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diff --git a/old/68423-0.txt b/old/68423-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index b6bf4dc..0000000 --- a/old/68423-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,2861 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of The story of Abraham Lincoln, by Mary -A. Hamilton - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: The story of Abraham Lincoln - The children's heroes series - -Author: Mary A. Hamilton - -Editor: John Lang - -Illustrator: S. T. Dadd - -Release Date: June 29, 2022 [eBook #68423] - -Language: English - -Produced by: D A Alexander and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team - at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was created from images - of public domain material made available by the University - of Toronto Libraries.) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF ABRAHAM -LINCOLN *** - - - - - - THE CHILDREN’S HEROES SERIES - EDITED BY JOHN LANG - - - THE STORY OF - ABRAHAM LINCOLN - - - - -[Illustration--Map of the Southern United States] - - - - -[Illustration: For the first time he saw negroes being scourged] - - - - - THE STORY OF - ABRAHAM - LINCOLN - - BY MARY A. HAMILTON - WITH PICTURES BY S. T. DADD - - LONDON: T. C. & E. C. JACK - NEW YORK: E. P. DUTTON & CO. - - - - - TO - MARGOT - - - - -O CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN! - - “O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done! - The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won. - The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, - While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring; - But O heart! heart! heart! - O the bleeding drops of red, - Where on the deck my Captain lies, - Fallen cold and dead. - - O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells; - Rise up--for you the flag is flung--for you the bugle trills, - For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths--for you the shores a-crowding: - For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning; - Here Captain! dear father! - This arm beneath your head! - It is some dream that on the deck - You’ve fallen cold and dead. - - My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still, - My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will, - The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done, - From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won; - Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells! - But I with mournful tread - Walk the deck; my Captain lies, - Fallen cold and dead.” - - --_Walt Whitman._ - - - - -CONTENTS - - - Chapter Page - - I. Boyhood 1 - II. The Young Backwoodsman 17 - III. Slavery 30 - IV. Lincoln the Lawyer 44 - V. Defeat of the Little Giant 57 - VI. The New President and Secession 73 - VII. The War 84 - VIII. Victory 100 - IX. “O Captain! My Captain!” 110 - - - - -LIST OF PICTURES - - - “For the first time he saw negroes being - scourged” _Frontispiece_ - - “The bullet passed right through his heart” 6 - - “Sometimes he did sums on the wooden shovel” 14 - - “His huge arms closed round Armstrong like a - vice” 24 - - “Springing to his feet, he poured out what was in - his mind” 58 - - Lincoln reading Emancipation Proclamation to his - Cabinet 94 - - Lincoln discussing plan of campaign with General - Grant 104 - - “Lincoln visited all the divisions of his army in - turns” 110 - - - - -THE STORY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN - - -CHAPTER I - -BOYHOOD - - -IN this little book I am going to try to tell you something about -Abraham Lincoln. There is far more to say about him than can be fitted -into so small a space; and perhaps when you are older you will read -about him for yourselves, and read his wonderful speeches. - -The greatest names in American history are those of George Washington -and Abraham Lincoln. These two men are great in the true sense of the -word; they are great because they loved their country, purely and -passionately, better than themselves, and gave their lives to its -service. They thought nothing of their own honour and glory: to the -last they were simple and true. Americans may well be proud of two -such patriots; and from them every one may be glad to learn what real -greatness means. Their work has made America what it is. - -Less than forty years before Abraham Lincoln was born, America belonged -to England. In the time of Charles I., numbers of people who loved -freedom and hated the wrongful government of the king left their -country and sailed to the New World. Samuel Lincoln was one of these -men. - -For a long time they were few in number. The greatest part of the -country was unknown forest, inhabited by wild beasts, or vast plains -which belonged to fierce tribes of Red Indians. Life for the early -settlers was very hard and rough. They had to cut down trees to build -their houses, and to kill wild animals to get their food. Nevertheless -they soon grew to love the country where they lived, where they married -and brought up their children; and their wild open life made freedom -more precious to them than anything else. They began to resent the -action of the English Government, which wanted to tax them to pay for -wars which were agreed upon in the Parliament in London, where America -had no voice to speak for her. On July 4, 1776, in the reign of -George III., the chief citizens met together and declared that America -was a free united country, with a right to govern itself. The 4th of -July--“Independence Day”--is the greatest day of all in America. - -For seven years there was war. In this war Abraham’s great-grandfather, -John Lincoln, served as a soldier. The Americans were led by George -Washington. - -England was defeated, and America--the United States of America--was -a free country. From this time on, America belonged to the Americans. -But a great many years had to pass before they made of the country the -America that we know. Now there are towns everywhere: you can get from -one end to the other of the great country, far bigger than the whole -of Europe, by trains that travel day and night from north to south and -east to west. Then there were very few towns, most of them along the -coast, and no railways. All the west was unknown. - -After the war was over, bands of explorers set out to fight the -Indians and to find new homes for themselves. And Abraham Lincoln’s -grandfather, after whom he was named, was one of the first of these -explorers. He sold his little piece of land in Virginia, and tramped -through the forests till he found a place to build a new home, carrying -his youngest son Thomas on one shoulder, and with his loaded rifle in -his other hand ready to shoot any Indian who should attack him. In -Kentucky some white men had already settled and built a small fort; -near it Lincoln cut down trees and built a hut for himself and his wife -and his three sons to live in. - -When Abraham was a small boy he used to listen to the stories which his -father Thomas told of their life there in the constant fear of Indian -attack. There was one story which Thomas told very often, the story of -his father’s death. - -He was at work cutting down the trees, so as to clear an open space -near the house which he could plough and then sow with seed. - -One morning he set out as usual with his three boys. They were talking -together as they walked, and none of them saw that behind one of the -trees an Indian was hiding, his dark skin strangely painted with arrows -and circles in white and scarlet, and on his head a tuft of black -feathers standing upright and waving as he moved. In his hand he had a -gun. As soon as the father had passed, the Indian came out from behind -the tree, moving without making any sound. He shot at Abraham from -behind, and the bullet passed right through his heart. The father fell -down dead before the eyes of his sons. They were terrified. The two -eldest ran off, one to the house and the other to the fort, to bring -help. Thomas, the youngest, was only six. He could not run so fast as -his brothers, and he was too much frightened to try. He stood still -beside his father’s body, not understanding what had happened. His -eldest brother, Mordecai, made all speed to the house. As soon as he -reached it he took down a gun, loaded it, and jumped up to the window -so that he might shoot at the Indian out of it. As he looked out he saw -the Indian walk up to the place where the dead body lay, look at it for -a moment, then pick up little Thomas, put him under his arm, and turn -to walk away with him. Mordecai felt his heart stand still with fear; -but he was a brave boy, and his father had taught him how to shoot at -a long distance. He aimed straight at the white star painted on the -Indian’s naked chest. There was an awful moment. Then the Indian fell -back dead upon the ground, dropping the child from his arms. Thomas ran -to the house as fast as his legs would carry him, screaming with fear, -for now several other Indians began to appear from the wood. Mordecai -fired again and again at them from the house; and people came from the -fort, brought by his brother, and drove the Indians away. - -Mordecai, when he grew up, spent his life in waging war upon the -Indians, killing them wherever he met them. Thomas was neither so -strong nor so clever as his brother. He became a carpenter, but he -was never a very good carpenter. He was not very good at anything but -sitting by the fire telling stories. He did that very well indeed, and -people generally were fond of him; but he was not a successful person. -He had none of his son’s wonderful power of work; he always wanted to -do something else, not the thing before him, and live somewhere else, -not settle down to work where he was. - -[Illustration: The bullet passed right through his heart] - -He built himself a log-cabin at Elizabethtown, on the edge of the -forest, and when he was twenty-eight he got married and took his wife -to live there. - -It is said that all great men have had great mothers. Nancy Hanks had -much more character than her husband, and her son was much more like -her. She had a very sweet, unselfish nature, and every one loved her. -She had had more education than her husband, and could read and write: -she taught him to sign his name. - -After their first child came--a daughter called Sarah--Thomas Lincoln, -who always thought he could make a fortune somewhere else, moved -farther west to a place called Nolin’s Creek. The place was not at -all attractive, but it was cheap. The soil was hard; it was rocky -and barren, and nothing but weeds seemed to grow in it. Only a very -energetic man could have made much out of it, and Thomas was not very -energetic. They were very poor. - -It was here, in an uncomfortable log-cabin, that his son Abraham was -born, on the 12th of February 1809; and here he lived until he was -seven. - -The hut had only one room. It was very roughly built. Stout logs had -been laid on top of one another, then bound together with twigs, and -the holes filled up with clay and grass and handfuls of dead leaves. -There was no ceiling, only the log roof. - -The two children climbed up a shaky ladder to a loft in the roof, where -they slept on a bed of dry leaves, covered with an old deerskin, lying -close together to keep themselves warm. As they lay there, they could -count the stars that looked in through the spaces between the logs that -made the roof. The windows had no glass; the door was only an opening -over which a deerskin was hung as a curtain. In winter it was terrible. -The wind blew in, icy cold; there was nothing to keep it out, except -when sometimes the entrance was blocked up with snow, and no one could -go out or come in until a pathway had been dug. - -In the autumn the house used to be full of dead leaves that whirled -about in the middle of the floor. The only comfort in the hut was the -huge fire; it filled up nearly the whole of one side, and in front of -it was a great bearskin rug. On this the two children spent the days -in winter, playing together, or leaning against their mother’s knee -while she told them stories--fairy tales, or true stories about Indians -and old American history, or parables from the Bible. In the winter you -could not keep warm anywhere else; and in the autumn there were damp -fogs that made it unwholesome outside, or heavy rains that came through -the roof; the only thing to do was to get as near the fire as possible. -Above it were ranged all the household pots and pans; the meat, a -haunch of venison, or a couple of rabbits, hung from the roof. Cooking -was very simple, for there was no choice of food: it consisted of game -shot in the forest, or fish caught in the streams, roots and berries -from the wood; bread was made of flour ground from Indian corn, which -was the only thing that grew in the rough fields. Until he was a grown -man Abraham had never tasted any other sort of bread. - -The life was uncomfortable, often dangerous--for an Indian attack was -possible at any time--and always the same. No visitors came to see -the Lincolns; there were few friends for them to go and see, only the -scattered settlers living in huts like their own. - -Abraham very soon learnt to make himself useful. He would cut and bring -home wood for the fire; help his mother in the house, or his father -out-of-doors. In summer he spent long hours roaming about the woods. He -soon learned to use a rifle, for it was not safe to go far unarmed, and -he became a good shot. He remembered very little about this time when -he grew older. One day he had been out fishing, and at the end of it -he caught a single fish. With this he was walking home to supper, when -he met a soldier. His mother had taught him he must always be good to -soldiers, who fought for their country, and therefore the little boy -gave the soldier his fish. - -His father always thought that he should be better off somewhere else. -He heard that across the Ohio River there was rich land which any one -could have who chose to go and take it: so when Abraham was seven, -and his sister nine, they moved. The father built a raft, and put his -family and all the goods he had, after selling his house, on to it, and -they sailed down the river, getting food on the way by shooting and -fishing, till they came to a place they liked called Little Pigeon -Creek. It was simply an opening in the forest. - -Here they disembarked, and for a year they lived in a roughly built -shelter, without a floor or doors or windows, while the father and -his son built a better cabin, and cut down trees and shrubs to clear -a place for planting corn. When it was finished, Abraham’s aunt and -uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Sparrow, and two cousins, John and Denis Hanks, -came to live with them. The three boys were great friends, and they -worked together on the farm until they all grew up. - -Abe, as they called him, was a very tall boy for his age: his long legs -were always in his way, and they seemed to get longer every day. He -never wore stockings until he was a young man, but moccasins, such as -the Indians wear--shoes of leather, with a fringe round the top--and -long deerskin leggings; a deerskin shirt which his mother had made -him, and a cap which was seldom on his head, it being covered enough -by his thick black hair. His hair was never tidy; always in his eyes, -and having to be pushed back. Abe was clever with his axe, and a good -workman; his mother had taught him to spell, but there was little -chance of learning in Pigeon’s Creek. - -For a year the little family lived there very happily; then a -mysterious sickness broke out in the place, no one knew why or how to -cure it. They called it the milk sickness; many people fell ill of it, -and hardly any one recovered. Mr. and Mrs. Sparrow both died of it in -the autumn, and a few days afterwards Mrs. Lincoln sickened and died -too. To her children this was a terrible grief. Abraham, though a boy -when she died, never forgot his mother: she had taught him his first -lessons, and from her came that sweetness of nature, that power of -thinking first of others, that made every one who knew him love him. It -was at the time of his mother’s death that the sadness which never left -him came upon him. In later life, people who really knew him said that, -in spite of his fun and power of making other people laugh, he was the -saddest man they ever knew. - -A dreary winter followed. At the end of it Thomas Lincoln brought home -a new wife to his little cabin. Sally Bush was a widow, with three -children; she was a good and kind woman, and Abe really loved her -and she him. She said afterwards that he had never all his life given -her a cross word or look, or refused to do anything she asked him; -that he was the best boy she had ever seen. He was indeed the sunshine -of the house; but in many ways he was very lonely. He was hungry for -knowledge, for books and teaching. All the schooling he ever had was -a month now and then with a travelling teacher who passed through -Pigeon’s Creek on his way to somewhere else; but none of these teachers -knew much beyond the three R’s: one who knew Latin was regarded as a -sort of magician. In all, he had not so much as one year at school, -taught by five different teachers. - -But Abe was not the sort of boy to learn nothing because there was -nobody to teach him. He had a few books that had been his mother’s, -and he read them again and again until he knew everything that was in -them. John Hanks, his cousin, says of him: “When Abe and I returned to -the house from work, he would go to the cupboard, snatch a piece of -corn-bread, take down a book, sit down, cock his legs as high as his -head, and read.” The Bible and “Pilgrim’s Progress,” “Æsop’s Fables,” -and “Robinson Crusoe,” these were his books; he knew them by heart. -In the intervals of work he used to tell them to his companions. He -thought over every word until he understood it. In this way he learned -more from a few books than many people do from whole libraries, because -he learned to think. He questioned everything, and asked himself if he -thought so too, and why he thought so. - -One day he borrowed the life of George Washington from a farmer who -lived near; as he lay in the loft he read it with eagerness. In the -middle he was called away to work, and in the meantime the rain came in -and ruined the book. Abraham went in despair to the farmer and told him -what had happened. “Never mind,” said the farmer. “You do three days’ -work for me for nothing and you may keep the book; I don’t want it.” To -his joy he thus became possessed of a new treasure to be studied again -and again. This book more than any other made him a patriot: he longed -to get out into the great big world where he could serve his country. -In the evenings he used to sit silent for hours, thinking. Sometimes he -did sums of all sorts on the wooden shovel; making figures on it with -a piece of charcoal. When it was quite full he shaved off the top -with his knife so as to have a clean slate in the morning. - -[Illustration: Sometimes he did sums on the wooden shovel] - -All his companions liked Abe and admired him. He worked very hard, -but farm work did not interest him; he liked dinner and play better; -and sometimes he used to stop work and climb on to a gate or a -dead tree-stump, and make absurd speeches or comic sermons to his -companions, or recite passages from his favourite books. - -They thought him a quaint fellow, with some strange ideas. One of these -strange ideas was his tenderness to animals. He never cared much for -sport, because it seemed to him cruel. He showed his tenderness to -animals when quite a small boy. One day he was playing in the woods -with a boy called John Davis. In their game they ran a hedgehog into a -crevice between two rocks, and it got caught fast. For two hours they -tried every sort of plan to get it out, but without any success. They -were not able to pull it out, and it could not move itself. Abraham -could not bear to leave the poor thing to die in pain. He ran off to -the blacksmith’s shop, quite a quarter of a mile away, and borrowed a -pole with an iron hook fastened to the end; with this they were able -to set the little animal free. This care for animals was only one sign -of Abraham’s tenderness of heart. All little children and old people -trusted him and his word. He was very soon known as “Honest Abe.” - - - - -CHAPTER II - -THE YOUNG BACKWOODSMAN - - -FOR Abraham life was dull and very monotonous: the round of work was -much the same, summer and winter. He longed to escape from the dull -work of a farm labourer; to go out and see the world. Until he was -twenty-one, however, he was bound to serve his father; and his father -seems to have had no idea that his son was fit for anything better than -ordinary farm work. Other people nevertheless were struck by Abraham. - -Until he was nineteen he had not left home at all; but then one day a -rich landowner who lived near came to him. He wanted some one to help -his son to take a raft loaded with different kinds of goods down the -Ohio River, selling the goods at the different places they passed. -Abraham had struck this Mr. Gentry as being an honest and capable lad; -he therefore asked him to undertake the voyage, and Abraham consented -at once, glad of any chance of seeing something of life outside the -settlement. - -He took charge of the raft and steered it successfully down the river; -the voyage took them past the great southern sugar plantations, right -down to New Orleans. They had no adventures of any sort until they had -almost come to New Orleans. - -One night they encamped at Baton Rouge, a place on the bank of the -river. Here they fastened their raft, and lay down to sleep on it for -the night, wrapped up in thick blankets. They were both sound asleep. -Suddenly Abraham started up. He heard the sound of many soft footsteps -all round him. In the darkness, at first, he could see nothing; then -he became aware that a band of negroes was attacking the raft, ready -to steal their goods and to murder them. Abraham’s cry waked up his -companion, young Allan Gentry, and they threw themselves upon the -negroes. If Abraham had not been uncommonly strong and active they -must both have lost their lives, for the negroes far outnumbered -them. He seized a huge log of wood, which served him as a club, and -brandished it in his hand. His great height and the unknown weapon -which he whirled round his head, terrified the negroes. He hit first -one and then another on the head and threw them overboard, Allan Gentry -helping. The fight was very fierce for a few moments, and then the -negroes turned and fled. Abraham and Allan pursued them a long way into -the darkness, but the thieves did not dare to return, though two men -could not have held their own for long against such numbers. - -The voyage ended successfully, and Abraham returned home for two more -years. At the end of that time his father again moved. John Hanks had -gone west to Illinois; he wrote to his uncle, praising the new country, -and urging him to come there too. Thomas Lincoln was always ready to -try something new: he sold his farm and his land to a neighbour. All -the goods of the household were packed in a waggon drawn by oxen; the -family walked beside it. They tramped for more than a week until they -came to the new State; the journey was not easy. It was February. The -forest roads were ankle-deep in mud; the prairie a mere swamp, very -difficult for walking. They had to cross streams that were swollen into -rivers by the rains. - -At last they arrived. John Hanks had chosen a plantation for them, and -got logs ready for building the house. Abraham worked very hard, and -helped his father and John Hanks to make a cabin; then, with his own -hands, he ploughed fifteen acres of ground. When that was done he cut -down walnut trees, split them, and built a high and solid fence which -went right round his father’s property. - -Abraham lived in Illinois until he was made President of the United -States. Once he was addressing a meeting there, years after this, and -Denis Hanks marched in amid the shouts and applause of the crowd, -carrying on his shoulder a piece of the railing that Abraham had made -for his father. It is now in the Museum at Washington, kept as a -national treasure. How little could Abraham himself or any one who knew -him at this time, have dreamed that this rail-splitter was to be the -greatest man in America. - -The winter that followed was one of the most severe ever known in -Illinois; it is always referred to as the winter of deep snow. When -spring came at last, Abraham said good-bye to his father and mother, -and went out into the world to make a livelihood for himself. His -boyish days were over. He was now twenty-one, and very tall and strong -for his age. More than six feet four inches in height, he seldom met -a man taller than himself. He is a great exception to the saying that -all great men have been small--for example, Napoleon, Cæsar, Hannibal, -Shakespeare. Abraham was very well built; it was not till he stood up -among other men that you realised that he was head and shoulders taller -than most of them. - -In the ordinary sense of the word, he had had no education. He knew -no language but his own, and that not very well at this time. When -asked could he write, he replied, “Well, I guess I could make a few -rabbit-tracks.” He had taught himself all the arithmetic he knew. But -he knew two things that are the most important that can be got from any -training: how to think, and how to work. When he made clear to himself -what it was right to do, he did it without talking about it, all his -life. - -His experience in taking Mr. Gentry’s cargo down to New Orleans -induced a merchant called Offutt to offer him another job of the -same kind. Offutt was an adventurous sort of dealer, who did all -kinds of business. He wanted some one to help him who had a head on -his shoulders, and he soon saw that Lincoln had plenty of sense. He -therefore engaged him, and Lincoln took his cousin, John Hanks, to help -him. They did not make much money by the voyage, but Lincoln showed -great skill in managing the raft. - -On this trip Lincoln came for the first time really face to face with -slavery. New Orleans was a great slave market, and they spent some -time there. For the first time he saw negroes being sold in the open -streets, chained together in gangs. For the first time, too, he saw -negroes being beaten; fastened to a block and scourged till the blood -ran from their backs. Every one took it all as a matter of course, but -Lincoln was deeply struck. His heart bled. At the time he said nothing, -but he was silent for a long while afterwards, thinking over what -he had seen. There and then, as his cousin used to tell afterwards, -slavery ran its iron into him: to see these men chained was a torment -to him, and he never forgot it: the picture was printed on his memory -never to be forgotten, only to be wiped out when there were no more -slaves in America. He was often in the slave states after this; but -slavery always seemed to him horrible. - -Offutt was quite satisfied with the way in which the young backwoodsman -had managed the trip. After his return he offered him a post in his -grocery store at New Salem. He had a kind of half shop, half office, -with a mill behind it; here he sold everything that any one could want -to buy--grocery, drapery, stationery, miscellaneous goods of all kinds. -Lincoln was clerk, superintendent of the mill, and general assistant. - -Offutt soon began to admire his assistant immensely. He declared that -Lincoln was the cleverest fellow he knew--he could read, and talk like -a book; he was so strong and active that he could beat any one at -running, jumping, or wrestling. Lincoln did not know any one in New -Salem, and this “wooling and pulling,” as he called it, of Offutt’s -annoyed him a good deal; as he knew, it was not at all likely to make -people like him. The young fellows of the place did not mind his -supposed cleverness; they knew nothing about that, and cared nothing; -but they did resent the idea that he was stronger than they were. - -At first they did nothing: he looked rather a dangerous person to -attack, and not at all likely to take things meekly. Offutt’s loud and -continual praise, however, was more than they could stand. As Lincoln -was on his way home one evening a group of the strongest fellows in -New Salem, the “boys of Clary’s Grove,” attacked him. Jock Armstrong, -the biggest and burliest of them all, challenged him to a “wrastle.” -Jock was not as tall as Lincoln, but he was much more solidly built, -with huge shoulders like an ox and immensely strong arms: no one in New -Salem had ever been able to throw him, and he expected an easy victory -over this strange clerk. - -But Abe was as strong and as skilful as Jock: though he was thin his -muscles were made of iron; his huge arms closed round the burly fellow -like a vice. Even when his companions came to the champion’s rescue -Abe was a match for them. Armstrong was a sportsman and not ashamed -to take a beating: he admired a man who was able to throw him. After -this Lincoln had no stauncher friend, and he soon grew to be a person -of importance in New Salem. His strength and his honesty made him -respected. - -[Illustration: His huge arms closed round Armstrong like a vice] - -Of his honesty there are numberless stories. One evening he was making -up his accounts for the day. While doing so he found that he had -charged a woman, who had come in in the morning to buy a great number -of little things, 6-1/4 cents--that is, about 3d.--too much. Until it -was time to shut up the shop the money seemed to burn in his pocket. -It was late when the time for locking up came, but he could not wait. -He started off at once for the woman’s house, though it was several -miles off, and walked there and back in the darkness to pay her her 3d. -before he went to bed. He knew he could not sleep until he had done so. - -People trusted him: those who were in trouble soon found out how wise -and gentle he was, and they went to him for advice and help. He had a -wonderful way of quite forgetting himself, and only thinking of making -other people happy: generally silent, he could tell stories so that -every one laughed. But though he enjoyed talking and going to see -people, he always worked very hard. - -And he did not only work in the shop: he was always eager to learn -more. After the day’s task was done, he would walk miles to get hold of -some book that he wanted, and read it on the way home. When his cousin, -a lazy fellow, wrote to ask his advice, he replied: “What is wrong with -you is your habit of needlessly wasting time: go to work; that is the -only cure for your difficulty.” - -When he came to New Salem he met people who had been well educated, and -he was at once struck by the difference between their way of speaking -and his. He resolved to learn to speak correctly. One evening he walked -to Kirkham and back--it was twelve miles away--and bought a grammar -there. For the next few weeks he spent all his spare time in studying -it: he used to sit with his feet on the mantelpiece and work for hours -without moving. In this way he soon knew all there was to know about -grammar. When you read his speeches you will find that they are written -in English as beautiful and simple as that of the Bible, which was the -book he knew best of all. - -He only remained with Offutt for a year. Offutt was too fond of talking -to make his business a success, and he had to give up the store. It was -Lincoln’s first attempt at earning his living, and learning a trade did -not seem very successful. Instead of at once looking for some new work -of the same sort he enlisted as a soldier. The State of Illinois was -thrown into a state of wild excitement by an attack made at this time -by a powerful Indian tribe. Black Hawk crossed the Mississippi at the -head of an army of red warriors. To drive them back, the Government -of the country called for volunteers, and Abraham, who was one of the -first to offer himself, was made a captain. The men entered for three -months, during which they did a great deal of skirmishing and marching -about, but took part in no regular battles. At the end of the time -most of them went back to work. Abraham enlisted again; this time as -a private in a battalion of scouts. He was not present at any battle, -but he learnt something of war and a good deal of soldiers; it was hard -work and not much glory. By the autumn Black Hawk was captured, and the -war was at an end. Lincoln’s horse had been stolen, and he had to walk -back to New Salem, a three days’ tramp. His campaigning had not been a -great success. - -When he returned, the elections for members of the Illinois Parliament -were going on, and he offered himself as a candidate; spending the -ten days between his return from the war and the time of election in -making speeches. In New Salem he was popular, but he was not yet well -known even there; he was young, and had had no experience. He was not -elected, but he made good friends at the election time, and he began to -be a capital speaker. - -Meetings were not very formal in those days. One day when Lincoln was -addressing a large hall full of people, in the middle of his speech -he saw that a ruffian in the crowd was attacking a friend of his; -they were struggling together, and his friend seemed to be having the -worst of it. Lincoln jumped down from the platform where he stood, and -marched to the middle of the room. He picked up the ruffian in his -mighty arms and threw him some ten feet, so that he fell right outside -the hall. There he lay, and did not attempt to return. Lincoln came -back on to the platform and went on with his speech, just as if nothing -had happened. - -After the election he thought of becoming a blacksmith. Instead of -this, he joined with a man called Berry in buying a store. Berry was -a stupid and not very honest man. He got into debt; then he took to -drinking, and soon afterwards died, leaving Lincoln with the business -ruined and a lot of debts to pay. - -After this he did not try storekeeping again: he was made postmaster -of New Salem. This meant very little work: few people wrote letters -there: he could carry the whole post in his hat, and he read every -newspaper that came. He now had plenty of time for reading, and he -read ceaselessly. Most of all, he read American history. The “Life of -Washington” had been his earliest treasure; and as a boy he had pored -over an old copy of the statutes of Indiana. This was, perhaps, the -beginning of his interest in law. Now he was in a town, though a small -one, and it was possible to get hold of books. He used to lie on his -back under a tree, with his feet high up against the trunk, only moving -so as to keep in the shade, and laying down the book now and then to -think over what he had read and make sure that he understood it. - -He studied surveying in this way for six weeks, and John Calhoun, the -surveyor of the county, was so much astonished by his knowledge that -he made him his assistant. His reading in law and history deepened his -interest in politics: nothing interested him so much. He was resolved -sooner or later to get into Parliament. One failure could not make him -despair. There was a great world outside, and the door into Parliament -was the door into that world. He was resolved to make his way in. - - - - -CHAPTER III - -SLAVERY - - -IT would be a great mistake to think that Abraham Lincoln won success -easily. - -Looking back over the lives of great men, one is apt to think “How -fortune helped them;” “What astonishing luck they must have had;” when -one knows the end, it seems certain from the beginning. But when you -know more about any one really great man, you are sure to find that he -has risen only by endless hard work, and by knowing from the beginning -what he wanted to be and do, and thinking only of that. - -Success is never easy, and for Lincoln the path to it was a hard and -uphill way. You have seen in what difficulties his life began; how he -taught himself everything he learned, and made for himself every penny -that he possessed. His first effort to get into Parliament, like his -first efforts to make a living, seemed a failure. But this did not make -him despair. Other people had risen, and he was going to rise. He was -sure of one thing, that there is always plenty of room at the top, and -he meant to reach the top. There is always a place for a man of strong -purpose, who is honest, and who can think for himself. If a man really -wants to serve his country, nothing need prevent him from doing it. And -Lincoln saw that the first step to serving your country well is to be a -good workman, a good friend, and a good citizen of your own town. - -When the next election came he stood again, and this time he was -elected; and after his two years of service came to an end, he was -elected again. For eight years he was a member of the Parliament of his -own State of Illinois; then, after four years away from politics, he -was made member of Congress--that is, of the American Parliament, to -which the States send representatives. - -To be in Parliament was to be in touch with the big world; to have a -share in the settlement of big questions. In the Illinois Parliament, -Lincoln met a great many clever men; men who rose to important posts -later. Few of them suspected that this tall, awkward, country-looking -young lawyer, who did not speak much, but could tell such -extraordinarily funny stories when he chose, was going to rise to be -American President, to prove himself greater than any American of their -time. Most of the members were small lawyers like himself. They were -sent to Parliament because they were men in whom their fellow-citizens -had confidence. They were honest men, but few of them had any more -knowledge of politics than Lincoln himself. - -The State of Illinois was very new, and its affairs had not yet become -complicated. Lincoln soon learnt the ins and outs of parliamentary -business; and he only found one man who was a better speaker than -himself. This was a man with whom he was to have a great deal to do all -his life; a man already well known in politics, and followed by a large -party. - -His name was Stephen Arnold Douglas. He was two years younger than -Lincoln; like him he had been brought up in the rough surroundings of -the West, where he had gone as a boy. His father was poor, but he -was a gentleman. Well educated himself, he had given his son a good -education of a sort. - -When he was twenty-one Douglas became a lawyer. Very soon he became -the foremost barrister in North Illinois, and soon entered the State -Parliament. In the year of Lincoln’s election he had been made -Secretary of State; he was therefore a person of importance. Douglas -was extremely clever; as a boy he learnt things quickly, and remembered -them easily, unlike Lincoln, who learnt very slowly; he had a wonderful -power of speech: he was ready and able to speak on any subject, and, -even if he really knew very little about it, he always gave people the -impression that he knew everything. He used to tell people what they -wanted to hear, whereas Lincoln had a way of speaking the truth whether -it was pleasant or not. - -Douglas was very popular: he understood how to rule men, and he was -intensely ambitious. Ambition was the strongest feeling in his heart; -and his ambition was for himself: he dreamed already of being President -of the United States. He was a short, thickly-built man; but it was the -smallness of his mind, his selfish aims, that made Lincoln say that -Douglas was the least man that he had ever met: he seemed to “Honest -Abe” to care not at all for what he said or did, so long as his own -success was safe; success was his one object. - -It was an ambition very different from Lincoln’s. Indeed, Lincoln was -unlike any of the members whom he met: his aims were quite different -from theirs. He looked to a future beyond himself. He did not think of -his own success. What he wanted to attain by success was the power to -help his country. Patriotism was his first and strongest feeling, and -his patriotism was of the truest kind. He did not want to make America -great because she ruled over a vast extent of territory: such greatness -did not appeal to him at all. He wanted her to be great in the sense -that she really lived up to the ideal set before her for ever in the -Declaration of Independence--the ideal of a union of free men governing -themselves well. - -And Lincoln’s ideals were real to him: in every question he was guided -by his patriotism. He did not mind saying what he thought, whether -people liked him for it or not: they must like him for what he was, -and not for what he said, and unless they loved what was right, their -liking was not worth having. When, after long thinking, he came to -see what he thought the truth on any subject, he spoke out so that -every one who heard must understand: he never said one thing and meant -another, as Douglas did: he was as honest in his thoughts as in his -actions. - -Now in American politics there was one great question, more important -than every other, the question of slavery. Cautious politicians, men -with an eye to their own success, thought that this question had better -be left alone. Really thoughtful men, men like Lincoln, saw that this -question could not be left alone for ever. Some day, and the sooner the -better, it must be settled. Anyhow, it was every honest man’s duty to -say what he thought. It is difficult now to realise quite what slavery -meant. Perhaps you have read or heard of a book called “Uncle Tom’s -Cabin.” It was written about this time by an American lady, who wanted -to make all Americans see what slavery did mean--how terrible it could -be. - -If you drew a line across America just south of Lincoln’s State of -Illinois, slavery did not exist in the Northern States; it did exist -in all the Southern States. Whenever the question was discussed, most -people from the North thought it rather a bad thing, some thought it a -very bad thing; people from the South all thought it was a good, or at -least, a necessary, thing. They all agreed as a rule in thinking that, -whether it was a good thing or a bad thing, there it was, and there was -no good discussing it. - -The real wrong lay far back in the past. Centuries ago, merchants had -brought negroes over from Africa, and sold them in America as slaves. - -As is always the case, when once the wrong had been brought in, -when the evil had begun, it was almost impossible to get rid of it -when people had grown used to it. When people could buy slaves who -did not cost very much to do work for them, they did not want to do -it themselves, especially if the work was disagreeable. They began -to believe that black men were intended by nature to do all the -disagreeable things. English merchants made great fortunes by bringing -slaves to America; and the English Government supported them. And when, -after the war, America was a free country, the Union of States which -made it so was half composed of States that held slaves. These slaves -were most valuable property. The men who drew up the Constitution, -George Washington and Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton, -declared in it, “All men are free and equal: all men possess rights, -which no one can take away from them.” The Northern States gave up -their slaves, and decided that slavery was illegal: the Southern States -did not. They refused to join the Union unless they were allowed to -keep their slaves. Now of course it was absurd to call a country free -where slavery existed, or to say that all men have rights when millions -of black men had no rights at all. - -To the Southerner a black man was not a man, but a piece of property. - -But it would not be quite fair to think that the Northerners who gave -up slaves had always more lofty ideas than the Southerners. You must -remember that slaves were much more useful in the South than in the -North. The climate of the North was cold, and the work not of the sort -that could be well done by untrained negroes. In the South it was -so hot that it was difficult for white men to work, and work on the -plantations needed no special skill. - -At the time when the Declaration of Independence was drawn up and -signed, one thing seemed to every American more important than -anything else: that the country should be united in one whole. North -and South must join together; no difference could outweigh a common -nationality. The Southerners would not join the Union unless they were -allowed to keep their slaves: therefore the Northerners left slavery in -the South. They hoped, however, that it would gradually die out; and -therefore a law was passed which declared that after twenty years no -more slaves were to be brought from Africa. - -When Southerners declared, as they very often did, that slaves were -very well treated, that they were much happier and more comfortable -than if they were free, this was true to a certain extent. Those slaves -who were employed in the houses and gardens of their masters, those who -were used as servants, were often very well treated. But however well -they were treated, it is wrong for a man to have other men entirely -in his power; wrong for him, and wrong for them. And although some -masters did not abuse their power, some did--and all could, if ever -they wanted to--without feeling that they were doing anything wrong. A -white gentleman could beat his black slave to death if he chose; he -would not be punished any more than if he beat a dog to death, and his -friends would still think him a gentleman. Moreover, far the greater -number of the slaves were not used as servants, but used as labourers -on the cotton plantations. Here they were under the charge of an -overseer. His one idea was to get as much work out of them as possible. -They worked all day, and at night were often herded together in any -sort of shed. - -After Eli Whitney, a young American, invented a machine called the -cotton gin, by using which one negro could pick twenty times as -much cotton in a day as before, the business of working the cotton -plantations with slaves made the Southern landowners very rich. -Slaves were cheap: in a few days they made as much for their masters -as they cost them, and their masters could make them work as hard -as they liked. They were quite ignorant: their masters taught them -nothing; they had no way of escape; they were absolutely at the mercy -of the overseer with his whip. The masters came to regard these black -fellow-beings simply as property: not so valuable as a horse, rather -more useful than a dog; they often forgot that they had any feelings. -Children were sold away from their parents; a husband was sent to one -plantation, and his wife to another. They were sometimes beaten for -the smallest fault. If they tried to escape, bloodhounds were used to -hunt them down. Dealers led them about in chains, and sold them in the -public market exactly like animals. People who came from the North -to the South, as Abraham Lincoln did, on his trip down the Ohio, and -saw how the slaves were treated, were often shocked; but in the South -people were used to it. - -North of a certain line, slavery did not exist. Slaves used sometimes -to run away from their masters and escape across this line; but in -every Northern State there was a law, that escaped slaves had to be -handed back to their master if he claimed them. The masters used to -offer a reward to any one who handed back to them the body of their -slave, alive or dead. This led to all sorts of difficulties, because -in the Northern States a great many free negroes lived. Very often -some one who was eager for the reward would capture an innocent free -negro and hand him over to the master, declaring that he answered to -the description of the missing slave. The question as to whether he -was, or not, was decided not in the Northern State where he had been -captured, but in the Southern State where the master lived, and no -Southern court could be trusted to decide fairly in a case between a -white man and a black. - -Gradually this injustice roused a small party in the North, which -openly declared that slavery was an abominable thing, and ought not to -exist in America. The Abolitionists, as they called themselves, said -that it was a disgrace to a free country that slavery should exist in -it; that as long as it did exist, the Declaration of Independence had -no meaning. Slavery ought to be abolished. - -When Abraham Lincoln was about twenty-one, a paper called _The -Liberator_ began to appear. It was edited by a great man called William -Lloyd Garrison. Its object was to rouse people to see the evils of -slavery, and to get it made illegal. The Abolitionists were few in -number, and very unpopular. They had to suffer for their beliefs in -the North as well as in the South. The offices where _The Liberator_ -was printed were attacked by mobs of furious people, who burst in -at the doors, broke every pane of glass in the windows, destroyed -the printing press, and threw the type into the river. In St. Louis, -William Lloyd Garrison was dragged round the town with a rope round his -waist, while crowds of angry people hooted and hissed, spat at him, -and threw rotten eggs and stones at his head. He only just escaped -death. Many of his followers were murdered in the open streets. Even -in Illinois, an innocent preacher, who had sympathised with them, was -thrown into the river and drowned. - -The Southern States were roused to fury. In the North, even sensible -people who did not like slavery thought it very unwise to say anything -against it. Slavery was a fact--it was no good to discuss it. Several -Northern States sent petitions to Parliament, declaring their opinion -that it was very unwise to discuss Abolition. - -In Illinois, this was the view taken by nearly all Lincoln’s friends. -Lincoln did not agree with them. He thought the Abolitionists very -often unwise; nothing, he saw, could be more dangerous than to rouse -the feeling of the South: but nothing could make him seem to approve of -slavery. - -For Lincoln to see that any action was right, and to do it, was the -same thing. He and one other man, called Stone, sent in a protest to -the Illinois Parliament; in it they declared that they believed slavery -to be founded upon injustice and upon bad policy. Lincoln spoke because -he must. He had seen what slavery meant, and he hated slavery. But he -saw that the South would not allow slavery to be abolished: if the -North tried to do it, the country would be divided into two halves. -He was not ready to face that. His love for his country came before -everything. Everything must be borne, rather than that it should be -divided. - -The Abolitionists were a small party; and for the next seventeen years, -the question of slavery was left as it was, as far as Parliament was -concerned. During these seventeen years, Lincoln was perpetually -turning it over in his mind; thinking and reading about it, and helping -other people to think about it too. - - - - -CHAPTER IV - -LINCOLN THE LAWYER - - -TWO years after Lincoln entered the Illinois Parliament, its meetings, -which had been held at Vandalia, were transferred to Springfield. In -Springfield Lincoln lived for the next five-and-twenty years, until -he left it to go to Washington as President of the United States. -Springfield was a country town, which thought itself rather important. -The people paid a good deal of attention to dress; they gave evening -parties of a quiet sort, where they played cards and talked politics. -The business of the most prominent persons in the town was law. Almost -all the members of Parliament were lawyers. - -Lincoln found that his surveying did not occupy his time, or bring in -a very large income; he had studied law-books, and knew very nearly -as much as most of the young barristers of Springfield. Major Stuart, -under whom he had served in the war against Black Hawk, took him into -partnership. The partnership was not very successful. Lincoln was -rather ignorant, and Stuart was too much occupied with his duties as -member of Congress--the American Parliament--to teach him much. - -After four years Lincoln left Stuart and joined another friend, Judge -Stephen D. Logan. Logan had made Lincoln’s acquaintance at the time -of his first unsuccessful candidature for the Illinois Parliament. He -had then greatly admired the young man’s pluck and good sense, and the -cheerful way in which he accepted his defeat. Later, he had been struck -by the sound reasoning of his political speeches. Logan himself was not -only a first-rate lawyer, he was a man of wide education and culture: -Abraham learned more than law from him. Even after Lincoln left the -partnership, and set up an office of his own, the two men remained -close friends. - -Although busy during the winter in Parliament, Lincoln worked very hard -at his business. He knew that no one can succeed in anything without -hard work, and he saw that to become a really good lawyer would help -him in politics, and make him a more useful citizen of the State. -Moreover, he understood, more clearly than most men have done, that -every deed in life is connected to every other; no man can escape the -consequences of what he is and does. Every act and every speech is -important. - -Lincoln was four times elected to the Illinois Parliament--that is, -he sat in it for eight years. For four years--between 1845-49--he was -member for Illinois in Congress. In Congress he spoke and voted against -the war that was being waged against Mexico. The aim of the war was the -conquest of Texas and California. The South urged this because they -wanted the number of slave-owning States to be equal to the number of -free States. They were always afraid that new States would be created -out of the undeveloped territory in the North-West; and, if this -were to happen, the slave States would be in a minority in Congress. -If Texas were added as a slave State, the slave States would have a -majority of one: there would be fourteen free and fifteen slave States. -The Northern members, for the most part, did not see the point; they -did not unite against the Southern demands; and consequently the South -succeeded. In the war Mexico was defeated, and Texas was added to the -Union. - -At the end of his last year of membership, 1849, Lincoln applied for -a post in the Government office. Why he did so it is difficult to -understand, for it would have put an end to his political career, as -officials may not sit in the House. Fortunately his request was refused. - -He returned to his home in Springfield, where he lived in a big, plain -house, painted a dirty yellow, with a big piece of untidy garden -behind, and a small field at the side. He had married seven years -before, and had now three sons. He was devoted to these boys, and used -to play all sorts of games with them, as they grew bigger. - -For the next five years he devoted himself mainly to his work as a -lawyer. He was now forty years of age. In Springfield and everywhere in -Illinois he was admired, respected, and loved. But the high opinion of -other people never made him easily satisfied with himself. To the end -of his life he never stopped working and learning. He now resolved to -become a really good lawyer. He knew that in law he could learn the art -of persuading people, and of expressing clearly what he wanted to say. -To help in this he took up the study of mathematics with extraordinary -energy. Examining his own speeches, he seemed to find in them some -confusion of thought. To make his own ideas clear, and to be sure that -he expressed them clearly and truly, and never conveyed to others an -impression that was not true, he bought a text-book of Euclid. The -first six books of this he learnt by heart. He said “I wanted to know -what was the meaning of the word ‘demonstrate.’ Euclid taught me what -demonstration was.” - -After a year or two Lincoln was regarded as the equal of any lawyer in -Springfield. He had one weakness, however. If he did not believe in the -justice of his case, or if he thought the man for whom he had to speak -was not quite honest, he did not defend well. His friend Judge Davis -says, “A wrong cause was poorly defended by him.” - -A story is told of a man who came to Lincoln’s office and asked his -help in getting six hundred dollars from a poor widow. Lincoln listened -to the man and then said, “Yes, there is no reasonable doubt but I can -gain your case for you. I can set a whole neighbourhood at loggerheads. -I can distress a widowed mother and her six fatherless children, and -thereby get for you six hundred dollars which rightfully belong, as it -appears to me, as much to them as it does to you. I advise you to try -your hand at making six hundred dollars some other way.” - -Every one in Springfield valued “Honest Abe’s” opinion. All sorts of -people brought their troubles to him. His sympathy and his tenderness -of heart made them trust him. He was one of the people; he never felt -himself above them. To the end of his life he did not grow proud, -and he was never ashamed of his early poverty. When he was President -he told some of his friends of a dream he had had, which might very -well have been true. He dreamt that at some big public meeting he was -walking through the hall up to the platform, from which he was going to -speak. As he passed, a lady sitting at the end of one of the rows of -seats said to another sitting next her, so loudly that he could hear: -“Is that Mr. Lincoln? Why, he looks a very common sort of person!” “I -thought to myself in my dream,” said Lincoln, “that it was true, but -that God Almighty seemed to prefer common people, for He had made so -many of them.” - -Nothing in Lincoln is more truly great than his power of seeing the -value of common things and common people. He knew that the things -which appeal to men as men, which are common to humanity, are the most -valuable of all. He counted on this when he abolished slavery. Freedom -is a right common to all men; and there is somewhere in every one an -instinct which knows that it is wrong to make other people do things -which are too disagreeable to do yourself. - -During these years at Springfield, Abraham read a great deal. -Shakespeare and Burns were his favourite poets: he knew Shakespeare -better than any other book except the Bible. He read and thought -unceasingly about politics, and he talked about them with his friends. -The history of America he studied until he knew everything there was -to know. Above all, he thought about slavery. Events were taking place -which made it plain that the question of slavery could not be left -where it was. It was no longer possible to act as if the difference -between North and South did not exist. - -As years went on the difference became more and more plain. The North, -which had been poor and barren, only half cultivated by ignorant and -uneducated settlers, was growing richer than the prosperous lazy -South. Workmen came to the North from all parts of the world: poor men -with good brains and strong arms, ready and able to work intelligently, -to improve the land, to make wheat grow where stones and bushes had -been. None of these men went to the South, for there work was done by -slaves so cheaply that no paid worker had a chance. But the difference -between the intelligent labour of free men working for themselves, and -the mechanical labour of slaves working for their masters, soon began -to tell. - -In the North schools sprang up everywhere: the people became better and -better educated. Men who had grown up in the backwoods, like Abraham -Lincoln, taught themselves, and rose to be lawyers and statesmen by -their own efforts; others who had had the chance of being taught, did -the same. It was possible for any man of brains to rise from the bottom -to the top. Inventions were made which enabled all kinds of new work to -be done and new wealth produced. The North was rich in material: richer -in the men she had to work it, who were helped and encouraged by the -freedom which threw every career open to real talent. - -In the South all power was in the hands of the aristocratic families, -who had had it always. The work was done by slaves: owners did not -want to educate their slaves, for then they were afraid that they would -want their freedom. The coal mines of the South were not discovered; -they could not have been worked by slaves. The South began to be very -jealous of the North, and the North began to disapprove of the South. -More and more people began to see that slavery was wrong: people were -not yet ready to say that slavery ought to cease to be, but they were -ready to say that it must not be extended. - -At the time of the Mexican war the South had shown that it wanted to -extend slavery. This frightened the North. In 1850 an agreement was -made, known as the Missouri Compromise. By this a line (36°30’), called -Mason and Dixon’s line, was drawn across the map of America. North of -this line, slavery was never to exist. Speakers on both sides declared -that the Missouri Compromise was as fixed as the Constitution itself. -Stephen Arnold Douglas was the loudest in expressing this opinion. “It -is eternal and fundamental,” he declared. - -Douglas was a trader of the great party known as the Democrats. He -held that the people of every State had a right to decide questions -affecting that State, and not the Central American Government. - -Douglas had one great aim, which was to him far more important than any -question of political right or wrong: he wanted to be made President. -To secure this, he saw that he must get the support of the South. To -win the support of the South, he took a most dangerous and important -step: one which was the immediate cause of the war which broke out six -years later. He declared that the people of any state or territory -could decide whether or not they would have slavery in their State: -they could establish it or prohibit it. - -He went further than this. Two new territories had been organised -in the north-west--Nebraska and Kansas. They claimed to be admitted -to the Union as States. Both States were, of course, north of Mason -and Dixon’s line, and therefore by the Missouri Compromise they must -be free States. But the South was bent on creating new slave States -as fast as the North could create free States: they wanted to make -Kansas a slave State. Stephen Douglas therefore introduced, in 1854, -the famous Kansas-Nebraska Bill. It declared that Kansas might be -slave-holding or free, as the people of the territory should decide. - -The result of this Bill was for the first time to unite together a -strong party in the North in opposition to the Democrats, who were -allied to the South. This new party called itself Republican. Lincoln -was a spokesman of their views. They declared, firstly, that Congress, -which is the Parliament representing all the States which together -formed the Union, has the right to decide whether slavery shall be -lawful in any particular State or not, and not the people of that -State alone. Secondly, they declared that, in the case of Kansas, -Congress had already, four years ago, decided that Kansas could not -have slavery, because it lay beyond the line, north of which slavery -could not exist. Resolutions were passed in many of the Northern -State Parliaments against the Kansas-Nebraska Bill. The Parliament of -Illinois sent one. - -Now it was quite clear to keen-sighted politicians that, while Douglas -and his party pretended that they wanted to give the people of Kansas -the choice between owning slaves and not doing so, what they really -wanted was to force Kansas to have slaves. Those who supported the -Missouri Congress declared that it was illegal to give Kansas the -choice however she used it. - -Events soon proved that Kansas was not to have any choice at all. -Kansas had few inhabitants; but the opinion of the people of the State -was against slavery. Next door to Kansas, however, on the east, was the -slave-holding State of Missouri. From Missouri bands of armed men came -into Kansas in order to vote for slavery at the election and to prevent -the real voters from using their votes against it. Free fighting went -on in the State. An election was held at which armed men kept away -those who would have voted for freedom, and a pro-slavery man was -chosen. But few of the people of Kansas had been allowed to vote. The -free party met at another place afterwards, and a genuine popular vote -elected an anti-slavery man. Civil war went on in Kansas for two years. - -Now the importance of these events is this. Up till now most people in -the North had believed that slavery ought to be left alone, because -it would gradually die out. The Kansas-Nebraska Bill and the Kansas -election made it perfectly clear that the South was not going to -let slavery die out; on the contrary, they wanted to spread it to -strengthen themselves against the North. - -Douglas was member for Chicago, in the north of Illinois. He came -down to Illinois to win the State to his views, and made a series -of speeches there. This at once called Lincoln to the fore. He saw -more clearly, perhaps, than any man in America what the Kansas Bill -meant. It meant that either North and South must separate, as the -Abolitionists--that is, the party which held that slavery ought to -cease to be--and some people in the South hoped; or that the North -would have to force the South to abandon the attempt to spread slavery. -He made a series of great speeches in Illinois, in which he made it -quite clear that Douglas and his followers, and the men of the South, -might say that they wanted to leave States free to have slavery or not -as they chose, but what they really desired was to force them to have -slavery whether they chose or not. “This declared indifference, but, as -I must think, covert real zeal for the spread of slavery, I cannot but -hate: I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery -itself ... I say that no man is good enough to govern another man -without that man’s consent. Slavery is founded upon the selfishness -of man’s nature; opposition to it, on his love of justice.” - - - - -CHAPTER V - -DEFEAT OF THE LITTLE GIANT - - -LINCOLN had worked very hard in Illinois. All this year he was making -speeches; educating the people of the State; helping them to understand -the big questions before them; making things clear in his own mind by -putting them into the clear and simple words that would carry their -importance to the minds of others. - -A great meeting was held, summoned by the editors of the newspapers -that were against the Kansas Bill; they invited prominent men from -different parts of the country to come and address them. - -Lincoln was among those who went, and his speech was by far the most -important of all that were delivered there. He had not, indeed, -intended to say anything; but he was roused by the weakness of those -who did address the meeting. Springing to his feet, he poured out what -was in his mind, and could not be kept back, in such burning and -eloquent words that the reporters dropped their pencils and listened -spellbound. The whole audience was carried away by excitement: it was -one of the greatest speeches that Lincoln ever made, we are told by -all who heard it, but there is no record of it. Lincoln himself spoke -in a transport of enthusiasm: the words came, how he hardly knew; he -could not afterwards write down what he had said. The reporters were so -deeply moved that they only took down a sentence here and there. The -speech was a warning to the growing Republican party: sentences were -quoted and remembered. - -The North was indeed beginning to awaken to the need of uniting against -slavery; but it took four years before it fully awoke. And as long as -the North was divided the South was irresistible. When the presidential -election came, in 1856, the votes of the South carried the day. - -[Illustration: Springing to his feet, he poured out what was in his -mind] - -Had a strong man, with definite and wise views, been elected, had -Lincoln been elected, the war between North and South that came four -years later might have been prevented. But Lincoln’s fame had not -yet travelled far beyond Illinois; he was not even nominated. Mr. -Buchanan, the new President, called himself a Democrat: he believed -in Douglas’s policy of State rights; but he was a tool in the hands -of the South. Weak and undecided, his stupid administration made war -inevitable. He did not satisfy the South; and he showed the North how -great a danger they were in, so that when the next election came they -were ready to act. - -The Republican party gradually grew strong. More and more Northern -voters came to see that its policy, no extension of slavery, was the -only right one. The pro-slavery party in Kansas continued to behave in -the most violent way; civil war continued. - -In Congress, Charles Sumner made a number of eloquent speeches on what -he called the “crime against Kansas”; and in them he openly attacked -slavery. One day, as he was sitting in the members’ reading-room, a -Southern member called Brookes came in. Although there were several -other people in the room, Brookes fell upon Sumner, and with his -heavy walking-stick, which was weighted with lead at the end, beat -him within an inch of his life. For the next four years Sumner was an -invalid, and unable to take part in politics. This incident caused -great indignation in the North; their indignation was heightened by the -attempt to force slavery on Kansas, till it grew in very many cases to -a real hatred of slavery itself. - -But there was still a large party in the North which did not disapprove -of slavery. This party was led, of course, by Douglas. Douglas had -been successful up till now, because he represented the ordinary man -of the North, whose conscience was not yet awake, who did not see that -slavery, in itself, was wrong. Lincoln had never really succeeded until -now, because his conscience had always been awake, and the ordinary -Northerner was not ready to follow him. - -The whole question of slavery was brought under discussion in the next -year--1857--by the famous case of a negro called Dred Scott. Dred -Scott claimed his freedom before the United States courts, because his -master, a doctor, had taken him to live in the free State of Illinois. -The chief-justice--Taney--was an extreme pro-slavery man. He was not -satisfied with deciding the case against Dred Scott; he went much -further, and declared that since a negro is property and not a person -in the legal sense, he could not bring a case before an American -court. A negro, he declared, has no rights which a white man is bound -to respect. - -The South, of course, was delighted with this verdict. What it meant -was this. When the Declaration of Independence declared that all men -are equal, and possess right to life and liberty, what was intended was -not all men, but all white men, since black men are not legally men. -And yet free negroes had fought in the War of Independence, and signed -the Declaration. - -To the North such reasoning was hateful. People like Mr. Seward of New -York began to say, If slavery is part of the Constitution of America, -there is a law that is higher than the Constitution--the moral law. -Abraham Lincoln in a noble speech declared: “In some respects the black -woman is certainly not my equal, but in her natural right to eat the -bread she earns with her own hands she is my equal, and the equal of -all others.” The point was, could a negro have rights? The Dred Scott -decision declared “no,” the South shouted “no.” The Republican party -said “yes.” In this same year a free election at last took place in -Kansas; and a huge majority decided that the State should not hold -slaves. - -All these events showed that troublous times were coming. - -In the next year a set of speeches was made which showed people how -things stood. In 1858 Lincoln stood against Douglas as candidate for -the State of Illinois. Douglas was one of the most famous and popular -men then living in America. He was far the cleverest man and the best -speaker of his party; he stood for all those who, though they might not -want to have slaves themselves, thought that slavery was not wrong; -that black men were intended by a kind Providence to be useful to white -men. If any State wanted slaves, let them have them--why not? - -As Lincoln said, “Douglas is so put up by nature, that a lash upon his -back would hurt him, but a lash upon anybody else’s back does not hurt -him.” - -Those who did not know Lincoln thought it absurd that he, an unknown -man from the country, should dare to stand against Douglas, the “Little -Giant.” But Lincoln was not afraid; he did not think of himself; he -wanted people to hear what he had to say. He arranged with Douglas -that they should hold a number of meetings together in Illinois. They -arranged it in this way. At half the meetings Douglas spoke first -for an hour; then Lincoln replied, speaking for an hour and a half, -and Douglas answered him in half-an-hour’s speech. At the other half, -Lincoln began and Douglas followed, Lincoln ending. - -You can imagine one of these meetings. A large hall, roughly built for -the most part, the seats often made of planks laid on top of unhewn -logs, packed with two or three thousand people, intensely eager to hear -and learn. Some of them were already followers of Douglas, the most -popular man in America: all of them had heard of the “Little Giant,” -the cleverest speaker in the States. Immense cheering as Douglas rose -to his feet. A small man with a big head: a handsome face with quickly -moving, keen, dark eyes; faultlessly dressed. A well-bred gentleman, -secure of himself--a lawyer with all his art at the end of his tongue: -able to persuade any one that black was white, to wrap up anything -in so many charming words that only the cleverest could see when one -statement did not follow from another, when an argument was not a -proof: quick to see and stab the weak points in any one else. A voice -rich and mellow, various and well trained, pleased all who heard it. - -For an hour he spoke, amid complete silence, only broken by outbursts -of applause. When he ended, there were deafening cheers--then a pause, -and “Lincoln,” “Lincoln,” from all parts of the hall. - -Lincoln seemed an awkward countryman beside the senator. His tall body -seemed too big for the platform, and his ill-fitting black clothes -hung loosely upon it, as if they had been made for some one else. When -he began to speak his voice was harsh and shrill. His huge hands, -the hands of a labourer, with the big knuckles and red, ugly wrists, -got knotted together as if nothing could unfix them. Soon, however, -he became absorbed in what he was saying; he ceased to be nervous; -everything seemed to change. As he forgot himself, his body seemed -to expand and straighten itself, so that every one else looked small -and mean beside him; his voice became deep and clear, reaching to the -farthest end of the hall, and his face, that had appeared ugly, was lit -up with an inner light that made it more than beautiful. The deep grey -eyes seemed to each man in the hall to be looking at him and piercing -his soul. The language was so simple that the most ignorant man in the -hall could follow it and understand. Everything was clear. There was -no hiding under fine words; nothing was left out, nothing unnecessary -was said. No one could doubt what Lincoln meant; and he was not going -to let any one doubt what Douglas meant. - -The greatest debate of all was that at the meeting at Freeport. At -Freeport Lincoln asked Douglas a question, against the advice of all -his friends. He asked whether, if a State wanted not to have slavery, -it could so decide? Lincoln knew that if Douglas said “No. A state -which had slavery must keep it,” the people of Illinois would not vote -for him, and he would lose this election. If he said “yes” he would be -elected, and not Lincoln. Lincoln knew this; he knew that if Douglas -said “yes,” he was safe, and he would say “yes.” - -“Where do you come in, then?” his friends asked him. “Why do you ask -him this? If you do, Douglas is sure to get in. You are ruining your -own chances.” - -“I do not come in anywhere,” said Lincoln; “but that does not matter. -What does matter is this. If Douglas says ‘yes,’ as he will, he will -get into the Senate now; but two years after this he will stand for -election as President. If he says ‘yes’ now, the South will vote -against him then, and he will not be elected. He must not be elected. -No one who believes in spreading slavery must be elected. It does not -matter about me.” - -Lincoln was quite right. He saw further than any one else. Douglas said -“yes,” and he was elected for Illinois. But the Democratic party in -the South, whose support had made him strong, began to distrust him. -“Douglas,” said Lincoln, “is followed by a crowd of blind men; I want -to make some of these blind men see.” - -Lincoln was defeated, but he did not think of himself. His speeches -against Douglas were printed and read all over America. He was invited -to speak in Ohio; and in the next year, in the beginning of 1860, a -society in New York asked him to come and give them an address on -politics. - -A huge audience, in which were all the best known and most brilliant -men of the day, gathered to hear him; an audience very much unlike any -that he had addressed before. They were all anxious to see what he -was like--this backwoodsman and farm-labourer, who had met the great -Stephen Arnold Douglas and proved a match for him in argument; whose -speeches had been printed to express the views of a whole party. - -His appearance was strange and impressive. When he stood up his height -was astonishing, because his legs were very long, and when sitting he -did not appear tall. His face, thin and marked by deep lines, was very -sad. A mass of black hair was pushed back from his high forehead: his -eyebrows were black too, and stood out in his pale face: his dark-grey -eyes were set deep in his head. The mouth could smile, but now it was -stern and sad. The face was unlike other faces: when he spoke it was -beautiful, for he felt everything he said. Abraham Lincoln was a common -man: he had had no advantages of birth, of training: he had known -extreme poverty: for years he had struggled without success in mean and -small occupations: he had no knowledge but what he had taught himself. -But no one who heard him speak could think him common. - -Speaking now to an audience in which were the cleverest people in New -York, people who had read everything and seen everything and been -everywhere, who had had every opportunity that he had not, he impressed -them as much as he had impressed the people of Illinois. He was one of -the greatest orators that ever lived. His words went straight to the -people to whom they were spoken. What he said was as straightforward -and as certain as a sum in arithmetic, as easy to follow: and behind -it all you felt that the man believed every word of what he said, and -spoke because he must. The truth was in him. - -Lincoln’s address in New York convinced the Republican party that here -was the man they wanted. - -In 1860 there came the presidential election, always the most important -event in American politics; this year more important than ever before. - -For the last half-century almost the Democratic party had been in -power. They had been strong because they were united: they united the -people of the South and those people in the North who thought that it -was waste of time to discuss slavery, since slavery was part of the -Constitution. Their policy on slavery had been to leave it alone. As -long as they did this there was nothing to create another party in -the North strong enough to oppose them. But when Douglas, in order to -make his own position strong in the South, made slavery practical -politics by bringing in a bill to allow Kansas to have slaves; and when -the judges in the Dred Scott case roused sympathy with the negroes by -declaring that slaves were not men but property, then the question -united the divided North into a strong Republican party in which all -were agreed. There was to be no slavery north of Mason and Dixon’s -line. The attempt to force slavery on Kansas split the Democratic -party. One section was led by Douglas, who had gone as far as he could: -he was not ready to force Kansas to have slaves, if she did not want -them, because people from Missouri wanted her to have them. He saw -that to force slavery on the North in this way would mean division -and war, and therefore he refused to go any further. By this refusal -Douglas lost his supporters in the South. They joined the section led -by Jefferson Davis--the Southern candidate for the presidentship. - -Jefferson Davis was the true leader of the South. Douglas as well as -Lincoln had begun life as the child of a poor pioneer: each had risen -by his own abilities and by constant hard work. Jefferson Davis was a -true aristocrat. He was the son of rich and educated parents. All his -life he had been waited on by slaves and surrounded by every comfort. -While Lincoln was ploughing or hewing wood, while Douglas was working -hard at the bar, Davis went first to the university at Kentucky and -then to the military academy at West Point, from which he passed to the -army. He served as a lieutenant at the time of the Black Hawk war, and -it is very likely that he came across Lincoln, who was serving as a -volunteer. After serving seven years in the army he married and settled -down as a cotton planter in Mississippi. His estates were worked by -slaves, of course. To him the negro was an animal, quite different from -the white man, meant by nature to be under him and to serve him. Black -men, unlike white, did not exist for themselves, with the equal right -to live possessed by a man, an insect, or a tree, but had been created -solely to be useful to white men. - -No two men could be more unlike than Lincoln and Davis. The groundwork -of Davis’ nature was an intense pride. A friend described him as “as -ambitious as Lucifer and as cold as a lizard.” He was cold in manner -and seldom laughed. Lincoln was entirely humble-minded, full of -passionate longing to help the weak. To Lincoln what was common was -therefore precious. Jefferson Davis said the minority, and not the -majority, ought to rule. And their looks were as unlike as their minds. -Jefferson Davis, with his beautiful proud face, as cold and as handsome -as a statue, expressed the utter contempt and scorn of the aristocrat -for everything and every one beneath him. - -When the Democratic party met at Charleston to nominate their candidate -for the presidentship, they were hopelessly divided. Douglas’s Freeport -speech had set the South against him. For the last four years there -had been a growing section which said that, as long as the South was -fastened to the North, slavery was not safe. Now seven states, led by -South Carolina, left the Democratic meeting and nominated Davis as -their candidate. - -The Republican party met at Chicago. There was only one man strong, -reasonable, and sane enough for every section of the party to accept. -This was Abraham Lincoln. At the time of his nomination, Lincoln was -playing barnball with his children in the field behind his house. When -told that he had been chosen, he said, “You must be able to find some -better man than me.” But he was ready to take up the difficult task. -He knew that he could serve his country, and he was not afraid. He -had a clear ideal before him--to preserve America as one united whole. -He saw that war might come. As he had said, five years before, America -could not endure for ever half slave and half free--it must be all -free: and the South would not let slavery go without war. - -The election came in November. The result was that Lincoln was elected -President. For four years the destiny of his country was in his hands. - - - - -CHAPTER VI - -THE NEW PRESIDENT AND SECESSION - - -LINCOLN’S election was a thunderbolt to the South. It meant that the -great question of slavery would have to be decided one way or another. -Lincoln was a man who had opinions, and opinions in which he believed, -for which he would fight; he would not let things drift as Buchanan -did. Buchanan’s policy would have ended in allowing the South to -separate itself from the North; the Southern politicians knew this, and -they wanted Buchanan’s policy carried on, so as to make that separation -possible. - -Few men in the North, although many in the South, understood as -clearly as Lincoln did the position of affairs. He saw that the time -had come when active measures must be taken, a strong and decided -policy maintained, if the Union was to be held together. He was a true -patriot. He believed in the Union; he thought it a great and glorious -thing. That North and South should be separated was to him like -separating husband and wife; their strength and happiness lay in each -other; they had grown together for eighty-four years; if they parted -now, each must lose something it could never regain. He loved his -country. He loved the South as well as the North. He believed that if -the South tried to separate, the North would be justified, in the true -interests of the American nation, in compelling her to remain. - -The great problem was now, as he saw: Could America hold together as -one nation, half slave and half free? Could the Union be a real Union -while there was this deep division, a division which it was now clear -could not be got rid of, as the Northerners had hoped for so long, by -the slow passage of time? Time alone would not induce the South to -give up slavery. Slavery was a barbarous institution, degrading to the -slaves and to those who owned them; the North could not accept it. If -North and South were to hold together slavery must go. The great thing -was to keep North and South united. This and this only was Lincoln’s -great purpose. He hated slavery, but he would not have compelled -the South to give up slavery if he had believed that the Union could -have been maintained without that. North and South must hold together -whatever it cost; only so could each part of the nation, and the nation -as a whole, attain the best that was possible for it. - -Lincoln’s great difficulty was this. The South saw that the nation -could not hold together for ever half slave and half free. Two years -before Lincoln’s election, one of the members for South Carolina had -written what was afterwards known as the Scarlet Letter. In it he -declared, “We can make a revolution in the cotton States,” and there -were many, even at that time, who shared his views. The South saw that, -if they were to remain united to the North, slavery must go, and they -were ready to separate from the North in order to keep slavery. - -But, while the South understood the position, the North did not. It did -not understand it fully at the time of Lincoln’s election, or, indeed, -until the end of the second year of the war. And because they did not -understand they could not appreciate Lincoln’s policy, or support it -as they ought to have done. All the time they criticised, blamed, and -abused him, making his hard task harder. - -Not until after his death did all the Northerners see how great and how -right he had been. Not until his death did Americans realise that had -it not been for Lincoln the United States might have ceased to be. - -Lincoln’s speeches had been plain and outspoken enough; the South was -terrified by his election. They resolved on separation. - -Lincoln, though elected in November 1860, did not actually become -President until February 1861. During these three months he remained -in the plain, yellow house at Springfield, his little office crowded -every day with visitors who came to consult him, to advise him, or -often merely to shake his hand. “Honest old Abe,” as they called him, -had a joke or a kindly word for all of them. He was presented with -many quaint gifts. An old woman came one day, and, after shaking -hands with Lincoln, produced from under her huge cloak a vast pair of -knitted stockings for the President to wear in winter. Lincoln thanked -her graciously and led her out; then returning, he lifted up the -stockings, and showing the enormous feet, said to his secretary, “The -old lady seems to have guessed the latitude and longitude about right!” - -Lincoln spent the time reading and writing, drawing up memoranda, -choosing his Cabinet, learning the difficult ins and outs of the new -work before him. All these months he was thinking hard. His purpose was -already clear: but the presidentship, always a heavy burden, had never -been so heavy as it was to be for Lincoln. - -Things grew more serious every day. The weakness of Buchanan, who had -no plan or purpose, allowed the South to do as it chose. The only -chance of avoiding war lay in firm action now; but it was not in -Buchanan’s nature to be firm. He had been made President by the votes -of the South because he was not firm, because he would allow them to do -as they chose. They dreaded Lincoln because he was firm, and therefore -acted while there was yet time. - -On December 20, 1860, the chief men of South Carolina met together -and declared the Union to be dissolved. Posters appeared all over the -State: the South was in a state of feverish excitement. Within the -month the States of Missouri, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, -and Texas--the chief cotton-growing, slave-owning States--also declared -themselves to be separated from the Union; and these six States -joined with South Carolina to form what they called the Southern -Confederation, independent of the North. They chose for their first -President Jefferson Davis. - -Buchanan did not know what to do. The question was: Has a State any -right to leave the Union? America, of course, is a Federation: at the -time of the Declaration of Independence the thirteen States that then -existed joined themselves together for ever, and created a common -Federal Government for common purposes, with a President at its head. -Lincoln would have said one State has no more right to leave the others -than an English county has to declare that it is a separate kingdom, -not bound by the common law. Buchanan said “no,” too; but he also said, -if a State does leave, the Federal Government has no right to force it -to stay: which meant a standstill. “You ought not to want to go; but if -you do, we have no right to prevent you.” Buchanan’s one idea, indeed, -was to let things drift. - -There was one great and immediate difficulty. In each of the coast -States of the Union the Federal Government had armed forts: in South -Carolina there were two important ones, Fort Moultrie and Fort Sumter, -with a small garrison in each, commanded by Major Anderson. South -Carolina demanded that the garrisons should be withdrawn. Now to -withdraw the garrisons and abandon the forts was to admit that South -Carolina had a right to leave the Union, and to recognise the Southern -Confederation as independent of the Federal Government. To maintain -the forts more forces must be sent. Anderson wrote to say that he was -not strong enough to hold out against an attack. Buchanan did nothing. -Anderson, believing that an attack was going to be made on Fort -Moultrie, which he was too weak to defend, removed all his men to Fort -Sumter. The militia of South Carolina at once occupied Fort Moultrie. - -In the second week of the new year, 1861, a Government vessel, the -_Star of the West_, sailed into the harbour of Charleston to bring -provisions for Anderson. The _South Carolina_, having attacked the -_Star of the West_, fired on the United States flag which it carried, -and drove it out of the harbour. The Confederate Government, led by -Jefferson Davis, then demanded that Fort Sumter should be given up to -them. When Anderson refused, it was blockaded by much superior forces, -and by the 12th of April it was taken by General Beauregard. - -Under these circumstances, when war was at hand, when half the nation -was ready to take up arms against the other half, Lincoln took up -the burden of office. It was a burden, indeed, which no ordinary man -could have borne. Buchanan had simply looked on while rebellion was -preparing itself; for Lincoln was the task of quelling it. But the fact -of rebellion was not his greatest difficulty. This was the disunion of -the North. One section--the Abolitionists--rejoiced at the secession of -the South. “We shall no more be chained to the slave-owners.” Another -section thought that, if the South wanted to go, why not let them. - -There was as yet only a very small section able to agree with Lincoln. -Lincoln hated slavery but not slave-owners. He loved the South as much -as the North. It was agony to him to know his country divided against -itself. Well might he say, in the speech he made on leaving his old -home at Springfield for ever, “There is a task before me greater than -that which rested upon Washington.” - -It was very natural that men who had not known Lincoln should fear to -have the fate of their country at so critical a time entrusted to a -man of so small experience. But any one who knew Lincoln felt absolute -confidence in him. Years of difficulty and disappointment, of constant -struggle against every kind of obstacle, had made him what he was: -clear-eyed to see where the right was; steadfast and unflinching to -pursue it; tender-hearted and generous to sympathise with all those who -stumbled on the way. - -Few people, indeed, understood him. In the years to come nearly all at -one time or another abused him and distrusted him, and blamed him when -things went wrong. For four years he bore the whole burden of a great -responsibility; patiently and silently he endured disappointment and -reproach. In the end he could say that if Washington had made America -one, he had remade it so that it could never again be unmade. - -The speech he made when he entered on his duties as President showed -how little bitterness there was in his heart towards the South. He -said, “We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though -passion may have strained, it must not break, our bonds of affection. -The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and -patriot grave to every heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, -will yet swell the chorus of the Union when touched, as surely they -will be, by the better angels of our nature.” - -The attack on Sumter and its fall made war inevitable. Lincoln was no -Buchanan. War was horrible; civil war--war between men of the same -country, between friends, often between relations--most horrible of -all. But he could not, at whatever cost, allow the Union, for which his -countrymen had fought so heroically eighty-four years ago, which had -stood so long for such a high ideal of freedom all over the world--he -could not allow the Union to be destroyed without fighting to preserve -it. To him the secession of the Southern States meant something as -unnatural as a separate kingdom in Scotland would be to us, and a -kingdom based on something which we thought wholly wrong. - -“The question is,” he said, “whether in a free Government the minority -have a right to break it up whenever they choose.” He declared that -they had no such right. The whole population of the slave-holding -States was much smaller than that of the free States, and among those -States, while seven had seceded, eight remained at least nominally in -the Union; and even in the seceding States themselves, there was a -party in each that was ready to remain faithful to the Union, and not -prepared to take up arms against it. - -They wanted war: their attack on Fort Sumter was a call to arms. They -wanted war: they should have it. In the long run the North was bound to -win: its population was half as great again, and its resources as much -superior. - -Almost the first act of Lincoln’s Government was to call for 75,000 -volunteers. - -The attack upon Sumter and Lincoln’s call to arms roused the North -from its apathy. Excitement grew when the 7th Massachusetts regiment, -passing through Baltimore on its way to headquarters, was violently -attacked by the mob: when the Southern army, already in the field, -captured Harper’s Ferry and seized the Union arsenal at Gosport. - - - - -CHAPTER VII - -THE WAR - - -WAR began in Virginia. West Virginia was free, East Virginia -slave-holding; the State was the natural meeting-place for the two -armies. On the 21st July they met at Bull Run: the engagement could -hardly be called a battle--on neither side was there any order or -discipline. More than once during the day the Southern army seemed to -be beaten, but it rallied, and the Federalists, as the Union soldiers -were called, broke into a disgraceful retreat, which became an awful -panic. The fugitives poured into Washington, haggard and dust-stained: -everything seemed lost. Lincoln did not go to bed all night; he paced -up and down in his room, expecting that the victorious Confederate army -would march upon Washington, and the war be at an end. It did not come. -The opportunity was lost. A battle had been gained; that was all. - -The moral effect of the battle of Bull Run was very great indeed. The -South thought the war was over, the North saw that it had only begun. - -At first, the Confederates seemed to have great advantages. The army -was the one profession for a Southern gentleman; nearly all their -young men were trained at the military academy at West Point, and -a great many of the officers of the United States army had been -Southerners. These men now left the Union army and gave their services -to the Confederates; among them was General Robert Lee, who became -General-in-Chief of the Confederate army. Lincoln’s difficulties were -greatly increased by the fact that so many officers and men went over -to the Confederates. At the beginning, the South had a larger and -better-trained army in the field; and at first there were plenty of -volunteers. But after Bull Run, she thought the war was finished; and -events proved that, in a long war, the North must win by reason of her -greater staying power. - -The South was as enthusiastic as the North, and at the beginning better -prepared, but not equal in resources of any sort. The South was -entirely dependent on agriculture; all the necessaries of life came -from the North and from Europe. Whereas the South had to import all her -ammunition, the North had powder-magazines of her own, and a people of -mechanics. And the Confederacy was soon to find that men are useless -without arms. Great sufferings were endured, wonderful invention and -patience was shown, on both sides there was great heroism; but in the -end the resources of the North decided the day. - -Lincoln threw all his energy into the task of getting ready an army, -and in a short time the Northern soldier was as well trained and -equipped as the Southern. - -The battle of Bull Run roused the North: quickened by shame, the people -were ready to fight to the bitter end. For the next two years, however, -they were disheartened by continual disaster: army after army was -destroyed, position after position lost: gloom descended on the nation. -In the dark times of defeat men turned upon Lincoln and blamed him for -everything. - -His position was difficult indeed. As head of the State, he was also -commander of the army; but he had to entrust the actual management of -the campaigns to others. He followed and understood their tactics, but -was too wise to try to direct their movements. Only occasionally did -he offer advice--wise advice, which his generals were not always wise -enough to accept. At first the generals were not men of great ability. -M’Clellan, the commander, drilled his army in a wonderful way, but -never used it to any effect. In the Virginian campaign of 1861 and 1862 -he threw away numberless opportunities. His place was taken by Burnside -at the end of 1862; but not until the rise of Ulysses S. Grant did -Lincoln discover a really great commander. The generals quarrelled with -one another, and all were ready to complain of the President. Lincoln’s -difficulties were increased by the fact that many people, when they -found that the North was not going to conquer immediately, said that -the war was a mistake: the South ought to be allowed to go if it wanted -to. Lincoln did not think it right to let the South go: and because to -keep it was proving difficult, was never to him a reason for ceasing to -do what he saw to be right. - -The newspapers abused Lincoln because the war, instead of being -finished in three months, seemed likely to last for years. For long -his own Cabinet was hardly loyal to him: each member thought he could -manage affairs better himself. Seward, who was Chief Secretary, -thought Lincoln stupid, and was anxious to arrange everything; but as -experience of his chief taught him he became Lincoln’s devoted admirer. -Chase the Treasurer plotted against him: Stanton the War Secretary -openly declared that “things would go all right but for the imbecile at -the head.” Stanton had no sense of humour, and an ungovernable temper. -He did not understand Lincoln at all for a long time: his jokes puzzled -and annoyed him, and he used to jump up and down with rage. He did -not see that to a man of a deeply melancholy nature like Lincoln, a -dreamer and something of a poet, some outlet, some way of escaping from -himself, was necessary. Lincoln was marvellously patient with Stanton, -and won his deep affection. The Cabinet might criticise; but Lincoln’s -firm will dominated them all. The policy of the Government was the -President’s policy. - -No quality is so hard to appreciate, until it succeeds, as patience; -and for two years Lincoln was patient, and few understood. - -England and France were inclined to recognise the Confederacy. The -English point of view was not one which reflected any glory on the -nation. Lord Palmerston said, “We do not like slavery, but we want -cotton.” And a poem in _Punch_ expressed the general point of view, -against which only a few Englishmen protested-- - - “Though with the North we sympathise, - It must not be forgotten - That with the South we’ve stronger ties, - Which are composed of cotton, - Whereof our imports mount unto - A sum of many figures; - And where would be our calico - But for the toil of niggers?” - -France agreed with England. Under such circumstances there was a great -danger that, unless the North proved itself able to cope with the -Rebellion, England or France might send help to the Confederates. For -two years the North did not prove this; for two years it seemed, except -to the very far-seeing, almost certain that the South would win. - -The Northern plan of campaign was to attack and close round the -Confederacy: to do this it was necessary to cross the Potomac river, -and clear away the Southern armies that blockaded it. The Potomac was -the centre of operations, while fighting went on constantly in Virginia -and Missouri. Everything went against the North. - -On the 9th of August a desperate encounter took place at Wilson’s -Creek, at which the Union army lost nearly two thousand men, including -prisoners, and large supplies of arms and ammunition. In September the -Confederates won a victory at Lexington, and in October the Federal -troops were defeated at Ball’s Bluff. - -Lincoln’s plan was gradually to shut the South in, driving it behind -its own boundaries by means of the armies invading from north and -west, and blockading the ports from the sea. So far the first half -of the plan was not successful. But the Civil War was won to a very -large extent by the Northern navy. By blockading the Southern ports -it prevented the South from getting supplies from Europe; and since -the South depended for supplies of every sort from abroad, it was in a -desperate position when cut off from the sea. - -More fortunate on sea than on land, Lincoln found in David Farragut -an admiral almost as great as Nelson. Farragut was a Southerner by -birth, but he had served for fifty years in the United States navy, and -refused to desert it now. Patriotism to him meant devotion not to the -pride but to the best interests of his country, and he thought that -North and South could only attain their best interests when united. -In April the Northern army suffered a severe defeat on land at the -battle of Shiloh--the most disastrous yet experienced; but the news -was balanced by the tidings of Farragut’s capture of New Orleans. The -fighting in the harbour was tremendous. - -“Don’t flinch from that fire, boys,” cried the admiral; “there is a -hotter fire for those who don’t do their duty!” - -Inspired by his example, his men did not flinch, and the town was -captured. The North needed all the encouragement such naval victory -could give it, for things were going very badly. Stonewall Jackson, -the Southern commander, carried everything before him in Virginia. -Washington was in danger; there was a panic in the capital. Jackson, -however, did not want to attack Washington. His plan was to compel -M’Clellan, who was slowly moving south to attack the Confederate -capital at Richmond, to turn north again. - -There was fighting all through June; Jackson had been joined by Lee, -the Confederate Commander-in-Chief. On the 1st of July a battle was -fought at Malvern Hill. Lee and Jackson were defeated. M’Clellan ought -now to have pushed on to Richmond, the Confederate capital, instead of -which, with extraordinary stupidity, he continued to retreat. - -In August, the second battle of Bull Run resulted in another victory -for the South. Both sides lost an extraordinary number of men. The -panic in Washington grew more acute when, early in September, Lee -prepared to invade Maryland. M’Clellan again delayed when he ought to -have forced an engagement. The people of Maryland received the Southern -army very coldly. On the 17th the armies met at Antietam. The battle -was not really decisive; the losses of the North were as great as those -of the South; but it put an end to their invasion. Lee recrossed the -Potomac River to Virginia. M’Clellan again wasted time. He waited six -weeks before pursuing Lee. In November M’Clellan was at last superseded. - -Events had gradually led Lincoln to see the necessity of taking one -great step--the freeing of the slaves. The question of slavery was at -the bottom of the war; it was the great division between North and -South. Two reasons led Lincoln to take this step now. One was that -he knew the negroes when free would fight, for the most part, for -the North; and the North needed every help she could find. The other -was the great difficulty of knowing what to do with the negro slaves -which fell into the hands of the conquerors of any part of Southern -territory. On the 22nd of September, very soon after the news of the -battle of Antietam and Lee’s retreat from Maryland had arrived, Lincoln -called a meeting of his Cabinet. None of them knew why he had summoned -them. - -They found the President reading Artemus Ward; one story amused him -so much that he read it aloud. They all laughed a great deal except -Stanton, who could never see a joke, and did not understand that -Lincoln must have broken down altogether under the fearful strain -of all he had to bear, if he had not been able sometimes to forget -himself. When he had finished reading the story, the President’s face -grew grave again. He drew from his pocket a large sheet of foolscap, -covered with his straight, regular writing, and read it to the Cabinet. - -It was the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared that, after -January 1st of the coming year, all slaves were to be free; that -Government would pay some compensation to loyal owners. No one dared -oppose Lincoln when his mind was made up. His reason for introducing -Emancipation now was, that he thought it would help the cause of Union, -and that cause was to him sacred beyond everything. “As long as I am -President,” he said later, “this war shall be carried on for the sole -purpose of restoring the Union. But no human power can subdue this -rebellion without the use of the Emancipation policy.” - -[Illustration: Lincoln reading the Emancipation Proclamation to his -Cabinet] - -His first object in everything was to hold the American nation together -as one whole. But, at the same time, he detested slavery as much as -any man. “If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.” An opportunity -had now come when to strike a blow at slavery was to assist the Union -cause. By freeing the blacks, Lincoln provided the North with a new -resource, at the time when the South had nowhere to turn to for fresh -resources. By declaring the abolition of slavery an unchangeable part -of the Union, which the South must accept before peace could be made, -he won the sympathy of Europe for the North, and prevented it from -sending help to the South at a time when such help would have changed -the balance of affairs. - -Up till now both England and France had shown themselves ready to -sympathise with the South. English newspapers abused Lincoln and the -North in the most violent language. In the English dockyards vessels -had been built and equipped which were used by the South as privateers -to do great damage to the Northern navy. One of these was the famous -_Alabama_. But when the war was a war against slavery, English feeling -was all on the side of the North. - -The United States was made a really free country: slavery, which had -made such a name a mockery, was wiped off the statute book. - -Lincoln showed rare judgment and courage in doing what he did at -this time. At first a large section in the North was opposed to -Emancipation, but gradually all united in admiring the wisdom of -Lincoln’s action. The South knew that if they were conquered slavery -was gone. And however black things might look, Lincoln and the North -were not going to give in till they did conquer. They had set their -teeth; they were going to fight to the bitter end. - -M’Clellan had been dismissed, but his successors were not much more -successful. In December Burnside threw away thousands of lives in an -attempt to scale Mary’s Heights. Men were shot down in heaps by the -enemy, and the army fell into a panic; a battle against overwhelming -odds ended in a complete defeat. Lincoln’s heart bled for the loss of -so many splendid citizens: there was deep indignation in Washington, -much of it vented against the President. - -The darkest moment of the war came when, in May, the news of the battle -of Chancellorsville reached the Government. Hooker met Jackson: a long -and fearfully bloody battle followed. There were dreadful losses on -both sides: another valuable opportunity of pressing south was lost. -In the battle “Stonewall” Jackson was killed, shot accidentally by his -own men; a disastrous loss to the Southern side, though the North was -defeated. - -All hope seemed gone from the North. - -Up till now the North had lost more than the South. It had suffered -most of all from a lack of really able commanders. Now, however, -Lincoln discovered a really great general in Ulysses S. Grant, and from -this time on the fortune of the war began to change. - -The North was richer: it had more men, money, and resources to draw on; -in a long struggle the South was bound to be worn out. Grant saw this -and planned accordingly. Grant had distinguished himself early in the -war by the capture of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, on the Mississippi, -in February 1862; in the following April he had driven the Confederates -back to Corinth after one of the most expensive battles of the war. -Grant was a man of the most reckless personal courage; as a general -his great fault was that he exposed his men needlessly. Complaints were -early made of him to Lincoln; but Lincoln’s wonderful eye discerned a -great soldier in Grant. “I can’t spare that man; he fights.” Later he -was told that Grant drank. “Pray tell me what brand of whisky he takes, -that I may send a barrel to each of my other generals.” - -Lincoln and Grant always understood each other. Each was a man of -intense strength of character, given to doing things rather than -talking of them. Grant had not Lincoln’s tenderness of heart, or -the beauty of his pure and generous nature; but he had his power of -concentrating his whole mind upon the task in hand. He knew Lincoln’s -secret: “Work, work, is the main thing.” - -The battle of Chancellorsville, May 1863, was for the North the darkest -moment of the war; things were never so dark again. Only Lincoln’s -supreme faith and courage could have risen from such a series of -defeats unshaken. The newspapers were full of abuse of the President; -plots were on foot against him to prevent his re-election when the -time came. In February he had lost his son Willie after a long and -painful illness. But he never quailed. - -And his patience was at last to be rewarded. After Chancellorsville his -unflinching belief in the justice of his course, in spite of opposition -and discontent, was to be rewarded: he was to look, if only for a -moment, upon an America not only free but united. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - -VICTORY - - -AFTER Chancellorsville the South thought that all was won, and a -movement was set on foot to attack Washington. Lee marched north with -an army that, though only half fed, was full of enthusiasm, and on -July 1 took up his position at Gettysburg, where he was faced by the -Federal army under General Meade. The battle lasted three days, and the -slaughter was terrific; in spite of the desperate determination of the -Confederates, the day ended in a victory for the Union. - -Lee was driven back, and forced to retreat into Virginia. The invasion -was at an end. The victory, though brilliant, was not followed up, -perhaps because of the heavy losses of the Union army; but it was the -turning-point of the war. Washington was never again in such danger; -the Confederates had lost the one great opportunity of attack since -Bull Run. - -Deep national thankfulness was felt at this, the first great victory -for the North. The battlefield was only a few miles from the capital, -and many of the citizens and the most prominent men of the town -assembled to perform a service for the dead who had fallen there. -Lincoln was called upon to speak. He had not prepared anything, but -the short speech which he gave made a deep impression upon all who -heard it, and puts into very noble words the thoughts that were always -present to his mind. - -“Fourscore and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth a new -nation upon this continent, conceived in liberty and dedicated to -the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged -in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so -conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We meet to dedicate a -portion of it as a final resting-place of those who here gave their -lives that the nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper -that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we -cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living -and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our power -to add or detract. The world will take little note, nor long remember, -what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is -for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work -that they have thus far so nobly carried on. It is rather for us to -be dedicated here to the great task remaining before us: that from -these honoured dead we take increased devotion for the cause for which -they here gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly -resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation -shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom, and that the government -of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from -the earth.” - -In words like these, Lincoln inspired the people of the North to see -the greatness of the cause for which they were fighting; they were -fighting for liberty, for a free government of free men, for a United -America that might be to the world a pattern of such a free government. -If the South won, if America were a house divided for ever against -itself, one half would have slavery; if the North won, and America -were a whole again, slavery was gone; the Declaration of Independence, -proclaiming the equal rights of all men to life and liberty, would be -for the first time fully realised. - -And encouragement came at last. On the Fourth of July, on Independence -Day, Grant telegraphed to Lincoln the news of the capture of Vicksburg. -In the beginning of May Grant had defeated Pemberton, the Confederate -general, and shut him up in the town with his great army. After an -unsuccessful assault in the end of May, he sat down patiently before -the town, prepared to wear out its resistance. After great sufferings, -the famishing garrison surrendered; Pemberton and 30,000 men, whom the -South could but ill spare, were prisoners of war. Hundreds of cannon -and thousands of muskets fell into the victor’s hands. Vicksburg was a -position of importance, the key to the Mississippi. Lincoln could now -say, “The Father of Waters again goes unvexed to the sea.” - -The joy in the North over these two victories was intense. The drooping -spirits began to rise again; and as things went better, men turned -with new confidence to the patient man whose courage had never failed -him. With renewed spirit the North set itself to the great task before -it. - -Lincoln now had men who were able to carry out great designs. By the -end of 1863 things looked hopeful. The army had a nucleus of veterans -who had received the best possible training, and a set of generals -whose positions had been won not by political influence, but by hard -work. Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan were men of ability, experience, and -power. - -[Illustration: Lincoln discussing the plan of campaign with General -Grant] - -The plan of campaign for 1864, drawn up, under Lincoln’s advice, by -Grant and Sherman, was masterly; carried out magnificently, it led to -the complete triumph of the North. It was the complete development of -Lincoln’s earlier plans. Grant, with the army of the west, was to face -Lee in Virginia and drive him south; finally, to capture Richmond, the -Confederate headquarters, and force Lee to yield. Sherman, marching -south and east, was to carry the war into the heart of the Confederacy; -to follow General Johnson, push him to the sea, and capture him. -“We intend,” said Sherman, “to fight Joseph Johnson till he is -satisfied.” Then Sherman, marching north, was to co-operate with -Grant by cutting off Lee’s retreat. Meantime Sheridan was to deal with -General Early in the Shenandoah valley, west and south of Washington. - -By May 1864 Grant crossed the Potomac and entered the wild district, -full of hills and woods and undergrowth, known as the Wilderness, where -the Union armies had suffered so many defeats. Grant saw that the only -thing was to wear the Southern army out by hard fighting; and he fought -hard all summer. He lost some thirty thousand men in the Wilderness. -His policy was to bear so continuously on the enemy that they, having -fewer men, and less possibility of recruiting, must be worn out. -Slowly, with an immense loss of life on both sides, Grant forced Lee -south. - -Sherman meantime was fighting his way to Georgia. His task was as -difficult as Grant’s. The country was wild, and well adapted for -concealing the enemy. It was impossible for him to communicate with the -rest of the army. - -After an expedition into Alabama, Sherman started on his “March to the -Sea.” Johnson disputed every inch of the way. There was incessant -skirmishing, but Sherman advanced step by step. - -While Sherman and Grant were thus slowly wearing down the resistance of -the enemy, the Unionists were once more encouraged by a brilliant naval -success. In August Farragut came victorious out of a terrific fight -in Mobile Bay. Entering the harbour in spite of the line of mines, he -“plucked victory out of the very jaws of defeat.” - -Sherman was now besieging Atlanta, which he captured on September -1. About the same date Sheridan defeated Early at Winchester in the -Shenandoah Valley. - -These successes decided the presidential election. Lincoln had been -unanimously nominated as the Republican candidate, “not,” as he said, -“because they have decided I am the greatest or best man in America, -but rather they have concluded that it is not wise to swop horses while -crossing a river, and have further concluded that I am not so poor -a horse that they might not make a botch of it in trying to swop.” -Against him the Democratic party, whose main principle was opposition -to the war, supported ex-General M’Clellan, declaring “the war is -a failure.” The Democrats found their main supporters among those -(and they were fairly numerous) who disliked Lincoln’s Emancipation -proclamation. - -Lincoln made no efforts to secure his re-election. He had been before -the nation as President for four years: his policy was tried, his -opinions known. Even M’Clellan did not dare to propose to abandon the -Union. On that point the North was now united, and that being so the -successes of September made Lincoln’s re-election practically certain. -Out of 233 electoral votes Lincoln received 212; he had a majority in -every free State save one. The election was a complete triumph for the -President. - -The noble words of the address which he delivered on taking up his -duties for a second time mark the spirit in which he celebrated that -triumph. “With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness -in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to -finish the work we are in: to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care -for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his -orphan--to do all that may achieve and cherish a just and lasting -peace among ourselves and with all nations.” - -On November 16 Sherman marched on by Atlanta. By December he had -reached Savannah and began to bombard the city. It surrendered on -December 21, and Sherman wrote to Lincoln: “I beg to present to you, -as a Christmas gift, the city of Savannah.” Leaving Savannah early in -the New Year, 1865, the army marched, ravaging, through South Carolina. -Columbia was burned and Charleston captured. By March, Sherman was in -North Carolina and in communication with Grant. The net was ready to be -drawn round the Confederate army. - -Grant meantime was bearing steadily on. The losses of the Union armies -were enormous, and made the President’s tender heart bleed. Grant -began to be hampered by the inferior quality of his troops, and during -the summer months matters seemed to be going ill with the North. In -September, however, Sheridan inflicted a series of defeats upon Early -in the Shenandoah Valley, and on October 18 vanquished him decisively -at Cedar Creek. - -The remaining Confederate army, under Hood, was defeated at Nashville -in the West, and now Lee’s was the only army in the field. The -Confederacy was “surrounded by a band of fire.” The sea was in the -hands of the Union; the Mississippi shut off any help from the coast. -Sherman had harried Georgia and Carolina, destroying their supplies; -Sheridan had raided Virginia; Grant was at the gates of Richmond. - -Through the whole summer of 1864 and the winter of 1865 Grant besieged -Richmond. There were indecisive engagements, but the armies did no -more than “feel” each other. With the spring, however, Grant took the -offensive again. On March 31 Sheridan gained a brilliant victory at -Five Forks, and this enabled Grant to break Lee’s lines. On April 3 the -Stars and Stripes floated over Richmond. On April 9 Lee and his army -surrendered to Grant at Appomatox. - -The war was at an end. - -Lincoln had been with Grant’s army during the closing days of March; -he entered Richmond on April 3. Everywhere the negroes saluted him as -their liberator, kneeling on the ground before him and clasping his -knees: “May de Lawd bress and keep you, Massa Presidum Linkum.” - - - - -CHAPTER IX - -“O CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN!” - - -NO one had suffered more deeply during the war than the President. His -purpose never faltered. Even at the moment when success seemed farthest -distant, his resolve stood firm; cost what it might the Union must be -preserved. When almost every other man despaired of the Northern cause, -Lincoln’s invincible faith in the right and justice of their purpose -sustained his country. - -To attain that purpose thousands of lives had to be sacrificed; but the -purpose was worth the loss of thousands of lives. Yet Lincoln’s heart -bled for every one of them. - -[Illustration: Lincoln visited all the divisions of his army in turn] - -All day long he received visits from distracted relations, mothers -and wives asking him to pardon their sons or husbands in prison -as deserters or captured from the enemy; asking for tidings of their -beloved ones at the front. His generals complained that he undermined -the discipline of the army by pardoning what he called his “leg” -cases--cases where men had run away before the enemy. “If Almighty God -gives a man a cowardly pair of legs, how can he help their running away -with him?” said Lincoln. - -The story of William Scott is a case which shows the way in which -Lincoln used to act. William Scott was a young boy from a Northern -farm, who, after marching for forty-eight hours without sleep, offered -to stand on guard duty for a sick comrade. Worn out, he fell asleep, -and was condemned to be shot for being asleep on duty in face of the -enemy. Lincoln made it his custom to visit all the divisions of his -army in turns, and, as it happened, two days before the execution he -was with the division in which Willie Scott was, and heard of the -case. He went to see the boy, and talked to him about his home and his -mother. As he was leaving the prison tent he put his hands on the lad’s -shoulders, and said-- - -“My boy, you are not going to be shot to-morrow.... I am going to trust -you and send you back to your regiment. But I have been put to a great -deal of trouble on your account. I have come here from Washington, -where I had a great deal to do. Now, what I want to know is, how are -you going to pay my bill?” - -Willie did not know what to say: perhaps he could get his friends to -help him, he said at last. - -“No,” said Lincoln, “friends cannot pay it; only one man in the world -can pay it, and that is William Scott. If from this day on William -Scott does his duty, my bill is paid.” - -William Scott never forgot these words. Just before his death in one of -the later battles of the war, he asked his comrades to tell President -Lincoln that he had never forgotten what he had said. - -All the time, people who did not know the President threw on his -shoulders all the blame for the long continuance of the war. Until -the last year of the war, the newspapers abused him continually. The -horrible loss of life in Grant’s last campaign was laid to his charge. -Only those who came to the President to ask his help in their own -suffering, understood what his suffering was; he suffered with each of -them--he suffered with the South as well as the North. After Antietam, -he had said, “I shall not live to see the end; this war is killing me.” -The crushing burden he had borne so long and patiently had bent even -his strong shoulders. - -But it had not been borne in vain. The time seemed at last to have come -when all America would understand how much they owed to the patient -endurance of the President. And there was work still to be done which -needed all his wisdom. The South was conquered. It had to be made one -with the North. The pride of the conquerors had to be curbed, the -bitterness of the conquered softened. - -Lincoln returned from Richmond to Washington, in his heart the profound -resolve “to bind up the nation’s wounds” as he, and only he, could do -it. - -April 14 was Good Friday, and a day of deep thankfulness in the North. -In the morning Lincoln held a Cabinet meeting, at which General Grant -was present. The question of reconstruction, of making one whole -out of the divided halves, was discussed. Some of the Cabinet were -anxious to wreak vengeance on the South, to execute the leaders of the -rebellion. Such was not Lincoln’s view. - -“Enough lives have been sacrificed. We must extinguish our resentments -if we expect harmony and union.” - -His noble patriotism could still say to the South, “We are not enemies, -but friends.” His life was now even more precious to the South than to -the North. - -After the Cabinet meeting, Lincoln spent some time in talking with his -son Robert, who had returned from the field with General Grant, under -whom he had served as a captain. In the afternoon he went for a drive -with Mrs. Lincoln. His mood was calm and happy: for the first time for -four years he could look forward peacefully to the future, and to the -great tasks still before him. - -In the evening he went to the theatre with his wife and two young -friends: the play was “Our American Cousin.” The President was fond of -the theatre--it was one of his few recreations: his appearance on this -night was something of a public ceremony; therefore, although he was -tired when evening came, he went because he knew that many people would -be disappointed if he did not. The President had a box to the left of -the stage. Suddenly, about the middle of the last act, a man appeared -at the back of the box, a knife in one hand and a pistol in the other, -put the pistol to the President’s head and fired; then wounding Major -Rathbone, the only other man in the box, with his knife, he vaulted on -to the stage. As he leapt his spur caught the flag hanging from the -box and he fell, breaking his leg. Nevertheless he rose instantly, and -brandishing his knife and crying, “_Sic semper tyrannis!_”--“The South -is avenged!” fled across the stage and out of sight. - -The horrified audience was thunderstruck. The President lay quite -still: the bullet had passed right through his head. The wound was -mortal. He was carried to a house across the street, where he lay, -quite unconscious, till the morning, surrounded by his friends, -their faces as pale and haggard as his own. About seven, “a look of -unspeakable peace came upon his worn features.” Stanton, the War -Secretary, rose from his knees by his side, saying, “Now he belongs to -the ages.” - -There was profound sorrow through the whole of America; sorrow that -checked all rejoicings over the victory of the North. Thus, indirectly, -Lincoln’s death helped the reconciliation between North and South, -though nothing could counterbalance the loss of his wise guidance. - -Washington was shrouded in black: even the poorest inhabitants showing -their sorrow in their dress. The body was taken to Springfield, -Illinois, to be buried; and all the towns on the way showed their deep -mourning and respect. Now, and not till now, did Americans begin to -understand what a man they had lost. - - “He knew to bide his time, - And can his fame abide, - Still patient in his simple faith sublime - Till the wise years decide. - Great captains with their guns and drums - Disturb our judgment for the hour, - But at last silence comes: - These all are gone, and, standing like a tower, - Our children shall behold his fame, - The kindly, earnest, brave, far-seeing man, - Sagacious, patient, dreading praise, not blame, - New birth of our new soil, the first American.” - -So James Russell Lowell wrote of Lincoln when the celebration of -Independence Day in the year of his death revived the vivid sense of -loss. - -The passage of years have only made clearer how great he was. Perfectly -simple, perfectly sincere, he thought out for himself an ideal, and -spent the whole of his life and all his strength in pursuing it. - -He loved America, not because it was powerful and strong, but because -it had been based on a great idea--the idea of liberty: his work for -America was to realise that idea. He never thought of his own personal -success: he wanted to be President because he saw a great work to be -done and believed that he could do it. He never became rich: his own -tastes remained entirely simple. He was said to have worn the same -top-hat all his life. - -The first thing that struck any one about Lincoln was his extraordinary -appearance. He always dressed in black, with a big black tie, very -often untied, or in the wrong place: his clothes looked as if they had -been made to fit some one else, and had never been new. His feet were -enormous; so were his hands, covered on state occasions with white kid -gloves. - -In cold weather he used to wear a large grey shawl instead of an -overcoat. One day, before he was made President, some friends were -discussing Lincoln and Douglas, and comparing their heights. When -Lincoln came into the room some one asked him, “How long ought a man’s -legs to be?” - -“Long enough to reach from his body to the ground,” said Lincoln coolly. - -Lincoln might look uncouth or even grotesque, but he did not look weak: -he was the most striking figure wherever he went. No one who saw him -often, no one who went to him in trouble, or to ask his advice, thought -long of his appearance. Those who had once felt the sympathy of his -wonderful, sad eyes, thought of that only. Those who really knew him, -knew him to be the best man they had ever met. - -Lincoln was often profoundly sad, and then suddenly boisterously gay. -He enjoyed a joke or a funny story immensely: he often used to shock -thoughtless people by telling some comic story on what they thought -an unsuitable occasion; but he told it so well that however much they -might disapprove they were generally forced to laugh. - -Always rather a dreamer, he was fond of poetry. He knew long passages -of Shakespeare by heart, especially Hamlet, Macbeth, and Richard III. -The Bible he had known from his childhood; of Burns he was very fond. - -Lincoln’s rise to power, as even so short an account as this will -have shown you, was not due to any extraordinary good fortune or any -advantages at start. He taught himself all that he knew; he made -himself what he was. - -It was his character more than anything else that made him great. His -early struggles had taught him that self-reliance which enabled him to -persevere in a course which he thought right in spite of opposition, -disloyalty, and abuse; they taught him the toleration which made him -slow to judge others, generous to praise them, little apt to expect -them to understand or praise him. He stood alone. - -Not till he had gone did his people realise how much he had given -them; how much they had lost in him. He gave them, indeed, the most -priceless gift a patriot can give his country--the example of sincere, -devoted, and unselfish service. - - THE END - - Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO. - Edinburgh & London - - - - -TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES: - -Illustrations occurring in the middle of a paragraph have been moved to -avoid interrupting the paragraph flow. - -On page 65, “yes,” has been changed to ‘yes,’ to conform to standard -usage. - -All other variant spellings, punctuation and hyphenation have been left -as typeset. - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF ABRAHAM -LINCOLN *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law 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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