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diff --git a/1815.txt b/1815.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a014939 --- /dev/null +++ b/1815.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5546 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Boys' Life of Abraham Lincoln, by Helen Nicolay + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Boys' Life of Abraham Lincoln + +Author: Helen Nicolay + +Posting Date: September 21, 2008 [EBook #1815] +Release Date: July, 1999 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOYS' LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN *** + + + + +Produced by Dianne Bean + + + + + +THE BOYS' LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN + +by Helen Nicolay + + + + +I. A PRESIDENT'S CHILDHOOD + +Abraham Lincoln's forefathers were pioneers--men who left their homes to +open up the wilderness and make the way plain for others to follow them. +For one hundred and seventy years, ever since the first American Lincoln +came from England to Massachusetts in 1638, they had been moving +slowly westward as new settlements were made in the forest. They faced +solitude, privation, and all the dangers and hardships that beset men +who take up their homes where only beasts and wild men have had homes +before; but they continued to press steadily forward, though they lost +fortune and sometimes even life itself, in their westward progress. +Back in Pennsylvania and New Jersey some of the Lincolns had been men of +wealth and influence. In Kentucky, where the future President was born +on February 12, 1809, his parents lived in deep poverty Their home was +a small log cabin of the rudest kind, and nothing seemed more +unlikely than that their child, coming into the world in such humble +surroundings, was destined to be the greatest man of his time. True to +his race, he also was to be a pioneer--not indeed, like his ancestors, +a leader into new woods and unexplored fields, but a pioneer of a nobler +and grander sort, directing the thoughts of men ever toward the right, +and leading the American people, through difficulties and dangers and a +mighty war, to peace and freedom. + +The story of this wonderful man begins and ends with a tragedy, for his +grandfather, also named Abraham, was killed by a shot from an Indian's +rifle while peaceably at work with his three sons on the edge of their +frontier clearing. Eighty-one years later the President himself met +death by an assassin's bullet. The murderer of one was a savage of the +forest; the murderer of the other that far more cruel thing, a savage of +civilization. + +When the Indian's shot laid the pioneer farmer low, his second son, +Josiah, ran to a neighboring fort for help, and Mordecai, the eldest, +hurried to the cabin for his rifle. Thomas, a child of six years, was +left alone beside the dead body of his father; and as Mordecai snatched +the gun from its resting-place over the door of the cabin, he saw, +to his horror, an Indian in his war-paint, just stooping to seize the +child. Taking quick aim at a medal on the breast of the savage, he +fired, and the Indian fell dead. The little boy, thus released, ran +to the house, where Mordecai, firing through the loopholes, kept the +Indians at bay until help arrived from the fort. + +It was this child Thomas who grew up to be the father of President +Abraham Lincoln. After the murder of his father the fortunes of the +little family grew rapidly worse, and doubtless because of poverty, as +well as by reason of the marriage of his older brothers and sisters, +their home was broken up, and Thomas found himself, long before he was +grown, a wandering laboring boy. He lived for a time with an uncle as +his hired servant, and later he learned the trade of carpenter. He grew +to manhood entirely without education, and when he was twenty-eight +years old could neither read nor write. At that time he married Nancy +Hanks, a good-looking young woman of twenty-three, as poor as himself, +but so much better off as to learning that she was able to teach her +husband to sign his own name. Neither of them had any money, but living +cost little on the frontier in those days, and they felt that his trade +would suffice to earn all that they should need. Thomas took his bride +to a tiny house in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, where they lived for about a +year, and where a daughter was born to them. + +Then they moved to a small farm thirteen miles from Elizabethtown, which +they bought on credit, the country being yet so new that there were +places to be had for mere promises to pay. Farms obtained on such terms +were usually of very poor quality, and this one of Thomas Lincoln's +was no exception to the rule. A cabin ready to be occupied stood on it, +however; and not far away, hidden in a pretty clump of trees and bushes, +was a fine spring of water, because of which the place was known as +Rock Spring Farm. In the cabin on this farm the future President of the +United States was born on February 12, 1809, and here the first four +years of his life were spent. Then the Lincolns moved to a much bigger +and better farm on Knob Creek, six miles from Hodgensville, which Thomas +Lincoln bought, again on credit, selling the larger part of it soon +afterward to another purchaser. Here they remained until Abraham was +seven years old. + +About this early part of his childhood almost nothing is known. He never +talked of these days, even to his most intimate friends. To the pioneer +child a farm offered much that a town lot could not give him--space; +woods to roam in; Knob Creek with its running water and its deep, quiet +pools for a playfellow; berries to be hunted for in summer and nuts in +autumn; while all the year round birds and small animals pattered across +his path to people the solitude in place of human companions. The boy +had few comrades. He wandered about playing his lonesome little games, +and when these were finished returned to the small and cheerless cabin. +Once, when asked what he remembered about the War of 1812 with Great +Britain, he replied: "Only this: I had been fishing one day and had +caught a little fish, which I was taking home. I met a soldier in +the road, and having always been told at home that we must be good to +soldiers, I gave him my fish." It is only a glimpse into his life, but +it shows the solitary, generous child and the patriotic household. + +It was while living on this farm that Abraham and his sister Sarah +first began going to A-B-C schools. Their earliest teacher was Zachariah +Riney, who taught near the Lincoln cabin; the next was Caleb Hazel, four +miles away. + +In spite of the tragedy that darkened his childhood, Thomas Lincoln +seems to have been a cheery, indolent, good-natured man. By means of a +little farming and occasional jobs at his trade, he managed to supply +his family with the absolutely necessary food and shelter, but he never +got on in the world. He found it much easier to gossip with his friends, +or to dream about rich new lands in the West, than to make a thrifty +living in the place where he happened to be. The blood of the pioneer +was in his veins too--the desire to move westward; and hearing glowing +accounts of the new territory of Indiana, he resolved to go and see it +for himself. His skill as a carpenter made this not only possible but +reasonably cheap, and in the fall of 1816 he built himself a little +flatboat, launched it half a mile from his cabin, at the mouth of Knob +Creek on the waters of the Rolling Fork, and floated on it down that +stream to Salt River, down Salt River to the Ohio, and down the Ohio to +a landing called Thompson's Ferry on the Indiana shore. + +Sixteen miles out from the river, near a small stream known as Pigeon +Creek, he found a spot in the forest that suited him; and as his boat +could not be made to float up-stream, he sold it, stored his goods with +an obliging settler, and trudged back to Kentucky, all the way on foot, +to fetch his wife and children--Sarah, who was now nine years old, +and Abraham, seven. This time the journey to Indiana was made with two +horses, used by the mother and children for riding, and to carry their +little camping outfit for the night. The distance from their old home +was, in a straight line, little more than fifty miles, but they had to +go double that distance because of the very few roads it was possible to +follow. + +Reaching the Ohio River and crossing to the Indiana shore, Thomas +Lincoln hired a wagon which carried his family and their belongings the +remaining sixteen miles through the forest to the spot he had chosen--a +piece of heavily wooded land, one and a half miles east of what has +since become the village of Gentryville in Spencer County. The lateness +of the autumn made it necessary to put up a shelter as quickly as +possible, and he built what was known on the frontier as a half-faced +camp, about fourteen feet square. This differed from a cabin in that it +was closed on only three sides, being quite open to the weather on the +fourth. A fire was usually made in front of the open side, and thus +the necessity for having a chimney was done away with. Thomas Lincoln +doubtless intended this only for a temporary shelter, and as such it +would have done well enough in pleasant summer weather; but it was a +rude provision against the storms and winds of an Indiana winter. It +shows his want of energy that the family remained housed in this poor +camp for nearly a whole year; but, after all, he must not be too hastily +blamed. He was far from idle. A cabin was doubtless begun, and there +was the very heavy work of clearing away the timber--cutting down large +trees, chopping them into suitable lengths, and rolling them together +into great heaps to be burned, or of splitting them into rails to fence +the small field upon which he managed to raise a patch of corn and other +things during the following summer. + +Though only seven years old, Abraham was unusually large and strong for +his age, and he helped his father in all this heavy labor of clearing +the farm. In after years, Mr. Lincoln said that an ax "was put into his +hands at once, and from that till within his twenty-third year he was +almost constantly handling that most useful instrument--less, of course, +in ploughing and harvesting seasons." At first the Lincolns and their +seven or eight neighbors lived in the unbroken forest. They had only the +tools and household goods they brought with them, or such things as they +could fashion with their own hands. There was no sawmill to saw lumber. +The village of Gentryville was not even begun. Breadstuff could be had +only by sending young Abraham seven miles on horseback with a bag of +corn to be ground in a hand grist-mill. + +About the time the new cabin was ready relatives and friends followed +from Kentucky, and some of these in turn occupied the half-faced camp. +During the autumn a severe and mysterious sickness broke out in their +little settlement, and a number of people died, among them the mother +of young Abraham. There was no help to be had beyond what the neighbors +could give each other. The nearest doctor lived fully thirty miles away. +There was not even a minister to conduct the funerals. Thomas Lincoln +made the coffins for the dead out of green lumber cut from the forest +trees with a whip-saw, and they were laid to rest in a clearing in the +woods. Months afterward, largely through the efforts of the sorrowing +boy, a preacher who chanced to come that way was induced to hold a +service and preach a sermon over the grave of Mrs. Lincoln. + +Her death was indeed a serious blow to her husband and children. +Abraham's sister, Sarah, was only eleven years old, and the tasks and +cares of the little household were altogether too heavy for her years +and experience. Nevertheless they struggled bravely through the winter +and following summer; then in the autumn of 1819 Thomas Lincoln went +back to Kentucky and married Sarah Bush Johnston, whom he had known, and +it is said courted, when she was only Sally Bush. She had married about +the time Lincoln married Nancy Hanks, and her husband had died, leaving +her with three children. She came of a better station in life than +Thomas, and was a woman with an excellent mind as well as a warm and +generous heart. The household goods that she brought with her to the +Lincoln home filled a four-horse wagon, and not only were her own +children well clothed and cared for, but she was able at once to provide +little Abraham and Sarah with comforts to which they had been strangers +during the whole of their young lives. Under her wise management all +jealousy was avoided between the two sets of children; urged on by her +stirring example, Thomas Lincoln supplied the yet unfinished cabin with +floor, door, and windows, and life became more comfortable for all its +inmates, contentment if not happiness reigning in the little home. + +The new stepmother quickly became very fond of Abraham, and encouraged +him in every way in her power to study and improve himself. The chances +for this were few enough. Mr. Lincoln has left us a vivid picture of the +situation. "It was," he once wrote, "a wild region, with many bears and +other wild animals still in the woods. There I grew up. There were some +schools, so-called, but no qualification was ever required of a teacher +beyond "readin', writin', and cipherin' to the Rule of Three. If +a straggler supposed to understand Latin happened to sojourn in the +neighborhood, he was looked upon as a wizard." + +The school-house was a low cabin of round logs, with split logs or +"puncheons" for a floor, split logs roughly leveled with an ax and set +up on legs for benches, and holes cut out in the logs and the space +filled in with squares of greased paper for window-panes. The main +light came in through the open door. Very often Webster's "Elementary +Spelling-book" was the only text-book. This was the kind of school most +common in the middle West during Mr. Lincoln's boyhood, though already +in some places there were schools of a more pretentious character. +Indeed, back in Kentucky, at the very time that Abraham, a child of six, +was learning his letters from Zachariah Riney, a boy only a year +older was attending a Catholic seminary in the very next county. It is +doubtful if they ever met, but the destinies of the two were strangely +interwoven, for the older boy was Jefferson Davis, who became head of +the Confederate government shortly after Lincoln was elected President +of the United States. + +As Abraham had been only seven years old when he left Kentucky, the +little beginnings he learned in the schools kept by Riney and Hazel in +that State must have been very slight, probably only his alphabet, or at +most only three or four pages of Webster's "Elementary Spelling-book." +The multiplication-table was still a mystery to him, and he could read +or write only the words he spelled. His first two years in Indiana seem +to have passed without schooling of any sort, and the school he attended +shortly after coming under the care of his stepmother was of the +simplest kind, for the Pigeon Creek settlement numbered only eight or +ten poor families, and they lived deep in the forest, where, even if +they had had the money for such luxuries, it would have been impossible +to buy books, slates, pens, ink, or paper. It is worthy of note, +however, that in our western country, even under such difficulties, a +school-house was one of the first buildings to rise in every frontier +settlement. Abraham's second school in Indiana was held when he was +fourteen years old, and the third in his seventeenth year. By that time +he had more books and better teachers, but he had to walk four or five +miles to reach them. We know that he learned to write, and was +provided with pen, ink, and a copy-book, and a very small supply of +writing-paper, for copies have been printed of several scraps on which +he carefully wrote down tables of long measure, land measure, and dry +measure, as well as examples in multiplication and compound division, +from his arithmetic. He was never able to go to school again after this +time, and though the instruction he received from his five teachers--two +in Kentucky and three in Indiana--extended over a period of nine years, +it must be remembered that it made up in all less than one twelve-month; +"that the aggregate of all his schooling did not amount to one year." +The fact that he received this instruction, as he himself said, "by +littles," was doubtless an advantage. A lazy or indifferent boy would +of course have forgotten what was taught him at one time before he had +opportunity at another; but Abraham was neither indifferent nor lazy, +and these widely separated fragments of instruction were precious steps +to self-help. He pursued his studies with very unusual purpose and +determination not only to understand them at the moment, but to fix +them firmly in his mind. His early companions all agree that he employed +every spare moment in keeping on with some one of his studies. His +stepmother tells us that "When he came across a passage that struck him, +he would write it down on boards if he had no paper, and keep it there +until he did get paper. Then he would rewrite it, look at it, repeat +it. He had a copy-book, a kind of scrap-book, in which he put down all +things, and thus preserved them." He spent long evenings doing sums on +the fire-shovel. Iron fire-shovels were a rarity among pioneers. Instead +they used a broad, thin clapboard with one end narrowed to a handle, +arranging with this the piles of coals upon the hearth, over which they +set their "skillet" and "oven" to do their cooking. It was on such a +wooden shovel that Abraham worked his sums by the flickering firelight, +making his figures with a piece of charcoal, and, when the shovel was +all covered, taking a drawing-knife and shaving it off clean again. + +The hours that he was able to devote to his penmanship, his reading, and +his arithmetic were by no means many; for, save for the short time that +he was actually in school, he was, during all these years, laboring hard +on his father's farm, or hiring his youthful strength to neighbors +who had need of help in the work of field or forest. In pursuit of his +knowledge he was on an up-hill path; yet in spite of all obstacles he +worked his way to so much of an education as placed him far ahead of +his schoolmates and quickly abreast of his various teachers. He borrowed +every book in the neighborhood. The list is a short one: "Robinson +Crusoe," "Aesop's Fables," Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress," Weems's "Life +of Washington," and a "History of the United States." When everything +else had been read, he resolutely began on the "Revised Statutes of +Indiana," which Dave Turnham, the constable, had in daily use, but +permitted him to come to his house and read. + +Though so fond of his books; it must not be supposed that he cared only +for work and serious study. He was a social, sunny-tempered lad, as fond +of jokes and fun as he was kindly and industrious. His stepmother said +of him: "I can say, what scarcely one mother in a thousand can say, Abe +never gave me a cross word or look, and never refused... to do anything +I asked him.... I must say.. that Abe was the best boy I ever saw or +expect to see." + +He and John Johnston, his stepmother's son, and John Hanks, a relative +of his own mother's, worked barefoot together in the fields, grubbing, +plowing, hoeing, gathering and shucking corn, and taking part, when +occasion offered, in the practical jokes and athletic exercises that +enlivened the hard work of the pioneers. For both work and play Abraham +had one great advantage. He was not only a tall, strong country boy: he +soon grew to be a tall, strong, sinewy man. He early reached the unusual +height of six feet four inches, and his long arms gave him a degree of +power as an axman that few were able to rival. He therefore usually +led his fellows in efforts of muscle as well as of mind. That he could +outrun, outlift, outwrestle his boyish companions, that he could chop +faster, split more rails in a day, carry a heavier log at a "raising," +or excel the neighborhood champion in any feat of frontier athletics, +was doubtless a matter of pride with him; but stronger than all else was +his eager craving for knowledge. He felt instinctively that the power of +using the mind rather than the muscles was the key to success. He wished +not only to wrestle with the best of them, but to be able to talk like +the preacher, spell and cipher like the school-master, argue like the +lawyer, and write like the editor. Yet he was as far as possible +from being a prig. He was helpful, sympathetic, cheerful. In all the +neighborhood gatherings, when settlers of various ages came together +at corn-huskings or house-raisings, or when mere chance brought half a +dozen of them at the same time to the post-office or the country store, +he was able, according to his years, to add his full share to the gaiety +of the company. By reason of his reading and his excellent memory, he +soon became the best story-teller among his companions; and even +the slight training gained from his studies greatly broadened and +strengthened the strong reasoning faculty with which he had been gifted +by nature. His wit might be mischievous, but it was never malicious, and +his nonsense was never intended to wound or to hurt the feelings. It +is told of him that he added to his fund of jokes and stories humorous +imitations of the sermons of eccentric preachers. + +Very likely too much is made of all these boyish pranks. He grew up very +like his fellows. In only one particular did he differ greatly from the +frontier boys around him. He never took any pleasure in hunting. Almost +every youth of the backwoods early became an excellent shot and a +confirmed sportsman. The woods still swarmed with game, and every cabin +depended largely upon this for its supply of food. But to his strength +was added a gentleness which made him shrink from killing or inflicting +pain, and the time the other boys gave to lying in ambush, he preferred +to spend in reading or in efforts at improving his mind. + +Only twice during his life in Indiana was the routine of his employment +changed. When he was about sixteen years old he worked for a time for +a man who lived at the mouth of Anderson's Creek, and here part of his +duty was to manage a ferry-boat which carried passengers across the +Ohio River. It was very likely this experience which, three years +later, brought him another. Mr. Gentry, the chief man of the village +of Gentryville that had grown up a mile or so from his father's cabin, +loaded a flatboat on the Ohio River with the produce his store +had collected--corn, flour, pork, bacon, and other miscellaneous +provisions--and putting it in charge of his son Allen Gentry and of +Abraham Lincoln, sent them with it down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, +to sell its cargo at the plantations of the lower Mississippi, where +sugar and cotton were the principal crops, and where other food supplies +were needed to feed the slaves. No better proof is needed of the +reputation for strength, skill, honesty, and intelligence that this +tall country boy had already won for himself, than that he was chosen +to navigate the flatboat a thousand miles to the "sugar-coast" of the +Mississippi River, sell its load, and bring back the money. Allen Gentry +was supposed to be in command, but from the record of his after life we +may be sure that Abraham did his full share both of work and management. +The elder Gentry paid Lincoln eight dollars a month and his passage +home on a steamboat for this service. The voyage was made successfully, +although not without adventure; for one night, after the boat was tied +up to the shore, the boys were attacked by seven negroes, who came +aboard intending to kill and rob them. There was a lively scrimmage, in +which, though slightly hurt, they managed to beat off their assailants, +and then, hastily cutting their boat adrift, swung out on the stream. +The marauding band little dreamed that they were attacking the man who +in after years was to give their race its freedom; and though the future +was equally hidden from Abraham, it is hard to estimate the vistas of +hope and ambition that this long journey opened to him. It was his first +look into the wide, wide world. + + + + +II. CAPTAIN LINCOLN. + +By this time the Lincoln homestead was no longer on the frontier. During +the years that passed while Abraham was growing from a child, scarcely +able to wield the ax placed in his hands, into a tall, capable youth, +the line of frontier settlements had been gradually but steadily +pushing on beyond Gentryville toward the Mississippi River. Every summer +canvas-covered moving wagons wound their slow way over new roads into +still newer country; while the older settlers, left behind, watched +their progress with longing eyes. It was almost as if a spell had been +cast over these toil-worn pioneers, making them forget, at sight of such +new ventures, all the hardships they had themselves endured in subduing +the wilderness. At last, on March 1, 1830, when Abraham was just +twenty-one years old, the Lincolns, yielding to this overmastering +frontier impulse to "move" westward, left the old farm in Indiana to +make a new home in Illinois. "Their mode of conveyance was wagons drawn +by ox-teams," Mr. Lincoln wrote in 1860; "and Abraham drove one of the +teams." They settled in Macon County on the north side of the Sangamon +River, about ten miles west of Decatur, where they built a cabin, made +enough rails to fence ten acres of ground, fenced and cultivated the +ground, and raised a crop of corn upon it that first season. It was the +same heavy labor over again that they had endured when they went from +Kentucky to Indiana; but this time the strength and energy of young +Abraham were at hand to inspire and aid his father, and there was no +miserable shivering year of waiting in a half-faced camp before the +family could be suitably housed. They were not to escape hardship, +however. They fell victims to fever and ague, which they had not known +in Indiana, and became greatly discouraged; and the winter after their +arrival proved one of intense cold and suffering for the pioneers, being +known in the history of the State as "the winter of the deep snow." +The severe weather began in the Christmas holidays with a storm of such +fatal suddenness that people who were out of doors had difficulty in +reaching their homes, and not a few perished, their fate remaining +unknown until the melting snows of early spring showed where they had +fallen. + +In March, 1831, at the end of this terrible winter, Abraham Lincoln +left his father's cabin to seek his own fortune in the world. It was the +frontier custom for young men to do this when they reached the age of +twenty-one. Abraham was now twenty-two, but had willingly remained +with his people an extra year to give them the benefit of his labor and +strength in making the new home. + +He had become acquainted with a man named Offut, a trader and +speculator, who pretended to great business shrewdness, but whose chief +talent lay in boasting of the magnificent things he meant to do. Offut +engaged Abraham, with his stepmother's son, John D. Johnston, and John +Hanks, to take a flatboat from Beardstown, on the Illinois River, to +New Orleans; and all four arranged to meet at Springfield as soon as the +snow should melt. + +In March, when the snow finally melted, the country was flooded and +traveling by land was utterly out of the question. The boys, therefore, +bought a large canoe, and in it floated down the Sangamon River to keep +their appointment with Offut. It was in this somewhat unusual way that +Lincoln made his first entry into the town whose name was afterward to +be linked with his own. + +Offut was waiting for them, with the discouraging news that he had been +unable to get a flatboat at Beardstown. The young men promptly offered +to make the flatboat, since one was not to be bought; and they set to +work, felling the trees for it on the banks of the stream. Abraham's +father had been a carpenter, so the use of tools was no mystery to him; +and during his trip to New Orleans with Allen Gentry he had learned +enough about flatboats to give him confidence in this task of +shipbuilding. Neither Johnston nor Hanks was gifted with skill or +industry, and it is clear that Lincoln was, from the start, leader of +the party, master of construction, and captain of the craft. + +The floods went down rapidly while the boat was building, and when +they tried to sail their new craft it stuck midway across the dam of +Rutledge's mill at New Salem, a village of fifteen or twenty houses not +many miles from their starting-point. With its bow high in air, and its +stern under water, it looked like some ungainly fish trying to fly, or +some bird making an unsuccessful attempt to swim. The voyagers appeared +to have suffered irreparable shipwreck at the very outset of their +venture, and men and women came down from their houses to offer advice +or to make fun of the young boatmen as they waded about in the water, +with trousers rolled very high, seeking a way out of their difficulty. +Lincoln's self-control and good humor proved equal to their banter, +while his engineering skill speedily won their admiration. The amusement +of the onlookers changed to gaping wonder when they saw him deliberately +bore a hole in the bottom of the boat near the bow, after which, fixing +up some kind of derrick, he tipped the boat so that the water she had +taken in at the stern ran out in front, and she floated safely over the +dam. This novel method of bailing a boat by boring a hole in her +bottom fully established his fame at New Salem, and so delighted the +enthusiastic Offut that, on the spot, he engaged its inventor to come +back after the voyage to New Orleans and act as clerk for him in a +store. + +The hole plugged up again, and the boat's cargo reloaded, they made the +remainder of the journey in safety. Lincoln returned by steamer from New +Orleans to St. Louis, and from there made his way to New Salem on foot. +He expected to find Offut already established in the new store, but +neither he nor his goods had arrived. While "loafing about," as the +citizens of New Salem expressed it, waiting for him, the newcomer had a +chance to exhibit another of his accomplishments. An election was to +be held, but one of the clerks, being taken suddenly ill, could not be +present. Penmen were not plenty in the little town, and Mentor Graham, +the other election clerk, looking around in perplexity for some one +to fill the vacant place, asked young Lincoln if he knew how to write. +Lincoln answered, in the lazy speech of the country, that he "could +make a few rabbit tracks," and that being deemed quite sufficient, was +immediately sworn in, and set about discharging the duties of his first +office. The way he performed these not only gave general satisfaction, +but greatly interested Mentor Graham, who was the village schoolmaster, +and from that time on proved a most helpful friend to him. + +Offut finally arrived with a miscellaneous lot of goods, which Lincoln +opened and put in order, and the storekeeping began. Trade does not seem +to have been brisk, for Offut soon increased his venture by renting the +Rutledge and Cameron mill, on whose historic dam the flatboat had come +to grief. For a while the care of this mill was added to Lincoln's other +duties. He made himself generally useful besides, his old implement, the +ax, not being entirely discarded. We are told that he cut down trees +and split rails enough to make a large hogpen adjoining the mill, a +performance not at all surprising when it is remembered that up to this +time the greater part of his life had been spent in the open air, and +that his still growing muscles must have eagerly welcomed tasks like +this, which gave him once more the exercise that measuring calico and +weighing out groceries failed to supply. Young Lincoln's bodily vigor +stood him in good stead in many ways. In frontier life strength and +athletic skill served as well for popular amusement as for prosaic +toil, and at times, indeed, they were needed for personal defence. +Every community had its champion wrestler, a man of considerable local +importance, in whose success the neighbors took a becoming interest. +There was, not far from New Salem, a settlement called Clary's Grove, +where lived a set of restless, rollicking young backwoodsmen with a +strong liking for frontier athletics and rough practical jokes. Jack +Armstrong was the leader of these, and until Lincoln's arrival had been +the champion wrestler of both Clary's Grove and New Salem. He and his +friends had not the slightest personal grudge against Lincoln; but +hearing the neighborhood talk about the newcomer, and especially Offut's +extravagant praise of his clerk, who, according to Offut's statement, +knew more than any one else in the United States, and could beat the +whole county at running, jumping or "wrastling," they decided that the +time had come to assert themselves, and strove to bring about a trial of +strength between Armstrong and Lincoln. Lincoln, who disapproved of all +this "woolling and pulling," as he called it, and had no desire to come +to blows with his neighbors, put off the encounter as long as possible. +At length even his good temper was powerless to avert it, and the +wrestling-match took place. Jack Armstrong soon found that he had +tackled a man as strong and skilful as himself; and his friends, seeing +him likely to get the worst of it, swarmed to his assistance, almost +succeeding, by tripping and kicking, in getting Lincoln down. At the +unfairness of this Lincoln became suddenly and furiously angry, put +forth his entire strength, lifted the pride of Clary's Grove in his arms +like a child, and holding him high in the air, almost choked the life +out of him. It seemed for a moment as though a general fight must +follow; but even while Lincoln's fierce rage compelled their respect, +his quickly returning self-control won their admiration, and the +crisis was safely passed. Instead of becoming enemies and leaders in a +neighborhood feud, as might have been expected, the two grew to be warm +friends, the affection thus strangely begun lasting through life. They +proved useful to each other in various ways, and years afterward Lincoln +made ample amends for his rough treatment of the other's throat by +saving the neck of Jack Armstrong's son from the halter in a memorable +trial for murder. The Clary's Grove "boys" voted Lincoln "the cleverest +fellow that had ever broke into the settlement," and thereafter took +as much pride in his peaceableness and book-learning as they did in +the rougher and more questionable accomplishments of their discomfited +leader. + +Lincoln himself was not so easily satisfied. His mind as well as his +muscles hungered for work, and he confided to Mentor Graham, possibly +with some diffidence, his "notion to study English grammar." Instead of +laughing at him, Graham heartily encouraged the idea, saying it was the +very best thing he could do. With quickened zeal Lincoln announced that +if he had a grammar he would begin at once at this the schoolmaster +was obliged to confess that he knew of no such book in New Salem. He +thought, however, that there might be one at Vaner's, six miles away. +Promptly after breakfast the next morning Lincoln set out in search of +it. He brought the precious volume home in triumph, and with Graham's +occasional help found no difficulty in mastering its contents. Indeed, +it is very likely that he was astonished, and even a bit disappointed, +to find so little mystery in it. He is reported to have said that if +this was a "science," he thought he would like to begin on another one. +In the eyes of the townspeople, however, it was no small achievement, +and added greatly to his reputation as a scholar. There is no record +of any other study commenced at this time, but it is certain that he +profited much by helpful talks with Mentor Graham, and that he borrowed +every book the schoolmaster's scanty library was able to furnish. + +Though outwardly uneventful, this period of his life was both happy +and profitable. He was busy at useful labor, was picking up scraps of +schooling, was making friends and learning to prize them at their true +worth; was, in short, developing rapidly from a youth into a young man. +Already he began to feel stirrings of ambition which prompted him to +look beyond his own daily needs toward the larger interests of +his county and his State. An election for members of the Illinois +legislature was to take place in August, 1832. Sangamon County +was entitled to four representatives. Residents of the county over +twenty-one years of age were eligible to election, and audacious as it +might appear, Lincoln determined to be a candidate. + +The people of New Salem, like those of all other Western towns, took a +keen interest in politics; "politics" meaning, in that time and place, +not only who was to be President or governor, but concerning itself +with questions which came much closer home to dwellers on the frontier. +"Internal improvements," as they were called--the building of roads and +clearing out of streams so that men and women who lived in remote places +might be able to travel back and forth and carry on trade with the rest +of the world--became a burning question in Illinois. There was great +need of such improvements; and in this need young Lincoln saw his +opportunity. + +It was by way of the Sangamon River that he entered politics. That +uncertain watercourse had already twice befriended him. He had floated +on it in flood-time from his father's cabin into Springfield. A +few weeks later its rapidly falling waters landed him on the dam at +Rutledge's mill, introducing him effectively if unceremoniously to the +inhabitants of New Salem. Now it was again to play a part in his life, +starting him on a political career that ended only in the White House. +Surely no insignificant stream has had a greater influence on the +history of a famous man. It was a winding and sluggish creek, encumbered +with driftwood and choked by sand-bars; but it flowed through a country +already filled with ambitious settlers, where the roads were atrociously +bad, becoming in rainy seasons wide seas of pasty black mud, and +remaining almost impassable for weeks at a time. After a devious course +the Sangamon found its way into the Illinois River, and that in turn +flowed into the Mississippi. Most of the settlers were too new to the +region to know what a shallow, unprofitable stream the Sangamon really +was, for the deep snows of 183031 and of the following winter had +supplied it with an unusual volume of water. It was natural, therefore, +that they should regard it as the heaven-sent solution of their problem +of travel and traffic with the outside world. If it could only be freed +from driftwood, and its channel straightened a little, they felt sure it +might be used for small steamboats during a large part of the year. + +The candidates for the legislature that summer staked their chances of +success on the zeal they showed for "internal improvements." Lincoln +was only twenty-three. He had been in the county barely nine months. +Sangamon County was then considerably larger than the whole State of +Rhode Island, and he was of course familiar with only a small part of it +or its people; but he felt that he did know the river. He had sailed on +it and been shipwrecked by it; he had, moreover, been one of a party of +men and boys, armed with long-handled axes, who went out to chop away +obstructions and meet a small steamer that, a few weeks earlier, had +actually forced its way up from the Illinois River. + +Following the usual custom, he announced his candidacy in the local +newspaper in a letter dated March 9, addressed "To the People of +Sangamon County." It was a straightforward, manly statement of his views +on questions of the day, written in as good English as that used by the +average college-bred man of his years. The larger part of it was +devoted to arguments for the improvement of the Sangamon River. Its main +interest for us lies in the frank avowal of his personal ambition that +is contained in the closing paragraph. + +"Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition," he wrote. "Whether +it be true or not, I can say, for one, that I have no other so great as +that of being truly esteemed of my fellowmen by rendering myself worthy +of their esteem. How far I shall succeed in gratifying this ambition is +yet to be developed. I am young, and unknown to many of you. I was born, +and have ever remained, in the most humble walks of life. I have no +wealthy or popular relations or friends to recommend me. My case is +thrown exclusively upon the independent voters of the county; and if +elected, they will have conferred a favor upon me for which I shall be +unremitting in my labors to compensate. But if the good people in their +wisdom shall see fit to keep me in the background, I have been too +familiar with disappointments to be very much chagrined." + +He soon had an opportunity of being useful to his fellow-men, though in +a way very different from the one he was seeking. About four weeks after +he had published his letter "To the People of Sangamon County," news +came that Black Hawk, the veteran war-chief of the Sac Indians, was +heading an expedition to cross the Mississippi River and occupy once +more the lands that had been the home of his people. There was great +excitement among the settlers in Northern Illinois, and the governor +called for six hundred volunteers to take part in a campaign against the +Indians. He met a quick response; and Lincoln, unmindful of what might +become of his campaign for the legislature if he went away, was among +the first to enlist. When his company met on the village green to choose +their officers, three-quarters of the men, to Lincoln's intense surprise +and pleasure, marched over to the spot where he was standing and grouped +themselves around him, signifying in this way their wish to make him +captain. We have his own word for it that no success of his after life +gave him nearly as much satisfaction. On April 21, two days after the +call for volunteers had been printed, the company was organized. A week +later it was mustered into service, becoming part of the Fourth Illinois +Mounted Volunteers, and started at once for the hostile frontier. + +Lincoln's soldiering lasted about three months. He was in no battle, but +there was plenty of "roughing it," and occasionally real hardship, +as when the men were obliged to go for three days without food. The +volunteers had not enlisted for any definite length of time, and seeing +no prospect of fighting, they soon became clamorous to return home. +Accordingly his and other companies were mustered out of service on +May 27, at the mouth of Fox River. At the same time the governor, not +wishing to weaken his forces before the arrival of other soldiers to +take their places, called for volunteers to remain twenty days longer. +Lincoln had gone to the frontier to do real service, not for the glory +of being captain. Accordingly, on the day on which he was mustered out +as an officer he re-enlisted, becoming Private Lincoln in Captain Iles's +company of mounted volunteers, sometimes known as the Independent Spy +Battalion. This organization appears to have been very independent +indeed, not under the control of any regiment or brigade, but receiving +orders directly from the commander-in-chief, and having many unusual +privileges, such as freedom from all camp duties, and permission to +draw rations as much and as often as they pleased. After laying down +his official dignity and joining this band of privileged warriors, the +campaign became much more of a holiday for the tall volunteer from New +Salem. He entered with enthusiasm into all the games and athletic +sports with which the soldiers beguiled the tedium of camp, and grew in +popularity from beginning to end of his service. When, at length, the +Independent Spy Battalion was mustered out on June 16, 1832, he started +on the journey home with a merry group of his companions. He and his +messmate, George M. Harrison, had the misfortune to have their horses +stolen the very day before, but Harrison's record says: + +"I laughed at our fate, and he joked at it, and we all started of +merrily. The generous men of our company walked and rode by turns with +us, and we fared about equal with the rest. But for this generosity, our +legs would have had to do the better work, for in that day this dreary +route furnished no horses to buy or to steal, and whether on horse or +afoot, we always had company, for many of the horses' backs were too +sore for riding." + +Lincoln reached New Salem about the first of August, only ten days +before the election. He had lost nothing in popular esteem by his prompt +enlistment to defend the frontier, and his friends had been doing manful +service for him; but there were by this time thirteen candidates in +the field, with a consequent division of interest. When the votes +were counted, Lincoln was found to be eighth on the list--an excellent +showing when we remember that he was a newcomer in the county, and that +he ran as a Whig, which was the unpopular party. In his own home town of +New Salem only three votes had been cast against him. Flattering as all +this was, the fact remained that he was defeated, and the result of the +election brought him face to face with a very serious question. He was +without means and without employment. Offut had failed and had gone +away. What was he to do next? He thought of putting his strong muscles +to account by learning the blacksmith trade; thought also of trying +to become a lawyer, but feared he could not succeed at that without a +better education. It was the same problem that has confronted millions +of young Americans before and since. In his case there was no question +which he would rather be--the only question was what success he might +reasonably hope for if he tried to study law. + +Before his mind was fully made up, chance served to postpone, and in the +end greatly to increase his difficulty. Offut's successors in business, +two brothers named Herndon, had become discouraged, and they offered to +sell out to Lincoln and an acquaintance of his named William F. Berry, +on credit, taking their promissory notes in payment. Lincoln and Berry +could not foresee that the town of New Salem had already lived through +its best days, and was destined to dwindle and grow smaller until it +almost disappeared from the face of the earth. Unduly hopeful, they +accepted the offer, and also bought out, on credit, two other merchants +who were anxious to sell. It is clear that the flattering vote Lincoln +had received at the recent election, and the confidence New Salem felt +in his personal character, alone made these transactions possible, since +not a dollar of actual money changed hands during all this shifting +of ownership. In the long run the people's faith in him was fully +justified; but meantime he suffered years of worry and harassing debt. +Berry proved a worthless partner; the business a sorry failure. +Seeing this, Lincoln and Berry sold out, again on credit, to the Trent +brothers, who soon broke up the store and ran away. Berry also departed +and died; and in the end all the notes came back upon Lincoln for +payment. Of course he had not the money to meet these obligations. He +did the next best thing: he promised to pay as soon as he could, and +remaining where he was, worked hard at whatever he found to do. Most +of his creditors, knowing him to be a man of his word, patiently bided +their time, until, in the course of long years, he paid, with interest, +every cent of what he used to call, in rueful satire upon his own folly, +his "National Debt." + + + + +III. LAWYER LINCOLN + +Unlucky as Lincoln's attempt at storekeeping had been, it served one +good purpose. Indeed, in a way it may be said to have determined his +whole future career. He had had a hard struggle to decide between +becoming a blacksmith or a lawyer; and when chance seemed to offer a +middle course, and he tried to be a merchant, the wish to study law had +certainly not faded from his mind. + +There is a story that while cleaning up the store, he came upon a barrel +which contained, among a lot of forgotten rubbish, some stray volumes +of Blackstone's "Commentaries," and that this lucky find still further +quickened his interest in the law. Whether this tale be true or not it +seems certain that during the time the store was running its downward +course from bad to worse, he devoted a large part of his too abundant +leisure to reading and study of various kinds. People who knew him then +have told how he would lie for hours under a great oak-tree that grew +just outside the store door, poring over his book, and "grinding around +with the shade" as it shifted from north to east. + +Lincoln's habit of reading was still further encouraged by his being +appointed postmaster of New Salem on May 7, 1833, an office he held for +about three years--until New Salem grew too small to have a post-office +of its own, and the mail was sent to a neighboring town. The office +was so insignificant that according to popular fable it had no fixed +abiding-place, Lincoln being supposed to carry it about with him in +his hat! It was, however, large enough to bring him a certain amount of +consideration, and, what pleased him still better, plenty of newspapers +to read--newspapers that just then were full of the exciting debates of +Clay and Webster, and other great men in Congress. + +The rate of postage on letters was still twenty-five cents, and small as +the earnings of the office undoubtedly were, a little change found +its way now and then into his hands. In the scarcity of money on the +frontier, this had an importance hard for us to realize. A portion of +this money, of course, belonged to the government. That he used only +what was rightfully his own we could be very sure, even if a sequel to +this post office experience were not known which shows his scrupulous +honesty where government funds were concerned. Years later, after he had +become a practising lawyer in Springfield, an agent of the Post-office +Department called upon him in his office one day to collect a balance +due from the New Salem post-office, amounting to about seventeen +dollars. A shade of perplexity passed over his face, and a friend, +sitting by, offered to lend him the money if he did not at the moment +have it with him. Without answering, Lincoln rose, and going to a little +trunk that stood by the wall, opened it and took out the exact sum, +carefully done up in a small package. "I never use any man's money but +my own," he quietly remarked, after the agent had gone. + +Soon after he was raised to the dignity of postmaster another piece of +good fortune came in his way. Sangamon County covered a territory some +forty miles long by fifty wide, and almost every citizen in it seemed +intent on buying or selling land, laying out new roads, or locating some +future city. John Calhoun, the county surveyor, therefore, found himself +with far more work than he could personally attend to, and had to +appoint deputies to assist him. Learning the high esteem in which +Lincoln was held by the people of New Salem, he wisely concluded to make +him a deputy, although they differed in politics. It was a flattering +offer, and Lincoln accepted gladly. Of course he knew almost nothing +about surveying, but he got a compass and chain, and, as he tells us, +"studied Flint and Gibson a little, and went at it." The surveyor, +who was a man of talent and education, not only gave Lincoln the +appointment, but, it is said, lent him the book in which to study the +art. Lincoln carried the book to his friend Mentor Graham, and "went at +it" to such purpose that in six weeks he was ready to begin the practice +of his new profession. Like Washington, who, it will be remembered, +followed the same calling in his youth, he became an excellent surveyor. + +Lincoln's store had by this time "winked out," to use his own quaint +phrase; and although the surveying and his post-office supplied his +daily needs, they left absolutely nothing toward paying his "National +Debt." Some of his creditors began to get uneasy, and in the latter part +of 1834 a man named Van Bergen, who held one of the Lincoln-Berry notes, +refusing to trust him any longer, had his horse, saddle, and surveying +instruments seized by the sheriff and sold at public auction, thus +sweeping away the means by which, as he said, he "procured bread and +kept soul and body together." Even in this strait his known honesty +proved his salvation. Out of pure friendliness, James Short bought in +the property and gave it back to the young surveyor, allowing him time +to repay. + +It took Lincoln seventeen years to get rid of his troublesome "National +Debt," the last instalment not being paid until after his return +from his term of service in Congress at Washington; but it was these +seventeen years of industry, rigid economy, and unflinching fidelity to +his promises that earned for him the title of "Honest Old Abe," which +proved of such inestimable value to himself and his country. + +During all this time of trial and disappointment he never lost his +courage, his steady, persevering industry, or his determination to +succeed. He was not too proud to accept any honest employment that +offered itself. He would go into the harvest-field and work there when +other tasks were not pressing, or use his clerkly hand to straighten up +a neglected ledger; and his lively humor, as well as his industry, made +him a welcome guest at any farm-house in the county. Whatever he might +be doing, he was never too busy to help a neighbor. His strong arm was +always at the service of the poor and needy. + +Two years after his defeat for the legislature there was another +election. His friends and acquaintances in the county had increased, +and, since he had received such a flattering vote the first time, it was +but natural that he should wish to try again. He began his campaign +in April, giving himself full three months for electioneering. It +was customary in those days for candidates to attend all manner +of neighborhood gatherings--"raisings" of new cabins, horseraces, +shooting-matches, auctions--anything that served to call the settlers +together; and it was social popularity, quite as much as ability to +discuss political questions, that carried weight with such assemblies. +Lincoln, it is needless to say, was in his element. He might be called +upon to act as judge in a horse-race, or to make a speech upon the +Constitution! He could do both. As a laughing peacemaker between two +quarrelsome patriots he had no equal; and as contestant in an impromptu +match at quoit-throwing, or lifting heavy weights, his native tact and +strong arm served him equally well. Candidates also visited farms and +outlying settlements, where they were sometimes unexpectedly called upon +to show their mettle and muscle in more useful labor. One farmer has +recorded how Lincoln "came to my house near Island Grove during harvest. +There were some thirty men in the field. He got his dinner, and went out +in the field where the men were at work. I gave him an introduction, and +the boys said that they could not vote for a man unless he could make a +hand. 'Well, boys,' said he, 'if that is all, I am sure of your votes.' +He took hold of the cradle and led the way all the round with perfect +ease. The boys were satisfied, and I don't think he lost a vote in the +crowd." + +Sometimes two or more candidates would meet at such places, and short +speeches would be called for and given, the harvesters throwing down +their scythes meanwhile to listen, and enlivening the occasion with keen +criticisms of the method and logic of the rival orators. Altogether the +campaign was more spirited than that of two years before. Again there +were thirteen candidates for the four places; but this time, when the +election was over, it was found that only one man in the long list had +received more votes than Abraham Lincoln. + +Lincoln's election to the legislature of Illinois in August, 1834, marks +the end of the pioneer period of his life. He was done now with the wild +carelessness of the woods, with the rough jollity of Clary's Grove, with +odd jobs for his daily bread--with all the details of frontier poverty. +He continued for years to be a very poor man, harassed by debts he was +constantly laboring to pay, and sometimes absolutely without money: +but from this time on he met and worked with men of wider knowledge +and better-trained minds than those he had known in Gentryville and New +Salem, while the simple social life of Vandalia, where he went to attend +the sessions of the legislature, was more elegant than anything he had +yet seen. + +It must be frankly admitted that his success at this election was a most +important event in his life. Another failure might have discouraged +even his hopeful spirit, and sent him to the blacksmith-shop to make +wagon-tires and shoe horses for the balance of his days. With this +flattering vote to his credit, however, he could be very sure that he +had made a wise choice between the forge and the lawyer's desk. At +first he did not come into special notice in the legislature. He wore, +according to the custom of the time, a decent suit of blue jeans, and +was known simply as a rather quiet young man, good-natured and sensible. +Soon people began to realize that he was a man to be reckoned with in +the politics of the county and State. He was reelected in 1836, 1838, +and 1840, and thus for eight years had a full share in shaping the +public laws of Illinois. The Illinois legislature may indeed be called +the school wherein he learned that extraordinary skill and wisdom in +statesmanship which he exhibited in later years. In 1838 and 1840 all +the Whig members of the Illinois House of Representatives gave him their +vote for Speaker, but, the Democrats being in a majority, could not +elect him. + +His campaign expenses were small enough to suit the most exacting. It is +recorded that at one time some of the leading Whigs made up a purse of +two hundred dollars to pay his personal expenses. After the election he +returned the sum of $199.25, with the request that it be given back to +the subscribers. "I did not need the money," he explained. "I made +the canvass on my own horse; my entertainment, being at the houses of +friends, cost me nothing; and my only outlay was seventy-five cents for +a barrel of cider, which some farm-hands insisted I should treat them +to." + +One act of his while a member of the legislature requires special +mention because of the great events of his after-life. Even at that +early date, nearly a quarter of a century before the beginning of the +Civil War, slavery was proving a cause of much trouble and ill-will. The +"abolitionists," as the people were called who wished the slaves to +be free, and the "pro-slavery" men, who approved of keeping them in +bondage, had already come to wordy war. Illinois was a free State, but +many of its people preferred slavery, and took every opportunity of +making their wishes known. In 1837 the legislature passed a set of +resolutions "highly disapproving abolition societies." Lincoln and five +others voted against it; but, not content with this, Lincoln also drew +up a paper protesting against the passage of such a resolution and +stating his views on slavery. They were not extreme views. Though +declaring slavery to be an evil, he did not insist that the black people +ought to be set free. But so strong was the popular feeling against +anything approaching "abolitionism" that only one man out of the five +who voted against the resolution had the courage to sign this protest +with him. Lincoln was young, poor, and in need of all the good-will at +his command. Nobody could have blamed him for leaving it unwritten; yet +he felt the wrong of slavery so keenly that he could not keep silent +merely because the views he held happened to be unpopular; and this +protest, signed by him and Dan Stone, has come down to us, the first +notable public act in the great career that made his name immortal. + +During the eight years that he was in the legislature he had been +working away at the law. Even before his first election his friend John +T. Stuart, who had been major of volunteers in the Black Hawk War +while Lincoln was captain, and who, like Lincoln, had reenlisted in the +Independent Spy Battalion, had given him hearty encouragement. Stuart +was now practising law in. Springfield. After the campaign was over, +Lincoln borrowed the necessary books of Stuart, and entered upon the +study in good earnest. According to his own statement, "he studied with +nobody. ... In the autumn of 1836 he obtained a law license, and on +April 15, 1837, removed to Springfield and commenced the practice, his +old friend Stuart taking him into partnership." + +Lincoln had already endeared himself to the people of Springfield by +championing a project they had much at heart--the removal of the State +capital from Vandalia to their own town. This was accomplished, largely +through his efforts, about the time he went to Springfield to live. +This change from New Salem, a village of fifteen or twenty houses, to a +"city" of two thousand inhabitants, placed him once more in striking new +relations as to dress, manners, and society. Yet, as in the case of +his removal from his father's cabin to New Salem six years earlier, the +change was not so startling as would at first appear. In spite of its +larger population and its ambition as the new State capital, Springfield +was at that time in many ways no great improvement upon New Salem. It +had no public buildings, its streets and sidewalks were still unpaved, +and business of all kinds was laboring under the burden of hard times. + +As for himself, although he now owned a license to practise law, it was +still a question how well he would succeed--whether his rugged mind and +firm purpose could win him the livelihood he desired, or whether, after +all, he would be forced to turn his strong muscles to account in earning +his daily bread. Usually so hopeful, there were times when he was +greatly depressed. His friend William Butler relates how, as they were +riding together on horseback from Vandalia to Springfield at the close +of a session of the legislature, Lincoln, in one of these gloomy moods, +told him of the almost hopeless prospect that lay immediately before +him. The session was over, his salary was all drawn, the money all +spent; he had no work, and did not know where to turn to earn even a +week's board. Butler bade him be of good cheer, and, kind practical +friend that he was, took him and his belongings to his own home, keeping +him there for a time as his guest. His most intimate friend of those +days, Joshua F. Speed, tells us that soon after riding into the new +capital on a borrowed horse, with all his earthly possessions packed +in a pair of saddle-bags, Lincoln entered the store owned by Speed, +the saddle-bags over his arm, to ask the price of a single bed with +its necessary coverings and pillows. His question being answered, he +remarked that very likely that was cheap enough, but, small as the price +was, he was unable to pay it; adding that if Speed was willing to credit +him until Christmas, and his experiment as a lawyer proved a success, he +would pay then. "If I fail in this," he said sadly, "I do not know that +I can ever pay you." Speed thought he had never seen such a sorrowful +face. He suggested that instead of going into debt, Lincoln might share +his own roomy quarters over the store, assuring him that if he chose +to accept the offer, he would be very welcome. "Where is your room?" +Lincoln asked quickly. "Upstairs," and the young merchant pointed to a +flight of winding steps leading from the store to the room overhead. + +Lincoln picked up the saddle-bags, went upstairs, set them down on the +floor, and reappeared a moment later, beaming with pleasure. "Well, +Speed," he exclaimed, "I am moved!" It is seldom that heartier, truer +friendships come to a man than came to Lincoln in the course of his +life. On the other hand, no one ever deserved better of his fellow-men +than he did; and it is pleasant to know that such brotherly aid as +Butler and Speed were able to give him, offered in all sincerity and +accepted in a spirit that left no sense of galling obligation on either +side, helped the young lawyer over present difficulties and made it +possible for him to keep on in the career he had marked out for himself. + +The lawyer who works his way up from a five-dollar fee in a suit before +a justice of the peace, to a five-thousand-dollar fee before the Supreme +Court of his State, has a long and hard path to climb. Lincoln +climbed this path for twenty-five years, with industry, perseverance, +patience--above all, with that self-control and keen sense of right and +wrong which always clearly traced the dividing line between his duty to +his client and his duty to society and truth. His perfect frankness +of statement assured him the confidence of judge and jury in every +argument. His habit of fully admitting the weak points in his case +gained him their close attention to his strong ones, and when clients +brought him questionable cases his advice was always not to bring suit. + +"Yes," he once said to a man who offered him such a case; "there is +no reasonable doubt but that I can gain your case for you. I can set a +whole neighborhood at loggerheads; I can distress a widowed mother +and her six fatherless children, and thereby gain for you six hundred +dollars, which rightfully belongs, it appears to me, as much to them as +it does to you. I shall not take your case, but I will give you a little +advice for nothing. You seem a sprightly, energetic man. I would advise +you to try your hand at making six hundred dollars in some other way." + +He would have nothing to do with the "tricks" of the profession, though +he met these readily enough when practised by others. He never knowingly +undertook a case in which justice was on the side of his opponent. That +same inconvenient honesty which prompted him, in his store-keeping +days, to close the shop and go in search of a woman he had innocently +defrauded of a few ounces of tea while weighing out her groceries, made +it impossible for him to do his best with a poor case. "Swett," he once +exclaimed, turning suddenly to his associate, "the man is guilty; you +defend him--I can't," and gave up his share of a large fee. + +After his death some notes were found, written in his own hand, that had +evidently been intended for a little lecture or talk to law students. +They set forth forcibly, in a few words, his idea of what a lawyer ought +to be and to do. He earnestly commends diligence in study, and, after +diligence, promptness in keeping up the work. "As a general rule, never +take your whole fee in advance," he says, "nor any more than a small +retainer. When fully paid beforehand you are more than a common mortal +if you can feel the same interest in the case as if something were still +in prospect for you as well as for your client." Speech-making should +be practised and cultivated. "It is the lawyer's avenue to the public. +However able and faithful he may be in other respects, people are slow +to bring him business if he cannot make a speech. And yet, there is +not a more fatal error to young lawyers than relying too much on +speech-making. If any one, upon his rare powers of speaking, shall claim +an exemption from the drudgery of the law, his case is a failure +in advance." Discourage going to law. "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." "There is a vague popular belief +that lawyers are necessarily dishonest. Let no young man choosing the +law for a calling for a moment yield to the popular belief. Resolve to +be honest at all events; and if, in your own judgment, you cannot be an +honest lawyer, resolve to be honest without being a lawyer. Choose some +other occupation rather than one in the choosing of which you do, in +advance, consent to be a knave." + +While becoming a lawyer, Lincoln still remained a politician. In those +early days in the West, the two occupations went hand in hand, almost +of necessity. Laws had to be newly made to fit the needs of the new +settlements, and therefore a large proportion of lawyers was sent to +the State legislature. In the summer these same lawyers went about the +State, practising before the circuit courts, Illinois being divided into +what were called judicial circuits, each taking in several counties, +and sometimes covering territory more than a hundred miles square. +Springfield and the neighboring towns were in the eighth judicial +circuit. Twice a year the circuit judge traveled from one county-seat to +another, the lawyers who had business before the court following also. +As newspapers were neither plentiful nor widely read, members of the +legislature were often called upon, while on these journeys, to explain +the laws they had helped to make during the previous winter, and +thus became the political teachers of the people. They had to be well +informed and watchful. When, like Mr. Lincoln, they were witty, and had +a fund of interesting stories besides, they were sure of a welcome and +a hearing in the courtroom, or in the social gatherings that roused the +various little towns during "court-week" into a liveliness quite put of +the common. The tavern would be crowded to its utmost--the judge having +the best room, and the lawyers being put in what was left, late comers +being lucky to find even a sleeping-place on the floor. When not +occupied in court, or preparing cases for the morrow, they would sit +in the public room, or carry their chairs out on the sidewalk in front, +exchanging stories and anecdotes, or pieces of political wisdom, while +men from the town and surrounding farms, dropping in on one pretext or +another, found excuse to linger and join in the talk. At meal-times the +judge presided at the head of the long hotel table, on which the food +was abundant if not always wholesome, and around which lawyers, jurors, +witnesses, prisoners out on bail, and the men who drove the teams, +gathered in friendly equality. Stories of what Mr. Lincoln did and said +on the eighth judicial circuit are still quoted almost with the force +of law; for in this close companionship men came to know each other +thoroughly, and were judged at their true value professionally, as well +as for their power to entertain. + +It was only in worldly wealth that Lincoln was poor. He could hold his +own with the best on the eighth judicial circuit, or anywhere else +in the State. He made friends wherever he went. In politics, in +daily conversation, in his work as a lawyer, his life was gradually +broadening. Slowly but surely, too, his gifts as an attractive public +speaker were becoming known. In 1837 he wrote and delivered an able +address before the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield. In December, 1839, +Stephen A. Douglas, the most brilliant of the young Democrats then in +Springfield, challenged the young Whigs of the town to a tournament of +political speech-making, in which Lincoln bore a full and successful +share. + +The man who could not pay a week's board bill was again elected to the +legislature, was invited to public banquets and toasted by name, became +a popular speaker, moved in the best society of the new capital, and +made, as his friends and neighbors declared, a brilliant marriage. + + + + +IV. CONGRESSMAN LINCOLN + +Hopeful and cheerful as he ordinarily seemed, there was in Mr. Lincoln's +disposition a strain of deep melancholy. This was not peculiar to him +alone, for the pioneers as a race were somber rather than gay. Their +lives had been passed for generations under the most trying physical +conditions, near malaria-infested streams, and where they breathed the +poison of decaying vegetation. Insufficient shelter, storms, the cold of +winter, savage enemies, and the cruel labor that killed off all but the +hardiest of them, had at the same time killed the happy-go-lucky gaiety +of an easier form of life. They were thoughtful, watchful, wary; capable +indeed of wild merriment: but it has been said that although a pioneer +might laugh, he could not easily be made to smile. Lincoln's mind was +unusually sound and sane and normal. He had a cheerful, wholesome, sunny +nature, yet he had inherited the strongest traits of the pioneers, +and there was in him, moreover, much of the poet, with a poet's great +capacity for joy and pain. It is not strange that as he developed into +manhood, especially when his deeper nature began to feel the stirrings +of ambition and of love, these seasons of depression and gloom came upon +him with overwhelming force. + +During his childhood he had known few women, save his mother, and that +kind, God-fearing woman his stepmother, who did so much to make his +childhood hopeful and happy. No man ever honored women more truly than +did Abraham Lincoln; while all the qualities that caused men to like +him--his strength, his ambition, his kindliness--served equally to make +him a favorite with them. In the years of his young manhood three women +greatly occupied his thoughts. The first was the slender, fair-haired +Ann Rutledge, whom he very likely saw for the first time as she stood +with the group of mocking people on the river-bank, near her father's +mill, the day Lincoln's flatboat stuck on the dam at New Salem. It was +her death, two years before he went to live at Springfield, that brought +on the first attack of melancholy of which we know, causing him such +deep grief that for a time his friends feared his sorrow might drive him +insane. + +Another friend was Mary Owens, a Kentucky girl, very different from +the gentle, blue-eyed Ann Rutledge, but worthy in every way of a man's +affections. She had visited her sister in New Salem several years +before, and Lincoln remembered her as a tall, handsome, well-educated +young woman, who could be serious as well as gay, and who was considered +wealthy. In the autumn of 1836, her sister, Mrs. Able, then about to +start on a visit to Kentucky, jokingly offered to bring Mary back if +Lincoln would promise to marry her. He, also in jest, agreed to do so. +Much to his astonishment, he learned, a few months later, that she had +actually returned with Mrs. Able, and his sensitive conscience made him +feel that the jest had turned into real earnest, and that he was in +duty bound to keep his promise if she wished him to do so. They had both +changed since they last met; neither proved quite pleasing to the other, +yet an odd sort of courtship was kept up, until, some time after Lincoln +went to live in Springfield, Miss Owens put an end to the affair by +refusing him courteously but firmly. Meantime he lived through much +unhappiness and uncertainty of spirit, and made up his mind "never +again to think of marrying": a resolution which he kept--until another +Kentucky girl drove it from his thoughts. + +Springfield had by this time become very lively and enterprising. There +was a deal of "flourishing around in carriages," as Lincoln wrote Miss +Owens, and business and politics and society all played an active part +in the life of the little town. The meetings of the legislature brought +to the new capital a group of young men of unusual talent and ability. +There was friendly rivalry between them, and party disputes ran high, +but social good-humor prevailed, and the presence of these brilliant +young people, later to become famous as Presidential candidates, cabinet +ministers, senators, congressmen, orators, and battle heroes, lent +to the social gatherings of Springfield a zest rarely found in larger +places. + +Into the midst of this gaiety came Mary Todd of Kentucky, twenty-one +years old, handsome, accomplished and witty--a dashing and fascinating +figure in dress and conversation. She was the sister of Mrs. Ninian +W. Edwards, whose husband was a prominent Whig member of the +legislature--one of the "Long Nine," as these men were known. Their +added height was said to be fifty-five feet, and they easily made up in +influence what they lacked in numbers. Lincoln was the "tallest" of them +all in body and in mind, and although as poor as a church mouse, was +quite as welcome anywhere as the men who wore ruffled shirts and could +carry gold watches. Miss Todd soon singled out and held the admiration +of such of the Springfield beaux as pleased her somewhat wilful fancy, +and Lincoln, being much at the Edwards house, found himself, almost +before he knew it, entangled in a new love-affair. In the course of a +twelvemonth he was engaged to marry her, but something, nobody knows +what or how, happened to break the engagement, and to plunge him again +in a very sea of wretchedness. Nor is it necessary that we should know +about it further than that a great trouble came upon him, which he bore +nobly, after his kind. Few men have had his stern sense of duty, his +tenderness of heart, his conscience, so easy toward others, so merciless +toward himself. The trouble preyed upon his mind until he could think +of nothing else. He became unable to attend to business, or to take any +part in the life around him. Fearing for his reason as well as for his +health if this continued, his good friend Joshua F. Speed carried him +off, whether he wished or no, for a visit to his own home in Kentucky. +Here they stayed for some time, and Lincoln grew much better, returning +to Springfield about midsummer, almost his old self, though far from +happy. + +An affair that helped to bring the lovers together again is so out of +keeping with the rest of his life, that it would deserve mention for +that reason, if for no other. This is nothing less than Lincoln's first +and only duel. It happened that James Shields, afterward a general in +two wars and a senator from two States, was at that time auditor of the +State of Illinois, with his office at Springfield. He was a Democrat, +and an Irishman by birth, with an Irishman's quick temper and readiness +to take offense. He had given orders about collecting certain taxes +which displeased the Whigs, and shortly after Lincoln came back from +Kentucky a series of humorous letters ridiculing the auditor and his +order appeared in the Springfield paper, to the great amusement of the +townspeople and the fury of Shields. These letters were dated from the +"Lost Townships," and were supposed to be written by a farmer's widow +signing herself "Aunt Rebecca." The real writers were Miss Todd and a +clever friend, who undertook them more for the purpose of poking fun at +Shields than for party effect. In framing the political part of +their attack, they had found it necessary to consult Lincoln, and he +obligingly set them a pattern by writing the first letter himself. + +Shields sent to the editor of the paper to find out the name of the real +"Rebecca." The editor, as in duty bound, consulted Lincoln, and was told +to give Lincoln's name, but not to mention the ladies. Shields then sent +Lincoln an angry challenge; and Lincoln, who considered the whole affair +ridiculous, and would willingly have explained his part in it if Shields +had made a gentlemanly inquiry, chose as weapons "broadswords of the +largest size," and named as conditions of the duel that a plank ten feet +long be firmly fixed on edge in the ground, as a line over which neither +combatant was to pass his foot upon forfeit of his life. Next, lines +were to be drawn upon the ground on each side of the plank, parallel +with it, at the distance of the whole length of the sword and three feet +additional. The passing of his own line by either man was to be deemed a +surrender of the fight. + +It is easy to see from these conditions that Lincoln refused to consider +the matter seriously, and determined to treat it as absurdly as it +deserved. He and Shields, and their respective seconds, with the +broadswords, hurried away to an island in the Mississippi River, +opposite Alton; but long before the plank was set up, or swords were +drawn, mutual friends took the matter out of the hands of the seconds, +and declared a settlement of the difficulty. + +The affair created much talk and merriment in Springfield, but Lincoln +found in it more than comedy. By means of it he and Miss Todd were again +brought together in friendly interviews, and on November 4, they were +married at the house of Mr. Edwards. Four children were born of this +marriage: Robert Todd Lincoln, August 1, 1843; Edward Baker Lincoln, +March 10, 1846; William Wallace Lincoln, December 21, 1850; and Thomas +Lincoln, April 4, 1853. Edward died while a baby; William, in the White +House, February 20, 1862; Thomas in Chicago, July 15, 1871; and the +mother, Mary Lincoln, in Springfield, July 16, 1882. Robert Lincoln was +graduated from Harvard during the Civil War, serving afterward on the +staff of General Grant. He has since been Secretary of War and Minister +to England, and has held many other important positions of trust. + +His wedding over, Lincoln took up again the practical routine of daily +life. He and his bride were so poor that they could not make the visit +to Kentucky that both would so much have enjoyed. They could not even +set up a little home of their own. "We are not keeping house," he wrote +to a friend, "but boarding at the Globe Tavern," where, he added, their +room and board only cost them four dollars a week. His "National Debt" +of the old New Salem days was not yet all paid off, and patiently and +resolutely he went on practising the economy he had learned in the hard +school of experience. + +Lincoln's law partnership with John T. Stuart had lasted four years. +Then Stuart was elected to Congress, and another one was formed with +Judge Stephen T. Logan. It was a well-timed and important change. Stuart +had always cared more for politics than for law. With Logan law was the +main object, and under his guidance and encouragement Lincoln entered +upon the study and practical work of his profession in a more serious +spirit than ever before. His interest in politics continued, however, +and in truth his practice at that time was so small as to leave ample +time for both. Stuart had been twice elected to Congress, and very +naturally Lincoln, who served his party quite as faithfully, and was +fully as well known, hoped for a similar honor. He had profited greatly +by the companionship and friendly rivalry of the talented young men of +Springfield, but their talent made the prize he wished the harder to +gain. Twice he was disappointed, the nomination going to other men; but +in May, 1846, he was nominated, and in August of the same year elected, +to the Thirtieth Congress. He had the distinction of being the only Whig +member from his State, the other Illinois congressmen at that time all +being Democrats; but he proved no exception to the general rule that a +man rarely comes into notice during his first term in the National House +of Representatives. A new member has much to learn, even when, like +Lincoln, long service in a State legislature has taught him how the +business of making laws is carried on. He must find out what has been +done and is likely to be done on a multitude of subjects new to him, +must make the acquaintance of his fellow-members, must visit the +departments of government almost daily to look after the interests of +people from his State and congressional district. Legally he is elected +for a term of two years. Practically a session of five or six months +during the first year, and of three months during the second, further +reduce his opportunities more than one-half. + +Lincoln did not attempt to shine forth in debate, either by a stinging +retort, or burst of inspired eloquence. He went about his task quietly +and earnestly, performing his share of duty with industry and a hearty +admiration for the ability of better-known members. "I just take my +pen," he wrote enthusiastically to a friend after listening to a speech +which pleased him much, "to say that Mr. Stephens, of Georgia, is a +little slim, pale-faced consumptive man, with a voice like Logan's, has +just concluded the very best speech of an hour's length I ever heard. My +old withered, dry eyes are full of tears yet." + +During the first session of his term Lincoln made three long speeches, +carefully prepared and written out beforehand. He was neither elated +nor dismayed at the result. "As to speech-making," he wrote William H. +Herndon, who had now become his law partner, "I find speaking here and +elsewhere about the same thing. I was about as badly scared, and no +worse, as I am when I speak in court." + +The next year he made no set speeches, but in addition to the usual work +of a congressman occupied himself with a bill that had for its object +the purchase and freeing of all slaves in the District of Columbia. +Slavery was not only lawful at the national capital at that time: there +was, to quote Mr. Lincoln's own graphic words, "in view from the windows +of the Capitol a sort of negro livery-stable, where droves of negroes +were collected, temporarily kept, and finally taken to Southern markets, +precisely like droves of horses." + +To Lincoln and to other people who disapproved of slavery, the idea of +human beings held in bondage under the very shadow of the dome of the +Capitol seemed indeed a bitter mockery. As has already been stated, he +did not then believe Congress had the right to interfere with slavery in +States that chose to have it; but in the District of Columbia the power +of Congress was supreme, and the matter was entirely different. His +bill provided that the Federal Government should pay full value to the +slave-holders of the District for all slaves in their possession, +and should at once free the older ones. The younger ones were to be +apprenticed for a term of years, in order to make them self-supporting, +after which they also were to receive their freedom. The bill was very +carefully thought out, and had the approval of residents of the District +who held the most varied views upon slavery; but good as it was, the +measure was never allowed to come to a vote, and Lincoln went back to +Springfield, at the end of his term, feeling doubtless that his efforts +in behalf of the slaves had been all in vain. + +While in Washington he lived very simply and quietly, taking little part +in the social life of the city, though cordially liked by all who made +his acquaintance. An inmate of the modest boarding-house where he had +rooms has told of the cheery atmosphere he seemed to bring with him into +the common dining-room, where political arguments were apt to run high. +He never appeared anxious to insist upon his own views; and when others, +less considerate, forced matters until the talk threatened to become too +furious, he would interrupt with an anecdote or a story that cleared the +air and ended the discussion in a general laugh. Sometimes for exercise +he would go into a bowling-alley close by, entering into the game with +great zest, and accepting defeat and victory with equal good-nature. By +the time he had finished a little circle would be gathered around him, +enjoying his enjoyment, and laughing at his quaint expressions and +sallies of wit. + +His gift for jest and story-telling has become traditional. Indeed, +almost every good story that has been invented within a hundred years +has been laid at his door. As a matter of fact, though he was fond of +telling them, and told them well, he told comparatively few of the +number that have been credited to him. He had a wonderful memory, and a +fine power of making his hearers see the scene he wished to depict; but +the final charm of his stories lay in their aptness, and in the kindly +humor that left no sting behind it. + +During his term in Congress the Presidential campaign of 1848 came on. +Lincoln took an active part in the nomination and election of General +Zachary Taylor--"Old Rough and Ready," as he was called--making speeches +in Maryland and Massachusetts, as well as in his own home district of +Illinois. Two letters that he wrote during this campaign have special +interest for young readers, for they show the sympathetic encouragement +he gave to young men anxious to make a place and a name for themselves +in American politics. + +"Now as to the young men," he wrote. "You must not wait to be brought +forward by the older men. For instance, do you suppose that I should +ever have got into notice if I had waited to be hunted up and pushed +forward by older men? You young men get together and form a 'Rough and +Ready' club, and have regular meetings and speeches.... Let every one +play the part he can play best--some speak, some sing, and all 'holler.' +Your meetings will be of evenings; the older men, and the women, will go +to hear you; so that it will not only contribute to the election of +'Old Zach,' but will be an interesting pastime, and improving to the +intellectual faculties of all engaged." + +In another letter, answering a young friend who complained of being +neglected, he said: + +"Nothing could afford me more satisfaction than to learn that you and +others of my young friends at home are doing battle in the contest and +taking a stand far above any I have ever been able to reach.... I +cannot conceive that other old men feel differently. Of course I cannot +demonstrate what I say; but I was young once, and I am sure I was never +ungenerously thrust back. I hardly know what to say. The way for a young +man to rise is to improve himself every way he can, never suspecting +that anybody wishes to hinder him. Allow me to assure you that suspicion +and jealousy never did help any man in any situation. There may +sometimes be ungenerous attempts to keep a young man down; and they will +succeed, too, if he allows his mind to be diverted from its true channel +to brood over the attempted injury. Cast about and see if this feeling +has not injured every person you have ever known to fall into it." + +He was about forty years old when he wrote this letter. By some people +that is not considered a very great age; but he doubtless felt himself +immensely older, as he was infinitely wiser, than his petulant young +correspondent. + +General Taylor was triumphantly elected, and it then became Lincoln's +duty, as Whig member of Congress from Illinois, to recommend certain +persons to fill government offices in that State. He did this after +he returned to Springfield, for his term in Congress ended on March 4, +1849, the day that General Taylor became President. The letters that he +sent to Washington when forwarding the papers and applications of people +who wished appointment were both characteristic and amusing; for in his +desire not to mislead or to do injustice to any man, they were very apt +to say more in favor of the men he did not wish to see appointed than in +recommendation of his own particular candidates. + +This absolute and impartial fairness to friend and foe alike was one of +his strongest traits, governing every action of his life. If it had not +been for this, he might possibly have enjoyed another term in Congress, +for there had been talk of reelecting him. In spite of his confession to +Speed that "being elected to Congress, though I am very grateful to our +friends for having done it, has not pleased me as much as I expected," +this must have been flattering. But there were many able young men +in Springfield who coveted the honor, and they had entered into an +agreement among themselves that each would be content with a single +term. Lincoln of course remained faithful to this promise. His strict +keeping of promises caused him also to lose an appointment from +President Taylor as Commissioner of the General Land Office, which might +easily have been his, but for which he had agreed to recommend some +other Illinois man. A few weeks later the President offered to make him +governor of the new Territory of Oregon. This attracted him much more +than the other office had done, but he declined because his wife was +unwilling to live in a place so far away. + +His career in Congress, while adding little to his fame at the time, +proved of great advantage to him in after life, for it gave him a close +knowledge of the workings of the Federal Government, and brought him +into contact with political leaders from all parts of the Union. + + + + +V. THE CHAMPION OF FREEDOM + +For four or five years after his return from Congress, Lincoln remained +in Springfield, working industriously at his profession. He was offered +a law partnership in Chicago, but declined on the ground that his health +would not stand the confinement of a great city. His business increased +in volume and importance as the months went by; and it was during this +time that he engaged in what is perhaps the most dramatic as well as the +best known of all his law cases--his defense of Jack Armstrong's son on +a charge of murder. A knot of young men had quarreled one night on +the outskirts of a camp-meeting, one was killed, and suspicion pointed +strongly toward young Armstrong as the murderer. Lincoln, for old +friendship's sake, offered to defend him--an offer most gratefully +accepted by his family. The principal witness swore that he had seen +young Armstrong strike the fatal blow--had seen him distinctly by the +light of a bright moon. Lincoln made him repeat the statement until it +seemed as if he were sealing the death-warrant of the prisoner. Then +Lincoln began his address to the jury. He was not there as a hired +attorney, he told them, but because of friendship. He told of his old +relations with Jack Armstrong, of the kindness the prisoner's mother had +shown him in New Salem, how he had himself rocked the prisoner to sleep +when the latter was a little child. Then he reviewed the testimony, +pointing out how completely everything depended on the statements +of this one witness; and ended by proving beyond question that his +testimony was false, since, according to the almanac, which he produced +in court and showed to judge and jury, THERE WAS NO MOON IN THE SKY +THAT NIGHT at the hour the murder was committed. The jury brought in a +verdict of "Not guilty," and the prisoner was discharged. + +Lincoln was always strong with a jury. He knew how to handle men, and +he had a direct way of going to the heart of things. He had, moreover, +unusual powers of mental discipline. It was after his return from +Congress, when he had long been acknowledged one of the foremost lawyers +of the State, that he made up his mind he lacked the power of close and +sustained reasoning, and set himself like a schoolboy to study works of +logic and mathematics to remedy the defect. At this time he committed to +memory six books of the propositions of Euclid; and, as always, he was +an eager reader on many subjects, striving in this way to make up for +the lack of education he had had as a boy. He was always interested in +mechanical principles and their workings, and in May, 1849, patented a +device for lifting vessels over shoals, which had evidently been dormant +in his mind since the days of his early Mississippi River experiences. +The little model of a boat, whittled out with his own hand, that he sent +to the Patent Office when he filed his application, is still shown to +visitors, though the invention itself failed to bring about any change +in steamboat architecture. + +In work and study time slipped away. He was the same cheery companion as +of old, much sought after by his friends, but now more often to be found +in his office surrounded by law-books and papers than had been the case +before his term in Congress. His interest in politics seemed almost +to have ceased when, in 1854, something happened to rouse that and his +sense of right and justice as they had never been roused before. This +was the repeal of the "Missouri Compromise," a law passed by Congress +in the year 1820, allowing Missouri to enter the Union as a slave State, +but positively forbidding slavery in all other territory of the United +States lying north of latitude 36 degrees 30 minutes, which was the +southern boundary-line of Missouri. + +Up to that time the Southern States, where slavery was lawful, had been +as wealthy and quite as powerful in politics as the Northern or free +States. The great unoccupied territory lying to the west, which, in +years to come, was sure to be filled with people and made into new +States, lay, however, mostly north of 36 degrees 30 minutes; and it was +easy to see that as new free States came one after the other into the +Union the importance of the South must grow less and less, because there +was little or no territory left out of which slave States could be +made to offset them. The South therefore had been anxious to have the +Missouri Compromise repealed. + +The people of the North, on the other hand, were not all wise or +disinterested in their way of attacking slavery. As always happens, +self-interest and moral purpose mingled on both sides; but, as a whole, +it may be said that they wished to get rid of slavery because they felt +it to be wrong, and totally out of place in a country devoted to freedom +and liberty. The quarrel between them was as old as the nation, and it +had been gaining steadily in intensity. At first only a few persons in +each section had been really interested. By the year 1850 it had come +to be a question of much greater moment, and during the ten years that +followed was to increase in bitterness until it absorbed the thoughts of +the entire people, and plunged the country into a terrible civil war. + +Abraham Lincoln had grown to manhood while the question was gaining in +importance. As a youth, during his flatboat voyages to New Orleans he +had seen negroes chained and beaten, and the injustice of slavery had +been stamped upon his soul. The uprightness of his mind abhorred a +system that kept men in bondage merely because they happened to be +black. The intensity of his feeling on the subject had made him a Whig +when, as a friendless boy, he lived in a town where Whig ideas were much +in disfavor. The same feeling, growing stronger as he grew older, had +inspired the Lincoln-Stone protest and the bill to free the slaves in +the District of Columbia, and had caused him to vote at least forty +times against slavery in one form or another during his short term in +Congress. The repeal of the Missouri Compromise, throwing open once more +to slavery a vast amount of territory from which it had been shut out, +could not fail to move him deeply. His sense of justice and his strong +powers of reasoning were equally stirred, and from that time until +slavery came to its end through his own act, he gave his time and all +his energies to the cause of freedom. + +Two points served to make the repeal of the Missouri Compromise of +special interest to Lincoln. The first was personal, in that the man who +championed the measure, and whose influence in Congress alone made it +possible, was Senator Stephen A. Douglas, who had been his neighbor in +Illinois for many years. + +The second was deeper. He realized that the struggle meant much more +than the freedom or bondage of a few million black men: that it was in +reality a struggle for the central idea of our American republic--the +statement in our Declaration of Independence that "all men are created +equal." He made no public speeches until autumn, but in the meantime +studied the question with great care, both as to its past history and +present state. When he did speak it was with a force and power that +startled Douglas and, it is said, brought him privately to Lincoln with +the proposition that neither of them should address a public meeting +again until after the next election. + +Douglas was a man of great ambition as well as of unusual political +skill. Until recently he had been heartily in favor of keeping slavery +out of the Northwest Territory; but he had set his heart upon being +President of the United States, and he thought that he saw a chance of +this if he helped the South to repeal the Missouri Compromise, and thus +gained its gratitude and its votes. Without hesitation he plunged into +the work and labored successfully to overthrow this law of more than +thirty years' standing. + +Lincoln's speech against the repeal had made a deep impression in +Illinois, where he was at once recognized as the people's spokesman +in the cause of freedom. His statements were so clear, his language so +eloquent, the stand he took so just, that all had to acknowledge his +power. He did not then, nor for many years afterward, say that the +slaves ought to be immediately set free. What he did insist upon was +that slavery was wrong, and that it must not be allowed to spread into +territory already free; but that, gradually, in ways lawful and just to +masters and slaves alike, the country should strive to get rid of it in +places where it already existed. He never let his hearers lose sight of +the great underlying moral fact. "Slavery," he said, "is founded in the +selfishness of man's nature; opposition to it in his love of justice." +Even Senator Douglas was not prepared to admit that slavery was right. +He knew that if he said that he could never be President, for the whole +North would rise against him. He wished to please both sides, so he +argued that it was not a question for him or for the Federal Government +to decide, but one which each State and Territory must settle for +itself. In answer to this plea of his that it was not a matter +of morals, but of "State rights"--a mere matter of local +self-government--Mr. Lincoln replied, "When the white man governs +himself that is self-government; but when he governs himself and +also governs another man, that is more than self-government--that is +despotism." + +It was on these opposing grounds that the two men took their stand for +the battle of argument and principle that was to continue for years, +to outgrow the bounds of the State, to focus the attention of the whole +country upon them, and, in the end, to have far-reaching consequences +of which neither at that time dreamed. At first the field appeared +much narrower, though even then the reward was a large one. Lincoln had +entered the contest with no thought of political gain; but it happened +that a new United States senator from Illinois had to be chosen +about that time. Senators are not voted for by the people, but by the +legislatures of their respective States and as a first result of all +this discussion about the right or wrong of slavery it was found that +the Illinois legislature, instead of having its usual large Democratic +majority, was almost evenly divided. Lincoln seemed the most likely +candidate; and he would have undoubtedly been chosen senator, had not +five men, whose votes were absolutely necessary, stoutly refused to +vote for a Whig, no matter what his views upon slavery might be. Keeping +stubbornly aloof, they cast their ballots time after time for Lyman +Trumbull, who was a Democrat, although as strongly opposed to slavery as +Lincoln himself. + +A term of six years in the United States Senate must have seemed a large +prize to Lincoln just then--possibly the largest he might ever hope to +gain; and it must have been a hard trial to feel it so near and then +see it slipping away from him. He did what few men would have had +the courage or the unselfishness to do. Putting aside all personal +considerations, and intent only on making sure of an added vote against +slavery in the Senate, he begged his friends to cease voting for him and +to unite with those five Democrats to elect Trumbull. + +"I regret my defeat moderately," he wrote to a sympathizing friend, "but +I am not nervous about it." Yet it must have been particularly trying to +know that with forty-five votes in his favor, and only five men standing +between him and success, he had been forced to give up his own chances +and help elect the very man who had defeated him. + +The voters of Illinois were quick to realize the sacrifice he had made. +The five stubborn men became his most devoted personal followers; and +his action at this time did much to bring about a great political change +in the State. All over the country old party lines were beginning to +break up and re-form themselves on this one question of slavery. Keeping +its old name, the Democratic party became the party in favor of slavery, +while the Northern Whigs and all those Democrats who objected to slavery +joined in what became known as the Republican party. It was at a great +mass convention held in Bloomington in May, 1856, that the Republican +party of Illinois took final shape; and it was here that Lincoln made +the wonderful address which has become famous in party history as his +"lost speech." There had been much enthusiasm. Favorite speakers had +already made stirring addresses that had been listened to with eagerness +and heartily applauded; but hardly a man moved from his seat until +Lincoln should be heard. It was he who had given up the chance of being +senator to help on the cause of freedom. He alone had successfully +answered Douglas. Every one felt the fitness of his making the closing +speech--and right nobly did he honor the demand. The spell of the hour +was visibly upon him. Standing upon the platform before the members of +the convention, his tall figure drawn up to its full height, his head +thrown back, and his voice ringing with earnestness, he denounced the +evil they had to fight in a speech whose force and power carried his +hearers by storm, ending with a brilliant appeal to all who loved +liberty and justice to + + Come as the winds come when forests are rended; + Come as the waves come when navies are stranded; + +and unite with the Republican party against this great wrong. + +The audience rose and answered him with cheer upon cheer. Then, after +the excitement had died down, it was found that neither a full report +nor even trustworthy notes of his speech had been taken. The sweep and +magnetism of his oratory had carried everything before it--even the +reporters had forgotten their duty, and their pencils had fallen idle. +So it happened that the speech as a whole was lost. Mr. Lincoln himself +could never recall what he had said; but the hundreds who heard him +never forgot the scene or the lifting inspiration of his words. + +Three weeks later the first national convention of the Republican party +was held. John C. Fremont was nominated for President, and Lincoln +received over a hundred votes for Vice-President, but fortunately, as it +proved, was not selected, the honor falling to William L. Dayton of +New Jersey. The Democratic candidate for President that year was James +Buchanan, "a Northern man with Southern principles," very strongly in +favor of slavery. Lincoln took an active part in the campaign against +him, making more than fifty speeches in Illinois and the adjoining +States. The Democrats triumphed, and Buchanan was elected President; +but Lincoln was not discouraged, for the new Republican party had shown +unexpected strength throughout the North. Indeed, Lincoln was seldom +discouraged. He had an abiding faith that the people would in the long +run vote wisely; and the cheerful hope he was able to inspire in his +followers was always a strong point in his leadership. + +In 1858, two years after this, another election took place in Illinois, +on which the choice of a United States senator depended. This time +it was the term of Stephen A. Douglas that was drawing to a close. He +greatly desired reelection. There was but one man in the State who could +hope to rival him, and with a single voice the Republicans of Illinois +called upon Lincoln to oppose him. Douglas was indeed an opponent not to +be despised. His friends and followers called him the "Little Giant." +He was plausible, popular, quick-witted, had winning manners, was most +skilful in the use of words, both to convince his hearers and, at times, +to hide his real meaning. He and Lincoln were old antagonists. They had +first met in the far-away Vandalia days of the Illinois legislature. In +Springfield, Douglas had been the leader of the young Democrats, while +Lincoln had been leader of the younger Whigs. Their rivalry had not +always been confined to politics, for gossip asserted that Douglas had +been one of Miss Todd's more favored suitors. Douglas in those days had +no great opinion of the tall young lawyer; while Lincoln is said to have +described Douglas as "the least man I ever saw"--although that referred +to his rival's small stature and boyish figure, not to his mental +qualities. Douglas was not only ambitious to be President: he had staked +everything on the repeal of the Missouri Compromise and his statement +that this question of slavery was one that every State and Territory +must settle for itself, but with which the Federal Government had +nothing to do. Unfortunately, his own party no longer agreed with him. +Since Buchanan had become President the Democrats had advanced their +ground. They now claimed that while a State might properly say whether +or not it would tolerate slavery, slavery ought to be lawful in all the +Territories, no matter whether their people liked it or not. + +A famous law case, called the Dred Scott case, lately decided by the +Supreme Court of the United States, went far toward making this really +the law of the land. In its decision the court positively stated that +neither Congress nor a territorial legislature had power to keep slavery +out of any United States Territory. This decision placed Senator Douglas +in a most curious position. It justified him in repealing the Missouri +Compromise, but at the same time it absolutely denied his statement that +the people of a Territory had a right to settle the slavery question to +suit themselves. Being a clever juggler with words, he explained away +the difference by saying that a master might have a perfect right to his +slave in a Territory, and yet that right could do him no good unless +it were protected by laws in force where his slave happened to be. +Such laws depended entirely on the will of the people living in +the Territory, and so, after all, they had the deciding voice. This +reasoning brought upon him the displeasure of President Buchanan and all +the Democrats who believed as he did, and Douglas found himself forced +either to deny what he had already told the voters of Illinois, or to +begin a quarrel with the President. He chose the latter, well knowing +that to lose his reelection to the Senate at this time would end his +political career. His fame as well as his quarrel with the President +served to draw immense crowds to his meetings when he returned to +Illinois and began speech-making, and his followers so inspired these +meetings with their enthusiasm that for a time it seemed as though all +real discussion would be swallowed up in noise and shouting. + +Mr. Lincoln, acting on the advice of his leading friends, sent Douglas a +challenge to joint debate. Douglas accepted, though not very willingly; +and it was agreed that they should address the same meetings at seven +towns in the State, on dates extending through August, September, and +October. The terms were that one should speak an hour in opening, the +other an hour and a half in reply, and the first again have half an hour +to close. Douglas was to open the meeting at one place, Lincoln at the +next. + +It was indeed a memorable contest. Douglas, the most skilled and +plausible speaker in the Democratic party, was battling for his +political life. He used every art, every resource, at his command. +Opposed to him was a veritable giant in stature--a man whose qualities +of mind and of body were as different from those of the "Little +Giant"--as could well be imagined. Lincoln was direct, forceful, +logical, and filled with a purpose as lofty as his sense of right and +justice was strong. He cared much for the senatorship, but he cared far +more to right the wrong of slavery, and to warn people of the peril +that menaced the land. Already in June he had made a speech that greatly +impressed his hearers. "A house divided against itself cannot stand," +he told them. "I believe this government cannot endure permanently half +slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved, I do not +expect the house to fall--but I do expect it will cease to be divided. +It will become all one thing or all the other"; and he went on to say +that there was grave danger it might become all slave. He showed how, +little by little, slavery had been gaining ground, until all it lacked +now was another Supreme Court decision to make it alike lawful in all +the States, North as well as South. The warning came home to the people +of the North with startling force, and thereafter all eyes were fixed +upon the senatorial campaign in Illinois. + +The battle continued for nearly three months. Besides the seven great +joint debates, each man spoke daily, sometimes two or three times a day, +at meetings of his own. Once before their audiences, Douglas's dignity +as a senator afforded him no advantage, Lincoln's popularity gave +him little help. Face to face with the followers of each, gathered +in immense numbers and alert with jealous watchfulness, there was no +escaping the rigid test of skill in argument and truth in principle. The +processions and banners, the music and fireworks, of both parties were +stilled and forgotten while the people listened to the three hours' +battle of mind against mind. + +Northern Illinois had been peopled largely from the free States, and +southern Illinois from the slave States; thus the feeling about slavery +in the two parts was very different. To take advantage of this, Douglas, +in the very first debate, which took place at Ottawa, in northern +Illinois, asked Lincoln seven questions, hoping to make him answer in a +way that would be unpopular farther south. In the second debate Lincoln +replied to these very frankly, and in his turn asked Douglas four +questions, the second of which was whether, in Douglas's opinion, the +people of any Territory could, in any lawful way, against the wish of +any citizen of the United States, bar out slavery before that Territory +became a State. Mr. Lincoln had long and carefully studied the meaning +and effect of this question. If Douglas said, "No," he would please +Buchanan and the administration Democrats, but at the cost of denying +his own words. If he said, "Yes," he would make enemies of every +Democrat in the South. Lincoln's friends all advised against asking the +question. They felt sure that Douglas would answer, "Yes," and that this +would win him his election. "If you ask it, you can never be senator," +they told Lincoln. "Gentlemen," he replied, "I am killing larger game. +If Douglas answers he can never be President, and the battle of 1860 is +worth a hundred of this." + +Both prophecies were fulfilled. Douglas answered as was expected; and +though, in actual numbers, the Republicans of Illinois cast more votes +than the Democrats, a legislature was chosen that rejected him to the +Senate. Two years later, Lincoln, who in 1858 had not the remotest +dream of such a thing, found himself the successful candidate of the +Republican party for President of the United States. + +To see how little Lincoln expected such an outcome it is only necessary +to glance at the letters he wrote to friends at the end of his campaign +against Douglas. Referring to the election to be held two years later, +he said, "In that day I shall fight in the ranks, but I shall be in no +one's way for any of the places." To another correspondent he expressed +himself even more frankly: "Of course I wished, but I did not much +expect, a better result... . I am glad I made the late race. It gave me +a hearing on the great and durable question of the age, which I could +have had in no other way; and though I now sink out of view and shall +be forgotten, I believe I have made some marks which will tell for the +cause of civil liberty long after I am gone." + +But he was not to "sink out of view and be forgotten." Douglas himself +contributed not a little toward keeping his name before the public; for +shortly after their contest was ended the reelected senator started on +a trip through the South to set himself right again with the Southern +voters, and in every speech that he made he referred to Lincoln as the +champion of "abolitionism." In this way the people were not allowed to +forget the stand Lincoln had taken, and during the year 1859 they came +to look upon him as the one man who could be relied on at all times to +answer Douglas and Douglas's arguments. + +In the autumn of that year Lincoln was asked to speak in Ohio, where +Douglas was again referring to him by name. In December he was invited +to address meetings in various towns in Kansas, and early in 1860 he +made a speech in New York that raised him suddenly and unquestionably to +the position of a national leader. + +It was delivered in the hall of Cooper Institute, on the evening of +February 27, 1860, before an audience of men and women remarkable for +their culture, wealth and influence. + +Mr. Lincoln's name and words had filled so large a space in the Eastern +newspapers of late, that his listeners were very eager to see and hear +this rising Western politician. The West, even at that late day, was +very imperfectly understood by the East. It was looked upon as a land +of bowie-knives and pistols, of steamboat explosions, of mobs, of wild +speculation and wilder adventure. What, then, would be the type, the +character, the language of this speaker? How would he impress the great +editor Horace Greeley, who sat among the invited guests; David Dudley +Field, the great lawyer, who escorted him to the platform; William +Cullen Bryant, the great poet, who presided over the meeting? + +The audience quickly forgot these questioning doubts. They had but +time to note Mr. Lincoln's unusual height, his rugged, strongly marked +features, the clear ring of his high-pitched voice, the commanding +earnestness of his manner. Then they became completely absorbed in what +he was saying. He began quietly, soberly, almost as if he were arguing +a case before a court. In his entire address he uttered neither an +anecdote nor a jest. If any of his hearers came expecting the style or +manner of the Western stump-speaker, they met novelty of an unlooked-for +kind; for such was the apt choice of words, the simple strength of +his reasoning, the fairness of every point he made, the force of every +conclusion he drew, that his listeners followed him, spellbound. He +spoke on the subject that he had so thoroughly mastered and that was now +uppermost in men's minds--the right or wrong of slavery. He laid bare +the complaints and demands of the Southern leaders, pointed out the +injustice of their threat to break up the Union if their claims were not +granted, stated forcibly the stand taken by the Republican party, and +brought his speech to a close with the short and telling appeal: + +"Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith let us, to +the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it." + +The attention with which it was followed, the applause that greeted +its telling points, and the enthusiasm of the Republican journals next +morning showed that Lincoln's Cooper Institute speech had taken New York +by storm. It was printed in full in four of the leading daily papers of +the city, and immediately reprinted in pamphlet form. From New York Mr. +Lincoln made a tour of speech-making through several of the New England +States, where he was given a hearty welcome, and listened to with an +eagerness that showed a marked result at the spring elections. The +interest of the working-men who heard these addresses was equaled, +perhaps excelled, by the pleased surprise of college professors and men +of letters when they found that the style and method of this self-taught +popular Western orator would stand the test of their most searching +professional criticism. + +One other audience he had during this trip, if we may trust report, +which, while neither as learned as the college professors, nor perhaps +as critical as the factory-men, was quite as hard to please, and +the winning of whose approval shows another side of this great and +many-sided man. A teacher in a Sunday-school in the Five Points district +of New York, at that time one of the worst parts of the city, has told +how, one morning, a tall, thin, unusual-looking man entered and sat +quietly listening to the exercises. His face showed such genuine +interest that he was asked if he would like to speak to the children. +Accepting the invitation with evident pleasure, he stepped forward and +began a simple address that quickly charmed the roomful of youngsters +into silence. His language was singularly beautiful, his voice musical +with deep feeling. The faces of his little listeners drooped into sad +earnestness at his words of warning, and brightened again when he spoke +of cheerful promises. "Go on! Oh, do go on!" they begged when at last +he tried to stop. As he left the room somebody asked his name. "Abraham +Lincoln, from Illinois," was the courteous reply. + + + + +VI. THE NEW PRESIDENT + +Lincoln's great skill and wisdom in his debate with Douglas turned +the eyes of the whole country upon him; and the force and logic of +his Cooper Institute speech convinced every one that in him they had +discovered a new national leader. He began to be mentioned as a possible +candidate for President in the election which was to take place that +fall to choose a successor to President Buchanan. Indeed, quite a year +earlier, an editor in Illinois had written to him asking permission to +announce him as a candidate in his newspaper. At that time Lincoln had +refused, thanking him for the compliment, but adding modestly: "I must +in candor say that I do not think myself fit for the Presidency." +About Christmas time, 1859, however, a number of his stanchest Illinois +friends urged him to let them use his name, and he consented, not so +much in the hope of being chosen, as of perhaps receiving the nomination +for Vice-President, or at least of making a show of strength that would +aid him at some future time to become senator. The man most talked +about as the probable Republican candidate for President was William H. +Seward, who was United States senator from New York, and had also been +governor of that State. + +The political unrest continued. Slavery was still the most absorbing +topic, and it was upon their stand for or against slavery that all the +Presidential candidates were chosen. The pretensions and demands of the +Southern leaders had by this time passed into threats. They declared +roundly that they would take their States out of the Union if slavery +were not quickly made lawful all over the country, or in case a "Black +Republican" President should be elected. The Democrats, unable to agree +among themselves, split into two sections, the Northerners nominating +Stephen A. Douglas for President, while delegates who had come to their +National Convention from what were called the Cotton States chose John +C. Breckinridge. A few men who had belonged to the old Whig party, but +felt themselves unable to join the Republicans or either faction of the +Democrats, met elsewhere and nominated John Bell. + +This breaking up of their political enemies into three distinct camps +greatly cheered the Republicans, and when their National Convention came +together in Chicago on May 16, 1860, its members were filled with the +most eager enthusiasm. Its meetings were held in a huge temporary wooden +building called the Wigwam, so large that 10,000 people could easily +assemble in it to watch the proceedings. Few conventions have shown such +depth of feeling. Not only the delegates on the central platform, but +even the spectators seemed impressed with the fact that they were taking +part in a great historical event. The first two days were taken up +in seating delegates, adopting a "platform" or statement of party +principles, and in other necessary routine matters. On the third day, +however, it was certain that balloting would begin, and crowds hurried +to the Wigwam in a fever of curiosity. The New York men, sure that +Seward would be the choice of the convention, marched there in a body, +with music and banners. The friends of Lincoln arrived before them, and +while not making so much noise or show, were doing good work for their +favorite. The long nominating speeches of later years had not then come +into fashion. "I take the liberty," simply said Mr. Evarts of New York, +"to name as a candidate to be nominated by this convention for the +office of President of the United States, William H. Seward," and at Mr. +Seward's name a burst of applause broke forth, so long and loud that +it seemed fairly to shake the great building. Mr. Judd, of Illinois, +performed the same office of friendship for Mr. Lincoln, and the +tremendous cheering that rose from the throats of his friends echoed +and dashed itself against the sides of the Wigwam, died down, and began +anew, until the noise that had been made by Seward's admirers dwindled +to comparative feebleness. Again and again these contests of lungs +and enthusiasm were repeated as other names were presented to the +convention. + +At last the voting began. Two names stood out beyond all the rest on the +very first ballot--Seward's and Lincoln's. The second ballot showed that +Seward had lost votes while Lincoln had gained them. The third ballot +was begun in almost painful suspense, delegates and spectators keeping +count upon their tally-sheets with nervous fingers. It was found that +Lincoln had gained still more, and now only needed one and a half votes +to receive the nomination. Suddenly the Wigwam became as still as a +church. Everybody leaned forward to see who would break the spell. A man +sprang upon a chair and reported a change of four votes to Lincoln. Then +a teller shouted a name toward the skylight, and the boom of a cannon +from the roof announced the nomination and started the cheering down the +long Chicago streets; while inside delegation after delegation changed +its votes to the victor in a whirlwind of hurrahs. That same afternoon +the convention finished its labors by nominating Hannibal Hamlin +of Maine for Vice-President, and adjourned--the delegates, speeding +homeward on the night trains, realizing by the bonfires and cheering +crowds at every little station that a memorable Presidential campaign +was already begun. + +During this campaign there were, then, four Presidential candidates in +the field. In the order of strength shown at the election they were: + +1. The Republican party, whose "platform," or statement of party +principles, declared that slavery was wrong, and that its further spread +should be prevented. Its candidates were Abraham Lincoln of Illinois for +President, and Hannibal Hamlin of Maine for Vice-President. + +2. The Douglas wing of the Democratic party, which declared that it did +not pretend to decide whether slavery was right or wrong, and proposed +to allow the people of each State and Territory to choose for themselves +whether they would or would not have it. Its candidates were Stephen A. +Douglas of Illinois for President, and Herschel V. Johnson of Georgia +for Vice-President. + +3. The Buchanan wing of the Democratic party, which declared that +slavery was right, and whose policy was to extend it, and to make new +slave States. Its candidates were John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky for +President, and Joseph Lane of Oregon for Vice-President. + +4. The Constitutional Union party, which ignored slavery in its +platform, declaring that it recognized no political principles other +than "the Constitution of the country, the Union of the States, and the +enforcement of the laws." Its candidates were John Bell of Tennessee for +President, and Edward Everett of Massachusetts for Vice-President. + +In enthusiasm the Republicans quickly took the lead. "Wide Awake" clubs +of young men, wearing caps and capes of glazed oilcloth to protect their +clothing from the dripping oil of their torches, gathered in torchlight +processions miles in length. Fence rails, supposed to have been made by +Lincoln in his youth, were set up in party headquarters and trimmed +with flowers and lighted tapers. Lincoln was called the "Rail-splitter +Candidate," and this telling name, added to the equally telling "Honest +Old Abe," by which he had long been known in Illinois, furnished country +and city campaign orators with a powerful appeal to the sympathy and +trust of the working-people of the United States. Men and women read in +newspaper and pamphlet biographies the story of his humble beginnings: +how he had risen by simple, earnest work and native genius, first to +fame and leadership in his own State, and then to fame and leadership +in the nation; and these titles quickly grew to be much more than mere +party nicknames--to stand for a faith and trust destined to play no +small part in the history of the next few years. + +After the nominations were made Douglas went on a tour of speech-making +through the South. Lincoln, on the contrary, stayed quietly at home in +Springfield. His personal habits and surroundings varied little during +the whole of this campaign summer. Naturally he gave up active law +practice, leaving his office in charge of his partner, William H. +Herndon. He spent the time during the usual business hours of each day +in the governor's room of the State-house at Springfield, attended only +by his private secretary, Mr. Nicolay. Friends and strangers alike were +able to visit him freely and without ceremony, and few went away without +being impressed by the sincere frankness of his manner and conversation. + +All sorts of people came to see him: those from far-away States, East +and West, as well as those from nearer home. Politicians came to ask +him for future favors, and many whose only motives were friendliness or +curiosity called to express their good wishes and take the Republican +candidate by the hand. + +He wrote no public letters, and he made no speeches beyond a few words +of thanks and greeting to passing street parades. Even the strictly +private letters in which he gave his advice on points in the campaign +were not more than a dozen in number; but all through the long summer, +while welcoming his throngs of visitors, listening to the tales of old +settlers, making friends of strangers, and binding old friends closer +by his ready sympathy, Mr. Lincoln watched political developments very +closely, not merely to note the progress of his own chances, but with +an anxious view to the future in case he should be elected. Beyond +the ever-changing circle of friendly faces near him he saw the growing +unrest and anger of the South, and doubtless felt the uncertainty of +many good people in the North, who questioned the power of this untried +Western man to guide the country through the coming perils. + +Never over-confident of his own powers, his mind must at times have +been full of misgivings; but it was only on the night of the election, +November 6, 1860, when, sitting alone with the operators in the little +telegraph-office at Springfield, he read the messages of Republican +victory that fell from the wires until convinced of his election, that +the overwhelming, almost crushing weight of his coming duties and +responsibilities fell upon him. In that hour, grappling resolutely and +alone with the problem before him, he completed what was really the +first act of his Presidency--the choice of his cabinet, of the men who +were to aid him. People who doubted the will or the wisdom of their +Rail-splitter Candidate need have had no fear. A weak man would have +chosen this little band of counselors--the Secretary of State, the +Secretary of the Treasury, and the half-dozen others who were to stand +closest to him and to be at the head of the great departments of the +government--from among his personal friends. A man uncertain of his own +power would have taken care that no other man of strong nature with a +great following of his own should be there to dispute his authority. +Lincoln did the very opposite. He had a sincere belief in public +opinion, and a deep respect for the popular will. In this case he felt +that no men represented that popular will so truly as those whose names +had been considered by the Republican National Convention in its choice +of a candidate for President. So, instead of gathering about him his +friends, he selected his most powerful rivals in the Republican party. +William H. Seward, of New York, was to be his Secretary of State; Salmon +P. Chase, of Ohio, his Secretary of the Treasury; Simon Cameron, of +Pennsylvania, his Secretary of War; Edward Bates, of Missouri, his +Attorney-General. The names of all of these men had been before the +Convention. Each one had hoped to be President in his stead. For the +other three members of his Cabinet he had to look elsewhere. Gideon +Welles, of Connecticut, for Secretary of the Navy; Montgomery Blair, of +Maryland, for Postmaster-General; and Caleb B. Smith, of Indiana, for +Secretary of the Interior, were finally chosen. When people complained, +as they sometimes did, that by this arrangement the cabinet consisted of +four men who had been Democrats in the old days, and only three who had +been Whigs, Lincoln smiled his wise, humorous smile and answered that he +himself had been a Whig, and would always be there to make matters even. +It is not likely that this exact list was in his mind on the night of +the November election; but the principal names in it most certainly +were. To some of these gentlemen he offered their appointments by +letter. Others he asked to visit him in Springfield to talk the matter +over. Much delay and some misunderstanding occurred before the list was +finally completed: but when he sent it to the Senate, on the day after +his inauguration, it was practically the one he had in his mind from the +beginning. + +A President is elected by popular vote early in November, but he is not +inaugurated until the following fourth of March. Until the day of his +inauguration, when he takes the oath of office and begins to discharge +his duties, he is not only not President--he has no more power in the +affairs of the Government than the humblest private citizen. It is easy +to imagine the anxieties and misgivings that beset Mr. Lincoln during +the four long months that lay between his election and his inauguration. +True to their threats never to endure the rule of a "Black Republican" +President, the Cotton States one after the other withdrew their senators +and representatives from Congress, passed what they called "Ordinances +of Secession," and declared themselves to be no longer a part of the +United States. One after another, too, army and navy officers stationed +in the Southern States gave up to the Southern leaders in this movement +the forts, navy-yards, arsenals, mints, ships, and other government +property under their charge. President Buchanan, in whose hands alone +rested the power to punish these traitors and avenge their insults to +the government he had sworn to protect and defend, showed no disposition +to do so; and Lincoln, looking on with a heavy heart, was unable +to interfere in any way. No matter how anxiously he might watch the +developments at Washington or in the Cotton States, no matter what +appeals might be made to him, no action of any kind was possible on his +part. + +The only bit of cheer that came to him and other Union men during this +anxious season of waiting, was in the conduct of Major Robert Anderson +at Charleston Harbor, who, instead of following the example of other +officers who were proving unfaithful, boldly defied the Southern +"secessionists," and moving his little handful of soldiers into the +harbor fort best fitted for defense, prepared to hold out against them +until help could reach him from Washington. + +In February the leaders of the Southern people met at Montgomery, +Alabama, adopted a Constitution, and set up a government which they +called the Confederate States of America, electing Jefferson Davis, +of Mississippi, President, and Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia, +Vice-President. Stephens was the "little, slim pale-faced consumptive +man" whose speech in Congress had won Lincoln's admiration years before. +Davis had been the child who began his schooling so near to Lincoln in +Kentucky. He had had a far different career. Good fortune had carried +him to West Point, into the Mexican War, into the cabinet of President +Franklin Pierce, and twice into the Senate. He had had money, high +office, the best education his country could give him--everything, it +seemed, that had been denied to Lincoln. Now the two men were the +chosen heads of two great opposing factions, one bent on destroying the +government that had treated him so kindly; the other, for whom it had +done so little, willing to lay down his life in its defense. + +It must not be supposed that Lincoln remained idle during these four +months of waiting. Besides completing his cabinet, and receiving his +many visitors, he devoted himself to writing his inaugural address, +withdrawing himself for some hours each day to a quiet room over the +store of his brother-in-law, where he could think and write undisturbed. +The newspaper correspondents who had gathered at Springfield, though +alert for every item of news, and especially anxious for a sight of his +inaugural address, seeing him every day as usual, got not the slightest +hint of what he was doing. + +Mr. Lincoln started on his journey to Washington on February 11, +1861 two days after Jefferson Davis had been elected President of the +Confederate States of America. He went on a special train, accompanied +by Mrs. Lincoln and their three children, his two private secretaries, +and about a dozen personal friends. Mr. Seward had suggested that +because of the unsettled condition of public affairs it would be better +for the President-elect to come a week earlier; but Mr. Lincoln allowed +himself only time comfortably to fill the engagements he had made to +visit the State capitals and principal cities that lay on his way, to +which he had been invited by State and town officials, regardless of +party. The morning on which he left Springfield was dismal and stormy, +but fully a thousand of his friends and neighbors assembled to bid him +farewell. The weather seemed to add to the gloom and depression of their +spirits, and the leave-taking was one of subdued anxiety, almost of +solemnity. Mr. Lincoln took his stand in the waiting-room while his +friends filed past him, often merely pressing his hand in silent +emotion. The arrival of the rushing train broke in upon this ceremony, +and the crowd closed about the car into which the President-elect and +his party made their way. Just as they were starting, when the conductor +had his hand upon the bell-rope, Mr. Lincoln stepped out upon the front +platform and made the following brief and pathetic address. It was the +last time his voice was to be heard in the city which had so long been +his home: + +"My Friends: No one not in my situation can appreciate my feeling of +sadness at this parting. To this place and the kindness of these people +I owe everything. Here I have lived a quarter of a century, and have +passed from a young to an old man. Here my children have been born, +and one is buried. I now leave, not knowing when or whether ever I +may return, with a task before me greater than that which rested +upon Washington. Without the assistance of that Divine Being who ever +attended him, I cannot succeed. With that assistance I cannot fail. +Trusting in Him who can go with me, and remain with you, and be +everywhere for good, let us confidently hope that all will yet be well. +To His care commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will commend +me, I bid you an affectionate farewell." + +The conductor gave the signal, the train rolled slowly out of the +station, and the journey to Washington was begun. It was a remarkable +progress. At almost every station, even the smallest, crowds had +gathered to catch a glimpse of the face of the President-elect, or +at least to see the flying train. At the larger stopping-places +these crowds swelled to thousands, and in the great cities to almost +unmanageable throngs. Everywhere there were calls for Mr. Lincoln, and +if he showed himself; for a speech. Whenever there was time, he would +go to the rear platform of the car and bow as the train moved away, or +utter a few words of thanks and greeting. At the capitals of Indiana, +Ohio, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, and in the cities of +Cincinnati, Cleveland, Buffalo, New York, and Philadelphia, halts of +one or two days were made, the time being filled with formal visits and +addresses to each house of the legislature, street processions, large +evening receptions, and other ceremonies. + +Party foes as well as party friends made up these expectant crowds. +Every eye was eager, every ear strained, to get some hint of the +thoughts and purposes of the man who was to be the guide and head of the +nation in the crisis that every one now knew to be upon the country, but +the course and end of which the wisest could not foresee. In spite of +all the cheers and the enthusiasm, there was also an under-current of +anxiety for his personal safety, for the South had openly boasted that +Lincoln would never live to be inaugurated President. He himself paid no +heed to such warnings; but the railroad officials, and others who were +responsible for his journey, had detectives on watch at different points +to report any suspicious happenings. Nothing occurred to change the +program already agreed upon until the party reached Philadelphia; but +there Mr. Lincoln was met by Frederick W. Seward, the son of his future +Secretary of State, with an important message from his father. A +plot had been discovered to do violence to, and perhaps kill, the +President-elect as he passed through the city of Baltimore. Mr. Seward +and General Scott, the venerable hero of the Mexican War, who was now at +the head of the army, begged him to run no risk, but to alter his plans +so that a portion of his party might pass through Baltimore by a night +train without previous notice. The seriousness of the warning was +doubled by the fact that Mr. Lincoln had just been told of a similar, +if not exactly the same, danger, by a Chicago detective employed in +Baltimore by one of the great railroad companies. Two such warnings, +coming from entirely different sources, could not be disregarded; +for however much Mr. Lincoln might dislike to change his plans for so +shadowy a danger, his duty to the people who had elected him forbade +his running any unnecessary risk. Accordingly, after fulfilling all +his engagements in Philadelphia and Harrisburg on February 22, he and a +single companion took a night train, passed quietly through Baltimore, +and arrived in Washington about daylight on the morning of February 23. +This action called forth much talk, ranging from the highest praise to +ridicule and blame. A reckless newspaper reporter telegraphed all over +the country the absurd story that he had traveled disguised in a Scotch +cap and a long military cloak. There was, of course, not a word of truth +in the absurd tale. The rest of the party followed Mr. Lincoln at +the time originally planned. They saw great crowds in the streets of +Baltimore, but there was now no occasion for violence. + +In the week that passed between his arrival and the day of his +inauguration Mr. Lincoln exchanged the customary visits of ceremony with +President Buchanan, his cabinet, the Supreme Court, the two houses of +Congress, and other dignitaries. + +Careful preparations for the inauguration had been made under the +personal direction of General Scott, who held the small military force +in the city ready instantly to suppress any attempt to disturb the peace +and quiet of the day. + +On the morning of the fourth of March President Buchanan and Citizen +Lincoln, the outgoing and incoming heads of the government, rode side by +side in a carriage from the Executive Mansion, or White House, as it +is more commonly called, to the Capitol, escorted by an imposing +procession; and at noon a great throng of people heard Mr. Lincoln read +his inaugural address as he stood on the east portico of the Capitol, +surrounded by all the high officials of the government. Senator Douglas, +his unsuccessful rival, standing not an arm's length away from him, +courteously held his hat during the ceremony. A cheer greeted him as he +finished his address. Then the Chief Justice arose, the clerk opened his +Bible, and Mr. Lincoln, laying his hand upon the book, pronounced the +oath: + +"I, Abraham Lincoln, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute +the office of President of the United States, and will, to the best of +my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United +States." + +Amid the thundering of cannon and the applause of all the spectators, +President Lincoln and Citizen Buchanan again entered their carriage and +drove back from the Capitol to the Executive Mansion, on the threshold +of which Mr. Buchanan, warmly shaking the hand of his successor, +expressed his wishes for the personal happiness of the new President, +and for the national peace and prosperity. + + + + +VII. LINCOLN AND THE WAR + +It is one thing to be elected President of the United States,--that +means triumph, honor, power: it is quite another thing to perform the +duties of President,--for that means labor, disappointment, difficulty, +even danger. Many a man envied Abraham Lincoln when, in the stately pomp +of inauguration and with the plaudits of the spectators ringing about +him, he took the oath of office which for four years transforms an +American citizen into the ruler of these United States. Such envy would +have been changed to deepest sympathy if they could have known what lay +before him. After the music and cannon were dumb, after the flags were +all furled and the cheering crowds had vanished, the shadows of war fell +about the Executive Mansion, and its new occupant remained face to face +with his heavy task--a task which, as he had truly said in his speech at +Springfield, was greater than that which rested upon Washington. + +Then, as never before, he must have realized the peril of the nation, +with its credit gone, its laws defied, its flag insulted. The South +had carried out its threat, and seven million Americans were in revolt +against the idea that "all men are created equal," while twenty million +other Americans were bent upon defending that idea. For the moment both +sides had paused to see how the new President would treat this attempt +at secession. It must be constantly borne in mind that the rebellion in +the Southern States with which Mr. Lincoln had to deal was not a sudden +revolution, but a conspiracy of slow growth and long planning. As one +of its actors frankly admitted, it was "not an event of a day. It is not +anything produced by Mr. Lincoln's election.... It is a matter which has +been gathering head for thirty years." Its main object, it must also +be remembered, was the spread of slavery. Alexander H. Stephens, in +a speech made shortly after he became the Confederate Vice-President, +openly proclaimed slavery to be the "corner-stone" of the new +government. For years it had been the dream of southern leaders to +make the Ohio River the northern boundary of a great slave empire, with +everything lying to the south of that, even the countries of South and +Central America, as parts of their system. Though this dream was never +to be realized, the Confederacy finally came to number eleven States +(Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, South Carolina, North Carolina, +Florida, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia), and to cover +a territory of more than 750,000 square miles--larger than England, +Scotland, Ireland, France, Spain, Germany and Switzerland put together, +with a coast line 3,500 miles long, and a land frontier of over 7,000 +miles. + +President Buchanan's timidity and want of spirit had alone made this +great rebellion possible, for although it had been "gathering head for +thirty years" it was only within the last few months that it had come to +acts of open treason and rebellion. President Buchanan had opportunity +and ample power to crush it when the conspirators first began to show +their hands. Instead he wavered, and delayed, while they grew bold +under his lack of decision, imagining that they would have a bloodless +victory, and even boasting that they would take Washington for their +capital; or, if the new President should thwart them and make them +fight, that they would capture Philadelphia and dictate the peace they +wanted from Independence Hall. + +By the time Mr. Lincoln came into office the conspiracy had grown beyond +control by any means then in the hands of a President, though men on +both sides still vainly hoped that the troubles of the country might +be settled without fighting. Mr. Lincoln especially wished to make very +sure that if it ever came to a matter of war, the fault should not lie +with the North. + +In his inaugural address he had told the South that he would use the +power confided to him to hold and occupy the places belonging to the +Government, and to collect the taxes; but beyond what might be necessary +for these objects, he would not use force among the people anywhere. His +peaceful policy was already harder to follow than he realized. Before +he had been President twenty-four hours word came from Major Anderson, +still defying the conspirators from Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, +that his little garrison was short of food, and must speedily surrender +unless help reached them. The rebels had for weeks been building +batteries to attack the fort, and with Anderson's report came the +written opinions of his officers that it would require an army of 20,000 +men to relieve it. They might as well have asked for twenty thousand +archangels, for at that time the entire army of the United States +numbered but 17,113 men, and these were doing duty, not only in the +Southern and Eastern States, but were protecting settlers from Indians +on the great western frontier, and guarding the long Canadian and +Mexican boundaries as well. Yet Anderson and his men could not be left +to their fate without even an attempt to help them, though some of the +high military and naval officers hastily called into council by the +new President advised this course. It was finally decided to notify the +Confederates that a ship carrying food, but no soldiers, would be sent +to his relief. If they chose to fire upon that it would be plainly the +South, and not the North, that began the war. + +Days went on, and by the middle of April the Confederate government +found itself forced to a fatal choice. Either it must begin war, or +allow the rebellion to collapse. All its claims to independence were +denied; the commissioner it sent to Washington on the pretense that they +were agents of a foreign country were politely refused a hearing, yet +not one angry word, or provoking threat, or a single harmful act had +come from the "Black Republican" President. In his inaugural he had +promised the people of the South peace and protection, and offered them +the benefit of the mails. Even now, all he proposed to do was to send +bread to Anderson and his hungry soldiers. His prudent policy placed +them where, as he had told them, they could have no war unless they +themselves chose to begin it. + +They did choose to begin it. The rebellion was the work of ambitious +men, who had no mind to stop at that late day and see their labor go for +nothing. The officer in charge of their batteries was ordered to open +fire on Fort Sumter if Anderson refused to surrender; and in the dim +light of dawn on April 12, 1861, just as the outline of Fort Sumter +began to show itself against a brightening sky, the shot that opened the +Civil War rose from a rebel battery and made its slow and graceful curve +upon Sumter. Soon all the batteries were in action, and the fort was +replying with a will. Anderson held out for a day and a half, until his +cartridges were all used up, his flagstaff had been shot away, and the +wooden buildings inside the fort were on fire. Then, as the ships with +supplies had not yet arrived, and he had neither food nor ammunition, he +was forced to surrender. + +The news of the firing upon Fort Sumter changed the mood of the country +as if by magic. By deliberate act of the Confederate government its +attempt at peaceable secession had been changed to active war. The +Confederates gained Fort Sumter, but in doing so they roused the +patriotism of the North to a firm resolve that this insult to the flag +should be redressed, and that the unrighteous experiment of a rival +government founded upon slavery as its "cornerstone," should never +succeed. In one of his speeches on the journey to Washington Mr. Lincoln +had said that devoted as he was to peace, it might become necessary to +"put the foot down firmly." That time had now come. On April 15, the day +after the fall of Fort Sumter, all the newspapers of the country printed +the President's call to arms, ordering out 75,000 militia for three +months, and directing Congress to meet in special session on July 4, +1861. The North rallied instantly to the support of the Government, and +offered him twice the number of soldiers he asked for. + +Nothing more clearly shows the difference between President Lincoln and +President Buchanan than the way in which the two men met the acts of the +Southern Rebellion. President Buchanan temporized and delayed when he +had plenty of power. President Lincoln, without a moment's hesitation +accepted the great and unusual responsibility thrust upon him, and at +once issued orders for buying ships, moving troops, advancing money +to Committees of Safety, and for other military and naval measures for +which at the moment he had no express authority from Congress. As soon +as Congress came together on July 4, he sent a message explaining his +action, saying: "It became necessary for me to choose whether, using +only the existing means.... which Congress had provided, I should let +the Government fall at once into ruin, or whether availing myself of the +broader powers conferred by the Constitution in cases of insurrection, +I would make an effort to save it with all its blessings for the present +age and for posterity." Congress, it is needless to say, not only +approved all that he had done, but gave him practically unlimited powers +for dealing with the rebellion in future. + +It soon became evident that no matter how ready and willing to fight for +their country the 75,000 volunteers might be, they could not hope to put +down the rebellion, because the time for which they had enlisted would +be almost over before they could receive the training necessary to +change them from valiant citizens into good soldiers. Another call was +therefore issued, this time for men to serve three years or during the +war, and also for a large number of sailors to man the new ships that +the Government was straining every nerve to buy, build and otherwise +make ready. + +More important, however, than soldiers trained or untrained, was the +united will of the people of the North; and most important of all the +steadfast and courageous soul of the man called to direct the struggle. +Abraham Lincoln, the poor frontier boy, the struggling young lawyer, the +Illinois politician, whom many, even among the Republicans who voted to +elect him President, thought scarcely fit to hold a much smaller +office, proved beyond question the man for the task gifted above all +his associates with wisdom and strength to meet the great emergencies as +they arose during the four years' war that had already begun. + +Since this is the story of Mr. Lincoln's life, and not of the Civil +War, we cannot attempt to follow the history of the long contest as +it unfolded itself day by day and month by month, or even to stop to +recount a list of the great battles that drenched the land in blood. It +was a mighty struggle, fought by men of the same race and kindred, often +by brother against brother. Each fought for what he felt to be right; +and their common inheritance of courage and iron will, of endurance and +splendid bravery and stubborn pluck, made this battle of brothers the +more bitter as it was the more prolonged. It ranged over an immense +extent of country; but because Washington was the capital of the Union, +and Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the Confederacy, and the desire +of each side was to capture the chief city of the other, the principal +fighting ground, during the whole war, lay between these two towns, with +the Alleghany Mountains on the west, and Chesapeake Bay on the east. +Between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi River another field of +warfare developed itself, on which some of the hardest battles were +fought, and the greatest victories won. Beyond the Mississippi again +stretched another great field, bounded only by the Rocky Mountains and +the Rio Grande. But the principal fighting in this field was near or +even on the Mississippi, in the efforts made by both Unionists and +Confederates to keep and hold the great highway of the river, so +necessary for trade in time of peace, and for moving armies in time of +war. + +On this immense battle-ground was fought one of the most costly wars +of modern times, with soldiers numbering a million men on each side; in +which, counting battles and skirmishes small and great, an average of +two engagements a day were fought for four long years, two millions of +money were used up every twenty-four hours, and during which the unholy +prize of slavery, for which the Confederate States did battle, was +completely swept away. + +Though the tide of battle ebbed and flowed, defeat and victory may be +said to have been nearly evenly divided. Generally speaking, success was +more often on the side of the South during the first half of the war; +with the North, during the latter half. The armies were equally brave; +the North had the greater territory from which to draw supplies; and the +end came, not when one side had beaten the other, man for man, but +when the South had been drained of fighting men and food and guns, and +slavery had perished in the stress of war. + +Fortunately for all, nobody at the beginning dreamed of the length of +the struggle. Even Lincoln's stout heart would have been dismayed if he +could have foreseen all that lay before him. The task that he could +see was hard and perplexing enough. Everything in Washington was in +confusion. No President ever had such an increase of official work as +Lincoln during the early months of his administration. The halls and +ante-rooms of the Executive Mansion were literally crowded with people +seeking appointment to office; and the new appointments that were +absolutely necessary were not half finished when the firing on Fort +Sumter began active war. This added to the difficulty of sifting the +loyal from the disloyal, and the yet more pressing labor of organizing +an immense new army. + +Hundreds of clerks employed in the Government Departments left their +desks and hurried South, crippling the service just at the time when +the sudden increase of work made their presence doubly needed. A large +proportion of the officers of the Army and Navy, perhaps as many as +one-third, gave their skill and services to the Confederacy, feeling +that their allegiance was due to their State or section rather than to +the general government. Prominent among these was Robert E. Lee, who had +been made a colonel by Lincoln, and whom General Scott had recommended +as the most promising officer to command the new force of 75,000 men +called out by the President's proclamation. He chose instead to resign +and cast his fortunes with the South, where he became the head of +all the Confederate armies. The loss to the Union and gain to the +Confederate cause by his action is hard to measure, since in him the +Southern armies found a commander whose surpassing courage and skill +inspired its soldiers long after all hope of success was gone. Cases +such as this gave the President more anxiety than all else. It seemed +impossible to know whom to trust. An officer might come to him in the +morning protesting devotion to the Union, and by night be gone to the +South. Mr. Lincoln used to say at this time that he felt like a man +letting rooms at one end of his house while the other end was on fire. + +The situation grew steadily worse. Maryland refused to allow United +States soldiers to cross her territory, and the first attempt to bring +troops through Baltimore from the North ended in a bloody riot, and the +burning of railroad bridges to prevent help from reaching Washington. +For three days Washington was entirely cut off from the North, either by +telegraph or mail. General Scott hastily prepared the city for a siege, +taking possession of all the large supplies of flour and provisions +in town, and causing the Capitol and other public buildings to be +barricaded. Though President Lincoln did not doubt the final arrival +of help, he, like everyone else, was very anxious, and found it hard +to understand the long delay. He knew that troops had started from the +North. Why did they not arrive? They might not be able to go through +Baltimore, but they could certainly go around it. The distance was not +great. What if twenty miles of railroad had been destroyed, were the +soldiers unable to march? Always calm and self-controlled, he gave no +sign in the presence of others of the anxiety that weighed so heavily +upon him. Very likely the visitors who saw him during those days thought +that he hardly realized the plight of the city; yet an inmate of the +White House, passing through the President's office when the day's work +was done and he imagined himself alone, saw him pause in his absorbed +walk up and down the floor, and gaze long out of the window in +the direction from which the troops were expected to appear. Then, +unconscious of any hearer, and as if the words were wrung from him by +anguish, he exclaimed, "Why don't they come, why don't they come?" + +The New York Seventh Regiment was the first to "come." By a roundabout +route it reached Washington on the morning of April 25, and, weary +and travel-worn, but with banners flying and music playing, marched up +Pennsylvania Avenue to the big white Executive Mansion, bringing cheer +to the President and renewed courage to those timid citizens whose +fright during this time had almost paralyzed the life of the town. +Taking renewed courage they once more opened their houses and the shops +that had been closed since the beginning of the blockade, and business +began anew. + +The greater part of the three months' regiments had been ordered to +Washington, and the outskirts of the capital soon became a busy military +camp. The great Departments of the Government, especially of War and +Navy, could not immediately handle the details of all this sudden +increase of work. Men were volunteering rapidly enough, but there was +sore need of rations to feed them, money to pay them, tents to shelter +them, uniforms to clothe them, rifles to arm them, officers to drill +them, and of transportation to carry them to the camps of instruction +where they must receive their training and await further orders. In this +carnival of patriotism and hurly-burly of organization the weaknesses as +well as the virtues of human nature quickly showed themselves; and, as +if the new President had not already enough to distress and harass his +mind, almost every case of confusion and delay was brought to him for +complaint and correction. On him also fell the delicate and serious task +of deciding hundreds of novel questions as to what he and his cabinet +ministers had and had not the right to do under the Constitution. + +The month of May slipped away in all these preparatory vexations; but +the great machine of war, once started, moved on as it always does, from +arming to massing of troops, and from that to skirmish and battle. +In June small fights began to occur between the Union and Confederate +armies. The first large battle of the war took place at Bull Run, about +thirty-two miles southwest of Washington, on July 21, 1861. It ended in +a victory for the Confederates, though their army was so badly crippled +by. its losses that it made no further forward movement during the whole +of the next autumn and winter. + +The shock of this defeat was deep and painful to the people of the +North, not yet schooled to patience, or to the uncertainties of war. +For weeks the newspapers, confident of success, had been clamoring for +action, and the cry, "Forward to Richmond," had been heard on every +hand. At first the people would not believe the story of a defeat; but +it was only too true. By night the beaten Union troops were pouring +into the fortifications around Washington, and the next day a horde of +stragglers found their way across the bridges of the Potomac into the +city. + +President Lincoln received the news quietly, as was his habit, without +any visible sign of distress or alarm, but he remained awake and in +his office all that Sunday night, listening to the excited tales of +congressmen and senators who, with undue curiosity, had followed the +army and witnessed some of the sights and sounds of battle; and by dawn +on Monday he had practically made up his mind as to the probable result +and what he must do in consequence. + +The loss of the battle of Bull Run was a bitter disappointment to him. +He saw that the North was not to have the easy victory it anticipated; +and to him personally it brought a great and added care that never left +him during the war. Up to that time the North had stood by him as one +man in its eager resolve to put down the rebellion. From this time on, +though quite as determined, there was division and disagreement among +the people as to how this could best be done. Parties formed themselves +for or against this or that general, or in favor of this or that method +and no other of carrying on the war. In other words, the President and +his "administration"--the cabinet and other officers under him--became, +from this time on, the target of criticism for all the failures of the +Union armies, and for all the accidents and mistakes and unforeseen +delays of war. The self-control that Mr. Lincoln had learned in the hard +school of his boyhood, and practised during all the long struggle of +his young manhood, had been severe and bitter training, but nothing else +could have prepared him for the great disappointments and trials of +the crowning years of his life. He had learned to endure patiently, to +reason calmly, never to be unduly sure of his own opinion; but, having +taken counsel of the best advice at his command, to continue in the path +that he felt to be right, regardless of criticism or unjust abuse. He +had daily and hourly to do all this. He was strong and courageous, with +a steadfast belief that the right would triumph in the end; but his +nature was at the same time sensitive and tender, and the sorrows and +pain of others hurt him more than did his own. + + + + +VIII. UNSUCCESSFUL GENERALS + +So far Mr. Lincoln's new duties as President had not placed him at any +disadvantage with the members of his cabinet. On the old question of +slavery he was as well informed and had clearer ideas than they. On the +new military questions that had come up since the inauguration, they, +like himself, had to rely on the advice of experienced officers of the +army and navy; and since these differed greatly, Mr. Lincoln's powerful +mind was as able to reach true conclusions as were men who had been +governors and senators. Yet the idea lingered that because he had never +before held high office, and because a large part of his life had been +passed in the rude surroundings of the frontier, he must of necessity +be lacking in power to govern--be weaker in will, without tact or +culture--must in every way be less fitted to cope with the difficult +problems so rapidly coming upon the administration. + +At the beginning even Secretary Seward shared this view. Mr. Lincoln +must have been surprised indeed, when, on the first day of April, +exactly four weeks after his inauguration, his Secretary of State, the +man he justly looked upon as the chief member of his cabinet, handed +him a paper on which were written "Some Thoughts for the President's +Consideration." It was most grave and dignified in language, but in +substance bluntly told Mr. Lincoln that after a month's trial the +Administration was without a policy, domestic or foreign, and that this +must be remedied at once. It advised shifting the issue at home from +slavery to the question of Union or disunion; and counseled the adoption +of an attitude toward Europe which could not have failed to rouse the +anger of the principal foreign nations. It added that the President or +some member of his cabinet must make it his constant duty to pursue and +direct whatever policy should be adopted, and hinted very plainly +that although he, Mr. Seward, did not seek such responsibility, he was +willing to assume it. The interest of this remarkable paper for us lies +in the way Mr. Lincoln treated it, and the measure that treatment gives +us of his generosity and self-control. An envious or a resentful man +could not have wished a better opportunity to put a rival under his +feet; but though Mr. Lincoln doubtless thought the incident very +strange, it did not for a moment disturb his serenity or his kindly +judgment. He answered in a few quiet sentences that showed no trace of +passion or even of excitement; and on the central suggestion that some +one person must direct the affairs of the government, replied with +dignity "if this must be done, I must do it," adding that on affairs of +importance he desired and supposed he had a right to have the advice of +all the members of his cabinet. This reply ended the matter, and as +far as is known, neither of them ever mentioned the subject again. Mr. +Lincoln put the papers away in an envelope, and no word of the affair +came to the public until years after both men were dead. In one mind +at least there was no longer a doubt that the cabinet had a master. Mr. +Seward recognized the President's kindly forbearance, and repaid it by +devotion and personal friendship until the day of his tragic death. + +If, after this experience, the Secretary of State needed any further +proof of Mr. Lincoln's ability to rule, it soon came to him, for during +the first months of the war matters abroad claimed the attention of +the cabinet, and with these also the untried western man showed himself +better fitted to deal than his more experienced advisers. Many of the +countries of Europe, especially France and England, wished the South +to succeed. France because of plans that Emperor Napoleon III had for +founding French colonies on American soil, and England because such +success would give her free cotton for her mills and factories. England +became so friendly toward the rebels that Mr. Seward, much irritated, +wrote a despatch on May 21, 1861, to Charles Francis Adams, the American +Minister at London, which, if it had been sent as he wrote it, would +almost certainly have brought on war between the two countries. It set +forth justly and with courage what the United States government would +and would not endure from foreign powers during the war with the South, +but it had been penned in a heat of indignation, and was so blunt and +exasperating as to suggest intentional disrespect. When Mr. Seward read +it to the President the latter at once saw this, and taking it from his +Secretary of State kept it by him for further consideration. A second +reading showed him that his first impression was correct. Thereupon the +frontier lawyer, taking his pen, went carefully over the whole +dispatch, and by his corrections so changed the work of the trained and +experienced statesman as entirely to remove its offensive tone, without +in the least altering its force or courage. + +Once again during 1861 the country was in serious danger of war with +England, and the action of President Lincoln at this time proved not +only that he had the will to be just, even when his own people were +against him, but had the skill to gain real advantage from what seemed +very like defeat. One of the earliest and most serious tasks of the +Government had been to blockade the southern ports, in order to prevent +supplies from foreign countries reaching the southern people, especially +the southern armies. Considering the great length of coast to be +patrolled, and the small size of the navy at the commencement of the +struggle, this was done with wonderful quickness, and proved in the main +effective, though occasionally a rebel boat managed to slip in or out +without being discovered and fired upon by the ships on guard. + +In November Captain Charles Wilkes learned that Ex-Senators J. M. Mason +and John Slidell, two prominent Confederates bound on an important +mission to Europe, had succeeded in reaching Cuba, and from there had +taken passage for England on the British mail steamer Trent. He stopped +the Trent and took Mason and Slidell prisoners, afterward allowing the +steamer to proceed on her way. The affair caused intense excitement +both in England and in the United States, and England began instant +preparations for war. Lord Lyons, the British Minister at Washington, +was instructed to demand the release of the prisoners and a suitable +apology within one week, and if this were refused, to close his legation +and come home. It was fortunate that Lord Lyons and Mr. Seward were +close personal friends, and could, in spite of the excitement of +both countries, discuss the matter calmly and without anger. Their +conferences were brought to an end by Mr. Lincoln's decision to give +up the prisoners. In the North their capture had been greeted with +extravagant joy. Newspapers rang with praises of Captain Wilkes; his act +was officially approved by the Secretary of the Navy, and the House of +Representatives passed a resolution thanking him for his "brave, adroit, +and patriotic conduct." In the face of all this it must have been hard +indeed for Mr. Lincoln to order that Mason and Slidell be given up; +but though he shared the first impulse of rejoicing, he soon became +convinced that this must be done. War with England must certainly be +avoided; and Captain Wilkes, by allowing the Trent to proceed on her +voyage, instead of bringing her into port with the prisoners, had put +it out of the power of his Government to prove, under international law, +that the capture was justified. Besides all else, the President's quick +mind saw, what others failed to note, that by giving up the prisoners +as England demanded, the United States would really gain an important +diplomatic victory. For many years England had claimed the right to stop +and search vessels at sea when she had reason to believe they carried +men or goods hostile to her interests. The United States denied the +right, and yet this was exactly what Captain Wilkes had done in stopping +the Trent. By giving up the prisoners the United States would thus force +England to admit that her own claim had been unjust, and bind her in +future to respect the rights of other ships at sea. Excited American +feeling was grievously disappointed, and harsh criticism of the +Administration for thus yielding to a foreign country was not wanting; +but American good sense soon saw the justice of the point taken and the +wisdom of Mr. Lincoln's course. + +"He that is slow to anger," says the proverb, "is better than the +mighty, and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city." Great +as was his self-control in other matters, nowhere did Mr. Lincoln's +slowness to anger and nobility of spirit show itself more than in +his dealings with the generals of the Civil War. He had been elected +President. Congress had given him power far exceeding that which +any President had ever exercised before. As President he was also +Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States. By +proclamation he could call forth great armies and he could order those +armies to go wherever he chose to send them; but even he had no power +to make generals with the genius and the training necessary to lead them +instantly to success. He had to work with the materials at hand, and one +by one he tried the men who seemed best fitted for the task, giving each +his fullest trust and every aid in his power. They were as eager for +victory and as earnest of purpose as himself, but in every case some +misfortune or some fault marred the result, until the country grew weary +with waiting; discouragement overshadowed hope, and misgiving almost +engulfed his own strong soul. Then, at last, the right men were found, +the battles were all fought, and the war was at an end. + +His kindness and patience in dealing with the generals who did not +succeed is the wonder of all who study the history of the Civil War. The +letters he wrote to them show better than whole volumes of description +could do the helpful and forbearing spirit in which he sought to aid +them. First among these unsuccessful generals was George B. McClellan, +who had been called to Washington after the battle of Bull Run and +placed in charge of the great new army of three years' volunteers that +was pouring so rapidly into the city. McClellan proved a wonderful +organizer. Under his skilful direction the raw recruits went to their +camps of instruction, fell without confusion or delay into brigades and +divisions, were supplied with equipments, horses and batteries, and put +through a routine of drill, tactics and reviews that soon made this Army +of the Potomac, as it was called, one of the best prepared armies the +world has ever seen--a perfect fighting machine of over 150,000 men and +more than 200 guns. General McClellan excelled in getting soldiers ready +to fight, but he did not succeed in leading them to fruitful victory. At +first the administration had great hopes of him as a commander. He +was young, enthusiastic, winning, and on arriving in Washington seemed +amazed and deeply touched by the confidence reposed in him. "I find +myself," he wrote to his wife, "in a new and strange position here, +President, cabinet, General Scott, and all, deferring to me. By some +strange operation of magic I seem to have become the power of the land." +His rise in military rank had equaled the inventions of fairy tales. He +had been only a captain during the Mexican war. Then he resigned. Two +months after volunteering for the Civil War he found himself a Major +General in the Regular Army. For a short time his zeal and activity +seemed to justify this amazing good fortune. In a fortnight however he +began to look upon himself as the principal savior of his country. He +entered upon a quarrel with General Scott which soon drove that old hero +into retirement and out of his pathway. He looked upon the cabinet as a +set of "geese," and seeing that the President was kind and unassuming in +discussing military affairs, he formed the habit of expressing contempt +for him in letters to confidential friends. This feeling grew until +it soon reached a mark of open disrespect, but the President's conduct +toward him did not change. Mr. Lincoln's nature was too forgiving, +and the responsibility that lay upon him was too heavy for personal +resentment. For fifteen months he strove to make McClellan succeed even +in spite of himself. He gave him help, encouragement, the most timely +suggestions. He answered his ever-increasing complaints with unfailing +self-control. It was not that he did not see McClellan's faults. He saw +them, and felt them keenly. "If Gen. McClellan does not want to use +the army, I would like to borrow it," he said one day, stung by the +General's inactivity into a sarcasm he seldom allowed himself to use. +But his patience was not exhausted. McClellan had always more soldiers +than the enemy, at Antietam nearly double his numbers, yet his constant +cry was for re-enforcements. Regiments were sent him that could ill be +spared from other points. Even when his fault-finding reached the height +of telegraphing to the Secretary of War, "If I save this army now I +tell you plainly that I owe no thanks to you or to any other persons +in Washington. You have done your best to sacrifice this army," the +President answered him kindly and gently, without a sign of resentment, +anxious only to do everything in his power to help on the cause of +the war. It was of no avail. Even the great luck of finding a copy of +General Lee's orders and knowing exactly what his enemy meant to do, at +a time when the Confederate general had only about half as many troops +as he had, and these were divided besides, did not help him to success. +All he could do even then was to fight the drawn battle of Antietam, +and allow Lee to get away safely across the Potomac River into Virginia. +After this the President's long-suffering patience was at an end, but he +did not remove McClellan until he had visited the Army of the Potomac +in person. What he saw on that visit assured him that it could never +succeed under such a general. "Do you know what that is?" he asked a +friend, waving his arm towards the white tents of the great army. "It is +the Army of the Potomac, I suppose," was the wondering answer. "So it +is called," replied the President, in a tone of suppressed indignation. +"But that is a mistake. It is only McClellan's bodyguard." On November +5, 1862, McClellan was relieved from command, and this ended his +military career. + +There were others almost equally trying. There was General Fremont, +who had been the Republican candidate for President in 1856. At the +beginning of the war he was given a command at St. Louis and charged +with the important duty of organizing the military strength of the +northwest, holding the State of Missouri true to the Union, and leading +an expedition down the Mississippi River. Instead of accomplishing +all that had been hoped for, his pride of opinion and unwillingness +to accept help or take advice from those about him, caused serious +embarrassment and made unending trouble. The President's kindness +and gentleness in dealing with his faults were as marked as they were +useless. + +There was the long line of commanders who one after the other tried and +failed in the tasks allotted to them, while the country waited and lost +courage, and even Mr. Lincoln's heart sank. His care and wisdom +and sorrow dominated the whole long persistent struggle. That first +sleepless night of his after the battle of Bull Run was but the +beginning of many nights and days through which he kept unceasing watch. +From the time in June, 1861, when he had been called upon to preside +over the council of war that decided upon the Bull Run campaign, he +devoted every spare moment to the study of such books upon the art +of war as would aid him in solving the questions that he must face as +Commander-in-Chief of the armies. With his quick mind and unusual power +of logic he made rapid progress in learning the fixed and accepted +rules on which all military writers agree. His mastery of the difficult +science became so thorough, and his understanding of military situations +so clear, that he has been called, by persons well fitted to judge, "the +ablest strategist of the war." Yet he never thrust his knowledge upon +his generals. He recognized that it was their duty, not his, to fight +the battles, and since this was so, they ought to be allowed to fight +them in their own way. He followed their movements with keenest interest +and with a most astonishing amount of knowledge, giving a hint here, and +a suggestion there, when he felt that he properly could, but he rarely +gave a positive order. + +There is not space to quote the many letters in which he showed his +military wisdom, or his kindly interest in the welfare and success +of the different generals. One of the most remarkable must however be +quoted. It is the letter he wrote to General Joseph Hooker on placing +him in command of the Army of the Potomac in January, 1863, after +McClellan's many failures had been followed by the crushing defeat of +the army under General McClellan's successor, General Burnside, at the +battle of Fredericksburg, on December 13, 1862. + +"I have placed you," he wrote on giving General Hooker the command, "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 council of your ambition and thwarted him as much as you could, +in which you did a great wrong to the country, and to a most meritorious +and honorable brother officer. I have heard, in such a way as to believe +it, of your recently saying that both the army and the Government needed +a dictator. Of course it was not for this, but in spite of it, that I +have given you the command. Only those generals who gain successes can +set up dictators. What I now ask of you is military success, and I will +risk the dictatorship. The government will support you to the utmost of +its ability, which is neither more nor less than it has done and will do +for all commanders. I much fear that the spirit which you have aided +to infuse into the army, of criticising their commander and withholding +confidence from him, will now turn upon you. I shall assist you as far +as I can, to put it down. Neither you nor Napoleon, if he were alive +again, could get any good out of an army while such a spirit prevails in +it. And now, beware of rashness. Beware of rashness, but with energy and +sleepless vigilance go forward and give us victories." + +Perhaps no other piece of his writing shows as this does how completely +the genius of the President rose to the full height of his duties and +responsibilities. From beginning to end it speaks the language and +breathes the spirit of the great ruler, secure in popular confidence and +in official authority. + +Though so many of the great battles during the first half of the war +were won by the Confederates, military successes came to the North +of course from time to time. With such fine armies and such earnest +generals the tide of battle could not be all one way; and even when +the generals made mistakes, the heroic fighting and endurance of the +soldiers and under-officers gathered honor out of defeat, and shed the +luster of renown over results of barren failure. But it was a weary +time, and the outlook was very dark. The President never despaired. On +the most dismal day of the whole dismal summer of 1862 he sent Secretary +Seward to New York with a confidential letter full of courage, to be +shown such of the governors of free States as could be hastily summoned +to meet him there. In it he said: "I expect to maintain this contest +until successful, or till I die, or am conquered, or my term expires, +or Congress or the country forsake me," and he asked for 100,000 fresh +volunteers with which to carry on the war. His confidence was not +misplaced. The governors of eighteen free States offered him three times +the number, and still other calls for troops followed. Soon a popular +song, "We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand strong," +showed the faith and trust of the people in the man at the head of +the Government, and how cheerfully they met the great calls upon their +patriotism. + +So, week after week and month after month, he faced the future, never +betraying a fear that the Union would not triumph in the end, but +grieving sorely at the long delay. Many who were not so sure came to him +with their troubles. He was beset by night and by day by people who had +advice to give or complaints to make. They besought him to dismiss this +or that General, to order such and such a military movement; to do a +hundred things that he, in his great wisdom, felt were not right, or for +which the time had not yet come. Above all, he was implored to take some +decided and far-reaching action upon slavery. + + + + +IX. FREEDOM FOR THE SLAVES + +By no means the least of the evils of slavery was a dread which had +haunted every southern household from the beginning of the government +that the slaves might one day rise in revolt and take sudden vengeance +upon their masters. This vague terror was greatly increased by the +outbreak of the Civil War. It stands to the lasting credit of the negro +race that the wrongs of their long bondage provoked them to no such +crime, and that the war seems not to have suggested, much less started +any such attempt. Indeed, even when urged to violence by white leaders, +as the slaves of Maryland had been in 1859 during John Brown's raid at +Harper's Ferry, they had refused to respond. Nevertheless it was plain +from the first that slavery was to play an important part in the Civil +War. Not only were the people of the South battling for the principle +of slavery; their slaves were a great source of military strength. They +were used by the Confederates in building forts, hauling supplies, and +in a hundred ways that added to the effectiveness of their armies in the +field. On the other hand the very first result of the war was to give +adventurous or discontented slaves a chance to escape into Union camps, +where, even against orders to the contrary, they found protection for +the sake of the help they could give as cooks, servants, or teamsters, +the information they brought about the movements of the enemy, or the +great service they were able to render as guides. Practically therefore, +at the very start, the war created a bond of mutual sympathy between +the southern negro and the Union volunteer; and as fast as Union troops +advanced and secession masters fled, a certain number found freedom in +Union camps. + +At some points this became a positive embarrassment to Union commanders. +A few days after General Butler took command of the Union troops at +Fortress Monroe in May, 1861, the agent of a rebel master came to insist +on the return of three slaves, demanding them under the fugitive-slave +law. Butler replied that since their master claimed Virginia to be a +foreign country and no longer a part of the United States, he could not +at the same time claim that the fugitive slave law was in force, and +that his slaves would not be given up unless he returned and took the +oath of allegiance to the United States. In reporting this, a newspaper +pointed out that as the breastworks and batteries which had risen so +rapidly for Confederate defense were built by slave labor, negroes +were undoubtedly "contraband of war," like powder and shot, and other +military supplies, and should no more be given back to the rebels than +so many cannon or guns. The idea was so pertinent, and the justice of it +so plain that the name "contraband" sprang at once into use. But while +this happy explanation had more convincing effect on popular thought +than a volume of discussion, it did not solve the whole question. By +the end of July General Butler had on his hands 900 "contrabands," men, +women and children of all ages, and he wrote to inquire what was their +real condition. Were they slaves or free? Could they be considered +fugitive slaves when their masters had run away and left them? How +should they be disposed of? It was a knotty problem, and upon its +solution might depend the loyalty or secession of the border slave +States of Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky and Missouri, which, up to +that time, had not decided whether to remain in the Union or to cast +their fortunes with the South. + +In dealing with this perplexing subject. Mr. Lincoln kept in mind one of +his favorite stories: the one on the Methodist Presiding Elder who was +riding about his circuit during the spring freshets. A young and anxious +companion asked how they should ever be able to cross the swollen waters +of Fox River, which they were approaching, and the elder quieted him +by saying that he made it the rule of his life never to cross Fox +River until he came to it. The President, following this rule, did +not immediately decide the question, but left it to be treated at the +discretion of each commander. Under this theory some commanders admitted +black people to their camps, while others refused to receive them. The +curt formula of General Orders: "We are neither negro stealers nor negro +catchers," was easily read to justify either course. Congress greatly +advanced the problem, shortly after the battle of Bull Run, by passing +a law which took away a master's right to his slave, when, with his +consent, such slave was employed in service or labor hostile to the +United States. + +On the general question of slavery, the President's mind was fully made +up. He felt that he had no right to interfere with slavery where slavery +was lawful, just because he himself did not happen to like it; for he +had sworn to do all in his power to "preserve, protect and defend" the +government and its laws, and slavery was lawful in the southern States. +When freeing the slaves should become necessary in order to preserve +the Government, then it would be his duty to free them; until that time +came, it was equally his duty to let them alone. + +Twice during the early part of the war military commanders issued orders +freeing slaves in the districts over which they had control, and twice +he refused to allow these orders to stand. "No commanding general should +do such a thing upon his responsibility, without consulting him," he +said; and he added that whether he, as Commander-in-Chief, had the power +to free slaves, and whether at any time the use of such power should +become necessary, were questions which he reserved to himself. He did +not feel justified in leaving such decisions to commanders in the field. +He even refused at that time to allow Secretary Cameron to make a public +announcement that the government might find it necessary to arm slaves +and employ them as soldiers. He would not cross Fox River until he came +to it. He would not take any measure until he felt it to be absolutely +necessary. + +Only a few months later he issued his first proclamation of +emancipation; but he did not do so until convinced that he must do this +in order to put down the rebellion. Long ago he had considered and in +his own mind adopted a plan of dealing with the slavery question--the +simple, easy plan which, while a member of Congress, he had proposed +for the District of Columbia--that on condition of the slave-owners +voluntarily giving up their slaves, they should be paid a fair price for +them by the Federal government. Delaware was a slave State, and seemed +an excellent place in which to try this experiment of "compensated +emancipation," as it was called; for there were, all told, only 1798 +slaves left in the State. Without any public announcement of his purpose +he offered to the citizens of Delaware, through their representative in +Congress, four hundred dollars for each of these slaves, the payment +to be made, not all at once, but yearly, during a period of thirty-one +years. He believed that if Delaware could be induced to accept this +offer, Maryland might follow her example, and that afterward other +States would allow themselves to be led along the same easy way. The +Delaware House of Representatives voted in favor of the proposition, but +five of the nine members of the Delaware senate scornfully repelled the +"abolition bribe," as they chose to call it, and the project withered in +the bud. + +Mr. Lincoln did not stop at this failure, but, on March 6, 1862, sent a +special message to the Senate and House of Representatives recommending +that Congress adopt a joint resolution favoring and practically offering +gradual compensated emancipation to any State that saw fit to accept +it; pointing out at the same time that the Federal government claimed no +right to interfere with slavery within the States, and that if the offer +were accepted it must be done as a matter of free choice. + +The Republican journals of the North devoted considerable space to +discussing the President's plan, which, in the main, was favorably +received; but it was thought that it must fail on the score of expense. +The President answered this objection in a private letter to a Senator, +proving that less than one-half day's cost of war would pay for all +the slaves in Delaware at four hundred dollars each, and less than +eighty-seven days' cost of war would pay for all in Delaware, Maryland, +the District of Columbia, Kentucky and Missouri. "Do you doubt," he +asked, that taking such a step "on the part of those States and this +District would shorten the war more than eighty-seven days, and thus be +an actual saving of expense?" + +Both houses of Congress favored the resolution, and also passed a +bill immediately freeing the slaves in the District of Columbia on the +payment to their loyal owners of three hundred dollars for each slave. +This last bill was signed by the President and became a law on April 16, +1862. So, although he had been unable to bring it about when a member of +Congress thirteen years before, it was he, after all, who finally swept +away that scandal of the "negro livery-stable" in the shadow of the dome +of the Capitol. + +Congress as well as the President was thus pledged to compensated +emancipation, and if any of the border slave States had shown a +willingness to accept the generosity of the government, their people +might have been spared the loss that overtook all slave-owners on the +first of January, 1863. The President twice called the representatives +and senators of these States to the White House, and urged his plan most +eloquently, but nothing came of it. Meantime, the military situation +continued most discouraging. The advance of the Army of the Potomac +upon Richmond became a retreat; the commanders in the West could not get +control of the Mississippi River; and worst of all, in spite of their +cheering assurance that "We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred +thousand strong," the people of the country were saddened and filled +with the most gloomy forebodings because of the President's call for so +many new troops. + +"It had got to be midsummer, 1862," Mr. Lincoln said, in telling an +artist friend the history of his most famous official act. "Things had +gone on from bad to worse, until I felt that we had reached the end of +our rope on the plan of operations we had been pursuing; that we had +about played our last card, and must change our tactics or lose the +game. I now determined upon the adoption of the emancipation policy, and +without consultation with, or the knowledge of the cabinet, I prepared +the original draft of the proclamation, and after much anxious thought, +called a cabinet meeting upon the subject.... I said to the cabinet that +I had resolved upon this step, and had not called them together to ask +their advice, but to lay the subject-matter of a proclamation before +them, suggestions as to which would be in order after they had heard it +read." + +It was on July 22 that the President read to his cabinet the draft of +this first emancipation proclamation, which, after announcing that +at the next meeting of Congress he would again offer compensated +emancipation to such States as chose to accept it, went on to order as +Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, that the +slaves in all States which should be in rebellion against the government +on January 1, 1863, should "then, thenceforward and forever be free." + +Mr. Lincoln had given a hint of this intended step to Mr. Seward and +Mr. Welles, but to all the other members of the cabinet it came as a +complete surprise. One thought it would cost the Republicans the fall +elections. Another preferred that emancipation should be proclaimed +by military commanders in their several military districts. Secretary +Seward, while approving the measure, suggested that it would better +be postponed until it could be given to the country after a victory, +instead of issuing it, as would be the case then, upon the greatest +disasters of the war. "The wisdom of the view of the Secretary of State +struck me with very great force," Mr. Lincoln's recital continues. "It +was an aspect of the case that, in all my thought upon the subject, +I had entirely overlooked. The result was that I put the draft of the +proclamation aside, as you do your sketch for a picture, waiting for a +victory." + +The secrets of the administration were well kept, and no hint came +to the public that the President had proposed such a measure to his +cabinet. As there was at the moment little in the way of war news to +attract attention, newspapers and private individuals turned a sharp +fire of criticism upon Mr. Lincoln. For this they seized upon the +ever-useful text of the slavery question. Some of them protested +indignantly that the President was going too fast; others clamored as +loudly that he had been altogether too slow. His decision, as we know, +was unalterably taken, although he was not yet ready to announce it. +Therefore, while waiting for a victory he had to perform the difficult +task of restraining the impatience of both sides. This he did in very +positive language. To a man in Louisiana, who complained that Union +feeling was being crushed out by the army in that State, he wrote: + +"I am a patient man, always willing to forgive on the Christian terms +of repentance, and also to give ample time for repentance. Still, I must +save this government if possible. What I cannot do, of course I will +not do; but it may as well be understood, once for all, that I shall not +surrender this game leaving any available card unplayed." Two days later +he answered another Louisiana critic. "What would you do in my position? +Would you drop the war where it is? Or would you prosecute it in future +with elder-stalk squirts charged with rosewater? Would you deal lighter +blows rather than heavier ones? Would you give up the contest leaving +any available means unapplied? I am in no boastful mood. I shall not do +more than I can, and I shall do all I can, to save the government, which +is my sworn duty, as well as my personal inclination. I shall do nothing +in malice. What I deal with is too vast for malicious dealing." + +The President could afford to overlook the abuse of hostile newspapers, +but he also had to meet the criticisms of over-zealous Republicans. The +prominent Republican editor, Horace Greeley, printed in his paper, the +"New York Tribune," a long "Open Letter," ostentatiously addressed to +Mr. Lincoln, full of unjust accusations, his general charge being that +the President and many army officers were neglecting their duty through +a kindly feeling for slavery. The open letter which Mr. Lincoln wrote in +reply is remarkable not alone for the skill with which he answered this +attack, but also for its great dignity. + +"As to the policy I 'seem to be pursuing,' as you say, I have not meant +to leave anyone in doubt.... My paramount object in this struggle is to +save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I +could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if +I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could +save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. +What I do about slavery and the colored race, I do because I believe it +helps to save the Union, and what I forbear I forbear because I do not +believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I +shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more +whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause. I shall try to +correct errors when shown to be errors, and I shall adopt new views +so fast as they shall appear to be true views. I have here stated +my purpose according to my view of official duty, and I intend no +modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men everywhere +could be free." + +He was waiting for victory, but victory was slow to come. Instead the +Union army suffered another defeat at the second battle of Bull Run on +August 30, 1862. After this the pressure upon him to take some action +upon slavery became stronger than ever. On September 13 he was visited +by a company of ministers from the churches of Chicago, who came +expressly to urge him to free the slaves at once. In the actual +condition of things he could of course neither safely satisfy them nor +deny them, and his reply, while perfectly courteous, had in it a tone of +rebuke that showed the state of irritation and high sensitiveness under +which he was living: + +"I am approached with the most opposite opinions and advice, and that +by religious men, who are equally certain that they represent the Divine +will.... I hope it will not be irreverent for me to say that if it +is probable that God would reveal his will to others on a point so +connected with my duty, it might be supposed he would reveal it directly +to me.... What good would a proclamation of emancipation from me do, +especially as we are now situated? I do not want to issue a document +that the whole world will see must necessarily be inoperative, like the +Pope's bull against the comet." "Do not misunderstand me.... I have not +decided against a proclamation of liberty to the slaves; but hold the +matter under advisement. And I can assure you that the subject is on my +mind by day and night more than any other. Whatever shall appear to be +God's will, I will do." + +Four days after this interview the battle of Antietam was fought, and +when, after a few days of uncertainty it was found that it could be +reasonably claimed as a Union victory, the President resolved to carry +out his long-matured purpose. Secretary Chase in his diary recorded very +fully what occurred on that ever-memorable September 22, 1862. After +some playful talk upon other matters, Mr. Lincoln, taking a graver tone, +said: + +"Gentlemen: I have, as you are aware, thought a great deal about the +relation of this war to slavery, and you all remember that several weeks +ago I read to you an order I had prepared on this subject, which, on +account of objections made by some of you, was not issued. Ever since +then my mind has been much occupied with this subject, and I have +thought, all along, that the time for acting on it might probably come. +I think the time has come now. I wish it was a better time. I wish that +we were in a better condition. The action of the army against the rebels +has not been quite what I should have best liked. But they have been +driven out of Maryland, and Pennsylvania is no longer in danger of +invasion. When the rebel army was at Frederick I determined, as soon +as it should be driven out of Maryland, to issue a proclamation of +emancipation, such as I thought most likely to be useful. I said +nothing to anyone, but I made the promise to myself, and--[hesitating a +little]--to my Maker. The rebel army is now driven out, and I am going +to fulfil that promise. I have got you together to hear what I have +written down. I do not wish your advice about the main matter, for that +I have determined for myself. This I say, without intending anything but +respect for any one of you. But I already know the views of each on this +question.... I have considered them as thoroughly and carefully as I +can. What I have written is that which my reflections have determined me +to say. If there is anything in the expressions I use, or in any minor +matter which any one of you thinks had best be changed, I shall be glad +to receive the suggestions. One other observation I will make. I know +very well that many others might, in this matter as in others, do better +than I can; and if I was satisfied that the public confidence was +more fully possessed by any one of them than by me, and knew of any +constitutional way in which he could be put in my place, he should have +it. I would gladly yield it to him. But, though I believe that I have +not so much of the confidence of the people as I had some time since, I +do not know that, all things considered, any other person has more; and +however this may be, there is no way in which I can have any other +man put where I am. I am here; I must do the best I can, and bear the +responsibility of taking the course which I feel I ought to take." + +It was in this humble spirit, and with this firm sense of duty that the +great proclamation was given to the world. One hundred days later he +completed the act by issuing the final proclamation of emancipation. + +It has been a long-established custom in Washington for the officials +of the government to go on the first day of January to the Executive +Mansion to pay their respects to the President and his wife. The judges +of the courts go at one hour, the foreign diplomats at another, members +of Congress and senators and officers of the Army and Navy at still +another. One by one these various official bodies pass in rapid +succession before the head of the nation, wishing him success and +prosperity in the New Year. The occasion is made gay with music and +flowers and bright uniforms, and has a social as well as an official +character. Even in war times such customs were kept up, and in spite of +his load of care, the President was expected to find time and heart for +the greetings and questions and hand-shakings of this and other state +ceremonies. Ordinarily it was not hard for him. He liked to meet people, +and such occasions were a positive relief from the mental strain of his +official work. It is to be questioned, however, whether, on this day, +his mind did not leave the passing stream of people before him, to dwell +on the proclamation he was so soon to sign. + +At about three o'clock in the afternoon, after full three hours of such +greetings and handshakings, when his own hand was so weary it could +scarcely hold a pen, the President and perhaps a dozen friends, went up +to the Executive Office, and there, without any pre-arranged ceremony, +he signed his name to the greatest state paper of the century, which +banished the curse of slavery from our land, and set almost four million +people free. + + + + +X. THE MAN WHO WAS PRESIDENT + +The way Mr. Lincoln signed this most important state paper was +thoroughly in keeping with his nature. He hated all shams and show and +pretense, and being absolutely without affectation of any kind, it +would never have occurred to him to pose for effect while signing +the Emancipation Proclamation or any other paper. He never thought of +himself as a President to be set up before a multitude and admired, +but always as a President charged with duties which he owed to every +citizen. In fulfilling these he did not stand upon ceremony, but took +the most direct way to the end he had in view. + +It is not often that a President pleads a cause before Congress. Mr. +Lincoln did not find it beneath his dignity at one time to go in +person to the Capitol, and calling a number of the leading senators and +representatives around him, explain to them, with the aid of a map, his +reasons for believing that the final stand of the Confederates would be +made in that part of the South where the seven States of Virginia, North +Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky and West Virginia +come together; and strive in this way to interest them in the sad +plight of the loyal people of Tennessee who were being persecuted by +the Confederate government, but whose mountainous region might, with a +little help, be made a citadel of Union strength in the very heart of +this stronghold of rebellion. + +In his private life he was entirely simple and unaffected. Yet he had +a deep sense of what was due his office, and took part with becoming +dignity in all official or public ceremonies. He received the diplomats +sent to Washington from the courts of Europe with a formal and quiet +reserve which made them realize at once that although this son of the +people had been born in a log cabin, he was ruler of a great nation, and +more than that, was a prince by right of his own fine instincts and good +breeding. + +He was ever gentle and courteous, but with a few quiet words he could +silence a bore who had come meaning to talk to him for hours. For his +friends he had always a ready smile and a quaintly turned phrase. His +sense of humor was his salvation. Without it he must have died of the +strain and anxiety of the Civil War. There was something almost pathetic +in the way he would snatch a moment from his pressing duties and gravest +cares to listen to a good story or indulge in a hearty laugh. Some +people could not understand this. To one member of his cabinet, at +least, it seemed strange and unfitting that he should read aloud to +them a chapter from a humorous book by Artemus Ward before taking up +the weighty matter of the Emancipation Proclamation. From their point +of view it showed lack of feeling and frivolity of character, when, in +truth, it was the very depth of his feeling, and the intensity of his +distress at the suffering of the war, that led him to seek relief in +laughter, to gather from the comedy of life strength to go on and meet +its sternest tragedy. + +He was a social man. He could not fully enjoy even a jest alone. He +wanted somebody to share the pleasure with him. Often when care kept him +awake late at night he would wander through the halls of the Executive +Mansion, and coming to the room where his secretaries were still at +work, would stop to read to them some poem, or a passage from Shakspere, +or a bit from one of the humorous books in which he found relief. No +one knew better than he what could be cured, and what must be patiently +endured. To every difficulty that he could remove he gave cheerful and +uncomplaining thought and labor. The burdens he could not shake off he +bore with silent courage, lightening them whenever possible with the +laughter that he once described as the "universal joyous evergreen of +life." + +It would be a mistake to suppose that he cared only for humorous +reading. Occasionally he read a scientific book with great interest, but +his duties left him little time for such indulgences. Few men knew +the Bible more thoroughly than he did, and his speeches are full of +scriptural quotations. The poem beginning "Oh, why should the spirit of +mortal be proud?" was one of his favorites, and Dr. Holmes's "Last Leaf" +was another. Shakespere was his constant delight. A copy of Shakespere's +works was even to be found in the busy Executive Office, from which +most books were banished. The President not only liked to read the great +poet's plays, but to see them acted; and when the gifted actor Hackett +came to Washington, he was invited to the White House, where the two +discussed the character of Falstaff, and the proper reading of many +scenes and passages. + +While he was President, Mr. Lincoln did not attempt to read the +newspapers. His days were long, beginning early and ending late, but +they were not long enough for that. One of his secretaries brought him +a daily memorandum of the important news they contained. His mail was so +enormous that he personally read only about one in every hundred of the +letters sent him. + +His time was principally taken up with interviews with people on matters +of importance, with cabinet meetings, conferences with his generals, +and other affairs requiring his close and immediate attention. If he had +leisure he would take a drive in the late afternoon, or perhaps steal +away into the grounds south of the Executive Mansion to test some new +kind of gun, if its inventor had been fortunate enough to bring it to +his notice. He was very quick to understand mechanical contrivances, and +would often suggest improvements that had not occurred to the inventor +himself. + +For many years it has been the fashion to call Mr. Lincoln homely. He +was very tall, and very thin. His eyes were deep-sunken, his skin of a +sallow pallor, his hair coarse, black, and unruly. Yet he was neither +ungraceful, nor awkward, nor ugly. His large features fitted his large +frame, and his large hands and feet were but right on a body that +measured six feet four inches. His was a sad and thoughtful face, and +from boyhood he had carried a load of care. It was small wonder that +when alone, or absorbed in thought, the face should take on deep lines, +the eyes appear as if seeing something beyond the vision of other men, +and the shoulders stoop, as though they too were bearing a weight. But +in a moment all would be changed. The deep eyes could flash, or twinkle +merrily with humor, or look out from under overhanging brows as they +did upon the Five Points children in kindliest gentleness. In public +speaking, his tall body rose to its full height, his head was thrown +back, his face seemed transfigured with the fire and earnestness of his +thought, and his voice took on a high clear tenor tone that carried his +words and ideas far out over the listening crowds. At such moments, when +answering Douglas in the heat of their joint-debate, or later, during +the years of war, when he pronounced with noble gravity the words of his +famous addresses, not one in the throngs that heard him could say with +truth that he was other than a handsome man. + +It has been the fashion, too, to say that he was slovenly, and careless +in his dress. This also is a mistake. His clothes could not fit smoothly +on his gaunt and bony frame. He was no tailor's figure of a man; but +from the first he clothed himself as well as his means allowed, and in +the fashion of the time and place. In reading the grotesque stories of +his boyhood, of the tall stripling whose trousers left exposed a length +of shin, it must be remembered not only how poor he was, but that he +lived on the frontier, where other boys, less poor, were scarcely +better clad. In Vandalia, the blue jeans he wore was the dress of his +companions as well, and later, from Springfield days on, clear through +his presidency, his costume was the usual suit of black broadcloth, +carefully made, and scrupulously neat. He cared nothing for style. It +did not matter to him whether the man with whom he talked wore a coat of +the latest cut, or owned no coat at all. It was the man inside the coat +that interested him. + +In the same way he cared little for the pleasures of the table. He ate +most sparingly. He was thankful that food was good and wholesome and +enough for daily needs, but he could no more enter into the mood of the +epicure for whose palate it is a matter of importance whether he eats +roast goose or golden pheasant, than he could have counted the grains of +sand under the sea. + +In the summers, while he was President, he spent the nights at a cottage +at the Soldiers' Home, a short distance north of Washington, riding or +driving out through the gathering dusk, and returning to the White House +after a frugal breakfast in the early morning. Ten o'clock was the hour +at which he was supposed to begin receiving visitors, but it was often +necessary to see them unpleasantly early. Occasionally they forced their +way to his bedroom before he had quite finished dressing. Throngs of +people daily filled his office, the ante-rooms, and even the corridors +of the public part of the Executive Mansion. He saw them all, those he +had summoned on important business, men of high official position who +came to demand as their right offices and favors that he had no right to +give; others who wished to offer tiresome if well-meant advice; and the +hundreds, both men and women, who pressed forward to ask all sorts of +help. His friends besought him to save himself the weariness of seeing +the people at these public receptions, but he refused. "They do not want +much, and they get very little," he answered. "Each one considers his +business of great importance, and I must gratify them. I know how I +would feel if I were in their place." And at noon on all days except +Tuesday and Friday, when the time was occupied by meetings of the +cabinet, the doors were thrown open, and all who wished might enter. +That remark of his, "I know how I would feel if I were in their place," +explained it all. His early experience of life had drilled him well for +these ordeals. He had read deeply in the book of human nature, and could +see the hidden signs of falsehood and deceit and trickery from which the +faces of some of his visitors were not free; but he knew, too, the +hard, practical side of life, the hunger, cold, storms, sickness and +misfortune that the average man must meet in his struggle with the +world. More than all, he knew and sympathized with that hope deferred +which makes the heart sick. + +Not a few men and women came, sad-faced and broken-hearted, to plead +for soldier sons or husbands in prison, or under sentence of death by +court-martial. An inmate of the White House has recorded the eagerness +with which the President caught at any fact that would justify him +in saving the life of a condemned soldier. He was only merciless when +meanness or cruelty were clearly proved. Cases of cowardice he disliked +especially to punish with death. "It would frighten the poor devils +too terribly to shoot them," he said. On the papers in the case of one +soldier who had deserted and then enlisted again, he wrote: "Let him +fight, instead of shooting him." + +He used to call these cases of desertion his "leg cases," and sometimes +when considering them, would tell the story of the Irish soldier, +upbraided by his captain, who replied: "Captain, I have a heart in me +breast as brave as Julius Caesar, but when I go into battle, Sor, these +cowardly legs of mine will run away with me." + +As the war went on, Mr. Lincoln objected more and more to approving +sentences of death by court-martial, and either pardoned them outright, +or delayed the execution "until further orders," which orders were never +given by the great-hearted, merciful man. Secretary Stanton and certain +generals complained bitterly that if the President went on pardoning +soldiers he would ruin the discipline of the army; but Secretary Stanton +had a warm heart, and it is doubtful if he ever willingly enforced the +justice that he criticized the President for tempering with so much +mercy. + +Yet Mr. Lincoln could be sternly just when necessary. A law declaring +the slave trade to be piracy had stood on the statute books of the +United States for half a century. Lincoln's administration was the +first to convict a man under it, and Lincoln himself decreed that the +well-deserved sentence be carried out. + +Mr. Lincoln sympathized keenly with the hardships and trials of the +soldier boys, and found time, amid all his labors and cares, to visit +the hospitals in and around Washington where they lay ill. His afternoon +drive was usually to some camp in the neighborhood of the city; and when +he visited one at a greater distance, the cheers that greeted him as he +rode along the line with the commanding general showed what a warm place +he held in their hearts. + +He did not forget the unfortunate on these visits. A story is told of +his interview with William Scott, a boy from a Vermont farm, who, after +marching forty-eight hours without sleep, volunteered to stand guard for +a sick comrade. Weariness overcame him, and he was found asleep at his +post, within gunshot of the enemy. He was tried, and sentenced to be +shot. Mr. Lincoln heard of the case, and went himself to the tent where +young Scott was kept under guard. He talked to him kindly, asking about +his home, his schoolmates, and particularly about his mother. The lad +took her picture from his pocket, and showed it to him without speaking. +Mr. Lincoln was much affected. As he rose to leave he laid his hand on +the prisoner s shoulder. "My boy," he said, "you are not going to be +shot to-morrow. I believe you when you tell me that you could not keep +awake. I am going to trust you, and send you back to your regiment. Now, +I want to know what you intend to pay for all this?" The lad, overcome +with gratitude, could hardly say a word, but crowding down his emotions, +managed to answer that he did not know. He and his people were poor, +they would do what they could. There was his pay, and a little in the +savings bank. They could borrow something by a mortgage on the farm. +Perhaps his comrades would help. If Mr. Lincoln would wait until pay day +possibly they might get together five or six hundred dollars. Would that +be enough? The kindly President shook his head. "My bill is a great deal +more than that," he said. "It is a very large one. Your friends cannot +pay it, nor your family, nor your farm. There is only one man in the +world who can pay it, and his name is William Scott. If from this day he +does his duty so that when he comes to die he can truly say 'I have kept +the promise I gave the President. I have done my duty as a soldier,' +then the debt will be paid." Young Scott went back to his regiment, and +the debt was fully paid a few months later, for he fell in battle. + +Mr. Lincoln's own son became a soldier after leaving college. The letter +his father wrote to General Grant in his behalf shows how careful he was +that neither his official position nor his desire to give his boy the +experience he wanted, should work the least injustice to others: + +Executive Mansion, + +Washington, January 19th, 1865. + +Lieutenant-General Grant: + +Please read and answer this letter as though I was not President, but +only a friend. My son, now in his twenty-second year, having graduated +at Harvard, wishes to see something of the war before it ends. I do not +wish to put him in the ranks, nor yet to give him a commission, to +which those who have already served long are better entitled, and better +qualified to hold. Could he, without embarrassment to you, or detriment +to the service, go into your military family with some nominal rank, I +and not the public furnishing the necessary means? If no, say so without +the least hesitation, because I am as anxious and as deeply interested +that you shall not be encumbered as you can be yourself. + +Yours truly, + +A. Lincoln. + +His interest did not cease with the life of a young soldier. Among his +most beautiful letters are those he wrote to sorrowing parents who +had lost their sons in battle; and when his personal friend, young +Ellsworth, one of the first and most gallant to fall, was killed at +Alexandria, the President directed that his body be brought to the White +House, where his funeral was held in the great East Room. + +Though a member of no church, Mr. Lincoln was most sincerely religious +and devout. Not only was his daily life filled with acts of forbearance +and charity; every great state paper that he wrote breathes his faith +and reliance on a just and merciful God. He rarely talked, even with +intimate friends, about matters of belief, but it is to be doubted +whether any among the many people who came to give him advice and +sometimes to pray with him, had a better right to be called a Christian. +He always received such visitors courteously, with a reverence for their +good intention, no matter how strangely it sometimes manifested itself. +A little address that he made to some Quakers who came to see him in +September, 1862, shows both his courtesy to them personally, and his +humble attitude toward God. + +"I am glad of this interview, and glad to know that I have your sympathy +and prayers. We are indeed going through a great trial, a fiery trial. +In the very responsible position in which I happen 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 purposes, I have desired that all my +works and acts may be according to His will, and that it might be so +I have sought His aid; but if, after endeavoring to do my best in the +light which 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 had my +way, this war would never have been commenced. If I had been allowed my +way, this war would have been ended before this; but we find 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 cannot but +believe that He who made the world still governs it." + +Children held a warm place in the President's affections. He was not +only a devoted father; his heart went out to all little folk. He had +been kind to babies in his boyish days, when, book in hand, and the +desire for study upon him, he would sit with one foot on the rocker of a +rude frontier cradle, not too selfishly busy to keep its small occupant +lulled and content, while its mother went about her household tasks. +After he became President many a sad-eyed woman carrying a child in her +arms went to see him, and the baby always had its share in gaining her a +speedy hearing, and if possible a favorable answer to her petition. + +When children came to him at the White House of their own accord, as +they sometimes did, the favors they asked were not refused because of +their youth. One day a small boy, watching his chance, slipped into the +Executive Office between a governor and a senator, when the door was +opened to admit them. They were as much astonished at seeing him there +as the President was, and could not explain his presence; but he spoke +for himself. He had come, he said, from a little country town, hoping to +get a place as page in the House of Representatives. The President began +to tell him that he must go to Captain Goodnow, the doorkeeper of the +House, for he himself had nothing to do with such appointments. Even +this did not discourage the little fellow. Very earnestly he pulled his +papers of recommendation out of his pocket, and Mr. Lincoln, unable +to resist his wistful face, read them, and sent him away happy with a +hurried line written on the back of them, saying: "If Captain Goodnow +can give this good little boy a place, he will oblige A. Lincoln." + +It was a child who persuaded Mr. Lincoln to wear a beard. Up to the +time he was nominated for President he had always been smooth-shaven. A +little girl living in Chautauqua County, New York, who greatly admired +him, made up her mind that he would look better if he wore whiskers, +and with youthful directness wrote and told him so. He answered her by +return mail: + +Springfield, ILL., Oct. 19, 1860. + +Miss Grace Bedelt, + +My dear little Miss: Your very agreeable letter of the fifteenth is +received. I regret the necessity of saying I have no daughter. I have +three sons, one seventeen, one nine, and one seven years of age. They, +with their mother, constitute my whole family. As to the whiskers, never +having worn any, do you not think people would call it a piece of silly +affectation if I were to begin now? + +Your very sincere well-wisher, + +A. Lincoln. + +Evidently on second thoughts he decided to follow her advice. On his way +to Washington his train stopped at the town where she lived. He asked if +she were in the crowd gathered at the station to meet him. Of course she +was, and willing hands forced a way for her through the mass of people. +When she reached the car Mr. Lincoln stepped from the train, kissed her, +and showed her that he had taken her advice. + +The Secretary who wrote about the President's desire to save the lives +of condemned soldiers tells us that "during the first year of the +administration the house was made lively by the games and pranks of Mr. +Lincoln's two younger children, William and Thomas. Robert the eldest +was away at Harvard, only coming home for short vacations. The two +little boys, aged eight and ten, with their western independence and +enterprise, kept the house in an uproar. They drove their tutor wild +with their good-natured disobedience. They organized a minstrel show in +the attic; they made acquaintance with the office-seekers and became +the hot champions of the distressed. William was, with all his boyish +frolic, a child of great promise, capable of close application and +study. He had a fancy for drawing up railway time-tables, and would +conduct an imaginary train from Chicago to New York with perfect +precision. He wrote childish verses, which sometimes attained the +unmerited honors of print. But this bright, gentle and studious child +sickened and died in February, 1862. His father was profoundly moved by +his death, though he gave no outward sign of his trouble, but kept about +his work, the same as ever. His bereaved heart seemed afterwards to pour +out its fulness on his youngest child. 'Tad' was a merry, warm-blooded, +kindly little boy, perfectly lawless, and full of odd fancies and +inventions, the 'chartered libertine' of the Executive Mansion." He ran +constantly in and out of his father's office, interrupting his gravest +labors. Mr. Lincoln was never too busy to hear him, or to answer his +bright, rapid, imperfect speech, for he was not able to speak plainly +until he was nearly grown. "He would perch upon his father's knee, and +sometimes even on his shoulder, while the most weighty conferences were +going on. Sometimes, escaping from the domestic authorities, he would +take refuge in that sanctuary for the whole evening, dropping to sleep +at last on the floor, when the President would pick him up, and carry +him tenderly to bed." + +The letters and even the telegrams Mr. Lincoln sent his wife had always +a message for or about Tad. One of them shows that his pets, like their +young master, were allowed great liberty. It was written when the family +was living at the Soldiers' Home, and Mrs. Lincoln and Tad had gone away +for a visit. "Tell dear Tad," he wrote, "that poor Nanny Goat is lost, +and Mrs. Cuthbert and I are in distress about it. The day you left, +Nanny was found resting herself and chewing her little cud on the middle +of Tad's bed; but now she's gone! The gardener kept complaining that she +destroyed the flowers, till it was concluded to bring her down to the +White House. This was done, and the second day she had disappeared and +has not been heard of since. This is the last we know of poor Nanny." + +Tad was evidently consoled by, not one, but a whole family of new goats, +for about a year later Mr. Lincoln ended a business telegram to his +wife in New York with the words: "Tell Tad the goats and Father are very +well." Then, as the weight of care rolled back upon this greathearted, +patient man, he added, with humorous weariness, "especially the goats." + +Mr. Lincoln was so forgetful of self as to be absolutely without +personal fear. He not only paid no attention to the threats which +were constantly made against his life, but when, on July 11, 1864, the +Confederate General Early appeared suddenly and unexpectedly before +the city with a force of 17,000 men, and Washington was for two days +actually in danger of assault and capture, his unconcern gave his +friends great uneasiness. On the tenth he rode out, as was his custom, +to spend the night at the Soldiers' Home, but Secretary Stanton, +learning that Early was advancing, sent after him, to compel his return. +Twice afterward, intent upon watching the fighting which took place near +Fort Stevens, north of the city, he exposed his tall form to the gaze +and bullets of the enemy, utterly heedless of his own peril; and it was +not until an officer had fallen mortally wounded within a few feet of +him, that he could be persuaded to seek a place of greater safety. + + + + +XI. THE TURNING POINT OF THE WAR + +In the summer of 1863 the Confederate armies reached their greatest +strength. It was then that, flushed with military ardor, and made bold +by what seemed to the southern leaders an unbroken series of victories +on the Virginia battlefields, General Lee again crossed the Potomac +River, and led his army into the North. He went as far as Gettysburg +in Pennsylvania; but there, on the third of July, 1863, suffered a +disastrous defeat, which shattered forever the Confederate dream of +taking Philadelphia and dictating peace from Independence Hall. This +battle of Gettysburg should have ended the war, for General Lee, on +retreating southward, found the Potomac River so swollen by heavy rains +that he was obliged to wait several days for the floods to go down. In +that time it would have been quite possible for General Meade, the Union +commander, to follow him and utterly destroy his army. He proved too +slow, however, and Lee and his beaten Confederate soldiers escaped. +President Lincoln was inexpressibly grieved at this, and in the first +bitterness of his disappointment sat down and wrote General Meade a +letter. Lee "was within your easy grasp," he told him, "and to have +closed upon him would, in connection with our other late successes, have +ended the war. As it is, the war will be prolonged indefinitely. ... +Your golden opportunity is gone and I am distressed immeasurably because +of it." But Meade never received this letter. Deeply as the President +felt Meade's fault, his spirit of forgiveness was so quick, and his +thankfulness for the measure of success that had been gained, so great, +that he put it in his desk, and it was never signed or sent. + +The battle of Gettysburg was indeed a notable victory, and coupled with +the fall of Vicksburg, which surrendered to General Grant on that +same third of July, proved the real turning-point of the war. It seems +singularly appropriate, then, that Gettysburg should have been the place +where President Lincoln made his most beautiful and famous address. +After the battle the dead and wounded of both the Union and Confederate +armies had received tender attention there. Later it was decided to +set aside a portion of the battlefield for a great national military +cemetery in which the dead found orderly burial. It was dedicated to its +sacred use on November 19, 1863. At the end of the stately ceremonies +President Lincoln rose and said: + +"Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this +continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the +proposition that all men are created equal. + +"Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, +or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are +met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a +portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave +their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and +proper that we should do this. + +"But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate--we cannot consecrate--we +cannot hallow--this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who +struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or +detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, +but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, +rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who +fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be +here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these +honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they +gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that +these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, +shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by +the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." + +With these words, so brief, so simple, so full of reverent feeling, he +set aside the place of strife to be the resting place of heroes, and +then went back to his own great task--for which he, too, was to give +"the last full measure of devotion." + +Up to within a very short time little had been heard about Ulysses S. +Grant, the man destined to become the most successful general of the +war. Like General McClellan, he was a graduate of West Point; and also +like McClellan, he had resigned from the army after serving gallantly in +the Mexican war. There the resemblance ceased, for he had not an atom of +McClellan's vanity, and his persistent will to do the best he could with +the means the government could give him was far removed from the younger +general's faultfinding and complaint. He was about four years older than +McClellan, having been born on April 27, 1822. On offering his services +to the War Department in 1861 he had modestly written: "I feel myself +competent to command a regiment if the President in his judgment should +see fit to intrust one to me." For some reason this letter remained +unanswered, although the Department, then and later, had need of trained +and experienced officers. Afterward the Governor of Illinois made him +a colonel of one of the three years' volunteer regiments; and from that +time on he rose in rank, not as McClellan had done, by leaps and bounds, +but slowly, earning every promotion. All of his service had been in +the West, and he first came into general notice by his persistent and +repeated efforts to capture Vicksburg, on whose fall the opening of +the Mississippi River depended. Five different plans he tried before he +finally succeeded, the last one appearing utterly foolhardy, and seeming +to go against every known rule of military science. In spite of this it +was successful, the Union army and navy thereby gaining control of the +Mississippi River and cutting off forever from the Confederacy a great +extent of rich country, from which, up to that time, it had been drawing +men and supplies. + +The North was greatly cheered by these victories, and all eyes were +turned upon the successful commander. No one was more thankful than Mr. +Lincoln. He gave Grant quick promotion, and crowned the official act +with a most generous letter. "I do not remember that you and I ever met +personally," he wrote. "I write this now as a grateful acknowledgement +for the almost inestimable service you have done the country. I wish +to say a word further." Then, summing up the plans that the General had +tried, especially the last one, he added: "I feared it was a mistake. I +now wish to make the personal acknowledgement that you were right and I +was wrong." + +Other important battles won by Grant that same fall added to his growing +fame, and by the beginning of 1864 he was singled out as the greatest +Union commander. As a suitable reward for his victories it was +determined to make him Lieutenant-General. This army rank had, before +the Civil War, been bestowed on only two American soldiers--on General +Washington, and on Scott, for his conquest of Mexico. In 1864 Congress +passed and the President signed an act to revive the grade, and Grant +was called to Washington to receive his commission. He and Mr. Lincoln +met for the first time at a large public reception held at the Executive +Mansion on the evening of March 8. A movement and rumor in the crowd +heralded his approach, and when at last the short, stocky, determined +soldier and the tall, care-worn, deep-eyed President stood face to face +the crowd, moved by a sudden impulse of delicacy, drew back, and left +them almost alone to exchange a few words. Later, when Grant appeared in +the great East Room, the enthusiasm called forth by his presence could +no longer be restrained, and cheer after cheer went up, while his +admirers pressed about him so closely that, hot and blushing with +embarrassment, he was forced at last to mount a sofa, and from there +shake hands with the eager people who thronged up to him from all sides. + +The next day at one o'clock the President, in the presence of the +cabinet and a few other officials, made a little speech, and gave him +his commission. Grant replied with a few words, as modest as they +were brief, and in conversation afterward asked what special duty was +required of him. The President answered that the people wanted him to +take Richmond, and asked if he could do it. Grant said that he could +if he had the soldiers, and the President promised that these would be +furnished him. Grant did not stay in Washington to enjoy the new honors +of his high rank, but at once set about preparations for his task. It +proved a hard one. More than a year passed before it was ended, and +all the losses in battle of the three years that had gone before seemed +small in comparison with the terrible numbers of killed and wounded that +fell during these last months of the war. At first Grant had a fear +that the President might wish to control his plans, but this was soon +quieted; and his last lingering doubt on the subject vanished when, +as he was about to start on his final campaign, Mr. Lincoln sent him a +letter stating his satisfaction with all he had done, and assuring him +that in the coming campaign he neither knew, for desired to know, the +details of his plans. In his reply Grant confessed the groundlessness +of his fears, and added, "Should my success be less than I desire and +expect, the least I can say is, the fault is not with you." + +He made no complicated plan for the problem before him, but proposed to +solve it by plain, hard, persistent fighting. "Lee's army will be your +objective point," he instructed General Meade. "Where Lee goes there you +will go also." Nearly three years earlier the opposing armies had fought +their first battle of Bull Run only a short distance north of where they +now confronted each other. Campaign and battle between them had swayed +to the north and the south, but neither could claim any great gain of +ground or of advantage. The final struggle was before them. Grant had +two to one in numbers; Lee the advantage in position, for he knew by +heart every road, hill and forest in Virginia, had for his friendly +scout every white inhabitant, and could retire into prepared +fortifications. Perhaps the greatest element of his strength lay in the +conscious pride of his army that for three years it had steadily barred +the way to Richmond. To offset this there now menaced it what had +always been absent before--the grim, unflinching will of the new Union +commander, who had rightly won for himself the name of "Unconditional +Surrender" Grant. + +On the night of May 4, 1864, his army entered upon the campaign which, +after many months, was to end the war. It divided itself into two parts. +For the first six weeks there was almost constant swift marching and +hard fighting, a nearly equally matched contest of strategy and battle +between the two armies, the difference being that Grant was always +advancing, and Lee always retiring. Grant had hoped to defeat Lee +outside of his fortifications, and early in the campaign had expressed +his resolution "to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer"; +but the losses were so appalling, 60,000 of his best troops melting away +in killed and wounded during the six weeks, that this was seen to be +impossible. Lee's army was therefore driven into its fortifications +around the Confederate capital and then came the siege of Richmond, +lasting more than nine months, but pushed forward all that time with +relentless energy, in spite of Grant's heavy losses. + +In the West, meanwhile, General William T. Sherman, Grant's closest +friend and brother officer, pursued a task of almost equal importance, +taking Atlanta, Georgia, which the Confederates had turned into a city +of foundries and workshops for the manufacture and repair of guns; then, +starting from Atlanta, marching with his best troops three hundred miles +to the sea, laying the country waste as they went; after which, turning +northward, he led them through South and North Carolina to bring his +army in touch with Grant. + +Against this background of fighting the life of the country went on. The +end of the war was approaching, surely, but so slowly that the people, +hoping for it, and watching day by day, could scarcely see it. They +schooled themselves to a dogged endurance, but there was no more +enthusiasm. Many lost courage. Volunteering almost ceased, and the +government was obliged to begin drafting men to make up the numbers of +soldiers needed by Grant in his campaign against Richmond. + +The President had many things to dishearten him at this time, many +troublesome questions to settle. For instance, there were new loyal +State governments to provide in those parts of the South which had again +come under control of the Union armies--no easy matter, where every man, +woman and child harbored angry feelings against the North, and no matter +how just and forbearing he might be, his plans were sure to be thwarted +and bitterly opposed at every step. + +There were serious questions, too, to be decided about negro soldiers, +for the South had raised a mighty outcry against the Emancipation +Proclamation, especially against the use of the freed slaves as +soldiers, vowing that white officers of negro troops would be shown +small mercy, if ever they were taken prisoners. No act of such vengeance +occurred, but in 1864 a fort manned by colored soldiers was captured by +the Confederates, and almost the entire garrison was put to death. +Must the order that the War Department had issued some time earlier, to +offset the Confederate threats, now be put in force? The order said +that for every negro prisoner killed by the Confederates a Confederate +prisoner in the hands of the Union armies would be taken out and shot. +It fell upon Mr. Lincoln to decide. The idea seemed unbearable to him, +yet, on the other hand, could he afford to let the massacre go unavenged +and thus encourage the South in the belief that it could commit such +barbarous acts and escape unharmed? Two reasons finally decided him +against putting the order in force. One was that General Grant was about +to start on his campaign against Richmond, and that it would be most +unwise to begin this by the tragic spectacle of a military punishment, +however merited. The other was his tender-hearted humanity. He could +not, he said, take men out and kill them in cold blood for crimes +committed by other men. 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. +Fortunately the offense was not repeated, and no one had cause to +criticize his clemency. + +Numbers of good and influential men, dismayed at the amount of blood and +treasure that the war had already cost, and disheartened by the calls +for still more soldiers that Grant's campaign made necessary, began +to clamor for peace--were ready to grant almost anything that the +Confederates chose to ask. Rebel agents were in Canada professing to +be able to conclude a peace. Mr. Lincoln, wishing to convince these +northern "Peace men" of the groundlessness of their claim, and of the +injustice of their charges that the government was continuing the war +unnecessarily, sent Horace Greeley, the foremost among them, to Canada, +to talk with the self-styled ambassadors of Jefferson Davis. Nothing +came of it, of course, except abuse of Mr. Lincoln for sending such a +messenger, and a lively quarrel between Greeley and the rebel agents as +to who was responsible for the misunderstandings that arose. + +The summer and autumn of 1864 were likewise filled with the bitterness +and high excitement of a presidential campaign; for, according to law, +Mr. Lincoln's successor had to be elected on the "Tuesday after the +first Monday" of November in that year. The great mass of Republicans +wished Mr. Lincoln to be reelected. The Democrats had long ago fixed +upon General McClellan, with his grievances against the President, as +their future candidate. It is not unusual for Presidents to discover +would-be rivals in their own cabinets. Considering the strong men who +formed Mr. Lincoln's cabinet, and the fact that four years earlier more +than one of them had active hopes of being chosen in his stead, it is +remarkable that there was so little of this. + +The one who developed the most serious desire to succeed him was Salmon +P. Chase, his Secretary of the Treasury. Devoted with all his powers +to the cause of the Union, Mr. Chase was yet strangely at fault in his +judgment of men. He regarded himself as the friend of Mr. Lincoln, +but nevertheless held so poor an opinion of the President's mind and +character, compared with his own, that he could not believe people blind +enough to prefer the President to himself. He imagined that he did +not want the office, and was anxious only for the public good; yet +he listened eagerly to the critics of the President who flattered his +hopes, and found time in spite of his great labors to write letters to +all parts of the country, which, although protesting that he did not +want the honor, showed his entire willingness to accept it. Mr. Lincoln +was well aware of this. Indeed, it was impossible not to know about it, +though he refused to hear the matter discussed or to read any letters +concerning it. He had his own opinion of the taste displayed by Mr. +Chase, but chose to take no notice of his actions. "I have determined," +he said, "to shut my eyes, so far as possible, to everything of the +sort. Mr. Chase makes a good Secretary, and I shall keep him where he +is. If he becomes President, all right. I hope we may never have a +worse man," and he not only kept him where he was, but went on +appointing Chase's friends to office. + +There was also some talk of making General Grant the Republican +candidate for President, and an attempt was even made to trap Mr. +Lincoln into taking part in a meeting where this was to be done. Mr. +Lincoln refused to attend, and instead wrote a letter of such hearty and +generous approval of Grant and his army that the meeting naturally fell +into the hands of Mr. Lincoln's friends. General Grant, never at that +time or any other, gave the least encouragement to the efforts which +were made to array him against the President. Mr. Lincoln, on his part, +received all warnings to beware of Grant in the most serene manner, +saying tranquilly, "If he takes Richmond, let him have it." It was not +so with General Fremont. At a poorly attended meeting held in Cleveland +he was actually nominated by a handful of people calling themselves +the "Radical Democracy," and taking the matter seriously, accepted, +although, three months later, having found no response from the public, +he withdrew from the contest. + +After all, these various attempts to discredit the name of Abraham +Lincoln caused hardly a ripple on the great current of public opinion, +and death alone could have prevented his choice by the Republican +national convention. He took no measures to help on his own candidacy. +With strangers he would not talk about the probability of his +reelection; but with friends he made no secret of his readiness to +continue the work he was engaged in if such should be the general wish. +"A second term would be a great honor and a great labor; which together, +perhaps, I would not decline," he wrote to one of them. He discouraged +officeholders, either civil or military, who showed any special zeal in +his behalf. To General Schurz, who wrote asking permission to take an +active part in the campaign for his reelection, he answered: "I perceive +no objection to your making a political speech when you are where one is +to be made; but quite surely, speaking in the North and fighting in the +South at the same time are not possible, nor could I be justified to +detail any officer to the political campaign... and then return him to +the army." + +He himself made no long speeches during the summer, and in his short +addresses, at Sanitary Fairs, in answer to visiting delegations, and +on similar occasions where custom and courtesy obliged him to say a few +words, he kept his quiet ease and self-command, speaking heartily and +to the point, yet avoiding all the pitfalls that beset the candidate who +talks. + +When the Republican national convention came together in Baltimore on +June 7, 1864, it had very little to do, for its delegates were bound by +rigid instructions to vote for Abraham Lincoln. + +He was chosen on the first ballot, every State voting for him except +Missouri, whose representatives had been instructed to vote for Grant. +Missouri at once changed its vote, and the secretary of the convention +read the grand total of 506 for Lincoln, his announcement being greeted +by a storm of cheers that lasted several minutes. + +It was not so easy to choose a Vice-President. Mr. Lincoln had been +besieged by many people to make known his wishes in the matter, but had +persistently refused. He rightly felt that it would be presumptuous in +him to dictate who should be his companion on the ticket, and, in case +of his death, his successor in office. This was for the delegates to the +convention to decide, for they represented the voters of the country. He +had no more right to dictate who should be selected than the Emperor of +China would have had. It is probable that Vice-President Hamlin would +have been renominated, if it had not been for the general feeling both +in and out of the convention that, under all the circumstances, it would +be wiser to select some man who had been a Democrat, and had yet upheld +the war. The choice fell upon Andrew Johnson of Tennessee, who was not +only a Democrat, but had been appointed by Mr. Lincoln military governor +of Tennessee in 1862. + +The Democrats at first meant to have the national convention of their +party meet on the fourth of July; but after Fremont had been nominated +at Cleveland and Lincoln at Baltimore, they postponed it to a later +date, hoping that something in the chapter of accidents might happen to +their advantage. At first it appeared as if this might be the case. +The outlook for the Republicans was far from satisfactory. The terrible +fighting and great losses of Grant's army in Virginia had profoundly +shocked and depressed the country. The campaign of General Sherman, who +was then in Georgia, showed as yet no promise of the brilliant results +it afterward attained. General Early's sudden raid into Maryland, when +he appeared so unexpectedly before Washington and threatened the city, +had been the cause of much exasperation; and Mr. Chase, made bitter +by his failure to receive the coveted nomination for President, had +resigned from the cabinet. This seemed, to certain leading Republicans, +to point to a breaking up of the government. The "Peace" men were +clamoring loudly for an end of the war; and the Democrats, not having +yet formally chosen a candidate, were free to devote all their leisure +to attacks upon the administration. + +Mr. Lincoln realized fully the tremendous issues at stake. He looked +worn and weary. To a friend who urged him to go away for a fortnight's +rest, he replied, "I cannot fly from my thoughts. My solicitude for this +great country follows me wherever I go. I do not think it is personal +vanity or ambition, though I am not free from these infirmities, but +I cannot but feel that the weal or woe of this great nation will be +decided in November. There is no program offered by any wing of the +Democratic party but that must result in the permanent destruction of +the Union." + +The political situation grew still darker. Toward the end of August the +general gloom enveloped even the President himself. Then what he did was +most original and characteristic. Feeling that the campaign was going +against him, he made up his mind deliberately the course he ought to +pursue, and laid down for himself the action demanded by his strong +sense of duty. He wrote on August 23 the following memorandum: "This +morning, as for some days past, it seems exceedingly probable that this +administration will not be reelected. Then it will be my duty to so +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 cannot possibly save it afterward." + +He folded and pasted the sheet of paper in such a way that its contents +could not be seen, and as the cabinet came together handed it to each +member successively, asking him to write his name across the back of it. +In this peculiar fashion he pledged himself and his administration to +accept loyally the verdict of the people if it should be against them, +and to do their utmost to save the Union in the brief remainder of his +term of office. He gave no hint to any member of his cabinet of the +nature of the paper thus signed until after his reelection. + +The Democratic convention finally came together in Chicago on August 29. +It declared the war a failure, and that efforts ought to be made at once +to bring it to a close, and nominated General McClellan for President +McClellan's only chance of success lay in his war record. His position +as a candidate on a platform of dishonorable peace would have been no +less desperate than ridiculous. In his letter accepting the nomination, +therefore, he calmly ignored the platform, and renewed his assurances +of devotion to the Union, the Constitution, and the flag of his country. +But the stars in their courses fought against him. Even before the +Democratic convention met, the tide of battle had turned. The darkest +hour of the war had passed, and dawn was at hand, and amid the +thanksgivings of a grateful people, and the joyful salute of great guns, +the real presidential campaign began. The country awoke to the true +meaning of the Democratic platform; General Sherman's successes in +the South excited the enthusiasm of the people; and when at last the +Unionists, rousing from their midsummer languor, began to show their +faith in the Republican candidate, the hopelessness of all efforts to +undermine him became evident. + + + + +XII. THE CONQUEROR OF A GREAT REBELLION + +The presidential election of 1864 took place on November 8. The diary of +one of the President's secretaries contains a curious record of the way +the day passed at the Executive Mansion. "The house has been still and +almost deserted. Everybody in Washington and not at home voting seems +ashamed of it, and stays away from the President. While I was talking +with him to-day he said: 'It is a little singular that I, who am not a +vindictive man, should always have been before the people for election +in canvasses marked for their bitterness. Always but once. When I came +to Congress it was a quiet time; but always besides that the contests in +which I have been prominent have been marked with great rancor.'" + +Early in the evening the President made his way through rain and +darkness to the War Department to receive the returns. The telegrams +came, thick and fast, all pointing joyously to his reelection. He sent +the important ones over to Mrs. Lincoln at the White House, remarking, +"She is more anxious that I am." The satisfaction of one member of the +little group about him was coupled with the wish that the critics of the +administration might feel properly rebuked by this strong expression +of the popular will. Mr. Lincoln looked at him in kindly surprise. +"You have more of that feeling of personal resentment than I," he said. +"Perhaps I have too little of it, but I never thought it paid. A man has +not time to spend half his life in quarrels. If any man ceases to attack +me, I never remember the past against him." This state of mind +might well have been called by a higher name than "lack of personal +resentment." + +Lincoln and Johnson received a popular majority of 411,281, and 212 out +of 233 electoral votes--only those of New Jersey, Delaware and Kentucky, +twenty-one in all, being cast for McClellan. + +For Mr. Lincoln this was one of the most solemn days of his life. +Assured of his personal success, and made devoutly confident by the +military victories of the last few weeks that the end of the war was at +hand, he felt no sense of triumph over his opponents. The thoughts that +filled his mind found expression in the closing sentences of the little +speech that he made to some serenaders who greeted him in the early +morning hours of November 9, as he left the War Department to return to +the White House: + +"I am thankful to God for this approval of the people; but while deeply +grateful for this mark of their confidence in me, if I know my heart, +my gratitude is free from any taint of personal triumph.... It is no +pleasure to me to triumph over anyone, 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." + +Mr. Lincoln's inauguration for his second term as President took place +at the time appointed, on March 4, 1865. There is little variation +in the simple but impressive pageantry with which the ceremony is +celebrated. The principal novelty commented on by the newspapers was the +share which the people who had up to that time been slaves, had for the +first time in this public and political drama. Associations of negro +citizens joined in the procession, and a battalion of negro soldiers +formed part of the military escort. The central act of the occasion +was President Lincoln's second inaugural address, which enriched the +political literature of the nation with another masterpiece. He said: + +"Fellow-countrymen: At this second appearing to take the oath of the +presidential office, there is less occasion for an extended address +than there was at the first. Then a statement, somewhat in detail, of a +course to be pursued, seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration +of four years, during which public declarations have been constantly +called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still +absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, little +that is new could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all +else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself; and +it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With +high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured. + +"On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts were +anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it--all sought +to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this +place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent +agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war--seeking to +dissolve the Union and divide effects, by negotiation. Both parties +deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather than let the +nation survive; and the other would accept war rather than let it +perish. And the war came. + +"One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed +generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it. +These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew +that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war. To strengthen, +perpetuate and extend this interest was the object for which the +insurgents would rend the Union, even by war; while the government +claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement +of it. + +"Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which +it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the +conflict might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should +cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental +and astounding. Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and +each invokes his aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men +should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from +the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not, that we be not +judged. The prayers of both could not be answered--that of neither has +been answered fully. + +"The Almighty has his own purposes. 'Woe unto the world because of +offenses! For it must needs be that offenses come; but woe to that man +by whom the offense cometh.' If we shall suppose that American slavery +is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs +come, but which, having continued through his appointed time, he now +wills to remove, and that he gives to both North and South this terrible +war, as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern +therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers +in a living God always ascribe to him? Fondly do we hope--fervently do +we pray--that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet; if +God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondman's +two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until +every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn +with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must +be said, 'The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.' + +"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the +right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish +the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who +shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan--to +do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among +ourselves, and with all nations." + +The address ended, the Chief Justice arose, and the listeners who, for +the second time, heard Abraham Lincoln repeat the solemn words of his +oath of office, went from the impressive scene to their several homes in +thankfulness and confidence that the destiny of the nation was in safe +keeping. + +Nothing would have amazed Mr. Lincoln more than to hear himself called +a man of letters; and yet it would be hard to find in all literature +anything to excel the brevity and beauty of his address at Gettysburg +or the lofty grandeur of this Second Inaugural. In Europe his style has +been called a model for the study and imitation of princes, while in +our own country many of his phrases have already passed into the daily +speech of mankind. + +His gift of putting things simply and clearly was partly the habit +of his own clear mind, and partly the result of the training he gave +himself in days of boyish poverty, when paper and ink were luxuries +almost beyond his reach, and the words he wished to set down must be the +best words, and the clearest and shortest to express the ideas he had +in view. This training of thought before expression, of knowing exactly +what he wished to say before saying it, stood him in good stead all his +life; but only the mind of a great man, with a lofty soul and a poet's +vision; one who had suffered deeply and felt keenly; who carried the +burden of a nation on his heart, whose sympathies were as broad and +whose kindness was as great as his moral purpose was strong and firm, +could have written the deep, forceful, convincing words that fell from +his pen in the later years of his life. It was the life he lived, the +noble aim that upheld him, as well as the genius with which he was born, +that made him one of the greatest writers of our time. + +At the date of his second inauguration only two members of Mr. Lincoln's +original cabinet remained in office; but the changes had all come about +gradually and naturally, never as the result of quarrels, and with the +single exception of Secretary Chase, not one of them left the cabinet +harboring feelings of resentment or bitterness toward his late chief. +Even when, in one case, it became necessary for the good of the service, +for Mr. Lincoln to ask a cabinet minister to resign, that gentleman not +only unquestioningly obeyed, but entered into the presidential campaign +immediately afterward, working heartily and effectively for his +reelection. As for Secretary Chase, the President was so little +disturbed by his attitude that, on the death of Roger B. Taney, the +Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, he made him his +successor, giving him the highest judicial office in the land, and +paying him the added compliment of writing out his nomination with his +own hand. + +The keynote of the President's young life had been persevering industry. +That of his mature years was self-control and generous forgiveness. And +surely his remark on the night of his second election for President, +that he did not think resentment "paid," and that no man had time to +spend half his life in quarrels, was well borne out by the fruit of his +actions. It was this spirit alone which made possible much that he was +able to accomplish. His rule of conduct toward all men is summed up in a +letter of reprimand that it became his duty, while he was President, +to send to one young officer accused of quarreling with another. It +deserves to be written in letters of gold on the walls of every school +and college throughout the land: + +"The advice of a father to his son, 'beware of entrance to a quarrel, +but, being in, bear it that the opposed may beware of thee,' is good, +but not the best. Quarrel not at all. No man resolved to make the most +of himself can spare time for personal contention. Still less can he +afford to take all the consequences, including the vitiating of his +temper and the loss of self-control. Yield larger things to which you +can show no more than equal right; and yield lesser ones though clearly +your own. Better give your path to a dog than be bitten by him in +contesting for the right. Even killing the dog would not cure the bite." + +It was this willingness of his to give up the "lesser things," and even +the things to which he could claim an equal right, which kept peace in +his cabinet, made up of men of strong wills and conflicting natures. +Their devotion to the Union, great as it was, would not have sufficed +in such a strangely assorted official family; but his unfailing kindness +and good sense led him to overlook many things that another man might +have regarded as deliberate insults; while his great tact and knowledge +of human nature enabled him to bring out the best in people about him, +and at times to turn their very weaknesses into sources of strength. It +made it possible for him to keep the regard of every one of them. Before +he had been in office a month it had transformed Secretary Seward from +his rival into his lasting friend. It made a warm friend out of the +blunt, positive, hot-tempered Edwin M. Stanton, who became Secretary +of War in place of Mr. Cameron. He was a man of strong will and great +endurance, and gave his Department a record for hard and effective +work that it would be difficult to equal. Many stories are told of the +disrespect he showed the President, and the cross-purposes at which they +labored. The truth is, that they understood each other perfectly on all +important matters, and worked together through three busy trying years +with ever-increasing affection and regard. The President's kindly humor +forgave his Secretary many blunt speeches. "Stanton says I am a fool?" +he is reported to have asked a busy-body who came fleet-footed to tell +him of the Secretary's hasty comment on an order of little moment. +"Stanton says I am a fool? Well"--with a whimsical glance at his +informant--"then I suppose I must be. Stanton is nearly always right." +Knowing that Stanton was "nearly always right" it made little difference +to his chief what he might say in the heat of momentary annoyance. + +Yet in spite of his forbearance he never gave up the "larger things" +that he felt were of real importance; and when he learned at one time +that an effort was being made to force a member of the cabinet to +resign, he called them together, and read them the following impressive +little lecture: + +"I must myself be the judge how long to retain in, and when to remove +any of you from his position. It would greatly pain me to discover +any of you endeavoring to procure another's removal, or in any way to +prejudice him before the public. Such endeavor would be a wrong to me, +and much worse, a wrong to the country. My wish is that on this subject +no remark be made, nor question asked by any of you, here, or elsewhere, +now, or hereafter." + +This is one of the most remarkable speeches ever made by a President. +Washington was never more dignified; Jackson was never more peremptory. + +The President's spirit of forgiveness was broad enough to take in the +entire South. The cause of the Confederacy had been doomed from the hour +of his reelection. The cheering of the troops which greeted the news +had been heard within the lines at Richmond, and the besieged town lost +hope, though it continued the struggle bravely if desperately. Although +Horace Greeley's peace mission to Canada had come to nothing, and other +volunteer efforts in the same direction served only to call forth +a declaration from Jefferson Davis that he would fight for the +independence of the South to the bitter end, Mr. Lincoln watched +longingly for the time when the first move could be made toward peace. +Early in January, 1865, as the country was about to enter upon the fifth +year of actual war, he learned from Hon. Francis P. Blair, Sr., who +had been in Richmond, how strong the feeling of discouragement at the +Confederate capital had become. Mr. Blair was the father of Lincoln's +first Postmaster-General, a man of large acquaintance in the South, who +knew perhaps better than anyone in Washington the character and temper +of the southern leaders. He had gone to Richmond hoping to do something +toward bringing the war to a close, but without explaining his plans to +anyone, and with no authority from the government, beyond permission +to pass through the military lines and return. His scheme was utterly +impracticable, and Mr. Lincoln was interested in the report of his visit +only because it showed that the rebellion was nearing its end. This +was so marked that he sent Mr. Blair back again to Richmond with a note +intended for the eye of Jefferson Davis, saying that the government had +constantly been, was then, and would continue to be ready to receive any +agent Mr. Davis might send, "with a view of securing peace to the people +of our one common country." + +Hopeless as their cause had by this time become, the Confederates had no +mind to treat for peace on any terms except independence of the southern +States; yet, on the other hand, they were in such straits that they +could not afford to leave Mr. Lincoln's offer untested. Mr. Davis +therefore sent north his Vice-President, Alexander H. Stephens, with +two other high officials of the Confederate government, armed with +instructions which aimed to be liberal enough to gain them admittance +to the Union lines, and yet distinctly announced that they came "for the +purpose of securing peace to the two countries." This difference in the +wording of course doomed their mission in advance, for the government +at Washington had never admitted that there were "two countries," and to +receive the messengers of Jefferson Davis on any such terms would be to +concede practically all that the South asked. + +When they reached the Union lines the officer who met them informed +them that they could go no farther unless they accepted the President's +conditions. They finally changed the form of their request, and were +taken to Fortress Monroe. Meantime Mr. Lincoln had sent Secretary Seward +to Fortress Monroe with instructions to hear all they might have to say, +but not to definitely conclude anything. On learning the true nature +of their errand he was about to recall him, when he received a telegram +from General Grant, regretting that Mr. Lincoln himself could not see +the commissioners, because, to Grant's mind, they seemed sincere. + +Anxious to do everything he could in the interest of peace, Mr. Lincoln, +instead of recalling Secretary Seward, telegraphed that he would himself +come to Fortress Monroe, and started that same night. The next morning, +February 3, 1865, he and the Secretary of State received the rebel +commissioners on board the President's steamer, the River Queen. + +This conference between the two highest officials of the United States +government, and three messengers from the Confederacy, bound, as the +President well knew beforehand, by instructions which made any practical +outcome impossible, brings out, in strongest relief, Mr. Lincoln's +kindly patience, even toward the rebellion. He was determined to leave +no means untried that might, however remotely, lead to peace. For four +hours he patiently answered the many questions they asked him, as to +what would probably be done on various subjects if the South submitted; +pointing out always the difference between the things that he had the +power to decide, and those that must be submitted to Congress; and +bringing the discussion back, time and again, to the three points +absolutely necessary to secure peace--Union, freedom for the slaves, +and complete disbandment of the Confederate armies. He had gone to offer +them, honestly and frankly, the best terms in his power, but not to +give up one atom of official dignity or duty. Their main thought, on the +contrary, had been to postpone or to escape the express conditions on +which they were admitted to the conference. + +They returned to Richmond and reported the failure of their efforts to +Jefferson Davis, whose disappointment equalled their own, for all had +caught eagerly at the hope that this interview would somehow prove a +means of escape from the dangers of their situation. President Lincoln, +full of kindly thoughts, on the other hand, went back to Washington, +intent on making yet one more generous offer to hasten the day of peace. +He had told the commissioners that personally he would be in favor of +the government paying a liberal amount for the loss of slave property, +on condition that the southern States agree of their own accord to +the freedom of the slaves. (*) This was indeed going to the extreme of +liberality, but Mr. Lincoln remembered that notwithstanding all their +offenses the rebels were American citizens, members of the same nation +and brothers of the same blood. He remembered, too, that the object of +the war, equally with peace and freedom, was to preserve friendship and +to continue the Union. Filled with such thoughts and purposes he spent +the day after his return in drawing up a new proposal designed as a +peace offering to the States in rebellion. On the evening of February 5 +he read this to his cabinet. It offered the southern States $400,000,000 +or a sum equal to the cost of war for two hundred days, on condition +that all fighting cease by the first of April, 1865. He proved more +liberal than any of his advisers; and with the words, "You are all +against me," sadly uttered, the President folded up the paper, and ended +the discussion. + + * Mr. Lincoln had freed the slaves two years before as a + military necessity, and as such it had been accepted by all. + Yet a question might arise, when the war ended, as to + whether this act of his had been lawful. He was therefore + very anxious to have freedom find a place in the + Constitution of the United States. This could only be done + by an amendment to the Constitution, proposed by Congress, + and adopted by the legislatures of three-fourths of the + States of the Union. Congress voted in favor of such an + amendment on January 31, 1865. Illinois, the President's own + State, adopted it on the very next day, and though Mr. + Lincoln did not live to see it a part of the Constitution, + Secretary Seward, on December 18, 1865, only a few months + after Mr. Lincoln's death, was able to make official + announcement that 29 States, constituting a majority of + three-fourths of the 36 States of the Union, had adopted it, + and that therefore it was the law of the land. + +Jefferson Davis had issued a last appeal to "fire the southern heart," +but the situation at Richmond was becoming desperate Flour cost a +thousand dollars a barrel in Confederate money, and neither the flour +nor the money were sufficient for their needs. Squads of guards were +sent into the streets with directions to arrest every able-bodied man +they met, and force him to work in defense of the town. It is said that +the medical boards were ordered to excuse no one from military service +who was well enough to bear arms for even ten days. Human nature will +not endure a strain like this, and desertion grew too common to punish. +Nevertheless the city kept up its defense until April 3. Even then, +although hopelessly beaten, the Confederacy was not willing to give in, +and much needless and severe fighting took place before the final end +came. The rebel government hurried away toward the South, and Lee +bent all his energies to saving his army and taking it to join General +Johnston, who still held out against Sherman. Grant pursued him with +such energy that he did not even allow himself the pleasure of entering +the captured rebel capital. The chase continued six days. On the evening +of April 8 the Union army succeeded in planting itself squarely across +Lee's line of retreat; and the marching and fighting of his army were +over for ever. On the next morning the two generals met in a house on +the edge of the village of Appomattox, Virginia, Lee resplendent in a +new uniform and handsome sword, Grant in the travel-stained garments in +which he had made the campaign--the blouse of a private soldier, with +the shoulder-straps of a Lieutenant-General. Here the surrender took +place. Grant, as courteous in victory as he was energetic in war, +offered Lee terms that were liberal in the extreme; and on learning that +the Confederate soldiers were actually suffering with hunger, ordered +that rations be issued to them at once. + +Fire and destruction attended the flight of the Confederates from +Richmond. Jefferson Davis and his cabinet, carrying with them their more +important state papers, left the doomed city on one of the crowded +and overloaded railroad trains on the night of April 2, beginning a +southward flight that ended only with Mr. Davis's capture about a +month later. The legislature of Virginia and the governor of the State +departed hurriedly on a canal-boat in the direction of Lynchburg, while +every possible carriage or vehicle was pressed into service by the +inhabitants, all frantic to get away before their city was "desecrated" +by the presence of the Yankees. By the time the military left, early on +the morning of April 3, the town was on fire. The Confederate Congress +had ordered all government tobacco and other public property to be +burned. The rebel General Ewell, who was in charge of the city, asserts +that he took the responsibility of disobeying, and that the fires were +not started by his orders. Be that as it may, they broke out in various +places, while a mob, crazed with excitement, and wild with the alcohol +that had run freely in the gutters the night before, rushed from store +to store, breaking in the doors, and indulging in all the wantonness of +pillage and greed. Public spirit seemed paralyzed; no real effort was +made to put out the flames, and as a final horror, the convicts from the +penitentiary, overpowering their guards, appeared upon the streets, a +maddened, shouting, leaping crowd, drunk with liberty. + +It is quite possible that the very size and suddenness of the disaster +served in a measure to lessen its evil effects; for the burning of seven +hundred buildings, the entire business portion of Richmond, all in the +brief space of a day, was a visitation so sudden, so stupefying and +unexpected as to overawe and terrorize even evildoers. Before a new +danger could arise help was at hand. Gen. Weitzel, to whom the city +surrendered, took up his headquarters in the house lately occupied by +Jefferson Davis, and promptly set about the work of relief; fighting the +fire, issuing rations to the poor, and restoring order and authority. +That a regiment of black soldiers assisted in this work of mercy must +have seemed to the white inhabitants of Richmond the final drop in their +cup of misery. + +Into the rebel capital, thus stricken and laid waste, came President +Lincoln on the morning of April 4. Never in the history of the world +has the head of a mighty nation and the conqueror of a great rebellion +entered the captured chief city of the insurgents in such humbleness and +simplicity. He had gone two weeks before to City Point for a visit to +General Grant, and to his son, Captain Robert Lincoln, who was serving +on Grant's staff. Making his home on the steamer that brought him, and +enjoying what was probably the most restful and satisfactory holiday in +which he had been able to indulge during his whole presidential service, +he had visited the various camps of the great army, in company with the +General, cheered everywhere by the loving greetings of the soldiers. He +had met Sherman when that commander hurried up fresh from his victorious +march from Atlanta; and after Grant had started on his final pursuit +of Lee the President still lingered. It was at City Point that the news +came to him of the fall of Richmond. + +Between the receipt of this news and the following forenoon, before any +information of the great fire had reached them, a visit to the rebel +capital was arranged for the President and Rear Admiral Porter. Ample +precautions for their safety were taken at the start. The President went +in his own steamer, the River Queen, with her escort, the Bat, and a tug +used at City Point in landing from the steamer. Admiral Porter went in +his flagship; while a transport carried a small cavalry escort, as +well as ambulances for the party. Barriers in the river soon made it +impossible to proceed in this fashion, and one unforeseen accident after +another rendered it necessary to leave behind the larger and even the +smaller boats; until finally the party went on in the Admiral's barge +rowed by twelve sailors, without escort of any kind. In this manner the +President made his entry into Richmond, landing near Libby Prison. As +the party stepped ashore they found a guide among the contrabands who +quickly crowded the streets, for the possible coming of the President +had already been noised through the city. Ten of the sailors armed with +carbines were formed as a guard, six in front, and four in rear, and +between them the President and Admiral Porter, with the three officers +who accompanied them, walked the long distance, perhaps a mile and a +half, to the centre of the town. + +Imagination can easily fill in the picture of a gradually increasing +crowd, principally of negroes, following the little group of marines and +officers with the tall form of the President in its centre; and, when +they learned that it was indeed "Massa Lincum," expressing their joy and +gratitude in fervent blessings and in the deep emotional cries of the +colored race. It is easy also to imagine the sharp anxiety of those who +had the President's safety in their charge during this tiresome and even +foolhardy march through a town still in flames, whose white inhabitants +were sullenly resentful at best, and whose grief and anger might at any +moment break out against the man they looked upon as the chief author of +their misfortunes. No accident befell him. He reached General Weitzel's +headquarters in safety, rested in the house Jefferson Davis had occupied +while President of the Confederacy; and after a day of sightseeing +returned to his steamer and to Washington, there to be stricken down by +an assassin's bullet, literally "in the house of his friends." + + + + +XIII. THE FOURTEENTH OF APRIL + +Refreshed in body by his visit to City Point and greatly cheered by +the fall of Richmond, and unmistakable signs that the war was over, Mr. +Lincoln went back to Washington intent on the new task opening before +him--that of restoring the Union, and of bringing about peace and good +will again between the North and the South. His whole heart was bent on +the work of "binding up the nation's wounds" and doing all which lay +in his power to "achieve a just and lasting peace." Especially did +he desire to avoid the shedding of blood, or anything like acts of +deliberate punishment. He talked to his cabinet in this strain on the +morning of April 14, the last day of his life. "No one need expect that +he would take any part in hanging or killing these men, even the worst +of them," he exclaimed. Enough lives had been sacrificed already. +Anger must be put aside. The great need now was to begin to act in the +interest of peace. With these words of clemency and kindness in +their ears they left him, never again to come together under his wise +chairmanship. + +Though it was invariably held in check by his vigorous common-sense, +there was in Mr. Lincoln's nature a strong vein of poetry and mysticism. +That morning he told his cabinet a strange story of a dream that he had +had the night before--a dream which he said came to him before great +events. He had dreamed it before the battles of Antietam, Murfreesboro, +Gettysburg and Vicksburg. This time it must foretell a victory by +Sherman over Johnston's army, news of which was hourly expected, for +he knew of no other important event likely to occur. The members of +the cabinet were deeply impressed; but General Grant, who had come to +Washington that morning and was present, remarked with matter-of-fact +exactness that Murfreesboro was no victory and had no important results. +Not the wildest imagination of skeptic or mystic could have pictured the +events under which the day was to close. + +It was Good Friday, a day observed by a portion of the people with +fasting and prayer, but even among the most devout the great news of the +week just ended changed this time of traditional mourning into a season +of general thanksgiving. For Mr. Lincoln it was a day of unusual and +quiet happiness. His son Robert had returned from the field with +General Grant, and the President spent an hour with the young captain in +delighted conversation over the campaign. He denied himself generally to +visitors, admitting only a few friends. In the afternoon he went for +a long drive with Mrs. Lincoln. His mood, as it had been all day, was +singularly happy and tender. He talked much of the past and future. +After four years of trouble and tumult he looked forward to four years +of quiet and normal work; after that he expected to go back again to +Illinois and practice law. He was never more simple or more gentle +than on this day of triumph. His heart overflowed with sentiments of +gratitude to Heaven, which took the shape, usual to generous natures, of +love and kindness to all men. + +From the very beginning there had been threats to kill him. He was +constantly receiving letters of warning from zealous or nervous friends. +The War Department inquired into these when there seemed to be ground +for doing so, but always without result. Warnings that appeared most +definite proved on examination too vague and confused for further +attention. The President knew that he was in some danger. Madmen +frequently made their way to the very door of the Executive Office; +sometimes into Mr. Lincoln's presence; but he himself had so sane a +mind, and a heart so kindly even to his enemies, that it was hard for +him to believe in political hatred deadly enough to lead to murder. He +summed up the matter by saying that since he must receive both friends +and strangers every day, his life was of course within the reach of any +one, sane or mad, who was ready to murder and be hanged for it, and that +he could not possibly guard against all danger unless he shut himself +up in an iron box, where he could scarcely perform the duties of a +President. + +He therefore went in and out before the people, always unarmed, +generally unattended. He received hundreds of visitors in a day, his +breast bare to pistol or knife. He walked at midnight, with a single +Secretary or alone, from the Executive Mansion to the War Department and +back. In summer he rode through lonely roads from the White House to the +Soldiers' Home in the dusk of the evening, and returned to his work in +the morning before the town was astir. He was greatly annoyed when it +was decided that there must be a guard at the Executive Mansion, and +that a squad of cavalry must accompany him on his daily drive; but he +was always reasonable, and yielded to the best judgment of others. + +Four years of threats and boastings that were unfounded, and of plots +that came to nothing passed away, until precisely at the time when +the triumph of the nation seemed assured, and a feeling of peace and +security settled over the country, one of the conspiracies, seemingly no +more important than the others, ripened in a sudden heat of hatred and +despair. + +A little band of desperate secessionists, of which John Wilkes Booth, +an actor of a family of famous players, was the head, had their usual +meeting-place at the house of Mrs. Mary E. Surratt, the mother of one +of the number. Booth was a young man of twenty-six, strikingly handsome, +with an ease and grace of manner which came to him of right from his +theatrical ancestors. He was a fanatical southerner, with a furious +hatred against Lincoln and the Union. After Lincoln's reelection he went +to Canada, and associated with the Confederate agents there; and whether +or not with their advice, made a plan to capture the President and +take him to Richmond. He passed a great part of the autumn and winter +pursuing this fantastic scheme, but the winter wore away, and nothing +was done. On March 4 he was at the Capitol, and created a disturbance +by trying to force his way through the line of policemen who guarded +the passage through which the President walked to the East front of the +building to read his Second Inaugural. His intentions at this time are +not known. He afterwards said he lost an excellent chance of killing the +President that day. + +After the surrender of Lee, in a rage akin to madness, he called his +fellow-conspirators together and allotted to each his part in the new +crime which had risen in his mind. It was as simple as it was horrible. +One man was to kill Secretary Seward, another to make way with Andrew +Johnson, at the same time that he murdered the President. The final +preparations were made with feverish haste. It was only about noon of +the fourteenth that Booth learned that Mr. Lincoln meant to go to Ford's +Theatre that night to see the play "Our American Cousin." The President +enjoyed the theatre. It was one of his few means of recreation, and as +the town was then thronged with soldiers and officers all eager to see +him, he could, by appearing in public, gratify many whom he could not +personally meet. + +Mrs. Lincoln asked General and Mrs. Grant to accompany her. They +accepted, and the announcement that they would be present was made in +the evening papers, but they changed their plans and went north by an +afternoon train. Mrs. Lincoln then invited in their stead Miss Harris +and Major Rathbone, daughter and stepson of Senator Ira Harris. Being +detained by visitors, the play had made some progress when the President +appeared.. The band struck up "Hail to the Chief," the actors ceased +playing, the audience rose and cheered, the President bowed in +acknowledgment, and the play went on again. + +From the moment he learned of the President's intention Booth's actions +were alert and energetic. He and his confederates were seen in every +part of the city. Booth was perfectly at home in Ford's Theatre. He +counted upon audacity to reach the small passage behind the President's +box. Once there, he guarded against interference by arranging a wooden +bar, to be fastened by a simple mortice in the angle of the wall and +the door by which he entered, so that once shut, the door could not be +opened from the outside. He even provided for the chance of not gaining +entrance to the box by boring a hole in the door, through which he +might either observe the occupants, or take aim and shoot. He hired at a +livery stable a small fleet horse. + +A few moments before ten o'clock, leaving his horse at the rear of +the theatre, in charge of a call-boy, he entered the building, passing +rapidly to the little hallway leading to the President's box. Showing a +card to the servant in attendance, he was allowed to enter, closed the +door noiselessly, and secured it with the wooden bar he had made ready, +without disturbing any of the occupants of the box, between whom and +himself yet remained the partition and the door through which he had +bored the hole. + +No one, not even the actor who uttered them, could ever remember the +last words of the piece that were spoken that night--the last that +Abraham Lincoln heard upon earth; for the tragedy in the box turned play +and players alike to the most unsubstantial of phantoms. For weeks +hate and brandy had kept Booth's brain in a morbid state. He seemed to +himself to be taking part in a great play. Holding a pistol in one hand +and a knife in the other, he opened the box door, put the pistol to the +President's head, and fired. Major Rathbone sprang to grapple with him, +and received a savage knife wound in the arm. Then, rushing forward, +Booth placed his hand on the railing of the box and vaulted to the +stage. It was a high leap, but nothing to such a trained athlete. He +would have got safely away, had not his spur caught in the flag that +draped the front of the box. He fell, the torn flag trailing on +his spur; but though the fall had broken his leg, he rose instantly +brandishing his knife and shouting, "Sic Semper Tyrannis!" fled rapidly +across the stage and out of sight. Major Rathbone shouted, "Stop him!" +The cry, "He has shot the President!" rang through the theatre, and from +the audience, stupid at first with surprise, and wild afterward with +excitement and horror, men jumped upon the stage in pursuit of the +assassin. But he ran through the familiar passages, leaped upon his +horse, rewarding with a kick and a curse the boy who held him, and +escaped into the night. + +The President scarcely moved. His head drooped forward slightly, his +eyes closed. Major Rathbone, not regarding his own grievous hurt, +rushed to the door to summon aid. He found it barred, and someone on the +outside beating and clamoring to get in. It was at once seen that the +President's wound was mortal. He was carried across the street to a +house opposite, and laid upon a bed. Mrs. Lincoln followed, tenderly +cared for by Miss Harris. Rathbone, exhausted by loss of blood, fainted, +and was taken home. Messengers were sent for the cabinet, for the +Surgeon-General, for Dr. Stone the President's family physician, and for +others whose official or private relations with Mr. Lincoln gave them +the right to be there. A crowd of people rushed instinctively to the +White House, and bursting through the doors shouted the dreadful news to +Robert Lincoln and Major Hay who sat together in an upper room. + +The President had been shot a few minutes after ten o'clock. The wound +would have brought instant death to most men. He was unconscious from +the first moment, but he breathed throughout the night, his gaunt face +scarcely paler than those of the sorrowing men around him. At twenty-two +minutes past seven in the morning he died. Secretary Stanton broke the +silence by saying, "Now he belongs to the ages." + +Booth had done his work thoroughly. His principal accomplice had acted +with equal audacity and cruelty, but with less fatal result. Under +pretext of having a package of medicine to deliver, he forced his way +to the room of the Secretary of State, who lay ill, and attacked him, +inflicting three terrible knife wounds on his neck and cheek, wounding +also the Secretary's two sons, a servant, and a soldier nurse who tried +to overpower him. Finally breaking away, he ran downstairs, reached the +door unhurt, and springing upon his horse rode off. It was feared that +neither the Secretary nor his eldest son would live, but both in time +recovered. + +Although Booth had been recognized by dozens of people as he stood +before the footlights brandishing his dagger, his swift horse soon +carried him beyond any hap-hazard pursuit. He crossed the Navy +Yard bridge and rode into Maryland, being joined by one of his +fellow-conspirators. A surgeon named Mudd set Booth's leg and sent him +on his desolate way. For ten days the two men lived the lives of hunted +animals. On the night of April 25 they were surrounded as they lay +sleeping in a barn in Caroline County, Virginia. Booth refused to +surrender. The barn was fired, and while it was burning he was shot by +Boston Corbett, a sergeant of cavalry. He lingered for about three +hours in great pain, and died at seven in the morning. The remaining +conspirators were tried by military commission. Four were hanged, +including the assailant of Secretary Seward, and the others were +sentenced to imprisonment for various lengths of time. + +Upon the hearts of a people glowing with the joy of victory the news of +the President's death fell as a great shock. In the unspeakable calamity +the country lost sight of the great national successes of the past week; +and thus it came to pass that there was never any organized celebration +in the North over the downfall of the rebellion. It was unquestionably +best that it should be so. Lincoln himself would not have had it +otherwise, for he hated the arrogance of triumph. As it was, the South +could take no offense at a grief so genuine; and the people of that +section even shared, to a certain extent, in the mourning for one who, +in their inmost hearts, they knew to have wished them well. + +Within an hour after Mr. Lincoln's body was taken to the White House the +town was shrouded in black. Not only the public buildings, the shops, +and the better class of dwellings were draped in funeral decorations; +still more touching proof of affection was shown in the poorest class of +homes, where laboring men of both colors found means in their poverty to +afford some scanty bit of mourning. The interest and veneration of the +people still centered at the White House, where, under a tall catafalque +in the East Room the late chief lay in the majesty of death, rather than +in the modest tavern on Pennsylvania Avenue, where the new President +had his lodgings, and where the Chief Justice administered the oath of +office to him at eleven o'clock on the morning of April 15. + +It was determined that the funeral ceremonies in Washington should be +held on Wednesday, April 19, and all the churches throughout the country +were invited to join at the same time in appropriate observances. The +ceremonies in the East Room were simple and brief, while all the pomp +and circumstance that the government could command were employed to give +a fitting escort from the Executive Mansion to the Capitol, where the +body of the President lay in state. The procession moved to the +booming of minute guns, and the tolling of all the bells in Washington, +Georgetown and Alexandria; while, to associate the pomp of the day with +the greatest work of Lincoln's life, a detachment of colored troops +marched at the head of the line. + +When it was announced that he was to be buried at Springfield every town +and city on the way begged that the train might halt within its limits, +to give its people opportunity of showing their grief and reverence. +It was finally arranged that the funeral cortege should follow +substantially the same route over which Lincoln had come in 1861 to take +possession of the office to which he added a new dignity and value for +all time. On April 21, accompanied by a guard of honor, and in a train +decked with somber trappings, the journey was begun. At Baltimore, +through which, four years before, it was a question whether the +President-elect could pass with safety to his life, the coffin was taken +with reverent care to the great dome of the Exchange, where, surrounded +with evergreens and lilies, it lay for several hours, the people passing +by in mournful throngs. The same demonstration was repeated, gaining +constantly in depth of feeling and solemn splendor of display in every +city through which the procession passed. In New York came General +Scott, pale and feeble, but resolute, to pay his tribute of respect to +his departed friend and commander. + +Springfield was reached on the morning of May 3. The body lay in state +in the Capitol, which was richly draped from roof to basement in black +velvet and silver fringe, while within it was a bower of bloom and +fragrance. For twenty-four hours an unbroken stream of people passed +through, bidding their friend and neighbor welcome home and farewell. At +ten o'clock on the morning of May 4 the coffin lid was closed, and vast +procession moved out to Oak Ridge, where the town had set apart a lovely +spot for his grave. Here the dead President was committed to the soil +of the State which had so loved and honored him. The ceremonies at the +grave were simple and touching. Bishop Simpson delivered a pathetic +oration, prayers were offered, and hymns were sung, but the weightiest +and most eloquent words uttered anywhere that day were those of the +Second Inaugural, which the Committee had wisely ordained to be read +over his grave, as centuries before, the friends of the painter Raphael +chose the incomparable canvas of "The Transfiguration" to be the chief +ornament of his funeral. + + +Though President Lincoln lived to see the real end of the war, various +bodies of Confederate troops continued to hold out for some time longer. +General Johnston faced Sherman's army in the Carolinas until April 26, +while General E. Kirby Smith, west of the Mississippi River, did not +surrender until May 26. + +As rapidly as possible Union volunteer regiments were disbanded, and +soon the mighty host of 1,000,000 men was reduced to a peace footing of +only 25,000. Before the great army melted away into the greater body +of citizens its soldiers enjoyed one final triumph--a march through the +capital of the nation, undisturbed by death or danger, under the eyes +of their highest commanders and the representatives of the people +whose country they had saved. Those who witnessed the solemn yet joyous +pageant will never forget it; and pray that their children may never see +its like. For two days this formidable host marched the long stretch of +Pennsylvania Avenue, starting from the shadow of the Capitol and filling +the wide street as far as Georgetown, its serried ranks moving with the +easy yet rapid pace of veterans in cadence step. As a mere spectacle +this march of the mightiest host the continent has ever seen was grand +and imposing, but it was not as a spectacle alone that it affected the +beholder. It was no holiday parade. It was an army of citizens on their +way home after a long and terrible war. Their clothes were worn, and +pierced with bullets, their banners had been torn with shot and shell, +and lashed in the winds of many battles. The very drums and fifes had +called out the troops to night alarms, and sounded the onset on historic +fields. The whole country claimed these heroes as part of themselves. +They were not soldiers by profession or from love of fighting; they had +become soldiers only to save their country's life. Now, done with war, +they were going joyously and peaceably back to their homes to take up +the tasks they had willingly laid down in the hour of their country's +need. + +Friends loaded them with flowers as they swung down the Avenue--both men +and officers, until some were fairly hidden under their fragrant burden. +Grotesque figures were not absent, as Sherman's legions passed with +their "bummers" and their regimental pets. But with all the shouting +and the joy there was, in the minds of all who saw it, one sad and +ever-recurring thought--the memory of the men who were absent, and who +had, nevertheless, so richly earned the right to be there. The soldiers +in their shrunken companies thought of the brave comrades who had +fallen by the way; and through the whole vast army there was passionate +unavailing regret for their wise, gentle and powerful friend Abraham +Lincoln, gone forever from the big white house by the Avenue--who had +called the great host into being, directed the course of the nation +during the four years that they had been battling for its life, and to +whom, more than to any other, this crowning peaceful pageant would have +been full of deep and happy meaning. + +Why was this man so loved that his death caused a whole nation to forget +its triumph, and turned its gladness into mourning? Why has his fame +grown with the passing years until now scarcely a speech is made or a +newspaper printed that does not have within it somewhere a mention of +his name or some phrase or sentence that fell from his lips? Let us see +if we can, what it was that made Abraham Lincoln the man that he became. + +A child born to an inheritance of want; a boy growing into a narrow +world of ignorance; a youth taking up the burden of coarse and heavy +labor; a man entering on the doubtful struggle of a local backwoods +career--these were the beginnings of Abraham Lincoln if we look at +them only in the hard practical spirit which takes for its motto that +"Nothing succeeds but success." If we adopt a more generous as well as a +truer view, then we see that it was the brave hopeful spirit, the strong +active mind, and the great law of moral growth that accepts the good and +rejects the bad, which Nature gave this obscure child, that carried +him to the service of mankind and the admiration of the centuries as +certainly as the acorn grows to be the oak. + +Even his privations helped the end. Self-reliance, the strongest +trait of the pioneer was his by blood and birth and training, and was +developed by the hardships of his lot to the mighty power needed to +guide our country through the struggle of the Civil War. + +The sense of equality was his also, for he grew from childhood to +manhood in a state of society where there were neither rich to envy nor +poor to despise, and where the gifts and hardships of the forest were +distributed without favor to each and all alike. In the forest he +learned charity, sympathy, helpfulness--in a word neighborliness--for in +that far-off frontier life all the wealth of India, had a man possessed +it, could not have bought relief from danger or help in time of need, +and neighborliness became of prime importance. Constant opportunity was +found there to practice the virtue which Christ declared to be next to +the love of God--to love one's neighbor as oneself. + +In such settlements, far removed from courts and jails, men were brought +face to face with questions of natural right. The pioneers not only +understood the American doctrine of self-government--they lived it. It +was this understanding, this feeling, which taught Lincoln to write: +"When the white man governs himself, that is self-government; but when +he governs himself and also governs another man, that is more than +self-government that is despotism;" and also to give utterance to its +twin truth: "He who would be no slave must consent to have no slave." + +Lincoln was born in the slave State of Kentucky. He lived there only a +short time, and we have reason to believe that wherever he might have +grown up, his very nature would have spurned the doctrine and practice +of human slavery. Yet, though he hated slavery, he never hated the +slave-holder. His feeling of pardon and sympathy for Kentucky and the +South played no unimportant part in his dealings with grave problems of +statesmanship. It is true that he struck slavery its death blow with +the hand of war, but at the same time he offered the slaveowner golden +payment with the hand of peace. + +Abraham Lincoln was not an ordinary man. He was, in truth, in the +language of the poet Lowell, a "new birth of our new soil." His +greatness did not consist in growing up on the frontier. An ordinary +man would have found on the frontier exactly what he would have found +elsewhere--a commonplace life, varying only with the changing ideas and +customs of time and place. But for the man with extraordinary powers of +mind and body--for one gifted by Nature as Abraham Lincoln was gifted, +the pioneer life with its severe training in self-denial, patience and +industry, developed his character, and fitted him for the great duties +of his after life as no other training could have done. + +His advancement in the astonishing career that carried him from +obscurity to world-wide fame--from postmaster of New Salem village to +President of the United States, from captain of a backwoods volunteer +company to Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy, was neither sudden +nor accidental, nor easy. He was both ambitious and successful, but +his ambition was moderate, and his success was slow. And, because his +success was slow, it never outgrew either his judgment or his powers. +Between the day when he left his father's cabin and launched his +canoe on the headwaters of the Sangamon River to begin life on his own +account, and the day of his first inauguration, lay full thirty years of +toil, self-denial, patience; often of effort baffled, of hope deferred; +sometimes of bitter disappointment. Even with the natural gift of great +genius it required an average lifetime and faithful unrelaxing effort, +to transform the raw country stripling into a fit ruler for this great +nation. + +Almost every success was balanced--sometimes overbalanced, by a seeming +failure. He went into the Black Hawk war a captain, and through no +fault of his own, came out a private. He rode to the hostile frontier +on horseback, and trudged home on foot. His store "winked out." His +surveyor's compass and chain, with which he was earning a scanty +living, were sold for debt. He was defeated in his first attempts to +be nominated for the legislature and for Congress; defeated in his +application to be appointed Commissioner of the General Land Office; +defeated for the Senate when he had forty-five votes to begin with by +a man who had only five votes to begin with; defeated again after +his joint debates with Douglas; defeated in the nomination for +Vice-President, when a favorable nod from half a dozen politicians would +have brought him success. + +Failures? Not so. Every seeming defeat was a slow success. His was +the growth of the oak, and not of Jonah's gourd. He could not become a +master workman until he had served a tedious apprenticeship. It was the +quarter of a century of reading, thinking, speech-making and lawmaking +which fitted him to be the chosen champion of freedom in the great +Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858. It was the great moral victory won in +those debates (although the senatorship went to Douglas) added to the +title "Honest Old Abe," won by truth and manhood among his neighbors +during a whole lifetime, that led the people of the United States to +trust him with the duties and powers of President. + +And when, at last, after thirty years of endeavor, success had beaten +down defeat, when Lincoln had been nominated, elected and inaugurated, +came the crowning trial of his faith and constancy. When the people, by +free and lawful choice, had placed honor and power in his hands, when +his name could convene Congress, approve laws, cause ships to sail and +armies to move, there suddenly came upon the government and the nation +a fatal paralysis. Honor seemed to dwindle and power to vanish. Was +he then after all not to be President? Was patriotism dead? Was the +Constitution only a bit of waste paper? Was the Union gone? + +The outlook was indeed grave. There was treason in Congress, treason in +the Supreme Court, treason in the army and navy. Confusion and discord +were everywhere. To use Mr. Lincoln's forcible figure of speech, sinners +were calling the righteous to repentance. Finally the flag, insulted +and fired upon, trailed in surrender at Sumter; and then came the +humiliation of the riot at Baltimore, and the President for a few days +practically a prisoner in the capital of the nation. + +But his apprenticeship had been served, and there was to be no more +failure. With faith and justice and generosity he conducted for four +long years a war whose frontiers stretched from the Potomac to the Rio +Grande; whose soldiers numbered a million men on each side. The labor, +the thought, the responsibility, the strain of mind and anguish of soul +that he gave to this great task, who can measure? "Here was place for no +holiday magistrate, no fair weather sailor," as Emerson justly said +of him. "The new pilot was hurried to the helm in a tornado. In four +years--four years of battle days--his endurance, his fertility of +resources, his magnanimity, were sorely tried and never found wanting." +"By his courage, his justice, his even temper, his humanity, he stood a +heroic figure in the centre of a heroic epoch." + +What but a lifetime's schooling in disappointment, what but the +pioneer's self-reliance and freedom from prejudice, what but the clear +mind, quick to see natural right and unswerving in its purpose to +follow it; what but the steady self-control, the unwarped sympathy, the +unbounded charity of this man with spirit so humble and soul so great, +could have carried him through the labors he wrought to the victory he +attained? + +With truth it could be written, "His heart was as great as the world, +but there was no room in it to hold the memory of a wrong." So, "with +malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as +God gave him to see the right" he lived and died. We who have never seen +him yet feel daily the influence of his kindly life, and cherish among +our most precious possessions the heritage of his example. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Boys' Life of Abraham Lincoln, by Helen Nicolay + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOYS' LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN *** + +***** This file should be named 1815.txt or 1815.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/1/1815/ + +Produced by Dianne Bean + +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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