to throw out this hint of a possible surrender on +the subject of emancipation? Again, as so often, the silence as to his +motives is unbroken. However, there can be no doubt that his thinking +on the subject passed through several successive stages. But all his +thinking was ruled by one idea. Any policy he might accept, or any +refusal of policy, would be judged in his own mind by the degree to +which it helped, or hindered, the national cause. Nothing was more +absurd than the sneer of the Abolitionists that he was "tender" of +slavery. Browning spoke for him faithfully, "If slavery can survive the +shock of war and secession, be it so. If in the conflict for liberty, +the Constitution and the Union, it must necessarily perish, then let it +perish." Browning refused to predict which alternative would develop. +His point was that slaves must be treated like other property. But, if +need be, he would sacrifice slavery as he would sacrifice anything else, +to save the Union. He had no intention to "protect" slavery.(6) + +In the first stage of Lincoln's thinking on this thorny subject, his +chief anxiety was to avoid scaring off from the national cause those +Southern Unionists who were not prepared to abandon slavery. This was +the motive behind his prompt suppression of Fremont. It was this that +inspired the Abolitionist sneer about his relative attitude toward +God and Kentucky. As a compromise, to cut the ground from under the +Vindictives, he had urged the loyal Slave States to endorse a program +of compensated emancipation. But these States were as unable to see the +handwriting on the wall as were the Little Men. In the same proclamation +that overruled Hunter, while hinting at what the Administration might +feel driven to do, Lincoln appealed again to the loyal Slave States to +accept compensated emancipation. "I do not argue," said he, "I beseech +you to make the argument for yourselves. You can not, if you would, be +blind to the signs of the times. . . . 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."(7) + +Though Lincoln, at this moment, was anxiously watching the movement +in Congress to force his hand, he was not apparently cast down. He was +emerging from his eclipse. June was approaching and with it the final +dawn. Furthermore, when he issued this proclamation on May nineteenth, +he had not lost faith in McClellan. He was still hoping for news of a +crushing victory; of McClellan's triumphal entry into Richmond. The +next two months embraced both those transformations which together +revolutionized his position. He emerged from his last eclipse; and +McClellan failed him. + +When Lincoln returned to Washington after his two days at the front, he +knew that the fortunes of his Administration were at a low ebb. +Never had he been derided in Congress with more brazen injustice. The +Committee, waiting only for McClellan's failure, would now unmask their +guns-as Chandler did, seven days later. The line of Vindictive criticism +could easily be foreshadowed: the government had failed; it was +responsible for a colossal military catastrophe; but what could you +expect of an Administration that would not strike its enemies through +emancipation; what a shattering demonstration that the Executive was not +a safe repository of the war powers. + +Was there any way to forestall or disarm the Vindictives? His silence +gives us no clue when or how the answer occurred to him--by separating +the two issues; by carrying out the hint in the May proclamation; by +yielding on emancipation while, in the very act, pushing the war powers +of the President to their limit, declaring slaves free by an executive +order. + +The importance of preserving the war power of the President had become +a fixed condition of Lincoln's thought. Already, he was looking forward +not only to victory but to the great task that should come after +victory. He was determined, if it were humanly possible, to keep that +task in the hands of the President, and out of the hands of Congress. +A first step had already been taken. In portions of occupied territory, +military governors had been appointed. Simple as this seemed to the +careless observer, it focussed the whole issue. The powerful, legal mind +of Sumner at once perceived its significance. He denied in the Senate +the right of the President to make such appointments; he besought the +Senate to demand the cancellation of such appointment. He reasserted the +absolute sovereignty of Congress.(8) It would be a far-reaching stroke +if Lincoln, in any way, could extort from Congress acquiescence in his +use of the war powers on a vast scale. Freeing the slaves by executive +order would be such a use. + +Another train of thought also pointed to the same result. Lincoln's +desire to further the cause of "the Liberal party throughout the world," +that desire which dated back to his early life as a politician, had +suffered a disappointment. European Liberals, whose political vision +was less analytical than his, had failed to understand his policy. The +Confederate authorities had been quick to publish in Europe his official +pronouncements that the war had been undertaken not to abolish slavery +but to preserve the Union. As far back as September, 1861, Carl Schurz +wrote from Spain to Seward that the Liberals abroad were disappointed, +that "the impression gained ground that the war as waged by the Federal +government, far from being a war of principle, was merely a war of +policy," and "that from this point of view much might be said for the +South."(9) In fact, these hasty Europeans had found a definite ground +for complaining that the American war was a reactionary influence. The +concentration of American cruisers in the Southern blockade gave the +African slave trade its last lease of life. With no American war-ship +among the West Indies, the American flag became the safeguard of the +slaver. Englishmen complained that "the swift ships crammed with their +human cargoes" had only to "hoist the Stars and Stripes and pass under +the bows of our cruisers."(10) Though Seward scored a point by his +treaty giving British cruisers the right to search any ships carrying +the American flag, the distrust of the foreign Liberals was not removed. +They inclined to stand aside and to allow the commercial classes of +France and England to dictate policy toward the United States. The +blockade, by shutting off the European supply of raw cotton, on both +sides the channel, was the cause of measureless unemployment, of +intolerable misery. There was talk in both countries of intervention. +Napoleon, especially, loomed large on the horizon as a possible ally of +the Confederacy. And yet, all this while, Lincoln had it in his power at +any minute to lay the specter of foreign intervention. A pledge to the +"Liberal party throughout the world" that the war would bring about the +destruction of slavery, and great political powers both in England and +in France would at once cross the paths of their governments should they +move toward intervention. Weighty as were all these reasons for a change +of policy--turning the flank of the Vindictives on the war powers, +committing the Abolitionists to the Administration, winning over the +European Liberals--there was a fourth reason which, very probably, +weighed upon Lincoln most powerfully of them all. Profound gloom had +settled upon the country. There was no enthusiasm for military +service. And Stanton, who lacked entirely the psychologic vision of the +statesman, had recently committed an astounding blunder. After a few +months in power he had concluded that the government had enough soldiers +and had closed the recruiting offices.(11) Why Lincoln permitted this +singular proceeding has never been satisfactorily explained.* Now he was +reaping the fruits. A defeated army, a hopeless country, and no +prospect of swift reinforcement! If a shift of ground on the question +of emancipation would arouse new enthusiasm, bring in a new stream of +recruits, Lincoln was prepared to shift. + + *Stanton's motive was probably economy. Congress was + terrified by the expense of the war. The Committee was + deeply alarmed over the political effect of war taxation. + They and Stanton were all convinced that McClellan was amply + strong enough to crush the Confederacy. + +But even in this dire extremity, he would not give way without a last +attempt to save his earlier policy. On July twelfth, he called together +the Senators and Representatives of the Border States. He read to them +a written argument in favor of compensated emancipation, the Federal +government to assist the States in providing funds for the purpose. + +"Let the States that are in rebellion," said he, "see definitely and +certainly that in no event will the States you represent ever join their +proposed Confederacy, and they can not much longer maintain the contest. +But you can not 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. . . . 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 +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."(12) + +He made no impression. They would commit themselves to nothing. Lincoln +abandoned his earlier policy. + +Of what happened next, he said later, "It had got to be. . . . 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. . . "(13) + +The next day he confided his decision and his reasons to Seward and +Welles. Though "this was a new departure for the President," both +these Ministers agreed with him that the change of policy had become +inevitable.(14) + +Lincoln was now entirely himself, astute in action as well as bold in +thought. He would not disclose his change of policy while Congress was +in session. Should he do so, there was no telling what attempt the +Cabal would make to pervert his intention, to twist his course into +the semblance of an acceptance of the congressional theory. He laid the +matter aside until Congress should be temporarily out of the way, until +the long recess between July and December should have begun. In this +closing moment of the second session of the Thirty-Seventh Congress, +which is also the opening moment of the great period of Lincoln, the +feeling against him in Congress was extravagantly bitter. It caught at +anything with which to make a point. A disregard of technicalities +of procedure was magnified into a serious breach of constitutional +privilege. Reviving the question of compensated emancipation, Lincoln +had sent a special message to both Houses, submitting the text of a +compensation bill which he urged them to consider. His enemies raised +an uproar. The President had no right to introduce a bill into Congress! +Dictator Lincoln was trying in a new way to put Congress under his +thumb.(15) + +In the last week of the session, Lincoln's new boldness brought the old +relation between himself and Congress to a dramatic close. The Second +Confiscation Bill had long been under discussion. Lincoln believed that +some of its provisions were inconsistent with the spirit at least of +our fundamental law. Though its passage was certain, he prepared a veto +message. He then permitted the congressional leaders to know what he +intended to do when the bill should reach him. Gall and wormwood are +weak terms for the bitterness that may be tasted in the speeches of the +Vindictives. When, in order to save the bill, a resolution was appended +purging it of the interpretation which Lincoln condemned, Trumbull +passionately declared that Congress was being "coerced" by the +President. "No one at a distance," is the deliberate conclusion of +Julian who was present, "could have formed any adequate conception of +the hostility of the Republican members toward Lincoln at the final +adjournment, while it was the belief of many that our last session of +Congress had been held in Washington. Mr. Wade said the country was +going to hell, and that the scenes witnessed in the French Revolution +were nothing in comparison with what we should see here."(16) + +Lincoln endured the rage of Congress in unwavering serenity. On the +last day of the session, Congress surrendered and sent to him both the +Confiscation Act and the explanatory resolution. Thereupon, he indulged +in what must have seemed to those fierce hysterical enemies of his a +wanton stroke of irony. He sent them along with his approval of the bill +the text of the veto message he would have sent had they refused to +do what he wanted.(17) There could be no concealing the fact that the +President had matched his will against the will of Congress, and that +the President had had his way. + +Out of this strange period of intolerable confusion, a gigantic figure +had at last emerged. The outer and the inner Lincoln had fused. He was +now a coherent personality, masterful in spite of his gentleness, with +his own peculiar fashion of self-reliance, having a policy of his own +devising, his colors nailed upon the masthead. + + + + +XXIII. THE MYSTICAL STATESMAN + +Lincoln's final emergence was a deeper thing than merely the +consolidation of a character, the transformation of a dreamer into a man +of action. The fusion of the outer and the inner person was the result +of a profound interior change. Those elements of mysticism which were +in him from the first, which had gleamed darkly through such deep +overshadowing, were at last established in their permanent form. The +political tension had been matched by a spiritual tension with personal +sorrow as the connecting link. In a word, he had found his religion. + +Lincoln's instinctive reticence was especially guarded, as any one might +expect, in the matter of his belief. Consequently, the precise nature of +it has been much discussed. As we have seen, the earliest current +report charged him with deism. The devoted Herndon, himself an agnostic, +eagerly claims his hero as a member of the noble army of doubters. +Elaborate arguments have been devised in rebuttal. The fault on both +sides is in the attempt to base an impression on detached remarks and +in the further error of treating all these fragments as of one time, +or more truly, as of no time, as if his soul were a philosopher of the +absolute, speaking oracularly out of a void. It is like the vicious +reasoning that tortures systems of theology out of disconnected texts. + +Lincoln's religious life reveals the same general divisions that are to +be found in his active life: from the beginning to about the time of his +election; from the close of 1860 to the middle of 1862; the remainder. + +Of his religious experience in the first period, very little is +definitely known. What glimpses we have of it both fulfill and +contradict the forest religion that was about him in his youth. The +superstition, the faith in dreams, the dim sense of another world +surrounding this, the belief in communion between the two, these are +the parts of him that are based unchangeably in the forest shadows. But +those other things, the spiritual passions, the ecstacies, the vague +sensing of the terribleness of the creative powers,--to them always +he made no response. And the crude philosophizing of the forest +theologians, their fiercely simple dualism--God and Satan, thunder and +lightning, the eternal war in the heavens, the eternal lake of fire--it +meant nothing to him. Like all the furious things of life, evil appeared +to him as mere negation, a mysterious foolishness he could not explain. +His aim was to forget it. Goodness and pity were the active elements +that roused him to think of the other world; especially pity. The burden +of men's tears, falling ever in the shadows at the backs of things--this +was the spiritual horizon from which he could not escape. Out of the +circle of that horizon he had to rise by spiritual apprehension in order +to be consoled. And there is no reason to doubt that at times, if not +invariably, in his early days, he did rise; he found consolation. But +it was all without form. It was a sentiment, a mood,--philosophically +bodiless. This indefinite mysticism was the real heart of the forest +world, closer than hands or feet, but elusive, incapable of formulation, +a presence, not an idea. Before the task of expressing it, the forest +mystic stood helpless. Just what it was that he felt impinging upon him +from every side he did not know. He was like a sensitive man, neither +scientist nor poet, in the midst of a night of stars. The reality of his +experience gave him no power either to explain or to state it. + +There is little reason to suppose that Lincoln's religious experience +previous to 1860 was more than a recurrent visitor in his daily life. +He has said as much himself. He told his friend Noah Brooks "he did not +remember any precise time when he passed through any special change of +purpose, or of heart, but he would say that his own election to office +and the crisis immediately following, influentially determined him +in what he called 'a process of crystallization' then going on in his +mind."(1) + +It was the terrible sense of need--the humility, the fear that he might +not be equal to the occasion--that searched his soul, that bred in him +the craving for a spiritual up-holding which should be constant. And at +this crucial moment came the death of his favorite son. "In the lonely +grave of the little one lay buried Mr. Lincoln's fondest hopes, and +strong as he was in the matter of self-control, he gave way to an +overmastering grief which became at length a serious menace to his +health."(2) Though firsthand accounts differ as to just how he struggled +forth out of this darkness, all agree that the ordeal was very severe. +Tradition makes the crisis a visit from the Reverend Francis Vinton, +rector of Trinity Church, New York, and his eloquent assertion of the +faith in immortality, his appeal to Lincoln to remember the sorrow +of Jacob over the loss of Joseph, and to rise by faith out of his own +sorrow even as the patriarch rose.(3) + +Although Lincoln succeeded in putting his grief behind him, he never +forgot it. Long afterward, he called the attention of Colonel Cannon to +the lines in King John: + +"And Father Cardinal, I have heard you say That we shall see and know +our friends in heaven; If that be true, I shall see my boy again." + +"Colonel," said he, "did you ever dream of a lost friend, and feel that +you were holding sweet communion with that friend, and yet have a sad +consciousness that it was not a reality? Just so, I dream of my boy, +Willie." And he bent his head and burst into tears.(4) + +As he rose in the sphere of statecraft with such apparent suddenness out +of the doubt, hesitation, self-distrust of the spring of 1862 and in the +summer found himself politically, so at the same time he found himself +religiously. During his later life though the evidences are slight, they +are convincing. And again, as always, it is not a violent change that +takes place, but merely a better harmonization of the outer and less +significant part of him with the inner and more significant. His +religion continues to resist intellectual formulation. He never accepted +any definite creed. To the problems of theology, he applied the same +sort of reasoning that he applied to the problems of the law. He made a +distinction, satisfactory to himself at least, between the essential +and the incidental, and rejected everything that did not seem to him +altogether essential. + +In another negative way his basal part asserted itself. Just as in all +his official relations he was careless of ritual, so in religion he was +not drawn to its ritualistic forms. Again, the forest temper surviving, +changed, into such different conditions! Real and subtle as is the +ritualistic element, not only in religion but in life generally, one may +doubt whether it counts for much among those who have been formed +mainly by the influences of nature. It implies more distance between +the emotion and its source, more need of stimulus to arouse and organize +emotion, than the children of the forest are apt to be aware of. To +invoke a philosophical distinction, illumination rather than ritualism, +the tense but variable concentration on a result, not the ordered mode +of an approach, is what distinguishes such characters as Lincoln. It was +this that made him careless &f form in all the departments of life. It +was one reason why McClellan, born ritualist of the pomp of war, could +never overcome a certain dislike, or at least a doubt, of him. + +Putting together his habit of thinking only in essentials and his +predisposition to neglect form, it is not strange that he said: "I have +never united myself to any church because I have found difficulty in +giving my assent, without mental reservation, to the long, complicated +statements of Christian doctrine which characterize their Articles of +Belief and Confessions of Faith. When any church will inscribe over its +altar, as its sole qualification for membership, the Savior's condensed +statement of the substance of both Law and Gospel, 'Thou shalt love the +Lord thy God, with all thy heart and with all thy soul, and with all thy +mind, and thy neighbor as thyself,' that church will I join with all my +heart and with all my soul."(5) + +But it must not be supposed that his religion was mere ethics. It had +three cardinal possessions. The sense of God is through all his later +life. It appears incidentally in his state papers, clothed with language +which, in so deeply sincere a man, must be taken literally. He believed +in prayer, in the reality of communion with the Divine. His third +article was immortality. + +At Washington, Lincoln was a regular attendant, though not a +communicant, of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church. With the +Pastor, the Reverend P. D. Gurley, he formed a close friendship. Many +hours they passed in intimate talk upon religious subjects, especially +upon the question of immortality.(6) To another pious visitor he said +earnestly, "I hope I am a Christian."(7) Could anything but the most +secure faith have written this "Meditation on the Divine Will" which he +set down in the autumn of 1862 for no eye but his own: "The will of God +prevails. In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with +the will of God. Both may be, and one must be, wrong. God can not be for +and against the same thing at the same time. In the present civil war +it is quite possible that God's purpose is something different from the +purpose of either party; and yet the human instrumentalities, working +just as they do, are of the best adaptation to effect His purpose. I +am almost ready to say that this is probably true; that God wills this +contest, and wills that it shall not end yet. By His mere great power +on the minds of the now contestants, He could have either saved or +destroyed the Union without a human contest. Yet the contest began. And, +having begun, He could give the final victory to either side any day. +Yet the contest proceeds."(8) + +His religion flowered in his later temper. It did not, to be sure, +overcome his melancholy. That was too deeply laid. Furthermore, we fail +to discover in the surviving evidences any certainty that it was a glad +phase of religion. Neither the ecstatic joy of the wild women, which +his mother had; nor the placid joy of the ritualist, which he did not +understand; nor those other variants of the joy of faith, were included +in his portion. It was a lofty but grave religion that matured in his +final stage. Was it due to far-away Puritan ancestors? Had austere, +reticent Iron-sides, sure of the Lord, but taking no liberties with +their souls, at last found out their descendant? It may be. Cromwell, +in some ways, was undeniably his spiritual kinsman. In both, the same +aloofness of soul, the same indifference to the judgments of the world, +the same courage, the same fatalism, the same encompassment by the +shadow of the Most High. Cromwell, in his best mood, had he been +gifted with Lincoln's literary power, could have written the Fast Day +Proclamation of 1863 which is Lincoln's most distinctive religious +fragment. + +However, Lincoln's gloom had in it a correcting element which the old +Puritan gloom appears to have lacked. It placed no veto upon mirth. +Rather, it valued mirth as its only redeemer. And Lincoln's growth in +the religious sense was not the cause of any diminution of his +surface hilarity. He saved himself from what otherwise would have +been intolerable melancholy by seizing, regardless of the connection, +anything whatsoever that savored of the comic. + +His religious security did not destroy his superstition. He continued +to believe that he would die violently at the end of his career as +President. But he carried that belief almost with gaiety. He refused to +take precautions for his safety. Long lonely rides in the dead of night; +night walks with a single companion, were constant anxieties to his +intimates. To the President, their fears were childish. Although in the +sensibilities he could suffer all he had ever suffered, and more; in +the mind he had attained that high serenity in which there can be no +flagging of effort because of the conviction that God has decreed one's +work; no failure of confidence because of the twin conviction that +somehow, somewhere, all things work together for good. "I am glad +of this interview," he said in reply to a deputation of visitors, in +September, 1862, "and glad to know that I have your sympathy and your +prayers. . I happened to be placed, being a humble instrument in the +hands of our Heavenly Father, as I am, and as we all are, to work out +His great purpose. . . . I have sought His aid; but if after endeavoring +to do my best in the light He affords me, I find my efforts fail, I must +believe that for some purpose unknown to me He wills it otherwise. If I +had my way, this war would never have commenced. If I had been allowed +my way, this war would have been ended before this; but it still +continues and we must believe that He permits it for some wise purpose +of His own, mysterious and unknown to us; and though with our limited +understandings we may not be able to comprehend it, yet we can not but +believe that He who made the world still governs it."(9) + + + + +XXIV. GAMBLING IN GENERALS + +On July 22, 1862, there was a meeting of the Cabinet. The sessions of +Lincoln's Council were the last word for informality. The President +and the Ministers interspersed their great affairs with mere talk, +story-telling, gossip. With one exception they were all lovers of +their own voices, especially in the telling of tales. Stanton was the +exception. Gloomy, often in ill-health, innocent of humor, he glowered +when the others laughed. When the President, instead of proceeding at +once to business, would pull out of his pocket the latest volume of +Artemus Ward, the irate War Minister felt that the overthrow of +the nation was impending. But in this respect, the President was +incorrigible. He had been known to stop the line of his guests at a +public levee, while he talked for some five minutes in a whisper to an +important personage; and though all the room thought that jupiter was +imparting state secrets, in point of fact, he was making sure of a good +story the great man had told him a few days previous.(1) His Cabinet +meetings were equally careless of social form. The Reverend Robert +Collyer was witness to this fact in a curious way. Strolling through +the White House grounds, "his attention was suddenly arrested by the +apparition of three pairs of feet resting on the ledge of an open window +in one of the apartments of the second story and plainly visible from +below." He asked a gardener for an explanation. The brusk reply was: +"Why, you old fool, that's the Cabinet that is a-settin', and them thar +big feet are ole Abe's."(2) + +When the Ministers assembled on July twenty-second they had no +intimation that this was to be a record session. Imagine the +astonishment when, in his usual casual way, though with none of that +hesitancy to which they had grown accustomed, Lincoln announced his +new policy, adding that he "wished it understood that the question was +settled in his own mind; that he had decreed emancipation in a certain +contingency and the responsibility of the measure was his."(3) President +and Cabinet talked it over in their customary offhand way, and Seward +made a suggestion that instantly riveted Lincoln's attention. Seward +thought the moment was ill-chosen. "If the Proclamation were issued now, +it would be received and considered as a despairing cry--a shriek from +and for the Administration, rather than for freedom."(4) He added +the picturesque phrase, "The government stretching forth its hands +to Ethiopia, instead of Ethiopia stretching forth her hands to the +government." This idea struck Lincoln with very great force. It was an +aspect of the case "which he had entirely overlooked."(5) He accepted +Seward's advice, laid aside the proclamation he had drafted and turned +again with all his energies to the organization of victory. + +The next day Halleck arrived at Washington. He was one of Lincoln's +mistakes. However, in his new mood, Lincoln was resolved to act on his +own opinion of the evidence before him, especially in estimating men. It +is just possible that this epoch of his audacities began in a reaction; +that after too much self-distrust, he went briefly to the other extreme, +indulging in too much self-confidence. Be that as it may, he had formed +exaggerated opinions of both these Western generals, Halleck and +Pope. Somehow, in the brilliant actions along the Mississippi they had +absorbed far more than their fair share of credit. Particularly, Lincoln +went astray with regard to Pope. Doubtless a main reason why he accepted +the plan of campaign suggested by Halleck was the opportunity which it +offered to Pope. Perhaps, too, the fatality in McClellan's character +turned the scale. He begged to be left where he was with his base on +James River, and to be allowed to renew the attack on Richmond.1 But +he did not take the initiative. The government must swiftly hurry +up reinforcements, and then--the old, old story! Obviously, it was a +question at Washington either of superseding McClellan and leaving +the army where it was, or of shifting the army to some other commander +without in so many words disgracing McClellan. Halleck's approval of the +latter course jumped with two of Lincoln's impulses--his trust in Pope, +his reluctance to disgrace McClellan. Orders were issued transferring +the bulk of the army of the Potomac to the new army of Virginia lying +south of Washington under the command of Pope. McClellan was instructed +to withdraw his remaining forces from the Peninsula and retrace his +course up the Potomac.(6) + +Lincoln had committed one of his worst blunders. Herndon has a curious, +rather subtle theory that while Lincoln's judgments of men in the +aggregate were uncannily sure, his judgments of men individually were +unreliable. It suggests the famous remark of Goethe that his views of +women did not derive from experience; that they antedated experience; +and that he corrected experience by them. Of the confessed artist this +may be true. The literary concept which the artist works with is often, +apparently, a more constant, more fundamental, more significant thing, +than is the broken, mixed, inconsequential impression out of which it +has been wrought. Which seems to explain why some of the writers who +understand human nature so well in their books, do not always understand +people similarly well in life. And always it is to be remembered that +Lincoln was made an artist by nature, and made over into a man of action +by circumstance. If Herndon's theory has any value it is in asserting +his occasional danger--by no means a constant danger--of forming in his +mind images of men that were more significant than it was possible for +the men themselves to be. John Pope was perhaps his worst instance. An +incompetent general, he was capable of things still less excusable. Just +after McClellan had so tragically failed in the Seven Days, when Lincoln +was at the front, Pope was busy with the Committee, assuring them +virtually that the war had been won in the West, and that only +McClellan's bungling had saved the Confederacy from speedy death.(7) But +somehow Lincoln trusted him, and continued to trust him even after he +had proved his incompetency in the catastrophe at Manassas. + +During August, Pope marched gaily southward issuing orders that +were shot through with bad rhetoric, mixing up army routine and such +irrelevant matters as "the first blush of dawn." + +Lincoln was confident of victory. And after victory would come the new +policy, the dissipation of the European storm-cloud, the break-up of the +vindictive coalition of Jacobins and Abolitionists, the new enthusiasm +for the war. But of all this, the incensed Abolitionists received no +hint. The country rang with their denunciations of the President. At +length, Greeley printed in The Tribune an open letter called "The Prayer +of Twenty Millions." It was an arraignment of what Greeley chose to +regard as the pro-slavery policy of the Administration. This was on +August twentieth. Lincoln, in high hope that a victory was at hand, +seized the opportunity both to hint to the country that he was about to +change his policy, and to state unconditionally his reason for changing. +He replied to Greeley through the newspapers: + +"As to the policy I 'seem to be pursuing,' as you say, I have meant to +leave no 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 it is not either to save or 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 of the slaves and leaving others alone, I would also do +that. What I do about slavery and the colored race, I do because I +believe it will help 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 that what I am doing hurts the cause; +and I shall do more whenever I believe that doing more will help the +cause."(8) The effect of this on the Abolitionists was only to increase +their rage. The President was compared to Douglas with his indifference +whether slavery was voted "up or down."(9) Lincoln, now so firmly +hopeful, turned a deaf ear to these railing accusations. He was intent +upon watching the army. It was probably at this time that he reached an +unfortunate conclusion with regard to McClellan. The transfer of forces +from the James River to northern Virginia had proceeded slowly. It gave +rise to a new controversy, a new crop of charges. McClellan was accused +of being dilatory on purpose, of aiming to cause the failure of Pope. +Lincoln accepted, at last, the worst view of him. He told Hay that "it +really seemed that McClellan wanted Pope defeated. . . . The President +seemed to think him a little crazy."(10) + +But still the confidence in Pope, marching so blithely through "the +blush of dawn," stood fast. If ever an Administration was in a fool's +paradise, it was Lincoln's, in the last few days of August, while +Jackson was stealthily carrying out his great flanking movement getting +between Pope and Washington. However, the Suspicious Stanton kept his +eyes on McClellan. He decided that troops were being held back from +Pope; and he appealed to other members of the Cabinet to join with him +in a formal demand upon the President for McClellan's dismissal from +the army. While the plan was being discussed, came the appalling news of +Pope's downfall. + +The meeting of the Cabinet, September second, was another revelation of +the new independence of the President. Three full days had passed since +Pope had telegraphed that the battle was lost and that he no longer +had control of his army. The Ministers, awaiting the arrival of the +President, talked excitedly, speculating what would happen next. "It +was stated," says Welles in his diary, "that Pope was falling back, +intending to retreat within the Washington entrenchments, Blair, who +has known him intimately, says he is a braggart and a liar, with some +courage, perhaps, but not much capacity. The general conviction is that +he is a failure here, and there is a belief . . . that he has not +been seconded and sustained as he should have been by McClellan . . ." +Stanton entered; terribly agitated. He had news that fell upon the +Cabinet like a bombshell. He said "in a suppressed voice, trembling +with excitement, he was informed that McClellan had been ordered to take +command of the forces in Washington." + +Never was there a more tense moment in the Cabinet room than when +Lincoln entered that day. And all could see that he was in deep +distress. But he confirmed Stanton's information. That very morning +he had gone himself to McClellan's house and had asked him to resume +command. Lincoln discussed McClellan with the Cabinet quite simply, +admitting all his bad qualities, but finding two points in his +favor--his power of organization, and his popularity with the men.(11) + +He was still more frank with his Secretaries. "'He has acted badly in +this matter,' Lincoln said to Hay, 'but we must use what tools we have. +There is no man in the army who can man these fortifications and lick +these troops of ours into shape half as well as he.' I spoke of the +general feeling against McClellan as evinced by the President's mail. He +rejoined: 'Unquestionably, he has acted badly toward Pope; he wanted +him to fail. That is unpardonable, but he is too useful now to +sacrifice.'"(12) At another time, he said: "'If he can't fight himself, +he excels in making others ready to fight.'"(13) + +McClellan justified Lincoln's confidence. In this case, Herndon's theory +of Lincoln's powers of judgment does not apply. Though probably unfair +on the one point of McClellan's attitude to Pope, he knew his man +otherwise. Lincoln had also discovered that Halleck, the veriest +martinet of a general, was of little value at a crisis. During the next +two months, McClellan, under the direct oversight of the President, was +the organizer of victory. + +Toward the middle of September, when Lee and McClellan were gradually +converging upon the fated line of Antietam Creek, Lincoln's new firmness +was put to the test. The immediate effect of Manassas was another, a +still more vehement outcry for an anti-slavery policy. A deputation of +Chicago clergymen went to Washington for the purpose of urging him +to make an anti-slavery pronouncement. The journey was a continuous +ovation. If at any time Lincoln was tempted to forget Seward's worldly +wisdom, it was when these influential zealots demanded of him to do the +very thing he intended to do. But it was one of the characteristics of +this final Lincoln that when once he had fully determined on a course of +action, nothing could deflect him. With consummate coolness he gave +them no new light on his purpose. Instead, he seized the opportunity +to "feel" the country. He played the role of advocate arguing the case +against an emancipation policy.(14) They met his argument with great +Spirit and resolution. Taking them as an index, there could be little +question that the country was ripe for the new policy. At the close +of the interview Lincoln allowed himself to jest. One of the clergymen +dramatically charged him to give heed to their message as to a direct +commission from the Almighty. "Is it not odd," said Lincoln, "that the +only channel he could send it was that roundabout route by the awfully +wicked city of Chicago?"* + + * Reminiscences, 335. This retort is given by Schuyler + Colfax. There are various reports of what Lincoln said. In + another version, "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." Tarbell, II, + 12. + +Lincoln's pertinacity, holding fast the program he had accepted, came to +its reward. On the seventeenth occurred that furious carnage along the +Antietam known as the bloodiest single day of the whole war. Military +men have disagreed, calling it sometimes a victory, sometimes a drawn +battle. In Lincoln's political strategy the dispute is immaterial. +Psychologically, it was a Northern victory. The retreat of Lee was +regarded by the North as the turn of the tide. Lincoln's opportunity had +arrived. + +Again, a unique event occurred in a Cabinet meeting. On the +twenty-second of September, with the cannon of Antietam still ringing +in their imagination, the Ministers were asked by the President whether +they had seen the new volume just published by Artemus Ward. As they had +not, he produced it and read aloud with evident relish one of those bits +of nonsense which, in the age of Dickens, seemed funny enough. Most +of the Cabinet joined in the merriment--Stanton, of course, as always, +excepted. Lincoln closed the book, pulled himself together, and became +serious. + +"Gentlemen," said he, according to the diary of Secretary Chase, "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 you +an order I had prepared on this subject, which, on account of objections +made by some of you, was not issued. Ever since, 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 fulfill 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 as +carefully as I can. What I have written is that which my reflections +have determined me to say. . . . I must do the best I can, and bear the +responsibility of taking the course which I feel I ought to take."(15) +The next day the Proclamation was published. + +This famous document (16) is as remarkable for the parts of it that are +now forgotten as for the rest. The remembered portion is a warning that +on the first of January, one hundred days subsequent to the date of the +Proclamation--"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." The +forgotten portions include four other declarations of executive policy. +Lincoln promised that "the Executive will in due time recommend that all +citizens of the United States who have remained loyal thereto shall be +compensated for all losses by acts of the United States, including the +loss of slaves." He announced that he would again urge upon Congress +"the adoption of a practical measure tendering pecuniary aid" to all the +loyal Slave States that would "voluntarily adopt immediate or gradual +abolishment of slavery within their limits." He would continue to advise +the colonization of free Africans abroad. There is still to be mentioned +a detail of the Proclamation which, except for its historical setting +in the general perspective of Lincoln's political strategy, would appear +inexplicable. One might expect in the opening statement, where the +author of the Proclamation boldly assumes dictatorial power, an +immediate linking of that assumption with the matter in hand. But this +does not happen. The Proclamation begins with the following paragraph: + +"I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of America, and +Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy thereof, do hereby proclaim and +declare that hereafter, as heretofore, the war will be prosecuted for +the object of practically restoring the constitutional relation between +the United States and each of the States and the people thereof in which +States that relation is or may be suspended or disturbed." + + + + +XXV. A WAR BEHIND THE SCENES + +By the autumn of 1862, Lincoln had acquired the same political method +that Seward had displayed in the spring of 1861. What a chasm separates +the two Lincolns! The cautious, contradictory, almost timid statesman of +the Sumter episode; the confident, unified, quietly masterful statesman +of the Emancipation Proclamation. Now, in action, he was capable of +staking his whole future on the soundness of his own thinking, on his +own ability to forecast the inevitable. Without waiting for the results +of the Proclamation to appear, but in full confidence that he had driven +a wedge between the Jacobins proper and the mere Abolitionists, he threw +down the gage of battle on the issue of a constitutional dictatorship. +Two days after issuing the Proclamation he virtually proclaimed himself +dictator. He did so by means of a proclamation which divested the whole +American people of the privileges of the writ of habeas corpus. The +occasion was the effort of State governments to establish conscription +of their militia. The Proclamation delivered any one impeding that +attempt into the hands of the military authorities without trial. + +Here was Lincoln's final answer to Stevens; here, his audacious +challenge to the Jacobins. And now appeared the wisdom of his political +strategy, holding back emancipation until Congress was out of the way. +Had Congress been in session what a hubbub would have ensued! Chandler, +Wade, Trumbull, Sumner, Stevens, all hurrying to join issue on the +dictatorship; to get it before the country ahead of emancipation. +Rather, one can not imagine Lincoln daring to play this second card, so +soon after the first, except with abundant time for the two issues to +disentangle themselves in the public mind ere Congress met. And that was +what happened. When the Houses met in December, the Jacobins found +their position revolutionized. The men who, in July at the head of the +Vindictive coalition, dominated Congress, were now a minority faction +biting their nails at the President amid the ruins of their coalition. + +There were three reasons for this collapse. First of all, the +Abolitionists, for the moment, were a faction by themselves. Six weeks +had sufficed to intoxicate them with their opportunity. The significance +of the Proclamation had had time to arise towering on their spiritual +vision, one of the gates of the New Jerusalem. + +Limited as it was in application who could doubt that, with one +condition, it doomed slavery everywhere. The condition was a successful +prosecution of the war, the restoration of the Union. Consequently, at +that moment, nothing that made issue with the President, that +threatened any limitation of his efficiency, had the slightest chance of +Abolitionist support. The one dread that alarmed the whole Abolitionist +group was a possible change in the President's mood, a possible +recantation on January first. In order to hold him to his word, they +were ready to humor him as one might cajole, or try to cajole, a monster +that one was afraid of. No time, this, to talk to Abolitionists about +strictly constitutional issues, or about questions of party leadership. +Away with all your "gabble" about such small things! The Jacobins saw +the moving hand--at least for this moment--in the crumbling wall of the +palace of their delusion. + +Many men who were not Abolitionists perceived, before Congress met, +that Lincoln had made a great stroke internationally. The "Liberal party +throughout the world" gave a cry of delight, and rose instantly to his +support. John Bright declared that the Emancipation Proclamation "made +it impossible for England to intervene for the South" and derided "the +silly proposition of the French Emperor looking toward intervention."(1) +Bright's closest friend in America was Sumner and Sumner was chairman +of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. He understood the value +of international sentiment, its working importance, as good provincials +like Chandler did not. Furthermore, he was always an Abolitionist first +and a Jacobin second--if at all. From this time forward, the Jacobins +were never able to count on him, not even when they rebuilt the +Vindictive Coalition a year and a half later. In December, 1862, how did +they dare--true blue politicians that they were--how did they dare raise +a constitutional issue involving the right of the President to capture, +in the way he had, international security? + +The crowning irony in the new situation of the Jacobins was the +revelation that they had played unwittingly into the hands of the +Democrats. Their short-sighted astuteness in tying up emancipation with +the war powers was matched by an equal astuteness equally short-sighted. +The organization of the Little Men, when it refused to endorse Lincoln's +all-parties program, had found itself in the absurd position of a party +without an issue. It contained, to be sure, a large proportion of the +Northerners who were opposed to emancipation. But how could it make an +issue upon emancipation, as long as the President, the object of its +antagonism, also refused to support emancipation? The sole argument +in the Cabinet against Lincoln's new policy was that it would give the +Democrats an issue. Shrewd Montgomery Blair prophesied that on this +issue they could carry the autumn elections for Congress. Lincoln had +replied that he would take the risk. He presented them with the issue. +They promptly accepted it But they did not stop there. They aimed +to take over the whole of the position that had been vacated by the +collapse of the Vindictive Coalition. By an adroit bit of political +legerdemain they would steal their enemies' thunder, reunite the +emancipation issue with the issue of the war powers, reverse the +significance of the conjunction, and, armed with this double club, they +would advance from a new and unexpected angle and win the leadership of +the country by overthrowing the dictator. And this, they came very near +doing. On their double issue they rallied enough support to increase +their number in Congress by thirty-three. Had not the moment been so +tragic, nothing could have been more amusing than the helpless wrath of +the Jacobins caught in their own trap, compelled to gnaw their tongues +in silence, while the Democrats, paraphrasing their own arguments, +hurled defiant at Lincoln. + +Men of intellectual courage might have broken their party ranks, +daringly applied Lincoln's own maxim "stand with any one who stands +right," and momentarily joined the Democrats in their battle against +the two proclamations. But in American politics, with a few glorious +exceptions, courage of this sort has never been the order of the day. +The Jacobins kept their party line; bowed their heads to the storm; and +bided their time. In the Senate, an indiscreet resolution commending +the Emancipation Proclamation was ordered to be printed, and laid on the +table.(2) In the House, party exigencies were more exacting. Despite +the Democratic successes, the Republicans still had a majority. When the +Democrats made the repudiation of the President a party issue, arguing +on those very grounds that had aroused the eloquence of Stevens and the +rest--why, what's the Constitution between friends! Or between political +enemies? The Democrats forced all the Republicans into one boat by +introducing a resolution "That the policy of emancipation as indicated +in that Proclamation is an assumption of powers dangerous to the rights +of citizens and to the perpetuity of a free people." The resolution was +rejected. Among those who voted NO was Stevens.(3) Indeed, the star of +the Jacobins was far down on the horizon. + +But the Jacobins were not the men to give up the game until they were +certainly in the last ditch. Though their issues had been slipped out of +their hands; though for the moment at least, it was not good policy +to fight the President on a principle; it might still be possible to +recover their prestige on some other contention. The first of January +was approaching. The final proclamation of emancipation would bring +to an end the temporary alliance of the Administration and the +Abolitionists. Who could say what new pattern of affairs the political +kaleidoscope might not soon reveal? Surely the Jacobin cue was to busy +themselves, straightway, making trouble for the President. Principles +being unavailable, practices might do. And who was satisfied with the +way the war was going? To rouse the party against the Administration +on the ground of inefficient practices, of unsatisfactory military +progress, might be the first step toward regaining their former +dominance. + +There was a feather in the wind that gave them hope. The ominous +first paragraph of the Emancipation Proclamation was evidence that +the President was still stubbornly for his own policy; that he had not +surrendered to the opposite view. But this was not their only strategic +hope. Lincoln's dealings with the army between September and December +might, especially if anything in his course proved to be mistaken, +deliver him into their hands. + +Following Antietam, Lincoln had urged upon McClellan swift pursuit +of Lee. His despatches were strikingly different from those of the +preceding spring. That half apologetic tone had disappeared. Though they +did not command, they gave advice freely. The tone was at least that +of an equal who, while not an authority in this particular matter, is +entitled to express his views and to have them taken seriously. + +"You remember my speaking to you of what I called your overcautiousness? +Are you not over-cautious when you assume that you can not do what the +enemy is constantly doing? Should you not claim to be at least his equal +in prowess and act upon that claim . . . one of the standard maxims of +war, as you know, is to operate upon the enemy's communications as +much as possible without exposing your own. You seem to act as if this +applies against you, but can not apply in your favor. Change positions +with the enemy and think you not he would break your communications with +Richmond within the next twenty-four hours. . . . + +"If he should move northward, I would follow him closely, holding his +communications. If he should prevent your 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. . . . We should not operate so as to merely drive him +away. . . . This letter is in no sense an order."(4) + +But once more the destiny that is in character intervened, and +McClellan's tragedy reached its climax. His dread of failure hypnotized +his will. So cautious were his movements that Lee regained Virginia with +his army intact. Lincoln was angry. Military amateur though he was, he +had filled his spare time reading books on strategy, Von Clausewitz +and the rest, and he had grasped the idea that war's aim is not to win +technical victories, nor to take cities, but to destroy armies. He felt +that McClellan had thrown away an opportunity of first magnitude. He +removed him from command.(5) + +This was six weeks after the two proclamations. The country was ringing +with Abolition plaudits. The election had given the Democrats a new +lease of life. The anti-Lincoln Republicans were silent while their +party enemies with their stolen thunder rang the changes on the +presidential abuse of the war powers. It was a moment of crisis in party +politics. Where did the President stand? What was the outlook for those +men who in the words of Senator Wilson "would rather give a policy to +the President of the United States than take a policy from the President +of the United States." + +Lincoln's situation was a close parallel to the situation of July, 1861, +when McDowell failed. Just as in choosing a successor to McDowell, he +revealed a political attitude, now, he would again make a revelation +choosing a successor to McClellan. By passing over Fremont and by +elevating a Democrat, he had spoken to the furious politicians in the +language they understood. Whatever appointment he now made would be +interpreted by those same politicians in the same way. In the atmosphere +of that time, there was but one way for Lincoln to rank himself as +a strict party man, to recant his earlier heresy of presidential +independence, and say to the Jacobins, "I am with you." He must appoint +a Republican to succeed McClellan. Let him do that and the Congressional +Cabal would forgive him. But he did not do it. He swept political +considerations aside and made a purely military appointment Burnside, on +whom he fixed, was the friend and admirer of McClellan and might fairly +be considered next to him in prestige. He was loved by his troops. In +the eyes of the army, his elevation represented "a legitimate succession +rather than the usurpation of a successful rival."(6) He was modest. +He did not want promotion. Nevertheless, Lincoln forced him to take +McClellan's place against his will, in spite of his protest that he had +not the ability to command so large an army.(7) + +When Congress assembled and the Committee resumed its inquisition, +Burnside was moving South on his fated march to Fredericksburg. The +Committee watched him like hungry wolves. Woe to Burnside, woe to +Lincoln, if the General failed! Had the Little Men possessed any sort +of vision they would have seized their opportunity to become the +President's supporters. But they, like the Jacobins, were partisans +first and patriots second. In the division among the Republicans they +saw, not a chance to turn the scale in the President's favor, but +a chance to play politics on their own account. A picturesque Ohio +politician known as "Sunset" Cox opened the ball of their fatuousness +with an elaborate argument in Congress to the effect that the President +was in honor bound to regard the recent elections as strictly analogous +to an appeal to the country in England; that it was his duty to remodel +his policy to suit the Democrats. Between the Democrats and the Jacobins +Lincoln was indeed between the devil and the deep blue sea with no one +certainly on his side except the volatile Abolitionists whom he did not +trust and who did not trust him. A great victory might carry him over. +But a great defeat--what might not be the consequence! + +On the thirteenth of December, through Burnside's stubborn incompetence, +thousands of American soldiers flung away their lives in a holocaust of +useless valor at Fredericksburg. Promptly the Jacobins acted. They set +up a shriek: the incompetent President, the all-parties dreamer, the +man who persists in coquetting with the Democrats, is blundering into +destruction! Burnside received the dreaded summons from the Committee. +So staggering was the shock of horror that even moderate Republicans +were swept away in a new whirlpool of doubt. + +But even thus it was scarcely wise, the Abolitionists being still +fearful over the emancipation policy, to attack the President direct. +Nevertheless, the resourceful Jacobins found a way to begin their new +campaign. Seward, the symbol of moderation, the unforgivable enemy of +the Jacobins, had recently earned anew the hatred of the Abolitionists. +Letters of his to Charles Francis Adams had appeared in print. Some of +their expressions had roused a storm. For example: "extreme advocates of +African slavery and its most vehement exponents are acting in concert +together to precipitate a servile war."(8) To be sure, the date of +this letter was long since, before he and Lincoln had changed ground on +emancipation, but that did not matter. He had spoken evil of the cause; +he should suffer. All along, the large number that were incapable of +appreciating his lack of malice had wished him out of the Cabinet. As +Lincoln put it: "While they seemed to believe in my honesty, they also +appeared to think that when I had in me any good purpose or intention, +Seward contrived to suck it out of me unperceived."(9) + +The Jacobins were skilful politicians. A caucus of Republican +Senators was stampeded by the cry that Seward was the master of the +Administration, the chief explanation of failure. It was Seward who had +brought them to the verge of despair. A committee was named to demand +the reorganization of the Cabinet Thereupon, Seward, informed of this +action, resigned. The Committee of the Senators called upon Lincoln. He +listened; did not commit himself; asked them to call again; and turned +into his own thoughts for a mode of saving the day. + +During twenty months, since their clash in April, 1861, Seward and +Lincoln had become friends; not merely official associates, but genuine +comrades. Seward's earlier condescension had wholly disappeared. Perhaps +his new respect for Lincoln grew out of the President's silence after +Sumter. A few words revealing the strange meddling of the Secretary +of State would have turned upon Seward the full fury of suspicion that +destroyed McClellan. But Lincoln never spoke those words. Whatever blame +there was for the failure of the Sumter expedition, he quietly accepted +as his own. Seward, whatever his faults, was too large a nature, too +genuinely a lover of courage, of the nonvindictive temper, not to +be struck with admiration. Watching with keen eyes the unfolding of +Lincoln, Seward advanced from admiration to regard. After a while he +could write, "The President is the best of us." He warmed to him; +he gave out the best of himself. Lincoln responded. While the other +secretaries were useful, Seward became necessary. Lincoln, in these dark +days, found comfort in his society.(10) Lincoln was not going to allow +Seward to be driven out of the Cabinet. But how could he prevent it? +He could not say. He was in a quandary. For the moment, the Republican +leaders were so nearly of one mind in their antagonism to Seward, that +it demanded the greatest courage to oppose them. But Lincoln does not +appear to have given a thought to surrender. What puzzled him was the +mode of resistance. + +Now that he was wholly himself, having confidence in whatever mode of +procedure his own thought approved, he had begun using methods that the +politicians found disconcerting. The second conference with the Senators +was an instance. Returning in the same mood in which they had left +him, with no suspicion of a surprise in store, the Senators to their +amazement were confronted by the Cabinet--or most of it, Seward being +absent.(11) The Senators were put out. This simple maneuver by the +President was the beginning of their discomfiture. It changed their +role from the ambassadors of an ultimatum to the participants in a +conference. But even thus, they might have succeeded in dominating the +event, though it is hardly conceivable that they could have carried +their point; they might have driven Lincoln into a corner; had it +not been for the make-up of one man. Again, the destiny that is in +character! Lincoln was delivered from a quandary by the course which the +Secretary of the Treasury could not keep himself from pursuing. + +Chase, previous to this hour, may truly be called an imposing figure. +As a leader of the extreme Republicans, he had earned much fame. Lincoln +had given him a free hand in the Treasury and all the financial measures +of the government were his. Hitherto, Vindictives of all sorts had loved +him. He was a critic of the President's mildness, and a severe critic of +Seward. But Chase was not candid. Though on the surface he scrupulously +avoided any hint of cynicism, any point of resemblance to Seward, he was +in fact far more devious, much more capable of self-deception. He had +little of Seward's courage, and none of his aplomb. His condemnation of +Seward had been confided privately to Vindictive brethren. + +When the Cabinet and the Senators met, Chase was placed in a situation +of which he had an instinctive horror. His caution, his secretiveness, +his adroit confidences, his skilful silences, had created in these two +groups of men, two impressions of his character. The Cabinet knew him as +the faithful, plausible Minister who found the money for the President. +The Senators, or some of them, knew him as the discontented Minister who +was their secret ally. For the two groups to compare notes, to check up +their impressions, meant that Chase was going to be found out. And it +was the central characteristic of Chase that he had a horror of being +found out. + +The only definite result of the conference was Chase's realization when +the Senators departed that mischance was his portion. In the presence of +the Cabinet he had not the face to stick to his guns. He feebly defended +Seward. The Senators opened their eyes and stared. The ally they had +counted on had failed them. Chase bit his lips and was miserable. + +The night that followed was one of deep anxiety for Lincoln. He was +still unable to see his way out. But all the while the predestination in +Chase's character was preparing the way of escape. Chase was desperately +trying to discover how to save his face. An element in him that +approached the melodramatic at last pointed the way. He would resign. +What an admirable mode of recapturing the confidence of his disappointed +friends, carrying out their aim to disrupt the Cabinet! But he could +not do a bold thing like this in Seward's way--at a stroke, without +hesitation. When he called on Lincoln the next day with the resignation +in his hand, he wavered. It happened that Welles was in the room. + +"Chase said he had been painfully affected," is Welles' account, "by +the meeting last evening, which was a surprise, and after some not very +explicit remarks as to how he was affected, informed the President he +had prepared his resignation of the office of Secretary of the Treasury. +'Where is it,' said the President, quickly, his eye lighting up in a +moment. 'I brought it with me,' said Chase, taking the paper from his +pocket. 'I wrote it this morning.' 'Let me have it,' said the President, +reaching his long arm and fingers toward Chase, who held on seemingly +reluctant to part with the letter which was sealed and which he +apparently hesitated to surrender. Something further he wished to +say, but the President was eager and did not perceive it, but took and +hastily opened the letter. + +"'This,' said he, looking towards me with a triumphal laugh, 'cuts the +Gordian knot.' An air of satisfaction spread over his countenance such +as I had not seen for some time. 'I can dispose of this subject now +without difficulty,' he added, as he turned in his chair; 'I see my way +clear.'"(12) In Lincoln's distress during this episode, there was much +besides his anxiety for the fate of a trusted minister. He felt he must +not permit himself to be driven into the arms of the Vindictives by +disgracing Seward. Seward had a following which Lincoln needed. But to +proclaim to the world his confidence in Seward without at the same time +offsetting it by some display of confidence, equally significant in the +enemies of Seward, this would have amounted to committing himself to +Seward's following alone. And that would not do. Should either faction +appear to dominate him, Lincoln felt that "the whole government must +cave in. It could not stand, could not hold water; the bottom would be +out."(13) + +The incredible stroke of luck, the sheer good fortune that Chase was +Chase and nobody else,--vain, devious, stagey and hypersensitive,--was +salvation. Lincoln promptly rejected both resignations and called upon +both Ministers to resume their portfolios. They did so. The incident was +closed. Neither faction could say that Lincoln had favored the other. +He had saved himself, or rather, Chase's character had saved him, by the +margin of a hair. + +For the moment, a rebuilding of the Vindictive Coalition was impossible. +Nevertheless, the Jacobins, again balked of their prey, had it in their +power, through the terrible Committee, to do immense mischief. The +history of the war contains no other instance of party malice quite +so fruitless and therefore so inexcusable as their next move. After +severely interrogating Burnside, they published an exoneration of his +motives and revealed the fact that Lincoln had forced him into command +against his will. The implication was plain. + +January came in. The Emancipation Proclamation was confirmed. The +jubilation of the Abolitionists became, almost at once, a propaganda for +another issue upon slavery. New troubles were gathering close about the +President The overwhelming benefit which had been anticipated from +the new policy had not clearly arrived. Even army enlistments were +not satisfactory. Conscription loomed on the horizon as an eventual +necessity. A bank of returning cloud was covering the political horizon, +enshrouding the White House in another depth of gloom. + +However, out of all this gathering darkness, one clear light solaced +Lincoln's gaze. One of his chief purposes had been attained. In contrast +to the doubtful and factional response to his policy at home, the +response abroad was sweeping and unconditional. He had made himself the +hero of the "Liberal party throughout the world." Among the few cheery +words that reached him in January, 1863, were New Year greetings of +trust and sympathy sent by English working men, who, because of the +blockade, were on the verge of starvation. It was in response to one of +these letters from the working men of Manchester that Lincoln wrote: + +"I have understood well that the duty of self-preservation rests solely +with the American people; but I have at the same time been aware that +the favor or disfavor of foreign nations might have a material influence +in enlarging or prolonging the struggle with disloyal men in which +the country is engaged. A fair examination of history has served to +authorize a belief that the past actions and influences of the United +States were generally regarded as having been beneficial toward +mankind. I have therefore reckoned upon the forbearance of nations. +Circumstances--to some of which you kindly allude--induce me especially +to expect that if justice and good faith should be practised by the +United States they would encounter no hostile influence on the part +of Great Britain. It is now a pleasant duty to acknowledge the +demonstration you have given of your desire that a spirit of amity and +peace toward this country may prevail in the councils of your Queen, who +is respected and esteemed in your own country only more than she is, by +the kindred nation which has its home on this side of the Atlantic. + +"I know and deeply deplore the sufferings which the working men at +Manchester, and in all Europe, are called on to endure in this crisis. +It has been often and studiously represented that the attempt to +overthrow this government which was built upon the foundation of human +rights, and to substitute for it one which should rest exclusively on +the basis of human slavery, was likely to obtain the favor of Europe. +Through the action of our disloyal citizens, the working men of Europe +have been subjected to severe trials for the purpose of forcing their +sanction to that attempt. Under the circumstances, I can not but regard +your decisive utterances upon the question as an instance of sublime +Christian heroism which has not been surpassed in any age or in any +country. It is indeed an energetic and reinspiring assurance of the +inherent power of the truth, and of the ultimate and universal triumph +of justice, humanity and freedom. I do not doubt that the sentiments you +have expressed will be sustained by your great nation; and on the +other hand, I have no hesitation in assuring you that they will excite +admiration, esteem, and the most reciprocal feelings of friendship among +the American people. I hail this interchange of sentiment, therefore, as +an augury that whatever else may happen, whatever misfortune may befall +your country or my own, the peace and friendship which now exist +between the two nations, will be, as it shall be my desire to make them, +perpetual."(14) + + + + +XXVI. THE DICTATOR, THE MARPLOT AND THE LITTLE MEN + +While the Jacobins were endeavoring to reorganize the Republican +antagonism to the President, Lincoln was taking thought how he could +offset still more effectually their influence. In taking up the +emancipation policy he had not abandoned his other policy of an +all-parties Administration, or of something similar to that. By this +time it was plain that a complete union of parties was impossible. In +the autumn of 1862, a movement of liberal Democrats in Michigan for the +purpose of a working agreement with the Republicans was frustrated by +the flinty opposition of Chandler.(1) However, it still seemed possible +to combine portions of parties in an Administration group that should +forswear the savagery of the extreme factions and maintain the war in a +merciful temper. The creation of such a group was Lincoln's aim at the +close of the year. + +The Republicans were not in doubt what he was driving at. Smarting over +their losses in the election, there was angry talk that Lincoln and +Seward had "slaughtered the Republican party."(2) Even as sane a man as +John Sherman, writing to his brother on the causes of the apparent turn +of the tide could say "the first is that the Republican organization was +voluntarily abandoned by the President and his leading followers, and +a no-party union was formed to run against an old, well-drilled party +organization."(3) When Julian returned to Washington in December, he +found that the menace to the Republican machine was "generally admitted +and (his) earnest opposition to it fully justified in the opinion of +the Republican members of Congress."(4) How fully they perceived their +danger had been shown in their attempt to drive Lincoln into a corner on +the issue of a new Cabinet. + +Even before that, Lincoln had decided on his next move. As in the +emancipation policy he had driven a wedge between the factions of the +Republicans, so now he would drive a wedge into the organization of +the Democrats. It had two parts which had little to hold them together +except their rooted partisan habit.(5) One branch, soon to receive the +label "Copperhead," accepted the secession principle and sympathized +with the Confederacy. The other, while rejecting secession and +supporting the war, denounced the emancipation policy as usurped +authority, and felt personal hostility to Lincoln. It was the latter +faction that Lincoln still hoped to win over. Its most important member +was Horatio Seymour, who in the autumn of 1862 was elected governor of +New York. Lincoln decided to operate on him by one of those astounding +moves which to the selfless man seemed natural enough, by which the +ordinary politician was always hopelessly mystified. He called in +Thurlow Weed and authorized him to make this proposal: if Seymour would +bring his following into a composite Union party with no platform +but the vigorous prosecution of the war, Lincoln would pledge all his +influence to securing for Seymour the presidential nomination in 1864. +Weed delivered his message. Seymour was noncommittal and Lincoln had to +wait for his answer until the new Governor should show his hand by +his official acts. Meanwhile a new crisis had developed in the army. +Burnside's character appears to have been shattered by his defeat. +Previous to Fredericksburg, he had seemed to be a generous, high-minded +man. From Fredericksburg onward, he became more and more an impossible. +A reflection of McClellan in his earlier stage, he was somehow +transformed eventually into a reflection of vindictivism. His later +character began to appear in his first conference with the Committee +subsequent to his disaster. They visited him on the field and "his +conversation disarmed all criticism." This was because he struck their +own note to perfection. "Our soldiers," he said, "were not sufficiently +fired by resentment, and he exhorted me (Julian) if I could, to breathe +into our people at home the same spirit toward our enemies which +inspired them toward us."(6) What a transformation in McClellan's +disciple! + +But the country was not won over so easily as the Committee. There was +loud and general disapproval and of course, the habitual question, "Who +next?" The publication by the Committee of its insinuation that once +more the stubborn President was the real culprit did not stem the tide. +Burnside himself made his case steadily worse. His judgment, such as +it was, had collapsed. He seemed to be stubbornly bent on a virtual +repetition of his previous folly. Lincoln felt it necessary to command +him to make no forward move without consulting the President.(7) + +Burnside's subordinates freely criticized their commander. General +Hooker was the most outspoken. It was known that a movement was +afoot--an intrigue, if you will-to disgrace Burnside and elevate Hooker. +Chafing under criticism and restraint, Burnside completely lost his +sense of propriety. On the twenty-fourth of January, 1863, when Henry +W. Raymond, the powerful editor of the New York Times, was on a visit to +the camp, Burnside took him into his tent and read him an order removing +Hooker because of his unfitness "to hold a command in a cause where so +much moderation, forbearance, and unselfish patriotism were required." +Raymond, aghast, inquired what he would do if Hooker resisted, if he +raised his troops in mutiny? "He said he would Swing him before sundown +if he attempted such a thing." + +Raymond, though more than half in sympathy with Burnside, felt that the +situation was startling. He hurried off to Washington. "I immediately," +he writes, "called upon Secretary Chase and told him the whole story. +He was greatly surprised to hear such reports of Hooker, and said he +had looked upon him as the man best fitted to command the army of the +Potomac. But no man capable of so much and such unprincipled ambition +was fit for so great a trust, and he gave up all thought of him +henceforth. He wished me to go with him to his house and accompany him +and his daughter to the President's levee. I did so and found a great +crowd surrounding President Lincoln. I managed, however, to tell him +in brief terms that I had been with the army and that many things were +occurring there which he ought to know. I told him of the obstacles +thrown in Burnside's way by his subordinates and especially General +Hooker's habitual conversation. He put his hand on my shoulder and said +in my ear as if desirous of not being overheard, 'That is all true; +Hooker talks badly; but the trouble is, he is stronger with the country +today than any other man.' I ventured to ask how long he would retain +that strength if his real conduct and character should be understood. +'The country,' said he, 'would not believe it; they would say it was all +a lie.'"(8) + +Whether Chase did what he said he would do and ceased to be Hooker's +advocate, may be questioned. Tradition preserves a deal between the +Secretary and the General--the Secretary to urge his advancement, the +General, if he reached his goal, to content himself with military honors +and to assist the Secretary in succeeding to the Presidency. Hooker +was a public favorite. The dashing, handsome figure of "Fighting Joe" +captivated the popular imagination. The terrible Committee were his +friends. Military men thought him full of promise. On the whole, +Lincoln, who saw the wisdom of following up his clash over the Cabinet +by a concession to the Jacobins, was willing to take his chances with +Hooker. + +His intimate advisers were not of the same mind. They knew that there +was much talk on the theme of a possible dictator-not the constitutional +dictator of Lincoln and Stevens, but the old-fashioned dictator of +historical melodrama. Hooker was reported to have encouraged such talk. +All this greatly alarmed one of Lincoln's most devoted henchmen--Lamon, +Marshal of the District of Columbia, who regarded himself as personally +responsible for Lincoln's safety. "In conversation with Mr. Lincoln," +says Lamon, "one night about the time General Burnside was relieved, I +was urging upon him the necessity of looking well to the fact that there +was a scheme on foot to depose him, and to appoint a military dictator +in his stead. He laughed and said, 'I think, for a man of accredited +courage, you are the most panicky person I ever knew; you can see more +dangers to me than all the other friends I have. You are all the time +exercised about somebody taking my life; murdering me; and now you +have discovered a new danger; now you think the people of this great +government are likely to turn me out of office. I do not fear this from +the people any more than I fear assassination from an individual. Now to +show my appreciation of what my French friends would call a coup d'etat, +let me read you a letter I have written to General Hooker whom I have +just appointed to the command of the army of the Potomac."(9) + +Few letters of Lincoln's are better known, few reveal more exactly the +tone of his final period, than the remarkable communication he addressed +to Hooker two days after that whispered talk with Raymond at the White +House levee: + +"General, I have placed you at the head of the army of the Potomac. Of +course I have done this upon what appear to me to be sufficient reasons, +and yet I think it best for you to know that there are some things in +regard to which I am not 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 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."(10) + +The appointment of Hooker had the effect of quieting the Committee for +the time. Lincoln turned again to his political scheme, but not until +he had made another military appointment from which at the moment no +one could have guessed that trouble would ever come. He gave to +Burnside what might be called the sinecure position of Commander of the +Department of the Ohio with headquarters at Cincinnati.(11) + +During the early part of 1863 Lincoln's political scheme received a +serious blow. Seymour ranked himself as an irreconcilable enemy of the +Administration. The anti-Lincoln Republicans struck at the President in +roundabout ways. Heralding a new attack, the best man on the Committee, +Julian, ironically urged his associates in Congress to "rescue" the +President from his false friends--those mere Unionists who were luring +him away from the party that had elected him, enticing him into a vague +new party that should include "Democrats." It was said that there were +only two Lincoln men in the House.(12) Greeley was coquetting +with Rosecrans, trying to induce him to come forward as Republican +presidential "timber." The Committee in April published an elaborate +report which portrayed the army of the Potomac as an army of heroes +tragically afflicted in the past by the incompetence of their +commanders. The Democrats continued their abuse of the dictator. + +It was a moment of strained pause, everybody waiting upon circumstance. +And in Washington, every eye was turned Southward. How soon would they +glimpse the first messenger from that glorious victory which "Fighting +Joe" had promised them. "The enemy is in my power," said he, "and God +Almighty can not deprive me of them."(13) + +Something of the difference between Hooker and Lincoln, between all the +Vindictives and Lincoln, may be felt by turning from these ribald words +to that Fast Day Proclamation which this strange statesman issued to his +people, that anxious spring,--that moment of trance as it were--when all +things seemed to tremble toward the last judgment: + +"And whereas, it is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their +dependence upon the overruling power of God; to confess their sins and +transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine +repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime +truth announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that +those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord: + +"And insomuch as we know that by His divine law nations, like +individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this +world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which +now desolates the land may be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our +presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a +whole people. We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties +of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and +prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other +nation has ever grown; but we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the +gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched +and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness +of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior +wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we +have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and +preserving grace, too proud to pray to God that made us: + +"It behooves us then to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to +confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness. + +"All this being done in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in +the hope authorized by the divine teachings, that the united cry of the +nation will be heard on high, and answered with blessings no less than +the pardon of our national sins and the restoration of our now divided +and suffering country to its former happy condition of unity and +peace."(14) + +Alas, for such men as Hooker! What seemed to him in his vainglory beyond +the reach of Omnipotence, was accomplished by Lee and Jackson and +a Confederate army at Chancellorsville. Profound gloom fell upon +Washington. Welles heard the terrible news from Sumner who came into his +room "and raising both hands exclaimed, 'Lost, lost, all is lost!'"(15) + +The aftermath of Manassas was repeated. In the case of Pope, no effort +had been spared to save the friend of the Committee, to find some one +else on whom to load his incompetence. The course was now repeated. +Again, the Jacobins raised the cry, "We are betrayed!" Again, the stir +to injure the President. Very strange are the ironies of history! At +this critical moment, Lincoln's amiable mistake in sending Burnside to +Cincinnati demanded expiation. Along with the definite news of Hooker's +overthrow, came the news that Burnside had seized the Copperhead leader, +Vallandigham, and had cast him into prison; that a hubbub had ensued; +that, as the saying goes, the woods were burning in Ohio. + +Vallandigham's offense was a public speech of which no accurate report +survives. However, the fragments recorded by "plain clothes" men +in Burnside's employ, when set in the perspective of Vallandigham's +thinking as displayed in Congress, make its tenor plain enough. It was +an out-and-out Copperhead harangue. If he was to be treated as +hundreds of others had been, the case against him was plain. But the +Administration's policy toward agitators had gradually changed. There +was not the same fear of them that had existed two years before. Now the +tendency of the Administration was to ignore them. + +The Cabinet regretted what Burnside had done. Nevertheless, the +Ministers felt that it would not do to repudiate him. Lincoln took +that view. He wrote to Burnside deploring his action and sustaining his +authority.(16) And then, as a sort of grim practical joke, he commuted +Vallandigham's sentence from imprisonment to banishment. The agitator +was sent across the lines into the Confederacy. + +Burnside had effectually played the marplot. Very little chance now of +an understanding between Lincoln and either wing of the Democrats. The +opportunity to make capital out of the war powers was quite too good to +be lost! Vallandigham was nominated for governor by the Ohio Democrats. +In all parts of the country Democratic committees resolved in furious +protest against the dictator. And yet, on the whole, perhaps, the +incident played into Lincoln's hands. At least, it silenced the +Jacobins. With the Democrats ringing the changes on the former doctrine +of the supple politicians, how certain that their only course for the +moment was to lie low. A time came, to be sure, when they thought it +safe to resume their own creed; but that was not yet. + +The hubbub over Vallandigham called forth two letters addressed to +protesting committees, that have their place among Lincoln's most +important statements of political science. His argument is based on the +proposition which Browning developed a year before. The core of it is: + +"You ask in substance whether I really claim that I may override all +guaranteed rights of individuals on the plea of conserving the public +safety, whenever 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 no one 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."(17) + +Browning's argument over again-the President can be brought to book by +a plebiscite, while Congress can not. But Lincoln did not rest, as +Browning did, on mere argument. The old-time jury lawyer revived. He was +doing more than arguing a theorem of political science. He was on trial +before the people, the great mass, which he understood so well. He must +reach their imaginations and touch their hearts. + +"Mr. Vallandigham avows his hostility to the war on the part of the +Union, and his arrest was made because he was laboring with some effect, +to prevent the raising of troops, to encourage desertions from the +army, and to leave the rebellion without an adequate military force to +sup-press it. He was not arrested because he was damaging the political +prospects of the Administration or the personal interests of the +Commanding General, but because he was damaging the army, upon the +existence and vigor of which the life of the nation depends. He was +warring upon the military, and this gave the military constitutional +jurisdiction to lay hands upon him. + +"I understand the meeting whose resolutions I am considering, to be in +favor of suppressing the rebellion by military force-by armies. Long +experience has shown that armies can not be maintained unless desertion +shall be punished by the severe penalty of death. The case requires, and +the Law and the Constitution sanction this punishment. 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?"(18) + +Again, the ironical situation of the previous December; the wrathful +Jacobins, the most dangerous because the most sincere enemies of the +presidential dictatorship, silent, trapped, biding their time. But the +situation had for them a distinct consolation. A hundred to one it had +killed the hope of a Lincoln-Democratic alliance. + +However, the President would not give up the Democrats without one last +attempt to get round the Little Men. Again, he could think of no mode +of negotiation except the one he had vainly attempted with Seymour. +As earnest of his own good faith, he would once more renounce his own +prospect of a second term. But since Seymour had failed him, who was +there that could serve his purpose? The popularity of McClellan among +those Democrats who were not Copperheads had grown with his misfortunes. +There had been a wide demand for his restoration after Fredericksburg, +and again after Chancellorsville. Lincoln justified his reputation for +political insight by concluding that McClellan, among the Democrats, was +the coming man. Again Weed was called in. Again he became an ambassador +of renunciation. Apparently he carried a message to the effect that +if McClellan would join forces with the Administration, Lincoln would +support him for president a year later. But McClellan was too inveterate +a partisan. Perhaps he thought that the future was his anyway.(19) + +And so Lincoln's persistent attempt to win over the Democrats came to +an end. The final sealing of their antagonism was effected at a great +Democratic rally in New York on the Fourth of July. The day previous, +a manifesto had been circulated through the city beginning, "Freemen, +awake! In everything, and in most stupendous proportion, is this +Administration abominable!"(20) Seymour reaffirmed his position of +out-and-out partisan hostility to the Administration. Vallandigham's +colleague, Pendleton of Ohio, formulated the Democratic doctrine: that +the Constitution was being violated by the President's assumption of +war powers. His cry was, "The Constitution as it is and the Union as +it was." He thundered that "Congress can not, and no one else shall, +interfere with free speech." The question was not whether we were to +have peace or war, but whether or not we were to have free government; +"if it be necessary to violate the Constitution in order to carry on the +war, the war ought instantly to be stopped."(21) + +Lincoln's political program had ended apparently in a wreck. But Fortune +had not entirely deserted him. Hooker in a fit of irritation had offered +his resignation. Lincoln had accepted it. Under a new commander, the +army of the Potomac had moved against Lee. The orators at the Fourth of +July meeting had read in the papers that same day Lincoln's announcement +of the victory at Gettysburg.(22) Almost coincident with that +announcement was the surrender of Vicksburg. Difficult as was the +political problem ahead of him, the problem of finding some other +plan for unifying his support without participating in a Vindictive +Coalition, Lincoln's mood was cheerful. On the seventh of July he was +serenaded. Serenades for the President were a feature of war-time in +Washington, and Lincoln utilized the occasions to talk informally to +the country. His remarks on the seventh were not distinctive, except +for their tone, quietly, joyfully confident. His serene mood displayed +itself a week later in a note to Grant which is oddly characteristic. +Who else would have had the impulse to make this quaint little +confession? But what, for a general who could read between the lines, +could have been more delightful?(23) + +"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 the 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. + +"Very truly, + +"A. LINCOLN." + + + + +XXVII. THE TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE + +Between March and December, 1863, Congress was not in session. Its +members were busy "taking the sense of the country" as they would have +said: "putting their ears to the ground," as other people would say. +A startling tale the ground told them. It was nothing less than that +Lincoln was the popular hero; that the people believed in him; that the +politicians would do well to shape their ways accordingly. When they +reassembled, they were in a sullen, disappointed frame of mind. They +would have liked to ignore the ground's mandate; but being politicians, +they dared not. + +What an ironical turn of events! Lincoln's well-laid plan for a +coalition of Moderates and Democrats had come to nothing. Logically, +he ought now to be at the mercy of the Republican leaders. But instead, +those leaders were beginning to be afraid of him, were perceiving that +he had power whereof they had not dreamed. Like Saul the son of Kish, +who had set out to find his father's asses, he had found instead a +kingdom. How had he done it? + +On a grand scale, it was the same sort of victory that had made him +a power, so long before, on the little stage at Springfield. It was +personal politics. His character had saved him. A multitude who saw +nothing in the fine drawn constitutional issue of the war powers, +who sensed the war in the most simple and elementary way, had formed, +somehow, a compelling and stimulating idea of the President. They were +satisfied that "Old Abe," or "Father Abraham," was the man for them. +When, after one of his numerous calls for fresh troops, their hearts +went out to him, a new song sprang to life, a ringing, vigorous, and yet +a touching song with the refrain, "We're coming, Father Abraham, three +hundred thousand more." + +But how has he done it, asked the bewildered politicians, one of +another. How had he created this personal confidence? They, Wade, +Chandler, Stevens, Davis, could not do it; why could he? + +Well, for one thing, he was a grand reality. They, relatively, were +shadows. The wind of destiny for him was the convictions arising out of +his own soul; for them it was vox populi. The genuineness of Lincoln, +his spiritual reality, had been perceived early by a class of men +whom your true politician seldom understands. The Intellectuals--"them +literary fellers," in the famous words of an American Senator--were +quick to see that the President was an extraordinary man; they were not +long in concluding that he was a genius. The subtlest intellect of the +time, Hawthorne, all of whose prejudices were enlisted against him, said +in the Atlantic of July, 1863: "He is evidently a man of keen faculties, +and what is still more to the purpose, of powerful character. As to his +integrity, the people have that intuition of it which is never deceived +he has a flexible mind capable of much expansion." And this when +Trumbull chafed in spirit because the President was too "weak" for his +part and Wade railed at him as a despot. As far back as 1860, Lowell, +destined to become one of his ablest defenders, had said that Lincoln +had "proved both his ability and his integrity; he . . . had experience +enough in public affairs to make him a statesman, and not enough to make +him a politician." To be sure, there were some Intellectuals who could +not see straight nor think clear. The world would have more confidence +in the caliber of Bryant had he been able to rank himself in the Lincoln +following. But the greater part of the best intelligence of the North +could have subscribed to Motley's words, "My respect for the character +of the President increases every day."(1) The impression he made on men +of original mind is shadowed in the words of Walt Whitman, who saw him +often in the streets of Washington: "None of the artists or pictures +have caught the subtle and indirect expression of this man's face. +One of the great portrait painters of two or three centuries ago is +needed."(2) + +Lincoln's popular strength lay in a combination of the Intellectuals and +the plain people against the politicians. He reached the masses in three +ways: through his general receptions which any one might attend; through +the open-door policy of his office, to which all the world was permitted +access; through his visits to the army. Many thousand men and women, in +one or another of these ways, met the President face to face, often in +the high susceptibility of intense woe, and carried away an impression +which was immediately circulated among all their acquaintances. + +It would be impossible to exaggerate the grotesque miscellany of the +stream of people flowing ever in and out of the President's open doors. +Patriots eager to serve their country but who could find no place in +the conventional requirements of the War Office; sharpers who wanted to +inveigle him into the traps of profiteers; widows with all their sons in +service, pleading for one to be exempted; other parents struggling with +the red tape that kept them from sons in hospitals; luxurious frauds +prating of their loyalty for the sake of property exemptions; inventors +with every imaginable strange device; politicians seeking to cajole +him; politicians bluntly threatening him; cashiered officers demanding +justice; men with grievances of a myriad sorts; nameless statesmen who +sought to teach him his duty; clergymen in large numbers, generally +with the same purpose; deputations from churches, societies, political +organizations, commissions, trades unions, with every sort of message +from flattery to denunciation; and best of all, simple, confiding people +who wanted only to say, "We trust you--God bless you!" + +There was a method in this madness of accessibility. Its deepest +inspiration, to be sure, was kindness. In reply to a protest that he +would wear himself out listening to thousands of requests most of which +could not be granted, he replied with one of those smiles in which there +was so much sadness, "They don't want much; they get but little, and I +must see them."(3) + +But there was another inspiration. His open doors enabled him to study +the American people, every phase of it, good and bad. "Men moving only +in an official circle," said he, "are apt to become merely official--not +to say arbitrary--in their ideas, and are apter and apter with each +passing day to forget that they only hold power in a representative +capacity. . . . Many of the matters brought to my notice are utterly +frivolous, but others are of more or less importance, and all serve +to renew in me a clearer and more vivid image of that great popular +assemblage out of which I sprung, and to which at the end of two years I +must return. . . . I call these receptions my public opinion baths; for +I have but little time to read the papers, and gather public opinion +that way; and though they may not be pleasant in all their particulars, +the effect as a whole, is renovating and invigorating to my perceptions +of responsibility and duty."(4) + +He did not allow his patience to be abused with evil intent. He read his +suppliants swiftly. The profiteer, the shirk, the fraud of any sort, +was instantly unmasked. "I'll have nothing to do with this business," he +burst out after listening to a gentlemanly profiteer; "nor with any man +who comes to me with such degrading propositions. What! Do you take the +President of the United States to be a commission broker? You have come +to the wrong place, and for you and for every one who comes for the same +purpose, there is the door."(5) + +Lincoln enjoyed this indiscriminate mixing with people. It was his chief +escape from care. He saw no reason why his friends should Commiserate +him because of the endless handshaking. That was a small matter compared +with the interest he took in the ever various stream of human types. +Sometimes, indeed, he would lapse into a brown study in the midst of +a reception. Then he "would shake hands with thousands of people, +seemingly unconscious of what he was doing, murmuring monotonous +salutations as they went by, his eye dim, his thoughts far withdrawn. +. . . Suddenly, he would see some familiar face--his memory for faces was +very good-and his eye would brighten and his whole form grow attentive; +he would greet the visitor with a hearty grasp and a ringing word +and dismiss him with a cheery laugh that filled the Blue Room with +infectious good nature."(6) Carpenter, the portrait painter, who for a +time saw him daily, says that "his laugh stood by itself. The neigh of a +wild horse on his native prairie is not more undisguised and hearty." An +intimate friend called it his "life preserver."(7) + +Lincoln's sense of humor delighted in any detail of an event which +suggested comedy. His genial awkwardness amused himself quite as much +as it amused the world. At his third public reception he wore a pair +of white kid gloves that were too small. An old friend approached. The +President shook hands so heartily that his glove burst with a popping +sound. Holding up his hand, Lincoln gazed at the ruined glove with a +droll air while the arrested procession came to a standstill. "Well, my +old friend," said he, "this is a general bustification; you and I were +never intended to wear these things. If they were stronger they might do +to keep out the cold, but they are a failure to shake hands with between +old friends like us. Stand aside, Captain, and I'll see you shortly."(8) + +His complete freedom from pose, and from the sense of place, was +glimpsed by innumerable visitors. He would never allow a friend to +address him by a title. "Call me Lincoln," he would say; "Mr. President +is entirely too formal for us."(9) + +In a mere politician, all this might have been questioned. But Hawthorne +was right as to the people's intuition of Lincoln's honesty. He hated +the parade of eminence. Jefferson was his patron saint, and "simplicity" +was part of his creed. Nothing could induce him to surround himself with +pomp, or even--as his friends thought--with mere security. Rumors of +plots against his life were heard almost from the beginning. His friends +begged long and hard before he consented to permit a cavalry guard at +the gates of the White House. Very soon he countermanded his consent. +"It would never do," said he, "for a president to have guards with drawn +sabers at his door, as if he fancied he were, or were trying to be, or +were assuming to be, an emperor."(10) + +A military officer, alarmed for his safety, begged him to consider +"the fact that any assassin or maniac seeking his life, could enter +his presence without the interference of a single armed man to hold +him back. The entrance doors, and all doors on the official side of +the building, were open at all hours of the day and very late into the +evening; and I have many times entered the mansion and walked up to the +rooms of the two private secretaries as late as nine or ten o'clock at +night, without Seeing, or being challenged by a single soul." But the +officer pleaded in vain. Lincoln laughingly paraphrased Charles II, "Now +as to political assassination, do you think the Richmond people would +like to have Hannibal Hamlin here any more than myself? . . . As to +the crazy folks, Major, why I must only take my chances-the most +crazy people at present, I fear, being some of my own too zealous +adherents."(11) With Carpenter, to whom he seems to have taken a liking, +he would ramble the streets of Washington, late at night, "without +escort or even the company of a servant."(12) Though Halleck talked him +into accepting an escort when driving to and fro between Washington and +his summer residence at the Soldiers' Home, he would frequently give it +the slip and make the journey on horseback alone. In August of 1862 on +one of these solitary rides, his life was attempted. It was about eleven +at night; he was "jogging along at a slow gait immersed in deep thought" +when some one fired at him with a rifle from near at hand. The ball +missed its aim and the President's horse, as Lincoln confided to his +familiars, "gave proof of decided dissatisfaction at the racket, +and with one reckless bound, he unceremoniously separated me from my +eight-dollar plug hat . . . At break-neck speed we reached a haven of +safety. Meanwhile, I was left in doubt whether death was more desirable +from being thrown from a runaway Federal horse, or as the tragic result +of a rifle ball fired by a disloyal bushwhacker in the middle of the +night"(13) + +While carrying his life in his hands in this oddly reckless way, he +belied himself, as events were to show, by telling his friends that he +fancied himself "a great coward physically," that he felt sure he would +make a poor soldier. But he was sufficiently just to himself to add, +"Moral cowardice is something which I think I never had."(14) + +Lincoln's humor found expression in other ways besides telling stories +and laughing at himself. He seized every opportunity to convert a +petition into a joke, when this could be done without causing pain. One +day, there entered a great man with a long list of favors which he hoped +to have granted. Among these was "the case of Betsy Ann Dougherty, a +good woman," said the great man. "She lived in my county and did my +washing for a long time. Her husband went off and joined the Rebel army +and I wish you would give her a protection paper." The pompous gravity +of the way the case was presented struck Lincoln as very funny. His +visitor had no humor. He failed to see jokes while Lincoln quizzed him +as to who and what was Betsy Ann. At length the President wrote a line +on a card and handed it to the great man. "Tell Betsy Ann to put a +string in this card and hang it round her neck," said he. "When the +officers (who may have doubted her affiliations) see this they will keep +their hands off your Betsy Ann." On the card was written, "Let Betsy Ann +Dougherty alone as long as she behaves herself. A. Lincoln."(15) + +This eagerness for a joke now and then gave offense. On one occasion, +a noted Congressman called on the President shortly after a disaster. +Lincoln began to tell a story. The Congressman jumped up. "Mr. +President, I did not come here this morning to hear stories. It is too +serious a time." Lincoln's face changed. "Ashley," said he, "sit down! I +respect you as an earnest, sincere man. You can not be more anxious than +I have been constantly since the beginning of the war; and I say to you +now, that were it not for this occasional vent, I should die."(16) Again +he said, "When the Peninsula Campaign terminated suddenly at Harrison's +Landing, I was as near inconsolable as I could be and live."(17) + +Lincoln's imaginative power, the ineradicable artist in him, made +of things unseen true realities to his sensibility. Reports of army +suffering bowed his spirit. "This was especially' the case when the +noble victims were of his own acquaintance, or of the narrower circle of +his familiar friends; and then he seemed for the moment possessed of a +sense of personal responsibility for their individual fate which was at +once most unreasonable and most pitiful." On hearing that two sons of an +old friend were desperately wounded and would probably die, he broke out +with: "Here, now, are these dear brave boys killed in this cursed war. +My God! My God! It is too bad! They worked hard to earn money to +educate themselves and this is the end! I loved them as if they were my +own."(18) He was one of the few who have ever written a beautiful letter +of condolence. Several of his letters attempting this all but impossible +task, come as near their mark as such things can. One has become a +classic: + +"I have been shown," he wrote to Mrs. Bixby, "in the files of the War +Department a statement of the Adjutant-General of Massachusetts that +you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field +of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which +should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. +But I can not refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be +found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our +heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave +you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn +pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the +altar of freedom."(19) + +All these innumerable instances of his sympathy passed from mouth to +mouth; became part of a floating propaganda that was organizing the +people in his support. To these were added many anecdotes of his mercy. +The American people had not learned that war is a rigorous thing. +Discipline in the army was often hard to maintain. Impulsive young men +who tired of army life, or who quarreled with their officers, sometimes +walked away. There were many condemnations either for mutiny or +desertion. In the stream of suppliants pouring daily through the +President's office, many were parents imploring mercy for rash sons. As +every death-warrant had to be signed by the President, his generals +were frequently enraged by his refusal to carry out their decisions. +"General," said he to an angry commander who charged him with destroying +discipline, "there are too many weeping widows in the United States +now.-For God's sake don't ask me to add to the number; for I tell you +plainly I won't do it."(20) + +Here again, kindness was blended with statecraft, mercy with shrewdness. +The generals could not grasp the political side of war. Lincoln tried +to make them see it. When they could not, he quietly in the last resort +counteracted their influence. When some of them talked of European +experience, he shook his head; it would not do; they must work with +the tools they had; first of all with an untrained people, intensely +sensitive to the value of human life, impulsive, quick to forget +offenses, ultra-considerate of youth and its rashness. Whatever else the +President did, he must not allow the country to think of the army as an +ogre devouring its sons because of technicalities. The General saw only +the discipline, the morale, of the soldiers; the President saw the +far more difficult, the more roundabout matter, the discipline and the +morale of the citizens. The one believed that he could compel; the other +with his finger on the nation's pulse, knew that he had to persuade. + +However, this flowing army of the propaganda did not always engage him +on the tragic note. One day a large fleshy man, of a stern but +homely countenance and a solemn and dignified carriage, immaculate +dress--"swallow-tailed coat, ruffled shirt of faultless fabric, white +cravat and orange-colored gloves"--entered with the throng. Looking at +him Lincoln was somewhat appalled. He expected some formidable demand. +To his relief, the imposing stranger delivered a brief harangue on the +President's policy, closing with, "I have watched you narrowly ever +since your inauguration. . . . As one of your constituents, I now say +to you, do in future as you damn please, and I will support you." "Sit +down, my friend," said Lincoln, "sit down. I am delighted to see you. +Lunch with us today. Yes, you must stay and lunch with us, my friend, +for I have not seen enough of you yet."(21) There were many of these +informal ambassadors of the people assuring the President of popular +support. And this florid gentleman was not the only one who lunched with +the President on first acquaintance. + +This casual way of inviting strangers to lunch with him was typical of +his mode of life, which was exceedingly simple. He slept lightly and +rose early. In summer when he used the Soldiers' Home as a residence, he +was at his desk in the White House at eight o'clock in the morning. His +breakfast was an egg and a cup of coffee; luncheon was rarely more +than a glass of milk and a biscuit with a plate of fruit in season; +his dinner at six o'clock, was always a light meal. Though he had not +continued a total abstainer, as in the early days at Springfield, he +very seldom drank wine. He never used tobacco. So careless was he with +regard to food that when Mrs. Lincoln was away from home, there +was little regularity in his meals. He described his habits on such +occasions as "browsing around."(22) + +Even when Mrs. Lincoln was in command at the White House, he was not +invariably dutiful. An amusing instance was observed by some high +officials. The luncheon hour arrived in the midst of an important +conference. Presently, a servant appeared reminding Mr. Lincoln of the +hour, but he took no notice. Another summons, and again no notice. +After a short interval, the door of the office flew open and the titular +"First Lady" flounced into the room, a ruffled, angry little figure, +her eyes flashing. With deliberate quiet, as if in a dream, Lincoln rose +slowly, took her calmly, firmly by the shoulders, lifted her, carried +her through the doorway, set her down, closed the door, and went on with +the conference as if unconscious of an interruption.(23) Mrs. Lincoln +did not return. The remainder of the incident is unknown. + +The burden of many anecdotes that were included in the propaganda was +his kindness to children. It began with his own. His little rascal +"Tad," after Willie's death, was the apple of his eye. The boy romped in +and out of his office. Many a time he was perched on his father's knee +while great affairs of state were under discussion.(24) Lincoln could +persuade any child from the arms of its mother, nurse, or play fellow, +there being a "peculiar fascination in his voice and manner which the +little one could not resist."(25) + +All impressionable, imaginative young people, brought into close +association with him, appear to have felt his spell. His private +secretaries were his sworn henchmen. Hay's diary rings with +admiration--the keen, discriminating, significant admiration of your real +observer. Hay refers to him by pet name-"The Ancient," "The Old Man," +"The Tycoon." Lincoln's entire relation with these gifted youngsters +may be typified by one of Hay's quaintest anecdotes. Lincoln had gone to +bed, as so often he did, with a book. "A little after midnight as I was +writing, the President came into the office laughing, with a volume of +Hood's Works in his hand, to show Nicolay and me the little caricature, +'An Unfortunate Being'; seemingly utterly unconscious that he, with his +short shirt hanging about his long legs, and setting out behind like +the tail feathers of an enormous ostrich, was infinitely funnier than +anything in the book he was laughing at. What a man it is! occupied all +day with matters of vast moment, deeply anxious about the fate of the +greatest army of the world, with his own plans and future hanging on the +events of the passing hour, he yet has such a wealth of simple bonhomie +and good fellowship that he gets out of bed and perambulates the house +in his shirt to find us that we may share with him the fun of poor +Hood's queer little conceits."(26) + +In midsummer, 1863, "The Tycoon is in fine whack. I have rarely seen +him more serene and busy. He is managing this war, the draft, foreign +relations, and planning a reconstruction of the Union, all at once. I +never knew with what a tyrannous authority he rules the Cabinet, until +now. The most important things he decides and there is no cavil. I am +growing more convinced that the good of the country demands that he +should be kept where he is till this thing is over. There is no man in +the country so wise, so gentle, and so firm."(27) + +And again, "You may talk as you please of the Abolition Cabal directing +affairs from Washington; some well-meaning newspapers advise the +President to keep his fingers out of the military pie, and all that sort +of thing. The truth is, if he did, the pie would be a sorry mess. The +old man sits here and wields, like a backwoods Jupiter, the bolts of +war and the machinery of government with a hand especially steady and +equally firm. . I do not know whether the nation is worthy of him for +another term. I know the people want him. There is no mistaking that +fact. But the politicians are strong yet, and he is not their 'kind of a +cat.' I hope God won't see fit to scourge us for our sins by any of the +two or three most prominent candidates on the ground."(28) This was the +conclusion growing everywhere among the bulk of the people. There is one +more cause of it to be reckoned with. Lincoln had not ceased to be the +literary statesman. In fact, he was that more effectively than ever. His +genius for fable-making took a new turn. Many a visitor who came to find +fault, went home to disseminate the apt fable with which the President +had silenced his objections and captured his agreement. His skill in +narration also served him well. Carpenter repeats a story about Andrew +Johnson and his crude but stern religion which in mere print is not +remarkable. "I have elsewhere insinuated," comments Carpenter, "that Mr. +Lincoln was capable of much dramatic power. . . . It was shown in his +keen appreciation of Shakespeare, and unrivaled faculty of Storytelling. +The incident just related, for example, was given with a thrilling +effect which mentally placed Johnson, for the time being, alongside +Luther and Cromwell. Profanity or irreverence was lost sight of in a +fervid utterance of a highly wrought and great-souled determination, +united with a rare exhibition of pathos and self-abnegation."(29) + +In formal literature, he had done great things upon a far higher level +than any of his writings previous to that sudden change in his style +in 1860. For one, there was the Fast Day Proclamation. There was also a +description of his country, of the heritage of the nation, in the third +message. Its aim was to give imaginative reality to the national idea; +just as the second message had aimed to give argumentative reality. + +"There is no line, straight or crooked, suitable for a national boundary +upon which to divide. Trace through from east to west, upon the line +between the free and the slave Country and we shall find a little +more than one-third of its length are rivers, easy to be crossed, and +populated, or soon to be populated, thickly upon both sides; while +nearly all its remaining length are merely surveyors' lines, over +which people may walk back and forth without any consciousness of their +presence. No part of this line can be made any more difficult to pass by +writing it down on paper or parchment as a national boundary. + +"But there is another difficulty. The great interior region, bounded +east by the Alleghanies, north by the British dominions, west by the +Rocky Mountains, and south by the line along which the culture of +corn and cotton meets, and which includes part of Virginia, part +of Tennessee, all of Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, +Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Minnesota, and the Territories of +Dakota, Nebraska, and part of Colorado, already has above ten millions +of people, and will have fifty millions within fifty years, if not +prevented by any political folly or mistake. It contains more than +one-third of the Country owned by the United States--certainly more than +one million square miles. Once half as populous as Massachusetts already +is, it would have more than seventy-five millions of people. A glance at +the map shows that, territorially speaking, it is the great body of +the republic. The other parts are but marginal borders to it, the +magnificent region sloping west from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific +being the deepest and also the richest in undeveloped resources. In the +production of provisions, grains, grasses, and all which proceed from +them, this great interior region is naturally one of the most important +in the world. Ascertain from the statistics the small proportion of the +region which has, as yet, been brought into cultivation, and also the +large and rapidly increasing amount of its products and we shall be +overwhelmed with the magnitude of the prospect presented; and yet, +this region has no seacoast, touches no ocean anywhere. As part of one +nation, its people now find, and may forever find, their way to Europe +by New York, to South America and Africa by New Orleans, and to Asia +by San Francisco. But separate our common country into two nations as +designed by the present rebellion, and every man of this great interior +region is thereby cut off from some one or more of these outlets-not, +perhaps, by a physical barrier, but by embarrassing and onerous trade +regulations. + +"And this is true wherever a dividing or boundary line may be fixed. +Place it between the now free and slave country, or place it south of +Kentucky or north of Ohio, and still the truth remains that none south +of it can trade to any port or place north of it, and none north of it +can trade to any port or place south of it, except upon terms dictated +by a government foreign to them. These outlets east, west, and south, +are indispensable to the well-being of the people inhabiting and to +inhabit, this vast interior region. Which of the three may be the best +is no proper question. All are better than either; and all of right +belong to that people and to their Successors forever. True to +themselves, they will not ask where a line of separation shall be, but +will vow rather that there shall be no such line. Nor are the marginal +regions less interested in these communications to and through them to +the great outside world. They, too, and each of them, must have access +to this Egypt of the West without paying toll at the crossing of any +national boundary. + +"Our national strife springs not from our permanent part, not from the +land we inhabit, not from our national homestead. There is no possible +severing of this but would multiply, and not mitigate, evils among +us. In all its adaptations and aptitudes it demands union and abhors +separation. In fact, it would ere long, force reunion, however much of +blood and treasure the separation might have cost."(30) + +A third time he made a great literary stroke, gave utterance, in yet +another form, to his faith that the national idea was the one constant +issue for which he had asked his countrymen, and would continue to ask +them, to die. It was at Gettysburg, November 19, 1863, in consecration +of a military burying-ground, that he delivered, perhaps, his greatest +utterance: + +"But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate--we can not consecrate--we +can not 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, +for the people, by the people, shall not perish from the earth."(31) + + + + +XXVIII. APPARENT ASCENDENCY + +Toward the end of 1863, Lowell prepared an essay on "The President's +Policy." It might almost be regarded as a manifesto of the +Intellectuals. That there was now a prospect of winning the war +"was mainly due to the good sense, the good humor, the sagacity, the +large-mindedness, and the unselfish honesty of the unknown man whom +a blind fortune, as it seemed, had lifted from the crowd to the most +dangerous and difficult eminence of modern times." When the essay +appeared in print, Lincoln was greatly pleased. He wrote to the editors +of the North American Review, "I am not the most impartial judge; yet +with due allowance for this, I venture to hope that the article entitled +'The President's Policy' will be of value to the country. I fear I +am not quite worthy of all which is therein so kindly said of me +personally."(1) + +This very able defense of his previous course appeared as he was +announcing to the country his final course. He was now satisfied that +winning the war was but a question of time. What would come after +war was now in his mind the overshadowing matter. He knew that +the vindictive temper had lost nothing of its violence. Chandler's +savagery--his belief that the Southerners had forfeited the right to +life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness--was still the Vindictive +creed. 'Vae victi'! When war ended, they meant to set their feet on the +neck of the vanquished foe. Furthermore, Lincoln was not deceived as +to why they were lying low at this particular minute. Ears had been +flattened to the ground and they were heeding what the ground had said. +The President was too popular for them to risk attacking him without an +obvious issue. Their former issue had been securely appropriated by +the Democrats. Where could they find another? With consummate boldness +Lincoln presented them an issue. It was reconstruction. When Congress +met, he communicated the text of a "Proclamation of Amnesty and +Reconstruction."(2) This great document on which all his concluding +policy was based, offered "a full pardon" with "restoration of all +rights of property, except as to slaves, or in property cases, where +rights of third persons shall have intervened" upon subscribing to +an oath of allegiance which required only a full acceptance of the +authority of the United States. This amnesty was to be extended to all +persons except a few groups, such as officers above the rank of colonel +and former officials of the United States. The Proclamation also +provided that whenever, in any Seceded State, the new oath should be +taken by ten per cent. of all those who were qualified to vote under the +laws of 1860, these ten per cent. should be empowered to set up a new +State government. + +From the Vindictive point of view, here was a startling announcement. +Lincoln had declared for a degree of magnanimity that was as a red rag +to a bull. He had also carried to its ultimate his assumption of war +powers. No request was made for congressional cooperation. The message +which the Proclamation accompanied was informative only. + +By this time, the Vindictive Coalition of 1861 was gradually coming +together again. Or, more truly, perhaps, various of its elements were +fusing into a sort of descendant of the old coalition. The leaders +of the new Vindictive group were much the same as the leaders of the +earlier group. There was one conspicuous addition. During the next six +months, Henry Winter Davis held for a time the questionable distinction +of being Lincoln's most inveterate enemy. He was a member of the House. +In the House many young and headstrong politicians rallied about him. +The Democrats at times craftily followed his lead. Despite the older and +more astute Vindictives of the Senate, Chandler, Wade and the rest who +knew that their time had not come, Davis, with his ardent followers, +took up the President's challenge. Davis brought in a bill designed to +complete the reorganization of the old Vindictive Coalition. It appealed +to the enemies of presidential prerogative, to all those who wanted +the road to reconstruction made as hard as possible, and to the +Abolitionists. This bill, in so many words, transferred the whole matter +of reconstruction from the President to Congress; it required a majority +(instead of one-tenth) of all the male citizens of a Seceded State as the +basis of a new government; it exacted of this majority a pledge never +to pay any State debt contracted during the Confederacy, and also the +perpetual prohibition of slavery in their State constitution. + +Davis got his bill through the House, but his allies in the Senate laid +it aside. They understood the country too well not to see that they +must wait for something to happen. If the President made any mistake, +if anything went wrong with the army--they remembered the spring of 1862, +McClellan's failure, and how Chandler followed it up. And at this moment +no man was chafing more angrily because of what the ground was saying, +no man was watching the President more keenly, than Chandler. History +is said to repeat itself, and all things are supposed to come to him who +waits. While Davis's bill was before the House, Lincoln accepted battle +with the Vindictives in a way that was entirely unostentatious, but that +burned his bridges. He pressed forward the organization of a new State +government in Louisiana under Federal auspices. He wrote to Michael +Hahn, the newly chosen governor of this somewhat fictitious State: "I +congratulate you on having fixed your name in history as the first Free +State governor of Louisiana."(3) + +Meanwhile, the hotheads of the House again followed Davis's lead and +flung defiance in Lincoln's face. Napoleon, who had all along coquetted +alarmingly with the Confederates, had also pushed ahead with his +insolent conquest of Mexico. Lincoln and Seward, determined to have +but one war on their hands at a time, had skilfully evaded committing +themselves. The United States had neither protested against the action +of Napoleon, nor in any way admitted its propriety. Other men besides +the Vindictives were biding their time. But here the hotheads thought +they saw an opportunity. Davis brought in a resolution which amounted to +a censure of the Administration for not demanding the retirement of +the French from Mexico. This was one of those times when the +Democrats played politics and followed Davis. The motion was carried +unanimously.(4) It was so much of a sensation that the 'American +Minister at Paris, calling on the Imperial Minister of Foreign Affairs, +was met by the curt question, "Do you bring peace or war?" + +But it was not in the power of the House to draw Lincoln's fire until +he chose to be drawn. He ignored its action. The Imperial Government was +informed that the acts of the House of Representatives were not the +acts of the President, and that in relation to France, if the President +should change his policy, the imperial Government would be duly in +formed.(5) + +It was Lincoln's fate to see his policy once again at the mercy of his +Commanding General. That was his situation in the spring of 1862 when +everything hung on McClellan who failed him; again in the autumn of +the year when McClellan so narrowly saved him. The spring of 1864 +paralleled, in this respect, that other spring two years earlier. To be +sure, Lincoln's position was now much stronger; he had a great personal +following on which he relied. But just how strong it was he did not +know. He was taking a great risk forcing a policy high-handed in +defiance of Congress, where all his bitterest enemies were entrenched, +glowering. If his General failed him now-- + +The man on whom this huge responsibility rested was Grant. Lincoln had +summoned him from the West and placed him at the head of all the +armies of the Republic. As to Halleck who had long since proved himself +perfectly useless, he was allowed to lapse into obscurity. + +Grant has preserved in his Memoirs his first confidential talk with +Lincoln: "He told me he did not want to know what I proposed to do. But +he submitted a plan of campaign of his own that he wanted me to hear and +then do as I pleased about. He brought out a map of Virginia on which +he had evidently marked every position occupied by the Federal and +Confederate armies up to that time. He pointed out on the map two +streams which empty into the Potomac, and suggested that an army might +be moved on boats and landed between the mouths of those streams. We +would then have the Potomac to bring our supplies, and the tributaries +would protect our flanks while we moved out. I listened respectfully, +but did not suggest that the same streams would protect Lee's flanks +while he was shutting us up."(6) + +Grant set out for the front in Virginia. Lincoln's parting words were +this note: "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 plans 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."(7) + + + + +XXIX. CATASTROPHE + +If the politicians needed a definite warning, in addition to what the +ground was saying, it was given by an incident that centered upon Chase. +A few bold men whose sense of the crowd was not so acute as it might +have been, attempted to work up a Chase boom. At the instance of Senator +Pomeroy, a secret paper known to-day as the Pomeroy Circular, was +started on its travels. The Circular aimed to make Chase the Vindictive +candidate. Like all the other anti-Lincoln moves of the early part +of 1864, it was premature. The shrewd old Senators who were silently +marshaling the Vindictive forces, let it alone. + +Chase's ambition was fully understood at the White House. During the +previous year, his irritable self-consciousness had led to quarrels +with the President, generally over patronage, and more than once he had +offered his resignation. On one occasion, Lincoln went to his house and +begged him to reconsider. Alone among the Cabinet, Chase had failed +to take the measure of Lincoln and still considered him a second-rate +person, much his inferior. He rated very high the services to his +country of the Secretary of the Treasury whom he considered the logical +successor to the Presidency. + +Lincoln refused to see what Chase was after. "I have determined," he +told Hay, "to shut my eyes as far as possible to everything of the sort. +Mr. Chase makes a good secretary and I shall keep him where he is."(1) +In lighter vein, he said that Chase's presidential ambition was like a +"chin fly" pestering a horse; it led to his putting all the energy he +had into his work.(2) + +When a copy of the Circular found its way to the White House, Lincoln +refused to read it.(3) Soon afterward it fell into the hands of an +unsympathetic or indiscreet editor and was printed. There was a hubbub. +Chase offered to resign. Lincoln wrote to him in reply: + +"My knowledge of Mr. Pomeroy's letter having been made public came to +me only the day you wrote but I had, in Spite of myself, known of its +existence several days before. I have not yet read it, and I think +I shall not. 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, and of secret agents who +I supposed were sent out by it, for several weeks. I have known just as +little of these things as my friends have allowed me to know. They bring +the documents to me, but I do not read them; they tell me what they +think fit to tell me, but I do not inquire for more. 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; and I +assure you, as you have assured me, that no assault has been made upon +you by my instigation or with my 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."(4) But this was not the end of the incident. The country +promptly repudiated Chase. His own state led the way. A caucus of +Union members of the Ohio Legislature resolved that the people and +the soldiers of Ohio demanded the reelection of Lincoln. In a host of +similar resolutions, Legislative caucuses, political conventions, dubs, +societies, prominent individuals not in the political machine, all +ringingly declared for Lincoln, the one proper candidate of the "Union +party"-as the movement was labeled in a last and relatively successful +attempt to break party lines. + +As the date of the "Union Convention" approached, Lincoln put aside +an opportunity to gratify the Vindictives. Following the Emancipation +Proclamation, the recruiting offices had been opened to negroes. +Thereupon the Confederate government threatened to treat black soldiers +as brigands, and to refuse to their white officers the protection of +the laws of war. A cry went up in the North for reprisal. It was not +the first time the cry had been raised. In 1862 Lincoln's spokesman in +Congress, Browning, had withstood a proposal for the trial of General +Buckner by the civil authorities of Kentucky. Browning opposed such a +course on the ground that it would lead to a policy of retaliation, and +make of the war a gratification of revenge.(5) The Confederate +threat gave a new turn to the discussion. Frederick Douglas, the most +influential negro of the time, obtained an audience with Lincoln and +begged for reprisals. Lincoln would not consent. So effective was his +argument that even the ardent negro, convinced that his race was about +to suffer persecution, was satisfied. + +"I shall never forget," Douglas wrote, "the benignant expression of +his face, the tearful look of his eye, 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."(6) + +In April, 1864, the North was swept by a wild rumor of deliberate +massacre of prisoners at Fort Pillow. Here was an opportunity for +Lincoln to ingratiate himself with the Vindictives. The President was +to make a speech at a fair held in Baltimore, for the benefit of the +Sanitary Commission. The audience was keen to hear him denounce the +reputed massacre, and eager to applaud a promise of reprisal. Instead, +he deprecated hasty judgment; insisting that the rumor had not been +verified; that nothing should be done on the strength of mere report. + +"It is a mistake to suppose the government is indifferent in this +matter, or is not doing the best it can in regard to it. 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."(7) + +What a tame, spiritless position in the eyes of the Vindictives! A +different opportunity to lay hold of public opinion he made the most of. +And yet, here also, he spoke in that carefully guarded way, making sure +he was not understood to say more than he meant, which most politicians +would have pronounced over-scrupulous. A deputation of working men from +New York were received at the White House. "The honorary membership +in your association," said he, "as generously tendered, is gratefully +accepted. . . . You comprehend, as your address shows, that the existing +rebellion means more, and tends to more, than the perpetuation of +African slavery-that it is, in fact, a war upon the rights of all +working people." + +After reviewing his own argument on this subject in the second message, +he concluded: + +"The views then expressed now remain unchanged, nor have I much to add. +None are so deeply interested to resist the present rebellion as the +working people. Let them beware of prejudices, working division and +hostility among themselves. The most notable feature of a disturbance +in your city last summer was the hanging of some working people by +other working people. It should never be so. The strongest bond of +human sympathy outside of the family relation, should be one uniting all +working people, of all nations, and tongues, and kindreds. Nor should +this lead to a war upon property, or the owners of property. Property +is the fruit of labor; property is desirable; is a positive good in the +world. That some should be rich shows that others may become rich, and +hence is just encouragement to industry and enterprise. Let not him who +is houseless pull down the house of another, but let him work diligently +and build one for himself, thus by example assuming that his own shall +be safe from violence when built."(8) + +Lincoln was never more anxious than in this fateful spring when so many +issues were hanging in the balance. Nevertheless, in all his relations +with the world, his firm serenity was not broken. Though subject to +depression so deep that his associates could not penetrate it, he kept +it sternly to himself.(9) He showed the world a lighter, more graceful +aspect than ever before. 'A precious record of his later mood is the +account of him set down by Frank B. Carpenter, the portrait painter, a +man of note in his day, who was an inmate of the White House during the +first half of 1864. Carpenter was painting a picture of the "Signing of +the Emancipation Proclamation." He saw Lincoln informally at all sorts +of odd times, under all sorts of conditions. "All familiar with him," +says Carpenter, "will remember the weary air which became habitual +during his last years. This was more of the mind than of the body, and +no rest and recreation which he allowed himself could relieve it. As +he sometimes expressed it, 'no remedy seemed ever to reach the tired +spot."(10) + +A great shadow was darkening over him. He was more than ever convinced +that he had not long to live. None the less, his poise became more +conspicuous, his command over himself and others more distinguished, +as the months raced past. In truth he had worked through a slow but +profound transformation. The Lincoln of 1864 was so far removed from the +Lincoln of Pigeon Creek-but logically, naturally removed, through the +absorption of the outer man by the inner--that inevitably one thinks of +Shakespeare's change "into something rich and strange." + +Along with the weakness, the contradictions of his earlier self, there +had also fallen away from him the mere grossness that had belonged to +him as a peasant. Carpenter is unconditional that in six months of close +intimacy, seeing him in company with all sorts of people, he never heard +from Lincoln an offensive story. He quotes Seward and Lincoln's family +physician to the same effect.(11) + +The painter, like many others, was impressed by the tragic cast of his +expression, despite the surface mirth. + +"His complexion, at this time, was inclined to sallowness his eyes were +bluish gray in color--always in deep shadow, however, from the upper +lids which were unusually heavy (reminding me in this respect of +Stuart's portrait of Washington) and the expression was remarkably +pensive and tender, often inexpressibly sad, as if the reservoir of +tears lay very near the surface--a fact proved not only by the response +which accounts of suffering and sorrow invariably drew forth, but +by circumstances which would ordinarily affect few men in his +position."(12) As a result of the great strain to which he was subjected +"his demeanor and disposition changed-so gradually that it would be +impossible to say when the change began. . . . He continued always the +same kindly, genial, and cordial spirit he had been at first; but the +boisterous laughter became less frequent, year by year; the eye grew +veiled by constant meditation on momentous subjects; the air of reserve +and detachment from his surroundings increased. He aged with great +rapidity."(13) + +Every Saturday afternoon the Marine Band gave an open-air concert in +the grounds of the White House. One afternoon Lincoln appeared upon the +portico. There was instant applause and cries for a speech. "Bowing his +thanks and excusing himself, he stepped back into the retirement of the +circular parlor, remarking (to Carpenter) with a disappointed air, as +he reclined on a sofa, 'I wish they would let me sit there quietly +and enjoy the music.' His kindness to others was unfailing. It was +this harassed statesman who came into the studio one day and found +(Carpenter's) little boy of two summers playing on the floor. A member +of the Cabinet was with him; but laying aside all restraint, he took +the little fellow in his arms and they were soon on the best of terms." +While his younger son "Tad" was with his mother on a journey, Lincoln +telegraphed: "Tell Tad, father and the goats are well, especially +the goats."(14) He found time one bright morning in May to review the +Sunday-school children of Washington who filed past "cheering as if +their very lives depended upon it," while Lincoln stood at a window +"enjoying the scene... making pleasant remarks about a face that now and +then struck him."(15) Carpenter told him that no other president except +Washington had placed himself so securely in the hearts of the people. +"Homely, honest, ungainly Lincoln," said Asa Gray, in a letter to +Darwin, "is the representative man of the country." + +However, two groups of men in his own party were sullenly opposed to +him--the relentless Vindictives and certain irresponsible free lances +who named themselves the "Radical Democracy." In the latter group, +Fremont was the hero; Wendell Phillips, the greatest advocate. They +were extremists in all things; many of them Agnostics. Furious against +Lincoln, but unwilling to go along with the waiting policy of the +Vindictives, these visionaries held a convention at Cleveland; voted +down a resolution that recognized God as an ally; and nominated Fremont +for the Presidency. A witty comment on the movement--one that greatly +amused Lincoln--was the citation of a verse in first Samuel: "And every +one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one +that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him; and he became a +captain over them; and there were with him about four hundred men." + +If anything was needed to keep the dissatisfied Senators in the party +ranks, it was this rash "bolt." Though Fremont had been their man in +the past, he had thrown the fat in the fire by setting up an independent +ticket. Silently, the wise opportunists of the Senate and all their +henchmen, stood aside at the "Union convention"--which they called the +Republican Convention--June seventh, and took their medicine. + +There was no doubt of the tempest of enthusiasm among the majority of +the delegates. It was a Lincoln ovation. + +In responding the next day to a committee of congratulation, Lincoln +said: "I am not insensible at all to the personal compliment there is +in this, and yet I do not allow myself to believe that any but a small +portion of it is to be appropriated as a personal compliment. . . . I do +not allow myself to suppose that either the Convention or the (National +Union) League have concluded to decide that I am the greatest or best +man in America, but rather they have concluded that it is best not to +swap horses while crossing the river, and have further concluded that I +am not so poor a horse that they might not make a botch of it trying to +swap."(16) + +Carpenter records another sort of congratulation a few days later +that brought out the graceful side of this man whom most people still +supposed to be hopelessly awkward. It happened on a Saturday. Carpenter +had invited friends to sit in his painting room and oversee the crowd +while listening to the music. "Towards the close of the concert, the +door suddenly opened, and the President came in, as he was in the habit +of doing, alone. Mr. and Mrs. Cropsey had been presented to him in the +course of the morning; and as he came forward, half hesitatingly, Mrs. +C., who held a bunch of beautiful flowers in her hand, tripped forward +playfully, and said: 'Allow me, Mr. President, to present you with a +bouquet!' The situation was momentarily embarrassing; and I was puzzled +to know how 'His Excellency' would get out of it. With no appearance of +discomposure, he stooped down, took the flowers, and, looking from +them into the sparkling eyes and radiant face of the lady, said, with a +gallantry I was unprepared for 'Really, madam, if you give them to me, +and they are mine, I think I can not possibly make so good use of them +as to present them to you, in return!'"(17) + +In gaining the nomination, Lincoln had not, as yet, attained security +for his plans. Grant was still to be reckoned with. By a curious irony, +the significance of his struggle with Lee during May, his steady advance +by the left flank, had been misapprehended in the North. Looking at the +map, the country saw that he was pushing southward, and again southward, +on Virginia soil. McClellan, Pope, Burnside, Hooker, with them it had +been: + + "He who fights and runs away + May live to fight another day." + +But Grant kept on. He struck Lee in the furious battle of the +Wilderness, and moved to the left, farther south. "Victory!" cried the +Northern newspapers, "Lee isn't able to stop him." The same delusion +was repeated after Spottsylvania where the soldiers, knowing more of war +than did the newspapers, pinned to their coats slips of paper bearing +their names; identification of the bodies might be difficult. The +popular mistake continued throughout that dreadful campaign. The +Convention was still under the delusion of victory. + +Lincoln also appears to have stood firm until the last minute in the +common error. But the report of Grant's losses, more than the whole of +Lee's army, filled him with horror. During these days, Carpenter had +complete freedom of the President's office and "intently studied every +line and shade of expression in that furrowed face. In repose, it was +the saddest face I ever knew. There were days when I could scarcely +look into it without crying. During the first week of the battles of the +Wilderness he scarcely slept at all. Passing through the main hall of +the domestic apartment on one of these days, I met him, clad in a long, +morning wrapper, pacing back and forth a narrow passage leading to one +of the windows, his hands behind him, great black rings under his eyes, +his head bent forward upon his breast-altogether such a picture of the +effects of sorrow, care, and anxiety as would have melted the hearts +of the worst of his adversaries, who so mistakenly applied to him the +epithets of tyrant and usurper."(18) + +Despite these sufferings, Lincoln had not the slightest thought of +giving way. Not in him any likeness to the sentimentalists, Greeley and +all his crew, who were exultant martyrs when things were going right, +and shrieking pacifists the moment anything went wrong. In one of the +darkest moments of the year, he made a brief address at a Sanitary Fair +in Philadelphia. + +"Speaking of the present campaign," said he, "General Grant is reported +to have said, 'I am going to fight it out on this line if it takes all +summer.' This war has taken three years; it was begun or accepted upon +the line of restoring the national authority over the whole national +domain, and for the American people, as far as my knowledge enables +me to speak, I say we are going through on this line if it takes three +years more."(19) He made no attempt to affect Grant's course. He had put +him in supreme command and would leave everything to his judgment. And +then came the colossal blunder at Cold Harbor. Grant stood again where +McClellan had stood two years before. He stood there defeated. He could +think of nothing to do but just what McClellan had wanted to do--abandon +the immediate enterprise, make a great detour to the Southwest, and +start a new campaign on a different plan. Two years with all their +terrible disasters, and this was all that had come of it! Practically no +gain, and a death-roll that staggered the nation. A wail went over the +North. After all, was the war hopeless? Was Lee invincible? Was the best +of the Northern manhood perishing to no result? + +Greeley, perhaps the most hysterical man of genius America has produced, +made his paper the organ of the wail. He wrote frantic appeals to the +government to cease fighting, do what could be done by negotiation, and +if nothing could be done--at least, stop "these rivers of human blood." + +The Vindictives saw their opportunity. They would capitalize the wail. +The President should be dealt with yet. + + + + +XXX. THE PRESIDENT VERSUS THE VINDICTIVES + +Now that the Vindictives had made up their minds to fight, an occasion +was at their hands. Virtually, they declared war on the President +by refusing to recognize a State government which he had set up in +Arkansas. Congress would not admit Senators or Representatives from the +Reconstructed State. But on this issue, Lincoln was as resolute to fight +to a finish as were any of his detractors. He wrote to General Steele, +commanding in Arkansas: + +"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 harm, while it will be the best you can do toward +suppressing the rebellion."(1) + +The same day Chase resigned. The reason he assigned was, again, the +squabble over patronage. He had insisted on an appointment of which the +President disapproved. Exactly what moved him may be questioned. Chase +never gave his complete confidence, not even to his diary. Whether +he thought that the Vindictives would now take him up as a rival of +Lincoln, continues doubtful. Many men were staggered by his action. +Crittenden, the Registrar of the Treasury, was thrown into a panic. "Mr. +President," said he, "this is worse than another Bull Run. Pray let me +go to Secretary Chase and see if I can not induce him to withdraw his +resignation. Its acceptance now might cause a financial panic." +But Lincoln was in a fighting mood. "Chase thinks he has become +indispensable to the country," he told Chittenden. "He also thinks he +ought to be President; he has no doubt whatever about that. He is an +able financier, a great statesman, and at the bottom a patriot . . he is +never perfectly happy unless he is thoroughly miserable and able to make +everybody else just as uncomfortable as he is himself. . He is either +determined to annoy me or that I shall pat him on the shoulder and coax +him to stay. I don't think I ought to do it. I will take him at his +word."(2) + +He accepted the resignation in a note that was almost curt: "Of all I +have said in commendation of your ability and fidelity, I have nothing +to unsay; and yet you and I have reached a point of mutual embarrassment +in our official relations which it seems can not be overcome or longer +sustained consistently with the public service."(3) + +The selection of a successor to Chase was no easy matter. The +Vindictives were the leaders of the moment. What if they persuaded the +Senate not to confirm Lincoln's choice of Secretary. "I never saw the +President," says Carpenter, "under so much excitement as on the day +following this event" On the night of July first, Lincoln lay awake +debating with himself the merits of various candidates. At length, he +selected his man and immediately went to sleep. + +"The next morning he went to his office and wrote the nomination. John +Hay, the assistant private secretary, had taken it from the President on +his way to the Capitol, when he encountered Senator Fessenden upon the +threshold of the room. As chairman of the Finance Committee, he also +had passed an anxious night, and called this early to consult with +the President, and offer some suggestions. After a few moments' +conversation, Mr. Lincoln turned to him with a smile and said: 'I am +obliged to you, Fessenden, but the fact is, I have just sent your own +name to the Senate for Secretary of the Treasury. Hay had just received +the nomination from my hand as you entered.' Mr. Fessenden was taken +completely by surprise, and, very much agitated, protested his inability +to accept the position. The state of his health, he said, if no other +consideration, made it impossible. Mr. Lincoln would not accept +the refusal as final. He very justly felt that with Mr. Fessenden's +experience and known ability at the head of the Finance Committee, his +acceptance would go far toward reestablishing a feeling of security. He +said to him, very earnestly, 'Fessenden, the Lord has not deserted me +thus far, and He is not going to now--you must accept!' + +"They separated, the Senator in great anxiety of mind. Throughout +the day, Mr. Lincoln urged almost all who called to go and see Mr. +Fessenden, and press upon him the duty of accepting. Among these, was +a delegation of New York bankers, who, in the name of the banking +community, expressed their satisfaction at the nomination. This was +especially gratifying to the President; and in the strongest manner, +he entreated them to 'see Mr. Fessenden and assure him of their +support.'"(4) + +In justification of his choice, Lincoln said to Hay:--"Thinking over +the matter, two or three points occurred to me: first his thorough +acquaintance with the business; as chairman of the Senate Committee +of Finance, he knows as much of this special subject as Mr. Chase; he +possesses a national reputation and the confidence of the country; he is +a Radical without the petulance and fretfulness of many radicals."(5) +In other words, though he was not at heart one of them, he stood for the +moment so close to the Vindictives that they would not make an issue on +his confirmation. + +Lincoln had scored a point in his game with the Vindictives. But +the point was of little value. The game's real concern was that +Reconstruction Bill which was now before the Senate with Wade as its +particular sponsor. The great twin brethren of the Vindictives were +Wade and Chandler. Both were furious for the passage of the bill. "The +Executive," said Wade angrily, "ought not to be allowed to handle this +great question of his own liking." + +On the last day of the session, Lincoln was in the President's room at +the Capitol Signing bills. The Reconstruction Bill, duly passed by both +Houses, was brought to him. Several Senators, friends of the bill and +deeply anxious, had come into the President's room hoping to see him +affix his signature. To their horror, he merely glanced at the bill and +laid it aside. Chandler, who was watching him, bluntly demanded what he +meant to do. "This bill," said Lincoln, "has been placed before me a few +minutes before Congress adjourns. It is a matter of too much importance +to be swallowed in that way." + +"If it is vetoed," said Chandler, whose anger was mounting, "it will +damage us fearfully in the Northwest. The important point is that one +prohibiting slavery in the Reconstructed States." + +"That is the point," replied the President, "on which I doubt the +authority of Congress to act." + +"It is no more than you have done yourself," retorted Chandler. + +Lincoln turned to him and said quietly but with finality: "I conceive +that I may in an emergency do things on military grounds which can not +constitutionally be done by Congress." + +Chandler angrily left the room. To those who remained, Lincoln added: "I +do not see how any of us now can deny and contradict what we have always +said, that Congress has no constitutional power over slavery in the +States."(6) + +In a way, he was begging the question. The real issue was not how a +State should be constitutionally reconstructed, but which, President +or Congress, had a right to assume dictatorial power. At last the true +Vindictive issue, lured out of their arms by the Democrats, had escaped +like a bird from a snare and was fluttering home. Here was the old issue +of the war powers in a new form that it was safe for them to press. +And the President had squarely defied them. It was civil war inside the +Union party. And for both sides, President and Vindictives, there could +now be nothing but rule or ruin. + +In this crisis of factional politics, Lincoln was unmoved, +self-contained, lofty, deliberate. "If they (the Vindictives) choose to +make a point on 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 of principle +fixed within myself." + + + + +XXXI A MENACING PAUSE + +Lincoln had now reached his final stature. In contact with the world his +note was an inscrutable serenity. The jokes which he continued to tell +were but transitory glimmerings. They crossed the surface of his mood +like quick flickers of golden light on a stormy March day,--witnesses +that the sun would yet prevail,--in a forest-among mountain shadows. Or, +they were lightning glimmers in a night sky; they revealed, they did +not dispel, the dark beyond. Over all his close associates his personal +ascendency was complete. Now that Chase was gone, the last callous spot +in the Cabinet had been amputated. Even Stanton, once so domineering, so +difficult to manage, had become as clay in his hands. + +But Lincoln never used power for its own sake, never abused his +ascendency. Always he got his end if he could without evoking the +note of command. He would go to surprising lengths to avoid appearing +peremptory. A typical remark was his smiling reply to a Congressman whom +he had armed with a note to the Secretary, who had returned aghast, +the Secretary having refused to comply with the President's request and +having decorated his refusal with extraordinary language. + +"Did Stanton say I was a damned fool?" asked Lincoln. "Then I dare say +I must be one, for Stanton is generally right and he always says what he +means." + +Nevertheless, the time had come when Lincoln had only to say the +word and Stanton, no matter how fierce his temper might' be, would +acknowledge his master. General Fry, the Provost Marshal, witnessed a +scene between them which is a curious commentary on the transformation +of the Stanton of 1862. Lincoln had issued an order relative to +the disposition of certain recruits. Stanton protested that it was +unwarranted, that he would not put it into effect. The Provost Marshal +was called in and asked to state at length all the facts involved. When +he had finished Stanton broke out excitedly-- + +"'Now, Mr. President, those are the facts and you must see that your +order can not be executed.' + +"Lincoln sat upon a sofa with his legs crossed and did not say a word +until the Secretary's last remark. Then he said in a somewhat positive +tone, 'Mr. Secretary, I reckon you'll have to execute the order.' + +"Stanton replied with asperity, 'Mr. President, I can not do it. The +order is an improper one, and I can not execute it'." + +Lincoln fixed his eye upon Stanton, and in a firm voice with an accent +that clearly showed his determination, he said, "Mr. Secretary, it will +have to be done."(1) + +At this point, General Fry discreetly left the room. A few moments +later, he received instructions from Stanton to execute the President's +order. + +In a public matter in the June of 1864 Lincoln gave a demonstration of +his original way of doing things. It displayed his final serenity in +such unexpected fashion that no routine politician, no dealer in the +catchwords of statecraft, could understand it. Since that grim joke, +the deportation of Vallandigham, the Copperhead leader had not had happy +time. The Confederacy did not want him. He had made his way to Canada. +Thence, in the spring of 1864 he served notice on his country that he +would perform a dramatic Part, play the role of a willing martyr--in a +word, come home and defy the government to do its worst. He came. +But Lincoln did nothing. The American sense of humor did the rest. If +Vallandigham had not advertised a theatrical exploit, ignoring him might +have been dangerous. But Lincoln knew his people. When the show did not +come off, Vallandigham was transformed in an instant from a martyr to an +anticlimax. Though he went busily to work, though he lived to attend the +Democratic National Convention and to write the resolution that was the +heart of its platform, his tale was told. + +Turning from Vallandigham, partly in amusement, partly in contempt, +Lincoln grappled with the problem of reinforcing the army. Since +the Spring of 1863 the wastage of the army had been replaced by +conscription. But the system had not worked well. It contained a fatal +provision. A drafted man might escape service by paying three hundred +dollars. Both the Secretary of War and the Provost Marshal had urged the +abolition of this detail. Lincoln had communicated their arguments to +Congress with his approval and a new law had been drawn up accordingly. +Nevertheless, late in June, the House amended it by restoring the +privilege of commuting service for money.(2) Lincoln bestirred himself. +The next day he called together the Republican members of the House. +"With a sad, mysterious light in his melancholy eyes, as if they were +familiar with things hidden from mortals" he urged the Congressmen +to reconsider their action. The time of three hundred eighty thousand +soldiers would expire in October. He must have half a million to take +their places. A Congressman objected that elections were approaching; +that the rigorous law he proposed would be intensely unpopular; that it +might mean the defeat, at the polls, of many Republican Representatives; +it might even mean the President's defeat. He replied that he had +thought of all that. + +"My election is not necessary; I must put down the rebellion; I must +have five hundred thousand more men."(3) + +He raised the timid politicians to his own level, inspired them with new +courage. Two days later a struggle began in the House for carrying +out Lincoln's purpose. On the last day of the session along with the +offensive Reconstruction Bill, he received the new Enrollment Act which +provided that "no payment of money shall be accepted or received by the +Government as commutation to release any enrolled or drafted man from +personal obligation to per-form military service." + +Against this inflexible determination to fight to a finish, this +indifference to the political consequences of his determination, Lincoln +beheld arising like a portentous specter, a fury of pacifism. It found +expression in Greeley. Always the swift victim of his own affrighted +hope, Greeley had persuaded himself that both North and South had lost +heart for the war; that there was needed only a moving appeal, and they +would throw down their arms and the millennium would come. Furthermore, +on the flimsiest sort of evidence, he had fallen into a trap designed +to place the Northern government in the attitude of suing for peace. He +wrote to Lincoln demanding that he send an agent to confer with certain +Confederate officials who were reported to be then in Canada; he also +suggested terms of peace.(4) Greeley's terms were entirely acceptable +to Lincoln; but he had no faith in the Canadian mare's nest. However, +he decided to give Greeley the utmost benefit of the doubt, and also +to teach him a lesson. He commissioned Greeley himself to proceed +to Canada, there to discover "if there is or is not anything in the +affair." He wrote to him, "I not only intend a sincere effort for peace, +but I intend that you shall be a personal witness that it is made."(5) + +Greeley, who did not want to have any responsibility for anything that +might ensue, whose joy was to storm and to find fault, accepted the duty +he could not well refuse, and set out in a bad humor. + +Meanwhile two other men had conceived an undertaking somewhat analogous +but in a temper widely different. These were Colonel Jaquess, a +clergyman turned soldier, a man of high simplicity of character, and J. +R. Gilmore, a writer, known by the pen name of Edmund Kirke. Jaquess +had told Gilmore of information he had received from friends in the +Confederacy; he was convinced that nothing would induce the Confederate +government to consider any terms of peace that embraced reunion, whether +with or without emancipation. "It at once occurred to me," says Gilmore, +"that if this declaration could be got in such a manner that it could +be given to the public, it would, if scattered broadcast over the +North, destroy the peace-party and reelect Mr. Lincoln." Gilmore went +to Washington and obtained an interview with the President. He assured +him--and he was a newspaper correspondent whose experience was worth +considering--that the new pacifism, the incipient "peace party," was +schooling the country in the belief that an offer of liberal terms would +be followed by a Southern surrender. The masses wanted peace on any +terms that would preserve the Union; and the Democrats were going to +tell them in the next election that Lincoln could save the Union by +negotiation, if he would. Unless the popular mind were disabused of +this fictitious hope, the Democrats would prevail and the Union would +collapse. But if an offer to negotiate should be made, and if "Davis +should refuse to negotiate--as he probably would, except on the basis of +Southern independence--that fact alone would reunite the North, reelect +Lincoln, and thus save the Union."(6) + +"Then," said Lincoln, "you would fight the devil with fire. You would +get that declaration from Davis and use it against him." + +Gilmore defended himself by proposing to offer extremely liberal terms. +There was a pause in the conversation. Lincoln who was seated at his +desk "leaned slightly forward looking directly into (Gilmore's) eyes, +but with an absent, far-away gaze as if unconscious of (his) presence." +Suddenly, relapsing into his usual badinage, he said, "God selects His +own instruments and some times they are queer ones: for instance, He +chose me to see the ship of state through a great crisis."(7) He went on +to say that Gilmore and Jaquess might be the very men to serve a great +purpose at this moment. Gilmore knew the world; and anybody could see +at a glance that Jaquess never told anything that wasn't true. If they +would go to Richmond on their own responsibility, make it plain to +President Davis that they were not official agents, even taking the +chance of arrest and imprisonment, they might go. This condition was +accepted. Lincoln went on to say that no advantage should be taken of +Mr. Davis; that nothing should be proposed which if accepted would +not be made good. After considerable further discussion he drew up a +memorandum of the terms upon which he would consent to peace. There were +seven items: + +1. The immediate dissolution of the armies. + +2. The abolition of slavery. + +3. A general amnesty. + +4. The Seceded States to resume their functions as states in the Union +as if no secession had taken place. + +5. Four hundred million dollars to be appropriated by Congress as +compensation for loss of slave property; no slaveholder, however, to +receive more than one-half the former value of his slaves. + +6. A national convention to be called for readjustment of all other +difficulties. + +7. It to be understood that the purpose of negotiation was a full +restoration of the Union as of old.(8) + +Gilmore and Jaquess might say to Davis that they had private but sure +knowledge that the President of the United States would agree to peace +on these terms. Thus provided, they set forth. + +Lincoln's thoughts were speedily claimed by an event which had no +Suggestion of peace. At no time since Jackson threw the government into +a panic in the spring of 1862, had Washington been in danger of capture. +Now, briefly, it appeared to be at the mercy of General Early. In the +last act of a daring raid above the Potomac, he came sweeping down +on Washington from the North. As Grant was now the active +commander-in-chief, responsible for all the Northern armies, Lincoln +with a fatalistic calm made no move to take the capital out of his +hands. When Early was known to be headed toward Washington, Lincoln +drove out as usual to spend the night at the Soldiers' Home beyond the +fortifications. Stanton, in whom there was a reminiscence at least of +the hysterical Secretary of 1862, sent after him post haste and insisted +on his returning. The next day, the eleventh of July, 1864, Washington +was invested by the Confederate forces. There was sharp firing in front +of several forts. Lincoln--and for that matter, Mrs. Lincoln also--made +a tour of the defenses. While Fort Stevens was under fire, he stood on +the parapet, "apparently unconscious of danger, watching with that grave +and passive countenance the progress of the fight, amid the whizzing +bullets of the sharp shooters, until an officer fell mortally wounded +within three feet of him, and General Wright peremptorily represented +to him the needless risk he was running." Hay recorded in his diary +"the President in good feather this evening . . . not concerned about +Washington's safety . . . only thought, can we bag or destroy the force +in our front." He was much disappointed when Early eluded the forces +which Grant hurried to the Capitol. Mrs. Lincoln was outspoken to the +same effect. The doughty little lady had also been under fire, her +temper being every whit as bold as her husband's. When Stanton with +a monumental playfulness proposed to have her portrait painted in a +commanding attitude on the parapet of Fort Stevens, she gave him the +freedom of her tongue, because of the inadequacy of his department.(9) + +This incident had its aftermath. A country-place belonging to the +Postmaster General had been laid waste. Its owner thought that the +responsibility for permitting Early to come so near to Washington fell +chiefly on General Halleck. He made some sharp criticisms which became +public the General flew into a rage and wrote to the Secretary of War: +"The Postmaster General ought to be dismissed by the President from the +Cabinet." Stanton handed his letter to the President, from whom the next +day the General received this note: "Whether the remarks were 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 therefor. 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. Besides +this, truth is generally the best vindication against slander. I propose +continuing to be myself the judge as to when a member of the Cabinet +shall be dismissed." Lincoln spoke of the affair at his next conference +with his Ministers. "I must, myself, be the judge," said he, "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 an +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."(10) + +Not yet had anything resulted either from the Canadian mission of +Greeley, or from the Richmond adventure of Gilmore and Jaquess. There +was a singular ominous pause in events. Lincoln could not be blind to +the storm signals that had attended the close of Congress. What were the +Vindictives about? As yet they had made no Sign. But it was incredible +that they could pass over his defiance without a return blow. When would +it come? What would it be? + +He spent his nights at the Soldiers' Home. As a rule, his family were +with him. Sometimes, however, Mrs. Lincoln and his sons would be absent +and his only companion was one of the ardent young secretaries. Then +he would indulge in reading Shakespeare aloud, it might be with such +forgetfulness of time that only the nodding of the tired young head +recalled him to himself and brought the reading to an end. A visitor has +left this charming picture of Lincoln at the Soldiers' Home in the sad +sweetness of a summer night: + +"The Soldiers' Home is a few miles out of Washington on the Maryland +side. It is situated on a beautiful wooded hill, which you ascend by a +winding path, shaded on both sides by wide-spread branches, forming a +green arcade above you. When you reach the top you stand between two +mansions, large, handsome and substantial, but with nothing about +them to indicate the character of either. That on the left is the +Presidential country house; that directly before you, is the 'Rest,' for +soldiers who are too old for further service . . . In the graveyard near +at hand there are numberless graves--some without a spear of grass to +hide their newness--that hold the bodies of volunteers. + +"While we stood in the soft evening air, watching the faint trembling of +the long tendrils of waving willow, and feeling the dewy coolness that +was flung out by the old oaks above us, Mr. Lincoln joined us, and stood +silent, too, taking in the scene. + +"'How sleep the brave who sink to rest, By all their country's wishes +blest," he said, softly. . . + +"Around the 'Home' grows every variety of tree, particularly of the +evergreen class. Their branches brushed into the carriage as we passed +along, and left us with that pleasant woody smell belonging to leaves. +One of the ladies, catching a bit of green from one of these intruding +branches, said it was cedar, and another thought it spruce. + +"'Let me discourse on a theme I understand,' said the President. 'I +know all about trees in right of being a backwoodsman. I'll show you +the difference between spruce, pine and cedar, and this shred of green, +which is neither one nor the other, but a kind of illegitimate +cypress. He then proceeded to gather specimens of each, and explain the +distinctive formation of foliage belonging to each."(11) + +Those summer nights of July, 1864, had many secrets which the tired +President musing in the shadows of the giant trees or finding solace +with the greatest of earthly minds would have given much to know. How +were Gilmore and Jaquess faring? What was really afoot in Canada? And +that unnatural silence of the Vindictives, what did that mean? And the +two great armies, Grant's in Virginia, Sherman's in Georgia, was there +never to be stirring news of either of these? The hush of the moment, +the atmosphere of suspense that seemed to envelop him, it was just what +had always for his imagination had such strange charm in the stories of +fated men. He turned again to Macbeth, or to Richard II, or to Hamlet. +Shakespeare, too, understood these mysterious pauses--who better! + +The sense of the impending was strengthened by the alarms of some of his +best friends. They besought him to abandon his avowed purpose to call +for a draft of half a million under the new Enrollment Act. Many voices +joined the one chorus: the country is on the verge of despair; you will +wreck the cause by demanding another colossal sacrifice. But he would +not listen. When, in desperation, they struck precisely the wrong note, +and hinted at the ruin of his political prospects, he had his calm +reply: "it matters not what becomes of me. We must have men. If I go +down, I intend to go like the Cumberland, with my colors flying."(12) + +Thus the days passed until the eighteenth of July. Meanwhile the +irresponsible Greeley had made a sad mess of his Canadian adventure. +Though Lincoln had given him definite instructions, requiring him to +negotiate only with agents who could produce written authority from +Davis, and who would treat on the basis of restoration of the Union +and abandonment of slavery, Greeley ignored both these unconditional +requirements.(13) He had found the Confederate agents at Niagara. They +had no credentials. Nevertheless, he invited them to come to Washington +and open negotiations. Of the President's two conditions, he said not a +word. This was just what the agents wanted. It could easily be twisted +into the semblance of an attempt by Lincoln to sue for peace. They +accepted the invitation. Greeley telegraphed to Lincoln reporting what +he had done. Of course, it was plain that he had misrepresented +Lincoln; that he had far exceeded his authority; and that his perverse +unfaithfulness must be repudiated. On July eighteenth, Hay set out for +Niagara with this paper in Lincoln's handwriting.(14) + +"To whom it may concern: Any proposition which embraces the restoration +of peace, the integrity of the whole Union, and the abandonment of +slavery, and which comes by and with an authority that can control +the armies now at war against the United States, will be received and +considered by the executive government of the United States, and will be +met by liberal terms on other substantial and collateral points and the +bearer or bearers thereof shall have, safe conduct both ways. ABRAHAM +LINCOLN." + +This was the end of the negotiation. The agents could not accept these +terms. Immediately, they published a version of what had happened: they +had been invited to come to Washington; subsequently, conditions had +been imposed which made it impossible for them to accept Was not +the conclusion plain? The Washington government was trying to open +negotiations but it was also in the fear of its own supporters playing +craftily a double game. These astute diplomats saw that there was a +psychological crisis in the North. By adding to the confusion of the +hour they had well served their cause. Greeley's fiasco was susceptible +of a double interpretation. To the pacifists it meant that the +government, whatever may have been intended at the start, had ended by +setting impossible conditions of peace. To the supporters of the war, it +meant that whatever were the last thoughts of the government, it had +for a time contemplated peace without any conditions at all. Lincoln +was severely condemned, Greeley was ridiculed, by both groups of +interpreters. Why did not Greeley come out bravely and tell the truth? +Why did he not confess that he had suppressed Lincoln's first set of +instructions; that it was he, on his own responsibility, who had led the +Confederate agents astray; that he, not Lincoln was solely to blame for +the false impression that was now being used so adroitly to injure the +President? Lincoln proposed to publish their correspondence, but made a +condition that was characteristic. Greeley's letters rang with cries +of despair. He was by far the most influential Northern editor. Lincoln +asked him to strike out these hopeless passages. Greeley refused. +The correspondence must be published entire or not at all. Lincoln +suppressed it. He let the blame of himself go on; and he said nothing in +extenuation.(15) + +He took some consolation in a "card" that appeared in the Boston +Transcript, July 22. It gave a brief account of the adventure of Gilmore +and Jaquess, and stated the answer given to them by the President of the +Confederacy. That answer, as restated by the Confederate Secretary of +State, was: "he had no authority to receive proposals for negotiations +except by virtue of his office as President of an independent +Confederacy and on this basis alone must proposals be made to him."(16) + +There was another circumstance that may well have been Lincoln's +consolation in this tangle of cross-purposes. Only boldness could +extricate him from the mesh of his difficulties. The mesh was destined +to grow more and more of a snare; his boldness was to grow with his +danger. He struck the note that was to rule his conduct thereafter, +when, on the day he sent the final instructions to Greeley, in defiance +of his timid advisers, he issued a proclamation calling for a new draft +of half a million men.(17) + + + + +XXXII. THE AUGUST CONSPIRACY + +Though the Vindictives kept a stealthy silence during July, they were +sharpening their claws and preparing for a tiger spring whenever the +psychological moment should arrive. Those two who had had charge of the +Reconstruction Bill prepared a paper, in some ways the most singular +paper of the war period, which has established itself in our history +as the Wade-Davis Manifesto. This was to be the deadly shot that should +unmask the Vindictive batteries, bring their war upon the President out +of the shadows into the open. + +Greeley's fiasco and Greeley's mortification both played into their +hands. The fiasco contributed to depress still more the despairing +North. By this time, there was general appreciation of the immensity +of Grant's failure, not only at Cold Harbor, but in the subsequent +slaughter of the futile assault upon Petersburg. We have the word of a +member of the Committee that the despair over Grant translated itself +into blame of the Administration.(1) The Draft Proclamation; the swiftly +traveling report that the government had wilfully brought the peace +negotiations to a stand-still; the continued cry that the war was +hopeless; all these produced, about the first of August, an emotional +crisis--just the sort of occasion for which Lincoln's enemies were +waiting. + +Then, too, there was Greeley's mortification. The Administration papers +made him a target for sarcasm. The Times set the pace with scornful +demands for "No more back door diplomacy."(2) Greeley answered in a +rage. He permitted himself to imply that the President originated the +Niagara negotiation and that Greeley "reluctantly" became a party to it. +That "reluctantly" was the truth, in a sense, but how falsely true! Wade +and Davis had him where they wanted him. On the fifth of August, The +Tribune printed their manifesto. It was an appeal to "the supporters of +the Administration . . . to check the encroachment of the Executive on +the authority of Congress, and to require it to confine itself to its +proper sphere." It insinuated the basest motives for the President's +interest in reconstruction, and for rejecting their own bill. "The +President by preventing this bill from becoming a law, holds the +electoral votes of the Rebel States at the dictation of his personal +ambition. . . . If electors for President be allowed to be chosen in +either of those States, a sinister light will be cast on the motives +which induced the President to 'hold for naught' the will of Congress +rather than his government in Louisiana and Arkansas." + +After a long discussion of his whole course with regard to +reconstruction, having heaped abuse upon him with shocking liberality, +the Manifesto concluded: + +"Such are the fruits of this rash and fatal act of the President--a blow +at the friends of the Administration, at the rights of humanity, and +at the principles of Republican government The President has greatly +presumed on the forbearance which the supporters of his Administration +have so long practised in view of the arduous conflict in which we are +engaged, and the reckless ferocity of our political opponents. But he +must understand that our support is of a 'cause' and not of a man; that +the authority of Congress is paramount and must be respected; that the +whole body of the Union men in Congress will not submit to be impeached +by him of rash and unconstitutional legislation; and if he wishes our +support he must confine him-self to his executive duties--to obey and +execute, not make the laws--to suppress by arms, armed rebellion, and +leave political reorganization to Congress. If the supporters of the +government fail to insist on this they become responsible for the +usurpations they fail to rebuke and are justly liable to the indignation +of the people whose rights and security, committed to their keeping, +they sacrifice. Let them consider the remedy of these usurpations, and, +having found it, fearlessly execute it." + +To these incredible charges, Lincoln made no reply. He knew, what some +statesmen never appear to know, the times when one should risk all upon +that French proverb, "who excuses, accuses." However, he made his futile +attempt to bring Greeley to reason, to induce him to tell the truth +about Niagara without confessing to the country the full measure of the +despair that had inspired his course. When Greeley refused to do so, +Lincoln turned to other matters, to preparation for the draft, and +grimly left the politicians to do their worst. They went about it with +zest. Their reliance was chiefly their power to infect the type of party +man who is easily swept from his moorings by the cry that the party is +in danger, that sacrifices must be made to preserve the party unity, +that otherwise the party will go to pieces. By the middle of August, six +weeks after Lincoln's defiance of them on the fourth of July, they +were in high feather, convinced that most things were coming their way. +American politicians have not always shown an ability to read clearly +the American people. Whether the politicians were in error on August +14, 1864, and again on August twenty-third, two dates that were turning +points, is a matter of debate to this day. As to August fourteenth, +they have this, at least, in their defense. The country had no political +observer more keen than the Scotch free lance who edited The New York +Herald. It was Bennett's editorial view that Lincoln would do well +to make a virtue of necessity and withdraw his candidacy because "the +dissatisfaction which had long been felt by the great body of American +citizens has spread even to his own supporters."(3) Confident that +a great reaction against Lincoln was sweeping the country, that the +Manifesto had been launched in the very nick of time, a meeting of +conspirators was held in New York, at the house of David Dudley Field, +August fourteenth. Though Wade was now at his home in Ohio, Davis was +present. So was Greeley. It was decided to ask Lincoln to withdraw. Four +days afterward, a "call" was drawn up and sent out confidentially near +and far to be signed by prominent politicians. The "call" was craftily +worded. It summoned a new Union Convention to meet in Cincinnati, +September twenty-eighth, for the purpose either of rousing the party to +whole-hearted support of Lincoln, or of uniting all factions on some new +candidate. Greeley who could not attend the committee which drew up the +"call" wrote that "Lincoln is already beaten."(4) + +Meanwhile, the infection of dismay had spread fast among the Lincoln +managers. Even before the meeting of the conspirators on the fourteenth, +Weed told the President that he could not be reelected.(5) + +One of his bravest supporters, Washburne, came to the dismal conclusion +that "were an election to be held now in Illinois, we should be beaten." +Cameron, who had returned from Russia and was working hard for Lincoln +in Pennsylvania, was equally discouraging. So was Governor Morton in +Indiana. From all his "stanchest friends," wrote his chief manager to +Lincoln, "there was but one report. The tide is setting strongly against +us."(6) + +Lincoln's managers believed that the great host of free voters who are +the balance of power in American politics, were going in a drove toward +the camp of the Democrats. It was the business of the managers to +determine which one, or which ones, among the voices of discontent, +represented truly this controlling body of voters. They thought they +knew. Two cries, at least, that rang loud out of the Babel of the hour, +should be heeded. One of these harked back to Niagara. In the anxious +ears of the managers it dinned this charge: "the Administration +prevented negotiations for peace by tying together two demands, the +Union must be restored and slavery must be abolished; if Lincoln had +left out slavery, he could have had peace in a restored Union." It was +ridiculous, as every one who had not gone off his head knew. But so many +had gone off their heads. And some of Lincoln's friends were meeting +this cry in a way that was raising up other enemies of a different sort. +Even so faithful a friend as Raymond, editor of The Times and Chairman +of the Republican National Executive Committee, labored hard in print to +prove that because Lincoln said he "would consider terms that embraced +the integrity of the Union and the abandonment of slavery, he did not +say that he would not receive them unless they embraced both these +conditions."(7) What would Sumner and all the Abolitionists say to +that? As party strategy, in the moment when the old Vindictive Coalition +seemed on the highroad to complete revival, was that exactly the tune to +sing? Then too there was the other cry that also made a fearful ringing +in the ears of the much alarmed Executive Committee. There was wild +talk in the air of an armistice. The hysteric Greeley had put it into +a personal letter to Lincoln. "I know that nine-tenths of the whole +American people, North and South, are anxious for peace--peace on any +terms--and are utterly sick of human slaughter and devastation. I know +that, to the general eye, it now seems that the Rebels are anxious to +negotiate and that we repulse their advances. . . . I beg you, I implore +you to inaugurate or invite proposals for peace forthwith. And in case +peace can not now be made, consent to an armistice for one year, each +party to retain all it now holds, but the Rebel ports to be opened. +Meantime, let a national convention be held and there will surely be no +war at all events."(8) + +This armistice movement was industriously advertised in the Democratic +papers. It was helped along by the Washington correspondent of The +Herald who sowed broadcast the most improbable stories with regard to +it. Today, Secretary Fessenden was a convert to the idea; another day, +Senator Wilson had taken it up; again, the President, himself, was for +an armistice.(9) + +A great many things came swiftly to a head within a few days before or +after the twentieth of August. Every day or two, rumor took a new turn; +or some startling new alignment was glimpsed; and every one reacted to +the news after his kind. And always the feverish question, what is the +strength of the faction that approves this? Or, how far will this go +toward creating a new element in the political kaleidoscope? About the +twentieth of August, Jaquess and Gilmore threw a splashing stone into +these troubled waters. They published in The Atlantic a full account of +their interview with Davis, who, in the clearest, most unfaltering way +had told them that the Southerners were fighting for independence and +for nothing else; that no compromise over slavery; nothing but the +recognition of the Confederacy as a separate nation would induce them +to put up their bright swords. As Lincoln subsequently, in his perfect +clarity of speech, represented Davis: "He would accept nothing short of +severance of the Union--precisely what we will not and can not give.... +He does not attempt to deceive us. He affords us no excuse to deceive +ourselves. He can not voluntarily reaccept the Union; we can not +voluntarily yield it"(10) + +Whether without the intrusion of Jaquess and Gilmore, the Executive +Committee would have come to the conclusion they now reached, is a mere +speculation. They thought they were at the point of desperation. They +thought they saw a way out, a way that reminds one of Jaquess and +Gilmore. On the twenty-second, Raymond sent that letter to Lincoln about +"the tide setting strongly against us." He also proposed the Committee's +way of escape: nothing but to offer 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."(11) He assumed the offer would be rejected. Thus the clamor +for negotiation would be met and brought to naught. Having sent off his +letter, Raymond got his committee together and started for Washington +for a council of desperation. + +And this brings us to the twenty-third of August. On that day, pondering +Raymond's letter, Lincoln took thought with himself what he should +say to the Executive Committee. A mere opportunist would have met the +situation with some insincere proposal, by the formulation of terms that +would have certainly been rejected. We have seen how Lincoln reasoned +in such a connection when he drew up the memorandum for Jaquess and +Gilmore. His present problem involved nothing of this sort. What he +was thinking out was how best to induce the committee to accept his own +attitude; to become for the moment believers in destiny; to nail their +colors; turn their backs as he was doing on these devices of diplomacy; +and as to the rest-permit to heaven. + +Whatever his managers might think, the serious matter in Lincoln's mind, +that twenty-third of August, was the draft. And back of the draft, a +tremendous matter which probably none of them at the time appreciated. +Assuming that they were right in their political forecast, assuming that +he was not to be reelected, what did it signify? For him, there was but +one answer: that he had only five months in which to end the war. And +with the tide running strong against him, what could he do? But one +thing: use the war powers while they remained in his hands in every +conceivable way that might force a conclusion on the field of battle. +He recorded his determination. A Cabinet meeting was held on the +twenty-third. Lincoln handed his Ministers a folded paper and asked +them to write their initials on the back. At the time he gave them no +intimation what the paper contained. It was 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 cooperate 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 can not possibly save it afterward."(12) + +He took into his confidence "the stronger half of the Cabinet, Seward, +Stanton and Fessenden," and together they assaulted the Committee.(13) +It was a reception amazingly different from what had been expected. +Instead of terrified party diplomats shaking in their shoes, trying to +face all points at once, morbid over possible political defeats in every +quarter, they found what may have seemed to them a man in a dream; +one who was intensely sad, but who gave no suggestion of panic, no +solicitude about his own fate, no doubt of his ultimate victory. Their +practical astuteness was disarmed by that higher astuteness attained +only by peculiar minds which can discern through some sure interior test +the rare moment when it is the part of wisdom not to be astute at all. + +Backed by those strong Ministers, all entirely under his influence, +Lincoln fully persuaded the Committee that at this moment, any overture +for peace would be the worst of strategic blunders, "would be worse than +losing the presidential contest--it would be ignominiously surrendering +it in advance."(14) + +Lincoln won a complete spiritual victory over the Committee. These +dispirited men, who had come to Washington to beg for a policy of +negotiation, went away in such a different temper that Bennett's +Washington correspondent jeered in print at the "silly report" of their +having assembled to discuss peace.(15) Obviously, they had merely held +a meeting of the Executive Committee. The Tribune correspondent +telegraphed that they were confident of Lincoln's reelection.(16) + +On the day following the conference with Lincoln, The Times announced: +"You may rest assured that all reports attributing to the government any +movements looking toward negotiations for peace at present are utterly +without foundation. . . . The government has not entertained or +discussed the project of proposing an armistice with the Rebels nor has +it any intention of sending commissioners to Richmond . . . its sole +and undivided purpose is to prosecute the war until the rebellion is +quelled. . . ." Of equal significance was the announcement by The Times, +fairly to be considered the Administration organ: "The President stands +firm against every solicitation to postpone the draft."(17) + + + + +XXXIII. THE RALLY TO THE PRESIDENT + +The question insists upon rising again: were the anti-Lincoln +politicians justified in their exultation, the Lincoln politicians +justified in their panic? Nobody will ever know; but it is worth +considering that the shrewd opportunist who expressed himself through +The Herald changed his mind during a fortnight in August. By one +of those odd coincidences of which history is full, it was on the +twenty-third of the month that he warned the Democrats and jeered at the +Republicans in this insolent fashion: + +"Many of our leading Republicans are now furious against Lincoln. . . . +Bryant of The Evening Post is very angry with Lincoln because Henderson, +The Post's publisher, has been arrested for defrauding the government. + +"Raymond is a little shaky and has to make frequent journeys to +Washington for instructions. . . . + +"Now, to what does all this amount? Our experience of politics convinces +us that it amounts to nothing. The sorehead Republicans complain that +Lincoln gives them either too little shoddy or too little nigger. What +candidate can they find who will give them more of either? + +"The Chicago (Democratic) delegates must very emphatically comprehend +that they must beat the whole Re-publican party if they elect their +candidate. It is a strong party even yet and has a heavy army vote to +draw upon. The error of relying too greatly upon the weakness of the +Republicans as developed in the quarrels of the Republican leaders, +may prove fatal . . . the Republican leaders may have their personal +quarrels, or their shoddy quarrels, or their nigger quarrels with Old +Abe; but he has the whip hand of them and they will soon be bobbing back +into the Republican fold, like sheep who have gone astray. The most of +the fuss some of them kick up now, is simply to force Lincoln to give +them their terms. . + +"We have studied all classes of politicians in our day and we warn +the Chicago Convention to put no trust in the Republican soreheads. +Furiously as some of them denounce Lincoln now, and lukewarm as the rest +of them are in his cause, they will all be shouting for him as the only +true Union candidate as soon as the nominations have all been made and +the chances for bargains have passed. + +"Whatever they say now, we venture to predict that Wade and his tail; +and Bryant and his tail; and Wendell Phillips and his tail; and Weed, +Barney, Chase and their tails; and Winter Davis, Raymond, Opdyke and +Forney who have no tails; will all make tracks for Old Abe's plantation, +and will soon be found crowing and blowing, and vowing and writing, and +swearing and stumping the state on his side, declaring that he and he +alone, is the hope of the nation, the bugaboo of Jeff Davis, the first +of Conservatives, the best of Abolitionists, the purest of patriots, +the most gullible of mankind, the easiest President to manage, and the +person especially predestined and foreordained by Providence to carry on +the war, free the niggers, and give all the faithful a fair share of the +spoils. The spectacle will be ridiculous; but it is inevitable."(1) + +The cynic of The Herald had something to go upon besides his general +knowledge of politicians and elections. The Manifesto had not met with +universal acclaim. In the course of this month of surprises, there were +several things that an apprehensive observer might interpret as the +shadow of that hand of fate which was soon to appear upon the wall. +In the Republican Convention of the Nineteenth Ohio District, which +included Ashtabula County, Wade's county, there were fierce words and +then with few dissenting votes, a resolution, "That the recent attack +upon the President by Wade and Davis is, in our opinion, ill-timed, +ill-tempered, and ill-advised . . . and inasmuch as one of the authors +of said protest is a citizen of this Congressional District and indebted +in no small degree to our friendship for the position, we deem it a +duty no less imperative than disagreeable, to pronounce upon +that disorganizing Manifesto our unqualified disapproval and +condemnation."(2) + +To be sure there were plenty of other voices from Ohio and elsewhere +applauding "The War on the President." Nevertheless, there were signs of +a reluctance to join the movement, and some of these in quarters where +they had been least expected. Notably, the Abolitionist leaders were +slow to come forward. Sumner was particularly slow. He was ready, +indeed, to admit that a better candidate than Lincoln could be found, +and there was a whisper that the better candidate was himself. However, +he was unconditional that he would not participate in a fight against +Lincoln. If the President could be persuaded to withdraw, that was one +thing. But otherwise--no Sumner in the conspiracy.(3) + +Was it possible that Chandler, Wade, Davis and the rest had jumped too +soon? To rebuild the Vindictive Coalition, the group in which Sumner had +a place was essential. This group was composed of Abolitionists, chiefly +New Englanders, and for present purpose their central figure was Andrew, +the Governor of Massachusetts. During the latter half of August, the +fate of the Conspiracy hung on the question, Can Andrew and his group be +drawn in? + +Andrew did not like the President. He was one of those who never got +over their first impression of the strange new man of 1861. He insisted +that Lincoln lacked the essential qualities of a leader. "To comprehend +this objection," says his frank biographer, "which to us seems so +astoundingly wide of the mark, we must realize that whenever the New +Englander of that generation uttered the word 'leader' his mind's +eye was filled with the image of Daniel Webster . . . his commanding +presence, his lofty tone about affairs of state, his sonorous profession +of an ideal, his whole ex cathedra attitude. All those characteristics +supplied the aristocratic connotation of the word 'leader' as required +by a community in which a considerable measure of aristocratic sympathy +still lingered. Andrew and his friends were like the men of old who +having known Saul before time, and beholding him prophesying, asked 'Is +Saul also among the prophets?'"(4) + +But Andrew stood well outside the party cabals that were hatched at +Washington. He and his gave the conspirators a hearing from a reason +widely different from any of theirs. They distrusted the Executive +Committee. The argument that had swept the Committee for the moment off +its feet filled the stern New Englanders with scorn. They were prompt to +deny any sympathy with the armistice movement.(5) As Andrew put it, the +chief danger of the hour was the influence of the Executive Committee +on the President, whom he persisted in considering a weak man; the chief +duty of the hour was to "rescue" Lincoln, or in some other way to "check +the peace movement of the Republican managers."(6) if it were fairly +certain that this could be effected only by putting the conspiracy +through, Andrew would come in. But could he be clear in his own mind +that this was the thing to do? While he hesitated, Jaquess and Gilmore +did their last small part in American history and left the stage. They +made a tour of the Northern States explaining to the various governors +the purposes of their mission to Richmond, and reporting in full their +audience with Davis and the impressions they had formed.(7) This was a +point in favor of Lincoln--as Andrew thought. On the other hand, there +were the editorials of The Times. As late as the twenty-fourth of +August, the day before the Washington conference, The Times asserted +that the President would waive all the objects for which the war had +been fought, including Abolition, if any proposition of peace should +come that embraced the integrity of the Union. To be sure, this was not +consistent with the report of Jaquess and Gilmore and their statement +of terms actually set down by Lincoln. And yet--it came from the +Administration organ edited by the chairman of the Executive Committee. +Was "rescue" of the President anything more than a dream? + +It was just here that Lincoln intervened and revolutionized the whole +situation. With what tense interest Andrew must have waited for reports +of that conference held at Washington on the twenty-fifth. And with what +delight he must have received them! The publication on the twenty-sixth +of the sweeping repudiation of the negotiation policy; the reassertion +that the Administration's "sole and undivided purpose was to prosecute +the war." Simultaneous was another announcement, also in the minds of +the New Englanders, of first importance: "So far as there being any +probability of President Lincoln withdrawing from the canvass, as +some have suggested, the gentlemen comprising the Committee express +themselves as confident of his reelection."(8) + +Meanwhile the letters asking for signatures to the pro-posed "call" had +been circulated and the time had come to take stock of the result From +Ohio, Wade had written in a sanguine mood. He was for issuing the +call the moment the Democratic Convention had taken action.(9) On the +twenty-ninth that convention met. On the thirtieth, the conspirators +reassembled--again at the house of David Dudley Field--and Andrew +attended. He had not committed himself either way. + +And now Lincoln's firmness with the Executive Committee had its reward. +The New Englanders had made up their minds. Personally, he was still +obnoxious to them; but in light of his recent pronouncement, they would +take their chances on "rescuing" him from the Committee; and since he +would not withdraw, they would not cooperate in splitting the Union +party. But they could not convince the conspirators. A long debate ended +in an agreement to disagree. The New Englanders withdrew, confessed +partisans of Lincoln.(10) It was the beginning of the end. + +Andrew went back to Boston to organize New England for Lincoln. J. +M. Forbes remained to organize New York.(11) All this, ignoring the +Executive Committee. It was a new Lincoln propaganda, not in opposition +to the Committee but in frank rivalry: "Since, or if, we must have +Lincoln," said Andrew, "men of motive and ideas must get into the lead, +must elect him, get hold of 'the machine' and 'run it' themselves."(12) + +The bottom was out of the conspiracy; but the leaders at New York were +slow to yield. Despite the New England secession, they thought the +Democratic platform, on which McClellan had been invited to stand as +candidate for the Presidency, gave them another chance, especially the +famous resolution: + +"That this Convention does explicitly declare, as the sense of the +American people, after four years of failure to restore the Union by +the experiment of war, during which, under the pretense of a military +necessity, or war power higher than the Constitution, the Constitution +itself has been disregarded in every part, and the public liberty and +the private right alike trodden down and the material prosperity of the +country essentially impaired, justice, humanity, liberty and the +public welfare demand that immediate efforts be made for a cessation +of hostilities, with a view to an ultimate convention of the States, or +other peaceable means to the end that at the earliest practicable moment +peace may be restored on the basis of the Federal Union of the States." + +Some of the outlying conspirators also suffered a revival of hope. The +Cincinnati Gazette came out flat foot for the withdrawal of Lincoln.(13) +So did The Cincinnati Times, pressing hard for the new convention.(14) +On the second of September, three New York editors, Greeley for The +Tribune, Parke Godwin for The Post, and Tilton for The Independent, were +busily concocting a circular letter to Governors of the States with a +view to saving the conspiracy.(15) + +But other men were at work in a different fashion, that same day. +Lincoln's cause had been wrecked so frequently by his generals that +whenever a general advanced, the event seems boldly dramatic. While the +politicians at New York and Chicago thought they were loading the scales +of fate, long lines of men in blue were moving through broken woodland +and over neglected fields against the gray legions defending Atlanta. +Said General Hood, it was "evident that General Sherman was moving with +his main body to destroy the Macon road, and that the fate of Atlanta +depended on our ability to defeat this movement." During the fateful +pow-pow at the house of Dudley Field, Sherman's army like a colossal +scythe was swinging round Atlanta, from the west and south, across Flint +River, through the vital railway, on toward the city. On the second of +September, the news that Atlanta was taken "electrified the people of +the North."(16) + +The first thought of every political faction, when, on the third, +the newspapers were ringing with this great news, was either how to +capitalize it for themselves, or how to forestall its capitalization +by some one else. Forbes "dashed off" a letter to Andrew urging an +immediate demonstration for Lincoln.(17) He was sure the Raymond group +would somehow try to use the victory as a basis for recovering their +leadership. Davis was eager to issue the "call" at once.(18) But his +fellows hesitated. And while they hesitated, Andrew and the people +acted. On the sixth, a huge Lincoln rally was held at Faneul Hall. +Andrew presided. Sumner spoke.(19) That same day, Vermont held State +elections and went Republican by a rousing majority. On the day +following occurred the Convention of the Union party of New York. +Enthusiastic applause was elicited by a telegram from Vermont. "The +first shell that was thrown by Sherman into Atlanta has exploded in the +Copperhead Camp in this State, and the Unionists have poured in a +salute with shotted guns."(20) The mixed metaphors did not reduce the +telegram's effect. The New York Convention formally endorsed Lincoln as +the candidate of the Union party for President. + +So much for the serious side of the swiftly changing political +kaleidoscope. There was also a comic side. Only three days +sufficed--from Davis's eagerness to proceed on the fourth to letters +and articles written or printed on the seventh--only three days, and the +leaders of the conspiracy began turning their coats. A typical letter +of the seventh at Syracuse describes "an interview with Mr. Opdyke this +morning, who told me the result of his efforts to obtain signatures +to our call which was by no means encouraging. I have found the same +sentiment prevailing here. A belief that it is too late to make any +effectual demonstration, and therefore that it is not wise to attempt +any. I presume that the new-born enthusiasm created by the Atlanta news +will so encourage Lincoln that he can not be persuaded to withdraw."(21) +Two days more and the anti-Lincoln newspapers began to draw in their +horns. That Independent, whose editor had been one of the three in the +last ditch but a week before, handsomely recanted, scuttling across to +what now seemed the winning side. "The prospect of victory is brilliant. +If a fortnight ago the prospect of Mr. Lincoln's reelection seemed +doubtful, the case is now changed. The odious character of the Chicago +platform, the sunshiny effect of the late victories, have rekindled the +old enthusiasm in loyal hearts."(22) One day more, and Greeley sullenly +took his medicine. The Tribune began printing "The Union Ticket--for +President, Abraham Lincoln." + +There remains the most diverting instance of the haste with which +coats were turned. On the sixth of September, only three days after +Atlanta!--the very day of the great Lincoln rally, the crown of Andrew's +generalship, at Fanuel Hall--a report was sent out from Washington that +"Senator Wade is to take the stump for Mr. Lincoln."(23) Less than a +week later The Washington Chronicle had learned "with satisfaction, +though not with surprise, that Senator Wade, notwithstanding his +signature to a celebrated Manifesto, had enrolled himself among the +Lincoln forces."(24) Exactly two weeks after Atlanta, Wade made his +first speech for Lincoln as President. It was a "terrific assault upon +the Copperhead policy."(25) + +The ship of the conspiracy was sinking fast, and on every hand was heard +a scurrying patter of escaping politicians. + + + + +XXXIV. "FATHER ABRAHAM" + +The key-notes of Lincoln's course with the Executive Committee, his +refusal to do anything that appeared to him to be futile, his firmness +not to cast about and experiment after a policy, his basing of all +his plans on the vision in his own mind of their sure fruitage--these +continued to be his key-notes throughout the campaign. They ruled his +action in a difficult matter with which he was quickly forced to deal. + +Montgomery Blair, the Postmaster General, was widely and bitterly +disliked. Originally a radical Republican, he had quarreled with that +wing of the party. In 1863 the Union League of Philadelphia, +which elected all the rest of the Cabinet honorary members of its +organization, omitted Blair. A reference to the Cabinet in the Union +platform of 1864 was supposed to be a hint that the Postmaster General +would serve his country, if he resigned. During the dark days of the +summer of 1864, the President's mail was filled with supplications for +the dismissal of Blair.(1) He was described as an incubus that might +cause the defeat of the Administration. + +If the President's secretaries were not prejudiced witnesses, Blair had +worn out his welcome in the Cabinet. He had grown suspicious. He tried +to make Lincoln believe that Seward was plotting with the Copperheads. +Nevertheless, Lincoln turned a deaf ear to the clamor against him. +Merely personal considerations were not compelling. If it was true, as +for a while he believed it was, that his election was already lost, he +did not propose to throw Blair over as a mere experiment. True to his +principles he would not become a juggler with futility. + +The turn of the tide in his favor put the matter in a new light. All the +enemies of Blair renewed their attack on a slightly different line. One +of those powerful New Englanders who had come to Lincoln's aid at such +an opportune moment led off. On the second day following the news of +Atlanta, Henry Wilson wrote to him, "Blair, every one hates. Tens of +thousands of men will be lost to you, or will give you a reluctant vote +because of the Blairs."(2) + +If this was really true, the selfless man would not hesitate to' require +of Blair the same sort of sacrifice he would, in other conditions, +require of himself. Lincoln debated this in his own mind nearly three +weeks. + +Meanwhile, various other politicians joined the hue and cry. An old +friend of Lincoln's, Ebenezer Peck, came east from Illinois to work upon +him against Blair.(3) Chandler, who like Wade was eager to get out of +the wrong ship, appeared at Washington as a friend of the Administration +and an enemy of Blair.(4) But still Lincoln did not respond. After all, +was it certain that one of these votes would change if Blair did not +resign? Would anything be accomplished, should Lincoln require his +resignation, except the humiliation of a friend, the gratification of +a pack of malcontents? And then some one thought of a mode for giving +definite political value to Blair's removal. Who did it? The anonymous +author of the only biography of Chandler claims this doubtful honor for +the great Jacobin. Lincoln's secretaries, including Colonel Stoddard who +had charge of his correspondence, are ignorant on the subject.(5) It may +well have been Chandler who negotiated a bargain with Fremont, if +the story is to be trusted, which concerned Blair. A long-standing, +relentless quarrel separated these two. That Fremont as a candidate was +nobody had long been apparent; and yet it was worth while to get rid +of him. Chandler, or another, extracted a promise from Fremont that if +Blair were removed, he would resign. On the strength of this promise, a +last appeal was made to Lincoln. Such is the legend. The known fact is +that on September twenty-second Fremont withdrew his candidacy. The next +day Lincoln sent this note to Blair: + +"You have generously said to me more than once that whenever your +resignation could be a relief to me, it was at my disposal. The time has +come. You very well know that this proceeds from no dissatisfaction of +mine, with you personally or officially. Your uniform kindness has been +unsurpassed by that of any friend."(6) + +No incident displays more clearly the hold which Lincoln had acquired on +the confidence and the affection of his immediate associates. Blair at +once tendered his resignation: "I can not take leave of you," said +he, "without renewing the expression of my gratitude for the uniform +kindness which has marked your course with regard to myself."(7) That +he was not perfunctory, that his great chief had acquired over him an +ascendency which was superior to any strain, was demonstrated a few days +later in New York. On the twenty-seventh, Cooper Institute was filled +with an enthusiastic Lincoln meeting. Blair was a speaker. He was +received with loud cheers and took occasion to touch upon his relations +with the President. "I retired," said he, "on the recommendation of my +own father. My father has passed that period of life when its honors or +its rewards, or its glories have any charm for him. He looks backward +only, and forward only, to the grandeur of this nation and the happiness +of this great people who have grown up under the prosperous condition of +the Union; and he would not permit a son of his to stand in the way of +the glorious and patriotic President who leads us on to success and to +the final triumph that is in store for us."(8) + +It was characteristic of this ultimate Lincoln that he offered no +explanations, even in terminating the career of a minister; that he +gave no confidences. Gently inexorable, he imposed his will in +apparent unconsciousness that it might be questioned. Along with his +overmastering kindness, he had something of the objectivity of a natural +force. It was the mood attained by a few extraordinary men who have +reached a point where, without becoming egoists, they no longer +distinguish between themselves and circumstance; the mood of those +creative artists who have lost themselves, in the strange way which the +dreamers have, who have also found themselves. + +Even in the new fascination of the probable turn of the tide, Lincoln +did not waver in his fixed purpose to give all his best energies, and +the country's best energies, to the war. In October, there was a new +panic over the draft. Cameron implored him to suspend it in Pennsylvania +until after the presidential election. An Ohio committee went to +Washington with the same request. Why should not the arguments that had +prevailed with him, or were supposed to have prevailed with him, for the +removal of a minister, prevail also in the way of a brief flagging of +military preparation? But Lincoln would not look upon the two cases in +the same spirit. "What is the Presidency worth to me," he asked the Ohio +committee, "if I have no country ?"(9) + +From the active campaign he held himself aloof. He made no political +speeches. He wrote no political letters. The army received his constant +detailed attention. In his letters to Grant, he besought him to be +unwavering in a relentless persistency. + +As Hay records, he was aging rapidly. The immense strain of his labor +was beginning to tell both in his features and his expression. He was +moving in a shadow. But his old habit of merriment had not left him; +though it was now, more often, a surface merriment. On the night of the +October elections, Lincoln sat in the telegraph room of the War +Office while the reports were coming in. "The President in a lull of +despatches, took from his pocket the Naseby Papers and read several +chapters of the Saint and Martyr, Petroleum V. They were immensely +amusing. Stanton and Dana enjoyed them scarcely less than the President, +who read on, con amore, until nine o'clock."(10) + +The presidential election was held on the eighth of November. That +night, Lincoln with his Secretary was again in the War Office. The +early returns showed that the whole North was turning to him in enormous +majorities. He showed no exultation. When the Assistant Secretary of +the Navy spoke sharply of the complete effacement politically of Henry +Winter Davis against whom he had a grudge, Lincoln said, "You have more +of that feeling of personal resentment than I. Perhaps I have too little +of it; but I never thought it paid. A man has no time to spend half his +life in quarrels. If any man ceases to attack me I never remember the +past against him."(11) + +"Towards midnight," says Hay in his diary, "we had supper. The President +went awkwardly and hospitably to work shovelling out the fried oysters. +He was most agreeable and genial all the evening. . . . Captain Thomas +came up with a band about half-past two and made some music. The +President answered from a window with rather unusual dignity and effect, +and we came home."(12) + +"I am thankful to God," Lincoln said, in response to the serenade, "for +this approval of the people; but while 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."(13) + +During the next few days a torrent of congratulations came pouring +in. What most impressed the secretaries was his complete freedom from +elation. "He seemed to deprecate his own triumph and sympathize rather +with the beaten than the victorious party." His formal recognition of +the event was a prepared reply to a serenade on the night of November +tenth. A great crowd filled the space in front of the north portico of +the White House. Lincoln appeared at a window. A secretary stood at his +side holding a lighted candle while he read from a manuscript. The brief +address is justly ranked among his ablest occasional utterances. As to +the mode of the deliverance, he said to Hay, "Not very graceful, but +I am growing old enough not to care much for the manner of doing +things."(14) + + + + +XXXV. THE MASTER OF THE MOMENT + +In Lincoln's life there are two great achievements. + +One he brought to pass in time for him to behold his own victory. The +other he saw only with the eyes of faith. The first was the drawing +together of all the elements of nationalism in the American people +and consolidating them into a driving force. The second was laying +the foundation of a political temper that made impossible a permanent +victory for the Vindictives. It was the sad fate of this nation, because +Lincoln's hand was struck from the tiller at the very instant of the +crisis, to suffer the temporary success of that faction he strove so +hard to destroy. The transitoriness of their evil triumph, the eventual +rally of the nation against them, was the final victory of the spirit of +Lincoln. + +The immediate victory he appreciated more fully and measured more +exactly, than did any one else. He put it into words in the fifth +message. While others were crowing with exaltation over a party triumph, +he looked deeper to the psychological triumph. Scarcely another saw that +the most significant detail of the hour was in the Democratic attitude. +Even the bitterest enemies of nationalism, even those who were believed +by all others to desire the breaking of the Union, had not thought +it safe to say so. They had veiled their intent in specious words. +McClellan in accepting the Democratic nomination had repudiated the idea +of disunion. Whether the Democratic politicians had agreed with him or +not, they had not dared to contradict him. This was what Lincoln put the +emphasis on in his message: "The purpose of the people within the +loyal States to maintain the Union was never more firm nor more nearly +unanimous than now. . . . No candidate for any office, 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 motive 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."(1) + +This temper of the final Lincoln, his supreme detachment, the kind +impersonality of his intellectual approach, has no better illustration +in his state papers. He further revealed it in a more intimate way. The +day he sent the message to Congress, he also submitted to the Senate a +nomination to the great office of Chief Justice. When Taney died in the +previous September, there was an eager stir among the friends of Chase. +They had hopes but they felt embarrassed. Could they ask this great +honor, the highest it is in the power of the American President to +be-stow, for a man who had been so lacking in candor as Chase had been? +Chase's course during the summer had made things worse. He had played +the time-server. No one was more severe upon Lincoln in July; in August, +he hesitated, would not quite commit himself to the conspiracy but would +not discourage it; almost gave it his blessing; in September, but not +until it was quite plain that the conspiracy was failing, he came +out for Lincoln. However, his friends in the Senate overcame their +embarrassment--how else could it be with Senators?--and pressed his +case. And when Senator Wilson, alarmed at the President's silence, tried +to apologize for Chase's harsh remarks about the President, Lincoln cut +him short. "Oh, as to that, I care nothing," said he. The embarrassment +of the Chase propaganda amused him. When Chase himself took a hand and +wrote him a letter, Lincoln said to his secretary, "What is it about?" +"Simply a kind and friendly letter," replied the secretary. Lincoln +smiled. "File it with the other recommendations," said he.(2) + +He regarded Chase as a great lawyer, Taney's logical successor. All +the slights the Secretary had put upon the President, the intrigues to +supplant him, the malicious sayings, were as if they had never occurred. +When Congress assembled, it was Chase's name that he sent to the Senate. +It was Chase who, as Chief Justice, administered the oath at Lincoln's +second inauguration. + +Long since, Lincoln had seen that there had ceased to any half-way +house in the matter of emancipation. His thoughts were chiefly upon the +future. And as mere strategy, he saw that slavery had to be got out of +the way. It was no longer a question, who liked this, who did not. To +him, the ultimate issue was the restoration of harmony among the States. +Those States which had been defeated in the dread arbitrament of battle, +would in any event encounter difficulties, even deadly perils, in the +narrow way which must come after defeat and which might or might not +lead to rehabilitation. + +Remembering the Vindictive temper, remembering the force and courage +of the Vindictive leaders, it was imperative to clear the field of the +slavery issue before the reconstruction issue was fairly launched. It +was highly desirable to commit to the support of the governments the +whole range of influences that were in earnest about emancipation. +Furthermore, the South itself was drifting in the same direction. In his +interview with Gilmore and Jaquess, Davis had said: "You have already +emancipated nearly two millions of our slaves; and if you will take care +of them, you may emancipate the rest. I had a few when the war began. I +was of some use to them; they never were of any to me."(3) + +The Southern President had "felt" his constituency on the subject of +enrolling slaves as soldiers with a promise of emancipation as the +reward of military service. + +The fifth message urged Congress to submit to the States an amendment to +the Constitution abolishing slavery. Such action had been considered +in the previous session, but nothing had been done. At Lincoln's +suggestion, it had been recommended in the platform of the Union +party. Now, with the President's powerful influence behind it, with +his prestige at full circle, the amendment was rapidly pushed forward. +Before January ended, it had been approved by both Houses. Lincoln had +used all his personal influence to strengthen its chances in Congress +where, until the last minute, the vote was still in doubt.(4) + +While the amendment was taking its way through Congress, a shrewd old +politician who thought he knew the world better than most men, that +Montgomery Blair, Senior, who was father of the Postmaster General, +had been trying on his own responsibility to open negotiations between +Washington and Richmond. His visionary ideas, which were wholly without +the results he intended, have no place here. And yet this fanciful +episode had a significance of its own. Had it not occurred, the +Confederate government probably would not have appointed commissioners +charged with the hopeless task of approaching the Federal government for +the purpose of negotiating peace between "the two countries." + +Now that Lincoln was entirely in the ascendent at home, and since the +Confederate arms had recently suffered terrible reverses, he was +no longer afraid that negotiation might appear to be the symptom +of weakness. He went so far as to consent to meet the Commissioners +himself. On a steamer in Hampton Roads, Lincoln and Seward had a +long conference with three members of the Confederate government, +particularly the Vice-President, Alexander H. Stephens. + +It has become a tradition that Lincoln wrote at the top of a sheet of +paper the one word "Union"; that he pushed it across the table and said, +"Stephens, write under that anything you want" There appears to be no +foundation for the tale in this form. The amendment had committed the +North too definitely to emancipation. Lincoln could not have proposed +Union without requiring emancipation, also. And yet, with this +limitation, the spirit of the tradition is historic. There can be no +doubt that he presented to the commissioners about the terms which the +year before he had drawn up as a memorandum for Gilmore and Jaquess: +Union, the acceptance of emancipation, but also instantaneous +restoration of political autonomy to the Southern States, and all the +influence of the Administration in behalf of liberal compensation for +the loss of slave property. But the commissioners had no authority to +consider terms that did not recognize the existence of "two countries." +However, this Hampton Roads Conference gave Lincoln a new hope. He +divined, if he did not perceive, that the Confederates were on the verge +of despair. If he had been a Vindictive, this would have borne fruit +in ferocious telegrams to his generals to strike and spare not. What +Lincoln did was to lay before the Cabinet this proposal:--that they +advise Congress to offer the Confederate government the sum of four +hundred million dollars, provided the war end and the States in +secession acknowledge the authority of the Federal government previous +to April 1, 1865. But the Cabinet, complete as was his domination in +some respects, were not ripe for such a move as this. "'You are all +against me,' said Lincoln sadly and in evident surprise at the want of +statesmanlike liberality on the part of the executive council," to +quote his Secretary, "folded and laid away the draft of his message."(5) +Nicolay believes that the idea continued vividly in his mind and that it +may be linked with his last public utterance--"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 is proper." + +It was now obvious to every one outside the Confederacy that the war +would end speedily in a Northern victory. To Lincoln, therefore, the +duty of the moment, overshadowing all else, was the preparation for +what should come after. Reconstruction. More than ever it was of first +importance to decide whether the President or Congress should deal with +this great matter. And now occurred an event which bore witness at once +to the beginning of Lincoln's final struggle with the Vindictives and to +that personal ascendency which was steadily widening. One of those three +original Jacobins agreed to become his spokesman in the Senate. As the +third person of the Jacobin brotherhood, Lyman Trumbull had always been +out of place. He had gone wrong not from perversity of the soul but from +a mental failing, from the lack of inherent light, from intellectual +conventionality. But he was a good man. One might apply to him Mrs. +Browning's line: "Just a good man made a great man." And in his case, as +in so many others, sheer goodness had not been sufficient in the midst +of a revolution to save his soul. To quote one of the greatest of the +observers of human life: "More brains, O Lord, more brains." Though +Trumbull had the making of an Intellectual, politics had very nearly +ruined him. For all his good intentions it took him a long time to +see what Hawthorne saw at first sight-that Lincoln was both a powerful +character and an original mind. Still, because Trumbull was really a +good man, he found a way to recover his soul. What his insight was not +equal to perceiving in 1861, experience slowly made plain to him in +the course of the next three years. Before 1865 he had broken with +the Vindictives; he had come over to Lincoln. Trumbull still held the +powerful office of Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He now +undertook to be the President's captain in a battle on the floor of the +Senate for the recognition of Louisiana. + +The new government in Louisiana had been in actual operation for nearly +a year. Though Congress had denounced it; though the Manifesto had held +it up to scorn as a monarchial outrage; Lincoln had quietly, steadily, +protected and supported it. It was discharging the function of a regular +State government. A governor had been elected and inaugurated-that +Governor Hahn whom Lincoln had congratulated as Louisiana's first Free +State Governor. He could say this because the new electorate which his +mandate had created had assembled a constitutional convention and had +abolished slavery. And it had also carried out the President's views +with regard to the political status of freedmen. Lincoln was not a +believer in general negro suffrage. He was as far as ever from the +theorizing of the Abolitionists. The most he would approve was the +bestowal of suffrage on a few Superior negroes, leaving the rest to +be gradually educated into citizenship. The Louisiana Convention had +authorized the State Legislature to make, when it felt prepared to do +so, such a limited extension of suffrage.(6) + +In setting up this new government, Lincoln had created a political +vessel in which practically all the old electorate of Louisiana could +find their places the moment they gave up the war and accepted the two +requisites, union and emancipation. That electorate could proceed at +once to rebuild the social-political order of the State without any +interval of "expiation." All the power of the Administration would +be with them in their labors. That this was the wise as well as the +generous way to proceed, the best minds of the North had come to see. +Witness the conversion of Trumbull. But there were four groups of +fanatics who were dangerous: extreme Abolitionists who clamored for +negro equality; men like Wade and Chandler, still mad with the lust of +conquest, raging at the President who had stood so resolutely between +them and their desire; the machine politicians who could never +understand the President's methods, who regarded him as an officious +amateur; and the Little Men who would have tried to make political +capital of the blowing of the last trump. All these, each for a separate +motive, attacked the President because of Louisiana. + +The new government had chosen Senators. Here was a specific issue over +which the Administration and its multiform opposition might engage in a +trial of strength. The Senate had it in its power to refuse to seat the +Louisiana Senators. Could the Vindictive leaders induce it to go to +that length? The question took its natural course of reference to the +Judiciary Committee. On the eighteenth of February, Trumbull opened what +was destined to be a terrible chapter in American history, the struggle +between light and darkness over reconstruction. Trumbull had ranged +behind Lincoln the majority of his committee. With its authority he +moved a joint resolution recognizing the new government of Louisiana. + +And then began a battle royal. Trumbull's old associates were promptly +joined by Sumner. These three rallied against the resolution all the +malignancy, all the time-serving, all the stupidity, which the Senate +possessed. Bitter language was exchanged by men who had formerly been as +thick as thieves. + +"You and I," thundered Wade, "did not differ formerly on this subject +We considered it a mockery, a miserable mockery, to recognize this +Louisiana organization as a State in the Union." He sneered fiercely, +"Whence comes this new-born zeal of the Senator from Illinois? . . . +Sir, it is the most miraculous conversion that has taken place since +Saint Paul's time."(7) + +Wade did not spare the President. Metaphorically speaking, he shook a +fist in his face, the fist of a merciless old giant "When the foundation +of this government is sought to be swept away by executive usurpation, +it will not do to turn around to me and say this comes from a President +I helped to elect. . . . If the President of the United States operating +through his major generals can initiate a State government, and can +bring it here and force us, compel us, to receive on this floor these +mere mockeries, these men of straw who represent nobody, your Republic +is at an end . . . talk not to me of your ten per cent. principle. A +more absurd, monarchial and anti-American principle was never announced +on God's earth."(8) + +Amidst a rain of furious personalities, Lincoln's spokesman kept his +poise. It was sorely tried by two things: by Sumner's frank use of +every device of parliamentary obstruction with a view to wearing out the +patience of the Senate, and by the cynical alliance, in order to balk +Lincoln, of the Vindictives with the Democrats. What they would not risk +in 1862 when their principles had to wait upon party needs, they now +considered safe strategy. And if ever the Little Men deserved +their label it was when they played into the hands of the terrible +Vindictives, thus becoming responsible for the rejection of Lincoln's +plan of reconstruction. Trumbull upbraided Sumner for "associating +himself with those whom he so often denounced, for the purpose of +calling the yeas and nays and making dilatory motions" to postpone +action until the press of other business should compel the Senate to set +the resolution aside. Sumner's answer was that he would employ +against the measure every instrument he could find "in the arsenal of +parliamentary warfare." + +With the aid of the Democrats, the Vindictives carried the day. The +resolution was "dispensed with."(9) + +As events turned out it was a catastrophe. But this was not apparent at +the time. Though Lincoln had been beaten for the moment, the opposition +was made up of so many and such irreconcilable elements that as long as +he could hold together his own following, there was no reason to suppose +he would not in the long run prevail. He was never in a firmer, more +self-contained mood than on the last night of the session.(10) Again, +as on that memorable fourth of July, eight months before, he was in his +room at the Capitol signing the last-minute bills. Stanton was with +him. On receiving a telegram from Grant, the Secretary handed it to +the President Grant reported that Lee had proposed a conference for +the purpose of "a satisfactory adjustment of the present unhappy +difficulties by means of a military convention." Without asking for the +Secretary's opinion, Lincoln wrote out a reply which he directed him to +sign and despatch immediately. "The President directs me to say that he +wishes you to have no conference with General Lee, unless it be for the +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."(11) + +In the second inaugural (12) delivered the next day, there is not the +faintest shadow of anxiety. It breathes a lofty confidence as if his +soul was gazing meditatively downward upon life, and upon his own work, +from a secure height. The world has shown a sound instinct in fixing +upon one expression, "with malice toward none, with charity for all," as +the key-note of the final Lincoln. These words form the opening line +of that paragraph of unsurpassable prose in which the second inaugural +culminates: + +"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." + + + + +XXXVI. PREPARING A DIFFERENT WAR + +During the five weeks which remained to Lincoln on earth, the army was +his most obvious concern. He watched eagerly the closing of the enormous +trap that had been slowly built up surrounding Lee. Toward the end of +March he went to the front, and for two weeks had his quarters on a +steamer at City Point. It was during Lincoln's visit that Sherman came +up from North Carolina for his flying conference with Grant, in which +the President took part. Lincoln was at City Point when Petersburg fell. +Early on the morning of April third, he joined Grant who gives a strange +glimpse in his Memoirs of their meeting in the deserted city which so +recently had been the last bulwark of the Confederacy.(1) The same day, +Richmond fell. Lincoln had returned to City Point, and on the following +day when confusion reigned in the burning city, he walked through its +streets attended only by a few sailors and by four friends. He visited +Libby Prison; and when a member of his party said that Davis ought to +be hanged, Lincoln replied, "Judge not that ye be not judged."(2) His +deepest thoughts, however, were not with the army. The time was at hand +when his statesmanship was to be put to its most severe test. He had +not forgotten the anxious lesson of that success of the Vindictives +in balking momentarily the recognition of Louisiana. It was war to the +knife between him and them. Could he reconstruct the Union in a wise and +merciful fashion despite their desperate opposition? + +He had some strong cards in his hand. First of all, he had time. +Congress was not in session. He had eight months in which to press +forward his own plans. If, when Congress assembled the following +December, it should be confronted by a group of reconciled Southern +States, would it venture to refuse them recognition? No one could have +any illusions as to what the Vindictives would try to do. They would +continue the struggle they had begun over Louisiana; and if their power +permitted, they would rouse the nation to join battle with the President +on that old issue of the war powers, of the dictatorship. + +But in Lincoln's hand there were four other cards, all of which Wade +and Chandler would find it hard to match. He had the army. In the last +election the army had voted for him enthusiastically. And the army was +free from the spirit of revenge, the Spirit which Chandler built upon. +They had the plain people, the great mass whom the machine politicians +had failed to judge correctly in the August Conspiracy. Pretty +generally, he had the Intellectuals. Lastly, he had--or with skilful +generalship he could have--the Abolitionists. + +The Thirteenth Amendment was not yet adopted. The question had been +raised, did it require three-fourths of all the States for its adoption, +or only three-fourths of those that were ranked as not in rebellion. +Here was the issue by means of which the Abolitionists might all be +brought into line. It was by no means certain that every Northern State +would vote for the amendment. In the smaller group of States, there was +a chance that the amendment might fail. But if it were submitted to the +larger group; and if every Reconstructed State, before Congress met, +should adopt the amendment; and if it was apparent that with these +Southern adoptions the amendment must prevail, all the great power of +the anti-slavery sentiment would be thrown on the side of the President +in favor of recognizing the new State governments and against the +Vindictives. Lincoln held a hand of trumps. Confidently, but not rashly, +he looked forward to his peaceful war with the Vindictives. + +They were enemies not to be despised. To begin with, they were +experienced machine politicians; they had control of well-organized +political rings. They were past masters of the art of working up popular +animosities. And they were going to use this art in that dangerous +moment of reaction which invariably follows the heroic tension of a +great war. The alignment in the Senate revealed by the Louisiana battle +had also a significance. The fact that Sumner, who was not quite one of +them, became their general on that occasion, was something to remember. +They had made or thought they had made other powerful allies. The Vice +President, Andrew Johnson-the new president of the Senate-appeared at +this time to be cheek by jowl with the fiercest Vindictives of them all. +It would be interesting to know when the thought first occurred to them: +"If anything should happen to Lincoln, his successor would be one of +us!" + +The ninth of April arrived and the news of Lee's surrender. + +"The popular excitement over the victory was such that on Monday, the +tenth, crowds gathered before the Executive Mansion several times during +the day and called out the President for speeches. Twice he responded +by coming to the window and saying a few words which, however, indicated +that his mind was more occupied with work than with exuberant rejoicing. +As briefly as he could he excused himself, but promised that on the +following evening for which a formal demonstration was being arranged, +he would be prepared to say something."(3) + +The paper which he read to the crowd that thronged the grounds of +the White House on the night of April eleventh, was his last public +utterance. It was also one of his most remarkable ones. In a way, it +was his declaration of war against the Vindictives.(4) It is the final +statement of a policy toward helpless opponents--he refused to call them +enemies--which among the conquerors of history is hardly, if at all, to +be paralleled.(5) + +"By these recent successes the reinauguration of the national +authority--reconstruction--which has had a large share of thought from the +first, is pressed more closely upon our attention. It is fraught with +great difficulty. Unlike a case of war between independent nations, +there is no authorized organ for us to treat with-no one man has +authority to give up the rebellion for any other man. We simply must +begin with, and mould from, disorganized and discordant elements. Nor +is it a small additional embarrassment that we, the loyal people, differ +among ourselves as to the mode, manner and measure of reconstruction. +As a general rule, I abstain from reading the reports of attacks upon +myself, wishing not to be provoked by that to which I can not properly +offer an answer. In spite of this precaution, however, it comes to my +knowledge that I am much censured for some supposed agency in setting up +and seeking to sustain the new State government of Louisiana." + +He reviewed in full the history of the Louisiana experiment From that he +passed to the theories put forth by some of his enemies with regard to +the constitutional status of the Seceded States. His own theory that +the States never had been out of the Union because constitutionally +they could not go out, that their governmental functions had merely been +temporarily interrupted; this theory had always been roundly derided by +the Vindictives and even by a few who were not Vindictives. Sumner had +preached the idea that the Southern States by attempting to secede had +committed "State suicide" and should now be treated as Territories. +Stevens and the Vindictives generally, while avoiding Sumner's subtlety, +called them "conquered provinces." And all these wanted to take them +from under the protection of the President and place them helpless at +the feet of Congress. To prevent this is the purpose that shines between +the lines in the latter part of Lincoln's valedictory: + +"We all agree that the Seceded States, so called, are out of their +proper practical relation with the Union, and that the sole object of +the government, civil and military, in regard to those States, is to +again get them into that proper practical relation. I believe that it +is not only possible, but in fact easier, to do this without deciding or +even considering whether these States have ever been out of the Union, +than with it Finding themselves safely at home, it would be utterly +immaterial whether they had ever been abroad. Let us all join in doing +the acts necessary to restoring the proper practical relations between +these States and the Union, and each forever after innocently indulge +his own opinion whether in doing the acts he brought the States from +without into the Union, or only gave them proper assistance, they never +having been out of it. The amount of constituency, so to speak, on which +the new Louisiana government rests would be more satisfactory to all +if it contained 50,000 or 30,000, or even 20,000 instead of only about +12,000, as it does. It is also unsatisfactory to some that the elective +franchise is not given to the colored man. I would myself prefer that it +were now conferred on the very intelligent, and on those who served our +cause as soldiers. + +"Still, the question is not whether the Louisiana government, as it +stands, is quite all that is desirable. The question is, will it be +wiser to take it as it is and help to improve it, or to reject and +disperse it? Can Louisiana be brought into proper practical relation +with the Union sooner by sustaining or by discarding her new State +government? Some twelve thousand voters in the heretofore slave State of +Louisiana have sworn allegiance to the Union, assumed to be the +rightful political power of the State, held elections, organized a State +government, adopted a free State constitution, giving the benefit of +public schools equally to black and white and empowering the Legislature +to confer the elective franchise upon the colored man. Their Legislature +has already voted to ratify the constitutional amendment recently passed +by Congress abolishing slavery throughout the nation. These 12,000 +persons are thus fully committed to the Union and to perpetual freedom +in the State--committed to the very things, and nearly all the things, +the nation wants--and they ask the nation's recognition and its +assistance to make good their committal. + +"Now, if we reject and spurn them, we do our utmost to disorganize and +disperse them. We, in effect, say to the white man: You are worthless or +worse; we will neither help you nor be helped by you. To the blacks we +say: This cup of liberty which these, your old masters, hold to your +lips we will dash from you and leave you to the chances of gathering the +spilled and scattered contents in some vague and undefined when, where +and how. If this course, discouraging and paralyzing both white and +black, has any tendency to bring Louisiana into proper practical +relations with the Union, I have so far been unable to perceive it. +If, on the contrary, we recognize and sustain the new government of +Louisiana, the converse of all this is made true. We encourage the +hearts and nerve the arms of 12,000 to adhere to their work, and argue +for it, and proselyte for it, and fight for it, and feed it, and grow +it, and ripen it to a complete success. The colored man, too, in seeing +all united for him, is inspired with vigilance and energy, and daring, +to the same end. Grant that he desires the elective franchise, will he +not attain it sooner by saving the already advanced steps toward it +than by running backward over them? Concede that the new government of +Louisiana is only to what it should be as the egg is to the fowl, we +shall sooner have the fowl by hatching the egg than by smashing it. + +"Again, if we reject Louisiana, we also reject one vote in favor of +the proposed amendment to the national Constitution. To meet this +proposition it has been argued that no more than three-fourths of those +States which have not attempted secession are necessary to validly +ratify the amendment I do not commit myself against this further than +to say that such a ratification would be questionable, and sure to be +persistently questioned, while a ratification by three-fourths of +all the States would be unquestioned and unquestionable. I repeat the +question: Can Louisiana be brought into proper practical relation +with the Union sooner by sustaining or by discarding her new State +government? What has been said of Louisiana will apply generally to +other States. And yet so great peculiarities pertain to each State, and +such important and sudden changes occur in the same State, and with also +new and unprecedented is the whole case 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." + + + + +XXXVII. FATE INTERPOSES + +There was an early spring on the Potomac in 1865. While April was still +young, the Judas trees became spheres of purply, pinkish bloom. The +Washington parks grew softly bright as the lilacs opened. Pendulous +willows veiled with green laces afloat in air the changing brown that +was winter's final shadow; in the Virginia woods the white blossoms +of the dogwood seemed to float and flicker among the windy trees like +enormous flocks of alighting butterflies. And over head such a glitter +of turquoise blue! As lovely in a different way as on that fateful +Sun-day morning when Russell drove through the same woods toward Bull +Run so long, long ago. Such was the background of the last few days of +Lincoln's life. + +Though tranquil, his thoughts dwelt much on death. While at City Point, +he drove one day with Mrs. Lincoln along the banks of the James. They +passed a country graveyard. "It was a retired place," said Mrs. Lincoln +long afterward, "shaded by trees, and early spring flowers were opening +on nearly every grave. It was so quiet and attractive that we stopped +the carriage and walked through it. Mr. Lincoln seemed thoughtful and +impressed. He said: 'Mary, you are younger than I; you will survive me. +When I am gone, lay my remains in some quiet place like this.'"(1) + +His mood underwent a mysterious change. It was serene and yet charged +with a peculiar grave loftiness not quite like any phase of him his +friends had known hitherto. As always, his thoughts turned for their +reflection to Shakespeare. Sumner who was one of the party at City +Point, was deeply impressed by his reading aloud, a few days before his +death, that passage in Macbeth which describes the ultimate security of +Duncan where nothing evil "can touch him farther."(2) + +There was something a little startling, as if it were not quite of this +world, in the tender lightness that seemed to come into his heart. "His +whole appearance, poise and bearing," says one of his observers, "had +marvelously changed. He was, in fact, transfigured. That indescribable +sadness which had previously seemed to be an adamantine element of +his very being, had been suddenly changed for an equally indescribable +expression of serene joy, as if conscious that the great purpose of his +life had been achieved."(3) + +It was as if the seer in the trance had finally passed beyond his +trance; and had faced smiling toward his earthly comrades, imagining he +was to return to them; unaware that somehow his emergence was not in the +ordinary course of nature; that in it was an accent of the inexplicable, +something which the others caught and at which they trembled; though +they knew not why. And he, so beautifully at peace, and yet thrilled as +never before by the vision of the murdered Duncan at the end of life's +fitful fever--what was his real feeling, his real vision of himself? +Was it something of what the great modern poet strove so bravely to +express-- + + "And yet Dauntless the slughorn to my lips I set, + And blew: Childe Roland to the dark tower came." + +Shortly before the end, he had a strange dream. Though he spoke of it +almost with levity, it would not leave his thoughts. He dreamed he +was wandering through the White House at night; all the rooms were +brilliantly lighted; but they were empty. However, through that unreal +solitude floated a sound of weeping. When he came to the East Room, it +was explained; there was a catafalque, the pomp of a military funeral, +crowds of people in tears; and a voice said to him, "The President has +been assassinated." + +He told this dream to Lamon and to Mrs. Lincoln. He added that after +it had occurred, "the first time I opened the Bible, strange as it may +appear, it was at the twenty-eighth chapter of Genesis which relates +the wonderful dream Jacob had. I turned to other passages and seemed to +encounter a dream or a vision wherever I looked. I kept on turning +the leaves of the Old Book, and everywhere my eye fell upon +passages recording matters strangely in keeping with my own +thoughts--supernatural visitations, dreams, visions, etc." + +But when Lamon seized upon this as text for his recurrent sermon on +precautions against assassination, Lincoln turned the matter into a +joke. He did not appear to interpret the dream as foreshadowing his own +death. He called Lamon's alarm "downright foolishness."(4) + +Another dream in the last night of his life was a consolation. He +narrated it to the Cabinet when they met on April fourteenth, which +happened to be Good Friday. There was some anxiety with regard to +Sherman's movements in North Carolina. Lincoln bade the Cabinet set +their minds at rest. His dream of the night before was one that he +had often had. It was a presage of great events. In this dream he saw +himself "in a singular and indescribable vessel, but always the same... +moving with great rapidity toward a dark and indefinite shore." This +dream had preceded all the great events of the war. He believed it was a +good omen.(5) + +At this last Cabinet meeting, he talked freely of the one matter which +in his mind overshadowed all others. He urged his Ministers to put +aside all thoughts of hatred and revenge. "He hoped there would be no +persecution, no bloody work, after the war was over. None need expect +him to take any part in hanging or killing these men, even the worst of +them. 'Frighten them out of the country, let down the bars, scare them +off,' said he, throwing up his hands as if scaring sheep. Enough lives +have been sacrificed. We must extinguish our resentment if we expect +harmony and union. There was too much desire on the part of our very +good friends to be masters, to interfere and dictate to those States, +to treat the people not as fellow citizens; there was too little respect +for their rights. He didn't sympathize in these feelings."(6) + +There was a touch of irony in his phase "our very good friends." Before +the end of the next day, the men he had in mind, the inner group of +the relentless Vindictives, were to meet in council, scarcely able to +conceal their inspiring conviction that Providence had intervened, had +judged between him and them.(7) And that allusion to the "rights" of the +vanquished! How abominable it was in the ears of the grim Chandler, the +inexorable Wade. Desperate these men and their followers were on the +fourteenth of April, but defiant. To the full measure of their power +they would fight the President to the last ditch. And always in their +minds, the tormenting thought-if only positions could be reversed, if +only Johnson, whom they believed to be one of them at heart, were in the +first instead of the second place! + +While these unsparing sons of thunder were growling among themselves, +the lions that were being cheated of their prey, Lincoln was putting his +merciful temper into a playful form. General Creswell applied to him for +pardon for an old friend of his who had joined the Confederate Army. + +"Creswell," said Lincoln, "you make me think of a lot of young folks who +once started out Maying. To reach their destination, they had to cross +a shallow stream and did so by means of an old flat boat when the +time came to return, they found to their dismay that the old scow had +disappeared. They were in sore trouble and thought over all manner of +devices for getting over the water, but without avail. After a time, one +of the boys proposed that each fellow should pick up the girl he liked +best and wade over with her. The masterly proposition was carried out +until all that were left upon the island was a little short chap and a +great, long, gothic-built, elderly lady. Now, Creswell, you are trying +to leave me in the same predicament. You fellows are all getting your +own friends out of this scrape, and you will succeed in carrying off one +after another until nobody but Jeff Davis and myself will be left on the +island, and then I won't know what to do--How should I feel? How should +I look lugging him over? I guess the way to avoid such an embarrassing +situation is to let all out at once."(8) + +The President refused, this day, to open his doors to the throng of +visitors that sought admission. His eldest son, Robert, an officer in +Grant's army, had returned from the front unharmed. Lincoln wished to +reserve the day for his family and intimate friends. In the afternoon, +Mrs. Lincoln asked him if he cared to have company on their usual drive. +"No, Mary," said he, "I prefer that we ride by ourselves to-day."(9) +They took a long drive. His mood, as it had been all day, was singularly +happy and tender.(10) He talked much of the past and the future. It +seemed to Mrs. Lincoln that he never had appeared happier than during +the drive. He referred to past sorrows, to the anxieties of the war, to +Willie's death, and spoke of the necessity to be cheerful and happy in +the days to come. As Mrs. Lincoln remembered his words: "We have had +a hard time since we came to Washington; but the war is over, and with +God's blessings, we may hope for four years of peace and happiness, +and then we will go back to Illinois and pass the rest of our lives in +quiet. We have laid by some money, and during this time, we will save +up more, but shall not have enough to support us. We will go back +to Illinois; I will open a law office at Springfield or Chicago and +practise law, and at least do enough to help give us a livelihood."(11) + +They returned from their drive and prepared for a theatre party which +had been fixed for that night. The management of the Ford's Theatre, +where Laura Keene was to close her season with a benefit performance +of Our American Cousin, had announced in the afternoon paper that "the +President and his lady" would attend. The President's box had been +draped with flags. The rest is a twice told tale--a thousandth told +tale. + +An actor, very handsome, a Byronic sort, both in beauty and temperament, +with a dash perhaps of insanity, John Wilkes Booth, had long meditated +killing the President. A violent secessionist, his morbid imagination +had made of Lincoln another Caesar. The occasion called for a Brutus. +While Lincoln was planning his peaceful war with the Vindictives, +scheming how to keep them from grinding the prostrate South beneath +their heels, devising modes of restoring happiness to the conquered +region, Booth, at an obscure boarding-house in Washington, was gathering +about him a band of adventurers, some of whom at least, like himself, +were unbalanced. They meditated a general assassination of the Cabinet. +The unexpected theatre party on the fourteenth gave Booth a sudden +opportunity. He knew every passage of Ford's Theatre. He knew, +also, that Lincoln seldom surrounded himself with guards. During the +afternoon, he made his way unobserved into the theatre and bored a hole +in the door of the presidential box, so that he might fire through it +should there be any difficulty in getting the door open. + +About ten o'clock that night, the audience was laughing at the absurd +play; the President's party were as much amused as any. Suddenly, there +was a pistol shot. A moment more and a woman's voice rang out in a sharp +cry. An instant sense of disaster brought the audience startled to +their feet. Two men were glimpsed struggling toward the front of the +President's box. One broke away, leaped down on to the stage, flourished +a knife and shouted, "Sic semper tyrannis!" Then he vanished through the +flies. It was Booth, whose plans had been completely successful. He had +made his way without interruption to within a few feet of Lincoln. At +point-blank distance, he had shot him from behind, through the head. In +the confusion which ensued, he escaped from the theatre; fled from the +city; was pursued; and was himself shot and killed a few days later. + +The bullet of the assassin had entered the brain, causing instant +unconsciousness. The dying President was removed to a house on Tenth +Street, No. 453, where he was laid on a bed in a small room at the rear +of the hall on the ground floor.(12) + +Swift panic took possession of the city. "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 +gossiping in an upper room. . . . They ran down-stairs. Finding a +carriage at the door, they entered it and drove to Tenth Street."(13) + +To right and left eddied whirls of excited figures, men and women +questioning, threatening, crying out for vengeance. Overhead amid +driving clouds, the moon, through successive mantlings of darkness, +broke periodically into sudden blazes of light; among the startled +people below, raced a witches' dance of the rapidly changing +shadows.(14) + +Lincoln did not regain consciousness. About dawn his pulse began to +fail. A little later, "a look of unspeakable peace came over his worn +features"(15), and at twenty-two minutes after seven on the morning of +the fifteenth of April, he died. + +THE END + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY + +It is said that a complete bibliography of Lincoln would include at +least five thousand titles. Therefore, any limited bibliography must +appear more or less arbitrary. The following is but a minimum list in +which, with a few exceptions such as the inescapable interpretative +works of Mr. Rhodes and of Professor Dunning, practically everything has +to some extent the character of a source. + +Alexander. A Political History of the State of New York. By De Alva +Stanwood Alexander. 3 vols. 1909. + +Arnold. History of Abraham Lincoln and the Overthrow of Slavery. By +Isaac N. Arnold. 1866. + +Baldwin. Interview between President Lincoln and Colonel John B. +Baldwin. 1866. + +Bancroft. Life of William H. Seward. By Frederick Bancroft. 2 vols. +1900. + +Barnes. Memoir of Thurlow Weed. By Thurlow Weed Barnes. 1884. + +Barton. The Soul of Abraham Lincoln. By William Eleazar Barton. 1920. + +Bigelow. Retrospections of an Active Life. By John Bigelow. 2 vols. +1909. + +Blaine. Twenty Years of Congress. By James G. Blaine. 2 vols. 1884. + +Botts. The Great Rebellion. By John Minor Botts. 1866. + +Boutwell. Reminiscences of Sixty Years in Public Affairs. By George S. +Boutwell 2 vols. 1902. + +Bradford. Union Portraits. By Gamaliel Bradford. 1916. + +Brooks. Washington in Lincoln's Time. By Noah Brooks, 1895. + +Carpenter. Six Months at the White House with Abraham Lincoln. By F. B. +Carpenter. 1866. + +Chandler. Life of Zachary Chandler. By the Detroit Post and Tribune. +1880. + +Chapman. Latest Light on Abraham Lincoln. By Ervin Chapman. 1917. The +Charleston Mercury. + +Chase. Diary and Correspondence of Salmon Chase. Report, American +Historical Association, 1902, Vol. II. + +Chittenden. Recollections of President Lincoln and His Administration. +By L. Chittenden. 1891. + +Coleman. Life of John J. Crittenden, with Selections from his +Correspondence and Speeches. By Ann Mary Coleman. 2 vols. 1871. + +Conway. Autobiography, Memories and Experiences of Moncure Daniel +Conway. 2 vols. 1904. + +Correspondence. The Correspondence of Robert Toombs, Alexander H. +Stephens, and Howell Cobb. Edited by U. B. Phillips. Report American +Historical Association, 1913, Vol. II. + +Crawford. The Genesis of the Civil War. By Samuel Wylie Crawford. 1887. + +C. W. Report of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War. 1863. + +Dabney. Memoir of a Narrative Received from Colonel John B. Baldwin, of +Staunton, touching the Origin of the War. By Reverend R. L. Dabney, D. +D., Southern Historical Society Papers, Vol. 1. 1876. + +Davis. Rise and Fail of the Confederate Government. By Jefferson Davis. +2 vols. 1881. + +Dunning. Essays on the Civil War and Reconstruction and Related Topics. +By William A. Dunning. 1898. + +Field. Life of David Dudley Field. By Henry M. Field. 1898. + +Flower. Edwin McMasters Stanton. By Frank Abial Flower. 1902. + +Fry. Military Miscellanies. By James B. Fry. 1889. + +Galaxy. The History of Emancipation. By Gideon Welles. The Galaxy, XIV, +838-851. + +Gilmore. Personal Recollections of Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War. By +James R. Gilmore. 1899. + +Gilmore, Atlantic. A Suppressed Chapter of History. By James R. Gilmore, +Atlantic Monthly, April, 1887. + +Globe. Congressional Globe, Containing the Debates and Proceedings. +1834-1873. + +Godwin. Biography of William Cullen Bryant. By Parke Godwin. + +1883. Gore. The Boyhood of Abraham Lincoln. By J. Rogers Gore. 1921. + +Gorham. Life and Public Services of Edwin M. Stanton. By George C. +Gorham. 2 vols. 1899. + +Grant. Personal Memoirs. By Ulysses S. Grant. 2 vols. 1886. + +Greeley. The American Conflict. By Horace Greeley. 2 vols. 1864-1867. + +Gurowski. Diary from March 4, 1861, to November 12, 1862. By Adam +Gurowski. 1862. + +Hanks. Nancy Hanks. By Caroline Hanks Hitchcock. 1900. + +Harris. Public Life of Zachary Chandler. By W. C. Harris, Michigan +Historical Commission. 1917. + +Hart. Salmon Portland Chase. By Albert Bushnell Hart. 1899. + +Hay MS. Diary of John Hay. The war period is covered by three volumes +of manuscript. Photostat copies in the library of the Massachusetts +Historical Society, accessible only by special permission. + +Hay, Century. Life in the White House in the Time of Lincoln. By John +Hay, Century Magazine, November, 1890. + +The New York Herald. + +Herndon. Herndon's Lincoln. The True Story of a Great Life: The History +and Personal Recollections of Abraham Lincoln. By W. H. Herndon and J. +W. Weik. 3 vols. (paged continuously). 1890. + +Hill. Lincoln the Lawyer. By Frederick Trevers Hill 1906. + +Hitchcock. Fifty Years in Camp and Field. Diary of Major-General Ethan +Allen Hitchcock, U. S. A. Edited by W. Croffut. 1909. + +Johnson. Stephen A. Douglas. By Allen Johnson. 1908. + +The Journal of the Virginia Convention. 1861. + +Julian. Political Recollections 1840-1872. By George W. Julian. 1884. + +Kelley. Lincoln and Stanton. By W. D. Kelley. 1885. + +Lamon. The Life of Abraham Lincoln. By Ward H. Lamon. 1872. + +Letters. Uncollected Letters of Abraham Lincoln. Now first brought +together by Gilbert A. Tracy. 1917. + +Lieber. Life and Letters of Francis Lieber. Edited by Thomas S. Perry, +1882. + +Lincoln. Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln. Edited by John G. Nicolay +and John Hay. 2 vols. New and enlarged edition. 12 volumes. 1905. (All +references here are to the Colter edition.) + +McCarthy. Lincoln's Plan of Reconstruction. By Charles M. McCarthy, +1901. + +McClure. Abraham Lincoln and Men of War Times. By A. K. McClure. 1892. + +Merriam. Life and Times of Samuel Bowles. By G. S. Merriam. 2 vols. +1885. + +Munford. Virginia's Attitude toward Slavery and Secession. By Beverley +B. Munford. 1910. + +Moore. A Digest of International Law. By John Bassett Moore. 8 vols. +1906. + +Newton. Lincoln and Herndon. By Joseph Fort Newton. 1910. + +Nicolay. A Short Life of Abraham Lincoln. By John G. Nicolay. 1902. + +Nicolay, Cambridge. The Cambridge Modern History: Volume VII. + +The United States. By various authors. 1903. + +Miss Nicolay. Personal Traits of Abraham Lincoln. By Helen Nicolay. +1912. + +N. and H. Abraham Lincoln: A History. By John G. Nicolay and John Hay. +10 vols. 1890. + +N. P. Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies. First +series. 27 vols. 1895-1917. + +O. P. Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. 128 vols. +1880-1901. + +Outbreak. The Outbreak of the Rebellion. By John G. Nicolay. 1881. + +Own Story. McClellan's Own Story. By George B. McClellan. 1887. + +Paternity. The Paternity of Abraham Lincoln. By William Eleazer Barton. +1920. + +Pearson. Life of John A. Andrew. By Henry G. Pearson. 2 vols. 1904. + +Pierce. Memoirs and Letters of Charles Sumner. By Edward Lillie Pierce. +4 vols. 1877-1893. + +Porter. In Memory of General Charles P. Stone. By Fitz John Porter. +1887. + +Public Man. Diary of a Public Man. Anonymous. North American Review. +1879. + +Rankin. Personal Recollections of Abraham Lincoln. By Henry B. Rankin. +1916. + +Raymond. Journal of Henry J. Raymond. Edited by Henry W. Raymond. +Scribner's Magazine. 1879-1880. + +Recollections. Recollections of Abraham Lincoln. By Ward Hill Lamon. +1911. + +Reminiscences. Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln, by Distinguished + +Men of his Time. Edited by Allen Thorndyke Rice. 1886. + +Report of the Joint Committee on Reconstruction, first session, +Thirty-Ninth Congress. + +Rhodes. History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850. By +James Ford Rhodes. 8 vols. 1893-1920. + +Riddle. Recollections of War Times. By A. G. Riddle. 1895. + +Schrugham. The Peaceful Americans of 1860. By Mary Schrugham. 1922. + +Schure. Speeches, Correspondence and Political Papers of Carl Schure. +Selected and edited by Frederick Bancroft. 1913. + +Scott. Memoirs of Lieutenant General Scott, LL.D. Written by himself. +2 vols. 1864. + +Seward. Works of William H. Seward. 5 vols. 1884. + +Sherman. Memoirs of William T. Sherman. By himself. 2 vols. 1886. +Sherman Letters. + +Letters of John Sherman and W. T. Sherman. Edited by Rachel Sherman +Thorndike. 1894. + +Southern Historical Society Papers. + +Stephens. Constitutional View of the Late War between the States. By +Alexander H. Stephens. 2 vols. 1869-1870. + +Stoddard. Inside the White House in War Times. By William O. Stoddard. +1890. + +Stories. "Abe" Lincoln's Yarns and Stories. With introduction and +anecdotes by Colonel Alexander McClure. 1901. + +The New York Sun. + +Swinton. Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac. By William Swinton. 1866. + +Tarbell. The Life of Abraham Lincoln. By Ida M. Tarbell. New edition. 2 +vols. 1917. + +Thayer. The Life and Letters of John Hay. By William Roscoe Thayer. 2 +vols. 1915. + +The New York Times. + +The New York Tribune. + +Tyler. Letters and Times of the Tylers. By Lyon G. Tyler. 3 vols. +1884-1896. + +Van Santvoord. A Reception by President Lincoln. By C. J. Van Santvoord. +Century Magazine, Feb., 1883. + +Villard. Memoirs of Henry Villard. 2 vols. 1902. + +Wade. Life of Benjamin F. Wade. By A. G. Riddle. 1886. + +Warden. Account of the Private Life and Public Services of Salmon +Portland Chase. By R. B. Warden. 1874. + +Welles. Diary of Gideon Welles. Edited by J. T. Morse, Jr. 3 vols. 1911. + +White. Life of Lyman Trumbull. By Horace White. 1913. + +Woodburn. The Life of Thaddeus Stevens. By James Albert Woodburn. 1913. + + + + +NOTES + +I. THE CHILD OF THE FOREST. + +1. Herndon, 1-7, 11-14; 1, anon, 13; N. and H., 1, 23-27. This is the +version of his origin accepted by Lincoln. He believed that his mother +was the illegitimate daughter of a Virginia planter and traced to that +doubtful source "all the qualities that distinguished him from other +members" of his immediate family. Herndon, 3. His secretaries are silent +upon the subject. Recently the story has been challenged. Mrs. Caroline +Hanks Hitchcock, who identifies the Hanks family of Kentucky with a lost +branch of a New England family, has collected evidence which tends +to show that Nancy was the legitimate daughter of a certain Joseph H. +Hanks, who was father of Joseph the carpenter, and that Nancy was not +the niece but the younger sister of the "uncle" who figures in the +older version, the man with whom Thomas Lincoln worked. Nancy and Thomas +appear to have been cousins through their mothers. Mrs. Hitchcock argues +the case with care and ability in a little book entitled Nancy Hanks. +However, she is not altogether sustained by W. E. Barton, The Paternity +of Abraham Lincoln. + +Scandal has busied itself with the parents of Lincoln in another way. It +has been widely asserted that he was himself illegitimate. A variety of +shameful paternities have been assigned to him, some palpably absurd. +The chief argument of the lovers of this scandal was once the lack of +a known record of the marriage of his parents. Around this fact grew +up the story of a marriage of concealment with Thomas Lincoln as the +easy-going accomplice. The discovery of the marriage record fixing the +date and demonstrating that Abraham must have been the second child gave +this scandal its quietus. N. and H., 1, 23-24; Hanks, 59-67; Herndon, +5-6; Lincoln and Herndon, 321. The last important book on the subject is +Barton, The Paternity of Abraham Lincoln. + +2. N. and H., 1-13. + +3. Lamon, 13; N. and H., 1, 25. + +4. N. and H., 1, 25. + +5. Gore, 221-225. + +6. Herndon, 15. + +7. Gore, 66, 70-74, 79, 83-84, 116, 151-154, 204, 226-230, for all this +group of anecdotes. + +The evidence with regard to all the early part of Lincoln's life is +peculiar in this, that it is reminiscence not written down until the +subject had become famous. Dogmatic certainty with regard to the +details is scarcely possible. The best one can do in weighing any of the +versions of his early days is to inquire closely as to whether all its +parts bang naturally together, whether they really cohere. There is a +body of anecdotes told by an old mountaineer, Austin Gollaher, who knew +Lincoln as a boy, and these have been collected and recently put into +print. Of course, they are not "documented" evidence. Some students are +for brushing them aside. But there is one important argument in their +favor. They are coherent; the boy they describe is a real person and his +personality is sustained. If he is a fiction and not a memory, the old +mountaineer was a literary artist--far more the artist than one finds it +easy to believe. + +8. Gore, 84-95; Lamon, 16; Herndon, 16. + +9. Gore, 181-182, 296, 303-316; Lamon, 19-20; N. and H., I, 28-29. + +II. THE MYSTERIOUS YOUTH. + +1. N. and H., I, 32-34. + +2. Lamon, 33-38, 51-52, 61-63; N. and H., 1, 34-36. + +3. N. and H., 1, 40. + +4. Lamon, 38, 40, 55. + +5. Reminiscences, 54, 428. + +III. A VILLAGE LEADER. + +1. N. and H., 1, 45-46, 70-72; Herndon, 67, 69, 72. + +2. Lamon, 81-82; Herndon, 75-76. + +3. Lincoln, 1, 1-9. + +4. Lamon, 125-126; Herndon, 104. + +5. Herndon, 117-118. + +6. N. and H., 1, 109. + +7. Stories, 94. + +8. Herndon, 118-123. + +9. Lamon, 159-164; Herndon, 128-138; Rankin, 61-95. + +10. Lamon, 164. + +11. Lamon, 164-165; Rankin, 95. + +IV. REVELATIONS. + +1. Riddle, 337. + +2. Herndon, 436. + +3. N. and H., I, 138. + +4. Lincoln, I, 51-52. + +5. McClure, 65. + +6. Herndon, 184.185. + +7. Anon, 172-183; Herndon, 143-150, 161; Lincoln, 1, 87-92. + +8. Gossip has preserved a melodramatic tale with regard to Lincoln's +marriage. It describes the bride to be, waiting, arrayed, in tense +expectation deepening into alarm; the guests assembled, wondering, +while the hour appointed passes by and the ceremony does not begin; the +failure of the prospective bridegroom to appear; the scattering of the +company, amazed, their tongues wagging. The explanation offered is an +attack of insanity. Herndon, 215; I,anon, 239-242. As might be expected +Lincoln's secretaries who see him always in a halo give no hint of such +an event. It has become a controversial scandal. Is it a fact or a myth? +Miss Tarbell made herself the champion of the mythical explanation and +collected a great deal of evidence that makes it hard to accept the +story as a fact Tarbell, I, Chap. XI. Still later a very sane memoirist, +Henry B. Rankin, who knew Lincoln, and is not at all an apologist, takes +the same view. His most effective argument is that such an event could +not have occurred in the little country town of Springfield without +becoming at the time the common property of all the gossips. The +evidence is bewildering. I find myself unable to accept the disappointed +wedding guests as established facts, even though the latest student of +Herndon has no doubts. Lincoln and Herndon, 321-322. But whether the +broken marriage story is true or false there is no doubt that Lincoln +passed through a desolating inward experience about "the fatal first +of January"; that it was related to the breaking of his engagement; and +that for a time his sufferings were intense. The letters to Speed are +the sufficient evidence. Lincoln, I, 175; 182-189; 210-219; 240; 261; +267-269. The prompt explanation of insanity may be cast aside, one +of those foolish delusions of shallow people to whom all abnormal +conditions are of the same nature as all others. Lincoln wrote to a +noted Western physician, Doctor Drake of Cincinnati, with regard to his +"case"--that is, his nervous breakdown--and Doctor Drake replied but +refused to prescribe without an interview. Lamon, 244. + +V. PROSPERITY. + +1. Carpenter, 304-305. + +2. Lamon, 243, 252-269; Herndon, 226-243, 248-251; N. and H., 201, +203-12. + +3. A great many recollections of Lincoln attempt to describe him. Except +in a large and general way most of them show that lack of definite +visualization which characterizes the memories of the careless observer. +His height, his bony figure, his awkwardness, the rudely chiseled +features, the mystery in his eyes, the kindliness of his expression, +these are the elements of the popular portrait. Now and then a closer +observer has added a detail. Witness the masterly comment of Walt +Whitman. Herndon's account of Lincoln speaking has the earmarks of +accuracy. The attempt by the portrait painter, Carpenter, to render +him in words is quoted later in this volume. Carpenter, 217-218. +Unfortunately he was never painted by an artist of great originality, +by one who was equal to his opportunity. My authority for the texture of +his skin is a lady of unusual closeness of observation, the late Mrs. +M. T. W. Curwen of Cincinnati, who saw him in 1861 in the private car of +the president of the Indianapolis and Cincinnati railroad. An exhaustive +study of the portraits of Lincoln is in preparation by Mr. Winfred +Porter Truesdell, who has a valuable paper on the subject in The Print +Connoisseur, for March, 1921. + +4. Herndon, 264. + +5. Ibid. + +6. Ibid., 515. + +7. A vital question to the biographer of Lincoln is the credibility of +Herndon. He has been accused of capitalizing his relation with Lincoln +and producing a sensational image for commercial purposes. Though his +Life did not appear until 1890 when the official work of Nicolay and Hay +was in print, he had been lecturing and corresponding upon Lincoln for +nearly twenty-five years. The "sensational" first edition of his Life +produced a storm of protest. The book was promptly recalled, worked +over, toned down, and reissued "expurgated" in 1892. + +Such biographers as Miss Tarbell appear to regard Herndon as a mere +romancer. The well poised Lincoln and Herndon recently published by +Joseph Fort Newton holds what I feel compelled to regard as a sounder +view; namely, that while Herndon was at times reckless and at times +biased, nevertheless he is in the main to be relied upon. + +Three things are to be borne in mind: Herndon was a literary man by +nature; but he was not by training a developed artist; he was a romantic +of the full flood of American romanticism and there are traceable in him +the methods of romantic portraiture. Had he been an Elizabethan one can +imagine him laboring hard with great pride over an inferior "Tamburlane +the Great"--and perhaps not knowing that it was inferior. Furthermore, +he had not, before the storm broke on him, any realization of +the existence in America of another school of portraiture, the +heroic--conventual, that could not understand the romantic. If Herndon +strengthened as much as possible the contrasts of his subject--such +as the contrast between the sordidness of Lincoln's origin and the +loftiness of his thought--he felt that by so doing he was merely +rendering his subject in its most brilliant aspect, giving to it the +largest degree of significance. A third consideration is Herndon's +enthusiasm for the agnostic deism that was rampant in America in his +day. Perhaps this causes his romanticism to slip a cog, to run at times +on a side-track, to become the servant of his religious partisanship. +In three words the faults of Herndon are exaggeration, literalness and +exploitiveness. + +But all these are faults of degree which the careful student can allow +for. By "checking up" all the parts of Herndon that it is possible to +check up one can arrive at a pretty confident belief that one knows how +to divest the image he creates of its occasional unrealities. When one +does so, the strongest argument for relying cautiously, watchfully, +upon Herndon appears. The Lincoln thus revealed, though only a character +sketch, is coherent. And it stands the test of comparison in detail with +the Lincolns of other, less romantic, observers. That is to say, with +all his faults, Herndon has the inner something that will enable +the diverse impressions of Lincoln, always threatening to become +irreconcilable, to hang together and out of their very incongruity to +invoke a person that is not incongruous. And herein, in this touchstone +so to speak is Herndon's value. + +8. Herndon, 265. + +9. Lamon, 51. + +10. Lincoln, I, 35-SO. + +11. The reader who would know the argument against Herndon (436-446) and +Lamon (486-502) on the subject of Lincoln's early religion is referred +to The Soul of Abraham Lincoln, by William Eleazer Barton. It is to +be observed that the present study is never dogmatic about Lincoln's +religion in its early phases. And when Herndon and Lamon generalize +about his religious life, it must be remembered that they are thinking +of him as they knew him in Illinois. Herndon had no familiarity with +him after he went to Washington. Lamon could not have seen very much of +him--no one but his secretaries and his wife did. And his taciturnity +must be borne in mind. Nicolay has recorded that he did not know what +Lincoln believed. Lamon, 492. That Lincoln was vaguely a deist in the +'forties--so far as he had any theology at all--may be true. But it is a +rash leap to a conclusion to assume that his state of mind even then was +the same thing as the impression it made on so practical, bard-headed, +unpoetical a character as Lamon; or on so combatively imaginative but +wholly unmystical a mind as Herndon's. Neither of them seems to have +any understanding of those agonies of spirit through which Lincoln +subsequently passed which will appear in the account of the year 1862. +See also Miss Nicolay, 384-386. There is a multitude of pronouncements +on Lincoln's religion, most of them superficial. + +12. Lincoln, I, 206. + +13. Nicolay, 73-74; N. and H., 1, 242; Lamon, 275-277. + +14. Lamon, 277-278; Herndon, 272-273; N. and H., 1, 245-249. + +VI. UNSATISFYING RECOGNITION. + +1. N. and H., I, 28, 28& + +2. Tarbell, 1, 211. + +3. Ibid., 210-211. + +4. Herndon, 114. + +5. Lincoln, II, 28-48. + +6. Herndon, 306-308, 319; Newton, 4(141). + +7. Tarbell, I, 209-210. + +8. Herndon, 306. + +9. Lamon, 334; Herndon, 306; N. and H., I, 297. + +VII. THE SECOND START. + +1. Herndon, 307, 319. + +2. Herndon, 319-321. + +3. Herndon, 314-317. + +4. Herndon, 332-333. + +5. Herndon, 311-312. + +6. Herndon, 319. + +7. Lamon, 165. + +8. Herndon, 309. + +9. Herndon, 113-114; Stories, 18~ + +10. Herndon, 338. + +11. Lamon, 324. + +12. Lincoln, 11, 142. + +13. Herndon, 347. + +14. Herndon, 363. + +15. Herndon, 362. + +16. Lincoln, II, 172. + +17. Lincoln, II, 207. + +18. Lincoln, II, 173. + +19. Lincoln, II, 165. + +VIII. A RETURN TO POLITICS. + +1. Johnson, 234. + +2. I have permission to print the following letter from the Honorable +John H. Marshall, Judge Fifth Judicial Circuit, Charleston, Illinois: + +"Your letter of the 24th inst. at hand referring to slave trial in +which Lincoln was interested, referred to by Professor Henry Johnson. +Twenty-five years ago, while I was secretary of the Coles County Bar +Association, a paper was read to the Association by the oldest member +concerning the trial referred to, and his paper was filed with rue. Some +years ago I spoke of the matter to Professor Johnson, and at the time +was unable to find the old manuscript, and decided that the same had +been inadvertently destroyed. However, quite recently I found this paper +crumpled up under some old book records. The author of this article is a +reputable member of the bar of this country of very advanced age, and at +that time quoted as his authority well-known and very substantial men +of the county, who had taken an active interest in the litigation. +His paper referred to incidents occurring in 1847, and there is now +no living person with any knowledge of it. The story in brief is as +follows: + +"In 1845, General Robert Matson, of Kentucky, being hard pressed +financially, in order to keep them from being sold in payment of his +debts, brought Jane Bryant, with her four small children to this county. +Her husband, Anthony Bryant, was a free negro, and a licensed exhorter +in the Methodist Church of Kentucky. But his wife and children were +slaves of Matson. In 1847, Matson, determined to take the Bryants back +to Kentucky as his slaves, caused to be issued by a justice of the peace +of the county a writ directed to Jane Bryant and her children to appear +before him forthwith and answer the claim of Robert Matson that their +service was due to him, etc. This action produced great excitement in +this county. Practically the entire community divided, largely on +the lines of pro-slavery and anti-slavery. Usher F. Linder, the most +eloquent lawyer in this vicinity, appeared for Matson, and Orlando B. +Ficklin, twice a member of Congress, appeared for the negroes. Under the +practice the defendant obtained a hearing from three justices instead +of one, and a trial ensued lasting several days, and attended by great +excitement. Armed men made demonstrations and bloodshed was narrowly +averted. Two of the justices were pro-slavery, and one anti-slavery. The +trial was held in Charleston. The decision of the justice was discreet. +It was held that the court had no jurisdiction to determine the right +of property, but that Jane and her children were of African descent and +found in the state of Illinois without a certificate of freedom, and +that they be committed to the county jail to be advertised and sold to +pay the jail fees. + +"At the next term of the circuit court, Ficklin obtained an order +staying proceedings until the further order of the court. Finally when +the case was heard in the circuit court Linder and Abraham Lincoln +appeared for Matson, who was insisting upon the execution of the +judgment of the three justices of the peace so that he could buy them +at the proposed sale, and Ficklin and Charles Constable, afterward a +circuit judge of this circuit, appeared for the negroes. The judgment +was in favor of the negroes and they were discharged. + +"The above is a much abbreviated account of this occurrence, stripped +of its local coloring, giving however its salient points, and I have no +doubt of its substantial accuracy." + +3. Lincoln, II, 185. + +4. Lincoln, II, 186. + +5. Lamon, 347. + +6. Lincoln, II, 232-233. + +7. Lincoln, II, 190-262. + +8. Lincoln, 274-277. + +IX. THE LITERARY STATESMAN. + +1. Herndon, 371-372. + +2. Lincoln, II, 329-330. + +3. Lincoln, III, 1-2. + +4. Herndon, 405-408. + +5. Lincoln. II, 279. + +6. Lamon, 416. + +X. THE DARK HORSE. + +1. Lincoln, V, 127. + +2. Tarbell, I, 335. + +3. Lincoln, V, 127,138, 257-258. + +4. Lincoln, V, 290-291. He never entirely shook off his erratic use of +negatives. See, also, Lamon, 424; Tarbell, I, 338. + +5. Lincoln, V, 293-32&6. McClure, 23-29; Field, 126,137-138; Tarbell, I, +342-357. + +XII. THE CRISIS + +1. Letters, 172. + +2. Lincoln, VI, 77, 78, 79, 93. + +3. Bancroft, 11,10; Letters, 111. + +XIII. ECLIPSE. + +1. Bancroft, II, 10; Letters, 172. + +2. Bancroft, II, 9-10. + +3. Herndon, 484. + +4. McClure, 140-145; Lincoln, VI, 91, 97. + +5. Recollections, 111. + +6. Recollections, 121. + +7. Recollections, 112-113; Tarbell, I, 404-415. + +8. Tarbell, 1, 406. + +9. Tarbell, I, 406. + +10. Lincoln, VI, 91. + +11. Tarbell, 1, 406. + +12. Herndon, 483-484 + +13. Lamon, 505; see also, Herndon, 485. + +14. Lincoln, VI, 110. + +XIV. THE STRANGE NEW MAN. + +1. Lincoln, VI, 130. + +2. Merriam, I, 318. + +3. Public Man, 140. + +4. Van Santvoord. + +5. N. and H., I, 36; McClure, 179. + +6. Herndon, 492. + +7. Recollections, 39-41. + +8. Lincoln, VI, 162-164. + +9. Bancroft, II, 38-45. + +10. Public Man, 383. + +11. Chittenden, 89-90. + +12. Public Man, 387. + +XV. PRESIDENT AND PREMIER. + +1. Hay MS, I, 64. + +2. Tyler, II, 565-566. + +3. Bradford, 208; Seward, IV, 416. + +4. Nicolay, 213. + +5. Chase offered to procure a commission for Henry Villard, "by way of +compliment to the Cincinnati Commercial" Villard, 1,177. + +6. N. and H., III, 333, note 12. + +7. Outbreak, 52. + +8. Hay MS, I, 91; Tyler, II, 633; Coleman, 1, 338. + +9. Hay MS, I, 91; Riddle, 5; Public Man, 487. + +10. Correspondence, 548-549. + +11. See Miss Schrugham's monograph for much important data with regard +to this moment. Valuable as her contribution is, I can not feel that the +conclusions invalidate the assumption of the text. + +12. Lincoln, VI, 192-220. + +13. Sherman, I, 195-1%. + +14. Lincoln, VI, 175-176. + +15. 127 0. R., 161. + +16. Munford, 274; Journal of the Virginia Convention, 1861. + +17. Lincoln, VI, 227-230. + +18. N. R., first series, IV, 227. + +19. Hay MS, I, 143. + +20. The great authority of Mr. Frederick Bancroft is still on the side +of the older interpretation of Seward's Thoughts, Bancroft, II, Chap. +XXIX. It must be remembered that following the war there was a reaction +against Seward. When Nicolay and Hay published the Thoughts they +appeared to give him the coup de grace. Of late years it has almost been +the fashion to treat him contemptuously. Even Mr. Bancroft has been very +cautious in his defense. This is not the place to discuss his genius +or his political morals. But on one thing I insist, Whatever else he +was-unscrupulous or what you will-he was not a fool. However reckless, +at times, his spread-eagleism there was shrewdness behind it. The idea +that he proposed a ridiculous foreign policy at a moment when all his +other actions reveal coolness and calculation; the idea that he proposed +it merely as a spectacular stroke in party management; this is too much +to believe. A motive must be found better than mere chicanery. + +Furthermore, if there was one fixed purpose in Seward, during March and +early April, it was to avoid a domestic conflict; and the only way he +could see to accomplish that was to side-track Montgomery's expansive +all-Southern policy. Is it not fair, with so astute a politician as +Seward, to demand in explanation of any of his moves 'he uncovering +of some definite political force he was playing up to? The old +interpretation of the Thoughts offers no force to which they form a +response. Especially it is impossible to find in them any scheme to get +around Montgomery. But the old view looked upon the Virginia compromise +with blind eyes. That was no part of the mental prospect. In accounting +for Seward's purposes it did not exist. But the moment one's eyes are +opened to its significance, especially to the menace it had for the +Montgomery program, is not the entire scene transformed? Is not, under +these new conditions, the purpose intimated in the text, the purpose to +open a new field of exploitation to the Southern expansionists in +order to reconcile them to the Virginia scheme, is not this at least +plausible? And it escapes making Seward a fool. + +21. Lincoln, VI, 23~237. + +22. Welles, 1,17. + +23. There is still lacking a complete unriddling of the three-cornered +game of diplomacy played in America in March and April, 1861. Of the +three participants Richmond is the most fully revealed. It was playing +desperately for a compromise, any sort of compromise, that would save +the one principle of state sovereignty. For that, slavery would +be sacrificed, or at least allowed to be put in jeopardy. Munford, +Virginia's Attitude toward Slavery and Secession; Tyler, Letters +and Times of the Tylers; Journal of the Virginia Convention of 1861. +However, practically no Virginian would put himself in the position of +forcing any Southern State to abandon slavery against its will. Hence +the Virginia compromise dealt only with the expansion of slavery, would +go no further than to give the North a veto on that expansion. And +its compensating requirement plainly would be a virtual demand for the +acknowledgment of state sovereignty. + +Precisely what passed between Richmond and Washington is still something +of a mystery. John Hay quotes Lincoln as saying that he twice offered +to evacuate Sumter, once before and once after his inauguration, if +the Virginians "would break up their convention without any row or +nonsense." Hay MS, I, 91; Thayer, I, 118-119. From other sources we have +knowledge of at least two conferences subsequent to the inauguration and +probably three. One of the conferences mentioned by Lincoln seems pretty +well identified. Coleman II, 337-338. It was informal and may be set +aside as having little if any historic significance. When and to whom +Lincoln's second offer was made is not fully established. Riddle in his +Recollections says that he was present at an informal interview "with +loyal delegates of the Virginia State Convention," who were wholly +satisfied with Lincoln's position. Riddle, 25. Possibly, this was the +second conference mentioned by Lincoln. It has scarcely a feature in +common with the conference of April 4, which has become the subject +of acrimonious debate. N. and H., III, 422-428; Boutwell, II, 62-67; +Bancroft, II, 102-104; Munford, 270; Southern Historical Papers, 1, +449; Botts, 195- 201; Crawford, 311; Report of the Joint Committee on +Reconstruction, first session, Thirty-Ninth Congress; Atlantic, April, +1875. The date of this conference is variously given as the fourth, +fifth and sixth of April. Curiously enough Nicolay and Hay seem to +have only an external knowledge of It; their account is made up from +documents and lacks entirely the authoritative note. They do not refer +to the passage in the Hay MS, already quoted. + +There are three versions of the interview between Lincoln and Baldwin. +One was given by Baldwin himself before the Committee on Reconstruction +some five years after; one comprises the recollections of Colonel +Dabney, to whom Baldwin narrated the incident in the latter part of +the war; a third is in the recollections of John Minor Botts of a +conversation with Lincoln April 7, 1862. No two of the versions entirely +agree. Baldwin insists that Lincoln made no offer of any sort; while' +Botts in his testimony before the Committee on Reconstruction says that +Lincoln told him that he had told Baldwin that he was so anxious "for +the preservation of the peace of this country and to save Virginia +and the other Border States from going out that (he would) take the +responsibility of evacuating Fort Sumter, and take the chances of +negotiating with the Cotton States." Baldwin's language before the +committee is a little curious and has been thought disingenuous. +Boutwell, I, 66. However, practically no one in this connection has +considered the passage in the Hay MS or the statement in Riddle. Putting +these together and remembering the general situation of the first week +of April there arises a very plausible argument for accepting the main +fact in Baldwin's version of his conference and concluding that Botts +either misunderstood Lincoln (as Baldwin says he did) or got the matter +twisted in memory. A further bit of plausibility is the guess that +Lincoln talked with Botts not only of the interview with Baldwin but +also of the earlier interview mentioned by Riddle and that the two +became confused in recollection. + +To venture on an assumption harmonizing these confusions. When Lincoln +came to Washington, being still in his delusion that slavery was the +issue and therefore that the crisis was "artificial," he was willing +to make almost any concession, and freely offered to evacuate Sumter if +thereby he could induce Virginia to drop the subject of secession. Even +later, when he was beginning to appreciate the real significance of the +moment, he was still willing to evacuate Sumter if the issue would not +be pushed further in the Border States, that is, if Virginia would not +demand a definite concession of the right of secession. Up to this point +I can not think that he had taken seriously Seward's proposed convention +of the States and the general discussion of permanent Federal relations +that would be bound to ensue. But now he makes his fateful discovery +that the issue is not slavery but sovereignty. He sees that Virginia +is in dead earnest on this issue and that a general convention will +necessarily involve a final discussion of sovereignty in the United +States and that the price of the Virginia Amendment will be the +concession of the right of secession. On this assumption it is hardly +conceivable that he offered to evacuate Sumter as late as the fourth of +April. The significance therefore of the Baldwin interview would consist +in finally convincing Lincoln that he could not effect any compromise +without conceding the principle of state sovereignty. As this was the +one thing he was resolved never to concede there was nothing left +him but to consider what course would most strategically renounce +compromise. Therefore, when it was known at Washington a day or two +later that Port Pickens was in imminent danger of being taken by the +Confederates (see note 24), Lincoln instantly concentrated all his +energies on the relief of Sumter. All along he had believed that one +of the forts must be held for the purpose of "a clear indication of +policy," even if the other should be given up "as a military +necessity." Lincoln, VI, 301. His purpose, therefore, in deciding on the +ostentatious demonstration toward Sumter was to give notice to the whole +country that he made no concessions on the matter of sovereignty. In a +way it was his answer to the Virginia compromise. + +At last the Union party in Virginia sent a delegation to confer with +Lincoln. It did not arrive until Sumter had been fired upon. Lincoln +read to them a prepared statement of policy which announced his +resolution to make war, if necessary, to assert the national +sovereignty. Lincoln, VI, 243-245. + +The part of Montgomery in this tangled episode is least understood of +the three. With Washington Montgomery had no official communication. +Both Lincoln and Seward refused to recognize commissioners of the +Confederate government Whether Seward as an individual went behind the +back of himself as an official and personally deceived the commissioners +is a problem of his personal biography and his private morals that has +no place in this discussion. Between Montgomery and Richmond there was +intimate and cordial communication from the start. At first Montgomery +appears to have taken for granted that the Secessionist party at +Richmond was so powerful that there was little need for the new +government to do anything but wait But a surprise was in store for it +During February and March its agents reported a wide-spread desire +in the South to compromise on pretty nearly any terms that would not +surrender the central Southern idea of state sovereignty. Thus +an illusion of that day--as of this--was exploded, namely the +irresistibility of economic solidarity. Sentimental and constitutional +forces were proving more powerful than economics. Thereupon Montgomery's +problem was transformed. Its purpose was to build a Southern nation and +it had believed hitherto that economic forces had put into its hands +the necessary tools. Now it must throw them aside and get possession of +others. It must evoke those sentimental and constitutional forces that +so many rash statesmen have always considered negligible. Consequently, +for the South no less than for the North, the issue was speedily shifted +from slavery to sovereignty. Just how this was brought about we do +not yet know. Whether altogether through foresight and statesmanlike +deliberation, or in part at least through what might almost be called +accidental influences, is still a little uncertain. The question narrows +itself to this: why was Sumter fired upon precisely when it was? There +are at least three possible answers. + +(1) That the firing was dictated purely by military necessity. A belief +that Lincoln intended to reinforce as well as to supply Sumter, that if +not taken now it could never be taken, may have been the over-mastering +idea in the Confederate Cabinet. The reports of the Commissioners at +Washington were tinged throughout by the belief that Seward and Lincoln +were both double-dealers. Beauregard, in command at Charleston, reported +that pilots had come in from the sea and told him of Federal war-ships +sighted off the Carolina coast. O. R. 297, 300, 301, 304, 305. + +(2) A political motive which to-day is not so generally intelligible as +once it was, had great weight in 1861. This was the sense of honor +in politics. Those historians who brush it aside as a figment lack +historical psychology. It is possible that both Governor Pickens and the +Confederate Cabinet were animated first of all by the belief that the +honor of South Carolina required them to withstand the attempt of what +they held to be an alien power. + +(3) And yet, neither of these explanations, however much either or both +may have counted for in many minds, gives a convincing explanation of +the agitation of Toornbs in the Cabinet council which decided to fire +upon Sumter. Neither of these could well be matters of debate. Everybody +had to be either for or against, and that would be an end. The Toombs +of that day was a different man from the Toombs of three months earlier. +Some radical change had taken place in his thought What could it have +been if it was not the perception that the Virginia program had put the +whole matter in a new light, that the issue had indeed been changed from +slavery to sovereignty, and that to join battle on the latter issue +was a far more serious matter than to join battle on the former. And if +Toombs reasoned in this fearful way, it is easy to believe that the more +buoyant natures in that council may well have reasoned in precisely +the opposite way. Virginia had lifted the Southern cause to its highest +plane. But there was danger that the Virginia compromise might prevail. +If that should happen these enthusiasts for a separate Southern +nationality might find all their work undone at the eleventh hour. +Virginians who shared Montgomery's enthusiasms had seen this before +then. That was why Roger Pryor, for example, had gone to Charleston as +a volunteer missionary. In a speech to a Charleston crowd he besought +them, as a way of precipitating Virginia into the lists, to strike blow. +Charleston Mercury, April 11, 1861. + +The only way to get any clue to these diplomatic tangles is by +discarding the old notion that there were but two political ideals +clashing together in America in 1861. There were three. The Virginians +with their devotion to the idea of a league of nations in this country +were scarcely further away from Lincoln and his conception of a Federal +unit than they were from those Southerners who from one cause or another +were possessed with the desire to create a separate Southern nation. +The Virginia program was as deadly to one as to the other of these two +forces which with the upper South made up the triangle of the day. The +real event of March, 1861, was the perception both by Washington and +Montgomery that the Virginia program spelled ruin for its own. By the +middle of April it would be difficult to say which had the better reason +to desire the defeat of that program, Washington or Montgomery. + +24. Lincoln, VI, 240, 301, 302; N. R., first series, IV, 109, 235, 239; +Welles, I, 16, 22-23, 25; Bancroft, II, 127, 129-130,138,139, 144; N. +and H., III, Chap. XI, IV, Chap. I. Enemies of Lincoln have accused him +of bad faith with regard to the relief of Fort Pickens. The facts appear +to be as follows: In January, 1861, when Fort Pickens was in danger of +being seized by the forces of the State of Florida, Buchanan ordered a +naval expedition to proceed to its relief. Shortly afterward--January +2--Senator Mallory on behalf of Florida persuaded him to order the +relief expedition not to land any troops so long as the Florida forces +refrained from attacking the fort. This understanding between Buchanan +and Mallory is some-times called "the Pickens truce," sometimes "the +Pickens Armistice." N. and H., III, Chap. XI; N. R., first series, 1, +74; Scott, II, 624-625. The new Administration had no definite knowledge +of it. Lincoln, VI, 302. Lincoln despatched a messenger to the relief +expedition, which was still hovering off the Florida coast, and ordered +its troops to be landed. The commander replied that he felt bound by the +previous orders which had been issued in the name of the Secretary of +the Navy while the new orders issued from the Department of War; he +added that relieving Pickens would produce war and wished to be sure +that such was the President's intention; he also informed Lincoln's +messenger of the terms of Buchanan's agreement with Mallory. The +messenger returned to Washington for ampler instructions. N. and H., IV, +Chap. I; N. R., first series, I, 109-110, 110-111. + +Two days before his arrival at Washington alarming news from Charleston +brought Lincoln very nearly, if not quite, to the point of issuing +sailing orders to the Sumter expedition. Lincoln, VI, 240. A day later, +Welles issued such orders. N. IL, first series, I, 235; Bancroft, II, +138-139. On April sixth, the Pickens messenger returned to Washington. +N. and H., IV, 7. Lincoln was now in full possession of all the facts. +In his own words, "To now reinforce Fort Pickens before a crisis would +be reached at Fort Sumter was impossible, rendered so by the exhaustion +of provisions at the latter named fort. . . . The strongest anticipated +case for using it (the Sumter expedition) was now presented, and it +was resolved to send it forward." Lincoln, VI, 302. He also issued +peremptory orders for the Pickens expedition to land its force, which +was done April twelfth. N. R., first series, I, 110-111, 115. How he +reasoned upon the question of a moral obligation devolving, or not +devolving, upon himself as a consequence of the Buchanan-Mallory +agreement, he did not make public. The fact of the agreement was +published in the first message. But when Congress demanded information +on the subject, Lincoln transmitted to it a report from Welles declining +to submit the information on account of the state of the country. 10. +IL, 440-441. + +25. Lincoln, VI, 241. + +XVI. ON TO RICHMOND. + +1. May MS, I, 23. + +2. N. and H., IV, 152. + +3. Hay MS, I, 45. + +4. Hay MS, I, 46. + +5. Hay MS, I, 5~56. + +6. Sherman, I, 199. + +7. Nicolay, 213. + +8. N. and H., IV, 322-323, 360. + +9. Bigelow, I, 360. + +10. Nicolay, 229. + +11. Lincoln, VI, 331-333. + +12. Own Story, 55, 82. + +XVII. DEFINING THE ISSUE. + +1. Lincoln, VI, 297-325. + +2. Lincoln, X, 199. + +3. Lincoln, X, 202-203. + +4. Lincoln, VI, 321. + +5. Lincoln, VII, 56-57. + +6. Bancroft, II, 121; Southern Historical Papers, I, 446. + +7. Lincoln, VI, 304. + +8. Hay MS, I, 65. + +9. Lincoln, VI, 315. + +10. 39 Globe, I, 222; N. and H., IV, 379. + +XVIII. THE JACOBIN CLUB. + +1. White, 171. + +2. Riddle, 40-52. + +3. Harris, 62. + +4. Public Man, 139. + +5. 37 Globe, III, 1334. + +6. Chandler, 253. + +7. White, 171. + +8. Conway, II, 336. + +9. Conway, II, 329. + +10. Rhodes, III, 350. + +11. Lincoln, VI, 351. + +12. Hay MS, I, 93. + +13. Hay MS, 1, 93. + +14. Bigelow, I, 400. + +15. Chandler, 256. + +XIX. THE JACOBINS BECOME INQUISITORS. + +1. Lincoln, VII, 28-60. + +2. Nicolay, 321. + +3. C. W. I 3 66 + +4. Julian, 201. + +5. Chandler, 228. + +6. 37 Globe, II, 189-191; Lincoln, VII, 151-152; O. R., 341-346; 114 +0. R., 786, 797; C. W., I, 5, 74, 79; Battles and Leaders, II, 132-134; +Blaine, I, 383-384, 392-393; Pearson, 1, 312-313; Chandler, 222; Porter. + +7. Swinton, 79-85, quoting General McDowell's memoranda of their +proceedings. + +8 37 Globe, II, 15. + +9 Riddle, 296; Wade, 316; Chandler, 187. + +10. C. W., 1, 74. + +11. 37 Globe, II, 1667. + +12. 37 Globe, II, 1662-1668, 1732-1742. + +13. Lincoln, VII, 151-152. + +XX. IS CONGRESS THE PRESIDENT'S MASTER. + +1. 37 Globe, II, 67. + +2. Rhodes, III, 350. + +3. 37 Globe, II, 3328. + +4. 37 Globe, II, 2764. + +5. 37 Globe, II, 2734. + +6. 37 Globe II, 2972-2973. + +7. 37 Globe, II, 440. + +8. 37 Globe, II, 1136-1139. + +9. Quoting 7 Howard, 43-46. + +XXI. THE STRUGGLE TO CONTROL THE ARMY. + +1. N. and H., IV, 444. + +2. Own Story, 84. + +3. Own Story, 85. + +4. Gurowski, 123. + +5. Hay MS, 1, 99; Thayer, 1,125. + +6. N. and H., IV, 469. + +7. Hay MS, I, 93. + +8. 5 0. R., 41. + +9. Swinton, 79-84; C. W., 1, 270. + +10. C. W., I, 270, 360, 387; Hay MS, II, 101. + +11. Gorham, I, 347-348; Kelly, 34. + +12. Chandler, 228; Julian, 205. + +13. Hay MS, I, 101; 5 0. R., 1~ + +14. 5 0. R., 50. + +15. 5 0. R., 54-55; Julian, 205. + +16. Hay MS, I, 103. + +17. Hitchcock, 439. + +18. Hitchcock, 440. The italics are his. + +19. 5 0. R., 58. + +20. 5 0. R., 59. + +21. 5 0. R, 63. + +22. Own Story, 226; 5 0. R., 18. + +23. C. W., I, 251-252. + +24. C. W., 1, 251-253, 317-318. + +25. 15 0. R., 220; Hitchcock, 439, note. + +26. 14 0. R., 66. + +27. 12 0. R., 61. + +28. 17 0. R., 219. + +29. Rhodes, IV, 19. + +30. Nicolay, 306; McClure, 168. + +31. 17 0. R., 435. + +32. Julian, 218. + +33. N. and H., V, 453. + +34. Lincoln, VII, 266-267. + +35. 37 Globe, II, 3386-3392. + +XXII. LINCOLN EMERGES. + +1. Alexander, III, 15-17. + +2. 37 Globe, II, 1493. + +3. Julian, 215; Conway, I, 344. + +4. 37 Globe II, 2363. + +5. Lincoln, VII, 171-172. + +6. 37 Globe, II, 1138. + +7. Lincoln, VII, 172-173. + +8. Pierce, IV, 78; 37 Globe, II, 25%. + +9. Schurz, I, 187. + +10. London Times, May 9, 1862, quoted in American papers. + +11. 128 0. R., 2-3. + +12. Lincoln, VII, 270-274. + +13. Carpenter, 2021. + +14. Galaxy, XIV, 842-843. + +15. Lincoln, VII, 270-277; 37 Globe, II, 3322-3324, 3333. + +16. Julian, 220; 37 Globe, II, 3286-3287. + +17. Lincoln, VII, 280-286. + +XXIII. THE MYSTICAL STATESMAN. + +1. Carpenter, 189. + +2. Recollections, 161. + +3. Recollections, 161-164; Carpenter, 119. + +4. Carpenter, 116. + +5. Carpenter, 90. + +6. Chapman, 449-450. + +7. Carpenter, 187. + +8. Lincoln, VIII, 52-53. + +9. Lincoln, VIII, 50-51. + +XXIV. GAMBLING IN GENERALS. + +1. Reminiscences, 434. + +2. Recollections, 261. + +3. Galaxy, 842. + +4. Galaxy, 845. + +5 Carpenter, 22. + +6. O. R., 80-81. + +7. C. W., I, 282. + +8. Lincoln, VIII, 15. + +9. Julian, 221. + +10. Thayer, 1, 127. + +11. Welles, 1,104; Nicolay, 313. + +12. Thayer, 1,129. + +13. Thayer, 1, 161. + +14. Reminiscences, 334-335, 528; Tarbell, II, 118-120; Lincoln, VIII, +28-33. + +15. Chase, 87-88. + +16. Lincoln, VII, 40. + +XXV. A WAR BEHIND THE SCENES. + +1. Bigelow, I, 572. + +2. 37 Globe, III, 6. + +3. 37 Globe, III, 76. + +4. Lincoln, VII, 57-60. + +5. Lincoln, VII, 73. + +6. Swinton, 231. + +7. C. W., 1, 650. + +8. Bancroft, II, 365; Welles, 1, ~198. + +9. N. and H., VI, 265. + +10. Welles, I, 205; Alexander, III, 185. + +11. Welles, 1, 196-198. + +12. Welles, 1, 201-202. + +13. Welles, I, 200. + +14. Lincoln, VII, 195-197. + +XXVI. THE DICTATOR, THE MARPLOT, AND THE LITTLE MEN. + +1. Harris, 64. + +2. Gurowski, 312. + +3. Sherman Letters, 167. + +4. Julian, 223. + +5. Recollections, 215; Barnes, 428; Reminiscences, XXXI, XXXI I, XXXVI +II. Nicolay and Hay allude to this story, but apparently doubt its +authenticity. They think that Weed "as is customary with elderly men +exaggerated the definiteness of the proposition." + +6. Jullan, 225. + +7. Lincoln, VIII, 154. + +8. Raymond, 704. + +9. Recollections, 193-194. + +10. Lincoln, VII I, 206207. + +11. 37 Globe, III, 1068. + +12. Riddle, 278. + +13. Welles, I, 336. + +14. Lincoln, VIII, 235-237. + +15. Welles, I, 293. + +16. Lincoln, VIII, 527. + +17. Lincoln, IX, 3A. + +18. Lincoln, VIII, 307-308. + +19. Barnes, 428; Reminiscences, XXX, XXXIII-XXXVIII. + +This story is told on the authority of Weed with much circumstantial +detail including the full text of a letter written by McClellan. The +letter was produced because McClellan had said that no negotiations took +place. Though the letter plainly alludes to negotiations of some sort, +it does not mention the specific offer attributed to Lincoln. Nicolay +and Hay are silent on the subject. See also note five, above. + +20. Tribune, July 7, 1863. + +21. Tribune, July 6, 1863. + +22. Lincoln, IX, 17. + +23. Lincoln, IX, 20-21. + +XXVII. THE TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE. + +1. Rhodes, III, 461; Motley's Letters, II, 146. + +2. Reminiscences, 470. + +3. Hay, Century.? + +4. Carpenter, 281-282. + +5. Van Santvoord. + +6. Hay, Century, 35. + +7. Carpenter, 150. + +8. Recollections, 97. + +9. Recollections, 80. + +10. Carpenter, 65. + +11. Carpenter, 65-67. + +12. Carpenter, 64. + +13. Recollections, 267. + +14. Carpenter, 64. + +15. Recollections, 83-84. + +16. Carpenter, 152. + +17. Carpenter, 219. + +18. Recollections, 103-105. + +19. Lincoln, X, 274-275. + +20. Recollections, 103. + +21. Recollections, 95-96. + +22. Hay, Century. + +23. Rankin, 177-179. + +24. Hay, Century, 35. + +25. Carpenter. + +26. Thayer, I, 198-190. + +27. Thayer, I, 196-197. + +28. Thayer, I, 199-200. + +29. Carpenter, 104. + +30. Lincoln, VIII, 112-115. + +31. Lincoln, IX, 210. + +XXVIII. APPARENT ASCENDENCY. + +1. Lincoln, IX, 284. + +2. Lincoln, IX, 219-221. + +3. Lincoln, X, 38-39. + +4. 38 Globe, I, 1408. + +5. Bancroft, II, 429-430; Moore, VI, 497-498 + +6. Grant, II, 123. + +7. Lincoln, X, 90-91. + +XXIX. CATASTROPHE. + +1. Nicolay, 440. + +2. Carpenter, 130; Hay MS. + +3. Nicolay, 440. + +4. Lincoln, X, 25-26. + +5. 37 Globe, II, 2674. + +6. Nicolay, 352. + +7. Lincoln, X, 49. + +8. Lincoln, X, 5~54. + +9. Rankin, 381-387; Hay, Century. + +10. Carpenter, 217. + +11. Carpenter, 81. + +12. Carpenter, 218. + +13. Hay, Century, 37. + +14. Lincoln, X, 89. + +15. Carpenter, 131. + +16. Lincoln, X, 122-123. + +17. Carpenter. 168-169. + +18. Carpenter, 30-31. + +19. Lincoln, X, 129. + +XXX. THE PRESIDENT VERSUS THE VINDICTIVES. + +1. Lincoln, X, 139-140. + +2. Chittenden, 379. + +3. Lincoln, X, 140-141. + +4. Carpenter, 181-183.S. N. and H., X, 95-100. + +5. Hay MS, I, 1617; N. and H., IX, 120121. + +XXXI. A MENACING PAUSE. + +1. Reminiscences, 398. + +2. Globe, I, 3148. + +3. Riddle, 254. + +4. Greeley, II, 664-666. + +5. N. and H., 186190. + +6. Gilmore, 240. + +7. Gilmore, Atlantic. & Gilmore, 243-244. + +9. Hay MS, I, 7677; N. and H., 167-173; Carpenter, 301-302. + +10. N. and H., IX, 338-339. + +11. Carpenter, 223-225. + +12. Carpenter, 282; also, N. and H., IX, 364. + +13. N. and H., IX, 188. + +14. N. and H., IX, 192. + +15. N. and H., IX, 195. + +16. N. and H IX, 212, note. + +17. Lincoln, X, 164-166. + +XXXII. THE AUGUST CONSPIRACY. + +1. Julian, 247. + +2. Times, August 1, 1864. + +3. Herald, August 6, 1864. + +4. Sun, June 30, 1889. + +5. N. and H., IX, 250. + +6. N. and H., IX, 218. + +7. Times, August 18, 1864. & N. and H., IX, 197. + +9. Herald, August 18, 1864. + +10. Lincoln, X, 308. + +11. N. and H., IX, 250. + +12. Lincoln, X, 203-204. + +13. N. and H., IX, 221. + +14. Ibid. + +15. Herald, August 26, 1864. + +16. Tribune, August 27, 1864. + +17. Times, August 26, 1864. + +XXXIII. THE RALLY TO THE PRESIDENT. + +1. Herald, August 24, 1864. + +2. Times, August 26, 1864~ + +3. Pierce, IV, 197-198. + +4. Pearson, 11,150-151. + +5. Herald, August 23, 1864. + +6. Pearson, II, 168. + +7. Ibid. The terms offered Davis were not stated in the Atlantic +article. See Gilmore, 289-290. + +8. Tribune, August 27', 1864. + +9. Sun, June 30, 1889. + +10. Sun, June 30, 1889; Pearson, II, 160-161. + +11. Pearson,, II, 164. + +12. Pearson, II, 166. + +13. Sun, June 30, 1889. + +14. Tribune, August 30, 1864. + +15. Pearson, II, 162. + +16. Tribune, September 3, 1864. + +17. Pearson, 11,165. + +18. Sun, June 30, 1889. + +19. Pearson, II, 167; Tribune, September 7, 1864. + +20. Tribune, September 6, 1864. + +21. Sun, June 30, 1889. + +22. Tribune, September 9, 1864. + +23. Tribune, September 7, 1864. + +24. Tribune, September 12, 1864. + +25. Tribune, September 22, 1864. + +XXXIV. "FATHER ABRAHAM." + +1. N. and H., IX, 339. + +2. Ibid. + +3. Arnold, 390. + +4. Chandler, 274-276. + +5. The familiar version of the retirement of affair is contained in +the Life of Chandler issued by the Detroit Post and Tribune without +an author's name. This book throughout is an apology for Chandler. In +substance its story of this episode is as follows: Chandler beheld with +aching heart the estrangement between Lincoln and Wade; he set to work +to bring them together; at a conference which he had with Wade, in Ohio, +a working understanding was effected; Chandler hurried to Washington; +with infinite pains he accomplished a party deal, the three elements of +which were Lincoln's removal of Blair, Fremont's resignation, and Wade's +appearance in the Administration ranks. Whatever may be said of the +physical facts of this narrative, its mental facts, its tone and +atmosphere, are historical fiction. And I have to protest that the +significance of the episode has been greatly exaggerated. The series +of dates given in the text can not be reconciled with any theory +which makes the turn of the tide toward Lincoln at all dependent on a +Blair-Fremont deal. Speaking of the tradition that Chandler called +upon Lincoln and made a definite agreement with him looking toward the +removal of Blair, Colonel W. O. Stoddard writes me that his "opinion, or +half memory, would be that the tradition is a myth." See also, Welles, +II, 156-158. + +6. Lincoln, X, 228-229. + +7. Times, September 24, 1864. + +8. Times, September 28, 1864. + +9. N. and H., IX, 364. + +10. Thayer, II, 214; Hay MS. + +11. N. and H., IX, 377. + +12. Thayer, II, 216; Hay MS, III, 29. + +13. Lincoln, X, 261. + +14. N. and H., IX, 378-379. + +XXXV. THE MASTER OF THE MOMENT. + +1. Lincoln, X, 283. + +2. N. and H., IX, 392-394. + +3. N. and H., IX, 210-211. + +4. One of the traditions that has grown up around Lincoln makes the +passage of the Thirteenth Amendment a matter of threats. Two votes were +needed. It was discovered according to this simpleminded bit of art that +two members of the opposition had been guilty of illegal practices, the +precise nature of which is conveniently left vague. Lincoln, even in +some highly reputable biographies, sent for these secret criminals, +told them that the power of the President of the United States was +very great, and that he expected them to vote for the amendment. The +authority for the story appears to be a member of Congress, John B. +Aley. Reminiscences, 585-586; Lord Charnwood, Abraham Lincoln, 335-336. +To a great many minds it has always seemed out of key. Fortunately, +there is a rival version. Shrewd, careful Riddle has a vastly different +tale in which Lincoln does not figure at all, in which three necessary +votes were bought for the amendment by Ashley. Riddle is so careful to +make plain just what he can vouch for and just what he has at second +hand that his mere mode of narration creates confidence. Riddle, +324-325. Parts of his version are to be found in various places. + +5. Nicolay, Cambridge, 601. + +6. Lincoln, X, 38-39, and note; XI, 89. + +7. 38 Globe, II, 903. + +8. 38 Globe, II, 1127. + +9. 38 Globe, 11,1129; Pierce, IV, 221-227. + +10. Recollections, 249. + +11. Nicolay, 503-504; Lincoln, XI, 43. + +12. Lincoln, XI, 4446. + +XXXVI. PREPARING A DIFFERENT WAR. + +1. Grant, II, 459. + +2. Tarbell, II, 229. + +3. N. and H., IX, 457. + +4. Pierce, IV, 236. + +5. Lincoln, XI, 84-91. + +XXXVII. FATE INTERPOSES. + +1. Tarbell, II, 231-232. + +2. Pierce, IV, 235. + +3. Tarbell, II, 232. + +4. Recollections, 116. + +5. Nicolay, 531. + +6. N. and H., X, 283-284. + +7. Julian, 255. + +8. Recollections, 249. + +9. Recollections, 119. + +10. Nicolay, 532. + +11. Recollections, 119-120; Carpenter, 293; Nicolay, 532; Tarbell, II, +235. + +12. Nicolay, 539. + +13. Thayer, II, 219; Hay MS, + +14. Riddle, 332. + +15. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +Lincoln; An Account of His Personal Life, Especially of Its +Springs of Action as Revealed and Deepened by the Ordeal of War + +BY NATHANIEL WRIGHT STEPHENSON + + + + +Authority for all important statements of facts in the +following pages may be found in the notes; the condensed +references are expanded in the bibliography. A few +controversial matters are discussed in the notes. + +I am very grateful to Mr. William Roscoe Thayer for enabling me +to use the manuscript diary of John Hay. Miss Helen Nicolay +has graciously confirmed some of the implications of the +official biography. Lincoln's only surviving secretary, +Colonel W. O. Stoddard, has given considerate aid. The +curious incident of Lincoln as counsel in an action to recover +slaves was mentioned to me by Professor Henry Johnson, through +whose good offices it was confirmed and amplified by Judge John +H. Marshall. Mr. Henry W. Raymond has been very tolerant of +a stranger's inquiries with regard to his distinguished father. +A futile attempt to discover documentary remains of the +Republican National Committee of 1864 has made it possible, +through the courtesy of Mr. Clarence B. Miller, at least to +assert that there is nothing of importance in possession of the +present Committee. A search for new light on Chandler drew +forth generous assistance from Professor Ulrich B. Phillips, +Mr. Floyd B. Streeter and Mr. G. B. Krum. The latter caused +to be examined, for this particular purpose, the Blair +manuscripts in the Burton Historical Collection. Much +illumination arose out of a systematic resurvey of the +Congressional Globe, for the war period, in which I had the +stimulating companionship of Professor John L. Hill, +reinforced by many conversations with Professor Dixon Ryan Fox +and Professor David Saville Muzzey. At the heart of the matter +is the resolute criticism of Mrs. Stephenson and of a long +enduring friend, President Harrison Randolph. The temper of +the historical fraternity is such that any worker in any field +is always under a host of incidental obligations. There is +especial propriety in my acknowledging the kindness of +Professor Albert Bushnell Hart, Professor James A. Woodburn, +Professor Herman V. Ames, Professor St. George L. Sioussat and +Professor Allen Johnson. + + CONTENTS + +FOUNDATIONS +I THE CHILD OF THE FOREST +II THE MYSTERIOUS YOUTH +III A VILLAGE LEADER IV REVELATIONS +V PROSPERITY +VI UNSATISFYING RECOGNITION + +PROMISES +VII THE SECOND START +VIII A RETURN TO POLITICS +IX THE LITERARY STATESMAN +X THE DARK HORSE +XI SECESSION +XII THE CRISIS +XIII ECLIPSE + +CONFUSIONS +XIV THE STRANGE NEW MAN +XV PRESIDENT AND PREMIER +XVI "ON TO RICHMOND!" +XVII DEFINING THE ISSUE +XVIII THE JACOBIN CLUB +XIX THE JACOBINS BECOME INQUISITORS +XX IS CONGRESS THE PRESIDENT'S MASTER? +XXI THE STRUGGLE TO CONTROL THE ARMY +XXII LINCOLN EMERGES + +AUDACITIES +XXIII THE MYSTICAL STATESMAN +XXIV GAMBLING IN GENERALS +XXV A WAR BEHIND THE SCENES +XXVI THE DICTATOR, THE MARPLOT, AND THE LITTLE MEN +XXVII THE TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE +XXVIII APPARENT ASCENDENCY +XXIX CATASTROPHE +XXX THE PRESIDENT VERSUS THE VINDICTIVES + +VICTORY +XXXI A MENACING PAUSE +XXXII THE AUGUST CONSPIRACY +XXXIII THE RALLY TO THE PRESIDENT +XXXIV "FATHER ABRAHAM" +XXXV THE MASTER OF THE MOMENT +XXXVI PREPARING A DIFFERENT WAR +XXXVII FATE INTERPOSES + +BIBLIOGRAPHY + +NOTES + +ACKNOWLEDGMENT + +The author and publisher make grateful acknowledgement to Ginn +and Company, Boston, for the photograph of St. Gaudens' Statue; +to The Century Company of New York for the Earliest Portrait of +Lincoln, which is from an engraving by Johnson after a +daguerreotype in the possession of the Honorable Robert T. +Lincoln; and for Lincoln and Tad, which is from the famous +photograph by Brady; to The Macmillan Company of New York for +the portrait of Mrs. Lincoln and also for The Review of the +Army of the Potomac, both of which were originally reproduced +in Ida M. Tarbell's Life of Abraham Lincoln. For the rare and +interesting portrait entitled The Last Phase of Lincoln +acknowledgment is made to Robert Bruce, Esquire, Clinton, +Oneida County, New York. This photograph was taken by +Alexander Gardner, April 9, 1865, the glass plate of which is +now in Mr. Bruce's collection. + + + +I. THE CHILD OF THE FOREST + +Of first importance in the making of the American people is +that great forest which once extended its mysterious labyrinth +from tide-water to the prairies when the earliest colonists +entered warily its sea-worn edges a portion of the European +race came again under a spell it had forgotten centuries +before, the spell of that untamed nature which created +primitive man. All the dim memories that lay deep in +subconsciousness; all the vague shadows hovering at the back of +the civilized mind; the sense of encompassing natural power, +the need to struggle single-handed against it; the danger +lurking in the darkness of the forest; the brilliant treachery +of the forest sunshine glinted through leafy secrecies; the +Strange voices in its illimitable murmur; the ghostly shimmer +of its glades at night; the lovely beauty of the great gold +moon; all the thousand wondering dreams that evolved the elder +gods, Pan, Cybele, Thor; all this waked again in the soul of +the Anglo-Saxon penetrating the great forest. And it was +intensified by the way he came,--singly, or with but wife and +child, or at best in very small company, a mere handful. And +the surrounding presences were not only of the spiritual world. +Human enemies who were soon as well armed as he, quicker of +foot and eye, more perfectly noiseless in their tread even than +the wild beasts of the shadowy coverts, the ruthless Indians +whom he came to expel, these invisible presences were watching +him, in a fierce silence he knew not whence. Like as not the +first signs of that menace which was everywhere would be the +hiss of the Indian arrow, or the crack of the Indian rifle, and +sharp and sudden death. + +Under these conditions he learned much and forgot much. His +deadly need made him both more and less individual than he had +been, released him from the dictation of his fellows in daily +life while it enforced relentlessly a uniform method of +self-preservation. Though the unseen world became more and +more real, the understanding of it faded. It became chiefly a +matter of emotional perception, scarcely at all a matter of +philosophy. The morals of the forest Americans were those of +audacious, visionary beings loosely hound together by a +comradeship in peril. Courage, cautiousness, swiftness, +endurance, faithfulness, secrecy,--these were the forest +virtues. Dreaming, companionship, humor,--these were the forest +luxuries. + +From the first, all sorts and conditions were ensnared by that +silent land, where the trails they followed, their rifles in +their hands, had been trodden hard generation after generation +by the feet of the Indian warriors. The best and the worst of +England went into that illimitable resolvent, lost themselves, +found themselves, and issued from its shadows, or their +children did, changed both for good and ill, Americans. +Meanwhile the great forest, during two hundred years, was +slowly vanishing. This parent of a new people gave its life to +its offspring and passed away. In the early nineteenth century +it had withered backward far from the coast; had lost its +identity all along the north end of the eastern mountains; had +frayed out toward the sunset into lingering tentacles, into +broken minor forests, into shreds and patches. + +Curiously, by a queer sort of natural selection, its people had +congregated into life communities not all of one pattern. +There were places as early as the beginning of the century +where distinction had appeared. At other places life was as +rude and rough as could be imagined. There were innumerable +farms that were still mere "clearings," walled by the forest. +But there were other regions where for many a mile the timber +had been hewn away, had given place to a ragged continuity of +farmland. In such regions especially if the poorer elements of +the forest, spiritually speaking, had drifted thither--the +straggling villages which had appeared were but groups of log +cabins huddled along a few neglected lanes. In central +Kentucky, a poor new village was Elizabethtown, unkempt, +chokingly dusty in the dry weather, with muddy streams instead +of streets during the rains, a stench of pig-sties at the back +of its cabins, but everywhere looking outward glimpses of a +lovely meadow land. + +At Elizabethtown in 1806 lived Joseph Hanks, a carpenter, also +his niece Nancy Hanks. Poor people they were, of the sort that +had been sucked into the forest in their weakness, or had been +pushed into it by a social pressure they could not resist; not +the sort that had grimly adventured its perils or gaily courted +its lure. Their source was Virginia. They were of a +thriftless, unstable class; that vagrant peasantry which had +drifted westward to avoid competition with slave labor. The +niece, Nancy, has been reputed illegitimate. And though +tradition derives her from the predatory amour of an +aristocrat, there is nothing to sustain the tale except her own +appearance. She had a bearing, a cast of feature, a tone, that +seemed to hint at higher social origins than those of her Hanks +relatives. She had a little schooling; was of a pious and +emotional turn of mind; enjoyed those amazing "revivals" which +now and then gave an outlet to the pent-up religiosity of the +village; and she was almost handsome.[1] + +History has preserved no clue why this girl who was rather the +best of her sort chose to marry an illiterate apprentice of her +uncle's, Thomas Lincoln, whose name in the forest was spelled +"Linkhorn." He was a shiftless fellow, never succeeding at +anything, who could neither read nor write. At the time of his +birth, twenty-eight years before, his parents--drifting, roaming +people, struggling with poverty--were dwellers in the Virginia +mountains. As a mere lad, he had shot an Indian--one of the few +positive acts attributed to him--and his father had been killed +by Indians. There was a "vague tradition" that his grandfather +had been a Pennsylvania Quaker who had wandered southward +through the forest mountains. The tradition angered him. +Though he appears to have had little enough--at least in later +years--of the fierce independence of the forest, he resented a +Quaker ancestry as an insult. He had no suspicion that in +after years the zeal of genealogists would track his descent +until they had linked him with a lost member of a distinguished +Puritan family, a certain Mordecai Lincoln who removed to New +Jersey, whose descendants became wanderers of the forest and +sank speedily to the bottom of the social scale, retaining not +the slightest memory of their New England origin.[2] Even in the +worst of the forest villages, few couples started married life +in less auspicious circumstances than did Nancy and Thomas. +Their home in one of the alleys of Elizabethtown was a shanty +fourteen feet square.[3] Very soon after marriage, shiftless +Thomas gave up carpentering and took to farming. Land could be +had almost anywhere for almost nothing those days, and Thomas +got a farm on credit near where now stands Hodgenville. Today, +it is a famous place, for there, February 12, 1809, Abraham +Lincoln, second child, but first son of Nancy and Thomas, was +born.[4] + +During most of eight years, Abraham lived in Kentucky. His +father, always adrift in heart, tried two farms before +abandoning Kentucky altogether. A shadowy figure, this Thomas; +the few memories of him suggest a superstitious nature in a +superstitious community. He used to see visions in the forest. +Once, it is said, he came home, all excitement, to tell his +wife he had seen a giant riding on a lion, tearing up trees by +the roots; and thereupon, he took to his bed and kept it for +several days. + +His son Abraham told this story of the giant on the lion to a +playmate of his, and the two boys gravely discussed the +existence of ghosts. Abraham thought his father "didn't +exactly believe in them," and seems to have been in about the +same state of mind himself. He was quite sure he was "not +much" afraid of the dark. This was due chiefly to the simple +wisdom of a good woman, a neighbor, who had taught him to think +of the night as a great room that God had darkened even as his +friend darkened a room in her house by hanging something over +the window.[5] + +The eight years of his childhood in Kentucky had few incidents. +A hard, patient, uncomplaining life both for old and young. +The men found their one deep joy in the hunt. In lesser +degree, they enjoyed the revivals which gave to the women their +one escape out of themselves. A strange, almost terrible +recovery of the primitive, were those religious furies of the +days before the great forest had disappeared. What other +figures in our history are quite so remarkable as the itinerant +frontier priests, the circuit-riders as they are now called, +who lived as Elijah did, whose temper was very much the temper +of Elijah, in whose exalted narrowness of devotion, all that +was stern, dark, foreboding--the very brood of the forest's +innermost heart--had found a voice. Their religion was ecstasy +in homespun, a glory of violent singing, the release of a +frantic emotion, formless but immeasurable, which at all other +times, in the severity of the forest routine, gave no sign of +its existence. + +A visitor remembered long afterward a handsome young woman who +he thought was Nancy Hanks, singing wildly, whirling about as +may once have done the ecstatic women of the woods of Thrace, +making her way among equally passionate worshipers, to the foot +of the rude altar, and there casting herself into the arms of +the man she was to marry.[6] So did thousands of forest women in +those seasons when their communion with a mystic loneliness was +confessed, when they gave tongue as simply as wild creatures to +the nameless stirrings and promptings of that secret woodland +where Pan was still the lord. And the day following the +revival, they were again the silent, expressionless, much +enduring, long-suffering forest wives, mothers of many +children, toilers of the cabins, who cooked and swept and +carried fuel by sunlight, and by firelight sewed and spun. + +It can easily be understood how these women, as a rule, exerted +little influence on their sons. Their imaginative side was too +deeply hidden, the nature of their pleasures too secret, too +mysterious. Male youth, following its obvious pleasure, went +with the men to the hunt The women remained outsiders. The boy +who chose to do likewise, was the incredible exception. In him +had come to a head the deepest things in the forest life: the +darkly feminine things, its silence, its mysticism, its +secretiveness, its tragic patience. Abraham was such a boy. +It is said that he astounded his father by refusing to own a +gun. He earned terrible whippings by releasing animals caught +in traps. Though he had in fullest measure the forest passion +for listening to stories, the ever-popular tales of Indian +warfare disgusted him. But let the tale take on any glint of +the mystery of the human soul--as of Robinson Crusoe alone on +his island, or of the lordliness of action, as in Columbus or +Washington--and he was quick with interest. The stories of +talking animals out of Aesop fascinated him. + +In this thrilled curiosity about the animals was the side of +him least intelligible to men like his father. It lives in +many anecdotes: of his friendship with a poor dog he had which +he called "Honey"; of pursuing a snake through difficult +thickets to prevent its swallowing a frog; of loitering on +errands at the risk of whippings to watch the squirrels in the +tree-tops; of the crowning offense of his childhood, which +earned him a mighty beating, the saving of a fawn's life by +scaring it off just as a hunter's gun was leveled. And by way +of comment on all this, there is the remark preserved in the +memory of another boy to whom at the time it appeared most +singular, "God might think as much of that little fawn as of +some people." Of him as of another gentle soul it might have +been said that all the animals were his brothers and sisters.[7] + +One might easily imagine this peculiar boy who chose to remain +at home while the men went out to slay, as the mere translation +into masculinity of his mother, and of her mothers, of all the +converging processions of forest women, who had passed from one +to another the secret of their mysticism, coloring it many ways +in the dark vessels of their suppressed lives, till it reached +at last their concluding child. But this would only in part +explain him. Their mysticism, as after-time was to show, he +had undoubtedly inherited. So, too, from them, it may be, came +another characteristic--that instinct to endure, to wait, to +abide the issue of circumstance, which in the days of his power +made him to the politicians as unintelligible as once he had +been to the forest huntsmen. Nevertheless, the most +distinctive part of those primitive women, the sealed +passionateness of their spirits, he never from childhood to the +end revealed. In the grown man appeared a quietude, a sort of +tranced calm, that was appalling. From what part of his +heredity did this derive? Was it the male gift of the forest? +Did progenitors worthier than Thomas somehow cast through him +to his alien son that peace they had found in the utter heart +of danger, that apparent selflessness which is born of being +ever unfailingly on guard? + +It is plain that from the first he was a natural stoic, taking +his whippings, of which there appear to have been plenty, in +silence, without anger. It was all in the day's round. +Whippings, like other things, came and went. What did it +matter? And the daily round, though monotonous, had even for +the child a complement of labor. Especially there was much +patient journeying back and forth with meal bags between his +father's cabin and the local mill. There was a little +schooling, very little, partly from Nancy Lincoln, partly from +another good woman, the miller's kind old mother, partly at the +crudest of wayside schools maintained very briefly by a +wandering teacher who soon wandered on; but out of this +schooling very little result beyond the mastery of the A B C.[8] +And even at this age, a pathetic eagerness to learn, to invade +the wonder of the printed book! Also a marked keenness of +observation. He observed things which his elders overlooked. +He had a better sense of direction, as when he corrected his +father and others who were taking the wrong short-cut to a +burning house. Cool, unexcitable, he was capable of presence +of mind. Once at night when the door of the cabin was suddenly +thrown open and a monster appeared on the threshold, a spectral +thing in the darkness, furry, with the head of an ox, Thomas +Lincoln shrank back aghast; little Abraham, quicker-sighted and +quicker-witted, slipped behind the creature, pulled at its +furry mantle, and revealed a forest Diana, a bold girl who +amused herself playing demon among the shadows of the moon. + +Seven years passed and his eighth birthday approached. All +this while Thomas Lincoln had somehow kept his family in food, +but never had he money in his pocket. His successive farms, +bought on credit, were never paid for. An incurable vagrant, +he came at last to the psychological moment when he could no +longer impose himself on his community. He must take to the +road in a hazard of new fortune. Indiana appeared to him the +land of promise. Most of his property--such as it was--except +his carpenter's tools, he traded for whisky, four hundred +gallons. Somehow he obtained a rattletrap wagon and two +horses. + +The family appear to have been loath to go. Nancy Lincoln had +long been ailing and in low spirits, thinking much of what +might happen to her children after her death. Abraham loved +the country-side, and he had good friends in the miller and his +kind old mother. But the vagrant Thomas would have his way. +In the brilliancy of the Western autumn, with the ruined woods +flaming scarlet and gold, these poor people took their last +look at the cabin that had been their wretched shelter, and set +forth into the world.[9] + + + +II THE MYSTERIOUS YOUTH + +Vagrants, or little better than vagrants, were Thomas Lincoln +and his family making their way to Indiana. For a year after +they arrived they were squatters, their home an "open-faced +camp," that is, a shanty with one wall missing, and instead of +chimney, a fire built on the open side. In that mere pretense +of a house, Nancy Lincoln and her children spent the winter of +1816-1817. Then Thomas resorted to his familiar practice of +taking land on credit. The Lincolns were now part of a +"settlement" of seven or eight families strung along a little +stream known as Pigeon Creek. Here Thomas entered a quarter- +section of fair land, and in the course of the next eleven +years succeeded--wonderful to relate--in paying down sufficient +money to give him title to about half. + +Meanwhile, poor fading Nancy went to her place. Pigeon Creek +was an out-of-the-way nook in the still unsettled West, and +Nancy during the two years she lived there could not have +enjoyed much of the consolation of her religion. Perhaps now +and then she had ghostly council of some stray circuit-rider. +But for her the days of the ecstasies had gone by; no great +revival broke the seals of the spirit, stirred its deep waters, +along Pigeon Creek. There was no religious service when she +was laid to rest in a coffin made of green lumber and fashioned +by her husband. Months passed, the snow lay deep, before a +passing circuit-rider held a burial service over her grave. +Tradition has it that the boy Abraham brought this about very +likely, at ten years old, he felt that her troubled spirit +could not have peace till this was done. Shadowy as she is, +ghostlike across the page of history, it is plain that she was +a reality to her son. He not only loved her but revered her. +He believed that from her he had inherited the better part of +his genius. Many years after her death he said, "God bless my +mother; all that I am or ever hope to be I owe to her." + +Nancy was not long without a successor. Thomas Lincoln, the +next year, journeyed back to Kentucky and returned in triumph +to Indiana, bringing as his wife, an old flame of his who had +married, had been widowed, and was of a mind for further +adventures. This Sarah Bush Lincoln, of less distinction than +Nancy, appears to have been steadier-minded and +stronger-willed. Even before this, Thomas had left the +half-faced camp and moved into a cabin. But such a cabin! It +had neither door, nor window, nor floor. Sally Lincoln +required her husband to make of it a proper house--by the +standards of Pigeon Creek. She had brought with her as her +dowry a wagonload of furniture. These comforts together with +her strong will began a new era of relative comfort in the +Lincoln cabin.[1] + +Sally Lincoln was a kind stepmother to Abraham who became +strongly attached to her. In the rough and nondescript +community of Pigeon Creek, a world of weedy farms, of miserable +mud roads, of log farm-houses, the family life that was at +least tolerable. The sordid misery described during her regime +emerged from wretchedness to a state of by all the recorders of +Lincoln's early days seems to have ended about his twelfth +year. At least, the vagrant suggestion disappeared. Though +the life that succeeded was void of luxury, though it was +rough, even brutal, dominated by a coarse, peasant-like view of +things, it was scarcely by peasant standards a life of +hardship. There was food sufficient, if not very good; +protection from wind and weather; fire in the winter time; +steady labor; and social acceptance by the community of the +creekside. That the labor was hard and long, went without +saying. But as to that--as of the whippings in Kentucky--what +else, from the peasant point of view, would you expect? +Abraham took it all with the same stoicism with which he had +once taken the whippings. By the unwritten law of the +creekside he was his father's property, and so was his labor, +until he came of age. Thomas used him as a servant or hired +him out to other farmers. Stray recollections show us young +Abraham working as a farm-hand for twenty-five cents the day, +probably with "keep" in addition; we glimpse him slaughtering +hogs skilfully at thirty-one cents a day, for this was "rough +work." He became noted as an axman. + +In the crevices, so to speak, of his career as a farm-hand, +Abraham got a few months of schooling, less than a year in all. +A story that has been repeated a thousand times shows the raw +youth by the cabin fire at night doing sums on the back of a +wooden shovel, and shaving off its surface repeatedly to get a +fresh page. He devoured every book that came his way, only a +few to be sure, but generally great ones--the Bible, of course, +and Aesop, Crusoe, Pilgrim's Progress, and a few histories, +these last unfortunately of the poorer sort. He early +displayed a bent for composition, scribbling verses that were +very poor, and writing burlesque tales about his acquaintances +in what passed for a Biblical style.[2] + +One great experience broke the monotony of the life on Pigeon +Creek. He made a trip to New Orleans as a "hand" on a +flatboat. Of this trip little is known though much may be +surmised. To his deeply poetic nature what an experience it +must have been: the majesty of the vast river; the pageant of +its immense travel; the steamers heavily laden; the fleets of +barges; the many towns; the nights of stars over wide sweeps of +water; the stately plantation houses along the banks; the old +French city with its crowds, its bells, the shipping, the +strange faces and the foreign speech; all the bewildering +evidence that there were other worlds besides Pigeon Creek! + +What seed of new thinking was sown in his imagination by this +Odyssey we shall never know. The obvious effect in the ten +years of his life in Indiana was produced at Pigeon Creek. The +"settlement" was within fifteen miles of the Ohio. It lay in +that southerly fringe of Indiana which received early in the +century many families of much the same estate, character and +origin as the Lincolns,--poor whites of the edges of the great +forest working outward toward the prairies. Located on good +land not far from a great highway, the Ohio, it illustrated in +its rude prosperity a transformation that went on unobserved in +many such settlements, the transformation of the wandering +forester of the lower class into a peasant farmer. Its life +was of the earth, earthy; though it retained the religious +traditions of the forest, their significance was evaporating; +mysticism was fading into emotionalism; the camp-meeting was +degenerating into a picnic. The supreme social event, the +wedding, was attended by festivities that filled twenty-four +hours: a race of male guests in the forenoon with a bottle of +whisky for a prize; an Homeric dinner at midday; "an afternoon +of rough games and outrageous practical jokes; a supper and dance +at night interrupted by the successive withdrawals of the bride +and groom, attended by ceremonies and jests of more than +Rabelaisian crudeness; and a noisy dispersal next day."[3] The +intensities of the forest survived in hard drinking, in the fury +of the fun-making, and in the hunt. The forest passion for +storytelling had in no way decreased. + +In this atmosphere, about eighteen and nineteen, Abraham shot +up suddenly from a slender boy to a huge, raw-honed, ungainly +man, six feet four inches tall, of unusual muscular strength. +His strength was one of the fixed conditions of his +development. It delivered him from all fear of his fellows. +He had plenty of peculiarities. He was ugly, awkward; he +lacked the wanton appetites of the average sensual man. And +these peculiarities without his great strength as his warrant +might have brought him into ridicule. As it was, whatever his +peculiarities, in a society like that of Pigeon Creek, the man +who could beat all competitors, wrestling or boxing, was free +from molestation. But Lincoln instinctively had another aim in +life than mere freedom to be himself. Two characteristics that +were so significant in his childhood continued with growing +vitality in his young manhood: his placidity and his intense +sense of comradeship. The latter, however, had undergone a +change. It was no longer the comradeship of the wild +creatures. That spurt of physical expansion, the swift rank +growth to his tremendous stature, swept him apparently across a +dim dividing line, out of the world of birds and beasts and +into the world of men. He took the new world with the same +unfailing but also unexcitable curiosity with which he had +taken the other, the world of squirrels, flowers, fawns. + +Here as there, the difference from his mother, deep though +their similarities may have been, was sharply evident. Had he +been wholly at one with her religiously, the gift of telling +speech which he now began to display might have led him into a +course that would have rejoiced her heart, might have made him +a boy preacher, and later, a great revivalist. His father and +elder sister while on Pigeon Creek joined the local Baptist +Church. But Abraham did not follow them. Nor is there a +single anecdote linking him in any way with the fervors of camp +meeting. On the contrary, what little is remembered, is of a +cool aloofness.[4] The inscrutability of the forest was his--what +it gave to the stealthy, cautious men who were too intent on +observing, too suspiciously watchful, to give vent to their +feelings. Therefore, in Lincoln there was always a double +life, outer and inner, the outer quietly companionable, the +inner, solitary, mysterious. + +It was the outer life that assumed its first definite phase in +the years on Pigeon Creek. During those years, Lincoln +discovered his gift of story-telling. He also discovered +humor. In the employment of both talents, he accepted as a +matter of course the tone of the young ruffians among whom he +dwelt. Very soon this powerful fellow, who could throw any of +them in a wrestle, won the central position among them by a +surer title, by the power to delight. And any one who knows +how peasant schools of art arise--for that matter, all schools +of art that are vital--knows how he did it. In this connection, +his famous biographers, Nicolay and Hay, reveal a certain +externality by objecting that a story attributed to him is +ancient. All stories are ancient. Not the tale, but the +telling, as the proverb says, is the thing. In later years, +Lincoln wrote down every good story that he heard, and filed +it.[5] When it reappeared it had become his own. Who can doubt +that this deliberate assimilation, the typical artistic +process, began on Pigeon Creek? Lincoln never would have +captured as he did his plowboy audience, set them roaring with +laughter in the intervals of labor, had he not given them back +their own tales done over into new forms brilliantly beyond +their powers of conception. That these tales were gross, even +ribald, might have been taken for granted, even had we not +positive evidence of the fact. Otherwise none of that +uproarious laughter which we may be sure sounded often across +shimmering harvest fields while stalwart young pagans, ever +ready to pause, leaned, bellowing, on the handles of their +scythes, Abe Lincoln having just then finished a story. + +Though the humor of these stories was Falstaffian, to say the +least, though Lincoln was cock of the walk among the plowboys +of Pigeon Creek, a significant fact with regard to him here +comes into view. Not an anecdote survives that in any way +suggests personal licentiousness. Scrupulous men who in +after-time were offended by his coarseness of speech--for more +or less of the artist of Pigeon Creek stuck to him almost to +the end; he talked in fables, often in gross fables--these men, +despite their annoyance, felt no impulse to attribute to him +personal habits in harmony with his tales. On the other hand, +they were puzzled by their own impression, never wavering, that +he was "pureminded." The clue which they did not have lay in +the nature of his double life. That part of him which, in our +modern jargon, we call his "reactions" obeyed a curious law. +They dwelt in his outer life without penetrating to the inner; +but all his impulses of personal action were securely seated +deep within. Even at nineteen, for any one attuned to +spiritual meaning, he would have struck the note of mystery, +faintly, perhaps, but certainly. To be sure, no hint of this +reached the minds of his rollicking comrades of the harvest +field. It was not for such as they to perceive the problem of +his character, to suspect that he was a genius, or to guess +that a time would come when sincere men would form impressions +of him as dissimilar as black and white. And so far as it went +the observation of the plowboys was correct. The man they saw +was indeed a reflection of themselves. But it was a reflection +only. Their influence entered into the real man no more than +the image in a mirror has entered into the glass. + + + +III. A VILLAGE LEADER + +Though placid, this early Lincoln was not resigned. He +differed from the boors of Pigeon Creek in wanting some other +sort of life. What it was he wanted, he did not know. His +reading had not as yet given him definite ambitions. It may +well be that New Orleans was the clue to such stirring in him +as there was of that discontent which fanciful people have +called divine. Remembering New Orleans, could any imaginative +youth be content with Pigeon Creek? + +In the spring of 1830, shortly after he came of age, he agreed +for once with his father whose chronic vagrancy had reasserted +itself. The whole family set out again on their wanderings and +made their way in an oxcart to a new halting place on the +Sangamon River in Illinois. There Abraham helped his father +clear another piece of land for another illusive "start" in +life. The following spring he parted with his family and +struck out for himself.[1] His next adventure was a second trip +as a boatman to New Orleans. Can one help suspecting there was +vague hope in his heart that he might be adventuring to the +land of hearts' desire? If there was, the yokels who were his +fellow boatmen never suspected it. One of them long afterward +asserted that Lincoln returned from New Orleans fiercely +rebellious against its central institution, slavery, and +determined to "hit that thing" whenever he could. + +The legend centers in his witnessing a slave auction and giving +voice to his horror in a style quite unlike any of his +authentic utterances. The authority for all this is doubtful.[2] +Furthermore, the Lincoln of 1831 was not yet awakened. That +inner life in which such a reaction might take place was still +largely dormant. The outer life, the life of the harvest +clown, was still a thick insulation. Apparently, the waking of +the inner life, the termination of its dormant stage, was +reserved for an incident far more personal that fell upon him +in desolating force a few years later. + +Following the New Orleans venture, came a period as storekeeper +for a man named Denton Offut, in perhaps the least desirable +town in Illinois--a dreary little huddle of houses gathered +around Rutledge's Mill on the Sangamon River and called New +Salem.[3] Though a few of its people were of a better sort than +any Lincoln had yet known except, perhaps, the miller's family +in the old days in Kentucky--and still a smaller few were of +fine quality, the community for the most part was hopeless. A +fatality for unpromising neighborhoods overhangs like a doom +the early part of this strange life. All accounts of New Salem +represent it as predominantly a congregation of the worthless, +flung together by unaccountable accident at a spot where there +was no genuine reason for a town's existence. A casual town, +created by drifters, and void of settled purpose. Small wonder +that ere long it vanished from the map; that after a few years +its drifting congregation dispersed to every corner of the +horizon, and was no more. But during its brief existence it +staged an episode in the development of Lincoln's character. +However, this did not take place at once. And before it +happened, came another turn of his soul's highway scarcely less +important. He discovered, or thought he discovered, what he +wanted. His vague ambition took shape. He decided to try to +be a politician. At twenty-three, after living in New Salem +less than a year, this audacious, not to say impertinent, young +man offered himself to the voters of Sangamon County as a +candidate for the Legislature. At this time that humility +which was eventually his characteristic had not appeared. It +may be dated as subsequent to New Salem--a further evidence that +the deep spiritual experience which closed this chapter formed +a crisis. Before then, at New Salem as at Pigeon Creek, he was +but a variant, singularly decent, of the boisterous, +frolicking, impertinent type that instinctively sought the +laxer neighborhoods of the frontier. An echo of Pigeon Creek +informed the young storekeeper's first state paper, the +announcement of his candidacy, in the year 1832. His first +political speech was in a curious vein, glib, intimate and +fantastic: "Fellow citizens, I presume you all know who I am. +I am humble Abraham Lincoln. I have been solicited by many +friends to become a candidate for the Legislature. My politics +are short and sweet like the old woman's dance. I am in favor +of a national bank. I am in favor of the internal improvement +system and a high protective tariff. These are my sentiments +and political principles. If elected, I shall be thankful; if +not it will be all the same."[4] + +However, this bold throw of the dice of fortune was not quite +so impertinent as it seems. During the months when he was in +charge of Offut's grocery store he had made a conquest of New +Salem. The village grocery in those days was the village club. +It had its constant gathering of loafers all of whom were +endowed with votes. It was the one place through which passed +the whole population, in and out, one time or another. To a +clever storekeeper it gave a chance to establish a following. +Had he, as Lincoln had, the gift of story-telling, the gift of +humor, he was a made man. Pigeon Creek over again! Lincoln's +wealth of funny stories gave Offut's grocery somewhat the role +of a vaudeville theater and made the storekeeper as popular a +man as there was in New Salem. + +In another way he repeated his conquest of Pigeon Creek. New +Salem had its local Alsatia known as Clary's Grove whose +insolent young toughs led by their chief, Jack Armstrong, were +the terror of the neighborhood. The groceries paid them +tribute in free drinks. Any luckless storekeeper who incurred +their displeasure found his store some fine morning a total +wreck. Lincoln challenged Jack Armstrong to a duel with fists. +It was formally arranged. A ring was formed; the whole village +was audience; and Lincoln thrashed him to a finish. But this +was only a small part of his triumph. His physical prowess, +joined with his humor and his companionableness; entirely +captivated Clary's Grove. Thereafter, it was storekeeper +Lincoln's pocket borough; its ruffians were his body-guard. +Woe to any one who made trouble for their hero. + +There were still other causes for his quick rise to the +position of village leader. His unfailing kindness was one; +his honesty was another. Tales were related of his scrupulous +dealings, such as walking a distance of miles in order to +correct a trifling error he had made, in selling a poor woman +less than the proper weight of tea. Then, too, by New Salem +standards, he was educated. Long practice on the shovel at +Pigeon Creek had given him a good handwriting, and one of the +first things he did at New Salem was to volunteer to be clerk +of elections. And there was a distinct moral superiority. +Little as this would have signified unbacked by his giant +strength since it had that authority behind it his morality set +him apart from his followers, different, imposing. He seldom, +if ever, drank whisky. Sobriety was already the rule of his +life, both outward and inward. At the same time he was not +censorious. He accepted the devotion of Clary's Grove without +the slightest attempt to make over its bravoes in his own +image. He sympathized with its ideas of sport. For all his +kindliness to humans of every sort much of his sensitiveness +for animals had passed away. He was not averse to cock +fighting; he enjoyed a horse race.[5] Altogether, in his outer +life, before the catastrophe that revealed him to himself, he +was quite as much in the tone of New Salem as ever in that of +Pigeon Creek. When the election came he got every vote in New +Salem except three.[6] + +But the village was a small part of Sangamon County. Though +Lincoln received a respectable number of votes elsewhere, his +total was well down in the running. He remained an +inconspicuous minority candidate. + +Meanwhile Offut's grocery had failed. In the midst of the +legislative campaign, Offut's farmer storekeeper volunteered +for the Indian War with Black Hawk, but returned to New Salem +shortly before the election without having once smelled powder. +Since his peers were not of a mind to give him immediate +occupation in governing, he turned again to business. He +formed a partnership with a man named Berry. They bought on +credit the wreck of a grocery that had been sacked by Lincoln's +friends of Clary's Grove, and started business as "General +Merchants," under the style of Berry & Lincoln. There followed +a year of complete unsuccess. Lincoln demonstrated that he was +far more inclined to read any chance book that came his way +than to attend to business, and that he had "no money sense." +The new firm went the way of Offut's grocery, leaving nothing +behind it but debt. The debts did not trouble Berry; Lincoln +assumed them all. They formed a dreadful load which he bore +with his usual patience and little by little discharged. +Fifteen years passed before again he was a free man +financially. + +A new and powerful influence came into his life during the half +idleness of his unsuccessful storekeeping. It is worth +repeating in his own words, or what seems to be the fairly +accurate recollection of his words: "One day a man who was +migrating to the West, drove up in front of my store with a +wagon which contained his family and household plunder. He +asked me if I would buy an old barrel for which he had no room +in his wagon, and which he said contained nothing of special +value. I did not want it but to oblige him I bought it and +paid him, I think, a half a dollar for it. Without further +examination I put it away in the store and forgot all about it +Sometime after, in overhauling things, I came upon the barrel +and emptying it upon the floor to see what it contained, I +found at the bottom of the rubbish a complete edition of +Blackstone's Commentaries. I began to read those famous works, +and I had plenty of time; for during the long summer days when +the farmers were busy with their crops, my customers were few +and far between. The more I read, the more intensely +interested I became. Never in my whole life was my mind so +thoroughly absorbed. I read until I devoured them."[7] + +The majesty of the law at the bottom of a barrel of trash +discovered at a venture and taking instant possession of the +discoverer's mind! Like the genius issuing grandly in the +smoke cloud from the vase drawn up out of the sea by the fisher +in the Arabian tale! But this great book was not the only magic +casket discovered by the idle store-keeper, the broken seals +of which released mighty presences. Both Shakespeare and Burns +were revealed to him in this period. Never after did either +for a moment cease to be his companion. These literary +treasures were found at Springfield twenty miles from New +Salem, whither Lincoln went on foot many a time to borrow +books. + +His subsistence, after the failure of Berry & Lincoln, was +derived from the friendliness of the County Surveyor Calhoun, +who was a Democrat, while Lincoln called himself a Whig. +Calhoun offered him the post of assistant. In accepting, +Lincoln again displayed the honesty that was beginning to be +known as his characteristic. He stipulated that he should be +perfectly free to express his opinions, that the office should +not be in any respect, a bribe. This being conceded, he went +to work furiously on a treatise upon surveying, and +astonishingly soon, with the generous help of the schoolmaster +of New Salem, was able to take up his duties. His first fee +was "two buckskins which Hannah Armstrong 'fixed' on his pants +so the briers would not wear them out."[8] + +Thus time passed until 1834 when he staked his only wealth, his +popularity, in the gamble of an election. This time he was +successful. During the following winter he sat in the +Legislature of Illinois; a huge, uncouth, mainly silent member, +making apparently no impression whatever, very probably +striking the educated members as a nonentity in homespun.[9] + +In the spring of 1835, he was back in New Salem, busy again +with his surveying. Kind friends had secured him the office of +local postmaster. The delivery of letters was now combined +with going to and fro as a surveyor. As the mail came but once +a week, and as whatever he had to deliver could generally be +carried in his hat, and as payment was in proportion to +business done, his revenues continued small. Nevertheless, in +the view of New Salem, he was getting on. + +And then suddenly misfortune overtook him. His great +adventure, the first of those spiritual agonies of which he was +destined to endure so many, approached. Hitherto, since +childhood, women had played no part in his story. All the +recollections of his youth are vague in their references to the +feminine. As a boy at Pigeon Creek when old Thomas was hiring +him out, the women of the settlement liked to have him around, +apparently because he was kindly and ever ready to do odd jobs +in addition to his regular work. However, until 1835, his +story is that of a man's man, possibly because there was so +much of the feminine in his own make-up. In 1835 came a +change. A girl of New Salem, a pretty village maiden, the best +the poor place could produce, revealed him to himself. Sweet +Ann Rutledge, the daughter of the tavern-keeper, was his first +love. But destiny was against them. A brief engagement was +terminated by her sudden death late in the summer of 1835. Of +this shadowy love-affair very little is known,--though much +romantic fancy has been woven about it. Its significance for +after-time is in Lincoln's "reaction." There had been much +sickness in New Salem the summer in which Ann died. Lincoln +had given himself freely as nurse--the depth of his +companionableness thus being proved--and was in an overwrought +condition when his sorrow struck him. A last interview with +the dying girl, at which no one was present, left him quite +unmanned. A period of violent agitation followed. For a time +he seemed completely transformed. The sunny Lincoln, the +delight of Clary's Grove, had vanished. In his place was a +desolated soul--a brother to dragons, in the terrible imagery of +Job--a dweller in the dark places of affliction. It was his +mother reborn in him. It was all the shadowiness of his +mother's world; all that frantic reveling in the mysteries of +woe to which, hitherto, her son had been an alien. To the +simple minds of the villagers with their hard-headed, practical +way of keeping all things, especially love and grief, in the +outer layer of consciousness, this revelation of an emotional +terror was past understanding. Some of them, true to their +type, pronounced him insane. He was watched with especial +vigilance during storms, fogs, damp gloomy weather, "for fear +of an accident." Surely, it was only a crazy man, in New Salem +psychology, who was heard to say, "I can never be reconciled to +have the snow, rains and storms beat upon her grave."[10] + +In this crucial moment when the real base of his character had +been suddenly revealed--all the passionateness of the forest +shadow, the unfathomable gloom laid so deep at the bottom of +his soul--he was carried through his spiritual eclipse by the +loving comprehension of two fine friends. New Salem was not +all of the sort of Clary's Grove. Near by on a farm, in a +lovely, restful landscape, lived two people who deserve to be +remembered, Bowlin Green and his wife. They drew Lincoln into +the seclusion of their home, and there in the gleaming days of +autumn, when everywhere in the near woods flickered downward, +slowly, idly, the falling leaves golden and scarlet, Lincoln +recovered his equanimity.[11] But the hero of Pigeon Creek, of +Clary's Grove, did not quite come hack. In the outward life, +to be sure, a day came when the sunny story-teller, the victor +of Jack Armstrong, was once more what Jack would have called +his real self. In the inner life where alone was his reality, +the temper which affliction had revealed to him was +established. Ever after, at heart, he was to dwell alone, +facing, silent, those inscrutable things which to the primitive +mind are things of every day. Always, he was to have for his +portion in his real self, the dimness of twilight, or at best, +the night with its stars, "never glad, confident morning +again." + + + +IV. REVELATIONS + +From this time during many years almost all the men who saw +beyond the surface in Lincoln have indicated, in one way or +another, their vision of a constant quality. The observers of +the surface did not see it. That is to say, Lincoln did not at +once cast off any of his previous characteristics. It is +doubtful if he ever did. His experience was tenaciously +cumulative. Everything he once acquired, he retained, both in +the outer life and the inner; and therefore, to those who did +not have the clue to him, he appeared increasingly +contradictory, one thing on the surface, another within. +Clary's Grove and the evolutions from Clary's Grove, continued +to think of him as their leader. On the other hand, men who +had parted with the mere humanism of Clary's Grove, who were a +bit analytical, who thought themselves still more analytical, +seeing somewhat beneath the surface, reached conclusions +similar to those of a shrewd Congressman who long afterward +said that Lincoln was not a leader of men but a manager of +men.[1] This astute distinction was not true of the Lincoln the +Congressman confronted; nevertheless, it betrays much both of +the observer and of the man he tried to observe. In the +Congressman's day, what he thought he saw was in reality the +shadow of a Lincoln that had passed away, passed so slowly, so +imperceptibly that few people knew it had passed. During many +years following 1835, the distinction in the main applied. So +thought the men who, like Lincoln's latest law partner, William +H. Herndon, were not derivatives of Clary's Grove. The +Lincoln of these days was the only one Herndon knew. How +deeply he understood Lincoln is justly a matter of debate; but +this, at least, he understood--that Clary's Grove, in +attributing to Lincoln its own idea of leadership, was +definitely wrong. He saw in Lincoln, in all the larger +matters, a tendency to wait on events, to take the lead +indicated by events, to do what shallow people would have +called mere drifting. To explain this, he labeled him a +fatalist.[2] The label was only approximate, as most labels are. +But Herndon's effort to find one is significant. In these +years, Lincoln took the initiative--when he took it at all--in a +way that most people did not recognize. His spirit was ever +aloof. It was only the every-day, the external Lincoln that +came into practical contact with his fellows. + +This is especially true of the growing politician. He served +four consecutive terms in the Legislature without doing +anything that had the stamp of true leadership. He was not +like either of the two types of politicians that generally made +up the legislatures of those days--the men who dealt in ideas +as political counters, and the men who were grafters without in +their naive way knowing that they were grafters. As a member +of the Legislature, Lincoln did not deal in ideas. He was +instinctively incapable of graft A curiously routine +politician, one who had none of the earmarks familiar in such a +person. Aloof, and yet, more than ever companionable, the +power he had in the Legislature--for he had acquired a measure +of power--was wholly personal. Though called a Whig, it was not +as a party man but as a personal friend that he was able to +carry through his legislative triumphs. His most signal +achievement was wholly a matter of personal politics. There +was a general demand for the removal of the capital from its +early seat at Vandalia, and rivalry among other towns was keen. +Sangamon County was bent on winning the prize for its own +Springfield. Lincoln was put in charge of the Springfield +strategy. How he played his cards may be judged from the +recollections of another member who seems to have anticipated +that noble political maxim, "What's the Constitution between +friends?" "Lincoln," he says, "made Webb and me vote for the +removal, though we belonged to the southern end of the state. +We defended our vote before our constituents by saying that +necessity would ultimately force the seat of government to a +central position; but in reality, we gave the vote to Lincoln +because we liked him, because we wanted to oblige our friend, +and because we recognized him as our leader."[3] + +And yet on the great issues of the day he could not lead them. +In 1837, the movement of the militant abolitionists, still but +a few years old, was beginning to set the Union by the ears. +The illegitimate child of Calvinism and the rights of man, it +damned with one anathema every holder of slaves and also every +opponent of slavery except its own uncompromising adherents. +Its animosity was trained particularly on every suggestion that +designed to uproot slavery without creating an economic crisis, +that would follow England's example, and terminate the +"peculiar institution" by purchase. The religious side of +abolition came out in its fury against such ideas. +Slave-holders were Canaanites. The new cult were God's own +people who were appointed to feel anew the joy of Israel hewing +Agag asunder. Fanatics, terrible, heroic, unashamed, they made +two sorts of enemies--not only the partisans of slavery, but +all those sane reformers who, while hating slavery, hated also +the blood-lust that would make the hewing of Agag a respectable +device of political science. Among the partisans of slavery +were the majority of the Illinois Legislature. Early in 1837, +they passed resolutions condemning abolitionism. Whereupon it +was revealed--not that anybody at the time cared to know the +fact, or took it to heart--that among the other sort of the +enemies of abolition was our good young friend, everybody's +good friend, Abe Lincoln. He drew up a protest against the +Legislature's action; but for all his personal influence in +other affairs, he could persuade only one member to sign with +him. Not his to command at will those who "recognized him as +their leader" in the orthodox political game--so discreet, in +that it left principles for some one else to be troubled about! +Lincoln's protest was quite too far out of the ordinary for +personal politics to endure it. The signers were asked to +proclaim their belief "that the institution of slavery is +founded on both injustice and bad policy; but that the +promulgation of abolition doctrines tends rather to promote +than to abate its evils."[4] + +The singular originality of this position, sweeping aside as +vain both participants in the new political duel, was quite +lost on the little world in which Lincoln lived. For +after-time it has the interest of a bombshell that failed to +explode. It is the dawn of Lincoln's intellect. In his lonely +inner life, this crude youth, this lover of books in a village +where books were curiosities, had begun to think. The stages +of his transition from mere story-telling yokel--intellectual +only as the artist is intellectual, in his methods of +handling--to the man of ideas, are wholly lost. And in this +fact we have a prophecy of all the years to come. Always we +shall seek in vain for the early stages of Lincoln's ideas. +His mind will never reveal itself until the moment at which it +engages the world. No wonder, in later times, his close +associates pronounced him the most secretive of men; that one +of the keenest of his observers said that the more you knew of +Lincoln, the less you knew of him.[5] + +Except for the handicap of his surroundings, his intellectual +start would seem belated; even allowing for his handicap, it +was certainly slow. He was now twenty-eight. Pretty well on +to reveal for the first time intellectual power! Another +characteristic here. His mind worked slowly. But it is worth +observing that the ideas of the protest were never abandoned. +Still a third characteristic, mental tenacity. To the end of +his days, he looked askance at the temper of abolitionism, +regarded it ever as one of the chief evils of political +science. And quite as significant was another idea of the +protest which also had developed from within, which also he +never abandoned. + +On the question of the power of the national government with +regard to slavery, he took a position not in accord with either +of the political creeds of his day. The Democrats had already +formulated their doctrine that the national government was a +thing of extremely limited powers, the "glorified policeman" of +a certain school of publicists reduced almost to a minus +quantity. The Whigs, though amiably vague on most things +except money-making by state aid, were supposed to stand for a +"strong central government. Abolitionism had forced on both +parties a troublesome question, "What about slavery in the +District of Columbia, where the national government was +supreme?"The Democrats were prompt in their reply: Let the +glorified policeman keep the peace and leave private interests, +such as slave-holding, alone. The Whigs evaded, tried not to +apply their theory of "strong" government; they were fearful +lest they offend one part of their membership if they asserted +that the nation had no right to abolish slavery in the +District, fearful of offending others if they did not. +Lincoln's protest asserted that "the Congress of the United +States has the power, under the Constitution, to abolish +slavery in the District of Columbia but the power ought not to +be exercised, unless at the request of the District." In other +words, Lincoln, when suddenly out of the storm and stress that +followed Ann's death his mentality flashes forth, has an +attitude toward political power that was not a consequence of +his environment, that sets him apart as a type of man rare in +the history of statesmanship. What other American politician +of his day--indeed, very few politicians of any day--would have +dared to assert at once the existence of a power and the moral +obligation not to use it? The instinctive American mode of +limiting power is to deny its existence. Our politicians so +deeply distrust our temperament that whatever they may say for +rhetorical effect, they will not, whenever there is any danger +of their being taken at their word, trust anything to moral +law. Their minds are normally mechanical. The specific, +statutory limitation is the only one that for them has reality. +The truth that temper in politics is as great a factor as law +was no more comprehensible to the politicians of 1837 than, say +Hamlet or The Last Judgment. But just this is what the crude +young Lincoln understood. Somehow he had found it in the +depths of his own nature. The explanation, if any, is to be +found in his heredity. Out of the shadowy parts of him, beyond +the limits of his or any man's conscious vision, dim, +unexplored, but real and insistent as those forest recesses +from which his people came, arise the two ideas: the faith in a +mighty governing power; the equal faith that it should use its +might with infinite tenderness, that it should be slow to +compel results, even the result of righteousness, that it +should be tolerant of human errors, that it should transform +them slowly, gradually, as do the gradual forces of nature, as +do the sun and the rain. + +And such was to be the real Lincoln whenever he spoke out, to +the end. His tonic was struck by his first significant +utterance at the age of twenty-eight. How inevitable that it +should have no significance to the congregation of good fellows +who thought of him merely as one of their own sort, who put up +with their friend's vagary, and speedily forgot it. + +The moment was a dreary one in Lincoln's fortunes. By dint of +much reading of borrowed books, he had succeeded in obtaining +from the easy-going powers that were in those days, a license +to practise law. In the spring of 1837 he removed to +Springfield. He had scarcely a dollar in his pocket. Riding +into Springfield on a borrowed horse, with all the property he +owned, including his law books, in two saddlebags, he went to +the only cabinet-maker in the town and ordered a single +bedstead. He then went to the store of Joshua F. Speed. The +meeting, an immensely eventful one for Lincoln, as well as a +classic in the history of genius in poverty, is best told in +Speed's words: "He came into my store, set his saddle-bags on +the counter and inquired what the furnishings for a single +bedstead would cost. I took slate and pencil, made a +calculation and found the sum for furnishings complete, would +amount to seventeen dollars in all. Said he: 'It is probably +cheap enough, but I want to say that, cheap as it is, I have +not the money to pay; but if you will credit me until +Christmas, and my experiment here as a lawyer is a success, I +will pay you then. If I fail in that I will probably never pay +you at all.' The tone of his voice was so melancholy that I +felt for him. I looked up at him and I thought then as I think +now that I never saw so gloomy and melancholy a face in my +life. I said to him: 'So small a debt seems to affect you so +deeply, I think I can suggest a plan by which you will be able +to attain your end without incurring any debt. I have a very +large room and a very large double bed in it, which you are +perfectly welcome to share with me if you choose.' 'Where is +your room?' he asked. 'Up-stairs,' said I, pointing to the +stairs leading from the store to my room. Without saying a +word, he took his saddle-bags on his arm, went upstairs, set +them down on the floor, came down again, and with a face +beaming with pleasure and smiles exclaimed, 'Well, Speed, I'm +moved.'"[6] + +This was the beginning of a friendship which appears to have +been the only one of its kind Lincoln ever had. Late in life, +with his gifted private secretaries, with one or two brilliant +men whom he did not meet until middle age, he had something +like intimate comradeship. But even they did not break the +prevailing solitude of his inner life. His aloofness of soul +became a fixed condition. The one intruder in that lonely +inner world was Speed. In the great collection of Lincoln's +letters none have the intimate note except the letters to +Speed. And even these are not truly intimate with the +exception of a single group inspired all by the same train of +events. The deep, instinctive reserve of Lincoln's nature was +incurable. The exceptional group of letters involve his final +love-affair. Four years after his removal to Springfield, +Lincoln became engaged to Miss Mary Todd. By that time he had +got a start at the law and was no longer in grinding poverty. +If not yet prosperous, he had acquired "prospects"--the strong +likelihood of better things to come so dear to the buoyant +heart of the early West. + +Hospitable Springfield, some of whose best men had known him in +the Legislature, opened its doors to him. His humble origin, +his poor condition, were forgiven. In true Western fashion, he +was frankly put on trial to show what was in him. If he could +"make good" no further questions would be asked. And in +every-day matters, his companionableness rose to the occasion. +Male Springfield was captivated almost as easily as New Salem. + +But all this was of the outer life. If the ferment within was +constant between 1835 and 1840, the fact is lost in his +taciturnity. But there is some evidence of a restless +emotional life. + +In the rebound after the woe following Ann's death, he had gone +questing after happiness--such a real thing to him, now that he +had discovered the terror of unhappiness--in a foolish +half-hearted courtship of a bouncing, sensible girl named Mary +Owens, who saw that he was not really in earnest, decided that +he was deficient in those "little links that make up a woman's +happiness," and sent him about his business--rather, on the +whole, to his relief.[7] The affair with Miss Todd had a +different tone from the other. The lady was of another world +socially. The West in those days swarmed with younger sons, or +the equivalents of younger sons, seeking their fortunes, whom +sisters and cousins were frequently visiting. Mary Todd was +sister-in-law to a leading citizen of Springfield. Her origin +was of Kentucky and Virginia, with definite claims to +distinction. Though a family genealogy mounts as high as the +sixth century, sober history is content with a grandfather and +great grandfather who were military men of some repute, two +great uncles who were governors, and another who was a cabinet +minister. Rather imposing contrasted with the family tree of +the child of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks! Even more +significant was the lady's education. She had been to a school +where young ladies of similar social pretensions were allowed +to speak only the French language. She was keenly aware of the +role marked out for her by destiny, and quite convinced that +she would always in every way live up to it. + +The course of her affair with Lincoln did not run smooth. +There were wide differences of temperament; quarrels of some +sort--just what, gossip to this day has busied itself trying to +discover--and on January 1, 1841, the engagement was broken. +Before the end of the month he wrote to his law partner +apologizing for his inability to be coherent on business +matters. "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 distributed to +the whole human family, there would not be one cheerful face on +earth. Whether I shall ever be better, I can not tell. I +awfully forebode I shall not. To remain as I am is impossible. +I must die or be better, it appears to me . . . a change of +scene might help me." + +His friend Speed became his salvation. Speed closed out his +business and carried Lincoln off to visit his own relations in +Kentucky. It was the devotion of Bowlin Green and his wife +over again. But the psychology of the event was much more +singular. Lincoln, in the inner life, had progressed a long +way since the death of Ann, and the progress was mainly in the +way of introspection, of self-analysis. He had begun to brood. +As always, the change did not reveal itself until an event in +the outward life called it forth like a rising ghost from the +abyss of his silences. His friends had no suspicion that in +his real self, beneath the thick disguise of his external +sunniness, he was forever brooding, questioning, analyzing, +searching after the hearts of things both within and without.. + +"In the winter of 1840 and 1841," writes Speed, "he was unhappy +about the engagement to his wife--not being entirely satisfied +that his heart was going with his hand. How much he suffered +then on that account, none knew so well as myself; he disclosed +his whole heart to me. In the summer of 1841 I became engaged +to my wife. He was here on a visit when I courted her; and +strange to say, something of the same feeling which I regarded +as so foolish in him took possession of me, and kept me very +unhappy from the time of my engagement until I was married. +This will explain the deep interest he manifested in his +letters on my account. . . One thing is plainly discernible; +if I had not been married and happy, far more happy than I ever +expected to be, he would not have married." + +Whether or not Speed was entirely right in his final +conclusion, it is plain that he and Lincoln were remarkably +alike in temperament; that whatever had caused the break in +Lincoln's engagement was repeated in his friend's experience +when the latter reached a certain degree of emotional tension; +that this paralleling of Lincoln's own experience in the +experience of the friend so like himself, broke tip for once +the solitude of his inner life and delivered him from some dire +inward terror. Both men were deeply introspective. Each had +that overpowering sense of the emotional responsibilities of +marriage, which is bred in the bone of certain hyper-sensitive +types--at least in the Anglo-Saxon race. But neither realized +this trait in himself until, having blithely pursued his +impulse to the point of committal, his spiritual conscience +suddenly awakened and he asked of his heart, "Do I truly love +her? Am I perfectly sure the emotion is permanent?" + +It is on this speculation that the unique group of the intimate +letters to Speed are developed. They were written after +Lincoln's return to Springfield, while Speed was wrestling with +the demon of self-analysis. In the period which they cover, +Lincoln delivered himself from that same demon and recovered +Serenity. Before long he was writing: "I know what the painful +point with you is at all times when you are unhappy; it is an +apprehension that you do not love her as you should. What +nonsense! How came you to court her? Was it because you +thought she deserved it and that you had given her reason to +expect it? If it was for that, why did not the same reason make +you court Ann Todd, and at least twenty others of whom you can +think, to whom it would apply with greater force than to her? +Did you court her for her wealth? Why, you said she had none. +But you say you reasoned yourself into it. What do you mean by +that? Was it not that you found yourself unable to reason +yourself out of it?" And much more of the same shrewd sensible +sort,--a picture unintentionally of his own state of mind no +less than of his friend's. + +This strange episode reveals also that amid Lincoln's silences, +while the outward man appeared engrossed in everyday matters, +the inward man had been seeking religion. His failure to +accept the forms of his mother's creed did not rest on any lack +of the spiritual need. Though undefined, his religion glimmers +at intervals through the Speed letters. When Speed's +fiancee fell ill and her tortured lover was in a paroxysm of +remorse and grief, Lincoln wrote: "I hope and believe that your +present anxiety and distress about her health and her life must +and will forever banish those horrid doubts which I know you +sometimes felt as to the truth of your affection for her. If +they can once and forever be removed (and I feel a presentment +that the Almighty has sent your present affliction expressly +for that object) surely nothing can come in their stead to fill +their immeasurable measure of misery. . . Should she, as you +fear, be destined to an early grave, it is indeed a great +consolation to know she is so well prepared to meet it." + +Again he wrote: "I was always superstitious. I believe God +made me one of the instruments of bringing you and your Fanny +together, which union I have no doubt lie had foreordained. +Whatever He designs He will do for me yet. 'Stand still and +see the salvation of the Lord' is my text now." + +The duality in self-torture of these spiritual brethren endured +in all about a year and a half, and closed with Speed's +marriage. Lincoln was now entirely delivered from his demon. +He wrote Speed a charming letter, serene, affectionate, touched +with gentle banter, valiant though with a hint of disillusion +as to their common type. "I tell you, Speed, our forebodings +(for which you and I are peculiar) are all the worst sort of +nonsense. . You say you much fear that that elysium of which +you have dreamed so much is never to be realized. Well, if it +shall not, I dare swear it will not be the fault of her who is +now your wife. I have no doubt that it is the peculiar +misfortune of both you and me to dream dreams of elysium far +exceeding all that anything earthly can realize."[8] + + + +V. PROSPERITY + +How Lincoln's engagement was patched up is as delicious an +uncertainty, from gossip's point of view, as how it had been +broken off. Possibly, as many people have asserted, it was +brought about by an event of which, in the irony of fate, +Lincoln ever after felt ashamed.[1] An impulsive, not overwise +politician, James Shields, a man of many peculiarities, was +saucily lampooned in a Springfield paper by some jaunty girls, +one of whom was Miss Todd. + +Somehow,--the whole affair is very dim,--Lincoln acted as their +literary adviser. Shields demanded the name of his detractor; +Lincoln assumed the responsibility; a challenge followed. +Lincoln was in a ridiculous position. He extricated himself by +a device which he used more than once thereafter; he gravely +proposed the impossible. He demanded conditions which would +have made the duel a burlesque--a butcher's match with cavalry +broadswords. But Shields, who was flawlessly literal, +insisted. The two met and only on the dueling ground was the +quarrel at last talked into oblivion by the seconds. Whether +this was the cause of the reconciliation with Miss Todd, or a +consequence, or had nothing to do with it, remains for the +lovers of the unimportant to decide. The only sure fact in +this connection is the marriage which took place November 4, +1842.[2] + +Mrs. Lincoln's character has been much discussed. Gossip, +though with very little to go on, has built up a tradition that +the marriage was unhappy. If one were to believe the half of +what has been put in print, one would have to conclude that the +whole business was a wretched mistake; that Lincoln found +married life intolerable because of the fussily dictatorial +self-importance of his wife. But the authority for all these +tales is meager. Not one is traceable to the parties +themselves. Probably it will never be known till the end of +time what is false in them, what true. About all that can be +disengaged from this cloud of illusive witnesses is that +Springfield wondered why Mary Todd married Lincoln. He was +still poor; so poor that after marriage they lived at the Globe +Tavern on four dollars a week. And the lady had been sought by +prosperous men! The lowliness of Lincoln's origin went ill +with her high notions of her family's importance. She was +downright, high-tempered, dogmatic, but social; he was devious, +slow to wrath, tentative, solitary; his very appearance, then +as afterward, was against him. Though not the hideous man he +was later made out to be--the "gorilla" of enemy +caricaturists--he was rugged of feature, with a lower lip that +tended to protrude. His immense frame was thin and angular; +his arms were inordinately long; hands, feet and eyebrows were +large; skin swarthy; hair coarse, black and generally unkempt. +Only the amazing, dreamful eyes, and a fineness in the texture +of the skin, redeemed the face and gave it distinction.[3] Why +did precise, complacent Miss Todd pick out so strange a man for +her mate? The story that she married him for ambition, divining +what he was to be--like Jane Welsh in the conventional story of +Carlyle--argues too much of the gift of prophecy. Whatever her +motive, it is more than likely that she was what the +commercialism of to-day would call an "asset." She had certain +qualities that her husband lacked. For one, she had that +intuition for the main chance which shallow people confound +with practical judgment. Her soul inhabited the obvious; but +within the horizon of the obvious she was shrewd, courageous +and stubborn. Not any danger that Mary Lincoln would go +wandering after dreams, visions, presences, such as were +drifting ever in a ghostly procession at the back of her +husband's mind. There was a danger in him that was to grow +with the years, a danger that the outer life might be swamped +by the inner, that the ghosts within might carry him away with +them, away from fact--seeking-seeking. That this never +occurred may be fairly credited, or at least very plausibly +credited, to the firm-willed, the utterly matter-of-fact little +person he had married. How far he enjoyed the mode of his +safe-guarding is a fruitless speculation. + +Another result that may, perhaps, be due to Mary Lincoln was +the improvement in his fortunes. However, this may have had no +other source than a distinguished lawyer whose keen eyes had +been observing him since his first appearance in politics. +Stephen T. Logan "had that old-fashioned, lawyer-like morality +which was keenly intolerant of any laxity or slovenliness of +mind or character." He had, "as he deserved, the reputation of +being the best nisi prius lawyer in the state."[4] After watching +the gifted but ill-prepared young attorney during several years, +observing the power he had of simplification and convincingness +in statement, taking the measure of his scrupulous +honesty--these were ever Lincoln's strong cards as a +lawyer--Logan made him the surprising offer of a junior +partnership, which was instantly accepted. That was when his +inner horizon was brightening, shortly before his marriage. A +period of great mental energy followed, about the years 1842 +and 1843. Lincoln threw himself into the task of becoming a +real lawyer under Logan's direction. However, his zeal flagged +after a time, and when the partnership ended four years later +he had to some extent fallen back into earlier, less strenuous +habits. "He permitted his partner to do all the studying in +the preparation of cases, while he himself trusted to his +general knowledge of the law and the inspiration of the +surroundings to overcome the judge or the jury."[5] Though +Lincoln was to undergo still another stimulation of the +scholarly conscience before finding himself as a lawyer, the +four years with Logan were his true student period. If the +enthusiasm of the first year did not hold out, none the less he +issued from that severe course of study a changed man, one who +knew the difference between the learned lawyer and the +unlearned. His own methods, to he sure, remained what they +always continued to be, unsystematic, not to say slipshod. +Even after he became president his lack of system was at times +the despair of his secretaries.[6] Herndon, who succeeded Logan +as his partner, and who admired both men, has a broad hint that +Logan and Lincoln were not always an harmonious firm. A clash +of political ambitions is part explanation; business methods +another. "Logan was scrupulously exact and used extraordinary +care in the preparation of papers. His words were well chosen, +and his style of composition was stately and formal."[7] He was +industrious and very thrifty, while Lincoln had "no money +sense." It must have annoyed, if it did not exasperate his +learned and formal partner, when Lincoln signed the firm name +to such letters as this: "As to real estate, we can not attend +to it. We are not real estate agents, we are lawyers. We +recommend that you give the charge of it to Mr. Isaac S. +Britton, a trust-worthy man and one whom the Lord made on +purpose for such business."[8] + +Superficial observers, then and afterward, drew the conclusion +that Lincoln was an idler. Long before, as a farm-hand, he had +been called "bone idle."[9] And of the outer Lincoln, except +under stress of need, or in spurts of enthusiasm, as in the +earlier years with Logan, this reckless comment had its base of +fact. The mighty energy that was in Lincoln, a tireless, +inexhaustible energy, was inward, of the spirit; it did not +always ramify into the sensibilities and inform his outer life. +The connecting link of the two, his mere intelligence, though +constantly obedient to demands of the outer life, was not +susceptible of great strain except on demand of the spiritual +vision. Hence his attitude toward the study of the law. It +thrilled and entranced him, called into play all his +powers--observation, reflection, intelligence--just so long as +it appeared in his imagination a vast creative effort of the +spiritual powers, of humanity struggling perilously to see +justice done upon earth, to let reason and the will of God +prevail. It lost its hold upon him the instant it became a +thing of technicalities, of mere learning, of statutory +dialectics. + +The restless, inward Lincoln, dwelling deep among spiritual +shadows, found other outlets for his energy during these years +when he was establishing himself at the bar. He continued to +be a voracious reader. And his reading had taken a skeptical +turn. Volney and Paine were now his intimates. The wave of +ultra-rationalism that went over America in the 'forties did +not spare many corners of the land. In Springfield, as in so +many small towns, it had two effects: those who were not +touched by it hardened into jealous watchfulness, and their +religion naturally enough became fiercely combative; those who +responded to the new influence became a little affected +philosophically, a bit effervescent. The young men, when of +serious mind, and all those who were reformers by temperament, +tended to exalt the new, to patronize, if not to ridicule the +old. At Springfield, as at many another frontier town wracked +by its growing pains, a Young Men's Lyceum confessed the world +to be out of joint, and went to work glibly to set it right. +Lincoln had contributed to its achievements. An oration of his +on "Perpetuation of Our Free Institutions,"[10] a mere rhetorical +"stunt" in his worst vein now deservedly forgotten, so +delighted the young men that they asked to have it +printed--quite as the same sort of young men to-day print essays +on cubism, or examples of free verse read to poetry societies. +Just what views he expressed on things in general among the +young men and others; how far he aired his acquaintance with +the skeptics, is imperfectly known.[11] However, a rumor got +abroad that he was an "unbeliever," which was the easy label +for any one who disagreed in religion with the person who +applied it. The rumor was based in part on a passage in an +address on temperance. In 1842, Lincoln, who had always been +abstemious, joined that Washington Society which aimed at a +reformation in the use of alcohol. His address was delivered +at the request of the society. It contained this passage, very +illuminating in its light upon the generosity, the real +humility of the speaker, but scarcely tactful, considering the +religious susceptibility of the hour: "If they [the Christians] +believe as they profess, that Omnipotence condescended to take +on himself the form of sinful man, and as such die an +ignominious death, surely they will not refuse submission to +the infinitely lesser condescension for the temporal and +perhaps eternal salvation of a large, erring and unfortunate +class of their fellow creatures! Nor is the condescension very +great. In my judgment such of us as have never fallen victims +have been spared more from the absence of appetite than from +any mental or moral superiority over those who have. Indeed, I +believe, if we take habitual drunkards as a class, their heads +and their hearts will bear an advantageous comparison with +those of any other class."[12] How like that remark attributed to +another great genius, one whom Lincoln in some respects +resembled, the founder of Methodism, when he said of a passing +drunkard: "There goes John Wesley, except for the Grace of +God." But the frontier zealots of the 'forties were not of the +Wesley type. The stories of Lincoln's skeptical interests, the +insinuations which were promptly read into this temperance +address, the fact that he was not a church-member, all these +were seized upon by a good but very narrow man, a devoted, +illiterate evangelist, Peter Cartwright. + +In 1846, this religious issue became a political issue. The +Whigs nominated Lincoln for Congress. It was another instance +of personal politics. The local Whig leaders had made some +sort of private agreement, the details of which appear to be +lost, but according to which Lincoln now became the inevitable +candidate.[13] He was nominated without opposition. The Democrats +nominated Cartwright. + +Two charges were brought against Lincoln: that he was an +infidel, and that he was--of all things in the world!--an +aristocrat. On these charges the campaign was fought. The +small matter of what he would do at Washington, or would not +do, was brushed aside. Personal politics with a vengeance! The +second charge Lincoln humorously and abundantly disproved; the +first, he met with silence. + +Remembering Lincoln's unfailing truthfulness, remembering also +his restless ambition, only one conclusion can be drawn from +this silence. He could not categorically deny Cartwright's +accusation and at the same time satisfy his own unsparing +conception of honesty. That there was no real truth in the +charge of irreligion, the allusions in the Speed letters +abundantly prove. The tone is too sincere to be doubted; +nevertheless, they give no clue to his theology. And for men +like Cartwright, religion was tied up hand and foot in +theology. Here was where Lincoln had parted company from his +mother's world, and from its derivatives. Though he held +tenaciously to all that was mystical in her bequest to him, he +rejected early its formulations. The evidence of later years +reaffirms this double fact. The sense of a spiritual world +behind, beyond the world of phenomena, grew on him with the +years; the power to explain, to formulate that world was denied +him. He had no bent for dogma. Ethically, mystically, he was +always a Christian; dogmatically he knew not what he was. +Therefore, to the challenge to prove himself a Christian on +purely dogmatic grounds, he had no reply. To attempt to +explain what separated him from his accusers, to show how from +his point of view they were all Christian--although, remembering +their point of view, he hesitated to say so--to draw the line +between mysticism and emotionalism, would have resulted only in +a worse confusion. Lincoln, the tentative mystic, the child of +the starlit forest, was as inexplicable to Cartwright with his +perfectly downright religion, his creed of heaven or hell--take +your choice and be quick about it!--as was Lincoln the spiritual +sufferer to New Salem, or Lincoln the political scientist to +his friends in the Legislature. + +But he was not injured by his silence. The faith in him held +by too many people was too well established. Then, as always +thereafter, whatever he said or left unsaid, most thoughtful +persons who came close to him sensed him as a religious man. +That was enough for healthy, generous young Springfield. He +and Cartwright might fight out their religious issues when they +pleased, Abe should have his term in Congress. He was elected +by a good majority.[14] + + + +VI. UNSATISFYING RECOGNITION + +Lincoln's career as a Congressman, 1847-1849, was just what +might have been expected--his career in the Illinois Legislature +on a larger scale. It was a pleasant, companionable, +unfruitful episode, with no political significance. The +leaders of the party did not take him seriously as a possible +initiate to their ranks. His course was that of a loyal member +of the Whig mass. In the party strategy, during the debates +over the Mexican War and the Wilmot Proviso, he did his full +party duty, voting just as the others did. Only once did he +attempt anything original--a bill to emancipate the slaves of +the District, which was little more than a restatement of his +protest of ten years before--and on this point Congress was as +indifferent as the Legislature had been. The bill was denied a +hearing and never came to a vote before the House.[1] + +And yet Lincoln did not fail entirely to make an impression at +Washington. And again it was the Springfield experience +repeated. His companionableness was recognized, his modesty, +his good nature; above all, his story-telling. Men liked him. +Plainly it was his humor, his droll ways, that won them; +together with instant recognition of his sterling integrity. + +"During the Christmas holidays," says Ben Perley Poore, "Mr. +Lincoln found his way into the small room used as the Post +Office of the House, where a few genial reconteurs used to meet +almost every morning after the mail had been distributed into +the members' boxes, to exchange such new stories as any of them +might have acquired since they had last met. After modestly +standing at the door for several days, Mr. Lincoln was reminded +of a story, and by New Year's he was recognized as the champion +story-teller of the Capital. His favorite seat was at the left +of the open fireplace, tilted back in his chair with his long +legs reaching over to the chimney jamb."[2] + +In the words of another contemporary, "Congressman Lincoln was +very fond of howling and would frequently. . . meet other +members in a match game at the alley of James Casparus. . . +. He was an awkward bowler, but played the game with great +zest and spirit solely for exercise and amusement, and greatly +to the enjoyment and entertainment of the other players, and by +reason of his criticisms and funny illustrations. . . . +When it was known that he was in the alley, there would +assemble numbers of people to witness the fun which was +anticipated by those who knew of his fund of anecdotes and +jokes. When in the alley, surrounded by a crowd of eager +listeners, he indulged with great freedom in the sport of +narrative, some of which were very broad."[3] + +Once, at least, he entertained Congress with an exhibition of +his humor, and this, oddly enough, is almost the only display +of it that has come down to us, first hand. Lincoln's humor +has become a tradition. Like everything else in his outward +life, it changed gradually with his slow devious evolution from +the story-teller of Pigeon Creek to the author of the +Gettysburg Oration. It is known chiefly through translation. +The "Lincoln Stories" are stories someone else has told who may +or may not have heard them told by Lincoln. They are like all +translations, they express the translator not the +original--final evidence that Lincoln's appeal as a humorist was +in his manner, his method, not in his substance. "His laugh +was striking. Such awkward gestures belonged to no other man. +They attracted universal attention from the old sedate down to +the schoolboy."[4] He was a famous mimic. + +Lincoln is himself the authority that he did not invent his +stories. He picked them up wherever he found them, and clothed +them with the peculiar drollery of his telling. He was a wag +rather than a wit. All that lives in the second-hand +repetitions of his stories is the mere core, the original +appropriated thing from which the inimitable decoration has +fallen off. That is why the collections of his stories are +such dreary reading,--like Carey's Dante, or Bryant's Homer. +And strange to say, there is no humor in his letters. This man +who was famous as a wag writes to his friends almost always in +perfect seriousness, often sadly. The bit of humor that has +been preserved in his one comic speech in Congress,--a burlesque +of the Democratic candidate of 1848, Lewis Cass,--shorn as it is +of his manner, his tricks of speech and gesture, is hardly +worth repeating.[5] + +Lincoln was deeply humiliated by his failure to make a serious +impression at Washington.[6] His eyes opened in a startled +realization that there were worlds he could not conquer. The +Washington of the 'forties was far indeed from a great capital; +it was as friendly to conventional types of politician as was +Springfield or Vandalia. The man who could deal in ideas as +political counters, the other man who knew the subtleties of +the art of graft, both these were national as well as local +figures. Personal politics were also as vicious at Washington +as anywhere; nevertheless, there was a difference, and in that +difference lay the secret of Lincoln's failure. He was keen +enough to grasp the difference, to perceive the clue to his +failure. In a thousand ways, large and small, the difference +came home to him. It may all be symbolized by a closing detail +of his stay. An odd bit of incongruity was the inclusion of +his name in the list of managers of the Inaugural Ball of 1849. +Nothing of the sort had hitherto entered into his experience. +As Mrs. Lincoln was not with him he joined "a small party of +mutual friends" who attended the ball together. As one of them +relates, "he was greatly interested in all that was to be seen +and we did not take our departure until three or four o'clock +in the morning."[7] What an ironic picture--this worthy +provincial, the last word for awkwardness, socially as strange +to such a scene as a little child, spending the whole night +gazing intently at everything he could see, at the barbaric +display of wealth, the sumptuous gowns, the brilliant uniforms, +the distinguished foreigners, and the leaders of America, men +like Webster and Clay, with their air of assured power, the men +he had failed to impress. This was his valedictory at +Washington. He went home and told Herndon that he had +committed political suicide.[8] He had met the world and the +world was too strong for him. + +And yet, what was wrong? He had been popular at Washington, in +the same way in which he had been popular at Springfield. Why +had the same sort of success inspired him at Springfield and +humiliated him at Washington? The answer was in the difference +between the two worlds. Companionableness, story-telling, at +Springfield, led to influence; at Washington it led only to +applause. At Springfield it was a means; at Washington it was +an end. The narrow circle gave the good fellow an opportunity +to reveal at his leisure everything else that was in him; the +larger circle ruthlessly put him in his place as a good fellow +and nothing more. The truth was that in the Washington of the +'forties, neither the inner nor the outer Lincoln could by +itself find lodgment. Neither the lonely mystical thinker nor +the captivating buffoon could do more than ripple its surface. +As superficial as Springfield, it lacked Springfield's +impulsive generosity. To the long record of its obtuseness it +had added another item. The gods had sent it a great man and +it had no eyes to see. It was destined to repeat the +performance. + +And so Lincoln came home, disappointed, disillusioned. He had +not succeeded in establishing the slightest claim, either upon +the country or his party. Without such claim he had no ground +for attempting reelection. The frivolity of the Whig machine +in the Sangamon region was evinced by their rotation agreement. +Out of such grossly personal politics Lincoln had gone to +Washington; into this essentially corrupt system he relapsed. +He faced, politically, a blank wall. And he had within him as +yet, no consciousness of any power that might cleave the wall +asunder. What was he to do next? + +At this dangerous moment--so plainly the end of a chapter--he was +offered the governorship of the new Territory of Oregon. For +the first time he found himself at a definite parting of the +ways, where a sheer act of will was to decide things; where the +pressure of circumstance was of secondary importance. + +In response to this crisis, an overlooked part of him appeared. +The inheritance from his mother, from the forest, had always +been obvious. But, after all, he was the son not only of Nancy +and of the lonely stars, but also of shifty, drifty Thomas the +unstable. If it was not his paternal inheritance that revived +in him at this moment of confessed failure, it was something of +the same sort. Just as Thomas had always by way of extricating +himself from a failure taken to the road, now Abraham, at a +psychological crisis, felt the same wanderlust, and he +threatened to go adrift. Some of his friends urged him to +accept. "You will capture the new community," said they, "and +when Oregon becomes a State, you will go to Washington as its +first Senator." What a glorified application of the true +Thomasian line of thought. Lincoln hesitated--hesitated-- + +And then the forcible little lady who had married him put her +foot down. Go out to that far-away backwoods, just when they +were beginning to get on in the world; when real prosperity at +Springfield was surely within their grasp; when they were at +last becoming people of importance, who should be able to keep +their own carriage? Not much! + +Her husband declined the appointment and resumed the practice +of law in Springfield.[9] + + + +VII. THE SECOND START + +Stung by his failure at Washington, Lincoln for a time put his +whole soul into the study of the law. He explained his failure +to himself as a lack of mental training.[1] There followed a +repetition of his early years with Logan, but with very much +more determination, and with more abiding result. + +In those days in Illinois, as once in England, the judges held +court in a succession of towns which formed a circuit. Judge +and lawyers moved from town to town, "rode the circuit" in +company,--sometimes on horseback, sometimes in their own +vehicles, sometimes by stage. Among the reminiscences of +Lincoln on the circuit, are his "poky" old horse and his +"ramshackle" old buggy. Many and many a mile, round and round +the Eighth Judicial Circuit, he traveled in that humble style. +What thoughts he brooded on in his lonely drives, he seldom +told. During this period the cloud over his inner life is +especially dense. The outer life, in a multitude of +reminiscences, is well known. One of its salient details was +the large proportion of time he devoted to study. + +"Frequently, I would go out on the circuit with him," writes +Herndon. "We, usually, at the little country inn, occupied the +same bed. In most cases, the beds were too short for him and +his feet would hang over the footboard, thus exposing a limited +expanse of shin bone. Placing his candle at the head of his +bed he would read and study for hours. I have known him to +stay in this position until two o'clock in the morning. +Meanwhile, I and others who chanced to occupy the same room +would be safely and soundly asleep. On the circuit, in this +way, he studied Euclid until he could with ease demonstrate all +the propositions in the six books. How he could maintain his +equilibrium or concentrate his thoughts on an abstract +mathematical problem, while Davis, Logan, Swett, Edwards and I, +so industriously and volubly filled the air with our +interminable snoring, was a problem none of, us--could ever +solve."[2] + +A well-worn copy of Shakespeare was also his constant +companion. + +He rose rapidly in the profession; and this in spite of his +incorrigible lack of system. The mechanical side of the +lawyer's task, now, as in the days with Logan, annoyed him; he +left the preparation of papers to his junior partner, as +formerly he left it to his senior partner. But the situation +had changed in a very important way. In Herndon, Lincoln had +for a partner a talented young man who looked up to him, almost +adored him, who was quite willing to be his man Friday. +Fortunately, for all his adoration, Herndon had no desire to +idealize his hero. He was not disturbed by his grotesque or +absurd sides. + +"He was proverbially careless as to his habits," Herndon +writes. "In a letter to a fellow lawyer in another town, +apologizing for his failure to answer sooner, he explains: +'First, I have been very busy in the United States Court; +second, when I received the letter, I put it in my old hat, and +buying a new one the next day, the old one was set aside, so +the letter was lost sight of for the time.' This hat of +Lincoln's--a silk plug--was an extraordinary receptacle. It was +his desk and his memorandum book. In it he carried his +bank-book and the bulk of his letters. Whenever in his reading +or researches, he wished to preserve an idea, he jotted it down +on an envelope or stray piece of paper and placed it inside the +lining; afterwards, when the memorandum was needed, there was +only one place to look for it." Herndon makes no bones about +confessing that their office was very dirty. So neglected was +it that a young man of neat habits who entered the office as a +law student under Lincoln could not refrain from cleaning it +up, and the next visitor exclaimed in astonishment, "What's +happened here!"[3] + +"The office," says that same law student, "was on the second +floor of a brick building on the public square opposite the +courthouse. You went up a flight of stairs and then passed +along a hallway to the rear office which was a medium sized +room. There was one long table in the center of the room, and +a shorter one running in the opposite direction forming a T and +both were covered with green baize. There were two windows +which looked into the back yard. In one corner was an +old-fashioned secretary with pigeonholes and a drawer; and +here Mr. Lincoln and his partner kept their law papers. There +was also a bookcase containing about two hundred volumes of law +and miscellaneous books." The same authority adds, "There was +no order in the office at all." Lincoln left all the money +matters to Herndon. "He never entered an item on the account +book. If a fee was paid to him and Herndon was not there, he +would divide the money, wrap up one part in paper and place it +in his partner's desk with the inscription, "Case of Roe versus +Doe, Herndon's half." He had an odd habit of reading aloud much +to his partner's annoyance. He talked incessantly; a whole +forenoon would sometimes go by while Lincoln occupied the whole +time telling stories.[4] + +On the circuit, his story-telling was an institution. Two +other men, long since forgotten, vied with him as rival artists +in humorous narrative. These three used to hold veritable +tournaments. Herndon has seen "the little country tavern where +these three were wont to meet after an adjournment of court, +crowded almost to suffocation, with an audience of men who had +gathered to witness the contest among the members of the +strange triumvirate. The physicians of the town, all the +lawyers, and not infrequently a preacher, could be found in the +crowd that filled the doors and windows. The yarns they spun +and the stories they told would not bear repetition here, but +many of them had morals which, while exposing the weakness of +mankind, stung like a whiplash. Some were, no doubt, a +thousand years old, with just enough of verbal varnish and +alterations of names and date to make them new and crisp. By +virtue of the last named application, Lincoln was enabled to +draw from Balzac a 'droll story' and locating it 'in Egypt' +[Southern Illinois] or in Indiana, pass it off for a purely +original conception. . . I have seen Judge Treat, who was +the very impersonation of gravity itself, sit up till the last +and laugh until, as he often expressed it, 'he almost shook his +ribs loose.' The next day he would ascend the bench and listen +to Lincoln in a murder trial with all the seeming severity of +an English judge in wig and gown."[5] + +Lincoln enjoyed the life on the circuit. It was not that he +was always in a gale of spirits; a great deal of the time he +brooded. His Homeric nonsense alternated with fits of gloom. +In spite of his late hours, whether of study or of +story-telling, he was an early riser. "He would sit by the +fire having uncovered the coals, and muse and ponder and +soliloquize."[6] Besides his favorite Shakespeare, he had a +fondness for poetry of a very different sort--Byron, for +example. And he never tired of a set of stanzas in the minor +key beginning: "Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud?"[7] + +The hilarity of the circuit was not by any means the whole of +its charm for him. Part of that charm must have been the +contrast with his recent failure at Washington. This world he +could master. Here his humor increased his influence; and his +influence grew rapidly. He was a favorite of judges, jury and +the bar. Then, too, it was a man's world. Though Lincoln had +a profound respect for women, he seems generally to have been +ill at ease in their company. In what his friends would have +called "general society" he did not shine. He was too awkward, +too downright, too lacking in the niceties. At home, though he +now owned a house and was making what seemed to him plenty of +money, he was undoubtedly a trial to Mrs. Lincoln's sense of +propriety. He could not rise with his wife, socially. He was +still what he had become so long before, the favorite of all +the men--good old Abe Lincoln that you could tie to though it +rained cats and dogs. But as to the ladies! Fashionable +people calling on Mrs. Lincoln, had been received by her +husband in his shirt-sleeves, and he totally unabashed, as +oblivious of discrepancy as if he were a nobleman and not a +nobody.[8] The dreadful tradition persists that he had been +known at table to put his own knife into the butter. + +How safe to assume that many things were said commiserating +poor Mrs. Lincoln who had a bear for a husband. And some +people noticed that Lincoln did not come home at week-ends +during term-time as often as he might. Perhaps it meant +something; perhaps it did not. But there could be no doubt +that the jovial itinerant life of the circuit was the life for +him--at least in the early 'fifties. That it was, and also that +he was becoming known as a lawyer, is evinced by his refusal of +a flattering invitation to enter a prosperous firm in Chicago. + +Out of all this came a deepening of his power to reach and +impress men through words. The tournament of the story-tellers +was a lawyers' tournament. The central figure was reading, +studying, thinking, as never in his life before. Though his +fables remained as broad as ever, the merely boisterous +character ceased to predominate. The ethical bent of his mind +came to the surface. His friends were agreed that what they +remembered chiefly of his stories was not the broad part of +them, but the moral that was in them.[9] And they had no +squeamishness as critics of the art of fable-making. + +His ethical sense of things, his companionableness, the utterly +non- censorious cast of his mind, his power to evolve yarns +into parables--all these made him irresistible with a jury. It +was a saying of his: "If I can divest this case of +technicalities and swing it to the jury, I'll win it."[10] + +But there was not a trace in him of that unscrupulousness +usually attributed to the "jury lawyer." Few things show more +plainly the central unmovableness of his character than his +immunity to the lures of jury speaking. To use his power over +an audience for his own enjoyment, for an interested purpose, +for any purpose except to afford pleasure, or to see justice +done, was for him constitutionally impossible. Such a +performance was beyond the reach of his will. In a way, his +nature, mysterious as it was, was also the last word for +simplicity, a terrible simplicity. The exercise of his +singular powers was irrevocably conditioned on his own faith in +the moral justification of what he was doing. He had no +patience with any conception of the lawyer's function that did +not make him the devoted instrument of justice. For the law as +a game, for legal strategy, he felt contempt. Never under any +conditions would he attempt to get for a client more than he +was convinced the client in justice ought to have. The first +step in securing his services was always to persuade him that +one's cause was just He sometimes threw up a case in open court +because the course of it had revealed deception on the part of +the client. At times he expressed his disdain of the law's +mere commercialism in a stinging irony. + +"In a closely contested civil suit," writes his associate, Ward +Hill Lamon, "Lincoln proved an account for his client, who was, +though he did not know it at the time, a very slippery fellow. +The opposing attorney then proved a receipt clearly covering +the entire cause of action. By the time he was through Lincoln +was missing. The court sent for him to the hotel. 'Tell the +Judge,' said he, 'that I can't come; my hands are dirty and I +came over to clean them.'"[11] + +"Discourage litigation," he wrote. "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."[12] + +He held his moral and professional views with the same +inflexibility with which he held his political views. Once he +had settled upon a conviction or an opinion, nothing could move +him. He was singularly stubborn, and yet, in all the minor +matters of life, in all his merely personal concerns, in +everything except his basal ideas, he was pliable to a degree. +He could be talked into almost any concession of interest. He +once told Herndon he thanked God that he had not been born a +woman because he found it so hard to refuse any request made of +him. His outer easiness, his lack of self-assertion,--as most +people understand self-assertion,--persist in an amusing group +of anecdotes of the circuit. Though he was a favorite with the +company at every tavern, those little demagogues, the +tavern-keepers, quickly found out that he could be safely put +upon. In the minute but important favoritism of tavern life, +in the choice of rooms, in the assignment of seats at table, in +the distribution of delicacies, easy-going Lincoln was ever the +first one to be ignored. "He never complained of the food, +bed, or lodgings," says a judge of the circuit, David Davis. +"If every other fellow grumbled at the bill of fare which +greeted us at many of the dingy taverns, Lincoln said +nothing."[13] + +But his complacency was of the surface only. His ideas were +his own. He held to them with dogged tenacity. Herndon was +merely the first of several who discerned on close familiarity +Lincoln's inward inflexibility. "I was never conscious," he +writes, "of having made much of an impression on Mr. Lincoln, +nor do I believe I ever changed his views. I will go further +and say that from the profound nature of his conclusions and +the labored method by which he arrived at them, no man is +entitled to the credit of having either changed or greatly +modified them."[14] + +In these years of the early 'fifties, Herndon had much occasion +to test his partner's indifference to other men's views, his +tenacious adherence to his own. Herndon had become an +Abolitionist. He labored to convert Lincoln; but it was a lost +labor. The Sphinx in a glimmer of sunshine was as unassailable +as the cheery, fable-loving, inflexible Lincoln. The younger +man would work himself up, and, flushed with ardor, warn +Lincoln against his apparent conservatism when the needs of the +hour were so great; but his only answer would be, "Billy, you +are too rampant and spontaneous."[15] + +Nothing could move him from his fixed conviction that the +temper of Abolitionism made it pernicious. He persisted in +classifying it with slavery,--both of equal danger to free +institutions. He took occasion to reassert this belief in the +one important utterance of a political nature that commemorates +this period. An oration on the death of Henry Clay, contains +the sentence: "Cast into life when slavery was already widely +spread and deeply sealed, he did not perceive, as I think no +wise man has perceived, how it could be at once eradicated +without producing a greater evil even to the cause of human +liberty itself."[16] + +It will be remembered that the Abolitionists were never +strongly national in sentiment. In certain respects they remind +one of the extreme "internationals" of to-day. Their +allegiance was not first of all to Society, nor to governments, +but to abstract ideas. For all such attitudes in political +science, Lincoln had an instinctive aversion. He was permeated +always, by his sense of the community, of the obligation to +work in terms of the community. Even the prejudices, the +shortsightedness of the community were things to be considered, +to be dealt with tenderly. Hence his unwillingness to force +reforms upon a community not ripe to receive them. In one of +his greatest speeches occurs the dictum: "A universal feeling +whether well or ill-founded, can not be safely disregarded."[17] +Anticipating such ideas, he made in his Clay oration, a +startling denunciation of both the extreme factions of + +"Those (Abolitionists) who would shiver into fragments the +union of these States, tear to tatters its now 'venerated +Constitution, and even burn the last copy of the Bible rather +than slavery should continue a single hour; together with all +their more halting sympathizers, have received and are +receiving their just execration; and the name and opinion and +influence of Mr. Clay are fully and, as I trust, effectually +and enduringly arrayed against them. But I would also if I +could, array his name, opinion and influence against the +opposite extreme, against a few, but increasing number of men +who, for the sake of perpetuating slavery, are beginning to +assail and ridicule the white man's charter of freedom, the +declaration that 'all men are created free and equal.'"[18] + +In another passage he stated what he conceived to be the +central inspiration of Clay. Had he been thinking of himself, +he could not have foreshadowed more exactly the basal drift of +all his future as a statesman: + +"He loved his country partly because it was his own country, +and mostly because it was a free country; and he burned with a +zeal for its advancement, prosperity, and glory, because he saw +in such the advancement, prosperity and glory of human liberty, +human right and human nature."[19] + + + +VIII. A RETURN TO POLITICS + +Meanwhile, great things were coming forward at Washington. +They centered about a remarkable man with whom Lincoln had +hitherto formed a curious parallel, by whom hitherto he had +been completely overshadowed. Stephen Arnold Douglas was +prosecuting attorney at Springfield when Lincoln began the +practice of law. They were in the Legislature together. Both +courted Mary Todd. Soon afterward, Douglas had distanced his +rival. When Lincoln went to the House of Representatives as a +Whig, Douglas went to the Senate as a Democrat. While Lincoln +was failing at Washington, Douglas was building a national +reputation. In the hubbub that followed the Compromise of +1850, while Lincoln, abandoning politics, immersed himself in +the law, Douglas rendered a service to the country by defeating +a movement in Illinois to reject the Compromise. When the +Democratic National Convention assembled in 1852, he was +sufficiently prominent to obtain a considerable vote for the +presidential nomination. + +The dramatic contrast of these two began with their physical +appearance. Douglas was so small that he had been known to sit +on a friend's knee while arguing politics. But his energy of +mind, his indomitable force of character, made up for his tiny +proportions. "The Little Giant" was a term of endearment +applied to him by his followers. The mental contrast was +equally marked. Scarcely a quality in Lincoln that was not +reversed in Douglas--deliberation, gradualness, introspection, +tenacity, were the characteristics of Lincoln's mind. The mind +of Douglas was first of all facile. He was extraordinarily +quick. In political Strategy he could sense a new situation, +wheel to meet it, throw overboard well-established plans, +devise new ones, all in the twinkle of an eye. People who +could not understand such rapidity of judgment pronounced him +insincere, or at least, an opportunist. That he did not have +the deep inflexibility of Lincoln may be assumed; that his +convictions, such as they were, did not have an ethical cast +may be safely asserted. Nevertheless, he was a great force, an +immense human power, that did not change its course without +good reason of its own sort. Far more than a mere opportunist. +Politically, he summed up a change that was coming over the +Democratic party. Janus-like, he had two faces, one for his +constituents, one for his colleagues. To the voter he was +still a Jeffersonian, with whom the old phraseology of the +party, liberty, equality, and fraternity, were still the +catch-words. To his associates in the Senate he was +essentially an aristocrat, laboring to advance interests that +were careless of the rights of man. A later age has accused +the Senate of the United States of being the citadel of Big +Business. Waiving the latter view, the historian may assert +that something suggestive of Big Business appeared in our +politics in the 'fifties, and was promptly made at home in the +Senate. Perhaps its first definite manifestation was a new +activity on the part of the great slave-holders. To invoke +again the classifications of later points of view, certain of +our historians to-day think they can see in the 'fifties a +virtual slavery trust, a combine of slave interests controlled +by the magnates of the institution, and having as real, though +informal, an existence as has the Steel Trust or the Beef Trust +in our own time. This powerful interest allied itself with the +capitalists of the Northeast. In modern phraseology, they +aimed to "finance" the slave interest from New York. And for a +time the alliance succeeded in doing this. The South went +entirely upon credit. It bought and borrowed heavily in the +East New York furnished the money. + +Had there been nothing further to consider, the invasion of the +Senate by Big Business in the 'fifties might not have taken +place. But there was something else. Slavery's system of +agriculture was excessively wasteful. To be highly profitable +it required virgin soil, and the financial alliance demanded +high profits. Early in the 'fifties, the problem of Big +Business was the acquisition of fresh soil for slavery. The +problem entered politics with the question how could this be +brought about without appearing to contradict democracy? The +West also had its incipient Big Business. It hinged upon +railways. Now that California had been acquired, with a steady +stream of migration westward, with all America dazzled more or +less by gold-mines and Pacific trade, a transcontinental +railway was a Western dream. But what course should it take, +what favored regions were to become its immediate +beneficiaries? Here was a chance for great jockeying among +business interests in Congress, for slave-holders, +money-lenders, railway promoters to manipulate deals to their +hearts' content. They had been doing so amid a high +complication of squabbling, while Douglas was traveling in +Europe during 1853. When he returned late in the year, the +unity of the Democratic machine in Congress was endangered by +these disputes. Douglas at once attacked the problem of party +harmony. He threw himself into the task with all his +characteristic quickness, all his energy and resourcefulness. + +By this time the problem contained five distinct factors: The +upper Northeast wanted a railroad starting at Chicago. The +Central West wanted a road from St. Louis. The Southwest +wanted a road from New Orleans, or at least, the frustration of +the two Northern schemes. Big Business wanted new soil for +slavery. The Compromise of 1850 stood in the way of the +extension of slave territory. + +If Douglas had had any serious convictions opposed to slavery +the last of the five factors would have brought him to a +standstill. Fortunately for him as a party strategist, he was +indifferent. Then, too, he firmly believed that slavery could +never thrive in the West because of climatic conditions. "Man +might propose, but physical geography would dispose."[1] On both +counts it seemed to him immaterial what concessions be made to +slavery extension northwestward. Therefore, he dismissed this +consideration and applied himself to the harmonization of the +four business factors involved. The result was a famous +compromise inside a party. His Kansas-Nebraska Bill created +two new territories, one lying westward from Chicago; one lying +westward from St. Louis. It also repealed the Missouri +Compromise and gave the inhabitants of each territory the right +to decide for themselves whether or not slavery should be +permitted in their midst. That is to say, both to the railway +promoter and the slavery financier, it extended equal +governmental protection, but it promised favors to none, and +left each faction to rise or fall in the free competition of +private enterprise. Why--was not this, remembering Douglas's +assumptions, a master-stroke? + +He had expected, of course, denunciation by the Abolitionists. +He considered it immaterial. But he was not in the least +prepared for what happened. A storm burst. It was fiercest in +his own State. "Traitor," "Arnold," "Judas," were the pleasant +epithets fired at him in a bewildering fusillade. He could not +understand it. Something other than mere Abolitionism had been +aroused by his great stroke. But what was it? Why did men who +were not Abolitionists raise a hue and cry? Especially, why +did many Democrats do so? Amazed, puzzled, but as always +furiously valiant, Douglas hurried home to join battle with his +assailants. He entered on a campaign of speech-making. On +October 3, 1854, he spoke at Springfield. His enemies, looking +about for the strongest popular speaker they could find, chose +Lincoln. The next day he replied to Douglas. + +The Kansas-Nebraska Bill had not affected any change in +Lincoln's thinking. His steady, consistent development as a +political thinker had gone on chiefly in silence ever since his +Protest seventeen years before. He was still intolerant of +Abolitionism, still resolved to leave slavery to die a natural +death in the States where it was established. He defended the +measure which most offended the Abolitionists, the Fugitive +Slave Law. He had appeared as counsel for a man who claimed a +runaway slave as his property.[2] None the less, the +Kansas-Nebraska Bill had brought him to his feet, wheeled him +back from law into politics, begun a new chapter. The springs +of action in is case were the factor which Douglas had +overlooked, which in all his calculations he had failed to take +into account, which was destined to destroy him. + +Lincoln, no less than Douglas, had sensed the fact that money +was becoming a power in American politics. He saw that money +and slavery tended to become allies with the inevitable result +of a shift of gravity in the American social system. +"Humanity" had once been the American shibboleth; it was giving +place to a new shibboleth- "prosperity." And the people who +were to control and administer prosperity were the rich. The +rights of man were being superseded by the rights of wealth. +Because of its place in this new coalition of non-democratic +influences, slavery, to Lincoln's mind, was assuming a new +role, "beginning," as he had said, in the Clay oration, "to +assail and ridicule the white man's charter of freedom, the +declaration that 'all men are created free and equal.'" + +That phrase, "the white man's charter of freedom," had become +Lincoln's shibboleth. Various utterances and written fragments +of the summer of 1854, reveal the intensity of his +preoccupation. + +"Equality in society beats inequality, whether the latter be of +the British aristocratic sort or of the domestic slavery sort"[3] + +"If A can prove, however conclusively, that he may of right +enslave B, why may not B snatch the same argument and prove +equally that he may enslave A? You say A is white and B is +black. It is color then; the lighter having the right to +enslave the darker? Take care. By this rule you are to be +slave to the first man you meet with a fairer skin than your +own. You do not mean color exactly? You mean the whites are +intellectually the superiors of the blacks, and therefore have +the right to enslave them? Take care again. By this rule you +are to be slave to the first man you meet with an intellect +superior to your own. But, you say, it is a question of +interest, and if you make it your interest, you have the right +to enslave another. Very well. And if he can make it his +interest, he has the right to enslave you."[4] + +Speaking of slavery to a fellow lawyer, he said: "It is the +most glittering, ostentatious, and displaying property in the +world; and now, if a young man goes courting, the only inquiry +is how many negroes he or his lady love owns. The love of +slave property is swallowing up every other mercenary +possession. Its ownership betokened not only the possession of +wealth, but indicated the gentleman of leisure who was above +and scorned labor."[5] + +It was because of these views, because he saw slavery allying +itself with the spread of plutocratic ideals, that Lincoln +entered the battle to prevent its extension. He did so in his +usual cool, determined way. + +Though his first reply to Douglas was not recorded, his second, +made at Peoria twelve days later, still exists.[6] It is a +landmark in his career. It sums up all his long, slow +development in political science, lays the abiding foundation +of everything he thought thereafter. In this great speech, the +end of his novitiate, he rings the changes on the white man's +charter of freedom. He argues that the extension of slavery +tends to discredit republican institutions, and to disappoint +"the Liberal party throughout the world." The heart of his +argument is: + +"Whether slavery shall go into Nebraska or other new +Territories is not a matter of exclusive concern to the people +who may go there. The whole nation is interested that the best +use shall be made of these Territories. We want them for homes +for free white people. This they can not be to any +considerable extent, if slavery shall be planted within them. +Slave States are places for poor white people to remove from, +not remove to. New Free States are the places for poor people +to go to and better their condition. For this use the nation +needs these Territories." + +The speech was a masterpiece of simplicity, of lucidity. It +showed the great jury; lawyer at his best. Its temper was as +admirable as its logic; not a touch of anger nor of +vituperation. + +"I have no prejudice against the Southern people," said he. +"They are just what we would be in their situation. If slavery +did not exist among them, they would not introduce it. If it +did now exist among us, we should not instantly give it up. +This I believe of the masses North and South. + +"When Southern people tell us that they are no more responsible +for the origin of slavery than we are, I acknowledge the fact. +When it is said that the institution exists and that it is very +difficult to get rid of in any satisfactory way, I can +understand and appreciate the saying. I surely will not blame +them for not doing what I should not know how to do myself. If +all earthly power were given me, I should not know what to do +as to the existing institution." + +His instinctive aversion to fanaticism found expression in a +plea for the golden mean in politics. + +"Some men, mostly Whigs, who condemn the repeal of the Missouri +Compromise, nevertheless hesitate to go for its restoration +lest they be thrown in company with the Abolitionists. Will +they allow me as an old Whig, to tell them good-humoredly that +I think this is very silly. Stand with anybody that stands right. +Stand with him while he is right and part with him when he goes +wrong. Stand with the Abolitionist in restoring the Missouri +Compromise, and stand against him when he attempts to repeal the +Fugitive Slave Law. In the latter case you stand with the +Southern dis-unionist. What of that? You are still right. In +both cases you are right. In both cases you expose the dangerous +extremes. In both you stand on middle ground and hold the ship +level and steady. In both you are national, and nothing less than +national. This is the good old Whig ground. To desert such +ground because of any company is to be less than a Whig-less +than a man-less than an American." + +These two speeches against Douglas made an immense impression +Byron- like, Lincoln waked up and found himself famous. +Thereupon, his ambition revived. A Senator was to be chosen +that autumn. Why might not this be the opportunity to retrieve +his failure in Congress? Shortly after the Peoria speech, he +was sending out notes like this to prominent politicians: + +"Dear Sir: You used to express a good deal of partiality for +me, and if you are still so, now is the time. Some friends +here are really for me for the United States Senate, and I +should be very grateful if you could make a mark for me among +your members [of the Legislature]."[7] + +When the Legislature assembled, it was found to comprise four +groups: the out-and-out Democrats who would stand by Douglas +through thick and thin, and vote only for his nominee; the +bolting Democrats who would not vote for a Douglas man, but +whose party rancor was so great that they would throw their +votes away rather than give them to a Whig; such enemies of +Douglas as were willing to vote for a Whig; the remainder. + +The Democrats supported Governor Matteson; the candidate of the +second group was Lyman Trumbull; the Whigs supported Lincoln. +After nine exciting ballots, Matteson had forty-seven votes, +Trumbull thirty-five, Lincoln fifteen. As the bolting +Democrats were beyond compromise, Lincoln determined to +sacrifice himself in order to defeat Matteson. Though the +fifteen protested against deserting him, he required them to do +so. On the tenth ballot, they transferred their votes to +Trumbull and he was elected.[8] + +Douglas had met his first important defeat. His policy had +been repudiated in his own State. And it was Lincoln who had +formulated the argument against him, who had held the balance +of power, and had turned the scale. + + + +IX. THE LITERARY STATESMAN + +Lincoln had found at last a mode and an opportunity for +concentrating all his powers in a way that could have results. +He had discovered himself as a man of letters. The great +speeches of 1854 were not different in a way from the previous +speeches that were without results. And yet they were wholly +different. Just as Lincoln's version of an old tale made of +that tale a new thing, so Lincoln's version of an argument made +of it a different thing from other men's versions. The +oratory of 1854 was not state-craft in any ordinary sense. It +was art Lincoln the artist, who had slowly developed a great +literary faculty, had chanced after so many rebuffs on good +fortune. His cause stood in urgent need of just what he could +give. It was one of those moments when a new political force, +having not as yet any opening for action, finds salvation in +the phrase-maker, in the literary artist who can embody it in +words. + +During the next five years and more, Lincoln was the recognized +offset to Douglas. His fame spread from Illinois in both +directions. He was called to Iowa and to Ohio as the advocate +of all advocates who could undo the effect of Douglas. His +fame traveled eastward. The culmination of the period of +literary leadership was his famous speech at Cooper Union in +February, 1860. + +It was inevitable that he should go along with the antislavery +coalition which adopted the name of the Republican party. But +his natural deliberation kept him from being one of its +founders. An attempt of its founders to appropriate him after +the triumph at Springfield, in October, 1854, met with a +rebuff.[1] Nearly a year and a half went by before he affiliated +himself with the new party. But once having made up his mind, +he went forward wholeheartedly. At the State Convention of +Illinois Republicans in 1856 he made a speech that has not been +recorded but which is a tradition for moving oratory. That +same year a considerable number of votes were cast for Lincoln +for Vice-President in the Republican National Convention. + +But all these were mere details. The great event of the years +between 1854 and 1860 was his contest with Douglas. It was a +battle of wits, a great literary duel. Fortunately for +Lincoln, his part was played altogether on his own soil, under +conditions in which he was entirely at his ease, where nothing +conspired with his enemy to embarrass him. + +Douglas had a far more difficult task. Unforeseen +complications rapidly forced him to change his policy, to meet +desertion and betrayal in his own ranks. These were terrible +years when fierce events followed one another in quick +succession--the rush of both slave-holders and abolitionists +into Kansas; the cruel war along the Wakarusa River; the sack +of Lawrence by the pro-slavery party; the massacre by John +Brown at Pottawatomie; the diatribes of Sumner in the Senate; +the assault on Sumner by Brooks. In the midst of this carnival +of ferocity came the Dred Scott decision, cutting under the +Kansas-Nebraska Bill, denying to the people of a Territory the +right to legislate on slavery, and giving to all slave-holders +the right to settle with their slaves anywhere they pleased +outside a Free State. This famous decision repudiated +Douglas's policy of leaving all such questions to local +autonomy and to private enterprise. For a time Douglas made no +move to save his policy. But when President Buchanan decided +to throw the influence of the Administration on the side of the +pro-slavery party in Kansas, Douglas was up in arms. When it +was proposed to admit Kansas with a constitution favoring +slavery, but which had not received the votes of a majority of +the inhabitants, Douglas voted with the Republicans to defeat +admission. Whereupon the Democratic party machine and the +Administration turned upon him without mercy. He stood alone +in a circle of enemies. At no other time did he show so many +of the qualities of a great leader. Battling with Lincoln in +the popular forum on the one hand, he was meeting daily on the +other assaults by a crowd of brilliant opponents in Congress. +At the same time he was playing a consummate game of political +strategy, struggling against immense odds to recover his hold +on Illinois. The crisis would come in 1858 when he would have +to go before the Legislature for reelection. He knew well +enough who his opponent would be. At every turn there fell +across his path the shadow of a cool sinister figure, his +relentless enemy. It was Lincoln. On the struggle with +Lincoln his whole battle turned. + +Abandoned by his former allies, his one hope was the retention +of his constituency. To discredit Lincoln, to twist and +discredit all his arguments, was for Douglas a matter of life +and death. He struck frequently with great force, but +sometimes with more fury than wisdom. Many a time the +unruffled coolness of Lincoln brought to nothing what was meant +for a deadly thrust. Douglas took counsel of despair and tried +to show that Lincoln was preaching the amalgamation of the +white and black races. "I protest," Lincoln replied, "against +the counterfeit logic which says that because I do not want a +black woman for a slave, I must necessarily want her for a +wife. I need not have her for either. I can just leave her +alone. In some respects she certainly is not my equal; but in +her natural right to eat the bread she earns with,her own hands +without asking leave of any one else, she is my equal and the +equal of all others."[2] Any false move made by Douglas, any rash +assertion, was sure to be seized upon by that watchful enemy in +Illinois. In attempting to defend himself on two fronts at +once, defying both the Republicans and the Democratic machine, +Douglas made his reckless declaration that all he wanted was a +fair vote by the people of Kansas; that for himself he did not +care how they settled the matter, whether slavery was voted up +or voted down. With relentless skill, Lincoln developed the +implications of this admission, drawing forth from its +confessed indifference to the existence of slavery, a chain of +conclusions that extended link by link to a belief in reopening +the African slave trade. This was done in his speech accepting +the Republican nomination for the Senate. In the same speech +he restated his general position in half a dozen sentences that +became at once a classic statement for the whole Republican +party: "A house divided against itself can not stand. I +believe this government can not endure permanently half slave +and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved. I +do not expect the house to fall, but I do expect it will cease +to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. +Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread +of it and place it where the public mind shall rest in the +belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its +advocates will push it forward till it shall become alike +lawful in all the States, old as well as new, North as well as +South."[3] + +The great duel was rapidly approaching its climax. What was in +reality no more than the last round has appropriated a label +that ought to have a wider meaning and is known as the +Lincoln-Douglas Debates. The two candidates made a joint tour +of the State, debating their policies in public at various +places during the summer and autumn of 1858. + +Properly considered, these famous speeches closed Lincoln's +life as an orator. The Cooper Union speech was an isolated +aftermath in alien conditions, a set performance not quite in +his true vein. His brief addresses of the later years were +incidental; they had no combative element. Never again was he +to attempt to sway an audience for an immediate stake through +the use of the spoken word. "A brief description of Mr. +Lincoln's appearance on the stump and of his manner when +speaking," as Herndon aptly remarks, "may not be without +interest. When standing erect, he was six feet four inches high. +He was lean in flesh and ungainly in figure. Aside from his +sad, pained look, due to habitual melancholy, his face had no +characteristic or fixed expression. He was thin through the +chest and hence slightly stoop-shouldered. . . . At first +he was very awkward and it seemed a real labor to adjust +himself to his surroundings. He struggled for a time under a +feeling of apparent diffidence and sensitiveness, and these +only added to his awkwardness. . . . When he began speaking +his voice was shrill, piping and unpleasant. His manner, his +attitude, his dark yellow face, wrinkled and dry, his oddity of +pose, his diffident movements; everything seemed to be against +him, but only for a short time. . . . As he proceeded, he +became somewhat more animated. . . . He did not gesticulate +as much with his hands as with his head. He used the latter +frequently, throwing it with him, this way and that. . . . +He never sawed the air nor rent space into tatters and rags, as +some orators do. He never acted for stage effect. He was +cool, considerate, reflective--in time, self-possessed and +self-reliant. . . . As he moved along in his speech he +became freer and less uneasy in his movements; to that extent +he was graceful. He had a perfect naturalness, a strong +individuality, and to that extent he was dignified. . . . +He spoke with effectiveness--and to move the judgment as well as +the emotion of men. There was a world of meaning and emphasis +in the long, bony finger of the right hand as he dotted the +ideas on the minds of his hearers. . . . He always stood +squarely on his feet. . . . He neither touched nor leaned +on anything for support. He never ranted, never walked +backward and forward on the platform. . . . As he proceeded +with his speech, the exercise of his vocal organs altered +somewhat the pitch of his voice. It lost in a measure its +former acute and shrilling pitch and mellowed into a more +harmonious and pleasant sound. His form expanded, and +notwithstanding the sunken breast, he rose up a splendid and +imposing figure. . . . His little gray eyes flashed in a +face aglow with the fire of his profound thoughts; and his +uneasy movements and diffident manner sunk themselves beneath +the wave of righteous indignation that came sweeping over +him."[4] + +A wonderful dramatic contrast were these two men, each in his +way so masterful, as they appeared in the famous debates. By +good fortune we have a portrait of Douglas the orator, from the +pen of Mrs. Stowe, who had observed him with reluctant +admiration from the gallery of the Senate. "This Douglas is +the very ideal of vitality. Short, broad, thick-set, every +inch of him has its own alertness and motion. He has a good +head, thick black hair, heavy black brows, and a keen face. +His figure would be an unfortunate one were it not for the +animation that constantly pervades it. As it is it rather +gives poignancy to his peculiar appearance; he has a small +handsome hand, moreover, and a graceful as well as forcible +mode of using it. . . . He has two requisites of a debater, +a melodious voice and clear, sharply defined enunciation. His +forte in debating is his power of mystifying the point. With +the most offhand assured airs in the world, and a certain +appearance of honest superiority, like one who has a regard for +you and wishes to set you right on one or two little matters, +he proceeds to set up some point which is not that in +question, but only a family connection of it, and this point he +attacks with the very best of logic and language; he charges +upon it, horse and foot, runs it down, tramples it in the dust, +and then turns upon you with 'See, there is your argument. Did +I not tell you so? You see it is all stuff.' And if you have +allowed yourself to be so dazzled by his quickness as to forget +that the routed point is not, after all, the one in question, +you suppose all is over with it. Moreover, he contrives to +mingle up so many stinging allusions, so many piquant +personalities, that by the time he has done his mystification, +a dozen others are ready and burning to spring on their feet to +repel some direct or indirect attack all equally wide of the +point." + +The mode of travel of the two contestants heightened the +contrast. George B. McClellan, a young engineer officer who +had recently resigned from the army and was now general +superintendent of the Illinois Central Railroad, gave Douglas +his private car and a special train. Lincoln traveled any way +he could-in ordinary passenger trains, or even in the caboose +of a freight train. A curious symbolization of Lincoln's +belief that the real conflict was between the plain people and +organized money! + +The debates did not develop new ideas. It was a literary duel, +each leader aiming to restate himself in the most telling, +popular way. For once that superficial definition of art +applied: "What oft was thought but ne'er so well expressed." +Nevertheless the debates contained an incident that helped to +make history. Though Douglas was at war with the +Administration, it was not certain that the quarrel might not +be made up. There was no other leader who would be so +formidable at the head of a reunited Democratic party. Lincoln +pondered the question, how could the rift between Douglas and +the Democratic machine be made irrevocable? And now a new +phase of Lincoln appeared. It was the political strategist He +saw that if he would disregard his own chance of election-as he +had done from a simpler motive four years before--he could drive +Douglas into a dilemma from which there was no real escape. He +confided his purpose to his friends; they urged him not to do +it. But he had made up his mind as he generally did, without +consultation, in the silence of his own thoughts, and once +having made it up, he was inflexible. + +At Freeport, Lincoln made the move which probably lost him the +Senatorship. He asked a question which if Douglas answered it +one way would enable him to recover the favor of Illinois but +would lose him forever the favor of the slave-holders; but +which, if he answered it another way might enable him to make +his peace at Washington but would certainly lose him Illinois. +The question 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?"[5] In other words, is the +Dred Scott decision good law? Is it true that a slave-holder +can take his slaves into Kansas if the people of Kansas want to +keep him out? + +Douglas saw the trap. With his instantaneous facility he tried +to cloud the issue and extricate himself through evasion in the +very manner Mrs. Stowe has described. While dodging a denial +of the court's authority, he insisted that his doctrine of +local autonomy was still secure because through police +regulation the local legislature could foster or strangle +slavery, just as they pleased, no matter "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." + +As Lincoln's friends had foreseen, this matchless performance +of carrying water on both shoulders caught the popular fancy; +Douglas was reelected to the Senate. As Lincoln had foreseen, +it killed him as a Democratic leader; it prevented the reunion +of the Democratic party. The result appeared in 1860 when the +Republicans, though still a minority party, carried the day +because of the bitter divisions among the Democrats. That was +what Lincoln foresaw when he said to his fearful friends while +they argued in vain to prevent his asking the question at +Free-port. "I am killing larger game; the great battle of 1860 +is worth a thousand of this senatorial race."[6] + + + +X. THE DARK HORSE + +One of the most curious things in Lincoln is the way his +confidence in himself came and went. He had none of Douglas's +unwavering self-reliance. Before the end, to be sure, he +attained a type of self-reliance, higher and more +imperturbable. But this was not the fruit of a steadfast +unfolding. Rather, he was like a tree with its alternating +periods of growth and pause, now richly in leaf, now dormant. +Equally applicable is the other familiar image of the +successive waves. + +The clue seems to have been, in part at least, a matter of +vitality. Just as Douglas emanated vitality--so much so that +his aura filled the whole Senate chamber and forced an +unwilling response in the gifted but hostile woman who watched +him from the gallery--Lincoln, conversely, made no such +overpowering impression. His observers, however much they have +to say about his humor, his seasons of Shakespearian mirth, +never forget their impression that at heart he is sad. His +fondness for poetry in the minor key has become a byword, +especially the line "Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be +proud." + +It is impossible to discover any law governing the succession +of his lapses in self-reliance. But they may be related very +plausibly to his sense of failure or at least to his sense of +futility. He was one of those intensely sensitive natures to +whom the futilities of this world are its most discouraging +feature. Whenever such ideas were brought home to him his +energy flagged; his vitality, never high, sank. He was prone +to turn away from the outward life to lose himself in the +inner. All this is part of the phenomena which Herndon +perceived more clearly than he comprehended it, which led him +to call Lincoln a fatalist. + +A humbler but perhaps more accurate explanation is the reminder +that he was son to Thomas the unstable. What happened in +Lincoln's mind when he returned defeated from Washington, that +ghost-like rising of the impulses of old Thomas, recurred more +than once thereafter. In fact there is a period well-defined, +a span of thirteen years terminating suddenly on a day in 1862, +during which the ghost of old Thomas is a thing to be reckoned +with in his son's life. It came and went, most of the time +fortunately far on the horizon. But now and then it drew near. +Always it was lurking somewhere, waiting to seize upon him in +those moments when his vitality sank, when his energies were in +the ebb, when his thoughts were possessed by a sense of +futility. + +The year 1859 was one of his ebb tides. In the previous year +the rising tide, which had mounted high during his success on +the circuit, reached its crest The memory of his failure at +Washington was effaced. At Freeport he was a more powerful +genius, a more dominant personality, than he had ever been. +Gradually, in the months following, the high wave subsided. +During 1859 he gave most of his attention to his practice. +Though political speech-making continued, and though he did not +impair his reputation, he did nothing of a remarkable sort. +The one literary fragment of any value is a letter to a Boston +committee that had invited him to attend a "festival" in Boston +on Jefferson's birthday. He avowed himself a thoroughgoing +disciple of Jefferson and pronounced the principles of +Jefferson "the definitions and axioms of free society." Without +conditions he identified his own cause with the cause of +Jefferson, "the man who in the concrete pressure of a struggle +for national independence by a single people, had the coolness, +forecast and capacity to introduce into a merely revolutionary +document, an abstract truth, applicable to all men and all +times, and so to embalm it there that today and in all coming +days, it shall be a rebuke and a stumbling-block to the very +harbingers of reappearing tyranny and oppression."[1] + +While the Boston committee were turning their eyes toward this +great new phrase-maker of the West, several politicians in +Illinois had formed a bold resolve. They would try to make him +President. The movement had two sources--the personal loyalty +of his devoted friends of the circuit, the shrewdness of the +political managers who saw that his duel with Douglas had made +him a national figure. As one of them said to him, "Douglas +being so widely known, you are getting a national reputation +through him." Lincoln replied that he did not lack the ambition +but lacked altogether the confidence in the possibility of +success.[2] + +This was his attitude during most of 1859. The glow, the +enthusiasm, of the previous year was gone. "I must in candor +say that I do not think myself fit for the Presidency," he +wrote to a newspaper editor in April. He used the same words +to another correspondent in July. As late as November first, +he wrote, "For my single self, I have enlisted for the +permanent success of the Republican cause, and for this object +I shall labor faithfully in the ranks, unless, as I think not +probable, the judgment of the party shall assign me a different +position."[3] + +Meanwhile, both groups of supporters had labored unceasingly, +regardless of his approval. In his personal following, the +companionableness of twenty years had deepened into an almost +romantic loyalty. The leaders of this enthusiastic attachment, +most of them lawyers, had no superiors for influence in +Illinois. The man who had such a following was a power in +politics whether he would or no. This the mere politicians +saw. They also saw that the next Republican nomination would +rest on a delicate calculation of probabilities. There were +other Republicans more conspicuous than Lincoln--Seward in New +York, Sumner in Massachusetts, Chase in Ohio--but all these had +inveterate enemies. Despite their importance would it be safe +to nominate them? Would not the party be compelled to take +some relatively minor figure, some essentially new man? In a +word, what we know as a "dark horse." Believing that this would +happen, they built hopefully on their faith in Lincoln. + +Toward the end of the year he was at last persuaded to take his +candidacy seriously. The local campaign for his nomination had +gone so far that a failure to go further would have the look of +being discarded as the local Republican leader. This argument +decided him. Before the year's end he had agreed to become a +candidate before the convention. In his own words, "I am not +in a position where it would hurt much for me to not be +nominated on the national ticket; but I am where it would hurt +some for me to not get the Illinois delegates."[4] + +It was shortly after this momentous decision that he went to +New York by invitation and made his most celebrated, though not +in any respect his greatest, oration.[5] A large audience filled +Cooper Union, February 27, 1860. William Cullen Bryant +presided. David Dudley Field escorted Lincoln to the platform. +Horace Greeley was in the audience. Again, the performance was +purely literary. No formulation of new policies, no appeal for +any new departure. It was a masterly restatement of his +position; of the essence of the debates with Douglas. It +cleansed the Republican platform of all accidental accretions, +as if a ship's hull were being scraped of barnacles preparatory +to a voyage; it gave the underlying issues such inflexible +definition that they could not be juggled with. Again he +showed a power of lucid statement not possessed by any of his +rivals. An incident of the speech was his unsparing +condemnation of John Brown whose raid and death were on every +tongue. "You charge that we stir up insurrections among your +slaves," said he, apostrophizing the slave-holders. "We deny +it, and what is your proof? 'Harper's Ferry; John Brown!' John +Brown was no Republican; and you have failed to implicate a +single Republican in this Harper's Ferry enterprise. . . + +"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 that 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 the +people until 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." + +The Cooper Union speech received extravagant praise from all +the Republican newspapers. Lincoln's ardent partisans assert +that it took New York "by storm." Rather too violent a way of +putting it! But there can be no doubt that the speech made a +deep impression. Thereafter, many of the Eastern managers were +willing to consider Lincoln as a candidate, should factional +jealousies prove uncompromising. Any port in a storm, you +know. Obviously, there could be ports far more dangerous than +this "favorite son" of Illinois. + +Many national conventions in the United States have decided +upon a compromise candidate, "a dark horse," through just such +reasoning. The most noted instance is the Republican +Convention of 1860. When it assembled at Chicago in June, the +most imposing candidate was the brilliant leader of the New +York Republicans, Seward. But no man in the country had more +bitter enemies. Horace Greeley whose paper The Tribune was by +far the most influential Republican organ, went to Chicago +obsessed by one purpose: because of irreconcilable personal +quarrels he would have revenge upon Seward. Others who did not +hate Seward were afraid of what Greeley symbolized. And all of +them knew that whatever else happened, the West must be +secured. + +The Lincoln managers played upon the Eastern jealousies and the +Eastern fears with great skill. There was little sleep among +the delegates the night previous to the balloting. At just the +right moment, the Lincoln managers, though their chief had +forbidden them to do so, offered promises with regard to +Cabinet appointments.[6] And they succeeded in packing the +galleries of the Convention Hall with a perfectly organized +claque-"rooters," the modern American would say. + +The result on the third ballot was a rush to Lincoln of all the +enemies of Seward, and Lincoln's nomination amid a roaring +frenzy of applause. + + + +XI. SECESSION + +After twenty-three years of successive defeats, Lincoln, almost +fortuitously, was at the center of the political maelstrom. +The clue to what follows is in the way he had developed during +that long discouraging apprenticeship to greatness. Mentally, +he had always been in isolation. Socially, he had lived in a +near horizon. The real tragedy of his failure at Washington +was in the closing against him of the opportunity to know his +country as a whole. Had it been Lincoln instead of Douglas to +whom destiny had given a residence at Washington during the +'fifties, it is conceivable that things might have been +different in the 'sixties. On the other hand, America would +have lost its greatest example of the artist in politics. + +And without that artist, without his extraordinary literary +gift, his party might not have consolidated in 1860. A very +curious party it was. It had sprung to life as a denial, as a +device for halting Douglas. Lincoln's doctrine of the golden +mean, became for once a political power. Men of the most +diverse views on other issues accepted in their need the axiom: +"Stand with anybody so long as he stands right." And standing +right, for that moment in the minds of them all, meant keeping +slavery and the money power from devouring the territories. + +The artist of the movement expressed them all in his +declaration that the nation needed the Territories to give home +and opportunity to free white people. Even the Abolitionists, +who hitherto had refused to make common cause with any other +faction, entered the negative coalition of the new party. So +did Whigs, and anti-slavery Democrats, as well as other +factions then obscure which we should now label Socialists and +Labormen. + +However, this coalition, which in origin was purely negative, +revealed, the moment it coalesced, two positive features. To +the man of the near horizon in 1860 neither of these features +seemed of first importance. To the man outside that horizon, +seeing them in perspective as related to the sum total of +American life, they had a significance he did not entirely +appreciate. + +The first of these was the temper of the Abolitionists. +Lincoln ignored it. He was content with his ringing +assertion,of, the golden mean. But there spoke the man of +letters rather than the statesman. Of temper in politics as an +abstract idea, he had been keenly conscious from the first; but +his lack of familiarity with political organizations kept him +from assigning full value to the temper of any one factor as +affecting the joint temper of the whole group. It was +appointed for him to learn this in a supremely hard way and to +apply the lesson with wonderful audacity. But in 1860 that +stern experience still slept in the future. He had no +suspicion as yet that he might find it difficult to carry out +his own promise to stand with the Abolitionists in excluding +slavery from the Territories, and to stand against them in +enforcing the Fugitive Slave Law. He did not yet see why any +one should doubt the validity of this promise; why any one +should be afraid to go along with him, afraid that the temper +of one element would infect the whole coalition. + +But this fear that Lincoln did not allow for, possessed already +a great many minds. Thousands of Southerners, of the sort whom +Lincoln credited with good intentions about slavery, feared the +Abolitionists Not because the Abolitionists wanted to destroy +slavery, but because they wanted to do so fiercely, cruelly. +Like Lincoln, these Southerners who were liberals in thought +and moderates in action, did not know what to do about slavery. +Like Lincoln, they had but one fixed idea with regard to +it,--slavery must not be terminated violently. Lincoln, despite +his near horizon, sensed them correctly as not being at one +with the great plutocrats who wished to exploit slavery. But +when the Abolitionist poured out the same fury of vituperation +on every sort of slave-holder; when he promised his soul that +it should yet have the joy of exulting in the ruin of all such, +the moderate Southerners became as flint. When the +Abolitionists proclaimed their affiliation with the new party, +the first step was taken toward a general Southern coalition to +stop the Republican advance. + +There was another positive element blended into the negative +coalition. In 1857, the Republicans overruling the traditions +of those members who had once been Democrats, set their faces +toward protection. To most of the Northerners the fatefulness +of the step was not obvious. Twenty years had passed since a +serious tariff controversy had shaken the North. Financial +difficulties in the 'fifties were more prevalent in the North +than in the South. Business was in a quandary. Labor was +demanding better opportunities. Protection as a solution, or +at least as a palliative, seemed to the mass of the Republican +coalition, even to the former Democrats for all their free +trade traditions, not outrageous. To the Southerners it was an +alarm bell. The Southern world was agricultural; its staple +was cotton; the bulk of its market was in England. Ever since +1828, the Southern mind had been constantly on guard with +regard to tariff, unceasingly fearful that protection would be +imposed on it by Northern and Western votes. To have to sell +its cotton in England at free trade values, but at the same +time to have to buy its commodities at protected values fixed +by Northern manufacturers--what did that mean but the despotism +of one section over another? When the Republicans took up +protection as part of their creed, a general Southern coalition +was rendered almost inevitable. + +This, Lincoln {Missing text}. Again it is to be accounted for +in part by his near horizon. Had he lived at Washington, had +he met, frequently, Southern men; had he passed those crucial +years of the 'fifties in debates with political leaders rather +than in story-telling tournaments on the circuit; perhaps all +this would have been otherwise. But one can not be quite sure. +Finance never appealed to him. A wide application may be given +to Herndon's remark that "he had no money sense." All the rest +of the Republican doctrine finds its best statement in Lincoln. +On the one subject of its economic policy he is silent. +Apparently it is to be classified with the routine side of the +law. To neither was he ever able to give more than a +perfunctory attention. As an artist in politics he had the +defect of his qualities. + +What his qualities showed him were two things: the alliance of +the plutocratic slave power with the plutocratic money power, +and the essential rightness in impulse of the bulk of the +Southern people. Hence his conclusion which became his party's +conclusion: that, in the South, a political-financial ring was +dominating a leaderless people, This was not the truth. +Lincoln's defects in 1860 limited his vision. Nevertheless, to +the solitary distant thinker, shut in by the near horizon of +political Springfield, there was every excuse for the error. +The palpable evidence all confirmed it. What might have +contradicted it was a cloud of witnesses, floating, incidental, +casual, tacit. Just what a nature like Lincoln's, if only he +could have met them, would have perceived and comprehended; +what a nature like Douglas's, no matter how plainly they were +presented to him, could neither perceive nor comprehend. It +was the irony of fate that an opportunity to fathom his time +was squandered upon the unseeing Douglas, while to the seeing +Lincoln it was denied. In a word, the Southern reaction +against the Republicans, like the Republican movement itself, +had both a positive and a negative side. It was the positive +side that could be seen and judged at long range. And this was +what Lincoln saw, which appeared to him to have created the +dominant issue in 1860. + +The negative side of the Southern movement he did not see. He +was too far away to make out the details of the picture. +Though he may have known from the census of 1850 that only +one-third of the Southern whites were members of slave-holding +families, he could scarcely have known that only a small +minority of the Southern families owned as many as five slaves; +that those who had fortunes in slaves were a mere handful--just +as today those who have fortunes in steel or beef are mere +handfuls. But still less did he know how entirely this vast +majority which had so little, if any, interest in slavery, had +grown to fear and distrust the North. They, like him, were +suffering from a near horizon. They, too, were applying the +principle "Stand with anybody so long as he stands right" But +for them, standing right meant preventing a violent revolution +in Southern life. Indifferent as they were to slavery, they +were willing to go along with the "slave-barons" in the attempt +to consolidate the South in a movement of denial--a denial of +the right of the North, either through Abolitionism or through +tariff, to dominate the South. + +If only Lincoln with his subtle mind could have come into touch +with the negative side of the Southern agitation! It was the +other side, the positive side, that was vocal. With immense +shrewdness the profiteers of slavery saw and developed their +opportunity. They organized the South. They preached on all +occasions, in all connections, the need of all Southerners to +stand together, no matter how great their disagreements, in +order to prevent the impoverishment of the South by hostile +economic legislation. During the late 'fifties their +propaganda for an all-Southern policy, made slow but constant +headway. But even in 1859 these ideas were still far from +controlling the South. + +And then came John Brown. The dread of slave insurrection was +laid deep in Southern recollection. Thirty years before, the +Nat Turner Rebellion had filled a portion of Virginia with +burned plantation houses amid whose ruins lay the dead bodies +of white women. A little earlier, a negro conspiracy at +Charleston planned the murder of white men and the parceling +out of white women among the conspirators. And John Brown had +come into Virginia at the head of a band of strangers calling +upon the slaves to rise and arm. + +Here was a supreme opportunity. The positive Southern force, +the slave profiteers, seized at once the attitude of champions +of the South. It was easy enough to enlist the negative force +in a shocked and outraged denunciation of everything Northern. +And the Northern extremists did all that was in their power to +add fuel to the flame. Emerson called Brown "this new saint +who had made the gallows glorious as the cross." The +Southerners, hearing that, thought of the conspiracy to parcel +out the white women of Charleston. Early in 1860 it seemed as +if the whole South had but one idea-to part company with the +North. + +No wonder Lincoln threw all his influence into the scale to +discredit the memory of Brown. No wonder the Republicans in +their platform carefully repudiated him. They could not undo +the impression made on the Southern mind by two facts: the men +who lauded Brown as a new saint were voting the Republican +ticket; the Republicans had committed themselves to the +anti-Southern policy of protection. + +And yet, in spite of all the labors of pro-slavery extremists, +the movement for a breach with the North lost ground during +1860. When the election came, the vote for President revealed +a singular and unforeseen situation. Four candidates were in +the field. The Democrats, split into two by the issue of +slavery expansion, formed two parties. The slave profiteers +secured the nomination by one faction of John C. Breckinridge. +The moderate Democrats who would neither fight nor favor +slavery, nominated Douglas. The most peculiar group was the +fourth. They included all those who would not join the +Republicans for fear of the temper of the Abolition-members, +but who were not promoters of slavery, and who distrusted +Douglas. They had no program but to restore the condition of +things that existed before the Nebraska Bill. About four +million five hundred thousand votes were cast. Lincoln had +less than two million, and all but about twenty-four thousand +of these were in the Free States. However, the disposition of +Lincoln's vote gave him the electoral college. He was chosen +President by the votes of a minority of the nation. But there +was another minority vote which as events turned out, proved +equally significant. Breckinridge, the symbol of the slave +profiteers, and of all those whom they had persuaded to follow +them, had not been able to carry the popular vote of the South. +They were definitely in the minority in their own section. The +majority of the Southerners had so far reacted from the wild +alarms of the beginning of the year that they refused to go +along with the candidates of the extremists. They were for +giving the Union another trial. The South itself had +repudiated the slave profiteers. + +This was the immensely significant fact of November, 1860. It +made a great impression on the whole country. For the moment +it made the fierce talk of the Southern extremists +inconsequential. Buoyant Northerners, such as Seward, felt +that the crisis was over; that the South had voted for a +reconciliation; that only tact was needed to make everybody +happy. When, a few weeks after the election, Seward said that +all would be merry again inside of ninety days, his illusion +had for its foundation the Southern rejection of the slave +profiteers. + +Unfortunately, Seward did not understand the precise +significance of the thought of the moderate South. He did not +understand that while the South had voted to send Breckinridge +and his sort about their business, it was still deeply alarmed, +deeply fearful that after all it might at any minute be forced +to call them back, to make common cause with them against what +it regarded as an alien and destructive political power, the +Republicans. This was the Southern reservation, the unspoken +condition of the vote which Seward--and for that matter, +Lincoln, also,--failed to comprehend. Because of these +cross-purposes, because the Southern alarm was based on another +thing than the standing or falling of slavery, the situation +called for much more than tact, for profound psychological +statesmanship. + +And now emerges out of the complexities of the Southern +situation a powerful personality whose ideas and point of view +Lincoln did not understand. Robert Barnwell Rhett had once +been a man of might in politics. Twice he had very nearly rent +the Union asunder. In 1844, again in 1851, he had come to the +very edge of persuading South Carolina to secede. In each case +he sought to organize the general discontent of the South,--its +dread of a tariff, and of Northern domination. After his +second failure, his haughty nature took offense at fortune. He +resigned his seat in the Senate and withdrew to private life. +But he was too large and too bold a character to attain +obscurity. Nor would his restless genius permit him to rust in +ease. During the troubled 'fifties, he watched from a +distance, but with ever increasing interest, that negative +Southern force which he, in the midst of it, comprehended, +while it drifted under the wing of the extremists. As he did +so, the old arguments, the old ambitions, the old hopes +revived. In 1851 his cry to the South was to assert itself as +a Separate nation--not for any one reason, but for many +reasons--and to lead its own life apart from the North. It was +an age of brilliant though ill-fated revolutionary movements in +Europe. Kossuth and the gallant Hungarian attempt at +independence had captivated the American imagination. Rhett +dreamed of seeing the South do what Hungary had failed to do. +He thought of the problem as a medieval knight would have +thought, in terms of individual prowess, with the modern +factors, economics and all their sort, left on one side. +"Smaller nations [than South Carolina]," he said in 1851, +"have striven for freedom against greater odds." + +In 1860 he had concluded that his third chance had come. He +would try once more to bring about secession. To split the +Union, he would play into the hands of the slave-barons. He +would aim to combine with their movement the negative Southern +movement and use the resulting coalition to crown with success +his third attempt. Issuing from his seclusion, he became at +once the overshadowing figure in South Carolina. Around him +all the elements of revolution crystallized. He was sixty +years old; seasoned and uncompromising in the pursuit of his +one ideal, the independence of the South. His arguments were +the same which he had used in 1844, in 1851: the North would +impoverish the South; it threatens to impose a crushing tribute +in the shape of protection; it seeks to destroy slavery; it +aims to bring about economic collapse; in the wreck thus +produced, everything that is beautiful, charming, distinctive +in Southern life will be lost; let us fight! With such a +leader, the forces of discontent were quickly, effectively, +organized. Even before the election of Lincoln, the +revolutionary leaders in South Carolina were corresponding with +men of like mind in other Southern States, especially Alabama, +where was another leader, Yancey, only second in intensity to +Rhett. + +The word from these Alabama revolutionists to South Carolina +was to dare all, to risk seceding alone, confident that the +other States of the South would follow. Rhett and his new +associates took this perilous advice. The election was +followed by the call of a convention of delegates of the people +of South Carolina. This convention, on the twentieth of +December, 1860, repealed the laws which united South Carolina +with the other States and proclaimed their own independent. + + + +XII. THE CRISIS + +Though Seward and other buoyant natures felt that the crisis +had passed with the election, less volatile people held the +opposite view. Men who had never before taken seriously the +Southern threats of disunion had waked suddenly to a terrified +consciousness that they were in for it. In their blindness to +realities earlier in the year, they were like that brilliant +host of camp followers which, as Thackeray puts it, led the +army of Wellington dancing and feasting to the very brink of +Waterloo. And now the day of reckoning had come. An emotional +reaction carried them from one extreme to the other; from +self-sufficient disregard of their adversaries to an almost +self-abasing regard. + +The very type of these people and of their reaction was Horace +Greeley. He was destined many times to make plain that he +lived mainly in his sensibilities; that, in his kaleidoscopic +vision, the pattern of the world could be red and yellow and +green today, and orange and purple and blue tomorrow. To +descend from a pinnacle of self-complacency into a desolating +abyss of panic, was as easy for Greeley as it is--in the vulgar +but pointed American phrase--to roll off a log. A few days +after the election, Greeley had rolled off his log. He was +wallowing in panic. He began to scream editorially. The +Southern extremists were terribly in earnest; if they wanted to +go, go they would, and go they should. But foolish Northerners +would be sure to talk war and the retaining of the South in the +Union by force: it must not be; what was the Union compared +with bloodshed? There must be no war--no war. Such was +Greeley's terrified--appeal to the North. A few weeks after +the election he printed his famous editorial denouncing the +idea of a Union pinned together by bayonets. He followed up +with another startling concession to his fears: the South had +as good cause for leaving the Union as the colonies had for +leaving the British Empire. A little later, he formulated his +ultimate conclusion,--which like many of his ultimates proved to +be transitory,--and declared that if any group of Southern +States "choose to form an independent nation, they have a clear +moral right to do so," and pledging himself and his followers +to do "our best to forward their views. + +Greeley wielded through The Tribune more influence, perhaps, +than was possessed by any other Republican with the single +exception of Lincoln. His newspaper constituency was enormous, +and the relation between the leader and the led was unusually +close. He was both oracle and barometer. As a symptom of the +Republican panic, as a cause increasing that panic, he was of +first importance. + +Meanwhile Congress had met. And at once, the most +characteristic peculiarity of the moment was again made +emphatic. The popular majorities and the political machines +did not coincide. Both in the North and in the South a +minority held the situation in the hollow of its hand. The +Breckinridge Democrats, despite their repudiation in the +presidential vote, included so many of the Southern +politicians, they were so well organized, they had scored such +a menacing victory with the aid of Rhett in South Carolina, +they had played so skilfully on the fears of the South at +large, their leaders were such skilled managers, that they were +able to continue for the moment the recognized spokesmen of the +South at Washington. They lost no time defining their +position. If the Union were not to be sundered, the +Republicans must pledge themselves to a new and extensive +compromise; it must be far different from those historic +compromises that had preceded it. Three features must +characterize any new agreement: The South must be dealt with as +a unit; it must be given a "sphere of influence"--to use our +modern term--which would fully satisfy all its impulses of +expansion; and in that sphere, every question of slavery must +be left entirely, forever, to local action. In a word, they +demanded for the South what today would be described as a +"dominion" status. Therefore, they insisted that the party +which had captured the Northern political machine should +formulate its reply to these demands. They gave notice that +they would not discuss individual schemes, but only such as the +victorious Republicans might officially present. Thus the +national crisis became a party crisis. What could the +Republicans among themselves agree to propose? + +The central figure of the crisis seemed at first to be the +brilliant Republican Senator from New York. Seward thought he +understood the South, and what was still more important, human +nature. Though he echoed Greeley's cry for peace--translating +his passionate hysteria into the polished cynicism of a +diplomat who had been known to deny that he was ever entirely +serious-he scoffed at Greeley's fears. If the South had not +voted lack of confidence in the Breckinridge crowd, what had it +voted? If the Breckinridge leaders weren't maneuvering to save +their faces, what could they be accused of doing? If Seward, +the Republican man of genius, couldn't see through all that, +couldn't devise a way to help them save their faces, what was +the use in being a brilliant politician? + +Jauntily self-complacent, as confident of himself as if Rome +were burning and he the garlanded fiddler, Seward braced +himself for the task of recreating the Union. + +But there was an obstacle in his path. It was Lincoln. Of +course, it was folly to propose a scheme which the incoming +President would not sustain. Lincoln and Seward must come to +an understanding. To bring that about Seward despatched a +personal legate to Springfield. Thurlow Weed, editor, man of +the world, political wire-puller beyond compare, Seward's +devoted henchman, was the legate. One of the great events of +American history was the conversation between Weed and Lincoln +in December, 1860. By a rare propriety of dramatic effect, it +occurred probably, on the very day South Carolina brought to an +end its campaign of menace and adopted its Ordinance of +Secession, December twentieth.[1] + +Weed had brought to Springfield a definite proposal. The +Crittenden compromise was being hotly discussed in Congress and +throughout the country. All the Northern advocates of +conciliation were eager to put it through. There was some +ground to believe that the Southern machine at Washington would +accept it. If Lincoln would agree, Seward would make it the +basis of his policy. + +This Compromise would have restored the old line of the +Missouri Compromise and would have placed it under the +protection of a constitutional amendment. This, together with +a guarantee against congressional interference with slavery in +the States where it existed, a guarantee the Republicans had +already offered, seemed to Seward, to Weed, to Greeley, to the +bulk of the party, a satisfactory means of preserving the +Union. What was it but a falling back on the original policy +of the party, the undoing of those measures of 1854 which had +called the party into being? Was it conceivable that Lincoln +would balk the wishes of the party by obstructing such a +natural mode of extrication? But that was what Lincoln did. +His views had advanced since 1854. Then, he was merely for +restoring the old duality of the country, the two "dominions," +Northern and Southern, each with its own social order. He had +advanced to the belief that this duality could not permanently +continue. Just how far Lincoln realized what he was doing in +refusing to compromise will never be known. Three months +afterward, he took a course which seems to imply that his +vision during the interim had expanded, had opened before him a +new revelation of the nature of his problem. At the earlier +date Lincoln and the Southern people--not the Southern machine-- +were looking at the one problem from opposite points of view, +and were locating the significance of the problem in different +features. To Lincoln, the heart of the matter was slavery. To +the Southerners, including the men who had voted lack of +confidence in Breckinridge, the heart of the matter was the +sphere of influence. What the Southern majority wanted was not +the policy of the slave profiteers but a secure future for +expansion, a guarantee that Southern life, social, economic, +cultural, would not be merged with the life of the opposite +section: in a word, preservation of "dominion" status. In +Lincoln's mind, slavery being the main issue, this "dominion" +issue was incidental--a mere outgrowth of slavery that should +begin to pass away with slavery's restriction. In the Southern +mind, a community consciousness, the determination to be a +people by themselves, nation within the nation, was the issue, +and slavery was the incident. To repeat, it is impossible to +say what Lincoln would have done had he comprehended the +Southern attitude. His near horizon which had kept him all +along from grasping the negative side of the Southern movement +prevented his perception of this tragic instance of +cross-purposes. + +Lacking this perception, his thoughts had centered themselves +on a recent activity of the slave profiteers. They had +clamored for the annexation of new territory to the south of +us. Various attempts had been made to create an international +crisis looking toward the seizure of Cuba. Then, too, bold +adventurers had staked their heads, seeking to found +slave-holding communities in Central America. Why might not +such attempts succeed? Why might not new Slave States be +created outside the Union, eventually to be drawn in? Why not? +said the slave profiteer, and gave money and assistance to the +filibusters in Nicaragua. Why not? said Lincoln, also. What +protection against such an extension of boundaries? Was the +limitation of slave area to be on one side only, the Northern +side? And here at last, for Lincoln, was what appeared to be +the true issue of the moment. To dualize the Union, assuming +its boundaries to be fixed, was one thing. To dualize the +Union in the face of a movement for extension of boundaries was +another. Hence it was now vital, as Lincoln reasoned, to give +slavery a fixed boundary on all sides. Silently, while others +fulminated, or rhapsodized, or wailed, he had moved inexorably +to a new position which was nothing but a logical development +of the old. The old position was-no extension of slave +territory; the new position was--no more Slave States.[2] Because +Crittenden's Compromise left it possible to have a new Slave +State in Cuba, a new Slave State in Nicaragua, perhaps a dozen +such new States, Lincoln refused to compromise.[3] + +It was a terrible decision, carrying within it the possibility +of civil war. But Lincoln could not be moved. This was the +first acquaintance of the established political leaders with +his inflexible side. In the recesses of his own thoughts the +decision had been reached. It was useless to argue with him. +Weed carried bad: his ultimatum. Seward abandoned Crittenden's +scheme. The only chance for compromise passed away. The +Southern leaders set about their plans for organizing a +Southern Confederacy. + + + +XIII. ECLIPSE + +Lincoln's ultimatum of December twentieth contained three +proposals that might be made to the Southern leaders: + +That the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law which hitherto +had been left to State authorities should be taken over by +Congress and supported by the Republicans. + +That the Republicans to the extent of their power should work +for the repeal of all those "Personal Liberty Laws" which had +been established in certain Northern States to defeat the +operation of the Fugitive Slave Law. + +That the Federal Union must be preserved.[1] + +In presenting these proposals along with a refusal to consider +the Crittenden Compromise, Seward tampered with their clear-cut +form. Fearful of the effect on the extremists of the +Republican group, he withheld Lincoln's unconditional promise +to maintain the Fugitive Slave Law and instead of pledging his +party to the repeal of Personal Liberty Laws he promised only +to have Congress request the States to repeal them. He +suppressed altogether the assertion that the Union must be +preserved.[2] About the same time, in a public speech, he said he +was not going to be "humbugged" by the bogy of secession, and +gave his fatuous promise that all the trouble would be ended +inside ninety days. For all his brilliancy of a sort, he was +spiritually obtuse. On him, as on Douglas, Fate had lavished +opportunities to see life as it is, to understand the motives +of men; but it could not make him use them. He was +incorrigibly cynical. He could not divest himself of the idea +that all this confusion was hubbub, was but an ordinary +political game, that his only cue was to assist his adversaries +in saving their faces. In spite of his rich experience,--in spite +of being an accomplished man of the world,--at least in his +own estimation--he was as blind to the real motives of +that Southern majority which had rejected Breckinridge as was +the inexperienced Lincoln. The coolness with which he modified +Lincoln's proposals was evidence that he considered himself the +great Republican and Lincoln an accident. He was to do the +same again--to his own regret. + +When Lincoln issued his ultimatum, he was approaching the +summit, if not at the very summit, of another of his successive +waves of vitality, of self-confidence. That depression which +came upon him about the end of 1858, which kept him undecided, +in a mood of excessive caution during most of 1859, had passed +away. The presidential campaign with its thrilling tension, +its excitement, had charged him anew with confidence. Although +one more eclipse was in store for him--the darkest eclipse of +all--he was very nearly the definitive Lincoln of history. At +least, he had the courage which that Lincoln was to show. + +He was now the target for a besieging army of politicians +clamoring for "spoils" in the shape of promises of preferment. +It was a miserable and disgraceful assault which profoundly +offended him.[3] To his mind this was not the same thing as the +simple-hearted personal politics of his younger days--friends +standing together and helping one another along--but a gross and +monstrous rapacity. It was the first chill shadow that +followed the election day. + +There were difficult intrigues over the Cabinet. Promises made +by his managers at Chicago were presented for redemption. +Rival candidates bidding for his favor, tried to cut each +other's throats. For example, there was the intrigue of the +War Department. The Lincoln managers had promised a Cabinet +appointment to Pennsylvania; the followers of Simon Cameron +were a power; it had been necessary to win them over in order +to nominate Lincoln; they insisted that their leader was now +entitled to the Pennsylvania seat in the Cabinet; but there was +an anti-Cameron faction almost as potent in Pennsylvania as the +Cameron faction. Both sent their agents to Springfield to lay +siege to Lincoln. In this duel, the Cameron forces won the +first round. Lincoln offered him the Secretaryship. +Subsequently, his enemies made so good a case that Lincoln was +convinced of the unwisdom of his decision and withdrew the +offer. But Cameron had not kept the offer confidential. The +withdrawal would discredit him politically and put a trump card +into the hands of his enemies. A long dispute followed. Not +until Lincoln had reached Washington, immediately before the +inauguration, was the dispute ended, the withdrawal withdrawn, +and Cameron appointed.[4] + +It was a dreary winter for the President-elect. It was also a +brand- new experience. For the first time he was a dispenser +of favor on a grand scale. Innumerable men showed their +meanest side, either to advance themselves or to injure others. +As the weeks passed and the spectacle grew in shamelessness, +his friends became more and more conscious of his peculiar +melancholy. The elation of the campaign subsided into a deep +unhappiness over the vanity of this world. Other phases of the +shadowy side of his character also asserted themselves. +Conspicuous was a certain trend in his thinking that was part +of Herndon's warrant for calling him a fatalist. Lincoln's +mysticism very early had taken a turn toward predestination, +coupled with a belief in dreams.[5] He did not in any way believe +in magic; he never had any faith in divinations, in the occult, +in any secret mode of alluring the unseen powers to take one's +side. Nevertheless, he made no bones about being +superstitious. And he thought that coming events cast their +shadows before, that something, at least, of the future was +sometimes revealed through dreams. "Nature," he would say, "is +the workshop of the Almighty, and we form but links in the +chain of intellectual and material life."[6] Byron's Dream was +one of his favorite poems. He pondered those ancient, +historical tales which make free use of portents. There was a +fascination for him in the story of Caracalla--how his murder of +Geta was foretold, how he was upbraided by the ghosts of his +father and brother. This dream-faith of his was as real as was +a similar faith held by the authors of the Old Testament. He +had his theory of the interpretation of dreams. Because they +were a universal experience--as he believed, the universal mode +of communication between the unseen and the seen--his beloved +"plain people," the "children of Nature," the most universal +types of humanity, were their best interpreters. He also +believed in presentiment. As faithfully as the simplest of the +brood of the forest--those recreated primitives who regulated +their farming by the brightness or the darkness of the moon, +who planted corn or slaughtered hogs as Artemis directed--he +trusted a presentiment if once it really took possession of +him. A presentiment which had been formed before this time, we +know not when, was clothed with authority by a dream, or rather +a vision, that came to him in the days of melancholy +disillusion during the last winter at Springfield. Looking +into a mirror, he saw two Lincolns,--one alive, the other dead. +It was this vision which clenched his pre-sentiment that he was +born to a great career and to a tragic end. He interpreted the +vision that his administration would be successful, but that it +would close with his death.[7] + +The record of his inner life during the last winter at +Springfield is very dim. But there can be no doubt that a +desolating change attacked his spirit. As late as the day of +his ultimatum he was still in comparative sunshine, or, at +least his clouds were not close about him. His will was steel, +that day. Nevertheless, a friend who visited him in January, +to talk over their days together, found not only that "the +old-time zest" was lacking, but that it was replaced by "gloom +and despondency."[8] The ghosts that hovered so frequently at the +back of his mind, the brooding tendencies which fed upon his +melancholy and made him at times irresolute, were issuing from +the shadows, trooping forward, to encompass him roundabout. + +In the midst of this spiritual reaction, he was further +depressed by the stern news from the South and from Washington. +His refusal to compromise was beginning to bear fruit. The +Gulf States seceded. A Southern Confederacy was formed. There +is no evidence that he lost faith in his course, but abundant +evidence that he was terribly unhappy. He was preyed upon by +his sense of helplessness, while Buchanan through his weakness +and vacillation was "giving away the case." "Secession is being +fostered," said he, "rather than repressed, and if the doctrine +meets with general acceptance in the Border States, it will be +a great blow to the government."[9] He did not deceive himself +upon the possible effect of his ultimatum, and sent word to +General Scott to be prepared to hold or to "retake" the forts +garrisoned by Federal troops in the Southern States.[10] + +All the while his premonition of the approach of doom grew more +darkly oppressive. The trail of the artist is discernible +across his thoughts. In his troubled imagination he identified +his own situation with that of the protagonist in tragedies on +the theme of fate. He did not withhold his thoughts from the +supreme instance. That same friend who found him possessed of +gloom preserved these words of his: "I have read on my knees +the story of Gethsemane, when the Son of God prayed in vain +that the cup of bitterness might pass from him. I am in the +Garden of Gethsemane now and my cup of bitterness is full and +overflowing now."[11] + +"Like some strong seer in a trance, +Seeing all his own mischance, +With a glassy countenance," + +he faced toward Washington, toward the glorious terror promised +him by his superstitions. + +The last days before the departure were days of mingled gloom, +desperation, and the attempt to recover hope. He visited his +old stepmother and made a pilgrimage to his father's grave. +His thoughts fondly renewed the details of his past life, +lingered upon this and that, as if fearful that it was all +slipping away from him forever. And then he roused himself as +if in sudden revolt against the Fates. The day before he left +Springfield forever Lincoln met his partner for the last time +at their law office to wind up the last of their unsettled +business. "After those things were all disposed of," says +Herndon, "he crossed to the opposite side of the room and threw +himself down on the old office sofa. . . . He lay there for +some moments his face to the ceiling without either of us +speaking. Presently, he inquired: 'Billy'--he always called me +by that name--'how long have we been together?' 'Over sixteen +years,' I answered. 'We've never had a cross word during all +that time, have we?' . . . He gathered a bundle of papers +and books he wished to take with him and started to go, but +before leaving, he made the strange request that the sign board +which swung on its rusty hinges at the foot of the stairway +would remain. 'Let it hang there undisturbed,' he said, with +a significant lowering of the voice. 'Give our clients to +understand that the election of a President makes no change in +the firm of Lincoln & Herndon. If I live, I am coming back +some time, and then we'll go right on practising law as if +nothing had happened.' He lingered for a moment as if to take a +last look at the old quarters, and then passed through the door +into the narrow hallway."[12] + +On a dreary day with a cold rain falling, he set forth. The +railway station was packed with friends. He made his way +through the crowd slowly, shaking hands. "Having finally +reached the train, he ascended the rear platform, and, facing +about to the throng which had closed about him, drew himself up +to his full height, removed his hat and stood for several +seconds in profound silence. His eyes roved sadly over that +sea of upturned faces. . . There was an unusual quiver on +his lips and a still more unusual tear on his shriveled cheek. +His solemn manner, his long silence, were as full of melancholy +eloquence as any words he could have uttered."[13] At length, he +spoke: "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 can not succeed. With that assistance, I can not 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."[14] + + + +XIV. THE STRANGE NEW MAN + +There is a period of sixteen months--from February, 1861, to a +day in June, 1862,--when Lincoln is the most singular, the most +problematic of statesmen. Out of this period he issues with +apparent abruptness, the final Lincoln, with a place among the +few consummate masters of state-craft. During the sixteen +months, his genius comes and goes. His confidence, whether in +himself or in others, is an uncertain quantity. At times he is +bold, even rash; at others, irresolute. The constant factor in +his mood all this while is his amazing humility. He seems to +have forgotten his own existence. As a person with likes and +dislikes, with personal hopes and fears, he has vanished. He +is but an afflicted and perplexed mind, struggling desperately +to save his country. A selfless man, he may be truly called +through months of torment which made him over from a +theoretical to a practical statesman. He entered this period a +literary man who had been elevated almost by accident to the +position of a leader in politics. After many blunders, after +doubt, hesitation and pain, he came forth from this stern +ordeal a powerful man of action. + +The impression which he made on the country at the opening of +this period was unfortunate. The very power that had hitherto +been the making of him--the literary power, revealing to men in +wonderfully convincing form the ideas which they felt within +them but could not utter--this had deserted him. Explain the +psychology of it any way you will, there is the fact! The +speeches Lincoln made on the way to Washington during the +latter part of February were appallingly unlike himself. His +mind had suddenly fallen dumb. He had nothing to say. The +gloom, the desolation that had penetrated his soul, somehow, +for the moment, made him commonplace. When he talked--as +convention required him to do at all his stopping places--his +words were but faint echoes of the great political exponent he +once had been. His utterances were fatuous; mere exhortations +to the country not to worry. "There is no crisis but an +artificial one," he said.[1] And the country stood aghast! +Amazement, bewilderment, indignation, was the course of the +reaction in many minds of his own party. Their verdict was +expressed in the angry language of Samuel Bowles, "Lincoln is a +Simple Susan."[2] + +In private talk, Lincoln admitted that he was "more troubled +about the outlook than he thought it discreet to show." This +remark was made to a "Public Man," whose diary has been +published but whose identity is still secret. Though keenly +alert for any touch of weakness or absurdity in the new +President, calling him "the most ill-favored son of Adam I +ever saw," the Public Man found him "crafty and sensible." In +conversation, the old Lincoln, the matchless phrase-maker, +could still express himself. At New York he was told of a wild +scheme that was on foot to separate the city from the North, +form a city state such as Hamburg then was, and set up a +commercial alliance with the Confederacy. "As to the free city +business," said Lincoln, "well, I reckon it will be some time +before the front door sets up bookkeeping on its own account."[3] +The formal round of entertainment on his way to Washington +wearied Lincoln intensely. Harassed and preoccupied, he was +generally ill at ease. And he was totally unused to sumptuous +living. Failures in social usage were inevitable. New York +was convulsed with amusement because at the opera he wore a +pair of huge black kid gloves which attracted the attention of +the whole house, "hanging as they did over the red velvet box +front." At an informal reception, between acts in the +director's room, he looked terribly bored and sat on the sofa +at the end of the room with his hat pushed back on his head. +Caricatures filled the opposition papers. He was spoken of as +the "Illinois ape" and the "gorilla." Every rash remark, every +"break" in social form, every gaucherie was seized upon and +ridiculed with-out mercy. + +There is no denying that the oddities of Lincoln's manner +though quickly dismissed from thought by men of genius, +seriously troubled even generous men who lacked the intuitions +of genius. And he never overcame these oddities. During the +period of his novitiate as a ruler, the critical sixteen +months, they were carried awkwardly, with embarrassment. Later +when he had found himself as a ruler, when his self-confidence +had reached its ultimate form and he knew what he really was, +he forgot their existence. None the less, they were always a +part of him, his indelible envelope. At the height of his +power, he received visitors with his feet in leather slippers.[4] +He discussed great affairs of state with one of those slippered +feet flung up on to a corner of his desk. A favorite attitude, +even when debating vital matters with the great ones of the +nation, is described by his secretaries as "sitting on his +shoulders"--he would slide far down into his chair and stick up +both slippers so high above his head that they could rest with +ease upon his mantelpiece.[5] No wonder that his enemies made +unlimited fun. And they professed to believe that there was an +issue here. When the elegant McClellan was moving heaven and +earth, as he fancied, to get the army out of its shirt-sleeves, +the President's manner was a cause of endless irritation. +Still more serious was the effect of his manner on many men who +agreed with him otherwise. Such a high-minded leader as +Governor Andrew of Massachusetts never got over the feeling +that Lincoln was a rowdy. How could a rowdy be the salvation +of the country? In the dark days of 1864, when a rebellion +against his leadership was attempted, this merely accidental +side of him was an element of danger. The barrier it had +created between himself and the more formal types, made it hard +for the men who finally saved him to overcome their prejudice +and nail his colors to the mast. Andrew's biographer shows +himself a shrewd observer when he insists on the unexpressed +but inexorable scale by which Andrew and his following measured +Lincoln. They had grown up in the faith that you could tell a +statesman by certain external signs, chiefly by a grandiose and +commanding aspect such as made overpowering the presence of +Webster. And this idea was not confined to any one locality. +Everywhere, more or less, the conservative portion in every +party held this view. It was the view of Washington in 1848 +when Washington had failed to see the real Lincoln through his +surface peculiarities. It was again the view of Washington +when Lincoln returned to it. + +Furthermore, his free way of talking, the broad stories he +continued to tell, were made counts in his indictment. One of +the bequests of Puritanism in America is the ideal, at least, +of extreme scrupulousness in talk. To many sincere men +Lincoln's choice of fables was often a deadly offense. Charles +Francis Adams never got over the shock of their first +interview. Lincoln clenched a point with a broad story. Many +professional politicians who had no objection to such talk in +itself, glared and sneered when the President used it--because +forsooth, it might estrange a vote. + +Then, too, Lincoln had none of the social finesse that might +have adapted his manner to various classes. He was always +incorrigibly the democrat pure and simple. He would have +laughed uproariously over that undergraduate humor, the joy of +a famous American University, supposedly strong on Democracy: + +"Where God speaks to Jones, in the very same tones, +That he uses to Hadley and Dwight." + +Though Lincoln's queer aplomb, his good-humored familiarity on +first acquaintance, delighted most of his visitors, it offended +many. It was lacking in tact. Often it was a clumsy attempt +to be jovial too soon, as when he addressed Greeley by the name +of "Horace" almost on first sight. His devices for putting men +on the familiar footing lacked originality. The frequency with +which he called upon a tall visitor to measure up against him +reveals the poverty of his social invention. He applied this +device with equal thoughtlessness to the stately Sumner, who +protested, and to a nobody who grinned and was delighted. + +It was this mere envelope of the genius that was deplorably +evident on the journey from Springfield to Washington. There +was one detail of the journey that gave his enemies a more +definite ground for sneering. By the irony of fate, the first +clear instance of Lincoln's humility, his reluctance to set up +his own judgment against his advisers, was also his first +serious mistake. There is a distinction here that is vital. +Lincoln was entering on a new role, the role of the man of +action. Hitherto all the great decisions of his life had been +speculative; they had developed from within; they dealt with +ideas. The inflexible side of him was intellectual. Now, +without any adequate apprenticeship, he was called upon to make +practical decisions, to decide on courses of action, at one +step to pass from the dream of statecraft to its application. +Inevitably, for a considerable time, he was two people; he +passed back and forth from one to the other; only by degrees +did he bring the two together. Meanwhile, he appeared +contradictory. Inwardly, as a thinker, his development was +unbroken; he was still cool, inflexible, drawing all his +conclusions out of the depths of himself. Outwardly, in +action, he was learning the new task, hesitatingly, with +vacillation, with excessive regard to the advisers whom he +treated as experts in action. It was no slight matter for an +extraordinarily sensitive man to take up a new role at +fifty-two. + +This first official mistake of Lincoln's was in giving way to +the fears of his retinue for his safety. The time had become +hysterical. The wildest sort of stories filled the air. Even +before he left Springfield there were rumors of plots to +assassinate him.[6] On his arrival at Philadelphia information +was submitted to his companions which convinced them that his +life was in danger--an attempt would be made to kill him as he +passed through Baltimore. Seward at Washington had heard the +same story and had sent his son to Philadelphia to advise +caution. Lincoln's friends insisted that he leave his special +train and proceed to Washington with only one companion, on an +ordinary night train. Railway officials were called in. +Elaborate precautions were arranged. The telegraph lines were +all to be disconnected for a number of hours so that even if +the conspirators--assuming there were any--should discover his +change of plan, they would be unable to communicate with +Baltimore. The one soldier in the party, Colonel Sumner, +vehemently protested that these changes were all "a damned +piece of cowardice." But Lincoln acquiesced in the views of the +majority of his advisers. He passed through Baltimore +virtually in disguise; nothing happened; no certain evidence of +a conspiracy was discovered. And all his enemies took up the +cry of cowardice and rang the changes upon it.[7] + +Meanwhile, despite all this semblance of indecision, of +feebleness, there were signs that the real inner Lincoln, +however clouded, was still alive. By way of offset to his +fatuous utterances, there might have been set, had the Country +been in a mood to weigh with care, several strong and clear +pronouncements. And these were not merely telling phrases like +that characteristic one about the bookkeeping of the front +door. His mind was struggling out of its shadow. And the mode +of its reappearance was significant. His reasoning upon the +true meaning of the struggle he was about to enter, reached a +significant stage in the speech he made at Harrisburg.[8] + +"I have often inquired of myself," he said, "what great +principle or idea it was that kept this Confederacy [the United +States] so long together. It was not the mere matter of the +separation of the colonies from the motherland, but that +sentiment in the Declaration of Independence which gave liberty +not alone to the people of the country but hope to all the +world for all future time. It was that which gave promise that +in due time the weights would be lifted from the shoulders of +all men and that all should have an equal chance. This is the +sentiment embodied in the Declaration of Independence. Now, my +friends, can this country be saved on that basis? If it can, I +will consider myself one of the happiest men in the world, if I +can help to save it. If it can not be saved upon that +principle, it will be truly awful. But if this country can not +be saved without giving up that principle, I was about to say I +would rather be assassinated on this spot than surrender it. +Now, in my view of the present aspect of affairs, there is no +need of bloodshed and war. There is no necessity for it I am +not in favor of such a course, and I may say in advance that +there will be no bloodshed unless it is forced upon the +government. The government will not use force unless force is +used against it." + +The two ideas underlying this utterance had grown in his +thought steadily, consistently, ever since their first +appearance in the Protest twenty-four years previous. The +great issue to which all else--slavery, "dominion status," +everything--was subservient, was the preservation of democratic +institutions; the means to that end was the preservation of the +Federal government. Now, as in 1852, his paramount object was +not to "disappoint the Liberal party throughout the world," to +prove that Democracy, when applied on a great scale, had yet +sufficient coherence to remain intact, no matter how powerful, +nor how plausible, were the forces of disintegration. + +Dominated by this purpose he came to Washington. There he met +Seward. It was the stroke of fate for both men. Seward, +indeed, did not know that it was. He was still firmly based in +the delusion that he, not Lincoln, was the genius of the hour. +And he had this excuse, that it was also the country's +delusion. There was pretty general belief both among friends +and foes that Lincoln would be ruled by his Cabinet. In a +council that was certain to include leaders of accepted +influence--Seward, Chase, Cameron--what chance for this untried +newcomer, whose prestige had been reared not on managing men, +but on uttering words? In Seward's thoughts the answer was as +inevitable as the table of addition. Equally mathematical was +the conclusion that only one unit gave value to the +combination. And, of course, the leader of the Republicans in +the Senate was the unit. A severe experience had to be lived +through before Seward made his peace with destiny. Lincoln was +the quicker to perceive when they came together that something +had happened. Almost from the minute of their meeting, he +began to lean upon Seward; but only in a certain way. This was +not the same thing as that yielding to the practical advisers +which began at Philadelphia, which was subsequently to be the +cause of so much confusion. His response to Seward was +intellectual. It was of the inner man and revealed itself in +his style of writing. + +Hitherto, Lincoln's progress in literature had been marked by +the development of two characteristics and by the lack of a +third. The two that he possessed were taste and rhythm. At +the start he was free from the prevalent vice of his time, +rhetoricality. His "Address to the Voters of Sangamon County" +which was his first state paper, was as direct, as free from +bombast, as the greatest of his later achievements. Almost any +other youth who had as much of the sense of language as was +there exhibited, would have been led astray by the standards of +the hour, would have mounted the spread-eagle and flapped its +wings in rhetorical clamor. But Lincoln was not precocious. +In art, as in everything else, he progressed slowly; the +literary part of him worked its way into the matter-of-fact +part of him with the gradualness of the daylight through a +shadowy wood. It was not constant in its development. For +many years it was little more than an irregular deepening of +his two original characteristics, taste and rhythm. His taste, +fed on Blackstone, Shakespeare, and the Bible, led him more and +more exactingly to say just what he meant, to eschew the wiles +of decoration, to be utterly non-rhetorical. His sense of +rhythm, beginning simply, no more at first than a good ear for +the sound of words, deepened into keen perception of the +character of the word-march, of that extra significance which +is added to an idea by the way it conducts itself, moving +grandly or feebly as the case may be, from the unknown into the +known, and thence across a perilous horizon, into memory. On +the basis of these two characteristics he had acquired a style +that was a rich blend of simplicity, directness, candor, joined +with a clearness beyond praise, with a delightful cadence, +having always a splendidly ordered march of ideas. + +But there was the third thing in which the earlier style of +Lincoln's was wanting. Marvelously apt for the purpose of the +moment, his writings previous to 1861 are vanishing from the +world's memory. The more notable writings of his later years +have become classics. And the difference does not turn on +subject-matter. All the ideas of his late writings had been +formulated in the earlier. The difference is purely literary. +The earlier writings were keen, powerful, full of character, +melodious, impressive. The later writings have all these +qualities, and in addition, that constant power to awaken the +imagination, to carry an idea beyond its own horizon into a +boundless world of imperishable literary significance, which +power in argumentative prose is beauty. And how did Lincoln +attain this? That he had been maturing from within the power to +do this, one is compelled by the analogy of his other mental +experiences to believe. At the same time, there can be no +doubt who taught him the trick, who touched the secret spring +and opened the new door to his mind. It was Seward. Long +since it had been agreed between them that Seward was to be +Secretary of State.[9] Lincoln asked him to criticize his +inaugural. Seward did so, and Lincoln, in the main, accepted +his criticism. But Seward went further. He proposed a new +paragraph. He was not a great writer and yet he had something +of that third thing which Lincoln hitherto had not exhibited. +However, in pursuing beauty of statement, he often came +dangerously near to mere rhetoric; his taste was never sure; +his sense of rhythm was inferior; the defects of his qualities +were evident. None the less, Lincoln saw at a glance that if +he could infuse into Seward's words his own more robust +qualities, the result--'would be a richer product than had ever +issued from his own qualities as hitherto he had known them. +He effected this transmutation and in doing so raised his style +to a new range of effectiveness. The great Lincoln of +literature appeared in the first inaugural and particularly in +that noble passage which was the work of Lincoln and Seward +together. In a way it said only what Lincoln had already +said--especially in the speech at Harrisburg--but with what a +difference! + +"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. You have no oath registered in +Heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most +solemn one to preserve, protect and defend it. + +"I am loath to close. We are not enemies but friends. 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."* + +*Lincoln VI, 184; N. & H., III, 343. Seward advised the +omission of part of the original draft of the first of these +two paragraphs. After "defend it," Lincoln had written, "You +can forbear the assault upon it. I can not shrink from the +defense of it. With you and not with me is the solemn question +'Shall it be peace or a sword?'" Having struck this out, he +accepted Seward's advice to add "some words of affection--some +of calm and cheerful confidence." + +The original version of the concluding paragraph was prepared +by Seward and read as follows: "I close. We are not, we must +not he aliens or enemies, but fellow-countrymen and brethren. +Although passion has strained our bonds of affection too +hardly, they must not, I am sure, they will not, be broken. +The mystic chords which, proceeding from so many battlefields +and so many patriot graves, pass through all the hearts and all +hearths in this broad continent of ours, will yet again +harmonize in their ancient music when breathed upon by the +guardian angel of the nation." + + +These words, now so famous, were spoken in the east portico of +the Capitol on "one of our disagreeable, clear, windy, +Washington spring days."[10] Most of the participants were +agitated; many were alarmed. Chief Justice Taney who +administered the oath could hardly speak, so near to +uncontrollable was his emotion. General Scott anxiously kept +his eye upon the crowd which was commanded by cannon. Cavalry +were in readiness to clear the streets in case of riot. +Lincoln's carriage on the way to the Capitol had been closely +guarded. He made his way to the portico between files of +soldiers. So intent--overintent--were his guardians upon his +safety that they had been careless of the smaller matter of his +comfort. There was insufficient room for the large company +that had been invited to attend. The new President stood +beside a rickety little table and saw no place on which to put +his hat. Senator Douglas stepped forward and relieved him of +the burden. Lincoln was "pale and very nervous," and toward +the close of his speech, visibly affected. Observers differ +point-blank as to the way the inaugural was received. The +"Public Man" says that there was little enthusiasm. The +opposite version makes the event an oratorical triumph, with +the crowd, at the close, completely under his spell.[11] + +On the whole, the inauguration and the festivities that +followed appear to have formed a dismal event. While Lincoln +spoke, the topmost peak of the Capitol, far above his head, was +an idle derrick; the present dome was in process of +construction; work on it had been arrested, and who could say +when, if ever, the work would be resumed? The day closed with +an inaugural ball that was anything but brilliant. "The great +tawdry ballroom . . not half full-and such an assemblage of +strange costumes, male and female. Very few people of any +consideration were there. The President looked exhausted and +uncomfortable, and most ungainly in his dress; and Mrs. Lincoln +all in blue, with a feather in her hair and a highly flushed +face.[12] + + + +XV. PRESIDENT AND PREMIER + +The brilliant Secretary, who so promptly began to influence the +President had very sure foundations for that influence. He was +inured to the role of great man; he had a rich experience of +public life; while Lincoln, painfully conscious of his +inexperience, was perhaps the humblest-minded ruler that ever +took the helm of a ship of state in perilous times. +Furthermore, Seward had some priceless qualities which, for +Lincoln, were still to seek. First of all, he had +audacity--personally, artistically, politically. Seward's +instantaneous gift to Lincoln was by way of throwing wide the +door of his gathering literary audacity. There is every reason +to think that Seward's personal audacity went to Lincoln's +heart at once. To be sure, he was not yet capable of going +along with it. The basal contrast of the first month of his +administration lies between the President's caution and the +boldness of the Secretary. Nevertheless, to a sensitive mind, +seeking guidance, surrounded by less original types of +politicians, the splendid fearlessness of Seward, whether wise +or foolish, must have rung like a trumpet peal soaring over +the heads of a crowd whose teeth were chattering. While the +rest of the Cabinet pressed their ears to the ground, Seward +thought out a policy, made a forecast of the future, and +offered to stake his head on the correctness of his reasoning. +This may have been rashness; it may have been folly; but, +intellectually at least, it was valor. Among Lincoln's other +advisers, valor at that moment was lacking. Contrast, however, +was not the sole, nor the surest basis of Seward's appeal to +Lincoln. Their characters had a common factor. For all their +immeasurable difference in externals, both at bottom were void +of malice. It was this characteristic above all others that +gave them spiritually common ground. In Seward, this quality +had been under fire for a long while. The political furies of +"that iron time" had failed to rouse echoes in his serene and +smiling soul. Therefore, many men who accepted him as leader +because, indeed, they could not do without him--because none +other in their camp had his genius for management, for the +glorification of political intrigue--these same men followed him +doubtfully, with bad grace, willing to shift to some other +leader whenever he might arise. The clue to their distrust was +Seward's amusement at the furious. Could a man who laughed +when you preached on the beauty of the hewing of Agag, could +such a man be sincere? And that Seward in some respects was not +sincere, history generally admits. He loved to poke fun at his +opponents by appearing to sneer at himself, by ridiculing the +idea that he was ever serious. His scale of political values +was different from that of most of his followers. Nineteen +times out of twenty, he would treat what they termed +"principles" as mere political counters, as legitimate subjects +of bargain. If by any deal he could trade off any or all of +these nineteen in order to secure the twentieth, which for him +was the only vital one, he never scrupled to do so. Against a +lurid background of political ferocity, this amused, ironic +figure came to be rated by the extremists, both in his own and +in the enemy camp as Mephistopheles. + +No quality could have endeared him more certainly to Lincoln +than the very one which the bigots misunderstood. From his +earliest youth Lincoln had been governed by this same quality. +With his non-censorious mind, which accepted so much of life +as he found it, which was forever stripping principles of their +accretions, what could be more inevitable than his warming to +the one great man at Washington who like him held that such a +point of view was the only rational one. Seward's ironic +peacefulness in the midst of the storm gained in luster because +all about him raged a tempest of ferocity, mitigated, at least +so far as the distracted President could see, only by self- +interest or pacifism. + +As Lincoln came into office, he could see and hear many signs +of a rising fierceness of sectional hatred. His secretary +records with disgust a proposal to conquer the Gulf States, +expel their white population, and reduce the region to a +gigantic state preserve, where negroes should grow cotton under +national supervision.[1] "We of the North," said Senator Baker of +Oregon, "are a majority of the Union, and we will govern our +Union in our own way."[2] At the other extreme was the +hysterical pacifism of the Abolitionists. Part of Lincoln's +abiding quarrel with the Abolitionists was their lack of +national feeling. Their peculiar form of introspection had +injected into politics the idea of personal sin. Their +personal responsibility for slavery--they being part of a +country that tolerated it--was their basal inspiration. +Consequently, the most distinctive Abolitionists welcomed this +opportunity to cast off their responsibility. If war had been +proposed as a crusade to abolish slavery, their attitude might +have been different But in March, 1860, no one but the few +ultra-extremists, whom scarcely anybody heeded, dreamed of such +a war. A war to restore the Union was the only sort that was +considered seriously. Such a war, the Abolitionists bitterly +condemned. They seized upon pacifism as their defense. Said +Whittier of the Seceding States: + +They break the links of Union: shall we light +The fires of hell to weld anew the chain, +On that red anvil where each blow is pain? + +The fury and the fear offended Lincoln in equal measure. After +long years opposing the political temper of the extremists, he +was not the man now to change front. To one who believed +himself marked out for a tragic end, the cowardice at the heart +of the pacifism of his time was revolting. It was fortunate +for his own peace of mind that he could here count on the +Secretary of State. No argument based on fear of pain would +meet in Seward with anything but derision. "They tell us," he +had once said, and the words expressed his constant attitude, +"that we are to encounter opposition. Why, bless my soul, did +anybody ever expect to reach a fortune, or fame, or happiness +on earth or a crown in heaven, without encountering resistance +and opposition? What are we made men for but to encounter and +overcome opposition arrayed against us in the line of our +duty?"[3] + +But if the ferocity and the cowardice were offensive and +disheartening, there was something else that was beneath +contempt. Never was self-interest more shockingly displayed. +It was revealed in many ways, but impinged upon the new +President in only one. A horde of office-seekers besieged him +in the White House. The parallel to this amazing picture can +hardly be found in history. It was taken for granted that the +new party would make a clean sweep of the whole civil list, +that every government employee down to the humblest messenger +boy too young to have political ideas was to bear the label of +the victorious party. Every Congressman who had made promises +to his constituents, every politician of every grade who +thought he had the party in his debt, every adventurer who on +any pretext could make a showing of party service rendered, +poured into Washington. It was a motley horde. + +"Hark, hark, the dogs do bark, +The beggars are coming to town." + +They converted the White House into a leaguer. They swarmed +into the corridors and even the private passages. So dense was +the swarm that it was difficult to make one's way either in or +out. Lincoln described himself by the image of a man renting +rooms at one end of his house while the other end was on fire.[4] +And all this while the existence of the Republic was at stake! +It did not occur to him that it was safe to defy the horde, to +send it about its business. Here again, the figure of Seward +stood out in brilliant light against the somber background. +One of Seward's faculties was his power to form devoted +lieutenants. He had that sure and nimble judgment which +enables some men to inspire their lieutenants rather than +categorically to instruct them. All the sordid side of his +political games he managed in this way. He did not appear +himself as the bargainer. In the shameful eagerness of most of +the politicians to find offices for their retainers, Seward was +conspicuous by contrast. Even the Cabinet was not free from +this vice of catering to the thirsty horde.[5] Alone, at this +juncture, Seward detached himself from the petty affairs of the +hour and gave his whole attention to statecraft. + +He had a definite policy. Another point of contact with +Lincoln was the attitude of both toward the Union, +supplemented as it was by their views of the place of slavery +in the problem they confronted. Both were nationalists ready +to make any sacrifices for the national idea. Both regarded +slavery as an issue of second importance. Both were prepared +for great concessions if convinced that, ultimately, their +concessions would strengthen the trend of American life toward +a general exaltation of nationality. + +On the other hand, their differences-- + +Seward approached the problem in the same temper, with the same +assumptions, that were his in the previous December. He still +believed that his main purpose was to enable a group of +politicians to save their faces by effecting a strategic +retreat. Imputing to the Southern leaders an attitude of pure +self-interest, he believed that if allowed to play the game as +they desired, they would mark time until circumstances revealed +to them whether there was more profit for them in the Union or +out; he also believed that if sufficient time could be given, +and if no armed clash took place, it would be demonstrated +first, that they did not have so strong a hold on the South as +they had thought they had; and second, that on the whole, it +was to their interests to patch up the quarrel and come back +into the Union. But he also saw that they had a serious +problem of leadership, which, if rudely handled, might make it +impossible for them to stand still. They had inflamed the +sentiment of state-patriotism. In South Carolina, +particularly, the popular demand was for independence. With +this went the demand that Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, +garrisoned by Federal troops, should be surrendered, or if not +surrendered, taken forcibly from the United States. A few +cannon shots at Sumter would mean war. An article in Seward's +creed of statecraft asserted that the populace will always go +wild over a war. To prevent a war fever in the North was the +first condition of his policy at home. Therefore, in order to +prevent it, the first step in saving his enemies' faces was to +safeguard them against the same danger in their own calm. He +must help them to prevent a war fever in the South. He saw but +one way to do this. The conclusion which became the bed rock +of his policy was inevitable. Sumter must be evacuated. + +Even before the inauguration, he had broached this idea to +Lincoln. He had tried to keep Lincoln from inserting in the +inaugural the words, "The power confided to me will be used to +hold, occupy and possess the property and places belonging to +the government." He had proposed instead, "The power +confided in me shall be used indeed with efficacy, but also +with discretion, in every case and exigency, according to the +circumstances actually existing, and with a view and a hope of +a peaceful solution of the national troubles, and the +restoration of fraternal sympathies and affections."[6] With the +rejection of Seward's proffered revision, a difference between +them in policy began to develop. Lincoln, says one of his +secretaries, accepted Seward's main purpose but did not share +his "optimism."[7] It would be truer to say that in this stage of +his development, he was lacking in audacity. In his eager +search for advice, he had to strike a balance between the +daring Seward who at this moment built entirely on his own +power of political devination, and the cautious remainder of +the Cabinet who had their ears to the ground trying their best +to catch the note of authority in the rumblings of vox populi. +For his own part, Lincoln began with two resolves: to go very +cautiously,--and not give something for nothing. Far from him, +as yet, was that plunging mood which in Seward pushed audacity +to the verge of a gamble. However, just previous to the +inauguration, he took a cautious step in Seward's direction. +Virginia, like all the other States of the upper South, was +torn by the question which side to take. There was a "Union" +party in Virginia, and a "Secession" party. A committee of +leading Unionists conferred with Lincoln. They saw the +immediate problem very much as Seward did. They believed that +if time were allowed, the crisis could be tided over and the +Union restored; but the first breath of war would wreck their +hopes. The condition of bringing about an adjustment was the +evacuation of Sumter. Lincoln told them that if Virginia could +be kept in the Union by the evacuation of Sumter, he would not +hesitate to recall the garrison.[8] A few days later, despite +what he had said in the inaugural, he repeated this offer. A +convention was then sitting at Richmond in debate upon the +relations of Virginia to the Union. If it would drop the +matter and dissolve--so Lincoln told another committee--he would +evacuate Sumter and trust the recovery of the lower South to +negotiation.[9] No results, so far as is known, came of either of +those offers. + +During the first half of March, the Washington government +marked time. The office-seekers continued to besiege the +President. South Carolina continued to clamor for possession +of Sumter. The Confederacy sent commissioners to Washington +whom Lincoln refused to recognize. The Virginia Convention +swayed this way and that. + +Seward went serenely about his business, confident that +everything was certain to come his way soon or late. He went +so far as to advise an intermediary to tell the Confederate +Commissioners that all they had to do to get possession of +Sumter was to wait. The rest of the Cabinet pressed their ears +more tightly than ever to the ground. The rumblings of vox +populi were hard to interpret. The North appeared to be in two +minds. This was revealed the day following the inauguration, +when a Republican Club in New York held a high debate upon the +condition of the country. One faction wanted Lincoln to +declare for a war-policy; another wished the Club to content +itself with a vote of confidence in the Administration. Each +faction put its views into a resolution and as a happy device +for maintaining harmony, both resolutions were passed.[10] The +fragmentary, miscellaneous evidence of newspapers, political +meetings, the talk of leaders, local elections, formed a +confused clamor which each listener interpreted according to +his predisposition. The members of the Cabinet in their +relative isolation at Washington found it exceedingly difficult +to make up their minds what the people were really saying. Of +but one thing they were certain, and that was that they +represented a minority party. Before committing themselves any +way, it was life and death to know what portion of the North +would stand by them.[11] + +At this point began a perplexity that was to torment the +President almost to the verge of distraction. How far could he +trust his military advisers? Old General Scott was at the head +of the army. He had once been a striking, if not a great +figure. Should his military advice be accepted as final? +Scott informed Lincoln that Sumter was short of food and that +any attempt to relieve it would call for a much larger force +than the government could muster. Scott urged him to withdraw +the garrison. Lincoln submitted the matter to the Cabinet. He +asked for their opinions in writing.[12] Five advised taking +Scott at his word and giving up all thought of relieving +Sumter. There were two dissenters. The Secretary of the +Treasury, Salmon Portland Chase, struck the key-note of his +later political career by an elaborate argument on expediency. +If relieving Sumter would lead to civil war, Chase was not in +favor of relief; but on the whole he did not think that civil +war would result, and therefore, on the whole, he favored a +relief expedition. One member of the Cabinet, Montgomery +Blair, the Postmaster General, an impetuous, fierce man, was +vehement for relief at all costs. Lincoln wanted to agree with +Chase and Blair. He reasoned that if the fort was given up, +the necessity under which it was done would not be fully +understood; that by many it would be construed as part of a +voluntary policy, that at home it would discourage the friends +of the Union, embolden its adversaries, and go far to insure to +the matter a recognition abroad. + +Nevertheless, with the Cabinet five to two against him, with +his military adviser against him, Lincoln put aside his own +views. The government went on marking time and considering the +credentials of applicants for country post-offices. + +By this time, Lincoln had thrown off the overpowering gloom +which possessed him in the latter days at Springfield. It is +possible he had reacted to a mood in which there was something +of levity. His oscillation of mood from a gloom that nothing +penetrated to a sort of desperate mirth, has been noted by +various observers. And in 1861 he had not reached his final +poise, that firm holding of the middle way,---which afterward +fused his moods and made of him, at least in action, a +sustained personality. + +About the middle of the month he had a famous interview with +Colonel W. T. Sherman who had been President of the +University of Louisiana and had recently resigned. Senator +John Sherman called at the White House with regard to "some +minor appointments in Ohio." The Colonel went with him. When +Colonel Sherman spoke of the seriousness of the Secession +movement, Lincoln replied, "Oh, we'll manage to keep house." +The Colonel was so offended by what seemed to him the flippancy +of the President that he abandoned his intention to resume the +military life and withdrew from Washington in disgust.[13] + +Not yet had Lincoln attained a true appreciation of the real +difficulty before him. He had not got rid of the idea that a +dispute over slavery had widened accidentally into a needless +sectional quarrel, and that as soon as the South had time to +think things over, it would see that it did not really want the +quarrel. He had a queer idea that meanwhile he could hold a +few points on the margin of the Seceded States, open custom +houses on ships at the mouths of harbors, but leave vacant all +Federal appointments within the Seceded States and ignore the +absence of their representatives from Washington.[14] This +marginal policy did not seem to him a policy of coercion; and +though he was beginning to see that the situation from the +Southern point of view turned on the right of a State to resist +coercion, he was yet to learn that idealistic elements of +emotion and of political dogma were the larger part of his +difficulty. + +Meanwhile, the upper South had been proclaiming its idealism. +Its attitude was creating a problem for the lower South as well +as for the North. The pro-slavery leaders had been startled +out of a dream. The belief in a Southern economic solidarity +so complete that the secession of any one Slave State would +compel the secession of all the others, that belief had been +proved fallacious. It had been made plain that on the economic +issue, even as on the issue of sectional distrust, the upper +South would not follow the lower South into secession. When +delegates from the Georgia Secessionists visited the +legislature of North Carolina, every courtesy was shown to +them; the Speaker of the House assured them of North Carolina's +sympathy and of her enduring friendliness; but he was careful +not to suggest an intention to secede, unless (the condition +that was destiny!) an attempt should be made to violate the +sovereignty of the State by marching troops across her soil to +attack the Confederates. Then, on the one issue of State +sovereignty, North Carolina would leave the Union.[15] The +Unionists in Virginia took similar ground. They wished to stay +in the Union, and they were determined not to go out on the +issue of slavery. Therefore they laid their heads together to +get that issue out of the way. Their problem was to devise a +compromise that would do three things: lay the Southern dread +of an inundation of sectional Northern influence; silence the +slave profiteers; meet the objections that had induced Lincoln +to wreck the Crittenden Compromise. They felt that the first +and second objectives would be reached easily enough by +reviving the line of the Missouri Compromise. But something +more was needed, or again, Lincoln would refuse to negotiate. +They met their crucial difficulty by boldly appealing to the +South to be satisfied with the conservation of its present life +and renounce the dream of unlimited Southern expansion. Their +Compromise proposed a death blow to the filibuster and all he +stood for. It provided that no new territory other than naval +stations should be acquired by the United States on either side +the Missouri Line without consent of a majority of the Senators +from the States on the opposite side of that line.[16] + +As a solution of the sectional quarrel, to the extent that it +had been definitely put into words, what could have been more +astute? Lincoln himself had said in the inaugural, "One +section of our country believes slavery is right and ought to +be extended; while the other believes it is wrong and ought not +to be extended. That is the only substantial dispute." In the +same inaugural, he had pledged himself not to "interfere with +the institution of slavery in the States where it now exists;" +and also had urged a vigorous enforcement of the Fugitive Slave +Law. He never had approved of any sort of emancipation other +than purchase or the gradual operation of economic conditions. +It was well known that slavery could flourish only on fresh +land amid prodigal agricultural methods suited to the most +ignorant labor. The Virginia Compromise, by giving to slavery +a fixed area and abolishing its hopes of continual extensions +into fresh land, was the virtual fulfillment of Lincoln's +demand. + +The failure of the Virginia Compromise is one more proof that a +great deal of vital history never gets into words until after +it is over. During the second half of March, Unionists and +Secessionists in the Virginia Convention debated with deep +emotion this searching new proposal. The Unionists had a fatal +weakness in their position. This was the feature of the +situation that had not hitherto been put into words. Lincoln +had not been accurate when he said that the slavery question +was "the only substantial dispute." He had taken for granted +that the Southern opposition to nationalism was not a real +thing,--a mere device of the politicians to work up excitement. +All the compromises he was ready to offer were addressed to +that part of the South which was seeking to make an issue on +slavery. They had little meaning for that other and more +numerous part in whose thinking slavery was an incident. For +this other South, the ideas which Lincoln as late as the middle +of March did not bring into play were the whole story. +Lincoln, willing to give all sorts of guarantees for the +noninterference with slavery, would not give a single guarantee +supporting the idea of State sovereignty against the idea of +the sovereign power of the national Union. The Virginians, +willing to go great lengths in making concessions with regard +to slavery, would not go one inch in the way of admitting that +their State was not a sovereign power included in the American +Union of its own free will, and not the legitimate subject of +any sort of coercion. + +The Virginia Compromise was really a profound new complication. +The very care with which it divided the issue of nationality +from the issue of slavery was a storm signal. For a +thoroughgoing nationalist like Lincoln, deep perplexities lay +hidden in this full disclosure of the issue that was vital to +the moderate South. Lincoln's shifting of his mental ground, +his perception that hitherto he had been oblivious of his most +formidable opponent, the one with whom compromise was +impossible, occurred in the second half of the month. + +As always, Lincoln kept his own counsel upon the maturing of a +purpose in his own mind. He listened to every adviser--opening +his office doors without reserve to all sorts and +conditions--and silently, anxiously, struggled with himself for +a decision. He watched Virginia; he watched the North; he +listened--and waited. General Scott continued hopeless, though +minor military men gave encouragement. And whom should the +President trust-the tired old General who disagreed with him, +or the eager young men who held views he would like to hold? +Many a time he was to ask himself that question during the +years to come. + +On March twenty-ninth, he again consulted the Cabinet.[17] A +great deal of water had run under the mill since they gave +their opinions on March sixteenth. The voice of the people was +still a bewildering roar, but out of that roar most of the +Cabinet seemed to hear definite words. They were convinced +that the North was veering toward a warlike mood. The phrase +"masterly inactivity," which had been applied to the +government' s course admiringly a few weeks before, was now +being applied satirically. Republican extremists were +demanding action. A subtle barometer was the Secretary of the +Treasury. Now, as on the sixteenth, he craftily said something +without saying it. After juggling the word "if," he assumed +his "if" to be a fact and concluded, "If war is to be the +result, I perceive no reason why it may not best be begun in +consequence of military resistance to the efforts of the +Administration to sustain troops of the Union, stationed under +authority of the government in a fort of the Union, in the +ordinary course of service." + +This elaborate equivocation, which had all the force of an +assertion, was Chase all over! Three other ministers agreed +with him except that they did not equivocate. One evaded. Of +all those who had stood with Seward on the sixteenth, only one +was still in favor of evacuation. Seward stood fast. This +reversal of the Cabinet's position, jumping as it did with +Lincoln's desires, encouraged him to prepare for action. But +just as he was about to act his diffidence asserted itself. He +authorized the preparation of a relief expedition but withheld +sailing orders until further notice.[18] Oh, for Seward's +audacity; for the ability to do one thing or another and take +the consequences! + +Seward had not foreseen this turn of events. He had little +respect for the rest of the Cabinet, and had still to discover +that the President, for all his semblance of vacillation, was a +great man. Seward was undeniably vain. That the President +with such a Secretary of State should judge the strength of a +Cabinet vote by counting noses--preposterous! But that was just +what this curiously simple-minded President had done. If he +went on in his weak, amiable way listening to the time-servers +who were listening to the bigots, what would become of the +country? And of the Secretary of State and his deep policies? +The President must be pulled up short--brought to his +senses--taught a lesson or two. + +Seward saw that new difficulties had arisen in the course of +that fateful March which those colleagues of his in the +Cabinet--well-meaning, inferior men, to be sure--had not the +subtlety to comprehend. Of course the matter of evacuation +remained what it always had been, the plain open road to an +ultimate diplomatic triumph. Who but a president out of the +West, or a minor member of the Cabinet, would fail to see that! +But there were two other considerations which, also, his +well-meaning colleagues were failing to allow for. While all +this talk about the Virginia Unionists had been going on, while +Washington and Richmond had been trying to negotiate, neither +really had any control of its own game. They were card players +with all the trumps out of their hands. Montgomery, the +Confederate Congress, held the trumps. At any minute it could +terminate all this make-believe of diplomatic independence, +both at Washington and at Richmond. A few cannon shots aimed +at Sumter, the cry for revenge in the North, the inevitable +protest against coercion in Virginia, the convention blown into +the air, and there you are--War! + +And after all that, who knows what next? And yet, Blair and +Chase and the rest would not consent to slip Montgomery's +trumps out of her hands--the easiest thing in the world to do!- +-by throwing Sumter into her lap and thus destroying the +pretext for the cannon shots. More than ever before, Seward +would insist firmly on the evacuation of Sumter. + +But there was the other consideration, the really new turn of +events. Suppose Sumter is evacuated; suppose Montgomery has +lost her chance to force Virginia into war by precipitating the +issue of coercion, what follows? All along Seward had +advocated a national convention to readjust all the matters "in +dispute between the sections." But what would such a convention +discuss? In his inaugural, Lincoln had advised an amendment to +the Constitution "to the effect that the Federal government +shall never interfere with the domestic institutions of the +State, including that of persons held to service." Very good! +The convention might be expected to accept this, and after +this, of course, there would come up the Virginia Compromise. +Was it a practical scheme? Did it form a basis for drawing +back into the Union the lower South? + +Seward's whole thought upon this subject has never been +disclosed. It must be inferred from the conclusion which he +reached, which he put into a paper entitled, Thoughts for the +President's Consideration, and submitted to Lincoln, April +first. + +The Thoughts outlined a scheme of policy, the most startling +feature of which was an instant, predatory, foreign war. There +are two clues to this astounding proposal. One was a political +maxim in which Seward had unwavering faith. "A fundamental +principle of politics," he said, "is always to be on the side +of your country in a war. It kills any party to oppose a war. +When Mr. Buchanan got up his Mormon War, our people, Wade and +Fremont, and The Tribune, led off furiously against it. I +supported it to the immense disgust of enemies and friends. If +you want to sicken your opponents with their own war, go in for +it till they give it up."[19] He was not alone among the +politicians of his time, and some other times, in these cynical +views. Lincoln has a story of a politician who was asked to +oppose the Mexican War, and who replied, "I opposed one war; +that was enough for me. I am now perpetually in favor of war, +pestilence and famine." + +The second clue to Seward's new policy of international +brigandage was the need, as he conceived it, to propitiate +those Southern expansionists who in the lower South at least +formed so large a part of the political machine, who must +somehow be lured back into the Union; to whom the Virginia +Compromise, as well as every other scheme of readjustment yet +suggested, offered no allurement. Like Lincoln defeating the +Crittenden Compromise, like the Virginians planning the last +compromise, Seward remembered the filibusters and the dreams of +the expansionists, annexation of Cuba, annexation of Nicaragua +and all the rest, and he looked about for a way to reach them +along that line. Chance had played into his hands. Already +Napoleon III had begun his ill-fated interference with the +affairs of Mexico. A rebellion had just taken place in San +Domingo and Spain was supposed to have designs on the island. +Here, for any one who believed in predatory war as an +infallible last recourse to rouse the patriotism of a country, +were pretexts enough. Along with these would go a raging +assertion of the Monroe Doctrine and a bellicose attitude +toward other European powers on less substantial grounds. And +amid it all, between the lines of it all, could not any one +glimpse a scheme for the expansion of the United States +southward? War with Spain over San Domingo! And who, pray, +held the Island of Cuba! And what might not a defeated Spain +be willing to do with Cuba? And if France were driven out of +Mexico by our conquering arms, did not the shadows of the +future veil but dimly a grateful Mexico where American capital +should find great opportunities? And would not Southern +capital in the nature of things, have a large share in all that +was to come? Surely, granting Seward's political creed, +remembering the problem he wished to solve, there is nothing to +be wondered at in his proposal to Lincoln: "I would demand +explanations from Spain and France, categorically, at once." . +. . And if satisfactory explanations were not received from +Spain and France, "would convene Congress and declare war +against them." + +His purpose, he said, was to change the question before the +public, from one upon slavery, or about slavery, for a question +upon Union or Disunion. Sumter was to be evacuated "as a safe +means for changing the issue," but at the same time, +preparations were to be made for a blockade of the Southern +coast.[20] This extraordinary document administered mild but +firm correction to the President. He was told that he had no +policy, although under the circumstances, this was "not +culpable"; that there must be a single head to the government; +that the President, if not equal to the task, should devolve it +upon some member of the Cabinet. The Thoughts closed with +these words, "I neither seek to evade nor assume +responsibility." + +Like Seward's previous move, when he sent Weed to Springfield, +this other brought Lincoln to a point of crisis. For the +second time he must render a decision that would turn the +scale, that would have for his country the force of destiny. +In one respect he did not hesitate. The most essential part of +the Thoughts was the predatory spirit. This clashed with +Lincoln's character. Serene unscrupulousness met unwavering +integrity. Here was one of those subjects on which Lincoln was +not asking advice. As to ways and means, he was pliable to a +degree in the hands of richer and wider experience; as to +principles, he was a rock. Seward's whole scheme of +aggrandizement, his magnificent piracy, was calmly waved aside +as a thing of no concern. The most striking characteristic of +Lincoln's reply was its dignity. He did not, indeed, lay bare +his purposes. He was content to point out certain +inconsistencies in Seward's argument; to protest that whatever +action might be taken with regard to the single fortress, +Sumter, the question before the public could not be changed by +that one event; and to say that while he expected advice from +all his Cabinet, he was none the less President, and in last +resort he would himself direct the policy of the government.[21] + +Only a strong man could have put up with the patronizing +condescension of the Thoughts and betrayed no irritation. Not +a word in Lincoln's reply gives the least hint that +condescension had been displayed. He is wholly unruffled, +distant, objective. There is also a quiet tone of finality, +almost the tone one might use in gently but firmly correcting a +child. The Olympian impertinence of the Thoughts had struck +out of Lincoln the first flash of that approaching +masterfulness by means of which he was to ride out +successfully such furious storms. Seward was too much the man +of the world not to see what had happened. He never touched +upon the Thoughts again. Nor did Lincoln. The incident was +secret until Lincoln's secretaries twenty-five years afterward +published it to the world. + +But Lincoln's lofty dignity on the first of April was of a +moment only. When the Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Welles, +that same day called on him in his offices, he was the +easy-going, jovial Lincoln who was always ready half-humorously +to take reproof from subordinates--as was evinced by his +greeting to the Secretary. Looking up from his writing, he +said cheerfully, "What have I done wrong?"[22] Gideon Welles was +a pugnacious man, and at that moment an angry man. There can +be little doubt that his lips were tightly shut, that a stern +frown darkened his brows. Grimly conscientious was Gideon +Welles, likewise prosaic; a masterpiece of literalness, the +very opposite in almost every respect of the Secretary of State +whom he cordially detested. That he had already found +occasion to protest against the President's careless mode of +conducting business may be guessed--correctly--from the way he +was received. Doubtless the very cordiality, the whimsical +admission of loose methods, irritated the austere Secretary. +Welles had in his hand a communication dated that same day and +signed by the President, making radical changes in the program +of the Navy Department. He had come to protest. + +"The President," said Welles, "expressed as much surprise as I +felt, that he had sent me such a document. He said that Mr. +Seward with two or three young men had been there during the +day on a subject which he (Seward) had in hand and which he had +been some time maturing; that it was Seward's specialty, to +which he, the President, had yielded, but as it involved +considerable details, he had left Mr. Seward to prepare the +necessary papers. These papers he had signed, many of them +without reading, for he had not time, and if he could not trust +the Secretary of State, he knew not whom he could trust. I +asked who were associated with Mr. Seward. 'No one,' said the +President, 'but these young men who were here as clerks to +write down his plans and orders.' Most of the work was done, he +said, in the other room. + +"The President reiterated that they [the changes in the Navy] +were not his instructions, though signed by him; that the paper +was an improper one; that he wished me to give it no more +consideration than I thought proper; to treat it as cancelled, +or as if it had never been written. I could get no satisfactory +explanation from the President of the origin of this strange +interference which mystified him and which he censured and +condemned more severely than myself. . . . Although very much +disturbed by the disclosure, he was anxious to avoid difficulty, +and to shield Mr. Seward, took to himself the whole blame. + +Thus Lincoln began a role that he never afterward abandoned. +It was the role of scapegoat Whatever went wrong anywhere could +always be loaded upon the President. He appeared to consider +it a part of his duty to be the scapegoat for the whole +Administration. It was his way of maintaining trust, courage, +efficiency, among his subordinates. + +Of those papers which he had signed without reading on April +first, Lincoln was to hear again in still more surprising +fashion six days thereafter. + +He was now at the very edge of his second crucial decision. +Though the naval expedition was in preparation, he still +hesitated over issuing orders to sail. The reply to the +Thoughts had not committed him to any specific line of conduct. +What was it that kept him wavering at this eleventh hour? +Again, that impenetrable taciturnity which always shrouded his +progress toward a conclusion, forbids dogmatic assertion. But +two things are obvious: his position as a minority president, +of which he was perhaps unduly conscious, caused him to delay, +and to delay again and again, seeking definite evidence how +much support he could command in the North; the change in his +comprehension of the problem before him-his perception that it +was not an "artificial crisis" involving slavery alone, but an +irreconcilable clash of social-political idealism--this +disturbed his spirit, distressed, even appalled him. Having a +truer insight into human nature than Seward had, he saw that +here was an issue immeasurably less susceptible of compromise +than was slavery. Whether, the moment he perceived this, he at +once lost hope of any peaceable solution, we do not know. Just +what he thought about the Virginia Compromise is still to +seek. However, the nature of his mind, the way it went +straight to the human element in a problem once his eyes were +opened to the problem's reality, forbid us to conclude that he +took hope from Virginia. He now saw what, had it not been for +his near horizon, he would have seen so long before, that, in +vulgar parlance, he had been "barking up the wrong tree." Now +that he had located the right tree, had the knowledge come too +late? + +It is known that Seward, possibly at Lincoln's request, made an +attempt to bring together the Virginia Unionists and the +Administration. He sent a special representative to Richmond +urging the despatch of a committee to confer with the +President. + +The strength of the party in the Convention was shown on April +fourth when a proposed Ordinance of Secession was voted down, +eighty-nine to forty-five. On the same day, the Convention by +a still larger majority formally denied the right of the +Federal government to coerce a State. Two days later, John B. +Baldwin, representing the Virginia Unionists, had a +confidential talk with Lincoln. Only fragments of their talk, +drawn forth out of memory long afterward--some of the reporting +being at second hand, the recollections of the recollections of +the participants--are known to exist. The one fact clearly +discernible is that Baldwin stated fully the Virginia position: +that her Unionists were not nationalists; that the coercion of +any State, by impugning the sovereignty of all, would +automatically drive Virginia out of the Union.[23] + +Lincoln had now reached his decision. The fear that had dogged +him all along--the fear that in evacuating Sumter he would be +giving something for nothing, that "it would discourage the +friends of the Union, embolden its adversaries"--was in +possession of his will. One may hazard the guess that this +fear would have determined Lincoln sooner than it did, except +for the fact that the Secretary of State, despite his faults, +was so incomparably the strongest personality in the Cabinet. +We have Lincoln's own word for the moment and the detail that +formed the very end of his period of vacillation. All along he +had intended to relieve and hold Fort Pickens, off the coast of +Florida. To this, Seward saw no objection. In fact, he urged +the relief of Pickens, hoping, as compensation, to get his way +about Sumter. Assuming as he did that the Southern leaders +were opportunists, he believed that they would not make an +issue over Pickens, merely because it had not in the public eye +become a political symbol. Orders had been sent to a squadron +in Southern waters to relieve Pickens. Early in April news was +received at Washington that the attempt had failed due to +misunderstandings among the Federal commanders. Fearful that +Pickens was about to fall, reasoning that whatever happened he +dared not lose both forts, Lincoln became peremptory on the +subject of the Sumter expedition. This was on April sixth. On +the night of April sixth, Lincoln's signatures to the unread +despatches of the first of April, came home to roost. And at +last, Welles found out what Seward was doing on the day of All +Fools.[24] + +While the Sumter expedition was being got ready, still without +sailing orders, a supplemental expedition was also preparing +for the relief of Pickens. This was the business that Seward +was contriving, that Lincoln would not explain, on April first. +The order interfering with the Navy Department was designed to +checkmate the titular head of the department. Furthermore, +Seward had had the amazing coolness to assume that Lincoln +would certainly accept his Thoughts and that the simple +President need not hereinafter be consulted about details. He +aimed to circumvent Welles and to make sure that the Sumter +expedition, whether sailing orders were issued or not, should +be rendered innocuous. The warship Powhatan, which was being +got ready for sea at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, was intended by +Welles for the Sumter expedition. One of those unread +despatches signed by Lincoln, assigned it to the Pickens +expedition. When the sailing orders from Welles were received, +the commander of the Sumter fleet claimed the Powhatan. The +Pickens commander refused to give it up. The latter +telegraphed Seward that his expedition was "being retarded and +embarrassed" by "conflicting" orders from Welles. The result +was a stormy conference between Seward and Welles which was +adjourned to the White House and became a conference with +Lincoln. And then the whole story came out. Lincoln played +the scapegoat, "took the whole blame upon himself, said it was +carelessness, heedlessness on his part; he ought to have been +more careful and attentive." But he insisted on immediate +correction of his error, on the restoration of the Powhatan to +the Sumter fleet. Seward struggled hard for his plan. Lincoln +was inflexible. As Seward had directed the preparation of the +Pickens expedition, Lincoln required him to telegraph to +Brooklyn the change in orders. Seward, beaten by his enemy +Welles, was deeply chagrined. In his agitation he forgot to be +formal, forgot that the previous order had gone out in the +President's name, and wired curtly, "Give up the Powhatan. +Seward." + +This despatch was received just as the Pickens expedition was +sailing. The commander of the Powhatan had now before him, +three orders. Naturally, he held that the one signed by the +President took precedence over the others. He went on his way, +with his great warship, to Florida. The Sumter expedition +sailed without any powerful ship of war. In this strange +fashion, chance executed Seward's design. + +Lincoln had previously informed the Governor of South Carolina +that due notice would be given, should he decide to relieve +Sumter. Word was now sent that "an attempt will be made to +supply Fort Sumter with provisions only; and that if such +attempt be not resisted, no effort to throw in men, arms or +ammunition will be made without further notice, or in case of +an attack upon the fort."[25] Though the fleet was not intended +to offer battle, it was supposed to be strong enough to force +its way into the harbor, should the relief of Sumter be +opposed. But the power to do so was wholly conditioned on the +presence in its midst of the Powhatan. And the Powhatan was +far out to sea on its way to Florida. + +And now it was the turn of the Confederate government to +confront a crisis. It, no less than Washington, had passed +through a period of disillusion. The assumption upon which its +chief politicians had built so confidently had collapsed. The +South was not really a unit. It was not true that the +secession of any one State, on any sort of issue, would compel +automatically the secession of all the Southern States. North +Carolina had exploded this illusion. Virginia had exploded it. +The South could not be united on the issue of slavery; it could +not be united on the issue of sectional dread. It could be +united on but one issue-State sovereignty, the denial of the +right of the Federal Government to coerce a State. The time +had come to decide whether the cannon at Charleston should +fire. As Seward had foreseen, Montgomery held the trumps; but +had Montgomery the courage to play them? There was a momentous +debate in the Confederate Cabinet. Robert Toombs, the +Secretary of State, whose rapid growth in comprehension since +December formed a parallel to Lincoln's growth, threw his +influence on the side of further delay. He would not invoke +that "final argument of kings," the shotted cannon. "Mr. +President," he exclaimed, "at this time, it is suicide, murder, +and will lose us every friend at the North. You will instantly +strike a: hornet's nest which extends from mountain to ocean, +and legions now quiet will swarm out and sting us to death. It +is unnecessary; it puts us in the wrong; it is fatal." But +Toombs stood alone in the Cabinet. Orders were sent to +Charleston to reduce Fort Sumter. Before dawn, April twelfth, +the first shot was fired. The flag of the United States was +hauled down on the afternoon of the thirteenth. 'Meanwhile the +relieving fleet had arrived--without the Powhatan. Bereft of +its great ship, it could not pass the harbor batteries and +assist the fort. Its only service was to take off the garrison +which by the terms of surrender was allowed to withdraw. On +the fourteenth, Sumter was evacuated and the inglorious fleet +sailed back to the northward. + +Lincoln at once accepted the gage of battle. On the fifteenth +appeared his proclamation calling for an army of seventy-five +thousand volunteers. Automatically, the upper South fulfilled +its unhappy destiny. Challenged at last, on the irreconcilable +issue, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, seceded. +The final argument of kings was the only one remaining. + + + +XVI "ON TO RICHMOND!" + +It has been truly said that the Americans are an unmilitary but +an intensely warlike nation. Seward's belief that a war fury +would sweep the country at the first cannon shot was amply +justified. Both North and South appeared to rise as one man, +crying fiercely to be led to battle. + +The immediate effect on Washington had not been foreseen. That +historic clash at Baltimore between the city's mob and the +Sixth Massachusetts en route to the capital, was followed by an +outburst of secession feeling in Maryland; by an attempt to +isolate Washington from the North. Railway tracks were torn +up; telegraph wires were cut. During several days Lincoln was +entirely ignorant of what the North was doing. Was there an +efficient general response to his call for troops? Or was +precious time being squandered in preparation? Was it +conceivable that the war fury was only talk? Looking forth +from the White House, he was a prisoner of the horizon; an +impenetrable mystery, it shut the capital in a ring of silence +all but intolerable. Washington assumed the air of a +beleaguered city. General Scott hastily drew in the small +forces which the government had maintained in Maryland and +Virginia. Government employees and loyal Washingtonians were +armed and began to drill. The White House became a barracks. +"Jim Lane," writes delightful John Hay in his diary, which is +always cool, rippling, sunny, no matter how acute the crisis, +"Jim Lane marshalled his Kansas warriors today at Williard's; +tonight (they are in) the East Room."[1] Hay's humor brightens +the tragic hour. He felt it his duty to report to Lincoln a +"yarn" that had been told to him by some charming women who had +insisted on an interview; they had heard from "a dashing +Virginian" that inside forty-eight hours something would happen +which would ring through the world. The ladies thought this +meant the capture or assassination of the President. "Lincoln +quietly grinned." But Hay who plainly enjoyed the episode, +charming women and all, had got himself into trouble. He had +to do "some very dexterous lying to calm the awakened fears of +Mrs. Lincoln in regard to the assassination suspicion." Militia +were quartered in the Capitol, and Pennsylvania Avenue was a +drill ground. At the President's reception, the distinguished +politician C. C. Clay, "wore with a sublimely unconscious air +three pistols and an 'Arkansas toothpick,' and looked like an +admirable vignette to twenty-five cents' worth of yellow +covered romance." + +But Hay's levity was all of the surface. Beneath it was +intense anxiety. General Scott reported that the Virginia +militia, concentrating about Washington, were a formidable +menace, though he thought he was strong enough to hold out +until relief should come. As the days passed and nothing +appeared upon that inscrutable horizon while the telegraph +remained silent, Lincoln became moodily distressed. One +afternoon, "the business of the day being over, the executive +office deserted, after walking the floor alone in silent +thought for nearly a half-hour, he stopped and gazed long and +wistfully out of the window down the Potomac in the direction +of the expected ships (bringing soldiers from New York); and +unconscious of other presence in the room, at length broke out +with irrepressible anguish in the repeated exclamation, 'Why +don't they come! Why don't they come!'"[2] + +His unhappiness flashed into words while he was visiting those +Massachusetts soldiers who had been wounded on their way to +Washington. "I don't believe there is any North. . . " he +exclaimed. "You are the only Northern realities."[3] But even +then relief was at hand. The Seventh New York, which had +marched down Broadway amid such an ovation as never before was +given any regiment in America, had come by sea to Annapolis. +At noon on April twenty-fifth, it reached Washington bringing, +along with the welcome sight of its own bayonets, the news that +the North had risen, that thousands more were on the march. + +Hay who met them at the depot went at once to report to +Lincoln. Already the President had reacted to a "pleasant, +hopeful mood." He began outlining a tentative plan of action: +blockade, maintenance of the safety of Washington, holding +Fortress Monroe, and then to "go down to Charleston and pay her +the little debt we are owing there."[4] But this was an +undigested plan. It had little resemblance to any of his +later plans. And immediately the chief difficulties that were +to embarrass all his plans appeared. He was a minority +President; and he was the Executive of a democracy. Many +things were to happen; many mistakes were to be made; many +times the piper was to be paid, ere Lincoln felt sufficiently +sure of his support to enforce a policy of his own, defiant of +opposition. Throughout the spring of 1861 his imperative need +was to secure the favor of the Northern mass, to shape his +policy with that end in view. At least, in his own mind, this +seemed to be his paramount obligation. And so it was in the +minds of his advisers. Lincoln was still in the pliable mood +which was his when he entered office, which continued to be in +evidence, except for sudden momentary disappearances when a +different Lincoln flashed an instant into view, until another +year and more had gone by. Still he felt himself the +apprentice hand painfully learning the trade of man of action. +Still he was deeply sensitive to advice. + +And what advice did the country give him? There was one +roaring shout dinning into his ears all round the Northern +horizon-"On to Richmond!" Following Virginia's secession, +Richmond had become the Confederate capital. It was expected +that a session of the Confederate Congress would open at +Richmond in July. "On to Richmond! Forward to Richmond!" +screamed The Tribune. "The Rebel Congress must not be allowed +to meet there on the 20th of July. By that date the place must +be held by the national army." The Times advised the +resignation of the Cabinet; it warned the President that if he +did not give prompt satisfaction he would be superseded. +Though Lincoln laughed at the threat of The Times to "depose" +him, he took very seriously all the swiftly accumulating +evidence that the North was becoming rashly impatient Newspaper +correspondents at Washington talked to his secretaries +"impertinently."[5] Members of Congress, either carried away by +the excitement of the hour or with slavish regard to the +hysteria of their constituents, thronged to Washington +clamoring for action. On purely political grounds, if on no +other, they demanded an immediate advance into Virginia. +Military men looked with irritation, if not with contempt, on +all this intemperate popular fury. That grim Sherman, who had +been offended by Lincoln's tone the month previous, put their +feeling into words. Declining the offer of a position in the +War Department, he wrote that he wished "the Administration all +success in its almost impossible task of governing this +distracted and anarchial people."[6] + +In the President's councils, General Scott urged delay, and the +gathering of the volunteers into camps of instruction, their +deliberate transformation into a genuine army. So inadequate +were the resources of the government; so loose and uncertain +were the militia organizations which were attempting to combine +into an army; such discrepancies appeared between the nominal +and actual strength of commands, between the places where men +were supposed to be and the places where they actually were; +that Lincoln in his droll way compared the process of +mobilization to shoveling a bushel of fleas across a barn +floor.[7] From the military point of view it was no time to +attempt an advance. Against the military argument, three +political arguments loomed dark in the minds of the Cabinet; +there was the clamor of the Northern majority; there were the +threats of the politicians who were to assemble in Congress, +July fourth; there was the term of service of the volunteers +which had been limited by the proclamation to three months. +Late in June, the Cabinet decided upon the political course, +overruled the military advisers, and gave its voice for an +immediate advance into Virginia. Lincoln accepted this rash +advice. Scott yielded. General Irwin McDowell was ordered to +strike a Confederate force that had assembled at Manassas.[8] On +the fourth of July, the day Congress met, the government made +use of a coup de theatre. It held a review of what was then +considered a "grand army" of twenty-five thousand men. A few +days later, the sensibilities of the Congressmen were further +exploited. Impressionable members were "deeply moved," when +the same host in marching order passed again through the city +and wheeled southward toward Virginia. Confident of victory, +the Congressmen spent these days in high debate upon anything +that took their fancy. When, a fortnight later, it was known +that a battle was imminent, many of them treated the Occasion +as a picnic. They took horses, or hired vehicles, and away +they went southward for a jolly outing on the day the +Confederacy was to collapse. In the mind of the unfortunate +General who commanded the expedition a different mood +prevailed. In depression, he said to a friend, "This is not an +army. It will take a long time to make an army. But his duty +as a soldier forbade him to oppose his superiors; "the poor +fellow could not proclaim his distrust of his army in public."[9] +Thoughtful observers at Washington felt danger in the air, both +military and political. + +Sunday, July twenty-first, dawned clear. It was the day of the +expected battle. A noted Englishman, setting out for the front +as war correspondent of the London Times, observed "the +calmness and silence of the streets of Washington, this early +morning." After crossing the Potomac, he felt that "the promise +of a lovely day given by the early dawn was likely to be +realized to the fullest"; and "the placid beauty of the scenery +as we drove through the woods below Arlington" delighted him. +And then about nine o'clock his thoughts abandoned the scenery. +Through those beautiful Virginia woods came the distant roar of +cannon. + +At the White House that day there was little if any alarm. +Reports received at various times were construed by military +men as favorable. These, with the rooted preconception that +the army had to be successful, established confidence in a +victory before nightfall. Late in the afternoon, the President +relieved his tension by taking a drive. He had not returned +when, about six o'clock, Seward appeared and asked hoarsely +where he was. The secretaries told him. He begged them to +find the President as quickly as possible. "Tell no one," said +he, "but the battle is lost. The army is in full retreat." + +The news of the rout at Bull Run did not spread through +Washington until close to midnight. It caused an instantaneous +panic. In the small hours, the space before the Treasury was +"a moving mass of humanity. Every man seemed to be asking +every man he met for the latest news, while all sorts of rumors +filled the air. A feeling of mingled horror and despair +appeared to possess everybody. . . . Our soldiers came +straggling into the city covered with dust and many of them +wounded, while the panic that led to the disaster spread like a +contagion through all classes." The President did not share the +panic. He "received the news quietly and without any visible +sign of perturbation or excitement"'[10] Now appeared in him the +quality which led Herndon to call him a fatalist. All night +long he sat unruffled in his office, while refugees from the +stricken field--especially those overconfident Senators and +Representatives who had gone out to watch the overthrow of the +Confederates--poured into his ears their various and conflicting +accounts of the catastrophe. During that long night Lincoln +said almost nothing. Meanwhile, fragments of the routed army +continued to stream into the city. At dawn the next day +Washington was possessed by a swarm of demoralized soldiers +while a dreary rain settled over it. + +The silent man in the White House had forgotten for the moment +his dependence upon his advisers. While the runaway Senators +were talking themselves out, while the rain was sheeting up the +city, he had reached two conclusions. Early in the morning, he +formulated both. One conclusion was a general outline for the +conduct of a long war in which the first move should be a call +for volunteers to serve three years.[11] The other conclusion +was the choice of a conducting general. Scott was too old. +McDowell had failed. But there was a young officer, a West +Pointer, who had been put in command of the Ohio militia, who +had entered the Virginia mountains from the West, had engaged a +small force there, and had won several small but rather showy +victories. Young as he was, he had served in the Mexican War +and was supposed to be highly accomplished. On the day +following Bull Run, Lincoln ordered McClellan to Washington to +take command.[12] + + + +XVII. DEFINING THE ISSUE + +While these startling events were taking place in the months +between Sumter and Bull Run, Lincoln passed through a searching +intellectual experience. The reconception of his problem, +which took place in March, necessitated a readjustment of his +political attitude. He had prepared his arsenal for the use of +a strategy now obviously beside the mark. The vital part of +the first inaugural was its attempt to cut the ground from +under the slave profiteers. Its assertion that nothing else +was important, the idea that the crisis was "artificial," was +sincere. Two discoveries had revolutionized Lincoln's thought. +The discovery that what the South was in earnest about was not +slavery but State sovereignty; the discovery that the North was +far from a unit upon nationalism. To meet the one, to organize +the other, was the double task precipitated by the fall of +Sumter. Not only as a line of attack, but also as a means of +defense, Lincoln had to raise to its highest power the argument +for the sovereign reality of the national government. The +effort to do this formed the silent inner experience behind the +surging external events in the stormy months between April and +July. It was governed by a firmness not paralleled in his +outward course. As always, Lincoln the thinker asked no +advice. It was Lincoln the administrator, painfully learning a +new trade, who was timid, wavering, pliable in council. Behind +the apprentice in statecraft, the lonely thinker stood apart, +inflexible as ever, impervious to fear. The thinking which he +formulated in the late spring and early summer of 1861 obeyed +his invariable law of mental gradualness. It arose out of the +deep places of his own past. He built up his new conclusion by +drawing together conclusions he had long held, by charging them +with his later experience, by giving to them a new turn, a new +significance. + +Lincoln's was one of those natures in which ideas have to +become latent before they can be precipitated by outward +circumstance into definite form. Always with him the idea that +was to become powerful at a crisis was one that he had long +held in solution, that had permeated him without his +formulating it, that had entwined itself with his heartstrings; +never was it merely a conscious act of the logical faculty. +His characteristics as a lawyer--preoccupation with basal ideas, +with ethical significance, with those emotions which form the +ultimates of life--these always determined his thought. His +idea of nationalism was a typical case. He had always believed +in the reality of the national government as a sovereign fact. +But he had thought little about it; rather he had taken it for +granted. It was so close to his desire that he could not +without an effort acknowledge the sincerity of disbelief in it. +That was why he was so slow in forming a true comprehension of +the real force opposing him. Disunion had appeared to him a +mere device of party strategy. That it was grounded upon a +genuine, a passionate conception of government, one +irreconcilable with his own, struck him, when at last he +grasped it, as a deep offense. The literary statesman sprang +again to life. He threw all the strength of his mind, the +peculiar strength that had made him president, into a statement +of the case for nationalism. + +His vehicle for publishing his case was the first message to +Congress.[1] It forms an amazing contrast with the first +inaugural. The argument over slavery that underlies the whole +of the inaugural has vanished. The message does not mention +slavery. From the first word to the last, it is an argument +for the right of the central government to exercise sovereign +power, and for the duty of the American people--to give their +lives for the Union. No hint of compromise; nought of the +cautious and conciliatory tone of the inaugural. It is the +blast of a trumpet--a war trumpet. It is the voice of a stern +mind confronting an adversary that arouses in him no sympathy, +no tolerance even, much less any thought of concession. +Needless to insist that this adversary is an idea. Toward +every human adversary, Lincoln was always unbelievably tender. +Though little of a theologian, he appreciated intuitively some +metaphysical ideas; he projected into politics the +philosopher's distinction between sin and the sinner. For all +his hatred of the ideas which he held to be treason, he never +had a vindictive impulse directed toward the men who accepted +those ideas. Destruction for the idea, infinite clemency for +the person--such was his attitude. + +It was the idea of disunion, involving as he believed, a +misconception of the American government, and by implication, a +misconception of the true function of all governments +everywhere, against which he declared a war without recourse. + +The basis of his argument reaches back to his oration on Clay, +to his assertion that Clay loved his country, partly because it +was his country, even more because it was a free country. This +idea ran through Lincoln's thinking to the end. There was in +him a suggestion of internationalism. At the full height of +his power, in his complete maturity as a political thinker, he +said that the most sacred bond in life should be the +brotherhood of the workers of all nations. No words of his are +more significant than his remarks to passing soldiers in 1863, +such as, "There is more involved in this contest than is +realized by every one. There is involved in this struggle the +question whether your children and my children shall enjoy the +privileges we have enjoyed." And again, "I happen temporarily +to occupy this White House. I am a living witness that any one +of your children may look to come here as my father's child +has."[2] + +This idea, the idea that the "plain people" are the chief +concern of government was the bed rock of all his political +thinking. The mature, historic Lincoln is first of all a +leader of the plain people--of the mass--as truly as was Cleon, +or Robespierre, or Andrew Jackson. His gentleness does not +remove him from that stern category. The latent fanaticism +that is in every man, or almost every man, was grounded in +Lincoln, on his faith--so whimsically expressed--that God must +have loved the plain people because he had made so many of +them.[3] The basal appeal of the first message was in the words: + +"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."[4] Not a war over slavery, not a war to preserve a +constitutional system, but a war to assert and maintain the +sovereignty of--"We, the People." + +But how was it to be proved that this was, in fact, the true +issue of the moment? Here, between the lines of the first +message, Lincoln's deepest feelings are to be glimpsed. Out of +the discovery that Virginia honestly believed herself a +sovereign power, he had developed in himself a deep, +slow-burning fervor that probably did much toward fusing him +into the great Lincoln of history. But why? What was there in +that idea which should strike so deep? Why was it not merely +one view in a permissible disagreement over the interpretation +of the Constitution? Why did the cause of the people inspire +its champion to regard the doctrine of State sovereignty as +anti-christ? Lincoln has not revealed himself on these points +in so many words. But he has revealed himself plainly enough +by implication. + +The clue is in that element of internationalism which lay at +the back of his mind. There must be no misunderstanding of +this element. It was not pointing along the way of the modern +"international." Lincoln would have fought Bolshevism to the +death. Side by side with his assertion of the sanctity of the +international bond of labor, stands his assertion of a sacred +right in property and that capital is a necessity.[5] His +internationalism was ethical, not opportunistic. It grew, as +all his ideas grew, not out of a theorem, not from a +constitutional interpretation, but from his overpowering +commiseration for the mass of mankind. It was a practical +matter. Here were poor people to be assisted, to be enriched +in their estate, to be enlarged in spirit. The mode of +reaching the result was not the thing. Any mode, all sorts of +modes, might be used. What counted was the purpose to work +relief, and the willingness to throw overboard whatever it +might be that tended to defeat the purpose. His +internationalism was but a denial of "my country right or +wrong." There can be little doubt that, in last resort, he +would have repudiated his country rather than go along with it +in opposition to what he regarded as the true purpose of +government. And that was, to advance the welfare of the mass +of mankind. + +He thought upon this subject in the same manner in which he +thought as a lawyer, sweeping aside everything but what seemed +to him the ethical reality at the heart of the case. For him +the "right" of a State to do this or that was a constitutional +question only so long as it did not cross that other more +universal "right," the paramount "charter of liberty," by +which, in his view, all other rights were conditioned. He +would impose on all mankind, as their basic moral obligation, +the duty to sacrifice all personal likes, personal ambitions, +when these in their permanent tendencies ran contrary to the +tendency which he rated as paramount. Such had always been, +and was always to continue, his own attitude toward slavery. +No one ever loathed it more. But he never permitted it to take +the first place in his thoughts. If it could be eradicated +without in the process creating dangers for popular government +he would rejoice. But all the schemes of the Abolitionists, +hitherto, he had condemned as dangerous devices because they +would strain too severely the fabric of the popular state, +would violate agreements which alone made it possible. +Therefore, being always relentless toward himself, he required +of himself the renunciation of this personal hope whenever, in +whatever way, it threatened to make less effective the great +democratic state which appeared to him the central fact of the +world. + +The enlargement of his reasoning led him inevitably to an +unsparing condemnation of the Virginian theory. One of his +rare flashes of irritation was an exclamation that Virginia +loyalty always had an "if."[6] At this point, to make him +entirely plain, there is needed another basic assumption which +he has never quite formulated. However, it is so obviously +latent in his thinking that the main lines are to be made out +clearly enough. Building ever on that paramount obligation of +all mankind to consider first the welfare of God's plain +people, he assumed that whenever by any course of action any +congregation of men were thrown together and led to form any +political unit, they were never thereafter free to disregard in +their attitude toward that unit its value in supporting and +advancing the general cause of the welfare of the plain people. +A sweeping, and in some contingencies, a terrible doctrine! +Certainly, as to individuals, classes, communities even, a +doctrine that might easily become destructive. But it formed +the basis of all Lincoln's thought about the "majority" in +America. Upon it would have rested his reply, had he ever made +a reply, to the Virginia contention that while his theory might +apply to each individual State, it could not apply to the group +of States. He would have treated such a reply, whether fairly +or unfairly, as a legal technicality. He would have said in +substance: here is a congregation to be benefited, this great +mass of all the inhabitants of all the States of the Union; +accident, or destiny, or what you will, has brought them +together, but here they are; they are moving forward, +haltingly, irregularly, but steadily, toward fuller and fuller +democracy; they are part of the universal democratic movement; +their vast experiment has an international significance; it is +the hope of the "Liberal party throughout the world"; to check +that experiment, to break it into Separate minor experiments; +to reduce the imposing promise of its example by making it seem +unsuccessful, would be treason to mankind. Therefore, both on +South and North, both on the Seceders he meant to fight and on +those Northerners of whom he was not entirely sure, he aimed to +impose the supreme immediate duty of proving to the world that +democracy on a great scale could have sufficient vitality to +maintain itself against any sort of attack. Anticipating +faintly the Gettysburg oration, the first message contained +these words: "And 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 can not +maintain its integrity against its own domestic foes. . . . +Must a government of necessity be too strong for the liberties +of its people or too weak to maintain its own existence?"[7] He +told Hay that "the crucial idea pervading this struggle is the +necessity that is upon us to prove that popular government is +not an absurdity"; "that the basal issue was whether or no the +people could govern themselves."[8] + +But all this elaborate reasoning, if it went no further, lacked +authority. It was political speculation. To clothe itself +with authority it had to discover a foundation in historic +fact. The real difficulty was not what ought to have been +established in America in the past, but what actually had been. +Where was the warrant for those bold proposition--who "we, the +people," really were; in what their sovereign power really +consisted; what was history's voice in the matter? To state an +historic foundation was the final aim of the message. To hit +its mark it had to silence those Northerners who denied the +obligation to fight for the Union; it had to oppose their "free +love" ideas of political unity with the conception of an +established historic government, one which could not be +overthrown except through the nihilistic process of revolution. +So much has been written upon the exact location of sovereignty +in the American federal State that it is difficult to escape +the legalistic attitude, and to treat the matter purely as +history. So various, so conflicting, and at times so tenuous, +are the theories, that a flippant person might be forgiven did +he turn from the whole discussion saying impatiently it was +blind man's buff. But on one thing, at least, we must all +agree. Once there was a king over this country, and now there +is no king. Once the British Crown was the sovereign, and now +the Crown has receded into the distance beyond the deep blue +sea. When the Crown renounced its sovereignty in America, what +became of it? Did it break into fragments and pass peacemeal +to the various revolted colonies? Was it transferred somehow to +the group collectively? These are the obvious theories; but +there are others. And the others give rise to subtler +speculations. Who was it that did the actual revolting against +the Crown--colonies, parties, individuals, the whole American +people, who? + +Troublesome questions these, with which Lincoln and the men of +his time did not deal in the spirit of historical science. +Their wishes fathered their thoughts. Southerners, practically +without exception, held the theory of the disintegration of the +Crown's prerogative, its distribution among the States. The +great leaders of Northern thought repudiated the idea. +Webster and Clay would have none of it. But their own theories +were not always consistent; and they differed among themselves. +Lincoln did the natural thing. He fastened upon the tendencies +in Northern thought that supported his own faith. Chief among +these was the idea that sovereignty passed to the general +congregation of the inhabitants of the colonies--"we, the +people"--because we, the people, were the real power that +supported the revolt. He had accepted the idea that the +American Revolution was an uprising of the people, that its +victory was in a transfer of sovereign rights from an English +Crown to an American nation; that a new collective state, the +Union, was created by this nation as the first act of the +struggle, and that it was to the Union that the Crown +succumbed, to the Union that its prerogative passed. To put +this idea in its boldest and its simplest terms was the +crowning effort of the message. + +"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 and 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 this old dependence for them and +made them States, such as they are."[9] + +This first message completes the evolution of Lincoln as a +political thinker. It is his third, his last great landmark. +The Peoria speech, which drew to a focus all the implications +of his early life, laid the basis of his political +significance; the Cooper Union speech, summing up his conflict +with Douglas, applied his thinking to the new issue +precipitated by John Brown; but in both these he was still +predominantly a negative thinker, still the voice of an +opposition. With the first message, he became creative; he +drew together what was latent in his earlier thought; he +discarded the negative; he laid the foundation of all his +subsequent policy. The breadth and depth of his thinking is +revealed by the fulness with which the message develops the +implications of his theory. In so doing, he anticipated the +main issues that were to follow: his determination to keep +nationalism from being narrowed into mere "Northernism"; his +effort to create an all- parties government; his stubborn +insistence that he was suppressing an insurrection, not waging +external war; his doctrine that the Executive, having been +chosen by the entire people, was the one expression of the +sovereignty of the people, and therefore, the repository of all +these exceptional "war powers" that are dormant in time of +peace. Upon each of those issues he was destined to wage +fierce battles with the politicians who controlled Congress, +who sought to make Congress his master, who thwarted, tormented +and almost defeated him. In the light of subsequent history +the first message has another aspect besides its significance +as political science. In its clear understanding of the +implications of his attitude, it attains political second +sight. As Lincoln, immovable, gazes far into the future, his +power of vision makes him, yet again though in a widely +different sense, the "seer in a trance, Seeing all his own +mischance." + +His troubles with Congress began at once. The message was +received on July fourth, politely, but with scant response to +its ideas. During two weeks, while Congress in its fatuousness +thought that the battle impending in Virginia would settle +things, the majority in Congress would not give assent to +Lincoln's view of what the war was about. And then came Bull +Run. In a flash the situation changed. Fatuousness was puffed +out like a candle in a wind. The rankest extremist saw that +Congress must cease from its debates and show its hand; must +say what the war was about; must inform the nation whether it +did or did not agree with the President. + +On the day following Bull Run, Crittenden introduced this +resolution: "That the present, deplorable civil war has been +forced upon the country by the Disunionists of the Southern +States, now in arms against the constitutional government, and +in arms around the capital; that in this national emergency, +Congress, banishing all feelings of mere passion and +resentment, will recollect only its duty to the whole country; +that this war is not waged on their part in any spirit of +oppression or for any purpose of conquest or subjugation, or +purpose of overthrowing or interfering with the rights or +established institutions of these 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; and that as soon as these objects +are accomplished, the war ought to cease." This Crittenden +Resolution was passed instantly by both Houses, without debate +and almost without opposition. [10] + +Paradoxically, Bull Run had saved the day for Lincoln, had +enabled him to win his first victory as a statesman. + + + +XVIII. THE JACOBIN CLUB + +The keen Englishman who had observed the beauty of the +Virginian woods on "Bull Run Sunday," said, after the battle +was lost, "I hope Senator Wilson is satisfied." He was sneering +at the whole group of intemperate Senators none of whom had +ever smelled powder, but who knew it all when it came to war; +who had done their great share in driving the President and the +generals into a premature advance. Senator Wilson was one of +those who went out to Manassas to see the Confederacy +overthrown, that fateful Sunday. He was one of the most +precipitate among those who fled back to Washington. On the +way, driving furiously, amid a press of men and vehicles, he +passed a carriage containing four Congressmen who were taking +their time. Perhaps irritated by their coolness, he shouted +to them to make haste. "If we were in as big a hurry as you +are," replied Congressman Riddle, scornfully, "we would." + +These four Congressmen played a curiously dramatic part before +they got back to Washington. So did a party of Senators with +whom they joined force& This other party, at the start, also +numbered four. They had planned a jolly picnic--this day that +was to prove them right in hurrying the government into battle!- +-and being wise men who knew how to take time by the forelock, +they had taken their luncheon with them. From what is known of +Washington and Senators, then as now, one may risk a good deal +that the luncheon was worth while. Part of the tragedy of that +day was the accidental break-up of this party with the result +amid the confusion of a road crowded by pleasure-seekers, that +two Senators went one way carrying off the luncheon, while the +other two, making the best of the disaster, continued southward +through those beautiful early hours when Russell was admiring +the scenery, their luncheon all to seek. The lucky men with +the luncheon were the Senators Benjamin Wade and Zachary +Chandler. Senator Trumbull and Senator Grimes, both on +horseback, were left to their own devices. However, fortune +was with them. Several hours later they had succeeded in +getting food by the wayside and were resting in a grove of +trees some distance beyond the village of Centerville. +Suddenly, they suffered an appalling surprise; happening to +look up, they beheld emerging out of the distance, a stampede +of men and horses which came thundering down the country road, +not a hundred yards from where they sat. "We immediately +mounted our horses," as Trumbull wrote to his wife the next +day, "and galloped to the road, by which time it was crowded, +hundreds being in advance on the way to Centerville and two +guns of Sherman's battery having already passed in full +retreat. + +We kept on with the crowd, not knowing what else to do. We fed +our horses at Centerville and left there at six o'clock. . . +. Came on to Fairfax Court House where we got supper and, +leaving there at ten o'clock reached home at half past two this +morning. . . . I am dreadfully disappointed and +mortified."[1] + +Meanwhile, what of those other gay picnickers, Senator Wade and +Senator Chandler? They drove in a carriage. Viewing the +obligations of the hour much as did C. C. Clay at the +President's reception, they were armed. Wade had "his famous +rifle" which he had brought with him to Congress, which at +times in the fury of debate he had threatened to use, which had +become a byword. These Senators seem to have ventured nearer +to the front than did Trumbull and Grimes, and were a little +later in the retreat At a "choke-up," still on the far side of +Centerville, their carriage passed the carriage of the four +Congressmen--who, by the way, were also armed, having among them +"four of the largest navy revolvers." + +All these men, whatever their faults or absurdities, were +intrepid. The Congressmen, at least, were in no good humor, +for they had driven through a regiment of three months men +whose time expired that day and who despite the cannon in the +distance were hurrying home. + +The race of the fugitives continued. At Centerville, the +Congressmen passed Wade. Soon afterward Wade passed them for +the second time. About a mile out of Fairfax Court House, "at +the foot of a long down grade, the pike on the northerly side +was fenced and ran along a farm. On the other side for a +considerable distance was a wood, utterly impenetrable for men +or animals, larger than cats or squirrels." Here the Wade +carriage stopped. The congressional carriage drove up beside +it. The two blocked a narrow way where as in the case of +Horatius at the bridge, "a thousand might well be stopped by +three." And then "bluff Ben Wade" showed the mettle that was in +him. The "old Senator, his hat well back on his head," sprang +out of his carriage, his rifle in his hand, and called to the +others, "Boys, we'll stop this damned runaway." And they did +it. Only six of them, but they lined up across that narrow +road; presented their weapons and threatened to shoot; seized +the bridles of horses and flung the horses back on their +haunches; checked a panic-stricken army; held it at bay, until +just when it seemed they were about to be overwhelmed, military +reserves hurrying out from Fairfax Court House, took command of +the road. Cool, unpretentious Riddle calls the episode "Wade's +exploit," and adds "it was much talked of." The newspapers +dealt with it extravagantly.[2] + +Gallant as the incident was, it was all the military service +that "Ben" Wade and "Zach" Chandler--for thus they are known in +history-over saw. But one may believe that it had a lasting +effect upon their point of view and on that of their friend +Lyman Trumbull. Certain it is that none of the three +thereafter had any doubts about putting the military men in +their place. All the error of their own view previous to Bull +Run was forgotten. Wade and Chandler, especially, when +military questions were in dispute, felt that no one possibly +could know more of the subject than did the men who stopped the +rout in the narrow road beyond Fairfax. + +Three of those picnickers who missed their guess on Bull Run +Sunday, Wade, Chandler and Trumbull, were destined to important +parts in the stern years that were to come. Before the close +of the year 1861 the three made a second visit to the army; and +this time they kept together. To that second visit momentous +happenings may be traced. How it came about must be fully +understood. + +Two of the three, Wade and Chandler, were temperamentally +incapable of understanding Lincoln. Both were men of fierce +souls; each had but a very limited experience. Wade had been a +country lawyer in Ohio; Chandler, a prosperous manufacturer in +Michigan. They were party men by instinct, blind to the faults +of their own side, blind to the virtues of their enemies. They +were rabid for the control of the government by their own +organized machine. + +Of Chandler, in Michigan, it was said that he "carried the +Republican organization in his breeches pocket"; partly through +control of the Federal patronage, which Lincoln frankly +conceded to him, partly through a "judicious use of money."[3] +Chandler's first clash with Lincoln was upon the place that the +Republican machine was to hold in the conduct of the war. + +From the beginning Lincoln was resolved that the war should not +be merely a party struggle. Even before he was inaugurated, he +said that he meant to hold the Democrats "close to the +Administration on the naked Union issue."[4] He had added, "We +must make it easy for them" to support the government "because +we can't live through the case without them." This was the +foundation of his attempt--so obvious between the lines of the +first message--to create an all-parties government. This, +Chandler violently opposed. Violence was always Chandler's +note, so much so that a scornful opponent once called him +"Xantippe in pants." + +Lincoln had given Chandler a cause of offense in McClellan's +elevation to the head of the army.* McClellan was a Democrat. +There can be little doubt that Lincoln took the fact into +account in selecting him. Shortly before, Lincoln had aimed to +placate the Republicans by showing high honor to their popular +hero, Fremont. + +* Strictly speaking he did not become head of the army until +the retirement of Scott in November. Practically, he was +supreme almost from the moment of his arrival in Washington. + + +When the catastrophe occurred at Bull Run, Fremont was a +major-general commanding the Western Department with +headquarters at St. Louis. He was one of the same violent +root-and-branch wing of the Republicans--the Radicals of a +latter day--of which Chandler was a leader. The temper of that +wing had already been revealed by Senator Baker in his +startling pronouncement: "We of the North control the Union, +and we are going to govern our own Union in our own way. +Chandler was soon to express it still more exactly, saying, "A +rebel has sacrificed all his rights. He has no right to life, +liberty or the pursuit of happiness."[5] Here was that purpose to +narrowing nationalism into Northernism, even to radicalism, and +to make the war an outlet for a sectional ferocity, which +Lincoln was so firmly determined to prevent. All things +considered, the fact that on the day following Bull Run he did +not summon the Re publican hero to Washington, that he did +summon a Democrat, was significant. It opened his long duel +with the extremists. + +The vindictive Spirit of the extremists had been rebuffed by +Lincoln in another way. Shortly after Bull Run, Wade and +Chandler appealed to Lincoln to call out negro soldiers. +Chandler said that he did not care whether or no this would +produce a servile insurrection in the South. Lincoln's refusal +made another count in the score of the extremists against him.[6] + +During the late summer of 1861, Chandler, Wade, Trumbull, were +all busily organizing their forces for an attack on the +Administration. Trumbull, indeed, seemed out of place in that +terrible company. In time, he found that he was out of place. +At a crucial moment he came over to Lincoln. But not until he +had done yeoman service with Lincoln's bitterest enemies. +The clue to his earlier course was an honest conviction that +Lincoln, though well-intentioned, was weak.[7] Was this the +nemesis of Lincoln's pliability in action during the first +stage of his Presidency? It may be. The firm inner Lincoln, +the unyielding thinker of the first message, was not +appreciated even by well-meaning men like Trumbull. The inner +and the outer Lincoln were still disconnected. And the outer, +in his caution, in his willingness to be instructed, in his +opposition to extreme measures, made the inevitable impression +that temperance makes upon fury, caution upon rashness. + +Throughout the late summer, Lincoln was the target of many +attacks, chiefly from the Abolitionists. Somehow, in the +previous spring, they had got it into their heads that at heart +he was one of them, that he waited only for a victory to +declare the war a crusade of abolition.[8] When the crisis passed +and a Democrat was put at the head of the army, while Fremont +was left in the relative obscurity of St. Louis, Abolition +bitterness became voluble. The Crittenden Resolution was +scoffed at as an "ill-timed revival of the policy of +conciliation." Threats against the Administration revived, +taking the old form of demands for a wholly new Cabinet The +keener-sighted Abolitionists had been alarmed by the first +message, by what seemed to them its ominous silence as to +slavery. Late in July, Emerson said in conversation, "If the +Union is incapable of securing universal freedom, its +disruption were as the breaking up of a frog-pond."[9] An outcry +was raised because Federal generals did not declare free all +the slaves who in any way came into their hands. The +Abolitionists found no solace in the First Confiscation Act +which provided that an owner should lose his claim to a slave, +had the slave been used to assist the Confederate government. +They were enraged by an order, early in August, informing +generals that it was the President's desire "that all existing +rights in all the States be fully respected and maintained; in +cases of fugitives from the loyal Slave States, the enforcement +of the Fugitive Slave Law by the ordinary forms of judicial +proceedings must be respected by the military authorities; in +the disloyal States the Confiscation Act of Congress must be +your guide."[10] Especially, the Abolitionists were angered +because of Lincoln's care for the forms of law in those Slave +States that had not seceded. They vented their bitterness in a +famous sneer--"The President would like to have God on his side, +but he must have Kentucky." + +A new temper was forming throughout the land. It was not +merely the old Abolitionism. It was a blend of all those +elements of violent feeling which war inevitably releases; it +was the concentration of all these elements on the issue of +Abolition as upon a terrible weapon; it was the resurrection of +that primitive blood-lust which lies dormant in every peaceful +nation like a sleeping beast. This dreadful power rose out of +its sleep and confronted, menacing, the statesman who of all +our statesmen was most keenly aware of its evil, most +determined to put it under or to perish in the attempt With its +appearance, the deepest of all the issues involved, according +to Lincoln's way of thinking, was brought to a head. Was the +Republic to issue from the war a worthy or an unworthy nation? +That was pretty definitely a question of whether Abraham +Lincoln or, say, Zachary Chandler, was to control its policy. + +A vain, weak man precipitated the inevitable struggle between +these two. Fremont had been flattered to the skies. He +conceived himself a genius. He was persuaded that the party of +the new temper, the men who may fairly be called the +Vindictives, were lords of the ascendent. He mistook their +volubility for the voice of the nation. He determined to defy +Lincoln. He issued a proclamation freeing the slaves of all +who had "taken an active part" with the enemies of the United +States in the field. He set up a "bureau of abolition." + +Lincoln first heard of Fremont's proclamation through the +newspapers. His instant action was taken in his own +extraordinarily gentle way. "I think there is great danger," +he wrote, "that the closing paragraph (of Fremont's +proclamation) in relation to the confiscation of property and +the liberating of slaves of traitorous owners, will alarm our +Southern Union friends and turn them against us; perhaps ruin +our rather fair prospect for Kentucky. Allow me, therefore, to +ask that you will, as of your own motion, modify that paragraph +so as to conform" to the Confiscation Act. He added, "This +letter is written in the Spirit of caution, not of censure."[11] + +Fremont was not the man to understand instruction of this sort. +He would make no compromise with the President. If Lincoln +wished to go over his head and rescind his order let him do +so-and take the consequences. Lincoln quietly did so. His +battle with the Vindictives was on. For a moment it seemed as +if he had destroyed his cause. So loud was the outcry of the +voluble people, that any one might have been excused +momentarily for thinking that all the North had risen against +him. Great meetings of protest were held. Eminent men--even +such fine natures as Bryant--condemned his course. In the wake +of the incident, when it was impossible to say how significant +the outcry really was, Chandler, who was staunch for Fremont, +began his active interference with the management of the army. +McClellan had insisted on plenty of time in which to drill the +new three-year recruits who were pouring into Washington. He +did not propose to repeat the experience of General McDowell. +On the other hand, Chandler was bent on forcing him into +action. He, Wade and Trumbull combined, attempting to bring +things to pass in a way to suit themselves and their faction. +To these men and their followers, clever young Hay gave the apt +name of "The Jacobin Club." + +They began their campaign by their second visit to the army. +Wade was their chief spokesman. He urged McClellan to advance +at once; to risk an unsuccessful battle rather than continue to +stand still; the country wanted something done; a defeat could +easily be repaired by the swarming recruits.[12] + +This callous attitude got no response from the Commanding +General. The three Senators turned upon Lincoln. "This +evening," writes Hay in his diary on October twenty-sixth, "the +Jacobin Club represented by Trumbull, Chandler and Wade, came +out to worry the Administration into a battle. The agitation +of the summer is to be renewed. The President defended +McClellan's deliberateness. The next night "we went over to +Seward's and found Chandler and Wade there." They repeated +their reckless talk; a battle must be fought; defeat would be +no worse than delay; "and a great deal more trash." + +But Lincoln was not to be moved. He and Hay called upon +McClellan. The President deprecated this new manifestation of +popular impatience, but said it was a reality and should be +taken into account. "At the same time, General," said he, "you +must not fight until you are ready."[13] + +At this moment of extreme tension occurred the famous incident +of the seizure of the Confederate envoys, Mason and Slidell, +who were passengers on the British merchant ship, the Trent. +These men had run the blockade which had now drawn its +strangling line along the whole coast of the Confederacy; they +had boarded the Trent at Havana, and under the law of nations +were safe from capture. But Captain Wilkes of the United +States Navy, more zealous than discreet, overhauled the Trent +and took off the two Confederates. Every thoughtless +Northerner went wild with joy. At last the government had done +something. Even the Secretary of the Navy so far forgot +himself as to telegraph to Wilkes "Congratulate you on the +great public service you have rendered in the capture of the +rebel emissaries."[14] Chandler promptly applauded the seizure +and when it was suggested that perhaps the envoys should be +released he at once arrayed himself in opposition.[15] With the +truculent Jacobins ready to close battle should the government +do its duty, with the country still echoing to cheers for +Fremont and hisses for the President, with nothing to his +credit in the way of military success, Lincoln faced a crisis. +He was carried through the crisis by two strong men. Sumner, +head and front of Abolitionism but also a great lawyer, came at +once to his assistance. And what could a thinking Abolitionist +say after that! Seward skilfully saved the face of the +government by his management of the negotiation. The envoys +were released and sent to England. + +It was the only thing to do, but Chandler and all his sort had +opposed it. The Abolition fury against the government was at +fever heat. Wendell Phillips in a speech at New York denounced +the Administration as having no definite purpose in the war, +and was interrupted by frantic cheers for Fremont. McClellan, +patiently drilling his army, was, in the eyes of the Jacobins, +doing nothing. Congress had assembled. There was every sign +that troubled waters lay just ahead. + + + +XIX. THE JACOBINS BECOME INQUISITORS + +The temper animating Hay's "Jacobins" formed a new and really +formidable danger which menaced Lincoln at the close of 1861. +But had he been anything of an opportunist, it would have +offered him an unrivaled opportunity. For a leader who sought +personal power, this raging savagery, with its triple alliance +of an organized political machine, a devoted fanaticism, and +the war fury, was a chance in ten thousand. It led to his door +the steed of militarism, shod and bridled, champing upon the +bit, and invited him to leap into the saddle. Ten words of +acquiescence in the program of the Jacobins, and the dreaded +role of the man on horseback was his to command. + +The fallacy that politics are primarily intellectual decisions +upon stated issues, the going forth of the popular mind to +decide between programs presented to it by circumstances, +receives a brilliant refutation in the course of the powerful +minority that was concentrating around the three great +"Jacobins." The subjective side of politics, also the +temperamental side, here found expression. Statecraft is an +art; creative statesmen are like other artists. Just as the +painter or the poet, seizing upon old subjects, uses them as +outlets for his particular temper, his particular emotion, and +as the temper, the emotion are what counts in his work, so with +statesmen, with Lincoln on the one hand, with Chandler at the +opposite extreme. + +The Jacobins stood first of all for the sudden reaction of bold +fierce natures from a long political repression. They had +fought their way to leadership as captains of an opposition. +They were artists who had been denied an opportunity of +expression. By a sudden turn of fortune, it had seemed to come +within their grasp. Temperamentally they were fighters. +Battle for them was an end in itself. The thought of Conquest +sang to them like the morning stars. Had they been literary +men, their favorite poetry would have been the sacking of Troy +town. Furthermore, they were intensely provincial. Undoubted +as was their courage, they had also the valor of ignorance. +They had the provincial's disdain for the other side of the +horizon, his unbounded confidence in his ability to whip all +creation. Chandler, scornfully brushing aside a possible +foreign war, typified their mood. + +And in quiet veto of all their hopes rose against them the +apparently easy-going, the smiling, story-telling, +unrevengeful, new man at the White House. It is not to be +wondered that they spent the summer laboring to build up a +party against him, that they turned eagerly to the new session +of Congress, hoping to consolidate a faction opposed to +Lincoln. + +His second message [1], though without a word of obvious +defiance, set him squarely against them on all their vital +contentions. The winter of 1861-1862 is the strangest period of +Lincoln's career. Although the two phases of him, the outer and +the inner, were, in point of fact, moving rapidly toward their +point of fusion, apparently they were further away than ever +before. Outwardly, his most conspicuous vacillations were in +this winter and in the following spring. Never before or after +did he allow himself to be overshadowed so darkly by his +advisers in all the concerns of action. In amazing contrast, +in all the concerns of thought, he was never more entirely +himself. The second message, prepared when the country rang +with what seemed to be a general frenzy against him, did not +give ground one inch. This was all the more notable because +his Secretary of War had tried to force his hand. Cameron had +the reputation of being about the most astute politician in +America. Few people attributed to him the embarrassment of +principles. And Cameron, in the late autumn, after closely +observing the drift of things, determined that Fremont had hit +it off correctly, that the crafty thing to do was to come out +for Abolition as a war policy. In a word, he decided to go +over to the Jacobins. He put into his annual report a +recommendation of Chandler's plan for organizing an army of +freed slaves and sending it against the Confederacy. Advanced +copies of this report had been sent to the press before Lincoln +knew of it. He peremptorily ordered their recall, and the +exclusion of this suggestion from the text of the report.[2] + +On the heels of this refusal to concede to Chandler one of his +cherished schemes, the second message was sent to Congress. +The watchful and exasperated Jacobins found abundant offense in +its omissions. On the whole great subject of possible +emancipation it was blankly silent. The nearest it came to +this subject was one suggestion which applied only to those +captured slaves who had been forfeited by the disloyal owners +through being employed to assist the Confederate government +Lincoln advised that after receiving their freedom they be sent +out of the country and colonized "at some place, or places, in +a climate congenial to them." Beyond this there was nothing +bearing on the slavery question except the admonition--so +unsatisfactory to Chandler and all his sort--that while "the +Union must be preserved, and hence all indispensable means must +be employed," Congress should "not be in haste to determine +that radical and extreme measures, which may reach the loyal as +well as the disloyal, are indispensable." + +Lincoln was entirely clear in his own mind that there was but +one way to head off the passion of destruction that was rioting +in the Jacobin temper. "In considering the policy to be +adopted in suppressing the insurrection, 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." He persisted in regarding the war +as an insurrection of the "disloyal portion of the American +people," not as an external struggle between the North and the +South. + +Finally, the culmination of the message was a long elaborate +argument upon the significance of the war to the working +classes. His aim was to show that the whole trend of the +Confederate movement was toward a conclusion which would "place +capital on an equal footing with, if not above, labor, in the +structure of government." Thus, as so often before, he insisted +on his own view of the significance in American politics of all +issues involving slavery--their bearing on the condition of the +free laborer. In a very striking passage, often overlooked, he +ranked himself once more, as first of all, a statesman of "the +people," in the limited class sense of the term. "Labor is +prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit +of labor and could never have existed if labor had not first +existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much +the higher consideration." But so far is he from any +revolutionary purpose, that he adds immediately, "Capital has +its rights which are as worthy of protection as any other +rights." His crowning vision is not communism. His ideal world +is one of universal opportunity, with labor freed of every +hindrance, with all its deserving members acquiring more and +more of the benefits of property. + +Such a message had no consolation for Chandler, Wade, or, as he +then was, for Trumbull. They looked about for a way to +retaliate. And now two things became plain. That "agitation +of the summer" to which Hay refers, had borne fruit, but not +enough fruit. Many members of Congress who had been swept +along by the President's policy in July had been won over in +the reaction against him and were ripe for manipulation; but it +was not yet certain that they held the balance of power in +Congress. To lock horns with the Administration, in December, +would have been so rash a move that even such bold men as +Chandler and Wade avoided it. Instead, they devised an astute +plan of campaign. Trumbull was Chairman of the Senate +Judiciary Committee, and in that important position would bide +his time to bring pressure to bear on the President through +his influence upon legislation. Wade and Chandler would go in +for propaganda. But they would do so in disguise. What more +natural than that Congress should take an active interest in +the army, should wish to do all in its power to "assist" the +President in rendering the army -efficient. For that purpose +it was proposed to establish a joint committee of the two +Houses having no function but to look into military needs and +report to Congress. The proposal was at once accepted and its +crafty backers secured a committee dominated entirely by +themselves. Chandler was a member; Wade became Chairman.[3] This +Committee on the Conduct of the War became at once an +inquisition. Though armed with no weapon but publicity, its +close connection with congressional intrigue, its hostility to +the President, the dramatic effect of any revelations it chose +to make or any charges it chose to bring, clothed it indirectly +with immense power. Its inner purpose may be stated in the +words of one of its members, "A more vigorous prosecution of +the war and less tenderness toward slavery."[4] Its mode of +procedure was in constant interrogation of generals, in +frequent advice to the President, and on occasion in +threatening to rouse Congress against him.[5] A session of the +Committee was likely to be followed by a call on the President +of either Chandler or Wade. + +The Committee began immediately summoning generals before it to +explain what the army was doing. And every general was made to +understand that what the Committee wanted, what Congress +wanted, what the country wanted, was an advance--"something +doing" as soon as possible. + +And now appeared another characteristic of the mood of these +furious men. They had become suspicious, honestly suspicious. +This suspiciousness grew with their power and was rendered +frantic by being crossed. Whoever disagreed with them was +instantly an object of distrust; any plan that contradicted +their views was at once an evidence of treason. + +The earliest display of this eagerness to see traitors in every +bush concerned a skirmish that took place at Ball's Bluff in +Virginia. It was badly managed and the Federal loss, +proportionately, was large. The officer held responsible was +General Stone. Unfortunately for him, he was particularly +obnoxious to the Abolitionists; he had returned fugitive +slaves; and when objection was made by such powerful +Abolitionists as Governor Andrew of Massachusetts, Stone gave +reign to a sharp tongue. In the early days of the session, +Roscoe Conkling told the story of Ball's Bluff for the benefit +of Congress in a brilliant, harrowing speech. In a flash the +rumor spread that the dead at Ball's Bluff were killed by +design, that Stone was a traitor, that--perhaps!--who could +say?--there were bigger traitors higher up. Stone was summoned +before the Inquisition.[6] + +While Stone was on the rack, metaphorically, while the +Committee was showing him every brutality in its power, +refusing to acquaint him with the evidence against him, +intimating that they were able to convict him of treason, +between the fifth and the eleventh of January a crisis arose +in the War Office. Cameron had failed to ingratiate himself +with the rising powers. Old political enemies in Congress were +implacable. Scandals in his Department gave rise to sweeping +charges of peculation. + +There is scarcely another moment when Lincoln's power was so +precarious. In one respect, in their impatience, the Committee +reflected faithfully the country at large. And by the irony of +fate McClellan at this crucial hour, had fallen ill. After +waiting for his recovery during several weeks, Lincoln ventured +with much hesitation to call a conference of generals.[7] They +were sitting during the Stone investigation, producing no +result except a distraction in councils, devising plans that +were thrown over the moment the Commanding General arose from +his bed. A vote in Congress a few days previous had amounted +to a censure of the Administration. It was taken upon the +Crittenden Resolution which had been introduced a second time. +Of those who had voted for it in July, so many now abandoned +the Administration that this resolution, the clear embodiment +of Lincoln's policy, was laid on the table, seventy-one to +sixty-five.[8] Lincoln's hope for an all-parties government was +receiving little encouragement The Democrats were breaking into +factions, while the control of their party organization was +falling into the hands of a group of inferior politicians who +were content to "play politics" in the most unscrupulous +fashion. Both the Secretary of War and the Secretary of State +had authorized arbitrary arrests. Men in New York and New +England had been thrown into prison. The privilege of the writ +of habeas corpus had been denied them on the mere belief of the +government that they were conspiring with its enemies. Because +of these arrests, sharp criticism was being aimed at the +Administration both within and without Congress. + +For all these reasons, the government at Washington appeared to +be tottering. Desperate remedies seemed imperative. Lincoln +decided to make every concession he could make without letting +go his central purpose. First, he threw over Cameron; he +compelled him to resign though he saved his face by appointing +him minister to Russia. But who was to take his place? At +this critical moment, the choice of a new Secretary of War was +a political problem of exacting difficulty. Just why Lincoln +chose a sullen, dictatorial lawyer whose experience in no way +prepared him for the office, has never been disclosed. Two +facts appear to explain it. Edwin M. Stanton was +temperamentally just the man to become a good brother to +Chandler and Wade. Both of them urged him upon Lincoln as +successor to Cameron.[9] Furthermore, Stanton hitherto had been +a Democrat. His services in Buchanan's Cabinet as +Attorney-General had made him a national figure. Who else +linked the Democrats and the Jacobins? + +However, for almost any one but Lincoln, there was an objection +that it would have been hard to overcome. No one has ever +charged Stanton with politeness. A gloomy excitable man, of +uncertain health, temperamentally an over-worker, chronically +apprehensive, utterly without the saving grace of humor, he was +capable of insufferable rudeness--one reason, perhaps, why +Chandler liked him. He and Lincoln had met but once. As +associate council in a case at Cincinnati, three years before, +Lincoln had been treated so contemptuously by Stanton that he +had returned home in pained humiliation. Since his +inauguration, Stanton had been one of his most vituperative +critics. Was this insolent scold to be invited into the +Cabinet? Had not Lincoln at this juncture been in the full +tide of selflessness, surely some compromise would have been +made with the Committee, a secretary found less offensive +personally to the President. Lincoln disregarded the personal +consideration. The candidate of Chandler and Wade became +secretary. It was the beginning of an intimate alliance +between the Committee and the War Office. Lincoln had laid up +for himself much trouble that he did not foresee. + +The day the new Secretary took office, he received from the +Committee a report upon General Stone:[10] Subsequently, in the +Senate, Wade denied that the Committee had advised the arrest +of Stone.[11] Doubtless the statement was technically correct. +Nevertheless, there can be no doubt that the inquisitors were +wholly in sympathy with the Secretary when, shortly afterward, +Stone was seized upon Stanton's order, conveyed to a fortress +and imprisoned without trial. + +This was the Dreyfus case of the Civil War. Stone was never +tried and never vindicated. He was eventually released upon +parole and after many tantalizing disappointments permitted to +rejoin the army. What gives the event significance is its +evidence of the power, at that moment, of the Committee, and of +the relative weakness of the President. Lincoln's eagerness to +protect condemned soldiers survives in many anecdotes. Hay +confides to his diary that he was sometimes "amused at the +eagerness with which the President caught at any fact which +would justify" clemency. And yet, when Stanton informed him of +the arrest of Stone, he gloomily acquiesced. "I hope you have +good reasons for it," he said. Later he admitted that he knew +very little about the case. But he did not order Stone's +release. + +Lincoln had his own form of ruthlessness. The selfless man, by +dealing with others in the same extraordinary way in which he +deals with himself, may easily under the pressure of extreme +conditions become impersonal in his thinking upon duty. The +morality of such a state of mind is a question for the +philosopher. The historian must content himself with pointing +out the only condition that redeems it--if anything redeems it +The leader who thinks impersonally about others and personally +about himself-what need among civilized people to characterize +him? Borgia, Louis XIV, Napoleon. If we are ever to pardon +impersonal thinking it is only in the cases of men who begin by +effacing themselves. The Lincoln who accepted Stanton as a +Cabinet officer, who was always more or less overshadowed by +the belief that in saving the government he was himself to +perish, is explicable, at least, when individual men became for +him, as at times they did, impersonal factors in a terrible +dream. + +There are other considerations in the attempt to give a moral +value to his failure to interfere in behalf of Stone. The +first four months of 1862 are not only his feeblest period as a +ruler, the period when he was barely able to hold his own, but +also the period when he was least definite as a personality, +when his courage and his vitality seemed ebbing tides. Again, +his spirit was in eclipse. Singularly enough, this was the +darkness before the dawn. June of 1862 saw the emergence, with +a suddenness difficult to explain, of the historic Lincoln. +But in January of that year he was facing downward into the +mystery of his last eclipse. All the dark places of his +heredity must be searched for clues to this strange experience. +There are moments, especially under strain of a personal +bereavement that fell upon him in February, when his will +seemed scarcely a reality; when, as a directing force he may be +said momentarily to have vanished; when he is hardly more than +a ghost among his advisers. The far-off existence of weak old +Thomas cast its parting shadow across his son's career. + +However, even our Dreyfus case drew from Lincoln another +display of that settled conviction of his that part of his +function was to be scapegoat. "I serve," which in a way might +be taken as his motto always, was peculiarly his motto, and +likewise his redemption, in this period of his weakness. The +enemies of the Committee in Congress took the matter up and +denounced Stanton. Thereupon, Wade flamed forth, criticizing +Lincoln for his leniency, venting his fury on all those who +were tender of their enemies, storming that "mercy to traitors +is cruelty to loyal men."[12] Lincoln replied neither to Wade nor +to his antagonists; but, without explaining the case, without a +word upon the relation to it of the Secretary and the +Committee, he informed the Senate that the President was alone +responsible for the arrest and imprisonment of General Stone.[13] + + + +XX. IS CONGRESS THE PRESIDENT'S MASTER? + +The period of Lincoln's last eclipse is a period of relative +silence. But his mind was not inactive. He did not cease +thinking upon the deep theoretical distinctions that were +separating him by a steadily widening chasm from the most +powerful faction in Congress. In fact, his mental powers were, +if anything, more keen than ever before. Probably, it was the +very clearness of the mental vision that enfeebled him when it +came to action. He saw his difficulties with such crushing +certainty. During this trying period there is in him something +of Hamlet. + +The reaction to his ideas, to what is either expressed or +implied, in the first and second messages, was prompt to +appear. The Jacobins did not confine their activities within +the scope of the terrible Committee. Wade and Chandler worked +assiduously undermining his strength in Congress. Trumbull, +though always less extreme than they, was still the victim of +his delusion that Lincoln was a poor creature, that the only +way to save the country was to go along with those grim men of +strength who dominated the Committee. In January, a +formidable addition appeared in the ranks of Lincoln's +opponents. Thaddeus Stevens made a speech in the House that +marks a chapter. It brought to a head a cloud of floating +opposition and dearly defined an issue involving the central +proposition in Lincoln's theory of the government. The +Constitution of the United States, in its detailed provisions, +is designed chiefly to meet the exigencies of peace. With +regard to the abnormal conditions of war, it is relatively +silent. Certain "war powers" are recognized but not clearly +defined; nor is it made perfectly plain what branch of the +government possesses them. The machinery for their execution +is assumed but not described--as when the Constitution provides +that the privileges of the writ of habeas corpus are to be +suspended only in time of war, but does not specify by whom, or +in what way, the suspension is to be effected. Are those +undefined "war powers," which are the most sovereign functions +of our government, vested in Congress or in the President? +Lincoln, from the moment he defined his policy, held +tenaciously to the theory that all these extraordinary powers +are vested in the President. By implication, at least, this +idea is in the first message. Throughout the latter part of +1861, he put the theory into practice. Whatever seemed to him +necessary in a state of war, he did, even to the arresting of +suspected persons, refusing them the privilege -of the habeas +corpus, and retaining them in prison without trial. During +1861, he left the exercise of this sovereign authority to the +discretion of the two Secretaries of War and of State. + +Naturally, the Abolitionists, the Jacobins, the Democratic +machine, conscientious believers in the congressional theory of +the government, every one who for any reason, wanted to hit the +Administration, united in a chorus of wrath over arbitrary +arrests. The greatest orator of the time, Wendell Phillips, +the final voice of Abolition, flayed the government in public +speeches for reducing America to an absolute despotism. +Trumbull introduced into the Senate a resolution calling upon +the President for a statement of the facts as to what he had +actually done.[1] + +But the subject of arrests was but the prelude to the play. +The real issue was the theory of the government. Where in last +analysis does the Constitution place the ultimate powers of +sovereignty, the war powers? In Congress or in the President? +Therefore, in concrete terms, is Congress the President's +master, or is it only one branch of the government with a +definite but united activity of its own, without that sweeping +sovereign authority which in course of time has been acquired +by its parent body, the Parliament of Great Britain? + +On this point Lincoln never wavered. From first to last, he +was determined not to admit that Congress had the powers of +Parliament. No sooner had the politicians made out this +attitude than their attack on it began. It did not cease until +Lincoln's death. It added a second constitutional question to +the issues of the war. Not only the issue whether a State had +a right to secede, but also the issue of the President's +possession of the war powers of the Constitution. Time and +again the leaders of disaffection in his own party, to say +nothing of the violent Democrats, exhausted their rhetoric +denouncing Lincoln's position. They did not deny themselves +the delights of the sneer. Senator Grimes spoke of a call on +the President as an attempt "to approach the footstool of power +enthroned at the other end of the Avenue."[2] Wade expanded the +idea: "We ought to have a committee to wait on him whenever we +send him a bill, to know what his royal pleasure is with regard +to it. . . . We are told that some gentlemen . . . have +been to see the President. Some gentlemen are very fortunate +in that respect. + +Nobody can see him, it seems, except some privileged gentlemen +who are charged with his constitutional conscience."[3] As +Lincoln kept his doors open to all the world, as no one came +and went with greater freedom than the Chairman of the +Committee, the sneer was-what one might expect of the +Committee. Sumner said: "I claim for Congress all that belongs +to any government in the exercise of the rights of war." +Disagreement with him, he treated with unspeakable disdain: +"Born in ignorance and pernicious in consequence, it ought to +be received with hissings of contempt, and just in proportion +as it obtains acceptance, with execration."[4] Henry Wilson +declared that, come what might, the policy of the +Administration would be shaped by the two Houses. "I had +rather give a policy to the President of the United States than +take a policy from the President of the United States."[5] +Trumbull thundered against the President's theory as the last +word in despotism.[6] + +Such is the mental perspective in which to regard the speech of +Stevens of January 22, 1862. With masterly clearness, he put +his finger on the heart of the matter: the exceptional problems +of a time of war, problems that can not be foreseen and +prepared for by anticipatory legislation, may be solved in but +one way, by the temporary creation of the dictator; this is as +true of modern America as of ancient Rome; so far, most people +are agreed; but this extraordinary function must not be vested +in the Executive; on the contrary, it must be, it is, vested in +the Legislature. Stevens did not hesitate to push his theory +to its limit. He was not afraid of making the Legislature in +time of war the irresponsible judge of its own acts. Congress, +said he. has all possible powers of government, even the +dictator's power; it could declare itself a dictator; under +certain circumstances he was willing that it should do so.[7] + +The intellectual boldness of Lincoln was matched by an equal +boldness. Between them, he and Stevens had perfectly defined +their issue. Granted that a dictator was needed, which should +it be--the President or Congress? + +In the hesitancy at the White House during the last eclipse, in +the public distress and the personal grief, Lincoln withheld +himself from this debate. No great utterances break the gloom +of this period. Nevertheless, what may be considered his reply +to Stevens is to be found. Buried in the forgotten portions of +the Congressional Globe is a speech that surely was +inspired-or, if not directly inspired, so close a reflection of +the President's thinking that it comes to the same thing at the +end. + +Its author, or apparent author, was one of the few serene +figures in that Thirty-Seventh Congress which was swept so +pitilessly by epidemics of passion. When Douglas, after +coming out valiantly for the Union and holding up Lincoln's +hands at the hour of crisis, suddenly died, the Illinois +Legislature named as his successor in the Senate, Orville Henry +Browning. The new Senator was Lincoln's intimate friend. +Their points of view, their temperaments were similar. +Browning shared Lincoln's magnanimity, his hatred of extremes, +his eagerness not to allow the war to degenerate into +revolution. In the early part of 1862 he was Lincoln's +spokesman in the Senate. Now that the temper of Wade and +Chandler, the ruthlessness that dominated the Committee, had +drawn unto itself such a cohort of allies; now that all their +thinking had been organized by a fearless mind; there was +urgent need for a masterly reply. Did Lincoln feel unequal, at +the moment, to this great task? Very probably he did. Anyhow, +it was Browning who made the reply,[8] a reply so exactly in his +friend's vein, that--there you are! + +His aim was to explain the nature of those war powers of the +government "which lie dormant during time of peace," and +therefore he frankly put the question, "Is Congress the +government?" Senator Fessenden, echoing Stevens had said, +"There is no limit on the powers of Congress; everything must +yield to the force of martial law as resolved by Congress." +"There, sir," said Browning, "is as broad and deep a foundation +for absolute despotism as was ever laid." He rang the changes +on the need to "protect minorities from the oppression and +tyranny of excited majorities." + +He went on to lay the basis of all Lincoln's subsequent defense +of the presidential theory as opposed to the congressional +theory, by formulating two propositions which reappear in some +of Lincoln's most famous papers. Congress is not a safe vessel +for extraordinary powers, because in our system we have +difficulty in bringing it definitely to an account under any +sort of plebiscite. On the other hand the President, if he +abuses the war powers "when peace returns, is answerable to the +civil power for that abuse." + +But Browning was not content to reason on generalities. +Asserting that Congress could no more command the army than it +could adjudicate a case, he further asserted that the Supreme +Court had settled the matter and had lodged the war powers in +the President. He cited a decision called forth by the legal +question, "Can a Circuit Court of the United States inquire +whether a President had acted rightly in calling out the +militia of a State to suppress an insurrection?" "The elevated +office of the President," said the Court, "chosen as be is by +the People of the United States, and the high responsibility he +could not fail to feel when acting in a case of such moment, +appear to furnish as strong safeguards against the wilful abuse +of power as human prudence and foresight could well devise. At +all events, it is conferred upon him by the Constitution and +the laws of the United States, and therefore, must be respected +and enforced in its judicial tribunals."[9] + +Whether or not constitutional lawyers would agree with Browning +in the conclusion he drew from this decision, it was plainly +the bed rock of his thought. He believed that the +President--whatever your mere historian might have to say--was in +point of fact the exponent of the people as a whole, and +therefore the proper vessel for the ultimate rights of a +sovereign, rights that only the people possess, that only the +people can delegate. And this was Lincoln's theory. Roughly +speaking, he-conceived of the presidential office about as if +it were the office of Tribune of the People. + +There was still another reason why both Lincoln and Browning +feared to yield anything to the theory of congressional +supremacy. It was, in their minds, not only the general +question of all Congresses but immediately of this particular +Congress. An assembly in which the temper of Wade and +Chandler, of Stevens and Sumner, was entering the ascendent, +was an assembly to be feared; its supremacy was to be denied, +its power was to be fought. + +Browning did not close without a startling passage flung square +in the teeth of the apostles of fury. He summed up the +opposite temper, Lincoln's temper, in his description of "Our +brethren of the South--for I am willing to call them brethren; +my heart yet yearns toward them with a fervency of love which +even their treason has not all extinguished, which tempts me +constantly to say in their behalf, 'Father, forgive them, for +they know not what they do.'" He pleaded with the Senate not to +consider them "as public enemies but as insurgent citizens +only," and advocated an Act of Amnesty restoring all political +and property rights "instantly upon their return to allegiance +and submission to the authority of the government." + +Had this narrowly constitutional issue arisen in quiet times, +who can say how slight might have been its significance? But +Fate had decreed that it should arise in the stormiest moment +of our history. Millions of men and women who cared nothing +for constitutional theories, who were governed by that passion +to see immediate results which the thoughtless ever confuse +with achievement, these were becoming hysterical over delay. +Why did not the government do something? Everywhere voices were +raised accusing the President of cowardice. The mania of +suspicion was not confined to the Committee. The thoughts of a +multitude were expressed by Congressman Hickman in his foolish +words, "These are days of irresponsibility and imbecility, and +we are required to perform two offices--the office of legislator +and the office of President." The better part of a year had +passed since the day of Sumter, and still the government had no +military success to its credit. An impetuous people that +lacked experience of war, that had been accustomed in unusual +measure to have its wishes speedily gratified, must somehow be +marshalled behind the government, unless the alternative was +the capture of power by the Congressional Cabal that was +forming against the President. + +Entering upon the dark days of the first half of 1862, Lincoln +had no delusions about the task immediately before him. He +must win battles; otherwise, he saw no way of building up that +popular support which alone would enable him to keep the +direction of policy in the hands of the Executive, to keep it +out of the hands of Congress. In a word, the standing or +falling of his power appeared to have been committed to the +keeping of the army. What the army would do with it, save his +policy or wreck his policy, was to no small degree a question +of the character and the abilities of the Commanding General. + + +XXI. THE STRUGGLE TO CONTROL THE ARMY + +George Brinton McClellan, when at the age of thirty-four he was +raised suddenly to a dizzying height of fame and power, was +generally looked upon as a prodigy. Though he was not that, he +had a real claim to distinction. Had destiny been considerate, +permitting him to rise gradually and to mature as he rose, he +might have earned a stable reputation high among those who are +not quite great. He had done well at West Point, and as a very +young officer in the Mexican War; he had represented his +country as a military observer with the allies in the Crimea; +he was a good engineer, and a capable man of business. His +winning personality, until he went wrong in the terrible days +of 1862, inspired "a remarkable affection and regard in every +one from the President to the humblest orderly that waited at +his door."[1] He was at home among books; he could write to his +wife that Prince Napoleon "speaks English very much as the +Frenchmen do in the old English comedies";[2] he was able to +converse in "French, Spanish, Italian, German, in two Indian +dialects and he knew a little Russian and Turkish." Men like +Wade and Chandler probably thought of him as a "highbrow," and +doubtless he irritated them by invariably addressing the +President as "Your Excellency." He had the impulses as well as +the traditions of an elder day. But he had three insidious +defects. At the back of his mind there was a vein of +theatricality, hitherto unrevealed, that might, under +sufficient stimulus, transform him into a poseur. Though +physically brave, he had in his heart, unsuspected by himself +or others, the dread of responsibility. He was void of humor. +These damaging qualities, brought out and exaggerated by too +swift a rise to apparent greatness, eventually worked his ruin. +As an organizer he was unquestionably efficient. His great +achievement which secures him a creditable place in American +history was the conversion in the autumn of 1861 of a defeated +rabble and a multitude of raw militia into a splendid fighting +machine. The very excellence of this achievement was part of +his undoing. It was so near to magical that it imposed on +himself, gave him a false estimate of himself, hid from him his +own limitation. It imposed also on his enemies. Crude, fierce +men like the Vindictive leaders of Congress, seeing this +miracle take place so astoundingly soon, leaped at once to the +conclusion that he could, if he would, follow it by another +miracle. Having forged the thunderbolt, why could he not, if +he chose, instantly smite and destroy? All these hasty +inexperienced zealots labored that winter under the delusion +that one great battle might end the war. When McClellan, +instead of rushing to the front, entered his second phase--the +one which he did not understand himself, which his enemies +never understood--when he entered upon his long course of +procrastination, the Jacobins, startled, dumfounded, casting +about for reasons, could find in their unanalytical vision, but +one. When Jove did not strike, it must be because Jove did not +wish to strike. McClellan was delaying for a purpose. Almost +instantaneous was the whisper, followed quickly by the outcry +among the Jacobins, "Treachery! We are betrayed. He is in +league with the enemy." + +Their distrust was not allayed by the manner in which he +conducted himself. His views of life and of the office of +commanding general were not those of frontier America. He +believed in pomp, in display, in an ordered routine. The fine +weather of the autumn of 1861 was utilized at Washington for +frequent reviews. The flutter of flags, the glint of marching +bayonets, the perfectly ordered rhythm of marching feet, the +blare of trumpets, the silvery notes of the bugles, the +stormily rolling drums, all these filled with martial splendor +the golden autumn air when the woods were falling brown. And +everywhere, it seemed, look where one might, a sumptuously +uniformed Commanding General, and a numerous and sumptuous +staff, were galloping past, mounted on beautiful horses. +Plain, blunt men like the Jacobins, caring nothing for this +ritual of command, sneered. They exchanged stories of the +elaborate dinners he was said to give daily, the several +courses, the abundance of wine, the numerous guests; and after +these dinners, he and his gorgeous staff, "clattering up and +down the public streets" merely to show themselves off. All +this sneering was wildly exaggerated. The mania of +exaggeration, the mania of suspicion, saturated the mental air +breathed by every politician at Washington, that desperate +winter, except the great and lonely President and the cynical +Secretary of State. + +McClellan made no concessions to the temper of the hour. With +Lincoln, his relations at first were cordial. Always he was +punctiliously respectful to "His Excellency." It is plain that +at first Lincoln liked him and that his liking was worn away +slowly. It is equally plain that Lincoln did not know how to +deal with him. The tendency to pose was so far from anything +in Lincoln's make-up that it remained for him, whether in +McClellan or another, unintelligible. That humility which was +so conspicuous in this first period of his rule, led him to +assume with his General a modest, even an appealing tone. The +younger man began to ring false by failing to appreciate it. +He even complained of it in a letter to his wife. The military +ritualist would have liked a more Olympian superior. And there +is no denying that his head was getting turned. Perhaps he had +excuse. The newspapers printed nonsensical editorials praising +"the young Napoleon." His mail was filled with letters urging +him to carry things with a high hand; disregard, if necessary, +the pusillanimous civil government, and boldly "save the +country." He had so little humor that he could take this stuff +seriously. Among all the foolish letters which the executors +of famous men have permitted to see the light of publicity, few +outdo a letter of McClellan's in which he confided to his wife +that he was willing to become dictator, should that be the only +way out, and then, after saving his country, to perish.[3] + +In this lordly mood of the melodramatic, he gradually--probably +without knowing it--became inattentive to the President. +Lincoln used to go to his house to consult him, generally on +foot, clad in very ordinary clothes. He was known to sit in +McClellan's library "rather unnoticed" awaiting the General's +pleasure.[4] + +At last the growing coolness of McClellan went so far that an +event occurred which Hay indignantly set down in his diary: "I +wish here to record what I consider a portent of evil to come. +The President, Governor Seward and I went over to McClellan's +house tonight. The servant at the door said the General was at +the wedding of Colonel Wheaton at General Buell's and would +soon return. We went in and after we had waited about an hour, +McClellan came in, and without paying particular attention to +the porter who told him the President was waiting to see him, +went up-stairs, passing the door of the room where the +President and the Secretary of State were seated. They waited +about half an hour, and sent once more a servant to tell the +General they were there; and the answer came that the General +had gone to bed. + +"I merely record this unparalleled insolence of epaulettes +without comment It is the first indication I have yet seen of +the threatened supremacy of the military authorities. Coming +home, I spoke to the President about the matter, but he seemed +not to have noticed it specially, saying it were better at this +time not to be making points of etiquette and personal +dignity."[5] + +Did ever a subordinate, even a general, administer to a +superior a more astounding snub? To Lincoln in his selfless +temper, it was Only a detail in his problem of getting the army +into action. What room for personal affronts however gross in +a mood like his? To be sure he ceased going to McClellan's +house, and thereafter summoned McClellan to come to him, but no +change appeared in the tone of his intercourse with the +General. "I will hold McClellan's horse," said he, "if he will +win me victories."[6] + +All this while, the two were debating plans of campaign and +McClellan was revealing-as we now see, though no one saw it at +the time-the deep dread of responsibility that was destined to +paralyze him as an active general. He was never ready. +Always, there must be more preparation, more men, more this, +more that. + +In January, 1862, Lincoln, grown desperate because of hope +deferred, made the first move of a sort that was to be +lamentably frequent the next six months. He went over the head +of the Commanding General, and, in order to force a result, +evoked a power not recognized in the military scheme of things. +By this time the popular adulation of McClellan was giving +place to a general imitation of the growling of the Jacobins, +now well organized in the terrible Committee and growing each +day more and more hostile to the Administration. Lincoln had +besought McClellan to take into account the seriousness of this +rising tide of opposition.[7] His arguments made no impression. +McClellan would not recognize the political side of war. At +last, partly to allay the popular clamor, partly to force +McClellan into a corner, Lincoln published to the country a +military program. He publicly instructed the Commanding +General to put all his forces in movement on all fronts, on +Washington's birthday.[8] + +From this moment the debate between the President and the +General with regard to plans of campaign approached the nature +of a dispute. McClellan repeated his demand for more time in +which to prepare. He objected to the course of advance which +the President wished him to pursue. Lincoln, seeing the +situation first of all as a political problem, grounded his +thought upon two ideas neither of which was shared by +McClellan: the idea that the supreme consideration was the +safety of Washington; the resultant idea that McClellan should +move directly south, keeping his whole army constantly between +Washington and the enemy. McClellan wished to treat Washington +as but one important detail in his strategy; he had a grandiose +scheme for a wide flanking movement, for taking the bulk of his +army by sea to the coast of Virginia, and thus to draw the +Confederate army homeward for a duel to the death under the +walls of Richmond. Lincoln, neither then nor afterward more +than an amateur in strategy, was deeply alarmed by this bold +mode of procedure. His political instinct told him that if +there was any slip and Washington was taken, even briefly, by +the Confederates, the game was up. He was still further +alarmed when he found that some of the eider generals held +views resembling his own.[9] To his modest, still groping mind, +this was a trying situation. In the President lay the ultimate +responsibility for every move the army should make. And whose +advice should he accept as authoritative? The first time he +asked himself that question, such peace of mind as had survived +the harassing year 1861 left him, not to return for many a day. + +At this moment of crises, occurred one of his keenest personal +afflictions. His little son Willie sickened and died. +Lincoln's relation to his children was very close, very tender. +Many anecdotes show this boy frolicking about the White House, +a licensed intruder everywhere. Another flood of anecdotes +preserve the stupefying grief of his father after the child's +death. Of these latter, the most extreme which portray Lincoln +toward the close of February so unnerved as to be incapable of +public duty, may be dismissed as apocryphal. But there can be +no doubt that his unhappiness was too great for the vain +measurement of descriptive words; that it intensified the +nervous mood which had already possessed him; that anxiety, +deepening at times into terrible alarm, became his constant +companion. + +In his dread and sorrow, his dilemma grew daily more +intolerable. McClellan had opposed so stoutly the Washington +birthday order that Lincoln had permitted him to ignore it. He +was still wavering which advice to take, McClellan's or the +elder generals'. To remove McClellan, to try at this critical +moment some other general, did not occur to him as a rational +possibility. But somehow he felt he must justify himself to +himself for yielding to McClellan' s views. In his zeal to +secure some judgment more authoritative than his own, he took a +further step along the dangerous road of going over the +Commander's head, of bringing to bear upon him influences not +strictly included in the military system. He required +McClellan to submit his plan to a council of his general +officers. Lincoln attended this council and told the generals +"he was not a military man and therefore would be governed by +the opinion of a majority."[10] The council decided in +McClellan's favor by a vote of eight to four. This was a +disappointment to Lincoln. So firm was his addiction to the +overland route that he could not rest content with the +council's decision. Stanton urged him to disregard it, +sneering that the eight who voted against him were McClellan's +creatures, his "pets." But Lincoln would not risk going against +the majority of the council. "We are civilians," said he, "we +should justly be held responsible for any disaster if we set up +our opinions against those of experienced military men in the +practical management of a campaign."[11] + +Nevertheless, from this quandary, in which his reason forced +him to do one thing while all his sensibilities protested, he +extricated himself in a curious way. Throughout the late +winter he had been the object of a concerted attack from +Stanton and the Committee. The Committee had tacitly annexed +Stanton. He conferred with them confidentially. At each +important turn of events, he and they always got together in a +secret powwow. As early as February twentieth, when Lincoln +seemed to be breaking down with grief and anxiety, one of those +secret conferences of the high conspirators ended in a +determination to employ all their forces, direct and indirect, +to bring about McClellan's retirement. They were all victims +of that mania of suspicion which was the order of the day. "A +majority of the Committee," wrote its best member, long +afterward when he had come to see things in a different light, +"strongly suspected that General McClellan was a traitor." Wade +vented his spleen in furious words about "King McClellan." +Unrestrained by Lincoln's anguish, the Committee demanded a +conference a few days after his son's death and threatened an +appeal from President to Congress if he did not quickly force +McClellan to advance.[12] + +All this while the Committee was airing another grievance. +They clamored to have the twelve divisions of the army of the +Potomac grouped into corps. They gave as their motive, +military efficiency. And perhaps they thought they meant it. +But there was a cat in the bag which they carefully tried to +conceal. The generals of divisions formed two distinct groups, +the elder ones who did not owe their elevation to McClellan and +the younger ones who did. The elder generals, it happened, +sympathized generally with the Committee in politics, or at +least did not sympathize with McClellan. The younger generals +reflected the politics of their patron. And McClellan was a +Democrat, a hater of the Vindictives, unsympathetic with +Abolition. Therefore, the mania of suspicion being in full +flood, the Committee would believe no good of McClellan when he +opposed advancing the elder generals to the rank of corps +commanders. His explanation that he "wished to test them in +the field," was poohpoohed. Could not any good Jacobin see +through that! Of course, it was but an excuse to hold back the +plums until he could drop them into the itching palms of those +wicked Democrats, his "pets." Why should not the good men and +true, elder and therefore better soldiers, whose righteousness +was so well attested by their political leanings, why should +not they have the places of power to which their rank entitled +them? + +Hitherto, however, Lincoln had held out against the Committee's +demand and bad refused to compel McClellan to reorganize his +army against his will. He now observed that in the council +which cast the die against the overland route, the division +between the two groups of generals, what we may call the +Lincoln generals and the McClellan generals, was sharply +evident. The next day he issued a general order which +organized the army of the Potomac into corps, and promoted to +the rank of corps commanders, those elder generals whose point +of view was similar to his own.[13] Thereafter, any reference of +crucial matters to a council of general officers, would mean +submitting it, not to a dozen commanders of divisions with +McClellan men in the majority, but to four or five commanders +of corps none of whom was definitely of the McClellan faction. +Thus McClellan was virtually put under surveillance of an +informal war council scrutinizing his course from the +President's point of view. It was this reduced council of the +subordinates, as will presently appear, that made the crucial +decision of the campaign. + +On the same day Lincoln issued another general order accepting +McClellan's plan for a flanking movement to the Virginia +coast.[14] The Confederate lines at this time ran through +Manassas--the point Lincoln wished McClellan to strike. It was +to be known later that the Confederate General gave to +Lincoln's views the high endorsement of assuming that they were +the inevitable views that the Northern Commander, if he knew +his business, would act upon. Therefore, he had been quietly +preparing to withdraw his army to more defensible positions +farther South. By a curious coincidence, his "strategic +retreat" occurred immediately after McClellan had been given +authority to do what he liked. On the ninth of March it was +known at Washington that Manassas had been evacuated. +Whereupon, McClellan's fatal lack of humor permitted him to +make a great blunder. The man who had refused to go to Manassas +while the Confederates were there, marched an army to Manassas +the moment he heard that they were gone--and then marched back +again. This performance was instantly fixed upon for ridicule +as McClellan's "promenade to Manassas." + +To Lincoln the news of the promenade seemed both a vindication +of his own plan and crushing evidence that if he had insisted +on his plan, the Confederate army would have been annihilated, +the war in one cataclysm brought to an end. He was ridden, as +most men were, by the delusion of one terrific battle that was +to end all. In a bitterness of disappointment, his slowly +tortured spirit burst into rage. The Committee was delighted. +For once, they approved of him. The next act of this man, +ordinarily so gentle, seems hardly credible. By a stroke of +his pen, he stripped McClellan of the office of Commanding +General, reduced him to the rank of mere head of a local army, +the army of the Potomac; furthermore, he permitted him to hear +of his degradation through the heartless medium of the daily +papers.[15] The functions of Commanding General were added to the +duties of the Secretary of War. Stanton, now utterly merciless +toward McClellan, instantly took possession of his office and +seized his papers, for all the world as if he were pouncing +upon the effects of a malefactor. That McClellan was not yet +wholly spoiled was shown by the way he received this blow. It +was the McClellan of the old days, the gallant gentleman of the +year 1860, not the poseur of 1861, who wrote at once to Lincoln +making no complaint, saying that his services belonged to his +country in whatever capacity they might be required. + +Again a council of subordinates was invoked to determine the +next move. McClellan called together the newly made corps +commanders and obtained their approval of a variation of his +former plan. He now proposed to use Fortress Monroe as a base, +and thence conduct an attack upon Richmond. Again, though with +a touch of sullenness very rare in Lincoln, the President +acquiesced. But he added a condition to McClellan's plan by +issuing positive orders, March thirteenth, that it should not +be carried out unless sufficient force was left at Washington +to render the city impregnable. + +During the next few days the Committee must have been quite +satisfied with the President. For him, he was savage. The +normal Lincoln, the man of immeasurable mercy, had temporarily +vanished. McClellan's blunder had touched the one spring that +roused the tiger in Lincoln. By letting slip a chance to +terminate the war--as it seemed to that deluded Washington of +March, 1862--McClellan had converted Lincoln from a brooding +gentleness to an incarnation of the last judgment. He told Hay +he thought that in permitting McClellan to retain any command, +he had shown him "very great kindness."[16] Apparently, he had no +consciousness that he had been harsh in the mode of McClellan's +abatement, no thought of the fine manliness of McClellan's +reply. + +During this period of Lincoln's brief vengefulness, Stanton +thought that his time for clearing scores with McClellan had +come. He even picked out the man who was to be rushed over +other men's heads to the command of the army of the Potomac. +General Hitchcock, an accomplished soldier of the regular army, +a grandson of Ethan Allen, who had grown old in honorable +service, was summoned to Washington, and was "amazed" by having +plumped at him the question, would he consent to succeed +McClellan? Though General Hitchcock was not without faults--and +there is an episode in his later relations with McClellan which +his biographer discreetly omits--he was a modest man. He +refused to consider Stanton's offer. But he consented to +become the confidential adviser of the War Office. This was +done after an interview with Lincoln who impressed on Hitchcock +his sense of a great responsibility and of the fact that he +"had no military knowledge" and that he must have advice.[17] Out +of this congested sense of helplessness in Lincoln, joined with +the new labors of the Secretary of War as executive head of all +the armies, grew quickly another of those ill-omened, +extra-constitutional war councils, one more wheel within the +wheels, that were all doing their part to make the whole +machine unworkable; distributing instead of concentrating +power. This new council which came to be known as the Army +Board, was made up of the heads of the Bureaus of the War +Department with the addition of Hitchcock as "Advising +General." Of the temper of the Army Board, composed as it was +entirely of the satellites of Stanton, a confession in +Hitchcock's diary speaks volumes. On the evening of the first +day of their new relation, Stanton poured out to him such a +quantity of oral evidence of McClellan's "incompetency" as to +make this new recruit for anti-McClellanism "feel positively +sick."[18] + +By permitting this added source of confusion among his +advisers, Lincoln treated himself much as he had already +treated McClellan. By going over McClellan's head to take +advice from his subordinates he had put the General on a leash; +now, by setting Hitchcock and the experts in the seat of +judgment, he virtually, for a short while, put himself on a +leash. Thus had come into tacit but real power three military +councils none of which was recognized as such by law--the +Council of the Subordinates behind McClellan; the Council of +the Experts behind Lincoln; the Council of the Jacobins, called +The Committee, behind them all. + +The political pressure on Lincoln now changed its tack. Its +unfailing zeal to discredit McClellan assumed the form of +insisting that he had a secret purpose in waiting to get his +army away from Washington, that he was scheming to leave the +city open to the Confederates, to "uncover" it, as the soldiers +said. By way of focussing the matter on a definite issue, his +enemies demanded that he detach from his army and assign to the +defense of Washington, a division which was supposed to be +peculiarly efficient General Blenker had recruited a sort of +"foreign legion," in which were many daring adventurers who had +seen service in European armies. Blenker's was the division +demanded. So determined was the pressure that Lincoln yielded. +However, his brief anger had blown itself out. To continue +vengeful any length of time was for Lincoln impossible. He was +again the normal Lincoln, passionless, tender, fearful of +doing an injustice, weighed down by the sense of +responsibility. He broke the news about Blenker in a personal +note to McClellan that was almost apologetic. "I write this to +assure you that I did so with great pain, understanding that +you would wish it otherwise. If you could know the full +pressure of the case, I am confident you would justify it."[19] +In conversation, he assured McClellan that no other portion of +his army should be taken from him.[20] + +The change in Lincoln's mood exasperated Stanton. He called on +his pals in the Committee for another of those secret +confabulations in which both he and they delighted. Speaking +with scorn of Lincoln's return to magnanimity, he told them +that the President had "gone back to his first love," the +traitor McClellan. Probably all those men who wagged their +chins in that conference really believed that McClellan was +aiming to betray them. One indeed, Julian, long afterward had +the largeness of mind to confess his fault and recant. The +rest died in their absurd delusion, maniacs of suspicion to the +very end. At the time all of them laid their heads +together--for what purpose? Was it to catch McClellan in a +trap? + +Meanwhile, in obedience to Lincoln's orders of March +thirteenth, McClellan drew up a plan for the defense of +Washington. As Hitchcock was now in such high feather, +McClellan sent his plan to the new favorite of the War Office, +for criticism. Hitchcock refused to criticize, and when +McClellan's chief of staff pressed for "his opinion, as an old +and experienced officer," Hitchcock replied that McClellan had +had ample opportunity to know what was needed, and persisted in +his refusal.[21] McClellan asked no further advice and made his +arrangements to suit himself. On April first he took boat at +Alexandria for the front. Part of his army had preceded him. +The remainder-except the force he had assigned to the defense +of Washington-was speedily to follow. + +With McClellan's departure still another devotee of suspicion +moves to the front of the stage. This was General Wadsworth. +Early in March, Stanton had told McClellan that he wanted +Wadsworth as commander of the defenses of Washington. +McClellan had protested. Wadsworth was not a military man. He +was a politician turned soldier who had tried to be senator +from New York and failed; tried to be governor and failed; and +was destined to try again to be governor, and again to fail. +Why should such a person be singled out to become responsible +for the safety of the capital? Stanton's only argument was +that the appointment of Wadsworth was desirable for political +reasons. He added that it would be made whether McClellan +liked it or not. And made it was.[22] Furthermore, Wadsworth, +who had previously professed friendship for McClellan, promptly +joined the ranks of his enemies. Can any one doubt, Stanton +being Stanton, mad with distrust of McClellan, that Wadsworth +was fully informed of McClellan's opposition to his +advancement? + +On the second of April Wadsworth threw a bomb after the +vanishing McClellan, then aboard his steamer somewhere between +Washington and Fortress Monroe. Wadsworth informed Stanton +that McClellan had not carried out the orders of March +thirteenth, that the force he had left at Washington was +inadequate to its safety, that the capital was "uncovered." +Here was a chance for Stanton to bring to bear on Lincoln both +those unofficial councils that were meddling so deeply in the +control of the army. He threw this firebrand of a report among +his satellites of the Army Board and into the midst of the +Committee.2[3] + +It is needless here to go into the furious disputes that +ensued-the accusations, the recriminations, the innuendoes! +McClellan stoutly insisted that he had obeyed both the spirit +and the letter of March thirteenth; that Washington was amply +protected. His enemies shrieked that his statements were based +on juggled figures; that even if the number of soldiers was +adequate, the quality and equipment were wretched; in a word +that he lied. It is a shame-less controversy inconceivable +were there not many men in whom politics and prejudice far +outweighed patriotism. In all this, Hitchcock was Stanton's +trump card. He who had refused to advise McClellan, did not +hesitate to denounce him. In response to a request from +Stanton, he made a report sustaining Wadsworth. The Committee +summoned Wadsworth before it; he read them his report to +Stanton; reiterated its charges, and treated them to some +innuendoes after their own hearts, plainly hinting that +McClellan could have crushed the Confederates at Manassas if he +had wished to.[24] + +A wave of hysteria swept the Committee and the War Office and +beat fiercely upon Lincoln. The Board charged him to save the +day by mulcting the army of the Potomac of an entire corps, +retaining it at Washington. Lincoln met the Board in a long +and troubled conference. His anxious desire to do all he could +for McClellan was palpable.[25] But what, under the +circumstances, could he do? Here was this new device for the +steadying of his judgment, this Council of Experts, singing the +same old tune, assuring him that McClellan was not to be +trusted. Although in the reaction from his momentary +vengefulness he had undoubtedly swung far back toward +recovering confidence in McClellan, did he dare--painfully +conscious as he was that he "had no military knowledge"--did he +dare go against the Board, disregard its warning that +McClellan's arrangements made of Washington a dangling plum for +Confederate raiders to snatch whenever they pleased. His +bewilderment as to what McClellan was really driving at came +back upon him in full force. He reached at last the dreary +conclusion that there was nothing for it but to let the new +wheel within the wheels take its turn at running the machine. +Accepting the view that McClellan had not kept faith on the +basis of the orders of March thirteenth, Lincoln "after much +consideration" set aside his own promise to McClellan and +authorized the Secretary of War to detain a full corps.[26] + +McClellan never forgave this mutilation of his army and in time +fixed upon it as the prime cause of his eventual failure on the +Peninsula. It is doubtful whether relations between him and +Lincoln were ever again really cordial. + +In their rather full correspondence during the tense days of +April, May and June, the steady deterioration of McClellan's +judgment bore him down into amazing depths of fatuousness. In +his own way he was as much appalled by the growth of his +responsibility as ever Lincoln had been. He moved with +incredible caution.* + +*Commenting on one of his moments of hesitation, J.S. +Johnston wrote to Lee: "No one but McClellan could have +hesitated to attack." 14 O. R., 416. + + +His despatches were a continual wailing for more men. Whatever +went wrong was at once blamed on Washington. His ill-usage had +made him bitter. And he could not escape the fact that his actual +performance did not come up to expectation; that he was +constantly out-generaled. His prevailing temper during these +days is shown in a letter to his wife. "I have raised an awful +row about McDowell's corps. The President very coolly +telegraphed me yesterday that he thought I ought to break the +enemy's lines at once. I was much tempted to reply that he had +better come and do it himself." A despatch to Stanton, in a +moment of disaster, has become notorious: "If I save this army +now, I tell you plainly I owe no thanks to you or to any other +persons in Washington. You have done your best to sacrifice +this army."[27] + +Throughout this preposterous correspondence, Lincoln maintained +the even tenor of his usual patient stoicism, "his sad lucidity +of soul." He explained; he reasoned; he promised, over and +over, assistance to the limit of his power; he never scolded; +when complaint became too absurd to be reasoned with, he passed +it over in silence. Again, he was the selfless man, his +sensibilities lost in the purpose he sought to establish. + +Once during this period, he acted suddenly, on the spur of the +moment, in a swift upflaring of his unconquerable fear for the +safety of Washington. Previously, he had consented to push the +detained corps, McDowell's, southward by land to cooperate with +McClellan, who adapted his plans to this arrangement. Scarcely +had he done so, than Lincoln threw his plans into confusion by +ordering McDowell back to Washington.[28] Jackson, who had begun +his famous campaign of menace, was sweeping like a whirlwind +down the Shenandoah Valley, and in the eyes of panic-struck +Washington appeared to be a reincarnation of Southey's +Napoleon,-- + +"And the great Few-Faw-Fum, would presently come, +With a hop, skip and jump" + +into Pennsylvania Avenue. As Jackson's object was to bring +McDowell back to Washington and enable Johnston to deal with +McClellan unreinforced, Lincoln had fallen into a trap. But he +had much company. Stanton was well-nigh out of his head. +Though Jackson's army was less than fifteen thousand and the +Union forces in front of him upward of sixty thousand, Stanton +telegraphed to Northern governors imploring them to hasten +forward militia because "the enemy in great force are marching +on Washington."[29] + +The moment Jackson had accomplished his purpose, having drawn a +great army northwestward away from McClellan, most of which +should have been marching southeastward to join McClellan, he +slipped away, rushed his own army across the whole width of +Virginia, and joined Lee in the terrible fighting of the Seven +Days before Richmond. + +In the midst of this furious confusion, the men surrounding +Lincoln may be excused for not observing a change in him. They +have recorded his appearance of indecision, his solicitude over +McClellan, his worn and haggard look. The changing light in +those smoldering fires of his deeply sunken eyes escaped their +notice. Gradually, through profound unhappiness, and as always +in silence, Lincoln was working out of his last eclipse. No +certain record of his inner life during this transition, the +most important of his life, has survived. We can judge of it +only by the results. The outstanding fact with regard to it is +a certain change of attitude, an access of determination, late +in June. What desperate wrestling with the angel had taken +place in the months of agony since his son's death, even his +private secretaries have not felt able to say. Neither, +apparently, did they perceive, until it flashed upon them +full-blown, the change that was coming over his resolution. +Nor did the Cabinet have any warning that the President was +turning a corner, developing a new phase of himself, something +sterner, more powerful than anything they had suspected. This +was ever his way. His instinctive reticence stood firm until +the moment of the new birth. Not only the Cabinet but the +country was amazed and startled, when, late in June, the +President suddenly left Washington. He made a flying trip to +West Point where Scott was living in virtual retirement.[30] What +passed between the two, those few hours they spent together, +that twenty-fourth of June, 1862, has never been divulged. Did +they have any eyes, that day, for the wonderful prospect from +the high terrace of the parade ground; for the river so far +below, flooring the valley with silver; for the mountains pearl +and blue? Did they talk of Stanton, of his waywardness, his +furies? Of the terrible Committee? Of the way Lincoln had +tied his own hands, brought his will to stalemate, through his +recognition of the unofficial councils? Who knows? + +Lincoln was back in Washington the next day. Another day, and +by a sweeping order he created a new army for the protection of +Washington, and placed in command of it, a western general who +was credited with a brilliant stroke on the Mississippi.[31] No +one will now defend the military genius of John Pope. But when +Lincoln sent for him, all the evidence to date appeared to be +in his favor. His follies were yet to appear. And it is more +than likely that in the development of Lincoln's character, his +appointment has a deep significance. It appears to mark the +moment when Lincoln broke out of the cocoon of advisement he +had spun unintentionally around his will. In the sorrows of +the grim year, new forces had been generated. New spiritual +powers were coming to his assistance. At last, relatively, he +had found peace. Worn and torn as he was, after his long +inward struggle, few bore so calmly as he did the distracting +news from the front in the closing days of June and the opening +days of July, when Lee was driving his whole strength like a +superhuman battering-ram, straight at the heart of the wavering +McClellan. A visitor at the White House, in the midst of the +terrible strain of the Seven Days, found Lincoln "thin and +haggard, but cheerful . . . quite as placid as usual . . . +his manner was so kindly and so free from the ordinary +cocksureness of the politician, and the vanity and self- +importance of official position that nothing but good will was +inspired by his presence."[32] + +His serenity was all the more remarkable as his relations with +Congress and the Committee were fast approaching a crisis. If +McClellan failed-and by the showing of his own despatches, +there was every reason to expect him to fail, so besotted was +he upon the idea that no one could prevail with the force +allowed him--the Committee who were leaders of the congressional +party against the presidential party might be expected promptly +to measure strength with the Administration. And McClellan +failed. At that moment Chandler, with the consent of the +Committee, was making use of its records preparing a Philippic +against the government. Lincoln, acting on his own initiative, +without asking the Secretary of War to accompany him, went +immediately to the front. He passed two days questioning +McClellan and his generals.[33] But there was no council of war. +It was a different Lincoln from that other who, just four +months previous, had called together the general officers and +promised them to abide by their decisions. He returned to +Washington without telling them what he meant to do. + +The next day closed a chapter and opened a chapter in the +history of the Federal army. Stanton's brief and inglorious +career as head of the national forces came to an end. He fell +back into his rightful position, the President's executive +officer in military affairs. Lincoln telegraphed another +Western general, Halleck, ordering him to Washington as +General-in-Chief.[34] He then, for a season, turned his whole +attention from the army to politics. Five days after the +telegram to Halleck, Chandler in the Senate, loosed his +insatiable temper in what ostensibly was a denunciation of +McClellan, what in point of fact was a sweeping arraignment of +the military efficiency of the government.[35] + + + +XXII. LINCOLN EMERGES + +While Lincoln was slowly struggling out of his last eclipse, +giving most of his attention to the army, the Congressional +Cabal was laboring assiduously to force the issue upon slavery. +The keen politicians who composed it saw with unerring vision +where, for the moment, lay their opportunity. They could not +beat the President on any one issue then before the country. +No one faction was strong enough to be their stand-by. Only by +a combination of issues and a coalition of factions could they +build up an anti-Lincoln party, check-mate the Administration, +and get control of the government. They were greatly assisted +by the fatuousness of the Democrats. That party was in a +peculiar situation. Its most positive characters, naturally, +had taken sides for or against the government. The powerful +Southerners who had been its chief leaders were mainly in the +Confederacy. Such Northerners as Douglas and Stanton, and many +more, had gone over to the Republicans. Suddenly the control +of the party organization had fallen into the hands of +second-rate men. As by the stroke of an enchanter's wand, men +of small caliber who, had the old conditions remained, would +have lived and died of little consequence saw opening before +them the role of leadership. It was too much for their mental +poise. Again the subjective element in politics! The +Democratic party for the duration of the war became the +organization of Little Men. Had they possessed any great +leaders, could they have refused to play politics and responded +to Lincoln's all-parties policy, history might have been +different. But they were not that sort. Neither did they have +the courage to go to the other extreme and become a resolute +opposition party, wholeheartedly and intelligently against the +war. They equivocated, they obstructed, they professed loyalty +and they practised-it would be hard to say what! So +short-sighted was their political game that its effect +continually was to play into the hands of their most relentless +enemies, the grim Jacobins. + +Though, for a brief time while the enthusiasm after Sumter was +still at its height they appeared to go along with the +all-parties program, they soon revealed their true course. In +the autumn of 1861, Lincoln still had sufficient hold upon all +factions to make it seem likely that his all-parties. program +would be given a chance. The Republicans generally made +overtures to the Democratic managers, offering to combine in a +coalition party with no platform but the support of the war and +the restoration of the Union. Here was the test of the +organization of the Little Men. The insignificant new +managers, intoxicated by the suddenness of their opportunity, +rang false. They rejected the all-parties program and insisted +on maintaining their separate party formation.[1] This was a +turning point in Lincoln's career. Though nearly two years +were to pass before he admitted his defeat, the all-parties +program was doomed from that hour. Throughout the winter, the +Democrats in Congress, though steadily ambiguous in their +statements of principle, were as steadily hostile to Lincoln. +If they had any settled policy, it was no more than an attempt +to hold the balance of power among the warring factions of the +Republicans. By springtime the game they were playing was +obvious; also its results. They had prevented the President +from building up a strong Administration group wherewith he +might have counterbalanced the Jacobins. Thus they had +released the Jacobins from the one possible restraint that +might have kept them from pursuing their own devices. + +The spring of 1862 saw a general realignment of factions. It +was then that the Congressional Cabal won its first significant +triumph. Hitherto, all the Republican platforms had been +programs of denial. A brilliant new member of the Senate, john +Sherman, bluntly told his colleagues that the Republican party +had always stood on the defensive. That was its weakness. "I +do not know any measure on which it has taken an aggressive +position."[2] The clue to the psychology of the moment was in the +raging demand of the masses for a program of assertion, for +aggressive measures. The President was trying to meet this +demand with his all-parties program, with his policy of +nationalism, exclusive of everything else. And recently he had +added that other assertion, his insistence that the executive +in certain respects was independent of the legislative. Of his +three assertions, one, the all-parties program, was already on +the way to defeat Another, nationalism, as the President +interpreted it, had alienated the Abolitionists. The third, +his argument for himself as tribune, was just what your crafty +politician might twist, pervert, load with false meanings to +his heart's content. Men less astute than Chandler and Wade +could not have failed to see where fortune pointed. Their +opportunity lay in a combination of the two issues. Abolition +and the resistance to executive "usurpation." Their problem was +to create an anti-Lincoln party that should also be a war +party. Their coalition of aggressive forces must accept the +Abolitionists as its backbone, but it must also include all +violent elements of whatever persuasion, and especially all +those that could be wrought into fury on the theme of the +President as a despot. Above all, their coalition must absorb +and then express the furious temper so dear to their own hearts +which they fondly believed-mistakenly, they were destined to +discover-was the temper of the country. + +It can not be said that this was the Republican pro-gram. The +President's program, fully as positive as that of the Cabal, +had as good a right to appropriate the party label-as events +were to show, a better right. But the power of the Cabal was +very great, and the following it was able to command in the +country reached almost the proportions of the terrible. A +factional name is needed. For the Jacobins, their allies in +Congress, their followers in the country, from the time they +acquired a positive program, an accurate label is the +Vindictives. + +During the remainder of the session, Congress may be thought of +as having-what Congress seldom has-three definite groups, +Right, Left and Center. The Right was the Vindictives; the +Left, the irreconcilable Democrats; the Center was composed +chiefly of liberal Republicans but included a few Democrats, +those who rebelled against the political chicanery of the +Little Men. + +The policy of the Vindictives was to force upon the +Administration the double issue of emancipation and the +supremacy of Congress. Therefore, their aim was to pass a bill +freeing the slaves on the sole authority of a congressional +act. Many resolutions, many bills, all having this end in +view, were introduced. Some were buried in committees; some +were remade in committees and subjected to long debate by the +Houses; now and then one was passed upon. But the spring wore +through and the summer came, and still the Vindictives were not +certainly in control of Congress. No bill to free slaves by +congressional action secured a majority vote. At the same time +it was plain that the strength of the Vindictives was slowly, +steadily, growing. + +Outside Congress, the Abolitionists took new hope. They had +organized a systematic propaganda. At Washington, weekly +meetings were held in the Smithsonian Institute, where all +their most conspicuous leaders, Phillips, Emerson, Brownson, +Garret Smith, made addresses. Every Sunday a service was held +in the chamber of the House of Representatives and the sermon +was almost always a "terrific arrangement of slavery." Their +watch-word was "A Free Union or Disintegration." The treatment +of fugitive slaves by commanders in the field produced a +clamor. Lincoln insisted on strict obedience to the two laws, +the Fugitive Slave Act and the First Confiscation Act. +Abolitionists sneered at "all this gabble about the sacredness +of the Constitution."[3] But Lincoln was not to be moved. When +General Hunter, taking a leaf from the book of Fremont, tried +to force his hand, he did not hesitate. Hunter had issued a +proclamation by which the slaves in the region where he +commanded were "declared forever free." + +This was in May when Lincoln's difficulties with McClellan were +at their height; when the Committee was zealously watching to +catch him in any sort of mistake; when the House was within +four votes of a majority for emancipation by act of Congress;[4] +when there was no certainty whether the country was with him or +with the Vindictives. Perhaps that new courage which +definitely revealed itself the next month, may be first +glimpsed in the proclamation overruling Hunter: + +"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 can not feel justified in leaving to the +decision of commanders in the field."[5] + +The revocation of Hunter's order infuriated the Abolitionists. +It deeply disappointed the growing number who, careless about +slavery, wanted emancipation as a war measure, as a blow at the +South. Few of either of these groups noticed the implied hint +that emancipation might come by executive action. Here was the +matter of the war powers in a surprising form. However, it was +not unknown to Congress. Attempts had been made to induce +Congress to concede the war powers to the President and to ask, +not command, him to use them for the liberation of slaves in +the Seceded States. Long before, in a strangely different +connection, such vehement Abolitionists as Giddings and J. Q. +Adams had pictured the freeing of slaves as a natural incident +of military occupation. + +What induced Lincoln to throw out this hint of a possible +surrender on the subject of emancipation? Again, as so often, +the silence as to his motives is unbroken. However, there can +be no doubt that his thinking on the subject passed through +several successive stages. But all his thinking was ruled by +one idea. Any policy he might accept, or any refusal of +policy, would be judged in his own mind by the degree to which +it helped, or hindered, the national cause. Nothing was more +absurd than the sneer of the Abolitionists that he was "tender" +of slavery. Browning spoke for him faithfully, "If slavery can +survive the shock of war and secession, be it so. If in the +conflict for liberty, the Constitution and the Union, it must +necessarily perish, then let it perish." Browning refused to +predict which alternative would develop. His point was that +slaves must be treated like other property. But, if need be, +he would sacrifice slavery as he would sacrifice anything else, +to save the Union. He had no intention to "protect" slavery.[6] + +In the first stage of Lincoln's thinking on this thorny +subject, his chief anxiety was to avoid scaring off from the +national cause those Southern Unionists who were not prepared +to abandon slavery. This was the motive behind his prompt +suppression of Fremont. It was this that inspired the +Abolitionist sneer about his relative attitude toward God and +Kentucky. As a compromise, to cut the ground from under the +Vindictives, he had urged the loyal Slave States to endorse a +program of compensated emancipation. But these States were as +unable to see the handwriting on the wall as were the Little +Men. In the same proclamation that overruled Hunter, while +hinting at what the Administration might feel driven to do, +Lincoln appealed again to the loyal Slave States to accept +compensated emancipation. "I do not argue," said he, "I +beseech you to make the argument for yourselves. You can not, +if you would, be blind to the signs of the times. . . . +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."[7] + +Though Lincoln, at this moment, was anxiously watching the +movement in Congress to force his hand, he was not apparently +cast down. He was emerging from his eclipse. June was +approaching and with it the final dawn. Furthermore, when he +issued this proclamation on May nineteenth, he had not lost +faith in McClellan. He was still hoping for news of a crushing +victory; of McClellan's triumphal entry into Richmond. The +next two months embraced both those transformations which +together revolutionized his position. He emerged from his last +eclipse; and McClellan failed him. + +When Lincoln returned to Washington after his two days at the +front, he knew that the fortunes of his Administration were at +a low ebb. Never had he been derided in Congress with more +brazen injustice. The Committee, waiting only for McClellan's +failure, would now unmask their guns-as Chandler did, seven +days later. The line of Vindictive criticism could easily be +foreshadowed: the government had failed; it was responsible for +a colossal military catastrophe; but what could you expect of +an Administration that would not strike its enemies through +emancipation; what a shattering demonstration that the +Executive was not a safe repository of the war powers. + +Was there any way to forestall or disarm the Vindictives? His +silence gives us no clue when or how the answer occurred to +him--by separating the two issues; by carrying out the hint in +the May proclamation; by yielding on emancipation while, in the +very act, pushing the war powers of the President to their +limit, declaring slaves free by an executive order. + +The importance of preserving the war power of the President had +become a fixed condition of Lincoln's thought. Already, he was +looking forward not only to victory but to the great task that +should come after victory. He was determined, if it were +humanly possible, to keep that task in the hands of the +President, and out of the hands of Congress. A first step had +already been taken. In portions of occupied territory, +military governors had been appointed. Simple as this seemed +to the careless observer, it focussed the whole issue. The +powerful, legal mind of Sumner at once perceived its +significance. He denied in the Senate the right of the +President to make such appointments; he besought the Senate to +demand the cancellation of such appointment. He reasserted the +absolute sovereignty of Congress.[8] It would be a far-reaching +stroke if Lincoln, in any way, could extort from Congress +acquiescence in his use of the war powers on a vast scale. +Freeing the slaves by executive order would be such a use. + +Another train of thought also pointed to the same result. +Lincoln's desire to further the cause of "the Liberal party +throughout the world," that desire which dated back to his +early life as a politician, had suffered a disappointment. +European Liberals, whose political vision was less analytical +than his, had failed to understand his policy. The Confederate +authorities had been quick to publish in Europe his official +pronouncements that the war had been undertaken not to abolish +slavery but to preserve the Union. As far back as September, +1861, Carl Schurz wrote from Spain to Seward that the Liberals +abroad were disappointed, that "the impression gained ground +that the war as waged by the Federal government, far from being +a war of principle, was merely a war of policy," and "that from +this point of view much might be said for the South."[9] In fact, +these hasty Europeans had found a definite ground for +complaining that the American war was a reactionary influence. +The concentration of American cruisers in the Southern blockade +gave the African slave trade its last lease of life. With no +American war-ship among the West Indies, the American flag +became the safeguard of the slaver. Englishmen complained that +"the swift ships crammed with their human cargoes" had only to +"hoist the Stars and Stripes and pass under the bows of our +cruisers."[10] Though Seward scored a point by his treaty giving +British cruisers the right to search any ships carrying the +American flag, the distrust of the foreign Liberals was not +removed. They inclined to stand aside and to allow the +commercial classes of France and England to dictate policy +toward the United States. The blockade, by shutting off the +European supply of raw cotton, on both sides the channel, was +the cause of measureless unemployment, of intolerable misery. +There was talk in both countries of intervention. Napoleon, +especially, loomed large on the horizon as a possible ally of +the Confederacy. And yet, all this while, Lincoln had it in +his power at any minute to lay the specter of foreign +intervention. A pledge to the "Liberal party throughout the +world" that the war would bring about the destruction of +slavery, and great political powers both in England and in +France would at once cross the paths of their governments +should they move toward intervention. Weighty as were all +these reasons for a change of policy--turning the flank of the +Vindictives on the war powers, committing the Abolitionists to +the Administration, winning over the European Liberals--there +was a fourth reason which, very probably, weighed upon Lincoln +most powerfully of them all. Profound gloom had settled upon +the country. There was no enthusiasm for military service. +And Stanton, who lacked entirely the psychologic vision of the +statesman, had recently committed an astounding blunder. After +a few months in power he had concluded that the government had +enough soldiers and had closed the recruiting offices.[11] Why +Lincoln permitted this singular proceeding has never been +satisfactorily explained.* Now he was reaping the fruits. A +defeated army, a hopeless country, and no prospect of swift +reinforcement! If a shift of ground on the question of +emancipation would arouse new enthusiasm, bring in a new stream +of recruits, Lincoln was prepared to shift. + +*Stanton's motive was probably economy. Congress was terrified +by the expense of the war. The Committee was deeply alarmed +over the political effect of war taxation. They and Stanton +were all convinced that McClellan was amply strong enough to +crush the Confederacy. + + +But even in this dire extremity, he would not give way without +a last attempt to save his earlier policy. On July twelfth, he +called together the Senators and Representatives of the Border +States. He read to them a written argument in favor of +compensated emancipation, the Federal government to assist the +States in providing funds for the purpose. + +"Let the States that are in rebellion," said he, "see +definitely and certainly that in no event will the States you +represent ever join their proposed Confederacy, and they +can not much longer maintain the contest. But you can not 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. . . . 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 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."[12] + +He made no impression. They would commit themselves to +nothing. Lincoln abandoned his earlier policy. + +Of what happened next, he said later, "It had got to be. . . +. 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. . "[13] + +The next day he confided his decision and his reasons to Seward +and Welles. Though "this was a new departure for the +President," both these Ministers agreed with him that the +change of policy had become inevitable.[14] + +Lincoln was now entirely himself, astute in action as well as +bold in thought. He would not disclose his change of policy +while Congress was in session. Should he do so, there was no +telling what attempt the Cabal would make to pervert his +intention, to twist his course into the semblance of an +acceptance of the congressional theory. He laid the matter +aside until Congress should be temporarily out of the way, +until the long recess between July and December should have +begun. In this closing moment of the second session of the +Thirty-Seventh Congress, which is also the opening moment of +the great period of Lincoln, the feeling against him in +Congress was extravagantly bitter. It caught at anything with +which to make a point. A disregard of technicalities of +procedure was magnified into a serious breach of constitutional +privilege. Reviving the question of compensated emancipation, +Lincoln had sent a special message to both Houses, submitting +the text of a compensation bill which he urged them to +consider. His enemies raised an uproar. The President had no +right to introduce a bill-into Congress! Dictator Lincoln was +trying in a new way to put Congress under his thumb.[15] + +In the last week of the session, Lincoln's new boldness brought +the old relation between himself and Congress to a dramatic +close. The Second Confiscation Bill had long been under +discussion. Lincoln believed that some of its provisions were +inconsistent with the spirit at least of our fundamental law. +Though its passage was certain, he prepared a veto message. He +then permitted the congressional leaders to know what he +intended to do when the bill should reach him. Gall and +wormwood are weak terms for the bitterness that may be tasted +in the speeches of the Vindictives. When, in order to save the +bill, a resolution was appended purging it of the +interpretation which Lincoln condemned, Trumbull passionately +declared that Congress was being "coerced" by the President. +"No one at a distance," is the deliberate conclusion of Julian +who was present, "could have formed any adequate conception of +the hostility of the Republican members toward Lincoln at the +final adjournment, while it was the belief of many that our +last session of Congress had been held in Washington. Mr. Wade +said the country was going to hell, and that the scenes +witnessed in the French Revolution were nothing in comparison +with what we should see here."[16] + +Lincoln endured the rage of Congress in unwavering serenity. +On the last day of the session, Congress surrendered and sent +to him both the Confiscation Act and the explanatory +resolution. Thereupon, he indulged in what must have seemed to +those fierce hysterical enemies of his a wanton stroke of +irony. He sent them along with his approval of the bill the +text of the veto message he would have sent had they refused to +do what he wanted.[17] There could be no concealing the fact that +the President had matched his will against the will of +Congress, and that the President had had his way. + +Out of this strange period of intolerable confusion, a gigantic +figure had at last emerged. The outer and the inner Lincoln +had fused. He was now a coherent personality, masterful in +spite of his gentleness, with his own peculiar fashion of +self-reliance, having a policy of his own devising, his colors +nailed upon the masthead. + + + +XXIII. THE MYSTICAL STATESMAN + +Lincoln's final emergence was a deeper thing than merely the +consolidation of a character, the transformation of a dreamer +into a man of action. The fusion of the outer and the inner +person was the result of a profound interior change. Those +elements of mysticism which were in him from the first, which +had gleamed darkly through such deep overshadowing, were at +last established in their permanent form. The political +tension had been matched by a spiritual tension with personal +sorrow as the connecting link. In a word, he had found his +religion. + +Lincoln's instinctive reticence was especially guarded, as any +one might expect, in the matter of his belief. Consequently, +the precise nature of it has been much discussed. As we have +seen, the earliest current report charged him with deism. The +devoted Herndon, himself an agnostic, eagerly claims his hero +as a member of the noble army of doubters. Elaborate arguments +have been devised in rebuttal. The fault on both sides is in +the attempt to base an impression on detached remarks and in +the further error of treating all these fragments as of one +time, or more truly, as of no time, as if his soul were a +philosopher of the absolute, speaking oracularly out of a void. +It is like the vicious reasoning that tortures systems of +theology out of disconnected texts. + +Lincoln's religious life reveals the same general divisions +that are to be found in his active life: from the beginning to +about the time of his election; from the close of 1860 to the +middle of 1862; the remainder. + +Of his religious experience in the first period, very little is +definitely known. What glimpses we have of it both fulfill and +contradict the forest religion that was about him in his youth. +The superstition, the faith in dreams, the dim sense of another +world surrounding this, the belief in communion between the +two, these are the parts of him that are based unchangeably in +the forest shadows. But those other things, the spiritual +passions, the ecstacies, the vague sensing of the terribleness +of the creative powers,--to them always he made no response. +And the crude philosophizing of the forest theologians, their +fiercely simple dualism--God and Satan, thunder and lightning, +the eternal war in the heavens, the eternal lake of fire--it +meant nothing to him. Like all the furious things of life, +evil appeared to him as mere negation, a mysterious foolishness +he could not explain. His aim was to forget it. Goodness and +pity were the active elements that roused him to think of the +other world; especially pity. The burden of men's tears, +falling ever in the shadows at the backs of things--this was the +spiritual horizon from which he could not escape. Out of the +circle of that horizon he had to rise by spiritual apprehension +in order to be consoled. And there is no reason to doubt that +at times, if not invariably, in his early days, he did rise; he +found consolation. But it was all without form. It was a +sentiment, a mood,--philosophically bodiless. This indefinite +mysticism was the real heart of the forest world, closer than +hands or feet, but elusive, incapable of formulation, a +presence, not an idea. Before the task of expressing it, the +forest mystic stood helpless. Just what it was that he felt +impinging upon him from every side he did not know. He was +like a sensitive man, neither scientist nor poet, in the midst +of a night of stars. The reality of his experience gave him no +power either to explain or to state it. + +There is little reason to suppose that Lincoln's religious +experience previous to 1860 was more than a recurrent visitor +in his daily life. He has said as much himself. He told his +friend Noah Brooks "he did not remember any precise time when +he passed through any special change of purpose, or of heart, +but he would say that his own election to office and the crisis +immediately following, influentially determined him in what he +called 'a process of crystallization' then going on in his +mind."[1] + +It was the terrible sense of need--the humility, the fear that +he might not be equal to the occasion--that searched his soul, +that bred in him the craving for a spiritual up-holding which +should be constant. And at this crucial moment came the death +of his favorite son. "In the lonely grave of the little one +lay buried Mr. Lincoln's fondest hopes, and strong as he was in +the matter of self-control, he gave way to an overmastering +grief which became at length a serious menace to his health."[2] +Though firsthand accounts differ as to just how he struggled +forth out of this darkness, all agree that the ordeal was very +severe. Tradition makes the crisis a visit from the Reverend +Francis Vinton, rector of Trinity Church, New York, and his +eloquent assertion of the faith in immortality, his appeal to +Lincoln to remember the sorrow of Jacob over the loss of +Joseph, and to rise by faith out of his own sorrow even as the +patriarch rose.[3] + +Although Lincoln succeeded in putting his grief behind +him, he never forgot it. Long afterward, he called the +attention of Colonel Cannon to the lines in King John: + +"And Father Cardinal, I have heard you say +That we shall see and know our friends in heaven; +If that be true, I shall see my boy again." + +"Colonel," said he, "did you ever dream of a lost friend, and +feel that you were holding sweet communion with that friend, +and yet have a sad consciousness that it was not a reality? +Just so, I dream of my boy, Willie." And he bent his head and +burst into tears.[4] + +As he rose in the sphere of statecraft with such apparent +suddenness out of the doubt, hesitation, self-distrust of the +spring of 1862 and in the summer found himself politically, so +at the same time he found himself religiously. During his +later life though the evidences are slight, they are +convincing. And again, as always, it is not a violent change +that takes place, but merely a better harmonization of the +outer and less significant part of him with the inner and more +significant. His religion continues to resist intellectual +formulation. He never accepted any definite creed. To the +problems of theology, he applied the same sort of reasoning +that he applied to the problems of the law. He made a +distinction, satisfactory to himself at least, between the +essential and the incidental, and rejected everything that did +not seem to him altogether essential. + +In another negative way his basal part asserted itself. Just +as in all his official relations he was careless of ritual, so +in religion he was not drawn to its ritualistic forms. Again, +the forest temper surviving, changed, into such different +conditions! Real and subtle as is the ritualistic element, +not only in religion but in life generally, one may doubt +whether it counts for much among those who have been formed +mainly by the influences of nature. It implies more distance +between the emotion and its source, more need of stimulus to +arouse and organize emotion, than the children of the forest +are apt to be aware of. To invoke a philosophical distinction, +illumination rather than ritualism, the tense but variable +concentration on a result, not the ordered mode of an approach, +is what distinguishes such characters as Lincoln. It was this +that made him careless &f form in all the departments of life. +It was one reason why McClellan, born ritualist of the pomp of +war, could never overcome a certain dislike, or at least a +doubt, of him. + +Putting together his habit of thinking only in essentials and +his predisposition to neglect form, it is not strange that he +said: "I have never united myself to any church because I have +found difficulty in giving my assent, without mental +reservation, to the long, complicated statements of Christian +doctrine which characterize their Articles of Belief and +Confessions of Faith. When any church will inscribe over its +altar, as its sole qualification for membership, the Savior's +condensed statement of the substance of both Law and Gospel, +'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart and with +all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as +thyself,' that church will I join with all my heart and with +all my soul."[5] + +But it must not be supposed that his religion was mere ethics. +It had three cardinal possessions. The sense of God is through +all his later life. It appears incidentally in his state +papers, clothed with language which, in so deeply sincere a +man, must be taken literally. He believed in prayer, in the +reality of communion with the Divine. His third article was +immortality. + +At Washington, Lincoln was a regular attendant, though not a +communicant, of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church. With +the Pastor, the Reverend P. D. Gurley, he formed a close +friendship. Many hours they passed in intimate talk upon +religious subjects, especially upon the question of +immortality.[6] To another pious visitor he said earnestly, "I +hope I am a Christian."[7] Could anything but the most secure +faith have written this "Meditation on the Divine Will" which +he set down in the autumn of 1862 for no eye but his own: "The +will of God prevails. In great contests each party claims to +act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one +must be, wrong. God can not be for and against the same thing +at the same time. In the present civil war it is quite +possible that God's purpose is something different from the +purpose of either party; and yet the human instrumentalities, +working just as they do, are of the best adaptation to effect +His purpose. I am almost ready to say that this is probably +true; that God wills this contest, and wills that it shall not +end yet. By His mere great power on the minds of the now +contestants, He could have either saved or destroyed the Union +without a human contest. Yet the contest began. And, having +begun, He could give the final victory to either side any day. +Yet the contest proceeds."[8] + +His religion flowered in his later temper. It did not, to be +sure, overcome his melancholy. That was too deeply laid. +Furthermore, we fail to discover in the surviving evidences any +certainty that it was a glad phase of religion. Neither the +ecstatic joy of the wild women, which his mother had; nor the +placid joy of the ritualist, which he did not understand; nor +those other variants of the joy of faith, were included in his +portion. It was a lofty but grave religion that matured in his +final stage. Was it due to far-away Puritan ancestors? Had +austere, reticent Iron-sides, sure of the Lord, but taking no +liberties with their souls, at last found out their descendant? +It may be. Cromwell, in some ways, was undeniably his +spiritual kinsman. In both, the same aloofness of soul, the +same indifference to the judgments of the world, the same +courage, the same fatalism, the same encompassment by the +shadow of the Most High. Cromwell, in his best mood, had he +been gifted with Lincoln's literary power, could have written +the Fast Day Proclamation of 1863 which is Lincoln's most +distinctive religious fragment. + +However, Lincoln's gloom had in it a correcting element which +the old Puritan gloom appears to have lacked. It placed no +veto upon mirth. Rather, it valued mirth as its only redeemer. +And Lincoln's growth in the religious sense was not the cause +of any diminution of his surface hilarity. He saved himself +from what otherwise would have been intolerable melancholy by +seizing, regardless of the connection, anything whatsoever that +savored of the comic. + +His religious security did not destroy his superstition. He +continued to believe that he would die violently at the end of +his career as President. But he carried that belief almost +with gaiety. He refused to take precautions for his safety. +Long lonely rides in the dead of night; night walks with a +single companion, were constant anxieties to his intimates. To +the President, their fears were childish. Although in the +sensibilities he could suffer all he had ever suffered, and +more; in the mind he had attained that high serenity in which +there can be no flagging of effort because of the conviction +that God has decreed one's work; no failure of confidence +because of the twin conviction that somehow, somewhere, all +things work together for good. "I am glad of this interview," +he said in reply to a deputation of visitors, in September, +1862, "and glad to know that I have your sympathy and your +prayers. . I happened to be placed, being a humble instrument +in the hands of our Heavenly Father, as I am, and as we all +are, to work out His great purpose. . . . I have sought His +aid; but if after endeavoring to do my best in the light He +affords me, I find my efforts fail, I must believe that for +some purpose unknown to me He wills it otherwise. If I had my +way, this war would never have commenced. If I had been +allowed my way, this war would have been ended before this; but +it still continues and we must believe that He permits it for +some wise purpose of His own, mysterious and unknown to us; and +though with our limited understandings we may not be able to +comprehend it, yet we can not but believe that He who made the +world still governs it."[9] + + + +XXIV. GAMBLING IN GENERALS + +On July 22, 1862, there was a meeting of the Cabinet. The +sessions of Lincoln's Council were the last word for +informality. The President and the Ministers interspersed +their great affairs with mere talk, story-telling, gossip. +With one exception they were all lovers of their own voices, +especially in the telling of tales. Stanton was the exception. +Gloomy, often in ill-health, innocent of humor, he glowered +when the others laughed. When the President, instead of +proceeding at once to business, would pull out of his pocket +the latest volume of Artemus Ward, the irate War Minister felt +that the overthrow of the nation was impending. But in this +respect, the President was incorrigible. He had been known to +stop the line of his guests at a public levee, while he talked +for some five minutes in a whisper to an important personage; +and though all the room thought that jupiter was imparting +state secrets, in point of fact, he was making sure of a good +story the great man had told him a few days previous.[1] His +Cabinet meetings were equally careless of social form. The +Reverend Robert Collyer was witness to this fact in a curious +way. Strolling through the White House grounds, "his attention +was suddenly arrested by the apparition of three pairs of feet +resting on the ledge of an open window in one of the apartments +of the second story and plainly visible from below." He asked a +gardener for an explanation. The brusk reply was: "Why, you +old fool, that's the Cabinet that is a-settin', and them thar +big feet are ole Abe's."[2] + +When the Ministers assembled on July twenty-second they had no +intimation that this was to be a record session. Imagine the +astonishment when, in his usual casual way, though with none of +that hesitancy to which they had grown accustomed, Lincoln +announced his new policy, adding that he "wished it understood +that the question was settled in his own mind; that he had +decreed emancipation in a certain contingency and the +responsibility of the measure was his."[3] President and Cabinet +talked it over in their customary offhand way, and Seward made +a suggestion that instantly riveted Lincoln's attention. +Seward thought the moment was ill-chosen. "If the Proclamation +were issued now, it would be received and considered as a +despairing cry--a shriek from and for the Administration, rather +than for freedom."[4] He added the picturesque phrase, "The +government stretching forth its hands to Ethiopia, instead of +Ethiopia stretching forth her hands to the government." This +idea struck Lincoln with very great force. It was an aspect of +the case "which he had entirely overlooked."[5] He accepted +Seward's advice, laid aside the proclamation he had drafted and +turned again with all his energies to the organization of +victory. + +The next day Halleck arrived at Washington. He was one of +Lincoln's mistakes. However, in his new mood, Lincoln was +resolved to act on his own opinion of the evidence before him, +especially in estimating men. It is just possible that this +epoch of his audacities began in a reaction; that after too +much self-distrust, he went briefly to the other extreme, +indulging in too much self-confidence. Be that as it may, he +had formed exaggerated opinions of both these Western generals, +Halleck and Pope. Somehow, in the brilliant actions along the +Mississippi they had absorbed far more than their fair share of +credit. Particularly, Lincoln went astray with regard to Pope. +Doubtless a main reason why he accepted the plan of campaign +suggested by Halleck was the opportunity which it offered to +Pope. Perhaps, too, the fatality in McClellan's character +turned the scale. He begged to be left where he was with his +base on James River, and to be allowed to renew the attack on +Richmond.1 But he did not take the initiative. The government +must swiftly hurry up reinforcements, and then--the old, old +story! Obviously, it was a question at Washington either of +superseding McClellan and leaving the army where it was, or of +shifting the army to some other commander without in so many +words disgracing McClellan. Halleck's approval of the latter +course jumped with two of Lincoln's impulses--his trust in Pope, +his reluctance to disgrace McClellan. Orders were issued +transferring the bulk of the army of the Potomac to the new +army of Virginia lying south of Washington under the command of +Pope. McClellan was instructed to withdraw his remaining +forces from the Peninsula and retrace his course up the +Potomac.[6] + +Lincoln had committed one of his worst blunders. Herndon has a +curious, rather subtle theory that while Lincoln's judgments of +men in the aggregate were uncannily sure, his judgments of men +individually were unreliable. It suggests the famous remark of +Goethe that his views of women did not derive from experience; +that they antedated experience; and that he corrected +experience by them. Of the confessed artist this may be true. +The literary concept which the artist works with is often, +apparently, a more constant, more fundamental, more significant +thing, than is the broken, mixed, inconsequential impression +out of which it has been wrought. Which seems to explain why +some of the writers who understand human nature so well in +their books, do not always understand people similarly well in +life. And always it is to be remembered that Lincoln was made +an artist by nature, and made over into a man of action by +circumstance. If Herndon's theory has any value it is in +asserting his occasional danger--by no means a constant +danger--of forming in his mind images of men that were more +significant than it was possible for the men themselves to be. +John Pope was perhaps his worst instance. An incompetent +general, he was capable of things still less excusable. Just +after McClellan had so tragically failed in the Seven Days, +when Lincoln was at the front, Pope was busy with the +Committee, assuring them virtually that the war had been won in +the West, and that only McClellan's bungling had saved the +Confederacy from speedy death.[7] But somehow Lincoln trusted +him, and continued to trust him even after he had proved his +incompetency in the catastrophe at Manassas. + +During August, Pope marched gaily southward issuing orders that +were shot through with bad rhetoric, mixing up army routine and +such irrelevant matters as "the first blush of dawn." + +Lincoln was confident of victory. And after victory would come +the new policy, the dissipation of the European storm-cloud, +the break-up of the vindictive coalition of Jacobins and +Abolitionists, the new enthusiasm for the war. But of all +this, the incensed Abolitionists received no hint. The country +rang with their denunciations of the President. At length, +Greeley printed in The Tribune an open letter called "The +Prayer of Twenty Millions." It was an arraignment of what +Greeley chose to regard as the pro-slavery policy of the +Administration. This was on August twentieth. Lincoln, in +high hope that a victory was at hand, seized the opportunity +both to hint to the country that he was about to change his +policy, and to state unconditionally his reason for changing. +He replied to Greeley through the newspapers: + +"As to the policy I 'seem to be pursuing,' as you say, I have +meant to leave no 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 it is not either to save or 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 of the slaves and +leaving others alone, I would also do that. What I do about +slavery and the colored race, I do because I believe it will +help 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 that what I am doing hurts the +cause; and I shall do more whenever I believe that doing more +will help the cause."[8] The effect of this on the Abolitionists +was only to increase their rage. The President was compared to +Douglas with his indifference whether slavery was voted "up or +down."[9] Lincoln, now so firmly hopeful, turned a deaf ear to +these railing accusations. He was intent upon watching the +army. It was probably at this time that he reached an +unfortunate conclusion with regard to McClellan. The transfer +of forces from the James River to northern Virginia had +proceeded slowly. It gave rise to a new controversy, a new +crop of charges. McClellan was accused of being dilatory on +purpose, of aiming to cause the failure of Pope. Lincoln +accepted, at last, the worst view of him. He told Hay that "it +really seemed that McClellan wanted Pope defeated. . . . +The President seemed to think him a little crazy."[10] + +But still the confidence in Pope, marching so blithely through +"the blush of dawn," stood fast. If ever an Administration was +in a fool's paradise, it was Lincoln's, in the last few days of +August, while Jackson was stealthily carrying out his great +flanking movement getting between Pope and Washington. +However, the Suspicious Stanton kept his eyes on McClellan. He +decided that troops were being held back from Pope; and he +appealed to other members of the Cabinet to join with him in a +formal demand upon the President for McClellan's dismissal from +the army. While the plan was being discussed, came the +appalling news of Pope's downfall. + +The meeting of the Cabinet, September second, was another +revelation of the new independence of the President. Three +full days had passed since Pope had telegraphed that the battle +was lost and that he no longer had control of his army. The +Ministers, awaiting the arrival of the President, talked +excitedly, speculating what would happen next. "It was +stated," says Welles in his diary, "that Pope was falling back, +intending to retreat within the Washington entrenchments, . +Blair, who has known him intimately, says he is a braggart and +a liar, with some courage, perhaps, but not much capacity. The +general conviction is that he is a failure here, and there is a +belief . . . that he has not been seconded and sustained as +he should have been by McClellan . . ." Stanton entered; +terribly agitated. He had news that fell upon the Cabinet like +a bombshell. He said "in a suppressed voice, trembling with +excitement, he was informed that McClellan had been ordered to +take command of the forces in Washington." + +Never was there a more tense moment in the Cabinet room than +when Lincoln entered that day. And all could see that he was +in deep distress. But he confirmed Stanton's information. +That very morning he had gone himself to McClellan's house and +had asked him to resume command. Lincoln discussed McClellan +with the Cabinet quite simply, admitting all his bad qualities, +but finding two points in his favor--his power of organization, +and his popularity with the men.[11] + +He was still more frank with his Secretaries. "'He has acted +badly in this matter,' Lincoln said to Hay, 'but we must use +what tools we have. There is no man in the army who can man +these fortifications and lick these troops of ours into shape +half as well as he.' I spoke of the general feeling against +McClellan as evinced by the President's mail. He rejoined: +'Unquestionably, he has acted badly toward Pope; he wanted him +to fail. That is unpardonable, but he is too useful now to +sacrifice.'"[12] At another time, he said: " 'If he can't fight +himself, he excels in making others ready to fight.'"[13] + +McClellan justified Lincoln's confidence. In this case, +Herndon's theory of Lincoln's powers of judgment does not +apply. Though probably unfair on the one point of McClellan's +attitude to Pope, he knew his man otherwise. Lincoln had also +discovered that Halleck, the veriest martinet of a general, was +of little value at a crisis. During the next two months, +McClellan, under the direct oversight of the President, was the +organizer of victory. + +Toward the middle of September, when Lee and McClellan were +gradually converging upon the fated line of Antietam Creek, +Lincoln's new firmness was put to the test. The immediate +effect of Manassas was another, a still more vehement outcry +for an anti-slavery policy. A deputation of Chicago clergymen +went to Washington for the purpose of urging him to make an +anti-slavery pronouncement. The journey was a continuous +ovation. If at any time Lincoln was tempted to forget Seward's +worldly wisdom, it was when these influential zealots demanded +of him to do the very thing he intended to do. But it was one +of the characteristics of this final Lincoln that when once he +had fully determined on a course of action, nothing could +deflect him. With consummate coolness he gave them no new +light on his purpose. Instead, he seized the opportunity to +"feel" the country. He played the role of advocate arguing the +case against an emancipation policy.[14] They met his argument +with great Spirit and resolution. Taking them as an index, +there could be little question that the country was ripe for +the new policy. At the close of the interview Lincoln allowed +himself to jest. One of the clergymen dramatically charged him +to give heed to their message as to a direct commission from +the Almighty. "Is it not odd," said Lincoln, "that the only +channel he could send it was that roundabout route by the +awfully wicked city of Chicago?"* + +* Reminiscences, 335. This retort is given by Schuyler Colfax. +There are various reports of what Lincoln said. In another +version, "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." Tarbell, II, l2. + + +Lincoln's pertinacity, holding fast the program he had +accepted, came to its reward. On the seventeenth occurred that +furious carnage along the Antietam known as the bloodiest +single day of the whole war. Military men have disagreed, +calling it sometimes a victory, sometimes a drawn battle. In +Lincoln's political strategy the dispute is immaterial. +Psychologically, it was a Northern victory. The retreat of Lee +was regarded by the North as the turn of the tide. Lincoln's +opportunity had arrived. + +Again, a unique event occurred in a Cabinet meeting. On the +twenty-second of September, with the cannon of Antietam still +ringing in their imagination, the Ministers were asked by the +President whether they had seen the new volume just published +by Artemus Ward. As they had not, he produced it and read +aloud with evident relish one of those bits of nonsense which, +in the age of Dickens, seemed funny enough. Most of the +Cabinet joined in the merriment--Stanton, of course, as always, +excepted. Lincoln closed the book, pulled himself together, +and became serious. + +"Gentlemen," said he, according to the diary of Secretary +Chase, "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 you an order I had prepared on this +subject, which, on account of objections made by some of you, +was not issued. Ever since, 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 fulfill 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 as carefully as I can. What I have written is +that which my reflections have determined me to say. . . . +I must do the best I can, and bear the responsibility of taking +the course which I feel I ought to take."[15] The next day the +Proclamation was published. + +This famous document [16] is as remarkable for the parts of it +that are now forgotten as for the rest. The remembered portion +is a warning that on the first of January, one hundred days +subsequent to the date of the Proclamation--"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." The +forgotten portions include four other declarations of executive +policy. Lincoln promised that "the Executive will in due time +recommend that all citizens of the United States who have +remained loyal thereto shall be compensated for all losses by +acts of the United States, including the loss of slaves." He +announced that he would again urge upon Congress "the adoption +of a practical measure tendering pecuniary aid" to all the +loyal Slave States that would "voluntarily adopt immediate or +gradual abolishment of slavery within their limits." He would +continue to advise the colonization of free Africans abroad. +There is still to be mentioned a detail of the Proclamation +which, except for its historical setting in the general +perspective of Lincoln's political strategy, would appear +inexplicable. One might expect in the opening statement, where +the author of the Proclamation boldly assumes dictatorial +power, an immediate linking of that assumption with the matter +in hand. But this does not happen. The Proclamation begins +with the following paragraph: + +"I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of America, +and Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy thereof, do hereby +proclaim and declare that hereafter, as heretofore, the war +will be prosecuted for the object of practically restoring the +constitutional relation between the United States and each of +the States and the people thereof in which States that relation +is or may be suspended or disturbed." + + + +XXV. A WAR BEHIND THE SCENES + +By the autumn of 1862, Lincoln had acquired the same political +method that Seward had displayed in the spring of 1861. What a +chasm separates the two Lincolns! The cautious, contradictory, +almost timid statesman of the Sumter episode; the confident, +unified, quietly masterful statesman of the Emancipation +Proclamation. Now, in action, he was capable of staking his +whole future on the soundness of his own thinking, on his own +ability to forecast the inevitable. Without waiting for the +results of the Proclamation to appear, but in full confidence +that he had driven a wedge between the Jacobins proper and the +mere Abolitionists, he threw down the gage of battle on the +issue of a constitutional dictatorship. Two days after +issuing the Proclamation he virtually proclaimed himself +dictator. He did so by means of a proclamation which divested +the whole American people of the privileges of the writ of +habeas corpus. The occasion was the effort of State +governments to establish conscription of their militia. The +Proclamation delivered any one impeding that attempt into the +hands of the military authorities without trial. + +Here was Lincoln's final answer to Stevens; here, his audacious +challenge to the Jacobins. And now appeared the wisdom of his +political strategy, holding back emancipation until Congress +was out of the way. Had Congress been in session what a hubbub +would have ensued! Chandler, Wade, Trumbull, Sumner, Stevens, +all hurrying to join issue on the dictatorship; to get it +before the country ahead of emancipation. Rather, one can not +imagine Lincoln daring to play this second card, so soon after +the first, except with abundant time for the two issues to +disentangle themselves in the public mind ere Congress met. +And that was what happened. When the Houses met in December, +the Jacobins found their position revolutionized. The men who, +in July at the head of the Vindictive coalition, dominated +Congress, were now a minority faction biting their nails at the +President amid the ruins of their coalition. + +There were three reasons for this collapse. First of all, the +Abolitionists, for the moment, were a faction by themselves. +Six weeks had sufficed to intoxicate them with their +opportunity. The significance of the Proclamation had had time +to arise towering on their spiritual vision, one of the gates +of the New Jerusalem. + +Limited as it was in application who could doubt that, with one +condition, it doomed slavery everywhere. The condition was a +successful prosecution of the war, the restoration of the +Union. Consequently, at that moment, nothing that made issue +with the President, that threatened any limitation of his +efficiency, had the slightest chance of Abolitionist support. +The one dread that alarmed the whole Abolitionist group was a +possible change in the President's mood, a possible recantation +on January first. In order to hold him to his word, they were +ready to humor him as one might cajole, or try to cajole, a +monster that one was afraid of. No time, this, to talk to +Abolitionists about strictly constitutional issues, or about +questions of party leadership. Away with all your "gabble" +about such small things! The Jacobins saw the moving hand--at +least for this moment--in the crumbling wall of the palace of +their delusion. + +Many men who were not Abolitionists perceived, before Congress +met, that Lincoln had made a great stroke internationally. The +"Liberal party throughout the world" gave a cry of delight, and +rose instantly to his support. John Bright declared that the +Emancipation Proclamation "made it impossible for England to +intervene for the South" and derided "the silly proposition of +the French Emperor looking toward intervention."[1] Bright's +closest friend in America was Sumner and Sumner was chairman of +the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. He understood the +value of international sentiment, its working importance, as +good provincials like Chandler did not. Furthermore, he was +always an Abolitionist first and a Jacobin second--if at all. +From this time forward, the Jacobins were never able to count +on him, not even when they rebuilt the Vindictive Coalition a +year and a half later. In December, 1862, how did they +dare--true blue politicians that they were--how did they dare +raise a constitutional issue involving the right of the +President to capture, in the way he had, international +security? + +The crowning irony in the new situation of the Jacobins was the +revelation that they had played unwittingly into the hands of +the Democrats. Their short-sighted astuteness in tying up +emancipation with the war powers was matched by an equal +astuteness equally short-sighted. The organization of the +Little Men, when it refused to endorse Lincoln's all-parties +program, had found itself in the absurd position of a party +without an issue. It contained, to be sure, a large proportion +of the Northerners who were opposed to emancipation. But how +could it make an issue upon emancipation, as long as the +President, the object of its antagonism, also refused to +support emancipation? The sole argument in the Cabinet against +Lincoln's new policy was that it would give the Democrats an +issue. Shrewd Montgomery Blair prophesied that on this issue +they could carry the autumn elections for Congress. Lincoln +had replied that he would take the risk. He presented them +with the issue. They promptly accepted it But they did not +stop there. They aimed to take over the whole of the position +that had been vacated by the collapse of the Vindictive +Coalition. By an adroit bit of political legerdemain they +would steal their enemies' thunder, reunite the emancipation +issue with the issue of the war powers, reverse the +significance of the conjunction, and, armed with this double +club, they would advance from a new and unexpected angle and +win the leadership of the country by overthrowing the dictator. +And this, they came very near doing. On their double issue +they rallied enough support to increase their number in +Congress by thirty-three. Had not the moment been so tragic, +nothing could have been more amusing than the helpless wrath of +the Jacobins caught in their own trap, compelled to gnaw their +tongues in silence, while the Democrats, paraphrasing their own +arguments, hurled defiant at Lincoln. + +Men of intellectual courage might have broken their party +ranks, daringly applied Lincoln's own maxim "stand with any one +who stands right," and momentarily joined the Democrats in +their battle against the two proclamations. But in American +politics, with a few glorious exceptions, courage of this sort +has never been the order of the day. The Jacobins kept their +party line; bowed their heads to the storm; and bided their +time. In the Senate, an indiscreet resolution commending the +Emancipation Proclamation was ordered to be printed, and laid +on the table.[2] In the House, party exigencies were more +exacting. Despite the Democratic successes, the Republicans +still had a majority. When the Democrats made the repudiation +of the President a party issue, arguing on those very grounds +that had aroused the eloquence of Stevens and the rest--why, +what's the Constitution between friends! Or between political +enemies? The Democrats forced all the Republicans into one boat +by introducing a resolution "That the policy of emancipation as +indicated in that Proclamation is an assumption of powers +dangerous to the rights of citizens and to the perpetuity of a +free people." The resolution was rejected. Among those who +voted NO was Stevens.[3] Indeed, the star of the Jacobins was +far down on the horizon. + +But the Jacobins were not the men to give up the game until +they were certainly in the last ditch. Though their issues had +been slipped out of their hands; though for the moment at +least, it was not good policy to fight the President on a +principle; it might still be possible to recover their prestige +on some other contention. The first of January was +approaching. The final proclamation of emancipation would +bring to an end the temporary alliance of the Administration +and the Abolitionists. Who could say what new pattern of +affairs the political kaleidoscope might not soon reveal? +Surely the Jacobin cue was to busy themselves, straightway, +making trouble for the President. Principles being +unavailable, practices might do. And who was satisfied with +the way the war was going? To rouse the party against the +Administration on the ground of inefficient practices, of +unsatisfactory military progress, might be the first step +toward regaining their former dominance. + +There was a feather in the wind that gave them hope. The +ominous first paragraph of the Emancipation Proclamation was +evidence that the President was still stubbornly for his own +policy; that he had not surrendered to the opposite view. But +this was not their only strategic hope. Lincoln's dealings +with the army between September and December might, especially +if anything in his course proved to be mistaken, deliver him +into their hands. + +Following Antietam, Lincoln had urged upon McClellan swift +pursuit of Lee. His despatches were strikingly different from +those of the preceding spring. That half apologetic tone had +disappeared. Though they did not command, they gave advice +freely. The tone was at least that of an equal who, while not +an authority in this particular matter, is entitled to express +his views and to have them taken seriously. + +"You remember my speaking to you of what I called your +overcautiousness? Are you not over-cautious when you assume +that you can not do what the enemy is constantly doing? Should +you not claim to be at least his equal in prowess and act upon +that claim . . . one of the standard maxims of war, as you +know, is to operate upon the enemy's communications as much as +possible without exposing your own. You seem to act as if this +applies against you, but can not apply in your favor. Change +positions with the enemy and think you not he would break your +communications with Richmond within the next twenty-four +hours. . . + +"If he should move northward, I would follow him closely, +holding his communications. if he should prevent your 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. . +. . We should not operate so as to merely drive him away. . +. . This letter is in no sense an order."[4] + +But once more the destiny that is in character intervened, and +McClellan's tragedy reached its climax. His dread of failure +hypnotized his will. So cautious were his movements that Lee +regained Virginia with his army intact. Lincoln was angry. +Military amateur though he was, he had filled his spare time +reading books on strategy, Von Clausewitz and the rest, and he +had grasped the idea that war's aim is not to win technical +victories, nor to take cities, but to destroy armies. He felt +that McClellan had thrown away an opportunity of first +magnitude. He removed him from command.[5] + +This was six weeks after the two proclamations. The country +was ringing with Abolition plaudits. The election had given +the Democrats a new lease of life. The anti-Lincoln +Republicans were silent while their party enemies with their +stolen thunder rang the changes on the presidential abuse of +the war powers. It was a moment of crisis in party politics. +Where did the President stand? What was the outlook for those +men who in the words of Senator Wilson "would rather give a +policy to the President of the United States than take a policy +from the President of the United States." + +Lincoln's situation was a close parallel to the situation of +July, 1861, when McDowell failed. Just as in choosing a +successor to McDowell, he revealed a political attitude, now, +he would again make a revelation choosing a successor to +McClellan. By passing over Fremont and by elevating a +Democrat, he had spoken to the furious politicians in the +language they understood. Whatever appointment he now made +would be interpreted by those same politicians in the same way. +In the atmosphere of that time, there was but one way for +Lincoln to rank himself as a strict party man, to recant his +earlier heresy of presidential independence, and say to the +Jacobins, "I am with you." He must appoint a Republican to +succeed McClellan. Let him do that and the Congressional Cabal +would forgive him. But he did not do it. He swept political +considerations aside and made a purely military appointment +Burnside, on whom he fixed, was the friend and admirer of +McClellan and might fairly be considered next to him in +prestige. He was loved by his troops. In the eyes of the +army, his elevation represented "a legitimate succession rather +than the usurpation of a successful rival."[6] He was modest. He +did not want promotion. Nevertheless, Lincoln forced him to +take McClellan's place against his will, in spite of his +protest that he had not the ability to command so large an +army.[7] + +When Congress assembled and the Committee resumed its +inquisition, Burnside was moving South on his fated march to +Fredericksburg. The Committee watched him like hungry wolves. +Woe to Burnside, woe to Lincoln, if the General failed! Had the +Little Men possessed any sort of vision they would have seized +their opportunity to become the President's supporters. But +they, like the Jacobins, were partisans first and patriots +second. In the division among the Republicans they saw, not a +chance to turn the scale in the President's favor, but a chance +to play politics on their own account. A picturesque Ohio +politician known as "Sunset" Cox opened the ball of their +fatuousness with an elaborate argument in Congress to the +effect that the President was in honor bound to regard the +recent elections as strictly analogous to an appeal to the +country in England; that it was his duty to remodel his policy +to suit the Democrats. Between the Democrats and the Jacobins +Lincoln was indeed between the devil and the deep blue sea with +no one certainly on his side except the volatile Abolitionists +whom he did not trust and who did not trust him. A great +victory might carry him over. But a great defeat--what might +not be the consequence! + +On the thirteenth of December, through Burnside's stubborn +incompetence, thousands of American soldiers flung away their +lives in a holocaust of useless valor at Fredericksburg. +Promptly the Jacobins acted. They set up a shriek: the +incompetent President, the all-parties dreamer, the man who +persists in coquetting with the Democrats, is blundering into +destruction! Burnside received the dreaded summons from the +Committee. So staggering was the shock of horror that even +moderate Republicans were swept away in a new whirlpool of +doubt. + +But even thus it was scarcely wise, the Abolitionists being +still fearful over the emancipation policy, to attack the +President direct. Nevertheless, the resourceful Jacobins found +a way to begin their new campaign. Seward, the symbol of +moderation, the unforgivable enemy of the Jacobins, had +recently earned anew the hatred of the Abolitionists. Letters +of his to Charles Francis Adams had appeared in print. Some +of their expressions had roused a storm. For example: "extreme +advocates of African slavery arid its most vehement exponents +are acting in concert together to precipitate a servile war."[8] +To be sure, the date of this letter was long since, before he +and Lincoln had changed ground on emancipation, but that did +not matter. He had spoken evil of the cause; he should suffer. +All along, the large number that were incapable of appreciating +his lack of malice had wished him out of the Cabinet. As +Lincoln put it: "While they seemed to believe in my honesty, +they also appeared to think that when I had in me any good +purpose or intention, Seward contrived to suck it out of me +unperceived."[9] + +The Jacobins were skilful politicians. A caucus of Republican +Senators was stampeded by the cry that Seward was the master of +the Administration, the chief explanation of failure. It was +Seward who had brought them to the verge of despair. A +committee was named to demand the reorganization of the Cabinet +Thereupon, Seward, informed of this action, resigned. The +Committee of the Senators called upon Lincoln. He listened; +did not commit himself; asked them to call again; and turned +into his own thoughts for a mode of saving the day. + +During twenty months, since their clash in April, 1861, Seward +and Lincoln had become friends; not merely official associates, +but genuine comrades. Seward's earlier condescension had +wholly disappeared. Perhaps his new respect for Lincoln grew +out of the President's silence after Sumter. A few words +revealing the strange meddling of the Secretary of State would +have turned upon Seward the full fury of suspicion that +destroyed McClellan. But Lincoln never spoke those words. +Whatever blame there was for the failure of the Sumter +expedition, he quietly accepted as his own. Seward, whatever +his faults, was too large a nature, too genuinely a lover of +courage, of the nonvindictive temper, not to be struck with +admiration. Watching with keen eyes the unfolding of Lincoln, +Seward advanced from admiration to regard. After a while he +could write, "The President is the best of us." He warmed to +him; he gave out the best of himself. Lincoln responded. +While the other secretaries were useful, Seward became +necessary. Lincoln, in these dark days, found comfort in his +society.[10] Lincoln was not going to allow Seward to he driven +out of the Cabinet. But how could he prevent it? He could not +say. He was in a quandary. For the moment, the Republican +leaders were so nearly of one mind in their antagonism to +Seward, that it demanded the greatest courage to oppose them. +But Lincoln does not appear to have given a thought to +surrender. What puzzled him was the mode of resistance. + +Now that he was wholly himself, having confidence in whatever +mode of procedure his own thought approved, he had begun using +methods that the politicians found disconcerting. The second +conference with the Senators was an instance. Returning in the +same mood in which they had left him, with no suspicion of a +surprise in store, the Senators to their amazement were +confronted by the Cabinet--or most of it, Seward being +absent.[11] The Senators were put out. This simple maneuver by +the President was the beginning of their discomfiture. It changed +their role from the ambassadors of an ultimatum to the +participants in a conference. But even thus, they might have +succeeded in dominating the event, though it is hardly +conceivable that they could have carried their point; they +might have driven Lincoln into a corner; had it not been for +the make-up of one man. Again, the destiny that is in +character! Lincoln was delivered from a quandary by the course +which the Secretary of the Treasury could not keep himself from +pursuing. + +Chase, previous to this hour, may truly be called an imposing +figure. As a leader of the extreme Republicans, he had earned +much fame. Lincoln had given him a free hand in the Treasury +and all the financial measures of the government were his. +Hitherto, Vindictives of all sorts had loved him. He was a +critic of the President's mildness, and a severe critic of +Seward. But Chase was not candid. Though on the surface he +scrupulously avoided any hint of cynicism, any point of +resemblance to Seward, he was in fact far more devious, much +more capable of self-deception. He had little of Seward's +courage, and none of his aplomb. His condemnation of Seward +had been confided privately to Vindictive brethren. + +When the Cabinet and the Senators met, Chase was placed in a +situation of which he had an instinctive horror. His caution, +his secretiveness, his adroit confidences, his skilful +silences, had created in these two groups of men, two +impressions of his character. The Cabinet knew him as the +faithful, plausible Minister who found the money for the +President. The Senators, or some of them, knew him as the +discontented Minister who was their secret ally. For the two +groups to compare notes, to check up their impressions, meant +that Chase was going to be found out. And it was the central +characteristic of Chase that he had a horror of being found +out. + +The only definite result of the conference was Chase's +realization when the Senators departed that mischance was his +portion. In the presence of the Cabinet he had not the face to +stick to his guns. He feebly defended Seward. The Senators +opened their eyes and stared. The ally they had counted on had +failed them. Chase bit his lips and was miserable. + +The night that followed was one of deep anxiety for Lincoln. +He was still unable to see his way out. But all the while the +predestination in Chase's character was preparing the way of +escape. Chase was desperately trying to discover how to save +his face. An element in him that approached the melodramatic +at last pointed the way. He would resign. What an admirable +mode of recapturing the confidence of his disappointed friends, +carrying out their aim to disrupt the Cabinet! But he could +not do a bold thing like this in Seward's way--at a stroke, +without hesitation. When he called on Lincoln the next day +with the resignation in his hand, he wavered. It happened that +Welles was in the room. + +"Chase said he had been painfully affected," is Welles' +account, "by the meeting last evening, which was a surprise, +and after some not very explicit remarks as to how he was +affected, informed the President he had prepared his +resignation of the office of Secretary of the Treasury. 'Where +is it,' said the President, quickly, his eye lighting up in a +moment. 'I brought it with me,' said Chase, taking the paper +from his pocket. 'I wrote it this morning.' 'Let me have it,' +said the President, reaching his long arm and fingers toward +Chase, who held on seemingly reluctant to part with the letter +which was sealed and which he apparently hesitated to +surrender. Something further he wished to say, but the +President was eager and did not perceive it, but took and +hastily opened the letter. + +"'This,' said he, looking towards me with a triumphal laugh, +'cuts the Gordian knot.' An air of satisfaction spread over his +countenance such as I had not seen for some time. 'I can +dispose of this subject now without difficulty,' he added, as +he turned in his chair; 'I see my way clear.'"[12] In Lincoln's +distress during this episode, there was much besides his +anxiety for the fate of a trusted minister. He felt he must +not permit himself to be driven into the arms of the +Vindictives by disgracing Seward. Seward had a following which +Lincoln needed But to proclaim to the world his confidence in +Seward without at the same time offsetting it by some display +of confidence, equally significant in the enemies of Seward, +this would have amounted to committing himself to Seward's +following alone. And that would not do. Should either faction +appear to dominate him, Lincoln felt that "the whole government +must cave in. It could not stand, could not hold water; the +bottom would be out."[13] + +The incredible stroke of luck, the sheer good fortune that +Chase was Chase and nobody else,--vain, devious, stagey and +hypersensitive,--was salvation. Lincoln promptly rejected both +resignations and called upon both Ministers to resume their +portfolios. They did so. The incident was closed. Neither +faction could say that Lincoln had favored the other. He had +saved himself, or rather, Chase's character had saved him, by +the margin of a hair. + +For the moment, a rebuilding of the Vindictive Coalition was +impossible. Nevertheless, the Jacobins, again balked of their +prey, had it in their power, through the terrible Committee, to +do immense mischief. The history of the war contains no other +instance of party malice quite so fruitless and therefore so +inexcusable as their next move. After severely interrogating +Burnside, they published an exoneration of his motives and +revealed the fact that Lincoln had forced him into command +against his will. The implication was plain. + +January came in. The Emancipation Proclamation was confirmed. +The jubilation of the Abolitionists became, almost at once, a +propaganda for another issue upon slavery. New troubles were +gathering close about the President The overwhelming benefit +which had been anticipated from the new policy had not clearly +arrived. Even army enlistments were not satisfactory. +Conscription loomed on the horizon as an eventual necessity. A +bank of returning cloud was covering the political horizon, +enshrouding the White House in another depth of gloom. + +However, out of all this gathering darkness, one clear light +solaced Lincoln's gaze. One of his chief purposes had been +attained. In contrast to the doubtful and factional response +to his policy at home, the response abroad was sweeping and +unconditional. He had made himself the hero of the "Liberal +party throughout the world." Among the few cheery words that +reached him in January, 1863, were New Year greetings of trust +and sympathy sent by English working men, who, because of the +blockade, were on the verge of starvation. It was in response +to one of these letters from the working men of Manchester that +Lincoln wrote: + +"I have understood well that the duty of self-preservation +rests solely with the American people; but I have at the same +time been aware that the favor or disfavor of foreign nations +might have a material influence in enlarging or prolonging the +struggle with disloyal men in which the country is engaged. A +fair examination of history has served to authorize a belief +that the past actions and influences of the United States were +generally regarded as having been beneficial toward mankind. I +have therefore reckoned upon the forbearance of nations. +Circumstances--to some of which you kindly allude--induce me +especially to expect that if justice and good faith should be +practised by the United States they would encounter no hostile +influence on the part of Great Britain. It is now a pleasant +duty to acknowledge the demonstration you have given of your +desire that a spirit of amity and peace toward this country may +prevail in the councils of your Queen, who is respected and +esteemed in your own country only more than she is, by the +kindred nation which has its home on this side of the Atlantic. + +"I know and deeply deplore the sufferings which the working men +at Manchester, and in all Europe, are called on to endure in +this crisis. It has been often and studiously represented that +the attempt to overthrow this government which was built upon +the foundation of human rights, and to substitute for it one +which should rest exclusively on the basis of human slavery, +was likely to obtain the favor of Europe. Through the action +of our disloyal citizens, the working men of Europe have been +subjected to severe trials for the purpose of forcing their +sanction to that attempt. Under the circumstances, I can not +but regard your decisive utterances upon the question as an +instance of sublime Christian heroism which has not been +surpassed in any age or in any country. It is indeed an +energetic and reinspiring assurance of the inherent power of +the truth, and of the ultimate and universal triumph of +justice, humanity and freedom. I do not doubt that the +sentiments you have expressed will be sustained by your great +nation; and on the other hand, I have no hesitation in assuring +you that they will excite admiration, esteem, and the most +reciprocal feelings of friendship among the American people. I +hail this interchange of sentiment, therefore, as an augury +that whatever else may happen, whatever misfortune may befall +your country or my own, the peace and friendship which now +exist between the two nations, will be, as it shall he my +desire to make them, perpetual."[14] + + + +XXVI. THE DICTATOR, THE MARPLOT AND THE LITTLE MEN + +While the Jacobins were endeavoring to reorganize the +Republican antagonism to the President, Lincoln was taking +thought how he could offset still more effectually their +influence. in taking up the emancipation policy he had not +abandoned his other policy of an all-parties Administration, +or of something similar to that. By this time it was plain +that a complete union of parties was impossible. In the autumn +of 1862, a movement of liberal Democrats in Michigan for the +purpose of a working agreement with the Republicans was +frustrated by the flinty opposition of Chandler.[1] However, it +still seemed possible to combine portions of parties in an +Administration group that should forswear the savagery of the +extreme factions and maintain the war in a merciful temper. +The creation of such a group was Lincoln's aim at the close of +the year. + +The Republicans were not in doubt what he was driving at. +Smarting over their losses in the election, there was angry +talk that Lincoln and Seward had "slaughtered the Republican +party."[2] Even as sane a man as John Sherman, writing to his +brother on the causes of the apparent turn of the tide could +say "the first is that the Republican organization was +voluntarily abandoned by the President and his leading +followers, and a no-party union was formed to run against an +old, well-drilled party organization."[3] When Julian returned to +Washington in December, he found that the menace to the +Republican machine was "generally admitted and (his) earnest +opposition to it fully justified in the opinion of the +Republican members of Congress."[4] How fully they perceived +their danger had been shown in their attempt to drive Lincoln +into a corner on the issue of a new Cabinet. + +Even before that, Lincoln had decided on his next move. As in +the emancipation policy he had driven a wedge between the +factions of the Republicans, so now he would drive a wedge into +the organization of the Democrats. It had two parts which had +little to hold them together except their rooted partisan +habit.[5] One branch, soon to receive the label "Copperhead," +accepted the secession principle and sympathized with the +Confederacy. The other, while rejecting secession and +supporting the war, denounced the emancipation policy as +usurped authority, and felt personal hostility to Lincoln. It +was the latter faction that Lincoln still hoped to win over. +Its most important member was Horatio Seymour, who in the +autumn of 1862 was elected governor of New York. Lincoln +decided to operate on him by one of those astounding moves +which to the selfless man seemed natural enough, by which the +ordinary politician was always hopelessly mystified. He called +in Thurlow Weed and authorized him to make this proposal: if +Seymour would bring his following into a composite Union party +with no platform but the vigorous prosecution of the war, +Lincoln would pledge all his influence to securing for Seymour +the presidential nomination in 1864. Weed delivered his +message. Seymour was noncommittal and Lincoln had to wait for +his answer until the new Governor should show his hand by his +official acts. Meanwhile a new crisis had developed in the +army. Burnside's character appears to have been shattered by +his defeat. Previous to Fredericksburg, he had seemed to be a +generous, high-minded man. From Fredericksburg onward, he +became more and more an impossible. A reflection of McClellan +in his earlier stage, he was somehow transformed eventually +into a reflection of vindictivism. His later character began +to appear in his first conference with the Committee subsequent +to his disaster. They visited him on the field and "his +conversation disarmed all criticism." This was because he +struck their own note to perfection. "Our soldiers," he said, +"were not sufficiently fired by resentment, and he exhorted me +[Julian] if I could, to breathe into our people at home the +same spirit toward our enemies which inspired them toward us."[6] +What a transformation in McClellan's disciple! + +But the country was not won over so easily as the Committee. +There was loud and general disapproval and of course, the +habitual question, "Who next?" The publication by the Committee +of its insinuation that once more the stubborn President was +the real culprit did not stem the tide. Burnside himself made +his case steadily worse. His judgment, such as it was, had +collapsed. He seemed to be stubbornly bent on a virtual +repetition of his previous folly. Lincoln felt it necessary to +command him to make no forward move without consulting the +President.[7] + +Burnside's subordinates freely criticized their commander. +General Hooker was the most outspoken. It was known that a +movement was afoot--an intrigue, if you will-to disgrace +Burnside and elevate Hooker. Chafing under criticism and +restraint, Burnside completely lost his sense of propriety. On +the twenty-fourth of January, 1863, when Henry W. Raymond, the +powerful editor of the New York Times, was on a visit to the +camp, Burnside took him into his tent and read him an order +removing Hooker because of his unfitness "to hold a command in +a cause where so much moderation, forbearance, and unselfish +patriotism were required." Raymond, aghast, inquired what he +would do if Hooker resisted, if he raised his troops in mutiny? +"He said he would Swing him before sundown if he attempted such +a thing." + +Raymond, though more than half in sympathy with Burnside, felt +that the situation was startling. He hurried off to +Washington. "I immediately," he writes, "called upon Secretary +Chase and told him the whole story. He was greatly surprised +to hear such reports of Hooker, and said he had looked upon him +as the man best fitted to command the army of the Potomac. But +no man capable of so much and such unprincipled ambition was +fit for so great a trust, and he gave up all thought of him +henceforth. He wished me to go with him to his house and +accompany him and his daughter to the President's levee. I did +so and found a great crowd surrounding President Lincoln. I +managed, however, to tell him in brief terms that I had been +with the army and that many things were occurring there which +he ought to know. I told him of the obstacles thrown in +Burnside's way by his subordinates and especially General +Hooker's habitual conversation. He put his hand on my shoulder +and said in my ear as if desirous of not being overheard, 'That +is all true; Hooker talks badly; but the trouble is, he is +stronger with the country today than any other man.' I ventured +to ask how long he would retain that strength if his real +conduct and character should be understood. 'The country,' +said he, 'would not believe it; they would say it was all a +lie.'"[8] + +Whether Chase did what he said he would do and ceased to be +Hooker's advocate, may be questioned. Tradition preserves a +deal between the Secretary and the General--the Secretary to +urge his advancement, the General, if he reached his goal, to +content himself with military honors and to assist the +Secretary in succeeding to the Presidency. Hooker was a public +favorite. The dashing, handsome figure of "Fighting Joe" +captivated the popular imagination. The terrible Committee +were his friends. Military men thought him full of promise. +On the whole, Lincoln, who saw the wisdom of following up his +clash over the Cabinet by a concession to the Jacobins, was +willing to take his chances with Hooker. + +His intimate advisers were not of the same mind. They knew +that there was much talk on the theme of a possible +dictator-not the constitutional dictator of Lincoln and +Stevens, but the old-fashioned dictator of historical melodrama. +Hooker was reported to have encouraged such talk. All this +greatly alarmed one of Lincoln's most devoted henchmen--Lamon, +Marshal of the District of Columbia, who regarded himself as +personally responsible for Lincoln's safety. "In conversation +with Mr. Lincoln," says Lamon, "one night about the time +General Burnside was relieved, I was urging upon him the +necessity of looking well to the fact that there was a scheme +on foot to depose him, and to appoint a military dictator in +his stead. He laughed and said, 'I think, for a man of +accredited courage, you are the most panicky person I ever +knew; you can see more dangers to me than all the other friends +I have. You are all the time exercised about somebody taking +my life; murdering me; and now you have discovered a new +danger; now you think the people of this great government are +likely to turn me out of office. I do not fear this from the +people any more than I fear assassination from an individual. +Now to show my appreciation of what my French friends would +call a coup d'etat, let me read you a letter I have written to +General Hooker whom I have just appointed to the command of the +army of the Potomac."[9] + +Few letters of Lincoln's are better known, few reveal more +exactly the tone of his final period, than the remarkable +communication he addressed to Hooker two days after that +whispered talk with Raymond at the White House levee: + +"General, I have placed you at the head of the army of the +Potomac. Of course I have done this upon what appear to me to +be sufficient reasons, and yet I think it best for you to know +that there are some things in regard to which I am not 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 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."[10] + +The appointment of Hooker had the effect of quieting the +Committee for the time. Lincoln turned again to his political +scheme, but not until he had made another military appointment +from which at the moment no one could have guessed that trouble +would ever come. He gave to Burnside what might be called the +sinecure position of Commander of the Department of the Ohio +with headquarters at Cincinnati.[11] + +During the early part of 1863 Lincoln's political scheme +received a serious blow. Seymour ranked himself as an +irreconcilable enemy of the Administration. The anti-Lincoln +Republicans struck at the President in roundabout ways. +Heralding a new attack, the best man on the Committee, Julian, +ironically urged his associates in Congress to "rescue" the +President from his false friends--those mere Unionists who were +luring him away from the party that had elected him, enticing +him into a vague new party that should include Democrats." It +was said that there were only two Lincoln men in the House.[12] +Greeley was coquetting with Rosecrans, trying to induce him to +come forward as Republican presidential "timber." The +Committee in April published an elaborate report which +portrayed the army of the Potomac as an army of heroes +tragically afflicted in the past by the incompetence of their +commanders. The Democrats continued their abuse of the +dictator. + +It was a moment of strained pause, everybody waiting upon +circumstance. And in Washington, every eye was turned +Southward. How soon would they glimpse the first messenger +from that glorious victory which "Fighting Joe" had promised +them. "The enemy is in my power," said he, "and God Almighty +can not deprive me of them."[13] + +Something of the difference between Hooker and Lincoln, between +all the Vindictives and Lincoln, may be felt by turning from +these ribald words to that Fast Day Proclamation which this +strange statesman issued to his people, that anxious +spring,--that moment of trance as it were--when all things seemed +to tremble toward the last judgment: + +"And whereas, it is the duty of nations as well as of men to +own their dependence upon the overruling power of God; to +confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet +with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy +and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth announced in the +Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations +only are blessed whose God is the Lord: + +"And insomuch as we know that by His divine law nations, like +individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in +this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of +civil war which now desolates the land may be but a punishment +inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end +of our national reformation as a whole people. We have been +the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have +been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We +have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has +ever grown; but we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the +gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and +enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in +the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were +produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. +Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too +self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and +preserving grace, too proud to pray to God that made us: + +"It behooves us then to humble ourselves before the offended +Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency +and forgiveness. + +"All this being done in sincerity and truth, let us then rest +humbly in the hope authorized by the divine teachings. that +the united cry of the nation will be heard on high, and +answered with blessings no less than the pardon of our national +sins and the restoration of our now divided and suffering +country to its former happy condition of unity and peace."[14] + +Alas, for such men as Hooker! What seemed to him in his +vainglory beyond the reach of Omnipotence, was accomplished by +Lee and Jackson and a Confederate army at Chancellorsville. +Profound gloom fell upon Washington. Welles heard the terrible +news from Sumner who came into his room "and raising both hands +exclaimed, 'Lost, lost, all is lost!'"[15] + +The aftermath of Manassas was repeated. In the case of Pope, +no effort had been spared to save the friend of the Committee, +to find some one else on whom to load his incompetence. The +course was now repeated. Again, the Jacobins raised the cry, +"We are betrayed!" Again, the stir to injure the President. +Very strange are the ironies of history! At this critical +moment, Lincoln's amiable mistake in sending Burnside to +Cincinnati demanded expiation. Along with the definite news of +Hooker's overthrow, came the news that Burnside had seized the +Copperhead leader, Vallandigham, and had cast him into prison; +that a hubbub had ensued; that, as the saying goes, the woods +were burning in Ohio. + +Vallandigham's offense was a public speech of which no accurate +report survives. However, the fragments recorded by "plain +clothes" men in Burnside's employ, when set in the perspective +of Vallandigham's thinking as displayed in Congress, make its +tenor plain enough. it was an out-and-out Copperhead harangue. +If he was to be treated as hundreds of others had been, the +case against him was plain. But the Administration's policy +toward agitators had gradually changed. There was not the same +fear of them that had existed two years before. Now the +tendency of the Administration was to ignore them. + +The Cabinet regretted what Burnside had done. Nevertheless, +the Ministers felt that it would not do to repudiate him. +Lincoln took that view. He wrote to Burnside deploring his +action and sustaining his authority.1[6] And then, as a sort of +grim practical joke, he commuted Vallandigham's sentence from +imprisonment to banishment. The agitator was sent across the +lines into the Confederacy. + +Burnside had effectually played the marplot. Very little +chance now of an understanding between Lincoln and either wing +of the Democrats. The opportunity to make capital out of the +war powers was quite too good to be lost! Vallandigham was +nominated for governor by the Ohio Democrats. In all parts of +the country Democratic committees resolved in furious protest +against the dictator. And yet, on the whole, perhaps, the +incident played into Lincoln's hands. At least, it silenced +the Jacobins. With the Democrats ringing the changes on the +former doctrine of the supple politicians, how certain that +their only course for the moment was to lie low. A time came, +to be sure, when they thought it safe to resume their own +creed; but that was not yet. + +The hubbub over Vallandigham called forth two letters addressed +to protesting committees, that have their place among Lincoln's +most important statements of political science. His argument +is based on the proposition which Browning developed a year +before. The core of it is: + +"You ask in substance whether I really claim that I may +override all guaranteed rights of individuals on the plea of +conserving the public safety, whenever 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 no one 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."[17] + +Browning's argument over again-the President can be brought to +book by a plebiscite, while Congress can not. But Lincoln did +not rest, as Browning did, on mere argument. The old-time jury +lawyer revived. He was doing more than arguing a theorem of +political science. He was on trial before the people, the +great mass, which he understood so well. He must reach their +imaginations and touch their hearts. + +"Mr. Vallandigham avows his hostility to the war on the part of +the Union, and his arrest was made because he was laboring with +some effect, to prevent the raising of troops, to encourage +desertions from the army, and to leave the rebellion without an +adequate military force to sup-press it. He was not arrested +because he was damaging the political prospects of the +Administration or the personal interests of the Commanding +General, but because be was damaging the army, upon the +existence and vigor of which the life of the nation depends. +He was warring upon the military, and this gave the military +constitutional jurisdiction to lay hands upon him. + +"I understand the meeting whose resolutions I am considering, +to be in favor of suppressing the rebellion by military +force-by armies. Long experience has shown that armies can not +be maintained unless desertion shall be punished by the severe +penalty of death. The case requires, and the Law and the +Constitution sanction this punishment. 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?"[18] + +Again, the ironical situation of the previous December; the +wrathful Jacobins, the most dangerous because the most sincere +enemies of the presidential dictatorship, silent, trapped, +biding their time. But the situation had for them a distinct +consolation. A hundred to one it had killed the hope of a +Lincoln-Democratic alliance. + +However, the President would not give up the Democrats without +one last attempt to get round the Little Men. Again, he could +think of no mode of negotiation except the one he had vainly +attempted with Seymour. As earnest of his own good faith, he +would once more renounce his own prospect of a second term. +But since Seymour had failed him, who was there that could +serve his purpose? The popularity of McClellan among those +Democrats who were not Copperheads had grown with his +misfortunes. There had been a wide demand for his restoration +after Fredericksburg, and again after Chancellorsville. +Lincoln justified his reputation for political insight by +concluding that McClellan, among the Democrats, was the coming +man. Again Weed was called in. Again he became an ambassador +of renunciation. Apparently he carried a message to the effect +that if McClellan would join forces with the Administration, +Lincoln would support him for president a year later. But +McClellan was too inveterate a partisan. Perhaps he thought +that the future was his anyway.[19] + +And so Lincoln's persistent attempt to win over the Democrats +came to an end. The final sealing of their antagonism was +effected at a great Democratic rally in New York on the Fourth +of July. The day previous, a manifesto had been circulated +through the city beginning, "Freemen, awake! In everything, +and in most stupendous proportion, is this Administration +abominable!"[20] Seymour reaffirmed his position of out-and-out +partisan hostility to the Administration. Vallandigham's +colleague, Pendleton of Ohio, formulated the Democratic +doctrine: that the Constitution was being violated by the +President's assumption of war powers. His cry was, "The +Constitution as it is and the Union as it was." He thundered +that "Congress can not, and no one else shall, interfere with +free speech." The question was not whether we were to have +peace or war, but whether or not we were to have free +government; "if it be necessary to violate the Constitution in +order to carry on the war, the war ought instantly to be +stopped."[21] + +Lincoln's political program had ended apparently in a wreck. +But Fortune had not entirely deserted him. Hooker in a fit of +irritation had offered his resignation. Lincoln had accepted +it. Under a new commander, the army of the Potomac had moved +against Lee. The orators at the Fourth of July meeting had +read in the papers that same day Lincoln's announcement of the +victory at Gettysburg.[22] Almost coincident with that +announcement was the surrender of Vicksburg. Difficult as was +the political problem ahead of him, the problem of finding some +other plan for unifying his support without participating in a +Vindictive Coalition, Lincoln's mood was cheerful. On the +seventh of July he was serenaded. Serenades for the President +were a feature of war-time in Washington, and Lincoln utilized +the occasions to talk informally to the country. His remarks +on the seventh were not distinctive, except for their tone, +quietly, joyfully confident. His serene mood displayed itself +a week later in a note to Grant which is oddly characteristic. +Who else would have had the impulse to make this quaint little +confession? But what, for a general who could read between the +lines, could have been more delightful?[23] + +"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 the 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. + +"Very truly, + +"A. LINCOLN." + + + +XXVII. THE TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE + +Between March and December, 1863, Congress was not in session. +Its members were busy "taking the sense of the country" as they +would have said: "potting their ears to the ground," as other +people would say. A startling tale the ground told them. it +was nothing less than that Lincoln was the popular hero; that +the people believed in him; that the politicians would do well +to shape their ways accordingly. When they reassembled, they +were in a sullen, disappointed frame of mind. They would have +liked to ignore the ground's mandate; but being politicians, +they dared not. + +What an ironical turn of events! Lincoln's well-laid plan for +a coalition of Moderates and Democrats had come to nothing. +Logically, he ought now to be at the mercy of the Republican +leaders. But instead, those leaders were beginning to be +afraid of him, were perceiving that he had power whereof they +had not dreamed. Like Saul the son of Kish, who had set out to +find his father's asses, he had found instead a kingdom. How +had he done it? + +On a grand scale, it was the same sort of victory that had made +him a power, so long before, on the little stage at +Springfield. It was personal politics. His character had +saved him. A multitude who saw nothing in the fine drawn +constitutional issue of the war powers, who sensed the war in +the most simple and elementary way, had formed, somehow, a +compelling and stimulating idea of the President. They were +satisfied that "Old Abe," or "Father Abraham," was the man for +them. When, after one of his numerous calls for fresh troops, +their hearts went out to him, a new song sprang to life, a +ringing, vigorous, and yet a touching song with the refrain, +"We're coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand more." + +But how has he done it, asked the bewildered politicians, one +of another. How had he created this personal confidence? +They, Wade, Chandler, Stevens, Davis, could not do it; why +could he? + +Well, for one thing, he was a grand reality. They, relatively, +were shadows. The wind of destiny for him was the convictions +arising out of his own soul; for them it was vox populi. The +genuineness of Lincoln, his spiritual reality, had been +perceived early by a class of men whom your true politician +seldom understands. The Intellectuals--"them literary +fellers," in the famous words of an American Senator--were +quick to see that the President was an extraordinary man; they +were not long in concluding that he was a genius. The subtlest +intellect of the time, Hawthorne, all of whose prejudices were +enlisted against him, said in the Atlantic of July, 1863: "He +is evidently a man of keen faculties, and what is still more to +the purpose, of powerful character. As to his integrity, the +people have that intuition of it which is never deceived he has +a flexible mind capable of much expansion." And this when +Trumbull chafed in spirit because the President was too "weak" +for his part and Wade railed at him as a despot. As far back +as 1860, Lowell, destined to become one of his ablest +defenders, had said that Lincoln had "proved both his ability +and his integrity; he . . . had experience enough in public +affairs to make him a statesman, and not enough to make him a +politician." To be sure, there were some Intellectuals who +could not see straight nor think clear. The world would have +more confidence in the caliber of Bryant had he been able to +rank himself in the Lincoln following. But the greater part of +the best intelligence of the North could have subscribed to +Motley's words, "My respect for the character of the President +increases every day."[1] The impression he made on men of +original mind is shadowed in the words of Walt Whitman, who saw +him often in the streets of Washington: "None of the artists or +pictures have caught the subtle and indirect expression of this +man's face. One -of the great portrait painters of two or +three centuries ago is needed."[2] + +Lincoln's popular strength lay in a combination of the +Intellectuals and the plain people against the politicians. +He reached the masses in three ways: through his general +receptions which any one might attend; through the open-door +policy of his office, to which all the world was permitted +access; through his visits to the army. Many thousand men and +women, in one or another of these ways, met the President face +to face, often in the high susceptibility of intense woe, and +carried away an impression which was immediately circulated +among all their acquaintances. + +It would be impossible to exaggerate the grotesque miscellany +of the stream of people flowing ever in and out of the +President's open doors. Patriots eager to serve their country +but who could find no place in the conventional requirements of +the War Office; sharpers who wanted to inveigle him into the +traps of profiteers; widows with al their sons in service, +pleading for one to be exempted; other parents struggling with +the red tape that kept them from sons in hospitals; luxurious +frauds prating of their loyalty for the sake of property +exemptions; inventors with every imaginable strange device; +politicians seeking to cajole him; politicians bluntly +threatening him; cashiered officers demanding justice; men with +grievances of a myriad sorts; nameless statesmen who sought to +teach him his duty; clergymen in large numbers, generally with +the same purpose; deputations from churches, societies, +political organizations, commissions, trades unions, with every +sort of message from flattery to denunciation; and best of all, +simple, confiding people who wanted only to say, 'We trust +you--God bless you!" + +There was a method in this madness of accessibility. Its +deepest inspiration, to be sure, was kindness. in reply to a +protest that he would wear himself out listening to thousands +of requests most of which could not be granted, he replied with +one of those smiles in which there was so much sadness, "They +don't want much; they get but little, and I must see them."[3] + +But there was another inspiration. His open doors enabled him +to study the American people, every phase of it, good and bad. +"Men moving only in an official circle," said he, "are apt to +become merely official--not to say arbitrary--in their ideas, and +are apter and apter with each passing day to forget that they +only hold power in a representative capacity. . . . Many of +the matters brought to my notice are utterly frivolous, but +others are of more or less importance, and all serve to renew +in me a clearer and more vivid image of that great popular +assemblage out of which I sprung, and to which at the end of +two years I must return. . . . I call these receptions my +public opinion baths; for I have but little time to read the +papers, and gather public opinion that way; and though they may +not be pleasant in all their particulars, the effect as a +whole, is renovating and invigorating to my perceptions of +responsibility and duty."[4] + +He did not allow his patience to be abused with evil intent. +He read his suppliants swiftly. The profiteer, the shirk, the +fraud of any sort, was instantly unmasked. "I'll have nothing +to do with this business," he burst out after listening to a +gentlemanly profiteer; "nor with any man who comes to me with +such degrading propositions. What! Do you take the President +of the United States to be a commission broker? You have come +to the wrong place, and for you and for every one who comes for +the same purpose, there is the door."[5] + +Lincoln enjoyed this indiscriminate mixing with people. It was +his chief escape from care. He saw no reason why his friends +should Commiserate him because of the endless handshaking. +That was a small matter compared with the interest he took in +the ever various stream of human types. Sometimes, indeed, he +would lapse into a brown study in the midst of a reception. +Then he "would shake hands with thousands of people, seemingly +unconscious of what he was doing, murmuring monotonous +salutations as they went by, his eye dim, his thoughts far +withdrawn. . . Suddenly, he would see some familiar face--his +memory for faces was very good-and his eye would brighten and +his whole form grow attentive; he would greet the visitor with +a hearty grasp and a ringing word and dismiss him with a cheery +laugh that filled the Blue Room with infectious good nature."[6] +Carpenter, the portrait painter, who for a time saw him daily, +says that "his laugh stood by itself. The neigh of a wild +horse on his native prairie is not more undisguised and +hearty." An intimate friend called it his "life preserver."[7] + +Lincoln's sense of humor delighted in any detail of an event +which suggested comedy. His genial awkwardness amused himself +quite as much as it amused the world. At his third public +reception he wore a pair of white kid gloves that were too +small. An old friend approached. The President shook hands so +heartily that his glove burst with a popping sound. Holding up +his hand, Lincoln gazed at the ruined glove with a droll air +while the arrested procession came to a standstill. "Well, my +old friend," said he, "this is a general bustification; you and +I were never intended to wear these things. If they were +stronger they might do to keep out the cold, but they are a +failure to shake hands with between old friends like us. Stand +aside, Captain, and I'll see you shortly."[8] + +His complete freedom from pose, and from the sense of place, +was glimpsed by innumerable visitors. He would never allow a +friend to address him by a title. 'Call me Lincoln," he would +say; "Mr. President is entirely too formal for us."[9] + +In a mere politician, all this might have been questioned. But +Hawthorne was right as to the people's intuition of Lincoln's +honesty. He hated the parade of eminence. Jefferson was his +patron saint, and "simplicity" was part of his creed. Nothing +could induce him to surround himself with pomp, or even--as his +friends thought--with mere security. Rumors of plots against +his life were heard almost from the beginning. His friends +begged long and hard before he consented to permit a cavalry +guard at the gates of the White House. Very soon he +countermanded his consent. "It would never do," said he, "for +a president to have guards with drawn sabers at his door, as if +he fancied he were, or were trying to be, or were assuming to +be, an emperor."[10] + +A military officer, alarmed for his safety, begged him to +consider "the fact that any assassin or maniac seeking his +life, could enter his presence without the interference of a +single armed man to hold him back. The entrance doors, and all +doors on the official side of the building, were open at all +hours of the day and very late into the evening; and I have +many times entered the mansion and walked up to the rooms of +the two private secretaries as late as nine or ten o'clock at +night, without Seeing, or being challenged by a single soul." +But the officer pleaded in vain. Lincoln laughingly +paraphrased Charles II, "Now as to political assassination, do +you think the Richmond people would like to have Hannibal +Hamlin here any more than myself? . . . As to the crazy +folks, Major, why I must only take my chances-the most crazy +people at present, I fear, being some of my own too zealous +adherents."[11] With Carpenter, to whom he seems to have taken a +liking, he would ramble the streets of Washington, late at +night, "without escort or even the company of a servant."[12] +Though Halleck talked him into accepting an escort when driving +to and fro between Washington and his summer residence at the +Soldiers' Home, he would frequently give it the slip and make +the journey on horseback alone. in August of 1862 on one of +these solitary rides, his life was attempted. It was about +eleven at night; he was "jogging along at a slow gait immersed +in deep thought" when some one fired at him with a rifle from +near at hand. The ball missed its aim and the President's +horse, as Lincoln confided to his familiars, "gave proof of +decided dissatisfaction at the racket, and with one reckless +bound, he unceremoniously separated me from my eight-dollar +plug hat . . . At break-neck speed we reached a haven of +safety. Meanwhile, I was left in doubt whether death was more +desirable from being thrown from a runaway Federal horse, or as +the tragic result of a rifle ball fired by a disloyal +bushwhacker in the middle of the night"[13] + +While carrying his life in his hands in this oddly reckless +way, he belied himself, as events were to show, by telling his +friends that he fancied himself "a great coward physically," +that he felt sure he would make a poor soldier. But he was +sufficiently just to himself to add, "Moral cowardice is +something which I think I never had."[14] + +Lincoln's humor found expression in other ways besides telling +stories and laughing at himself. He seized every opportunity +to convert a petition into a joke, when this could be done +without causing pain. One day, there entered a great man with +a long list of favors which he hoped to have granted. Among +these was "the case of Betsy Ann Dougherty, a good woman," said +the great man. "She lived in my county and did my washing for +a long time. Her husband went off and joined the Rebel army +and I wish you would give her a protection paper." The pompous +gravity of the way the case was presented struck Lincoln as +very funny. His visitor had no humor. He failed to see jokes +while Lincoln quizzed him as to who and what was Betsy Ann. At +length the President wrote a line on a card and handed it to +the great man. "Tell Betsy Ann to put a string in this card +and hang it round her neck," said he. "When the officers (who +may have doubted her affiliations) see this they will keep +their hands off your Betsy Ann." On the card was written, "Let +Betsy Ann Dougherty alone as long as she behaves herself. A. +Lincoln."[15] + +This eagerness for a joke now and then gave offense. On one +occasion, a noted Congressman called on the President shortly +after a disaster. Lincoln began to tell a story. The +Congressman jumped up. "Mr. President, I did not come here +this morning to hear stories. It is too serious a time." +Lincoln's face changed. "Ashley," said he, "sit down! I +respect you as an earnest, sincere man. You can not be more +anxious than I have been constantly since the beginning of the +war; and I say to you now, that were it not for this occasional +vent, I should die."[16] Again he said, "When the Peninsula +Campaign terminated suddenly at Harrison's Landing, I was as +near inconsolable as I could be and live."[17] + +Lincoln's imaginative power, the ineradicable artist in him, +made of things unseen true realities to his sensibility. +Reports of army suffering bowed his spirit. "This was +especially' the case when the noble victims were of his own +acquaintance, or of the narrower circle of his familiar +friends; and then he seemed for the moment possessed of a sense +of personal responsibility for their individual fate which was +at once most unreasonable and most pitiful." On hearing that +two sons of an old friend were desperately wounded and would +probably die, he broke out with: "Here, now, are these dear +brave boys killed in this cursed war. My God! My God! It is +too bad! They worked hard to earn money to educate themselves +and this is the end! I loved them as if they were my own."[18] He +was one of the few who have ever written a beautiful letter of +condolence. Several of his letters attempting this all but +impossible task, come as near their mark as such things can. +One has become a classic: + +"I have been shown," he wrote to Mrs. Bixby, "in the files of +the War Department a statement of the Adjutant-General of +Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have +died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and +fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to +beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I +can not refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may +be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I +pray that our heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your +bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the +loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have +laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom."[19] + +All these innumerable instances of his sympathy passed from +mouth to mouth; became part of a floating propaganda that was +organizing the people in his support. To these were added many +anecdotes of his mercy. The American people had not learned +that war is a rigorous thing. Discipline in the army was often +hard to maintain. Impulsive young men who tired of army life, +or who quarreled with their officers, sometimes walked away. +There were many condemnations either for mutiny or desertion. +In the stream of suppliants pouring daily through the +President's office, many were parents imploring mercy for rash +sons. As every death-warrant had to be signed by the +President, his generals were frequently enraged by his refusal +to carry out their decisions. "General," said he to an angry +commander who charged him with destroying discipline, "there +are too many weeping widows in the United States now. -For +God's sake don't ask me to add to the number; for I tell you +plainly I won't do it."[20] + +Here again, kindness was blended with statecraft, mercy with +shrewdness. The generals could not grasp the political side of +war. Lincoln tried to make them see it. When they could not, +he quietly in the last resort counteracted their influence. +When some of them talked of European experience, he shook his +head; it would not do; they must work with the tools they had; +first of all with an untrained people, intensely sensitive to +the value of human life, impulsive, quick to forget offenses, +ultra-considerate of youth and its rashness. Whatever else the +President did, he must not allow the country to think of the +army as an ogre devouring its sons because of technicalities. +The General saw only the discipline, the morale, of the +soldiers; the President saw the far more difficult, the more +roundabout matter, the discipline and the morale of the +citizens. The one believed that he could compel; the other +with his finger on the nation's pulse, knew that he had to +persuade. + +However, this flowing army of the propaganda did not always +engage him on the tragic note. One day a large fleshy man, of +a stern but homely countenance and a solemn and dignified +carriage, immaculate dress--"swallow-tailed coat, ruffled +shirt of faultless fabric, white cravat and orange-colored +gloves"--entered with the throng. Looking at him Lincoln was +somewhat appalled. He expected some formidable demand. To his +relief, the imposing stranger delivered a brief harangue on the +President's policy, closing with, "I have watched you narrowly +ever since your inauguration. . . . As one of your +constituents, I now say to you, do in future as you damn +please, and I will support you." "Sit down, my friend," said +Lincoln, "sit down. I am delighted to see you. Lunch with us +today. Yes, you must stay and lunch with us, my friend, for I +have not seen enough of you yet."[21] There were many of these +informal ambassadors of the people assuring the President of +popular support. And this florid gentleman was not the only +one who lunched with the President on first acquaintance. + +This casual way of inviting strangers to lunch with him was +typical of his mode of life, which was exceedingly simple. He +slept lightly and rose early. in summer when he used the +Soldiers' Home as a residence, he was at his desk in the White +House at eight o'clock in the morning. His breakfast was an +egg and a cup of coffee; luncheon was rarely more than a glass +of milk and a biscuit with a plate of fruit in season; his +dinner at six o'clock, was always a light meal. Though he had +not continued a total abstainer, as in the early days at +Springfield, he very seldom drank wine. He never used tobacco. +So careless was he with regard to food that when Mrs. Lincoln +was away from home, there was little regularity in his meals. +He described his habits on such occasions as "browsing +around."[22] + +Even when Mrs. Lincoln was in command at the White House, he +was not invariably dutiful. An amusing instance was observed +by some high officials. The luncheon hour arrived in the midst +of an important conference. Presently, a servant appeared +reminding Mr. Lincoln of the hour, but he took no notice. +Another summons, and again no notice. After a short interval, +the door of the office flew open and the titular "First Lady" +flounced into the room, a ruffled, angry little figure, her +eyes flashing. With deliberate quiet, as if in a dream, +Lincoln rose slowly, took her calmly, firmly by the shoulders, +lifted her, carried her through the doorway, set her down, +closed the door, and went on with the conference as if +unconscious of an interruption.[23] Mrs. Lincoln did not return. +The remainder of the incident is unknown. + +The burden of many anecdotes that were included in the +propaganda was his kindness to children. It began with his +own. His little rascal "Tad," after Willie's death, was the +apple of his eye. The boy romped in and out of his office. +Many a time he was perched on his father's knee while great +affairs of state were under discussion.[24] Lincoln could +persuade any child from the arms of its mother, nurse, or play +fellow, there being a "peculiar fascination in his voice and +manner which the little one could not resist."[25] + +All impressionable, imaginative young people, brought into +close association with him, appear to have felt his spell. His +private secretaries were his sworn henchmen. Hay's diary rings +with admiration-the keen, discriminating, significant +admiration of your real observer. Hay refers to him by pet +name-"The Ancient," "The Old Man," "The Tycoon." Lincoln's +entire relation with these gifted youngsters may be typified by +one of Hay's quaintest anecdotes. Lincoln had gone to bed, as +so often he did, with a book. "A little after midnight as I +was writing . the President came into the office laughing, +with a volume of Hood's Works in his hand, to show Nicolay and +me the little caricature, 'An Unfortunate Being'; seemingly +utterly unconscious that he, with his short shirt hanging about +his long legs, and setting out behind like the tail feathers of +an enormous ostrich, was infinitely funnier than anything in +the book he was laughing at. What a man it is! occupied all +day with matters of vast moment, deeply anxious about the fate +of the greatest army of the world, with his own plans and +future hanging on the events of the passing hour, he yet has +such a wealth of simple bonhomie and good fellowship that +he gets out of bed and perambulates the house in his shirt to +find us that we may share with him the fun of poor Hood's queer +little conceits."[26] + +In midsummer, 1863, "The Tycoon is in fine whack. I have +rarely seen him more serene and busy. He is managing this war, +the draft, foreign relations, and planning a reconstruction of +the Union, all at once. I never knew with what a tyrannous +authority he rules the Cabinet, until now. The most important +things he decides and there is no cavil. I am growing more +convinced that the good of the country demands that he should +be kept where he is till this thing is over. There is no man +in the country so wise, so gentle, and so firm."[27] + +And again, "You may talk as you please of the Abolition Cabal +directing affairs from Washington; some well-meaning newspapers +advise the President to keep his fingers out of the military +pie, and all that sort of thing. The truth is, if he did, the +pie would be a sorry mess. The old man sits here and wields, +like a backwoods Jupiter, the bolts of war and the machinery of +government with a hand especially steady and equally firm. . +I do not know whether the nation is worthy of him for another +term. I know the people want him. There is no mistaking that +fact. But the politicians are strong yet, and he is not their +'kind of a cat.' I hope God won't see fit to scourge us for our +sins by any of the two or three most prominent candidates on +the ground."[28] This was the conclusion growing everywhere among +the bulk of the people. There is one more cause of it to be +reckoned with. Lincoln had not ceased to be the literary +statesman. in fact, he was that more effectively than ever. +His genius for fable-making took a new turn. Many a visitor +who came to find fault, went home to disseminate the apt fable +with which the President had silenced his objections and +captured his agreement. His skill in narration also served him +well. Carpenter repeats a story about An-drew Johnson and his +crude but stern religion which in mere print is not remarkable. +"I have elsewhere insinuated," comments Carpenter, "that Mr. +Lincoln was capable of much dramatic power. . . . It was +shown in his keen appreciation of Shakespeare, and unrivaled +faculty of Storytelling. The incident just related, for +example, was given with a thrilling effect which mentally +placed Johnson, for the time being, alongside Luther and +Cromwell. Profanity or irreverence was lost sight of in a +fervid utterance of a highly wrought and great-souled +determination, united with a rare exhibition of pathos and +self-abnegation."[29] + +In formal literature, he had done great things upon a far +higher level than any of his writings previous to that sudden +change in his style in 1860. For one, there was the Fast Day +Proclamation. There was also a description of his country, of +the heritage of the nation, in the third message. Its aim was +to give imaginative reality to the national idea; just as the +second message had aimed to give argumentative reality. + +"There is no line, straight or crooked, suitable for a national +boundary upon which to divide. Trace through from east to +west, upon the line between the free and the slave Country and +we shall find a little more than one-third of its length are +rivers, easy to be crossed, and populated, or soon to be +populated, thickly upon both sides; while nearly all its +remaining length are merely surveyors' lines, over which people +may walk back and forth without any consciousness of their +presence. No part of this line can be made any more difficult +to pass by writing it down on paper or parchment as a national +boundary. + +"But there is another difficulty. The great interior region, +bounded east by the Alleghanies, north by the British +dominions, west by the Rocky Mountains, and south by the line +along which the culture of corn and cotton meets, and which +includes part of Virginia, part of Tennessee, all of Kentucky, +Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, +Iowa, Minnesota, and the Territories of Dakota, Nebraska, and +part of Colorado, already has above ten millions of people, and +will have fifty millions within fifty years, if not prevented +by any political folly or mistake. It contains more than +one-third of the Country owned by the United States--certainly +more than one million square miles. Once half as populous as +Massachusetts already is, it would have more than seventy-five +millions of people. A glance at the map shows that, +territorially speaking, it is the great body of the republic. +The other parts are but marginal borders to it, the magnificent +region sloping west from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific +being the deepest and also the richest in undeveloped +resources. In the production of provisions, grains, grasses, +and all which proceed from them, this great interior region is +naturally one of the most important in the world. Ascertain +from the statistics the small proportion of the region which +has, as yet, been brought into cultivation, and also the large +and rapidly increasing amount of its products and we shall be +overwhelmed with the magnitude of the prospect presented; and +yet, this region has no seacoast, touches no ocean anywhere. +As part of one nation, its people now find, and may forever +find, their way to Europe by New York, to South America and +Africa by New Orleans, and to Asia by San Francisco. But +separate our common country into two nations as designed by the +present rebellion, and every man of this great interior region +is thereby cut off from some one or more of these outlets-not, +perhaps, by a physical barrier, but by embarrassing and onerous +trade regulations. + +"And this is true wherever a dividing or boundary line may be +fixed. Place it between the now free and slave country, or +place it south of Kentucky or north of Ohio, and still the +truth remains that none south of it can trade to any port or +place north of it, and none north of it can trade to any port +or place south of it, except upon terms dictated by a +government foreign to them. These outlets east, west, and +south, are indispensable to the well-being of the people +inhabiting and to inhabit, this vast interior region. Which of +the three may be the best is no proper question. All are +better than either; and all of right belong to that people and +?o their Successors forever. True to themselves, they will not +ask where a line of separation shall be, but will vow rather +that there shall be no such line. Nor are the marginal regions +less interested in these communications to and through them to +the great outside world. They, too, and each of them, must +have access to this Egypt of the West without paying toll at +the crossing of any national boundary. + +"Our national strife springs not from our permanent part, not +from the land we inhabit, not from our national homestead. +There is no possible severing of this but would multiply, and +not mitigate, evils among us. In all its adaptations and +aptitudes it demands union and abhors separation. In fact, it +would ere long, force reunion, however much of blood and +treasure the separation might have cost."[30] + +A third time he made a great literary stroke, gave utterance, +in yet another form, to his faith that the national idea was +the one constant issue for which he had asked his countrymen, +and would continue to ask them, to die. it was at Gettysburg, +November 19, 1863, in consecration of a military +burying-ground, that he delivered, perhaps, his greatest +utterance: + +"But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate--we can not +consecrate--we can not 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, for the +people, by the people, shall not perish from the earth."[31] + + + +XXVIII. APPARENT ASCENDENCY + +Toward the end of 1863, Lowell prepared an essay on "The +President's Policy." It might almost be regarded as a manifesto +of the Intellectuals. That there was now a prospect of winning +the war "was mainly due to the good sense, the good humor, the +sagacity, the large- mindedness, and the unselfish honesty of +the unknown man whom a blind fortune, as it seemed, had lifted +from the crowd to the most dangerous and difficult eminence of +modern times." When the essay appeared in print, Lincoln was +greatly pleased. He wrote to the editors of the North American +Review, "I am not the most impartial judge; yet with due +allowance for this, I venture to hope that the article entitled +'The President's Policy' will be of value to the country. I +fear I am not quite worthy of all which is therein so kindly +said of me personally."[1] + +This very able defense of his previous course appeared as he +was announcing to the country his final course. He was now +satisfied that winning the war was but a question of time. +What would come after war was now in his mind the overshadowing +matter. He knew that the vindictive temper had lost nothing of +its violence. Chandler's savagery--his belief that the +Southerners had forfeited the right to life, liberty and the +pursuit of happiness--was still the Vindictive creed. 'Vae +victi'! When war ended, they meant to set their feet on the +neck of the vanquished foe. Furthermore, Lincoln was not +deceived as to why they were lying low at this particular +minute. Ears had been flattened to the ground and they were +heeding what the ground had said. The President was too +popular for them to risk attacking him without an obvious +issue. Their former issue had been securely appropriated by +the Democrats. Where could they find another? With consummate +boldness Lincoln presented them an issue. It was +reconstruction. When Congress met, he communicated the text of +a "Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction."[2] This great +document on which all his concluding policy was based, offered +"a full pardon" with "restoration of all rights of property, +except as to slaves, or in property cases, where rights of +third persons shall have intervened" upon subscribing to an +oath of allegiance which required only a full acceptance of the +authority of the United States. This amnesty was to be +extended to all persons except a few groups, such as officers +above the rank of colonel and former officials of the United +States. The Proclamation also provided that whenever, in any +Seceded State, the new oath should be taken by ten per cent. +of all those who were qualified to vote under the laws of 1860, +these ten per cent. should be empowered to set up a new State +government. + +From the Vindictive point of view, here was a startling +announcement. Lincoln had declared for a degree of magnanimity +that was as a red rag to a bull. He had also carried to its +ultimate his assumption of war powers. No request was made for +congressional cooperation. The message which the Proclamation +accompanied was informative only. + +By this time, the Vindictive Coalition of 1861 was gradually +coming together again. Or, more truly, perhaps, various of its +elements were fusing into a sort of descendant of the old +coalition. The leaders of the new Vindictive group were much +the same as the leaders of the earlier group. There was one +conspicuous addition. During the next six months, Henry Winter +Davis held for a time the questionable distinction of being +Lincoln's most inveterate enemy. He was a member of the House. +In the House many young and headstrong politicians rallied +about him. The Democrats at times craftily followed his lead. +Despite the older and more astute Vindictives of the Senate, +Chandler, Wade and the rest who knew that their time had not +come, Davis, with his ardent followers, took up the President's +challenge. Davis brought in a bill designed to complete the +reorganization of the old Vindictive Coalition. It appealed to +the enemies of presidential prerogative, to all those who +wanted the road to reconstruction made as hard as possible, and +to the Abolitionists. This bill, in so many words, transferred +the whole matter of reconstruction from the President to +Congress; it required a majority (instead of one-tenth)of all +the male citizens of a Seceded State as the basis of a new +government; it exacted of this -majority a pledge never to pay +any State debt contracted during the Confederacy, and also the +perpetual prohibition of slavery in their State constitution. + +Davis got his bill through the House, but his allies in the +Senate laid it aside. They understood the country too -well +not to see that they must wait for something to happen. if the +President made any mistake, if anything went wrong with the +army-they remembered the spring of 1862, McClellan's failure, +and how Chandler followed it up. And at this moment no man was +chafing more angrily because of what the ground was saying, no +man was watching the President more keenly, than Chandler. +History is said to repeat itself, and all things are supposed +to come to him who waits. While Davis's bill was before the +House, Lincoln accepted battle with the Vindictives in a way +that was entirely unostentatious, but that burned his bridges. +He pressed forward the organization of a new State government +in Louisiana under Federal auspices. He wrote to Michael Hahn, +the newly chosen governor of this somewhat fictitious State: "I +congratulate you on having fixed your name in history as the +first Free State governor of Louisiana."[3] + +Meanwhile, the hotheads of the House again followed Davis's +lead and flung defiance in Lincoln's face. Napoleon, who had +all along coquetted alarmingly with the Confederates, had also +pushed ahead with his insolent conquest of Mexico. Lincoln and +Seward, determined to have but one war on their hands at a +time, had skilfully evaded committing themselves. The United +States had neither protested against the action of Napoleon, +nor in any way admitted its propriety. Other men besides the +Vindictives were biding their time. But here the hotheads +thought they saw an opportunity. Davis brought in a resolution +which amounted to a censure of the Administration for not +demanding the retirement of the French from Mexico. This was +one of those times when the Democrats played politics and +followed Davis. The motion was carried unanimously.[4] It was so +much of a sensation that the 'American Minister at Paris, +calling on the Imperial Minister of Foreign Affairs, was met by +the curt question, "Do you bring peace or war?" + +But it was not in the power of the House to draw Lincoln's fire +until he chose to be drawn. He ignored its action. The +Imperial Government was informed that the acts of the House of +Representatives were not the acts of the President, and that in +relation to France, if the President should change his policy, +the imperial Government would be duly in formed.[5] + +It was Lincoln's fate to see his policy once again at the mercy +of his Commanding General. That was his situation in the +spring of 1862 when everything hung on McClellan who failed +him; again in the autumn of the year when McClellan so narrowly +saved him. The spring of 1864 paralleled, in this respect, +that other spring two years earlier. To be sure, Lincoln's +position was now much stronger; he had a great personal +following on which he relied. But just how strong it was he +did not know. He was taking a great risk forcing a policy +high-handed in defiance of Congress, where all his bitterest +enemies were entrenched, glowering. If his General failed him +now-- + +The man on whom this huge responsibility rested was Grant. +Lincoln had summoned him from the West and placed him at the +head of all the armies of the Republic. As to Halleck who had +long since proved himself perfectly useless, he was allowed to +lapse into obscurity. + +Grant has preserved in his Memoirs his first confidential talk +with Lincoln: "He told me he did not want to know what I +proposed to do. But he submitted a plan of campaign of his own +that he wanted me to hear and then do as I pleased about. He +brought out a map of Virginia on which he had evidently marked +every position occupied by the Federal and Confederate armies +up to that time. He pointed out on the map two streams which +empty into the Potomac, and suggested that an army might be +moved on boats and landed between the mouths of those streams. +We would then have the Potomac to bring our supplies, and the +tributaries would protect our flanks while we moved out. I +listened respectfully, but did not suggest that the same +streams would protect Lee's flanks while he was shutting us +up."[6] + +Grant set out for the front in Virginia. Lincoln's parting +words were this note: "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 plans 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."[7] + + + +XXIX. CATASTROPHE + +If the politicians needed a definite warning, in addition to +what the ground was saying, it was given by an incident that +centered upon Chase. A few bold men whose sense of the crowd +was not so acute as it might have been, attempted to work up a +Chase boom. At the instance of Senator Pomeroy, a secret paper +known to-day as the Pomeroy Circular, was started on its +travels. The Circular aimed to make Chase the Vindictive +candidate. Like all the other anti-Lincoln moves of the early +part of 1864, it was premature. The shrewd old Senators who +were silently marshaling the Vindictive forces, let it alone. + +Chase's ambition was fully understood at the White House. +During the previous year, his irritable self-consciousness had +led to quarrels with the President, generally over patronage, +and more than once he had offered his resignation. On one +occasion, Lincoln went to his house and begged him to +reconsider. Alone among the Cabinet, Chase had failed to take +the measure of Lincoln and still considered him a second-rate +person, much his inferior. He rated very high the services to +his country of the Secretary of the Treasury whom he considered +the logical successor to the Presidency. + +Lincoln refused to see what Chase was after. "I have +determined," he told Hay, "to shut my eyes as far as possible +to everything of the sort. Mr. Chase makes a good secretary +and I shall keep him where he is."[1] In lighter vein, he said +that Chase's presidential ambition was like a "chin fly" +pestering a horse; it led to his putting all the energy he had +into his work.[2] + +When a copy of the Circular found its way to the White House, +Lincoln refused to read it.[3] Soon afterward it fell into the +hands of an unsympathetic or indiscreet editor and was printed. +There was a hubbub. Chase offered to resign. Lincoln wrote to +him in reply: + +"My knowledge of Mr. Pomeroy's letter having been made public +came to me only the day you wrote but I had, in Spite of +myself, known of its existence several days before. I have not +yet read it, and I think I shall not. 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, and of secret agents who I +supposed were sent out by it, for several weeks. I have known +just as little of these things as my friends have allowed me to +know. They bring the documents to me, but I do not read them; +they tell me what they think fit to tell me, but I do not +inquire for more. 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; and I assure +you, as you have assured me, that no assault has been made upon +you by my instigation or with my 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."[4] But this +was not the end of the incident. The country promptly +repudiated Chase. His own state led the way. A caucus of +Union members of the Ohio Legislature resolved that the people +and the soldiers of Ohio demanded the reelection of Lincoln. +In a host of similar resolutions, Legislative caucuses, +political conventions, dubs, societies, prominent individuals +not in the political machine, all ringingly declared for +Lincoln, the one proper candidate of the "Union party"-as the +movement was labeled in a last and relatively successful +attempt to break party lines. + +As the date of the "Union Convention" approached, Lincoln put +aside an opportunity to gratify the Vindictives. Following the +Emancipation Proclamation, the recruiting offices had been +opened to negroes. Thereupon the Confederate government +threatened to treat black soldiers as brigands, and to refuse +to their white officers the protection of the laws of war. A +cry went up in the North for reprisal. It was not the first +time the cry had been raised. In 1862 Lincoln's spokesman in +Congress, Browning, had withstood a proposal for the trial of +General Buckner by the civil authorities of Kentucky. Browning +opposed such a course on the ground that it would lead to a +policy of retaliation, and make of the war a gratification of +revenge.[5] The Confederate threat gave a new turn to the +discussion. Frederick Douglas, the most influential negro of +the time, obtained an audience with Lincoln and begged for +reprisals. Lincoln would not consent. So effective was his +argument that even the ardent negro, convinced that his race +was about to suffer persecution, was satisfied. + +"I shall never forget," Douglas wrote, "the benignant +expression of his face, the tearful look of his eye, 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."[6] + +In April, 1864, the North was swept by a wild rumor of +deliberate massacre of prisoners at Fort Pillow. Here was an +opportunity for Lincoln to ingratiate himself with the +Vindictives. The President was to make a speech at a fair held +in Baltimore, for the benefit of the Sanitary Commission. The +audience was keen to hear him denounce the reputed massacre, +and eager to applaud a promise of reprisal. Instead, he +deprecated hasty judgment; insisting that the rumor had not +been verified; that nothing should be done on the strength of +mere report. + +"It is a mistake to suppose the government is indifferent in +this matter, or is not doing the best it can in regard to it. +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."[7] + +What a tame, spiritless position in the eyes of the +Vindictives! A different opportunity to lay hold of public +opinion he made the most of. And yet, here also, he spoke in +that carefully guarded way, making sure he was not understood +to say more than he meant, which most politicians would have +pronounced over-scrupulous. A deputation of working men from +New York were received at the White House. "The honorary +membership in your association," said he, "as generously +tendered, is gratefully accepted. . . . You comprehend, as +your address shows, that the existing rebellion means more, and +tends to more, than the perpetuation of African slavery-that it +is, in fact, a war upon the rights of all working people." + +After reviewing his own argument on this subject in the second +message, he concluded: + +"The views then expressed now remain unchanged, nor have I much +to add. None are so deeply interested to resist the present +rebellion as the working people. Let them beware of +prejudices, working division and hostility among themselves. +The most notable feature of a disturbance in your city last +summer was the hanging of some working people by other working +people. It should never be so. The strongest bond of human +sympathy outside of the family relation, should be one uniting +all working people, of all nations, and tongues, and kindreds. +Nor should this lead to a war upon property, or the owners of +property. Property is the fruit of labor; property is +desirable; is a positive good in the world. That some should +be rich shows that others may become rich, and hence is just +encouragement to industry and enterprise. Let not him who is +houseless pull down the house of another, but let him work +diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuming +that his own shall be safe from violence when built."[8] + +Lincoln was never more anxious than in this fateful spring when +so many issues were hanging in the balance. Nevertheless, in +all his relations with the world, his firm serenity was not +broken. Though subject to depression so deep that his +associates could not penetrate it, he kept it sternly to +himself.[9] He showed the world a lighter, more graceful aspect +than ever before. 'A precious record of his later mood is the +account of him set down by Frank B. Carpenter, the portrait +painter, a man of note in his day, who was an inmate of the +White House during the first half of 1864. Carpenter was +painting a picture of the "Signing of the Emancipation +Proclamation." He saw Lincoln informally at all sorts of odd +times, under all sorts of conditions. "All familiar with him," +says Carpenter, "will remember the weary air which became +habitual during his last years. This was more of the mind than +of the body, and no rest and recreation which he allowed +himself could relieve it. As he sometimes expressed it, 'no +remedy seemed ever to reach the tired spot."[10] + +A great shadow was darkening over him. He was more than ever +convinced that he had not long to live. None the less, his +poise became more conspicuous, his command over himself and +others more distinguished, as the months raced past. In truth +he had worked through a slow but profound transformation. The +Lincoln of 1864 was so far removed from the Lincoln of Pigeon +Creek-but logically, naturally removed, through the absorption +of the outer man by the inner--that inevitably one thinks of +Shakespeare's change "into something rich and strange." + +Along with the weakness, the contradictions of his earlier +self, there had also fallen away from him the mere grossness +that had belonged to him as a peasant. Carpenter is +unconditional that in six months of close intimacy, seeing him +in company with all sorts of people, he never heard from +Lincoln an offensive story. He quotes Seward and Lincoln's +family physician to the same effect.[11] + +The painter, like many others, was impressed by the tragic cast +of his expression, despite the surface mirth. + +"His complexion, at this time, was inclined to sallowness his +eyes were bluish gray in color--always in deep shadow, however, +from the upper lids which were unusually heavy (reminding me in +this respect of Stuart's portrait of Washington) and the +expression was remarkably pensive and tender, often +inexpressibly sad, as if the reservoir of tears lay very near +the surface--a fact proved not only by the response which +accounts of suffering and sorrow invariably drew forth, but by +circumstances which would ordinarily affect few men in his +position."[12] As a result of the great strain to which he was +subjected "his demeanor and disposition changed-so gradually +that it would be impossible to say when the change began. . . +. He continued always the same kindly, genial, and cordial +spirit he had been at first; but the boisterous laughter became +less frequent, year by year; the eye grew veiled by constant +meditation on momentous subjects; the air of reserve and +detachment from his surroundings increased. He aged with great +rapidity."[13] + +Every Saturday afternoon the Marine Band gave an open-air +concert in the grounds of the White House. One afternoon +Lincoln appeared upon the portico. There was instant applause +and cries for a speech. "Bowing his thanks and excusing +himself, he stepped back into the retirement of the circular +parlor, remarking (to Carpenter) with a disappointed air, as he +reclined on a sofa, 'I wish they would let me sit there quietly +and enjoy the music.'His kindness to others was unfailing. it +was this harassed statesman who "came into the studio one day +and found (Carpenter's) little boy of two summers playing on +the floor. A member of the Cabinet was with him; but laying +aside all restraint, he took the little fellow in his arms and +they were soon on the best of terms." While his younger son +"Tad" was with his mother on a journey, Lincoln telegraphed: +"Tell Tad, father and the goats are well, especially the +goats."[14] He found time one bright morning in May to review the +Sunday-school children of Washington who filed past "cheering +as if their very lives depended upon it," while Lincoln stood +at a window "enjoying the scene... making pleasant remarks +about a face that now and then struck him."[15] Carpenter told +him that no other president except Washington had placed +himself so securely in the hearts of the people. "Homely, +honest, ungainly Lincoln," said Asa Gray, in a letter to +Darwin, "is the representative man of the country." + +However, two groups of men in his own party were sullenly +opposed to him--the relentless Vindictives and certain +irresponsible free lances who named themselves the "Radical +Democracy." In the latter group, Fremont was the hero; Wendell +Phillips, the greatest advocate. They were extremists in all +things; many of them Agnostics. Furious against Lincoln, but +unwilling to go along with the waiting policy of the +Vindictives, these visionaries held a convention at Cleveland; +voted down a resolution that recognized God as an ally; and +nominated Fremont for the Presidency. A witty comment on the +movement--one that greatly amused Lincoln--was the citation of a +verse in first Samuel: "And every one that was in distress, and +every one that was in debt, and every one that was +discontented, gathered themselves unto him; and he became a +captain over them; and there were with him about four hundred +men." + +If anything was needed to keep the dissatisfied Senators in the +party ranks, it was this rash "bolt." Though Fremont had been +their man in the past, he had thrown the fat in the fire by +setting up an independent ticket. Silently, the wise +opportunists of the Senate and all their henchmen, stood aside +at the "Union convention"--which they called the Republican +Convention--June seventh, and took their medicine. + +There was no doubt of the tempest of enthusiasm among the +majority of the delegates. It was a Lincoln ovation. + +In responding the next day to a committee of congratulation, +Lincoln said: "I am not insensible at all to the personal +compliment there is in this, and yet I do not allow myself to +believe that any but a small portion of it is to be +appropriated as a personal compliment. . . . I do not allow +myself to suppose that either the Convention or the [National +Union] League have concluded to decide that I am the greatest +or best man in America, but rather they have concluded that it +is best not to swap horses while crossing the river, and have +further concluded that I am not so poor a horse that they might +not make a botch of it trying to swap."[16] + +Carpenter records another sort of congratulation a few days +later that brought out the graceful side of this man whom most +people still supposed to be hopelessly awkward. It happened on +a Saturday. Carpenter had invited friends to sit in his +painting room and oversee the crowd while listening to the +music. "Towards the close of the concert, the door suddenly +opened, and the President came in, as he was in the habit of +doing, alone. Mr. and Mrs. Cropsey had been presented to him +in the course of the morning; and as he came forward, half +hesitatingly, Mrs. C., who held a bunch of beautiful flowers in +her hand, tripped forward playfully, and said: 'Allow me, Mr. +President, to present you with a bouquet!' The situation was +momentarily embarrassing; and I was puzzled to know how 'His +Excellency' would get out of it. With no appearance of +discomposure, he stooped down, took the flowers, and, looking +from them into the sparkling eyes and radiant face of the lady, +said, with a gallantry I was unprepared for 'Really, madam, if +you give them to me, and they are mine, I think I can not +possibly make so good use of them as to present them to you, in +return!'"[17] + +In gaining the nomination, Lincoln had not, as yet, attained +security for his plans. Grant was still to be reckoned with. +By a curious irony, the significance of his struggle with Lee +during May, his steady advance by the left flank, had been +misapprehended in the North. Looking at the map, the country +saw that he was pushing southward, and again southward, on +Virginia soil. McClellan, Pope, Burnside, Hooker, with them it +had been: + +"He who fights and runs away +May live to fight another day." + +But Grant kept on. He struck Lee in the furious battle of the +Wilderness, and moved to the left, farther south. "Victory!" +cried the Northern newspapers, "Lee isn't able to stop him." +The same delusion was repeated after Spottsylvania where the +soldiers, knowing more of war than did the newspapers, pinned +to their coats slips of paper bearing their names; +identification of the bodies might be difficult. The popular +mistake continued throughout that dreadful campaign. The +Convention was still under the delusion of victory. + +Lincoln also appears to have stood firm until the last minute +in the common error. But the report of Grant's losses, more +than the whole of Lee's army, filled him with horror. During +these days, Carpenter had complete freedom of the President's +office and "intently studied every line and shade of expression +in that furrowed face. In repose, it was the saddest face I +ever knew. There were days when I could scarcely look into it +without crying. During the first week of the battles of the +Wilderness he scarcely slept at all. Passing through the main +hall of the domestic apartment on one of these days, I met him, +clad in a long, morning wrapper, pacing back and forth a narrow +passage leading to one of the windows, his hands behind him, +great black rings under his eyes, his head bent forward upon +his breast- altogether such a picture of the effects of sorrow, +care, and anxiety as would have melted the hearts of the worst +of his adversaries, who so mistakenly applied to him the +epithets of tyrant and usurper."[18] + +Despite these sufferings, Lincoln had not the slightest thought +of giving way. Not in him any likeness to the +-sentimentalists, Greeley and all his crew, who were exultant +martyrs when things were going right, and shrieking pacifists +the moment anything went wrong. In one of the darkest moments +of the year, he made a brief address at a Sanitary Fair in +Philadelphia. + +"Speaking of the present campaign," said he, "General Grant is +reported to have said, 'I am going to fight it out on this line +if it takes all summer.' This war has taken three years; it was +begun or accepted upon the line of restoring the national +authority over the whole national domain, and for the American +people, as far as my knowledge enables me to speak, I say we +are going through on this line if it takes three years more."[19] +He made no attempt to affect Grant's course. He had put him in +supreme command and would leave everything to his judgment. +And then came the colossal blunder at Cold Harbor. Grant stood +again where McClellan had stood two years before. He stood +there defeated. He could think of nothing to do but just what +McClellan had wanted to do--abandon the immediate enterprise, +make a great detour to the Southwest, and start a new campaign +on a different plan. Two years with all their terrible +disasters, and this was all that had come of it! Practically +no gain, and a death-roll that staggered the nation. A wail +went over the North. After all, was the war hopeless? Was Lee +invincible? Was the best of the Northern manhood perishing to +no result? + +Greeley, perhaps the most hysterical man of genius America has +produced, made his paper the organ of the wail. He wrote +frantic appeals to the government to cease fighting, do what +could be done by negotiation, and if nothing could be done-at +least, stop "these rivers of human blood." + +The Vindictives saw their opportunity. They would capitalize +the wail. The President should be dealt with yet. + + + +XXX. THE PRESIDENT VERSUS THE VINDICTIVES + +Now that the Vindictives had made up their minds to fight, an +occasion was at their hands. Virtually, they declared war on +the President by refusing to recognize a State government which +he had set up in Arkansas. Congress would not admit Senators +or Representatives from the Reconstructed State. But on this +issue, Lincoln was as resolute to fight to a finish as were any +of his detractors. He wrote to General Steele, commanding in +Arkansas: + +"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 harm, while it will be the best you can do +toward suppressing the rebellion."[1] + +The same day Chase resigned. The reason he assigned was, +again, the squabble over patronage. He had insisted on an +appointment of which the President disapproved. Exactly what +moved him may be questioned. Chase never gave his complete +confidence, not even to his diary. Whether he thought that the +Vindictives would now take him up as a rival of Lincoln, +continues doubtful. Many men were staggered by his action. +Crittenden, the Registrar of the Treasury, was thrown into a +panic. "Mr. President," said he, "this is worse than another +Bull Run. Pray let me go to Secretary Chase and see if I can +not induce him to withdraw his resignation. Its acceptance now +might cause a financial panic." But Lincoln was in a fighting +mood. "Chase thinks he has become indispensable to the +country," he told Chittenden. "He also thinks he ought to be +President; he has no doubt whatever about that. He is an able +financier, a great statesman, and at the bottom a patriot . . +he is never perfectly happy unless he is thoroughly miserable +and able to make everybody else just as uncomfortable as he is +himself. . He is either determined to annoy me or that I +shall pat him on the shoulder and coax him to stay. I don't +think I ought to do it. I will take him at his word."[2] + +He accepted the resignation in a note that was almost curt: +"Of all I have said in commendation of your ability and +fidelity, I have nothing to unsay; and yet you and I have +reached a point of mutual embarrassment in our official +relations which it seems can not be overcome or longer +sustained consistently with the public service."[3] + +The selection of a successor to Chase was no easy matter. The +Vindictives were the leaders of the moment. What if they +persuaded the Senate not to confirm Lincoln's choice of +Secretary. "I never saw the President," says Carpenter, "under +so much excitement as on the day following this event" On the +night of July first, Lincoln lay awake debating with himself +the merits of various candidates. At length, he selected his +man and immediately went to sleep. + +"The next morning he went to his office and wrote the +nomination. John Hay, the assistant private secretary, had +taken it from the President on his way to the Capitol, when he +encountered Senator Fessenden upon the threshold of the room. +As chairman of the Finance Committee, he also had passed an +anxious night, and called this early to consult with the +President, and offer some suggestions. After a few moments' +conversation, Mr. Lincoln turned to him with a smile and said: +'I am obliged to you, Fessenden, but the fact is, I have just +sent your own name to the Senate for Secretary of the Treasury. +Hay had just received the nomination from my hand as you +entered.' Mr. Fessenden was taken completely by surprise, and, +very much agitated, protested his inability to accept the +position. The state of his health, he said, if no other +consideration, made it impossible. Mr. Lincoln would not +accept the refusal as final. He very justly felt that with Mr. +Fessenden's experience and known ability at the head of the +Finance Committee, his acceptance would go far toward +reestablishing a feeling of security. He said to him, very +earnestly, 'Fessenden, the Lord has not deserted me thus far, +and He is not going to now--you must accept!' + +"They separated, the Senator in great anxiety of mind. +Throughout the day, Mr. Lincoln urged almost all who called to +go and see Mr. Fessenden, and press upon him the duty of +accepting. Among these, was a delegation of New York bankers, +who, in the name of the banking community, expressed their +satisfaction at the nomination. This was especially gratifying +to the President; and in the strongest manner, he entreated +them to 'see Mr. Fessenden and assure him of their support.'"[4] + +In justification of his choice, Lincoln said to Hay:--"Thinking +over the matter, two or three points occurred to me: first his +thorough acquaintance with the business; as chairman of the +Senate Committee of Finance, he knows as much of this special +subject as Mr. Chase; he possesses a national reputation and +the confidence of the country; he is a Radical without the +petulance and fretfulness of many radicals."[5] In other words, +though he was not at heart one of them, he stood for the moment +so close to the Vindictives that they would not make an issue +on his confirmation. + +Lincoln had scored a point in his game with the Vindictives. +But the point was of little value. The game's real concern was +that Reconstruction Bill which was now before the Senate with +Wade as its particular sponsor. The great twin brethren of the +Vindictives were Wade and Chandler. Both were furious for the +passage of the bill. "The Executive," said Wade angrily, +"ought not to be allowed to handle this great question of his +own liking." + +On the last day of the session, Lincoln was in the President's +room at the Capitol Signing bills. The Reconstruction Bill, +duly passed by both Houses, was brought to him. Several +Senators, friends of the bill and deeply anxious, had come into +the President's room hoping to see him affix his signature. To +their horror, he merely glanced at the bill and laid it aside. +Chandler, who was watching him, bluntly demanded what he meant +to do. "This bill," said Lincoln, "has been placed before me a +few minutes before Congress adjourns. it is a matter of too +much importance to be swallowed in that way." + +"If it is vetoed," said Chandler, whose anger was mounting, "it +will damage us fearfully in the Northwest. The important point +is that one prohibiting slavery in the Reconstructed States." + +"That is the point," replied the President, "on which I doubt +the authority of Congress to act." + +"It is no more than you have done yourself," retorted Chandler. + +Lincoln turned to him and said quietly but with finality: "I +conceive that I may in an emergency do things on military +grounds which can not constitutionally be done by Congress." + +Chandler angrily left the room. To those who remained, Lincoln +added: "I do not see how any of us now can deny and contradict +what we have always said, that Congress has no constitutional +power over slavery in the States."[6] + +In a way, he was begging the question. The real issue was not +how a State should be constitutionally reconstructed, but +which, President or Congress, had a right to assume dictatorial +power. At last the true Vindictive issue, lured out of their +arms by the Democrats, had escaped like a bird from a snare and +was fluttering home. Here was the old issue of the war powers +in a new form that it was safe for them to press. And the +President had squarely defied them. it was civil war inside +the Union party. And for both sides, President and +Vindictives, there could now be nothing but rule or ruin. + +In this crisis of factional politics, Lincoln was unmoved, +self-contained, lofty, deliberate. "If they (the Vindictives) +choose to make a point on 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 of principle fixed within myself." + + + +XXXI A MENACING PAUSE + +Lincoln had now reached his final stature. In contact with the +world his note was an inscrutable serenity. The jokes which he +continued to tell were but transitory glimmerings. They +crossed the surface of his mood like quick flickers of golden +light on a stormy March day,-- witnesses that the sun would yet +prevail,--in a forest-among mountain shadows. Or, they were +lightning glimmers in a night sky; they revealed, they did not +dispel, the dark beyond. Over all his close associates his +personal ascendency was complete. Now that Chase was gone, the +last callous spot in the Cabinet had been amputated. Even +Stanton, once so domineering, so difficult to manage, had +become as clay in his hands. + +But Lincoln never used power for its own sake, never abused his +ascendency. Always he got his end if he could without evoking +the note of command. He would go to surprising lengths to +avoid appearing peremptory. A typical remark was his smiling +reply to a Congressman whom he had armed with a note to the +Secretary, who had returned aghast, the Secretary having +refused to comply with the President's request and having +decorated his refusal with extraordinary language. + +"Did Stanton say I was a damned fool?" asked Lincoln. "Then I +dare say I must be one, for Stanton is generally right and he +always says what he means." + +Nevertheless, the time had come when Lincoln had only to say +the word and Stanton, no matter how fierce his temper might' +be, would acknowledge his master. General Fry, the Provost +Marshal, witnessed a scene between them which is a curious +commentary on the transformation of the Stanton of 1862. +Lincoln had issued an order relative to the disposition of +certain recruits. Stanton protested that it was unwarranted, +that he would not put it into effect. The Provost Marshal was +called in and asked to state at length all the facts involved. +When he had finished Stanton broke out excitedly-- + +"'Now, Mr. President, those are the facts and you must see that +your order can not be executed.' + +"Lincoln sat upon a sofa with his legs crossed and did not say +a word until the Secretary's last remark. Then he said in a +somewhat positive tone, 'Mr. Secretary, I reckon you'll have to +execute the order.' + +"Stanton replied with asperity, 'Mr. President, I can not do +it. The order is an improper one, and I can not execute it." + +Lincoln fixed his eye upon Stanton, and in a firm voice with an +accent that clearly showed his determination, he said, 'Mr. +Secretary, it will have to be done.'"[1] + +At this point, General Fry discreetly left the room. A few +moments later, he received instructions from Stanton to execute +the President's order. + +In a public matter in the June of 1864 Lincoln gave a +demonstration of his original way of doing things. It +displayed his final serenity in such unexpected fashion that no +routine politician, no dealer in the catchwords of statecraft, +-could understand it. Since that grim joke, the deportation of +Vallandigham, the Copperhead leader had not had happy time. +The Confederacy did not want him. He had made his way to +Canada. Thence, in the spring of 1864 he served notice on his +country that he would perform a dramatic Part, play the role of +a willing martyr-in a word, come home and defy the government +to do its worst. He came. But Lincoln did nothing. The +American sense of humor did the rest. If Vallandigham had not +advertised a theatrical exploit, ignoring him might have been +dangerous. But Lincoln knew his people. When the show did not +come off, Vallandigham was transformed in an instant from a +martyr to an anticlimax. Though he went busily to work, though +he lived to attend the Democratic National Convention and to +write the resolution that was the heart of its platform, his +tale was told. + +Turning from Vallandigham, partly in amusement, partly in +contempt, Lincoln grappled with the problem of reinforcing the +army. Since the Spring of 1863 the wastage of the army had +been replaced by conscription. But the system had not worked +well. it contained a fatal provision. A drafted man might +escape service by paying three hundred dollars. Both the +Secretary of War and the Provost Marshal had urged the +abolition of this detail. Lincoln had communicated their +arguments to Congress with his approval and a new law had been +drawn up accordingly. Nevertheless, late in June, the House +amended it by restoring the privilege of commuting service for +money.[2] Lincoln bestirred himself. The next day he called +together the Republican members of the House. "With a sad, +mysterious light in his melancholy eyes, as if they were +familiar with things hidden from mortals" he urged the +Congressmen to reconsider their action. The time of three +hundred eighty thousand soldiers would expire in October. He +must have half a million to take their places. A Congressman +objected that elections were approaching; that the rigorous law +he proposed would be intensely unpopular; that it might mean +the defeat, at the polls, of many Republican Representatives; +it might even mean the President's defeat. He replied that he +had thought of all that. + +"My election is not necessary; I must put down the rebellion; I +must have five hundred thousand more men."[3] + +He raised the timid politicians to his own level, inspired them +with new courage. Two days later a struggle began in the House +for carrying out Lincoln's purpose. On the last day of the +session along with the offensive Reconstruction Bill, he +received the new Enrollment Act which provided that "no payment +of money shall be accepted or received by the Government as +commutation to release any enrolled or drafted man from +personal obligation to per-form military service." + +Against this inflexible determination to fight to a finish, +this indifference to the political consequences of his +determination, Lincoln beheld arising like a portentous +specter, a fury of pacifism. It found expression in Greeley. +Always the swift victim of his own affrighted hope, Greeley had +persuaded himself that both North and South had lost heart for +the war; that there was needed only a moving appeal, and they +would throw down their arms and the millennium would come. +Furthermore, on the flimsiest sort of evidence, he had fallen +into a trap designed to place the Northern government in the +attitude of suing for peace. He wrote to Lincoln demanding +that he send an agent to confer with certain Confederate +officials who were reported to be then in Canada; he also +suggested terms of peace.[4] Greeley's terms were entirely +acceptable to Lincoln; but he had no faith in the Canadian +mare's nest. However, he decided to give Greeley the utmost +benefit of the doubt, and also to teach him a lesson. He +commissioned Greeley himself to proceed to Canada, there to +discover "if there is or is not anything in the affair." He +wrote to him, "I not only intend a sincere effort for peace, +but I intend that you shall be a personal witness that it is +made."[5] + +Greeley, who did not want to have any responsibility for +anything that might ensue, whose joy was to storm and to find +fault, accepted the duty he could not well refuse, and set out +in a bad humor. + +Meanwhile two other men had conceived an undertaking somewhat +analogous but in a temper widely different. These were Colonel +Jaquess, a clergyman turned soldier, a man of high simplicity +of character, and J. R. Gilmore, a writer, known by the pen +name of Edmund Kirke. Jaquess had told Gilmore of information +he had received from friends in the Confederacy; he was +convinced that nothing would induce the Confederate government +to consider any terms of peace that embraced reunion, whether +with or without emancipation. "It at once occurred to me," +says Gilmore, "that if this declaration could be got in such a +manner that it could be given to the public, it would, if +scattered broadcast over the North, destroy the peace-party and +reelect Mr. Lincoln." Gilmore went to Washington and obtained +an interview with the President. He assured him--and he was a +newspaper correspondent whose experience was worth +considering--that the new pacifism, the incipient "peace party," +was schooling the country in the belief that an offer of +liberal terms would be followed by a Southern surrender. The +masses wanted peace on any terms that would preserve the Union; +and the Democrats were going to tell them in the next election +that Lincoln could save the Union by negotiation, if he would. +Unless the popular mind were disabused of this fictitious hope, +the Democrats would prevail and the Union would collapse. But +if an offer to negotiate should be made, and if "Davis should +refuse to negotiate--as he probably would, except on the basis +of Southern independence--that fact alone would reunite the +North, reelect Lincoln, and thus save the Union."[6] + +"Then," said Lincoln, "you would fight the devil with fire. +You would get that declaration from Davis and use it against +him." + +Gilmore defended himself by proposing to offer extremely +liberal terms. There was a pause in the conversation. Lincoln +who was seated at his desk "leaned slightly forward looking +directly into (Gilmore's) eyes, but with an absent, far-away +gaze as if unconscious of (his) presence." Suddenly, relapsing +into his usual badinage, he said, "God selects His own +instruments and some times they are queer ones: for instance, +He chose me to see the ship of state through a great crisis."[7] +He went on to say that Gilmore and Jaquess might be the very +men to serve a great purpose at this moment. Gilmore knew the +world; and anybody could see at a glance that Jaquess never +told anything that wasn't true. If they would go to Richmond +on their own responsibility, make it plain to President Davis +that they were not official agents, even taking the chance of +arrest and imprisonment, they might go. This condition was +accepted. Lincoln went on to say that no advantage should be +taken of Mr. Davis; that nothing should be proposed which if +accepted would not be made good. After considerable further +discussion he drew up a memorandum of the terms upon which he +would consent to peace. There were seven items: + +1. The immediate dissolution of the armies. + +2. The abolition of slavery. + +3. A general amnesty. + +4. The Seceded States to resume their functions as states in +the Union as if no secession had taken place. + +5. Four hundred million dollars to be appropriated by Congress +as compensation for loss of slave property; no slaveholder, +however, to receive more than one-half the former value of his +slaves. + +6. A national convention to be called for readjustment of all +other difficulties. + +7. It to be understood that the purpose of negotiation was a +full restoration of the Union as of old.[8] + +Gilmore and Jaquess might say to Davis that they had private +but sure knowledge that the President of the United States +would agree to peace on these terms. Thus provided, they set +forth. + +Lincoln's thoughts were speedily claimed by an event which had +no Suggestion of peace. At no time since Jackson threw the +government into a panic in the spring of 1862, had Washington +been in danger of capture. Now, briefly, it appeared to be at +the mercy of General Early. in the last act of a daring raid +above the Potomac, he came sweeping down on Washington from the +North. As Grant was now the active commander-in-chief, +responsible for all the Northern armies, Lincoln with a +fatalistic calm made no move to take the capital out of his +hands. When Early was known to be headed toward Washington, +Lincoln drove out as usual to spend the night at the Soldiers' +Home beyond the fortifications. Stanton, in whom there was a +reminiscence at least of the hysterical Secretary of 1862, sent +after him post haste and insisted on his returning. The next +day, the eleventh of July, 1864, Washington was invested by the +Confederate forces. There was sharp firing in front of several +forts. Lincoln--and for that matter, Mrs. Lincoln also--made a +tour of the defenses. While Fort Stevens was under fire, he +stood on the parapet, "apparently unconscious of danger, +watching with that grave and passive countenance the progress +of the fight, amid the whizzing bullets of the sharp shooters, +until an officer fell mortally wounded within three feet of +him, and General Wright peremptorily represented to him the +needless risk he was running." Hay recorded in his diary "the +President in good feather this evening . . . not concerned +about Washington's safety . . . only thought, can we bag or +destroy the force in our front.'" He was much disappointed when +Early eluded the forces which Grant hurried to the Capitol. +Mrs. Lincoln was outspoken to the same effect. The doughty +little lady had also been under fire, her temper being every +whit as bold as her husband's. When Stanton with a monumental +playfulness proposed to have her portrait painted in a +commanding attitude on the parapet of Fort Stevens, she gave +him the freedom of her tongue, because of the inadequacy of his +department.[9] + +This incident had its aftermath. A country-place belonging to +the Postmaster General had been laid waste. its owner thought +that the responsibility for permitting Early to come so near to +Washington fell chiefly on General Halleck. He made some sharp +criticisms which became public the General flew into a rage and +wrote to the Secretary of War: "The Postmaster General ought to +be dismissed by the President from the Cabinet." Stanton handed +his letter to the President, from whom the next day the General +received this note: "Whether the remarks were 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 therefor. 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. Besides this, truth is generally +the best vindication against slander. I propose continuing to +be myself the judge as to when a member of the Cabinet shall be +dismissed." Lincoln spoke of the affair at his next conference +with his Ministers. "I must, myself, be the judge," said he, +"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 an 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."[10] + +Not yet had anything resulted either from the Canadian mission +of Greeley, or from the Richmond adventure of Gilmore and +Jaquess. There was a singular ominous pause in events. +Lincoln could not be blind to the storm signals that had +attended the close of Congress. What were the Vindictives +about? As yet they had made no Sign. But it was incredible +that they could pass over his defiance without a return blow. +When would it come? What would it be? + +He spent his nights at the Soldiers' Home. As a rule, his +family were with him. Sometimes, however, Mrs. Lincoln and his +sons would be absent and his only companion was one of the +ardent young secretaries. Then he would indulge in reading +Shakespeare aloud, it might be with such forgetfulness of time +that only the nodding of the tired young head recalled him to +himself and brought the reading to an end. A visitor has left +this charming picture of Lincoln at the Soldiers' Home in the +sad sweetness of a summer night: + +"The Soldiers' Home is a few miles out of Washington on the +Maryland side. It is situated on a beautiful wooded hill, +which you ascend by a winding path, shaded on both sides by +wide-spread branches, forming a green arcade above you. When +you reach the top you stand between two mansions, large, +handsome and substantial, but with nothing about them to +indicate the character of either. That on the left is the +Presidential country house; that directly before you, is the +'Rest,' for soldiers who are too old for further service . . +. in the graveyard near at hand there are numberless +graves--some without a spear of grass to hide their newness--that +hold the bodies of volunteers. + +"While we stood in the soft evening air, watching the faint +trembling of the long tendrils of waving willow, and feeling +the dewy coolness that was flung out by the old oaks above us, +Mr. Lincoln joined us, and stood silent, too, taking in the +scene. + +"'How sleep the brave who sink to rest, +By all their country's +wishes blest," he said, softly. . . + +"Around the 'Home' grows every variety of tree, particularly of +the evergreen class. Their branches brushed into the carriage +as we passed along, and left us with that pleasant woody smell +belonging to leaves. One of the ladies, catching a bit of +green from one of these intruding branches, said it was cedar, +and another thought it spruce. + +"'Let me discourse on a theme I understand,' said the +President. 'I know all about trees in right of being a +backwoodsman. I'll show you the difference between spruce, +pine and cedar, and this shred of green, which is neither one +nor the other, but a kind of illegitimate cypress. He then +proceeded to gather specimens of each, and explain the +distinctive formation of foliage belonging to each."[11] + +Those summer nights of July, 1864, had many secrets which the +tired President musing in the shadows of the giant trees or +finding solace with the greatest of earthly minds would have +given much to know. How were Gilmore and Jaquess faring? What +was really afoot in Canada? And that unnatural silence of the +Vindictives, what did that mean? And the two great armies, +Grant's in Virginia, Sherman's in Georgia, was there never to +be stirring news of either of these? The hush of the moment, +the atmosphere of suspense that seemed to envelop him, it was +just what had always for his imagination had such strange charm +in the stories of fated men. He turned again to Macbeth, or to +Richard II, or to Hamlet. Shakespeare, too, understood these +mysterious pauses--who better! + +The sense of the impending was strengthened by the alarms of +some of his best friends. They besought him to abandon his +avowed purpose to call for a draft of half a million under the +new Enrollment Act. Many voices joined the one chorus: the +country is on the verge of despair; you will wreck the cause by +demanding another colossal sacrifice. But he would not listen. +When, in desperation, they struck precisely the wrong note, and +hinted at the ruin of his political prospects, he had his calm +reply: "it matters not what becomes of me. We must have men. +if I go down, I intend to go like the Cumberland, with my +colors flying."[12] + +Thus the days passed until the eighteenth of July. Meanwhile +the irresponsible Greeley had made a sad mess of his Canadian +adventure. Though Lincoln had given him definite instructions, +requiring him to negotiate only with agents who could produce +written authority from Davis, and who would treat on the basis +of restoration of the Union and abandonment of slavery, Greeley +ignored both these unconditional requirements.[13] He had found +the Confederate agents at Niagara. They had no credentials. +Nevertheless, he invited them to come to Washington and open +negotiations. Of the President's two conditions, he said not a +word. This was just what the agents wanted. It could easily +be twisted into the semblance of an attempt by Lincoln to sue +for peace. They accepted the invitation. Greeley telegraphed +to Lincoln reporting what he had done. Of course, it was plain +that he had misrepresented Lincoln; that he had far exceeded +his authority; and that his perverse unfaithfulness must be +repudiated. On July eighteenth, Hay set out for Niagara with +this paper in Lincoln's handwriting.[14] + +"To whom it may concern: Any proposition which embraces the +restoration of peace, the integrity of the whole Union, and the +abandonment of slavery, and which comes by and with an +authority that can control the armies now at war against the +United States, will be received and considered by the executive +government of the United States, and will be met by liberal +terms on other substantial and collateral points and the bearer +or bearers thereof shall have, safe conduct both ways. ABRAHAM +LINCOLN." + +This was the end of the negotiation. The agents could not +accept these terms. Immediately, they published a version of +what had happened: they had been invited to come to Washington; +subsequently, conditions had been imposed which made it +impossible for them to accept Was not the conclusion plain? +The Washington government was trying to open negotiations but +it was also in the fear of its own supporters playing craftily +a double game. These astute diplomats saw that there was a +psychological crisis in the North. By adding to the confusion +of the hour they had well served their cause. Greeley's fiasco +was susceptible of a double interpretation. To the pacifists +it meant that the government, whatever may have been intended +at the start, had ended by setting impossible conditions of +peace. To the supporters of the war, it meant that whatever +were the last thoughts of the government, it had for a time +contemplated peace without any conditions at all. Lincoln was +severely condemned, Greeley was ridiculed, by both groups of +interpreters. Why did not Greeley come out bravely and tell +the truth? Why did he not confess that he had suppressed +Lincoln's first set of instructions; that it was he, on his own +responsibility, who had led the Confederate agents astray; that +he, not Lincoln was solely to blame for the false impression +that was now being used so adroitly to injure the President? +Lincoln proposed to publish their correspondence, but made a +condition that was characteristic. Greeley's letters rang with +cries of despair. He was by far the most influential Northern +editor. Lincoln asked him to strike out these hopeless +passages. Greeley refused. The correspondence must be +published entire or not at all. Lincoln suppressed it. He let +the blame of himself go on; and he said nothing in +extenuation.[15] + +He took some consolation in a "card" that appeared in the +Boston Transcript, July 22. it gave a brief account of the +adventure of Gilmore and Jaquess, and stated the answer given +to them by the President of the Confederacy. That answer, as +restated by the Confederate Secretary of State, was: "he had no +authority to receive proposals for negotiations except by +virtue of his office as President of an independent Confederacy +and on this basis alone must proposals be made to him."[16] + +There was another circumstance that may well have been +Lincoln's consolation in this tangle of cross-purposes. Only +boldness could extricate him from the mesh of his difficulties. +The mesh was destined to grow more and more of a snare; his +boldness was to grow with his danger. He struck the note that +was to rule his conduct thereafter, when, on the day he sent +the final instructions to Greeley, in defiance of his timid +advisers, he issued a proclamation calling for a new draft of +half a million men.[17] + + + +XXXII. THE AUGUST CONSPIRACY + +Though the Vindictives kept a stealthy silence during July, +they were sharpening their claws and preparing for a tiger +spring whenever the psychological moment should arrive. Those +two who had had charge of the Reconstruction Bill prepared a +paper, in some ways the most singular paper of the war period, +which has established itself in our history as the Wade-Davis +Manifesto. This was to be the deadly shot that should unmask +the Vindictive batteries, bring their war upon the President +out of the shadows into the open. + +Greeley's fiasco and Greeley's mortification both played into +their hands. The fiasco contributed to depress still more the +despairing North. By this time, there was general appreciation +of the immensity of Grant's failure, not only at Cold Harbor, +but in the subsequent slaughter of the futile assault upon +Petersburg. We have the word of a member of the Committee that +the despair over Grant translated itself into blame of the +Administration.[1] The Draft Proclamation; the swiftly traveling +report that the government had wilfully brought the peace +negotiations to a stand-still; the continued cry that the war +was hopeless; all these produced, about the first of August, an +emotional crisis--just the sort of occasion for which Lincoln's +enemies were waiting. + +Then, too, there was Greeley's mortification. The +Administration papers made him a target for sarcasm. The Times +set the pace with scornful demands for "No more back door +diplomacy."[2] Greeley answered in a rage. He permitted himself +to imply that the President originated the Niagara negotiation +and that Greeley "reluctantly" became a party to it. That +"reluctantly" was the truth, in a sense, but how falsely true! +Wade and Davis had him where they wanted him. On the fifth of +August, The Tribune printed their manifesto. It was an appeal +to "the supporters of the Administration . . . to check the +encroachment of the Executive on the authority of Congress, and +to require it to confine itself to its proper sphere." It +insinuated the basest motives for the President's interest in +reconstruction, and for rejecting their own bill. "The +President by preventing this bill from becoming a law, holds +the electoral votes of the Rebel States at the dictation of his +personal ambition. . . . If electors for President be +allowed to be chosen in either of those States, a sinister +light will be cast on the motives which induced the President +to 'hold for naught' the will of Congress rather than his +government in Louisiana and Arkansas." + +After a long discussion of his whole course with regard to +reconstruction, having heaped abuse upon him with shocking +liberality, the Manifesto concluded: + +"Such are the fruits of this rash and fatal act of the +President--a blow at the friends of the Administration, at the +rights of humanity, and at the principles of Republican +government The President has greatly presumed on the +forbearance which the supporters of his Administration have so +long practised in view of the arduous conflict in which we are +engaged, and the reckless ferocity of our political opponents. +But he must understand that our support is of a 'cause' and not +of a man; that the authority of Congress is paramount and must +be respected; that the whole body of the Union men in Congress +will not submit to be impeached by him of rash and +unconstitutional legislation; and if he wishes our support he +must confine him-self to his executive duties--to obey and +execute, not make the laws--to suppress by arms, armed +rebellion, and leave political reorganization to Congress. If +the supporters of the government fail to insist on this they +become responsible for the usurpations they fail to rebuke and +are justly liable to the indignation of the people whose rights +and security, committed to their keeping, they sacrifice. Let +them consider the remedy of these usurpations, and, having +found it, fearlessly execute it" + +To these incredible charges, Lincoln made no reply. He knew, +what some statesmen never appear to know, the times when one +should risk all upon that French proverb, "who excuses, +accuses." However, he made his futile attempt to bring Greeley +to reason, to induce him to tell the truth about Niagara +without confessing to the country the full measure of the +despair that had inspired his course. When Greeley refused to +do so, Lincoln turned to other matters, to preparation for the +draft, and grimly left the politicians to do their worst. They +went about it with zest. Their reliance was chiefly their +power to infect the type of party man who is easily swept from +his moorings by the cry that the party is in danger, that +sacrifices must be made to preserve the party unity, that +otherwise the party will go to pieces. By the middle of +August, six weeks after Lincoln's defiance of them on the +fourth of July, they were in high feather, convinced that most +things were coming their way. American politicians have not +always shown an ability to read clearly the American people. +Whether the politicians were in error on August 14, 1864, and +again on August twenty-third, two dates that were turning +points, is a matter of debate to this day. As to August +fourteenth, they have this, at least, in their defense. The +country had no political observer more keen than the Scotch +free lance who edited The New York Herald. It was Bennett's +editorial view that Lincoln would do well to make a virtue of +necessity and withdraw his candidacy because "the +dissatisfaction which had long been felt by the great body of +American citizens has spread even to his own supporters."[3] +Confident that a great reaction against Lincoln was sweeping +the country, that the Manifesto had been launched in the very +nick of time, a meeting of conspirators was held in New York, +at the house of David Dudley Field, August fourteenth. Though +Wade was now at his home in Ohio, Davis was present. So was +Greeley. It was decided to ask Lincoln to withdraw. Four days +afterward, a "call" was drawn up and sent out confidentially +near and far to be signed by prominent politicians. The "call" +was craftily worded. It summoned a new Union Convention to +meet in Cincinnati, September twenty-eighth, for the purpose +either of rousing the party to whole-hearted support of +Lincoln, or of uniting all factions on some new candidate. +Greeley who could not attend the committee which drew up the +"call" wrote that "Lincoln is already beaten."[4] + +Meanwhile, the infection of dismay had spread fast among the +Lincoln managers. Even before the meeting of the conspirators +on the fourteenth, Weed told the President that he could not be +reelected.[5] + +One of his bravest supporters, Washburne, came to the dismal +conclusion that "were an election to be held now in Illinois, +we should be beaten." Cameron, who had returned from Russia and +was working hard for Lincoln in Pennsylvania, was equally +discouraging. So was Governor Morton in Indiana. From all his +"stanchest friends," wrote his chief manager to Lincoln, "there +was but one report. The tide is setting strongly against us."[6] + +Lincoln's managers believed that the great host of free voters +who are the balance of power in American politics, were going +in a drove toward the camp of the Democrats. It was the +business of the managers to determine which one, or which ones, +among the voices of discontent, represented truly this +controlling body of voters. They thought they knew. Two +cries, at least, that rang loud out of the Babel of the hour, +should be heeded. One of these harked back to Niagara. In the +anxious ears of the managers it dinned this charge: "the +Administration prevented negotiations for peace by tying +together two demands, the Union must be restored and slavery +must be abolished; if Lincoln had left out slavery, he could +have had peace in a restored Union." It was ridiculous, as +every one who had not gone off his head knew. But so many had +gone off their heads. And some of Lincoln's friends were +meeting this cry in a way that was raising up other enemies of +a different sort. Even so faithful a friend as Raymond, editor +of The Times and Chairman of the Republican National Executive +Committee, labored hard in print to prove that because Lincoln +said he "would consider terms that embraced the integrity of +the Union and the abandonment of slavery, he did not say that +he would not receive them unless they embraced both these +conditions."[7] What would Sumner and all the Abolitionists say +to that? As party strategy, in the moment when the old +Vindictive Coalition seemed on the highroad to complete +revival, was that exactly the tune to sing? Then too there was +the other cry that also made a fearful ringing in the ears of +the much alarmed Executive Committee. There was wild talk in +the air of an armistice. The hysteric Greeley had put it into +a personal letter to Lincoln. "I know that nine-tenths of the +whole American people, North and South, are anxious for +peace-peace on any terms-and are utterly sick of human +slaughter and devastation. I know that, to the general eye, it +now seems that the Rebels are anxious to negotiate and that we +repulse their advances. . . . I beg you, I implore you to +inaugurate or invite proposals for peace forthwith. And in +-case peace can not now be made, consent to an armistice for +one year, each party to retain all it now holds, but the Rebel +ports to be opened. Meantime, let a national convention be +held and there will surely be no war at all events."[8] + +This armistice movement was industriously advertised in the +Democratic papers. It was helped along by the Washington +correspondent of The Herald who sowed broadcast the most +improbable stories with regard to it. Today, Secretary +Fessenden was a convert to the idea; another day, Senator +Wilson had taken it up; again, the President, himself, was for +an armistice.[9] + +A great many things came swiftly to a head within a few days +before or after the twentieth of August. Every day or two, +rumor took a new turn; or some startling new alignment was +glimpsed; and every one reacted to the news after his kind. +And always the feverish question, what is the strength of the +faction that approves this? Or, how far will this go toward +creating a new element in the political kaleidoscope? About +the twentieth of August, Jaquess and Gilmore threw a splashing +stone into these troubled waters. They published in The +Atlantic a full account of their interview with Davis, who, in +the clearest, most unfaltering way had told them that the +Southerners were fighting for independence and for nothing +else; that no compromise over slavery; nothing but the +recognition of the Confederacy as a separate nation would +induce them to put up their bright swords. As Lincoln +subsequently, in his perfect clarity of speech, represented +Davis: "He would accept nothing short of severance of the +Union- precisely what we will not and can not give. . . . +He does not attempt to deceive us. He affords us no excuse to +deceive ourselves. He can not voluntarily reaccept the Union; +we can not voluntarily yield it"[10] + +Whether without the intrusion of Jaquess and Gilmore, the +Executive Committee would have come to the conclusion they now +reached, is a mere speculation. They thought they were at the +point of desperation. They thought they saw a way out, a way +that reminds one of Jaquess and Gilmore. On the twenty-second, +Raymond sent that letter to Lincoln about "the tide setting +strongly against us." He also proposed the Committee's way of +escape: nothing but to offer 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."[11] He assumed the offer would +be rejected. Thus the clamor for negotiation would be met and +brought to naught. Having sent off his letter, Raymond got his +committee together and started for Washington for a council of +desperation. + +And this brings us to the twenty-third of August. On that day, +pondering Raymond's letter, Lincoln took thought with himself +what he should say to the Executive Committee. A mere +opportunist would have met the situation with some insincere +proposal, by the formulation of terms that would have certainly +been rejected. We have seen how Lincoln reasoned in such a +connection when he drew up the memorandum for Jaquess and +Gilmore. His present problem involved nothing of this sort. +What he was thinking out was how best to induce the committee +to accept his own attitude; to become for the moment believers +in destiny; to nail their colors; turn their backs as he was +doing on these devices of diplomacy; and as to the rest-permit +to heaven. + +Whatever his managers might think, the serious matter in +Lincoln's mind, that twenty-third of August, was the draft. +And back of the draft, a tremendous matter which probably none +of them at the time appreciated. Assuming that they were right +in their political forecast, assuming that he was not to be +reelected, what did it signify? For him, there was but one +answer: that he had only five months in which to end the war. +And with the tide running strong against him, what could he do? +But one thing: use the war powers while they remained in his +hands in every conceivable way that might force a conclusion on +the field of battle. He recorded his determination. A Cabinet +meeting was held on the twenty-third. Lincoln handed his +Ministers a folded paper and asked them to write their initials +on the back. At the time he gave them no intimation what the +paper contained. It was 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 cooperate 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 can not +possibly save it afterward."[12] + +He took into his confidence "the stronger half of the Cabinet, +Seward, Stanton and Fessenden," and together they assaulted the +Committee.[13] It was a reception amazingly different from what +had been expected. Instead of terrified party diplomats +shaking in their shoes, trying to face all points at once, +morbid over possible political defeats in every quarter, they +found what may have seemed to them a man in a dream; one who +was intensely sad, but who gave no suggestion of panic, no +solicitude about his own fate, no doubt of his ultimate +victory. Their practical astuteness was disarmed by that +higher astuteness attained only by peculiar minds which can +discern through some sure interior test the rare moment when it +is the part of wisdom not to be astute at all. + +Backed by those strong Ministers, all entirely under his +influence, Lincoln fully persuaded the Committee that at this +moment, any overture for peace would be the worst of strategic +blunders, "would be worse than losing the presidential +contest--it would be ignominiously surrendering it in +advance."[14] + +Lincoln won a complete spiritual victory over the Committee. +These dispirited men, who had come to Washington to beg for a +policy of negotiation, went away in such a different temper +that Bennett's Washington correspondent jeered in print at the +"silly report" of their having assembled to discuss peace.[15] +Obviously, they had merely held a meeting of the Executive +Committee. The Tribune correspondent telegraphed that they +were confident of Lincoln's reelection.[l6] + +On the day following the conference with Lincoln, The Times +announced: "You may rest assured that all reports attributing +to the government any movements looking toward negotiations for +peace at present are utterly without foundation. . . . The +government has not entertained or discussed the project of +proposing an armistice with the Rebels nor has it any intention +of sending commissioners to Richmond . . . its sole and +undivided purpose is to prosecute the war until the rebellion +is quelled. . . ." Of equal significance was the +announcement by The Times, fairly to be considered the +Administration organ: "The President stands firm against every +solicitation to postpone the draft."[17] + + + +XXXIII. THE RALLY TO THE PRESIDENT + +The question insists upon rising again: were the anti-Lincoln +politicians justified in their exultation, the Lincoln +politicians justified in their panic? Nobody will ever know; +but it is worth considering that the shrewd opportunist who +expressed himself through The Herald changed his mind during a +fortnight in August. By one of those odd coincidences of which +history is full, it was on the twenty- third of the month that +he warned the Democrats and jeered at the Republicans in this +insolent fashion: + +"Many of our leading Republicans are now furious against +Lincoln. . . . Bryant of The Evening Post is very angry +with Lincoln because Henderson, The Post's publisher, has been +arrested for defrauding the government. + +Raymond is a little shaky and has to make frequent journeys to +Washington for instructions. . . . + +"Now, to what does all this amount? Our experience of politics +convinces us that it amounts to nothing. The sorehead +Republicans complain that Lincoln gives them either too little +shoddy or too little nigger. What candidate can they find who +will give them more of either? + +"The Chicago (Democratic) delegates must very emphatically +comprehend that they must beat the whole Re-publican party if +they elect their candidate. It is a strong party even yet and +has a heavy army vote to draw upon.The error of relying too +greatly upon the weakness of the Republicans as developed in +the quarrels of the Republican leaders, may prove fatal . . . +the Republican leaders may have their personal quarrels, or +their shoddy quarrels, or their nigger quarrels with Old Abe; +but he has the whip hand of them and they will soon be bobbing +back into the Republican fold, like sheep who have gone astray. +The most of the fuss some of them kick up now, is simply to +force Lincoln to give them their terms. . + +"We have studied all classes of politicians in our day and we +warn the Chicago Convention to put no trust in the Republican +soreheads. Furiously as some of them denounce Lincoln now, and +lukewarm as the rest of them are in his cause, they will all be +shouting for him as the only true Union candidate as soon as +the nominations have all been made and the chances for bargains +have passed. + +Whatever they say now, we venture to predict that Wade and his +tail; and Bryant and his tail; and Wendell Phillips and his +tail; and Weed, Barney, Chase and their tails; and Winter +Davis, Raymond, Opdyke and Forney who have no tails; will all +make tracks for Old Abe's plantation, and will soon be found +crowing and blowing, and vowing and writing, and swearing and +stumping the state on his side, declaring that he and he alone, +is the hope of the nation, the bugaboo of Jeff Davis, the first +of Conservatives, the best of Abolitionists, the purest of +patriots, the most gullible of mankind, the easiest President +to manage, and the person especially predestined and +foreordained by Providence to carry on the war, free the +niggers, and give all the faithful a fair share of the spoils. +The spectacle will be ridiculous; but it is inevitable."[1] + +The cynic of The Herald had something to go upon besides his +general knowledge of politicians and elections. The Manifesto +had not met with universal acclaim. in the course of this +month of surprises, there were several things that an +apprehensive observer might interpret as the shadow of that +hand of fate which was soon to appear upon the wall. In the +Republican Convention of the Nineteenth Ohio District, which +included Ashtabula County, Wade's county, there were fierce +words and then with few dissenting votes, a resolution, "That +the recent attack upon the President by Wade and Davis is, in +our opinion, ill-timed, ill-tempered, and ill-advised . . . +and inasmuch as one of the authors of said protest is a citizen +of this Congressional District and indebted in no small degree +to our friendship for the position, we deem it a duty no less +imperative than disagreeable, to pronounce upon that +disorganizing Manifesto our unqualified disapproval and +condemnation."[2] + +To be sure there were plenty of other voices from Ohio and +elsewhere applauding "The War on the President." Nevertheless, +there were signs of a reluctance to join the movement, and some +of these in quarters where they had been least expected. +Notably, the Abolitionist leaders were slow to come forward. +Sumner was particularly slow. He was ready, indeed, to admit +that a better candidate than Lincoln could be found, and there +was a whisper that the better candidate was himself. However, +he was unconditional that he would not participate in a fight +against Lincoln. if the President could be persuaded to +withdraw, that was one thing. But otherwise--no Sumner in the +conspiracy.[3] + +Was it possible that Chandler, Wade, Davis and the rest had +jumped too soon? To rebuild the Vindictive Coalition, the +group in which Sumner had a place was essential. This group +was composed of Abolitionists, chiefly New Englanders, and for +present purpose their central figure was Andrew, the Governor +of Massachusetts. During the latter half of August, the fate +of the Conspiracy hung on the question, Can Andrew and his +group be drawn in? + +Andrew did not like the President. He was one of those who +never got over their first impression of the strange new man of +1861. He insisted that Lincoln lacked the essential qualities +of a leader. "To comprehend this objection," says his frank +biographer, "which to us seems so astoundingly wide of the +mark, we must realize that whenever the New Englander of that +generation uttered the word 'leader' his mind's eye was filled +with the image of Daniel Webster . . . his commanding +presence, his lofty tone about affairs of state, his sonorous +profession of an ideal, his whole ex cathedra attitude. All +those characteristics supplied the aristocratic connotation of +the word 'leader' as required by a community in which a +considerable measure of aristocratic sympathy still lingered. + +Andrew and his friends were like the men of old who having +known Saul before time, and beholding him prophesying, asked +'Is Saul also among the prophets?'"[4] + +But Andrew stood well outside the party cabals that were +hatched at Washington. He and his gave the conspirators a +hearing from a reason widely different from any of theirs. +They distrusted the Executive Committee. The argument that had +swept the Committee for the moment off its feet filled the +stern New Englanders with scorn. They were prompt to deny any +sympathy with the armistice movement.[5] As Andrew put it, the +chief danger of the hour was the influence of the Executive +Committee on the President, whom he persisted in considering a +weak man; the chief duty of the hour was to "rescue" Lincoln, +or in some other way to "check the peace movement of the +Republican managers."[6] if it were fairly certain that this +could be effected only by putting the conspiracy through, +Andrew would come in. But could he be clear in his own mind +that this was the thing to do? While he hesitated, Jaquess and +Gilmore did their last small part in American history and left +the stage. They made a tour of the Northern States explaining +to the various governors the purposes of their mission to +Richmond, and reporting in full their audience with Davis and +the impressions they had formed.[7] This was a point in favor of +Lincoln--as Andrew thought. On the other hand, there were the +editorials of The Times. As late as the twenty-fourth of +August, the day before the Washington conference, The Times +asserted that the President would waive all the objects for +which the war had been fought, including Abolition, if any +proposition of peace should come that embraced the integrity of +the Union. To be sure, this was not consistent with the report +of Jaquess and Gilmore and their statement of terms actually +set down by Lincoln. And yet--it came from the Administration +organ edited by the chairman of the Executive Committee. Was +rescue" of the President anything more than a dream? + +It was just here that Lincoln intervened and revolutionized the +whole situation. With what tense interest -Andrew must have +waited for reports of that conference held at Washington on the +twenty-fifth. And with what delight he must have received +them! The publication on the twenty-sixth of the sweeping +repudiation of the negotiation policy; the reassertion that the +Administration's "sole and undivided purpose was to prosecute +the war." Simultaneous was another announcement, also in the +minds of the New Englanders, of first importance: "So far as +there being any probability of President Lincoln withdrawing +from the canvass, as some have suggested, the gentlemen +comprising the Committee express themselves as confident of his +reelection."[8] + +Meanwhile the letters asking for signatures to the pro-posed +"call" had been circulated and the time had come to take stock +of the result From Ohio, Wade had written in a sanguine mood. +He was for issuing the call the moment the Democratic +Convention had taken action.[9] On the twenty-ninth that +convention met. On the thirtieth, the conspirators +reassembled--again at the house of David Dudley Field--and Andrew +attended. He had not committed himself either way. + +And now Lincoln's firmness with the Executive Committee had its +reward. The New Englanders had made up their minds. +Personally, he was still obnoxious to them; but in light of his +recent pronouncement, they would take their chances on +rescuing" him from the Committee; and since he would not +withdraw, they would not cooperate in splitting the Union +party. But they could not convince the conspirators. A long +debate ended in an agreement to disagree. The New Englanders +withdrew, confessed partisans of Lincoln.[10] It was the +beginning of the end. + +Andrew went back to Boston to organize New England for Lincoln. +J. M. Forbes remained to organize New York.[11] All this, +ignoring the Executive Committee. It was a new Lincoln +propaganda, not in opposition to the Committee but in frank +rivalry: "Since, or if, we must have Lincoln," said Andrew, +"men of motive and ideas must get into the lead, must elect +him, get hold of 'the machine' and 'run it' themselves."[12] + +The bottom was out of the conspiracy; but the leaders at New +York were slow to yield. Despite the New England secession, +they thought the Democratic platform, on which McClellan had +been invited to stand as candidate for the Presidency, gave +them another chance, especially the famous resolution: + +"That this Convention does explicitly declare, as the sense of +the American people, after four years of failure to restore the +Union by the experiment of war, during which, under the +pretense of a military necessity, or war power higher than the +Constitution, the Constitution itself has been disregarded in +every part, and the public liberty and the private right alike +trodden down and the material prosperity of the country +essentially impaired, justice, humanity, liberty and the public +welfare demand that immediate efforts be made for a cessation +of hostilities, with a view to an ultimate convention of the +States, or other peaceable means to the end that at the +earliest practicable moment peace may be restored on the basis +of the Federal Union of the States." + +Some of the outlying conspirators also suffered a revival of +hope. The Cincinnati Gazette came out flat foot for the +withdrawal of Lincoln.[13] So did The Cincinnati Times, pressing +hard for the new convention.[14] On the second of September, +three New York editors, Greeley for The Tribune, Parke Godwin +for The Post, and Tilton for The Independent, were busily +concocting a circular letter to Governors of the States with a +view to saving the conspiracy.[15] + +But other men were at work in a different fashion, that same +day. Lincoln's cause had been wrecked so frequently by his +generals that whenever a general advanced, the event seems +boldly dramatic. While the politicians at New York and Chicago +thought they were loading the scales of fate, long lines of men +in blue were moving through broken woodland and over neglected +fields against the gray legions defending Atlanta. Said +General Hood, it was "evident that General Sherman was moving +with his main body to destroy the Macon road, and that the fate +of Atlanta depended on our ability to defeat this movement." +During the fateful pow-pow at the house of Dudley Field, +Sherman's army like a colossal scythe was swinging round +Atlanta, from the west and south, across Flint River, through +the vital railway, on toward the city. On the second of +September, the news that Atlanta was taken "electrified the +people of the North."[16] + +The first thought of every political faction, when, on the +third, the newspapers were ringing with this great news, was +either how to capitalize it for themselves, or how to forestall +its capitalization by some one else. Forbes "dashed off" a +letter to Andrew urging an immediate demonstration for +Lincoln.[17] He was sure the Raymond group would somehow try to +use the victory as a basis for recovering their leadership. +Davis was eager to issue the "call" at once.[18] But his fellows +hesitated. And while they hesitated, Andrew and the people +acted. On the sixth, a huge Lincoln rally was held at Faneul +Hall. Andrew presided. Sumner spoke.[19] That same day, Vermont +held State elections and went Republican by a rousing majority. +On the day following occurred the Convention of the Union party +of New York. Enthusiastic applause was elicited by a telegram +from Vermont. "The first shell that was thrown by Sherman into +Atlanta has exploded in the Copperhead Camp in this State, and +the Unionists have poured in a salute with shotted guns."[20] The +mixed metaphors did not reduce the telegram's effect. The New +York Convention formally endorsed Lincoln as the candidate of +the Union party for President. + +So much for the serious side of the swiftly changing political +kaleidoscope. There was also a comic side. Only three days +sufficed--from Davis's eagerness to proceed on the fourth to +letters and articles written or printed on the seventh--only +three days, and the leaders of the conspiracy began turning +their coats. A typical letter of the seventh at Syracuse +describes "an interview with Mr. Opdyke this morning, who told +me the result of his efforts to obtain signatures to our call +which was by no means encouraging. I have found the same +sentiment prevailing here. A belief that it is too late to +make any effectual demonstration, and therefore that it is not +wise to attempt any. I presume that the new-born enthusiasm +created by the Atlanta news will so encourage Lincoln that he +can not be persuaded to withdraw."[21] Two days more and the +anti-Lincoln newspapers began to draw in their horns. That +Independent, whose editor had been one of the three in the last +ditch but a week before, handsomely recanted, scuttling across +to what now seemed the winning side. "The prospect of victory +is brilliant. If a fortnight ago the prospect of Mr. Lincoln's +reelection seemed doubtful, the case is now changed. The +odious character of the Chicago platform, the sunshiny effect +of the late victories, have rekindled the old enthusiasm in +loyal hearts."[22] One day more, and Greeley sullenly took his +medicine. The Tribune began printing "The Union Ticket--for +President, Abraham Lincoln." + +There remains the most diverting instance of the haste with +which coats were turned. On the sixth of September, only three +days after Atlanta!--the very day of the great Lincoln rally, +the crown of Andrew's generalship, at Fanuel Hall--a report was +sent out from Washington that "Senator Wade is to take the +stump for Mr. Lincoln."[23] Less than a week later The Washington +Chronicle had learned "with satisfaction, though not with +surprise, that Senator Wade, notwithstanding his signature to a +celebrated Manifesto, had enrolled himself among the Lincoln +forces."[24] Exactly two weeks after Atlanta, Wade made his first +speech for Lincoln as President. It was a "terrific assault +upon the Copperhead policy."[25] + +The ship of the conspiracy was sinking fast, and on every hand +was heard a scurrying patter of escaping politicians. + + + +XXXIV. "FATHER ABRAHAM" + +The key-notes of Lincoln's course with the Executive Committee, +his refusal to do anything that appeared to him to be futile, +his firmness not to cast about and experiment after a policy, +his basing of all his plans on the vision in his own mind of +their sure fruitage--these continued to be his key-notes +throughout the campaign. They ruled his action in a difficult +matter with which he was quickly forced to deal. + +Montgomery Blair, the Postmaster General, was widely and +bitterly disliked. Originally a radical Republican, he had +quarreled with that wing of the party. In 1863 the Union +League of Philadelphia, which elected all the rest of the +Cabinet honorary members of its organization, omitted Blair. A +reference to the Cabinet in the Union platform of 1864 was +supposed to be a hint that the Postmaster General would serve +his country, if he resigned. During the dark days of the +summer of 1864, the President's mail was filled with +supplications for the dismissal of Blair.[1] He was described as +an incubus that might cause the defeat of the Administration. + +If the President's secretaries were not prejudiced witnesses, +Blair had worn out his welcome in the Cabinet. He had grown +suspicious. He tried to make Lincoln believe that Seward was +plotting with the Copperheads. Nevertheless, Lincoln turned a +deaf ear to the clamor against him. Merely personal +considerations were not compelling. If it was true, as for a +while he believed it was, that his election was already lost, +he did not propose to throw Blair over as a mere experiment. +True to his principles he would not become a juggler with +futility. + +The turn of the tide in his favor put the matter in a new +light. All the enemies of Blair renewed their attack on a +slightly different line. One of those powerful New Englanders +who had come to Lincoln's aid at such an opportune moment led +off. On the second day following the news of Atlanta, Henry +Wilson wrote to him, "Blair, every one hates. Tens of +thousands of men will be lost to you, or will give you a +reluctant vote because of the Blairs."[2] + +If this was really true, the selfless man would not hesitate +to' require of Blair the same sort of sacrifice he would, in +other conditions, require of himself. Lincoln debated this in +his own mind nearly three weeks. + +Meanwhile, various other politicians joined the hue and cry. +An old friend of Lincoln's, Ebenezer Peck, came east from +Illinois to work upon him against Blair.[3] Chandler, who like +Wade was eager to get out of the wrong ship, appeared at +Washington as a friend of the Administration and an enemy of +Blair.[4] But still Lincoln did not respond. After all, was it +certain that one of these votes would change if Blair did not +resign? Would anything be accomplished, should Lincoln require +his resignation, except the humiliation of a friend, the +gratification of a pack of malcontents? And then some one +thought of a mode for giving definite political value to +Blair's removal. Who did it? The anonymous author of the only +biography of Chandler claims this doubtful honor for the great +Jacobin. Lincoln's secretaries, including Colonel Stoddard who +had charge of his correspondence, are ignorant on the subject.[5] +It may well have been Chandler who negotiated a bargain with +Fremont, if the story is to be trusted, which concerned Blair. +A long-standing, relentless quarrel separated these two. That +Fremont as a candidate was nobody had long been apparent; and +yet it was worth while to get rid of him. Chandler, or +another, extracted a promise from Fremont that if Blair were +removed, he would resign. On the strength of this promise, a +last appeal was made to Lincoln. Such is the legend. The +known fact is that on September twenty-second Fremont withdrew +his candidacy. The next day Lincoln sent this note to Blair: + +"You have generously said to me more than once that whenever +your resignation could be a relief to me, it was at my +disposal. The time has come. You very well know that this +proceeds from no dissatisfaction of mine, with you personally +or officially. Your uniform kindness has been unsurpassed by +that of any friend."[6] + +No incident displays more clearly the hold which Lincoln had +acquired on the confidence and the affection of his immediate +associates. Blair at once tendered his resignation: "I can not +take leave of you," said he, "without renewing the expression +of my gratitude for the uniform kindness which has marked your +course with regard to myself."[7] That he was not perfunctory, +that his great chief had acquired over him an ascendency which +was superior to any strain, was demonstrated a few days later +in New York. On the twenty-seventh, Cooper Institute was +filled with an enthusiastic Lincoln meeting. Blair was a +speaker. He was received with loud cheers and took occasion to +touch upon his relations with the President. "I retired," said +he, "on the recommendation of my own father. My father has +passed that period of life when its honors or its rewards, or +its glories have any charm for him. He looks backward only, +and forward only, to the grandeur of this nation and the +happiness of this great people who have grown up under the +prosperous condition of the Union; and he would not permit a +son of his to stand in the way of the glorious and patriotic +President who leads us on to success and to the final triumph +that is in store for us."[8] + +It was characteristic of this ultimate Lincoln that he offered +no explanations, even in terminating the career of a minister; +that he gave no confidences. Gently inexorable, he imposed his +will in apparent unconsciousness that it might be questioned. +Along with his overmastering kindness, he had something of the +objectivity of a natural force. It was the mood attained by a +few extraordinary men who have reached a point where, without +becoming egoists, they no longer distinguish between themselves +and circumstance; the mood of those creative artists who have +lost themselves, in the strange way which the dreamers have, +who have also found themselves. + +Even in the new fascination of the probable turn of the tide, +Lincoln did not waver in his fixed purpose to give all his best +energies, and the country's best energies, to the war. In +October, there was a new panic over the draft. Cameron +implored him to suspend it in Pennsylvania until after the +presidential election. An Ohio committee went to Washington +with the same request. Why should not the arguments that had +prevailed with him, or were supposed to have prevailed with +him, for the removal of a minister, prevail also in the way of +a brief flagging of military preparation? But Lincoln would +not look upon the two cases in the same spirit. "What is the +Presidency worth to me," he asked the Ohio committee, "if I +have no country ?"[9] + +From the active campaign he held himself aloof. He made no +political speeches. He wrote no political letters. The army +received his constant detailed attention. In his letters to +Grant, he besought him to be unwavering in a relentless +persistency. + +As Hay records, he was aging rapidly. The immense strain of +his labor was beginning to tell both in his features and his +expression. He was moving in a shadow. But his old habit of +merriment had not left him; though it was now, more often, a +surface merriment. On the night of the October elections, +Lincoln sat in the telegraph room of the War Office while the +reports were coming in. "The President in a lull of +despatches, took from his pocket the Naseby Papers and read +several chapters of the Saint and Martyr, Petroleum V. They +were immensely amusing. Stanton and Dana enjoyed them scarcely +less than the President, who read on, con amore, until nine +o'clock."[10] + +The presidential election was held on the eighth of November. +That night, Lincoln with his Secretary was again in the War +Office. The early returns showed that the whole North was +turning to him in enormous majorities. He showed no +exultation. When the Assistant Secretary of the Navy spoke +sharply of the complete effacement politically of Henry Winter +Davis against whom he had a grudge, Lincoln said, "You have +more of that feeling of personal resentment than I. Perhaps I +have too little of it; but I never thought it paid. A man has +no time to spend half his life in quarrels. if any man ceases +to attack me I never remember the past against him."[11] + +"Towards midnight," says Hay in his diary, "we had supper. The +President went awkwardly and hospitably to work shovelling out +the fried oysters. He was most agreeable and genial all the +evening. . . . Captain Thomas came up with a band about +half-past two and made some music. The President answered from +a window with rather unusual dignity and effect, and we came +home."[12] + +"I am thankful to God," Lincoln said, in response to the +serenade, "for this approval of the people; but while 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."[13] + +During the next few days a torrent of congratulations came +pouring in. What most impressed the secretaries was his +complete freedom from elation. "He seemed to deprecate his own +triumph and sympathize rather with the beaten than the +victorious party." His formal recognition of the event was a +prepared reply to a serenade on the night of November tenth. A +great crowd filled the space in front of the north portico of +the White House. Lincoln appeared at a window. A secretary +stood at his side holding a lighted candle while he read from +a manuscript. The brief address is justly ranked among his +ablest occasional utterances. As to the mode of the +deliverance, he said to Hay, "Not very graceful, but I am +growing old enough not to care much for the manner of doing +things."[14] + + + +XXXV. THE MASTER OF THE MOMENT + +In Lincoln's life there are two great achievements. + +One he brought to pass in time for him to behold his own +victory. The other he saw only with the eyes of faith. The +first was the drawing together of all the elements of +nationalism in the American people and consolidating them into +a driving force. The second was laying the foundation of a +political temper that made impossible a permanent victory for +the Vindictives. It was the sad fate of this nation, because +Lincoln's hand was struck from the tiller at the very instant +of the crisis, to suffer the temporary success of that faction +he strove so hard to destroy The transitoriness of their evil +triumph, the eventual rally of the nation against them, was the +final victory of the spirit of Lincoln. + +The immediate victory he appreciated more fully and measured +more exactly, than did any one else. He put it into words in +the fifth message. While others were crowing with exaltation +over a party triumph, he looked deeper to the psychological +triumph. Scarcely another saw that the most significant detail +of the hour was in the Democratic attitude. Even the bitterest +enemies of nationalism, even those who were believed by all +others to desire the breaking of the Union, had not thought it +safe to say so. They had veiled their intent in specious +words. McClellan in accepting the Democratic nomination had +repudiated the idea of disunion. Whether the Democratic +politicians had agreed with him or not, they had not dared to +contradict him. This was what Lincoln put the emphasis on in +his message: "The purpose of the people within the loyal States +to maintain the Union was never more firm nor more nearly +unanimous than now. . . . No candidate for any office, 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 +motive 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."[1] + +This temper of the final Lincoln, his supreme detachment, the +kind impersonality of his intellectual approach, has no better +illustration in his state papers. He further revealed it in a +more intimate way. The day he sent the message to Congress, he +also submitted to the Senate a nomination to the great office +of Chief Justice. When Taney died in the previous September, +there was an eager stir among the friends of Chase. They had +hopes but they felt embarrassed. Could they ask this great +honor, the highest it is in the power of the American President +to be-stow, for a man who had been so lacking in candor as +Chase had been? Chase's course during the summer had made +things worse. He had played the time-server. No one was more +severe upon Lincoln in July; in August, he hesitated, would not +quite commit himself to the conspiracy but would not discourage +it; almost gave it his blessing; in September, but not until it +was quite plain that the conspiracy was failing, he came out +for Lincoln. However, his friends in the Senate overcame their +embarrassment--how else could it be with Senators?--and pressed +his case. And when Senator Wilson, alarmed at the President's +silence, tried to apologize for Chase's harsh remarks about the +President, Lincoln cut him short. "Oh, as to that, I care +nothing," said he. The embarrassment of the Chase propaganda +amused him. When Chase himself took a hand and wrote him a +letter, Lincoln said to his secretary, "What is it about?" +"Simply a kind and friendly letter," replied the secretary. +Lincoln smiled. "File it with the other recommendations," said +he.[2] + +He regarded Chase as a great lawyer, Taney's logical successor. +All the slights the Secretary had put upon the President, the +intrigues to supplant him, the malicious sayings, were as if +they had never occurred. When Congress assembled, it was +Chase's name that he sent to the Senate. It was Chase who, as +Chief Justice, administered the oath at Lincoln's second +inauguration. + +Long since, Lincoln had seen that there had ceased to any +half-way house in the matter of emancipation. His thoughts +were chiefly upon the future. And as mere strategy, he saw +that slavery had to be got out of the way. It was no longer a +question, who liked this, who did not. To him, the ultimate +issue was the restoration of harmony among the States. Those +States which had been defeated in the dread arbitrament of +battle, would in any event encounter difficulties, even deadly +perils, in the narrow way which must come after defeat and +which might or might not lead to rehabilitation. + +Remembering the Vindictive temper, remembering the force and +courage of the Vindictive leaders, it was imperative to clear +the field of the slavery issue before the reconstruction issue +was fairly launched. It was highly desirable to commit to the +support of the governments the whole range of influences that +were in earnest about emancipation. Furthermore, the South +itself was drifting in the same direction. In his interview +with Gilmore and Jaquess, Davis had said: "You have already +emancipated nearly two millions of our slaves; and if you will +take care of them, you may emancipate the rest. I had a few +when the war began. I was of some use to them; they never were +of any to me."[3] + +The Southern President had "felt" his constituency on the +subject of enrolling slaves as soldiers with a promise of +emancipation as the reward of military service. + +The fifth message urged Congress to submit to the States an +amendment to the Constitution abolishing slavery. Such action +had been considered in the previous session, but nothing had +been done. At Lincoln's suggestion, it had been recommended in +the platform of the Union party. Now, with the President's +powerful influence behind it, with his prestige at full circle, +the amendment was rapidly pushed forward. Before January +ended, it had been approved by both Houses. Lincoln had used +all his personal influence to strengthen its chances in +Congress where, until the last minute, the vote was still in +doubt.[4] + +While the amendment was taking its way through Congress, a +shrewd old politician who thought he knew the world better than +most men, that Montgomery Blair, Senior, who was father of the +Postmaster General, had been trying on his own responsibility +to open negotiations between Washington and Richmond. His +visionary ideas, which were wholly without the results he +intended, have no place here. And yet this fanciful episode +had a significance of its own. Had it not occurred, the +Confederate government probably would not have appointed +commissioners charged with the hopeless task of approaching the +Federal government for the purpose of negotiating peace between +"the two countries." + +Now that Lincoln was entirely in the ascendent at home, and +since the Confederate arms had recently suffered terrible +reverses, he was no longer afraid that negotiation might appear +to be the symptom of weakness. He went so far as to consent to +meet the Commissioners himself. On a steamer in Hampton Roads, +Lincoln and Seward had a long conference with three members of +the Confederate government, particularly the Vice-President, +Alexander H. Stephens. + +it has become a tradition that Lincoln wrote at the top of a +sheet of paper the one word "Union"; that he pushed it across +the table and said, "Stephens, write under that anything you +want" There appears to be no foundation for the tale in this +form. The amendment had committed the North too definitely to +emancipation. Lincoln could not have proposed Union without +requiring emancipation, also. And yet, with this limitation, +the spirit of the tradition is historic. There can be no doubt +that he presented to the commissioners about the terms which +the year before he had drawn up as a memorandum for Gilmore and +Jaquess: Union, the acceptance of emancipation, but also +instantaneous restoration of political autonomy to the Southern +States, and all the influence of the Administration in behalf +of liberal compensation for the loss of slave property. But +the commissioners had no authority to consider terms that did +not recognize the existence of "two countries." However, +this Hampton Roads Conference gave Lincoln a new hope. He +divined, if he did not perceive, that the Confederates were on +the verge of despair. If he had been a Vindictive, this would +have borne fruit in ferocious telegrams to his generals to +strike and spare not. What Lincoln did was to lay before the +Cabinet this proposal:--that they advise Congress to offer the +Confederate government the sum of four hundred million dollars, +provided the war end and the States in secession acknowledge +the authority of the Federal government previous to April 1, +1865. But the Cabinet, complete as was his domination in some +respects, were not ripe for such a move as this. "'You are +all against me,' said Lincoln sadly and in evident surprise at +the want of statesmanlike liberality on the part of the +executive council," to quote his Secretary, "folded and laid +away the draft of his message."[5] Nicolay believes that the idea +continued vividly in his mind and that it may be linked with +his last public utterance--"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 is proper." + +It was now obvious to every one outside the Confederacy that +the war would end speedily in a Northern victory. To Lincoln, +therefore, the duty of the moment, overshadowing all else, was +the preparation for what should come after. Reconstruction. +More than ever it was of first importance to decide whether the +President or Congress should deal with this great matter. And +now occurred an event which bore witness at once to the +beginning of Lincoln's final struggle with the Vindictives and +to that personal ascendency which was steadily widening. One +of those three original Jacobins agreed to become his spokesman +in the Senate. As the third person of the Jacobin brotherhood, +Lyman Trumbull had always been out of place. He had gone wrong +not from perversity of the soul but from a mental failing, from +the lack of inherent light, from intellectual conventionality. +But he was a good man. One might apply to him Mrs. Browning's +line: "Just a good man made a great man." And in his case, as +in so many others, sheer goodness had not been sufficient in +the midst of a revolution to save his soul. To quote one of +the greatest of the observers of human life: "More brains, O +Lord, more brains." Though Trumbull had the making of an +Intellectual, politics had very nearly ruined him. For all his +good intentions it took him a long time to see what Hawthorne +saw at first sight-that Lincoln was both a powerful character +and an original mind. Still, because Trumbull was really a +good man, he found a way to recover his soul. What his insight +was not equal to perceiving in 1861, experience slowly made +plain to him in the course of the next three years. Before +1865 he had broken with the Vindictives; he had come over to +Lincoln. Trumbull still held the powerful office of Chairman +of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He now undertook to be the +President's captain in a battle on the floor of the Senate for +the recognition of Louisiana. + +The new government in Louisiana had been in actual operation +for nearly a year. Though Congress had denounced it; though +the Manifesto had held it up to scorn as a monarchial outrage; +Lincoln had quietly, steadily, protected and supported it. It +was discharging the function of a regular State government. A +governor had been elected and inaugurated-that Governor Hahn +whom Lincoln had congratulated as Louisiana's first Free State +Governor. He could say this because the new electorate which +his mandate had created had assembled a constitutional +convention and had abolished slavery. And it had also carried +out the President's views with regard to the political status +of freedmen. Lincoln was not a believer in general negro +suffrage. He was as far as ever from the theorizing of the +Abolitionists. The most he would approve was the bestowal of +suffrage on a few Superior negroes, leaving the rest to be +gradually educated into citizenship. The Louisiana Convention +had authorized the State Legislature to make, when it felt +prepared to do so, such a limited extension of suffrage.[6] + +In setting up this new government, Lincoln had created a +political vessel in which practically all the old electorate of +Louisiana could find their places the moment they gave up the +war and accepted the two requisites, union and emancipation. +That electorate could proceed at once to rebuild the +social-political order of the State without any interval of +"expiation." All the power of the Administration would be with +them in their labors. That this was the wise as well as the +generous way to proceed, the best minds of the North had come +to see. Witness the conversion of Trumbull. But there were +four groups of fanatics who were dangerous: extreme +Abolitionists who clamored for negro equality; men like Wade +and Chandler, still mad with the lust of conquest, raging at +the President who had stood so resolutely between them and +their desire; the machine politicians who could never +understand the President's methods, who regarded him as an +officious amateur; and the Little Men who would have tried to +make political capital of the blowing of the last trump. All +these, each for a separate motive, attacked the President +because of Louisiana. + +The new government had chosen Senators. Here was a specific +issue over which the Administration and its multiform +opposition might engage in a trial of strength. The Senate had +it in its power to refuse to seat the Louisiana Senators. +Could the Vindictive leaders induce it to go to that length? +The question took its natural course of reference to the +Judiciary Committee. On the eighteenth of February, Trumbull +opened what was destined to be a terrible chapter in American +history, the struggle between light and darkness over +reconstruction. Trumbull had ranged behind Lincoln the +majority of his committee. With its authority he moved a joint +resolution recognizing the new government of Louisiana. + +And then began a battle royal. Trumbull's old associates were +promptly joined by Sumner. These three rallied against the +resolution all the malignancy, all the time-serving, all the +stupidity, which the Senate possessed. Bitter language was +exchanged by men who had formerly been as thick as thieves. + +"You and I," thundered Wade, "did not differ formerly on this +subject We considered it a mockery, a miserable mockery, to +recognize this Louisiana organization as a State in the Union." +He sneered fiercely, "Whence comes this new-born zeal of the +Senator from Illinois? . . . Sir, it is the most miraculous +conversion that has taken place since Saint Paul's time."[7] + +Wade did not spare the President. Metaphorically speaking, he +shook a fist in his face, the fist of a merciless old giant +"When the foundation of this government is sought to be swept +away by executive usurpation, it will not do to turn around to +me and say this comes from a President I helped to elect. . . +. if the President of the United States operating through his +major generals can initiate a State government, and can bring +it here and force us, compel us, to receive on this floor these +mere mockeries, these men of straw who represent nobody, your +Republic is at an end . . . talk not to me of your ten per +cent. principle. A more absurd, monarchial and anti-American +principle was never announced on God's earth."[8] + +Amidst a rain of furious personalities, Lincoln's spokesman +kept his poise. It was sorely tried by two things: by Sumner's +frank use of every device of parliamentary obstruction with a +view to wearing out the patience of the Senate, and by the +cynical alliance, in order to balk Lincoln, of the Vindictives +with the Democrats. What they would not risk in 1862 when +their principles had to wait upon party needs, they now +considered safe strategy. And if ever the Little Men deserved +their label it was when they played into the hands of the +terrible Vindictives, thus becoming responsible for the +rejection of Lincoln's plan of reconstruction. Trumbull +upbraided Sumner for "associating himself with those whom he so +often denounced, for the purpose of calling the yeas and nays +and making dilatory motions" to postpone action until the press +of other business should compel the Senate to set the +resolution aside. Sumner's answer was that he would employ +against the measure every instrument he could find "in the +arsenal of parliamentary warfare." + +With the aid of the Democrats, the Vindictives carried the day. +The resolution was "dispensed with."[9] + +As events turned out it was a catastrophe. But this was not +apparent at the time. Though Lincoln had been beaten for the +moment, the opposition was made up of so many and such +irreconcilable elements that as long as he could hold together +his own following, there was no reason to suppose he would not +in the long run prevail. He was never in a firmer, more +self-contained mood than on the last night of the session.[10] +Again, as on that memorable fourth of July, eight months +before, he was in his room at the Capitol signing the +last-minute bills. Stanton was with him. On receiving a +telegram from Grant, the Secretary handed it to the President +Grant reported that Lee had proposed a conference for the +purpose of "a satisfactory adjustment of the present unhappy +difficulties by means of a military convention." Without asking +for the Secretary's opinion, Lincoln wrote out a reply which he +directed him to sign and despatch immediately. "The President +directs me to say that he wishes you to have no conference with +General Lee, unless it be for the 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."[11] + +In the second inaugural [12] delivered the next day, there is not +the faintest shadow of anxiety. It breathes a lofty confidence +as if his soul was gazing meditatively downward upon life, and +upon his own work, from a secure height. The world has shown a +sound instinct in fixing upon one expression, "with malice +toward none, with charity for all," as the key-note of the +final Lincoln. These words form the opening line of that +paragraph of unsurpassable prose in which the second inaugural +culminates: + +"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." + + + +XXXVI. PREPARING A DIFFERENT WAR + +During the five weeks which remained to Lincoln on earth, the +army was his most obvious concern. He watched eagerly the +closing of the enormous trap that had been slowly built up +surrounding Lee. Toward the end of March he went to the front, +and for two weeks had his quarters on a steamer at City Point. +It was during Lincoln's visit that Sherman came up from North +Carolina for his flying conference with Grant, in which the +President took part. Lincoln was at City Point when Petersburg +fell. Early on the morning of April third, he joined Grant who +gives a strange glimpse in his Memoirs of their meeting in the +deserted city which so recently had been the last bulwark of +the Confederacy.[1] The same day, Richmond fell. Lincoln had +returned to City Point, and on the following day when confusion +reigned in the burning city, he walked through its streets +attended only by a few sailors and by four friends. He visited +Libby Prison; and when a member of his party said that Davis +ought to be hanged, Lincoln replied, "Judge not that ye be not +judged."[2] His deepest thoughts, however, were not with the +army. The time was at hand when his statesmanship was to be +put to its most severe test. He had not forgotten the anxious +lesson of that success of the Vindictives in balking +momentarily the recognition of Louisiana. it was war to the +knife between him and them. Could he reconstruct the Union in +a wise and merciful fashion despite their desperate opposition? + +He had some strong cards in his hand. First of all, he had +time. Congress was not in session. He had eight months in +which to press forward his own plans. If, when Congress +assembled the following December, it should be confronted by a +group of reconciled Southern States, would it venture to refuse +them recognition? No one could have any illusions as to what +the Vindictives would try to do. They would continue the +struggle they had begun over Louisiana; and if their power +permitted, they would rouse the nation to join battle with the +President on that old issue of the war powers, of the +dictatorship. + +But in Lincoln's hand there were four other cards, all of which +Wade and Chandler would find it hard to match. He had the +army. In the last election the army had voted for him +enthusiastically. And the army was free from the spirit of +revenge, the Spirit which Chandler built upon. They had the +plain people, the great mass whom the machine politicians had +failed to judge correctly in the August Conspiracy. Pretty +generally, he had the Intellectuals. Lastly, he had--or with +skilful generalship he could have--the Abolitionists. + +The Thirteenth Amendment was not yet adopted. The question had +been raised, did it require three-fourths of all the States for +its adoption, or only three-fourths of those that were ranked +as not in rebellion. Here was the issue by means of which the +Abolitionists might all be brought into line. It was by no +means certain that every Northern State would vote for the +amendment. In the smaller group of States, there was a chance +that the amendment might fail. But if it were submitted to the +larger group; and if every Reconstructed State, before Congress +met, should adopt the amendment; and if it was apparent that +with these Southern adoptions the amendment must prevail, all +the great power of the anti-slavery sentiment would be thrown +on the side of the President in favor of recognizing the new +State governments and against the Vindictives. Lincoln held a +hand of trumps. Confidently, but not rashly, he looked forward +to his peaceful war with the Vindictives. + +They were enemies not to be despised. To begin with, they were +experienced machine politicians; they had control of +well-organized political rings. They were past masters of the +art of working up popular animosities. And they were going to +use this art in that dangerous moment of reaction which +invariably follows the heroic tension of a great war. The +alignment in the Senate revealed by the Louisiana battle had +also a significance. The fact that Sumner, who was not quite +one of them, became their general on that occasion, was +something to remember. They had made or thought they had made +other powerful allies. The Vice President, Andrew Johnson-the +new president of the Senate-appeared at this time to be cheek +by jowl with the fiercest Vindictives of them all. It would be +interesting to know when the thought first occurred to them: +"If anything should happen to Lincoln, his successor would be +one of us!" + +The ninth of April arrived and the news of Lee's surrender. + +"The popular excitement over the victory was such that on +Monday, the tenth, crowds gathered before the Executive Mansion +several times during the day and called out the President for +speeches. Twice he responded by coming to the window and +saying a few words which, however, indicated that his mind was +more occupied with work than with exuberant rejoicing. As +briefly as he could he excused himself, but promised that on +the following evening for which a formal demonstration was +being arranged, he would be prepared to say something."[3] + +The paper which he read to the crowd that thronged the grounds +of the White House on the night of April eleventh, was his last +public utterance. It was also one of his most remarkable ones. +In a way, it was his declaration of war against the +Vindictives.[4] It is the final statement of a policy toward +helpless opponents--he refused to call them enemies--which among +the conquerors of history is hardly, if at all, to be +paralleled.[5] + +"By these recent successes the reinauguration of the national +authority-reconstruction-which has had a large share of thought +from the first, is pressed more closely upon our attention. It +is fraught with great difficulty. Unlike a case of war between +independent nations, there is no authorized organ for us to +treat with-no one man has authority to give up the rebellion +for any other man. We simply must begin with, and mould from, +disorganized and discordant elements. Nor is it a small +additional embarrassment that we, the loyal people, differ +among ourselves as to the mode, manner and measure of +reconstruction. As a general rule, I abstain from reading the +reports of attacks upon myself, wishing not to be provoked by +that to which I can not properly offer an answer. In spite of +this precaution, however, it comes to my knowledge that I am +much censured for some supposed agency in setting up and +seeking to sustain the new State government of Louisiana. + +He reviewed in full the history of the Louisiana experiment +From that he passed to the theories put forth by some of his +enemies with regard to the constitutional status of the Seceded +States. His own theory that the States never had been out of +the Union because constitutionally they could not go out, that +their governmental functions had merely been temporarily +interrupted; this theory had always been roundly derided by the +Vindictives and even by a few who were not Vindictives. Sumner +had preached the idea that the Southern States by attempting to +secede had committed "State suicide" and should now be treated +as Territories. Stevens and the Vindictives generally, while +avoiding Sumner's subtlety, called them "conquered provinces." +And all these wanted to take them from under the protection of +the President and place them helpless at the feet of Congress. +To prevent this is the purpose that shines between the lines in +the latter part of Lincoln's valedictory: + +"We all agree that the Seceded States, so called, are out of +their proper practical relation with the Union, and that the +sole object of the government, civil and military, in regard to +those States, is to again get them into that proper practical +relation. I believe that it is not only possible, but in fact +easier, to do this without deciding or even considering whether +these States have ever been out of the Union, than with it +Finding themselves safely at home, it would be utterly +immaterial whether they had ever been abroad. Let us all join +in doing the acts necessary to restoring the proper practical +relations between these States and the Union, and each forever +after innocently indulge his own opinion whether in doing the +acts he brought the States from without into the Union, or only +gave them proper assistance, they never having been out of it. +The amount of constituency, so to speak, on which the new +Louisiana government rests would be more satisfactory to all if +it contained 50,000 or 30,000, or even 20,000 instead of only +about 12,000, as it does. It is also unsatisfactory to some +that the elective franchise is not given to the colored man. I +would myself prefer that it were now conferred on the very +intelligent, and on those who served our cause as soldiers. + +"Still, the question is not whether the Louisiana government, +as it stands, is quite all that is desirable. The question is, +will it be wiser to take it as it is and help to improve it, or +to reject and disperse it? Can Louisiana be brought into +proper practical relation with the Union sooner by sustaining +or by discarding her new State government? Some twelve +thousand voters in the heretofore slave State of Louisiana have +sworn allegiance to the Union, assumed to be the rightful +political power of the State, held elections, organized a State +government, adopted a free State constitution, giving the +benefit of public schools equally to black and white and +empowering the Legislature to confer the elective franchise +upon the colored man. Their Legislature has already voted to +ratify the constitutional amendment recently passed by Congress +abolishing slavery throughout the nation. These 12,000 +persons are thus fully committed to the Union and to perpetual +freedom in the State--committed to the very things, and nearly +all the things, the nation wants--and they ask the nation's +recognition and its assistance to make good their committal. + +"Now, if we reject and spurn them, we do our utmost to +disorganize and disperse them. We, in effect, say to the white +man: You are worthless or worse; we will neither help you nor +be helped by you. To the blacks we say: This cup of liberty +which these, your old masters, hold to your lips we will dash +from you and leave you to the chances of gathering the spilled +and scattered contents in some vague and undefined when, where +and how. If this course, discouraging and paralyzing both +white and black, has any tendency to bring Louisiana into +proper practical relations with the Union, I have so far been +unable to perceive it. If, on the contrary, we recognize and +sustain the new government of Louisiana, the converse of all +this is made true. We encourage the hearts and nerve the arms +of 12,000 to adhere to their work, and argue for it, and +proselyte for it, and fight for it, and feed it, and grow it, +and ripen it to a complete success. The colored man, too, in +seeing all united for him, is inspired with vigilance and +energy, and daring, to the same end. Grant that he desires the +elective franchise, will he not attain it sooner by saving the +already advanced steps toward it than by running backward +over them? Concede that the new government of Louisiana is +only to what it should be as the egg is to the fowl, we shall +sooner have the fowl by hatching the egg than by smashing it. + +"Again, if we reject Louisiana, we also reject one vote in +favor of the proposed amendment to the national Constitution. +To meet this proposition it has been argued that no more than +three-fourths of those States which have not attempted +secession are necessary to validly ratify the amendment I do +not commit myself against this further than to say that such a +ratification would be questionable, and sure to be persistently +questioned, while a ratification by three-fourths of all the +States would be unquestioned and unquestionable. I repeat the +question: Can Louisiana be brought into proper practical +relation with the Union sooner by sustaining or by discarding +her new State government? What has been said of Louisiana will +apply generally to other States. And yet so great +peculiarities pertain to each State, and such important and +sudden changes occur in the same State, and with also new and +unprecedented is the whole case 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." + + + +XXXVII. FATE INTERPOSES + +There was an early spring on the Potomac in 1865. While April +was still young, the Judas trees became spheres of purply, +pinkish bloom. The Washington parks grew softly bright as the +lilacs opened. Pendulous willows veiled with green laces +afloat in air the changing brown that was winter's final +shadow; in the Virginia woods the white blossoms of the dogwood +seemed to float and flicker among the windy trees like enormous +flocks of alighting butterflies. And over head such a glitter +of turquoise blue! As lovely in a different way as on that +fateful Sun-day morning when Russell drove through the same +woods toward Bull Run so long, long ago. Such was the +background of the last few days of Lincoln's life. + +Though tranquil, his thoughts dwelt much on death. While at +City Point, he drove one day with Mrs. Lincoln along the banks +of the James. They passed a country graveyard. "It was a +retired place," said Mrs. Lincoln long afterward, "shaded by +trees, and early spring flowers were opening on nearly every +grave. It was so quiet and attractive that we stopped the +carriage and walked through it. Mr. Lincoln seemed thoughtful +and impressed. He said: 'Mary, you are younger than I; you +will survive me. When I am gone, lay my remains in some quiet +place like this.'"[1] + +His mood underwent a mysterious change. It was serene and yet +charged with a peculiar grave loftiness not quite like any +phase of him his friends had known hitherto. As always, his +thoughts turned for their reflection to Shakespeare. Sumner +who was one of the party at City Point, was deeply impressed by +his reading aloud, a few days before his death, that passage in +Macbeth which describes the ultimate security of Duncan where +nothing evil "can touch him farther."[2] + +There was something a little startling, as if it were not quite +of this world, in the tender lightness that seemed to come into +his heart. "His whole appearance, poise and bearing," says one +of his observers, "had marvelously changed. He was, in fact, +transfigured. That indescribable sadness which had previously +seemed to be an adamantine element of his very being, had been +suddenly changed for an equally indescribable expression of +serene joy, as if conscious that the great purpose of his life +had been achieved."[3] + +It was as if the seer in the trance had finally passed beyond +his trance; and had faced smiling toward his earthly comrades, +imagining he was to return to them; unaware that somehow his +emergence was not in the ordinary course of nature; that in it +was an accent of the inexplicable, something which the others +caught and at which they trembled; though they knew not why. +And he, so beautifully at peace, and yet thrilled as never +before by the vision of the murdered Duncan at the end of +life's fitful fever--what was his real feeling, his real vision +of himself? Was it something of what the great modern poet +strove so bravely to express-- + +And yet Dauntless the slughorn to my lips I set, +And blew: Childe Roland to the dark tower came." + +Shortly before the end, he had a strange dream. Though he +spoke of it almost with levity, it would not leave his +thoughts. He dreamed he was wandering through the White House +at night; all the rooms were brilliantly lighted; but they were +empty. However, through that unreal solitude floated a sound +of weeping. When he came to the East Room, it was explained; +there was a catafalque, the pomp of a military funeral, crowds +of people in tears; and a voice said to him, "The President has +been assassinated." + +He told this dream to Lamon and to Mrs. Lincoln. He added that +after it had occurred, "the first time I opened the Bible, +strange as it may appear, it was at the twenty-eighth chapter +of Genesis which relates the wonderful dream Jacob had. I +turned to other passages and seemed to encounter a dream or a +vision wherever I looked. I kept on turning the leaves of the +Old Book, and everywhere my eye fell upon passages recording +matters strangely in keeping with my own thoughts--supernatural +visitations, dreams, visions, etc." + +But when Lamon seized upon this as text for his recurrent +sermon on precautions against assassination, Lincoln turned the +matter into a joke. He did not appear to interpret the dream +as foreshadowing his own death. He called Lamon's alarm +"downright foolishness."[4] + +Another dream in the last night of his life was a consolation. +He narrated it to the Cabinet when they met on April +fourteenth, which happened to be Good Friday. There was some +anxiety with regard to Sherman's movements in North Carolina. +Lincoln bade the Cabinet set their minds at rest. His dream of +the night before was one that he had often had. It was a +presage of great events. In this dream he saw himself "in a +singular and indescribable vessel, but always the same . . . +moving with great rapidity toward a dark and indefinite shore." +This dream had preceded all the great events of the war. He +believed it was a good omen.[5] + +At this last Cabinet meeting, he talked freely of the one +matter which in his mind overshadowed all others. He urged his +Ministers to put aside all thoughts of hatred and revenge. "He +hoped there would be no persecution, no bloody work, after the +war was over. None need expect him to take any part in hanging +or killing these men, even the worst of them. 'Frighten them +out of the country, let down the bars, scare them off,' said +he, throwing up his hands as if scaring sheep. Enough lives +have been sacrificed. We must extinguish our resentment if we +expect harmony and union. There was too much desire on the +part of our very good friends to be masters, to interfere and +dictate to those States, to treat the people not as fellow +citizens; there was too little respect for their rights. He +didn't sympathize in these feelings."[6] + +There was a touch of irony in his phase "our very good +friends." Before the end of the next day, the men he had in +mind, the inner group of the relentless Vindictives, were to +meet in council, scarcely able to conceal their inspiring +conviction that Providence had intervened, had judged between +him and them.[7] And that allusion to the "rights" of the +vanquished! How abominable it was in the ears of the grim +Chandler, the inexorable Wade. Desperate these men and their +followers were on the fourteenth of April, but defiant. To the +full measure of their power they would fight the President to +the last ditch. And always in their minds, the tormenting +thought-if only positions could be reversed, if only Johnson, +whom they believed to be one of them at heart, were in the +first instead of the second place! + +While these unsparing sons of thunder were growling among +themselves, the lions that were being cheated of their prey, +Lincoln was putting his merciful temper into a playful form. +General Creswell applied to him for pardon for an old friend of +his who had joined the Confederate Army. + +"Creswell," said Lincoln, "you make me think of a lot of young +folks who once started out Maying. To reach their destination, +they had to cross a shallow stream and did so by means of an +old flat boat when the time came to return, they found to their +dismay that the old scow had disappeared. They were in sore +trouble and thought over all manner of devices for getting over +the water, but without avail. After a time, one of the boys +proposed that each fellow should pick up the girl he liked best +and wade over with her. The masterly proposition was carried +out until all that were left upon the island was a little short +chap and a great, long, gothic-built, elderly lady. Now, +Creswell, you are trying to leave me in the same predicament. +You fellows are all getting your own friends out of this +scrape, and you will succeed in carrying off one after another +until nobody but Jeff Davis and myself will be left on the +island, and then I won't know what to do--How should I feel? How +should I look lugging him over? I guess the way to avoid such +an embarrassing situation is to let all out at once."[8] + +The President refused, this day, to open his doors to the +throng of visitors that sought admission. His eldest son, +Robert, an officer in Grant's army, had returned from the front +unharmed. Lincoln wished to reserve the day for his family and +intimate friends. In the afternoon, Mrs. Lincoln asked him if +he cared to have company on their usual drive. "No, Mary," +said he, "I prefer that we ride by ourselves to-day."[9] They +took a long drive. His mood, as it had been all day, was +singularly happy and tender.[10] He talked much of the past and +the future. It seemed to Mrs. Lincoln that he never had +appeared happier than during the drive. He referred to past +sorrows, to the anxieties of the war, to Willie's death, and +spoke of the necessity to be cheerful and happy in the days to +come. As Mrs. Lincoln remembered his words: "We have had a +hard time since we came to Washington; but the war is over, and +with God's blessings, we may hope for four years of peace and +happiness, and then we will go back to Illinois and pass the +rest of our lives in quiet. We have laid by some money, and +during this time, we will save up more, but shall not have +enough to support us. We will go back to Illinois; I will open +a law office at Springfield or Chicago and practise law, and at +least do enough to help give us a livelihood."[11] + +They returned from their drive and prepared for a theatre party +which had been fixed for that night. The management of the +Ford's Theatre, where Laura Keene was to close her season with +a benefit performance of Our American Cousin, had announced in +the afternoon paper that "the President and his lady" would +attend. The President's box had been draped with flags. The +rest is a twice told tale--a thousandth told tale. + +An actor, very handsome, a Byronic sort, both in beauty and +temperament, with a dash perhaps of insanity, John Wilkes +Booth, had long meditated killing the President. A violent +secessionist, his morbid imagination had made of Lincoln +another Caesar. The occasion called for a Brutus. While +Lincoln was planning his peaceful war with the Vindictives, +scheming how to keep them from grinding the prostrate South +beneath their heels, devising modes of restoring happiness to +the conquered region, Booth, at an obscure boarding-house in +Washington, was gathering about him a band of adventurers, some +of whom at least, like himself, were unbalanced. They +meditated a general assassination of the Cabinet. The unexpected +theatre party on the fourteenth gave Booth a sudden +opportunity. He knew every passage of Ford's Theatre. He +knew, also, that Lincoln seldom surrounded himself with guards. +During the afternoon, he made his way unobserved into the +theatre and bored a hole in the door of the presidential box, +so that he might fire through it should there be any difficulty +in getting the door open. + +About ten o'clock that night, the audience was laughing at the +absurd play; the President's party were as much amused as any. +Suddenly, there was a pistol shot. A moment more and a woman's +voice rang out in a sharp cry. An instant sense of disaster +brought the audience startled to their feet. Two men were +glimpsed struggling toward the front of the President's box. +One broke away, leaped down on to the stage, flourished a knife +and shouted, "Sic semper tyrannis!" Then he vanished through +the flies. It was Booth, whose plans had been completely +successful. He had made his way without interruption to within +a few feet of Lincoln. At point-blank distance, he had shot +him from behind, through the head. In the confusion which +ensued, he escaped from the theatre; fled from the city; was +pursued; and was himself shot and killed a few days later. + +The bullet of the assassin had entered the brain, causing +instant unconsciousness. The dying President was removed to a +house on Tenth Street, No. 453, where he was laid on a bed in +a small room at the rear of the hall on the ground floor.[12] + +Swift panic took possession of the city. "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 gossiping in an upper room. . . . They +ran down-stairs. Finding a carriage at the door, they entered +it and drove to Tenth Street."[13] + +To right and left eddied whirls of excited figures, men and +women questioning, threatening, crying out for vengeance. +Overhead amid driving clouds, the moon, through successive +mantlings of darkness, broke periodically into sudden blazes of +light; among the startled people below, raced a witches' dance +of the rapidly changing shadows.[14] + +Lincoln did not regain consciousness. About dawn his pulse +began to fail. A little later, "a look of unspeakable peace +came over his worn features"[15], and at twenty-two minutes after +seven on the morning of the fifteenth of April, he died. + +THE END + +BIBLIOGRAPHY + +It is said that a complete bibliography of Lincoln would +include at least five thousand titles. Therefore, any limited +bibliography must appear more or less arbitrary. The following +is but a minimum list in which, with a few exceptions such as +the inescapable interpretative works of Mr. Rhodes and of +Professor Dunning, practically everything has to some extent +the character of a source. + +Alexander. A Political History of the State of New York. By +De Alva Stanwood Alexander. 3 vols. 1909. + +Arnold. History of Abraham Lincoln and the Overthrow of +Slavery. By Isaac N. Arnold. 1866. + +Baldwin. Interview between President Lincoln and Colonel John +B. Baldwin. 1866. + +Bancroft. Life of William H. Seward. By Frederick Bancroft. 2 +vols. 1900. + +Barnes. Memoir of Thurlow Weed. By Thurlow Weed Barnes. 1884. + +Barton. The Soul of Abraham Lincoln. By William Eleazar +Barton. 1920. + +Bigelow. Retrospections of an Active Life. By John Bigelow. 2 +vols. 1909. + +Blaine. Twenty Years of Congress. By James G. Blaine. 2 +vols. 1884. + +Botts. The Great Rebellion. By John Minor Botts. 1866. + +Boutwell. Reminiscences of Sixty Years in Public Affairs. By +George S. Boutwell 2 vols. 1902. + +Bradford. Union Portraits. By Gamaliel Bradford. 1916. + +Brooks. Washington in Lincoln's Time. By Noah Brooks, 1895. + +Carpenter. Six Months at the White House with Abraham Lincoln. +By F. B. Carpenter. 1866. + +Chandler. Life of Zachary Chandler. By the Detroit Post and +Tribune. 1880. + +Chapman. Latest Light on Abraham Lincoln. By Ervin Chapman. +1917. The Charleston Mercury. + +Chase. Diary and Correspondence of Salmon Chase. Report, +American Historical Association, 1902, Vol. II. + +Chittenden. Recollections of President Lincoln and His +Administration. By L. Chittenden. 1891. + +Coleman. Life of John J. Crittenden, with Selections from his +Correspondence and Speeches. By Ann Mary Coleman. 2 vols. +1871. + +Conway. Autobiography, Memories and Experiences of Moncure +Daniel Conway. 2 vols. 1904. + +Correspondence. The Correspondence of Robert Toombs, Alexander H. +Stephens, and Howell Cobb. Edited by U. B. Phillips. Report +American Historical Association, 1913, Vol. II. + +Crawford. The Genesis of the Civil War. By Samuel Wylie +Crawford. 1887. + +C. W. Report of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War. +1863. + +Dabney. Memoir of a Narrative Received from Colonel John B. +Baldwin, of Staunton, touching the Origin of the War. By Reverend +R. L. Dabney, D. D., Southern Historical Society Papers, Vol. 1. +1876. + +Davis. Rise and Fail of the Confederate Government. By +Jefferson Davis. 2 vols. 1881. + +Dunning. Essays on the Civil War and Reconstruction and Related +Topics. By William A. Dunning. 1898. + +Field. Life of David Dudley Field. By Henry M. Field. 1898. + +Flower. Edwin McMasters Stanton. By Frank Abial Flower. 1902. + +Fry. Military Miscellanies. By James B. Fry. 1889. + +Galaxy. The History of Emancipation. By Gideon Welles. +The Galaxy, XIV, 838-851. + +Gilmore. Personal Recollections of Abraham Lincoln and the Civil +War. By James R. Gilmore. 1899. + +Gilmore, Atlantic. A Suppressed Chapter of History. By +James R. Gilmore, Atlantic Monthly, April, 1887. + +Globe. Congressional Globe, Containing the Debates and +Proceedings. 1834-1873. + +Godwin. Biography of William Cullen Bryant. By Parke Godwin. + +1883. Gore. The Boyhood of Abraham Lincoln. By J. Rogers +Gore. 1921. + +Gorham. Life and Public Services of Edwin M. Stanton. By George +C. Gorham. 2 vols. 1899. + +Grant. Personal Memoirs. By Ulysses S. Grant. 2 vols. 1886. + +Greeley. The American Conflict. By Horace Greeley. 2 vols. +1864-1867. + +Gurowski. Diary from March 4, 1861, to November 12, 1862. By +Adam Gurowski. 1862. + +Hanks. Nancy Hanks. By Caroline Hanks Hitchcock. 1900. + +Harris. Public Life of Zachary Chandler. By W. C. Harris, +Michigan Historical Commission. 1917. + +Hart. Salmon Portland Chase. By Albert Bushnell Hart. 1899. + +Hay MS. Diary of John Hay. The war period is covered by three +volumes of manuscript. Photostat copies in the library of the +Massachusetts Historical Society, accessible only by special +permission. + +Hay, Century. Life in the White House in the Time of Lincoln. By +John Hay, Century Magazine, November, 1890. + +The New York Herald. + +Herndon. Herndon's Lincoln. The True Story of a Great Life: The +History and Personal Recollections of Abraham Lincoln. By W. H. +Herndon and J. W. Weik. 3 vols. (paged continuously). 1890. + +Hill. Lincoln the Lawyer. By Frederick Trevers Hill 1906. + +Hitchcock. Fifty Years in Camp and Field. Diary of +Major-General Ethan Allen Hitchcock, U. S. A. Edited by W. +Croffut. 1909. + +Johnson. Stephen A. Douglas. By Allen Johnson. 1908. + +The Journal of the Virginia Convention. 1861. + +Julian. Political Recollections 1840-1872. By George W. Julian. +1884. + +Kelley. Lincoln and Stanton. By W. D. Kelley. 1885. + +Lamon. The Life of Abraham Lincoln. By Ward H. Lamon. +1872. + +Letters. Uncollected Letters of Abraham Lincoln. Now first +brought together by Gilbert A. Tracy. 1917. + +Lieber. Life and Letters of Francis Lieber. Edited by Thomas S. +Perry, 1882. + +Lincoln. Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln. Edited by John G. +Nicolay and John Hay. 2 vols. New and enlarged edition. 12 +volumes. 1905. (All references here are to the Colter edition.) + +McCarthy. Lincoln's Plan of Reconstruction. By Charles M. +McCarthy, 1901. + +McClure. Abraham Lincoln and Men of War Times. By A. K. McClure. +1892. + +Merriam. Life and Times of Samuel Bowles. By G. S. Merriam. 2 +vols. 1885. + +Munford. Virginia's Attitude toward Slavery and Secession. By +Beverley B. Munford. 1910. + +Moore. A Digest of International Law. By John Bassett Moore. +8 vols. 1906. + +Newton. Lincoln and Herndon. By Joseph Fort Newton. 1910. + +Nicolay. A Short Life of Abraham Lincoln. By John G. Nicolay. +1902. + +Nicolay, Cambridge. The Cambridge Modern History: Volume VII. + +The United States. By various authors. 1903. + +Miss Nicolay. Personal Traits of Abraham Lincoln. By Helen +Nicolay. 1912. + +N. and H. Abraham Lincoln: A History. By John G. Nicolay and +John Hay. 10 vols. 1890. + +N. P. Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies. +First series. 27 vols. 1895-1917. + +O. P. Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. +128 vols. 1880-1901. + +Outbreak. The Outbreak of the Rebellion. By John G. Nicolay. +1881. + +Own Story. McClellan's Own Story. By George B. McClellan. +1887. + +Paternity. The Paternity of Abraham Lincoln. By William Eleazer +Barton. 1920. + +Pearson. Life of John A. Andrew. By Henry G. Pearson. 2 vols. +1904. + +Pierce. Memoirs and Letters of Charles Sumner. By Edward +Lillie Pierce. 4 vols. 1877-1893. + +Porter. In Memory of General Charles P. Stone. By Fitz John +Porter. 1887. + +Public Man. Diary of a Public Man. Anonymous. North American +Review. 1879. + +Rankin. Personal Recollections of Abraham Lincoln. By Henry B. +Rankin. 1916. + +Raymond. Journal of Henry J. Raymond. Edited by Henry W. +Raymond. Scribner's Magazine. 1879-1880. + +Recollections. Recollections of Abraham Lincoln. By Ward Hill +Lamon. 1911. + +Reminiscences. Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln, by Distinguished + +Men of his Time. Edited by Allen Thorndyke Rice. 1886. + +Report of the Joint Committee on Reconstruction, first session, +Thirty-Ninth Congress. + +Rhodes. History of the United States from the Compromise of +1850. By James Ford Rhodes. 8 vols. 1893-1920. + +Riddle. Recollections of War Times. By A. G. Riddle. 1895. + +Schrugham. The Peaceful Americans of 1860. By Mary Schrugham. +1922. + +Schure. Speeches, Correspondence and Political Papers of +Carl Schure. Selected and edited by Frederick Bancroft. 1913. + +Scott. Memoirs of Lieutenant General Scott, LL.D. Written +by himself. 2 vols. 1864. + +Seward. Works of William H. Seward. 5 vols. 1884. + +Sherman. Memoirs of William T. Sherman. By himself. 2 vols. +1886. Sherman Letters. + +Letters of John Sherman and W. T. Sherman. Edited by Rachel +Sherman Thorndike. 1894. + +Southern Historical Society Papers. + +Stephens. Constitutional View of the Late War between the +States. By Alexander H. Stephens. 2 vols. 1869-1870. + +Stoddard. Inside the White House in War Times. By William O. +Stoddard. 1890. + +Stories. "Abe" Lincoln's Yarns and Stories. With introduction +and anecdotes by Colonel Alexander McClure. 1901. + +The New York Sun. + +Swinton. Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac. By William +Swinton. 1866. + +Tarbell. The Life of Abraham Lincoln. By Ida M. Tarbell. New +edition. 2 vols. 1917. + +Thayer. The Life and Letters of John Hay. By William Roscoe +Thayer. 2 vols. 1915. + +The New York Times. + +The New York Tribune. + +Tyler. Letters and Times of the Tylers. By Lyon G. Tyler. +3 vols. 1884-1896. + +Van Santvoord. A Reception by President Lincoln. By C. J. Van +Santvoord. Century Magazine, Feb., 1883. + +Villard. Memoirs of Henry Villard. 2 vols. 1902. + +Wade. Life of Benjamin F. Wade. By A. G. Riddle. 1886. + +Warden. Account of the Private Life and Public Services of Salmon +Portland Chase. By R. B. Warden. 1874. + +Welles. Diary of Gideon Welles. Edited by J. T. Morse, Jr. 3 +vols. 1911. + +White. Life of Lyman Trumbull. By Horace White. 1913. + +Woodburn. The Life of Thaddeus Stevens. By James Albert +Woodburn. 1913. + +NOTES + +I. THE CHILD OF THE FOREST. + +1. Herndon, 1-7, 11-14; 1, anon, 13; N. and H., 1, 23-27. +This is the version of his origin accepted by Lincoln. He +believed that his mother was the illegitimate daughter of a +Virginia planter and traced to that doubtful source "all the +qualities that distinguished him from other members" of his +immediate family. Herndon, 3. His secretaries are silent upon +the subject. Recently the story has been challenged. Mrs. +Caroline Hanks Hitchcock, who identifies the Hanks family of +Kentucky with a lost branch of a New England family, has +collected evidence which tends to show that Nancy was the +legitimate daughter of a certain Joseph H. Hanks, who was +father of Joseph the carpenter, and that Nancy was not the +niece but the younger sister of the "uncle" who figures in the +older version, the man with whom Thomas Lincoln worked. Nancy +and Thomas appear to have been cousins through their mothers. +Mrs. Hitchcock argues the case with care and ability in a +little book entitled Nancy Hanks. However, she is not +altogether sustained by W. E. Barton, The Paternity of Abraham +Lincoln. + +Scandal has busied itself with the parents of Lincoln in +another way. It has been widely asserted that he was himself +illegitimate. A variety of shameful paternities have been +assigned to him, some palpably absurd. The chief argument of +the lovers of this scandal was once the lack of a known record +of the marriage of his parents. Around this fact grew up the +story of a marriage of concealment with Thomas Lincoln as the +easy-going accomplice. The discovery of the marriage record +fixing the date and demonstrating that Abraham must have been +the second child gave this scandal its quietus. N. and H., 1, +23-24; Hanks, 59-67; Herndon, 5-6; Lincoln and Herndon, 321. +The last important book on the subject is Barton, The Paternity +of Abraham Lincoln. + +2. N. and H., 1-13. + +3. Lamon, 13; N. and H., 1, 25. + +4. N. and H., 1, 25. + +5. Gore, 221-225. + +6. Herndon, 15. + +7. Gore, 66, 70-74, 79, 83-84, 116, 151-154, 204, 226-230, for +all this group of anecdotes. + +The evidence with regard to all the early part of Lincoln's +life is peculiar in this, that it is reminiscence not written +down until the subject had become famous. Dogmatic certainty +with regard to the details is scarcely possible. The best one +can do in weighing any of the versions of his early days is to +inquire closely as to whether all its parts bang naturally +together, whether they really cohere. There is a body of +anecdotes told by an old mountaineer, Austin Gollaher, who knew +Lincoln as a boy, and these have been collected and recently +put into print. Of course, they are not "documented" evidence. +Some students are for brushing them aside. But there is one +important argument in their favor. They are coherent; the boy +they describe is a real person and his personality is +sustained. If he is a fiction and not a memory, the old +mountaineer was a literary artist--far more the artist than one +finds it easy to believe. + +8. Gore, 84-95; Lamon, 16; Herndon, 16. + +9. Gore, 181-182, 296, 303-316; Lamon, 19-20; N. and H., I, +28-29. + +II. THE MYSTERIOUS YOUTH. + +1. N. and H., I, 32-34. + +2. Lamon, 33-38, 51-52, 61-63; N. and H., 1, 34-36. + +3. N. and H., 1, 40. + +4. Lamon, 38, 40, 55. + +5. Reminiscences, 54, 428. + +III. A VILLAGE LEADER. + +1. N. and H., 1, 45-46, 70-72; Herndon, 67, 69, 72. + +2. Lamon, 81-82; Herndon, 75-76. + +3. Lincoln, 1, 1-9. + +4. Lamon, 125-126; Herndon, 104. + +5. Herndon, 117-118. + +6. N. and H., 1, 109. + +7. Stories, 94. + +8. Herndon, 118-123. + +9. Lamon, 159-164; Herndon, 128-138; Rankin, 61-95. + +10. Lamon, 164. + +11. Lamon, 164-165; Rankin, 95. + +IV. REVELATIONS. + +1. Riddle, 337. + +2. Herndon, 436. + +3. N. and H., I, 138. + +4. Lincoln, I, 51-52. + +5. McClure, 65. + +6. Herndon, 184.185. + +7. Anon, 172-183; Herndon, 143-150, 161; Lincoln, 1, 87-92. + +8. Gossip has preserved a melodramatic tale with regard to +Lincoln's marriage. It describes the bride to be, waiting, +arrayed, in tense expectation deepening into alarm; the guests +assembled, wondering, while the hour appointed passes by and +the ceremony does not begin; the failure of the prospective +bridegroom to appear; the scattering of the company, amazed, +their tongues wagging. The explanation offered is an attack of +insanity. Herndon, 215; I,anon, 239-242. As might be expected +Lincoln's secretaries who see him always in a halo give no hint +of such an event. It has become a controversial scandal. Is +it a fact or a myth? Miss Tarbell made herself the champion of +the mythical explanation and collected a great deal of evidence +that makes it hard to accept the story as a fact Tarbell, I, +Chap. XI. Still later a very sane memoirist, Henry B. Rankin, +who knew Lincoln, and is not at all an apologist, takes the +same view. His most effective argument is that such an event +could not have occurred in the little country town of +Springfield without becoming at the time the common property of +all the gossips. The evidence is bewildering. I find myself +unable to accept the disappointed wedding guests as established +facts, even though the latest student of Herndon has no doubts. +Lincoln and Herndon, 321-322. But whether the broken marriage +story is true or false there is no doubt that Lincoln passed +through a desolating inward experience about "the fatal first +of January"; that it was related to the breaking of his +engagement; and that for a time his sufferings were intense. +The letters to Speed are the sufficient evidence. Lincoln, I, +175; 182-189; 210-219; 240; 261; 267-269. The prompt +explanation of insanity may be cast aside, one of those foolish +delusions of shallow people to whom all abnormal conditions are +of the same nature as all others. Lincoln wrote to a noted +Western physician, Doctor Drake of Cincinnati, with regard to +his "case"--that is, his nervous breakdown--and Doctor Drake +replied but refused to prescribe without an interview. Lamon, +244. + +V. PROSPERITY. + +1. Carpenter, 304-305. + +2. Lamon, 243, 252-269; Herndon, 226-243, 248-251; N. and H., +201, 203-12. + +3. A great many recollections of Lincoln attempt to describe +him. Except in a large and general way most of them show that +lack of definite visualization which characterizes the memories +of the careless observer. His height, his bony figure, his +awkwardness, the rudely chiseled features, the mystery in his +eyes, the kindliness of his expression, these are the elements +of the popular portrait. Now and then a closer observer has +added a detail. Witness the masterly comment of Walt Whitman. +Herndon's account of Lincoln speaking has the earmarks of +accuracy. The attempt by the portrait painter, Carpenter, to +render him in words is quoted later in this volume. Carpenter, +217-218. Unfortunately he was never painted by an artist of +great originality, by one who was equal to his opportunity. My +authority for the texture of his skin is a lady of unusual +closeness of observation, the late Mrs. M. T. W. Curwen of +Cincinnati, who saw him in 1861 in the private car of the +president of the Indianapolis and Cincinnati railroad. An +exhaustive study of the portraits of Lincoln is in preparation +by Mr. Winfred Porter Truesdell, who has a valuable paper on +the subject in The Print Connoisseur, for March, 1921. + +4. Herndon, 264. + +5. Ibid. + +6. Ibid., 515. + +7. A vital question to the biographer of Lincoln is the +credibility of Herndon. He has been accused of capitalizing +his relation with Lincoln and producing a sensational image for +commercial purposes. Though his Life did not appear until 1890 +when the official work of Nicolay and Hay was in print, he had +been lecturing and corresponding upon Lincoln for nearly +twenty-five years. The "sensational" first edition of his Life +produced a storm of protest. The book was promptly recalled, +worked over, toned down, and reissued "expurgated" in 1892. + +Such biographers as Miss Tarbell appear to regard Herndon as a +mere romancer. The well poised Lincoln and Herndon recently +published by Joseph Fort Newton holds what I feel compelled to +regard as a sounder view; namely, that while Herndon was at +times reckless and at times biased, nevertheless he is in the +main to be relied upon. + +Three things are to be borne in mind: Herndon was a literary +man by nature; but he was not by training a developed artist; +he was a romantic of the full flood of American romanticism and +there are traceable in him the methods of romantic portraiture. +Had he been an Elizabethan one can imagine him laboring hard +with great pride over an inferior "Tamburlane the Great"--and +perhaps not knowing that it was inferior. Furthermore, he had +not, before the storm broke on him, any realization of the +existence in America of another school of portraiture, the +heroic--conventual, that could not understand the romantic. If +Herndon strengthened as much as possible the contrasts of his +subject--such as the contrast between the sordidness of +Lincoln's origin and the loftiness of his thought--he felt that +by so doing he was merely rendering his subject in its most +brilliant aspect, giving to it the largest degree of +significance. A third consideration is Herndon's enthusiasm +for the agnostic deism that was rampant in America in his day. +Perhaps this causes his romanticism to slip a cog, to run at +times on a side-track, to become the servant of his religious +partisanship. In three words the faults of Herndon are +exaggeration, literalness and exploitiveness. + +But all these are faults of degree which the careful student +can allow for. By "checking up" all the parts of Herndon that +it is possible to check up one can arrive at a pretty confident +belief that one knows how to divest the image he creates of its +occasional unrealities. When one does so, the strongest +argument for relying cautiously, watchfully, upon Herndon +appears. The Lincoln thus revealed, though only a character +sketch, is coherent. And it stands the test of comparison in +detail with the Lincolns of other, less romantic, observers. +That is to say, with all his faults, Herndon has the inner +something that will enable the diverse impressions of Lincoln, +always threatening to become irreconcilable, to hang together +and out of their very incongruity to invoke a person that is +not incongruous. And herein, in this touchstone so to speak is +Herndon's value. + +8. Herndon, 265. + +9. Lamon, 51. + +10. Lincoln, I, 35-SO. + +11. The reader who would know the argument against Herndon +(436-446) and Lamon (486-502) on the subject of Lincoln's early +religion is referred to The Soul of Abraham Lincoln, by William +Eleazer Barton. It is to be observed that the present study is +never dogmatic about Lincoln's religion in its early phases. +And when Herndon and Lamon generalize about his religious life, +it must be remembered that they are thinking of him as they +knew him in Illinois. Herndon had no familiarity with him +after he went to Washington. Lamon could not have seen very +much of him--no one but his secretaries and his wife did. And +his taciturnity must be borne in mind. Nicolay has recorded +that he did not know what Lincoln believed. Lamon, 492. That +Lincoln was vaguely a deist in the 'forties--so far as he had any +theology at all--may be true. But it is a rash leap to a +conclusion to assume that his state of mind even then was the +same thing as the impression it made on so practical, +bard-headed, unpoetical a character as Lamon; or on so +combatively imaginative but wholly unmystical a mind as +Herndon's. Neither of them seems to have any understanding of +those agonies of spirit through which Lincoln subsequently +passed which will appear in the account of the year 1862. See +also Miss Nicolay, 384-386. There is a multitude of +pronouncements on Lincoln's religion, most of them superficial. + +12. Lincoln, I, 206. + +13. Nicolay, 73-74; N. and H., 1, 242; Lamon, 275-277. + +14. Lamon, 277-278; Herndon, 272-273; N. and H., 1, 245-249. + +VI. UNSATISFYING RECOGNITION. + +1. N. and H., I, 28~28& + +2. Tarbell, 1, 211. + +3. Ibid., 210-211. + +4. Herndon, 114. + +5. Lincoln, II, 28-48. + +6. Herndon, 306-308, 319; Newton, 4(141). + +7. Tarbell, I, 209-210. + +8. Herndon, 306. + +9. Lamon, 334; Herndon, 306; N. and H., I, 297. + +VII. THE SECOND START. + +1. Herndon, 307, 319. + +2. Herndon, 319-321. + +3. Herndon, 314-317. + +4. Herndon, 332-333. + +5. Herndon, 311-312. + +6. Herndon, 319. + +7. Lamon, 165. + +8. Herndon, 309. + +9. Herndon, 113-114; Stories, 18~ + +10. Herndon, 338. + +11. Lamon, 324. + +12. Lincoln, 11, 142. + +13. Herndon, 347. + +14. Herndon, 363. + +15. Herndon, 362. + +16. Lincoln, II, 172. + +17. Lincoln, II, 207. + +18. Lincoln, II, 173. + +19. Lincoln, II, 165. + +VIII. A RETURN TO POLITICS. + +1. Johnson, 234. + +2. I have permission to print the following letter from the +Honorable John H. Marshall, Judge Fifth Judicial Circuit, +Charleston, Illinois: + +"Your letter of the 24th inst. at hand referring to slave +trial in which Lincoln was interested, referred to by Professor +Henry Johnson. Twenty-five years ago, while I was secretary of +the Coles County Bar Association, a paper was read to the +Association by the oldest member concerning the trial referred +to, and his paper was filed with rue. Some years ago I spoke +of the matter to Professor Johnson, and at the time was unable +to find the old manuscript, and decided that the same had been +inadvertently destroyed. However, quite recently I found this +paper crumpled up under some old book records. The author of +this article is a reputable member of the bar of this country +of very advanced age, and at that time quoted as his authority +well-known and very substantial men of the county, who had +taken an active interest in the litigation. His paper referred +to incidents occurring in 1847, and there is now no living +person with any knowledge of it. The story in brief is as +follows: + +"In 1845, General Robert Matson, of Kentucky, being hard +pressed financially, in order to keep them from being sold in +payment of his debts, brought Jane Bryant, with her four small +children to this county. Her husband, Anthony Bryant, was a +free negro, and a licensed exhorter in the Methodist Church of +Kentucky. But his wife and children were slaves of Matson. In +1847, Matson, determined to take the Bryants back to Kentucky +as his slaves, caused to be issued by a justice of the peace of +the county a writ directed to Jane Bryant and her children to +appear before him forthwith and answer the claim of Robert +Matson that their service was due to him, etc. This action +produced great excitement in this county. Practically the +entire community divided, largely on the lines of pro-slavery +and anti-slavery. Usher F. Linder, the most eloquent lawyer +in this vicinity, appeared for Matson, and Orlando B. Ficklin, +twice a member of Congress, appeared for the negroes. Under the +practice the defendant obtained a hearing from three justices +instead of one, and a trial ensued lasting several days, and +attended by great excitement. Armed men made demonstrations +and bloodshed was narrowly averted. Two of the justices were +pro-slavery, and one anti-slavery. The trial was held in +Charleston. The decision of the justice was discreet. It was +held that the court had no jurisdiction to determine the right +of property, but that Jane and her children were of African +descent and found in the state of Illinois without a +certificate of freedom, and that they be committed to the +county jail to be advertised and sold to pay the jail fees. + +"At the next term of the circuit court, Ficklin obtained an +order staying proceedings until the further order of the court. +Finally when the case was heard in the circuit court Linder and +Abraham Lincoln appeared for Matson, who was insisting upon the +execution of the judgment of the three justices of the peace so +that he could buy them at the proposed sale, and Ficklin and +Charles Constable, afterward a circuit judge of this circuit, +appeared for the negroes. The judgment was in favor of the +negroes and they were discharged. + +"The above is a much abbreviated account of this occurrence, +stripped of its local coloring, giving however its salient +points, and I have no doubt of its substantial accuracy." + +3. Lincoln, II, 185. + +4. Lincoln, II, 186. + +5. Lamon, 347. + +6. Lincoln, II, 232-233. + +7. Lincoln, II, 190-262. + +8. Lincoln, 274-277. + +IX. THE LITERARY STATESMAN. + +1. Herndon, 371-372. + +2. Lincoln, II, 329-330. + +3. Lincoln, III, 1-2. + +4. Herndon, 405-408. + +5. Lincoln. II, 279. + +6. Lamon, 416. + +X. THE DARK HORSE. + +1. Lincoln, V, 127. + +2. Tarbell, I, 335. + +3. Lincoln, V, 127,138, 257-258. + +4. Lincoln, V, 290-291. He never entirely shook off his +erratic use of negatives. See, also, Lamon, 424; Tarbell, I, +338. + +5. Lincoln, V, 293-32&6. McClure, 23-29; Field, 126,137-138; +Tarbell, I, 342-357. + +XII. THE CRISIS + +1. Letters, 172. + +2. Lincoln, VI, 77, 78, 79, 93. + +3. Bancroft, 11,10; Letters, 111. + +XIII. ECLIPSE. + +1. Bancroft, II, 10; Letters, 172. + +2. Bancroft, II, 9-10. + +3. Herndon, 484. + +4. McClure, 140-145; Lincoln, VI, 91, 97. + +5. Recollections, 111. + +6. Recollections, 121. + +7. Recollections, 112-113; Tarbell, I, 404-415. + +8. Tarbell, 1, 406. + +9. Tarbell, I, 406. + +10. Lincoln, VI, 91. + +11. Tarbell, 1, 406. + +12. Herndon, 483-484 + +13. Lamon, 505; see also, Herndon, 485. + +14. Lincoln, VI, 110. + +XIV. THE STRANGE NEW MAN. + +1. Lincoln, VI, 130. + +2. Merriam, I, 318. + +3. Public Man, 140. + +4. Van Santvoord. + +5. N. and H., I, 36; McClure, 179. + +6. Herndon, 492. + +7. Recollections, 39-41. + +8. Lincoln, VI, 162-164. + +9. Bancroft, II, 38-45. + +10. Public Man, 383. + +11. Chittenden, 89-90. + +12. Public Man, 387. + +XV. PRESIDENT AND PREMIER. + +1. Hay MS, I, 64. + +2. Tyler, II, 565-566. + +3. Bradford, 208; Seward, IV, 416. + +4. Nicolay, 213. + +5. Chase offered to procure a commission for Henry Villard, +"by way of compliment to the Cincinnati Commercial" Villard, +1,177. + +6. N. and H., III, 333, note 12. + +7. Outbreak, 52. + +8. Hay MS, I, 91; Tyler, II, 633; Coleman, 1, 338. + +9. Hay MS, I, 91; Riddle, 5; Public Man, 487. + +10. Correspondence, 548-549. + +11. See Miss Schrugham's monograph for much important data +with regard to this moment. Valuable as her contribution is, I +can not feel that the conclusions invalidate the assumption of +the text. + +12. Lincoln, VI, 192-220. + +13. Sherman, I, 195-1%. + +14. Lincoln, VI, 175-176. + +15. 127 0. R., 161. + +16. Munford, 274; Journal of the Virginia Convention, 1861. + +17. Lincoln, VI, 227-230. + +18. N. R., first series, IV, 227. + +19. Hay MS, I, 143. + +20. The great authority of Mr. Frederick Bancroft is still on +the side of the older interpretation of Seward's Thoughts, +Bancroft, II, Chap. XXIX. It must be remembered that +following the war there was a reaction against Seward. When +Nicolay and Hay published the Thoughts they appeared to give +him the coup de grace. Of late years it has almost been the +fashion to treat him contemptuously. Even Mr. Bancroft has +been very cautious in his defense. This is not the place to +discuss his genius or his political morals. But on one thing I +insist, Whatever else he was-unscrupulous or what you will-he +was not a fool. However reckless, at times, his +spread-eagleism there was shrewdness behind it. The idea that +he proposed a ridiculous foreign policy at a moment when all +his other actions reveal coolness and calculation; the idea +that he proposed it merely as a spectacular stroke in party +management; this is too much to believe. A motive must be +found better than mere chicanery. + +Furthermore, if there was one fixed purpose in Seward, during +March and early April, it was to avoid a domestic conflict; and +the only way he could see to accomplish that was to side-track +Montgomery's expansive all-Southern policy. Is it not fair, +with so astute a politician as Seward, to demand in explanation +of any of his moves 'he uncovering of some definite political +force he was playing up to? The old interpretation of the +Thoughts offers no force to which they form a response. +Especially it is impossible to find in them any scheme to get +around Montgomery. But the old view looked upon the Virginia +compromise with blind eyes. That was no part of the mental +prospect. In accounting for Seward's purposes it did not exist. +But the moment one's eyes are opened to its significance, +especially to the menace it had for the Montgomery program, is +not the entire scene transformed? Is not, under these new +conditions, the purpose intimated in the text, the purpose to +open a new field of exploitation to the Southern expansionists +in order to reconcile them to the Virginia scheme, is not this +at least plausible? And it escapes making Seward a fool. + +21. Lincoln, VI, 23~237. + +22. Welles, 1,17. + +23. There is still lacking a complete unriddling of the +three-cornered game of diplomacy played in America in March and +April, 1861. Of the three participants Richmond is the most +fully revealed. It was playing desperately for a compromise, +any sort of compromise, that would save the one principle of +state sovereignty. For that, slavery would be sacrificed, or +at least allowed to be put in jeopardy. Munford, Virginia's +Attitude toward Slavery and Secession; Tyler, Letters and Times +of the Tylers; Journal of the Virginia Convention of 1861. +However, practically no Virginian would put himself in the +position of forcing any Southern State to abandon slavery +against its will. Hence the Virginia compromise dealt only +with the expansion of slavery, would go no further than to give +the North a veto on that expansion. And its compensating +requirement plainly would be a virtual demand for the +acknowledgment of state sovereignty. + +Precisely what passed between Richmond and Washington is still +something of a mystery. John Hay quotes Lincoln as saying that +he twice offered to evacuate Sumter, once before and once after +his inauguration, if the Virginians "would break up their +convention without any row or nonsense." Hay MS, I, 91; Thayer, +I, 118-119. From other sources we have knowledge of at least +two conferences subsequent to the inauguration and probably +three. One of the conferences mentioned by Lincoln seems +pretty well identified. Coleman II, 337-338. It was informal +and may be set aside as having little if any historic +significance. When and to whom Lincoln's second offer was made +is not fully established. Riddle in his Recollections says +that he was present at an informal interview "with loyal +delegates of the Virginia State Convention," who were wholly +satisfied with Lincoln's position. Riddle, 25. Possibly, this +was the second conference mentioned by Lincoln. It has +scarcely a feature in common with the conference of April 4, +which has become the subject of acrimonious debate. N. and H., +III, 422-428; Boutwell, II, 62-67; Bancroft, II, 102-104; +Munford, 270; Southern Historical Papers, 1, 449; Botts, 195- +201; Crawford, 311; Report of the Joint Committee on +Reconstruction, first session, Thirty-Ninth Congress; Atlantic, +April, 1875. The date of this conference is variously given as +the fourth, fifth and sixth of April. Curiously enough Nicolay +and Hay seem to have only an external knowledge of It; their +account is made up from documents and lacks entirely the +authoritative note. They do not refer to the passage in the +Hay MS, already quoted. + +There are three versions of the interview between Lincoln and +Baldwin. One was given by Baldwin himself before the Committee +on Reconstruction some five years after; one comprises the +recollections of Colonel Dabney, to whom Baldwin narrated the +incident in the latter part of the war; a third is in the +recollections of John Minor Botts of a conversation with +Lincoln April 7, 1862. No two of the versions entirely agree. +Baldwin insists that Lincoln made no offer of any sort; while' +Botts in his testimony before the Committee on Reconstruction +says that Lincoln told him that he had told Baldwin that he was +so anxious "for the preservation of the peace of this country +and to save Virginia and the other Border States from going out +that (he would) take the responsibility of evacuating Fort +Sumter, and take the chances of negotiating with the Cotton +States." Baldwin's language before the committee is a little +curious and has been thought disingenuous. Boutwell, I, 66. +However, practically no one in this connection has considered +the passage in the Hay MS or the statement in Riddle. Putting +these together and remembering the general situation of the +first week of April there arises a very plausible argument for +accepting the main fact in Baldwin's version of his conference +and concluding that Botts either misunderstood Lincoln (as +Baldwin says he did) or got the matter twisted in memory. A +further bit of plausibility is the guess that Lincoln talked +with Botts not only of the interview with Baldwin but also of +the earlier interview mentioned by Riddle and that the two +became confused in recollection. + +To venture on an assumption harmonizing these confusions. When +Lincoln came to Washington, being still in his delusion that +slavery was the issue and therefore that the crisis was +"artificial," he was willing to make almost any concession, and +freely offered to evacuate Sumter if thereby he could induce +Virginia to drop the subject of secession. Even later, when he +was beginning to appreciate the real significance of the +moment, he was still willing to evacuate Sumter if the issue +would not be pushed further in the Border States, that is, if +Virginia would not demand a definite concession of the right of +secession. Up to this point I can not think that he had taken +seriously Seward's proposed convention of the States and the +general discussion of permanent Federal relations that would be +bound to ensue. But now he makes his fateful discovery that +the issue is not slavery but sovereignty. He sees that +Virginia is in dead earnest on this issue and that a general +convention will necessarily involve a final discussion of +sovereignty in the United States and that the price of the +Virginia Amendment will be the concession of the right of +secession. On this assumption it is hardly conceivable that he +offered to evacuate Sumter as late as the fourth of April. The +significance therefore of the Baldwin interview would consist +in finally convincing Lincoln that he could not effect any +compromise without conceding the principle of state +sovereignty. As this was the one thing he was resolved never +to concede there was nothing left him but to consider what +course would most strategically renounce compromise. +Therefore, when it was known at Washington a day or two later +that Port Pickens was in imminent danger of being taken by the +Confederates (see note 24), Lincoln instantly concentrated all +his energies on the relief of Sumter. All along he had +believed that one of the forts must be held for the purpose of +"a clear indication of policy," even if the other should be +given up "as a military necessity." Lincoln, VI, 301. His +purpose, therefore, in deciding on the ostentatious +demonstration toward Sumter was to give notice to the whole +country that he made no concessions on the matter of +sovereignty. In a way it was his answer to the Virginia +compromise. + +At last the Union party in Virginia sent a delegation to confer +with Lincoln. It did not arrive until Sumter had been fired +upon. Lincoln read to them a prepared statement of policy +which announced his resolution to make war, if necessary, to +assert the national sovereignty. Lincoln, VI, 243-245. + +The part of Montgomery in this tangled episode is least +understood of the three. With Washington Montgomery had no +official communication. Both Lincoln and Seward refused to +recognize commissioners of the Confederate government Whether +Seward as an individual went behind the back of himself as an +official and personally deceived the commissioners is a problem +of his personal biography and his private morals that has no +place in this discussion. Between Montgomery and Richmond +there was intimate and cordial communication from the start. +At first Montgomery appears to have taken for granted that the +Secessionist party at Richmond was so powerful that there was +little need for the new government to do anything but wait But +a surprise was in store for it During February and March its +agents reported a wide-spread desire in the South to compromise +on pretty nearly any terms that would not surrender the central +Southern idea of state sovereignty. Thus an illusion of that +day--as of this--was exploded, namely the irresistibility of +economic solidarity. Sentimental and constitutional forces +were proving more powerful than economics. Thereupon +Montgomery's problem was transformed. Its purpose was to build +a Southern nation and it had believed hitherto that economic +forces had put into its hands the necessary tools. Now it must +throw them aside and get possession of others. It must evoke +those sentimental and constitutional forces that so many rash +statesmen have always considered negligible. Consequently, for +the South no less than for the North, the issue was speedily +shifted from slavery to sovereignty. Just how this was brought +about we do not yet know. Whether altogether through foresight +and statesmanlike deliberation, or in part at least through +what might almost be called accidental influences, is still a +little uncertain. The question narrows itself to this: why was +Sumter fired upon precisely when it was? There are at least +three possible answers. + +(1) That the firing was dictated purely by military necessity. +A belief that Lincoln intended to reinforce as well as to +supply Sumter, that if not taken now it could never be taken, +may have been the over-mastering idea in the Confederate +Cabinet. The reports of the Commissioners at Washington were +tinged throughout by the belief that Seward and Lincoln were +both double-dealers. Beauregard, in command at Charleston, +reported that pilots had come in from the sea and told him of +Federal war-ships sighted off the Carolina coast. O. R. +297, 300, 301, 304, 305. + +(2) A political motive which to-day is not so generally +intelligible as once it was, had great weight in 1861. This +was the sense of honor in politics. Those historians who brush +it aside as a figment lack historical psychology. It is +possible that both Governor Pickens and the Confederate Cabinet +were animated first of all by the belief that the honor of +South Carolina required them to withstand the attempt of what +they held to be an alien power. + +(3) And yet, neither of these explanations, however much +either or both may have counted for in many minds, gives a +convincing explanation of the agitation of Toornbs in the +Cabinet council which decided to fire upon Sumter. Neither of +these could well be matters of debate. Everybody had to be +either for or against, and that would be an end. The Toombs of +that day was a different man from the Toombs of three months +earlier. Some radical change had taken place in his thought +What could it have been if it was not the perception that the +Virginia program had put the whole matter in a new light, that +the issue had indeed been changed from slavery to sovereignty, +and that to join battle on the latter issue was a far more +serious matter than to join battle on the former. And if +Toombs reasoned in this fearful way, it is easy to believe that +the more buoyant natures in that council may well have reasoned +in precisely the opposite way. Virginia had lifted the +Southern cause to its highest plane. But there was danger that +the Virginia compromise might prevail. If that should happen +these enthusiasts for a separate Southern nationality might +find all their work undone at the eleventh hour. Virginians +who shared Montgomery's enthusiasms had seen this before then. +That was why Roger Pryor, for example, had gone to Charleston +as a volunteer missionary. In a speech to a Charleston crowd +he besought them, as a way of precipitating Virginia into the +lists, to strike blow. Charleston Mercury, April 11, 1861. + +The only way to get any clue to these diplomatic tangles is by +discarding the old notion that there were but two political +ideals clashing together in America in 1861. There were three. +The Virginians with their devotion to the idea of a league of +nations in this country were scarcely further away from Lincoln +and his conception of a Federal unit than they were from those +Southerners who from one cause or another were possessed with +the desire to create a separate Southern nation. The Virginia +program was as deadly to one as to the other of these two +forces which with the upper South made up the triangle of the +day. The real event of March, 1861, was the perception both by +Washington and Montgomery that the Virginia program spelled +ruin for its own. By the middle of April it would be difficult +to say which had the better reason to desire the defeat of that +program, Washington or Montgomery. + +24. Lincoln, VI, 240, 301, 302; N. R., first series, IV, 109, +235, 239; Welles, I, 16, 22-23, 25; Bancroft, II, 127, +129-130,138,139, 144; N. and H., III, Chap. XI, IV, Chap. I. +Enemies of Lincoln have accused him of bad faith with regard to +the relief of Fort Pickens. The facts appear to be as follows: +In January, 1861, when Fort Pickens was in danger of being +seized by the forces of the State of Florida, Buchanan ordered +a naval expedition to proceed to its relief. Shortly +afterward--January 2--Senator Mallory on behalf of Florida +persuaded him to order the relief expedition not to land any +troops so long as the Florida forces refrained from attacking +the fort. This understanding between Buchanan and Mallory is +some-times called "the Pickens truce," sometimes "the Pickens +Armistice." N. and H., III, Chap. XI; N. R., first series, 1, +74; Scott, II, 624-625. The new Administration had no definite +knowledge of it. Lincoln, VI, 302. Lincoln despatched a +messenger to the relief expedition, which was still hovering +off the Florida coast, and ordered its troops to be landed. +The commander replied that he felt bound by the previous orders +which had been issued in the name of the Secretary of the Navy +while the new orders issued from the Department of War; he +added that relieving Pickens would produce war and wished to be +sure that such was the President's intention; he also informed +Lincoln's messenger of the terms of Buchanan's agreement with +Mallory. The messenger returned to Washington for ampler +instructions. N. and H., IV, Chap. I; N. R., first series, I, +109-110, 110-111. + +Two days before his arrival at Washington alarming news from +Charleston brought Lincoln very nearly, if not quite, to the +point of issuing sailing orders to the Sumter expedition. +Lincoln, VI, 240. A day later, Welles issued such orders. N. +IL, first series, I, 235; Bancroft, II, 138-139. On April +sixth, the Pickens messenger returned to Washington. N. and +H., IV, 7. Lincoln was now in full possession of all the +facts. In his own words, "To now reinforce Fort Pickens before +a crisis would be reached at Fort Sumter was impossible, +rendered so by the exhaustion of provisions at the latter named +fort. . . . The strongest anticipated case for using it (the +Sumter expedition) was now presented, and it was resolved to +send it forward." Lincoln, VI, 302. He also issued peremptory +orders for the Pickens expedition to land its force, which was +done April twelfth. N. R., first series, I, 110-111, 115. How +he reasoned upon the question of a moral obligation devolving, +or not devolving, upon himself as a consequence of the +Buchanan-Mallory agreement, he did not make public. The fact +of the agreement was published in the first message. But when +Congress demanded information on the subject, Lincoln +transmitted to it a report from Welles declining to submit the +information on account of the state of the country. 10. IL, +440-441. + +25. Lincoln, VI, 241. + +XVI. ON TO RICHMOND. + +1. May MS, I, 23. + +2. N. and H., IV, 152. + +3. Hay MS, I, 45. + +4. Hay MS, I, 46. + +5. Hay MS, I, 5~56. + +6. Sherman, I, 199. + +7. Nicolay, 213. + +8. N. and H., IV, 322-323, 360. + +9. Bigelow, I, 360. + +10. Nicolay, 229. + +11. Lincoln, VI, 331-333. + +12. Own Story, 55, 82. + +XVII. DEFINING THE ISSUE. + +1. Lincoln, VI, 297-325. + +2. Lincoln, X, 199. + +3. Lincoln, X, 202-203. + +4. Lincoln, VI, 321. + +5. Lincoln, VII, 56-57. + +6. Bancroft, II, 121; Southern Historical Papers, I, 446. + +7. Lincoln, VI, 304. + +8. Hay MS, I, 65. + +9. Lincoln, VI, 315. + +10. 39 Globe, I, 222; N. and H., IV, 379. + +XVIII. THE JACOBIN CLUB. + +1. White, 171. + +2. Riddle, 40-52. + +3. Harris, 62. + +4. Public Man, 139. + +5. 37 Globe, III, 1334. + +6. Chandler, 253. + +7. White, 171. + +8. Conway, II, 336. + +9. Conway, II, 329. + +10. Rhodes, III, 350. + +11. Lincoln, VI, 351. + +12. Hay MS, I, 93. + +13. Hay MS, 1, 93. + +14. Bigelow, I, 400. + +15. Chandler, 256. + +XIX. THE JACOBINS BECOME INQUISITORS. + +1. Lincoln, VII, 28-60. + +2. Nicolay, 321. + +3. C. W. I 3 66 + +4. Julian, 201. + +5. Chandler, 228. + +6. 37 Globe, II, 189-191; Lincoln, VII, 151-152; O. R., +341-346; 114 0. R., 786, 797; C. W., I, 5, 74, 79; Battles and +Leaders, II, 132-134; Blaine, I, 383-384, 392-393; Pearson, 1, +312-313; Chandler, 222; Porter. + +7. Swinton, 79-85, quoting General McDowell's memoranda of +their proceedings. + +8 37 Globe, II, 15. + +9 Riddle, 296; Wade, 316; Chandler, 187. + +10. C. W., 1, 74. + +11. 37 Globe, II, 1667. + +12. 37 Globe, II, 1662-1668, 1732-1742. + +13. Lincoln, VII, 151-152. + +XX. IS CONGRESS THE PRESIDENT'S MASTER. + +1. 37 Globe, II, 67. + +2. Rhodes, III, 350. + +3. 37 Globe, II, 3328. + +4. 37 Globe, II, 2764. + +5. 37 Globe, II, 2734. + +6. 37 Globe II, 2972-2973. + +7. 37 Globe, II, 440. + +8. 37 Globe, II, 1136-1139. + +9. Quoting 7 Howard, 43-46. + +XXI. THE STRUGGLE TO CONTROL THE ARMY. + +1. N. and H., IV, 444. + +2. Own Story, 84. + +3. Own Story, 85. + +4. Gurowski, 123. + +5. Hay MS, 1, 99; Thayer, 1,125. + +6. N. and H., IV, 469. + +7. Hay MS, I, 93. + +8. 5 0. R., 41. + +9. Swinton, 79-84; C. W., 1, 270. + +10. C. W., I, 270, 360, 387; Hay MS, II, 101. + +11. Gorham, I, 347-348; Kelly, 34. + +12. Chandler, 228; Julian, 205. + +13. Hay MS, I, 101; 5 0. R., 1~ + +14. 5 0. R., 50. + +15. 5 0. R., 54-55; Julian, 205. + +16. Hay MS, I, 103. + +17. Hitchcock, 439. + +18. Hitchcock, 440. The italics are his. + +19. 5 0. R., 58. + +20. 5 0. R., 59. + +21. 5 0. R, 63. + +22. Own Story, 226; 5 0. R., 18. + +23. C. W., I, 251-252. + +24. C. W., 1, 251-253, 317-318. + +25. 15 0. R., 220; Hitchcock, 439, note. + +26. 14 0. R., 66. + +27. 12 0. R., 61. + +28. 17 0. R., 219. + +29. Rhodes, IV, 19. + +30. Nicolay, 306; McClure, 168. + +31. 17 0. R., 435. + +32. Julian, 218. + +33. N. and H., V, 453. + +34. Lincoln, VII, 266-267. + +35. 37 Globe, II, 3386-3392. + +XXII. LINCOLN EMERGES. + +1. Alexander, III, 15-17. + +2. 37 Globe, II, 1493. + +3. Julian, 215; Conway, I, 344. + +4. 37 Globe II, 2363. + +5. Lincoln, VII, 171-172. + +6. 37 Globe, II, 1138. + +7. Lincoln, VII, 172-173. + +8. Pierce, IV, 78; 37 Globe, II, 25%. + +9. Schurz, I, 187. + +10. London Times, May 9, 1862, quoted in American papers. + +11. 128 0. R., 2-3. + +12. Lincoln, VII, 270-274. + +13. Carpenter, 2021. + +14. Galaxy, XIV, 842-843. + +15. Lincoln, VII, 270-277; 37 Globe, II, 3322-3324, 3333. + +16. Julian, 220; 37 Globe, II, 3286-3287. + +17. Lincoln, VII, 280-286. + +XXIII. THE MYSTICAL STATESMAN. + +1. Carpenter, 189. + +2. Recollections, 161. + +3. Recollections, 161-164; Carpenter, 119. + +4. Carpenter, 116. + +5. Carpenter, 90. + +6. Chapman, 449-450. + +7. Carpenter, 187. + +8. Lincoln, VIII, 52-53. + +9. Lincoln, VIII, 50-51. + +XXIV. GAMBLING IN GENERALS. + +1. Reminiscences, 434. + +2. Recollections, 261. + +3. Galaxy, 842. + +4. Galaxy, 845. + +5 Carpenter, 22. + +6. O. R., 80-81. + +7. C. W., I, 282. + +8. Lincoln, VIII, 15. + +9. Julian, 221. + +10. Thayer, 1, 127. + +11. Welles, 1,104; Nicolay, 313. + +12. Thayer, 1,129. + +13. Thayer, 1, 161. + +14. Reminiscences, 334-335, 528; Tarbell, II, 118-120; +Lincoln, VIII, 28-33. + +15. Chase, 87-88. + +16. Lincoln, VII, 40. + +XXV. A WAR BEHIND THE SCENES. + +1. Bigelow, I, 572. + +2. 37 Globe, III, 6. + +3. 37 Globe, III, 76. + +4. Lincoln, VII, 57-60. + +5. Lincoln, VII, 73. + +6. Swinton, 231. + +7. C. W., 1, 650. + +8. Bancroft, II, 365; Welles, 1, ~198. + +9. N. and H., VI, 265. + +10. Welles, I, 205; Alexander, III, 185. + +11. Welles, 1, 196-198. + +12. Welles, 1, 201-202. + +13. Welles, I, 200. + +14. Lincoln, VII, 195-197. + +XXVI. THE DICTATOR, THE MARPLOT, AND THE LITTLE MEN. + +1. Harris, 64. + +2. Gurowski, 312. + +3. Sherman Letters, 167. + +4. Julian, 223. + +5. Recollections, 215; Barnes, 428; Reminiscences, XXXI, XXXI +I, XXXVI II. Nicolay and Hay allude to this story, but +apparently doubt its authenticity. They think that Weed "as is +customary with elderly men exaggerated the definiteness of the +proposition." + +6. Jullan, 225. + +7. Lincoln, VIII, 154. + +8. Raymond, 704. + +9. Recollections, 193-194. + +10. Lincoln, VII I, 206207. + +11. 37 Globe, III, 1068. + +12. Riddle, 278. + +13. Welles, I, 336. + +14. Lincoln, VIII, 235-237. + +15. Welles, I, 293. + +16. Lincoln, VIII, 527. + +17. Lincoln, IX, 3A. + +18. Lincoln, VIII, 307-308. + +19. Barnes, 428; Reminiscences, XXX, XXXIII-XXXVIII. + +This story is told on the authority of Weed with much +circumstantial detail including the full text of a letter +written by McClellan. The letter was produced because +McClellan had said that no negotiations took place. Though the +letter plainly alludes to negotiations of some sort, it does +not mention the specific offer attributed to Lincoln. Nicolay +and Hay are silent on the subject. See also note five, above. + +20. Tribune, July 7, 1863. + +21. Tribune, July 6, 1863. + +22. Lincoln, IX, 17. + +23. Lincoln, IX, 20-21. + +XXVII. THE TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE. + +1. Rhodes, III, 461; Motley's Letters, II, 146. + +2. Reminiscences, 470. + +3. Hay, Century.? + +4. Carpenter, 281-282. + +5. Van Santvoord. + +6. Hay, Century, 35. + +7. Carpenter, 150. + +8. Recollections, 97. + +9. Recollections, 80. + +10. Carpenter, 65. + +11. Carpenter, 65-67. + +12. Carpenter, 64. + +13. Recollections, 267. + +14. Carpenter, 64. + +15. Recollections, 83-84. + +16. Carpenter, 152. + +17. Carpenter, 219. + +18. Recollections, 103-105. + +19. Lincoln, X, 274-275. + +20. Recollections, 103. + +21. Recollections, 95-96. + +22. Hay, Century. + +23. Rankin, 177-179. + +24. Hay, Century, 35. + +25. Carpenter. + +26. Thayer, I, 198-190. + +27. Thayer, I, 196-197. + +28. Thayer, I, 199-200. + +29. Carpenter, 104. + +30. Lincoln, VIII, 112-115. + +31. Lincoln, IX, 210. + +XXVIII. APPARENT ASCENDENCY. + +1. Lincoln, IX, 284. + +2. Lincoln, IX, 219-221. + +3. Lincoln, X, 38-39. + +4. 38 Globe, I, 1408. + +5. Bancroft, II, 429-430; Moore, VI, 497-498 + +6. Grant, II, 123. + +7. Lincoln, X, 90-91. + +XXIX. CATASTROPHE. + +1. Nicolay, 440. + +2. Carpenter, 130; Hay MS. + +3. Nicolay, 440. + +4. Lincoln, X, 25-26. + +5. 37 Globe, II, 2674. + +6. Nicolay, 352. + +7. Lincoln, X, 49. + +8. Lincoln, X, 5~54. + +9. Rankin, 381-387; Hay, Century. + +10. Carpenter, 217. + +11. Carpenter, 81. + +12. Carpenter, 218. + +13. Hay, Century, 37. + +14. Lincoln, X, 89. + +15. Carpenter, 131. + +16. Lincoln, X, 122-123. + +17. Carpenter. 168-169. + +18. Carpenter, 30-31. + +19. Lincoln, X, 129. + +XXX. THE PRESIDENT VERSUS THE VINDICTIVES. + +1. Lincoln, X, 139-140. + +2. Chittenden, 379. + +3. Lincoln, X, 140-141. + +4. Carpenter, 181-183.S. N. and H., X, 95-100. + +5. Hay MS, I, 1617; N. and H., IX, 120121. + +XXXI. A MENACING PAUSE. + +1. Reminiscences, 398. + +2. Globe, I, 3148. + +3. Riddle, 254. + +4. Greeley, II, 664-666. + +5. N. and H., 186190. + +6. Gilmore, 240. + +7. Gilmore, Atlantic. & Gilmore, 243-244. + +9. Hay MS, I, 7677; N. and H., 167-173; Carpenter, 301-302. + +10. N. and H., IX, 338-339. + +11. Carpenter, 223-225. + +12. Carpenter, 282; also, N. and H., IX, 364. + +13. N. and H., IX, 188. + +14. N. and H., IX, 192. + +15. N. and H., IX, 195. + +16. N. and H IX, 212, note. + +17. Lincoln, X, 164-166. + +XXXII. THE AUGUST CONSPIRACY. + +1. Julian, 247. + +2. Times, August 1, 1864. + +3. Herald, August 6, 1864. + +4. Sun, June 30, 1889. + +5. N. and H., IX, 250. + +6. N. and H., IX, 218. + +7. Times, August 18, 1864. & N. and H., IX, 197. + +9. Herald, August 18, 1864. + +10. Lincoln, X, 308. + +11. N. and H., IX, 250. + +12. Lincoln, X, 203-204. + +13. N. and H., IX, 221. + +14. Ibid. + +15. Herald, August 26, 1864. + +16. Tribune, August 27, 1864. + +17. Times, August 26, 1864. + +XXXIII. THE RALLY TO THE PRESIDENT. + +1. Herald, August 24, 1864. + +2. Times, August 26, 1864~ + +3. Pierce, IV, 197-198. + +4. Pearson, 11,150-151. + +5. Herald, August 23, 1864. + +6. Pearson, II, 168. + +7. Ibid. The terms offered Davis were not stated in the +Atlantic article. See Gilmore, 289-290. + +8. Tribune, August 27', 1864. + +9. Sun, June 30, 1889. + +10. Sun, June 30, 1889; Pearson, II, 160-161. + +11. Pearson,, II, 164. + +12. Pearson, II, 166. + +13. Sun, June 30, 1889. + +14. Tribune, August 30, 1864. + +15. Pearson, II, 162. + +16. Tribune, September 3, 1864. + +17. Pearson, 11,165. + +18. Sun, June 30, 1889. + +19. Pearson, II, 167; Tribune, September 7, 1864. + +20. Tribune, September 6, 1864. + +21. Sun, June 30, 1889. + +22. Tribune, September 9, 1864. + +23. Tribune, September 7, 1864. + +24. Tribune, September 12, 1864. + +25. Tribune, September 22, 1864. + +XXXIV. "FATHER ABRAHAM." + +1. N. and H., IX, 339. + +2. Ibid. + +3. Arnold, 390. + +4. Chandler, 274-276. + +5. The familiar version of the retirement of affair is +contained in the Life of Chandler issued by the Detroit Post +and Tribune without an author's name. This book throughout is +an apology for Chandler. In substance its story of this +episode is as follows: Chandler beheld with aching heart the +estrangement between Lincoln and Wade; he set to work to bring +them together; at a conference which he had with Wade, in +Ohio, a working understanding was effected; Chandler hurried to +Washington; with infinite pains he accomplished a party deal, +the three elements of which were Lincoln's removal of Blair, +Fremont's resignation, and Wade's appearance in the +Administration ranks. Whatever may be said of the physical +facts of this narrative, its mental facts, its tone and +atmosphere, are historical fiction. And I have to protest that +the significance of the episode has been greatly exaggerated. +The series of dates given in the text can not be reconciled +with any theory which makes the turn of the tide toward Lincoln +at all dependent on a Blair-Fremont deal. Speaking of the +tradition that Chandler called upon Lincoln and made a definite +agreement with him looking toward the removal of Blair, Colonel +W. O. Stoddard writes me that his "opinion, or half memory, +would be that the tradition is a myth." See also, Welles, II, +156-158. + +6. Lincoln, X, 228-229. + +7. Times, September 24, 1864. + +8. Times, September 28, 1864. + +9. N. and H., IX, 364. + +10. Thayer, II, 214; Hay MS. + +11. N. and H., IX, 377. + +12. Thayer, II, 216; Hay MS, III, 29. + +13. Lincoln, X, 261. + +14. N. and H., IX, 378-379. + +XXXV. THE MASTER OF THE MOMENT. + +1. Lincoln, X, 283. + +2. N. and H., IX, 392-394. + +3. N. and H., IX, 210-211. + +4. One of the traditions that has grown up around Lincoln +makes the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment a matter of +threats. Two votes were needed. It was discovered according +to this simpleminded bit of art that two members of the +opposition had been guilty of illegal practices, the precise +nature of which is conveniently left vague. Lincoln, even in +some highly reputable biographies, sent for these secret +criminals, told them that the power of the President of the +United States was very great, and that he expected them to vote +for the amendment. The authority for the story appears to be a +member of Congress, John B. Aley. Reminiscences, 585-586; Lord +Charnwood, Abraham Lincoln, 335-336. To a great many minds it +has always seemed out of key. Fortunately, there is a rival +version. Shrewd, careful Riddle has a vastly different tale in +which Lincoln does not figure at all, in which three necessary +votes were bought for the amendment by Ashley. Riddle is so +careful to make plain just what he can vouch for and just what +he has at second hand that his mere mode of narration creates +confidence. Riddle, 324-325. Parts of his version are to be +found in various places. + +5. Nicolay, Cambridge, 601. + +6. Lincoln, X, 38-39, and note; XI, 89. + +7. 38 Globe, II, 903. + +8. 38 Globe, II, 1127. + +9. 38 Globe, 11,1129; Pierce, IV, 221-227. + +10. Recollections, 249. + +11. Nicolay, 503-504; Lincoln, XI, 43. + +12. Lincoln, XI, 4446. + +XXXVI. PREPARING A DIFFERENT WAR. + +1. Grant, II, 459. + +2. Tarbell, II, 229. + +3. N. and H., IX, 457. + +4. Pierce, IV, 236. + +5. Lincoln, XI, 84-91. + +XXXVII. FATE INTERPOSES. + +1. Tarbell, II, 231-232. + +2. Pierce, IV, 235. + +3. Tarbell, II, 232. + +4. Recollections, 116. + +5. Nicolay, 531. + +6. N. and H., X, 283-284. + +7. Julian, 255. + +8. Recollections, 249. + +9. Recollections, 119. + +10. Nicolay, 532. + +11. Recollections, 119-120; Carpenter, 293; Nicolay, 532; +Tarbell, II, 235. + +12. Nicolay, 539. + +13. Thayer, II, 219; Hay MS, + +14. Riddle, 332. + +15. Nicolay, 530. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg Etext of Lincoln's Personal life by Stephenson + diff --git a/old/lsplf10.zip b/old/lsplf10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8603637 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/lsplf10.zip |