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diff --git a/19404.txt b/19404.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..75ff4fe --- /dev/null +++ b/19404.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2072 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Life of Abraham Lincoln, by John Hugh Bowers + +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: Life of Abraham Lincoln + Little Blue Book Ten Cent Pocket Series No. 324 + +Author: John Hugh Bowers + +Editor: E. Haldeman-Julius + +Release Date: September 28, 2006 [EBook #19404] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN *** + + + + +Produced by Turgut Dincer, Jeff G. and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + +LITTLE BLUE BOOK NO. 324 +Edited by E. Haldeman-Julius + +TEN CENT POCKET SERIES NO. 324 + + + +Life of Abraham +Lincoln + +John Hugh Bowers, Ph.D., LL.B. + +Dept. History and Social Sciences, +State Teachers' College, Pittsburg, Kans. + +HALDEMAN-JULIUS COMPANY +GIRARD, KANSAS +Copyright, 1922, + +Haldeman-Julius Company + +PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA + + + + +LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + +The story of Lincoln, revealing how one American, by his own honest +efforts, rose from the most humble beginning to the most high station of +honor and worth, has inspired millions and will inspire millions more. +The log cabin in which he was born, the ax with which he split the +rails, the few books with which he got the rudiments of an education, +the light of pine knots by which he studied, the flatboat on which he +made the long trip to New Orleans, the slave mart at sight of which his +sympathetic soul revolted against the institution of human +slavery--these are all fraught with intense interest as the rude forces +by which he slowly builded his great character. + +Great suffering taught him great sympathy. His great sympathy for men +gave him great influence over men. As a lonely motherless little boy +living in the pitiless poverty of the backwoods he learned both humility +and appreciation. Then from a gentle step-mother he learned the beauty of +kindness. + +As a clerk in a small store that failed, as a defeated candidate for the +legislature, as Captain in the Black Hawk War, as student of Law in his +leisure moments, as partner in a small store that failed, as Postmaster +at the little village of New Salem, as Deputy Surveyor of Sangamon +County, as successful candidate for the legislature, as member of the +legislature and as country lawyer, he was learning to love his fellow +men and to get along well with them, while keeping his own conscience +and building a reputation for honesty. When as a member of Congress and +as a successful lawyer his proved ability brings him a measure of +security and comfort he is not elated. And when his fellow men, +reciprocating his great love for them, and manifesting their confidence +in his integrity, make him President of the Republic he still remains +the humble brother of the common people. + +But fate did not decree that he should enjoy the honors he had so richly +deserved. The White House was not a resting place for him. In the hour +of his election the Nation for which he prayed was divided and the men +that he loved as brothers were rushing headlong toward fratricidal war. +He who loved peace was to see no more peace except just a few hopeful +days before his own tragic end. He who hated war must captain his dear +people through their long and mighty struggle and share in his gentle +heart their great sacrifices. As the kindly harmonizer of jealous +rivals, as the unifier of a distracted people, as the sagacious leader +of discordant factions, he proved his true greatness in the hours of +the nation's peril. In many a grave crisis when it seemed that the +Confederacy would win and the Union be lost the almost superhuman wisdom +of Lincoln would see the one right way through the storm. For good +reasons, the followers of Lincoln came to believe that he was being +guided by God Himself to save the Union. + +The genealogists of Lincoln trace his ancestry back to Virginia and to +Massachusetts and to those Lincolns who came from England about 1635. +The name Abraham recurs frequently among the Lincolns and our President +seems to have been named after his grandfather Abraham who was killed by +the Indians in Kentucky in 1778, when Thomas, the father of the +President, was only ten years of age. Thus left fatherless at a tender +age in a rude pioneer community, Thomas did not even learn to read. He +worked about as best he could to live, became a carpenter, and in 1806 +married his cousin, Nancy Hanks, the daughter of Joseph Hanks and his +wife, Nannie Shipley, a sister of Thomas Lincoln's mother, Mary. + +The first child of Thomas Lincoln and his wife Nancy was a daughter. Our +President, the second child, was born February 12, 1809, in a log cabin, +three miles from Hodgensville, then Hardin, now LaRue County, Kentucky. +When little Abraham was seven years old his father moved to Indiana and +took up a claim near Gentryville, Spencer County, and built a rude +shelter of unhewn logs without a floor, the large opening protected only +by hanging skins. In this discomfort they lived for a year, when they +erected a log cabin. There was plenty of game, but otherwise the fare +was very poor and the life was hard. In 1818 little Abraham's mother, +delicate, refined, pathetic and too frail for such rude life, sickened +and felt that the end was near. She called her little children to her +bed of leaves and skins and told them to "love their kindred and worship +God," and then she died and left them only the memory of her love. + +Thomas Lincoln made a rude coffin himself, but there were no ceremonies +at that most pathetic funeral when he laid his young wife in her +desolate grave in the forest. Little Lincoln was nine years old, and the +mystery of death, the pitiless winter, the lone grave, the deep +forest--shivering with his sister in the cold cabin--it all made a deep +impression on the sensitive boy. + +Late in the year 1819 Thomas Lincoln went back to Kentucky, and there +courted and married a widow named Sarah Buck Johnston, who had once been +his sweetheart. She brought with her some household goods and her own +three children. She dressed the forlorn little Lincolns in some of the +clothing belonging to her children. She was described as tall, straight +as an Indian, handsome, fair, talkative and proud. Also she had the +abundant strength for hard labor. She and little Abraham learned to love +each other dearly. + +Abraham went to school in all less than a year, but this good step-mother +encouraged him to study at home and he read every book he heard of +within a circuit of many miles. He read the Bible, Aesop's Fables, +Murray's English Reader, Robinson Crusoe, The Pilgrim's Progress, A +History of the United States, Weem's Life of Washington and the Revised +Statutes of Indiana. He studied by the fire-light and practiced writing +with a pen made from a buzzard's quill dipped in ink made from brier +roots. He practiced writing on the subjects of Temperance, Government, +and Cruelty to Animals. The unkindness so often common to those frontier +folks shocked his sensitive soul. He practiced speaking by imitating the +itinerant preacher and by telling stories to any who would give him an +audience. He walked fifteen miles to Boonville to attend court and +listen to the lawyers. + +At nineteen he was six feet and two inches tall, weighed one hundred and +fifty pounds, had long arms and legs, slender body, large and awkward +hands and feet, but not a large head. He is pictured as wearing +coon-skin cap, linsey-woolsey shirt, and buckskin breeches that were +often too short. He said that his father taught him to work but never +taught him to love it--but he did work hard and without complaining. He +was said to do much more work than any ordinary man at splitting rails, +chopping, mowing, ploughing, doing everything that he was asked to do +with all his might. It was at this age that he went on the first trip +with a flat boat down to New Orleans. This was an interesting adventure; +and there had been sorrows, also; his sister Sarah had married and died +in child-birth. + +In the spring of 1830 the roving spirit of Thomas Lincoln felt the call +of the West and they set out for Illinois. John Hanks met them five +miles northwest of Decatur in Macon County, where on a bluff +overlooking the muddy Sangamon they built a cabin, split rails, fenced +fifteen acres and broke the prairie. Young Lincoln was twenty-one and +free, but he remained at home during the summer, helping his father and +his devoted step-mother to establish their new home. The following +winter he split the historic rails for Mrs. Nancy Miller--"four hundred +for every yard of jeans dyed with walnut juice necessary to make him a +pair of trowsers." + +In the spring, a pioneer adventurer, Denton Offut, engaged Abraham, with +Hanks and one other helper, to take a boat load of provisions to New +Orleans, for the wages of fifty cents a day and a bonus of sixty dollars +for the three. This and the preceding trip down the river gave Lincoln +the sight of slavery which caused him to say, "If ever I get a chance +to hit that thing I'll hit it hard." + +New Salem was a very small village destined to be of only a few years +duration. Here Offut erected a small general store and placed Lincoln in +charge while Offut having other unimportant business ventures went about +the community bragging that his clerk, Lincoln, was the best man in the +country and would some day be president of the United States. Offut's +boasting attracted the attention of the Clary's Grove boys, who lived +near New Salem, and they determined upon a wrestling match between +Lincoln and their champion bully, Jack Armstrong. Lincoln did his best +to avoid it, and a prominent citizen stopped the encounter. The result +was that Armstrong and his gang became Lincoln's friends and later gave +him the most hearty political support at times when the support of just +such men as Armstrong was an important political asset. + +During this time Lincoln continued his studies, and feeling the need to +study English Grammar he ransacked the neighborhood until he found trace +of one some six miles away and walked over to buy or borrow it; brought +it back in triumph and studied it exhaustively. + +About this time we have some narratives concerning his honesty that +compare favorably with the story of Washington and the cherry tree. +While he was keeping Offut's store a woman overpaid him four pence and +when he found the mistake he walked several miles that evening to return +the pennies before he slept. On another occasion in selling a half pound +of tea he discovered that he had used too small a weight and he hastened +forth to make good the deficiency. Indeed one of his chief traits all +his life was absolute honesty. + +He was chosen to pilot the first steamboat, the Talisman, up the +Sangamon. At Springfield they held a banquet to celebrate the event but +Lincoln was not invited because they only invited the "gentlemen" and +Lincoln was only the pilot. + +He spent all his spare time studying Law or History, and had been from +his youth an admirer of the romantic figure of Henry Clay. He adopted +most of Clay's principles as his own, especially that of the gradual, +compensated emancipation of slaves, to which ideal he clung all his +life. With such interests, it was natural that when Offut failed and +his job as store clerk ended, he should announce himself as a candidate +for the legislature. His campaign was interrupted by the Black Hawk War. +Lincoln volunteered. The Clary's Grove boys enlisted and elected him +captain. He showed his kindness and courage when during the campaign he +found his whole command, mutinous and threatening; and facing them he +placed his own body between them and a poor friendly Indian, who, with +safe conduct from General Cass, had taken refuge in camp. He saw no +fighting and killed no Indians but was long afterward able to convulse +Congress with a humorous account of his "war record." The war ended in +time for him to get back and stump the county just before the election +in which he was defeated. + +In partnership with a man named Berry they bought out the little store +in New Salem; but Berry drank and neglected the business. Lincoln was +strictly temperate, but he spent all his spare moments studying +Blackstone, a copy of which legal classic he had fortunately found in a +barrel of rubbish he had obligingly bought from a poor fellow in +trouble. + +With both members of the firm thus preoccupied the business "winked +out." Berry died, leaving Lincoln the debts of the firm, twelve hundred +dollars,--to him an appalling sum, which he humorously called "the +national debt"; and on which he continued to make payments when he could +for the next fifteen years. For a time he was postmaster of New Salem, +an office so small that Andrew Jackson must have overlooked it. But the +experience shows how scrupulous he always was; for when years afterward +a government agent came to Springfield to make settlement Lincoln drew +forth the very coins that he had collected in the postoffice, and though +he had sorely needed the loan of them he had never even borrowed them +for temporary use. + +For a time he had a better position as Deputy Surveyor of Sangamon +County. His work was accurate and he was doing well when in 1834 he +again announced as a candidate for the legislature and was elected. + +At Vandalia at the session of the legislature he first saw Stephen A. +Douglas, then a lobbyist, and said of him, "He is the least man I ever +saw." Lincoln at this session seemed to be learning, studying men and +methods and prudently preparing for future success rather than +endeavoring to seize opportunities prematurely. + +This is the time when Lincoln fell in love with Ann Rutledge, a +beautiful young woman of New Salem who was already betrothed to another. +The other lover went East and did not return. Lincoln had hopes, but Ann +took sick and died of brain fever. He was allowed to see her as she lay +near the end, and the effect upon his kindly nature was terrible. There +settled upon him a deep despondency. That fall and winter he wandered +alone in the woods along the Sangamon, almost distracted with sorrow. +When he seemed on the verge of insanity a friend, Bowling Green, took +him to his own home and nursed him back to health, and the grief +settled into that temperamental melancholy, which, relieved only by his +humor, was part of the deep mystic there was in him, part of the +prophet, the sadness that so early baptised him in the tragedy of life, +and taught him to pity a suffering world. + +Again he ran for the legislature, announcing his policy: "for all +sharing the privileges of the government who assist in bearing its +burdens; for admitting all whites to the right of suffrage who pay taxes +or bear arms (by no means excluding females). If elected, I shall +consider the whole people of Sangamon as my constituents, as well those +that oppose as those that support me. While acting as their +representative I shall be governed by their will upon all subjects upon +which I have the means of knowing what their will is; and upon all +others I shall do what my own judgment teaches me will best advance +their interests." He was always fundamentally democratic, was so close +to the heart of humanity that he felt its mighty pulsations and knew +intuitively what his people were thinking. His contemporaries thought +that he had a dependable occult sense of public opinion. + +One incident of this campaign shows Lincoln's versatility at repartee. +George Forquer, who had been a Whig, changed over to be a Democrat and +was appointed Register of the Land Office. His house, the finest in +Springfield, had a lightning rod, the only one that Springfield had ever +seen. At a meeting near Springfield, Lincoln spoke, and when he had +finished, Forquer replied with some condescension, calling Lincoln the +"young man." Lincoln listened to the attack with folded arms and then +made a spirited reply ending with the words: "The gentleman calls me a +young man. I am older in years than I am in the tricks and trades of +politicians. I desire to live and I desire place and distinction, but I +would rather die now than, like the gentleman, live to see the day that +I would change my politics for an office worth three thousand dollars +per year, and then feel compelled to erect a lightning rod to protect a +guilty conscience from an offended God." + +The Whig ticket was elected, Lincoln leading, and the Sangamon +delegation, seven representatives and two senators all over six feet +tall were called the "Long Nine." At Vandalia Lincoln was the leader of +the Long Nine and labored to advance legislation for public improvements +to be financed by the sale of public lands. He confided to a friend that +he was dreaming of the Governorship and was ambitious to become the +"DeWitt Clinton of Illinois." + +The Assembly voted for a colossal scheme of railroads and canals, and +authorized a loan of twelve millions. These vast projects afforded +unlimited opportunities for special legislation and in all this +atmosphere of manoeuvre Lincoln was most skillful. He knew human nature +and how to handle it. Log-rolling was the order of the day and so +skillfully did the Long Nine function that they succeeded in removing +the capital from Vandalia to Springfield. Though Lincoln did prove that +he knew "the tricks and trades of the politician" he was true to his +convictions; as shown by the fact that, when the legislature passed +resolutions "highly disapproving" of the formation of abolition +societies and the doctrines promulgated by them, he voted against the +resolutions; and furthermore he drew up a protest against the +resolutions, and inducing his colleague, Dan Stone, to sign it with him, +had his protest entered on the journal for March 3, 1837. While this +protest was cautiously worded it did declare "the institution of slavery +is founded upon injustice and bad policy." This was a real gratuitous +expression of a worthy ideal contrary to self interest, for his +constituents were at that time certainly not in any way opposed to +slavery. It was only within a few months after this very time that the +atrocious persecution and murder of Lovejoy occurred in the neighboring +town of Alton. + +When the Long Nine came home bringing the capital with them Springfield +planned such a celebration as had not been seen since the day the +Talisman came up the Sangamon. To this banquet Lincoln was not only +invited but placed at the head of the board; having been only the pilot +of the enterprise this time did not exclude him. He made a speech and +made many friends in Springfield. The time was now opportune for him to +move to Springfield. So in the year 1837, Abraham Lincoln, being +twenty-eight years of age and a lawyer, packed his meager possessions in +a pair of saddle-bags and moved to the new Capital, then a town of less +than two thousand inhabitants, here to begin a new era in his life. +Besides being very poor he still carried the burden of the "national +debt" left to him from the failure of the partnership with Berry, but he +had friends and a reputation for honesty. In time he pays the debt, and +his friends increase in numbers. + +The morning that Lincoln went into the store of Joshua Speed in +Springfield, and indicated that he was looking for a place to stay, +Speed said: "The young man had the saddest face I ever saw." Speed +indicated that Lincoln could share Speed's own bed in a room above; +Lincoln shambled up, dropped his saddle bags, shambled down again and +said: "Well, Speed, I am moved." With John T. Stewart, his comrade in +the Black Hawk campaign, he formed a law partnership. Lincoln and +Stewart were both too much interested in politics to give their +undivided devotion to the law. During their four years together they +made a living, and had work enough to keep them busy but it was not of +the kind that proved either very interesting or lucrative. + +He spent much time making public speeches on a variety of occasions and +subjects, obviously practicing the art of eloquent address for his own +improvement. In 1838 he was again elected to the legislature and was +minority candidate for Speaker. + +Now Mrs. N. W. Edwards was one of the local aristocrats of Springfield, +and her sister, Mary Todd from Kentucky, came to visit her. Mary Todd +was beautiful and Lincoln and Douglas were rivals for her hand. +Observers at the time thought that with a brilliant and talented girl +the graceful and dashing Douglas would surely be preferred. But Miss +Todd made her own selection and she and Lincoln were engaged to be +married on New Year's day, 1841. + +The day came and the wedding was not solemnized. Now there came upon him +again that black and awful melancholy. He wandered about in utter gloom. +To help him, his good friend Joshua Speed took him away to Kentucky for +a trip. Upon his return a reconciliation with Mary Todd led to their +marriage, November, 1842. To Lincoln's kindly manner, his +considerateness and his self-control, she was the opposite. The rule +"opposites attract" may explain the union, and if the marriage was not +ideally happy it may be conjectured that one more happy might have +interfered with that career for which Destiny was preparing him. + +In 1841, Stewart went to Congress and Lincoln dissolved the partnership +to form another with Judge Stephen T. Logan who was accounted the best +lawyer in Illinois. Contact with Logan made Lincoln a more diligent +student and an abler practitioner of the law. But two such positive +personalities could not long work in harmony, so in 1843 Lincoln formed +a partnership with William H. Herndon, a man of abolitionist +inclinations who remained Lincoln's junior partner until Lincoln's death +and became his biographer. But they were very poor. The struggle was +hard, and Lincoln and his bride were of necessity very frugal. In 1841 +he might have had the nomination for Governor, but he declined it; +having given up his ambition to become the "DeWitt Clinton of Illinois." +It will be remembered that the internal improvement theories had not +worked so well in practice. The panic of 1837 had convinced both him and +his supporters of the unwisdom of attempting such improvements on too +large a scale at one time. Though he had been mistaken he seems not to +have lost the support of his followers, for they were mistaken with him; +and the experience shows that "it is more popular for a politician to be +with his constituents in the wrong than to be in the right against +them." + +Though he declined the nomination for Governor, his ambitious wife +encouraged his natural inclination to keep his eye on the political +field, and to glance in the direction of Congress. His ambitions were +temporarily thwarted. On Washington's birthday in 1842, during the +Washington Temperance movement he made a speech on temperance. While the +whole address was admirable and conceived in a high humanitarian tone +it did not please all. He was full of a wise and gentle tolerance that +sprang alike from his knowledge and his love of men. + +When accused of being a temperance man he said "I don't drink." + +He was criticised, and because of this, and because his wife was an +Episcopalian, and an aristocrat, and because he had once accepted a +challenge to fight a duel, which friends prevented, his congressional +ambitions had to be postponed. Also there were other candidates. He +stood aside for Hardin and for Baker. In 1844 he was on the Whig +electoral ticket and stumped the state for Henry Clay whom he greatly +admired. + +Finally in 1846 the Whigs nominated him for Congress. The Democrats +nominated the pioneer Methodist preacher, Peter Cartwright, who used the +Washington's birthday address against Lincoln and even the charge of +atheism, which had no worthy foundation, for Lincoln was profoundly +religious, though he never united with any church. He said that whenever +any church would inscribe over its altar as the only condition for +membership the words of Jesus: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with +all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy strength, and thy +neighbor as thyself;" he would join that church. Lincoln's life proved +his sincerity in this statement. + +Lincoln made a thorough campaign, watching most carefully all the many +interests which can contribute to the success of a candidate, and was +elected by an unusual majority. Moreover, he was the only Whig who +secured a place in the Illinois delegation that year. + +In 1847, when he took his seat in the thirtieth Congress, he saw there +the last of the giants of the old days,--Webster, Calhoun, Clay and old +John Quincy Adams, dying in his seat before the session ended. There +were also Andrew Johnson, Alexander H. Stephens and David Wilmot. +Douglas was there to take his new seat in the Senate. The Mexican War +was drawing to its close. The Whig party condemned the war as one that +had been brought on simply to expand slave territory. Generals Taylor +and Scott as well as many other prominent army officers were Whigs. This +fact aided materially in justifying the Whig policy of denouncing the +Democrats for entering into the war and at the same time voting adequate +supplies for the prosecution of the war. Lincoln entered heartily into +this party policy. + +A few days after he had taken his seat in Congress he wrote back to +Herndon a letter which closed humorously: "As you are all so anxious for +me to distinguish myself I have concluded to do so before long." +Accordingly, soon after he introduced a series of resolutions which +became known as the "Spot Resolutions." + +These resolutions referred to the President's message of May 11, 1846, +in which the President expressed the reasons of the administration for +beginning the war and said the Mexicans had "invaded our territory and +shed the blood of our own citizens on our own soil." Lincoln quoted +these lines and then asked the President to state the "exact spot" where +these and other alleged occurrences had taken place. While these +resolutions were never acted upon, they did afford him an opportunity to +make a speech; and he made a good speech; not of the florid and fervid +style that had characterized some of his early efforts; but a strong, +logical speech that brought out the facts and made a favorable +impression, thus saving him from being among the entirely unknown in the +House. + +With reference to his future career a paragraph concerning Texas is here +quoted. He says: "Any people, anywhere being inclined and having the +power, have the right to raise up and shake off the existing government, +and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable, a +most sacred right,--a right which we hope and believe is to liberate the +world. Nor is this right confined to a case in which the whole people of +an existing government choose to exercise it. Any portion of such +people, that can, may revolutionize, and make their own of so much of +the territory as they inhabit." This political philosophy, so +comfortably applied to Texas in 1846, is just what the Confederacy +wished in 1861; and just exactly what Lincoln did not wish in 1861. + +As Lincoln knew all along, his course concerning the war and the +administration was displeasing some of his constituents; some of whom +would rather be warlike than to be right, others honestly favored +expansion. Like most of the other Whigs he had voted for the Ashmun +amendment which said that the war had been "unnecessary and +unconstitutionally commenced by the President." He learned that some of +the people of Springfield would be displeased with an attitude that +seemed to weaken the administration in a time of stress, but with +Lincoln it was a matter of conscience and he met it fairly without +evasion or any sort of coloring. And later when Douglas accused him of +being unpatriotic he replied that he had not chosen to skulk, that he +had voted for what he thought was the truth, and also reminded his +hearers that he had always voted with the rest of the Whigs for the +necessary supplies to carry on the war after it had been commenced. He +would have liked renomination, but Judge Logan was nominated and was not +elected. + +He was on the electoral ticket and stumped New England and Illinois for +Taylor, as soon as Congress adjourned. The New England speeches were +full of moral earnestness. In Boston he heard Governor Seward speak and +said: "I reckon you are right. We have got to deal with this slavery +question and give more time to it hereafter than we have been giving." +In December he went back to Washington for the second session and worked +consistently for the Wilmot Proviso, designed to exclude slavery from +territory acquired from Mexico. At this second session he voted against +a bill to exclude slavery from the District of Columbia, because he did +not like the form of the bill and then introduced a measure himself +designed to serve the same purpose. + +When his term as Congressman expired he sought but failed to obtain the +position of Commissioner of the General Land Office. He was offered the +position of Governor of the newly organized territory of Oregon, but +this, due somewhat to the sensible advice of his wife, he declined. Then +he went back to Springfield to practice law again, and to travel the +muddy roads of the old Eighth Circuit, a somewhat disappointed and +disillusioned man; but as ever the same sincere, kindly brother to all +his fellow men. + +During the years from 1850 to 1860 the tall figure of Lincoln, garbed +in black, continued to be familiar to the people of Springfield, as he +strode along the street between his dingy law office on the square and +his home on Eighth Street. He was clean in person and in dress, and +diligent in his law practice, but he was not good at collecting what was +coming to him; badly as he needed money in those days. He had finally +paid off his debts, but the death of his father had left his devoted +step-mother needing some help; and his shiftless stepbrother to be +expostulated with in letters full of very kindly interest and wholesome +advice. + +He worked hard and was rapidly becoming known as an excellent lawyer. He +made friends of the best men in the state, and they referred to him +affectionately as "Honest Abe" or "Old Abe," but they always addressed +him respectfully as "Mr. Lincoln." His humor, never peccant, was related +to his brooding melancholy, and was designed to smooth out the little +rough places in life, which he so well understood, with all its +tragedies and tears. Men loved him, not alone for his stories, but for +his simplicity of life, his genuine kindness, his utter lack of +selfishness. There was a fascination about his personality. He seemed +somehow mysterious and at the same time simple. In fact he was always +trying to make ideas seem simple and clear, and told stories to +accomplish that purpose. He tried to make the case clear to the jury, +and the issues clear to his hearers. In all his life which had ever its +heavy sorrows, these years were probably the brightest for him. He +enjoyed the confidence of his people and the devotion of his friends. +His fellow men of whatever degree in life, judge, lawyers, witnesses, +jurors, litigants, all gathered affectionately around him to hear him +talk and to tell stories. But he was not a mere story teller. His +conversation was such as to draw men to him for its very worth. He was +fundamentally serious, dignified, and never given to uncouth +familiarities. + +Though so notably kind, so deeply sympathetic, and at times so given to +humor, when he was aroused he was terrible in his firmness, his +resolution to win for the cause that was right, his stern rebuke for +injustice, his merciless excoriation of falsehood and his relentless +determination to see the truth prevail. False or careless witnesses +dreaded his cross-examinations, and his opponents dreaded his +effectiveness in handling a case before a jury. + +Though he was called homely, there was a commanding dignity about his +presence; his appearance inspired confidence; and when in the heat and +passion of forensic effort, his features lighted up with a strange and +compelling beauty and attractiveness. He was never petty, never quibbled +and never tried to gain an unfair advantage or even use an unworthy +means of attaining a worthy end. Consequently courts and juries believed +what he said. He was a poor lawyer when on the wrong side of the case, +and would not take a bad case if he knew it. Upon one occasion, when, in +the very midst of a trial, he discovered that his client had acted +fraudulently, he left the courtroom and when the judge sent for him, he +sent word back that he "had gone to wash his hands." He had too much +human sympathy to be the most effective prosecutor unless there was a +clear case of Justice on his side; and he was too sympathetic to make +money--for his charges were so small that Herndon and the other lawyers +and even the judge expostulated with him. Though his name appears in the +Illinois Reports in one hundred and seventy-three cases,--a record +giving him first rank among the lawyers of the state, his income was +probably not much over two or three thousand a year. And he was engaged +in some of the most important cases in the state, such as Illinois +Central Railroad Company v. The County of McLean, in which he was +retained by the railroad and successfully prevented the taxation of land +ceded to the railroad by the State,--and then had to sue to recover his +modest fee of five thousand, which was the largest he ever received. In +the McCormick reaper patent litigation he was engaged with Edwin M. +Stanton, who treated him with discourtesy in the Federal Court at +Cincinnati, called him "that giraffe," and prevented him from delivering +the argument which he had so carefully and solicitously prepared. Such +an experience was, of course, very painful to his sensitive nature, and +it shows how great he was that he could forgive the injury entirely as +he did later when he appointed Stanton as his Secretary of War, despite +the protest of friends who recalled it all to him. + +In one of his most notable murder cases he defended William or "Duff" +Armstrong, the son of his old friend, Jack Armstrong. It was a +desperate case for William and for his mother Hannah, who had also been +a warm friend to Lincoln when he was young. The youth was one of the +wildest of the Clary's Grove boys, and a prosecuting witness told how, +by the light of the moon, he saw the blow struck. Lincoln subjected the +witness to one of his dreadful cross-examinations and then confronted +him with the almanac of the year in which the crime was committed to +show that the moon had set at the hour at which the witness claimed to +have seen the blow struck by Armstrong. The boy was acquitted and +Lincoln would accept no fee but the tears and gratitude of his old +friends. + +Another interesting case was one in which a principal witness was the +aged Peter Cartright who had more than ten years before waged a campaign +against Lincoln for Congress. Cartright was the grandfather of "Peachy" +Harrison who was charged with the murder of Greek Crafton. It was a +dramatic moment when the old Methodist minister took the stand in front +of Lincoln, and as his white head bowed, Lincoln had him tell how, as +Greek Crafton lay dying, among his last words were "I want you to say to +the man who killed me that I forgive him." After such a dying +declaration and such a scene Lincoln was sure to make a speech that +would move the hearts of any jury with pity and forgiveness such as he +himself always felt for all souls in trouble; and Harrison was +acquitted. It was such experiences at the bar that made him the great +lawyer that he was; and the great advocate of whatever he believed to +be right; and prepared him to win the great cause of humanity before +the whole people of the nation and of the world. + +In 1852 Lincoln campaigned for Scott. In 1854 he seemed to be losing +interest in politics when the news of the abrogation of the Missouri +Compromise aroused him. This had been brought about by Douglas, the new +leader of the Democrats, then one of the most influential men in +Congress, and after the days of Webster, Clay and Calhoun, one of the +foremost politicians in America. Douglas came back to Illinois to find +many of his constituents in the North displeased with what they thought +he had done to please the Democrats of the South. They thought that he +was sacrificing the ideal of limiting slavery in order to advance his +ambitions to become President. He set about to win back his state. He +spoke in Springfield; and a few days later, Lincoln replied in a speech +that delighted his friends and convinced them that in him they had a +champion afire with enthusiasm for the cause of freedom. + +Somewhat against his will he was nominated and elected to the +legislature in the fall of 1854, but when he saw the dissatisfaction in +the Democratic party he was encouraged to resign from the legislature +and become a candidate for the United States Senate. The Democrats, +though not in perfect harmony, had a majority, and he could not be +elected, but helped to turn the tide for the revolting faction of the +Democrats. Though disappointed he knew that the struggle was only +begun. + +The nation was aroused over the question of slavery. While many good +people desired peace rather than agitation concerning such an irritating +problem, the question of slavery in the territories had to be decided +and the whole question of slavery would not down. In 1856 the Republican +party was organized for the state of Illinois in a big convention at +Bloomington at which Lincoln made a strong speech; and in the Republican +National Convention held in Philadelphia a few weeks later he was given +110 votes for Vice-President. He was committed to the new Republican +party and campaigned vigorously for Fremont, their candidate for +President. + +Lincoln's enthusiastic friends said he was already on the track for the +Presidency. As the contest of 1858 for the Senate approached, it again +appeared that the Democrats would be divided and Lincoln had some +confidence of success. Out in Kansas the proslavery men, by an unfair +vote, had adopted the Lecompton Constitution favoring slavery; President +Buchanan urged Congress to admit Kansas with that fraudulent +constitution; Douglas opposed that constitution and voted against the +admission of Kansas as a slave state; thus angering the President and +the South and delighting the Republicans of the North. + +Now the time was approaching when, in the 1859 session of the Illinois +legislature, Douglas would have to stand for re-election to the United +States Senate. The legislators would be chosen in the campaign of 1858 +largely on that issue. Douglas had become the foremost man in the +Democratic party, and any man who could beat him would have national +recognition. The Republicans of Illinois nominated Lincoln, who +challenged Douglas to a series of joint debates. + +The famous Lincoln-Douglas Debates are full of interest and repay a full +and careful study, but they will be treated very briefly in this volume. + +Lincoln entered upon these debates in a lofty spirit and to the end +pursued a high course, fraught with kindness, fairness, magnanimity and +most commendable dignity. He said, "While pretending no indifference to +earthly honors, I do claim, in this contest, to be actuated by something +higher than anxiety for office," and apparently he was. + +Lincoln looked into the future and foresaw the coming campaign of 1860 +for the Presidency. He foresaw that Douglas would be the leader of the +Democrats in that campaign and conducted the debate accordingly. + +Lincoln thought not alone of momentary issues, but also of eternal +verities. Some things which his friends wished him not to say, for fear +it would lose him votes, he said, because they were things that were +true and ought to be said: for example, "This nation cannot endure half +slave and half free.... A house divided against itself cannot stand.... I +do not expect the house to fall.... I do not expect the Union to be +dissolved. I do expect it to cease to be divided. It will become all one +thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest +the further spread of it and place it where in the public mind it is in +the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it until +it will become alike lawful in all the states, old as well as new, North +as well as South." While such utterances probably did cost him votes at +the time, later his people could see that his prophetic vision had been +right and their confidence in him, always strong, was accordingly +increased. + +Lincoln, with the training of the lawyer, the wily cross-examiner, the +profound jurist, the farsighted statesman, forced Douglas into a dilemma +between the northern Democrats of Illinois and the southern Democrats of +the slave states. Lincoln was warned by his friends that Douglas would +probably choose to please the Democrats of Illinois and be elected +United States Senator; but Lincoln replied to his friends: "I am after +larger game: the battle of 1860 is worth a hundred of this." Time proved +that Lincoln was right. While Lincoln's friends guessed wisely as to the +prediction that Douglas would choose to secure the Senatorship by +pleasing the Democrats of Illinois, many of whom were opposed to +slavery, Lincoln was wise in his prediction concerning the effect on the +campaign of 1860 for President. + +For example, one of the questions Lincoln asked was: "Can the people of +a United States Territory, in any lawful way, against the wishes of any +citizen of the United States, exclude slavery from its limits prior to +the formation of a state constitution?" If Douglas should answer, "No," +he would alienate Illinois; and if he should answer "Yes," he would +alienate the South. In a remarkably adroit manner Douglas answered, +"Yes," and delighted his friends in Illinois; but later the effect in +the South was clearly against him. + +In the United States Senate Douglas had proved a match for the best +debaters in the land, but he remarked after his series of debates with +Lincoln that in all his sixteen years in the Senate he had not met one +whom he would not rather encounter than Lincoln. + +To the very end of the debate Lincoln kept the argument pitched on a +very high plane of dignified logical search for clear truth; which was +something unusual in political contests. He kept referring to such ideas +as, "Is slavery right or wrong?" "It is the eternal struggle between +right and wrong." Lincoln was pleading for humanity. + +The debates were continued in seven of the largest cities of the states, +and between the joint engagements the protagonists were speaking daily +under circumstances of great strain. The prestige of being a Senator +gave to Douglas comforts of travel not always accorded to Lincoln and at +the end of the campaign he was worn out. When the election was over the +popular vote was very close, but the members of the legislature gave +Douglas a majority and he was returned to the Senate. But the campaign +split the Democratic party and made Lincoln a national figure. + +Lincoln, tired and disappointed and financially embarrassed by his +personal expenses, could still cheer his friends with a joke. He said, +"I am like the boy that stumped his toe--it hurt too bad to laugh, but +he was too big to cry." He added, "However, I am glad I made the 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 shall now sink from view +and be forgotten, I believe that I have made some marks for the cause of +civil liberty which will endure long after I am gone." + +But he was not to be forgotten. He received congratulations from all +parts of the nation. He got many calls to come and speak in the largest +cities, most of which he declined, because he must return to his law +practice and earn some money. However, when Douglas appeared in the +Gubernatorial contest in Ohio, the temptation was too great, and he +accepted calls to reply in Columbus and Cincinnati before very large +audiences. He also accepted a call to speak in Cooper Union Institute in +New York City, where he delivered a notable speech before a large and +distinguished audience presided over by William Cullen Bryant. Lincoln +says that he felt uncomfortable and "imagined that the audience noticed +the contrast between his western clothes and the neat fitting suits of +Mr. Bryant and others who sat on the platform." He spoke with great +earnestness, and the next day in the Tribune, Horace Greeley said: "No +other man ever made such an impression in his first appeal to a New York +audience." From New York he went on a speaking trip through New England +where he made a deep impression. He went home with a national +reputation. The strange story of his early life appealed to the masses +of the people of the North; he was the subject of conversation and of +inquiry. A friend sought data for a biography. + +He said, "I admit that I am ambitious and that I would like to be +President. I am not insensible to the compliment that you pay me and the +interest that you manifest in the matter, but there is no such good luck +in store for me as the Presidency of the United States. Besides, there +is nothing in my early history that would interest you or anybody else." +He also added, "I do not think that I am fitted for the Presidency"; and +that, "men like Seward and Chase were entitled to take precedence." But +the editor of the Central Illinois Gazette brought him out and after +that the movement spread strongly. + +Such friends as Davis, Sweet, Logan and Palmer and also his faithful +partner, Herndon, continued to urge him to become an active candidate. +He finally consented and became busy at the work of marshalling the +support of his friends. He used all his well-known skill as a politician +to forward his campaign, though nothing derogatory is to be inferred +from these words concerning his methods, which were entirely honorable. +He wrote a friend: "I am not in a position where it would hurt me much +not to be nominated on the national ticket; but it would hurt me not to +get the Illinois delegation ... can you help me a little in this matter +at your end of the vineyard?" The allegiance of his own state was soon +assured. At Decatur, May 9 and 10, 1860, the Republican state convention +met in the big Wigwam, and Governor Oglesby, who presided, said, "A +distinguished citizen whom Illinois is delighted to honor is present and +should be invited to a place on the platform." Amid tumultuous applause +Lincoln was lifted over the heads of the crowd to the platform. At that +moment John Hanks theatrically entered bearing a couple of old fence +rails and a flag and a placard on the rails, "Made in Sangamon bottom in +1830 by Abraham Lincoln and John Hanks." Again there was a sympathetic +uproar and Lincoln made a speech appropriate for the occasion. When the +tumult subsided the convention resolved that "Abraham Lincoln is the +first choice of the Republicans of Illinois for the Presidency and their +delegates are instructed to use every honorable means to secure his +nomination, and to cast the vote of the state as a unit for him." + +One week later, May 16, the national Republican convention met at +Chicago in the "Wigwam," which had been built to hold ten thousand +persons. Lincoln's friends, Davis, Judd, Palmer, Swett, Oglesby, were +there working "like nailers," night and day without sleep. The +candidates were Seward of New York, Lincoln of Illinois, Cameron of +Pennsylvania, Chase of Ohio, Bates of Missouri; and others of less note. +Seward's friends hoped, as Lincoln's friends dreaded, that Seward might +be nominated by a rush on the first ballot. Lincoln's followers, +contrary to his wishes, made a "necessary arrangement" with Cameron of +Pennsylvania by which he was to have a cabinet place in return for +giving his support to Lincoln, who was nominated on the third ballot. +William M. Evarts, who had led for Seward, made the usual motion to make +the choice unanimous, which was done with tremendous tumult of applause. +Hannibal Hamlin of Maine was nominated for Vice-president. Blaine says +of Hamlin, "In strong common sense, in sagacity and sound judgment, in +rugged integrity of character, Mr. Hamlin has had no superior among +public men." + +Down in Springfield, Lincoln was waiting, and when he got the news, he +said, "There is a little woman down on Eighth Street who will be glad to +hear this news," and he strode away to tell her. + +Douglas was in Washington when he heard the news, and remarked, "There +will not be a tar barrel left in Illinois tonight." + +At once a committee of the convention were deputed to go to Springfield +and give Lincoln formal notice. This ceremony, so elaborate in later +days, was then very simple and immediate. They called upon Lincoln at +his own home, where he was already feeling gloomy with the +responsibility. The committee felt much misgiving as they noted his +appearance and got their first impressions; but later, when he became +aroused and spoke fitting words to which life were added by the fire of +his earnest countenance, they felt reassured, and went away delighted. + +In all the history of America, the selection of George Washington to +lead the army of the Revolution, is the only event to be compared in +good fortune with this nomination of Abraham Lincoln; but to the country +as a whole he was comparatively obscure and unknown. The "wise men" of +the nation had some misgivings. While "Honest Abe, the rail splitter," +might sound well to the masses, the party leaders could not be assured +that rail splitting and mere honesty were sufficient qualifications for +the President of a great republic in a great crisis. Nevertheless Seward +and Chase supported him with a sincerity that delighted him, and the +entire party entered into the campaign with great enthusiasm. + +And very early in the campaign it seemed that the Republicans were quite +likely to win; for the Democrats, in their convention at Charleston, +divided; the Northern Democrats being for Douglas and the Southern +Democrats against him. They adjourned to Baltimore, where Douglas was +nominated, after which the extreme Southerners bolted and nominated +Breckenridge. Also the border states organized a new party which they +called the Constitutional Union Party and nominated John Bell. + +Douglas made a most energetic campaign, even making speeches in the +South, but the questions that Lincoln had made him answer in the great +debate in Illinois in 1858 were not forgotten by the Southerners, who +would have nothing to do with him, but supported Breckenridge. + +Lincoln remained quietly in Springfield during the campaign, exercising +most careful discretion as to what he said and the little that he +wrote. The Governor placed his own rooms at the statehouse at Lincoln's +disposal, where he met callers and talked and joked pleasantly with all +who came, but was careful to say nothing that would add to the confusion +of tongues that already existed. + +Some of the most radical abolitionists of the North were not at all +pleased with Lincoln because he was conservative, practical, recognized +slavery as existing under the constitution, stood for preserving the +Union as the first consideration, restricting the extension of slavery, +and hoped for gradual compensated emancipation, but favored nothing +revolutionary or threatening to the integrity of the Union. + +Many of the most ardent, but reasonable, abolitionists supported him as +having the most practical policy for the time being. + +The total popular vote was 4,680,000. Lincoln got 1,866,000; Douglas, +1,375,000; Breckenridge, 846,900; Bell, 590,000. Of the electoral vote, +Lincoln got 180; Douglas, 12; Breckenridge, 72; Bell, 39. Lincoln +carried the Northern States, Breckenridge the Southern States, Bell the +border states of Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee, and Douglas New +Jersey and Missouri. To show how the people were divided, Douglas, +Breckenridge and Bell had some votes in nearly all states both North and +South. Lincoln had no votes in the states farthest south, but carried +all states north of the border states. + +The career of Lincoln as President was made infinitely more difficult +as well as all the more creditable to him by reason of the fact that he +was not the choice of the majority of the people, but of less than half +of them; even less than half of the people of the Northern States. + +South Carolina "hailed with delight" the news of the election of Lincoln +as a justification for immediate secession, which they desired, rather +than compromise or postponement; their Senators resigned; before +Christmas the Palmetto flag floated over every federal building in that +state, and early in January they fired on the ship "Star of the West" as +she entered Charleston harbor with supplies for Fort Sumpter. By +February seven of the Southern States--South Carolina, Mississippi, +Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas--had seceded from the +Union and formed "the Confederate States of America," with Jefferson +Davis of Mississippi as President, and Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia +as Vice-President. + +Lincoln could, meanwhile, only wait in Springfield, during this most +trying interregnum; while the uncertain and impotent Buchanan allowed +the reins of government to slip from his weak hands, and many +influential men at the North counselled for peace at any price. Lincoln +was distressed, absent-minded, sad but also calm as he worked on his +inaugural address--a tremendous responsibility under the circumstances; +for in that address he must announce a policy in one of the gravest +crises that ever confronted a ruler in this world--sorrowful unto death, +he said, "I shall never be glad any more." Also he was beset with +office-seekers and troubled with his cabinet appointments; for the +agreement that Judge Davis had made at the Chicago convention with +Cameron of Pennsylvania was not to his liking. + +As the time approached for his inauguration he visited his step-mother, +made a pilgrimage to the grave of his father, and on February 11 started +for Washington, after taking leave at Springfield, of his old friends, +who gathered at the station early in the morning and stood bareheaded in +the rain while he spoke these beautiful words of affectionate farewell +from the platform of the coach: + +"My friends, no one not in my situation can appreciate my feelings of +sadness at this parting. To this place and the kindness of these people +I owe everything. Here I have lived for a quarter of a century and +passed from a young man 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 to 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." + +On the way he made short informal speeches--tactfully avoiding any +announcement of policy--at Columbus, Cleveland, Buffalo, Albany and New +York. On Washington's birthday at Philadelphia, he celebrated the +admission of Kansas as a free state by raising over Independence Hall a +new flag of thirty-four stars. He was deeply moved and spoke fervently +of "that sentiment in the Declaration of Independence which gives +liberty, not alone to the people of this country, but also hope to all +the people of the world for all future times; which gave promise that in +due time the weights would be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and +that all should have an equal chance." And finally, "If this country +cannot be saved without giving up that principle, I was about to say I +would rather be assassinated on this spot than to surrender it." + +His reference to assassination may have been due to the report of +detectives that they had discovered a plot to kill him as he went +through Baltimore. Contrary to advice concerning his personal safety, he +kept his engagement to address the legislature at Harrisburg before +going on to Washington. In the Capital and the country thereabout were +many Confederate sympathizers. + +Even during the few days that he was in Washington before his +inauguration, men over the country were betting that he would never be +inaugurated. March 4, 1861, dawned in bright sunshine. At noon the aged +Buchanan called upon Lincoln to escort him to the Capital, there to +place upon the shoulders of the great Westerner the burden which had +been too heavy for the infirm old diplomat. Together they drove down +Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol where the ceremony was held in the +east portico. Distinguished officials were there, but the crowd was +small, because of the rumors of tragedy--and the aged Commander Scott +had posted troops with instructions, "if any of them raise their heads +or show a finger, shoot to kill." + +The moment came for the new President to take the oath of office. +Lincoln, attired in clothes obviously new, was plainly embarrassed, and +stood for an awkward moment holding his high hat in one hand and in the +other a gold-headed ebony stick. Douglas, his old rival, stepped +promptly forward with delightful grace and relieved him of hat and cane +and held them for him--a beautiful incident the significance of which +was long remembered. Senator Baker of Oregon--one of his old Springfield +friends--formally presented him, and after he had read his address, the +aged Chief Justice Taney, who had written the Dred Scott Decision, +administered the oath of office. + +His address, for which the nation had long been waiting, was read +distinctly, so that all could hear--hear him say that "misunderstandings +had caused differences;"--disavow any intentions to interfere with the +existing institution of slavery, and even declare himself in favor of a +new fugitive slave law. But concerning the Union he was firm. He clearly +put the Union above any issue concerning slavery. He said: "The Union of +these States is perpetual.... No state upon its own mere motion can +lawfully get out of the Union.... I shall take care, as the Constitution +itself expressly enjoins me, that the laws of the Union be faithfully +executed in all of the States," and he was determined "to hold, occupy, +and possess the property and places belonging to the Government and to +collect the duties and imposts." And he closed with the beautiful +peroration founded upon one of Seward's suggestions: "I am loathe to +close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though +passion may have strained, it must not break the bonds of our affection. +The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and +patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad +land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union when again touched, as +surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature." + +The four years and forty days that remain of Lincoln's life is but the +story of his wonderful part in our great Civil War. + +When Lincoln turned from his inauguration to take up the duties of his +office he faced a responsibility greater than that which had rested upon +Washington, as great as had ever rested upon any man on this planet in +all the ages. His own dear country--that nation which lovers of mankind +had hoped would lead the world in advancing human welfare, was already +rent asunder and everywhere the men who had been accustomed to lead in +thought and action were divided. Men of influence at the North advised +peaceful separation. Radials at the South declared that they would take +Washington and make it the Confederate Capital. Prominent men at the +North declared that the South could not be and should not be coerced. +And with these terrible problems puzzling him, Lincoln was also pestered +with office-seekers until he remarked, "This struggle and scramble for +office will yet test our institutions." For his Cabinet he chose William +H. Seward, Secretary of State; Salmon P. Chase, Secretary of the +Treasury; Simon Cameron, Secretary of War; Gideon Wells, Secretary of +the Navy; Caleb B. Smith, Secretary of the Interior; Edward Bates, +Attorney-General; Montgomery Blair, Postmaster-General. + +The first day after inauguration the whole problem was presented to him +in a letter from Major Anderson with his hungry soldiers at Fort +Sumpter. He wanted provisions and reinforcements; twenty thousand +soldiers would be necessary to hold the fort, and the whole standing +army numbered sixteen thousand men. General Scott advised evacuation. +Lincoln said, "When Anderson goes out of Fort Sumpter I shall have to go +out of the White House." The military advisers differed: the cabinet +differed; and while Lincoln pondered over the problem, Seward acquiesced +in the general assumption that he rather than Lincoln was the real head +of the Government; and accordingly prepared and laid before Lincoln +"Some Thoughts for the President's Consideration," in which after +complaining of the "lack of policy" he boldly proposed to make war on +Spain and France, and seek "explanations from Great Britain and Russia," +and suggested that the direction of this policy be devolved by the +President "upon some member of his cabinet," and indicating with modest +significance "it is not my especial province; but I neither seek to +assume or evade responsibility." Lincoln met this proposal in a +magnanimous spirit, saying, "As to the proposed policy, if this must be +done I must do it.... When a general line of policy is adopted, I +apprehend that there is no danger of it being changed without good +reason, or continuing to be a subject of unnecessary debate; still, upon +points arising in its progress I wish, and suppose that I am entitled to +have, the advice of all the cabinet." + +Thus Seward came to understand, as the nation later understood, who was +the head of the government, and how wise and capable he was; and this +superiority, Seward was great enough to freely acknowledge two months +later in the words: "Executive force and vigor are rare qualities ... +the President is the best of us." + +On April 12 the Confederates fired on Fort Sumpter, and by that act of +aggression unified and aroused the North. Douglas promptly assured the +President of his support and telegraphed his followers that he had given +his pledge "to sustain the President in the exercise of his +constitutional functions to preserve the Union, maintain the government +and defend the Federal Capital." Thus ended the talk of compromise, +conciliation, concession, and also the discussion of the right or wrong +of slavery. The President in his patient, kindly wisdom had +substituted the issue of Union, and had waited until the Confederacy was +the aggressor. On April 15 he called for 75,000 volunteers and called +Congress to convene in extra session July 4. + +The response was immediate and resolute. The North, glad that the long +suspense was over, offered hundreds of thousands of men for the Union. +The Confederates threatened to capture Washington and make it the +Confederate capital, and for a few days there was grave fear that they +would do so. The Sixth Massachusetts was assaulted by a mob in the +streets of Baltimore, four soldiers and twelve rioters killed and many +wounded; and the Southern sympathisers in Maryland objected to the +passing of soldiers through that state. The President, as usual +conciliatory and patient but firm, said, "there is no piece of American +soil too good to be pressed by the foot of a loyal soldier as he marches +to the defense of the capital of his country." + +Among the President's great tasks then were to prevent the secession of +any more states, to prevent European recognition of the Confederacy, and +to create an army and navy. His diplomacy saved for the Union Maryland, +Kentucky and Missouri. + +With increasing confidence and power the President watched over men and +events; cautiously and patiently, with mistakes and successes; amid +acrid criticism, noisy abuse and malignant misrepresentation, he made +his slow sure way. + +The first disaster at Manassas staggered and steadied the North. The +President called to the command of the army of the Potomac, General +George B. McClellan, who had been winning small successes and sending +large telegrams in Western Virginia. He was brilliant, bold, +spectacular, a good organizer and soon trained the strong young raw +recruits--farmers and artisans--into one of the finest armies the world +had ever witnessed. While McClellan was drilling and preparing in the +East, Fremont in the West assumed the authority to issue a proclamation +emancipating the slaves of all non-Union men in Missouri; an act which +delighted the abolitionists of the North but created consternation in +the border states and added to the perplexities of the President. In +order to save for the Union cause the border states of Maryland, +Kentucky and Missouri the President had to revoke the proclamation of +Fremont and suffer the thoughtless abuse of the abolitionists who even +talked of impeachment. They saw only the immediate and moral issue of +slavery rather than the ultimate political issue of Union--in their +premature haste to free a few slaves they would have lost the whole +cause both of freedom and of Union. Lincoln loved freedom as much as +they but was more wise; nevertheless the patient President suffered much +from the misunderstanding. His patience was never exhausted though +terribly tried by the unjust criticism from many sources, by the piques +and prides of new-made Generals who felt able to command armies though +they could not command their own tempers; by the impertinent Buell who +failed to move into East Tennessee and stop the Confederate +depredations against loyal citizens; and by the unappreciative McClellan +who was too young to understand the President's fatherly solicitude, and +who drilled and drilled but did not go forward to fight. + +In the light of the troubles that the President had with embryo-Generals +one can appreciate the narrative that a caller finding him pondering +over some papers asked what he was doing and got the reply, "O nothing +much--just making a few Generals." And once when a message bearer +gravely told him that the enemy had captured a couple of Generals and +some mules, he replied, "What a pity to lose all those mules." + +Bull Run had made the people more cautious about crying "on to +Richmond," and so all Washington took holidays and enjoyed going out to +see McClellan's grand army manoeuvres--all except the President for whom +there was to be no more joy--no more holidays. To a sympathetic friend +he replied, "I want not sympathy for myself but success for our cause." + +Again the wisdom of the President was tested and proved in the case of +Mason and Slidell, the Confederate commissioners to Great Britain, whom +a Federal warship had taken from a British mail packet. A British +ultimatum demanded immediate restitution and apology, while public +sentiment at home demanded that they be retained; but the President +averted trouble with England by sending the commissioners on their way. + +In the President's message to Congress, some days later, he made no +reference at all to this affair because he knew when to be silent as +well as when to explain. + +Evidence of the true greatness and the forgiveness of the President and +that he put the cause far above any personal consideration is in the +fact of his appointing Edwin M. Stanton Secretary of War, to succeed +Cameron to whom he had given the post as Minister to Russia. Stanton was +a Democrat, a friend of McClellan, and had never ceased to speak of +Lincoln with that gross abuse with which he had greeted Lincoln the +lawyer in the McCormick case at Cincinnati in 1859. But with all +Stanton's injustice to Lincoln--his revilings and his insults--he +accepted the cabinet place when Lincoln offered it to him. But if +Stanton was truculent, a tyrant and a bully--infinitely more +important--he was honest and strong in office and broke the ring of +grafters who had been robbing the government, and did his work +heroically. That was what the President wished. And Stanton soon learned +as others learned that Lincoln was master of every situation. Lincoln's +friends opposed the appointment of Stanton and reminded the President of +how crudely Stanton had treated him at Cincinnati, but the President had +no thought for himself or his own future. He was concerned only to get +the men who could best serve the great cause. + +Lincoln's peculiar fitness for the tremendous tribulations of the +Presidency at that time is further proved by his experiences with the +recalcitrant McClellan. The General had been drilling and getting +ready for six months,--both President and public desired action; but the +General wished to become so fully prepared that an assured and decisive +victory would end the war. The President was patient, persuasive, +reasonable: the General was querulous, petty and sometimes actually +insulting. The two differed as to their plans for advancing upon the +Confederates. While the General assumed a contempt for the opinions of a +civilian, time has shown that the President was wise. + +Burdened as the great heart was with the weight of the nation, +additional sorrows came into the White House when his two boys, Willie +and Tad, fell ill with typhoid fever. By day and by night the +grief-crazed father divided his time between watching the bedside of his +boys and watching over the struggling nation. Though always religious in +the deepest sense, the death of Willie seemed to strengthen his insight +into the mysteries of the spiritual life. For awhile he seemed +grief-crazed, and ever after, the great soul that had always been +compassionate was even more tender in its broodings over all the people +of the nation, both South and North, and in many beautiful instances he +softened the severities of war. + +During the early part of the war the North was not at all unanimous in +its opposition to slavery, and could only be united in the purpose to +save the Union; but slavery could not be ignored. From the Southern +standpoint the war was caused by slavery, and even the Union generals +were compelled to deal with fugitive slaves that came within their +lines. Halleck sent them out of camp; Buell and Hooker allowed their +owners to come and take them; Butler held them as "contraband of war." +As the war dragged on longer than the people had anticipated the +abolition sentiment in the North grew until from press and pulpit there +came adjurations to "free the slaves." The politicians told the +President the "will of the people," and the preachers told him the "will +of God"; but the great mind of the President held his own counsel, for +he knew that the slave-holding but loyal border states presented a +peculiar problem. + +Early in 1862 he recommended to Congress the adoption of a joint +resolution that the "United States co-operate with any state which may +adopt gradual abolishment of slavery, giving to such state pecuniary +aid." The resolution was adopted, but the border states would have +nothing to do with the plan. Later General Hunter in proclaiming martial +law over certain Southern territory, proclaimed "the persons in these +states, heretofore held as slaves, forever free." The President revoked +the order as he had revoked a similar action on the part of Fremont, +adding firmly, "whether it be competent for me as Commander-in-Chief of +the Army and Navy, to declare the slaves of any state or states free, +and whether at any time, in any case, it shall have become a necessity +of government to exercise such supposed power, are questions which, +under my responsibility, I reserve to myself." And again he appealed to +the people of the border states to adopt his plan of gradual compensated +emancipation, proved the wisdom of his plan by unanswerable logic, and +showed that the cost of such compensation was much less than the cost of +the probable prolongation of the war. The loyal slave-holders of the +border states were not ready to give up their slaves. + +Then the President began to contemplate emancipation, but kept his +purposes to himself; kept his secret so well that even after he had +determined upon emancipation and was being criticised for not taking +that step he replied to his critics, "My paramount object is to save the +Union and not either to save or destroy slavery." Horace Greeley +retorted with abuse, indicating that Greeley was unable to see the +wisdom of the President's policy--for those whose support was necessary +to win the war were not yet ready for emancipation. + +When preachers called to reveal to him, "the will of God" he replied, +"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." + +All these months he had been at work with his slow but accurate thought, +framing in secret the most momentous document in American history since +the Declaration of Independence. He did this in the cipher-room of the +War Department telegraph office, where he was accustomed to spend +anxious hours waiting for news from the boys at the front, and also to +seek what rest he could in thus hiding away from the never-ending stream +of tormentors, office-seekers, politicians and emissaries of sage +advice. + +Emancipation was in his mind even while, for good reasons, he made no +reference to it. He waited for the right time--waited for +victory--waited in great patience and great anguish. And when he did +first announce his purpose of emancipation it was to apply only to those +"persons held as slaves within any state or designated part of a state +the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United +States." Thus sparing the loyal border states holding slaves, and +allowing a way of escape for others that should cease their rebellion. +It was conservative but wise. On the one hand the radical abolitionists +were not satisfied, and on the other hand the masses were not all ready +to give him hearty support in it. But he said, "I must do the best I can +and bear the responsibility of taking the course which I think I ought +to take." It was thus this silent self-reliant man, without intimates, +without supporting friends, bore almost alone on his resolute shoulders, +the mighty weight of responsibility. Once more he urged upon Congress +his old policy of gradual compensated emancipation. He plead:--"We say +that we are for the Union. The world will not forget that we say this. +We know how to save the Union. The world knows that we know how to save +it. We--even we here--hold the power and bear the responsibility. In +giving freedom to the slave we assure freedom to the free,--honorable +alike in what we give and what we preserve. We shall nobly save or +meanly LOSE THE LAST BEST HOPE OF EARTH. Other means may succeed, this +cannot fail. The way is peaceful; generous; just; a way which, if +followed, the world will forever applaud and God must forever bless." +But they would not, and the lonely man in the White House,--kind eyes +more deeply sunken, bronze face more deeply furrowed, sad tones more +deeply affected--went about his duties asking sympathy nor counsel of +anyone. + +On New Year's Day, 1863, after the great reception was over, he signed +the final Proclamation of Emancipation. Though at home there was still +ridicule and abuse, in England the effect of the Proclamation was +significant; for there the laboring men were in dire distress because +they could get no cotton for their mills; but these English +laborers--hearing of the Emancipation Proclamation--felt that the cause +of the Union was the cause of freedom and of labor--and though the +wealthy mill-owners of England, who were not suffering would, some of +them, gladly have destroyed the Union and perpetuated slavery to get +cotton; the laborers--even while starving--brought pressure to bear upon +the English government to prevent further aid to the Confederacy, +heroically preferring starvation in the cause of freedom. Lincoln +referred to these actions on the part of England's laborers as "an +instance of Christian heroism which has not been surpassed in any age or +any country." And later those English laborers built a monument to +Lincoln on which they inscribed, "Lover of Humanity." + +Everyone but Lincoln had lost patience with McClellan's overcautiousness +and when he failed to follow Lee's retreat from Antietam, Lincoln +removed him and placed in command Burnside, whose defeat at +Fredericksburg caused him to be replaced by Hooker, whose defeat at +Chancellorsville caused him to be replaced by Meade, who disappointed +the President in not following up the victory at Gettysburg. + +July 4, 1863, Gettysburg and Vicksburg, decisive victories, coming +together should have ended the war. The Confederates could not win after +that, but still they fought on. On November 19, 1863, the National +Cemetery at the battlefield of Gettysburg was dedicated; and after +Edward Everett had delivered the formal oration of the occasion, Lincoln +delivered the most notable short speech that has ever been delivered in +the English language. A copy of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address is given in +another volume of this series called "Speeches of Lincoln." + +The tide has turned but much costly fighting is still necessary, first +in East Tennessee, and later in Virginia, and also Sherman must fight +his way into the very heart of the South and break its lines of +communication before the resolute Confederates will yield. + +In the West, Fort Henry, Fort Donelson, Pittsburgh Landing, and +Vicksburg were the victories that made Grant known as the most +successful Union general. The President advanced him to the rank of +Lieutenant General, brought him East, placed him in command of all the +armies, and gave him the task of beating Lee, taking Richmond and ending +the war. + +In the fall of 1864, notwithstanding some opposition, Lincoln was +re-elected President. Again during this campaign, his attitude toward +his critics and his opponents attested still further his true greatness, +magnanimity and devotion to duty. Though he desired to be re-elected he +would make no effort toward that end, but instead gave his entire +energies to the work of saving the Union. Chase in the cabinet was an +open candidate against his chief. Lincoln proved that he had no +resentment by later appointing Chase as Chief Justice in the place of +the aged Roger B. Taney who died. When friends told the President that +he would surely be defeated for re-election if he approved another draft +of soldiers, he replied that the cause did not require his re-election +but did require more soldiers--and at once ordered a new draft for +500,000 additional men. + +Lincoln breathed a most beautiful spirit of forgiveness in his Second +Inaugural Address which is printed in full in the volume of this series, +"Speeches of Lincoln." + +In March, 1865, Grant sent a message saying that he was about to close +in on Lee and end the war, and invited Lincoln to visit Grant's +headquarters. And that is how it was that the President, being at +Grant's headquarters, could enter Richmond the day after the +Confederates retreated. So Lincoln, with his small son Tad and Admiral +Porter, escorted by a little group of sailors, simply, on foot, entered +the abandoned capital, not as one bringing the vengeance of a conqueror, +but the love of a liberator. One of the great moments of all history +was when an aged negro, baring his white wool, made reverent obeisance +to the President, and Lincoln in recognition took off his high hat. + +He remained two days in Richmond discussing the plans for the +restoration of federal authority, counseling kindness and forgiveness. +"Let them down easy," he said to the military governor; "get them to +plowing and gathering in their own little crops." Thus he was preparing +to "bind up the nation's wounds," with a spiritual development so far +beyond his contemporaries that they could not even understand him. + +Then he went back to Washington where he heard of Lee's surrender, and +two days later, to a large crowd at the White House, delivered a +carefully prepared speech outlining his policy of reconstruction, such +as he had already begun in Louisiana. Already he was being criticised +for being "too kind to the rebels." + +That was the last speech he ever made. + +Little Tad said, "Father has never been happy since we came to +Washington." His laughter had failed, he had aged rapidly, his shoulders +were bent, dreadful dreams had haunted him and on the night of the 13th +he had one which oppressed him. But the next day was the fourth +anniversary of the evacuation of Fort Sumpter,--Good Friday, April 14. +And at last he was happy, sharing with his people the joy that came with +the end of the war. + +He took a drive with Mrs. Lincoln and they planned for the future--they +would save a little money and go back to Springfield and he would +practice law again. To his wife this unnatural joy was portentous--she +remembered that he had been like this just before little Willie died. In +the evening they went to Ford's Theatre. Stanton tried to dissuade them +because the secret service had heard rumors of assassination. Because +Stanton insisted on a guard Major Rathbone was along. At 9 o'clock the +party entered the President's box--the President was very happy--at +10:20 a shot was heard--Major Rathbone sprang to grapple with the +assassin and was slashed with a dagger. The assassin fell as he sprang +from the box to the stage, where he brandished his bloody dagger, yelled +with terrible theatricalism, "_sic semper tyrannis_," and stalking +lamely from the platform disappeared in the darkness and rode away. The +President was unconscious from the first, and as they bore him from the +theatre a lodger from a house across the street said "Take him up to my +room," where he lay unconscious until next morning when he ceased to +breathe; and Stanton at his bedside said, "Now he belongs to the Ages." + +Someone had recognized the assassin as John Wilkes Booth, an actor, a +fanatic in the Southern cause. And in killing Lincoln he did his people +of the South the greatest possible harm. + +The North had been decorated with celebration of victory; now it was +bowed and dazed with grief and rage. Those that had abused him and +maligned him and opposed him now came to understand him as in a new +light they saw him transfigured by his great sacrifices. + +They reverently folded the body in the flag and carried it first to the +White House and then to the Capitol where it lay in state; and then they +began that long journey back to Springfield over the very route he had +come on his way to the Capital in 1861. Everywhere in cities and in +towns great crowds gathered, heedless of night or rain or storm, and +even as the train sped over the open country at night little groups of +farmers could be seen by the roadside in the dim light watching for the +train and waving their lanterns in a sad farewell. + +Whatever anger and resentment the North may have felt, the weeping +thousands who looked upon the face of Lincoln as it was borne homeward +saw only forgiveness and peace. + +But his beautiful dream of amnesty was not to be realized. Mutual +forgiveness and reconciliation were ideals too high for many of his +contemporaries at that time, and their spirit of revenge bore its +inevitable fruit of injustice and bitterness in the days of +reconstruction that followed. How different it might all have been had +Lincoln continued to live. How his great influence would have helped in +the solution of the nation's problems after the war. A besotted wretch +snuffed out the most important life on earth that day. + +Misguided men of his time ridiculed him because they were unable to +comprehend his lofty ideals or see the practical wisdom of his great +purposes. They measured him by their own puny standards and in +condemning him only condemned themselves. His sad life, his tragic +death, his immortal glory are one with all the reformers, prophets and +saviors of the world. As war scenes receded, as men's prejudices cooled, +as the mighty issues were better understood, men came to see how truly +great he was. He finished successfully the most important and most +difficult task ever bequeathed to one mortal man in all history. + + * * * * * + + + + +Other Titles in Pocket Series + + +Drama + + 46 Salome. Oscar Wilde. + 50 Pillars of Society. Ibsen. + 131 Redemption. Tolstoi. + 99 Tartuffe. Moliere. + 54 Importance of Being Earnest. Oscar Wilde. + 81 Pelleas and Melisande. Maeterlinck. + 8 Lady Windermere's Fan. Oscar Wilde. + 226 Prof. Bernhardi. Schnitzler. + + +Fiction + + 6 De Maupassant's Stories. + 15 Balzac's Stories. + 178 One of Cleopatra's Nights. Gautier. + 58 Boccaccio's Stories. + 45 Tolstoi's Stories. + 12 Poe's Tales. + 145 Great Ghost Stories. + 21 Carmen. Merimee. + 38 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. + 27 Last Days of a Condemned Man. Hugo. + 151 Man Who Would Be King. Kipling. + 47 He Renounced the Faith. Jack London. + 41 Christmas Carol. + 57 Rip Van Winkle. + 100 Red Laugh. Andreyev. + 148 Strength of the Strong. London. + 105 Seven That Were Hanged. Andreyev. + 102 Sherlock Holmes Tales. + 161 Country of the Blind. H. G. Wells. + 85 Attack on the Mill. Zela. + 156 Andersen's Fairy Tales. + 158 Alice in Wonderland. + 37 Dream of John Bull. + 40 House and the Brain. + 12 Color of Life. E. Haldeman-Julius. + 198 Majesty of Justice. Anatole France. + 215 The Miraculous Revenge. Bernard Shaw. + 24 The Kiss and Other Stories. Chekhov. + 219 The Human Tragedy. Anatole France. + 196 The Marquise. Sand. + 230 The Fleece of Gold. Theophile Gautier. + 232 Three Strangers. Hardy. + 239 Twenty-Six Men and a Girl. Maxium Gorki. + 29 Dreams. Schreiner. + + +History, Biography + + 126 History of Rome. + 128 Caesar: Who He Was. + 185 History of Printing. + 175 Science of History. Froude. + 52 Voltaire. Victor Hugo. + 125 War Speeches of Woodrow Wilson. + 142 Bismarck and the German Empire. + 51 Bruno: His Life and Martyrdom. + 147 Cromwell and His Day. + 236 State and Heart Affairs of Henry VIII. + 50 Paine's Common Sense. + 88 Vindication of Paine. Ingersoll. + 33 Smasher of Shams. + 163 Sex Life in Greece and Rome. + 214 Speeches of Lincoln. + 144 Was Poe Immoral? Whitman. + 104 Battle of Waterloo. Victor Hugo. + 159 Lincoln and the Working Class. + 223 Essay on Swinburne. Quiller-Couch. + 229 Diderot. Ellis. + 227 Keats. The Man. His Work and His Friends. + 201 Satan and the Saints. H. M. Tichenor. + 67 Church History. Tichenor. + 139 Life of Dante. + + +Humor + + 18 Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow. Jerome. + 20 Let's Laugh. Nasby. + 166 English as She Is Spoke. Mark Twain. + 205 Artemus Ward. His Book. + 187 Whistler's Humor. + 216 Wit of Heinrich Heine. Geo. Eliot. + 231 8 Humorous Sketches. Mark Twain. + + +Literature + + 97 Love Letters of King Henry VIII. + 36 Soul of Man Under Socialism. O. Wilde. + 28 Toleration. Voltaire. + 89 Love Letters of Men and Women of Genius. + 87 Love. Montaigne. + 48 Bacon's Essays. + 60 Emerson's Essays. + 84 Love Letters of a Nun. + 26 On Going to Church. Shaw. + 61 Tolstoi's Essays. + 176 Four Essays. Ellis. + 160 Shakespeare. Ingersoll. + 186 How I Write "The Raven." Poe. + 75 Choice of Books. Carlyle. + 76 Prince of Peace. Bryan. + 86 On Reading. Brandes. + 95 Confessions of An Opium Eater. + 188 How Voltaire Fooled Priest and King. + 3 18 Essays. Voltaire. + 213 Lincoln. Ingersoll. + 183 Realism in Art and Literature. Darrow. + 177 Subjection of Women. John Stuart Mill. + 17 On Walking. Thoreau. + 70 Lamb's Essays. + 135 Socialism for Millionaires. G. B. Shaw. + 235 Essays. G. K. Chesterton. + 7 A Liberal Education. Thomas Huxley. + 233 Thoughts on Literature and Art. Goethe. + 225 Condescension in Foreigners. J. R. Lowell. + 221 Women, and Other Essays. Maeterlinck. + 218 Essays. Jean Jaures. + 10 Shelley. F. Thompson. + + +Maxims and Epigrams + + 56 Wisdom of Ingersoll. + 106 Aphorisms. Geo. Sand. + 168 Epigrams. O. Wilde. + 59 Epigrams of Wit. + 35 Maxims. Rochefoucauld. + 154 Epigrams of Ibsen. + 197 Witticisms. De Sevigne. + 180 Epigrams. G. B. Shaw. + 155 Maxims. Napoleon. + 113 Proverbs of England. + 114 Proverbs of France. + 115 Proverbs of Japan. + 116 Proverbs of China. + 117 Proverbs of Italy. + 118 Proverbs of Russia. + 119 Proverbs of Ireland. + 120 Proverbs of Spain. + 121 Proverbs of Arabia. + 181 Epigrams. Thoreau. + 228 Aphorisms. Huxley. + + +Philosophy, Religion + + 62 Schopenhauer's Essays. + 94 Trial and Death of Socrates. + 65 Meditations of Marcus Aurelius. + 44 Aesop's Fables. + 165 Discovery of the Future. H. G. Wells. + 96 Dialogues of Plato. + 103 Pocket Theology. Voltaire. + 132 Foundations of Religion. + 138 Studies in Pessimism. Schopenhauer. + 211 Idea of God in Nature. John Stuart Mill. + 212 Life and Character. Goethe. + 200 Ignorant Philosopher. Voltaire. + 101 Thoughts of Pascal. + 207 Olympian Gods. H. M. Tichenor. + 210 The Stoic Philosophy. Prof. Gilbert Murray. + 220 Essays on New Testament. Blatchford. + 224 God: Known and Unknown. Butler. + 19 Nietzsche. Who He Was and What He Stood For. + 204 Sun Worship and Later Beliefs. Tichenor. + 184 Primitive Beliefs. H. M. Tichenor. + + +Poetry + + 1 Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. + 73 Whitman's Poems. + 2 Wilde's Reading Jail. + 32 Poe's Poems. + 164 Michael Angelo's Sonnets + 71 Poems of Evolution. + 146 Snow-Bound, Pied Piper. + 9 Great English Poems. + 79 Enoch Arden. Tennyson. + 68 Shakespeare's Sonnets. + 173 Vision of Sir Launfal. + 222 The Vampire and Other Poems. Kipling. + 237 Prose Poems. Baudelaire. + + +Science + + 190 Psycho-Analysis--The Key to Human Behavior. Fielding. + 49 Three Lectures on Evolution. Haeckel. + 42 From Monkey to Man. + 288 Reflections on Modern Science. Huxley. + 202 Survival of the Fittest. H. M. Tichenor. + 191 Evolution vs. Religion. Balmforth. + 133 Electricity Explained. + 92 Hypnotism Made Plain. + 53 Insects and Men: Instinct and Reason Darrow. + 189 Eugenics. Ellis. + 107 How to Strengthen Mind and Memory. + 108 How to Develop a Healthy Mind. + 109 How to Develop a Strong Will. + 110 How to Develop a Magnetic Personality. + 111 How to Attract Friends. + 112 How to Be a Leader of Others. + 140 Biology and Spiritual Philosophy. Tichenor. + + +Series of Debates + + 11 Debate on Religion. John H. Holmes and George Bowne. + 39 Did Jesus Ever Live? + 130 Controversy on Christianity. Ingersoll and Gladstone. + 43 Marriage and Divorce. Horace Greeley and Robert Owen. + 208 Debate on Birth Control. Mrs. Sanger and Winter Russell. + 121 Rome or Reason. Ingersoll and Manning. + 122 Spiritualism. Conan Doyle and McCabe. + 171 Has Life Meaning? + 206 Capitalism vs. Socialism. Seligman and Nearing. + 13 Is Free Will a Fact or a Fallacy? + 234 McNeal-Sinclair Debate on Socialism. + + +Miscellaneous + + 192 Book of Synonyms. + 25 Rhyming Dictionary. + 78 How to Be an Orator. + 82 Common Faults in Writing English. + 127 What Expectant Mothers Should Know. + 81 Care of the Baby. + 136 Child Training. + 137 Home Nursing. + 14 What Every Girl Should Know. Mrs. Sanger. + 34 Case for Birth Control. + 91 Manhood: Facts of Life Presented to Men. + 83 Marriage Past, Present and Future. Besant. + 74 On Threshold of Sex. + 98 How to Love. + 172 Evolution of Love. Key. + 203 Rights of Women. Ellis. + 209 Aspects of Birth Control. Medical, Moral, Sociological. + 143 Pope Leo on Socialism. + 152 Foundations of Labor Movement. Phillips. + 30 What Life Means to Me. Jack London. + 93 How to Live 100 Years. + 167 Plutarch on Health. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Life of Abraham Lincoln, by John Hugh Bowers + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN *** + +***** This file should be named 19404.txt or 19404.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/4/0/19404/ + +Produced by Turgut Dincer, Jeff G. and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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